At Campout New York Post last night

Night 1 of this weekend's Campout New York Post got underway on Avenue A at East Seventh Street… John Penley, one of the event's organizers, shared these photos from last night…











The idea for the campout came about after the NYPD installed a patrol tower in Tompkins Square Park on July 21 … following the Post and the Observer's recent reports citing anecdotal evidence that there's an influx of homeless people and drug users in the park. (Police officials removed the tower on July 28.)

Per the Campout New York Post Facebook invite:

[T]he reason for doing this is not just the tower it is because we believe the NY Post used the sad plight of homeless people to create a return to Giuliani style policing in relation to the poor and those suffering from poverty, mental illness and gentrification and we do not want that to continue.

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

As part of the campout tomorrow night at 7:30, The Living Theatre will perform "No Place to Hide" in the Park … followed by an open mic to memorialize Judith Malina, the group's founder who died in April at age 88. (Details here)

Find more photos from last night at Campout New York Post Facebook invite.

Updated: Tompkins Square Park sleepover planned to protest NYPD patrol tower

[Photo yesterday by George Cohen]

Via the Facebook invite:

Protest the NYPD "sniper tower" in Tompkins Square Park 1988 with a weekend long campout to celebrate the 27 years since the bloody NYPD riot that injured hundreds of innocent and unawares local citizens in our neighborhood. The arrogance of the NYPD was never greater since the recent erection of the "sniper" tower outfitted with cameras and recording equipment.

A clear and blatant violation to first and fourth amendments rights to public assembly, free speech and privacy. Bring a tent, some water and noise makers. Support the right of homeless people to enjoy a public park. It's real estate maggots like Jared Kushner who are destroying our community. Let's show him it won't come easy.

The sleepover is planned Aug. 7-9.

The patrol tower arrived on Tuesday, and has already inspired a Twitter parody account. There's also an online petition asking Mayor de Blasio to remove the tower.

Updated 2:44 p.m.

Some clarification in the comments from John Penley:

I was asked to come back to help with this so I am. First of all the camp will be called Camp New York Post and people will not be sleeping inside the park and being arrested we will sleep on 7th street outside the park and there will be no fires just free food and cold non-alcoholic drinks. We also will not block the sidewalk. The point I want to make is that the reason for doing this is not just the tower it is because we believe the NY Post used the sad plight of homeless people to create a return to Giuliani style policing in relation to the poor and those suffering from poverty, mental illness and gentrification and we do not want that to continue

Previously on EV Grieve:
NYPD installs patrol tower in the middle of Tompkins Square Park (147 comments)

The Post reports Tompkins Square Park 'has become a homeless haven' (113 comments)

Observer editors write, 'it's time to take back Tompkins Square Park' (49 comments)

Parts of Avenue C and D now with a SkyWatch tower, additional NYPD lights

[Updated] NYPD patrol tower arrives on Avenue D

20 years ago on East 13th Street

[Photo by John Penley via the Tamiment Library]

By Felton Davis of the Catholic Worker

All night long, we kept vigil, while the huge quasi-military force gathered to clear the squats on East 13th Street.

At about midnight on May 29th, people brought in an over-turned car and filled it with gasoline. One match, or even a careless person with a cigarette, could light this up and create a fire that could spread to the buildings, and trap those who were barricaded inside, burning them to death. How would that help the cause of squatting? How would that help communicate to the public the enormous work that was done to fix up these buildings? Or was it just a desperate gesture, to let the clearing turn into "another Waco," after the fatal confrontation in Texas two years earlier?

The debate will still going on the next morning, when the police brought in a re-furbished military tank, even after most of the gasoline was drained out of the car. The driver sitting on top of the tank motioned the riot officers to get out of the way, because he did not want to stop for those in front of it.

I'm alive today because the officers blocked the tank and dragged us out of the way. The debate over this extreme confrontation, and the extreme tactics brought to bear, continued in Central Booking that night, and it continued in the court where Stanley Cohen represented us, and it continued in the street, as people tried to re-take those buildings, and the Giuliani administration flexed its muscle, and more squatted buildings were seized or bull-dozed by the city.

Thanks for those who kept their sanity during this frightening time, and did not condemn us to death by fire and conflagration. Thanks for the memories.

For further reading:

• The Squatters of East 13th Street

• Battle Over 13th Street

• Tank KO's the Squatters
Daily News, May 31, 1995

• Riot Police Remove 31 Squatters From Two East Village Buildings
The New York Times, May 31, 1995

• Squatters of 13th Street Vs. Power of City Hall; More Than a Symbolic Battle for Control
The New York Times, July 12, 1995

The 1st weekend of the summer

[East 7th Street]


[East Houston and the Bowery]


[Double duty on East 14th Street]


[Tompkins Square Park]


[East 5th Street and Cooper Square]


[East 2nd Street and Avenue C]


[Avenue B]


[Tompkins Square Park via Bobby Williams]


[St. Mark's Place via Derek Berg]


[Free conversation in Astor Place via John Penley]


[Dylan the bike dog on 2nd Avenue via Derek Berg]


[East 5th Street]


[Zum Schneider on Avenue C for Ghana vs. Germany]


[1st Avenue and East 4th Street via Matt Rosen]


[Tompkins Square Park via Slum Goddess]

Puke Island 2014

Here are a few photos from Puke Fest 2014 today in Tompkins Square Park via John Penley … the first two photos are of Tibbie X and Gash …



… and Spike Polite of Sewage …

Commemorating the East 13th Street squat evictions

From the EV Grieve inbox...

On May 30, 1995, the NYPD rolled an armored tank down East 13th Street, employing militaristic force to evict squatters from two buildings.


[Photo by John Penley via the Tamiment Library collection at NYU]

Almost 18 years later to the day, authors, artists, and activists will unite to remember the resistance and celebrate what remains.

Join us for Lower East Side squat stories, slideshows, and readings by Cari Luna, Frank Morales, Fly, and Peter Spagnuolo followed by a short acoustic set by Banji (bandless).

The event will be held at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS), 155 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets on Friday, May 31, beginning at 7:00 PM.

There is a $5.00 - $10.00 sliding scale suggested donation. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Find the Facebook event page here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Q-and-A with Fly on UnReal Estate

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Outside Grace Church on Broadway and East 10th Street. Photo by Evan OHara]

Six miracles of East Village Ungentrification (Fork in the Road)

Video: John Penley is an Anarcho Yippie (Vimeo)

The tragedy of Cooper Union (Felix Salmon/Reuters)

Did 7-Eleven kill this Chelsea deli? (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Proposed Soho House on Ludlow to show Taylor Mead films next week (The Lo-Down)

West Village co-op sues over Citi Bikes docking stations (DNAinfo)

Emerald Inn is closing. But moving! (West Side Rag)

Where you can find a SF Burrito Mojado in the East Village (Fork in the Road)

Clemente Soto Velez Center wins Landmarks Conservancy Award (BoweryBoogie)

FlipKey looking to turn Stuy Town into hotels for tourists (New York Post)

Selling the CBGB movie overseas (Deadline.com)

Alleged costumers customers of notorious LES drug ring included bartender at the Bowery Hotel (New York Post)

Springtime summer in the city (Slum Goddess)

Revisiting some lost storefronts (Flaming Pablum)

East River Park in 1902 (Ephemeral New York)

Looking at the remains of last night's East Ninth Street car fire

Around 8 a.m., three police officers were on East Ninth Street ... at the scene of last night's fire between Avenue B and Avenue C that likely wiped out three cars... We overheard an officer asking the security guard on duty at the former P.S. 64 about the plywood outside the building ...



...later, via a reader...



... and EVG reader Galwegian, who noted the street cleaning is Monday on this side of the street...



More to come... At this point, we're not sure of the cause of the fire...

Updated noon:

After the planned meeting outside Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate office last evening, John Penley headed here around 9 ... where he was joined by a handful of other people protesting the proposed dorm development of P.S. 64.

Via Facebook, Penley said that he "was tired and feeling sick and left about midnight." As for the other people in the group? "Later I was told cops had threatened to arrest people. I didn't hear about what happened until this morning."

The resident who took the top photo on this post said that he heard the protestors earlier, but didn't see anyone at the scene when the fire started around 1:20 a.m.

At last evening's Ben Shaoul 'meeting' on Broadway

As reported earlier in the week, longtime East Village activist John Penley was planning a weekend-long campout at the offices of developer Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate on Broadway. However, those plans changed, from a weekend-long campout to what Penley said would be "a meeting about the situation especially about others affected by Shaoul and his sledgehammer."

From these photos, via Facebook, you can see that several people joined Penley in front of the Magnum offices on Broadway just below Houston...



The NYPD was on the scene, though we're unaware of any actions that they may have taken again Penley and company...





At 9 p.m., Penley planned to stop by the former the former PS 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center on East Ninth Street to protest developer Gregg Singer's plan to turn the building into a dorm. We hope to have more on that later.

As for the "sledgehammer" nickname, that dates back seven years... you can read background at Curbed and The New York Times.

Previously on EV Grieve:
John Penley changes plans for weekend campout at Ben Shaoul's office; gentrification meeting instead

John Penley changes plans for weekend campout at Ben Shaoul's office; gentrification meeting instead

We noted yesterday that longtime East Village activist John Penley was planning a weekend-long campout at the offices of developer Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate on Broadway.

The protest was happening, in part, due to the the recent revelations about actor-poet-writer Taylor Mead's living conditions during a gut renovation of the building he lives in on Ludlow Street. (Mead, a former Andy Warhol star, had lived in the rent-stabilized apartment for 34 years and wasn't leaving.)

However, late last night, word began to spread via Mead's friends and family that a buyout/relocation deal was in the works ... there was also talk that, in light of this, the campout should be cancelled.

So now, per Penley:

This is what I am proposing ... that out of respect for Taylor's family and attorney, we will cancel our protest at Magnum Real Estate ... but since this is all over the place and people are gonna show up, we will have a meeting about the situation especially about others affected by Shaoul and his sledgehammer. I will be there at 5 pm and wait for anyone who wants to come and we will have the meeting at a location not in front but down the street ... I have no doubt whatsoever that calling for this protest had an effect on any buyout deal for Taylor Mead, but since others are in the same position he is I think it would be wrong not to do anything at all. I also think ... others have a right to meet about what Shaoul has done to them.

The Facebook event has been changed to "Meeting on gentrification at HQ of Magnum Mgt Office of Ben Shaoul — NYC's worst real-estate developer."

[Image part of the Facebook event for the meeting]

John Penley plans campout at Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate offices this weekend

Longtime East Village activist John Penley is set to campout this weekend outside the offices of Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate on Broadway in Soho. (Set to start at 5 p.m. Friday.)

Per the Facebook invite:

SHAOUL AND HIS REAL ESTATE COMPANY HAVE BEEN AN EVIL CORPORATE REAL ESTATE WRECKING AND GENTRIFICATION CREW IN THE EAST VILLAGE. THE WORST OF THE WORST !!!!

While Shaoul has been a widely criticized developer in the East Village for years, the recent revelations about actor-poet-writer Taylor Mead's living conditions were the impetus for this event.

Articles in The Villager and the Post and at BoweryBoogie have outlined the 88 year old's current living conditions while the Shaoul-owned building on Ludlow undergoes a gut renovation. (Mead, a former Andy Warhol star, had lived in the rent-stabilized apartment for 34 years and didn't want to leave.) According to the account in the Post, "Plaster falls from his walls and roaches crawl up his legs. The kitchen sink doesn’t work."

"It’s going to kill him,” said Clayton Patterson, a neighborhood activist and longtime friend. “This is elderly abuse. It’s pretty Third World when you think about it."

As Curbed put this particular episode, Shaoul is "up to his old tricks. Or, more specifically, his old trick — forcing stubborn, rent-stabilized tenants out of the apartments he owns by having their buildings demolished around them."

Penley had this to say to us via a message on Facebook:

"I am demanding at the protest that he give Taylor a renovated ground-floor apartment in Taylor's building rent free for the rest of his life and provide Taylor with home-care assistance. He just made so much cash speculating and flipping buildings on the LES that doing something humane like I suggest he do would be a very small gesture."

Shaoul has recently sold large parcels of his East Village buildings to developer Jared Kushner. Shaoul is currently converting the former Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on Avenue B and East Fifth Street into residences.

Penley recently held a campout to call on NYU to help house the homeless.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

Homeless man sets himself on fire inside the Bleecker Street Station (BoweryBoogie)

John Penley concludes his NYU campout (The Villager)

Lovals grumble about the cabs stacked up outside at the Madina Masjid mosque and Islamic Center of America at the corner of East 11th Street and First Avenue (DNAinfo)

Update on the New Amsterdam Market (The Lo-Down)

Call Martin Scorsese: Condos planned for Mulberry Street condos (Curbed, previously on EV Grieve)

A mini-documentary on Jayne County (BlackBook)

Rainy Union Square in 1912 (Ephemeral New York)

Photos of Greenwich Village in the 1950s (Gothamist)

History of 1 Astor Place (Off the Grid)

Johnny Rotten reviews "Katy Perry: Part of Me" (Dangerous Minds)

At John Penley's NYU protest

This afternoon, longtime activist John Penley started his campout to call on NYU to help house the homeless.

Bobby Williams stopped by to see what was happening...

John Penley-led protest will call on NYU to help house the city's homeless

Longtime activist John Penley is staging a campout at NYU starting this afternoon at 4 to call on NYU to help house the homeless.

"There have been almost no street protests about housing in so long someone has to do it," he wrote on Facebook.

He will be stationed at Washington Square South, and hopes to sleep on the Judson Church steps at night. During the day, Penley said that plans to be in front of Bobst Library where he'll try to educate students about the issues of housing and homelessness.

Per the Facebook invite:

"I plan to ask NYU students to get involved in Housing for homeless and low-income people. I also plan to ask the University, which has built for-profit dorms all over the place, to build one building for poor and low-income people who are displaced by the gentrification NYU heavily contributed to."

A group of speakers, including Penny Arcade, Randy Credico, Joan Moossy and Frank Morales, are among those who are expected to join Penley this afternoon at NYU.

In 2009, Penley, a Navy veteran who is currently homeless, donated his extensive photo collection to the NYU Tamiment Library. (Find the photos here.) Penley said that he plans to take activists inside Bobst to show them the Tamiment Library.

Per an article in The Villager last week:

He hopes to maintain the campout for a month, but recently aggravated a back injury when his car was rear-ended while he was driving in North Carolina, so doesn’t know if he’ll be able to last that long. Rumor has it he may also go on a hunger strike.

"It's not going to look good if NYU arrests me," he told The Villager, "because they have my photo archives in there."

[Photo of Penley via Facebook]

Memories of Tompkins Square Park poster refuses to die

[Bobby Williams, from Dec. 3]

Yes, it has been several days since we last checked in on the poster board thingy in Tompkins Square Park... the one put up by unknown people asking Parkgoers to share their favorite TSP memories. By last Wednesday, the sentiments started to get a little more, uh, salty. Or, as Slum Goddess noted in the comments — like the stalls of the women's bathroom in the Park.

Anyway, we never posted this on Friday morning...

One person claimed that a disgusted parent tore the two posters off the railing.

So by Friday night ...

Then Saturday morning! It was back! (Sort of!)

Then it disappeared. Then, last evening, Bobby Williams emailed me this photo, noting: "Here's old sign refusing to die."

Who knows where it will appear next, and in what form...

As for the memories. Thanks to everyone — Goggla, Chris Flash, John Penley, Gojira, BaHa, DrBOP, Shawn Chittle, Big Gay Ice Cream Man, Marty Wombacher, Andrew Tyndall, among others — for sharing their memories in the comments on the original post.

Previously on EV Grieve:
What's your memory of Tompkins Square Park?