Newsday from New York, New York • 74

DUTY (919 BEST 50 A MANHATTAN NEIGHBORHOODS Phone Items to (212) 303-2850 WEST SIDE Rally to Cast Long Shadow on Tower Plan A coalition of citywide groups and prominent individuals have organized to support the Municipal Art Society's lawsuit opposing the twin tower project planned for the former New York Coliseum site. Residents are invited to join a rally planned at the Central Park Bandshell, at 72nd Street in the mall, at noon on Oct. 18. The rally, against the proposal by developer Mortimer Zuckerman to build two towers over the old New York Coliseum in Columbus Circle. The evening shadow of the taller building, 65 stories, is expected to stretch nearly a mile across the park, covering the Hecksher Playground and ball field, the carousel, the chess and checkers house, the park's visitor information center, a rustic shelter at the Dene.

Experts say the shadow would extend to Second Avenue. Speakers will include television personality Bill Moyers and author Robert Caro, both West Siders. After the rally, supporters carrying black umbrellas will form a line representing the shadow. For information, call (212) 935-3960. GREENWICH VILLAGE Theater Get City's Help After Thefts The Pan Asian Repertory Theater, the victim of a series of thefts in recent weeks, has been given $5,000 by the city Cultural Affairs Department.

Two thefts of materials valued at $12,000, mostly office equipment and theatrical props, came on the eve of the 11th season for the company. The award will help defray the cost of new equipment, which has rehearsal space and offices at 47 Great Jones St. and performs at Playhouse 46. In making the award, acting Cultural Affairs Commissioner Diane Coffey cited the company's production quality and "active role as a vital, creative voice for the Asian-American The troupe currently receives city funding to hold free performances, staged readings and play development workshops. FOOTNOTE Free Hearing Tests Offered This Week The New York League for the Hard of Hearing, through the sponsorship of the New York Telephone will offer free hearing tests to the public from its mobile unit tomorrow on Ninth Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets.

Screenings also will be offered between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. today in the Bronx at White Plains Road and Lydig Avenue and on Friday, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn on 86th Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. For further information, call (212) 741-3143. UPPER EAST SIDE Y's Poetry Center Posts Nov.

Schedule Writer Tom Wolfe, and poets W. S. Merwin, Czeslaw Milosz and Mona van Duyn are among writers who will read or speak next month at The Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y. Wolfe will read from his first novel, "The Bonfire of the Vanities," on Nov. 23.

The book to be published early next month. On Nov. 2, W. S. Merwin and fellow poet George Bradley will appear together, and on Nov.

9, the Center will offer another joint program, with Mona van Duyn and Herbert Morris. On Nov. 16, Grace Schulman, the poetry editor of The Nation magazine, will coordinate and evening program, "Marianne Moore at 100" at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA. On Nov. 30, Polish poet and novelist, Czeslow Milosz, will be at the Y.

The five Monday readings at The Poetry Center begin at 8 p.m. Single tickets at $8 can be purchase at the Box Office, 1395 Lexington or by calling (212) 996-1100. City and civic officials gather to dedicate Friends leader, an ardent preservationist. Park Named To Slain Civic By Scott Ladd Within days of the brutal 1972 murder of Peter Detmold, William Curtis received a telephone call from a mutual friend. The friend, James Amster, wanted Curtis to assume the leadership of the Turtle Bay Association, a civic organization that had been founded, directed and shaped by Detmold before he was slain by a mugger outside his fashionable East 48th Street apartment.

"I don't know how to do what Peter was doing," Curtis protested. "Kiddo, nobody knows how to do what Peter was doing," replied Amster, who, like Detmold and Curtis, was an active participant in community affairs and preservation efforts. The efforts of Peter Detmold, a dynamic 42-year-old, real-estate businessman, were recalled and memorialized last week when the the city and the Turtle Bay Association dedicated a local park in his honor. It was Curtis, who eventually accepted the association presidency, who recalled his friend's acumen in civic affairs and his talent for political compromise. The dedication of Friends of Peter Detmold Park, refurbished through the expenditure of $794,000 in Parks Department funds, lured scores of city and local officials and members of the Turtle Bay Association members to remember a man whose civic voice was prematurely stilled.

"He was the power behind everything," said Curtis. "He was unbelievably effective downtown, and did his homework better than anyone I ever saw." The refurbished park, less than an acre in size, now features a gazebo in a pavilion of granite, as well as new benches, retaining walls and a wisteria-covered pergola at the park's 49th Street entrance. In addition, 30 new trees and shrubs were planted. A number of the battles waged in the formative years of the now 800-member association, 4152 AWE Ex Newsday Jim Cummins of Peter Detmold Park, a tribute 1 to the late civic in Tribute Activist which celebrated its 30th anniversary in May, took place in the vicinity of the two-block sliver of a park, tucked between East 49th and 51st Streets, west of FDR Drive. Councilwoman Carol Greitzer, who said Detmold would probably still be at the forefront of preservation battles with the city had he not been murdered, said the late civic leader's sphere of concern expanded beyond the borders of Turtle Bay.

"He was much more than the founder of the Turtle Bay Association," she said. But it was where he first made a public imprint, his friends recalled. The humble beginnings of an organization that has grown and flourished since Detmold's death were rooted in the most basic of community disputes the proposed widening of several side streets to facilitate crosstown traffic. With his mother, Mabel, Detmold galvanized opposition to the proposal, among Turtle Bay residents concerned that street trees would be jeopardized by the project. The fledgling association won, and the road expansion project was scrapped.

The association subsequently fought many pro-development projects, particularly in the 1960s when the United Nations Development Corp. sought to extend the UN campus to Second Avenue. That plan was later withdrawn. The association also challenged an unsuccessful plan by the Long Island Rail Road to construct a transportation center near Lexington Avenue and 49th Street. City Parks and Recreation Commissioner Henry Stern said Detmold Park, despite a panoramic view of the East River, might require additional sound barriers to reduce the noise generated by nearby FDR traffic.

Stern said the revamped park forms a fitting legacy to the memory of Detmold, and the association he launched. "Today," he said after the dedication, "is a day of proper tribute to Peter Detmold." 3V.