State: Columbus statue is historic

From the NY Post:

The state is designating the Columbus monument at Columbus Circle as a landmark — in case the city tries to move it in the future.

The New York State Board of Historic Preservation voted unanimously on Sept. 20 to place the statue in the state and national registers for its historic and cultural significance.

The action was not publicized.

Gov. Cuomo is expected to announce the designation at the Columbus Citizens Foundation dinner Saturday night and the news will be celebrated at the monument on Sunday — ahead of Monday’s Columbus Day Parade.

The 76-foot beaux arts monument was designed by Italian sculptor Gaetano Russo and it’s his only sculptural art work in America.

De Blasio uninvited from Columbus Day parade in Bronx

From NBC:

Organizers of one Columbus Day Parade in New York City have uninvited Mayor de Blasio after he ordered a review of controversial statues in the city -- including several Columbus statues. Rana Novini reports.

Any Italian will do?

From the Times Ledger:

Paul Vallone kicked off his campaign for the City Council seat based in Bayside and Whitestone Tuesday night at Verdi’s of Whitestone.

Vallone is running for the seat currently occupied by Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone).

“There is really a lot that can be done, primarily for making schools better and safer,” Vallone said, adding that he would like to also tackle quality-of-life issues and overdevelopment in northeast Queens.

More than 200 people attended the event, according to Vallone’s staff, and guests included several members of Community Board 7, on which he serves.

The Council hopeful raked in about $25,000, although he hopes to have about $35,000 total in his coffers by the filing deadline Jan. 15, according to his staff.

Vallone thinks that the area is in need of a change.

“We are going to have to energize the community,” he said. “Dan has been there for four years, but I think we can get someone better.”

Vallone ran for the same seat in 2008, but lost in the Democratic primary. Kevin Kim beat out the rest of the field, but then went on to lose to Halloran in the general election.

According to Vallone’s brother, Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), Kim won because there were two Italian Americans in the race.

In addition to Paul Vallone, CB 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece also ran in that race. Each garnered about 2,000 votes, according to Peter Vallone, which if combined would have won the primary.

“The reason why an Italian American wasn’t elected four years ago is because there were two in the race,” Peter Vallone said. “It’s that simple.”

This time around, Iannece and Paul Vallone agreed not to run against each other, according to the councilman. Paul Vallone supported Iannece’s unsuccessful run for state Assembly in September, and Iannece agreed not to run for Council, according to Peter Vallone.

So let's see...

1) The Vallones would have you believe that Iannece and Paulie V. had a "gentlemen's agreement" that Jerry would not run for City Council when, in fact, Jerry and his base were drawn out of CD19.

2) According to Pete, jr.: “The reason why an Italian American wasn’t elected four years ago is because there were two in the race. It’s that simple.” So, his brother won't necessarily win because he is the best candidate, but because he has a vowel at the end of his name. It's not smart to take a certain ethnic vote for granted.

3) He would like to "tackle quality-of-life issues and overdevelopment in northeast Queens." Well then I suppose he should hire a new campaign manager and deny being a lobbyist for developers again.

An appeal to the Italian-American community

Un appello alla comunita italo-americana di New York

Original letter on George The Atheist's blog.


Dear friends:

Here is a photograph of the distinguished New York City-based Italian immigrant Piccirilli Brothers, master stone carvers of some of our town's and the country's greatest monuments. You can read about their illustrious history and artistic accomplishments here. Famed for carving the New York Public Library's iconic lions, the U.S.S. Maine Monument at the entrance to Central Park, statuary on the NY Stock Exchange and the United States Capitol. They carved the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. They worked with the greatest American architects and sculptors of their day: Carrère and Hastings, Daniel Chester French, Stanford White, et al.

They also collaborated with the renowned sculptor Frederick MacMonnies on the work of the statuary grouping known as "Civic Virtue" ("Virtu Civiche") - an artistic allegory depicting the conquering of Vice and Corruption in governmental affairs. This work of art was situated next to Queens Borough Hall for decades. Its tortured history can be read here.

It was moved from its original emplacement outside of City Hall in Manhattan because the then Mayor, a veritable artistic ignoramus (un vero ignorante artistico), Fiorello LaGuardia, it is said, could not stand looking at the statue's culo. A person who hated his own heritage! So it was shipped off to the "hinterlands" of Queens where it stood totally neglected, non-maintained, and exposed to the elements. This was the thanks that the great Italian-American Piccirilli Brothers were given by the civic authorities for the brothers' magnificent artistic endeavors. The statue stood there, ignored, unmaintained, and unloved through the years. But to make matters worse, the ignominy of Political Correctness (Corretezza Politica) reared its ugly head.

The statue was considered demeaning to women!! Why? It was alleged that the Conqueror, Civic Virtue, was slaying 2 women in the guise of snakes. Pandering-to-the public politicians, with nothing else to do, paraded in front of it demanding that it be sold off on CraigsList: here is the House of Representatives disgraced sex-pervert Anthony Weiner, opining on its merits. (If you look carefully, you can see, the ineffective Ann Jawin of the Center for the Women of New York, standing under her umbrella, like a Bobble-head doll, nodding in agreement.) -

There you have it folks. The statue, a sterling example of Italian-American artisanry, has been castigated instead of honored. What is its message? It champions "civic virtue" - something that that should be lauded and not despised. Its future has yet to be written. Help write it.

A slap in the face to Italian-American endeavor?

An insult to the legacy of the Italian-American community?

It is time to wake up! It is time for action!

Don't let them steal it from you. Fix it! Honor your ancestry!

ALL HAIL TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS PICCIRILLIS! / TUTTA LA GRANDINE AL PICCIRILLIS ILLUSTRE!

Saluti, giorgiol'ateo

Italian pedestrian plaza in Whitestone?

Buongiorno Crapper ("Signore Merda?"):

Here's a link to an article (in Italian) from America Oggi dated February 7 (your computer can do a rough translation).

Article says scheduled for June 2013, the triangle of land bounded by Frankie Lewis, 23rd Avenue and 163rd Street (mistakenly written as 163rd Road) will be turned into Piazza Italia complete with a Romanesque entry arch and bricks in the pavement with the names of Italians who have contributed to the nation. Permits were granted for "the community" to go ahead with the deal. Article says that these came from the DOT (and not Parks) - hmnnn? Public land given away here? Check it out. I only read about this in America Oggi nowhere else.

Ciao, Giorgiotheatheist

Bocce players can't figure out why new court is so expensive

From the Times Ledger:

The board voted to support the construction of a bocce court in Bowne Park, between 29th and 32nd avenues and 155th and 159th streets, but had reservations about the costs and timeline for the project.

The city Parks Department’s plan to add a new bocce court next to the one that already exists is slated to cost $507,000, which initially made board members scoff.

But Parks made it clear the money will also go toward refurbishing the old court, repaving the plaza around the courts and adding extra amenities, including benches and picnic tables, according to the department.

And in what CB 7 Chairman Gene Kelty said could be a potentially costly repair, Parks will add a ground fire hydrant to provide water for both the bocce courts and nearby vegetation.

“If anyone knows plumbing work and hydrants, it’s going to be costly,” he said. “It’s not just for a bocce court, there is other ancillary stuff here.”

Nevertheless, the board wanted to ensure Parks was spending the money wisely and asked the department for a detailed construction plan.

City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) also wanted to make sure that Parks did not waste any cash, since he partially funded the project.

“An extra bocce court will be a good thing for Bowne Park and I’m proud to have helped provide one,” he said in a statement. “But nothing comes cheap through city government. I’m pressing for Parks to make this happen as affordably as possible.”

Watch the video and ask yourself why a "state grant" was needed on top of $500K from the City budget for a bocce court. Notice how the guys playing can't seem to figure it out, either.

The Queens casas de Cuomo

From the NY Times:

The Cuomos may be New York political royalty, but Andrew M. Cuomo and his father have always made note of their humble Queens roots.

Mario M. Cuomo, the former governor, would often weave into conversations some reference to how his mother had arrived from Tramonti, Italy, and how he was a Queens man whose father’s “very special dream” had been to have a “house with a yard and a tree to call our own.” Andrew Cuomo’s campaign Web site — it says “Attorney General 2010,” as he has not officially declared an intention to run for governor — mentions his childhood in Hollis and his grandmother’s grocery store in South Jamaica. Andrew Cuomo said in an interview that he still considered Queens his first home.

“That’s where we grew up,” he said. “I lived in Queens. I went to school in Queens. I worked in Queens. I have a lot of friends there.”

But like many prosperous New Yorkers, the Cuomos have largely left Queens behind, at least in real estate terms. Mario and his brood have dispersed through Manhattan and parts of Westchester, to some of the metropolitan region’s most coveted towns and addresses.

Despite the fancier addresses that members of the family now call home, the Cuomo name still echoes in their ancestral borough. In 1995, Mario Cuomo sold the Holliswood home where he grew up, but neighbors still call it the Cuomo house, said Michael Cavounis, who bought the three-bedroom center-hall-colonial-style home in 2000 for $400,000.

The state still sends Mr. Cuomo some mail there, Mr. Cavounis said, and visitors still stop by to see, hug and take photographs of the spruce tree in the front yard that Mr. Cuomo described in his children’s book “The Blue Spruce.”

Mario Cuomo’s father, Andrea Cuomo, had chiseled castle-shaped statues out of stone for his children and grandchildren, and at least a couple of the statues remained behind after the Cuomos left Queens. In 2009, Mr. Cavounis called the former governor to offer him the last one left on the property.

The next day, Mr. Cavounis received a call from his wife that a man was digging in the garden with a shovel. After Mr. Cavounis rushed home, he realized that the man was Andrew Cuomo.

Oh my what a lovely article about the Cuomos! I guess we know who the Times is pulling for.

Do Italians have enough "clout" to save historic church?

From the NY Times:

Over the past decade, as Catholic officials in New York have closed underused churches and schools, there have been many battles. About a dozen churches have been demolished, and at least a dozen more are in limbo, draped for demolition while parishioners mount campaigns to reopen them.

Yet this fight is different. Former parishioners do not pretend that the neighborhood can support Our Lady of Loreto, which has been closed for more than a year.

Instead, they have gathered behind a proposal by a loose coalition of Italian-American advocates and African-American leaders, including the developer Jeffrey Dunston, to convert the church into an arts pavilion and community center. The culture center would be the anchor for 90 to 100 units of low-income housing, a few more than in the church’s plan. Mr. Dunston, chief executive of the nonprofit Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corporation, has built hundreds of low- and moderate-income housing units in the neighborhood over the past 15 years.

But church officials say their own plan is “shovel ready,” awaiting formal go-aheads from city and state financing agencies. The plan offered by Mr. Dunston and Mr. Piazza lacks financing, they said, and underestimates the cost of converting an aging church into a community center.

Last week, Bishop DiMarzio extended an olive branch, offering to insert some of the church’s outdoor statues into the facade of one of the new apartment buildings.

Flavia Alaya, an architectural historian who has been working to preserve the 1908 church, called the proposal “grotesque.”

Ms. Alaya, who has studied the works of the church’s architect, Adriano Armezzani, and its builders, Antonio and Gaetano Federici, called Our Lady of Loreto one of the finest examples of a Roman Renaissance style embraced by Italian-American artists at the turn of the 20th century in an effort to introduce neoclassical architecture to American cities.

She pleaded with Bishop DiMarzio in a letter last month to cancel the “irreversible demolition of this extraordinary century-old church” while Mr. Piazza and Mr. Dunston arrange their financing. And she wrote to a Vatican commission that oversees historic preservation, which promised to review the case.

A similar battle was recently won by a coalition of Latino parishioners, Irish-American organizations and the serendipity of an anonymous donor who gave $20 million to save St. Brigid’s Church, in the East Village, which was built by Irish immigrants in the 1840s.

“This will be the test of whether Italian-American clout is equal to that,” Ms. Alaya said.

The science of winterizing a fig tree

From the NY Times:

As long as there have been immigrants from Greece and Italy in Astoria, there have been fig trees — they dot virtually every block from Ditmars Boulevard to 36th Avenue, between the East River and Steinway Street, in the neighborhood’s southern European quadrangle. The trees are native to the Mediterranean region, where winters are decidedly milder than in New York, but the fig trees of Astoria, like true New Yorkers, have proved resilient.

The immigrants planted fig tree roots they had smuggled from the places they left behind, and then cared for the trees as if they were part of the family, carefully wrapping them in the winter to protect them from the cold.

From November until maybe April, the trees look like hastily made packages of plastic and duct tape, and while they were once a common sight, they are a rare find these days: people have grown too old, too busy or too tired to carry on the tradition.

From a scientific perspective, covering a fig tree in the winter has more to do with protecting it from changes in temperature, which can be more harmful than the cold itself, said Todd Forrest, vice president for horticulture and living collections at the New York Botanical Garden. Rainwater can seep into a tree’s roots and cells, and if the water freezes, it can rupture the tree’s vascular connections and potentially kill it, he said.

There are two ways to protect a fig tree from winter weather. One is to bury the tree branches, a strenuous days-long process that requires slowly bending the trunk. The other is to wrap it and perhaps place a garbage can on top of the tree for extra protection. It is the more popular and easier method, but can still be time-consuming.