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Lovely sunset these evening... here's a shot of it via East 13th Street by EVG reader Helene Burke...
Peter Cooper Block Party
Free & Open to the Public
Saturday, Sept. 3
Noon-5 pm
7 East 7th St., Outside Cooper Union's Foundation Building
Development, construction, demolition, re-development, re-construction, re-demolition, un-re-development, re-un-construction, de-un-remolition...Amidst the dust, it's hard to know: what's going on here?
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About Peter Cooper Block Party 2016
The Block Party is a relatively new tradition of coming together to celebrate, reconnect, and showcase the ongoing work of the Cooper community.
The theme of this year's Peter Cooper Block Party is a provocation:
“Under Construction:"
And a question:
"What’s Going On Here?”
2016 marks the completion of a decade’s worth of private and public redevelopments — architectural, financial, and cultural — at and around Cooper and the Astor Place area. This year’s celebration bears witness to the unfolding impact of these changes.
This year's programming also takes on an additional charge:
Reflecting while in motion.
Let's! Yet! Both!
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Programming
This family-friendly event will feature many alumni, student, and faculty projects, live music and performances, informational materials about the state of the Cooper Union and the re-development of Astor Place, a bouncy house and family craft table, and light refreshments.
Inside the drawers of the shop’s back office, assistant manager Christopher Colvin remembers finding pre-World War II architectural drawing tools and compasses, small artifacts of the store’s long history.
Among the many treasures he has found: a pencil set so old and delicate it has begun to disintegrate. It is a token that Mr. Colvin said he bought for himself and will cherish long after he says goodbye to the staff, the store and its loyal patrons for the last time.
[Family member Doug] Steinberg said the four-story building is in the process of being sold, and that neither the price nor the buyer’s intentions for the property had yet been disclosed.
The planned overhaul includes a gut renovation of the dilapidated upper portion of its building on East Third Street between Avenues B and C, which its founders bought for less than $8,000 back in 1981. The three top floors, now used for storage, will be converted into performance, classroom and administrative space.
Construction is expected to begin in 2018 and last for at least a year. The cafe would close during that time, though [executive director Daniel] Gallant said the organization plans to continue slam-poetry events and other core programs at other venues in the neighborhood and beyond.
New York City has allocated $10.9 million for the project through the city council, the Mayor’s office, the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Manhattan Borough President’s office.
East Village-based Starleeng Equities has filed applications for an eight-story, seven-unit residential building ... It will measure 14,832 square feet and its residential units should average 1,967 square feet apiece, indicative of condominiums.
There will be a duplex apartment across the ground and second floors, followed by full-floor apartments on the third through eighth floors.
It is located in an R8A zoning district with an FAR of 6.02 (approx. 15,941 SF) or up to 7.2 FAR with Inclusionary Housing designated area bonus (approx. 19,066 sq. ft.) This prime development site is across the street from Hamilton Fish Park and a branch of the New York City public library, offering unobstructed southern exposures.
A new development would enjoy sweeping views of downtown and midtown Manhattan, Williamsburg, LIC and more.
The building consists of a ground floor retail space currently leased to a restaurant until February 2030 with 10 residential units.
The restaurant pays $105 per square foot which is slightly below market and reimburses for 50% of the increases in the real estate taxes over base year 2015. The FM residential units have recently undergone extensive renovations and feature high ceilings, washers and dryers, dishwashers, wide plank wood flooring, and stainless steel appliances. Four units feature private access to the rooftop or a balcony which command a premium in rent. The building has also been outfitted with a new video intercom system and security cameras. This is a rare opportunity to acquire a high cash flowing, recently renovated mixed-use building in the heart of the East Village.
Name: Hal Hirshorn
Occupation: Artist
Location: St. Mark's Place and Avenue A
Time: 3:15 on Monday, Aug. 29
I came here after college in my early 20s. Oh you know, everybody comes to New York and there was a lot going on then. It was the tail end of the 1980s art scene. I just missed the East Village art boom. I got here in the summer of 1989 and by then most of the galleries moved to SoHo. I lived in the West Village because at that time there were apartments that were slightly cheaper than the East Village. Otherwise, I would have gone East Village. Everybody had talked about how the East Village had been priced out, but that’s nothing in comparison to today.
I’m a painter and a photographer. My studio is in Brooklyn now. I do oil painting, these strange abstractions that are a cross between landscape and abstract paintings — imaginary landscapes. There’s always been a back and forth between the two from the beginning of landscape paintings that were considered abstract paintings.
It’s been up and down, but I managed to hold things together somehow. The art world is doing well right now, so I’m OK. I have some people who work with me in terms of dealing and stuff like that. But that’s changing too and now everything in Chelsea is coming back to the Bowery and Lower East Side, but not the East Village.
Basically within a five-minute walk [today] most of the East Village that I’ve known over the course of 25, almost 30 years is gone, just gone, not like in bits and pieces, shifting here and there — just one fell swoop. Just to see everything radically redeveloped is what’s so stunning, because it used to happen in bits and pieces as the real estate went up. Now they’re doing blocks instead of buildings.
Bloomberg in his third term gave away much of the city to developers under the table. De Blasio seemed really great. I don’t know whether he’s had his hands too full or maybe he’s not as left as he said he is, but… he’s become very nebulous. But before de Blasio, you had other people like Mark Green running against Giuliani or I forget who ran against Bloomberg, but these guys didn’t stand a chance. They were just crushed.
Giuliani was real estate friendly, lets say, but he wasn’t like a real estate mogul. I think what we’re seeing right now is just a direct result of Bloomberg. He’s treated the city as though it were the Bloomberg Corporation’s property and his to sign off and sell away.
There was a rent stabilization law that was trying to cut back on rent stabilization and rent control, and they came up with a figure where anything above $2,500 was considered luxury housing. In those days, if you were able to afford an apartment that was that much money, you were pretty well off. Now that’s like kids out of college or crazy situations where you have four people living in apartments.
It’s almost reverting back to the tenement-like density and that’s just a result of the rent, unless you’re well off enough to be able to have over $25,000 a year to spend a year on rent. But the whole thing of the $2,500 figure is that is where the regulation was cut off, so now real estate, a lot of which was protected has effectively become market rate, and then the only thing that can change that is some big downturn or catastrophic event.
“It is disappointing that we are losing five buildings built in the late 1800s on East 11th Street that had affordable rent regulated apartments and instead we will have a hotel that will be architecturally out of character with our neighborhood. Unfortunately, given the real estate market and effects of gentrification, it is doubtful many of the former tenants can stay in the neighborhood. These Old Law Tenement buildings were considered “landmark eligible” in 2008 by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (“LPC”).
More disappointing is that for two months the LPC failed to respond when it was asked to designate these and neighboring buildings as a historic district since the buildings were in danger of being demolished. Losing affordable rent-regulated housing is unacceptable, but not getting a response from a city agency that once deemed these buildings to be landmark-worthy is outrageous.”
“Like a sweatshop”: the not-so-glamorous lives of foreign Trump models who say they worked in the US illegally https://t.co/sJhePW7wyQ
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) August 30, 2016
When Blais lived in the apartment [starting in 2004], she recalled, a Trump agency representative who served as a chaperone had a bedroom to herself on the ground floor of the building. A narrow flight of stairs led down to the basement, where the models lived in two small bedrooms that were crammed with bunk beds — two in one room, three in the other. An additional mattress was located in a common area near the stairs. At times, the apartment could be occupied by 11 or more people.
"We're herded into these small spaces," Kate said. "The apartment was like a sweatshop."
Living in the apartment during a sweltering New York summer, Kate picked a top bunk near a street-level window in the hopes of getting a little fresh air. She awoke one morning to something splashing her face. "Oh, maybe it's raining today," she recalled thinking. But when she peered out the window, "I saw the one-eyed monster pissing on me," she said. "There was a bum pissing on my window, splashing me in my Trump Model bed."
The ambulance did not have lights and sirens on at the time of the crash. The ambulance had a green arrow and right of way as it was making the turn.The ambulance's driver was a 22-year-old man who had less than a year on the job, the Daily News noted.
Our sushi chef begins every morning with market-fresh, sashimi-quality fish and organic vegetables. With a diverse selection of fish and vegetables to choose from, your poké bowl is readily personalizable. Our fast-casual shop, located in midtown Manhattan, makes the lunch and dinner seafood experience a delicious and healthy one. We look forward to serving your discriminating palate.
In 2009, Mak left Lung King Heen — a three-starred Cantonese restaurant at Hong Kong's Four Seasons Hotel — to open the original Tim Ho Wan in a Kowloon neighborhood. When rent rose thanks to gentrification, Mak moved the restaurant rather than raise prices. Six years after earning his first Michelin star, little has changed.
Steamer baskets of plump prawn dumplings, Mak's signature trio of baked buns stuffed with barbecue pork, and Chinese-sausage-stuffed glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf all remain under $5. Even now, the tissues within the boxes placed atop each table serve as napkins. Meanwhile, diners still choose dishes pictured on a paper placemat, fill out their checks with pencils, and rinse their chopsticks in cups of hot tea.
If lines out the door aren't already profitable enough, the New York Tim Ho Wan will also have a liquor license. While the menu will continue to be strictly limited to dim sum, the menu will grow over time and add more dishes appealing to American appetites, including "high quality beef dishes."