Construction started yesterday at C-Squat on Avenue C ... the building's long-empty storefront will serve as the future home to the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space — aka, MoRUS.
Laurie Mittelmann, who along with Bill DiPaola, the executive director of Time's Up, is helping spearhead the project. She gave us a quick update last night.
"We're building a staircase to connect the museum's storefront with the basement — a portion of which will also be rented to us. C-Squat residents are funding the installation of a new storefront and roll gate, which will be constructed by a 6th St. squatter. Hopefully we'll have interns working in the space in a week or two (the construction is scheduled to go at light speed) and we'll be open to the public in about a month and a half."
As in The New York Times reported in March, the museum "was being established to, among other things, tell the story of how activists in the East Village took over abandoned properties and over the years transformed them into permanent housing or community gardens."
And in case you haven't seen this yet, here's a video about the museum...
And here's the MoRUS website with more information.
interesting....
ReplyDeleteThis is bad news. it's going to bring more tourists into the neighborhood. What it is saying is, this is the way it was. The entire neighborhood has become a museum for people from all over the world to see but the people are being pushed out of their apartments and everyone ignores it. Yes we do have community gardens, but the people who built them are being pushed out and upwardly mobile people and celebrities hang their balconies inside them.
ReplyDeleteTourists come into the neighborhood and wonder around going to the cleaned up douchebag bars and restaurants and the institutions side with the city.
This is a big scam to further homogenize the neighborhood. Who came up with this idea? it works against us.
Why does everyone feel the need to turn us into Colonial Williamsburg? You know people still live here and are hanging on. What next a recreation of the TSP riots? This is disgusting.
ReplyDeleteIt's exactly the opposite case. This museum is going to highlight the neighborhood's sustainable infrastructure and community values in order to encourage more of them. Activists often get frustrated and give up because they have little history to draw from. Once this museum opens people will be able to learn the community's real history as opposed to that of the corporations and be inspired to get off their couches.
ReplyDeleteSo right with all the above post's Next it will be MAR'S BAR the movie in 3D Bad that the yippies have entered the Coffee and cake club WHAT next???
ReplyDeleteI think this museum is a great idea (I live around the corner) and cranky EVers shouldn't be projecting their hostility about gentrification on it. I highly doubt a museum about the 'hood's history is going to expedite the process of more people getting pushed out of the area by gentrification. It would also attract a certain type of tourist--not the same kind making pilgrimages to Carrie Bradshaw's apartment--not to mention a lot of NYers from other 'hoods who will be interested in checking it out.
ReplyDeleteWe don't need anymore tourists, and we don't need "NYers from other hoods". That's exactly the position gentrifiers take, which is to make everyone and every area the same.
ReplyDeleteHow is this going to help the area, or is it for people to use for other areas? Also, how much is a tour, and where will the money from this go to? Is this a non-profit where the money will go to creating sustainable infrastructure in housing and community gardens in the East Village?
The Tenement Museum attracts people from all over the world for their tours, the crowds sometimes take over the whole block. It doesn't do anything about preserving the area now though. It's an attraction for tourists who stay at the Hotels on the Lower East Side. No matter how you slice it it sides with gentrification and that's why I go against this museum.
Sorry, the East Village is not a gated community, hon. Tourists can go wherever the hell they want. Do you travel? Would you want some cranky local telling you you're not welcome to in their 'hood? Or do you never leave the East Village?
ReplyDelete@ Glenn
ReplyDeleteSorry hon, but why so cranky? So you are saying that you are for tourism in the East Village? "Tourists can go wherever the hell they want" and we are crawling with them.
This area has become an entertainment district. The community gardens are a refuge for many East villagers who can't afford to travel. Do you support the hotels on the Bowery? Do you support the illegal hotels in the East Village? Do you support the proliferation of bars, restaurants and lounges in the East Village that cater to tourists and people from outside of the area?
@Glenn - hon, do you own a restaurant, lounge or bar that will benefit from even more tourists? Or perhaps a nice condo that is just rising in value every day due to the "disneyfication" of the LES.
ReplyDeleteI think you are being a bit literal here. This is not about turning the LES into a gated community. We have plenty of tourists already. This summer we will have a thousand or more on corporate sponsored bikes riding around the neighborhood. I'm not buying that this will bring in a different kinda tourist either. I am also not buying that this will inspire people to get off their couches and do something. If what has happened to us in the last 5-10 years hasn't inspired someone to get of their fat a** and do something I don't think a museum giving tours of our gardens will. The labeling of someone who raises questions about gentrification as "cranky" is just plain offensive. Those of us who have lived here for a long-time, were here during the TSP riots and the battle to save the community gardens are tired of being treated like the stuffed caveman fighting replica dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History. Too many so-called activists live off their past accomplishments and sit around remembering the glory days. Forget the museum and seize some land now!
@ Glenn, where do you live? Do drunk tourists pee in your door way?
ReplyDeleteI support this new business moving in...but I also very much agree with what Rocky Raccoon said. I have lived on this block for a couple years now and one of the shittiest things to happen to it is the new 99 cent pizza store that recently moved in. Plenty of fights in the front have woken me up at 2, 3 or 4 am. Its like a magnet for drunk people stumbling out of bars & younger neighborhood folk. Anyway, I'm just glad its not another bar going in.
ReplyDelete