Posted on 12/16/2004 6:29:59 AM PST by presidio9
Mary Tyler Moore has been pecking at her co-op board and neighbors for evicting the renowned hawks from her posh Fifth Avenue building — but yesterday they crowed back, accusing her of orchestrating the pro-bird campaign as a personal vendetta. "She has a big ax to grind," said a board source. "A lot of her activism is bent on vengeance after the co-op board turned down a potential buyer for her apartment."
Moore was the most vociferous of the residents of 927 Fifth Ave. to oppose the board's decision to take down Pale Male and Lola's nest, even joining the protesters in their spirited picket line.
The sitcom pioneer has two apartments that have been on the market since the summer; one on the eighth floor for $18.5 million, and a first-floor studio apartment — used primarily as an office by her husband, Dr. Robert Levine — for $2 million.
Moore was thrilled when she found a buyer willing to pay roughly more than $2 million over the asking price for the eighth-floor residence.
But the potential purchaser, a Russian citizen, was perceived by the board to be a person of questionable reputation.
"She tried to push someone on the co-op board that no co-op board in the city would've accepted," said another building insider. "He traveled with bodyguards. He was just what you don't want in a family building."
The 12-story prewar building is populated mostly by families with children. During a co-op board meeting about six weeks ago, the applicant for Moore's apartment was turned down in a quick and decisive vote.
"Mary went ballistic," said the board source. "It was a messy turndown."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The people who complained were lazy enviornmentalists, who found a convenient place to watch "nature" reliably within the confines of Manhattan. The owners of the Co-op have no obligation to adjust their behavior to suit these wackos obsession.
Mary Tyler Moore always struck me as an angry drunk.
Yes, but how many hawks get a chance to poot on angry Manhattan-ites? It turned them against each other, and in my mind, that is a good thing.
PS - It is ironic that the same people who want to set aside millions of acres in the West for critters, or stop a dam project for a minnow, would fight amongst themselves over the little postage stamp of turf claimed by the hawks. I say we should pass a bill in Congress to reintroduce all the species that once populated Manhattan, before the humans arrived and paved it. Make tax dollars contingent on the species' continued propogation.
But what if the hawk had a gun? Would the property owner have the right to tell the hawk not to bring it on his property?
Sorry, thread bleed-over. My point is, it's the property owner's call, in my opinion.
All you need to know about her is that she staged a childish act of defiance after being asked to leave a certain theatrical production being directed by Neil Simon.
Keep in mind, this man is a brilliant writer, who is currently suffering from cancer.
I'll go with Limbaugh's take on the issue. The birds did a wonderful job of killing off the pidgeons.
People don't realize this, but there are PLENTY of hawks in Manhattan. Central Park is larger than Monaco.
One imagines the board will enjoy the replacement birds much better. They're called pigeons. Without those hawks, endangered or not, you get what you ask for!
Tell ya what, if they want a new home for them Hawks they can move em to my building. We got so many damned pigeons around here it looks like a casting call for a Hitchcock movie.
And rats, rats with wings, squirrels, ...
What's the problem?
Next thing you know, they'll let some practitioner of voodoo in the building, and the hawks will
have to go in order to protect the chickens used for blood sacrifices.
Hypocrites.
Sounds to me like a family fight -- dragging in all sorts of old stuff to cause maximum damage.
I seriously doubt that Ms. Moore's opposition to the hawk removal was spurred by anything more than her opposition to the hawk removal. I can see, though, how a pre-existing condition might cause her to react more violently.
The co-op board, however, shopped this little tidbit precisely to make MTM look bad. They're having their little hissy fit, and trying to spread the bad publicity around a bit. That's wrong -- it's even High Clintonian.
My take is: I hope the bird craps on the co-op board, much more than I hope it craps on MTM.
If I lived in a place where you're not allowed to defend yourself, I'd be happy to have someone with bodyguards living in my building!
I've heard stories from two different bartenders on the subject.
That they do. We had a Peregrine that would roost on the building I used to work in. The problem is that hawks & falcons are territorial, and will drive off other competitors in the area, so the effectiveness as a "flying rat" killer is somewhat diminished.
Heheh it is astonishing how big that damn park is. When I was in my early twenties a friend and I drove to New York Cit (In a Chevy extended van with no windows in the sides or back. Talk about culture shock, try driving in downtown Manhattan when you can't see out the sides or back!)
Anyhow one of the places we visited was Central Park. We thought we would walk it and see the sites. heheh Finally after about two hours it was starting to get dark we found a cop on horseback and asked him where we were and he gave us directions out he told us we could walk for days and not see it all.
..not aging very gracefully is she?
The large building inside the eastern border of the park, just south of the resovoir is The Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can spend all day walking around inside that building and not see 1/4 of it. I have many times.
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