A Case where a City Council Policy Analyst Called the Police Chief a Liar

On Monday, September 8th, a 30-year-old policy analyst working for the New York City Council was upset. That day, he had heard William J. Bratton, the city’s Police Commissioner, testify before the council that the use of force by NYC police officers has been steadily declining. According to Bratton, two decades ago police used force in 8.5% of arrests. In contrast, in the most recent year, just about 2% of arrests (roughly 8,000 in 400,000) “involved force use recorded by an officer.” Bratton’s testimony came in wake of concern about the deadly use of force on a man suspected of illegally selling cigarettes on a Staten Island sidewalk. Bratton said that his figures show “an extraordinary record of restraint” by the city’s police department. [1]

When policy analyst, Artyom Matusov, heard Bratton’s claims, he was sure they were wrong. Although his job as legislative analyst for the city council’s consumer affairs committee did not address criminal justice issues, he had data on the use of force that he thought contradicted Bratton’s figures.  His data showed that in 2011 a program called “Stop and Frisk” resulted in 40,880 arrests and officers self-reported the use of force in 19,360 (47.4%) of them. According to Matusov, this “Stop and Frisk” program continued in 2013 as the “Broken Windows” program, and assuming that approximately the same levels of force used in 2011 were used in 2013, the use of force by the NYPD in carrying out “Broken Windows” far exceeded the 8,000 claimed by Commisssioner Bratton.

Upset with what he thought were Bratton’s mischaracterizations (he later called them “lies”), Matusov notified the Mayor’s press office the next day (Tuesday, September 9) that Commissioner Bratton had misinformed the city council in his testimony. According to Matusov, he “was told in writing that they did not want to hear about such things from me, that it put them in an awkward position.” [2]

Loyalty and Ethics in Policy Analysis

At this point, Matusov had to decide what he would do next, if anything, to bring Bratton’s “misleading” testimony to light.  In making this decision, Matusov had an impressive education and plenty of experience to help him sort through the options. He had graduated from a top policy school, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, in 2009 with a Master of Public Policy degree, and he had been working for the NY city council for more than three years.

With his education and experience, he likely understood the nature of his conflict with his bosses. Analyst-client conflicts are not rare because the job of a policy analyst is often incompatible with the goals of his or her clients – people with responsibilities to make public policies.  Analysts in a legislative policy shop like that in which Matusov was working are typically expected to provide “objective” nonpartisan advice and information to help inform clients on policy issues. However, clients – especially elected officials – operate in political environments, and frequently politics or personal beliefs are more important than objective analysis in determining their position on an issue.

Often analyst-client conflicts raise questions of loyalty and ethics that are not easy to answer. In regard to loyalty, analysts may have different beliefs about to whom they owe their primary loyalty. Most analysts are loyal is to their immediate clients, the people who hire them, give them assignments, and evaluate them. These clients – their bosses – determine if the analysts will get rewards such as praise, promotions, and pay raises, and they likely have the power to punish or fire them.  Given the powers of their bosses, policy analysts –- most of whom are at-will employees –- do not cross their bosses if they want to be successful within their organizations and keep their jobs.  

Some analysts, however, have different perspectives on loyalty. Idealistic analysts may believe that their first loyalty should be to the “public,” the citizens who pay their salaries. Their primary concern is not the interests of their clients, but the broader idea of “public good.” 

Other analysts may believe their primary loyalty should be to the values of their profession, and they may refuse to do things they are told to do by their bosses because they view such actions as not professionally acceptable. Alternatively, some analysts may feel they should be most loyal to their own personal values and beliefs. These analysts will not be loyal to clients whom they perceive are making bad decisions.

Loyalties are important because, depending on an analyst’s hierarchy of loyalties, he or she will make different decisions when in conflict with a client.  If the conflict raises a question of the ethics of a particular action, primary loyalties will be an important consideration when an analyst decides what to do.  Consider this example:

A policy analyst has completed a professionally competent and objective policy analysis that recommended a specific policy action. The analyst’s client favors an alternative action because of his or her political beliefs or because political considerations make it preferable. The client tells the analyst that the work should not be made public (i.e., distributed to anyone, including the press, outside the organization).

Faced with this situation, analysts loyal to their client would have no problem following their client’s orders. However, analysts with primary loyalty to “the public interest,” “professional values,” or “personal values” might decide that because of their personal sense of ethics they could not withhold the analysis. 

 

Source: http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/
images/RV-AK035_HIRSCH_DV_20130322181849.jpg

When in a conflict with their bosses, analysts might turn to a classic book by Albert Hirschman to understand better their alternatives.[3] Using his framework, an analyst who strongly disagrees with the behavior or action of his or her client could consider three main alternatives:  The analyst can quit in protest if he or she feels strongly enough about the issue; the analyst can speak publicly about the issue against the wishes of the client; or the analyst can be loyal and do nothing beyond discussing it with the client.  These “exit, voice, and loyalty” options have a couple of overlaps. For example, the analyst can keep his/her job, but anonymously leak information (loyalty and voice) or can quit the job and go to the press with information he or she thinks should be made public (exit and voice). 

These various options were open to Matusov on Tuesday, September 9, after the mayor’s press office had told him to go away.  In choosing a course of action, he had to decide to whom he felt his greatest loyalty and, based on that loyalty, what action would be the most ethical. If he were a practical person, he would also have to think about the likely costs and benefits of his various alternatives, especially the likely consequences of doing anything other than keeping quiet.

Matusov’s Choice and the Aftermath

On Tuesday, September 9^th, after the mayor’s office indicated it had no interest in his allegations, Matusov chose to bring the alleged inaccurate statistics of Commissioner Bratton to the public’s attention by taking his own information to reporters.  He explained why he did so:  

After receiving [the negative] response from the executive branch of the city of New York, I knew that I had no other recourse than to go to the press, which I did immediately thereafter, since I had already informed the highest levels of government and had been informed that there was no interest. On the same day that I informed the press, I also informed the deputy chief of staff to the speaker of the facts, including sending an email to him listing the allegations I had sent to the press (emphasis added). [4]

Why did he choose to go to the press?  He explained to a newspaper reporter that he thought that following the chain of command would not have been productive:

Matusov concedes that he could have gone through “normal channels” instead of dealing directly with the media – something that’s gotten him questioned in the past, although he says he was never told to stop.

This time Matusov felt so strongly that he wouldn’t wait.

If he’d followed the usual procedure, Matusov said, “It would go up the chain, there would be some meetings about what to do, somebody would reach out to the mayor’s office. It would be soft-pedaled.”
…          

Matusov says he has no regrets about speaking his conscience – and says he’s gotten lots of support for doing so…”
“People on the Council are fed up with this,” he said. “They’re tired of being lied to.”  [5]

On Friday, September 12, three days after talking to reporters, Matusov was dismissed from his job. When a reporter interviewed him that day, Matusov asked him, “Why should I be fired for going to the Council and saying, ‘someone is lying to you’?” He told the reporter that no reason was given for his dismissal, but he think he knows why:

He’s convinced he got booted because Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito wanted to punish him for blowing the whistle on Mayor de Blasio’s police chief. “It means confronting the mayor and the mayor has a lot of goodies he can hand out,” he said. “Remember, he appointed the speaker. [6]

The following week, he filed a complaint against Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito with the city’s Department of Investigation. According to an article about his complaint, “Artyon Matusov says he was fired…for going public with allegations that Police Commissioner Bill Bratton deceived lawmakers at a Sept. 8 hearing by lowballing how often his officers use force on the job.  Matusov argues that he deserves whistle blower protections after speaking to reporters about his accusations.” [7]

A couple of weeks later, civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel told a reporter that he was going to file a suit against the city council for “improperly firing analyst Artyon Matusov, who questioned data in a report presented to the legislative body by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton…Siegel said he will argue that the city violated Mausov’s free speech rights.”   He continued, “My hope is that this lawsuit will further push Police Commissioner Bratton, Mayor De Blasio, and Council Speaker Mark-Viverito to be more accountable for their policies and actions, and help further a real debate and dialogue about how to best police and govern New York City.”  He also said that he hoped the suit would encourage other whistle blowers to speak up when they see city leaders doing wrong: “You hope that people will have the strength and courage to speak out…So many people in government are afraid to speak.” [8]

On October 14, a month after his termination, Matusov filed a claim with the comptroller of the New York City alleging that his free speech rights had been violated by the N.Y. city council when he was wrongfully terminated “because of his speech, made as a private citizen on an issue of public concern that was unrelated to his official duties at the Council.”  The claim noted that Matusov did not work on the committee before which Bratton had testified, had no involvement in the hearing, and did not regularly speak with member of the media as part of his job.

The complaint maintained that as a concerned citizen, Matusov thought that “what he believed were misleading statements” made by Bratton about use of force should be “publicly exposed.” It said that he had on September 9^th, the day he talked to reporters, told employees in the Mayor’s office and at the Council that he had contacted members of the media regarding Commissioner Bratton’s statements.”

The claim stated that the damages from the “wrongful and unconstitutional termination” were injuries to his career and economic injuries, including loss of wages, loss of potential for career advancement, mental and emotional injury and anguish, diminution of the quality of life, loss of standing in the community and humiliation.” The amount of compensation for these injuries is to be determined at a trial. [9]

Did Bratton Lie in His Testimony?

Matusov’s initial complaint against his dismissal said that he deserved protection as a whistle blower. However, the later legal actions, including the October 14^th claim, maintain that he was unconstitutionally fired for exercising freedom of speech. Likely the whistle blowing claim was largely phased out because it would require proving that Bratton had lied in his testimony. An examination of the statements by the police department and by Matusov provide little support for that conclusion; however, Bratton’s statistics were flawed by likely measurement errors and did not tell the complete story of police use of force. 

In response to Matusov’s allegations, the police department strongly denied that Bratton had lied to the council. On the day Matusov was fired, a police spokesperson, Deputy Chief Kim Royster issued this statement:

Mr. Matusov has grossly misinterpreted the statistics he used to determine that Police Commissioner Bratton has been caught in a lie before the City Council concerning the use of force in arrest situations He is comparing apples to oranges by drawing his data from Stop, Question, and Frisk worksheets which include a much broader category of actions, including placing hands on and placing handcuffs on a suspect. Using this standard our force rate would be 100% this year not 1.9%. The arrest report refers to use of a firearm, to the use of the baton, the use of O.C. Spray, and the use of hands-on physical force beyond what is necessary to effect an arrest. According to our arrest reports they were indeed used in only two of every 100 arrests so far in 2014.  [10]

As Bratton had stated in his testimony, use-of-force statistics were drawn from self-reported actions in which a firearm, a baton, a Taser, pepper spray, or extraordinary physical force was used; in contrast “use of force” in the “Stop and Frisk” and “Broken Windows” programs was defined, at a minimum, as the use of handcuffs or any physical contact.  In his testimony, Bratton had used statistics that have been compiled by the police department over many years.

Nevertheless, the use-of-force figures cited by Bratton are poor measures of the actual use of force because they are self-reported, according to a story by J. David Goodman in the New York Times. They likely understate the actual use of force. According to Goodman, some “rough arrests” may be seen by onlookers as involving the use of force, but would be considered routine by policemen and not reported. [11]

Goodman wrote, “Part of the challenge in accurately capturing the use of force by officers is that it exists as a continuum that goes from verbal command to “soft hands” to arm restraints and takedowns. In many instances, officers come to view those actions -– even pointing a gun –- as an ordinary part of an arrest, not as force.”

He pointed to another, less subjective, measure that is viewed by many experts as “the best broad measure of the use of force in arrests.” That measure is the charge of resisting arrest, and in 2013, 12,452 arrests in NYC included charges of resisting arrests. That number was about 3.1 percent of all arrests, substantially more than the 2 percent use of force that was self-reported.

According to Goodman, “the numbers [of resisting arrest charges] present a more complex picture of the interactions on city streets than a simple decline in the use of force, and they raise questions about how force is recorded by officers.”   

The Costs of Speaking Out

When Matusov made his decision to go to the press with his accusation against Commissioner Bratton he made a courageous decision that showed his primary loyalty to “the public,” “profession,” and/or “personal values.”  No doubt that he did what he thought was ethically correct and what he thought would be best for the city.

His action was also in many ways foolhardy and the outcome was predictable. Could there be any doubt that his bosses, from his primary supervisor to the speaker of the City Council, would view his action as, at best, a breach of organizational protocol, and at worst, organizational disloyalty?

The wisdom of Matusov’s action is a fertile topic for discussion by practicing and would-be public policy analysts, plus others interested in public policy making. His decision raises not only difficult questions of loyalty and ethics, but also practical questions of what was gained and what was lost by his action.

Also, his firing by the NY City Council merits discussion. Was Matusov unfairly and unconstitutionally fired because of his exercise of free speech?  What, in fact, are the free-speech rights of policy analysts (and others) working as staff members for legislators, executives and other elected officials? Does a policy analyst working for a legislative or executive office have the unrestricted right to state his or her opinion as a private citizen about matters before the office? 

All of these questions deserve attention. The one about the legality of Matusov’s termination by the city council will be answered during the coming months in New York City by the city controller and the courts. The others will will plague policy analysts far into the future as they wrestle with questions about what constitutes ethical behavior. 

Sources:

[1] J. David Goodman. Bratton’s numbers of use of force by New York police raise questions. New York Times. September 18, 2012. Accessed at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/nyregion/brattons-numbers-on-use-of-force-by-new-york-police-raise-questions.html?_r=0

[2] Celeste Katz. Fired city council analyst files DOI whistleblower complaint against Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. New York Daily News. September 19, 2014. Accessed at http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/fired-city-council-analyst-files-doi-whistleblower-complaint-speaker-melissa-mark-viverito-blog-entry-1.1945889

[3] Albert Hirschman. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. 1970.

[4] Katz. September 19 (see note 2).

[5] Celeste Katz, City council analyst: I got fired for saying NYDP’s Bill Bratton Lies about use of force. New York Daily News, September 12, 2014. Accessed: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/city-council-analyst-fired-nypd-bill-bratton-lied-force-blog-entry-1.1937978

[6] Katz, September 12 (see note 5).

[7] Katz, September 19 (see note 2).

[8] Tara Palmeri. City council to be sued after firing analyst who questions NYPD report. New York Post. September 25, 2014. Accessed at:  http://nypost.com/2014/09/25/city-council-sued-after-firing-analyst-who-questioned-nypd-report/

[9] Celeste Katz. City council analyst files whistleblower claim with controller’s office over firing. New York daily News, October 15, 2014. Accessed at: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/city-council-analyst-files-whistleblower-claim-controller-office-firing-blog-entry-1.1975469

[10] Katz, September 12 (see note 5).

[11] Goodman, September 18 (see note 1)

The Art of Bubbaville, Arkansas, Population: 2

First things first:  Bubbaville is not a city named in honor of beer-swilling, pot-bellied, deer-killing, truck-driving good-ole-boys. It is a place named (by me) after its founder and creator, Bubba McCord, who has constructed in his back yard a colorful homage to the signs and objects adorning the buildings of Arkansas's cities in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

His creation includes cultural icons of that era and offers a slice of history in what can be described as a culture- and history-based applied art project. It re-creates the feel of old downtown store fronts, concentrating an intense and seemingly random assemblage of familiar advertising signs and other artifacts that populated Arkansas in that era. Entering Bubbaville brings a smile and darting eyes that strain to take in the many details of the whirl of sights that surround you.

I first visited Bubbaville in early September. To get there, you go to Bubba’s large house in an affluent suburb in the west part of Little Rock. At the back of the house and down some stairs, you enter the streets of a city that Bubba built using the rear part of the house and some out buildings as his canvass.

The first impression is incredulity: are these storefronts really here? The second impression is "wow!" Here is what you see: 

One of the main streets of Bubbaville

Entering Bubbaville, Population:2

After the initial confusion of landing in this unexpected place, the next urge is to look at the details, many of which evoke recollections of things that you have seen elsewhere.  

A Bubbaville Door. Come on In

Get your flat tire fixed and take home some milk

The bad old days: 1

The bad old days: 2

Come in and have a soda

The dad old days: 3

Make a call for ten cents

Need to wash some clothes?

Gimme a Pop Cola, Please

The rear of a Bubbaville building

Looking around Bubbaville, so many things catch your eye. At first, the various signs, posters, and other objects compete for your attention. After a while, however, you have to marvel at the setting created to show the various artifacts in a natural habitat: the weathered and distressed wood, the uneven bricks, the strings of neon lighting, the brick wall, the stone walkway and the wooden porch. These all contribute to the feeling, the reality, the impression, the art of the installation.  

After absorbing the overall scene and examining up close the individual objects comprising it, I had to ask Bubba the obvious question. Where did you get all of these things?  Part of the answer was not surprising: many of the various advertising signs and other objects (milk can, tricycle, etc.) came from a large flea market held periodically in Texas. However, the other part of the answer was surprising:  Bubba made many of the other things, especially the advertising signs, himself.  To prove it, he showed me his huge, well-equipped studio-shop and some of the signs he has recently made and will soon be installing in Bubbaville.

Bubba's large studio-shop with wood-working and other equipment

Bubba in his shop

A Bubba-made sign

Another sign made by Bubba

A wall in the studio

As you can see from the pictures of Bubbaville, Bubba has created quite an visual feast, an installation whose colors and textures are a combination of intentional human choices and the unforeseeable impacts of air, wind, rain, the sun, and other forces of nature on the original colors and their application. He puts in one place a collection of the human-cum-nature art that we often spot on ancient brick or wood buildings, many now abandoned, scattered throughout Arkansas bearing old signs -- ghost signs -- painted decades ago. And he supplements these old signs with his bright replications of signs that once adorned buildings throughout the state.

According to Bubba, he will complete Bubbaville in the coming months. He has been making the final signs and has been trying to acquire the last artifacts (one of which, I know, is an old truck) that will complete his vision.  After seeing his talent for this type of creation, I hope he takes on another ambitious project that will provide a good outlet for his talents.

Who knew back in the old days when Bubba was either my catcher blocking curve balls in the dirt or an opponent trying to hit my curve ball that he had such a creative side.  However, I will note that some creativity is too much, such as his creative memory that I was pitching for McIlroy Bank in the Fayetteville Little League when he hit his first home in organized baseball while playing for Ricketts Drug Store. Somehow, I don't remember that at all. Of course when that happened most of the old signs and objects in Bubbaville were not yet antiques.

*************************************

For more about Bubba, me, and baseball go to this link:
 http://www.scribd.com/doc/59006218/Bubba-s-Nemesis-The-Battle-for-the-1962-Championship-of-the-Fayetteville-Babe-Ruth-League

The North Cascades Beckon!

One of the features of a drive along Interstate 5 between Birch Bay and Seattle is a view of the Cascade Mountains lying to the east. During the first part of the drive, weather permitting, Mt. Baker (a dormant volcano and third largest peak in Washington state) provides irresistible scenery.

Mt. Baker with Bellingham in the Foreground

Though the mountains have been frequently in view, I have sampled the Cascades mainly through visits to Mt. Baker, driving on a few occasions to Artist Point in the latter part of summer when the snow is finally cleared and the road to it is open. Also, I have sped several times across the Cascades driving on Interstate 90 to get from Seattle to points east. Driving this four-lane highway, I have enjoyed quick glances around, especially when crossing Snoqualmie Pass. However, I have yet to take the time to get out of the car to look around.

My resolve to devote more time to exploring and enjoying the Cascades was fortified when I recently read The North Cascades Highway: A Roadside Guide by Jack McLeod. This book has convinced me that it is time to explore the mountains. They are simply too close to ignore. My Birch Bay condo, according to Google maps, is a mere 90-minute drive from the start of a spectacular 83-mile drive across the mountains on Washington State Highway 20. The drive starts at mile 97.6 of the highway (in Rockport) and ends at mile 180 (in Mazama).

This highway, whose construction took decades, was completed only in 1972. Even now, parts of it close in the winter when deep snow and avalanches from the Washington Pass area cover it. Typically the closures occur from late November to late 
April.

When driving the highway during its open months, first-time visitors will find likely McLeod’s book of great value. It advises visitors of the best places (identified by milepost number) to stop for superior views, and it suggests trails to take to see vistas not visible from the highway. In fact, one of the main messages of the book is to get out of the car and look around.  

From the highway, visitors can see numerous high peaks (with such colorful names as Bonanza [9,511 ft.], Stiletto [7,660 ft.], Switchblade [7,805 ft], and Cutthroat [8,050 ft.]) and mountains (such as Hozomeen Mountain [8,071 ft.], Jack Mountain [9,066 ft.], Sourdough Mountain (6,120 ft.], and Crater Mountain [8,128 ft]). Also, the drive follows the Skagit River for many miles, and it goes near three large lakes (Gorge, Diablo, and Ross Lakes), all man-made to provide power to Seattle.  

A couple of the Passes (both not far from Mazama) have especially interesting features. Rainy Pass (mile 157) is, according to McLeod, “the final barrier to moisture-filled clouds from the Pacific, which drop a yearly average of fifty-six inches of rain. The pass separates the wet west from the dry east.”  This pass is also “a trail hub for hikers of all levels” writes McLeod, who suggests some alternative walks. Of course, the truly brave could get on the Pacific Crest Trail near this pass and walk a couple thousand miles to Mexico.  

Five miles from Rainy Pass lies Washington Pass (mile 162.2), which according to McLeod is “the most spectacular and most photographed slice of the North Cascades” with views of the Liberty Bell and Early Winters Spires. Because of the type of rock in this area, it is a favorite place for rock climbers.

Next year when I travel this stretch of Highway 20 for the first time, I intend to have The North Cascades Highway at my side to help determine where to stop and to assist identifying what I am seeing. The book is stuffed with pictures of views from the highway with labels identifying the prominent features. In addition to the travel advice, the book is heavy on geology (answering the question: What kind of rocks are those?), with a smattering of poetry and exhortation (“Get out of the car and look around”).  

When making this trip, I certainly plan to get out of the car and walk some (short) trails. To help with that, I am going to consult another recently published book such as Hiking the North Cascades: A Guide to More Than 100 Great Hiking Adventures by Eric Molvar or one the other books that have been written on this topic.

Danielka's Fayetteville Adventures: Summer 2014

Circumstances have made it impossible for me to spend much time at my home in Birch Bay, WA during July and August, and that was especially disappointing because my Godson – the twelve-year-old dynamo from Podolsk (Moscow Oblast, Russia) – arrived on July 5 for his annual visit. The trip to Birch Bay, with his mother Oxana, was fifth time that Danielka Kalmykov (also known as Ka-Boy “the majestic and the powerful”) has traveled there to spend much of the summer.

Awesome Danielka

When it became clear that I would not be in Birch Bay most of time when Ka-Boy and his mother were there, Danielka’s Godmother and aunt, Natalia, proposed that he, his mother, and she travel to Arkansas and stay a week in Fayetteville, where I am presently required to be. I thought that was a great idea, and the trip was on. I flew from Fayetteville to Birch Bay, where my Subaru was sitting; then the four of us drove for 32 hours to get to Fayetteville.

 The four days on the road first took us through the noteworthy scenery of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.  We poked through these states, enjoying the views and vowing to return for longer stays at different cities and sites.  During this part of the trip, Natalia and Oxana, denizens of the back seat, kept pointing out buffaloes and elk; Danielka and I responded with proper skepticism and scorn. We, in turn, kindly pointed out the grazing unicorns and dragons along the way.

 

Natalia, Danielka, and Oxana at a Scenic Spot in Washington State

Danielka claimed the shotgun seat with some vehemence. He pointed out that during the past five years or so, he had been forced to sit in the back seat. Now that he has reached 12, and of course his soul is 14 years old, it was his turn to sit in the front. The main problem with him occupying the front passenger seat was that he was not heavy enough for the sensor to know that someone was sitting in the seat. With him sitting there, a light indicated that the seat was empty and the air bag was not on. To solve that problem, every time Danielka got into the car, he carried a heavy box of books with him. When we got the signal that the passenger air bag was on, his mother would take the box and put in the back of the car.

Danielka Enjoying the Ride

Midway in the trip, we left the mountains to travel the straight roads of South Dakota, Iowa, and Missouri. We sped through these states, and Danielka amused himself by reading the Hunger Games, which he enjoyed.

On one long stretch in South Dakota, Oxana – who recently got her driver’s license in Russia – volunteered to drive. She had never driven before in the U.S. She took the wheel for an hour or so. Not only was she very nervous, the rest of us had white knuckles waiting for the inevitable crash. She did fine, at least until she ran a red light at the exit. Fortunately, we all survived and celebrated by stuffing ourselves at a Denny’s.

 

Oxana Drives for First Time in the U.S.

After leaving on a Tuesday, we arrived in Fayetteville on Friday, early in the evening. The week that followed was full of fun and firsts for Danielka. They included:

A Sunday concert at the Fayetteville Public Library. It was a surprisingly good concert by a Barrett Baber, Fayetteville singer and songwriter, who also teaches sometimes at Fayetteville High School.  He writes some great songs and is a strong performer, and he has had some recent successes, including an appearance at the 2014 Grammys. His song “Arkansas (Get There from Here)” has been selected for use in advertisements promoting tourism in Arkansas. If you have not heard him, check him out at this site:  http://www.barrettbaber.com/  or on Facebook. He will be performing with the Razorback Band at halftime of the September 20^th football game.

Danielka, who has become a serious student of the guitar, sat on the front row to watch the fingering of Baber as he played his guitar.

Danielka closely watches Baber play the guitar

First peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Danielka had his first taste of this delicacy at the Eleven Restaurant at the Crystal Bridges Museum. His mother, Oxana, also had her first taste of grits, enjoying the Shrimp and Grits selection. I savored my 3,000^th meal of tasty brown beans and cornbread. Natalia was underwhelmed by the High South Chicken Salad. See the Eleven’s lunch menu here:  http://crystalbridges.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Lunch_feb.pdf

 

Oxana enjoys her first grits

First Grapette and Moon Pie.  Later the same day that he enjoyed the pb&j sandwich, Danielka got his first tastes of Grapette (purple, containing “no fruit juice”) and Moon Pies, bought at the store at the entrance of the Walmart “Museum” on the Bentonville square.  He found both to this liking.

 

Hard-to-Find Grapette

First B-B-Q Ribs.  When the four of us stuffed ourselves at Penguin Eds, Danielka ate his first BBQ ribs.  Eating ribs was a homage to his cousin, Denis, Natalia’s son. In late 1996, when Denis arrived in Athens (GA) from Ukraine as an 11 year, he took mightily to ribs, and for months that is all he wanted to eat whenever we went out to a restaurant. Ka-Boy ate the ribs with evident enthusiasm.

Danielka chomping BBQ Ribs

First Frosty Mug of A&W Root Beer. After losing (again) some bet with Danielka, I owed him a frosty mug of A&W root beer, which I had assured him had no equal it came to slaking thirst on hot days. Shortly after getting to Fayetteville, I was chagrined to learn that Fayetteville no longer has an A&W drive in or restaurant (though the Sonic drive ins are ubiquitous). Checking the internet, I found that the nearest A&W restaurants are in Fort Smith and Siloam Springs. So the last full day on the visit, we all drove to Siloam Springs to have a large frosted mug of root beer. It did not disappoint.

Danielka and Natalia Enjoy A&W Root Beer in a Frosty Mug

A trip to Tahlequah, OK to see the Cherokee capital. We took one afternoon to visit Tahlequah. I am not sure that I have ever visited this city, though I vaguely remember playing baseball there in the early ‘60s. I was surprised to find, after a 90 minute drive through Ozark foothills, an attractive downtown and several historic buildings. We devoured tasty pizza at Sam and Ella’s Chicken Palace, which is stuffed with chicken pictures, knick knacks and artifacts (for reviews of this restaurant, see http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g106178-d1172904-Reviews-Sam_Ella_s_Chicken_Palace-Tahlequah_Oklahoma.html )  Then we spent a couple of hours at the Cherokee Heritage Center, located a short drive from downtown Tahlequah. There, we learned a little about the history of the Cherokees, and Danielka scored a colorful tee shirt that will be unique among his friends in Podolsk. See http://www.cherokeeheritage.org/

Danielka watches a demonstration of  wool dying at the Cherokee Heritage Center

On the way to Tahlequah, we stopped by the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park for a quick history of the battle and a look at some of the old buildings. (See http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/prairiegrovebattlefield/events/ ) 

The park seems improved very time I go there. 

Natalia, Danielka, and Oxana at the Latta House in the Prairie Grove Battlefield Park

Daily dog walk. One of the pleasures of Danielka’s visit was a daily morning walk by or near Lake Fayetteville and its trails with my mother’s two dogs, Abby and Peppy (aka Pepsi). Danielka does not have a dog, and has not spent much time with them. He managed to make the dogs his friends through a liberal dispensation of treats. 

He and his mother were impressed with the Lake and its trails.  See http://www.accessfayetteville.org/government/parks_and_recreation/documents/maps/Lake%20Fayetteville%20Trail%20website.pdf

Danielka gives Abby a treat

Unfortunately, the trips to Lake Fayetteville raised some concerns. On the first day, we spotted a truck near the trails that. we think, was following us to conduct secret surveillance. Every day we went to Lake Fayetteville, the truck was there. The truck, as shown below, apparently belongs to the notorious secret police of the Soviet Union, the KGB.

If the KGB was listening to our conversations, they learned that Danielka was engaged in a battle on Minecraft against a ruthless and evil player who had stolen some valuable weapons from him and was a threat to other players. Ka-Boy was enlisting other Minecraft players to stop the bad guy from further misdeeds. Also, they would have heard of the elaborate prank that Danielka was planning to play on his Birch Bay neighbor, A.J., who is near Danielka's age. The goal was to scare him as much as possible. Danielka planned this prank, in part, because A.J. had not responded to a letter Danielka had sent him when A.J. was at a French Camp. In addition, they would have gained valuable details about Claire, A.J.'s dog with whom Ka-Boy had been playing, and a smart Chihuahua who belongs to a friend of his dad in Podolsk. 

In all, it was a great week in Fayetteville that went by quickly.  Natalia and I appreciated getting the opportunity to see the mind and energy of a robust and happy kid in action. Danielka and Oxana enjoyed their new experiences in the South. 

The Past and Present of Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngass 9: The Site of Vienna’s Café Louvre

Wipplingerstrasse 27/Rennegasse 9 is the address of land located at the corner of Wipplingerstrasse and Renngasse in Vienna. It lies in the city's 1st district about three blocks from the Schottenring. This land is located near the back of Vienna's stock market (Wiener Börse). Also it is a block down Wipplingerstrasse from the massive Central Telegraph Office, which still stands but is closed. 

At present, a five-story building stands on this site. This building was constructed after World War II to replace the one destroyed during the war. Its first floor corner space is occupied by a store selling high-end furnishings.  

The street-level corner space of the previous building on the site was the location of Café Louvre from about 1895 (and maybe a couple of years earlier) until 1940, when it closed. During its final 15 years, Café Louvre was the main hangout for Anglo-American journalists. Around 1925, Robert Best, a reporter for United Press, started working out of this café, and it soon became the place where foreign reporters visited daily to keep up with breaking news. The reporters had a Stammtisch (a reserved table for regular customers) over which Best presided. More about the Café Louvre during this time can be found here at the following links:

http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2012/02/great-night-at-cafe-louvre-in-vienna.html

and 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81223692/Vienna-s-Cafe-Louvre-in-the-1920s-1930s-Meeting-Place-for-Foreign-Correspondents

The Central Telegraph  Office on Wipplingerstrasse in 2012

Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 in Roman Times

The history of Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 can be traced back to the last years of the Before Christian Era. In about 50 BCE, Rome established a military outpost called Vindobona in an area that makes up much of Vienna’s present 1^st district. Vindobona existed until about 500 A.D.   

Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 lay just outside of the fortified Roman military camp (Das Legionslager) that was defended by about 6,000 Roman soldiers. Its location is shown in the map below as the red dot by the label "Geländeabbruchkante," which means escarpment edge. The map indicates that this land was separated from the Roman camp by a stream (Ottakringer Bach) but not an escarpment. 

Map on Roman Camp and Surrounding in Vindobona
Source: http://www.roemermuseum.at/

Artifacts from Vindobona were found at Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 when work was done there in 1908 to replace a floor. A sketch of those artifacts are shown below in a picture taken from this website: http://www.roemermuseum.at/roemer/karte/renng.htm

Also remains from the Roman settlement were discovered at Wipplingerstrasse 25 (which lies across Renngasse from Wipplingerstrasse 27). The building on that land was torn down in 1896 to prepare for the construction of a new one. During the demolition, builders found Roman ruins that were described by Siegfried Weyr in his book, Wien: Magie Der Inneren Stadt (Vienna: Magic of the Inner City), published in 1968.  The following is a translation of his description of what was found on the site:

Over the centuries much has been built in Wipplingerstrasse and the construction has often exposed Roman walls, most of which, admittedly, were usually demolished and taken away. It was only in the mid-19th Century that people started paying greater attention to the ruins.

For example, when in 1896 the structure at Wipplingerstrasse 25 – the corner house at Wipplingerstrasse and Renngasse – was removed, the excavation of the floor of the entire building block revealed almost uniformly above the natural clay and gravel, which lay only 4 feet below, the following layers:  (1) a layer of small, iron oxide coated pebbles,  (2) over that lay a carbon layer 5 to 15 centimeters thick, and (3) over that was at last dirt, richly mixed with fragments of roofing tiles along with two-prong iron hooks, which were used to attach the suspended ceiling tiles to the wooden floors above.

On one fragment of the ceiling tiles one saw the beginning of the seal of the 10^th Legion; on another was that of the 14th Legion. Further, small pieces of bronze, numerous bones, and vessel debris were found, including a 25 cm bottom portion of a very large bowl whose sides were approximately 15 cm, a fragment of a second similar dish, pieces of terra sigillata, bowls with carved letters M G and S, bowl fragments with fighters, others with running and lying rabbits, fragments of containers, and clay pots with fluted handles. Also found were pieces of flooring, which might have consisted of a coarse mosaic, diamond-shaped, gray, small stones that were 6 cm long, 25 cm maximum width, 2 cm thick. The debris included very many large and small plaster pieces.

In the courtyard of the house, near the adjoining building plot to the west, one found fragments of sculptures in a wall, including the torso of a boy on whose right shoulder rested a large hand, a second large hand holding a fluted container. What eternally unsolvable mystery of murder, fire and burning -- howling, club-wielding Germanic savages, emerging from sudden night, flinging fire, screaming a piercing war cry – is hidden in these shambles! Roman Vienna was destroyed twice by fire.  (pp 387-388)

The Early Years of Café Louvre: Zionist Meeting Place

While I have no documentation of how the land at Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 was used during the first 1400 years after the Romans left Vindobona, I do know that in 1895 it was occupied by a five-story building that had been there for some time. In 1895, and perhaps for a few years earlier, the first floor of the building was the site of Café Louvre.
  
Although the year of Café Louvre’s opening cannot be determined with precision,it is certain that it was operating in 1896 and some evidence indicates that it had been open for a few years previously. The evidence can be found in a book by Yoram Hazony, The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul. He wrote about events in 1896 that took place in Café Louvre. These events centered on Theodor Herzl and the development of the international Zionist movement. In discussing a key meeting held on September 15, 1896, Hazony wrote:

Vienna was home to a number of Hebrew enthusiasts, veterans of the Kadimah dueling society, and other Zionist oddities, who had been meeting every Tuesday night at the Café Louvre for years without much of anything to show for it. Herzl had kept the Vienna Kadimah at arm’s length since the publication of his pamphlet [Die Judenstadt], but now he called upon them to assist in establishing a head office, which in short order began agitation for a Jewish state among Jews everywhere. (P. 119, Italics added).

Thus, according to Hazony, Café Louvre had been a meeting place for Zionist “for years” before 1896, when Herzl returned to Vienna and began actively leading the Zionist movement. Harzony's statement was backed up by another author, Ernst Pavel, in his book From the Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl. He also observed that “Zionist stalwarts” had been meeting, prior to 1896, every Tuesday night “for years” at the Café Louvre (p 309).

The name of the owner of Café Louvre is not certain. However, it likely was Wilhelm Aldor, who ran the cafe with his wife Karoline.  Friedrich Scheu, a Viennese who was part of the circle of journalists who frequented Café Louvre in the 1930s, wrote in his book Der Weg ins Ungewisse (p. 298) about its closing on June 1, 1940, noting that its owner was Karoline Aldor, widow of Wilhelm, who had died in 1936.  

Whoever opened Café Louvre and whatever its opening date, it appears that from its beginning years it was frequented by Jewish intellectuals and Zionists. Mark Gelber wrote in his book, Melancholy Pride: Nation, Race, and Gender in German Literature, that Café Louvre was "a meeting place for Viennese Zionists and aspiring Jewish writers" and it "served as de facto headquarters of the [Die Welt]." (p. 26). Die Welt was a weekly paper founded by Herzl as the voice of the Zionist movement. Its first edition was published on June 3, 1897 and it survived his death in 1904, remaining “the central publication of the Zionist movement until the start of WWI.” 

Several accounts describe Herzl working on Die Welt at the Café Louvre during his time in Vienna. Also, much of Herzl’s staff for the newly formed international Zionist mass movement came from the men who had been meeting “for years” at Cafe Louvre before Herzl returned to Vienna in August 1896. In his book, Pavel wrote that the core of the Vienna general staff assembled by Herzl consisted of “dedicated but hitherto ineffectual Zionists" who had been meeting for several years at Café Louvre” (p. 309. They included physician Moses Schnirer, lawyer Ozer Kokesch, Odessa-born engineer Johann Kremenezky, Shakespeare scholar Leon Kellner, and Leopold Loebl, a relative of Herzl and a financial expert.  This list of names includes some of Café Louvre’s earliest customers.

A picture taken of Herzl and the Vienna Zionist group at the Café Louvre can be seen at the following link (the picture is copyrighted):  

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/theodor-herzl-and-viennes-zionists-in-the-cafe-louvre-news-photo/56456465  
Information about the picture provided by the agency that owns it says it was taken in 1896 at Café Louvre. However, Israel Cohen in his book, Theodore Herzl, Founder of Political Zionist, identified the picture as a “Conference for the founding of Die Welt at Café Louvre, February 1897.”  

Café Louvre continued to be frequented by Zionists and Jewish intellectuals for many years after the turn of the century. For example, the February 23, 1912 issue of the Jüdische Zeitung, published in Vienna, lists Café Louvre as a location where tickets could be purchased for a planned Jewish fundraising event. 

Of course, Café Louvre had competition for Zionist patronage from other cafes. The 1912 paper contained adverisements Café Maria Theresia,  Maria Theresianstrasse 10 (1st District), Café Jägerhof (Weiss), Porzeggargasse 22 (9^th District) and Café Marienbrücke, Rotenthurstrasse 31 (1st District). The last two cafes labeled themselves as the “Rendezvous der Zionisten".

There is evidence that as late as 1925, about the time the American and English correspondents started frequenting Café Louvre, it was still a place where Jewish intellectuals congregated. Micheal Scammell wrote in his biography of Arthur Koestler (p. 44) that in 1925, when Koestler was a failing engineering student living with his parents in Vienna, he decided to go to Palestine:

Relying on his prominence in the Revisionist movement and on his growing chutzpah, he marched to the Café Louvre and asked his friends in Unitas [a Jewish academic group] for a loan of one thousand shillings for the journey. They rallied loyally, and even helped him procure a previous immigration certificate.

Pictures of Café Louvre in the Zionist Years and Beyond

We can see what Café Louvre looked like during its early years in three post cards published near the turn of the century. These cards, two mailed in 1898 and other probably in 1900, feature the recently built Beamten-Verein (Public Officials Association) building, located at the corner of Wipplingerstrasse and Renngasse, but also show its neighbor across Renngasse from it. That neighbor was the Café Louvre.

The first picture shows that Café Louvre (in the darker building on the right side of the photograph) was on the first floor of a five-story building. It had an awning covering an outdoor seating area located along Wipplingerstrasse. The building is a darker color than the new Beamten-Verein Building, likely showing it aging. This postcard is undated, but probably was taken in about 1900. 

The second picture was taken in the same direction as the first, but from a location much closer to Café Louvre. The cafe is the first-floor of the building in the foreground on the right. Its awning and seating area lies just beyond the Josef Flamm sign. The street ahead is Wipplingerstrasse and the Beatem-Verein Building is the light building up the street from the cafe. Another large building across Wipplingerstrasse from the Beamten-Verein is on the left side of the postcard. Note that this postcard is dated December 24, 1898.

The third postcard, dated August 29, 1898, shows mostly the Beamten-Verein building, with a sliver of Café Louvre and its awning to the far right. The title underneath the picture says:  New Administration Building of the First General Civil Service Association of the Austria-Hungary Monarchy, Vienna I, Wipplingerstrasse 25, Corner of Renngasse. 

Cafe Louvre After WWI

At some point in the middle 1920's, the Café Louvre transitioned from being the hangout for Zionists and Jewish intellectuals to being the place where Anglo-American journalists, and their friends, congregated. Perhaps these two groups overlapped for some months or years, but the few accounts of the Café Louvre Circle that exist do not mentioned that the cafe was shared regularly by the two groups.

I have found no good information on the transition, but it has some irony. The man most responsible for making the Café Louvre the de facto headquarters for foreign journalists, as I mentioned earlier, was Robert Best. For some reason, likely its proximity to the Central Telegraph Office, Best started spending his time in this cafe and in the years that followed other American and British journalists joined him. By 1928, it was known as the place journalists congregated and when, for example, J.W. Fulbright arrived in  Vienna that year to visit for a few months, he went in the evenings to the Café Louvre listened to the discussions of Anglo-American journalists (see Woods, p. 36)..

The irony of the transition is that Best, born in South Carolina, ended up being a strong anti-semite.  He stayed in Vienna after the Anschluss and remained in Germany after it was at war with the United States. During the war, his toxic anti-Semitic messages were broadcast from Germany to the United States as part of its propaganda campaign. After the War, Best was captured by the U.S. forces and convicted of treason.

So far, I have found only one picture of Café Louvre taken after World War I. One version of it -- quite fuzzy -- was published in a 1968 issue of Der Spiegel (the German weekly news magazine) to illustrate a story about Kim Philby, the double spy, who hung around the Café Louvre in 1933 and 1934. Here is the picture it published. 

The same uncropped picture is available from a Viennese website. According to information provided with the picture, it was taken on June 3, 1940,two days after the cafe was closed. 

This picture was taken from a spot on the first block of Renngasse, looking up an incline. The Beamten-Verein Building (not pictured) was located to the left of this building. Note that the awning and seating area are gone. Also, the building seems to have a light exterior, indicated that it likely had been cleaned in recent years.

http://www.bildarchivaustria.at/Pages/ImageDetail.aspx?p_iBildID=13001876

Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 After WWII

In his memoirs, William Shirer described how he had gone to search for Café Louvre on his first trip to Vienna after World War II, but had found only a collapsed building at the Wipplingerstrasse/Renngasse site. (The Beamten-Verein building and the Central Telegraph building, however, did survive the war.) A few years after the end of the war, a new building was constructed at Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9, apparently using the plans of the previous building.  

In the new building, shown below, the space where Café Louvre was located is occupied by Roche Bobois, a French retail store selling very expensive furniture. Remarkably, if you compare the front of Café Louvre in 1940 and to the front of Roche Bobois in 2013, you will see that the windows and stone design around the windows look the same. Also, the same balcony stands over the corner entrance. Perhaps, although I cannot determine for sure, the corner entrance has the same statues decorating it.  

If visitors go by Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 today, they will see a facade that is very similar to the facade that was at this site before World War II.  Thus, it is still possible to get a sense of the look of the exterior of Vienna's Café Louvre seventy years after it was destroyed.

Sources:
Cohen, Israel. 1959. Theodor Herzl, Founder of Political Zionism. Thomas Yoseloff. Available at https://archive.org/details/theodorherzlfoun00cohe

Gelber, Mark. 2000. Melancholy Pride: Nation, Race, and Gender in German Literature.  M. Niemeyer.

Haber, Peter. 1997. Zionism in Austria. In Haumann, Heiko (ed.), The First Zionist Congress in 1897: Causes, Significance, Topicality. Accessed at http://www.hist.net/datenarchiv/haber/texte/105232.pdf

Herzl, Theodor. 1922. Tagesbuecher (1895-1904). Juedischer Verlag. [free Google download]

Herzl, Theodor. 1896. Der Judenstaat. Available here: 

Hazony, Yoram. 2001. The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul. Basic Books

Pavel, Ernst. 2011. From the Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl. Macmillan (available as Google e-book).

Scammell, Michael. 2009. Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic. Random House.

Scheu, Friedrich. 1972. Der Weg ins Ungewisse, Österreichs Schicksalskurve 1929-1938 Molden 

Weyr, Siegfried. 1968. Wien:  Magie Der Inneren Stadt.  Paul Zsolnay Verlag,

Woods, Randall B. 1995. Fulbright: A Biography. Cambridge University Press.