Greyson heroic feral cat from Staten Island, get Lucky, I was told I have balls!

Greyson is a hero.  He is a feral cat and still managed to rescue two kittens and bring them to a woman who would endeavor to get them all homes, him included.  Greyson needs a home but a very special one because he is feral so please if you are an extraordinary kind soul that loves cats come meet Greyson.
Get Lucky...I only adopt older cats...no kittens for me.   Lucky, Greyson from Staten Island and a new delivery also really sweet need homes and I am telling you older cats are such wonderful pets so please consider adopting one of these spectacular cats!!!!!
Can you believe it!  I was told I HAVE BALLS!!!!  Well I do, containers full of them.  My cats love to play with them!

WHISKERS, Holistic Pet Care  235 East 9th Street, NYC  10003 

212-979-2532       1-800.whiskers

New York belt self portrait

Anyone who follows my blog knows from the very beginning I continue to photograph myself in this mirror on St. Marks Place.  I bought a new New York belt, part 2 in my series and it felt like a commitment to myself to hang in there and stay here.  I love this mirror with the graffiti and I hope they don't clean it up anytime soon.

Suzannah B. Troy, "New York" belt, Whiskers

I asked my friend to take a photo of me with my new New York belt.   Did some retail therapy and it felt like renewing my wedding vows with the most passionate, stunning and terrifying lover -- NYC...I am staying for now...but if any one offers to marry me that has a house else surrounded by forest you have my attention.

belt ridiculously expensive,

shirt ridiculously inexpensive = 5 dollars at H&M sale rack, that is NY...

Transportation Alternatives, Bike month celebration 2nd Street East Village

Huge turn out today to support bicycling and Mother Earth www.bikemonthnyc.org

Cooper Union's crane

I don't know why the door was opened and I did not see anybody around but I was rushing...just not a comforting thought to see the door to the site wide open....anyway -- go to my blog search engine and type in the word crane....you should see a lot of postings....

Here are two examples but type on crane and see how many postings you see of mine....

http://suzannahbtroy.blogspot.com/2008/05/cooper-unions-mega-crane-looms-like.html

http://suzannahbtroy.blogspot.com/2008/04/dark-sombre-view-of-what-was-wtc.html

p.s.  Anyone who has read my blog from the beginning and or has ever listened to me knows I believe the water main break and I heard there were actually 2 with in a one block radius and I was filmed next to the medium sized one was related to Cooper Union's construction...but Cooper Union says I am wrong.  I say I am entitled to my opinion.

grossed out at Tompkin Square Park

I am a compulsive smiler and I would rather smile than not although sometimes in the city is is not easy.

A young man leaned towards me and said "selling?"  I asked old timers do you think he meant was I selling my body or was I selling drugs...they felt it was the former.   Gross on both counts.

I did not answer him and just rushed away from him.   Just another example of how the laws don't protect women and girls from walking in public places and not be talked to like this and it is clear this young man is up to no good.

Soho Rapist here is the sketch and also video HELP CATCH this predator.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/05/28/2008-05-28_woman_raped_in_soho_after_attacker_follo.html



The New York Daily News has video footage of the rapist on the page with this article. Please check it out and help catch this sexual predator.

The NYPD released a sketch today that shows his face is pockmarked.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05302008/news/regionalnews/here_is_the_soho_rapist_113170.htm

Please help get this sexual predator off the street.

from May 2007 water main break and I am on NY1, saying too much too fast May 2007

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?&aid=69978&search_result=1&stid=8

May 22, 2007 "...The Department of Environmental Protection was on the scene immediately, trying to restore water to the thousands of residents affected.

Suzannah Troy who considers herself to be a local activist says these accidents happen all to frequently in this neighborhood.

“There is way too much, way too rapid, over the top development. I call it the new, hideous New York,” said Troy.

When you look at the wreckage left behind, she says it's a miracle something really bad didn't happen.

“This is ridiculous. Someone could have been killed,” she said.

The break affected water service on 7th Street between Second and Third Avenues.

5:26PM  May 30th, 2008 Dear Readers, I am one I am sure of many people saying too much too fast for years now.  I believe we have to worried above ground -- construction and below ground infrastructure and I can't tell you how many emails, letters, including going to the City Council Task Force meeting on DOB, Dec. 2006....I am wiped out and really blue tonight.

9-11 and post 9-11 the tsunami of over the top community crushing development

Yes, I was here for 9-11 and I remember seeing the Tower with the gaping holes and the flames -- and I thought it was a movie, my mind could not provide any other explaination and I remember on 5th Avenue by Washington Square Park people had their car doors open with the radio on and they were crying...I still didn't get it...  I still think it is a bad dream and I will wake up but things continue to be very disturbing.  Firehouses were closed and the remaining ones are living memorials and all the firehouses around my home including my first apt. on Carmine Street all are living memorials because so many firemen died that day. 

9-11 was the largest loss of rescue workers in our nation, city and with in each dept but this fact of history has been made invisible all these years at the WTC site because the mayor is concerned about making them some how special because there were so many heroic deeds that day.  Can you imagine a billionaire concerned about singling out rescue workers and these were people that were highly decorated with in their dept and serving in the military.  Some were treated badly when they returned home from Viet Nam only to die downtown and be erased and to date it is my understanding the mayor refuses these rescue workers their rank on the memorial.  Ask him why.

The cowardly terrorists that I believe are in love with the media attention attempted to commit mass murder, destruction of a world symbol of trade and  to hurt our economy.

What happened instead what a boom of development and gentrification became supersification with more and more tragedies that to me look like terror attacks with rescue workers rushing to the scene like 9-11 some infrastructure, some construction.   I am surprised that DEP has not been had accountable but I guess it will take another horrifying tragedy like the one by Grand Central and that may or may not happen while the mayor is in office but I believe it is inevitable because there was too much zone busting mega builds way too fast with out enough accountablity, with architects happily self certifying etc.

The tsunami of development I rename supersification because gentrification just doesn't cut for me anymore marks the end of the middle class and poor who continue to be displaced and in so many ways I can't even put it all in this paragraph.  For every horror show tragedy like today there are small businesses and people that say enough is enough and leave.  There are people and small businesses being ticketed and they can't afford the tickets, the taxes go up, the Con Ed bill, the food bills, the every kind of bill and they have to leave.  I am lucky to have health insurance and many do not have it.

Just heart breaking....and for me personally there was a horrible situation that want on last year in to this year and was  part of why I sold my home of 20 years under duress.  I did sell in part because of the NYU mega construction mega destruction world record speed build on St. Ann's grave which John Sexton insisted must be torn down for yet another hideous mega dorm.  Life was unlivable and I was worried and I am still worried about infrastructure and environmental concerns related to the supersized megadorm with 900 more students and old NY's infrastructure except for the pipes and Con Ed work that was required in front and around the block but what about where it connects with old New York's infrastructure and this is a concern city wide.  From the windows of  my ex home of 20 years next to what was St. Ann's from 1847, I could see the crane condo- where a piece related to the crane fell unto 3rd Avenue and crushed a taxi cab (between 12 and 13th St.) but everyone survived...people were injured.

So sad --just heard another construction worker did die.  One was 30 years old.  Rest in Peace and prayers for his family and all loved ones hurt by today.

Really drained today, really blue....

thoughts on construction workers, rescue workers, life post 9-11

My thoughts are with the man that died and everyone injured...

I consider infrastructure concerns and construction all related and all part of this tsunami of over the top development and the death toll and related directly to the many complex aspect that push out people struggling to remain in the neighborhoods they made so desirable to developers. How many of the people that survived this who have no home tonight will end up leaving the city permanently?

Today my heart goes out to the the man that died, the people that were injured and so many people who's lives have been greatly harmed by this. I am also in awe of the FDNY, NYPD and EMS who rushed to the scene like the did Sept. 11 and I also remember the days and months after the many construction workers that rushed down to the WTC site to dig. The construction workers helmets became memorials honoring those that died 9-11.

I lived next to the St. Ann's tear down and I also saw the crane incident -- the crane condo I call it on 3rd Avenue and 12 when a piece feel down and crushed the taxi cab in the middle of 3rd Avenue where everyone survived but people where injured. The infrastructure disaster looked like a terror attack and The New York Times had a piece last year about infrastructure being so great that we could infrastructure disasters that looked like terror attacks and than we had one right by Grand Central Station. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/us/08sink.html?_r=1&oref=sloginconcerns and I had written about my concerns pre this article and pre the disaster by Grand Central and was published in AM New York "Destroying 'old' New York" where I talked about my concerns city wide for the people of New York and infrastructure and specifically for us by St. Ann's.

I admire our rescue workers who are not the highest paid in the country but considering they have responded to 2 terrorist attacks and the way they respond to all these construction and infrastructure accidents and breaks....they deserve to be the highest paid rescue workers in the country. I do believe we need to effectively put the words "safety first" ahead of this tsunami of development and that includes infrastructure as well as construction -- cranes, scaffolding, etc.

New Yorkers know we can't walk over man hole covers because young people like Jodi Lane died -- she took her dogs out for a walk in the East Village and died death by Con Ed. It has been really rough post 9-11 for so many reasons...

I remember a crane operator from the WTC site gave me an American Flag that was on his crane down there.

I am very disheartened today.

Bravery of our rescue workers

Thank you to all the rescue workers that as usual rush to the scene of this disaster, you efforts are appreciated.  

Dec 2006 City Council Task Force meeting on DOB I spoke out on this issue

http:/www.chelseanow.com/cn_12/builtupcomplaintssome.html

Go to this link and scroll down and you will see a picture of me speaking at the City Council Task Force meeting which Christine Quinn was too busy to head so James Oddo was in charge that night.   I spoke up  and I talked about the construction workers dieing and I remember a lawyer representing the construction workers almost jumped out of his seat like he wanted to hug me.

Dec. 2006

* I just feel sick --- just overwhelmed.

a veteran construction worker tells NBC the real deal

A veteran construction worker who has worked cranes since he was 19, his Dad was one, and at age 45 he owns 2 cranes pointed out the city hires inspectors that do not even know how to operate a crane...They nothing about operating cranes and so the city spends all this money on new hires and according to his thoughts -- these new hires and this huge amount of money the city spends on a new hire -- who are they - what is there experience operating cranes?

My letter in The New York Daily News July 7, 2007 "How many construction workers and civilians.....

Body bag boom
Manhattan: Re "New law tightens screws on builders" (July 4): Too little, too late. How many construction workers and civilians have been injured or died in this tsunami of community-crushing development?Suzannah B. Troy http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/07/07/2007-07-07_voice_of_the_people.html

Crane collaspe, another horror show, death toll increase under this tsunami of development

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080530/FREE/938979469/1059/information

One dead that they know of .... and there are people trapped under the rubble is what I am hearing on the news....  Death toll rises in this tsunami of development post 9-11.

I turned the channel when Scott Stringer called in because in my opinion he has not been there for the people of New York and this is a guy who does not see a conflict of interest with a community chair who owns many bars in the East Village and one of the top complaints is night life issues as in bars....

The continue death toll rises and I am sick of politicians chiming in like Stringer and I want leaders that actually protect us -- safety first -- that includes night life because in the Chelsea, Village Bowery Soho area that are been women raped and murdered or people killed in drunk driving --- safety first so I DO NOT  want to hear Stringer calling in to a news show.

10:13 just posted this on Crain's

The Bloomberg administration brought a tsunami of way too rapid development and the death toll continues to rise from construction and infrastructure related accidents. My heart goes out to everyone and their loved ones. The mayor now echoes what we have been saying for years, safety first but it sure feels like greed is first and New Yorkers have been paying with their lives, quality of life or the lack their of, higher everything because ultimately the tax payers pay for the law suits. These new sky piercing luxury hotels, condos and mega dorms (St. Ann's from 1847 survived everything but NYU's need and greed to build yet another mega dorm) reflect a history destroyed, communities no longer welcome and greed. The infrastructure disaster by Grand Central and these crane incidents look like terror attacks but they are not. Welcome to the new hideous New York built on old New York's infrastructure. People cross the street rather than walk by a construction site or under scaffolding and to stay away from man hole covers.

The New York Daily News, Con Ed blames the city for the blast

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/05/30/2008-05-30_con_ed_blames_city_for_blast.html


May 30, 2008 6:29:36 AM
In my opinion it is Con Ed and the City who are to blame plus the greed to supersize NYC with the Bloomberg administration's tsunami of development. Con Ed, DEP, DOB, Amanda Burden-a mega millionaire socialite city planner and the mayor needed to listen to the people as we demanded "slow down, accountability--safety first." but as usual it is greed first. The lastest infrastructure break in the West Village was a water pipe from before the Civil War. DEP is not rushing to remove every delipidated pipe so Con Ed has a point but Con Ed is raising our bills to pay for all the massive supersizing of condos, hotels and mega dorms and law suits so the middle class and low income pay again. New Yorkers have been paying with just about everything including their lives. DEP has to answer questions about NYer's safety. Suzannah B. Troy

Rape suspect caught on video/Soho/please take a look

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/05/28/2008-05-28_woman_raped_in_soho_after_attacker_follo.html

The New York Daily News has video footage of the rapist on the page with this article.   Please check it out and help catch this sexual predator.

email to the mayor on guns in the hands of teenagers in NYC

ideas for addressing the guns in teenagers hands in NYC1) community art memorials -- as many NYC backed art memorials to evoke awareness of the death toll, school trips to visit these NYC memorials to talk about these memorials.2) survivors of injuries and family members of those murdered that have the strength to come visit city school programs and talk to kids3) troubled kids that have enough self control are required to put in hours volunteering with handicapped babies and children to try and evoke feeling like empathy and compassion for human beings (I saw part of documentary on a program that tried this with a little success)4) far more mentoring and support with social services, education, and maybe some kind of intern programs to expand kids ideas and experiencesany kind of programs and education to awake empathy and respect for human life

Dear Readers -- I know there are programs like this but we need more -- we can take guns and box cutters out of their hands but there is zero respect for human life, no empathy, lack of understanding of destructive these violent actions are for themselves, loved ones -- their owns and the victims, the community, etc.

box cutters: my email to the mayor

box cutters: the city has to go back to enforcing requiring identification which must be documented with any all sales of box cutters at any and all stores that sell them including delis and we need NJ and Conn to work with us to do the same...if they do not have a license they have to show some picture i.d. and it has to be documented by the store because the rape in soho and violent robbery in Chinatown are 2 wake up calls to take action now.

Artist's potrait of fallen Police Officer

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/05/29/2008-05-29_artist_offers_fallen_cops_family_unique_.html

I remember the news of he and his partner being murdered by cowardly criminal and I just can't believe how brave police officers are in this city and when they go to work the understanding they may not return.  The understanding must be very hard on their families and the reality even more so.

This is a quote from his widow I posted with 2 poems about Tompkin Square Park

"A Survivor once said to me when the desire to live becomes greater than the pain inflicted on you, you cease to be a victim and you become a survivor. "

Leslyn Stewart widow of Det. Dillion Stewart

http://suzannahbtroy.blogspot.com/2008/04/blog-post_1661.html

The Going, excerpts and thoughts about my short story-podcast on Itunes

The Going, excerpts and thoughts about my short story-podcast on Itunes...
It is a fictional short story and I read an excerpt and also talk about writing the story and looking back now in 2008.
It is a sad story and I don't think I use the word love once in the story but it is a love letter to New York City and especially the East Village, the characters me included and I include here a photo of me on the ground next to part of the poem from the story.

The podcast is not packaged by a corporation so it is wonderfully imperfect...I stutter, mispronounce words but so does the character in the story and I get emotional, when I am upset make a clicking sound and I say it is wonderful because it is not airbrushed, packaged, picture perfect...either is life...it is real and I am thrilled I have been taught enough technology by my teachers at Apple that I can now post my first podcast.

This story is dedicated to the NYPD especially the worlds greatest detectives who would go from downtown to the morgue like guardian angels....Dear Readers I am so tired and and I love the city passionately...I don't have the money for two homes and I have lived in one room, not a one bedroom but one room for the last 25 years and I think about selling my newest home and moving to a house -- somewhere where have a house with the same money and walk from room to room that is not suburbia.

Tired, blue...still passionately loving NYC.
Writing is part of my art but I don't have the clean the paint brushes and worry about ventilation...If you go to the itunes store at Apple you can type in Suzannah B. Troy and find my first podcast.

p.s.   The posting of the photo f me:  I love the poem in the hexagon at the top of my shoulder..."be here now..."intelligent and spiritual.  My face is next to a few words from the poem The Going that goes with the short story...Tompkins Square Park, Fountain of Temperance.

Washington Squared, come see this documentary at the Bowery Poetry Club

Dear Readers: Posting an email sent to me and if you want to see my photos and read my thoughts on Washington Square Park just type in the park in my search engine for this blog.


PREMIERE FILM SCREENING :
“WASHINGTON SQUARE SQUARED”

SUNDAY, JUNE 1ST * 7 p.m.
Bowery Poetry Club * 308 Bowery
(between Houston & Bleecker) * Manhattan

Music performances also!
**********************************

“Washington Square SQUARED” is a one hour documentary which covers the proposed redesign of Washington Square Park and what’s taken place over the last four years: how the Bloomberg Administration pushed through its agenda to get this famous park in ‘line’ - literally.

It begins with the fountain, that famous theatre-in-the-round, home to political protest, art and musical freewheeling. The new design calls for this structure to “align” with the historic Arch (after over a century unaligned), more “picture perfect” for tourists traveling down Fifth Avenue, and reduction of the voluminous public space that surrounded it transformed into quaint areas with landscaped lawns.

The government plays bait-and-switch games with the outraged community, as they watch the City attempt to transform the Washington Square Park that they know and love into one that is pretty and pacified and far from its artistic, bohemian roots.

If you’ve been wondering how it got to this - with much of Washington Square Park behind gates and bulldozed - “Washington Square SQUARED” brings into sharp focus what’s happened thus far and what’s in store.

This is the premiere screening of this documentary.

Directed by Matt Davis

With Musical Guests: The Fools, A Brief View of The Hudson, Jeff Dickinson, Farbeon

This SUNDAY, JUNE 1st, 7 p.m.

BOWERY POETRY CLUB

308 Bowery between Houston & Bleecker

F train to 2nd Avenue; 6 train to Bleecker

Four Dollars

The New York Daily News, rape in Soho

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/05/28/2008-05-28_woman_raped_in_soho_after_attacker_follo.html

I will never understand the high threshold for violence towards women and I am sure this monster has given off so many signals that he is a dangerous hostile creep.

I hope they catch this guy asap. 

trite light questions

I am middle aged -- and I know they say fun things like 45 is the new 35 blah blah...I do feel very young but my knee joints feel 100 years older.

I take Anna Lise Hagen's yoga class when ever I get a chance and if I feel 150 years old when I walk in I feel 130 years younger when I walk out.  I can't do that much because of chronic issues like my knees but Anna Lise has taught me how do a head stand and finally to have a glimpse of understanding that downward dog doesn't have to be painful but can feel good.  

She shares me belief in how crucial core strength is and I love her book "Yoga Face".  It was fun to be part of the press circuit.  I love how Anna Lise mixes spirituality with humor.  She is a spiritual uplift and when I feel happy, I feel healthier and younger.  She has got me loving the inversion poses and the funny face yoga moves and sounds to massage our faces with vibrations and release tension.

After class yesterday a woman approached me and asked me about my teeth and my breasts.  I told her I have 4 bonded -- the least expensive way to cover enamel missing but the teeth are mine and that answer to her other question is yes they are real.  The bras these days have an industrial strength design like the Manhattan Bridge and the designers are going for the "breast implant look".   Why do I feel like Cindy Adams?  Because I have to quote her, "...only in New York."  In Los Angeles I would never get asked that because anyone there would probably a) not care and b) if they did know the answers to the questions ...

I have always gotten a lot of comments on my smile which I jokingly call a nervous twitch and I started making art on bras because there seems to be such an obsession with breasts.  I went through a chunky to down right heavy stage weighing 190 pounds in college so at this stage in life it is shocking to me to be getting this kind of interest and these questions.  

I am amazed how intense life is and at the same time superficial concerns seem inescapable which I guess is called being human...and in reality that means imperfect.

Direct Relief International

I got a thank you note for my small donations to Direct Relief International for the people of Myanmar Burma and I had found them through google.

I am just in awe of organizations and even more so front line people around the global that put themselves out there to help people, nature, you name it.

It is mind numbing to try and absorb all the suffering, loss and struggles globally but it is moving to know there are always courageous souls trying to make a difference.

www.directrelief.org

Tompkins, part of my poem from The Going

I stopped a young man in the park and asked him to photograph me next to my poem and he did.  Earlier I had a one on one at Apple and I told my teacher my goal for the hour and with his tutoring I achieved my goal.  I was able to submit my podcast to itunes.  It has been accepted and will be under podcasts "Arts/Literature" and should be findable in their search engine in 24-48 hours.   It is an excerpt and I recorded the 11 minutes of reading and sharing my thoughts -- then and now with my stuttering -- I say "de-detectives", my unique pronunciation of the word "extraordinary". I read my poem wrong saying NY instead of NYC. I always say English is not my first language but I don't know what is.  

There is no power house book publishing company involved and therefore I can be real, free and  imperfect -- no air brushing, fancy microphone or editing...one shot and I got lucky with  11 minutes of quiet.  Although it is fiction I almost cried and you can hear that -- and when I get upset I make this sound like a punctuation mark.  I know it is fiction but I get upset every time I read my fictional tale.  It is art -- therefore  in theory it is freedom not a slick package designed to make money.   The Going is sad.  It is a 9-11 story so it is very sad and it is an East Village-- NYC love letter as well.

The Going is  a 9-11 fictional story dedicated to the NYPD and the detectives that trekked from the World Trade Center to the morgue and back again.  I wrote it 5 years ago.  

Broadway not so "broad" anymore and the NYPD was passing out tickets like hot cakes, NYU buses uses Broadway as a bus parking lot!

It made me sad to see the NYPD pulling over people and handing out tickets like hot cakes because I fear people struggling to survive, small businesses can't pay these tickets and continue to live and or do business here in NYC and therefore it is another form of pushing out the middle and lower income...It is ironic that the strategy for congestion is the "narrowing" of Broadway.  This photo is Broadway by Spring St. but NYU is immune to everything that real New Yorkers endure and continue to use Broadway as their parking lot and of course they will not be ticketed...NYU is an empire that is above pretty much everything including pay taxes so as Broadway is narrowed and tickets passed out, NYU park their empty buses at Broadway from below Astor to 3rd Street like the own Broadway and The Village and basically they mayor supports NYU's exploitation and NYU being bad, a bad partner to the community or a bad empire that occupies that Village East and West....that uses Lafayette and Broadway as their parking lot rather than NYU's enormous private property where there is plenty of room to park their many empty buses.

Ben Franklin's older brother gave us the first INDEPENDENT newspaper, 1721, why is this important, tehcnology we wear including books, I am wearing...

James Franklin gave our us the first independent newspaper, the New England Courant, published in 1721 and now as NYC and the country become a big generic shopping mall losing more mom and pop stores, evictions rise with sky scraping mirrored buildings, a narcissus's wet dream, we need independent papers and blogs to have the news covered, voices heard that other wise might be erased because so many papers are real estate owners involved in eminent domain (abuse of power?,)  selling air space, etc.  (Here is a link to an article entitled "Why The New York Times (loves)--- heart symbol-- eminent domain   http://www.reason.com/news/show/32227.html

I have felt the nastiness of sexism so I had to laugh when young Ben Franklin at age 16 took on a pen name and female identity, Mrs. Silence Do Good submitting his work secretly sliding it under the door of the New England Courant to have his (her) writing successfully published.  If James Franklin knew it was his younger brother he would have felt more than his brother's ire.

*How amazing a 16 year old boy could effectively present his ideas about politics and even sexual politics or courting which he continued when he eventually came in to his own and out as Ben Franklin.  I think I heard on my audio book on John Adams that John consulted Franklin's writings to get some insights although when he came to women Adams an authentic gentleman while Ben was a "player" but a smart one who didn't leave a trail of angry women but friends...very smart guy, a diplomat with love as well as politics.

I gave up a massive book collection when I had to move under duress and now as I begin to live what my art talked about over a decade ago -- how technology is like a 2nd skin, we wear our technology, technology changes faster than fashion -- I know 'wear' my audio books and I listen to the best of my ability to books.  New Yorkers are weighed down with bags so I am carrying aprox. 10 pounds of books in a 2 ounce technology and I am loving it.  Books are like best friends and in some ways, only sometimes -- better than a best friend.  www.suzannahbtroyartist.com

I am listening to John Adam's biography by David McCullough and I confess I like his style more than Issacson's.  Adam's is such an uplift and a joy to listen to even when sad there is an optimism and a mutual devotion between he and his other half "A".  I am rushing now and my brain is so tired but I do feel badly for Ben Franklin that he could not afford Harvard, John Adam's father sold land to pay for him to attend Harvard and that was Adam's most happy time before he met his wife and began his family and work as a lawyer and politician.

Mary Shelly, Frankenstein, Edward Mendelson, The Things that Matter

Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein when she was 19 years old.     I opened up this book, "The Things that Matter" (What seven classic novels have to say about the stages of life) by Edward Mendelson  and started reading his analysis. 

Mendelson believes Frankenstein is the best book written by an author under 20 years old and he points to a sentence in a feminist manifesto written by Mary Shelly's mother in 1792 that permeates Frankenstein.

  "A great proportion of the misery that wanders, in hideous forms, around the world is allowed to rise from the negligence of parents."  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) by Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelly's mother.

He examines the many layers of emotion that we all feel at one time or maybe we don't want to admit we do as he analysis's the story and the behavior of Dr. Frankenstein in regard to his "creation" and the others around him.  Human relations are clearly not the doctor's strong point.

article on how the infrastructue break harms individual lives

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/05/26/2008-05-26_water_main_bust_vics_hit_really_hard.html

I posted this on The New York Daily News site in response to the article....


More sad news and how do the Dempsey's recover from this? The tsunami of over the top community crushing development was done on "old" New York's infrastructure and I am told that pipe was from before the Civil War. Here is the link to see me standing by a "medium" size water main break in the East Village last year. Just like DOB, I believe DEP could not keep up with the rush to supersize and develop the city and people and businesses crushed by infrastructure related issues are pushed out.
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?&aid=69978&search_result=1&stid=8
All along we have been saying safety first. The water main break in the East Village that looked like the East River came to 2nd Avenue I believe was caused by all the construction one block away by Cooper Union but of course they deny it completely but even in this article the DEP rep says vibration, etc but the city would not hold Cooper Union and 2 blocks away Cooper Square Hotel in anyway accountable so the developers supersizing walk away and the community that can't bounce back gets pushed out.

Here is my letter in AM New York from Jan. 11 2007 and believe me I wrote City Council, Dan Doctoroff, DEP and I did hear back from Dan Doctoroff's office assurance everything was fine and Betsy Gotbaum did open up a case file in response to my concerns about NYU and St. Ann's.

Here is the letter:

 

Thursday, January 11, 2007 (That is right last year before the horrifying infrastructure break mid-town but after Jodi Lane died here in the East Village.)

Destroying "old" New York

I continue to write the mayor about over the top development of this new hideous New York being built on the old infrastructure. Also, how the gas smell may be somehow related to this issue, which has been completely ignored by the Bloomberg administration. A powerful example is next door to me, St. Ann's Church from 1847, which was torn down. St. Ann's, where religious staff members resided and homeless people slept on the stairs, now will be replaced by another hideous NYU megadorm an the tallest building ever in the East Village, with 700 students. But New York City, NYU and Hudson Realty have never answered questions about infrastructure concerns like sewage removal, water, electricity, etc. Stop the exploitation and start protecting the people of New York City!
Suzannah B. Troy
Manhattan

varied thoughts, Memorial Day, infrastructure pre-the civil war, The Going

This is a sad day and my Dad served in WW2 and he was lucky enough to return home safely.  Last night I watched a few minutes of the Memorial Day program on Channel 13 and I had to cry seeing the young woman with her beautiful baby and photos of her and her husband and  I think he died abroad serving.  It is so sad and what ever your politics there is a history of soldier going to fight and leaving their families and many not returning and if they return they have spoken and unspoken stories..., some have post traumatic stress perhaps.

I feel so extra tired as usual and I have been listening  (audio book) to the bio on Ben Franklin...much more doable than carrying these 5 pounders by Issacson.  You can weight lift with his biographies on Franklin and Einstein.  Franklin he says was an idealist and a realist.  I can't help but wonder what Ben Franklin would say if he could visit us now.

I told a friend about the water pipe bursting and the pipe dates back I think from before the Civil War and he said it must have been a very well constructed pipe.  I just can't imagine workers from that era laying down a pipe that still delivers water to us but I dread all the new pipes layed down during this tsunami of over the top community crushing development being attached at some point to these old pipes and lucky for the developers the medium to large breaks will break else where but how taxing in so many ways to shunt everything, sewage etc to sky high mega buildings where some where in the systems they are attached to ancient pipes that the pipe layers when they layed and their big bosses never imagined they would be doing their job so to speak all these years later to a mega sized densely populated NYC.

I keep returning to my short story I wrote almost a decade ago  The Going and in the subway yesterday I looked out on to the platform and a black man, maybe he was homeless, and he had blue eyes.  He was watching me was and I  him.  He nodded at me as if to say "everything is going to be okay" and than I dropped my head against the window... That for me was a scene out of The Going...

I had another one of those "soul resuscitating " dreams and an this one had an oscar winning film director in it and me being drained by an upcoming martial arts test that was way below my skill but I was required to take so draining and I thought to myself I am not taking it -- I don't want to ever take this tests again.

Just tired, wake up tired...attitude of gratitude....

Whole Earth on St. Mark's continues to fight eviction

Sabrina and Peter keep their spirit and ours up as they serve up delicious vegan health food despite the on going threats of eviction.

Please help in any way you can -- we need more miracles in the East Village.

Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen, 130 St. Marks Place, NYC 10009 212-677-7597

infrastructure break, looks like the Hudson...West Village

West 10th St. by Bleecker -- Channel 9 news showed the water mai break,  I think he said 164 year old pipe--- he said 1864 -- around the Civil War....no surprise....just think of the supersized zone bus mega builds and the pipes are attached to pipes like this.

We have seen these breaks and more  to come....

DEP should have said no to this tsunami of development until infrastructure concerns could be answered so this and so many breaks...this breaks will not inconvenience the developers and in fact help push out more people.

   

I am watching Channel 9 and from the Bronx they are interviewing stunned residents who do not support this new Yankee Stadium.

Karl and Me in Tompkins Square Park

table selling books a symbol of "old" New York and the real Village East and West

The table with literary books in front of the Cooper Union Science building  (slated to be torn down and supersized) is obscured by all their patrons.  I wanted to contrast their humble presence and the mirrored new hideous New York...the zone busted mirrored buildings that reflect a history destroyed and a community not welcome.

Karen cleaning an old fashioned type writer to sell/Love Saves the Day/East Village

Anyone who follows my blog knows how much I like Karen and here she is cleaning an old fashioned type writer!

Sailors on St. Marks Place

Mike Daly's piece on this young man haunted me and I thought of The Going all day

I told my friend Tommy who helped me through the horrible situation that should never have been about the pod cast I made of my story The Going, my fictional 9-11 story that takes place in the East Village.   It is too sad for him to listen to but he said it is good I remember and he knew instantly the story is like the film "Jacob's Ladder" so he got it -- I spell things out but the story end at the 9th Precinct -- the interim stage when it is more like a ghost building -- the renovations have not begun but the building is empty -- I don't spell it out -- but for the over achiever -- Tommy got what I didn't spell out.

My buddy "A" who actually read the story, but he is so kind, he reads all my stories didn't remember that part -- it may be because it is sad...he remembered the love scene  (which is the only part that isn't sad) which I cut so I could put it on the internet because even though this is the 21st century we still don't have equal rights...

Anyway, I like the word visitor and it tied in to my theme -- I just wish I had a photo of the precinct when it was in the ghost building phase.  Tomorrow is Memorial Day and some of the rescue workers that died 9-11 were Viet Nam Vets who to date are denied their rank on the 9-11 memorial.

I thought of the young man more a boy still and how he died of a gun shot wound.  I saw a photo and what a handsome boy.  My heart goes out to his family and friends and I think of the boxer that held his hand as he lay there bleeding to death.

Whiskers Holistic Pet Care 235 East 9th Street crowded with cool kats and kittens

On the weekends auxilary front line big hearted people help find kittens home....very moving, I love animals.

Whiskers 235 East 9th Street, NYC  -- East Village

Whiskers, East 9th St., Simon Doonan mentions our local pet store in the New York Post, Sunday edition, page 44

Simon Doonan mentions our local pet store in the New York Post, Sunday edition, page 44, check it out...

No to violence, no to verbal abuse, YES TO PEACE ON THE STREETS! I just read Mike Daly's article.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/05/25/2008-05-25_all_he_could_do_was_comfort_victim-3.html#community


This is a heart breaking story and there is something wrong with the young people that use guns rather than their minds. It seems like twisted wrong thinking so backward because hiding behind guns is cowardice murdering people they hurt the neighborhood and there is no rational although I am sure they feel they were slighted in some way. I feel sorry for the families that lose their loved like this and for the NYPD to have to attempt to police people that have no respect for life and for their community and this city. Where are the leaders having press conferences and rallies every day if that is what it takes to say no? I know there are amazing activists that do speak up but clearly they are not being heard and it means the community and the police must work together along with parents and anyone who can get through the message no to violence, no to verbal abuse and yes to peace on the streets.

(There is a word count and I actually made it and with out my usual typos and or missing words. I am exhausted...woke up exhausted and haunted with what I call NYC dreams -- I think I am recalling people from my past to help me through this transition and I had to leave my home of 20 years and it was 6 month of a very disturbing situation on top of the NYU mega construction  next door destroying St. Ann's as rapidly as possible.  My dreams of significant New Yorkers I think is my soul trying to resuscitate itself...

I really want the excerpt of my short story "The Going" with my thoughts on writing the story as a pod cast in Itunes for a free read and it is about dieing...and even if one is alone in NYC, about not going it alone.   

This heart breaking story written by Mike Daly is the truth, it is really a news report and for the family of the young man that died it must be like their "9-11"...the collapse of their world as they new it, the worst loss, losing a child.  I dream of having children.  I can't imagine losing children...I think of this man who held his hand as he lay on the street, shot in the groin by some coward.   Who else but a coward would do such a thing.  What fragile people posing behind macho tough stances that they have get guns and shot someone and for what?

I thought of the boxer who uses his hands to fight at that moment using his hand to comfort a young man dieing on the street who should be alive today.  I thought of my story "The Going" and about dieing, how you miss the people, you miss your neighborhood, the trees how much you miss and I am sure this young man will be missed.

email sent by gardening activists

Subject: Gardeners Forum - next Saturday May 31 at CUNY Graduate Center



Dear friends,

Pease forward far and wide to other gardeners in your network to let them know about this event. Thank you.

New York City Community Gardens Coalition presents;
COMMUNITY GARDENS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE NY ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT

4th Annual Panel Discussion and Open Forum on the status of NYC Community Gardens

Saturday May 31, 2008 10am-1:30pm CUNY Graduate Center - Proshansky Auditorium 365 Fifth Avenue (btwn. 34th & 35th Street, NYC) Metro: B, D, F, N, R, V, Q to 34th Street, 6 to 33rd Street stop

Come help decide the next steps gardeners should take to meet our biggest challenges. Featuring panelists from PlaNYC, New Yorkers for Parks, NYC Dept of Agriculture & Markets, Just Foods, NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation, Sustainable South Bronx, with breakout group discussions with GreenThumb, HPD and more!

More info: 212 926 8648

join NYC-GardensCoalition-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit us at www.nyccgc.org or email us at nyccgcinfo@yahoo.com

Restoration of 300,000 into Landmark budget, an email from Andrew Berman

Dear friend,

GVSHP and a coalition of over 40 preservation groups will be holding its Second Annual Lobby Day on Wednesday, May 28, to advocate for a RESTORATION of $300,000 into the Landmarks budget. These funds will allow the LPC to maintain its survey staff and effectively protect New York’s valuable historic buildings and neighborhoods. PLEASE JOIN US, AND PLEASE HELP!

In 2006, the City Council, led by Council Members Jessica Lappin, Tony Avella and Diana Reyna, allocated $250,000 in additional funds to the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s budget, allowing the agency to hire five new full-time staff researchers to aid in their designation efforts. Last year that amount was increased to $300,000, which allowed the LPC to designate more than 1,000 buildings in 2007, a 2,000% increase in buildings since FY2005.

Still, despite the amount of much-needed work that these grants have allowed, the Mayor has declined to baseline this amount and it has not been included in the Commission’s FY09 budget.

Even with this added $300,000, the LPC’s budget amounts to less than one one-hundredth of one percent of the City’s expenditures. But this small amount has allowed the LPC to move forward with much-needed designations over the past two years, including the NoHo Extension and the proposed South Village Historic District, as well as several new individual landmarks designations including Webster Hall in the East Village and the Keller Hotel in the West Village. Without the added staff, there is no way that the LPC can maintain its preservation efforts at its current level.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Call or write your Council Member and ask them to support the restoration of the $300,000. Go to www.council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtml to find your Council Member and their contact information, and go to www.gvshp.org/LPCFundingLtr08.htm for a sample letter you can use.
Join us on the City Hall steps at 2 pm on Wednesday, May 28th for a press conference calling for the restoration of the LPC budget! GVSHP will be joined by other preservation groups and a number of City Councilmembers to speak out for the need for more LPC funding.
Spread the word! Pass this e-mail along to friends, family, and neighbors.

See below for additional information about the critical need for more funding for the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Please do write and call your Councilmember, and I hope to see you on the steps of City Hall on the 28th.

Andrew Berman, Executive Director
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
212/475-9585 x38
232 East 11th Street
New York, NY
www.gvshp.org

The Going, recorded, making in to an pod cast for free

I was thrilled to post my comment along with over 400 mostly amazingly wonderful comments on the new york times website on what we miss about old New York and the timing is amazing because this morning I recorded an excerpt from my short story The Going with my thoughts on writing it, a 9-11 story and that now looking back it is also a story about the "old" New York, the East Village I love, the people, the neighborhood that has lost, made over...When I wrote the short story I had no idea it would be more significant.  I focus on the 9th Precinct building "old New York" being torn down and ends with tears about "loss" and death yes of people but also the missing the neighborhood.  I wrote this half a decade ago and who knew -- when I read the last lines of my story I cry and now it is not just because of Sept. 11.

It is dedicated to the NYPD -- the Detectives, the world's greatest who's efforts 9-11 and post 9-11 where Olympic as they travelled back and forth from the WTC to the morgue.  The short story  has 3 characters, a detective, a single woman and a fireman 9-11...

I hope to have this excerpt I recorded with my thoughts up for a free podcast download soon and maybe on itunes at the end of June.  I recorded it form my lap top and just like my writing, I trip over words and I love it...imperfect, no air brushing...very human...and real...

miss,

miss you,

the people,

the trees,

the NYC idiosyncrasies

p.s.  I love the comments on the article I posted on this site -- what do you miss about Old New York and I hope The New York Times makes it in to a book.

How ironic I confront the mayor on the John Gambling Show and he responds just a few people feel the way I do... Not true.

The NY Times, What do you miss about Old New York?

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/what-do-you-miss-most-about-old-new-york/#comment-322721

The comments are even better than the article and do it, dear readers, post your thoughts....

*211. May 23rd,  This person who posted 211 deserves the Pulitzer Prize for best blog comment summing it up!!!!!!!!!!!
2008
2:35 pm

There is a huge response to what people miss about Old New York!!!!!!!!!!  Please do read the comments -- they are fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love,

S

Book Bra, Free Will?, 1999

Free Will?, 1999

tear,
tears,
rip, rip surgery
trim, snip, pick-pick,
weigh myself don't measure up, snip-snip, no time to develop my intellect, snip-snip, cut chop my body///////who will love me? what must I do to be loved?snip, snip,
no time to develop my intellect, my soul. Is it free will?

I have held this up and read it at poetry reading to applauses and it has been on display about Bluestockings book store and Rutgers Library in Newark but I just posted it now with saddness because it was important in 1999 and I sent it out only to be rejected over and over...a creative soul's lot in life maybe...

I have not had cosmetic surgery, just 2 knee surgeries and and my wrist but it is about this "state of self-rejection" taught at an early age to girls, young women -- to weigh ourselves -- to constantly feel we are not slim enough, pretty enough, our breasts are not big enough, etc.

I am noticing now that men are catching this "dis-ease" -- and they will express their concerns about their body as well.

www.suzannahbtroyartist.com

My Bronx Grandmother's rings

Before my Grandmother died she gave me two rings.  I was under terrible duress for months and had to sell my home because of the duress which was so deeply traumatic and one of my rings was either stolen or lost in the move.  I have not gone to the 9th Precinct to file a report. 

I also wonder if I lost it in one of the places I train  and the diamond was too much to resist.  It is a diamond and it sparkles from another era and if it is still in the original setting the back is broken and over laps like a ring you would get in a supermarket for 25 cents from a bubble gum machine which is why I didn't wear it a lot and did take it off when I did gyro or pilates.

You would know it if you saw it.  If you see someone you know who didn't wear a diamond wedding band and it glistens and you see the other side is bizarrely a broken over lapping -- it is mine....

I don't know how long it takes to recover and I am praying Gram's ring comes back to me and maybe it is in something I have in storage that I have not been able to get to yet or I was robbed because I was and still under duress...it takes time to change gears and it went on for so long.  I have the ring that matches it and I never take it off.  This ring I had fitted to me but the other one I never did.

Sad, it is about loss, it is about moving on and when I think of 9-11 and what just happen in Myanmar and China I have to just look at the fact I am alive and can still love  and be loved...to not focus on what feels criminal and wrong but focus on the positive because you can build on the positives but the negatives and negative destructive people just want company on the way down.

My Grandmother wanted me to have these rings for a very specific reason...she had here concerns for me.  I know she loved me and she would want me to focus on the love aspect and I still have one.  I really hope it was not stolen and turns up.

Breast painting and poem from 1997 talks about violence

The link is to my art so if you are conservative you may want to leave my poetry out.

http://www.suzannahbtroyartist.com/archive/35.shtml

I wrote about violence towards women because so many women were being brutally murdered in and around my neighborhood.

I just found this photo of my breast painting from 1997.

Read my piece on women and my thoughts on violence starting with verbal abuse, intimidation that can lead to murder....

http://suzannahbtroy.blogspot.com/2008/03/tina-negron-24-east-village-murdered.html

Fresh Air Fund and Police Athletic League NYC

www.freshairfund.org and www.palnyc.org  really work to help children in New York city and if you go to their sites you can read how and why they began.    The Fresh Air Fund was started in the late 1800's and PAL in 1914 by Police Commissioner Arthur Woods.

Fresh Air Fund, help NYC's neediest kids, email ask for donations which will be matched by donors.

www.freshairfund.org

*I just made a donation and it will be matched as per this email I received...


Dear Fresh Air Fund Friend,

Your gift to The Fresh Air Fund today will be matched dollar
for dollar by a group of generous donors!

If you give $25, that means $50 for disadvantaged kids.
$50 becomes $100.

You must donate by June 30th to take advantage of this
opportunity.

Each summer, The Fresh Air Fund brings 8,000 children from
New York City’s toughest neighborhoods to one of our five
camps upstate, or to Friendly Town volunteer host families.
These kids spend a few wonderful weeks outdoors learning to
ride bikes, taking swimming lessons, and enjoying the simple pleasures of playing outdoors in the summer sunshine.

This summer, we have the opportunity to invite even more children. With your donation matched dollar for dollar, The Fresh Air Fund can provide more summer camp adventures to needy children.

Please don’t miss your chance to make your gift go twice as far.

Sincerely,


Jenny Morgenthau
Executive Director

Roger Manning NYC from food to making music real New York

http://rogerm.net/gallery/food.php

www.rogerm.net


www.myspace.com/rogermanning

++++++
Roger Manning - NYC, Sat 5-24 at Olive Juice Festival

Dear Readers: I have not met Roger but when I showed up to Hub Station to make a small donation in honor of Orvis, take some photos before the party began the wonderful women setting up the amazing food display talked very enthusiastically about him.

I have become more of a recluse than ever these days, sadly but I wish I could get myself out to hear him and other passionate NYC artists make their music.



Check him and his sites out!!!! He is what I call "real" New York.

American Idol

American Idol does one extremely powerful action that can't be ignored and that is they are a powerful fund raiser to fight poverty here in America and in Africa.  They make front line appearances and interact with the recipients which is important and they are part of a growing trend that allow consumers to buy and have a percentage of the sale go to charity.  American Idol does bring awareness to their very large audience of poverty and gives them a chance to take action even if it is in the smallest way possible but it is a good start especially with the young people that follow the show and apparently they are large in number.   The buying power of the audience of American Idol must be powerful because Mike Meyers admitted he was on last night to shamelessly plug his new film.  I have seen him walking around the East Village carrying  a hockey stick.  

I really did not care who won and I did buy a download of Jason Castro singing "Hallelujah".

I purchased  a song by Chris Daughtry, "What about now", that consumers are assured a percentage goes to fighting poverty.

By sheer chance I met a gentleman from this group that encourages giving a gift by helping through charitable giving...www.changingthepresent.org and my red ipod which goes to help fighting AIDS in Africa so it is a growing trend to help in any all ways from giving a gift in honor of someone to help in some way or even by shopping.

The New York Daily article on St. Brigid's and my comment

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/05/21/2008-05-21_st_brigids_saved_from_wrecking_ball_by_a.html#community
My comment posted on the nydaily news but it's hard --there is a word count which I haven't figured out and I made some typos...

This is a miracle in the East Village and the school being saved is equally important. This church is stunningly beautiful and historically significant (it would have been tragic ) for it to be torn down for some mirrored sky piercing condo or hotel that reflect history destroyed and a community no longer welcome. It would be terrible to have a Red Square with Lenin on top which looks like an NYU dorm with balconies replace the church or the old ps 64 building. The Red Square is co-owned by Mike Rosen and I had no idea he might have 20 mill to donate but I do believe him when he states he didn't donate it. I don't know who in the East Village has 20 million to spare. Mike Rosen lives in the Crista Dora and I am told that this building is the symbol of gentrification, the first and that it owes the community a community facility because of it's history as a building for the people. Ed Torres authentically sums up this miracle and it is a win for the East Village which looks more and more like a bad xerox of mid-town.

www.nypost.com/seven/05222008/news/regionalnews/its_a_20m_miracle_112011.htm

NYPD dig to find bones of a murder victim from a decade ago

Here is the article with more information from today's (May 22, 2008) The New York Daily News and clearly this murderer believed women to literally as disposable.  There seems to be a lot of acceptable hostility and violence directed at women daily.  I hope this guy never gets out of prison.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2008/05/22/2008-05-22_cops_dig_up_yard_in_serialslay_probe.html

NYPD are in Jamaica, Queens  excavating looking for bones because a man already in prison confessed to yet another murder of a  woman a decade ago and buried her body next door.   This is one of at least two murders he has confessed to.

I have been reading fiction that involves this kind of real life drama and a growing number of tv stations carry more tv shows -- fiction or reality based on these kind of violent murders and all phases of investigating and solving murders....very intense material.

Amazing work...also makes me think of 9-11 and the temporary morgue they set up by NYU Medical and the work they did and still are still doing.

I am getting all this off local tv.   Anyone who visits my blog regularly knows I write about violence towards women.

http://suzannahbtroy.blogspot.com/2008/03/tina-negron-24-east-village-murdered.html

NYPD catch the subway robber who targeted women on the Lower East Side.

Bravo!  Lower East Side, NYPD detectives bust the creep that was robbing women in the subway and apparently he was bragging about it and someone heard him and tipped off the police who tracked him to a homeless shelter.

thoughts on saving St. Brigid's vs. the New Hideous New York

The new hideous New York with all it's sky piercing mirrored buildings is a narcissist's wet dream.   I am so glad they saved St. Brigid's for so many reasons and one is simply the Church is beautiful and it won't be replaced with yet another  hideous zone busting mirrored hotel, condo or mega dorm.

St. Brigid's is a stunning piece of our New York's history and Irish American history, a resource for the community, the school a necessity.

 Thank goodness St. Brigid's won't be replaced with another zone busting mirrored building that looks like it belongs in Miami Beach or Dubai with an invisible  sign that says "not welcome", mirrored buildings that reflect a history destroyed and a community no longer welcome.   Sometimes miracles happen in the East Village...

Suzannah B. Troy

ps I make so many typos and I feel perpetual tired, and more...I was trying to right this and have a conversation with a loved one about children and I wish I had children...just tired and I have to get rest.

St. Brigid's SAVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A win for the East Village as well!!!

Dear loyal blog readers!!!!!
Big industrial strength hug!!!!!!

I just got an email from a community activist and it was forwarded to me -- the original sender is Ed Torres, Committee to Save St. Brigid's and it says...
More good news!
From Ed Torres, Committee to Save St. Brigid's--

Dear Members,
The associated press release a press release that an anonymous donor has met with the Cardinal and offered 20 million dollars to the Archdiocese. 10 million to restore St Brigid as a Parish Church, 2 million for an endowment and 8 million for the school. The Cardinal has accepted his unexpected offer. ST. BRIGID CHURCH is Saved!!!! I am lining up interviews with TV stations. The first will be with UNIvision today @ 12:30. in front of the church. Please try and come. I know it is short notice but it would be great if the committee is present. The Lord does hear the prayers of the just. Thank you Lord, and thank you to all members who persevered. God Bless! . Yeah! Yeah ! Yeah!

Dear loyal readers -- I want to add I am so thankful because this church is so beautiful, this church is a resource to the community and historic plus I reunited with John Dennie, I call a 9-11 friend because we met because of....and we reunited showing up at the same rally for St. Brigid's and I ended up having to endure something horrible I should never have had to deal with and John was key in helping me get through it!!!!   Feels like miracles to me.  
--

Death by drunken driver Bowery page 19 The NY Post

I don't attend community board 3 meetings anymore.  I would go and I talked about too many dorms and too many bars and when I did speak up which is on the record, no one stopped and said for the record it should be noted the community board chair owns many bars here in the East Village.

Page 19 "Measly 2 years for fatal DWI" does not state where Tenzing Bhutia drank so much beer his blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit but he did strike down and kill a beautiful young woman, Julia Thomson,  21 years old, a finance student here in the Bowery.  Her father said from his home in Scotland he blames the US justice system.  I would add the city because not enough is done to curtail out of control drinking.

I had even asked that a sign go up next to the one warning pregnant women not to drink, to not combine prescribed drugs with alcohol because I believe many people that party here are mixing it up by choice or worse having creeps drop sufi's in their drinks.  

I even suggested safety guidelines like the kind the NYPD handed out after the Imette St. Guillen be printed out on each receipt when people buy a drink or even booze at local deli's.  It should be noted in my opinion the NYPD deserves the highest praise for circulating those guide lines.  There were well written and I was pleased to see them handed out and piles of them for people to take in places with drinking establishments.  They may have saved lives and we will never know.  Well done.

I even tried calling Christine Quinn's office downtown before I went to the 9th Precinct meeting where I stated no woman should die the way Imette St. Guillen died and  another young woman did under age, a horrific violent death and associated with alcohol abuse/drinking in Chelsea.  I was really upset and one think I learned is don't bother reaching out to Christine Quinn's office at least the one downtown.  I got zero help and zero interest from them.  

People ask me if I want to run for political office or have suggested I do so but I am a passionate artist, a creative soul and I do not want to be a politician.  I do have creative ideas and I have passion and I do want the city to be a safer more effectively run city which gets even harder with population increases and budget cuts.

What are the statistics of death, violence, crime and injuries related to alcohol here in NYC?  

I can't express the upset and the belief that as a society can do more to protect people even if they don't have the initiative or know how.   One dynamic group that has begun to make a difference www.rightrides.org

water main break yesterday 5th Ave. underscores the point of my email yesterday to NYer mag and newspaper

I wrote this darkly humorous -- well barely humorous piece, well there was no humor but it is almost oddly funny I did get to confront the mayor on the radio -- I mean what are the chances I would get through...?  The same with the "chat" on the steps of City Hall.  Thinking back even Amanda Burden picking up the phone when I called although she ended up being down right nasty when I answered her question about how many 2 and 3 story buildings are there on 12th Street and I answered her and explained anything taller was from the industrial era except for the The New School Mega dorm and the NYU mega dorm at 12th and 3rd Avenue.  That was before she and the mayor allowed St. Ann's to be torn down for yet another hideous mega dorm.

I  emailed it to The New Yorker and all the newspapers... Dear David: There is this perpetual hope for some David to conquer the Goliath and in NYC there are so many Goliaths...or godzillas, etc.

The stadium that Babe Ruth did not build, welcome to the New hideous New York! attention David Remnick...I mention such lively interactions as confronting the mayor on the John Gambling  show about NYU mega dorming the East Village to death, I forgot our brief chat on the steps of City Hall, my call to the environmental crime dept at the State Attorney's office that had me coordinating a chat with him and Andrew Berman about St. Ann's.  Andrew has revealed the illegal air sale by the USPS  under  the Pataki administration so I gave it a go under the new administration.

I wrote about the Stadium that Ruth didn't build and that tax payers hugely did as a metaphor for the new New York --  these tax paying fans can't even afford to go to the new Yankee Stadium...etc. etc.  I referenced Juan Gonzalez's article in The New York Daily News which you can find posted on this blog or on their website...(I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open and my stomach hurts!)

...and I mentioned the NYPD, aprox 37, 000 policing aprox 8 million people plus and yes, when they make a mistake like a doctor someone might die but for shockingly lowest starting salary in the new New York (new economy of mega wealth)-- they seem way too small in number -- I wish they could be given better resources for their "policing" this big crazy city but today I just learned they are going to get a raise that stills puts them lower than other police forces and even worse they have to sacrifice vacation time -- which is wrong. 

  I wrote about about so much more but I am so tired...have to rest now.

oh and of course I wrote about....

and of course I mentioned above ground -- construction/scaffolding deaths and injuries and below -- infrastructure related deaths and injuries and more infrastructure breaks are to come that look like terror attacks....I am know I have been told "I'm a glass half empty girl" -- note: I am five years older than than the guy that told me that...and after I sent the email we get a big nasty water main break on 5th Avenue...

...scary tired...

Old New York

Face facades in the East Village and a must see is Karl "Santa" pictured on this blog with a face facade on St. Marks that resembles him....sure beats the narcissistic mirrored facade of the tsunami of community crushing development aka the new hideous New York.


NYU, the mega real estate empire eats up all our resources including green space which is crucial for the community just to have a place for respite, to relax, to chill and yes late in the game NYU may like all the building must add green to their roof tops but on rainy days like today -- green is important for absorbing rain and nature's way of preventing flooding like in the subways. You will see me constantly focusing on greenery here and it is for many urgent reasons as well as the sheer beauty which is soul healing.

Con Ed's on going work on Houston St, NYU mega empire domination and cranes everywhere

click on the image, see it says "gas system" and ask your self how safe you feel and how much you will feel this in your con ed bills and it is all for this tsunami of  mega development, yippee!
on the top left hand corner if the bowery hotel zone buster that looks like a prison sandwiched between 2 homeless shelters so the mega rich can really feel powerful and enjoy their stay and front and center is an unmarked NYU dorm -- this is 2nd and Bowery all temporary housing -- and I confronted NYU on this being unmarked and they claim the landlord won't let them put up their ubiquitous flag speaking of ubiquitous Con Ed and NYU -- NYU buses are very where and I caught this one empty except for the bus driver and more were parked on Lafayette St. and Broadway because NYU considers our neighborhood their parking lot and green is only about money except if the media is tuned in and a small % of NYU that actually cares but makes too little an impact.  Get rid of way too many buses and park them on your private property.

Cranes everywhere...this is small compared to Cooper Union and NYU mega domination...city of cranes