Summer In The City 1970
Jan Dominquez
Last Summer in the City gives us an abandoned Rome, a city deserted and hot, in which its overgrowth is left to flourish and take over. These depictions of the Eternal City in August are strikingly accurate and visceral. (I can confirm this as I am writing from an empty piazza in Testaccio where everyone has left for the sea or the mountains and the wind is my only companion.) Calligarich gives us this version of the city beautifully, and Howard Curtis, the translator, brings this vision into English with great care and elegance. Gazzaro gives us this description of his last summer in the city:
When so little fiction is translated, and then published by major houses, readers might ask: why this book? It touts itself as a classic, but in fact even its memorable passages feel somewhat derivative, like pastiches of the classics it attempts to keep company with. Translation is an inherently political undertaking, opening readers and writers to different versions of the world we share. This book had its pleasurable moments; however, in a culture where we are now attempting to make space for less heard voices, where the most privileged are being asked to keep quiet so more voices can be heard, we must also pay close attention to the works we translate and define as classics, or else we risk repeating and reinscribing worn-out or mistaken cultural norms and limiting our visions of both literature and the future.
Shakespeare in the Park reflects three central facts about New York City that manifest themselves especially in the summer. First, the scale of the city enables us to collectively experience amazing cultural events because the costs can be shared amongst so many.
I pressed the call button and waited, not sure if I was more desperate for my elevator to come before the doors to the Pink Pussycat Lounge opened, or more curious about life on the left-hand side. My elevator came first, and I got off at a boring, colorless floor and handed my package to a gruff man.
One of my most memorable summer experiences in New York City happened in the summer of 2003 during the Northeast blackout. I was in Midtown rehearsing at the Peoples Improv Theater with Freestyle Love Supreme. It was the day before our first-ever performance. We were still figuring out what the show even was!
The competition rotated each year among the boroughs, and on this particular August day, it was at Rockaway Beach. The chiseled teams from Rockaway and Coney arrived on the sand ready to dominate. They shared the same goal: to beat each other for the top spot in the city. Orchard Beach was a small but mighty squad, their athleticism honed working the only public beach in the Bronx. Staten Island descended on the scene like the underdogs we were, a skeleton crew bearing a homemade team flag. Our hope was to eke out a win over Orchard Beach. Rounding out the competition were the pool guards from Manhattan, and no self-respecting beach guard wanted to lose to them.
The 2003 blackout was different. I was the New York City commissioner of finance then, and perhaps since we had already survived 9/11, people were friendlier; there was a greater sense of community. I remember driving my city car and shuttling staff members to various places around the city. Local store owners shared frozen goods that would melt, especially ice cream.
We had an ace up our sleeve in the form of New York FBI Special Agent Charles Beaudoin. Several years prior, Charlie had spent a grueling summer doing surveillance. The FBI was interested in bugging a townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and first, it needed probable cause that a crime was being committed there.
When I had first met Charlie to go over this evidence prior to the hearing, he was somewhat perplexed as to its relevance. He sheepishly said that the whole thing was kind of a black eye for the Bureau, because although a court ultimately gave them permission to place a bug in the townhouse, the team in charge of inserting the listening device drilled through a Venetian plaster bathroom wall and made a complete mess. Understandably, from that moment on, the townhouse curtains were shut at all hours of the day and night to keep out prying eyes. The investigation was closed, as a swing and a miss.
Because I was born and raised in Florida, people always thought I enjoyed pitching in the summer heat at Shea. Nothing could be further from the truth. I always felt the sun sapped my energy. I always sweated a lot and never really got comfortable in the heat. I wore long sleeves even when it was 90 degrees because I felt the sleeves helped keep my arm in tighter and I could control my curve better.
I liked night games way more than day games. I remember one particular night game at Shea during the Cy Young year in 1985. It was Tuesday, August 20, against the San Francisco Giants. I felt good warming up, and I thought it would be a special night. It was. I struck out 16, allowed seven hits with three walks and pitched a 3-0 complete-game shutout.
I want to be honest about something else. When I was pitching, I said I never looked at the K Korner in left field which kept track of my strikeouts. Well, the truth is I looked at it all the time. I always wanted to get to double figures in strikeouts. That made the fans happy, and if I got to 10 strikeouts, I knew I had a good night.
YouthWorks connects thousands of young people between the ages of 14 and 21 to summer jobs with private, nonprofit, and city and state government employers throughout Baltimore. Participants work in a variety of industries and gain workforce readiness and career-specific skills. Our partners include the City of Baltimore, the State of Maryland, local employers, nonprofits, philanthropic contributors, and the Baltimore Workforce Development Board Youth Committee.
YouthWorks 2023 will operate an in-person and virtual summer program from July 10 to August 11, 2023. Youth may work five hours per day, five days per week, totaling 25 hours per week. YouthWorkers will work on skills that include job readiness, career exploration, financial literacy, academic enrichment, and other skills training. Registered youth will be contacted directly by email with more information.
Non-profit organizations, community groups, and government agencies interested in participating and applying for the YouthWorks 2023 summer jobs program. These positions are already funded. Contact 410-545-1820 or email for more information.
Amaris Medina, YouthWorks 2021
Amaris is a rising junior at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute High School. During the summer she worked at Art With A Heart through the YouthWorks summer jobs program.
Khalil Taylor, YouthWorks 2019
Khalil Taylor loved his summer job working on a community arts project in his neighborhood. He plans to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art and wants to become an art professor.
"YouthWorks provides youth opportunities to meet new people and develop skills that match our interests. I'm much more open with people in general and I've learned the value of giving back to the community."
As another steamy summer approaches, New Yorkers can find relief in one of 53 outdoor pools, including 17 mini-pools, in the New York City parks system. Parks outdoor pools are free and open to the public from late June (after City schools let out for the summer) until the Sunday after Labor Day. NYC Parks also operates 12 indoor pools located at our recreation centers.
The precursor of the modern swimming pool was the public bath. Dr. Simon Baruch (for whom the Baruch baths were named) was a leading proponent of "hydrotherapy" and the possibilities for social reform that followed from providing public baths for "the great unwashed." After decades of lobbying by social reformers, the year 1895 marked a turning point in the public bath movement. Not only did the state legislature pass a law requiring free bathhouses in cities with populations of 50,000 or more but reform-minded William L. Strong won the mayoralty and pledged to construct bathing facilities. The bathhouses were used for bathing, but also when the weather was hot and unbearable, as in the summer of 1906 when long lines at the Rivington Street Bath nearly caused a riot.
By 1911, Manhattan had twelve new bathhouses, most of them in immigrant neighborhoods, and of these bathhouses, a few offered swimming pool facilities. Asser Levy (built in 1908 and then called the "East Twenty-third Street Pool") and Recreation Center 59 (built in 1906 and then called the "West Sixtieth Street Pool") both offered proper pools. The pools on 23rd Street (66' x 25', 70,000 gallons) and 60th Street (60' x 35', 85,000 gallons) were filled using filtered water from the Croton system, which was changed three times a week.
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