Hollywood returning to Tompkins Square Park (for just a mere 18 hours or so)

Maybe we'll all get to hobnob with David Duchovny, star of Californication!
Sure, sure! Just hope the crew lets people into Ray's.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Why the East Village will be a mess tonight and tomorrow.

Looking at the current fair housing and anti-gentrification movements

Politics as Puppetry has an essay today titled New York City Anti-Gentrification Movements - A Catalog of Failure

An excerpt:

Rising rents in New York are driven by the cultural product of the city - the skyline and nightlife sold in dozens of movies, hundreds of TV show episodes, and by the government of New York itself. That image has gone global, and makes it possible for foreign investors to pour capital into the city by puchasing buildings wholesale (as is happening in el Barrio), or buying up apartments for vacations (as is happening… well, everywhere). Cheap rents and rent control made New York’s globe-spanning cultural products possible in the first place. (think grafitti, Jay-z, SoHo artist lofts, Punk Rock, New York’s literary avant guarde, etc.) Fair housing and anti-gentrification movements will only get off the ground and into serious change by starting with the popular idea of New York and using those cultural norms against the rapid transformation of New York City into a playground of the rich.

Two good shops

On tiny Cliff Street, which runs between Fulton and John.

And next door, just past the entrance to the parking garage:

Meanwhile, if you go south on Cliff Street, you'll see the 31-story apartment building completed in 2001 that previously served as an NYU dorm. The building is managed by our good friends at Rockrose Development Corporation.

No ball playing for the Ukrainian students

As this sign shows, the students at St. George's Ukrainian Catholic School on Sixth Street near Cooper Union are not allowed to play ball.



Not sure what kind of ball this may be. (Tetherball? Kick ball? Dodge ball? Foosball? Stick ball?) Just ball, OK? The section of the school that houses this sign was opened in 1958. How long after that did the killjoy faculty put up this sign...? How long have these students been deprived of playing ball? (And what is the penalty if they're caught?) Anyway, given what's developing directly across from the school now on Taras Shevchenko Place, I'm sure I could find some people who would arm the students with plenty of bats and balls for recess.

Now and then: 216 E. 7th Street

1979.

2008.

[Photo of 216 E. 7th St. in 1979 by Marlis Momber. Lousy photo of 216 E. 7th St. in 2008 by EV Grieve.]

They went and killed Teddy

Trash day, Ninth Street.

In front of the Dora Park Apartments

For just a brief moment tonight, while walking on 7th Street between A and B, it felt like I was in a different era.

Until I saw the air conditioners.

And the other cars.

About that nice little family-owned pharmacy that I'd go to

My doctor's office is on Madison Avenue in the 30s, one of those nondescript buildings full of, uh, doctors. On the ground level, there was a small, family-owned pharmacy. This was, of course, quite convenient for getting prescriptions filled. They were fast and friendly. When I went to my doctor this week for an appointment:



One of the maintainance guys in the lobby said that the pharmacy couldn't afford the rent anymore; that they'd have much more space in the Bronx for a lot less money. Of course.

It's still a fairly dull stretch of Madison Avenue, but, as Jeremiah noted in March, change is coming. Quickly.

On 33rd Street and Madison, site of a new 33-story condo-hotel combo.

The Jamie Dimon Players present: "Vikram Pandit Can Be Such A Jerk"

At One Manhattan Chase Plaza (Liberty and Nassau).

On the M15

(Personally, I think MTA rhymes better with "the way.")