"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another." -Thomas Merton

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 8:05 AM

April 14, 2010

What I Learned at Lunch With Marjorie
by Larry Kramer

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Welcome to the POZ Podium

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On the POZ Podium, we invite thought leaders and provocateurs to ponder and postulate the most pressing issues affecting people living with HIV/AIDS.
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Michael Connett The only promise I can safely make is: "That I will do my utmost to Live Up to My Mission and be Faithful to My Message and give it everything I've got... And then some!"

CCCC2010 Neighborhood Derby Carnival & Sweepstakes FUNdRaiser | Kentucky Derby Party www.kentuckyderby.com

"Take A Chance on ME!" If you also believe that each & every Covingtonian MATTERS & should have a Voice at the City Hall table, you can express that support w just $1.00 & be entered into the Diversity Days Derby Sweepstakes door prize drawing...

An exorbitant rent increase is pushing Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) into a new location. AIDS advocate and icon Larry Kramer, a founder of GMHC, discusses the organization's future over lunch with Marjorie Hill, PhD, GMHC's current CEO.

Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) has been in its 14-story office building on West 24th Street for 14 years. It is named the Tisch Building. Joan Tisch was a devoted GMHC board member for many years, and the family continues to be a major donor. GMHC's lease on the Tisch Building is up. They must be out by the end of the year.

The roof leaks badly, the elevators need constant servicing (I personally am terrified to go into them), paint is peeling in too many places, the carpeting is ragged and ratty, the boiler caved in last year and had to be replaced or the clients would have frozen to death, the roof must be cleared of snow lest it cave in on their cafeteria, and the landlord, a greedy shit named Frank Ring, has not and will not attend to or contribute a penny to rectifying any of these.

Under the terms of their net lease he is not required to do so, but he is demanding an increase from the current $6.4 million a year to $9 million a year for a new lease of unguaranteed length and with no attendance to any necessary repairs. In other words, take it or leave it as it is. GMHC quite rightly feels it has no choice but to leave it.

For the past two years GMHC, its real estate search team and, particularly, its indomitable chief executive officer Marjorie Hill, PhD, have been looking high and low for a better place to live, to house the staff of 175, the 700 volunteers and the 15,000 clients it services each year.

One would have thought that with the battered economy there would have been many places to choose from. One would have thought so, and one would have been wrong. Very wrong. Heartbreakingly wrong. Never-endingly wrong.

Finally, a new location has been identified, and negotiations are transpiring.

Hill is an imposing, strong, determined, passionate, exceedingly intelligent, nay brilliant and proud persona. She is a class act all the way. I have no idea if she is difficult to work for. I hope she is. She is too smart not to be. She wants better things for her cause, for her clients, for her organization, for her passionate devotion to LGBT anything and everything. She knows what she wants, and she knows what a pain in the ass it is to have to deal with trying to get any of it, and she is beyond pragmatically optimistic, bordering on being a dreamer, about how to bridge this gap. I never leave a meeting with her without being energized to try and do more myself.

I would not want her job in a million years, and I doubt, in these trying times, many other trained executives/social workers dependent on an increasingly selfish and uncaring world would want it either. How would you like to go out there and raise enough money for a $30 million annual budget when AIDS is now almost at the bottom of anybody's list of annual charitable donations? Gone are the days when gay men took care of their own. I don't know how she does it, but she does it. Failure is simply not a word in her vocabulary.

And she does it with this unflagging energy and a smile that should melt hearts if it were not coming from a regal six foot gorgeous black lesbian who is begging for money for a plague that still attacks primarily faggots and niggers and spics and junkies, all the people landlords still, in 2010, don't want to rent to.

I will never forget those early '80s when no one would rent to us, when the city, which still won't, wouldn't give us a closet or a nickel. To sit across the table with Hill in April of 2010 and hear the harrowing litany of the landlords and buildings and rental agents that still close their doors to us as potential tenants is to be forced yet again to face how many people hate us and won't have us, period, no matter how many millions of dollars GMHC can afford to pay for rent.

For those out there who have sent me anonymous complaints about this potential move I offer the above for some deep thinking and soul-searching. For the disgruntled employees who have e-mailed me and, it appears, others about their dissatisfactions about this move, I especially offer the above for some candid solace to please use for balm. (There is no such thing as a social organization that doesn't have disgruntled employees; their lives are too hard, their work is too never-ending, their day-to-day existence is comprised of facing over and over again the pain and agony and unfairness of this world and this city and this plague.)

Change is always difficult. A new neighborhood. A new journey to get there every day. It is almost as if many of us would rather stay in the deteriorating shabbiness we live in than go out there and take two long years to try and find a cleaner bit of sunshine. (I understand. I offer the feeble example of our kitchen here where my partner and I live, which has been peeling over-generously for uncountable years.) We make do. Somehow New York itself encourages us to stay put. It's too uncomfortable on the outside. Another hundred people just got off the train, as Sondheim tells us. And of course many of those people are still carrying HIV.

Is this new office that Hill and her team have located a place she would be proud to take us on a tour of tomorrow? "Yes, it is," she proudly says. She cannot pinpoint its location for me while negotiations are still going on. It is Midtown somewhere near the Lincoln Tunnel. "I want someplace clean and wide and open, and this is it." Is it located too far from mass transit? "No further than where we are now from mass transit." Is it true clients will have to enter through the back door of this building (a rumor passing about). "We are being given a special entrance of our own in the front, just like we have now."

What about the curtailment of daily lunches in the cafeteria, which GMHC is famous for because they are so good? "You know, I want to try something different after 14 years of a cafeteria on the 12th floor. We will have a ground floor café, where equally nutritious food will be provided, and our current atmosphere of fun and camaraderie will be duplicated."

What about the location of the Michael Palm testing center on the current ground floor? "They are coming with us. The David Geffen center for education and outreach we hope to establish as a satellite center in a neighborhood more in need of such a place than Chelsea." Do you envision current clients refusing to come to this location? "Absolutely none. It will be a nice place, indeed a nicer place, to come to."

No, it makes no sense that greedy Mr. Ring is pushing them out the door, in so doing adding another empty building to several other empty Chelsea buildings he already is trying to find desperate tenants for (including the city, which almost paid him an exorbitant amount for another piece of shit before coming to its senses). The city (and life) is full of landlords like Frank Ring. To pay him $15 million dollars a year and still not get new rugs and a paint job and better elevators and a roof that doesn?t leak is not right, especially for the clients who need that money or the donors who gave it.

It's time to move on.

I'm actually grateful for these anonymous complaints and complainers that propelled Larry into his automatic "tell the world" mode. It has made me, and, now, I hope all of you, revisit the realties GMHC faces every minute and reach for my checkbook, as I also hope you all reach for yours. This organization started in my living room still gives me inordinate pride. (Of our six founders, Edmund White, Larry Mass, MD, and I are alive.) Still, and continuing pride. And how many things in a life can one point to that has done and is continuing to do so much, so very much, that is good?

Yes, it is time to move on to a new home.

Stop complaining, you naysayers!

As the Brits say, Godspeed and God bless!

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Rock the Vote As we posted before, some heath insurance companies are allowing 21-26 years olds to stay on the parents' insurance even before the health care reform bill becomes law. Is your family's insurance co on the list? http://bit.ly/9pjM5O

Update on Dependent Care Coverage « Rock the Vote Blog

The list of insurers that will allow young people graduating from college this May to stay on their parents’ insurance plan now includes UnitedHealth, WellPoint, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Humana.

Project Inform What happened to “silence = death”? A blog from David Mixner.

What happened to silence = death? : DC Agenda.com

www.dcagenda.com

There is a fire in our house that we are no longer talking about, that we pretend no longer exists: the unchecked spread of HIV.

Dear Commissioners,

Thank you for hearing my comments last night about the zoning changes in the Arts and Technology Zone.  I have some short, but very important points that I did not make last night.  They are as follows:

1. The Blue Bar on Pike St. is the only reason that this 2:30 alcohol license issue is on the table.
2. Commissioner Shawn Masters has championed the 2:30 license issue for the Arts and Technology zone.   I understand that he is close personal friends with the owners of the Blue Bar, is a regular patron there and I was told last week that he has considered purchasing part (or all) of that bar.  If this is true, then his opinion should have no bearing on the Commission’s decision and he should recuse himself of any proceedings to avoid having a conflict of interest.
3. Two of the owners of the Blue Bar are Richard Kern and Jeff Snyder.  They both spoke at the meeting last night.  They purchased that bar knowing the restrictions of the current zoning.  That was their due diligence prior to purchasing it.
4. Richard Kern down played the “bait and switch” part of my comments.  “Bait and switch” is an important part of laws regarding fraud.  It is not a “cute term.”
5. It is very disappointing that this City Commission voted last Tuesday to begin changing the zoning regulations regarding the 2:30 liquor licenses in the Arts and Technology Zone.  At least one commissioner last night seemed unaware that these recommendations were involved in the vote last week.  Do all of you really understand the ramifications of your votes?
6. Proponents of the change say that “young urban professionals” want to party until 2:30.  I disagree.  The “professional” ones go to bed at a reasonable time so that they can continue on their upward mobility pattern in the morning.
7. The original purpose of the Arts District was to have creative people purchase and renovate buildings with first floor commercial and their living quarters above.  2:30 alcohol licenses have nothing to do with this demographic.
8. 2:30 liquor licenses are not very “arty or technological.”   They are merely a means for people who own bars to sell more liquor to drunken patrons. This is not only an unsophisticated idea, but it’s dangerous, and one serious personal injury or worse stemming from late-night drinking will be all it takes to give the entire area a black eye.
9. The final comment last night by Richard Kern urged the commission to not stand in the way of “change.”  Not allowing 2:30 liquor licenses would be the best “change” that the City of Covington could make.

 Sincerely,

 Rick Hoffman, Covington Clay

16 W. Pike St. Covington, KY 41011

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PROPONENTS WANT ARTS DISTRICT ZONING LAWS AMENDED
Covington divided on last call-Proposal would let bars serve liquor until 2:30 a.m
By Scott Wartman

COVINGTON – The proposal to allow bars in the city’s arts district to sell liquor until 2:30 a.m. has divided opinions and prompted the city commission this week to set a public meeting for next month. The city established the arts and technology zone in 2005 along Pike
Street from Interstate 75 to Washington Street. The new zoning prohibited any bar that opened in the arts district after 2005 from getting a license to sell liquor past 1 a.m. Richard Kern, owner of the Blue Bar, in Covington, has requested the city allow him to have a 2:30 a.m. license and said his bar is at a disadvantage. There are 32 liquor licenses in the city of Covington, a number limited by the population, that allow bars to sell until 2:30 a.m., said Alex Mattingly, assistant city solicitor.
“I think it is very important for the business to be allowed to compete with other businesses in the area,” said Jeff Snyder, who owns the
building on West Pike Street in which the Blue Bar is located. “It is the only business on Pike Street without a 2:30 a.m. license. All the
other ones on Madison and Main Street have a 2:30 a.m. … I think it would do a lot for the art zone.” Snyder said the Blue Bar has permission from a nearby law firm and dentist office to use parking lots, which would address some of the residents’ concerns.
City staff recommended at a meeting this week to amend city ordinances and zoning law in the arts district to conform with other zones
in the city, where 2:30 a.m. liquor licenses are allowed in buildings that don’t abut residential property. Because the Blue Bar abuts residential property, the staff recommendation wouldn’t allow it to stay open later.
“It would be a step in the right direction because everything would be consistent,” Kern said.

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From: POZ News Desk [mailto:update@poz.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 11:09 AM
To: SoBankHIVe@zoomtown.com
Subject: Medical Marijuana Bill Unanimously Approved by DC City Council

April 21, 2010

DC City Council Unanimously Approves Medical Marijuana Bill

The Washington, DC, City Council approved a medical marijuana bill allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients with chronic conditions such as HIV, glaucoma and cancer, The Washington Post reports. Under the bill, doctors would be able to prescribe patients up to 2 ounces of marijuana in a 30-day period.

According to the article, patients’ prescriptions would be filled at city-sanctioned distribution centers, which receive their marijuana supply from private cultivation centers licensed by the city.

The bill, approved April 20, does include restrictions. Patients aren’t allowed to grow their own marijuana, and distribution and cultivation centers can’t be located within 300 feet of schools or preschools.

The council is scheduled to vote a second time on the bill next month, after which it could take several months for the program to go into effect.

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"Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee, and do not try to make the universe a blind alley." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

RE: Arts District Changes

A public hearing is being scheduled in May to address this issue.

 

Regards

Shawn W. Masters | Senior Partner

The Merlot Group, LLC

226 W Pike Street, Suite One

P.O. Box 302

Covington KY 41012-0302

859 743-1003 | Office

859 393-0383 | Mobile

866 397-6346 | Fax

smasters@merlotgroup.com 

www.merlotgroup.com

 

From: Ken Smith [mailto:kensmithnky@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2010 12:11 PM
To: campaign@ricktrulley.com; carranbs@fuse.net; dunnandtitusky@netzero.net; fkuhlmann@fuse.net; fwarnock@covingtonky.com; jerrys501@hotmail.com; jksnyder@fuse.net; leapinlizzz@mac.com; lklein@covingtonky.gov; mayor@covingtonky.gov; mconnett@fuse.net; mrains@covingtonky.gov; paulalvin1950@yahoo.com; prescott_john@msn.com; raymond@murphyforcommissioner.com; scasper823@aol.com; smasters@merlotgroup.com; steveandnancy_frank@yahoo.com; swartman@enquirer.com
Subject: Arts District Changes

 

Covington Residents and Business Owners, 

I am a resident of Greer Street in Mainstrasse, and I am very concerned about the recent proposal to create additional areas with late night bar hours.  I first want to be clear that I am not opposed to bars or 2:30 licenses.  I moved to Mainstrasse to take advantage of both, and I have enjoyed living there more than any place I have ever been.  I do feel, however, that not every area of the city should be home to late night drinking as it can be disruptive to the residents and strains the police resources at closing time.  I live a few hundred feet from Blue Bar, and parking is a nightmare most weekends already.  I cannot begin to imagine having another entertainment district on the other side of my home. 
 
I really appreciate that Blue Bar might be at a disadvantage not having a 2:30 liquor license, but so are a lot of bars like Chez Nora.  I suspect the owners knew this when they bought the establishment. 

I am also a huge supporter of the Arts District and fully recognize that there needs to be some changes to that zoning to allow more uses such as bakeries, etc.  But to say late night drinking promotes the Arts or will attract the desired residents is beyond ridiculous. If folks who want to relocate to the Arts District cannot walk 5 blocks to Mainstrasse, I question their affinity for an urban lifestyle.  I sincerely believe this is bad public policy and a personal agenda item.

 

Additionally, the irony of folks complaining about the bars in Mainstrasse now asking for changes to the law allowing longer hours for themselves is beyond laughable.  Can we all not see this for what it is?

 

If someday the Arts District really takes off, then revisit the idea. Right now, I cannot imagine allowing 2:30 partying in that area. Is that really what we need?  Is that the best plan we can come up with for revitalizing a neighborhood?

I have e-mailed the City Commission and Mayor about this issue outlining my concerns.  While responses ranged from understanding to semi-polite dismissal to no response at all, I believe we can stop this if enough people become involved.  This is an election year, and while the bar owners may have more funding to contribute than residents, we all have more votes.  Chris Henry and I will be circulating petitions over the coming weeks asking for support in defeating this anti-resident proposal. 

I would be more than happy to meet with anyone interested in helping with this effort.  I blind carbon copied each of you (except the public officials and candidates).  Please feel free to forward this message to anyone you know who might also be concerned by this proposed change. 

Ken Smith
819 Greer Street

 

 

   I am all for the Blue Bar having a 2:30 license. Honestly what is one more hour. Blue Bar is a good business with a different crowd than the Mainstrasse District. I know Covington is opposed to good businesses and would rather fill Pike Street with homeless shelters and slum properties but that is not the Covington I would like. Also, Blue Bar was Dot's and another bar before that so it is not like this bar idea came out of the "blue". It has been a bar for many years, it now just happens to be a bar that brings more than crackheads (which again seems to be what Covington wants to service). I have been working in this area for years I am going to say that the parking issue is from the many rental units on Greer and in the area. Also, many of the people on Greer having private parking behind their houses.
     The Blue Bar is a good business, it has given many of my friends a job which keeps them in this area. They are people who would probably even live close to be able to walk to work but the area is not safe.
It is ONE LESS run down crack house it is ONE LESS free food bank. It makes no since to me to hold back a business that is a positive to a community but not even go after places that bring in mass amounts of low lives. People are worried about parking and the "bar crowd"? What about the the crowd the Fair-haven and the Parish kitchen bring.  They spit, pee, scream, get in fights, beg for money, leave trash, prostitute. These people are hanging around when school gets out so that the children have to walk home through this crap.
   Yes bar owners have more funding, make them put it back into the community. We all want the same thing, for the area to improve. A good business is benefit.
    Covington should have a neighborhood bar in every neighborhood, they should have a coffee shop, salon, bakery, restaurants, etc. Places for people to gather, socialize, enjoy each other. Places for people to work and to get the things they need. This is what a city is, if you do not want this then go to the suburbs.
Abby Cunningham

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CCCC2010 - Connett 4 Covington City Commission

Socio-Economic Redevelopment

We're either Open for Business as the Capitol of The South Bank or We're just a quaint RiverCity tourist attraction for visitors to Greater Cincinnati... DownTown is the CBD, CAT, WDG, CONV, ENA, MGNA, ROMA, HLRSCA... north of 12th Street. Then there's UpTown between 12th & Levassor Park ...and on out the Madison Ave Corridor to the suburbs of Latonia & So Covington, bounded by the Licking River Greenway & the South Bank Commons!

Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.  Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction...  The Chain reaction of evil --hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars-- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Martin Luther King, Jr. - 1963

South Bank Steel Magnolia's CARE!    "I Got BEANed... @ The Haus in the Strasse! Come get Mint-ed on Derby Day!

Riverfront Commons

By now, many of you have read about the exciting new $50 million Riverfront Commons trail project.  But there is more to this effort than a four-mile walking and bike path connecting Covington to Bellevue. The impact also extends to arts, culture, tourism and health in addition to the obvious economic impact. 

South Bank News Briefs

CCCC2010NeighborHood Carnival & Derby Sweepstakes FUNdRaiser

Hosted by: The Michael W Connett LIVING Trust

Phone: 859-261-HIVe1 (4481)

SouthBank HIVe @ MainStrasse: 315 W 7th St * Covington, Kentucky 41011

 

 

"Take A Chance on ME!" If you also believe that each & every Covingtonian MATTERS & should have a Voice at the City Hall table, you can express that support w just $1.00 & be entered for the Derby Sweepstakes drawing & Diversity Days door prizes...

Here's how it works: Prior to the running of The Kentucky Derby (approx. 5:00 pm), Tickets corresponding to the # of entries will be drawn/numbered & receive an award for being 'mounted'! Once the race is completed Prizes will be awarded for Win, Place & Show!

THE SCHEDULE: After Noon: Chk Weather, Prep, Decorate, Assess & Set-Up Awards

3:00 - 5:00 PM: Pre-Race Gathering, Drawing to 'Mount' riders, Socializing, Issue Discussing, Block Watch Organizing, FUNdRaising and 'Stock My Bar' Open Office Warming at 315 W 7th Street

In addition: there will be food, refreshments, entertainment, Best Derby Hat & Derby Attire contests...

5:00 - 8:00 PM: Happy Hours & The Race at various locations in MainStrasse:

• Blue Bar
• Yadda Club
• Mulligan's
• Bean Haus
• Chez Nora
• Rosie's
• 701 Bar

8:00 PM: Distribution of Prizes and Presentation of Best Hat & Derby Attire winners as well as the MWCLT 10th Anniversary South Bank Steel Magnolia Awards:

• Mykey & The Gang @ 701 Bar
• GLSEN Cinti
• Nada Rice - AVNK Dinner Coordinator
• The I.N.D.Y. Project
• Lane Chapel CME

Location to be announced at Race Time! 

Check the FaceBook event site for Updates! http://www.facebook.com/MWCLTonline?ref=profile#!/event.php?eid=111984862166668&ref=mf

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“It’s not easy…, being Me!

“I’m more than a bird

I’m more than a plane

I’m more than some pretty face beside a train

Paying It Forward, Daily…

"Think of an idea to Change The World,

And put it Into ACTION…”

“I tried real hard, but nothing really happened.  I think some people are too scared or something.  I think, things could be different.  I mean, the World’s not exactly s**t.I guess it’s hard for some people who are so used to things the way they are, even if they’re BAD, to CHANGE.  ‘Cause then they kinda give up.  And when they do, everybody kinda loses.It’s hard, you can’t plan it.  You have to watch people more, ya know.  Sort of keep an eye on them, to protect them, ‘cause they can’t always see what they need.  It’s like your big chance to fix something that’s not like your bike.  You can fix a person…”

Go Beyond the Original Premise &…

Instead of helping three people , resolve to be of assistance to anyone,

in anyway you can!

"Then said a rich man, speak to us of giving.  And he answered; You give but little when you give of your possessions, it is when you give of yourself that you truly give.  For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow...

There are those who give with joy and that joy is their reward.  And there are those who give with pain and that pain is their baptism.  And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue.  They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.  Through the hands of such as these, God speaks.  And from behind their eyes, He smiles upon the earth...

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked through understanding...

See first that you, yourself, deserve to be a giver and an instrument of giving.  For in truth it is life that gives unto life, while you who deem yourself a giver are but a witness."

"The Prophet" - Kahlil Gibran

 

"The Beacon Fund”

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.  Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.  --- Eli Wiesel

315 W 7th Street - Suite #2  *  Covington, Kentucky 41011-1391

859-261-HIVe1 (4481)

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