( J. David Ake )
Gale Brewer, current Manhattan Borough President (who won the June primary for her old City Council seat) quizzes listeners on how well they know Manhattan.
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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. As I said before, during this membership drive, we'll break it up with some fun each day in the form of a New York, New Jersey geography quiz. We’ll go borough by borough and region by region with guest quiz masters every day beginning today with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer with a Manhattan geography quiz. Hi, Borough President. Welcome back to WNYC.
Gale Brewer: Thank you very much, Brian. This is my favorite show. I certainly love your quizzes.
Brian Lehrer: Listeners if you want to give it a shot, and you don't have to be from Manhattan to play, give us a call 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280. That's not our pledge line. We will never ask you to donate to the station when you're on the air. This is our regular on airline. If you want to play Manhattan Geography Quiz 646-435-7280, and if you get just two in a row, you win a Brian Lehrer Show mug. Yes, prizes and everything. Gale, as calls are coming in, as Manhattan BP, what was it like getting to know more corners of the borough than you might have known before?
Gale Brewer: It was fabulous, certainly all the way from Marble Hill to the bottom of Manhattan in Battery Park City. There are so many places that I did not know and have gotten to know. It is a great, great borough. I love that it's so big and so diverse. There's some books that have come out. One woman did walk every single block in Manhattan and she has written out a book about it. I have learned a lot and love every bit of it.
Brian Lehrer: That is really cool. Okay, our first player is going to be Harry in Manhattan. The way it will work is Gale's going to ask the questions, I'm going to kibitz, and we'll see what happens. Hi, Harry, you're on WNYC.
Harry: Good morning. I'm ready.
Brian Lehrer: Go for it, Gale.
Gale Brewer: Forget riding mowers, in what Manhattan Park were goats recruited to trim the grasses and other plants?
Harry: That would be Riverside Park.
Brian Lehrer: That is right. That's one out of two. One more and you win a Brian Lehrer Show mug. Gale, were you involved with that at all? We hear goats trimming the grass. Oh, maybe this was 1911. It was just two years ago, right?
Gale Brewer: It was fabulous. It was run by Dan Garodnick who's head of the Riverside Park Conservancy. There must have been 3,000 people the first time the goats arrived, and then they came back. I think it was the biggest event on the west side. Then people kept going back to the fence while the goats chewed. It was wonderful. Of course, Gotham means Goat Town in old English according to the Conservancy. He was having fun with that Dan Garodnick.
Brian Lehrer: Wait, I did not know that. Gotham, and of course we call New York Gotham, our local news website is Gothamist. For that reason, Gotham means what?
Gale Brewer: Goat Town in Old English.
Brian Lehrer: Wow.
Gale Brewer: [laughter]
Biran Lehrer: Because there were a lot of goats here in 1609 or what do you know?
Gale Brewer: I guess so. I know that Dan Garodnick is great at coming up with these wonderful fun facts.
Brian Lehrer: All right. Now, you know folks Gotham means Goat Town. All right, one more question for Harry in Manhattan.
Gale Brewer: It was scandalous that there were no statues of real-life women in Central Park until last year. What three New York women are now depicted in a work that commemorates the ratification of the 19th amendment?
Brian Lehrer: I'm going to amend this question and just say, if you get any one of the three, we'll give you the mug.
Harry: Okay. I'm pretty sure one of them is the woman from Upstate who they're talking about putting on the hairstyle-- Oh, I can't think of her name or could be the congresswoman from Brooklyn.
Brian Lehrer: Oh.
Harry: The first Black woman to run-- Oh, I can't think of her name. I think those are probably two of the three.
Brian Lehrer: Harry, one of the person from Upstate, yes, the congresswoman. You have to be able to name that person from Upstate once upon a time.
Harry: I'm sure I’d pick it out of 50, but I can’t think of it.
Brian Lehrer: I’m sure you would know as long as you saw it. [crosstalk]
Harry: That's what happens in old age.
Brian Lehrer: [laughter] Harry, thank you very much. You got the goats. I thought that was the hard one. All right, we're going to give David in Brooklyn a shot at this question if he heard it. David, hi, you’re on WNYC. Ready to play, and did you hear that question?
David: I did hear it. Susan B. Anthony?
Brian Lehrer: That is right. The three were Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Gale, I think you have a fun fact on this one too, right?
Gale Brewer: Yes, it's a monument to knitting, too, because Sojourner Truth posed knitting in her lap. It's a very wonderful fun fact.
Brian Lehrer: All right. Give David in Brooklyn one more question. If he gets this one right, he wins a Brian Lehrer Show mug.
Gale Brewer: What subway line runs further uptown on the island of Manhattan, the A or the 1?
Brian Lehrer: We're asking somebody from Brooklyn this question. I don't know if you've ever been up there, David, but the A or the 1?
David: I’ve delivered for Amazon a lot by trains. I’m pretty sure it's the A.
Brian Lehrer: Oh, you had a 50% chance of getting that right, but you got it wrong. I happen to know this because I live near there. It's the 1 train. The last stop on the A is 207th Street. The last Manhattan stop on the 1 is to-- What I said? The last stop on the A is 207th Street. The last stop on the number 1 in Manhattan before it goes to the Bronx is 215th Street. When I tell people that I live near there, Gale, people are shocked that there [unintelligible 00:06:36] 215th Street in Manhattan.
Gale Brewer: [laughter]
Brian Lehrer: All right. As a segue, we'll give Liz in Inwood all the way up there at those subway stop a shot at the next set of questions. Hi, Liz. Ready?
Liz: Hi, Brian. Hi, Gale.
Gale Lehrer: How are you? [crosstalk]
Brian Lehrer: Borough president, go ahead.
Gale Brewer: Are you ready for the next question? Okay, Manhattan we know is an-- [crosstalk]
Liz: I am.
Gale Brewer: Oh, good. We know that Manhattan is an island, but the borough of Manhattan incorporates other islands and part of the mainland. Can you name three other islands in the borough that are part of Manhattan?
Liz: City Island, oh, no, that's Bronx. Wards Island, Randalls Island, I have to name three. Oh.
Brian Lehrer: In [unintelligible 00:07:32].
Liz: Oh, Governors Island is part of Manhattan. Thank you.
Brian Lehrer: [laughter] That was a really good clue. There are more Gale, right?
Gale Brewer: Yes, there are. There’s Liberty Island. I sometimes count Ellis Island even though it's shared by New Jersey, which is always upsetting to me, but certainly Ellis Island. It's interesting Mill Rock which is in the East River I've been there. Randalls and Wards are actually joined by Landfill. They are two different islands. Obviously, Roosevelt Island and U Thant Island, those are the ones that I know of.
Brian Lehrer: U Thant Island named after the former UN Secretary-General U Thant. What was that one you said? There's one I actually never heard of on that list, Mill Rock?
Gale Brewer: Mill Rock, yes. It's really a rock. I have to be honest with you. I've been by it in a boat. I know where it is. It looks like a rock.
Brian Lehrer: Even if it’s a rock in a body of water, it’s an island. All right, Liz, that's one. One more and you win a Brian Lehrer Show mug. Gale, head on.
Gale Brewer: If you were listening to the show on Monday, you should know this one. What's the name of the indigenous people who inhabited Manhattan prior to the Dutch?
Liz: Oh, the Lenape and Curtis was a wonderful guest.
Brian Lehrer: Curtis Zunigha, Head of the Lenape Center. Yes, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
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Liz: Yes.
Brian Lehrer: Liz, we’re going to take your contact information. We will mail you out a Brian Lehrer Show New York skyline mug. Awesome, let's go next to-- I don’t think somebody in the Catskills might know Manhattan well enough for this. Kathy in the Catskills, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kathy.
Kathy: Hi Brian. How are you doing?
Brian Lehrer: Good. Ready to go?
Kathy: Ready to go with my eight-grade upper west side supporter. Hi, Gale.
Gale Brewer: Thank you so much for being here, Kathy.
Brian Lehrer: You have an eighth-grader with you there, is that what you're saying?
Kathy: No, no. We love Gale in our house. She's a huge supporter of us parents on the upper west side and in the Catskills.
Brian Lehrer: Got you. Okay, Gale, what you got?
Gale Brewer: Which park in Manhattan is the site of the largest remaining primeval forest in in Manhattan?
Kathy: Oh, I would say that would be Central Park or Uptown. Uptown-- I'm going to say Central Park. I don't know.
Brian Lehrer: Oh, sorry, Kathy. We're going to have to let you go and go onto the next caller. We'll give Josh in Astoria a shot at that question. Josh, hi and the question is which park in Manhattan is the site of the largest remaining primeval forest in Manhattan?
Josh: Inwood Park, Inwood Hill Park.
Brian Lehrer: Inwood Hill Park is right.
Josh: I'm a ringer, actually. I worked for the Parks Department.
Brian Lehrer: Wow. We gave you exactly the right question. All right, one more, and you'll win a Brian Lehrer Show mug. Gale, what you got for him?
Gale Brewer: This is also an Uptown question. Coogan's was a beloved bar that came back from a rent strike with the help of neighbors, including some celebrity like Lynn Manuel maybe, only to close last year in the midst of the lockdown, but it lives in a new documentary premiering on PBS this weekend. What neighborhood rallied around this bar that lasted 35 years.
Josh: I know Coogan's Bluff is on 155th street area. I'm going to say Coogan's Bluff.
Brian Lehrer: It's the name of the neighborhood that we're looking for?
Josh: Oh, oh, Sugar Hill Harlem area, I'm not exactly the Washington Heights.
Brian Lehrer: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, eventually.
Josh: I got it?
Brian Lehrer: Eventually, you got there. You kept going north bit by bit by bit, and you got there, Washington Heights. Josh, hang on, we're going to take your contact off the air and send you a Brain Lehrer Show mug. Listeners, it's the Manhattan Geography Quiz. Tomorrow is going to be Brooklyn, by the way, with a very special guest, the writer, Jacqueline Woodson. We've got a few minutes left with the Manhattan Borough President, Gale Brewer with the Manhattan Geography Quiz for today. By the way, before we leave Uptown Gale, I see that you have one fun fact to share about the geography of Manhattan, which is that part of it is actually considered by many people part of the Bronx.
Gale Brewer: Yes.
Brian Lehrer: You can just say what that is.
Gale Brewer: I would say it's called Marble Hill, and what's fun about it is when there was a town hall sponsored by the Borough President of the Bronx, Ruben Diaz Jr, and I heard he was going to say, "Marble Hill is part of the Bronx." I said, "No, no, no." I brought the Manhattan flag, which is humongous, it's really huge and I rolled it out as he mentioned, Marble Hill, he has never again brought it up. [laughs]
Brian Lehrer: It's weird. You can't tell where-- because you do have to cross the water there, that water like the Spuyten Duyvil goes around the top of Manhattan, and then you're in Marble Hill or you're in Kingsbridge or in Riverdale and technically, at least for a few blocks there, you're in Manhattan technically, and that's where the political representation is from Manhattan if you're in that-- what seems like south part of the Bronx there. All right, another caller, Amy in Manhattan. Hi, Amy, ready for some questions?
Amy: Yes, I hope. I will see.
Brian Lehrer: Go ahead, Gale.
Amy: [inaudible 00:13:41] Marble Hill?
Gale Brewer: No, this is another question. The East Harlem market--
Brian Lehrer: Go ahead, Gale. Amy just--
Gale Brewer: The East Harlem--
Brian Lehrer: You'll get it?
Gale Brewer: This is the question. The East Harlem marketplace La Marqueta has an unusual roofline. What makes it so distinctive?
Brian Lehrer: Wow. That's an obscure one for me. The East Harlem marketplace, La Marqueta has an unusual roofline. What makes it so distinctive?
Amy: Sorry. I don't know.
Brian Lehrer: Sorry, Amy. Thanks for trying.
Gale Brewer: Maybe think about where it is. Go ahead.
Brian Lehrer: Give us the answer to that one, Gale.
Gale Brewer: It's directly underneath the elevated Metro-North tracks between east 111th and 116th street.
Brian Lehrer: That make it pros.
Gale Brewer: You have to be maybe from East Harlem. I'm there all the time. It's the tracks that make it unusual.
Brian Lehrer: All right. Let's try Jefferson in Manhattan. Hi Jefferson, ready for a quiz question?
Jefferson: Hi. I'm so ready.
Brian Lehrer: I think they're getting harder as we go along here. Gale, go ahead.
Gale Brewer: Manhattan has one lighthouse on its shore. Where is it, and what is it called?
Brian Lehrer: We'll take either one of those.
Jefferson: It's the Little Red Lighthouse under the George--
Brian Lehrer: Oh, you knew both? Go ahead.
Jefferson: I've been there many times. It's the Little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge.
Brian Lehrer: Absolutely right. Put there in 1921 and officially-- I'm reading this now, I did not know it, named Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse, even though, Gale, everybody knows it as the Little Red Lighthouse. All right, one more, and then we're going to be out of time for the segment. Gale, what you got for him?
Gale Brewer: What happened at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights that we should all know?
Jefferson: What happened-- What's the name of the Ballroom, one more time?
Gale Brewer: The Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights that we should all know? It's in Washington Heights, it's a ballroom. Somebody was killed to give you a little bit of an hint.
Jefferson: Somebody was killed for the [unintelligible 00:15:55] This is new to me. Oh my God. I'm guessing I can't ask for a clue.
Brian Lehrer: Very famous person was killed there, as far as we can go with clues.
Jefferson: Oh my God. Oh, no. Oh, no.
Brian Lehrer: 1965, last clue.
Jefferson: 1965. Malcolm X?
Brian Lehrer: Yes.
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Jefferson: Yes, yes.
Brian Lehrer: You snatched victory from the joys of defeat, Jefferson.
Jefferson: Oh my gosh.
Brian Lehrer: Therefore you snatch a Brian Lehrer Show mug from the joys of our closet. Thank you for playing. Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President, actually outgoing Manhattan Borough President, and some people know it's next for you, right?
Gale Brewer: Yes. Going to be, going back to the City Council.
Brian Lehrer: We will have you back on in that capacity. We're planning a City Council series for next year and so many new people are inaugurated. This was great. You were a great Quizmaster for our Manhattan Geography Quiz. Manhattan Borough President, Gale Brewer, thank you so much.
Gale Brewer: Thank you.
Brian Lehrer: Tomorrow, it's a Brooklyn Geography Quiz with the writer, Jacqueline Woodson. More to come on today's Brian Lehrer Show, stay with us.
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