The city’s small venues are dying
Pooch on the mend after horror in park
Manhattan: I own a small venue-ticketing and box office services company. Every small venue and Off-Broadway theater I deal with has been closed since March 16, 2020. We remain closed even as bowling alleys, restaurants, family entertainment centers, hair salons, barbershops and a multitude of other businesses are allowed to reopen. There is no reasonable explanation from the governor’s office as to why restaurants and “family entertainment centers” can reopen but comedy clubs and small theaters cannot. Small venues have built-in contact tracing through ticketing.
Almost all small venues serve food, but they cannot reopen without facing the wrath of Gov. Cuomo and the New York State Liquor Authority. Many comedy clubs and small theaters have closed permanently over the past year, and multiple businesses have permanently relocated to places like Florida and Nevada because they are allowed to operate there — and at a much lower cost of doing business.
We are losing our livelihoods here. As a man on the brink of bankruptcy, I am begging the Legislature: Please do your duty by reviewing the relevant executive orders and find a way to allow us to reopen small theater venues, comedy clubs and ticketed events at matching capacities to restaurants.
The state needs the tax revenue, our landlords need the rent and we need the money and jobs before we are forced to close permanently.
Daniel Tamayo
A pleasant dog walk in the park turned into a nightmare for a Brooklyn dog owner when his Great Danemix was stabbed by another dog’s owner, police and the dog’s owner said Wednesday.
The owner, who asked not to be named while the case was being investigated, took his black-and-white spotted pooch “Bandit” to Fort Greene Park on Saturday morning around 9 a.m. and allowed him to roam.
But the sweet outing quickly turned violent when Bandit got near another dog, Rex, a medium sized Basenji breed dog, according to Bandit’s owner.
Rex’s owner leaned over and “punched” Bandit, who staggered and began gushing blood in the snowy park, according to the owner.
“‘I’m going to f—-ing kill your dog,’ ” the man yelled, according to Bandit’s owner.
“I yelled back, ‘I’m going to call the police,’ ” the man said in a statement shared with the Daily News.
Bandit stopped bleeding after about five minutes of applying pressure, his owner said.
The two dogs have had tense meetings before, with
Bandit’s owner trying to avoid Rex and his caretakers.
“We really hope Bandit’s spirit returns, as he loved Fort Greene Park and dogs and humans. I would be so heartbroken if he is traumatized,” the owner said. “While he is not yet out of the woods, he is doing much better and is with us at home.”
Photos shared with The News showed a bandaged and stitched-up Bandit with a tube going into his abdomen. The attacker was being sought.
Police said 3-year-old Bandit was off-leash and with his 32-year-old owner in the playground area. The suspect used a pocketknife to stab Bandit, cops said.
The suspect was described as white, in his 30s, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 180 pounds.
Matt James, the star of the current series of “The Bachelor,” is opening up about the recent racial controversy that has led to the show’s host to step aside from the hit reality dating television franchise.
James, the first Black star of the long-running ABC series, took to social media on Monday to discuss the “incredibly disappointing photos” of contestant Rachael Kirckonnell, and a subsequent interview of host Chris Harrison, in which he appeared to defend her actions.
“The reality is that I’m learning about these situations in real time, and it has been devastating and heartbreaking to put it bluntly,” the 29-year-old real estate broker wrote on Instagram.
“Chris’s failure to receive and understand the emotional labor that my friend Rachel Lindsay was taking on by graciously and patiently explaining the racist history of the Antebellum South, a painful history that every American should understand intimately, was troubling and painful to watch,” he added.
The controversy began earlier this month, when Kirkconnell was slammed on social media for recently unearthed photos that showed her dressed in Native American attire.
After she apologized for her past actions, Harrison seemed to defend her against what he referred to as “woke police” on social media.
During a 14-minute “Extra” interview with former “Bachelorette” Rachel Lindsay — who became the first Black “Bachelorette” in 2017 — Harrison said that people should have “a little grace, a little understanding, a little compassion” for Kirkconnell.
His comments enraged fans of the lucrative franchise, prompting Harrison to announce he’d be temporarily stepping down from hosting the show.
In his lengthy Instagram post, James wrote that, “as Black people and allies immediately knew and understood, it was a clear reflection of a much larger issue that “The Bachelor” franchise has fallen short on addressing adequately for years.”
The incidents have pushed him to “reevaluate and process” his experience in the show, he added. “Not just for me, but for all of the contestants of color, especially the Black contestants of this season and seasons past, and for you, the viewers at home,” James said.