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Gracie Mansion's Last Hurrah?—Unleashing Hell in New York's West Village
May 16, 2021 May 22, 2021 ~ Suzan Mazur
Gracie Mansion, Official Residence of the Mayor of New York
RELATED STORIES: Hell and the West Village: Where Is the Next Jane Jacobs? and Edward C. Caswell's Greenwich Village
Nothing could be more foreboding of the death of the street of poets than a three-hour-long bombardment by a rock band (drums, guitars, singers) pounding Bobby McGee through two microphones set up next door to the former Morton Street residence of US Poet Laureate and Nobel Laureate, Joseph Brodsky. I passed by the disturbance in New York's West Village on Saturday night and informed the band I was on my way to the 6th Precinct to report the problem.
The rock band responded by moving the show a few doors closer to Hudson Street where the outdoor restaurants have seriously dug in. A two-camera crew was filming events on the corner of Morton & Hudson.
And when the Bobby McGee invasion could pound no more, a rag-tag band with sax, drums and tuba that's been plaguing the neighborhood for weeks came through next—to milk crowds at the eateries that have largely taken over public space everywhere in sight.
I did, indeed, go to the 6th Precinct and was assured they'd send a car. I was encouraged that the police would shut down the disturbance since they did respond to my complaint about hordes of drunken revelers assaulting the neighborhood with pulsating music from rooftops at 29 Seventh Avenue South weeks ago.
But despite swarms of NYPD on standby in anticipation of fallout from a protest on a nearby Hudson River pier, and my walking into the 6th Precinct two more times Saturday night to request assistance, the rock band was allowed to continue its shock & awe on the residents of Morton Street.
During my third visit over a three-hour period to the station, I asked why a car had not yet been sent. I was further advised the 6th Precinct had only three cars, all out on more urgent cases.
I said it was going to be a difficult summer if the disturbance went unchecked because it could set a precedent.
"It looks like you'll have to move," one desk officer said sarcastically.
The reality is, whatever these spoilers have come to the West Village hoping to spoil is virtually GONE now, due to their ravaging of the neighborhood and the city's inept policies allowing the ruckus to go unchecked.
The West Village should be given protected status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site before the Cherry Lane Theatre is turned into yet another beer joint.
Published by Suzan Mazur
I'm the author of five books: The Altenberg 16: An Exposé of the Evolution Industry; The Origin of Life Circus: A How To Make Life Extravaganza; The Paradigm Shifters: Overthrowing 'the Hegemony of the Culture of Darwin'; Royal Society: The Public Evolution Summit; and the most recent---Darwin Overthrown: Hello Mechanobiology. My reports have appeared in the Financial Times, The Economist, Forbes, Newsday, Archaeology, Astrobiology, Connoisseur, Omni, Huffington Post, Progressive Review ("How Bush Got Bounced From Carlyle Board"), CounterPunch, Scoop Media and other publications, as well as on PBS, CBC and MBC. More than a dozen of my stories related to the Rome antiquities conspiracy trial were featured in Harvard Law School's Art Law Syllabus 2008. I've covered the wars: Colombian Drug War, Gulf War, Sudan, and Kashmir (from both the Indian and Pakistani sides of the conflict). And I've been a guest on Charlie Rose, McLaughlin and various Fox Television News programs talking about those crises and others. For some years along the way, I was a runway fashion model for legends Geoffrey Beene, Bill Blass, Giorgio Sant' Angelo and so many more.	View all posts by Suzan Mazur
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