{"id":62,"date":"2004-12-10T14:44:25","date_gmt":"2004-12-10T22:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2004\/12\/paula_zahn_vs_pale_male.html"},"modified":"2004-12-10T14:44:25","modified_gmt":"2004-12-10T22:44:25","slug":"paula_zahn_vs_p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/12\/paula_zahn_vs_p.html","title":{"rendered":"Paula Zahn vs. Pale Male"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217;t disappoint with its turns of phrase, headlining <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/news\/regionalnews\/21279.htm\">the story<\/a>, &#8220;Poultry in Motion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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!)<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s been much interest in the co-op board&#8217;s decision to take down the nest. As it involves the wealthy and sometimes famous, there&#8217;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:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>A homeless hawk evicted from his posh nest at a Fifth Avenue co-op was spotted checking out even more expensive real-estate yesterday \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as government officials and conservation groups tried to mediate the flap [good one!].<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pale Male,&#8221; who built his nest at 927 Fifth Avenue back in 1993, was unceremoniously dispossessed along with his girlfriend, &#8220;Lola,&#8221; by the co-op&#8217;s board \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which is headed by the real estate developer Richard Cohen, the husband of CNN anchor Paula Zahn.<\/p>\n<p>A Zahn rep said she had nothing to do with the decision and &#8220;can&#8217;t speak for her husband.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But another celebrity tenant, Mary Tyler Moore, put the blame squarely on Cohen.<\/p>\n<p>Asked who was responsible for the decision, the TV legend and animal lover replied, &#8220;As you can judge from any board of directors, there is a chair. It&#8217;s not that complicated.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Quite frankly, I&#8217;m so angry, I would not want to put myself in that situation,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Other tenants in the exclusive building refused to comment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If they talk to the press, the wrath of Mr. Cohen will come down on them,&#8221; speculated one building worker. But some deals are under consideration.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>He was spotted flying above Madison Avenue, checking out the Carlyle Hotel for a new pied a terre to share with Lola.<\/p>\n<p>Moore&#8217;s fellow tenants said they objected to the birds because they tried to jam twigs between the bricks, possibly weakening the building&#8217;s fa\u00c3\u00a7ade.<\/p>\n<p>And more importantly, the hawks attracted gawkers with binoculars who, they feared, were looking into windows when the hawks&#8217; activities were not exciting enough.<\/p>\n<p>They also complained the hawks killed pigeons, whose bodies littered the sidewalk below.<\/p>\n<p>For the last several days, though, the sidewalk has been taken over by noisy protesters, including Moore.<\/p>\n<p>Several dozen of them gathered yesterday in front of the 12-story turn-of-the-century building, yelling, &#8220;Bring back the nest!&#8221; and waving signs saying, &#8220;Ebeneezer Zahn.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Moore emerged to cheers of support before disappearing into her limo. She later came back to join the demonstration.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Those lousy people should all drop dead except Mary Tyler Moore,&#8221; said Jennifer Anderson, who lives nearby.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now that winter&#8217;s coming, they take down the nest. I think these people are very much interested in themselves and don&#8217;t care about anyone or anything,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials are trying to work out a solution.<\/p>\n<p>They are speaking to the board&#8217;s representatives about building the birds their own &#8220;co-op&#8221; to keep them off the ledge they used.<\/p>\n<p>They suggest putting up a special platform that the birds could build their nest on without damaging the bricks.<\/p>\n<p>Cohen referred inquiries to the co-op&#8217;s lawyer, Aaron Shmulewitz, who insisted the board is now open to discussion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If one of these proposals is raised to the board, the board will consider it in due course and in good faith,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe has another idea \u00e2\u20ac\u201d he&#8217;s exploring the possibility of building a nesting spot in Central Park.<\/p>\n<p>That &#8220;may be a good idea,&#8221; said John Bianchi of the National Audubon Society.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t know if it will work or not. But this bird will pick where it&#8217;s going to nest,&#8221; Bianchi said. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter if you necessarily create some attractive options.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Bonus Points: Gawker on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gawker.com\/news\/culture\/\/index.php#this-was-the-year-that-the-birdies-died-027386\">which heartless souls (except for Mary Tyler Moore!) live at 927 Fifth Avenue<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.curbed.com\/archives\/2004\/12\/09\/whos_who_at_927_fifth_avenue.php\">Curbed<\/a> on the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217;t disappoint with its turns of phrase, headlining the story, &#8220;Poultry in Motion.&#8221; Apparently Pale Male is looking for new digs, eyeing in particular the Carlyle Hotel (oh, that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrity","category-manhattan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}