Showing posts with label Third Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Third Street. Show all posts

Monday, August 17, 2009

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

"Bad pussies" coverup outside Mama's

Several people asked yesterday what was going on outside Mama's on Third Street at Avenue B. The "Bad Pussies" mural that once paid homage to Bea Arthur!

Thanks to intrepid EV Grieve reader Empire for providing some photos of what I was just talking about...

Well!




According to the DOB: minor interior renovation and new plumbing fixtures.



Hope the bad pussies aren't harmed during all this...

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Dumpster of the Day



Oh, and it's affordable...On Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

And please do not ask to have your photo taken on the Harley

Oh, a few weeks ago we wrote about the "do not sit on bench" sign at the Hells Angels HQ. As we learned (thanks to a reader), the sign was directed toward the guests of the secret vegan hotel operating next door on Third Street.



Maybe hotel officials figured they didn't want their guests plunked over the head with a wrench or something. The hotel recently added their own sign to the front door.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Black market Clash: "This is Radio Clash" mural painted over on Third Street

Been meaning to do a post on graffiti legend Ezo's Clash-inspired mural on Third Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. It's on the wall outside the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

Because of its more remote location in the East Village, this work didn't receive the same love as Joe Strummer on Seventh Street and Avenue A. I liked it just the same, of course.






Anyway, I'm sad to say, it's gone. Painted over. Black.



Well, Ezo's Clash mural had been tagged. And it was starting to chip away in spots... Couldn't it have been touched up like the Strummer mural earlier this year? In any event, we're hopeful something equally inspired goes up in its place.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Hells Angels kindly request that hotel guests please refrain from sitting on their bench

The bench outside the Hells Angels headquarters on Third Street now features a recently added sign:




Given the proximity now of the Bowery Hotel and, more recently, the Cooper Square Hotel... I'd say one too many clueless hotel guests plopped down with a cup of FroYo to take in some authentic NYC scenery. Woo, honey check out the mopeds! Sit on one while I take your picture!

Man, I wish I would have seen this!

[Update: In the comments, reader James provides more information: "The sign is actually for the guests of an illegal hotel next door at 73-75 E 3rd. I used to live there as the building 'management' was turning the building into a 'Vegan Hotel' despite 8 complaints into the department of buildings to my last count. Now they even have a blog... I can see how the Hells Angels could be upset. They are great neighbors btw, if you don't sit on their bench."]

Not too long ago, I saw a harmless-looking delivery guy start to chain up his bicycle on the light pole to the west of the HQ's front door. The delivery was for the building next door. From a doorway across the street, a man emerged and hollered with authority: "MOVE THAT BIKE." Somehow, the delivery guy missed the "No Parking Except Authorized Hells Angels" sign.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

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

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Bullet Space is the first of the former LES squats to take over ownership of building from city




Bullet Space, an artists' collective and gallery on Third Street between Avenue C and Avenue D, is the first of the 11 former LES squats to be turned over to its residents. A source at the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), the nonprofit that has acted as a liaison between the tenants and the city throughout the renovation process of the former LES squats, confirmed the transfer yesterday afternoon.

According to the UHAB source: Bullet Space "has officially had its permanent loan closed, and transferred into the name of Bullet Space H.D.F.C."

As the UHAB source explained, "Bullet Space officially owns the building." For the time being, UHAB executives will remain on their board. However, as soon as Bullet Space residents hold their first shareholder meeting and vote in replacement members, they will be the operating owners of their building. "It's at that first vote when we distribute shares, and it's expected they will do that in a week or two," according to the UHAB source.

The Umbrella House on Avenue C is the next former squat expected to be converted to a co-op for the residents in the coming weeks.

The Villager provides some background on what has taken place in recent years with the former squats. In the Dec. 31-Jan. 6, 2009 issue, several residents of the former LES squats expressed their unhappiness over how long it has taken the city to finalize the plans to bring the buildings up to code and turn the units into affordable housing. Some homesteaders are upset that the renovations were financed with what they call unfair loans that have saddled them with debt. According to the article, titled "Former squats are worth lots, but residents can’t cash in":

“We should have closed this three years ago,” the Bullet Space resident said. “So much red tape, so much mismanagement. … Our building regrets cutting a deal with UHAB. We feel we’re being used and abused. We feel we could have done it for one-third the cost.”

For example, he said, UHAB hired a construction manager at a salary of $70,000, but the squatters wound up doing “90 percent of his job.”

Harry Kresky, an attorney representing Bullet Space, declined comment on whether the squat will sue the city and UHAB.


In that same article, Andy Reicher, UHAB’s executive director, said "the former squatters’ complaints about the renovations’ slowness and the mounting debt are 'not totally incorrect.'"

Said Reicher: "It’s been frustrating. … But in the end, what’s going to result is affordable, limited-equity co-ops."

Also, the article noted that under what is known as Article XI, the former squats will not pay property taxes for 40 years. That exemption was always part of the plan, and will save the residents thousands of dollars in taxes, Reicher said.

According to the East Village History Project, squatters moved into the condemned building, which previously housed a baptist church, at 292 E. Third St., in 1985. (I've seen other sources list 1982 and 1986 for the takeover date.) It was originally known as 6 o'clock. The building was once owned by noted slumlord Henry J. Shapolsky, who had the building seized by the city for nonpayment of taxes.

The Bullet Space Web site provides more on the various projects created by the collective through the years...foremost on the list, "The Your House Is Mine" collaboration -- a 19 x 25, 16-pound book.

The following photos and captions are from the Bullet Space site as well:

Photo by Andrew Castrucci, 1990 • 292 East 3rd Street, NYC • "Your House Is Mine" Book and Street Project


Photo by Sebastian Schroder, 1986 • 292 East 3rd Street, NYC • Bullet Space (A.K.A. - 6 o'clock Squat)


Photo from "Hans Haacke: Unfinished Business" • Shapolsky Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, 1971 • 292 East 3rd Street, known as Bullet Space


For further reading on the former LES squats:
What's happening at the Umbrella House? (EV Grieve)

Fire Brings Out "Barn-Raising" Spirit, and Concerns (The New York Times)

In Images, the Lower East Side of Starker Days (The New York Times)

Squatters' rights (City Limits)

A brief history of New York City's Squats (City Limits)

Sweat Equity Pays Off (The Brooklyn Rail)

Squat the world! (Not Bored)

Sunday, April 26, 2009

The Bea Arthur tag

The "Bad Pussies" mural on the side of Mama's at Third Street and Avenue B (which "passes off a subtle message of yuppicide") has always fascinated me...



...and even more so now with the passing yesterday of NYC native Bea Arthur, who was 86.



...the Bea Arthur tag has been there for as long as I can remember... I just never knew why. I've seen the Bea Arthur tag a few other places around the neighborhood...just can't remember where at the moment.