City strikes deal to preserve 243 Section 8 apartments in the East Village

[199 Avenue B]

Some news to note from last week ... when LIHC Investment Group, one of the largest affordable-housing owners in the country, finalized a deal with the city to preserve 669 Section 8 apartments, including 243 in the East Village.

Here are details via a NYC Housing Preservation and Development news release:

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) join LIHC Investment Group to announce the preservation of 669 units of project-based Section 8 housing in high-cost New York City neighborhoods where the majority of similar buildings have converted to market-rate.

This preservation is made possible through tax-abatements under Article XI and new 40-year regulatory agreements with the City of New York covering six different properties in Inwood, Hamilton Heights, Harlem, Williamsburg and the Lower East Side.

The agreements were reached through Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York Plan, which outlines commitments to protect affordable housing and created policies and programs intended to fight displacement.

And here are details about the housing in this neighborhood...

Lower East Side I & II Apartments are located at 384 East 10th Street and 199 Avenue B in Manhattan. Lower East Side I contains 152 project-based Section 8 units, while Lower East Side II contains 91 project-based Section 8 units. All units will be maintained as affordable to tenants whose annual income does not exceed 50 percent of AMI.

Co-owners LIHC and Center Development Corporation will execute approximately $7 million in capital improvements including installing new kitchen countertops and appliances; bathroom fixtures, tile floors, and fittings; laminate wood flooring, doors and lighting in all apartments.

[384 E. 10th St.]

"A continuum of decay and rebirth" on the Lower East Side

In 1980, Brian Rose, in collaboration with fellow Cooper Union graduate Ed Fausty, photographed the Lower East Side during what he called "its darkest, but most creative moment. While buildings crumbled and burned, artists and musicians came to explore and express the edgy quality of the place."

After the project was completed and exhibited in 1981, it remained unseen in Rose's archive. And Rose moved on, working on various projects while living in Amsterdam for 15 years.

Rose revisited the streets of the Lower East Side with his camera some three decades later. Rose has put together "Time and Space on the Lower East Side," a self-published book contrasting the LES in 1980 with today. However, as he notes in the book's description:

"From the outset it was clear that this would not be a simple before/after take on the neighborhood. While keeping an eye on the earlier photographs done in 1980, I wanted to rediscover the place with fresh eyes, with the perspective of time, change, and history. The result, still being added to, is a set of photographs that looks backward and forward, that posits the idea that places are not simply “then and now,” but exist in a continuum of decay and rebirth."

He told me that the project is still looking for a publisher and exhibition venue. In the meantime, the book is available for purchase on Blurb.

Rose shared a few of the 1980 images with me....



East Second Street where it merges with Houston between Avenue C and Avenue D



On East Fifth Street between C and D. Rose was standing near Fourth Street



On the Bowery looking north toward East Fifth Street — now JASA/Cooper Square Senior Housing and the Cooper Square Hotel



The Jefferson Theatre on 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue (now the Mystery Lot)


Details:

Brian Rose Photography

Preview and buy the book via Blurb.

If you're thinking of living in: The East Village/Lower East Side...in 1963,1985,1992, 2000 and 2008

As you may have heard, it's expensive to live here in New York City. Rents just keep going up! For a little perspective, I looked at five articles from The New York Times on living in the Lower East Side/East Village. (Three of the articles came with the headline, "If You're Thinking of Living in: The East Village.")

Renovations on Lower East Side Creating New Living Quarters
May 5, 1963 (and written by Bernard Weinraub! Only thought he did movies...) Article only available for a fee (charged by the Times, not me).

Apartments to be found in the vicinity are primarily renovated lofts and tenement flats. Rentals in the renovated houses vary. According to Harry J. Shapolsky and Harry Gruber, builders and owners of more than 25 buildings on the East Side, south of 14th Street, the monthy rental for a one-and-a-half-room air-conditioned apartment in a building with an elevator ranges from $85 to $100. The monthly rental for a three-room apartment in the same building ranges from $110 to $145.

In a renovated building with neither air-conditioning nor elevator, according to Mr. Shapolsky, the monthly rental for a one-and-a-half-room apartment varies from $65 to $85. A three-room apartment in the same building ranges from $75 to $95 a month.

The emergence of renovated apartments has occurred mainly in the area called the East Village – north of Houston Street, south of 14th Street and east of University Place.

Real-estate manager Richard] Paley places the most favored area on the Lower East Side around Tompkins Square Park…

"This is the last frontier in Manhattan for reasonable rents," he said. "You can live here for 'Bronx' or 'Brooklyn' prices."

If You're Thinking of Living in: The East Village
October 6, 1985
Rehabilitation of scores of buildings is under way and to hear local developers tell it, the sale of condominiums is brisk. The developers of 65-69 Cooper Square, a new building with 37 studios and one-bedroom condominiums, said more than two-thirds had been sold since it opened several months ago. The apartments range in price from $175,000 to $208,000, with typical maintenance of $329 a month.

But prices are not rising uniformly: The owners of a 20-unit apartment house at 82 East Third Street recently lowered their asking price from $575,000 to $515,000.

Rents for apartments, when available, can be high. Studio apartments on East Ninth Street between First and Second Avenues are being advertised at $725 a month, and two-bedroom apartments at St. Mark's Place and First Avenue have been advertised for $1,500 a month.

Condominium and co-op prices vary widely. Sponsors of a new co-op in a building being rehabilitated at 613 East Sixth Street are asking $165,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment, with maintenance of about $500 a month.

In general, the trend of real-estate prices seems steadily upward, and that portends what many in the neighborhood fear, gentrification. It already has happened to many of the theaters, nightclubs and music clubs that used to abound in the area only a few years ago. Most are gone now, the victims of rising rents.

If You're Thinking of Living in: The East Village
June 14, 1992
Yet the allure of bohemian decadence keeps housing prices up. The building stock includes "more five-story walk-ups than anything else," said Gary Brenner of City Estate Agency. Rents in these and in brownstones and renovated spaces, he said, are $600 to $1,000 a month for studios, $750 to $1,400 for one-bedrooms and $1,200 to $1,800 for two-bedrooms.

Luxury buildings went up during the 1980's. But more than half the owners in the Christodora House, an 85-unit condominium on Avenue B overlooking the park, have rented their spaces, waiting out the recession before selling, according to James Roman, sales manager for the Halstead Property Company, a brokerage, and Red Square, a high-rise rental at 250 East Houston built in the late 80's, "still has empty apartments and a steady turnover."

St. Mark's Real Estate, which handles rent-stabilized apartments, said studios fetch $600 to $700 and two-bedrooms, $1,000 to $1,100.

If You're Thinking of Living In: The East Village; From Mean Streets to Cutting-Edge
December 17, 2000

Prices for co-ops and condominiums have quadrupled since 1996, said Jordan Gitterman, an owner of Magnum Realty, which specializes in East Village properties. Though most buildings in the neighborhood remain rental, condominiums are going on the market with prices ranging from $250,000 for one bedroom to $450,000 for three bedrooms.

''Before this big swing in the 90's, this was a pretty rough area,'' Mr. Gitterman said. ''There are still some rough blocks, but it has changed from a low-income area to a trendy, hip area for young people.''

One recent condo conversion is a 20-unit building on East Fourth Street, between Avenues B and C. The building's history encapsulates much of the neighborhood's last hundred years. Built as a church rectory in the early 20th century, the building was later sold and used as a yeshiva for Eastern European boys. It was vacated sometime in the late 60's, reopened as an arena for amateur boxing matches 10 years later and then was boarded up until it was sold to Urbatech Designers and Builders in 1989, said one of the company's owners, Yoram Finkelstein.

Urbatech renovated the building and put the apartments on the market in the early 1990's, but found no buyers. ''We had an ad in the paper in the early 90's, and people would call and hear it was on Avenue C and they would just hang up,'' Mr. Finkelstein said.

After renting the apartments for a decade, the company put the apartments on the market again in September and sold more than half in two months. Prices run from $340,000 for two bedrooms, to $380,000 for a one-bedroom unit with a roof terrace to $425,000 for a three-bedroom unit, he said.

Even more surprising to many longtime residents is the steep rise in rents in the last five years. Apartments that rented 10 years ago for $500 or $600 now go for two or three times that. Studio apartments rent for $1,300 to $1,400, one-bedrooms go for $1,700 to $1,800 and two- and three-bedroom apartments run as high as $3,000, said Jack Bick, owner of Charaton Realty.

''If you want to live in the East Village, you better be prepared to pay a lot of money,'' he said. ''The only way to get anything for under $1,000 is to share a bedroom.''

He and other area brokers attribute the rapid rise in rents to New York University students who began flowing into the neighborhood in the mid-90's. Most of the neighborhood's apartments fall under the city's rent regulation laws, which generally permit landlords to raise rent by 20 percent for new tenants, and the rapid turnover in student tenants has propelled rents upward. Since students tend to stay in apartments for just a couple of years, landlords can raise the rent when the students graduate and move on.

''By their third and fourth year in college, all the students want to live in the East village,'' Mr. Bick said. ''And Mommy and Daddy say, 'O.K., we'll foot the bill.' ''

Finally, while not specifically discussing the East Village, this article from Sunday sums up the NYC rental market:

Luring Affluent Renters in Manhattan
June 29, 2008

For Mackenzie Rosenthal, who will be a senior at New York University next year and who will be moving into a one-bedroom at 20 Exchange Place this summer, “the perks were just kind of too good to pass up.” She said she and her father had “pored over the lease, saying: ‘Where’s the catch?’ but as far as we can tell, there doesn’t seem to be one.”

When she and a roommate moved into her current two-bedroom walk-up in the East Village, they had to come up with $12,000 to cover the broker’s fee, security deposit and first and last month’s rent. “That was just ludicrous,” she said. “But when I move into my new apartment, all I need is the first month’s rent.”

Ms. Rosenthal said that after factoring in the free month’s rent, her $3,000 apartment will cost her $2,750 a month. She worries that she will not be able to afford to stay in the apartment when her one-year lease is up, but her broker, Jeffrey Carlson of Platinum Properties, said that as an original tenant, she might be able to negotiate the same rate at renewal time.

RIP Frances Goldin

Frances Goldin, a lifelong preservationist and community activist, died on Sunday in her East Village apartment, according to published reports. She was 95.

As The New York Times noted, Goldin, who was born in Queens in 1924, "won her first street brawl when she was 11 and as a grown-up never stopped fighting to safeguard her beloved Lower East Side from upscale developers."

Here's more from the Times on her remarkable life:

An unreconstructed socialist, Ms. Goldin was an advocate for affordable housing and a staunch defender of the poor.

Her activism extended over two careers. In one, she was a civic leader in a vintage neighborhood that was being gussied up with fancy names (“as soon as they said ‘East Village,’ they tripled the rent,” she told The New York Times in 1984) and studded with asymmetrical buildings girdled in glass.

In the other, from 1977, she was a literary agent who represented progressive authors, including Susan Brownmiller, Martin Duberman, Juan Gonzalez, Robert Meeropol, Frances Fox Piven and the New York City historian Mike Wallace. The novelist Barbara Kingsolver chose Ms. Goldin on the basis of her advertisement that read, “I do not represent any material that is sexist, ageist or gratuitously violent.”

Goldin was the founder of both the Metropolitan Council on Housing and the Cooper Square Committee.

Tributes to her on Twitter included...

Remembering our fierce and inspiring co-founder, Frances Goldin, who passed away on Saturday. Her legacy is enormous, much like her love for the Lower East Side and for all communities struggling for social justice.

Rest in power, Frances. https://t.co/VtS7ZZ0o9o pic.twitter.com/Qj1iPkPzMC

— Cooper Sq Committee #CANCELRENT (@CooperSq) May 18, 2020

RIP the fabulous Frances Goldin, the Lower East Side's veteran warrior . Bless her rebel heart. pic.twitter.com/5ZDQkO3HCb

— Tom Robbins (@tommy_robb) May 17, 2020

Very sorry to hear that Frances Goldin, legendary Lower East Side activist, has died. Charismatic, brilliant, charming, combative – but she got things done. Housing was built. Neighborhoods saved. People were brought together in common cause. One of the greatest of New Yorkers. pic.twitter.com/ThXdIWu7Vf

— Brian Rose (@brosenyc) May 17, 2020

We were deeply saddened by the passing of Frances Goldin this weekend. She was a giant-slayer, @CooperSq co-founder, social justice fighter, preservationist, and passionate community leader. Read our past birthday tribute, incl her wonderful oral history: https://t.co/RMCWWukAym pic.twitter.com/3Jz6v1rr0q

— GVSHP (@GVSHP) May 18, 2020

My former boss Frances Goldin passed away over the weekend. She was a literary agent and activist who dyed her hair with Manic Panic at the age of 95. A true legend. I feel so lucky she was in my life. The city won't be the same without her. https://t.co/40ro72fSKL

— Sarah Bridgins (@sarahbridgins) May 18, 2020

RIP Frances Goldin. Frances always fought the good fight and her strong sense of community was animated by her principles of fairness and inclusion.

The #LES is a better place because of this fighter who refused to be intimidated by the establishment. https://t.co/mZOAaeNT1d

— Rep. Nydia Velazquez (@NydiaVelazquez) May 18, 2020

She is survived by two daughters, Sally and Reeni Goldin, and a grandson.

The 1st Lower East Side (LES) History Month starts today

[Yet ANOTHER butter and eggs shop!]

From the EVG inbox…

May 2014 brings the first annual Lower East Side (LES) History Month, a month-long celebration of the rich, diverse history of New York City's Lower East Side, including the neighborhoods of the East Village, Chinatown, Little Italy and Alphabet City. With participation by more than 60 Lower East Side-based cultural and community groups, LES History Month will feature over 80 affordable and unique events, including live performances, exhibits, gallery and walking tours, talks, film screenings, festivals and more.

LES History Month opens with Chalk/LES, a weekend-long participatory project to bring LES history, art and stories onto the streets of the neighborhood. Starting Friday, May 2, numerous LES sites will be emblazoned with chalked trivia and memories of their lived histories. On Saturday, May 3, public chalking sites will be open for all, encouraging passersby to participate with their own stories and images of the LES. Game participants are also invited to join scavenger hunt teams, organized by Guerilla Haiku Movement, who will head out and cover the neighborhood with sidewalk-chalked poetry, and engage passersby in their own creative storytelling about the LES.

Chalk/LES culminates on Sunday, May 4, as artists and volunteers will chalk a pathway from various LES transit hubs toward East River Park, along the waterfront, and arriving at Pier 42 for Picnic on the Pier. As a partnership with Paths to Pier 42, LES History Month will present salsa dancing with las Dinimicas of Grand Street Settlement, gypsy swing from Sugar Hill Gypsy Jazz, songs from the young singers of Downtown Art, and an afternoon of family friendly art activities led by The Tenement Museum and the Museum of Chinese in America.

To celebrate, LES History Month will also announce the inaugural LES Heroes award, recognizing the often unsung contributions of neighborhood residents, activists and leaders.

To find out more about LES History Month, its participants and opening weekend programming, visit here.

Photo via NewYorkHistory.info

Do you have what it takes to be the coolest block in the neighborhood?

So, do you think your block is cool? Here's a chance to prove it.

This month, the Lower East Side Ecology Center is launching "The Coolest Block in the Lower East Side" (and NOT a Magnetic Fields song), billed as "an exciting new initiative designed to encourage community stewardship of street trees in the East Village, Lower East Side and Chinatown neighborhoods.''

OK! What else?

... this community-driven contest fosters environmental awareness, local engagement, and a healthy dose of competition, bringing together neighbors, schools, and organizations to transform their blocks into vibrant, green spaces. 

Residents, community groups, block associations, schools, and local organizations are invited to compete for the title of the Coolest Block in the Lower East Side. Participants will focus on key street tree care activities such as soil aeration, mulching, watering, and general cleanup, all while showcasing creativity and community spirit. 

Interested? Then, fill out this Interest Form.

There will also be a kick-off event on Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Sixth Street Community Center. For event information, click this link. 

Report: Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union loses challenge to Trump pick for CFPB

A federal judge ruled that the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union on Avenue B lacks standing to challenge President Trump's appointment of Mick Mulvaney to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The ruling was made public yesterday. Here's more from Reuters:

U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan said the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union lacked legal authority to sue, rejecting what he called the plaintiff’s “fear-based theory of standing.”

Gardephe said the credit union failed to show that any actual or expected policy changes under Mulvaney, who is also White House budget chief, would undermine its ability to fulfill its mission of improving the health of underserved communities.

“Organizations advocating for a particular policy goal who have alleged no injury to themselves as organizations may not establish their standing simply on the basis of that goal,” Gardephe wrote. His decision is dated Thursday.

A lawyer for the Credit Union told Reuters: "We are evaluating our options in this extremely important case."

In early December, the Credit Union accused the President in a complaint of "an illegal hostile takeover of the CFPB." You can read more on the challenge here.

The Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union was founded in 1986. Today, it has nearly 8,500 members as well as locations in East Harlem and on Staten Island.

More details on Cabrini's closing announcement

[Photo via GammaBlog]

Here's some follow-up on our story yesterday about the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on East Fifth Street at Avenue B closing in the next four-five months.

First, here's a copy of the letter that circulated to dozens of local elected officials and friends of Cabrini yesterday about the closure...

[Click to enlarge]

A few excerpts...

In order to give families enough time to transition and keep patient care at the highest level, we expect to continue the closure process as long as is necessary, likely until July. We are working collaboratively with the owner, Ben Shaoul of Magnum Real Estate, to ensure that our respective goals are achieved during this time.

The closure process will cost $7 million dollars, which represents expenses including unemployment insurance, pension funding and severance pay for the employees, whose devotion to Lower East Side families has truly made Cabrini a place worth fighting to maintain. To help cover these significant costs, we have requested a $7 million HEAL grant from the DOH. We ask your help in advocating for the Department of Health to grant Cabrini’s worthy request for HEAL funds. If we do not receive these closing funds, Cabrini will be forced into bankruptcy.

We take these obligations very seriously, and are currently in the process of negotiating the sale of 117 beds (the maximum number allowed by DOH, based on borough need), to a private nursing home operator in Borough Park. The transaction, which must be approved by the state, will offset closure costs by approximately $2.5 million and, most importantly, allow some Cabrini residents and employees the option of moving collectively to Brooklyn.

Local officials responded by issuing the following statement:

STATEMENT FROM LOWER EAST SIDE ELECTEDS ON CABRINI CENTER FOR NURSING & REHABILITATION

NEW YORK — Today, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, State Senator Tom Duane, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, Borough President Scott Stringer, Councilmember Rosie Mendez, and Councilmember Margaret Chin released the following statement:

We are deeply disappointed that Cabrini will be shutting its doors after two decades of service to its patients and the Lower East Side community.

We collectively and aggressively worked to encourage the parties to reach a better conclusion, and believe they should have reached an agreement to keep Cabrini open in its current location until a new site became available.

This is a terrible loss for the Lower East Side, and for the greater New York City community. We're committed to working with Cabrini and the community to ensure a smooth and dignified transition for patients, their families, and Cabrini employees.

In addition, we heard late yesterday afternoon from Kenneth Fisher, the attorney representing developer Ben Shaoul, who purchased the building last fall. Fisher wanted to clarify a point in our post:

Your statement that we would not grant an extension so that Cabrini could build a new facility on land provided by the Archdiocese isn't quite correct. We were willing to consider something, but Cabrini turned out not to be able to move forward with it. We also at their request attempted to sell the building to a for profit operator at their request who turned out not to be able to perform. It was only after those alternatives failed that we advised Cabrini that no extension would be granted. Please bear in mind that this situation was created when the previous seller decided to sell ad set a price that Cabrini couldn't meet. We attempted to work with them in good faith.

Read the full story here.

"Whether or not the seedy Lower East Side will ever catch on as a trendy destination is open for debate"

Vice magazine celebrated its 15th anniversary this past weekend. To mark the occasion, the editors allegedly reissued their very first issue from 1994, which included this piece titled "Ludlow Street, Mon Amour."

The first paragraph:

The Lower East Side of Manhattan is not a fashionable destination. Populated primarily by dive bars, nodding junkies, and boarded-up storefronts, the thought of anything even remotely related to trendiness, fancy clothes, or art happening down here would be pretty hard to believe. In fact, the only reason anyone from another neighborhood would even set foot on the LES in 1994 would be if they were looking for illicit substances, of which there are plenty.

The last paragraph:

Whether or not the seedy Lower East Side will ever catch on as a trendy destination is open for debate. My guess is probably not. In fact, I hope not. Seeing Ludlow Street overrun with normal people looking for a “hip kick” would turn my stomach faster than a bad bag of dope. But last weekend, if only for one night, the Lower East Side was most certainly the place to be in New York.

I'm curious if anyone fell for this prank...

Related:
Hipster Media Magnate Picks $2M East Village Flower (Curbed)

Your 'Saints of the Lower East Side'

Oops... we're really late with this one...



We received the news release last week... and here it is...

Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) presents "Saints of the Lower East Side" by artist Tom Sanford, the latest in a series of exhibitions produced through FABnyc's public art program, ArtUp. The outdoor exhibition features seven painted portraits mounted 14 feet above street level on a scaffolding bridge at the 70 East 4th Street Cultural Center. ...

This exhibition is Tom Sanford's first outdoor public art project. The array of large gilded paintings are intended as an homage to cultural icons who lived and worked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the artist words, "These seven individuals [Martin Wong, Joey Ramone, Miguel Piñero, Ellen Stewart, Charlie Parker, Arthur Fellig and Allen Ginsberg], along with hundreds more, make the Lower East Side the crucible of the American avant-garde and a neighborhood that captivates my imagination as a New York artist."

A reception for the artist will be held on June 26th, 2012 at 6pm at FAB Café. ..

.



The art will be up until Sept. 5 or so... Sanford and Graham Preston installed "The Saints" on June 4... Here's one of the photos via Sanford's website...

Lower East Side History Month starts now

Via the EVG inbox…

May 2015 brings the second edition of Lower East Side (LES) History Month, a month-long celebration of the rich, diverse history of New York City's historic Lower East Side (including the neighborhoods of the East Village, Chinatown, Little Italy, and Alphabet City).

With participation by more than 80 Lower East Side-based cultural organizations, community groups, and businesses, LES History Month will feature a huge variety of affordable and unique events including live performances, exhibits, gallery and walking tours, talks, film screenings, festivals and more. Find the current event calendar on our website here.

Jimmy Webb will make dreams come true with new rock 'n' roll boutique I Need More

[Photo of Jimmy Webb for EVG by Walter Wlodarczyk]

Jimmy Webb, a familiar figure in the East Village during his long tenure as the manager and buyer at Trash & Vaudeville, is opening a rock 'n'roll boutique next month on the Lower East Side at 75A Orchard St. between Broome and Grand. Webb gave me a quick overview about the shop, called I Need More, which opens on Oct. 13.

Why did you decide to return to the retail business?
What else would I do? In my heart I never really left.

I’ve never really looked as myself as a seller of anything or even as someone in the retail business. What I do is I make dreams come true and I love doing it! I simply find what’s inside people, I help bring it out, and then I help them dress it up! I guess that’s the retail business, but the word "business" sounds so disconnected from "dream maker," and I’d rather make "dreams come true!"

Why did you pick the Lower East Side for the shop?
I didn’t pick the Lower East Side, or any special place for I Need More. I was very open to where the rock 'n' roll angels were leading me when I finally decided to open a store. A certain group of friends, I call them angels, guided me to the clarity that I needed to open a brick-and-mortar store. Loving all of New York City I was very open to anywhere in Manhattan. My heart and spirit is in ALL of New York City.

Of course the Lower East Side is a HUGE part of my life since I ran away and arrived in the city in 1975. So I wasn’t the least bit surprised when that second batch of angels ended up leading me right to 75 Orchard Street — 75A in fact! How cool is that? I take that leap of faith and run away to New York City in 1975 as a 16-year-old boy. Decades later another leap of faith leaving everything I know and ending up at 75A Orchard Street.

What can people expect from I Need More?
It’s about the spirit of New York City — past, present and future, And also the spirit of what art, music, and everything else that colors the world! It will be about everything that is real, raw, energetic, welcoming, passionate, dirty, beautiful and most of all — honest!

I’m a firm believer in "we are the future.” That "no future” pessimism doesn’t cut it with me. Like Joey Ramone singing “What a Wonderful World” or Iggy singing every song that Iggy sings. I Need More aims to please with every heartbeat within it. It’s here to make dreams come true.

Thanks to Walter Wlodarczyk for the photo. Find more of his work here.

Q&A with Steven Matrick, co-founder of the New Colossus Festival, taking place this week at East Village and Lower East Side music venues

Photos and interview by Stacie Joy 

Longtime Lower East Side resident Steven Matrick arrives at Pianos (158 Ludlow St.) excited to talk about music and bands — and I am excited to let him, as he details some acts he's especially keen on seeing (and hearing) at this year's New Colossus Festival.

Since he's the co-founder of the nearly weeklong event, which is rapidly approaching (today through Sunday), we take some photos at one of the fest's 11 venues and chat about the NYC music scene, what it takes to run a festival, and his favorite moments from previous ones.

What inspired you to start The New Colossus Festival, and how has it evolved since its inception? 

I was on a series of panels with the other bookers on the Lower East Side, and we kept talking about how much we all missed CMJ. This was in 2018. Festival Co-Founder Mike Bell approached me about the New Colossus Festival as the booker of Pianos, and then his partner quit, so we teamed up. He rightly pointed out the scattershot nature of bands coming to NYC on their way to SXSW and how we should centralize it in the neighborhood we love. We chose Lio Kanine from Kanine Records to help us with booking, as he always threw amazing parties at CMJ. 

We did a test run in 2018 on both floors at Pianos the week before SXSW, and it went extremely well, so we went full throttle in 2019. The festival lineup has gotten bigger (more bands) and better (more amazing bands) with each year. We’ve been able to rely on locals less and less with each edition, and our mission is to welcome international bands to NYC, so we’re very happy about this. We also have done 22 weeks of shows (with 5 bands at each one) at 18th Ward Brewery the last three years, so we’ve at this point worked with about 300 local bands and are able to figure out which ones we want to showcase every year. 

The festival name is derived from Emma Lazarus's poem about the Statue of Liberty. How does that symbolism influence the Festival’s identity? 

NYC has been one of the epicenters of music for a very long time, and we want to welcome artists from all over the world to play their first shows in March. This was Mike's idea, and I'm a very sentimental person, so I was and always have been really into it. 

It is really beautiful, and there is a way in which musical artists wash up to NYC looking to play: 

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she 

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, 

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

How do you see The New Colossus Festival contributing to NYC's cultural and artistic landscape? 

Well, we're an indie rock festival. The indie rock music scene started in the East Village with CBGB and Max's Kansas City, moved to the Lower East Side in the early 2000s (Mercury Lounge, Luna Lounge, Pianos, Cake Shop, Don Hills, etc.), moved to Williamsburg in the early 2010s, and then eastward to Bushwick. Now, there are a ton of venues in Ridgewood and BedStuy.

The move eastward has to do with artists finding affordable places to live. It is extremely important to us that we have this Festival in the Lower East Side/East Village to bring these kids back to playing in these historic venues. 

We're also functioning as an entry point for what will be 800 bands by the end of the Festival, and most of them gain a footing so that their next show in NYC has the capacity to have a good-sized audience at it. It's a wonderful thing.

Many artists are performing in New York City — or even the U.S. — for the first time. How does the Festival support them in making that leap? 

Well, when you go to SXSW, you're technically only supposed to play one show and certainly not more than one at night during official festival hours. This year, we’ve given all international bands two to three shows and many locals two shows. It is so excellent to provide multiple showcases for them during their trip. 

In the past, at Pianos, a band from Norway would showcase at 7 p.m., and sometimes the rooms were empty because nobody knew who they were yet. This is a much better way to play your first NYC shows. 

Are there any artists or performances you’re particularly excited about this year? 

Yes! I'm a punk rock guy and am throwing two label parties. All of the bands on those parties are amazing: Test Plan, Prostitute, Public Circuit, Peer Pleasure and Bucket (two bands I saw at Ireland Music Week), Joe & the Shitboys from the Faroe Islands, who are opening three shows for Iggy Pop soon, and some really excellent weird bands from Ohio: Big Fat Head, People in the Daytime and Touchdown Jesus, that Pons, who are on our label, sent over to me.

On the nonpunk front, I can't wait to see Prism Shores, You Said Strange, Delivery, Hachiku, Cusp, World News, Dictator, Dutch Mustard, Snoozer (Alex G's band), Wax Jaw, Bleary Eyed … and I can go on and on and on! 

Looking back, what are the festival moments that stand out for you?

1. Lowly (Denmark) at Pianos in 2019 completely blew our minds. Think Stereolab. 

2. Paul Jacobs (Montreal) blew us away at Pianos in 2022. 

3. GIFT (Brooklyn) played Berlin in 2022 and were so great I wound up managing them.

4. Ducks Ltd. (Toronto) blessed us with three shows last year. Their album Harm's Way was the theme album for the Festival, so I enjoyed every moment of all three shows—as did everyone else who was there! 

5. Roost.World (Vermont) closed out the Festival last year at Baker Falls on Saturday Night, and it was a full-on amazing dance party. 

What are your long-term goals for The New Colossus Festival, and are there any new elements or expansions you’re considering for future editions? 

We'd like to continue holding it in small venues to keep it manageable for everyone and evolve the number of people who come out for the week. This year, we did six shows with Super Bock, three shows with Groover, and, again, 22 weeks of shows at 18th Ward Brewery, so the Festival has become more of a year-round thing. 

We'd like to continue expanding who we partner with for shows and throw great shows throughout the year.

Find the entire schedule and band info at this link.

Schools making it work while repairs continue at 420 E. 12th St.

This past Tuesday, workers arrived at the Mary Help of Christians parking lot on Avenue A at East 11th Street to repair the eastern wall of the school at 420 E. 12th St. (We had photos here and here.)

According to the Department of Education, the structural defect, discovered Monday, "will require the immediate demolition and subsequent rebuilding of that wall." They expect the demolition work to take "several weeks."

Students from East Side Community High School (grades 6-12) and the Girls Prep Lower East Side Middle School, who share the space at 420 E. 12th St., have been temporarily relocated to other schools.

We didn't have a chance to survey the scope of the project up close until this past weekend... and you can see in the following photos how extensive the work is...

Open Road Park next to the school is closed too, of course... so the skateboarders are also displaced ...

[Bobby Williams]

[Bobby Williams]

Meanwhile, parents of the displaced students are understandably concerned and upset... we spoke with a few parents, who commend East Side Principal Mark Federman for his leadership.

East Side students made it work last week... attending classes in hallways or the gym at PS 19 or holding study sessions at the Neptune on First Avenue...

[Images via @MarkEastSide]

On Monday, students had to leave the building quickly ... with the school sealed up, students don't have access to their supplies. East Side parent Jane Nina Buchanan wondered if any local business could help out with donating school supplies for the students. (Any queries should be directed to school officials via the East Side website.)

Meanwhile, some East Side parents have launched a website titled "No Way to Learn." The site's mission:

The school that we send our children to recently experienced a structural issue concerning the school building ... We don't know when our children will be allowed back into their school and we're not satisfied with how things are being handled in the meantime by the NYC Board of Education. We hope to share some of our stories, as well as essential information for the parents of East Side Community High School students, here.

Reminders tonight: The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited

The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited
CUNY-Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave., Manhattan, Elebash Recital Hall

Join panelists:
Joyce Mendelsohn, author
Annie Polland, the Tenement Museum
Clayton Patterson, photojournalist and author
Eric Ferrara, the Lower East Side History Project

Joyce Mendelsohn’s "The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited," first published in 2001 and is being re-released by Columbia University Press in a revised and expanded edition, including a new section on the Bowery. Panelists will discuss the neighborhood's venerable churches, synagogues and settlement houses as well as the breakneck changes that have taken place. Transformed from historic to hip – aged tenements sit next to luxury apartment towers, and boutiques, music clubs, trendy bars and upscale restaurants take over spaces once occupied by bargain shops, bodegas, and ethnic eateries.

*RSVP FOR TICKET AVAILABILITY

Date: December 2, 2009
Time: 6:30 PM-8:30 PM
Phone: 212-817-8471
E-mail: gotham@gc.cuny.edu

Check out the Web site for more details.

At the Lower East Side Sports Academy car wash on Avenue D

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

I’m meeting with Lower East Side Sports Academy founder Frankie Alameda on a very hot Thursday afternoon on upper Avenue D near 14th Street. We're in the shadow of the Con Edison substation and across the street from the Manhattan pump station (NYC Environmental Protection municipal water treatment building). His sports academy’s team is in action — washing cars as part of an ongoing fundraiser.

Frankie has set up a mobile car wash station to help provide summer jobs and activities for local kids and to provide a much-needed service for those who own or drive vehicles.



Frankie’s arriving with pizza for himself and the kids, and with bags of PPE to provide to community members who may be in need. Masks, hand sanitizer, gloves and wet wipes are all provided by the office of local Assemblymember Harvey Epstein.



Between overseeing the kids’ work on the line of waiting cars, distributing tips from satisfied customers, and greeting neighborhood regulars, Frankie answers my questions about the car wash.

How did the car wash idea get started, and how is it tied in to the Lower East Side Sports Academy?

The car wash concept started with the idea of raising some money for LES Sports RBI baseball team, for uniforms, equipment, healthy snacks and scholarships for the kids.

How can kids — and their families — get involved with the car wash and the LES Sports Academy?

LES Sports kids earn a stipend and get tips as well from our customers. We have created five jobs for the community. The parents come and help with posting on social media, bringing their cars, and helping with some food.



When is the car wash available and how long do you expect it to last?

The car wash is available every day from noon to 7 p.m. and we plan to stay until the end of the summer, adjusting the hours to accommodate play once that is allowed and it’s safe.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdown, what has been the best part of this experience, and what has been the worst? How are the kids coping?

The pandemic has given us time to focus on new ways to reinvent ourselves and the community. The worst part is not being able to have physical sports for our kids ... I believe most kids are coping with the pandemic, but some have very tough times being home in a small apartment with a large family. Cabin fever!

You mentioned that you hope eventually to buy a generator and a van. What are some of the needs you and the kids have going forward? How can the community support the effort?

Since we opened the car wash, we noticed we needed more things to make our work more efficient and make the cars nice and clean. We are hoping to get a mobile car wash van, with a power wash, and lastly, a generator to be complete.









What’s next for the car wash team?

Sharing our best practices with other youth sports organizations.

You can keep up with the Lower East Side Sports Academy and the car wash — as well as other activities for kids — here. They have a PayPal account at this link.

Newcomers to the Lower East Side have 'amnesia of some sort — a self-entitlement'

At the City Room this morning, Sarah Maslin Nir has a recap from last week's panel discussion titled "The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited."

The panelists were:
Joyce Mendelsohn, author
Annie Polland, the Tenement Museum
Clayton Patterson, photojournalist and author
Eric Ferrara, the Lower East Side History Project

A few passages from the article:

The influx of luxury buildings and the moneyed residents who can afford them, panelists like Mr. Patterson seemed to say, erase the color and vibrancy of the area, even as they shoo away perceived blight like the suppliers of drug baggies. But if the roof is made of glass and steel and is designed by a celebrity architect, are the stories underneath less “real life”?

The problem, Mr. Ferrara said, is that newcomers to the Lower East Side have “amnesia of some sort — a self-entitlement. Somebody’s paying $3,500 to live in the same two or three rooms where somebody’s grandmother used to sit in the window crying, ‘How am I going to pay my rent?’ ” If they were aware of the history behind sky-high real estate, he said, the pricing out would be “a little easier to bear.”

Yet the very history being rubbed out by developers and yuppies is, paradoxically, what draws them to the area, Ms. Polland said, citing, for example, the Hotel on Rivington’s founding concept: “The area has arrived, but retains it’s colorful, urban diversity,” says literature on the hotel’s Web site. It “caters to the upper class,” she said. “It’s staking its image on the identity of a neighborhood that in order to have that diversity,” officials “would need to be thinking about affordable housing.”

Image via Museum of the City of New York

Report: David McWater is resigning from Community Board 3

[David McWater, seated left, during last week's CB3/SLA meeting. Photo by BoweryBoogie]

Longtime CB3 member David McWater will resign during tonight's full board meeting, according to an article published at The Villager this morning.

Per the article:

“I’ve done more than any community board member in the history of New York City,” McWater told The Villager. “Nobody in the last 20 years did anything like the Lower East Side rezoning and SPURA. The community owes me a debt — nobody’s ever done what we’ve done. Nobody — nobody ever did anything like SPURA and the rezoning.

“The proudest moments in my life were the Lower East Side rezoning and SPURA,” he said. “With the Lower East Side rezoning we stopped N.Y.U. in their tracks at Third Ave.; except for a few areas, you can’t go over eight stories. We stopped the dorms, we stopped the hotels. It’s the greatest bulwark against gentrification the Lower East Side could ever have — and I believe, in my heart, we saved the homes of hundreds and possibly thousands of people, protecting them from being harassed out of their homes by landlords and developers to build buildings.”

McWater said that he'll likely make his remarks to the Board and community tonight "between the public session and the period where politicians and their representatives give their reports."

The resignation comes one week after an ugly confrontation between McWater and neighborhood group the LES Dwellers during the CB3/SLA committee meeting on Sept. 16.

You can read the entire Villager piece here.

Saved from the dumpster: Classic Lower East Side signage rescued

An iconic Lower East Side sign won't disappear with its storefront — it's headed to a museum.

Yesterday, workers from the New York Sign Museum (housed in space adjacent to Noble Signs in Brooklyn) removed the Louis Zuflacht/154/Smart Clothes sign from 154 Stanton St. at Suffolk Street, sparing it from an unceremonious ending in a dumpster. (Thanks to EVG reader Seth for the photo and tip!) 

The New York Sign Museum is a nonprofit foundation "dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of advertising and signage in New York City and the surrounding areas." 

The current two-story building on Stanton and Suffolk is due for a luxury upgrade, adding two floors and a penthouse. Here's a rendering showing the possibilities for a lux conversion at No. 154 (we haven't seen a final rendering) ...

According to Ephemeral New York, the sign dates to 1942 and served (until yesterday) as a "a time machine to the Lower East Side's midcentury days as a neighborhood crammed with cut-rate clothes and accessories shops — and aggressive store clerks hawking their goods to crowds of shoppers." 

Mr. Zuflacht was born in Austria in 1881 and arrived in New York in 1900. After an unsuccessful attempt at selling clothes at 184 Stanton St., Zuflacht took over No. 154 in the early 1940s and worked for decades with his sons at the tailor shop and haberdashery. He died in 1986. It's not immediately known when the shop closed. 

Since the mid-1980s, the space has been home to various businesses, including a vintage shop or two and the New York Studio Gallery. 

The subsequent businesses (and the landlord) kept the Zuflacht signage up through the years. 

Per Ephemeral New York: 

And why should they? It's a wonderful remnant of a certain era in Manhattan, and an accidental memorial to a man who invested much of his life in a Lower East Side garment district of inexpensive "smart" clothes for bargain-hunting buyers. 

And we're glad to see it preserved as part of the city's rich small business history.

LES survey: "Small businesses are constantly facing the possibility of rent increases or eviction"

This week's issue of The Villager reports on the results of the Good Old Lower East Side survey titled, “No Go for Local Business: The Decline of the Lower East Side’s Small Business Identity.”

It's about as grim as you'd expect:

The survey found that small businesses are constantly facing the possibility of rent increases or eviction. Almost half of small business owners reported that their overhead costs were rising. Nearly one-third identified rising commercial property rents as their “greatest challenge,” and three-fourths said that their profits are not growing at a sustainable rate compared to the substantial increase in the cost of doing business on the Lower East Side.

Ninety-five percent of small business owners surveyed rent their store space, and nearly half of them hold leases of five years or less.

Redevelopment and gentrification of the Lower East Side were cited by 46 percent of business owners as directly affecting their businesses.