LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: THE FOOD ISSUE     

HOW TO SUPPORT DOWNTOWN POST NYC: I made Downtown Post NYC free to subscribers so that no one who was interested in reading it would be excluded because of cost. Downtown Post NYC is largely supported by advertising revenue. In addition, some people have made contributions, which are much appreciated. For more information about how to contribute or advertise, email [email protected].

On June 24, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont announced that anyone traveling from states with significant community spread of COVID-19 must self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut. The edict was effective at midnight on June 24.   (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

In an effort at self-protection, Cuomo and the governors of New Jersey (Phil Murphy) and Connecticut (Ned Lamont) announced a travel advisory effective at midnight on June 24. It said that anyone traveling into these states from states with 10 or more positive Covid-19 tests per 100,000 residents or a state where 10% of those tested came back with a positive diagnosis must self-quarantine for 14 days. Anyone found breaking that quarantine is subject to a mandatory quarantine and a fine of $2,000 for a first offense with escalating fines for additional offenses.

As of June 24, the states to which this advisory applies are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas. Based on new data, it's probable that the states of California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee will join that list, representing nearly half the country's population.

The three states in the travel advisory pact are using uniform parameters and messaging on highways, airports, websites and social media to get the word out. They are also asking hotels to communicate the 14-day quarantine to guests who have traveled from one of the impacted states. Cuomo said that New York State will be checking flight logs and randomly checking in with people who come from high-Covid states.

Gov. Murphy said of the quarantine, "This is a smart thing to do. We have taken our three states to hell and back." All of the governors said that they did not want to see a relapse.

The quarantine does not just apply to out-of-state travelers. Tri-state residents who visit any of the affected states and then return home will have to self-quarantine for 14 days after their return. The reason for this has become abundantly clear.

A still from the film 'I ♥ NY' about Milton Glaser, who designed the famous logo and who died on June 26, 2020 - his 91st birthday.

 

Milton Glaser, who designed the 'I ♥ NY' Logo, died on June 26, 2020 - his 91st birthday. His death was reported in The New York Times, among many other places. That article, published on June 27, began as follows:  

 

Milton Glaser, a graphic designer who changed the vocabulary of American visual culture in the 1960s and '70s with his brightly colored, extroverted posters, magazines, book covers and record sleeves, notably his 1967 poster of Bob Dylan with psychedelic hair and his "I ♥ NY" logo, died on Friday, his 91st birthday, in Manhattan.

His wife and only immediate survivor, Shirley Glaser, said the cause was a stroke. He also had renal failure.

Mr. Glaser brought wit, whimsy, narrative and skilled drawing to commercial art at a time when advertising was dominated by the severe strictures of modernism on one hand and the cozy realism of magazines like The Saturday Evening Post on the other.

At Push Pin Studios, which he and several former Cooper Union classmates formed in 1954, he opened up design to myriad influences and styles that began to grab the attention of magazines and advertising agencies, largely through the studio's influential promotional publication, the Push Pin Almanack (later renamed Push Pin Monthly Graphic).

 

For the complete article, click here.   

 

Mr. Glaser was also the subject of a short film that was shown two years ago at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film was reviewed in Downtown Post NYC. This is the review:  

 

I Heart New York: Someone (unseen and unknown) must have posed a question: "What's your first memory of New York?" and "Where did you grow up?" Apparently, we are in the midst of a conversation.

This short film begins with a glimpse of Manhattan, looking down on it from the north accompanied by the sound of a train rumbling along the subway tracks and then by an old man's voice answering the questions that we didn't hear: "My first memory of New York - I grew up in the Bronx. The neighborhood was full of immigrants from Europe fleeing Nazis and fleeing the Holocaust. They came here with the sense that this was a land of opportunity, that you could lead a full life and you could raise your children better."

The old man is not identified. In fact, his face is not even shown until almost the end of the film, but he quickly lets us know that he loves New York. "It's a city that ultimately cannot be anticipated," he says. And then he remembers the time around 40 years ago when the city was on the verge of bankruptcy and in despair and he was asked to come up with a logo to increase tourism and boost morale. In the back of a taxi cab, he made a sketch on a piece of paper: A heart symbol preceded by the word "I" and followed by "New York."

The designer thought his little idea might have a life span of a couple of weeks. Instead, it became an icon. "Once it started, it just spread all over the world," he says. "It worked because it was a real expression of people's feelings."

Finally, we see the man's face. It is Milton Glaser, designer not only of the "I Heart NY" logo but of the psychedelic Bob Dylan poster that has sold millions of copies and of hundreds of other posters - Glaser, the co-founder of New York Magazine. Glaser - whose work is in museums all over the world and on items such as T-shirts and coffee cups that people use in their daily lives.

The "I Heart NY" film was masterfully directed by Andre Andreev, who is based in New York City but who, like Glaser, is an immigrant. Andreev came from Bulgaria, where his mother managed a movie theater and his father worked as a graphic designer. This background must have helped give Andreev the chops to create this film about the master designer, Glaser. The film is short but it's a gem.

Downtown Post NYC's review of the Milton Glaser film was part of an article called "Some New York Stories." For the complete article, click here. 

 

"How the Floyd Protests Turned Into a 24-Hour 'Occupy City Hall' in N.Y.," New York Times, 6/28/2020. "It started on Tuesday night when about 100 protesters began occupying City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan - with some spending the night - in an effort to draw more focus to their demand for deep budget cuts to the Police Department," The New York Times reports. "In a matter of days, a movement took root. What started on a patch of lawn and a few square feet has now taken over most of the park and drawn extensive attention across social media, with 'Occupy City Hall' as the group's rallying cry. Volunteers have flocked to the park, dropping off food, coffee and supplies to build a kind of campground. So far, the police have not broken up the gathering, which has taken some inspiration from the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations of 2011 at Zuccotti Park in the financial district in Lower Manhattan. But some disagreements have resulted between protesters and the police over the use of umbrellas, tents and bicycles." For the complete article, click here.