City Affairs in the Sunday Times

The tumultuous Board of Estimates meeting made Page One.

Grover A. Whalen, chairman of the city's United Nation's Committee and as the city's official greeter a celebrity in his own right, urged the UN to make the former World's Fair grounds in Flushing Meadow its permanent home. The UN was planning to hold the September meeting of the General Assembly at the City Building on the fair grounds. The building was being used as a roller skating rink and all week long, radio stations had been interviewing skaters on their reaction to the loss of the rink. Parks Commissioner Robert Moses and a group of architects visited the site. Considerable improvements were being planned, including the construction of offices for the secretariat on the balconies overlooking the central hall, and the building of a new road to the location. Some legal issues still needed to be resolved over plans to use the Sperry Gyroscope plant in Lake Success to house other UN functions. Another story reported on UN plans to increase its secretariat staff to up to 1937 employees, four times its current size, by the end of the year. This included its London staff.

An organization representing farmers complained about the five day work week at city produce markets at a meeting of growers, commission merchants, buyers and labor at Hotel McAlpin. They wanted the markets to be open six days a week. The farmers said they were sending more of their produce to processing plants to save their harvested crops from spoiling. They said the volume in the Philadelphia and New York markets, which had five day weeks, had declined but increased where a six day week was in effect. Teamsters were willing to go along with the longer week if adjustments were made to their contracts. The only group to speak in opposition was the Produce Buyers Association.See the pages on the Washington Market for more on the produce business in the city.

The Sunday Times reported on the DA office's investigation of a black market in streptomycin also reported in The Sunday News.. The Times provided less of the human interest angle on the hospital and patient but noted that the inflated price had been paid by the young girl's parents. It amounted to almost $1500 a dose in 2009 dollars. The story also clarified how the case came to the attention of D.A. Frank Hogan's office. The doctor in the case had asked the mayor of Rahway, NJ, to use his influence to obtain the antibiotic directly from Merck, the manufacturer, which was located in Rahway, but the mayor was informed that the distribution was controlled tightly by a medical committee which allocated only small amounts to the general public; the rest of the limited supply went to the military and government agencies. Although initially priced at $25, the antibiotic was now being distributed for free. Since it was considered experimental, the committee only released it in cases where it was known to be helpful and where its use might contribute to the knowledge of the drug's potential. As The News reported, the girl's physician previously had been turned down when he applied through the established channels. The Rahway mayor had alerted Hogan's office about the prior illegal sale. The DA's office speculated that the drug had found its way to the black market through inefficient handling at government agencies. The patient, who was suffering from bacterial endocarditis, then an almost always fatal condition, was reported much improved and had sufficient quantity of the drug for her treatment.

The Police Department's Public Relations Squad, formerly known as the Criminal Alien Squad, had changed it name again, this time to the Bureau of Special Services and Investigation. The squad escorted official guests while they were in the city and watched over meetings. The squad had been unhappy with the Public Relations designation. The "criminal alien" designation had been dropped to spare the feelings of foreign dignitaries who might have objected to being called criminal aliens.

The Times report on the conviction of two Brooklyn men in the slaying of Brooklyn grocer did not mention their race, unlike the News which identified them as "two Negroes." Civil right supporters were lobbying to stop the common journalistic practice of irrelevantly mentioning race in crime reports. In 1946 newspapers generally only mentioned race or ethnicity when the perpetrator was African American. Meanwhile, The Urban League of Greater New York began registering "Negro" kids for summer camp on Tuesday.

The Aluminum Company of America revealed final plans for a twenty-story office and showroom structure on the southeast corner of Park Avenue and 58th Street. . It was said to be the first building in the world to employ a new type of construction embodying an aluminum-faced curtain wall. It was expected to house Alcoa sales offices. The company's corporate headquarters would remain in Pittsburgh.

While the absence of meat at city butcher shops got screaming headlines in the tabloids, The Sunday Times relegated it to a brief item at the back of the news section. The article reported that butchers claimed beef deliveries to them had been sharply curtailed and that the meat shortage was more severe than in the war years, One butcher, who had a retail and wholesale operation on Ninth Avenue, asserted that sufficient meat was available but it was "going to the wrong sources." Some stores also reported a short supply in lamb and pork.

"Marine Reports" listed the arrivals and departures of ships in the city. This was a regular feature. New York was a major port in 1946 and apparently this was useful information to enough people to be dutifully reported. For one, veterans were waiting the arrival of their brides and children from Europe.

The annual New York drive for the American Cancer Society Drive began Monday. The New York campaign chairman, a brigadier general, noted that cancer took more American lives between Pearl Harbor and VJ Day than the war did.

Sunday was expected to be partly cloudy and warmer with a high between 55 and 60. Scattered light showers tonight. Tomorrow partly cloudy and warmer.

Fire Records listed the location, time and extent of damage of fires in New York that Saturday. Almost all caused only trifling or slight damage

The Sunday Times ran public notices (wives looking for husbands, families for missing members, lawyers for missing heirs), commercial notices and a lost and found section.

Cold weather in Rockland County over the past few days killed off virtually the entire plum crop and seventy percent of the peaches and half the cherries. Higher fruit prices in the city were forecast as a result.