Saturday, August 23, 2008

Activity at the former site of A. Fontana Shoe Repair


What's going on at the former location of the A. Fontana Shoe Repair on 10th Street past Second Avenue? The shop, there for 45 years, closed in late February. I didn't spot any workers or construction permits when I walked by...And there will be no sarcastic asides about bank branches, yogurt shops or Duane Reades. Anything is possible.
If you're new to this...Jeremiah has provided thoughtful coverage of Fontana's this past year.

Report: State housing official nabbed in rent scam


From today's Post:

A state housing official from Brooklyn was busted for selling lists of rent-regulated tenants to builders so they could target properties for redevelopment, The Post has learned.

Keith James, 53, of Brownsville, a rent program specialist at the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, took the bribes from January 2001 to September 2005, authorities said.

A source close to the investigation told The Post that the rolls - which are not public - "are valuable because it gives developers and potential purchasers insight into the long-term revenue of a building that has rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments," allowing them to target buildings with fewer or older rent-regulated tenants.

A Cheap Trick post-concert party from 1978

In case you have 28 spare minutes today...here's a video of a post-Cheap Trick concert party from 1978 at the Palladium. Susan Blond interviews the likes of Linda Blair, John Cale, David Johansen and, of course, Cheap Trick.



[Via Anton Perich on YouTube]

Friday, August 22, 2008

The New York Dolls -- Stranded in the Jungle


A perfect song for a summer Friday. Or any day. Or season.

More on the East Village harassment story


Following up on the post yesterday on the landlord accused of harassing tenants...Curbed has more here.

Meanwhile, Jill from Blah Blog Blah left a comment regarding all this. She has firsthand experience:

I live in one of these buildings. We have had almost half the apartments vacated in the past few months. And once the tenants leave, we never know where they went or what happened to them. We've organized a tenants group but the people who leave are the ones who didn't join the group. Some that we did know left because they decided it just wasn't worth the living conditions. One had a new baby and were so freaked out by the construction, so off to Brooklyn they went.

Who moved in? Not one of the new tenants is over 25. They are renting 400 square foot renovated apartments (3 rooms--2 bedrooms and a common area with a kitchen and very small space for maybe a chair) for $3200 on a third floor walk up in a very filthy building. Probably a little less for the upper floors. Two to an apartment--$1500 to live in the East Village is probably the going rate, crazy. Dozens of bars but nowhere to buy a fresh piece of fish. Who needs food when you can live on alcohol?

The problem is that the landlord operates just on this side of the law. The super was heard recently telling one of the rent stabilized tenants that he doubted if he could adequately fix whatever the problem is "because you know what the landlord wants to do to you folks." They make a repair, but they make it purposely bad. They turn off the hot water for half a day so that by the time the complaint is registered, it has been "fixed." They don't properly register with DOB for permits and then "fix" the paperwork months later, and DOB could give a shit. There are absolutely no penalties or oversight. They take months to renovate an apartment and clean the hallway rarely, so there is dust everywhere, it comes up through the floorboards and infests every crook--I'm still cleaning out shoes that I hadn't worn that are coated in plaster dust from 6 months ago.

But is a dirty hallway enough to go to court? The workers start before legal hours and end after they are allowed to be here, making a lot of noise. Does DOB do anything? No, they are worried about cranes falling, if that.

They evicted my neighbor out and literally threw his stuff down down 6 flights of stairs. Kicked it down. Then he won in court and got to come back.

I could go on about the small things they have done, they all add up, but none individually are enough to make a case that sounds really compelling.

Sid Vicious on New York Cable-Access TV



Sid and Nancy and Stiv Bators and Cynthia Ross of the B Girls in 1978....

Dude, where's my sub?


At the Subway on Maiden Lane in the Financial District.

Reminder tonight!: Richard Sandler


Two documentaries by Richard Sandler, Brave New York and Sway, are playing tonight in the community garden at Sixth Street and Avenue B. (Brave New York chronicles the East Village from 1988-2003.)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Richard Sandler's New York City

[Image: Richard Sandler, 1982]

A mighty wind


Just in case you missed the piece in the Times on the wind farmers of East 11th Street from Aug. 4, the Post did their own version of it today.

Meanwhile, any comments on Bloomberg's windmill energy plan?

Looking at Extra Place

I'm continuing to take in all parts of the Bowery. An appreciation of sorts. As Forgotten New York has noted, Extra Place has been a dead end on the north side of East 1st Street east of the Bowery since about 1800. Here's what it looked like in 1978.


[Top image via Forgotten New York]

Here's what it looked like the other day.


As it has been reported, the cul-de-sac is becoming "a slice of the Left Bank, a pedestrian mall lined with interesting boutiques and cafés."
Now watch this snappy video about Extra Place at 311 Bowery!

The Heterosexuals are coming!


Ugh. On 10th Street. Near Second Avenue.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Landlord accused of harassing longtime tenants


From the City Room this afternoon:

A group of tenant advocates has accused a landlord that acquired 17 rent-regulated buildings on the Lower East Side last year of aggressively harassing tenants in a concerted effort to oust longtime residents from the buildings so that the units could be renovated and the rents raised.

All the buildings, which are rent-regulated, are in an area bounded by First Avenue and Avenue B and East 13th and Houston Streets.

Capturing intertwined lives in the East Village


[Photo Lorcan Otway/The Villager]

The Villager profiles East Village photographer Lorcan Otway this week.

Otway’s photos capture everything from the fast-action danger of a young man trying to resuscitate a friend who had overdosed on heroin (above, which ran in The Villager last June 13-19) to a close-up of a young “crusty” woman, looking tenderly at her pet rat. Most important, each photo has overlapping characters interacting in a shared setting. Their stories are intertwined: A young Ninth Precinct policewoman captured on her training day, Officer Spinelli, shares an ecosystem in the park with Carl, the elderly man dubbed “Santa Claus,” who she will probably scoop up many times for drinking. Smiling Officer Bearne’s face glows with humanity, as does that of Jim “Mosaic Man” Power, as each goes about his life in the East Village Commons — separate, yet connected.

Action item:
Otway's photo exhibit, “East Village Commons: A Loving Portrayal of a Neighborhood,” will be on display at Theater 80 on St. Mark’s Place beginning Monday. It runs for a week.

EV Grieve lost and found

I hope there's a reward! Found on Sixth Street near First Avenue.

The per-man, per-truck moving wars in the East Village





Do I hear $16 per man, per truck, per hour?

At 20 Pine: Oh, my achin' back...

During my guest stint at Curbed last week, I wrote a post on 20 Pine, the big-ass condo conversion that's been taking a looooooong time to get condoized in the Financial District. Anyway, I have the occasion to pass by the place just about every work day. And the 20 Pine sign gives me pause nearly every time.



Hold on. "Hey, lady, could you please move from the..." Oh. She's part of the ad. Poor dear, given her posture, she must have neck and lower back pain. Is this really the best image to help sell a luxury property?

Oh. As for big-ass (classy me), this is what I mean:

2008_8_pine2.jpg

And it's, uh, big-assier in person.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Is the standard-of-living bubble ready to burst?


Over at Fortune, Geoff Colvin, senior editor at large, weighs in with the next big financial crisis: "We made it through the bursting of the Internet bubble and now the bursting of the real estate bubble. Next we may be approaching the end of the most worrisome bubble of all: the standard-of-living bubble."

And:

"Since credit card debt has been growing much faster than the economy -- more than 8% in last year's third and fourth quarters and over 7% in May (the most recent month reported) -- people are apparently using it as a substitute for income. Thus, for the past year or so we have still maintained the standard-of-living illusion."

Bottom line?

"Sustainable increases in living standards have to be earned, not borrowed, and that means performing ever higher value work that can't be outsourced. We haven't been meeting that challenge very well; doing so will probably require much more and better education for millions of Americans, which takes time and money. The result may feel like deprivation, but I don't see it that way. Who knows -- we might even find that living within our means and saving a little money actually isn't so bad."

The problem with having talking chairs in hotel rooms



Let's take a quick trip back 55 years to August 1953. An article in that month's Mechanix Illustrated highlights ill-fated inventions, such as talking hotel chairs, which were giving a whirl at the Hotel Edison in Midtown. The concept: When a person eased himself into the chair, his weight would actuate a lever that would start a record playing. When he got up, it would stop. Irwin Kramer, vice president of the Hotel Edison, said of the chairs, “It would be a direct means of advertising. When a guest came into his room and sat down, we thought he’d be pleased to hear something like 'welcome to the Hotel Edison,' and a description of some of our features. We thought it would be quite a novelty.” Right! According to the article, "A pretty girl came in, plumped herself wearily into the chair and the monologue started. She leaped up, peered into the closet and under the bed, then ran screaming into the hall. 'There’s a man in my room,' she gasped. The management had to quiet her." Soon after, the hotel removed the chairs.

Previously on EV Grieve:
At the Hotel Edison: An appreciation

Nothing's shocking?



The John Varvatos fall 2008 fall campaign finds Perry Farrell on the Bowery. According to the John Varvatos Web site, the ads were shot "on top of and around the landmark 315 Bowery building in NYC's East Village." The "campaign reveals Farrell's enigmatic personality and captures Varvatos' detailed sensibility in their truest forms."

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Oh, don't mind us: More music videos featuring NYC in the background

So I've been having fun with Alex at Flaming Pablum posting music videos featuring NYC as a backdrop. (He had some real blasts from the past for me: Biohazard! House of Pain!) Anyway, I started the other day with more cheesy fare, but am now getting into stuff that I like.

Sonic Youth, "Kool Thing"


Sonic Youth, "Do You Believe in Rapture?" (An ode to CBGB)


Railroad Jerk, "Rollerkoaster"


Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "The Message"


LOUSY quality video of King Missile, "Detachable Penis" (good shots of the old Kiev on Seventh Street and Second Avenue)


Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, "Redemption Song" (Not that old, of course, but a lovely tribute)

Dumpster of the day



East Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Looking at the corner of Avenue A and Sixth Street


I'm not sure what's going on here at this prime slab of East Village real estate at 95 Avenue A at Sixth Street. There was no one around to ask. Venetian food joint Via Delle Zoccolette (which means "song of the pretty girl" -- yeah, I didn't know either) is either going through an extensive remodeling job or it's out of business. Even their canopy is gone.


At the Hotel Edison: An appreciation

Whenever we start reading about old-school joints such as Frankie and Johnnie's facing the wrecking ball, it makes us appreciate the city's remaining institutions even more. Places such as the Hotel Edison and its diner, Cafe Edison (you know, the Polish Tea Room) that Neil Simon and other Broadway types would frequent for its blintzes, borscht and goulash. The hotel, on West 47th Street next to the W smack in the middle of Times Square, was built in 1931, as its Web site trumpets, "in the same grand Art Deco style as Radio City Music Hall." Anecdotes abound about the Edison, like whether the scene in which Luca Brasi gets rubbed out in The Godfather was filmed here...or the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn Heights. Whatever. No matter how dusty around the corners this place is, it remains a treasure from the past.

I have a few more photos on my Flickr page.







"Serial evictees" and rotten tenants


Interesting post by Manhattan-based real-estate attorney Joseph Ferrara about "serial evictees" at the sellsius blog yesterday. As he explains, "A serial evictee will rent an apartment or home with no intention of paying rent (other than the 1 month + security to get in the place). Instead, they plan to get evicted -– after they work the system for up to a year in free rent or cut a deal with the landlord to move out."

I'll let him continue.

"I ran into a few of these clever folks. One of my favorite stories involves an ingenious young woman who stopped paying rent and then staged her own lock-out (with a police report as proof), knowing the penalty in NYC was triple damages plus legal fees. She wanted my client, a poor spoken immigrant, to give her 6 months free rent…. or else. My investigation uncovered the fraud — turned out she was dating a law student who gave her the idea, which she had used several times with success. When I was cross-examining her on the stand and she realized her cover was blown, she literally bolted from the witness stand and tried to run out of the court room. She was tackled by the court officer and hauled into the judge’s chamber (along with her attorney). Only my compassionate client saved her from a new address, with free rent, at the city jail."

OK. Anyway, the post went on to highlight a new site called rottentenant.com -- "landlords venting and helping landlords."

Monday, August 18, 2008

Billy Joel ruins St. Mark's Place: More 80s video fun

We've been having some fun of late finding cheeseball 80s videos shot in New York. Alex at Flaming Pablum has found a few more doozies...(as well as some actually good songs, like Surgery and Freedy Johnston). The dooziest of the doozies, though, belongs to Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust" video shot on St. Mark's circa 1986. (The embedding thingee was disabled by request...) Good counsel from Alex regarding this song: "Best to turn the sound down..."

[Note from EV Grieve: I changed some of the original copy in this next section at 12:51...I explain it a little more in the comments...]

Meanwhile, moving away from the cheeseball category, here are some more 1980s videos with New York serving as a backdrop....I submit Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out" ...



And, with apologies, Sting's "Englishman in New York" (Why am I apologizing? I like the song/video, but not Sting so much...)



Don't worry -- there are plenty more to come....

Get me out of this Ugly New Building!

I managed to miss the news back in late May of artist Dan Witz adding his own touches to the luxury housing popping up everywhere from here to Brooklyn. In case you did too. He writes in a blog post: "Personally, I can't say I like the new modern architecture very much, it's sterile and so arrogantly disconnected with its surroundings sometimes it seems like giant alien space ships have landed in the night."

Still, the new buildings provide him with a backdrop for creating art. So! "These are photo-based, heavily re-painted stickers, mounted on plastic and glued to the walls of the Ugly New Buildings. I hit the Lower East Side and East Village in Manhattan, and Bushwick, Dumbo, Greenpoint and Williamsburg out here in Brooklyn."

I'm writing about this now because I just came across some of his work in the East Village and decided to do a little research. (These are his photos below; there are more on his Flickr page.)


Meanwhile, in Saint-Tropez


Please allow this quick diversion away from EV Grieve's usual topics...where we visit the pages of Page Six Magazine for The Ivana-logues, the high-society column written by Ivana Trump. Without comment:

To get to a party in Saint-Tropez last week, guests were asked to board a shuttle bus to the property. Well, I have not been on a bus in 20 years and I’m not about to get on one now. So I see this gorgeous French police guy with his big motorbike. I go up to him in my high heels—the guy has no idea who I am, he just sees a good-looking chick—and I say, “Monsieur, can you give me a ride?” I jump on the bike and he has these huge shoulders and he takes me two-and-a-half miles, through the bushes, to the party. When he drops me off, he says, “You look like Ivana Trump.” I say, “I am Ivana Trump and thank you so much for the ride.” He totally freaked out.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Post scribe thinks turmoil in Africa is so trendy in the news right now!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Claim: New York is the most competitive city in the world


According to the Global Urban Competitiveness Project (as reported in The Economist), New York is the most competitive city in the world.

Of course, there is a problem with this No. 1 ranking, as Gawker weekend editor Ian Spiegelman notes: "Competitive people are assholes, and there are too goddamn many of them here!" [Via Gawker]

Meet Manhattan's fat-cat home buyers (all you need is $45 million!)


The Post has a feature today on the richies who have paid more than $45 million for their Manhattan digs. You know, the $45 Million Club. As the article notes, hedge-funder Daniel Loeb bought a 10,000-square-foot apartment in newly renovated 15 Central Park West for $45.8 million in February. "The place has five bedrooms and five baths - but, in what seems quite a scandal, his view of Central Park is obscured by an adjacent apartment." Perhaps Loeb can pay to have that adjacent apartment removed.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Full moon tonight



Christ, what's next, photos at dusk?

The Times looks at the Stuyvesant Polyclinic


The Times looks at The German Dispensary and adjacent library on Second Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets today. (You know, the Stuyvesant Polyclinic...mansion of death.)

The piece gives a broad history of the space...and a glimpse of the future, possibly dispelling a few of the rumors surrounding its fate:

Now the architect David Mayerfeld is working on an alteration for a future occupant, which he describes only as “a think-tank sort of thing, that works on business problems.”

He plans to strip the paint from the intricate ironwork stairway railings and columns, and will have to add a sprinkler system throughout to retain the open stair hall. He says that removing half a century of dropped ceilings and tacked-on flooring has been a process of discovery, as bits of tile, tin ceiling and other finishes suddenly appear.


Previously: Jeremiah has been following this development...read his coverage here.

Tina Turner takes to the mean streets of NYC

Yesterday, reader Eric E. sent along the link for Sade's "Is it a Crime" video showing some delicious Times Square pornage lights circa 1985.

This morning, I came across Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to do With it" video shot in NYC in 1984. Love the extras from central casting. And, fyi: Don't fuck with Tina on the streets.



Still, nothing beats Pat Benatar's free-the-exotic-dancers scene in "Love is a Battlefield."

And a little Staten Island from Madonna, who turns 50 today.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Not to ruin your Friday evening, but....RUN FOR COVER!


Holy shit.

Hmm, what's on the news?






And why am I sitting in front of a computer at this hour? Seeking shelter?

The Dead Boys do Iggy

Mid-morning musical interlude, and what not



Debbie...Debbie...Debbie...



[Photo by Theresa K.]

A music video takes us back to 1985 Times Square (didn't want to say a Sade music video because then you may not watch...)

Thanks to reader Eric E. for bringing this music video to my attention (via the previous post)...

Just stumbled upon this music video by Sade, Is It a Crime -- it has shots of the 80's Big yellow taxi cab cruising in the old Times Square, and a shot of the Show Palace Theatre and Show World Center on 42nd street and 8th avenue at the the 40 sec. mark. Enjoy.

We have been enjoying! The only downside...Well, aside from being Sade (sorry), the song lasts like seven years. The good cab stuff happens in the first few minutes, though.

As Eric E. said, Enjoy.

And now for something completely different: A note from EV Grieve



Wrapping up the end of week No. 2 over at Curbed. It has been fun, though I wish they wouldn't leave the front door open while the AC is on. Uh, in any event, here are some of the posts from there this last day or so. Thanks for reading.

14 New York Stories

More Beach Volleyball! More Beach Volleyball!

Write What You Know

Before the Boldface Names

Noted for the Record

Hello, New York

From the Department of Good News -- Katz's edition

In an entertaining and thorough post this morning on the state of egg creams, Jeremiah delivers a comforting passage after an interview with Fred Austin, co-owner of Katz's

As for those perennial whispers Katz’s might be vanishing, Fred says, “Every so often I drop the rumor we might be closing, just to boost our business, but I like this place too much. We’ll be around for a long while.”

Meanwhile, here's part of a reel for a documentary this fellow is making about Katz's. Here's more on the project.




And more...

Balls


Mott and Houston.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Reading this week's issue of The Villager

An update on the HOWL! Festival.

Get to know the new CB3 president.

And a fucked-up crime from Downtown Express:

A Lower Manhattan man who was in a crowd that attracted mounted police on 10th Ave. at W. 28th St. at 4:50 a.m. Sun., Aug. 3, punched one of the horses, Buck, in the nose and then grabbed the reins of Buck and another horse, McQuade, endangering the cops riding them, police said. The suspect, Alfonso Figar, 20, who lives on John St., was charged with reckless endangerment and assaulting the officers who were arresting him. Figar had to be wrestled to the ground to be handcuffed, police said.

And speaking of punching horses...forgive me for this.