Good news. Per EV Grieve reader rmom Friday evening: "Something Sweet is back. I walked by today, Cathy wasn't there but the son was."
Previously on EV Grieve:
Not so Sweet: Old school bakery temporarily closed
One group of artists and activists spread across Lower Manhattan, transforming innumerous wheat-pasted posters — the ones that readily sprout over scaffolding — into their own canvas.
They would whitewash the posters and then create their own work, or allow anti-advertising advocates to spread their own messages.
But just as quickly as they whitewashed and put up art, workers arrived to put up new posters where the artists had obscured the old ones.
And so it went, back and forth, with drama, confrontation and even a few arrests by day's end.
The takeover efforts were organized by an artist, Jordan Seiler, who founded a group called the Public Ad Campaign to question and challenge the use of outdoor ads in public areas.
Tom Cruise's "Cocktail" is to be turned into a Broadway musical by legendary producer Marty Richards -- and Katie Holmes could be up for a role. The '80s movie is being adapted by Heywood Gould, who wrote the original book and film. Gould told us, "I am writing it as we speak. Marty Richards is on board and he's working on the score. It's far too early to talk about casting. We haven't approached anybody yet. But I do like Katie Holmes." Gould was guest of honor at the other night's "Cocktail" 20th anniversary party at TGI Friday's at Penn Station.
“I think the East Village does have a clear identity separate from the broader Lower East Side, but it clearly also has an identity as part of it, as well,” stated Berman. “It seems that of late there has been a revival of that thinking, and I find many people, especially neighborhood activists, are seeking to rejoin the East Village to the broader Lower East Side and re-identify with it. Interestingly, this may reflect the fact that today the East Village and the Lower East Side in many ways share more in common than they have since the 1960s when the ‘East Village’ identity was first created and the blocks north of Houston St. began to develop a distinct ‘bohemian’ character.”
Both areas are struggling equally with issues of overdevelopment, large-scale gentrification and the difficulty of longtime residents and businesses being able to afford to stay here.
“Not only are they once again very similar in character,” Berman said of the two areas, “but I think in many ways they are seeking to hearken back to the days before the big high-rises, frat bars and exorbitant rents swept over the neighborhood — and the name ‘Lower East Side,’ which is less associated with the gentrification process than ‘East Village,’ may be one way of doing that.”
I keep thinking: I'd love to see the park grow into Ave. A and Ave. B, even given the obvious work that would have to done to reroute traffic, etc. (Well, Union Sq. expanded into the street. And, the George Hecht Viewing Gardens grew up in the street. And, um, well, yes, it would require some doing. I know it's nuts. The Parks Dept. is more likely to, I dunno, turn the Temperance Fountain into a Shacklet and set up craft vendor stalls in the oval, at best, than get expansionist on our asses.)
The 12,366-square-foot edifice at 236 Second Avenue at 15th Street has seven floors, including a basement, sub-basement and mezzanine. It has nine classrooms, a gym, multi-purpose room, art room, library, offices and a courtyard.