NYC NOW - November 20, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

Mayor Eric Adams has named Jessica Tisch, who currently leads the Sanitation Department, as the new NYPD Commissioner. Meanwhile, the MTA is planning another round of fare and toll hikes. Plus, one of Andy Warhol’s rejected portraits of Donald Trump’s Fifth Avenue skyscraper from 1981 has sold to an anonymous buyer for $750,000. WNYC’s Ryan Kailath has more. Finally, WNYC is inviting listeners to share unique Thanksgiving traditions. Bill Markey from Tarrytown, New York, recalls a moving tradition his family observes the day after Thanksgiving.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. New York City has a new police commissioner. Mayor Eric Adams has tapped Jessica Tisch, who currently runs the city's sanitation department. She would be the fourth NYPD head since Adams took office in 2022. Tish replaces interim commissioner Thomas Donlan, whose home was rated by the FBI shortly after starting the job in September. Adams praised Tish's experience managing the sanitation department and her previous work. as the head of the city's IT department.

The MTA is planning yet another set of fare and toll hikes. W.N.I.C.'s Ramsey-Kulife has more. The MTA is eyeing August of next year for a price increase, bumping the cost to ride the subways, buses, commuter railroads, or to drive across the agency's bridges and tunnels. Officials plan to raise all of its rates by 4%. That could mean the subway fare jumps up to an even $3. The agency schedules fair hikes every two years.

And documents show they're planning another. increase in March of 2027. Officials say the increases are in line with inflation and generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the MTA. The last time the fair was raised was in 2023, when the subway fare jumped from 275 to 290. Up next, a rare painting made for President-elect Donald Trump over 40 years ago went up for auction this week. Below that story after the break.

More than 40 years ago, back in 1981, Donald Trump hired the legendary artist Andy Warhol to make a portrait of his new Fifth Avenue skyscraper. There were eight made in total. And now one of the rejected paintings Warhol made was put up for auction. So we come to the final lots of this evening sale here, the Warhol, the New York skyscraper, the 81 piece here. And we shall open this up at 380,000 starts. And it sold finally to an anonymous buyer for $750,000. Congratulations, 750,000.

Warhol was arguably the most famous artist alive when he saw. first met Trump, who was not yet a household name, and the artist wrote about their ongoing encounters rather extensively in his diary. W&YC's Ryan Kaila spoke with David First for a glimpse into the world of New York High Society in the 80s. So, Ryan, this painting, Andy Warhol made of Trump Tower in 1981, just sold for $750,000. This is big-time money, as far as I'm concerned, but how does this rank for high-end art collectors? Yeah, me too, David. So, Phillips, the auction house, they priced it, the sort of estimate, at 5 to 700,000 based on, you know, vaguely similar images from the past. But art sales are just as much about the narrative and the

provenance as they are about the artwork itself. And so the auction house told me, you know, collectors have been thinking recently that if Donald Trump lost the election, this painting wouldn't sell at all. But if he won, it would sell for a huge price. In the end, it barely beat the estimate. But I also learned that Warhol priced these paintings, which Trump never bought from him, by the way, after commissioning them, at 25,000 each back in 1981. That's like 85 grand in today's dollars. So it did pretty well, even adjusted for inflation. Okay. Set the stage here, 1981, how does Trump connect with Andy Warhol? Yeah. So I actually talked to the guy who connected them. His name is Mark Ballet. He was this young star architect.

met Fran Liebuwitz in Rome, who suggested that he come and work for Andy Warhol's interview magazine, all very sexy stuff. So Mark became the art director of Warhol's interview magazine. And Ballot says Ivana Trump, Donald's first wife, asked him to ask Andy, could you do portraits of our new building? We want them to hang in the lobby, you know, two flanking the entrance to the residence floors. And, you know, Trump, think of it, Warhol is maybe the most iconic American. an artist alive and what else but the best and most beautiful for Trump Tower. So ballot set a meeting, Warhol took it from there. Well, you looked through Warhol's diaries in researching this story.

What did he have to say about Trump? The diaries are hilarious, first of all, like all of them. The first entry, really about it, is April 1981, where Warhol starts off by saying that he finds Trump really good looking. And then he goes on, here's the diary. I'm just going to quote, it was so strange. People are so rich. They talked about buying a building yesterday for $500 million or something.

They raved about the Balducci's lunch, but they just picked at it. And they didn't have drinks. They all just had tabs. I love that because we know the president-elect loves soda. Warhol goes on to describe Trump as a pretty butch guy, quote, and writes that he'll do some paintings for him. He'll do some paintings. So what does Warhol come up with? Yeah, this is all in there, too.

He makes not one, not two, but eight. paintings four silver and four gold. The ideas they go together is two sets of four. And I love this. He mixes gold glitter into the paint and ground. It sounds like he would be received warmly. Yeah, exactly. He guesses at the Trump aesthetic and puts gold glitter into the paintings. But when Trump finally sees the paintings, he doesn't like them and refuses to pay for it, which, you know, the world eventually learns that's a pattern for Donald Trump, the businessman. but this was early. Warhol is furious. Mark Ballett told me he took it all out on him. He was so angry that he did all this work for nothing and never got paid. And he calls Trump cheap

in his diary and kind of rants about the Trumps every time he sees them for the rest of his diary entries anyway. Can you do that, hire someone to make a painting, eight paintings in this case and then not pay them? Yeah. Some Warhol experts I talked to told me he did have. a few commissions rejected over the years but that you know it's pretty de-class a to do this for an artist of his stature at the time and yeah warhol rants about it in the diary for years um a year later he runs into ivana at roy cone's birthday party and writes that he really wants to tell her off about the paintings but she escapes the conversation before he could um every time they come up he writes literally quote i hate the trumps for not buying my paintings

of Trump Tower. And I'm just going to read you this last one because it's so funny and petty. Warhol writes, quote, I also hate them because the cabs on the upper level of their ugly Hyatt hotel just back up traffic so badly around Grand Central now. And it takes me so long to get home. And then in parentheses, he writes cab six dollars. Warhol always tracked his money cash expenses and his diary so he could deduct them at tax time. Mark Ballet, the guy who introduced these two. You know, Warhol called Donald Trump cheap, but Ballot said Warhol was pretty cheap too. He said this was a couple of cheapsters going at it with each other. That's WNYC's culture and arts reporter Wyand Kailoff in conversation with David First. Thanksgiving is around the corner

and we're asking WNYC listeners to share how you make the holiday unique to you and your family. What are your Thanksgiving traditions and how do they get started? Bill Markey is from Tarrytown, New York in Westchester, he shared a moving tradition his family does the day after Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving tradition is that we celebrate ribsgiving on the day after Thanksgiving. I slow roast way too many baby back ribs for many hours, and I also make pulled pork and other similar dishes. The rib meat will fall off the bones because it is so tender. We celebrate with my kids, all of whom are in their 20s, plus a small group of friends. We do this to remember my late wife, Linda, who taught me how to cook ribs before she passed away about nine years ago.

On some of our first dates, we went to a rib joint in Madawan, New Jersey. The day before Ribsgiving, we celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with my family. But on Ribsgiving, my kids remember their late mother in a special way, and I remember her too. That's Bill Markey from Tarrytown. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNMIC. Just every weekday, three times a day. I'm Sean Carlson. See you tomorrow.