Tension on Park Avenue
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We've had a few weeks to contemplate
News photographers were camped outside the Regency this afternoon in the wake of reports that Donald Trump’s fixer-lawyer Michael Cohen is officially the focus of a criminal investigation. Cohen has been holed up in the 4-star Loews Regency New York as his nearby apartment undergoes renovations.
Not a hair out of place. Not a button undone. Not a shoelace untied. A hat securely in place. Pristine white gloves. Pressed slacks. The Knickerbocker Greys.
This may not describe most boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 16, but when it comes to the Knickerbocker Greys Cadet Corps, that’s how it is. And they’ll be marching Thursday, 6 to 8 p.m., at the Armory.
Edith Roth had wanted the intersection of Park Avenue and 57th Street renamed “Roth Corner” to honor the three generations of architects in her family whose designs, memorialized on this street corner, shaped so much of upper-class urbanism in New York. But other than a small plaque on the landmarked Ritz Tower, there is no civic tribute at 57th and Park to the architectural firm of Emery Roth and Sons, founded in 1902 by the then 32-year-old Hungarian Jewish immigrant.
In the shadow of some of the biggest real estate deals in Manhattan stands 417 Park Avenue, a luxury residence that Emery Roth designed a century ago. It is the last of 13 high-end apartment houses that once lined the blocks of Park Avenue between 46th and 57th streets. Now, corporate towers dominate that stretch of the avenue, and residents to the north may soon face lucrative buyout offers from developers.
An apartment in a co-op on Park Avenue has been owned by a family member for over seventy years.
The unit was first owned by a cranky bachelor uncle, then it was taken over by his brother, my father. The place was then sold as part of my father’s estate, and, finally, a lesser unit was bought in the same building by a sister.
More than a year ago I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with Bobo Fay, the Sasquatch hunter on Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot. Bobo is the most bigfoot-like member of the cast. A 6 feet, 7 inch hulk with voice that could wake the Amazon, Bobo stands in for the ape-like being in the pseudo-documentary’s reenactments of Sasquatch activity.