• The push to save Mount Sinai Beth Israel on First Avenue (CBS 2 ... previously on EVG)
• Another anti-congestion pricing lawsuit is on the books, this one via a group of East Villager and LES business owners and residents led by former Councilmember Kathryn Freed (The Post ... CBS 2... amNY)
• On Suffolk Street, Bluestockings is under attack for offering basic outreach services, such as Narcan training and a bathroom (The Guardian ... A community divided Gothamist)
• How Mayor Adams played the city budget numbers (The City)
• An interview with playwright Max Wolf Friedlich, whose play "Job" started at the Connelly Theater last night (Vulture ... tickets)
• A birthday for the East 10th Street Historic District (see pic above ... and at Village Preservation)
• A feature on Francis Kite Club, the "bar and cultural forum" at 40 Avenue C (The New York Times)
• Longtime EV resident Ali Smith on her new book, which we can't wait to read — "The Ballad of Speedball Baby" (Shondaland)
• A where-to-drink-tea listicle with many East Village choices (Eater)
• Time FLIES: Christo and Amelia gear up for their 7th nesting season (Laura Goggin Photography)
• Surf's up for this beach-related film series (Point Break! Thunderball!) (Metrograph)
... and tomorrow... a book fair fundraiser at My Little Village preschool, 383 Grand St. at Seward Park...
5 comments:
Re: Bluestockings. As a former addict, I promise you, making it easier for someone to do drugs enables them. You are an enabler. Your safe space is someone else's car crash. I honestly believe that you think you're doing the right thing but you're not.
Now 4+ years clean, I tried getting clean dozens of times and what got in my way was knowing I could get my drugs here, my pariphanilia over there, and then find a space to do it. You are connecting these dots. You set the stage for failure. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I wouldn't spend a goddamn dime in your bookshop and I encourage others to do the same.
That’s just, like, your opinion man.
Maybe you think you would have been better off dead than still addicted, but many people (and their loved ones) wouldn't make the same call, and all Narcan does is keep you from dying. Excluding street people from bathrooms for fear they might use in them just degrades them (and exposes them to cop harassment for going on the street, which also obviously brings down community QOL). Are you really going to try to tell us that you stopped using (after how long?) because it got more inconvenient to shoot up?
Don't spend your energy going after Bluestockings, spend it working to get a supervised use site on the LES so we don't have to keep losing people. It's horrific out there.
@ Sarah Never once did I say I'd be "better off dead" nor that I "shot drugs." The people who know me, Grieve included, know that I have been very involved in our community for decades. I was instrumental in removing Tishman Speyer from Stuy Town and being a part of the neighborhood group that fought back against 7-11 when they said they were coming to NYC to put the bodegas out of business, among other less headline grabbing projects.
The issue here is not about letting any of the general public, or as you call them "street people", use a bathroom, it's about blurring the business models of a bookstore and a legitimate social services entity.
Though it is not my passion to find people a supervised use site on the LES, it does sound like it is yours. Please, by all means, go for it as it sounds like you've found a passion project for 2024 where you too can serve our community.
PS Sarah, your tone is awful. I was one of the people who were advocating for and now that I'm a success story on the other side of addiction, you are criticizing me for my lived experience and sharing my perspective? Seriously?
Post a Comment