The New York University graduation means oh so many things: student loan debt, a jog around the bases at Yankee Stadium, and all-you-can-grab out of the NYU dormitory dumpster on the Bowery.
Take that you bastards!. You can kill the Bowery. But punk's not dead!
Conservative Boris Johnson has been elected Mayor of London, and Mike Bloomberg is speeding to his assistance, planning a Friday meeting in London to give Johnson tips in Tory rule of a less-than-Tory polity.
Johnson is clearly aware that he's most likely to make the visceral impact the Conservative Party's future fortunes require by reducing crime. No doubt he'd make a bigger PR splash in this regard by meeting with Rudy Giuliani, but Johnson has promised to trim the London budget, and the hundred grand plus private jet Giuliani commands for such charity work is thereby prohibitive.
So Bloomberg will likely succeed with Johnson as he has with New York voters: by restating the old Giuliani nostrums in a whinier tone of voice, and proposing more interference in daily life.
Johnson has already pledged to ban alcohol in the Underground. ("Too many people find themselves forced to sit opposite someone swigging from a can of lager and engaging in behaviour that is intimidating or worse"). Bloomberg may be expected to see and raise Johnson by suggesting he reverse within his precincts the liberalized national alcohol Licensing Act.
The later and longer availability of British drink after the Act has fueled London's highly profitable nightlife, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown declined after review to reverse it. The extended hours are popular, and even Murdoch news outlets have little to say against them. This may be why Johnson focused on proprietors who abused the privilege rather than coming out against the Act itself.
But if there's anything our Mayor learned from Giuliani and went one better, it's the idea that an occasional show of irrelevant, unpopular, and meddlesome force demonstrates the sort of toughness that wins respect and votes. Where Giuliani contented himself with metal pedestrian barriers and enforcement of an ancient dancing ban, Bloomberg banned smoking in bars — something that seemed unimaginable, even absurd, at the time, but which has become accepted, and given the soft-spoken billionaire an electorally useful image of forcefulness.
To cut drinking hours in thirsty London may seem foolhardy, and Johnson might wonder what this has to do with reducing crime. Bloomberg might rejoin that, from the New York point of view, the showing of a firm hand via a smack in the public chops is the first step toward achieving all manner of desirable social change, including reelection. He may go further and suggest that if the Conservative Party does not benefit from Johnson's record and example, Johnson might take Bloomberg's example, and abandon it.
Posted by Duncan Meisel at 4:15 PM, April 29, 2008
Even among the old New York holdouts to gentrification, 49 E. Houston was a little strange. Not only did the one-story storefront stick out next to nearby remodeled walkups and rising glass facades, but until recently, the grassroots environmental non-profit Times Up! hosted bike repair workshops, political rides and activist meet-ups out of the aging building. The new 49 Houston should be strange too, but in a very different way. The product of real estate maneuvering and architectural ambition, the building will stand 14-stories high, with a cantilevered upper half that will suspend seven of its stories 25-feet above an adjacent walkup.
The ambitious new building provides a visually striking example of the effort to maximize floor space with minimal ground floor space. Hanging seven stories of condo a full 25 feet over an adjacent building has never been tried in New York, and the new building has already stirred controversy at the real estate porn blog Curbed. According to city documents, 49 and 51 Houston are part of the same zoning lot, and an agreement between the owners of the two lots will allow #49 to over flow to the east with its cantilever design.
Amid all the depressing tales of New York City gentrification, just how 49 Houston Street went from community organizing space to condos is a story all of its own.
“It was a real community kind of space," said Bill Dipaloa, the Director of Times Up!. "The space gave a lot. It was the reason a lot of community gardens got saved”
Dipaloa said the group has been getting angry calls about the group’s recent relocations, but wants to challenge treating the move as the all-too-typical gentrification story: “The real story for Times Up! is that for many years, that building was not gentrified” he said.
Times Up! moved into 49 Houston full time after owner Steve Stollman got involved with the group during the 2003 “Bike Summer.” After a little while, he offered them use of the building’s basement to create a ‘bike library’ and educational space for mechanics and workshops. Up until then, Stollman had run his own business out of the storefront, and for many years had allowed other community groups to gather and work in the space. Eventually, the trials of activism and issues with money caught up with Stollman.
“To have a one story building when you could have 12 there—that’s not very viable. I sustained it for 33 years because I didn’t give a fuck.” Stollman said. Eventually, “I got tired of not being able to pay my bills.”
Stollman give Times Up! the heads-up on a possible sale in advance, setting them off on a city wide search for new funding or comparable space that continues today, after an unexpectedly short residence at The Hub bike shop in the West Village.
“For the past two years, we’ve been having weekly meetings to try to save the space” Dipaloa said. “We had to build enough energy to save the space or buy a new one.” That led to a wide range of efforts, including a series of fundraising dance parties, and a search process that turned Times Up!’s cadre of anti-authoritarian bike mechanics and other volunteers into realtors-on-the-prowl for a mixed-use, ground-floor space that might measure up to their digs at 49 Houston.
Running a non-profit group in a decisively for-profit real estate market has left Times Up! in a sort of permanent limbo, a situation that most likely will dog the group for the years to come—not that they're not trying.
Their efforts included attempting a partnership with Science Adventure Camps, a summer camp program that needed to expand, and whose owner, Science Teacher Sarah, was a fan of Times Up!. The partnership has yet to bear fruit for either of the organizations. Twice the groups have found a suitable space, only to have it sold before they could make an offer.
“Whenever we find somewhere cheap enough and centrally located, it tends to get sold within 12 hours” Sarah said. “In any other city, I’m sure these problems would have been solved by now.”
Posted by Duncan Meisel at 12:55 PM, April 28, 2008
The ongoing war between the forces of gentrification and the middle and working classes of the "old New York" has hit Chinatown too.
A new organization, calling itself the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side, has taken aim at what it says are three threats to the neighborhood: a lack of affordable housing, a rezoning plan that could push upscale high-rise development from the Lower East Side to Chinatown, and a potential Business Improvement District that they say would tax small businesses out of existence.
The Coalition’s biggest battle thus far has been over rezoning laws, which Josephine Lee, a leader of the newly formed Coalition, calls racist for its exclusion of neighborhoods of people of color from protections against luxury and high rise development. According to Lee, the rezoning plan “excludes Latinos and Chinatown” and would encourage taller, pricier development to move East and into Chinatown by setting limits on development in trendier parts of the Lower East Side.
“All we’re asking for is accountable development” said Lee who is also a member of the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association. “If you have a whole community that caters to tourists, where will community needs go—the doctors, the grocery stores? Where will residents go? They will be priced out their community.”
Another potential culprit in the changing neighborhood is ‘inclusionary zoning’ laws, that allows taller development in exchange for developers setting aside 20% of new housing units for affordable housing. However, community activists say this is inadequate to ensure the neighborhood stays affordable.
“They’re not going to build housing affordable for the people in the area” said Hoon Kim, another member of the coalition, who works with the group National Mobilization Against Sweatshops. He said the standard for what is ‘affordable’ sets the bar too high for residents in the area, using a measure derived from median income for the metropolitan area. Lee says residents would have to make $60,000 a year to afford to live in the units, in a neighborhood where the average income is around $20,000 a year.
Debate also continues over a proposal to create a Business Improvement District for Chinatown. A total of 59 BIDs have sprung up over New York, providing marketing, beautification and public safety services to its members according to the City’s Department of Small Business Services. Two groups—the Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation, and the Rebuild Chinatown Initiative—have begun advocating for the formation of a Chinatown BID, a process organizers say is at its “embryonic” stage. The Coalition opposes a BID because it would add one to five percent to property owners’ taxes, forcing businesses operating at the margins into closing.
“[The BID] is a tool, a marketing tool. If I didn’t believe this was helpful to Chinatown, I would drop it immediately.” said Wellington Chen of the Chinatown Partnership LDC. “The discussion is whether Chinatown will participate in the party, or will it be on the floor scrubbing.” Chen points to the BIDs that surround the area, and to Chinatowns around the country that operate under BIDs as reasons residents should invest in forming the district. At least one business owner with the Coalition takes issue with this approach.
“The Boston Chinatown, the LA Chinatown— they’re horrible shells of what they used to be, and much of the reason is that they’ve been taxed out” said Jan Lee, who also took issue with the comparison to other neighborhoods in New York. “Other BIDs in New York City have anchor businesses such as Lincoln Square for Lincoln Center, or 34th St. which has Macy’s. Trying to tap landlords in a place like Chinatown, the same equation doesn’t apply.”
Ultimately, community activists point to the visible liveliness of Chinatown’s streets as the best reason to fight the impending changes. “It would be different if Chinatown were a depressed neighborhood, if there was no commerce there” said Rob Hollander of the Lower East Side Residents for Responsible Development. “It’s a low income but viable neighborhood. Not every neighborhood has to be about luxury.”
Posted by Duncan Meisel at 1:47 PM, April 21, 2008
Gotta make room for....you guessed it!.... more condos.
The clock is ticking away once again for Times Up! Less than one month after losing their long-time headquarters at 49 Houston St., a hot real estate market is forcing the grassroots alternative transportation and environmental group to move again. Rent will double next month for the space Times Up! shares with The Hub bike shop in the West Village, which means the group is back in the hunt for space to house their myriad workshops, actions and offices.
“We know it was a month-to-month lease, but not even three weeks after we get there, they tell us the rent has been doubled” said Bill Dipaloa, Director of Times Up! and space manager for the shop. “We haven’t even unpacked half the boxes.”
Despite the rent increase, bikes will continue to be a part of the Hub’s current location, because a company that makes cargo and ad bikes inked a five-year lease on Times Up!’s current location. “At this time, we’re optimistic, that at least some variation on the theme of this space will continue” said George Bliss, the Hub's owner. “It’s likely that the store will have to go through a big change, maybe have to do a focus on higher-end stuff, instead of trying to deal with everyone who comes in the door, just to pay the rent.”
Times Up! was first uprooted after their landlord at 49 Houston St. sold to developers after years of barely making the rent. Their previous landlord, Steve Stollman, gave the organization a year to raise the funds to meet higher rents before asking them to leave.
“We’ve been using that space for 10 years, and for the past two years we’ve been having weekly meetings trying to save the space” he said. “Times Up! was extremely successful when it was in that space. Unfortunately doing good work and being extremely successful doesn’t pay the bills.”
This new move will also impede one of Times Up!’s primary activities over the years: providing meeting and collaboration space for activist groups of all stripes. Besides the cycling resources it offered to all comers, the organization played host to puppet and banner making and regular activist movie screenings, Dipaloa said.
An outside chance remains that Times Up! could return to 49 Houston St. in the future. The previous owner, Steve Stollman retains a buyback option for ground-floor retail in the building that will be constructed.
“He’s going to move back to the 1st floor, there’s a contract for him whereby he sold the space to my clients, and there’s a buyback provision for the first floor for him, and he’ll have a continued presence,” said architect Arpad Baksa. “I think it’s a good thing for the community.”
However, rising rents on the Lower East Side could thwart the group's dreams once again. “If the neighborhood continues to gentrify wildly, that may be more difficult” Stollman said. “I’m not getting that space back for 2 years, and since my expenses will be higher, rent will be much more expensive, and might be too rich for them.”
Times Up!’s struggle with Manhattan real estate will continue. They plan to host a benefit party on the 25th , in the hopes of raising money to stay in place, or find a stable location soon. Diapaloa hopes the event will draw awareness to their work and their role in the community.
“We’re using this party on the 25th to bring attention to save the space," Diapaloa said. "That was how we used to save community gardens, you bring people into a space and tell them ‘This is being destroyed in a few days’ and sometimes they’re really willing to make a change.”
Posted by Michael Clancy at 12:07 PM, February 15, 2008
My friends who work in midtown tell me that the $3-ATM is pretty ubiquitous there, but I had never had to pay a three-dollar fee at an ATM until I stumbled into the new Chase on the Bowery. That's the sort of fee that I had always associated with airports and clubs and other venues where you had little options. Check out the background: you can see construction workers carting rubbish from CBGBs to make room for a John Varvatos boutique. It's all part of one staggering cycle of change on the Bowery.
The construction workers at CBGBs said that the walls there will be covered with some sort of hard clear plastic to preserve the detrius of the club forever. All of this change begs the question: Who will be paying the $3 ATM fees and shopping at John Varvatos?
One answer might be these people. They're not living, breathing people, but renderings of the sort of people the developer supposes should be living in the new condos recently constructed down the street from CBs and the $3-ATM Chase bank. Exciting.
This Christian Bale-lookalike was probably in a punk band in college. Now he works for a hedge fund. But just for a while. He really wants to make movies.
All in all, it seems fitting that I'd encounter this new benchmark of near usurious bank fees on the Bowery—a boulevard once synonymous with poverty. Where are the working poor these days? My best guess is someplace like the Poconos.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 11:39 AM, November 7, 2007
Workers removed the bar from the CBGB Gallery a few weeks ago. Designer John Varvatos will be peddling $125 guitar T-shirts from there soon.
Designer John Varvatos gave Voice writer Lynn Yaeger the brush-off despite repeated attempts for comment and then officially announces that he's opening a boutique in the storefront that once housed CBGB on the same day her article "All Sold Out at CBGB" hit newstands. That's so punk.
Said Jesse Malin of the news: "“After getting to know John over the years and seeing him host wonderful live music performances, I can't think of anyone better to keep the spirit and soul of rock music alive on the Bowery in the old CBGB's location.”
Me too!
“I think it’s great … now all the old CBGB punks will become the best dressed CBGB punks in the world,” declared Alice Cooper.
Totally, those punks are just hanging out on the Bowery waiting right now. You see them every day. Punks drinking forties. Punks sleeping on stoops. Punks everywhere. We hear, a lot of the "old CBGB punks" are going to get $3,495-leather-jackets at the same time and reform the old LES crew.
In the press release, the Varvatos people say "among the many ideas being considered for the new store are a special merchandise mix geared to a rock & roll customer, a stage permanently integrated into the store design, an in-store performance series featuring up and coming musical artists, and a new John Varvatos collection designed specifically for 315 Bowery, from which a portion of the proceeds would benefit an artist development fund."
Hmmm. Potentially cool. Better than Starbucks, I guess. Hard to say. Starbucks is a total ripoff but at least you could afford to buy something there if you wanted overpriced burnt coffee. Can't say that about a Varvatos store.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 12:50 PM, November 6, 2007
I never really thought too much about how the rest of the country perceives New Yorkers. I couldn't really care. I'd always heard the stereotype was something along the lines of pushy, loud, rude, ornery, and, even perhaps, criminal.
Though not entirely accurate, I felt those stereotypes useful. They kept away the people who didn't want New York badly enough and attracted people who simply had to be here because they couldn't fit in anywhere else. Or had some dream that could only be fulfilled in NYC. But I guess that's an outdated stereotype.
I was a little shocked when I read the first paragraph of ""The Fey Highwayman", Rob Harvilla's review of Sufjan Steven's BQE symphony:
All my friends who don't live in New York hate New York. Near as I can tell, they imagine the city as one giant, loathsome American Apparel ad, a crass, joyless, narcissistic, careerist, emaciated, insincere, hopelessly uptight, suffocatingly twee cesspool of white-privilege Williamsburg hipsterdom. I'm paraphrasing; they're stereotyping.
I think that begins to describe how a lot of people in this city feel about the new New York. I just hadn't realized that those changes had gotten to be so ingrained and permanent that that's how people in the rest of the country imagine about New York these days too.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 11:07 AM, October 18, 2007
The Bowery, once synonymous with being down on your luck, is now the hot address for the i-banker crowd.
There's a phrase that describes what you're feeling when you walk around Manhattan—or Brooklyn or anywhere in the city—shaking your head at the latest luxury condo sprouting up and muttering to yourself about the bank branch that replaced another mom-and-pop store: angry nostalgia.
That's what author Luc Sante called it in an interview in this week's Voice. So don't despair. At least, you're not alone in suffering from angry nostalgia. Then again, maybe you should despair. Sante left the city and is now living in Kingston.
Sante said:
For a while, I was consumed by this sort of angry nostalgia, remembering the New York I knew. But now it's just gone. So I can marvel at what they're doing to the Bowery and Little Italy, putting up these pocket skyscrapers on these blocks of six-story tenements. Fuck it—let 'em do it. The more they erase my New York, the further it's emotionally removed from me, the better. Let them turn it into Beijing.
The building, 200 Eleventh Avenue, features en suite parking, meaning the captains of industry who will live there can just drive their Hummers right into their building, get on an elevator and park their FUVs right next to their apartment. The building's web site has an disgusting video explaining how it all works.
From the Robbin's piece:
Could even the Great Trump top this?
The answer is no, or he would have done so already. Everyone knows that the will to privacy is greatest among the rich, and the in-house garage concept offers something priceless—no more nodding to the doorman, no more waiting on sleepy garage attendants, no more worrying about some klutz scratching the Beemer. The idea must have struck the designers of 200 Eleventh Avenue like a bolt of lightning: suburban-style attached garages in the city! McMansions stacked high into Manhattan airspace!
Posted by Michael Clancy at 1:01 PM, September 14, 2007
Looks like the dream is over for Astroland.
Barring a last-minute reprieve from developer Joseph Sitt, Astroland appears to be heading the way of Luna Park. The New York Post reported Friday that the city hasn't been able to find a new Coney Island home for the beloved 45-year-old amusement park.
"We just couldn't find the right fit," Lynn Kelly, president of the city's Coney Island Development Corp. told the Post.
So it would be up to developer Joe Sitt to give longtime Astroland operator Carol Hill Albert a lease extension for one more summer. That appears unlikely as both sides are millions apart in their negotiations.
Recchia also reported that Thor would be willing to meet with Astroland owner Carol Hill Albert to negotiate a new lease. This came as a surprise to Albert, who was at that moment standing a hundred feet away inside the park gates—she hasn't officially endorsed the Save Astroland campaign, though park employees have helped collect signatures. Albert told the Voice that every time her representatives have met with Thor in the last nine months, the developer's offer has remained the same: Agree to a rent hike from her current $190,000 a year to $3 million, or get lost.
If you got any good Astroland stories, share them, please.
It appears that it's only an illusion that New York City is being overrun by Midwestern hipsters, at least in 2005 anyway, according to a report released by Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr.
The city lost nearly 300,000 residents in 2005 to other parts of the country, while less than half as many people made the relocation from other parts of the country to New York City.
So only 150,000 people moved to New York City from other parts of the country in 2005. Wow. You'd think NYU would be responsible for that amount of people alone. Maybe the 300,000 New Yorkers that moved away are the coolest people ever and those that took their place are the most annoying ever. That might explain it.
Thompson's analysis of domestic migration also found that "families earning between $40,000 and $60,000 annually were the most likely to leave the five boroughs," confirming what most people know: the city is increasingly becoming a playground for the rich.
But Thompson's number-crunching also presented a mixed outlook, finding that "those most likely to stay put are households earning $60,000 to $140,000 per year."
Other key findings:
* In 2005, about 4 percent of the city’s population “turned over,” not including natural population changes caused by births and deaths. At that rate, more than a one-third of the city’s population would change over the course of a decade.
* Migrants to New York City from the rest of the country are young, well-educated, and usually single. Almost two-thirds of the domestic migrants to the city in 2005 held a Bachelor’s or higher degree and about two-thirds were unmarried.
* About 40 percent, or 76,000, of the adults who left the city in 2005 had a BA degree or higher. When international immigration is factored in, approximately the same number of college-educated people arrived in the city that year.
* The average age of the heads of households who left the city was 40 years old, compared to almost 50 years for those who stayed.
* The average income of households who left the city in 2005 was $72,000, slightly higher than the $66,500 average of those who stayed.
* Moderate-income ($40,000 to $59,999 annual income) and higher-income households ($140,000 to $249,999 annual income) were most likely to leave the city, while middle-income ($60,000 to $139,999) and wealthy households ($250,000 and above) were least likely to leave.
* Black, White, Hispanic and Asian New Yorkers each left the city roughly in proportion to their share of the city’s population.
* Controlling statistically for other factors, households with young children were most likely to leave the city.
* People who were born in other states are more likely than native New Yorkers to leave the city, while foreign-born residents are less likely to leave.
Posted by Neil deMause at 10:18 AM, September 10, 2007
Save Astroland campaigner Brian Gotlieb tries to keep the dream (or at least the swinging pirate ship) alive.
Photos by Neil deMause
Yesterday was the official last day of business for Astroland, and supporters of the 45-year-old Coney Island institution turned out in hopes of sparking an 11th-hour reprieve that would keep the park's 23 rides and three game arcades open into 2008. Brian Gotlieb, the former Community Board 13 chair who formed Save Astroland last month, came bearing an estimated 9,000 petition signatures calling on all parties involved to broker a deal; he told the few dozen Coney fans who rallied outside the gates at noon, "The idea behind this is to keep things open until the plans for Astroland's successor are finalized."
The Hungry March Band entertain last-night parkgoers. Moments later, they would pile onto the Astrotower and ascend to the skies, still playing.
Next behind the bullhorn was Tricia Vita of the Coney Island History Project, who issued a direct plea to Joe Sitt, owner of Astroland's landlord Thor Equities. "Mr. Sitt: You like to think of yourself as Joey Coney Island. You say you want to be a hero. Now's your chance. You can create so much good will by giving Astroland and the businesses on the Boardwalk a one-year lease. That's all we're asking for." The rest of "we" were a bit more in the mood to be demanding: When Coney Island artist and former Rock Steady breakdancer Africasso, whose mashup sculpture of Coney attractions past and present is on display at the History Project booth under the Cyclone, said, "If we had our way, [Astroland] would be open forever and ever," it drew the biggest cheer of the day.
None of this was any surprise. What was unexpected was city Councilmember Dominic Recchia, the only local elected official to have spoken favorably of Sitt's timeshare-hotel plan for the Astroland site, addressed the crowd. Sounding at time like he was auditioning for the job of Sitt's new spokesperson, Recchia said he didn't want to see any "residential" development in the amusement district (bringing the day's second-biggest cheers)—and insisted that Thor had no intention of pursuing the scorched-earth policy that Sitt openly threatened earlier this year. "They have told me with confidence that they don't want to see this piece of land stay vacant," said the councilmember, adding: "One way or another, there will be rides on this property next year."
Recchia also reported that Thor would be willing to meet with Astroland owner Carol Hill Albert to negotiate a new lease. This came as a surprise to Albert, who was at that moment standing a hundred feet away inside the park gates—she hasn't officially endorsed the Save Astroland campaign, though park employees have helped collect signatures. Albert told the Voice that every time her representatives have met with Thor in the last nine months, the developer's offer has remained the same: Agree to a rent hike from her current $190,000 a year to $3 million, or get lost.
Notwithstanding hopes of a last-second deal—several rallyers made reference to Mayor Bloomberg's purchase of the landmark B&B Carousell on the eve of its auction two summers ago—it's looking increasingly likely that nothing is going to get worked out before the Coney Island Development Corporation issues its rezoning plan for the area, probably sometime in October. With all indications being that the rezoning will bar any hi-rise development between the Cyclone and Keyspan Park, Sitt will then face the decision that the Voice outlined last month: Flip his land to another developer, start knocking down buildings to try to scare the city into changing its mind, or take the city's offer to swap Astroland and his other parcels for city-owned land where he would be allowed to build condos.
This uncertain future cast an unsettling mood over what was otherwise a perfect late-summer day at the beach. In the early afternoon, the Coney land wars claimed another victim, as the Zipper ride located on the otherwise-vacant lot owned by Thor between West 12th Street and Stillwell Avenue was loaded onto a flatbed truck and began the long drive to its new home, reportedly at an amusement park in Honduras. (Its neighbor the Spider headed south last week.)
As for Astroland's final night (aside from the kiddie park, which will say open weekends through October 1 to serve the Sukkot holiday crowds), it was a busy one, though not too noticeably different from the usual haphazard cross-section of Brooklyn socioeconomics that would be there on a normal Sunday night. The Hungry March Band danced through the park, lending the air of an especially shambolic wake.
The throngs eventually shuffled off into the night, as Astrostaffers snapped pictures of each other and the camera crews that have taken up residence in recent weeks looked increasingly aimless. Albert walked the grounds, sharing tearful hugs with her employees, some of whom have been with the park for decades.
And then, at 10:48 pm, the operator of the Pirate Ship ushered off his final boatload of riders, declaring, "They never caught me! That's it! There are no more rides at Astroland." A few seconds later, the floodlights snapped off, casting Astroland into sudden darkness. The 50 or so remaining parkgoers went "Ooooh!"—one final thrill, and Astroland was shuttered, if not forever, at least for now.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 6:58 PM, September 7, 2007
The Zipper is packed up and on a flatbed truck. The Zipper and The Spider are both heading for an amusement park in Honduras, according to the New York Post.
The call to arms has gone out on the Coney Island Message Board: Rally for Astroland. Noon. Sunday. Surf Avenue Entrance to Astroland.
See you on Sunday, Sept. 9, at high noon at the Surf Avenue entrance of Astroland, to demonstrate our support for Astroland. Bring yourself, your friends and family. Don’t forget to make signs! If you don’t have materials, come early (11am) and create your own sign. I'll have foamboard and markers on hand. Wear colorful clothes- this is not a wake or a funeral! We will march through Astroland to celebrate our attachment to the park and express our desire that it reopen for the 2008 season! Remember how the B & B Carousell was saved on the eve of the auction? We're hoping for another last minute reprieve.
What does the future hold for Coney Island? A Wal-Mart?
Neil deMause had an interesting analysis of the situation in Runnin' Scared last week that lays out the three courses developer Joe Sitt could take to end his stalemate with the city. This is the option that has a lot of people worried:
Take a bulldozer to the buildings he owns along Surf Avenue—which include the Grashorn Building, Coney's only surviving 19th-century structure, and the Henderson Building, where Harpo Marx made his stage debut—and gamble that either this mayor or the next will cave on the rezoning once faced with vacant lots.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 3:12 PM, August 29, 2007
Johnny brought his van down to CBGB one last time.
For every eight Abercrombie & Fitch-wearing robots that walked by the former CBGB Wednesday afternoon oblivious to the fact that there was once a club on the Bowery called CBGB, about one person stopped and mourned Hilly.
Louise Parnassa, a former booker for the club and Hilly's right-hand woman, paused to remember her former boss. One of the guys from Ultra Violence, an old NYHC outfit, stopped by and tagged an RIP. Mandy Stein, the documentarian and daughter of Sire Records president Seymour Stein, was there recording it all for a forthcoming documentary on the club.
Johnny, a lifelong Brooklynite who refused to give his last name, came by in his van.
Johnny, who uses his van to drive around Jesse Malin and other musicians, shared some of his thoughts on the passing of Hilly Kristal.
On why he brought his van:
"They used to be more people outside hanging out than inside. That's why I used to bring my van. And that's why I brought it today. I figured if people were still hanging out. We used to go across the street, get beers, and hang out."
On the neighborhood:
"This is it as far as the neighborhood goes. This is the final bullet...we all might as well go home and drift away now."
"It's not like there is anyone around to care. Everybody is gone who would have cared. This is class warfare in New York. And guess who's winning. It started when Giuliani let Trump build all those condos on the West Side and all the developers have been doing whatever they want ever since. It's a psychological war. They just get you to give up and leave."
On Hilly's fight with his former landlord Muzzy Rosenblatt:
"And look now, Nobody wants to rent the place. Do you think Starbucks want to be next door to that [The BRC homeless shelter], people coming in and out all day and messing with their customers. Think about the money he's lost by not renting the place for almost a year. He didn't have to kick him out. He lost a lot of money....It basically came down to two old Jewish men fighting—it doesn't get more New York than that. "
On Johnny Thunders:
"We used to tell his dealer "Give him the good stuff. Put a little speed in his dope. We want to see a good show, so give him the good stuff. Don't give him stuff that's gonna knock him out."
I've walked by the Whole Foods on the Bowery for a few weeks now, and I've resisted the urge to go inside. It's part of a stubborn and silly refusal of mine to accept what the Bowery—and almost all of the city—has become.
But I checked it out. The store is quite good. It's the customers that were bad.
I gotta say that I really wanted to hate it. But here's the crazy thing: many of the prices were cheaper than those at the Key Food in my neighborhood in Brooklyn. My favorite yogurt was 20 cents cheaper. Half-and-Half was also 20 cents cheaper. Plus I got a bunch of other cool stuff: sourdough wholewheat bread, some dulce de leche from Argentina, emmenthaler cheese, and some nice salami.
All in all, it was positive, then I got in line and heard the following:
"They want 6-point-7," a man waiting on the line next to me said in a self-satisfied way into his cell phone. "$6.7 million is not a problem. But do you know what's across the street? Low-income housing. I'm not paying $6.7 million so I can look out the window at public housing."
Posted by Michael Clancy at 11:41 AM, August 1, 2007
Chris Bryne, the co-owner of Rocky Sullivan's, says the show will go on in Brooklyn. The Manhattan location closed last night.
Photo by Hollow Sidewalks via Flickr
"They can take away our Guinness, but they can't take away our freedom," screamed one fairly inspired reveler from the landing of Rocky Sullivan's pub on Lexington Avenue on Tuesday night. It wasn't exactly the case, but the crowd roared back anyway. The reworking of the famous Braveheart line was close enough for them.
They're not taking away anyone's Guinness. Just moving it to Red Hook. After more than 11 years, the last pint has been pulled at Rocky's Lexington Avenue location.
Chris Byrne, who co-founded the bar with journalist Patrick Farrelly, was philosophical about the move to Dwight and Van Dyke streets.
"With the way the rent went up, it was just impossible for us to remain a working man's bar," said Byrne, both a former cop and member of Black 47. "It was more than double the rent. I've been fighting to stay here for the past three years. But with the rent increases and the neighborhood changing, I just gave up fighting and now I'm looking forward to Brooklyn."
And just how has the neighborhood around 28th and Lexington changed in the last decade?
"It's not bad, if you're looking for a night out in Orlando," Byrne said casting a weary glance down Lex. "But it's not the Manhattan that I grew up in."
The new Rocky's, the former Liberty Heights Tap Room, is four times bigger than the old Lex location and has an outdoor deck that's a "smoker's paradise," said Byrne. Plus, now he'll serve food: pub grub and the same brick oven pizza served by the former owners.
The live music will remain. And so will the readings that have drawn big names such as Roddy Doyle, Frank McCourt, Edna O'Brien and Pete Hamill among others.
On August 27, he'll have his first: Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, reading from his debut novel Triple Homicide.
"I went through my angry phase, but I'm over it," said Byrne. "I'm not trying to get all Bill Clinton on you when I tell you I really am looking forward to Red Hook."
Posted by Michael Clancy at 6:04 PM, July 26, 2007
Questions about the proposed film regs? Juliana Luecking breaks it down.
Fed-up New Yorkers will rally at Union Square at 6:30 pm on Friday to protest against yet another piece of proposed legislation that aims to squeeze even more of the freedom and creativity out of our increasingly sterile yet still beloved city.
A particular worry is a new law proposed by the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting that could negatively impact even the most amateur of photographers and filmmakers looking to take pictures or film around city sidewalks.
Picture New York Without Pictures—a new coalition of concerned filmmakers and photographers— will be joined by the Rev. Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Critical Mass riders, and others for a celebration of the First Amendment, and a protest against the proposed film regs and other laws that seek to impose limits on dancing, bike riding, and assembly in the city. (What is this Footloose?)
The city, which made the rule change public on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, will be accepting public comments on the rules until Aug. 3. Picture New York has set up an online petition where New Yorkers can voice their concerns about the proposed regulations. A complete copy of the proposed rule changes can be found here.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 3:00 PM, July 25, 2007
Angry residents of the Hotel Chelsea have championed the case of Piri Thomas.
As the fight between longterm Hotel Chelsea residents and the new management gets uglier and uglier, residents have pinned some of their hopes on a court case in California involving Piri Thomas, the author who detailed his Spanish Harlem childhood in the classic autobiography "Down These Mean Streets."
When reached at his California home, Thomas—who is battling his step-son David Elder, the man who residents say orchestrated the boardroom coup that ousted hotel lifeblood and long-time hotel manager Stanley Bard—was surprised that he has become a cause celebre among hotel residents. He couldn't believe that his once obscure case had been thrust into the spotlight after languishing in the courts for years.
But Thomas said he hoped to prevail:
"The trustees have just been doing us dirty," Thomas said. "They have been spending all the money so that we won't have any. It's just been terrible."
The Living with Legends blog has brought the case into the spotlight, and an ad-hoc blogspot site, which may or may not be related to Living with Legends, Save Piri Thomas, has also cropped up in the last month.
This is Living With Legends analysis of the legal battle:
When David’s mother died in 1986, she left her 16% interest in the Chelsea Hotel to David and his two siblings in trust. However, the trust stipulated that Piri Thomas, her husband and David’s stepfather, was to receive all income from the trust for as long as he lived.
David and his siblings didn’t care for that arrangement and have refused to hand over the 1.2 million that the trust has generated in income, forcing Piri to sue for the money. Though the court called David and his siblings’ argument that the income was principal “absurd,” and ruled against them, they have tied it up in appeals.
Thomas' wife, Suzie Dod Thomas, said she didn't want to comment on the case outright but clarified some information that's been reported. The next big date in the case is August 20 when a court-appointed mediator will consider Thomas' motion to have Elder removed as a trustee of the estate, she said. The appeal regarding the $1.2 million is indeed still pending, she said.
Some of the California court documents can be found here.
The Voice Tricia Romano took a look this month at some of lesser known residents of the Chelsea.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 11:19 AM, July 24, 2007
Photo by Hallowsidewalks via Flickr
If memory serves me correctly, that's Chris Byrne, the bar's owner.
Building by building, store by store, person by person, Manhattan just keeps getting less interesting and more generic. The latest news: Rocky Sullivan's is closing it's doors on Lexington Avenue at the end of the month.
The Irish literary hangout is relocating to Red Hook and Gowanus Lounge has a picture of new sign going up on the corner of Van Dyke and Dwight streets. By some accounts, the new Rocky's is already open.
Calls to the bar were not returned. (Why won't they take my calls? That was four years ago. I was drunk. And I apologized.) But word has it that the landlord tripled the rent. Surprise. Surprise.
A little history from the Rocky Sullivan's web site:
In the late spring of 1996, musician Chris Byrne (Seanchai, Black '47 and Paddy-A-Go-Go) approached journalist Patrick Farrelly (HBO's Left of the Dial, Irish Voice, Michael Moore's TV Nation) with a proposition. Byrne was tired of bars with lousy jukes, loud televisions, watery Guinness, yuppie wannabee customers, and pretentious bartenders. "The only way round this problem is to open our own," Byrne concluded. Farrelly agreed. In September, 1996 Rocky Sullivan's opened its doors at 129 Lexington Avenue, between 28th and 29th Streets in midtown Manhattan.
Rocky Sullivan's marked itself on the overcrowded Manhattan bar map as a joint with a difference. It's Wednesday night readings have drawn enthusiastic crowds and top flight writers—Roddy Doyle, Frank McCourt, Edna O'Brien, Pete Hamill, Rosemary Breslin, Mike Lupica—to name a few.
The music line up is distinctive, nothing bloodless or bland is allowed—from Seanchai's Friday night Irish hip hop party, to various local and international guests (music guests have included Karen Casey,The Popes, Damien Dempsey, Terry "Cruncher' O'Neill and many more).
And don't forget Thursday's Pub Quiz—Manhattan's longest running and most popular trivia night.
On Tuesday and Wednesday nights Irish language classes are held in our back lounge.
Apart from that, you can wander in, ignore all of the above, and settle down with a pint of Guinness that, we are told, is best in the city.
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