Ursula Burns, the new head of Xerox, was raised on the Lower East Side. She's the first black woman to run a Fortune 500 company:
Reached at their Rochester home
Friday, Burns' teenaged daughter, Melissa, 16, called her mom "a great
person, a wonderful inspiration. "She
has taken us back to the old neighborhood a few times," said Melissa, a
reference to Delancey St. on Manhattan's lower East Side. "Apparently
it's a lot better now than it was when she was growing up." Burns, who attended Cathedral High School, was the middle of three children from two different absentee fathers. In
a 2003 interview with the New York Times, she described growing up poor
in "the projects" – with "lots of Jewish immigrants, fewer Hispanics
and African-Americans, but the common denominator and great equalizer
was poverty." Burns' mother took in ironing and ran a home day care center so she could send her kids to Catholic schools.
Bob Arihood/Neither More Nor Less – on the scene at 533 East 5th Street Monday night – where an enraged woman was throwing bottles and other things out her window, perhaps directed towards patrons of the ACE Bar. The cops responded in force.
Gotham Gazette looks at how the city's museums are coping with the economic downturn. At the LES Tenement Museum, some "precautionary" layoffs last year and more visitors, have helped cushion the blow. The article references the fact that the museum is building a new visitor center and shop.
The "Entry Level" column in the New York Times features Chino Okonkwo, who oversees the Educational Alliance's Boys & Girls Club.
The Brooklyn Rail chats with acclaimed novelist and LES resident Joan Silber about writing, travel and Buddhism.
New York Times wine guy Eric Asimov raves about "Ten Bells," on Broome Street. He says wine industry insiders love the place, not just because they sell some really interesting bottles, but because it's a good place to hang out – and you'll almost certainly be "spared the lecture" about winemaking.
