Grandstanding, or The Bird Stays

Just to update loyal readers about the fate of Pale Male, the red-tailed hawk recently evicted from its perch on the facade of 927 Fifth Avenue, a deal has been brokered and the bird will be staying. And Mary Tyler Moore comes out looking good:

A week after it removed a red-tailed hawk’s nest from its facade and was met by a storm of protest, a Fifth Avenue co-op building agreed yesterday to requests by the Audubon Society to help the hawks rebuild.

But the agreement came on a day of heightened tension outside 927 Fifth Avenue, the sumptuous co-op where the hawks have roosted on a perch overlooking Central Park for 11 years. The co-op is also home to some of the biggest names in New York society.

This surprising turn of events comes as a Pale Male supporter was arrested for harassing Paula Zahn, whose husband, in his capacity as president of the co-op, was blamed for Pale Male’s eviction:

With negotiations taking place inside, those protesting the removal of the nest continued their vigil across Fifth Avenue in Central Park. One of them, Lincoln Karim, an engineer, was arrested on charges of aggravated harassment, stalking and endangering the welfare of a child.

Mr. Karim, who was being held last night at the 19th Precinct station house, was accused of approaching the television newscaster Paula Zahn and her family, who live in the building, on several occasions, the police said. At one point he told Ms. Zahn’s 7-year-old son, “Your parents are going to pay for this,” according to law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case. Officials said that encounter occurred on Monday outside the building as the boy and his nanny were walking his dog.

Which is where Mary Tyler Moore comes in:

The arrest of Mr. Karim prompted a swift response by another of the co-op’s many celebrity residents, Mary Tyler Moore, who has publicly allied herself with the protesters. Soon after Mr. Karim was approached by four detectives and driven away, Ms. Moore and her husband, the Manhattan cardiologist Robert Levine, hailed a cab and drove to the 19th Precinct station house to assist Mr. Karim, although they were not aware of the charges against him, according to Marie Winn, a Manhattan writer, bird watcher and friend of Ms. Moore’s who joined in the cab ride. . . .

“Mary Tyler Moore was magnificent,” Ms. Winn said. When she was unable to speak with Mr. Karim and determine the charges against him, Ms. Moore returned to speak to a group of about 40 protesters who remained opposite 927 Fifth Avenue.

She was greeted by loud applause, and thanked her fellow demonstrators. “That applause is the best applause I have received in my life,” Ms. Moore said, according to two people who were present.

I can’t be the first one to wonder whether a Law & Order is coming on . . .

Bonus Point: Pale Male: Bring Back the Nest!

Paula Zahn vs. Pale Male

New details are emerging in the eviction of Pale Male, the red-tailed hawk whose nest was removed from the facade of 927 Fifth Avenue. The Post doesn’t disappoint with its turns of phrase, headlining the story, “Poultry in Motion.”

Apparently Pale Male is looking for new digs, eyeing in particular the Carlyle Hotel (oh, that it were this easy to move in New York!)

There’s been much interest in the co-op board’s decision to take down the nest. As it involves the wealthy and sometimes famous, there’s a healthy dose of Fuck-the-Rich Schadenfreude, too, which is always fun. And Mary Tyler Moore comes out looking good in the end:

A homeless hawk evicted from his posh nest at a Fifth Avenue co-op was spotted checking out even more expensive real-estate yesterday — as government officials and conservation groups tried to mediate the flap [good one!].

“Pale Male,” who built his nest at 927 Fifth Avenue back in 1993, was unceremoniously dispossessed along with his girlfriend, “Lola,” by the co-op’s board — which is headed by the real estate developer Richard Cohen, the husband of CNN anchor Paula Zahn.

A Zahn rep said she had nothing to do with the decision and “can’t speak for her husband.”

But another celebrity tenant, Mary Tyler Moore, put the blame squarely on Cohen.

Asked who was responsible for the decision, the TV legend and animal lover replied, “As you can judge from any board of directors, there is a chair. It’s not that complicated.”

Although Moore would like a see a compromise allowing the hawks to return, she said she was not going to be the one to approach Cohen.

“Quite frankly, I’m so angry, I would not want to put myself in that situation,” she said.

Other tenants in the exclusive building refused to comment.

“If they talk to the press, the wrath of Mr. Cohen will come down on them,” speculated one building worker. But some deals are under consideration.

They include welcoming the birds back to 927 Fifth and enticing them across the street to Central Park. But Pale Male may have his own ideas.

He was spotted flying above Madison Avenue, checking out the Carlyle Hotel for a new pied a terre to share with Lola.

Moore’s fellow tenants said they objected to the birds because they tried to jam twigs between the bricks, possibly weakening the building’s façade.

And more importantly, the hawks attracted gawkers with binoculars who, they feared, were looking into windows when the hawks’ activities were not exciting enough.

They also complained the hawks killed pigeons, whose bodies littered the sidewalk below.

For the last several days, though, the sidewalk has been taken over by noisy protesters, including Moore.

Several dozen of them gathered yesterday in front of the 12-story turn-of-the-century building, yelling, “Bring back the nest!” and waving signs saying, “Ebeneezer Zahn.”

Moore emerged to cheers of support before disappearing into her limo. She later came back to join the demonstration.

“Those lousy people should all drop dead except Mary Tyler Moore,” said Jennifer Anderson, who lives nearby.

“Now that winter’s coming, they take down the nest. I think these people are very much interested in themselves and don’t care about anyone or anything,” she said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials are trying to work out a solution.

They are speaking to the board’s representatives about building the birds their own “co-op” to keep them off the ledge they used.

They suggest putting up a special platform that the birds could build their nest on without damaging the bricks.

Cohen referred inquiries to the co-op’s lawyer, Aaron Shmulewitz, who insisted the board is now open to discussion.

“If one of these proposals is raised to the board, the board will consider it in due course and in good faith,” he said.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe has another idea — he’s exploring the possibility of building a nesting spot in Central Park.

That “may be a good idea,” said John Bianchi of the National Audubon Society.

“We don’t know if it will work or not. But this bird will pick where it’s going to nest,” Bianchi said. “It doesn’t matter if you necessarily create some attractive options.”

But the best solution, said E.J. McAdams of New York City Audubon, would be to allow the birds to return to their own home on the ledge.

Bonus Points: Gawker on which heartless souls (except for Mary Tyler Moore!) live at 927 Fifth Avenue; Curbed on the same.

Morale Booster

If you’ve ever wondered who these people were who stroll around Central Park in the middle of the day or spend their afternoons shopping on Madison Avenue — if you’ve ever wondered who exactly it is who affords to live like they live in Manhattan — rest assured, they’re probably doing something illegal:

A Manhattan madam with a Mercedes and a posh Trump Palace pad has been busted for running a multimillion-dollar, high-priced call-girl ring with her hooker-booker sister, cops said yesterday.

Jenny Paulino, 46, was nabbed at older sister Elise’s home at 163 W. 80th St. on Friday evening after rushing back from the West Coast when she learned their ring had been busted in a sting, sources said.

The madam was charged with promoting prostitution and money laundering as the ringleader of American Beauties Escort Service — a pricey prostitution purveyor that catered to rich businessmen and out-of-towners willing to plunk down at least $1,000 an hour for steamy sex, cops said.

The sex business — which ran ads in publications like New York magazine — banked on Brazilian beauties and exotic Eastern European model-types to woo its well-heeled clients, authorities said.

The gig brought in an estimated $10 million a year, one source said.

The ring was betrayed by a regular john who agreed to cooperate with NYPD investigators after being squeezed on drug charges, a source said.

One of Jenny Paulino’s neighbors said the accused madam always told friends she was “in the insurance industry.”

“I’m in shock,” said Mary Dona, 24, adding that Jenny always dressed down and usually went out only to go to the gym or walk her two small, white dogs. “I didn’t know she was that type of person at all.”

In an odd twist, the 50-year-old Elise — who was charged with promoting prostitution — had once been at the center of a sensational murder case in Long Island. She had been used for an alibi by her then-boyfriend, Harvey Brown, who had been eyed in his parents’ 1997 deaths.

One of Elise’s neighbors last night said the woman and her tiny gray dog were beloved fixtures of the neighborhood.

“She’s the sweetest woman,” Jill Gilmartin said.

Elise was nabbed Thursday at American Beauties’ office on the third floor of 242 E. 60th St. — a floor above the reputed brothel.

Also arrested there for promoting prostitution were Donna Cohen, 49, of Bloomfield, N.J., and Monika Hajkoba, a 27-year-old Czech national, police said.

Busted at the cozy brothel were 34-year-old hooker Hatvig “Heidi” Kaeser and leggy 26-year-old blonde Martina Gavrieli, cops said.

The two-bedroom establishment was cluttered yesterday with cans of Diet Coke and Budweiser and bottles of Poland Spring water. A black Bible lay on top of the fridge, while a large sex toy had been tossed in the trash nearby.

Each bedroom boasted a fireplace and stash of condoms. On one bed was a tape of Victoria’s Secret’s London Symphony Orchestra rendition of “Pleasures and Passions.” A closet was stuffed with Britannica Classic books still in plastic.

One female neighbor shrugged off news of the brothel. “They were very discreet,” she said. “I never saw any men, just pretty, young women.”

The bust netted a total of more than $31,000 from the brothel, business and the Paulinos’ homes.

Jenny, who lives in a Trump Palace apartment at 205 E. 68th St., also has a home in Miami Beach.

I get the other stuff, but what’s with the bible? And the encyclopedias, for that matter?

Forced Eviction for Squatters!

Pale Male, the famous red-tailed hawk who nested on a building on Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park, is being kicked out. The building’s residents (some of them, anyway) objected to the pigeon carcasses and hawk poop, so Pale Male’s nest has been removed:

A nest constructed a decade ago by red-tailed hawks 12 stories above Central Park, creating an unlikely wildlife habitat that has delighted bird lovers from around the world, was removed yesterday, apparently by workers for its host co-op apartment building.

City officials and naturalists reacted with anger, even though there appeared to be little legal recourse for the nest’s destruction.

Experts said that the fate of a family of uncommonly large and resilient birds, which have reproduced prolifically from the nest, had been thrown into doubt. So was that of the nest’s most famous red-tailed resident, Pale Male, who arrived at the building in 1993 and, according to detailed records kept by several bird-watchers, has sired 23 youngsters.

“I am so outraged that they would do this without so much as a by your leave,” said Mary Tyler Moore, who has lived for 15 years in the co-op at 927 Fifth Avenue, at 74th Street, where the nest was built in 1993 above a cornice in clear view of Central Park.

“These birds just kept coming back to the edge of the building, and people kept coming back to see them,” said Ms. Moore, who recalled at first craning her neck outside one of her windows to look up at the bottom of the nest. In more recent years, she said, she has strolled frequently across Fifth Avenue to Central Park for a better view.

“This was something we like to talk about: a kinder, gentler world, and now it’s gone,” Ms. Moore said last night.

Exactly why the nest was destroyed was unclear. A man who answered a call to 927 Fifth Avenue’s management office last night said no one was available for comment.

But Ms. Moore said other residents of the building had objected to large bird droppings and, occasionally, the carcasses of pigeons – which hawks prey upon – that landed on the sidewalk in front of their lobby. She said her husband had attended a recent co-op board meeting, and had been informed of its all-but-unanimous decision to remove the nest, even though he had objected to the move.

2004 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Yesterday was the 2004 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which we viewed from the tenth floor of Five Times Square.

The Times surveyed the scene from the street:

Soft mud squashed underfoot, idle breezes wafted into open windows, and an estimated 2.5 million spectators who lined up along Central Park West and Broadway basked in a 64-degree morning that felt more like early May than late November.

After all the hand-wringing that wind gusts might ground the giant, helium-inflated balloons, the parade turned into one of the most placid and postcard-perfect in years.

More of the postcard:

As usual, the Technicolor convoy began creeping through the Upper West Side around 9 a.m. and reached Herald Square around noon. It was led this year by a helmet-wearing Super Grover, the impish Sesame Street character.

Barbie characters sang, and Broadway actors plugged their musicals. Rock-faced marching-band leaders high-stepped by. Celebrities waved. Dancers grinned. Children in the Dakota apartment building pressed against the windows to get a better look.

Even more postcard:

Strangers took photos of one another, posed in front of giant floating turkeys. Kids played catch in the street, families planned afternoon football games, and a homeless man on 72nd Street sipped from a large Starbucks cup.

And last but certainly not least, the signature Times sociological longview:

The parade’s patriotic tone in the years after 9/11 had been subsumed by exultant commercialism.

The parade’s 59 balloons included M&M’s candies characters, Ronald McDonald and the game icon Mr. Monopoly. As they floated past, children waved and called out “SpongeBob!” and “Pikachu!” to get the balloons’ attention.

When less-commercial floats and generic turkey and elf balloons passed by, the crowds applauded politely, like parents at a mediocre piano recital.

In all, a day to remember!

Oh, and about that Pikachu thing: