Good morning. It's Friday. We'll look at what else will be going on as thousands of runners pound their way from Staten Island to Central Park in the New York City Marathon on Sunday. We'll also look at an audit that found management problems in an important rental assistance program.
Dionysis Grammenos knew what he was in for when he said yes. Tracie Hotchner did not. Grammenos is the founder of the Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra. He said yes to a performance date at Carnegie Hall. Hotchner is the founder of the NY Dog Film Festival. Her yes was to a date for a screening at the Village East by Angelika, in the East Village. For both, the date was Nov. 3, the day of the New York City Marathon. "It's almost ludicrous," Hotchner said. But this is New York. There's always a lot going on. So they are not worried that seats will go empty because people who could be in their audiences will be out tackling the 26.2-mile course through the five boroughs, or will be cheering on the runners, or will be stuck in traffic, if they live outside the city and disregard advice to take public transportation to Manhattan. "Let's not forget that marathons were invented by Greeks," Grammenos said, "and it's two days before the American elections. Democracy is Greek, you know. I think the timing is not bad at all." So he is undeterred by the realities of Marathon Sunday in New York. Central Park South, two blocks from Carnegie Hall, will be closed until 6:45 p.m., just 45 minutes before he is scheduled to walk onto the stage and raise his baton. The last runners are not expected to cross the finish line until after 8:30 p.m. Grammenos said he figured his musicians would take it easy on Sunday morning. His ensemble is a pre-professional orchestra for musicians who are "almost ready to do the next step in their careers and get a position in a professional orchestra," he said. "It's very ambitious, I know, but why not go to Carnegie Hall?" he said. Grammenos programmed 10 dances by the Greek composer Nikos Skalkottas, in part to celebrate an almost-anniversary. In preparing for the concert, Grammenos discovered that the New York Philharmonic had appeared at Carnegie Hall on Nov. 4, 1954 — 70 years ago on Monday. The conductor was the Philharmonic's music director at the time, Dimitri Mitropoulos. The Philharmonic says that the highlight of Mitropoulos's nine years with the orchestra was a visit in 1955 to his native Athens, where he had not conducted since before World War II. Grammenos said that Skalkottas wrote 36 dances. His orchestra will play 10 of them on Sunday. He said that he wrote out the parts for the musicians himself, from Skalkottas's handwritten score. Poor Skalkottas: The Philharmonic program in 1954 misspelled his name "Skalkotas," with only one T, and The Times misspelled it "Skolkoltas," with two L's but still only one T. Hotchner's day will begin earlier — so much earlier that the last wave of runners will not have gotten far when the dog film festival begins at noon. By the time the lights go down at the Village East theater, the speediest runners in the group will probably be somewhere in Brooklyn on their way to Queens, then Manhattan and eventually the finish line in Central Park. The slowest will probably still be in Brooklyn when the 100-minute screening of films about dogs — animated shorts, documentaries and narrative short films — ends. The screening will feature the finalists in Service Dog Salute, a competition that recognizes documentaries about the trained animals that assist military veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Other titles include "Eben," Josh Greene and Jack Lattin's tribute to a bulldog approaching his last adventure. And the date? Hotchner said that it had been worked out by a theater booking partner. She said that she did not think to check the calendar until after the date had been agreed to. Hotchner said the Marathon Sunday time slot reminded her of one at the Images Theater, in Williamstown, Mass. "They booked us on Easter Sunday, and there was a snowstorm," she said. Marathon Sunday in New York "can't get worse than that." WEATHER Today will be partly sunny with a high near 70 and a 30 percent chance of rain. Tonight, expect a partly cloudy sky with a low near 47. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING Suspended today, Nov. 1 (Diwali and All Saints' Day). The latest Metro news
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We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. City housing voucher problem is 'plagued with problems,' an audit says
Some people in homeless shelters faced delays in getting the documentation they needed to look for apartments. Others were incorrectly classified as having left the shelter system. And landlords did not receive rent aid payments in time. Those were among the findings of an audit by the state comptroller's office, which said that one of New York City's largest rental aid programs has been "plagued with problems," making it harder for people to leave homeless shelters and find permanent homes. Based on a sampling of cases, the audit found "systemic irregularities" in the administration of the program, which provides vouchers that allow tenants to put 30 percent of their income toward rent. The city then pays the rest. The comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, said that management lapses had led to delays for people who needed permanent housing. With New York facing a housing affordability crisis, the city needs "an effective and efficient rental assistance program," he said. Neha Sharma, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services, pushed back on the findings. "This audit completely misses the mark in terms of capturing the monumental scope of the city's efforts, fails to acknowledge fundamental challenges with the larger housing ecosystem and points to anomalies that are absolutely not representative of the majority of placement outcomes," she said. METROPOLITAN DIARY Sliced Hams
Dear Diary: I was new to New York City. I went to a deli to buy some ham. I wanted just enough for a sandwich, so I asked the counterman for a third of a pound. "You can't get a third of a pound," he snapped. "The minimum order is a quarter of a pound." I froze. Fortunately, a woman who was in line behind me intervened. "He wants a quarter of a pound and a little bit more," she said. "Well, why didn't you say so?" the deli man growled. — Neil Mellen Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you Monday. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Makaelah Walters and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: Ways to spend Marathon Sunday off course
November 01, 2024
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