Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Introducing Nonstop Cooper, a community residency on 3rd Avenue



Via the EVG inbox…

Nonstop Cooper is a community residency at 31 Third Avenue. It will serve as a workspace for community engagement and a platform for public outreach.

Opening on September 7th, Nonstop will feature a wide variety of programming, and drop-in hours from noon to midnight. Community members are welcome to host and attend happenings.

Find more details about this residency at Facebook … and the Nonstop Cooper Tumblr.

The space, 31 Third Ave. at Stuyvestant Street, previously housed St. Mark's Bookshop before a rent increase saw the the owners relocate to East Third Street.

The storefront has been empty now for more than a year.


[Photo by Jeremiah Moss]

Updated 8 a.m.
In other Cooper Union news ... from the Associated Press via ABC News:

New York's attorney general has reached an agreement that would end a suit against Cooper Union and create an independent monitor into the financial management of the engineering and architecture school.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is expected to announce the agreement Wednesday.

He says he hopes it could eventually lead to the school restoring its tradition of free tuition.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is New York! We have the finest empty storefronts in the world!

Anonymous said...

A millennial flop house. Interesting.

Anonymous said...

This is great. This is what the East Village is all about.

Anonymous said...

I'm confused is this for those down on their luck (like the Bowery Mission) or some lounge for students?

Anonymous said...

It's like Bowery Mission but for privileged millennials. They get their Mac books charged, rice krispies in a paper bag, and their head pet by a grief counselor whenever someone makes prolonged eye contact with them.

Anonymous said...

I continue to be fascinated that information is always linked to private companies: Twitter, Tumblr etc. The assumption being that we are all somehow part of that exciting explosion of social media. These companies are really just harvesting companies--harvesting personal information and selling it to advertisers. One of the complaints about Crystal Field, when she maneouvred (with the aid of a city council person I just won't name) to sell the air rights of Theatre for a New City, was that there was no public / community space in the Theatre Building (except for her apartment). So what is this Cooper Space?? I give it two semesters. Language no longer means anything. People speak of AirBNB and Uber has part of the sharing economy. Nice try. Uber is a limo service out to screw the drivers plain and simple. Oh for the simple days when words meant something.

Anonymous said...

So St. Marks books was kicked out so that the store could sit empty for a year and then be turned into a space for college kids to have "happenings" or something.
I don't get it.
So Cooper Union didn't actually have to raise the rent after all, because they are getting no rent now, haven't had any for a year and won't be getting any as long as the kids are playing house there.
Ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

8:29 am- exactly. When winter comes and the Bowery mission has no room in the chapel (during the winter they let guys sit in the chapel during the day so they dont freeze or get sick) they should send them here. These guys are community members. Or are they not welcome? Entitled millenials can engage with the members of the community they pretend dont exist. The Bowery Mission and NYC Rescue Mission on Lafayette can send clients here.

Gojira said...

@Anon. 8:46 - could you possibly mean former Councilwoman Margarita Lopez, champion of the poor and the downtrodden, the East Village's very own Lady Liberty, yearning to succor the huddled masses until a friend of hers who runs a local artistic venue and who'd gotten herself into serious financial difficulties thanks to some questionable business practices needed a favor that wound up bringing the first upscale condo for privileged white people to the East Village on top of Theater for the New City after Lopez hammered her troops on CB3, normally staunch anti-gentrification zealots, into mindlessly voting to approve it? Just wondering.

Anonymous said...

Most important: Why isn't the C wavy?!?!?!

Anonymous said...

Well, one bit of community engagement that Nonstop Cooper might crank up is: Helping St. Mark's Bookshop. No, it's certainly not the students fault that St. Mark's was pushed out but . . . helping them now would be a useful gesture toward the neighborhood, an interesting project, and, doh, a good bookstore is the kind of thing that smart students want to have around. What can be done? Hmmmmm. Well, simply helping St. Mark's with basic marketing would be useful . . . perhaps putting on a series of events that celebrate St. Mark's rather colorful history . . . maybe highlight every Cooper-related book in the store (and there are many).

Anonymous said...

Gojira: Yout got it. I made a vow that I would never mention her name in speech or in writing. What a keen observer you are of the local political snuggle up to one another scene.

nygrump said...

this kind of strikes me as controlled opposition.

Scuba Diva said...

"Nonstop Cooper" is actually part of the agreement with the school; it was first proposed a few years ago, in the context of the lawsuit, that there should be a space—the original proposal was for 24 hours—where students, alumni, and faculty could interact.

I also agree with Anonymous at 1:00 PM; I've been shopping at St. Mark's books since they were at 13 St. Mark's place, and I want to see them do well. This may end up being a valuable think tank; I hope so.

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't a church basement been a better idea for a hangout spot? Do you need an ID to get in here? If it is for students and faculty it will need a guard at the door, no?

BDNYC said...

This will not be a "hangout spot" for students and faculty, this will be open to the entire community to engage in how to reinstate free education at Cooper and around the US. It will last about a month and then, supposedly, a paying tenant will be found.

Please remember that Cooper loses money on the dorm, and that all money collected goes to Kamenstein Brothers - I would expect readers of EV Grieve to remember the old hardware store. Well, guess what, they are the landlords, not Cooper. St Marks Bookshop was a sublease, Cooper designed the new St Marks Bookshop back into the space but had to pay rent to Kamenstein, who owns the land.

Anonymous said...

Again, I wasn't blaming Cooper (too much) for the St. Mark's move but . . . I really do think that helping St. Mark's might be one of the very best community relations projects for Nonstop Cooper. Yes, St. Mark's (kinda) a for-profit store but . . . it was a very fine bookshop. I'd guess a week never went by without at least one Cooper-related book in the window and I always ran into faculty and students there. For years and years, it was almost the campus bookstore and certain a meeting place for school and community alike. Helping St. Mark's would be a lovely gesture.

Just an aside but . . . I'm delighted that the Cooper president resigned, that NYAG negotiated a settlement regarding tuition and management of the school . . . It's a start. Maybe one day, Cooper will be back on it's feet. Also, I think, for the most part, Cooper is a very fine EV neighbor. I like the Cooper kids, the faculty, and, in general, the school plays nice with the EV community. (Certainly, compared to NYU, Cooper is an model neighborhood institution.)