![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib0Y6VvIiFR1luwC7n36uN3fhtr3E9ywbS5yHnXWxWf3q76fmsQTkenGm8-QVYeyj-YtEElkwQdL5PZxhI5FPGVE85UY3OTHMg7joQhXxFRCrfaSoIV3QrmpchqlAZYY832YrIcu7dISc/s400/grimacejv.jpg)
[Photo via JVNY]
And then, the other night in the restroom (the one on the left) at Mars Bar...
Which reminds me that I heard a good Mars Bar restroom story the other day. Just need to remember the details...
[F]or the month of January, Show Media, a Las Vegas company that owns about half the cones adorning New York City’s taxis, has decided to give commerce a rest. Instead, roughly 500 cabs will display a different kind of message: artworks by Shirin Neshat, Alex Katz and Yoko Ono.
The project is costing Show Media about $100,000 in lost revenue, but John Amato, one of Show’s owners and a contemporary-art fan, said: “I thought it was time to take a step back. January’s a slow month. I could have cut my rates but instead I decided to hit the mute button and give something back to the city.”
A German bank claims the developers of the year-old sleek 21-story Cooper Square Hotel in the East Village are in default on $52 million in loans, at the same time the building owes millions to contractors.
Not only is the project in financial distress, but developers and investors in the 145-room hotel at 25 Cooper Square at East 5th Street could owe as much as $6 million in personal guarantees, the recent lawsuit says.
Commercial lender WestLB filed to foreclose on $52 million in loans given to Cooper Square Hotel, Cooper Square Mezz Lender and seven individuals including the hotel's co-developer Matthew Moss and real estate investor Kyle Ransford, a lawsuit filed Dec. 14 in New York State Supreme Court says.