East Siders Gather inside Carl Schurz Park to Remember 9/11

Held in Carl Schurz Park at the John Finley Walk on Sept. 11, the memorial ceremony opened with America played by Alex Nyugen of the Church of the Epiphany on trumpet followed by Colors presented by Knickerbocker Greys with David Menegon, commandant of the Greys. Nyugen played the Star-Spangled Banner on trumpet followed by co-chairs Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright and Howard Teich giving introductory comments along with Patrick McCluskey of the Carl Schurz Park Conservancy and Community Board 8’s Will Brightbill, Valerie Mason, and Russell Squire.

Clergy Reflections were presented by Rev. Matthew Dayton-Welch, Rev. David Gilmore, Park Avenue Methodist Church, Rabbi Joel Mosbacher, Temple Shaaray Tefila, Rabbi Shayna Golkow Zaumer, Park Avenue Synagogue, and Pastor Gilford Monrose.

A Moment of Silence, in recognition of 9/11 and most recent losses followed along with a rendition of Amazing Grace by Nyugen. Electeds included Assembly Member Alex Bores, Council Member Keith Powers, and the Upper East Side’s former Congress Member Carolyn Maloney. The ceremony concluded with remarks by community leaders Faith Bondy and Vanessa Aronson, and Knickerbocker Greys member Max Phillips, whose dad, John Phillips, is owner of Yorkville’s favorite Mansion restaurant.

The ceremony closed with a musical interlude by singer/guitarist Camryn Portagallo.

Editor’s Note: Due to an editing error in the previous East Side Observer column, the editor said John Finley Walk was named for a firefighter. The Walk predates 9/11 and was named for John Huston Finley in 1940. He was president of the City University of New York from 1903 to 1913 and then president of the University of the State of New York. He liked to walk the perimeter of Manhattan, and a portion of the Esplanade from East 63rd Street to East 125th is named in his honor.

OTTY footprints—Our Town has recognized the contributions of community leaders for their service each year with OTTY (Our Town Thanks You) awards starting in the mid-1970s. One long-ago OTTY comes to mind these days. It was given to Donald Trump in 1988 after the Trump Organization “stepped in and renovated Wollman Rink in the 1980s after bumbling and fumbling by city officials, and ran it for decades thereafter,” as described recently online in Markets Today’s Morning Report Newsletter. However, after the Jan 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio forced the Trump Organization out. Now the Wollman Rink contract is being renewed for the next 20 years and Trump wants back in. As the New York Times noted, the Trump organization in early 2021 submitted a bid to regain control of the rink, which is still featured prominently on the company’s website .

”New York City officials, however, do not seem inclined to award the contract to Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization,” the Times reported. “The city is now preparing to allow the existing rink operator, a firm affiliated with Related Companies, to retain control of the site, according to two officials in Mayor Eric Adams’s administration. One of the officials said that the firm’s bid offered more revenue for the city than the Trump Organization’s offer. The firm the city favors is a not-for-profit joint venture between the real estate giant Related Companies and City Pickle LLC.

Back in a column in 2018, I recalled other East Siders who received OTTYs along with Trump: Joan Bondy, now deceased, whose OTTY was for bettering the community through her work with the Girl Scouts, and Ruth Halberg, whose OTTY was for her outstanding constituent service work in the office of then Assembly Member Mark Alan Siegel. Ruth is still active in the life of the Upper East Side and Democratic party politics. Joan Bondy’s son, Matthew Bondy, is now a Civil Court judge in Manhattan. And even though Donald Trump is now President of the USA, he still wants his company back on Wollman Rink’s ice. Another New York/Trump brouhaha could be in the making.