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Good as Gold

Shivah Stars

by
Marc Tracy
September 01, 2011
Sally Goodgold in 2003. Note the huge glasses.(Librado Romero/NYT)
Sally Goodgold in 2003. Note the huge glasses.(Librado Romero/NYT)

Each week, we select the most interesting Jewish obituary. This week, it’s that of Sally Goodgold, the active Upper West Side citizen (“the Ethel Merman of land use,” the Times calls her) who died last month at 82. She would show up at every City Planning Commission meeting, dutifully taking notes and schooling herself on the laws, and then pounce when she felt neighborhoods’ rights were being trampled afoot by developers and the like. Yet her methods were not hard-edged; she preferred to have foes over for Zabar’s bagels at her 79th Street apartment. Among many others, she served on the board of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.