Report: Police charge two teens for robbery on Avenue A and Houston last Saturday

From the NYPD Daily Blotter in the Post today:

Two teens were arrested for beating and robbing a man in Alphabet City, police said yesterday. Joshua Igartua, 16, and a 15-year-old accosted the 23-year-old man at Avenue A and East Houston Street at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, cops said. They allegedly punched the man in the face and body, then swiped his cell phone. Police were called and arrested the pair on robbery charges.

For a more complete picture of what's happening on the streets, be sure to read Bob Arihood's Neither More Nor Less.

Related:
In response to recent violence in the East Village: Alphabet City Neighbors

Another big scoop by the Post!

These guys are a news-gathering machine! No need for any credit on where the story originated!

The New York Post discovers the East Village, squats

The Post has an exclusive cover story today about the city turning over the rights to the former LES squat Bullet Space to its residents.

It's difficult to tell how the paper feels about this.

The article begins:

Sometimes crime does pay.

The exclusive two-page spread includes an opinion piece by Henry Stern, the former city parks commissioner who is president of the nonprofit group New York Civic.

His take?

[G]ving away buildings in lower Manhattan to people who break into them and declare themselves owners should not be considered the new public policy of the city of New York.

Over the years, squatting, like graffiti, has been romanticized as an expression of popular will and an assault on the establishment. That may be true -- but it is not the best way to allocate scarce housing among a large and deserving population.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Bullet Space is the first of the former LES squats to take over ownership of building from city

Reader reaction to the New York Post piece on Bullet Space

The best parts of today's exclusive in the Post? The reader comments!

Among them:

pfflyer312@aol.com wrote:
They should have been tear gassed out years ago. These people have stolen from
all of us. While the rest of us pay through our noses, they get off scott free...
5/17/2009 11:15 AM EDT

CJC wrote:
On top of it all, the city gives them a 40 year break from having to pay taxes ...this is nothing short of legalized theft. Gee, I wonder why taxes are so absurd in NY State and City ?
5/17/2009 10:58 AM EDT

gigii wrote:
DISGUSTING - these people are no different than Bernie Madoff - they are stealing that which is not theirs and why would you even print it. They should hang their heads in shame for stealing.
5/17/2009 10:32 AM EDT

ARM wrote:
THERE IS JUST NO REAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA TODAY. I,M SURE IF ANYONE I KNOW WAS TO TRY SQUATTING IN AN ABANDON BUILDING THEY'D BE RUN OFF OUT OF THERE IN A MATTER OF DAYS. IF THE BUILDING WAS IN SUCH DIRE STRAIGHTS, WHY DIDN'T THE CITY DO IT'S JOB BACK IN THE 80'S AND RUN THEM OFF, CONDEMN AND TEAR DOWN THE BUILDING THEN? OH, I REMEMBER NOW, WE WERE IN YET ANOTHER FINANCIAL CRISIS THEN, TOO. GREENWICH VILLAGE, THIS IS PRIME REAL ESTATE, HOW NICE FOR THESE BUMS; AND YES THE LAW BIDING TAX PAYING MIDDLE CLASS PERSON GETS SCREWED YET AGAIN.
5/17/2009 10:18 AM EDT

Davis Rose wrote:
cant bloomy think of a way to kick these losers out
5/17/2009 8:57 AM EDT

And Aaron "The Pie Man" Kay checks in:

pieman420 wrote:
i do support my friends the squatters in keeping the gentrifiers from forcing more poor people into "avenue e"-the east river as a way to make the east village into millionaires row!!!never!!!!the east village has ahistory based on disent, immigration and free speech!! let it still be a liberated zomne!!! yippie!!
5/17/2009 9:42 AM EDT

More reasons why we all should LOVE the recession! (Alternative headline: Enough already with listicles telling us how we should enjoy a recession)

From the Post:

Enough already with the food recession blues. Believe it or not, there are actually some good things the econopocalypse hath wrought — the demise of water sommeliers, gold-flecked sundaes and reservation scalpers chief among them.

So let's get back to basics and toast an end to bloat. Check out our Top 10 reasons for loving the recession.

Among the reasons? An end to Velvet ropes!

While the Meatpacking District is still fueled by models and bottles, there are signs that the trend is waning. We were happy to see the uber swank of Level V recently replaced by 675 Bar. The honest-to-goodness joint is billing itself as a local's hangout ("because the Meatpacking District is a neighborhood, too") offering "a casual, no bottle, no guest list vibe."

And here's the photo the Post uses to illustrate their point on 675 Bar:

"They're dead meat" -- and the celebrities who complained about living near a meat warehouse

As Eater reported on April 8, Pat La Frieda's West Village Meat Warehouse was put on the market for $31 million.

In an article titled "They're dead meat," the Post took a closer look at the La Frieda's warehouse, which has been there for 30 years. A few excerpts:

A lot of people would like to see us out of here. We don't fit no more," La Frieda said as he gestured toward the luxury apartments that have sprouted around his warehouse just south of the district.

and...

...La Frieda no longer feels welcome, with noise complaints from ritzy neighbors piling up and city-issued tickets during loading and unloading totaling $84,760 last year.

and...

Actress Eva Mendes and one of the Olsen twins, who briefly owned a penthouse across the street, were among the star-studded cast of complainers, La Frieda's son Pat Jr. claimed.

and...

The La Frieda warehouse was put on the market for $31 million last month, and boutique hoteliers Ian Schrager and Peter Moore have expressed interest, Sotheby's broker Robson Zanetti said.

In its heyday, 250 wholesale butchers chopped meat within the dozen blocks officially known as the Gansevoort Market. By 2003, as men in snug tennis sweaters started outnumbering those in bloodstained aprons, the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation counted just 35 butchers.

In the past year, at least nine meatpackers quietly moved out.

As for the lack of the district's namesake businesses, "It doesn't make a difference to me. I didn't even know this area existed four years ago until I came," said Mario Cameron, controller for the warehouse's new owner, Robert Isabell.

The exodus leaves only seven butchers in the district, all inside a city-owned co-op with a lease set to expire in 2014.

For further reading:
Interstate Food, Inc.: Vanishing (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Noted

"A $24 ticket bought directly from the Mets costs $37.50." (Phil Mushnick)

"All of the Mets, Yankees and NYC resources could not duplicate what the Romans did 20 centuries ago"

A few excerpts from EV Grieve favorite Phil Mushnick's column in today's Post. The topic: The new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees:

The Mets' new billion-dollar, state-of-the-art, restaurant- and luxury-box-lined park has loads of obstructed-view seats -- same as the Yanks' new park. The Mets are pretending that theirs don't exist, while the Yanks are pretending that theirs were part of the plan, all along.

Who was the architect, George Costanza?

Not that anyone expected anyone to actually consider the sightlines from these seats. Those unwilling or unable to surrender their good senses to continue to attend Yankees and Mets games were deemed persona-get-outta from the start. The plans, after all, always called for fewer "cheaper" seats.

Who knew, three years ago, that such seats would be in demand among the freshly impoverished? Or that corporations, having supplanted real fans as sports' best customers, would be less solvent than both bleacher bums and bleach?

And!

Most remarkable, though, is that in the 21st century, all of the Mets, Yankees and NYC resources could not duplicate what the Romans did 20 centuries ago. The Roman Coliseum, now 2,000 years old, never had a bad seat.

And!

No worries, though. If Mayor Bloomberg and Yankee Vice Emperor Randy Levine are correct in their claim that new ballparks are good for the economy, we can build new ones every two years. Excelsior!

Another "the recession can be fun" story

From the Post yesterday:

The recession is such a bummer. Wouldn't it be nice to time travel to a simpler era the 1950s when money was plentiful, appliances were shiny, and rock was just beginning to roll? A carefree time, when wiggling a Hula Hoop rather than watching the Dow plummet was the favored pastime, and love could be found at a sock hop. Happily, a DeLorean time machine a la "Back to the Future" isn't necessary. Doo-wop shows, record hops, and soda fountains are all here. As it turns out, happier days can be had again.

And do these folks look like they're from the 1950s?:

Looking at the LES: "Those bridge-and-tunnel places are what made this area better"

A few passages from the real-estate section in the Post today, specifically the cover story titled "More or LES."

The neighborhood, one of the city's largest — spanning from the Bowery east, from Houston to Canal streets — offers Manhattan's least expensive two- and three-bedroom rentals, averaging $3,023 and $4,095 a month, respectively, according to Citi Habitats' January data. (Compare that to $4,311 and $5,450 in Chelsea, and $5,086 and $7,169 in SoHo/TriBeCa.)

What about that kinda weird-looking Blue condo thing?

[T]he glass 16-story, 32-unit Blue condo, out of place among its five- and six-story neighbors, is a different story. It averaged $1,140 per square foot when it sold out, says Corcoran Group broker Barrie Mandel.

"The people who bought [at Blue] were people who 10 years ago would have bought in the Village and five years ago would have bought in SoHo and two years ago would have bought in NoLIta," Mandel says. "The majority of people have traditional work that they do all day long, they dress in a suit and tie, a dress and proper heels and come home at night and lead a different life, go to the clubs or the lounges."

What other changes have there been on the LES?

Since Anne Hugard moved to the Lower East Side in 2001, she has seen a dramatic transformation.

"There were no stores, and it was Chinatown to the south and very Puerto Rican to the east; that's what we liked about it," she says. "It got gentrified, which is good and bad. We enjoy the convenience of stores, but the drawback is that the population gets to be all the same."

Hmm, still. Is it safe?

"I've watched this area go from street fights to kids puking in the streets," says Chris Scott, co-owner of Fat Hippo, a newish restaurant on Clinton Street. "Those bridge-and-tunnel places are what made this area better."

Trend stories we very likely won't read

But you can...

Report: Cops will be cracking down on petty crime

From today's Post:

After giving petty criminals a break, the NYPD summoned a dozen precinct commanders to Headquarters Friday to help focus efforts against aggressive beggars, squeegee men, hookers and illegal peddlers, The Post has learned.

Station-house bosses from Manhattan and The Bronx met with top brass and gave them reports on quality-of-life problems each is facing, according to sources familiar with the gathering.

The summit was called by Chief of Department Joseph Esposito after cops issued 7.1 percent fewer summonses for minor offenses in 2008 than in 2007, as The Post reported last month.

Early in the week, a unit from headquarters scouted the city looking for problem areas and taking photos. Then brass called the sitdown with precinct heads to hear from them.

They talked about petty crimes and misdemeanors that can drive the average New Yorker nuts -- street walkers, panhandlers who get in your face and homeless people who hang out at ATMs or fast-food joints.

The Post changes the back page headline

One of those unfortunate horrible combinations of front and back-page headlines...a late-evening tragedy bumps the original Page 1 story...the back page is already set...everything happening so quickly....The Late City Final is here....



And their online version...

The Trump SoHo feature: All is well here!

The New York Post's real estate section today has a cover story titled "Rock, Hudson!: TRUMP'S NEW TOWER SHAKES UP SLEEPY HUDSON SQUARE AREA."

I'll say.

The piece is so full of whoppers, it's hard to know where to start. So how about here:

"[Trump SoHo] is a fantastic emblem to have on the corner," says Prudential Douglas Elliman's Frances Katzen, who is selling the Renwick, a condo building set to rise in Hudson Square. "[But] the building has had a lot to overcome."

Despite protests from neighborhood groups and other controversies -- including the discovery of a 19th-century African church burial ground on the site -- Trump is rising quickly.

"We thought there was a place for younger product downtown," says Ivanka Trump.

Phew! Did away with those "controversies!"

All the "Rock, Hudson!" author had to do was pay a visit to Curbed or maybe just read the headline and second deck of Michael Idov's feature on the property last March 30 in New York:

Trump Soho Is Not an Oxymoron
It’s a 46-story skyscraper being built on a graveyard that’s brought together shadowy Russians and a billionaire brand name to attract internationals in a zoning-skirting scheme that’s enraged the neighborhood, sent glass shattering to the street, and killed a construction worker. It’s New York in the aughts, and inside there’s a luxury suite just for you.

The worker's name was Yurly Vanchytsky. He lived in Brooklyn. He died last Jan. 14. According to reports, he fell 42 stories when he was knocked over by a wooden form used to set concrete collapsed as it was being moved by a crane.

Trend alert: The bad old days are here again!

Yesterday, we learned that maybe we won't want to watch realistic fare such as "Life on Marzzzzzzzz" since we'll all be out in the streets shooting each other and who needs TV when there's reality right out the window. Or something sort of like that. Today, the Post has a piece titled:

'SCARED TO COME TO NY'
LIKE BAD OLD DAYS OF PETTY CRIME

It feels like a flashback to the 1980s on city streets -- an era no one's nostalgic for.

Overstretched cops are struggling to combat petty crime, according to police sources -- resulting in an easing of enforcement that's taking Manhattan down fast, angry New Yorkers told The Post.

"People tell me they're scared to come here," said Greg Agnew, owner of the East Bay Diner on First Avenue at 29th Street. "Guys are hanging out in the street, doing things they're not supposed to be doing, loitering. They cause fights. They urinate on the floor, There's drug use."

How about the East Village?

In Alphabet City, residents are seeing signs of decay.

"You're seeing empty drink bottles in the street, you're catching people urinating. They're 'tagging up' [spray-painting graffiti]," said Anibal Pabon, 44, an office clerk. "All that stuff is coming back."

(Hmm...public urination: future trends piece!) I don't mean to make light of any of this...I've noticed a difference...The cynicism comes from how the media are portraying all this...Building an entire crime-trends article around the quote from one NYU student, for instance. So we're right back to the bad old days of the 1980s? (Or, in he case of the Times yesterday, the 1970s?) Things are just GETTING REALLY BAD HERE right?

Meanwhile, on the page opposite this scary crime story in the Post, there's an article titled Crime Dips on Subway.

Subway crime dropped by 3 percent in 2008 -- marking a third straight year in which the good guys gained on the underground goons.

Robberies went from 796 in 2007 to 823 and rapes from one to three, but murders, assaults and grand larcenies all declined, according to NYPD statistics.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Noted
Returning to the scene of the crime

Speaking of landmarks and chicken fat, Cindy Adams thinks East Houston has a problem

From her column in the Post yesterday:

NOW, Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber's glamorous glorious gorgeous premiere of "Defiance" at the Landmark Sunshine Theater. Landmarked? The thing should be condemned. Sunshine? Their VIP reception room is a windowless, airless basement. But maybe it's the location that counts. East Houston Street just a vat of chicken fat from Yonah Schimmel's knishery.

Important research of the day

From the Post:

Life in New York really is a rat race.

Rodents thrive in a Manhattan-style street-grid system, but tend to become disoriented in the more winding, random layouts of cities such as New Orleans and Jerusalem, according to new research at the University of Tel Aviv that could prove useful to urban planners.

Returning to the scene of the crime

Walking on St. Mark's last night around 7:30, I noticed the usual number of cops making the rounds, eyeballing the crowd, keeping the peace, etc. Not very noteworthy. However. I'm still thinking about the stupid piece from the Post yesterday:

JUST LIKE OL' CRIMES
NYPD'S LETUP STIRS FEARS OF '80S FLASHBACK

There are so many problems with this article. In the "Alphabet City" section alone. The piece begins "Residents and business owners fear..." So what residents do they speak with? A 21-year-old NYU student. That's it. Maybe find someone who has lived here a little longer and likely doesn't move away during the summer? And while Mitch is a very credible source at St. Mark's Comics, he's the only EV business owner the Post talked with. So let's not get into this plural stuff guys. (And there's one quote attributed to him -- I'd be interested in hearing what else he said to the reporter.) Worse, is the imagery that somehow being homeless is the same thing as being a criminal.



And hey -- nothing against poor Carolyn here. Not really her fault a reporter made a poor judgement in selecting a source and asking a speculative question . . . for an article on the NYPD relaxing its enforcement of petty "quality of life" infractions that may turn the city back into a set for Death Wish. She wasn't even born yet.

Anyway. Thank you to everyone who commented on the previous post.

Noted

From The New York Post today:

If the NYPD relaxes its enforcement of petty "quality of life" infractions, it could be a turning point back to the days when murders, muggings and mayhem plagued the city, says a law-enforcement expert who played a key role in developing the crime-busting policy.

"You might be pointing to a tipping point," said George Kelling, who helped formulate the "broken windows" approach to policing that was the model for Mayor Rudy Giuliani's successful zero-tolerance policy.

"It's too early to tell . . . but the consequence might be more street crime."

By the way, what does a sleeping homeless man have to do with "murders, muggings and mayhem"?

NYC Young Republicans already missing Bush

YOUNG GOPERS: 'O,' THE PAIN! BUSH LEAGUERS MOURN BARACK ERA (New York Post)