New York Magazine – July 22, 2019

6 new york | july 22–august 4, 2019

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Or go to nymag.com to respond to individual stories.

the BATTLE of GRAC E CHURCH july 8–21 | 23 | new york

ByJESSICA PRESSLER

Illustration by JOANA AVILLEZ

the oldest nursery school hat happened when

in Brooklyn decided to become a little less old-fashioned?

W

among the class riot

one percent.

A

ABOUT

NOTHING

TRUMP!

An Entire Issue With

Key-lime pie A frozen on a stick.p.

July 8–21, 2019

®

Shari Redstone➽Jessica Pressler’s triumph / on John H. Richardsonnursery-school parents on the indefatigable civil-rights lawyer acting like high-schoolers And packed instead with:/^ Irin CarmonBen Crump on^

Also: Emily Adams Bode, René Redzepi, and And: 20 specific and useful suggestions for eating outdoorsSuccession’s Sarah Snook

OTHIN

Comments

1 The most recent cover of New York—
“An Entire Issue With Nothing About
Trump!” (July 8–21)—raised more than
a few eyebrows, with HuffPost declaring,
“Donald Trump Will Totally Hate the Lat-
est Edition of New York Magazine.” The
French newsmagazine L’Obs took notice as
well and pointed out that it would be a nice
break for readers: “Histoire, sans doute,
d’accorder un peu de répit à ses lecteurs,
à l’approche des vacances.” Noel Nichols
agreed, telling us, “He injects himself in all
my media sources. Time to exclude all dis-
tractions from summer joy.” Randy Bach-
man wrote, “I just purchased the current
copy of New York Magazine. It is the first
one that I have ever purchased. The prom-
ise of an entire magazine without anything
Trump was simply too good to pass up.
I gladly paid the cover price and a $4 ship-
ping charge just to add my name to the
list of others who cringe every time we see
that name. I hope it is your best-selling is-
sue ever.” On Instagram, it received almost
30,000 likes—and an unusual amount of
comments, roughly split between enthusi-
astic and frustrated: @melrosko wrote,
“What a breath of fresh air,” and @betsys-
ingletonchoate added, “My blood pressure
thanks you.” But @les.wonders pointed
out, “Ma’am, it’s on the cover .” Reader
Ted Hicks shared this sentiment: “Regard-
less of what’s not on the inside, that cover
makes it still about Trump.”

2 Jessica Pressler’s story about the dra-
ma that ensued when Brooklyn’s old-
est nursery school was dragged into the
21st century (“The Battle of Grace
Church,” July 8–21) received much praise
online.^ Rabia Chaudry called it “so satisfy-
ing in a gross but delicious way,” and Alix

MacLean tweeted, “I loved this because

I love messy rich folks, but also the writing

is amazing?!” Others found the focus

on the very rich to be obscene: “Do we

really care about the problems of highly

privileged people and their wannabe

social-climbing director?” Maureen

Thomas asked. Commenter pswade add-

ed, “As someone who has been in the NYC

public-education field for 13 years, this

nonsense also happens in all types of

schools. Obviously less wealth but the

same ole nonsense.” Meanwhile, the story’s

comments section was filled with anony-

mous users gossiping about their own ex-

periences at the school. Brownstoner

wrote, “As a parent who has been involved

with the school and church, I can say that,

while this is sad and unfortunate, much of

it is true. While there are elements of the

school that I love, namely the teachers, the

cattiness and favoritism are unreal.” An-

other user posted a response from school

administrators that was sent to parents:

“The School neither sought out nor desired

this story to run. It is disappointing to all

of us that this reporter chose to write a di-

visive article which does not reflect the

true character of our beloved School com-

munity.” Commenter grace_church_

school_mom wrote, “I can’t speak to some

of the specific details as I’m not a board

member, but as a parent who’s had chil-

dren at Grace through the entire period

described, in my opinion this article is

incredibly accurate. I look forward to my

child returning to a much saner school in

the fall.” Inevitably, the story drew many

comparisons to another depiction of well-

heeled parents. Katie Rosman tweeted,

“Season Three of Big Little Lies right here,”

and Karen Schwartz wrote, “Ever wish Big

Little Lies was a little less dark and a little

more Tom Wolfe? Voilà.”

3 Despite hostile executives at Viacom

and CBS, unsympathetic journalists,

and the ire of her own father, Shari Red-

stone has emerged as the most powerful

woman in media (“Last Woman Stand-

ing,” by Irin Carmon, July 8–21). “Gotta

give her props on this,” Chuck Wilson re-

sponded. “She fought war after war to keep

the family business in the family. Some will

see it as personal greed and ambition,

while others will see it as business heroism.

Sometimes the rightful heir is the one will-

ing to fight for it.” Gbradley680 didn’t view

Redstone’s success in quite those heroic

terms: “That story about the Redstones

is like reading ancient Roman history.

Money can buy a fool’s paradise.”

4 In the “Look Book” (July 8–21), which

surveyed tourists disembarking from

a harbor cruise, Nicole Whitney of Canada

told us her first impression of the city was

“a Mount Everest–size pile of garbage. It

was really quite shocking.” She wrote us to

emphasize all the good things she saw after

the garbage pile: “I just want to clarify that

I do not think New York is garbage. During

my 11-minute conversation with New York

Magazine, we covered at length the exciting

experiences on my first-ever visit to the Big

Apple, from joining a live taping of Stephen

Colbert’s show (I am a huge fan) to sitting

in front at a Broadway play (featuring the

one and only Nathan Lane). It was a jam-

packed, hair-blowin’-in-the-wind, excite-

ment-crammed, once-in-a-lifetime travel

event stuffed into a mere few days in NYC!”