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Photo this evening on St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue via Derek Berg.
The couch is getting around. Spotted in front of the Orpheum yesterday.
We love our new space. It recently won the American Institute of Architects award for Interior Design.
Unfortunately, we were undercapitalized for the cost of the move. We were forced out of our old space before our new one was ready, and the cost of going into storage plus construction overruns left little money with which to buy inventory. Those of you who have visited our new store in recent months may have noticed the understocked shelves.
For 37 years St. Mark's Bookshop has been a beacon of culture in the East Village, attracting people from across the city, the nation, and around the world. We remain committed to providing a showcase for the life of the mind as expressed by the best books and periodicals being published today, as well as stocking the best of the past. We hold readings and events you cannot find elsewhere. To continue in our mission we need people who value our work and goals to help us.
Please consider buying an ownership interest in a new St. Mark's Bookshop. We have been approached by an investor who is interested in funding a rebirth of the bookstore, reorganizing and restructuring the business with an eye to long term viability. He is looking for others to join him in an investment team. Please contact me if this prospect interests you.
So many people have told us that they need us here in the East Village. We want to continue to serve you and the world of thought and literature. Please help to make that possible, and as always, we appreciate your continued support.
"We are in a difficult situation financially and every day is a new challenge. But we don't have any plans to close. That's why we’re pursuing this, we want to take action now to be able to continue."
Name: Norman
Occupation: Retired, Economist for NY Department of Transportation.
Location: 5th Street and 2nd Avenue
Time: 4:15 pm on Friday, July 31
I’m Puerto Rican. I moved to the city in 1981 to finish my studies. I was exposed to the neighborhood in the 1970s because my maternal grandmother used to live on 11th Street between 2nd and 3rd. I moved to 11th Street and 2nd Avenue, then I moved to Clinton Street for a couple of months, but it was drug heaven with too much heroin. That was in 1983. I couldn’t stand it. Then I moved to 13th Street, lived there for 15 years, and I’ve been living here on 2nd Street since 2000.
In the 1970s, when I was is my teens, my grandmother told me, ‘Norman don’t go below First Avenue.’ However, on Avenue B, I remember in 1973 or 1974, I used to get lunch for $1.25. Italian — a good meal. I was about 15. The baby boomers had just moved. People were moving and the baby boomers were moving along.
It was a low-key working neighborhood. We used to play ball in the streets. We were skateboarding. There is no graffiti now. There used to be graffiti everywhere. It was a good community. Rent was cheap. Food was really cheap. There were plenty of supermarkets. A beer cost 35 cents; soda cost a quarter; cigarettes were $1.30, I think. I worked in a hardware store in the 1970s. I used to earn $2.30 an hour. I learned my grandmother was paying my salary because she didn’t want to see me in the street.
The buildings started to get burned, badly, by 1974 and 1975. It was really bad. My building was a burnout building. The whole street was burned out. There was no traffic.
I moved to 13th Street in 1983. They used to have an Italian Street festival and there was a grotto, a small church that later burned. It was used as a shooting gallery. A lot of artists moved in. People were carrying their canvases through the neighborhood. That’s when they started changing the neighborhood. The buildings started getting renovations. The city started to give them away for a dollar to do whatever you want.
Back in the early 1980s as a gay guy here, it was kind of heaven. There were a lot of gay bars. [I remember] going to the gay bathhouse for the first time, underage. I went there when I was 16. I saw men going in there and I asked one of them who was a little bit older to take me along. It used to be on 1st Avenue – the building that had Lucky Cheng’s. They called it Club Baths. If you go to the basement you can still see one of the whirlpools.
I retired last year. I did economics for the New York Department of Transportation. I pushed paper. Pushing the paper. When I started working we didn’t have computers in our office. I used to have an adding machine and a typewriter. We used to have Teletype in the office.
A NNN leased three level, Beaux-Arts style, loft building located on the south side of East 13th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues. The space is leased to Peridance, a dance studio, until March 2028 with a 5 year option. The rent will increase to $623,673 per year in March 2016 and then have 3% annual increases thereafter. The tenant is responsible for all operating expenses and repairs for the property. The rent of only $40/RSF, is half of market value providing tremendous future upside. The lease is guaranteed by Capezio Ballet Makers Inc.
Have you heard a dog on 5th or 6th street that is in possible distress?
There have been reports of a dog crying out daily.
We are anxious to help the dog if she/he is being crated all day.
We are trying to locate the building and/or apartment to help this animal.
My building, like four others on the block (223, 229, 231, 233 and 235), is owned by Morton Tabak and Co. LLC. When I originally rented the apartment, I rented it from Morton Tabak himself, who was a very nice man and a decent landlord. Several years ago, his family took over the management of the building, at which point they switched the ownership to the LLC. They're not as nice as Mr. Tabak was, but there have been no major problems dealing with them.
Twice now in the past few weeks there have been notices posted near our mailboxes mentioning the "sale" of the Tabak buildings on Fifth Street and inviting tenants to meetings about it.
The Tabak family is currently in the process of selling 17 of their buildings — most of them in the East Village. The buyer is Brook Hill Properties/Goldmark Property Management. As of now we are not aware of any official closings.
However, some tenants have already been contacted by Brook Hill Properties introducing themselves as the new landlord. They are measuring apartments and taking photos of people’s spaces. In addition, an official letter was emailed to some tenants announcing the transfer of "management and ownership" to Brook Hill Properties.
At the same time many tenants are being told that this is only a transition in management. The whole process has been opaque and extremely disorganized.
"Barnyard will be closed until further notice while we work in conjunction with our fellow building residents to make much needed improvements in order to be able to continue to bring you the quality food, service, and comfort that you deserve and that we strive to bring you every day.
"It is our hope that this closing will be brief and that we will be back and better than ever very soon."
Like WD-50, Alder was a showcase for the chef’s inventiveness. He reconfigured ingredients with the help of a toolbox that included meat glue, and devised surprises like rye pasta with pastrami that tasted like a sandwich from Katz’s delicatessen nearby.
Mr. Dufresne is one of the few truly experimental chefs in New York, a city that has not been particularly generous in embracing molecular gastronomy and other avant-garde trends in food. He worked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten before opening 71 Clinton Fresh Food in a tiny space in 1999; in 2003 he opened WD-50 in somewhat grander premises across the street.
Did you happen to hear about (or hear yourself) the apparent country music jamboree that took place on a rooftop on 13th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A Saturday night around midnight?
It was all-out gawdawful, but I couldn't report it as I couldn't pinpoint the address. It was a LOUD amplified country singer who was really, really bad. People cheered after about the first 10 songs and then no more woo-ing, yet he continued. I felt bad for who ever though they were having a an awesome party. It really sucked! And it could be heard 2-3 blocks away.
Puppeteers are gathering at The Connelly Theater on Tuesday, Aug. 4 from 7 pm to 10 pm to help raise funds for their friends Matt and Nora Brooks, who lost their home, belongings and life’s work in the deadly gas explosion on March 26 that leveled three buildings.
Master puppet-builder Matt Brooks has worked in Jim Henson’s Puppet Workshop. His wife, Nora Brooks, is an MFA student at The New School and a writer..
Their puppeteer friends are coming together to create a one-night-only puppet variety show fundraising event to help them out.
Where:
The Connelly Theater, 220 E. 4th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.
Tickets are $40 per person with 100 percent of the proceeds going to Matt and Nora Brooks. Tickets are available at the door or online here
At a meeting [last] week of the SOCCC-64 (Save Our Charas Community Center PS 64) steering committee, Mendez said she was deeply frustrated with DOB’s apparent lack of oversight, issuing permits when the developer still does not appear to be adhering to the requirements of the community facility use restriction: that is, signed leases with qualifying institutions, rather than promises of leases with organizations that may or may not qualify.