John Lewis, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd in Union Square

"Law & Order" Returns!

Eleven-years ago the TV show Law & Order was cancelled by NBC. It was a big surprise, especially since it had run for 20-years and had become a television and NYC institution. Of course the Law & Order "franchise" still went strong with spinoffs like L&O: SVU, L&O: Criminal Intent, and a new one called L&O: Organized Crime. But the mothership had sunk, the "one that started it all" was gone.

At the time I blogged a passionate screed about its cancellation, and how odd it was that there were all these spinoff shows while the original show had been killed (a murder mystery that an episode of Law & Order might have even solved).

Well, never mind. After eleven years, the OG Law & Order is back! The show is being officially revived or renewed -- whatever -- for a 21st season. When it will premiere, and who will be in it, remains to be seen (rumors abound that some of the old cast members might return but nothing is confirmed yet).

I'm generally not a big fan of all these reboots since they almost always fail to capture whatever magic existsed in the original versions. But L&O was and is different -- it was like an old fashioned newspaper serial or a folk song -- it was never young and never got old. The cast kept changing, each episode was a stand-alone story, each week it basically renewed itself, and it's something that can probably go on forever. 

Let's hope it does -- for the sake of television and NYC.

The Upper West Side: Sexy, Scary ... Suburban?

Yours truly has not yet seen the popular new show Only Murders in the Building that involves Steve Martin and Martin Short solving murders in an Upper West Side building with, of all people, Selena Gomez. But the show is a big hit and it's apparently created some interest in the popular neighborhood not seen since the days of You've Got Mail twenty-odd years ago. 

What's happened to the Upper West Sideis indicative of what's happened to NYC in general over the last fifty-something years: from hellscape to playground, from wild to, well, kinda boring.

This years marks the 50th anniversary of Panic in Needle Park, the movie Al Pacino made just before The Godfather. The brutal story about heroin addicts hanging out in Verdi Square on West 72nd street made the Upper West Side look like a village of the damned. This was on the heels of 1968's Rosemary's Baby where the Devil literally took over the body of a young housewife living in the Dakota, just down the block. A few years later came Taxi Driver, with Robert De Niro's crazed Travis Bickle turning into a horrific vigilanty -- and living and hanging out mostly on the Upper West Side. Then, in 1989, Pacino returned to the neighborhood in Sea of Love where he pursued a serial killer, Even the city's "hoity toity" lived in the squalor -- in 1990's Metropolitan the young Tom Townsend lived in the 'hood in genteel poverty -- in great contrast to his Upper East Side debutante friends.  

But forget the movies -- reality was just as scary and sexy. John Lennon was killed in front of the Dakota in 1980. The swinger's club Plato's Retreat was going full blast. I grew up in the area and remember the Upper West Side as a decaying but nonetheless fun neighborhood -- and it felt like a neighborhood, a community, a place unto its own.

This article from Town & Country nails the evolution of the Upper West Side, how it's gone from a place of wildness, a sexy and scary place, into a not terribly interesting suburb. Lots of chain stores, lots of high-end boutiques, lots of expensive restaurants, lots of new glass buildings. Now it's safe. It's "family friendy." It's dull. Don't get me wrong -- it's lovely, and a great place to live. But the Upper West Side of yore is, well, yored. All we have are the memories. 

Caput Mundi: Harry & Meghan at One World Trade Center

"Take On Me" by a-ha from the Brooklyn Duo at Carnegie Hall

Original Siskel & Ebert Review of "Saturday Night Fever" -- 1977

Willie Garson RIP -- "Sex and the City" & "Quantum Leap"

The brilliant, lovable character actor just died from cancer at the age of 57. For many, including yours truly, he will always been Standford from Sex and the City -- a real NYC icon.

But Willie had great range as an actor. In addition to numerous movies and other TV shows (including one that ran for a few years called White Collar), he appeared in two episodes of my favorite childhood show Quantum Leap -- one as a character named Seymour in an early episode set in NYC, and then another where he played Lee Harvey Oswald. His Oswald was an interesting one because Willia played Oswald "in the waiting room" set in the future, and he had to wear a white jump suit while being interrogated by Dean Stockwell. Great stuff!

RIP Willie -- you were the best!

Occupy Wall Street @ 10

Ten years ago this month the Occupy Wall Street movement began in Zuccotti Park. Here's some of Mr NYC's coverage of it at the time. 

Lisa Cintrice on Her Memories of the Persicos and the NYC Mob

New York City has changed so much in the last three decades that, whenever a story about the old-school mafia pops up in the news, it takes on a creepy zombie-like feel. It's like a piece of the past has jumped out of the shadows, a reminder that something we think of as dead is actually still around, lurking about, ready to strike when the opportunity presents itself. While the mob is NYC is nowhere near as powerful or prominent as it once was in the Joe Columbo-John Gotti heyday, it's still around, doing its organized crime thing as much as it can in the digital era. 

Recently there was a story about the remnants of the Columbo crime family, specifically dealing with a union exhortion scheme. One of the characters in this story is a man named Carmine Persico who was the boss of the Columbo family until his death in prison in 2019. His nephew Teddy is now, apparently, the heir aparent to the Columbo crown now that his uncle's successor, Andrew Russo, has been busted.

Previous Mr NYC interviewee Lisa Cintrice recently contacted me to tell me an incredible story about how, in her childhood, she was a step-sister to Teddy Perscio when her dad was married, for a few years, to Carmine's sister. It's an amazing story and, with her permission, Lisa tells us all about it to Mr NYC exclusively.

Here's Lisa: My connection to the Persico Family

"I was born in 1963, and my family is Italian American. My parents divorced when I was still a baby, I have no memories of a 2 parent household. My brother and I (he was born in 1962) thought everyone lived with their mom and saw their fathers on weekends.

My dad was a good looking guy, he was young, had money and he had lots of girlfriends. Again to us that was normal. Then one weekend when dad picked us up, out of the blue he introduced us to a woman that was living at his house named Patricia Persico. Pat was a beautiful red head who was also Italian American and made some mean sauce. She had 2 sons who were close in age to me and my brother so we were so happy that we had kids to play with when we would visit dad.

Her sons were name Danny Persico and Teddy Persico Jr. During that time we would go to Brooklyn often for Sunday dinner with Pats mom and I would often hear the adults talking about people named Allie Boy, Uncle Carmine and Teddy Persico Sr. (who was Pats ex-husband). We lived a charmed life, vacationed in Puerto Rico, and trips to Italy. All 4 of use kids were pretty close.

My older brother and Danny bonded close as did Teddy and myself. Eddie and Danny were the "good" kids and Teddy and me, well we had spunk and nothing scared us. Teddy and me were always getting yelled at for not doing what we were told. We would just laugh when we got in trouble. I have no bad memories of Teddy or Danny.

After a few years I knew my dad and Pat were fighting alot. Looking back I can say they had a love hate relationship. Thru it all, Pat was always nice to me and my brother. Then one weekend dad picked us up and they were gone. Pat Teddy and Danny, no good bys no hugs nothing they were gone and I was told I could not contact them, which really upset me because I was close to all of them. I was so upset that people who I thought were family were suddenly gone and I never got to say goodbye. Dad moved on and got remarried.

I always wondered what happened to Pat Teddy and Danny. Even as I became a young adult, I still wondered about them. I still missed them. One day in the late 1980's I remember hearing on the news that a Colombo family member named Teddy Persico Jr was arrested for being a king pin in a cocaine trafficking ring I was like WTF? So I looked into it more and realized that was Teddy the Teddy who was my step brother for about 7 years.

I asked my dad about it and he didn’t say much. Keep in mind, although my dad was not a "made" man he was definitely a wise guy and never talked about certain things and Teddy Persico was one of the things he was not going to talk to me about. At that point things from my child hood started making sense. Uncle Carmine was Carmine the "snake" Persico, the head of the Columbo Family. Teddy Persico Sr and Allie Boy were Carmines brothers and also part of the Columbo Crime Family. I still didn’t understand the level of violence they were capable of until I saw a documentary on TV about Carmine and how he was the former leader of Murder Inc., and was running the family from a prison cell. All of this was mind blowing to me.

How did I not realize sooner what was going on? It all seemed so normal back then. Teddy has spent many many years in jail. Shortly after his 20-year drug sentence, he was arrested again for putting a hit on someone while at his grandmother’s funeral. He got 12 years for that and got out after 10 years or so. After that I didn’t see anything about him in the news, one mutual friend even thought maybe he was in witness protection. I thought anything is possible. That is until this week when I learned that the entire leadership of the Columbo family was arrested including Teddy Persico Jr, who was still on supervised release from his last jail stint. They wanted to take control of a labor union. WTF who does that? Oh yea they do! 

Danny did not follow in his family footsteps but he passed away at a young age and I am not sure what from. I often look back wondering how things would have been if my dad stayed married to Pat. Maybe it was for the best that they were no longer in my life.

I have decided I am going to write to Teddy since he will be a captive audience for my letters and I have a lot of questions for him. I am sure he knows about my past, (wonder what he thought of my army stunt) and he may even have some questions for me :)

That’s my story and I am sticking to it!"

Thanks Lisa! Here's a great picture that Lisa shared of herself as a child with the Persico siblings:

Simon & Garfunkel Sing "America" in Central Park -- September 19th, 1981