Secklerism by valerie seckler

Secklerism focuses on the intersection of media and popular culture — and parts thereof. It is eyeing the media’s evolving presence, as new channels emerge to inform and entertain. With marketing mania ensconced in nearly every aspect of our lives, Secklerism also is tracking images and messages marketers are creating, and the blurring line between editorial content and advertising. What’s new, provocative, inspiring, surprising, annoying, or just plain intrusive.

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It's a beautiful day for a #ballgame, for a ballgame today. Go #Yankees! #NYY #NYM #YankeeStadium #MLB #baseball https://www.instagram.com/p/Byk-7TDALkm/?igshid=1uwsml668cils

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FAULT LINES QUAKE IN ELECTION 2016

By Valerie Seckler

Donald Trump's election as the 45th U.S. President illuminates the power of each of our votes. Something like 80 million voters didn't vote for president. Some Democrats voted third party or wrote in a candidate. On Friday, Nov. 11, Hillary Clinton is winning the popular vote by 395,000-396,000 votes, with more than 92 percent counted, per Google/AP, CNN and NBC. The victory staged in the Electoral College by the right-wing Republican, reality TV personality and business mogul came with about 290 votes or 20 more than the 270 needed to win.

We can hope the U.S. does not regress to the horrors of discrimination and rights-violating limitations of decades past, turning back progress most recently led by President Obama. Prior to Election Day 2016, Obama's approval rating stood at a lofty 57 percent, making the electorate's choice all the more confounding. Some of the answer appears to rest in the 20 million voters who did not turn out to vote. Given the close contests in a number of states that Trump won, such as Wisconsin and Michigan, and the margins by which Clinton won several demographic groups in those states, a higher turnout of voters probably would have propelled her to victory. For one, a bigger turnout of voters 44 and younger, who went for Hillary Clinton by margins of 18 percent (18-to-29 year olds) and 8 percent (30-44), according to NBC News’s exit polls.

Despite all the lashing out and hand wringing about Clinton’s supposed lack of appeal to younger voters, an older, white electorate voted Donald Trump into the White House. Voters 45 and older — 56 percent of the turnout – favored Trump by 9 percent, NBC’s exit polls show. White voters chose Trump by a margin of 21 percent and accounted for 70 percent of the 2016 presidential electorate.

In the view of this American citizen, the U.S. has missed a big chance to elect an outstanding public servant, fighter for everyday people and former: First Lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State. Thank you, Hillary Clinton, for your service and groundbreaking candidacy for U.S. President.

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SUBVERTING THE SYSTEM

By Valerie Seckler

The system is broken.

In a fresh case of L-T (landlord-tenant) harassment in New York City, management of a Greenwich Village apartment building turned the system of a rent-stabilized leaseholder’s rights upside down and eliminated an essential service. Then, they got away with it.

The entitled service is simply a paint job they refused to provide for about nine months, harassing and violating the lease rights held by this householder.

Instead, Pik Record Co., management of One University Place in Manhattan, N.Y., subverted the system by twisting the matter, stating the falsehoods that painters were denied access to my home in the building three times and that I cancelled three painting appointments. Building management took it a step further, in a letter mailed to my address, stating the falsehood that I’d prevented neighbors from receiving service.

Pik Record used the smoke screen to obscure the failure of building employees and management to make an appointment for the due paint job. They tried to change the issue, from a service building staff and management didn’t provide, to a fabricated problem with the service seeker. The failure to make an appointment for painting followed several requests for the painting service.

Upping the harassment on Friday, Sept. 16, Barbara Robinson, an inspector at the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, visited in the noon hour and attempted to impose a paint job — and in a wildly unrealistic one-hour period. When I noted it would take more than an hour or even an afternoon to complete such work, given the time needed for scraping, plastering, leveling, two coats of painting and drying in between, Robinson quickly shifted gears. An attempt to impose plastering work ensued.

Imposing plastering work does not fulfill the rights of leaseholders of rent-stabilized apartments to make appointments with service providers. Appointments are mutually agreed upon by definition and by our stated lease rights.

As it has turned out, the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal effectively rubber stamped the elimination of the essential service of a bathroom paint job in my private home, this year. Householders of rent-stabilized apartments are entitled to a paint job once every three years, if and when they seek one.

DHCR’s stance is surprising, and especially so considering the regulatory group twice before prompted the provision of essential services due for my apartment that had been denied, repairs of a freezer and a pipe. The freezer repair in 2012 came only after around 12 months of a once required waiting period to file with DHCR for the entitled service, or to otherwise receive a rent reduction. The pipe repair was made soon after filing, this year.

In an order signed by Rent Administrator Margaret Ramroop, dated Sept. 20, 2016, DHCR denied the relief requested for painting. Relief would have expedited the due painting by appointment, or — if management still denied it — lowered the rent until they delivered the service.

In the order, DHCR claims, “As per the Inspector, the tenant refused to allow the property manager and the contractor into the bathroom.” Fact: Trying to impose a paint job or a plastering job in one hour, 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m., is harassing and lease-rights violating. Since no appointment had been made for painting my bathroom, there was no one who ought to have been allowed into my bathroom under such pretense and pressure tactics.

In the order, DHCR states “the owner, tenant and the building’s painting contractor were present.” Fact: During a visit made on Friday, Sept. 16, by DHCR Inspector Robinson and Moshe Herman, who stated he is a property manager, Herman said a painter was working in the building in another apartment, 17A. While the attempt to impose plastering that day went on, a painter appeared at my door briefly. He responded to a call Herman made on his smartphone.

In the order, DHCR claims: “The tenant/householder told them [the property manager and the contractor] to leave the apartment. Therefore, no further action is warranted.” Fact: Robinson asked Herman if he wanted to see my bathroom as if the householder herself wasn’t present. Herman started walking further into my apartment without asking if it was ok to take a look. When I objected, noting there was no need to show a room in my home simply because I’d requested a paint job, Herman suggested his property manager status gave him the right to look around the apartment without my consent.

“Then I’ll have to ask you to leave,” I responded. As Herman exited, DHCR’s Robinson said, “Then I’m going, too.”

As the two walked out, I sought to confirm a painting date of Wednesday, Sept. 21, that Robinson, Herman and I had discussed. But DHCR Inspector Robinson cancelled the date, saying that since I had not ok’d plastering work that would have been imposed on the day of her visit, no bathroom painting and plastering work would be done.

The unfortunate outcome amounts to the subversion of a regulatory system that ought to do better when it is called on to protect people’s due rights. Violating housing rights in such a manner is also like a farce, ludicrously improbable.

Tenant Harassment Assistance is available to New Yorkers: http://on.nyc.gov/2d7Mmb3

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SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND LIGHT UP METLIFE

By Valerie Seckler

What could Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band do to top the surprise of their MetLife opener, “New York City Serenade”? The answer came around three hours later, when Springsteen and the band launched into an eight-song encore set that would go another hour.

Even for a musician like Bruce Springsteen, known for his marathon concert performances stretching back to the 1970s, the long distance delivery of 35 songs felt fresh.

Remarkably, some of the crowd could be seen exiting early, when the stadium lights came up during “Born To Run,” the second song in the encore set, following “Jungleland.” Some concertgoers in the field level turf touch danced. Unlike performances of decades past, this stadium’s employees did not endeavor to hustle the band off the stage, as those lights once signaled.

The run of eight songs took flight beyond “Rosalita,” a longtime concert closer, and “Shout,” another classic finale. On a beautiful summer night in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, N.J., a grinning Springsteen stopped singing during the repeating Rosalita lyric “I don’t have any money.” (“And your papa says he knows that I don’t have any money.”) During 15 minutes or so of “Shout,” he donned a black-and-white hooded cape with The Boss stitched on the back, appearing something like James Brown and Batman. Bat Bruce. The champ.

“Let’s go!” Springsteen shouted. “Bobby Jean” rang out. “Jersey Girl” capped the show.

—Photo by VS: Bruce Springsteen and band’s encore set at MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J., Aug. 23, 2016.

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MARQUEE MOMENT Hillary For NY Presents Hillary Clinton Wed / Mar 30 / 9:30 a.m.

On a windy, cold March day, hundreds of people in a line several blocks long cleared the front doors of the Apollo past noon. The Hillary For NY Presents headline event rotated on the Harlem theater’s marquee simply as one of several programs coming up. Secret Service bag searches and metal dectector walk-throughs followed after passing under it. Heavily armed and vested NYPD officers patrolled.

The waiting and the searches were well worth it. Three Hillary For NY moments stand out, each bringing thunderous applause from a fervid audience. Hillary Clinton’s entry onto the Apollo’s stage. The Democratic presidential candidate’s call for civil rights and human rights, rights that she ticked off as if rapping. And Clinton’s riff on equal pay for women who produce equal work.

Hillary For America’s first anniversary came two weeks later, on April 12.

—Valerie Seckler / Photo by VS, March 30, 2016

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Remains of the day: Hillary Clinton rallies supporters at the Apollo in Harlem. Electric.

—Photo by VS, March 30, 2016

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Hillary Clinton, Live at the Apollo - The New Yorker

The New York primary is less than three weeks away, and it could be a pivotal moment for Clinton.

BEING THERE

By Valerie Seckler

After wondering who it was flashing a press pass and roaming the long line to enter Hillary Clinton's rally at the Apollo this week, my question was answered about an hour later. New Yorker staff writer John Cassidy and I found ourselves two abreast near the Apollo entrance. The wait had been about 90 minutes — and well worth it — despite the "doors open at 9:30 a.m." info on the invite. Meeting and exchanging media notes with Cassidy proved interesting, a reward of sorts after the long cold wait.

Of Cassidy’s account of the event, I’d note:

— Word on the slow moving line came from an Apollo usher, eying our portion on 126th Street, who said the Secret Service was experiencing difficulties with some of the security technology. We entered the theater about noon, for an event slated to start at 11:30 a.m.  

[John Cassidy: ”With the Secret Service forcing everyone who entered the famous Harlem theatre to go through an airport-style security screening, the line was moving slowly.”]

— Yes, the sun shined, but almost the whole line stood at length in the windy, cold shade. Those bringing up the rear on 126th Street got to stand in the sun until turning the corner onto Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

[JC: ”With the Secret Service forcing everyone who entered the famous Harlem theatre to go through an airport-style security screening, the line was moving slowly. But the sun was shining and the crowd was good-natured and expectant.”]

— Around 10 minutes after The New Yorker writer and I took our seats in the Apollo’s upper mezzanine, the section filled up, with few empty seats visible.

[JC: “As noon beckoned, virtually everybody had made it inside. The theatre, which holds around fifteen hundred people, wasn’t quite full; the upper mezzanine, where I was sitting, still had plenty of spare seats.”]

— Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have agreed to a televised debate in New York.

[JC: Hillary Clinton’s speech on systemic racism, made in February in Harlem, “didn’t finish off Bernie Sanders, who is challenging Clinton to agree to a televised debate in New York.”]

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The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground

After more than four decades of serving as the nation's economic majority, the U.S. middle class is now matched in size by those in the economic tiers above and below it.

STAT OF THE WEEK — AND YEAR?

By Valerie Seckler

A new statistic reported by PBS NewsHour alarmed, even though I'd reported on the familiar trend line in the personal economy for years: America's middle class now holds only 43% of all household income in the U.S. Less than half! Clearly, this finding PBS relayed from a Pew Research study hits home for the many. A U.S. population of 322 million appears to be moving into Gilded Age II.

Another stunner: annual income of $24,000 cited by Pew as the southern boundary of a one-person middle-income household in the U.S.; $34,000, for a middle-income household of two. These figures strike this business journalist as entirely unrealistic. Household income of $24,000 connoted middle-income decades ago. 

In New York City, for instance, income of $50,000 now is considered the minimum needed for a person to live a decent life, or about $40,000 post-tax. In many big U.S. cities, $24,000-$34,000 would only pay the annual rent of apartment residents. In New York, most apartment renters now dwell in a market-rate renting economy, where median rent is estimated at $3,200/month (often for a one-bedroom apartment) and studios can be had in the $2,000-range.

It is questionable how many cities exist in the U.S., where the Pew study’s figures for middle-income households would afford a middle-class life. That’s at least for a sizable portion of the (pre-tax) middle-income brackets designated, such as $24,000-$72,000 for a one-person household and $34,000-$102,000 for two.

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SORRY, WRONG NUMBERS

By Valerie Seckler

Low ratings for customer service given by telecoms used to cross the transom in the 200-0s, when such ratings hit on a regular basis in the email of this former WWD marketing editor. It seemed odd, knowing that their predecessor Bell System aka Ma Bell was one of the most reliable service providers and brands in the U.S. [Full disclosure: My father is a career Bell Labs man.]

After two bad experiences with mobile telecom providers since 2011, personal experience adds to the heap. This time, it's Verizon Wireless, which has over-metered and over-billed my USB modem almost every month in 2015 — adding up to several hundreds of dollars in overcharges. Plus, this USB’s sole owner/user has made about 12 calls to Verizon Wireless address it. 

Twice in the past, Verizon Wireless has rectified this issue, citing it as its own network problem; reporting pirating and/or tech fails in its network, and offering recompense. The make-goods ranged from a monetary credit to a free gigabyte/month add-on to the USB modem plan.

Since then, Verizon Wireless advised adding two more GBs to this plan, at my own expense — now a ridiculous 8 GB, which is a less costly Band-Aid than the telecom’s overage charge of $15/GB. Using the USB modem for social media, email, reading, blogging and some video viewing typically tallied around 3 GB/month and rarely approached the original plan’s 5 GB cap. There aren't enough hours in the day for this sort of modem use to rack up a monster 8 gigabytes.

No make-good is in sight, despite outrageous over-metering of 9 GB-and-more a month.

After appealing to the New York State Attorney General's Consumer Frauds & Protection Bureau for an assist — standard operating procedure — the matter is stuck in neutral. Verizon Wireless's response to the New York AG pretends "our investigation confirmed the usage and billing is accurate."

Au contraire, Verizon Wireless is using its incorrect data (10 GB/month average usage!) to state this falsehood. This kind of harrassment — restating the very over-metering issue — also occurred in some of the dozen or so “customer service” phone conversations had with the telecom, which has now logged nearly a year’s worth of grossly exaggerated data.

In Verizon Wireless’s own letter to Ruth Vargas of the New York AG’s Consumer Frauds & Protection Bureau, dated Sept. 14, 2015, and just received by this customer via Vargas, Verizon Wireless falsely names this USB owner/user as Mrs. Valerie Seckler, Mrs. Sickler and Mrs. Seckler. The correct name of the USB account holder, (untitled) Valerie Seckler, is not given in the body of the letter or in its header. It appears only in the letter’s trailing Cc.

The Consumer Frauds & Protection Bureau’s Vargas closes her brief cover letter, writing, “I trust this information is helpful.”

Clearly, it is only Verizon Wireless that can resolve its network metering and billing problems, as history has shown and as Verizon Wireless has reasonably done twice in the last five years. Unfortunately, the response letter signed by Verizon Wireless analyst Monica Harper contends, “It would benefit the customer to increase her price plan.”

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HEARD AND SEEN AT HILLARY FOR AMERICA HEADQUARTERS

By Valerie Seckler

Fourteen years after the terror attacks of 9/11, it seems odd to be asked for ID and bag searched when entering office buildings in New York City. Despite the metal detectors of sports venues and courthouses, and a sense of vigilance after the recent Paris Attacks, comings and goings from office buildings in America’s largest city tend to flow with ease.

This makes it surprising when security guards triple-check a volunteer entering One Pierrepont Plaza/300 Cadman Plaza West in 14 days across six weeks of working at Hillary For America campaign headquarters in Brooklyn. It feels odd, even as Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign informs vols that upon starting, they’ll be asked for photo ID while signing in at the building’s reception desk and bag checked in the elevator lobby near the campaign office’s own entry. Aren’t we known and recognized after several check-ins by the same security personnel and receptionists who so earnestly view and search anew?

In fact, staffers of the Brooklyn Heights building greet some of us with familiarity. On other occasions, reception staff asked one volunteer to phone upstairs to Hillary Clinton headquarters for clearance because their name hadn’t registered routinely in a digital tool. One time a staffer gestured towards the revolving doors of the building, suggesting the volunteer step outside. This treatment met with a volunteer’s prompt to please, sir, call upstairs using the phone and the building phone directory at your fingertips. Once inside headquarters, volunteers leave photo ID as required in exchange for a nondescript red-and-white volunteer badge from a third reception desk.

Strong response to afternoon telephone polling and event invites by this Hillary Clinton volunteer also ranks as surprising. In a handful of U.S. cities, voters called answered the phone at double-digit percentage rates, when such efforts typically pull in the single digits. Registered voters in Dallas and Nashville in November answered phone calls to 150 homes or mobile phones at a rate of 26 percent, for example. Similar responsiveness came in Orlando (22 percent). Boston and Alexandria, Va., rang up double digits as 15 percent of those called in each locale answered the phone. These people also stayed on the call.

The electorate in Des Moines, Iowa, reflected the public’s usual tendency, with 4 percent of about 100 people called picking up the phone and talking. [“Politics And The New Machine,” by Jill Lepore, The New Yorker: http://bit.ly/1RMiGMZ]

After twice registering in the Federal Trade Commission’s National Do Not Call Registry — which allows public service phoning — this volunteer wondered how hundreds of unexpected calls made noon-3 p.m. ET would be received. Mostly, it’s been cordial. People thank the Hillary Clinton campaign for calling. They ask how the caller’s doing, in reply to a similar question. Some say they’ve been hoping to hear from the candidate’s campaign. A relative few hung up after brusquely disavowing any interest or support. A handful declared they support Clinton’s Democratic rival Bernie Sanders.

—Photos by VS, Nov. 8, 2015 (top), Oct. 15, 2015.

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MLB BALLPARKS VISITED AND RECALLED

By Valerie Seckler

Increasingly stadium environments with booming sound, Major League Baseball's playing fields can still seem like ballparks. Expanses of green grass under blue sky complement a game without a clock. Concourses with wide-open field views at 21st century venues like Yankee Stadium II and Citi Field bring a more intimate feel to the game. The game and its players appear closer to the whole crowd.

Where baseball’s been at, for one fan, recalled at the 2015 All-Star break: 

Polo Grounds, Manhattan, New York — On a sunny afternoon, a girl from Washington Heights watched the fledgling New York Mets with her uncle Stanley Kagan at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, from a perch on the third baseline. I can still see it, in my mind’s eye.

Yankee Stadium (I & II) Bronx, New York — Uplifting moments in New York life came when emerging from YS I’s walled-off concourses and narrow stairways into a burst of blue and green. Memorable times include attending: a 1964 World Series game (Yanks vs Cards) with my father, Howard; Dave Righetti’s no-hitter July 4, 1983, seen with a group of friends, and Jim Abbott’s no hitter Labor Day weekend in 1993, viewed with Barb and Todd.

Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois — The friendly confines were. Cozy, charming (bricks and ivy), boisterous and a setting for Chicago Cubs games then all played in the daytime. Wrigley provided an intimate setting for seeing some of the game’s greats, like Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins, Ron Santo and Don Kessinger.

Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio — One of the 1970s monolith stadiums in MLB, Riverfront was practically brand new (June 1970) when our family first visited, after moving to Columbus, Ohio, in 1970. Several returns followed. Notable for good bratwurst, mettwurst and, of course, the Big Red Machine, bringing character to an antiseptic environment. Animated hands clapped (Clap!) on a jumbo outfield monitor above the similarly artificial turf.

Memorial Stadium, Baltimore, Maryland — The walk-up was colorful. Traversed a B-more neighborhood, walking with college pal Anne Smith and wearing a Yankees cap. Heard about it. The Yanks beat the O’s in a comeback victory that started with a Graig Nettles home run.

Fenway Park, Boston, Massachussetts — First time around, sat in the bleachers on a day so hot it spurred a New York fan to don a Red Sox cap. Took in Fenway’s cool green atmosphere with Nancy, Ross, Sean and Deb. A second visit found a bunch of Simmons College students sitting in the shade of the first baseline, after a walk to The Fens from the Back Bay. Our group prevailed when confronted by an ugly shouting incident in the stands.

Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois — After finding the New York Yankees were in Chicago to play the White Sox, I gathered a group of fellow journalists in town covering a trade show, for a night at a ballgame. Comiskey’s reputation for good food in 1980s MLB ballparks proved true. The venue’s rectangular shape gave the feel of an earlier era.

Exhibition Stadium, Toronto, Canada — The Toronto Blue Jay’s home wasn’t much in the summer of 1989. It was falling into disrepair. Its days appeared numbered. Still, it provided a backdrop for a lively cross-border rivalry between the Jays and the Yankees, who drew a feisty rooting contingent from just across the Canada-U.S. border in Western New York. NYC compadre Michael Catarevas and I saw a few games there.

Shea Stadium, Queens, New York — Never a fan of the New York Mets, I attended a game at Shea late in the stadium’s life (1964-2008). The occasion: a New York Financial Writers outing, including fellow Fairchild Publications journalist Sid Rutberg. A good game view surprised in a decaying stadium. A feel of suburbia infused the game night.

Tiger Stadium, Detroit, Michigan — Good spot for a breather in a 1999 journalism foray in Motown, with fellow journalist Jean Palmieri. We caught a night game in the last days of Tiger Stadium.

Citi Field, Queens, New York — Striking pastoral feel and Machine Age design are hallmarks. A breath of fresh air comes in sweeping views of the baseball diamond, from expansive concourses, much as at Yankee Stadium II. Visited twice for baseball (and first for Paul McCartney), most recently for 7 hours of Mets vs Reds, June 28, 2015. The second game that day featured 4 RBIs by rookie pitcher Steven Matz — the most ever in any MLB debut for the Mets.

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MAD MEN: THE LONG VIEW

By Valerie Seckler

“Mad Men” scenes flashed in a slide carousel on BBC America, during a real commercial break from Matthew Weiner’s series finale on AMC. Meanwhile, Don Draper sported denim jeans and jeans jacket in the final 77 minutes of the seven-season series. Wonders. And a hint: At least one character could be relaxing some and expanding in the fast changing world of 1970.

“Person to Person” teleports viewers to somewhere like the Bonneville Salt Flats, where Don’s driving a Nova SS muscle car, wearing denim and longer hair. This opening ranked among the episode’s best, most telling moments. "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke," commercial and song, delivered ironic humor in “Mad Men’s” final moments. But in one viewer’s world it would have ended on another musical note, after Don's om atop a hill of his own. Consider “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.” In the end, despite all the self searching, it came down to yet another commercial (1971) for the story and its protagonist, one in McCann Erickson’s real life canon.

Series finales of TV shows such as “The Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under,” “MASH,” “All In The Family,” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” trumped the ending of this much buzzed about and appreciated television epic that began back in July 19, 2007.

Nonetheless, “Mad Men” season 7 showed that Matthew Weiner’s series had staying power, despite critics who said it had earlier run its course. The froth was gone, often replaced by a sense of alienation.

Following the final frame of the final episode, one can hope that “I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke” does not become the day’s earworm — and for a new TV series as good as this one.

Videos, photos: The Making of “I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke,” Coca-Cola Journey, Coca-Cola Co.: http://bit.ly/1ILFqKl

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Top: Scene in a Whitney gallery. Above: Super Mario Clouds, Cory Archangel.

NEW WHITNEY VIEWS

By Valerie Seckler

Massive scale. Wide open, rambling space. Airiness, expansiveness, engaging vistas beyond the walls of windows. These elements commanded the attention of a first-time visitor to the new Whitney Museum, which looms large in New York’s Meatpacking District, just east of the West Side Highway and the Hudson River.

Vital statistics quantified the experience Wednesday in an individual museum tour and today in a live webcast of the Whitney’s dedication ceremony, whose participants included building architect Renzo Piano, First Lady Michelle Obama and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. The Whitney building occupies 220,000 square feet and weighs 38,000 tons. The museum’s collection houses about 22,000 art works. It features the work of 1,800 living artists.

More of the museum’s permanent collection — and more of it by living artists — is on tap for exhibit in the Piano building, which provides about twice as much exhibit space as the museum’s previous home in the Breuer building, a Whitney teaching fellow related.

The dramatic structure at 99 Gansevoort Street feels as if it is ready for flight, in contrast to the longtime home in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where the Breuer building felt as if planted in the ground. A sense of continuity lies in galleries with walls that can be moved, exhibit spaces that can be expanded, contracted, reconfigured.

Striking upon entering the new Whitney is its openness. Unobstructed views west to the Hudson River and east to the High Line suggest possibility. “Some people call it a lobby, I call it a piazza; I’m Italian, I’m sorry,” Piano said during the dedication ceremony. “A piazza is a place where people gather, where they get together.”

—Photos: Valerie Seckler, Whitney Museum, April 29, 2015

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WHEN GOING POSTAL IS A FIASCO

By Valerie Seckler

A: “Carefully controlled from mailing to delivery.”

Q: What is the United States Postal Service’s promised protocol for the path and handling of USPS registered mail?

Unfortunately, following a parent’s recent death, the path of USPS first-class Registered Mail pertinent to a mother’s affairs fell off U.S. Post Office tracking radar for 10 days — in a delivery that ultimately took two weeks. USPS gave an expected delivery day of Feb. 14, just 3 days after mailing this letter on Feb. 11. A customer receipt from the post office bears this “expected delivery” date and it was confirmed by a postal clerk.

Five days following that 10-day delay and disappearance, the Registered Mail letter arrived at its destination — via post office different than the one in the 43085 zip code that the letter was mailed to. That was Columbus, Ohio, 43235. In between, the article of mail’s location could not be seen via USPS tracking for another 3 days. Here’s the path this Registered Mail took: http://1.usa.gov/17SBTLd

When mailing this letter Feb. 11, the USPS clerk at Manhattan, NY’s, Cooper Station Post Office noted that unlike Certified Mail, whose delivery is speeded by the service, Registered Mail’s delivery is slowed by its special handling. Hence the 3-day delivery expectation, which is in line with garden variety first-class mail’s estimated delivery by USPS in 1-3 business days. But USPS bills Registered Mail as the “safest and most reliable” way of sending articles first class.

What does USPS say it will deliver Registered Mail for a customer’s $11.95 starting price? According to USPS clerk 20 at Cooper Station’s retail service windows, a clerk at Cooper Station’s Window 15, eCustomerCare National and the postal service’s website [http://1.usa.gov/1GLou5Z], Registered Mail provides:

—Tracking of the article mailed, every step of the way until and including delivery.

— Scanning the barcode on an item of Registered Mail each time a piece of it sits at any location, letting the sender track and know the whereabouts of the item mailed while it is not moving.

—Holding of Registered Mail in a locked box when it is not moving.

—Handling of Registered Mail by bonded USPS carriers.

—Handling of Registered Mail by USPS carriers armed with a gun.

USPS says in its phone-hold message, "the location of the [Registered Mail] article is carefully controlled from mailing to delivery." At its website, the post office advises, “Protect Your Shipments: Get maximum security for your valuable items. Registered Mail items can be insured for up to $25,000 at your Post Office.”

It is particularly concerning that such an article of mail posted Feb. 11 — containing sensitive information — was lost from sight for 10 days until it resurfaced, still in Manhattan. By that time, USPS could have delivered it twice. Then it fell from sight for another 3 days, after departing a USPS facility in New York, NY, 10199.

Soon after contacting USPS on Feb. 26 about this fiasco, Ms. Hodges, manager at Cooper Station Post Office, New York, NY, 10003, replied in an email: “I regret learning of the inconvenience you have experienced. Kindly accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience you experienced in this matter.”

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RITE OF RIGHTS

By Valerie Seckler

An annual rite of Spring for some New Yorkers, lease renewal for rent-stabilized apartments includes the reading of a lease rider. This year’s edition, a dense, information packed 11 pages, updates rights and obligations of these apartment dwellers renewing since last Summer and those of their of apartment building owners. It is topped by the bold-faced message: “Failure By An Owner To Attach A Copy Of This Rider To The Tenant’s Lease Without Cause May Result In A Fine Or Other Sanctions.”

Yes, those New Yorkers whose rent increases at a rate negotiated annually, by virtue of their apartments’ rent stabilized status, are due to receive this helpful document each time they can renew their leases.

Reading the 2015 “New York City Lease Rider For Rent Stabilized Tenants” — also published online by New York State’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal [http://bit.ly/1ECnIUa] — brought to mind friends, family and acquaintances ranging from real estate aficionados to civil rights advocates, as well as some who have been involved in housing disputes.

In a spirit of sharing such rights and responsibilities, support and appreciation, a few highlights for apartment dwellers are offered, selected from this New York City lease rider, revision date July 2014. For apartment dwellers around the U.S., it is especially valuable to be versed in housing rights in an increasingly market-rate driven, apartment renting environment, one in which efforts to empty apartments and hike rents to market rate have ensued.

The big bottom-line takeaway is that rent-stabilized apartment occupants are entitled to renew the leases they hold and own the rights to, if they are paying their lawful rent. Besides non-payment of rent, there are a handful of grounds on which a New York City building owner may refuse to renew a lease and bring an eviction action in Civil Court to empty an apartment, but historically these have slim chance of succeeding.

From the recently revised rider, a few selected “rights and obligations” of apartment occupants/tenants and apartment building owners/landlords per Rent Stabilization Law:

—“As long as a tenant pays the lawful rent to which the owner is entitled, the tenant, except for the specific grounds in the rent stabilization law and code, is entitled to remain in the apartment. An owner may not harass a tenant by engaging in an intentional course of conduct intended to make the tenant move from his/her apartment.”

—“The tenant must be given at least 5 days notice of any [desired] inspection or showing [of the occupant’s apartment by the owner] to be arranged at the mutual convenience of the tenant and [building] owner, so to enable the tenant to be present at the inspection or showing.”

—“Tenants who do not purchase their apartments under a Non-Eviction [cooperative or condominium] Conversion Plan continue to be protected by Rent Stabilization. Conversions are regulated by the New York State Attorney General.”

P.S. It is long since time to abandon medieval language, like tenant and landlord, that appears in lease rider and in lease renewal documents.

—Photo by VS, “New York City Lease Rider For Rent Stabilized Tenants”

[secklerism]

SLICES OF LIFE SERVED ON A SMALL SCREEN

By Valerie Seckler Thanks to On Demand movies, I caught two films that received a number of nominations in the 2015 awards season, “Foxcatcher” and “St. Vincent.” Both were good choices to see on cable TV, working on the small screen and less pricey than a $14 movie. (“St. Vincent” was free in the Time Warner cable system.) They are likely to appeal to those who like slice of life stories. “Foxcatcher” was the stronger film of the two. Quirky and dark, with bursts of light, one orb of wrestling is illuminated through a team of grapplers led by David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) and owner John E. du Pont (Steve Carrell). Timely viewing, perhaps, with the 2015 NCAA Wrestling Championships coming up and ESPN televising the event, starting March 19. “St. Vincent” features a fine performance by Bill Murray and watch-worthy character development, set in the southern reaches of Brooklyn. Murray as oddball neighbor Vincent evolves, as 12-year-old new arrival next door Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) begins coming of age.

Visual surprises came in the familiarity with some settings in “Foxcatcher,” notably Valley Forge National Park, though they are far afield except for some visits, and in the limited acquaintance with “St. Vincent” scenes shot in Bay Ridge, a section of Brooklyn far removed in daily life from one lived in for several years (mid-1980s-early 1990s), Boerum Hill. In the lens of life’s landscape, these locales sit at a distance from one viewer’s present day and native Manhattan, N.Y., and from six years spent in the Midwest.

Locations for “Foxcatcher” [source: IMDb] — http://imdb.to/1NXBhp7

Locations for “St. Vincent” [source: IMDb] — http://imdb.to/18sSm9A

[secklerism]

SUNDAY NIGHT TV WATCH

By Valerie Seckler

“I like watching TV.”

So says funny man Larry David, when Charlie Rose asks David what he loves that could top his tombstone. What else?

“I like baseball,” David adds.

Now there are at least two things, for sure, that the comedy writer/actor and this blogger have in common. Plus, one. One of the best Sunday nights in TV in a long time, albeit in different roles.

It was an unusually good flight, from Rose’s “60 Minutes” interview of Larry David >> “Gotham,” Season 1, episodes 16, 17, on demand >> “Madam Secretary,” Season 1, part 2, episode 14 >> “Downton Abbey,” Season 5 finale, episode 9. CBS >> FOX >> CBS >> PBS. The trip made for a mood roller coaster, moving from laughing out loud, to dark, comic book gothic on a cold and snowy night, and from lit up, diplomatic personnel politics and intrigue to culture clashes at a British Edwardian estate.

The last big bend, at Brancaster Castle in “Downton Abbey” was almost like being back in English class, studying cultural differences at two estates. One theme that jumped out: snobbism. Brancaster Castle is no Downton Abbey. Generally less snippy, but more snobby.

TV program links:

Gotham — http://fox.tv/1wKoVps [including "Red Hood," "Blind Fortune Teller"]

Madam Secretary — http://bit.ly/1AwjACz ["Whisper of the Ax"]

Downton Abbey — http://bit.ly/1AOQEup [Season 5 finale, episode 9]