The Hightower Report

Battle of the Green

Tavern on the Green is one of New York City's iconic places. With a tranquil setting in the city's beautiful Central Park, this legendary, decades-old eatery and banquet hall is enormously popular. But, suddenly, the tranquility has been shattered by someone seemingly determined to turn the landmark tavern into Blood on the Green.

In September, Dean Poll was awarded the lease to operate the city-owned Tavern on the Green, taking over from the family that ran it for 33 years. Right off the bat, the new owner made a proposal to the Hotel Trades Council, the union that represents some 400 chefs, waiters, prep cooks, and other Tavern employees. His proposal can be summed up in one word – or rather, sound: "thbbbllll."

Poll wants to trash the existing agreement that had been negotiated with the union and replace it with a new, 23-section dictum that essentially says, "Poll rules." Among his rules: a two-tier wage system to bust the middle-class pay that workers now earn; minimum wage for waiters ($4.65 an hour, plus tips); no pay for overtime; total deunionization of sous chefs, coat-checkers, and other positions; no advance notice of schedule changes, layoffs, or reduction in hours; and pension and health plans to be altered to suit the new jefe.

Poll believes that "outdated rules can't work in the new economy." New economy? This is a restaurant! Nothing "new" about it! Chefs, servers, and all the other professionals on the job are what make the place a success. Outdated rules? Those rules create America's middle class. Nothing "outdated" about them.

What we have here is just another greed-head in action – and the Battle of the Green is on! Calling Poll's proposal "an atrocity," union President Peter Ward says: "We will strike this guy for a hundred years." To connect to their effort, go to www.nyhtc.org.

Taxpayers Art Museum

Poor Wall Street – several of the biggest banks have discovered that they have a new problem. It's not another batch of toxic assets or proposal to rein in bankster greed. Believe it or not, their problem is art.

Wall Street hucksters are masters of the art of financial deception, but this problem has to do with actual art. Lots of it. And they don't know what to do with it.

Banks that you and I bailed out with billions of our tax dollars turn out to be holding some of the largest private art collections in the country. In the heady days of anything-goes financing and bank mergers, many of the giants accumulated the works of known artists to cover their many walls, impress clients, and buff up their corporate images. Deutsche Bank, for example, owns 60,000 pieces, UBS has 40,000, and JPMorgan Chase is home to 30,000.

These cultural treasures adorn bank atriums, lobbies, boardrooms, and hallways – but much of it is simply boxed up and stashed in basements. Many of the banks have no idea what they have in storage – including those that care nothing about the art but acquired their collections when they took over other banks.

These works have real value, not only in terms of dollars, but also in terms of ... well, art. Art that the public could appreciate, enjoy, and even be touched by if it were displayed somewhere besides bank hallways and basements.

The entire Wall Street empire would have collapsed had it not been for trillions of dollars in public money that was used to shore them up. As a small gesture of gratitude for the public's generosity, the valuable pieces should come out into the open for everyone to see. We could call it the Taxpayers Art Museum and tour it all around the country. At least we could see some of what we paid for.