Seen & Heard: Our New Commanding Officer

••• Trader Joe’s confirmed the opening date of the store at Spring and Sixth: May 18.

••• The new top cop at the 1st Precinct is captain Angel L. Figueroa, Jr.

••• An enlightening comment from MG about the Dog Owners of Tribeca, the group that privatized the Warren Street Dog Park:

There needn’t be mystery here—990 filings are public information. The most recent filing for Dog Owners of Tribeca shows that in tax year 2016 they started the year with $15,725 in cash in their bank account, took in $10,440 from donations/membership fees, spent $16,912 and wound up with $9,253 left in the bank. They spent the $16,912 as follows:

$4,427 on Cleaning
$4,866 on repairs
$1,846 on insurance
$3,236 on power washes
$2,297 on “supplies, etc”
$600 on professional fees (presumably mostly preparing the form 990)

The form 990 certainly doesn’t appear to show any impropriety—it looks like they’re running a dog park, paying lower Manhattan services prices. The two listed officers took no compensation.

I do think it’s borderline insane to put a lock on a piece of public property and turn it into a private foundation, but it does appear to have been done honestly and with best intentions.”

(Interestingly, they plainly acknowledge what they’ve done in the “program services accomplishments” section of the form: “Allowing dogs to exercise off leash in a safe manner in New York City by assisting the City of New York in cleaning and maintaining the Warren Street Dog Park—a city park.”)

••• “I walked down Nassau Street to get mice for my snake, but was surprised to find out the Petland store is gone.” reports A. UPDATE 5/7: “Petland on Nassau isn’t gone,” says Jamison. “It has consolidated into half of the former space that it was in before but it is still there (it was closed briefly while they remodeled to halve the store size).”

••• The TV show “Ray Donovan” is shooting on Monday in the Warren/W. Broadway area (never mind all the street construction).

••• And the next day, The Torture Report will be in the Church/Reade area. From OLV: “The Torture Report, starring Annette Bening, Adam Driver, and Jon Hamm, has started filming in New York City. The movie is being directed by Scott Z. Burns from a script he wrote about the CIA’s extreme interrogation programs following 9/11. The movie is said to be based on a 2007 Vanity Fair article, written by Katherine Eban, that explored the torture techniques designed by two psychologists with the full knowledge and cooperation of the American Psychological Association and the CIA.” This is so not the movie I want to see that cast in.

••• Here’s what 4-10 Varick looks like with a billboard on it. The guy is Presley Gerber, 18-year-old son of model Cindy Crawford. (The Port Authority can basically do what it wants to the building even though it’s in a historic district.)

••• Up now at Barney Savage Gallery: “Amulets Ethereal, a group exhibition curated by Jenny Mushkin Goldman featuring works by Kharis Kennedy, Adam Krueger & Tableaux Vivants, Victoria Manganiello & Julian Goldman, Qinza Najm, Cheryl R. Riley, and Ashley Zelinskie. Amulets Ethereal contemplates humankind’s capacity for resilience and self-preservation through the presentation of individualistic artworks united by the shared motif of protective coverings.” Below: Cheryl R. Riley, “Transcendence Preserved: Singer Sewing Machine I” (photo by Tatsuro Nishimura).

 

3 Comments

  1. IMHO, the billboard looks like crap.

  2. How can we move to have the billboard removed?
    What a horrible act of vandalism to the neighborhood.

  3. Petland on Nassau isn’t gone, it has consolidated into half of the former space that it was in before but it is still there (it was closed briefly while they remodeled to halve the store size).

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