AG Letitia James and Assembly Member Alex Bores Dazzle at UES Leadership Forum

Up and running–For only their second in-person event since the end of the pandemic, Monica Atiya’s Upper East Side for Change and the local metro chapter from the Women’s Leadership Forum met with NYS Attorney General Letitia James at the home of Barbara Lowenstein. With Assembly member Alex Bores and Attorney General Letitia James, as the night’s headliners, the intimate gatherings at the home of Barbara Lowenstein continued its tradition of attracting heavy hitter newsmakers to the apartment across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

At the first in person event in the post pandemic era, the then newly elected Congress Member Jerry Nadler was the featured guest. In the latest pow wow, AG James discussed the migrant crisis and the impact of gun violence on the city. “We are trying to shut down the iron pipeline from Florida right down to New York,” says James. Jessica Mates, Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Office of the AG, accompanied the AG. The event pre-dated the AG’s success before Justice Arthur Engoron in the case against former President Trump where he ruled that he and other family members at the Trump Organization had been guilty of fraud in their real estate businesses. And it pre-dated the release of the 73rd AD’s Assembly Member Alex Bores’s report on the risk posed by e-bikes in New York. Bores has the distinction of being the Assembly’s Democrat maven on data analysis. When the report was released, Bores hit the airwaves on Spectrum’s NY1 discussing the dangers with my favorite anchor Errol Lewis.

Community Board conundrum–A big question facing Community Boards is whether there will be virtual meetings, in-person meetings, or hybrid meetings. CB 8 Chair Russell Squire explained to me that the Open Meetings Law was changed to allow community boards to have hybrid meetings if the community boards themselves allow it and that a community board has some flexibility to set the rules around its hybrid meeting, but there are certain requirements in the law that they must comply with.

Squire said that CB 8 has been having hybrid meetings for Full Board and Land Use Committee meetings (the CB 8 Land Use Committee is a committee of the full board) on a temporary basis to try it out. “Our temporary authorization of hybrid meetings for ourselves will expire at the end of October. At the October Full Board meeting, it will be decided whether to move to hybrid meetings permanently, or return to fully in person meetings. We could also decide that board members have to be in person, but members of the public can still participate on a hybrid basis.”

For the rest of the year, committee meetings will continue on Zoom, unless committee chairs want to have in-person or hybrid meetings. According to Squire, more people from the public attend over Zoom than in person. It’s an important and timely issue. Stay tuned.

There’s a new chick in town - You can’t walk the streets of our town without coming across fast food chicken. Think, e.g., Popeyes, Chick-fil-a, KFC and many more that offer every chicken part, fried. Now comes Butterflied Chicken, a new fast casual concept of grilled chicken and focuses on flavor, a Mediterranean Diet and Sustainable Sourcing They’re located at 18 West 45th Street, within a block of the Theater District. The menu’s all non-fry, French and Truffle Greek fries excepted. Quoted in online’s What Now, co-founder George Charokopos, an Athen’s based hospitality entrepreneur, said, “As is done at the best psistaries (barbecue) restaurants in Greece, the chicken is butterflied, marinated and grilled over an open flame and chopped into quarters on butcher blocks in the eatery’s kitchen.” Their Greek menu includes the traditional Avgolemono soup (egg, lemon, chicken, rice), pita souvlaki, spanakopita, falafel, and meze favorites like tzatziki spread, eggplant dip, spicy feta spread. Missing was my favorite taramarasolata. While chickens are grilled, not fried, there’s roasted Fly-Fly Wings on the menu, and Chicken Moussaka with layers of vegetable casserole and bechamel.

There’s dessert, coffee, tea, as well as wine and beer. And a Happy Hour, Mon-Fri, 4-6:30.

Lunch, Mon-Sat, 10-4. Dinner Mon-Sat 4-9. Closed on Sun.

Chicken’s also on the breakfast menu, from 7 AM to 10 AM, Mon-Fri - Chicken Omelet with feta cheese, tomato, peppers, onion, Breakfast Yeero Pita, chopped chicken, egg, lettuce, tomato, onions, or maybe Yogurt and Granola, or an Acai Smoothie Bowl of yogurt, acai, honey, granola, banana, berries, walnuts.