The owner of an Upper West Side "emporium" for breast-feeding has filed a discrimination complaint against the landlord, the Pythian condominium on West 70th Street, according to an article today by Elissa Gootman at nytimes.com.
"For legions of lactating women in one of Manhattan's most productive precincts," the article said, "it has become an essential destination: a place to buy breast pumps and BPA-free bottles, and to bond over the myriad challenges of what is supposed to be the most natural thing in the world. The windowless emporium on West 70th Street has not just nursing bras but nursing blouses, nursing tank tops and nursing dresses, with a name, though high in snicker potential, that perfectly captures the neighborhood zeitgeist: The Upper Breast Side."
The article said that the boutique is colliding with the building's board and the "picayune rules of a fancy apartment building, in this case the Pythian, a legendary landmark originally built as an exclusive - and, yes, all-male - lodge."
"After a member of the board of the Pythian, a condominium whose ground-floor space the Upper Breast Side occupies, complained that its brass door was improperly ajar," the article continued," and fined it $250 - the owner, Felina Rakowski-Gallagher, filed a discrimination complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights. The door, she said, was too heavy for pregnant women and stroller-pushing mothers to open safely, according to the article.
The article said that the state found "sufficient evidence" to support the complaint, and recommended a public hearing; a settlement conference is scheduled for March 23.
The board of the Pythian has escalated the argument, the article said, stating that the Upper Breast Side is not a consultancy or resource center, as Ms. Rakowski-Gallagher described it when she bought the space five years ago - but a retail store.
"Your use of the unit is not permitted under the building's certificate of occupancy, which authorizes only 'doctors offices' on the first floor," reads a letter from the board's president, Laura Hartstein. "The building is located within the R8B zoning district, a residential district, in which commercial/retail uses are not permitted."
Ms. Rakowski-Gallagher, 47, a former police officer who turned in her badge to start the business from her apartment 11 years ago, maintains that the Upper Breast Side is no mere store but a "community facility," which residential zoning allows. "They're just blinded to what we do here for the nursing community," she said in an interview in the article.
The Bloomberg administration has been promoting breast-feeding among new mothers in public hospitals and by advising companies on how to create lactation programs for their nursing employees, article noted, adding that "last month, Michelle Obama told reporters at a roundtable that she would promote nursing as part of her campaign to reduce childhood obesity, and the Internal Revenue Service decided that it would grant mothers a tax break on pumps and other supplies."
The Pythian is located at135 West 70th Street was erected in 1926 and designed by Thomas W. Lamb. It has 11 floors and was 88 condominium apartments.
In an August 24, 2003 article in The New York Times, Christopher Gray noted that the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order founded in 1864, sold their "show-stopping" building "with its colorul mid-block facade of movie-set Egyptian forms and seated Pharaonic figures" in 1958 to the New York School of Technology and it was later converted to apartments in the 1980s.
"For legions of lactating women in one of Manhattan's most productive precincts," the article said, "it has become an essential destination: a place to buy breast pumps and BPA-free bottles, and to bond over the myriad challenges of what is supposed to be the most natural thing in the world. The windowless emporium on West 70th Street has not just nursing bras but nursing blouses, nursing tank tops and nursing dresses, with a name, though high in snicker potential, that perfectly captures the neighborhood zeitgeist: The Upper Breast Side."
The article said that the boutique is colliding with the building's board and the "picayune rules of a fancy apartment building, in this case the Pythian, a legendary landmark originally built as an exclusive - and, yes, all-male - lodge."
"After a member of the board of the Pythian, a condominium whose ground-floor space the Upper Breast Side occupies, complained that its brass door was improperly ajar," the article continued," and fined it $250 - the owner, Felina Rakowski-Gallagher, filed a discrimination complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights. The door, she said, was too heavy for pregnant women and stroller-pushing mothers to open safely, according to the article.
The article said that the state found "sufficient evidence" to support the complaint, and recommended a public hearing; a settlement conference is scheduled for March 23.
The board of the Pythian has escalated the argument, the article said, stating that the Upper Breast Side is not a consultancy or resource center, as Ms. Rakowski-Gallagher described it when she bought the space five years ago - but a retail store.
"Your use of the unit is not permitted under the building's certificate of occupancy, which authorizes only 'doctors offices' on the first floor," reads a letter from the board's president, Laura Hartstein. "The building is located within the R8B zoning district, a residential district, in which commercial/retail uses are not permitted."
Ms. Rakowski-Gallagher, 47, a former police officer who turned in her badge to start the business from her apartment 11 years ago, maintains that the Upper Breast Side is no mere store but a "community facility," which residential zoning allows. "They're just blinded to what we do here for the nursing community," she said in an interview in the article.
The Bloomberg administration has been promoting breast-feeding among new mothers in public hospitals and by advising companies on how to create lactation programs for their nursing employees, article noted, adding that "last month, Michelle Obama told reporters at a roundtable that she would promote nursing as part of her campaign to reduce childhood obesity, and the Internal Revenue Service decided that it would grant mothers a tax break on pumps and other supplies."
The Pythian is located at135 West 70th Street was erected in 1926 and designed by Thomas W. Lamb. It has 11 floors and was 88 condominium apartments.
In an August 24, 2003 article in The New York Times, Christopher Gray noted that the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order founded in 1864, sold their "show-stopping" building "with its colorul mid-block facade of movie-set Egyptian forms and seated Pharaonic figures" in 1958 to the New York School of Technology and it was later converted to apartments in the 1980s.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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