It has been a good run. We love being part of the neighborhood, and part of all of your lives.
Unfortunately, our little corner of 12th St and Ave. A has become too expensive to stay open any longer. The East Village (the commoditized version of it that is controlled by the Real Estate industry) is moving on up, and they seem to have forgotten to set any place at the table for small businesses. The City of New York is complicit in this change, cheering from the sidelines for more, bigger, taller, and pocketing the tax revenue. Alas.
Short of charging $10 a cup, we can no longer make ends meet selling just coffee and wine, and options are limited. “Ost Café and 24-Hour Vape Shop Emporium” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
We will close the doors on Sunday at 5PM for the last time. Stop by and say hello in the next few days, and thank you for making the past 9 years such a wonderful experience. Our Lower East Side location on Grand St is going strong, and we will always call this community home.
Name: Delphine Blue
Occupation: Radio Host, DJ, Pilates Instructor
Location: St. Marks Place between 1st and 2nd
Date: Thursday, Feb. 2 at 1:45 pm
Read part 1 of the interview with Delphine, a Queens native, here
When the Ritz was opening where Webster Hall is, they had an ad in the SoHo Weekly News, and it said that they were starting a dance company and they were choreographing rock music. I thought that’s the company I need to be in, so I went to the audition. The dance company thing lasted for 3 seconds but Jerry Brandt who owned the Ritz, was there. I said to Jerry, ‘I’m a DJ,’ and he said to me, ‘I’ll give you any job you want here but you can’t be the DJ.’ He said I could be the waitress.
I had never been a waitress, so opening night I tried to carry 12 Heinekens on a tray, which is impossible but I didn’t know that because I wasn’t a waitress. The place was packed because it was opening night. I dropped all the beers and I just put the tray down and started dancing. He said to me, ‘Ok, you can answer the phone in the office.’ So I did that and then I started putting together the VIP list, which was totally fun. But all the time I wanted to be the DJ. So after a few months they gave me Monday Nights. I worked there for five years and I eventually started working in all the other clubs from 1979 to 1983 or 1984. Danceteria, it was so fun.
I always loved the Cure from the get-go. They were my favorite band, and they’re still my favorite band. I also loved the B-52s, Gang of Four, The Police, The Knack, The Records, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello and Marianne Faithfull. One of my favorite nights ... was when Tina Turner played. This was probably the most exciting night. She played and after the show I was in the VIP room and David Bowie was there. I said to my friend, ‘I wish I could kiss him,’ and he heard me and spun around and kissed me on the lips. I think I fainted. That’s my big Bowie story.
Meanwhile, I also wanted to be on the radio, so I went to WNEW, which was the cool station and I just stood outside the door. Vin Scelsa came out and I said, ‘I really want to be on the radio. I really want to be a DJ,’ and he hit on me. I was so crestfallen, because I was so sincere and earnest.
Meanwhile. I got hired to work at WLIR, which was a modern rock station. Then in like 1985-86, everybody started listening to these stupid big hair bands like Poison. Everyone started going in that metal direction and I just couldn’t get with it. So I got fired from WLIR and I started my own show on WBAI. I forged a place for myself and developed a reputation based on playing music that you didn’t hear on the radio.
In 2000, I started working at WFUV, then I got hired at Sirius, and then at the same time East Village Radio started. East Village Radio just blew up, and it was so fun being in that DJ booth in that window. I loved that station, but then they crashed and burned and WBAI became a frightening caricature of itself and started to fail, so I left there.
Somewhere in the middle of all of this I got hired to be on Jack.fm, which was the most despised FM radio station, but it didn’t matter because it was the No. 1 market in New York. I was on afternoon drive so I had gone to the mountaintop. That’s it — I did it. I got to speak 30 seconds twice and hour in a three-hour shift, and I made more money than I had ever made in my life. We’re talking basically three minutes in three hours. It was ridiculous. I would say nothing, nothing. Then they changed the format one day without telling me and I lost my job.
I got scared and lost sleep, and then I decided to become a Pilates teacher. I got certified, which was really hard to learn something totally new. I still do radio and DJing too so I’m happier now. A little while later one of the guys who had been on EVR, my friend Steve Dima, called me and he and a couple people were starting a radio station at the South Street Seaport called Little Water Radio. So now I’m an owner-operator. Four of us started the station and we’re having a blast.
More than 100 tenants, along with 25 community organizations, legal advocates and elected officials, will rally at City Hall on Thursday, Feb. 23, to urge that the City Council take action to stop “construction as harassment.”
Aggressive landlords frequently use dangerous construction work in residential buildings to harass rent-regulated tenants. The rally, organized by Stand for Tenant Safety Coalition, will call for the Council to pass 12 bills to help end the harassment and strengthen tenant rights.
Many unscrupulous landlords use dangerous or negligent construction to harass tenants out of rent-regulated apartments. When landlords successfully evict, displace, or harass out rent stabilized tenants, their apartments can be leased at a much higher rent to the next tenant, adding to the loss of affordable housing in New York City.
During the rally, tenants and advocates will share their personal, real-life stories and discuss the impact of dangerous construction. Tenants and advocates also will share information about the legislation awaiting Council approval.
Just three days before Madison filed to foreclose on the buildings, sources said Joseph Sutton, son of retail mogul Jeff Sutton, signed a hard contract to buy the buildings from Toledano for about $145 million.
Madison, according to documents filed in New York State Supreme Court late last week, claims Toledano, the founder of Brookhill Properties, owes the firm about $140 million, which includes $125 million in loans against 15 properties, plus interest and attorneys’ fees.
Sources close to Toledano said that after he defaulted last year, Madison waited months to initiate foreclosure proceedings, allowing time for him to find a buyer for the properties.
The dwelling where your apartment is located is the subject of a foreclosure proceeding. If you have a lease, are not the owner of the residence, and the lease requires payment of rent that at the time it was entered into was not substantially less than the fair market rent for the property, you may be entitled to remain in occupancy for the remainder of your lease term.
All rent-stabilized and rent-controlled tenants are protected under the rent regulations with respect to eviction and lease renewals. These rights are unaffected by a building entering foreclosure status.
