A pigeon a day keeps the...

Today in Tompkins Square Park... via Bobby Williams.

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From the EV Grieve inbox...

MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG WILL DELIVER COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT THE COOPER UNION’S 154th GRADUATION CEREMONY

New York – We are proud and delighted that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has agreed to deliver the commencement address at The Cooper Union’s 154th graduation ceremony in May, said Jamshed Bharucha, President of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. At commencement, Mayor Bloomberg will receive the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary).

Commencement 2013 is scheduled for Tuesday, May 29th in The Great Hall of The Cooper Union, East 7th Street at Third and Fourth Avenues, New York.

“Mayor Bloomberg’s transformational leadership to improve education, the cityscape and the built environment, as well as public health, while encouraging smart and sustainable economic growth distinguishes his administration. His persuasive advocacy for gun control and immigration reform resonates across the country. His determination for New York to thrive as a world class applied science center will draw the best and the brightest for decades to come. His record and vision provide an example for our graduates who want to contribute their talents to New York and beyond. We are honored to have him deliver the keynote address at this year’s commencement,” said President Bharucha.

Q-and-A with Fly on UnReal Estate

Fly is currently working on UnReal Estate, an archive project focused on the history of squatting on the Lower East Side. The artist and illustrator is assembling a collection of photos, flyers, drawings, graphics, video and oral histories. Fly, a longtime squatter herself dating to the 1980s, has been incorporating these elements into multimedia presentations, one of which she'll show tomorrow night at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) at 155 Avenue C. (Find more information here.)

Meanwhile, the book portion of UnReal Estate will focus on an oral history of squatting on the Lower East Side, concentrating on the 1980s and 1990s – up until 2002, when 11 buildings made a deal through the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) to become legal low-income co-ops. The book will include a prologue to cover the earlier homesteading movements and brief history of housing issues in the neighborhood.

Fly answered a few questions for us about the project and her feelings about the neighborhood today.

UnReal Estate is such an ambitious project. How is the oral history book portion of it shaping up?

I am getting some great stories — and a lot of conflicting information. A lot of people have a hard time remembering specific dates. So much was happening so fast back in the 80s and 90s. This neighborhood was a bit like a powder keg, and it was hard to keep track of dates and times. There are so many people who I want to interview. The more that I do the longer the list seems to get.

How have audiences been responding to the previous slideshows/multimedia presentations?

I have been getting very encouraging responses. People who were around back in the day are encouraged to remember their own history, so then I get more input into the squatter timeline. People who were not there have told me that they have a whole new view of the idea of squatting. I have done some UnReal Estate slideshows in Oakland, Calif., to the East Bay Squat Scene. They get so inspired by seeing what we did and how we continue to survive. The squatter scene out there is very different and not so organized or cohesive. They seemed to get some good ideas for strategy from seeing our history

Why do you think telling the story of the East Village/Lower East Side squatter history is so important?

I think that the squatter movement here came out of real community activism, so it is very ingrained in the larger history of the Lower East Side. It was in the 1970s when landlords were torching their buildings for insurance money and the City was going broke and abandoning the more undesirable neighborhoods that residents in the Lower East Side really started organizing and taking back the buildings – sometimes with homesteading programs and sometimes just with community support. A lot of housing activism was going on and the squatter movement was a more direct-action approach that grew from that.

There were so many buildings squatted in this neighborhood in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was a real political force and many squatters were involved in so many other community and citywide struggles — especially the struggle for affordable housing, which has been a defining characteristic of the Lower East Side. The fact that we were successful in taking 11 buildings to legal status speaks to our legitimate place in the official history of the Lower East Side

The neighborhood continues to develop and grow, of course. How do you feel about what has been taking place? Do you still feel a sense of community here? Does it still feel like home?

I do feel a sense of community here, although it now seems so spread out and diffused. Suddenly there are so many bars and stores that make an attempt to look like they have been here for a long time so that the tourists think they are getting a Real Experience. (I could go on a long complaining rant but I’m sure you have heard it all before and I try to be positive these days.)

It makes it all the more important to try to preserve and proliferate our radical roots – to encourage the kids to continue to live Actively not Passively. There are still places in the Lower East Side like ABC No Rio, Bullet Space, Bluestockings, MoRUS and all of the gardens – we still have some great places left. After so many years of struggle I am very grateful to have my home.

What was your reaction to being named one of the "Amazing Women of the Lower East Side" this year by The Lower Eastside Girls Club?

Oh! I was very honored that they chose me. It is one of my favorite places and one of my favorite things to do is teach art classes or zine-making classes to the younger generations. I get to do this once in awhile at the Girls Club, hopefully more often in future, and the girls never fail to amaze me with their enthusiasm and their creativity.



[For more information, contact Fly here]

David Schwimmer's unfinished mansion makes celebrity homes map for 2nd straight year

In other important news today, Rentenna updated its giant map of where celebrities live in the City.

Let's see how the East Village fared... For the second straight year, David Schwimmer leads the pack... even though he still doesn't live here (yet).



Who else ... Tom Cruise is listed on East 13th Street, where he recently sold his home ... Cynthia Nixon on East Sixth Street, though she bought a house on Bleecker... No Daniel Craig? No Zoltar? Lame!

H/T Curbed

Renovations set to begin at PS 122

A tipster passes along word that all the tenants of the PS 122 Community Center at 150 First Ave. are out of the building now, and construction on the DCA-funded interior code renovations will start any day now. Yesterday, PS 122 officials turned over the keys to the contractor. The building at East Ninth Street will undergo a three-year renovation.

Per the tipster: "The project is exciting, and will be a great asset to the neighborhood. This isn't some private developer coming in and taking a piece of East Village history away."

PS 122 will use space in Greenpoint for its office, and employ venues around the city for its various productions. (Read more about all this in a recent article at TheaterMania.)

Among other things, the renovated space, first put to use by PS 122 in 1980, will have an elevator, new stairwells and full ADA compliance.

Find a sneak peek of one of the new floor layouts here. Find more updates and the performance schedule at the PS 122 website here.

Expect to see Jerry's Newsstand on Astor Place through Mayor Bloomberg's last term in office

[Via Jerry's Newsstand on Facebook]

You know the story of Jerry Delakas, who has been running the newsstand at Astor Place since 1987. As the Daily News put it in April 2011: "The city is booting Jerry Delakas, 62, .... because he's not the legal license holder. That decision contradicts the dying wish of the woman who held the license, happily allowed him to operate the stand and designated him as heir."

In the eyes of the city, this is an illegal arrangement. Last fall, the city retained — for free — the services of powerhouse international law firm Proskauer Rose for the eviction process. Previously, the city used a Law Department attorney. "The lawyer handling the matter worked on it while part of the city’s Public Service Program for young attorneys before she left to go into private practice," a city spokesperson told the Post last September. "It made complete sense for her to continue on the case given that she’d worked on it since its inception."

From the Daily News in 2011:

Outraged neighbors say the chain-smoking character with a thick Greek accent and heart of gold has become a neighborhood institution. "Jerry's here rain, snow, sleet, blistering heat," said Larry Schulz, 68, who lives across the street. "He's just a real important part of our community. We think the world of him."

We haven't heard much since then about the situation. In the comments the other day, EVG reader BT mentioned that Delakas suffered a serious hand injury last fall.

Here's the latest on the situation with the city, based on information passed along by director Nicole Cimino at a Feb. 9 screening of "The Paperhouse Report," a 25-minute documentary about Delakas.

In short: He was denied his license again by the State courts. They granted him the right to remain at the newsstand until the end of this mayoral administration. He and his lawyer are planning on contacting the next mayor's administration to see if they have any desire to see Jerry keep his newsstand.

So Bloomberg is out at the end of the year... so you can expect to see Delakas here for perhaps the next 12 months at the very least... And he is on his third physical newsstand now... the one that he had starting in 1987 (his brother Aris is pictured in the photo directly below...)





The one that he upgraded per city requests in 1993 ... (which he says cost him $55,000)



And his current home, which the city Cemusa'd in 2007...

[Photo by James Maher from January 2012. Find more photos here]

Read more about Jerry's situation at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. You can watch the documentary at Vimeo here. Like Jerry's Newsstand on Facebook here.

[Archival newsstand photos via "The Paper House" website]

3-story swingers club now open on the Bowery

Well, we missed the Grand Opening of Bowery Bliss last Friday. From what we understand, it's a three-story, 4,000-square-foot, "European-style" swingers club near Delancey. It's only open Friday and Saturday nights, 10 p.m. - 4 a.m.

Here are some details via a notice on Craigslist:

New York City's newest and largest on premise swinger club

4000 sq ft on 3 floors with something for everyone
-First floor: The Renaissance Lounge (1,400 sq. ft.) offering guests a place to mingle and get to know each other:
-Second Floor: Group Play Area (900 sq. ft.) curtained and open play areas...open to all
-Third Floor: Couples ONLY Playroom (700 sq ft) ...the club within the club

-Locker room (use one of our locks or bring your own) and secure Coat Check
-Complimentary sodas and mixers served all night, located in the Renaissance Lounge
Please note we do NOT sell alcohol however we do have a BYOB policy.
-Complimentary snacks and desserts, served all night. Located in the Renaissance Lounge
-Complimentary condoms
-Complementary self serve lockers (bring a lock or use one of ours)

There is an official Bowery Bliss website with all the rules, like, you need to be a member of the club. There's also a page with fee information (single females, $20; single males, $120; couples, $100) ... and FAQs. For example: "Are 2 men and a woman allowed to attend as a threesome on couples ONLY nights?" NO. "On couples only nights each male must be accompanied with a female guest."

There was also a write-up in this at UrbanDaddy last week, who pointed out that, "There’s no liquor license as of yet. And let’s face it — probably not one forthcoming."

That would be one Community Board 3 meeting that we'd never miss.

The 'No 7-Eleven' chalk campaign expands its reach; plus, drip art

The No 7-Eleveneers were at it again last night ...



... expanding their protest beyond the construction site at the corner of East 11th Street and Avenue A to the 7-Eleven at St. Mark's Place ...



...where a security guard sought to dissolve the protest with some water, creating the first piece of "No 7-Eleven" drip-art.

Scaffolding still going up at 330 Bowery

On Monday morning, we happened to be on Bowery and Bond when workers started erecting scaffolding at the historic 330 Bowery... late yesterday afternoon, they were still going at it... been awhile since we've seen such intricate scaffolding with so many walkways, ladders, etc. So much of scaffolding seems so homemade around here these days. Not this.







Workers will eventually be repairing portions of the exterior and stuff, per the DOB.

Blackstones taking over Village Scandal space on East Seventh Street

Blackstones, the hair salon at 19 E. Seventh St., is expanding into the neighboring space recently vacated by The Village Scandal.

After a nine-year eviction battle, the landlord took possession of the Village Scandal, the longtime vintage hat shop, at 19 E. Seventh St., on Feb. 4. The shop was cleared out on Feb. 6.

The sign in the hat shop's former window notes a May opening, and "hairdressers wanted."

Previously.