As I noted back in late May, The Pearl Theatre Company, which has had a residency at Theatre 80 the past 15 years, was relocating to Midtown for its 2009-2010 season.
Lorcan Otway, whose parents built and operated Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place since 1964, said in an e-mail to us at the time that "we intend to keep the East Village a vibrant arts community."
Indeed, that is certainly the case. Good news, finally, for a neighborhood overrun by beer pong, keggers and chain stores. This coming Thursday (Sept. 10), Theatre 80 begins its next life as a community theater. A local theater group is mounting a production for the next month; another group is booked for another month after that... (Stay tuned for the specifics...)
In addition, Lorcan will open a nautically themed cafe in the former Pearl Theatre's concession area.
The spot will be called William Barnacle Scott, named in memory of the late Tompkins Square Park regular who passed away in May. There will be no TVs. No Internet jukebox. And the cafe will close at 6 p.m. As the sign out front promises, "A quiet cafe where people can hear each other talk, and you can hear yourself think."
The cafe will be serving coffee and tea for theatergoers in the short term. Eventually the space will be open to the public, and will likely sell beer and wine.
And what a tour. Despite the heavy workload in preparing the space for next week, Lorcan was gracious with his time, and showed me the entire theatre. In the cellar, he pointed out the foundation to the farmhouse that was in this spot dating back to the late 1600s.
And! I saw the original beer cooler that belonged to Scheib's Bar & Grill, the former speakeasy that operated in this space until Lorcan's father, Howard, and his mother, Florence, bought the building in 1964. (Lorcan's mother is 89 and still lives above the theatre.)
I had to take some photos of the beer cooler...
And Lorcan told me the story about one of the two safes they found in the basement. The safe pictured below was opened in 1964 after being sealed up since the Prohibition. When Howard Otway and Mr. Scheib, who came up from Florida for the honor, opened the safe, they were overcome by fumes and passed out. As Lorcan said, inside: Beer-soaked $100 bills that were picked up off the bar in a hurry and bundled inside the safe. The bills became moldly through the years. (Lorcan said with a chuckle that the Otways never received a finder's fee for the nearly $2 million in moldy bills that Mr. Scheib eventually were able to clean...)
The upstairs area will include a photo of Howard Otway, a Broadway actor, whose inspirational vision for an arts-oriented community lives on with Lorcan today. (Mr. Otway passed away in 1994.)
Diner's Journal reported Monday that Prima opens on East First Street today. It's a confab featuring the owners of Summit Bar and Ninth Street Espresso with an assist from Motorino’s Mathieu Palombino.
And so they will serve coffee and light breakfast starting at 8, and small meals throughout the day. And booze starting at 5 p.m. According to The Feed, Prima will have "a seafood-focused menu that recalls Palombino’s days as chef de cuisine at BLT Fish."
This space was previously home to The Elephant, the Thai restaurant-lounge, for 17 years.
You may have seen this earlier today... I spotted it at Gothamist... Someone uploaded a video to MyBlockNYC from Friday night on Avenue A at Sixth Street that shows a cop pepper-spraying some revelers... and then, a tackle...
The NYPD didn't arrest or charge anyone after all that.
From the EV Grieve inbox... cut-n-paste journalism, baby!
The Center for an Urban Future today released its fourth annual study ranking the national retailers with the most store locations in New York City. This year’s study finds that the sluggish economy may be finally catching up with chain stores in New York. For the first time in the four-year history of the Center’s annual ranking, the explosion of chain stores in New York has slowed somewhat.
Nearly a third (31 percent) of the national retailers that were listed in our ranking last year reduced their presence over the past 12 months, compared to only 20 percent of chain stores that contracted between our 2009 and 2010 studies. And while Dunkin Donuts tops our ranking for the fourth consecutive year, for the first time the company did not show a net gain in stores—it held steady with 466 stores across the five boroughs, the same number as last year.
While the growth of chain stores has slowed, 86 of the retailers that were listed in last year’s study (28 percent) actually added locations over the past 12 months. Overall, the number of national retail stores in the city grew by 1.6 percent over the past year, as the 307 retailers included in last year’s ranking expanded from a total of 6,883 stores in 2010 to 6,994 stores in 2011. But the 1.6 percent increase is far below the 4 percent rate of growth in chain stores between 2009 and 2010.
Subway again ranked second on our list, but it began to close the gap between it and Dunkin Donuts by adding 41 new stores over the past year, an increase of 10.5 percent. The sandwich chain now has 430 stores across the five boroughs, up from 389 in 2010 and 335 in 2008. Metro PCS has quickly vaulted into the number 3 spot on our ranking, with 272 locations across the five boroughs. Starbucks dropped to fourth, though it grew by three percent over the past 12 months and now has 263 stores in the city. Other retailers with noteworthy gains in stores over the past year include:
* T-Mobile: 161 locations, up from 117 in 2010 (and nearly double their 82 stores in 2008)
* Metro PCS: 272 locations, up from 216 in 2010
* 7-Eleven: 83 locations, up from 74 in 2010 (and 57 in 2008)
* Family Dollar: 49 locations, up from 5 in 2010
* Sunglasses Hut: 32 locations, up from 19 in 2010
* Five Guys: 22 locations, up from 14 in 2010
* Aeropostale: 10 locations, up from 5 in 2010IHOP: 16 locations, up from 12 in 2010
Ninety-six companies (31 percent) reduced their footprint in the city over the past year. A few notable examples include:
* Borders: closed all of its 9 stores this past year
* Hollywood Video: closed its final 2 stores this year, after filing for bankruptcy in 2010
* Blockbuster: 10 stores, down from 30 in 2010
* American Apparel: 7 stores, down from 20 in 2010
* New York Sports Club: 42 stores, down from 53 in 2010 (Curves, another health club, also closed several stores, reducing its presence from 25 stores to 19.)
* Ann Taylor: 10 stores, down from 19 in 2010
* Gap: 33 locations, from 37 in 2010 (The company may reduce its presence further over the next year, as it just announced it will be closing 189 stores nationwide.
* Verizon Wireless: 43 locations, down from 50 in 2010
* Sprint: 25 locations, down from 33 in 2010
* Sleepy’s: 89 locations, down from 102 in 2010
* KFC: 60 locations, down from 71 in 2010
* Quizno’s: 10 locations, down from 15 in 2010 (and 27 in 2008)
Wow, the Coop is considering charging undergraduate students tuition for the first time since its founding in 1859, according to The New York Times today.
[University president Jamshed] Bharucha said that in recent decades, the school had resorted to unsustainable practices to support its operations — like selling assets and dipping into the principal of its endowment, which stood at $577 million in mid-2010 — rather than just spending the endowment’s earnings. In recent years, it also spent heavily on a new academic building and renovations of its historic building, both on Cooper Square.
The school also generates significant income from real estate it owns, including the land under the Chrysler Building, but the value of those properties has also been dropping.
The Wall Street Journalreports that the school's $16.5 million budget deficit this year has been growing for decades.
Nothing definite about the tuition, Bharucha said. There will be task forces and blue ribbon committees and stuff exploring all this. Also: lower-income and many middle-income students would continue to attend free ... and none of the current 900 undergraduates would be charged, per the Times.
Meanwhile, not looking so good now for a rent reduction for the St. Mark's Bookshop, though that matter wasn't mentioned in the articles.
One day recently, we posted our 10,000th, uh, post. In honor of that mark, we've decided to go back into our archives and dredge up repost some of those 10,000, uh, posts. So on every morning the rest of this week, we will take a trip into the EVG archives. Anyway, enjoy while you can — they're all going behind a paywall accessible only via a pricy EVG iPad app. (Kidding!)
Anyway, we'll be back later with the usual news or whatever later today.
You may have seen the menu earlier this week at Bob Arihood's Neither More Nor Less... Starting tomorrow, a group of Ray's devotees/volunteers are starting a new delivery service every Saturday from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. So now you can get all of Ray's faves brought right to your door... Two of the organizers — Kyla Raskin and Arianna Gil — answered a few questions for me:
Why did you decide to start this?
An idea about a delivery project had been circulating for a while. Emily Allan had proposed this informally to a bunch of neighborhood kids when she worked at Ray's, and when all the news about his back rent came out we decided it would be a good time to make it really happen. We all really care about our neighborhood, each of us grew up in the East Village and remember Ray's from our childhood. We continue to pay the place frequent late night visits. The idea of Ave. A without Ray's was too scary for any of us to sit by and watch it close. Hopefully this project will attract more customers to Ray's, and help pick up the slow winter nights.
How many delivery people are involved?
There are 10 delivery people signed up for shifts so far: Emily Allan, Kyla Raskin, Arianna Gil, Max Brown, Bobby Yankou, Max Aserlind, Nate Hohouser, Zamber Diekman, Robin Giordani, and Becca Sturcken. These are all volunteer shifts that happen every Saturday from 7 pm-5 am, in two, five-hour shifts with two people per shift. We have had several meetings to organize it and the turn out has been really positive. What's cool about the project is that it has attracted a pretty eclectic group of kids from the East Village.
What does Ray's mean to you?
Ari: Ray's is a place I love for several reasons. First being that it is one of the few things that I can clearly remember existing when I was growing up. I really grew to love it though when I started going there with my friends there late nights after shows and such. Fries and Milkshakes at 2 in the morning was beyond amazing. Most importantly though it is an East Village business that has a tight relationship with the community. I have seen so many businesses move into my neighborhood, even my block, that I never seen people from the community utilizing. The only thing they really contribute to is higher rent. Ray is a true old school New Yorker, he is so warm and positive and that really translates in his business.
Kyla: Ray's started as a place my friends and I would go to after our activity for the night (be it a concert, etc.) was over, but we weren't ready to head home yet. We'd stay for hours and hang out with all the East Village folks that have spearheaded hanging out around the neighborhood. Ray is always inviting, and always such a positive way to end a night — eventually he was teaching me how to make milkshakes (I wanted to impress a boy who loved his milkshakes), and later, my friend and I started spending time on the other side of the counter, helping Ray out in the after-hours shifts, making fries as the sun came close to rising.
Ray and Arianna testing out the phone system [Via Bob Arihood]
What was Ray's reaction to your idea?
When we brought Ray our proposal he received it really well. His main concern was if people were really going to show up for their shifts. We printed out an old school facebook of all the people involved to show him how many people had committed. We told him how they were all kids who grew up in the neighborhood, he said "oh beautiful" with a smile. The only thing he seemed reluctant about was that he'll get calls when he doesn't have a delivery person handy, but we set up the Internet phone so that that was impossible. Saturday nights, we'll always have one person sitting by the computer and one out making the deliveries. Our biggest fear is that it won't generate enough profit to be a substantial project, so CALL US! (1-718-473-9636).
For further reading: Bob has updates on Ray receiving help with obtaining his Social Security...and other ongoing challenges at the store...
Last night, nearly 50 residents convened at the JASA/Green Residence to discuss concerns the impact that the Cooper Square Hotel has had on the neighborhood. (Jeremiah has been on the story with his must-read Notes from the Backside series.)
The event was organized by the East Fifth Street Block Association. Matthew Moss, principal of the Peck Moss Hotel Group, the developer of the $115 million Cooper Square Hotel, was there to field questions from the audience. Stuart Zamsky, head of the East Fifth Street Block Association, ran the meeting along with Carrie Schneider, whose apartment is a few feet away from the Cooper Square Hotel's much-discussed second-level bar area. CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer was in attendance as was a representative from the office of Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer. (I was a few minutes late, and missed all the introductions.)
The meeting started cordially enough. There was talk about the smoke coming from the fireplace in the ground-floor library. "We will not use the fireplace until we figure out this smoke issue," Moss said. That was easy. Next!
Then the discussion turned to the contentious second-floor outdoor patio (there is no actual bar outside — guests can drink in the space, though). Although the patio officially closes at 9 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, 10 p.m. on Thursday and 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday [UPDATE: These hours are incorrect — see the comments for the hours of operation], residents have said there are disturbed at all hours. For instance, guests have been able to access the area after hours and hotel employees have used the space as a breakroom to smoke and make cell-phone calls. Moss said that until the hotel can install a permanent gate at the landing of the main stairs leading to the terrace, a security guard has been hired to stand duty to prevent off-hour access. The presence of a security guard has helped curb some unwanted chatter, people thought.
Soon enough, though, things started to change. Maybe it was the increasingly warm community room in need of a breeze, the water fountain in the back that occasionally made a clanging noise...or maybe people were just tired of Moss mumbling. Every few sentences, people had to ask for him to speak up. It didn't help that Moss, an awkward public speaker, acted at times like a fraternity brother being scolded by his housemother for not picking up his dirty clothes.
"It sucks for the people who are here," Zamsky said of all the problems the hotel has created for residents. "It's not good."
Moss, who was prone to squirming, tugging at his lip and — a few times — rolling his eyes, said at one point, "There's nothing else for me to say. The responsibility lies with me... Anything I say is going to sound like an excuse."
Fifth Street residents talked about the lack of parking spaces now available to them and the limos that line up in the evenings. One woman in a wheelchair said their families can't find a place to park when they come to town for a visit. "You have nothing but excuses! You have created another problem for us."
Said Moss, "I don't doubt for a second that the hotel has some negative impact on the community. I'm also of the belief that there is some good that comes from" our presence. He didn't offer what that was.
Moss also said that the hotel has offered to pay to soundproof the windows for residents at 207 Fifth St. who are adjacent to the hotel and have suffered the most since the patio opened last month. "That's not a perfect solution," he admitted.
A representative from Scott Stringer's office, who arrived late, confirmed that Moss met with Stringer yesterday morning and put it in writing that the hotel is willing to pay to soundproof windows. [CORRECTION: The representative from Scott Stringer's office, Greg Kirschenbaum, did not indicate that Borough President Stringer met with Moss: he stated that Moss had reached out to him to offer the soundproofing and that Moss then provided that offer in writing. Stringer did not meet with Moss. We apologize for the error in reporting.] One problem, though: The landlord of 207 Fifth St. is not receptive to such an idea.
One resident said soundproofing windows just wasn't good enough. "You have a public space out there. There are public spaces such as libraries where even homeless people that hang out know you have to be quiet." He mentioned that management should tell the hotel guests to whisper while they're on the patio. Continued the resident, "The other thing about soundproof windows: You're suggesting that the people who live there will never want to open their windows."
The residents had more to say.
Moss looked as if he wanted to shrink inside his blue blazer. He was unprepared. He had no noticeable personality. He lacked the diplomatic skills necessary for the hospitality industry — or any industry. He had no answers to questions about the noise complaints and other quality-of-life issues raised during the meeting. "I don't know...We need to figure out how to make it work," he said. He wouldn't offer a timetable for possible solutions to the noise. "I don't even know what the solutions are going to be."
Someone mentioned the tactics used by residents to retaliate against the noise. "I don't think it's really relevant," Moss snapped. Another resident asked about the secret nightclub that was going to open in the Cooper Square Hotel. "It's not going to be a nightclub," Moss said. He called it a "supper club," which will be in the basement. "I'd be surprised if it happened this year," he said.
At this point, you get the idea. To be honest, so much was discussed during the 75-plus minutes that I was at the meeting. I didn't capture every complaint, every name, every possible solution from calling 311 to the hotel manager on duty. But I had a good snapshot of what has been happening to the residents living adjacent to the hotel. So I left.
I started thinking about the hardships that I heard that night. The woman in the wheelchair whose family can't find a place to park to visit her. The residents being kept up by the party-going hotel guests. I thought about the older man who cared enough to show up at the meeting with a sign of protest against the hotel. Later, he fell asleep in the back of the room near an open door.
So I walked out of the JASA/Green Residence, which faces the south side of the Cooper Square Hotel. And what was there waiting for all the concerned residents exiting the meeting?
Just to spell this out for myself. The co-owner of the Cooper Square Hotel agreed to meet with concerned local residents about noise complaints and quality-of-life issues on the same night that his hotel was throwing a party for a $280,000 sports car.
Guests took turns sitting inside the car for photo opps.
A few of the residents who attended the meeting stood on the sidewalk by the Cooper's outdoor patio with incredulous looks on their faces. One man ran back inside to ask Moss if he was aware there were 200 people partying behind the hotel.
I saw three different people leave the patio and enter the sidewalk with drinks. The security on duty only seemed concerned with the non-guests gawking on the sidewalk. One guest walked east a few buildings on Fifth Street. He hiked his khaki-clad leg up on a railing while holding a bottle of Stella and talking on his cell phone. Meanwhile, chauffeured town cars double-parked on Fifth Street. Other cars idled in front of fire hydrants.
One driver shrugged off the threats of a resident who asked him to move. He continued talking on his cell phone.
By the way, the only time Moss ever offered an apology last night occured after he was asked to speak up so the people in the back of the room could hear him.
For further reading:
Raging Against the Coop: the Developer/Neighbor Faceoff (Eater)
As you may know, New York has a great piece this week on 190 Bowery, a space that I've long been curious about. Wendy Goodman gets right to it in her lead:
The building at 190 Bowery is a mystery: a graffiti-covered Gilded Age relic, with a beat-up wooden door that looks like it hasn’t been opened since La Guardia was mayor. A few years ago, that described a lot of the neighborhood, but with the Bowery Hotel and the New Museum, the Rogan and John Varvatos boutiques, 190 is now an anomaly, not the norm. Why isn’t some developer turning it into luxury condos?
Because Jay Maisel, the photographer who bought it 42 years ago for $102,000, still lives there, with his wife, Linda Adam Maisel, and daughter, Amanda. It isn’t a decrepit ruin; 190 Bowery is a six-story, 72-room, 35,000-square-foot (depending on how you measure) single-family home.
There's another building that I've been curious about: 421 E. Sixth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.
I was told years back that an artist lives there. Indeed.
According to Forgotten New York: "421 was a Con Edison substation built in 1920-21 that converted direct current to alternating. It is at present (2008) the studio of modern artist/sculptor Walter De Maria. His most famous installation is The Lightning Field (1977) is permanently installed in the desert at Quemado, New Mexico, and was commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation, who run the site and provide accommodation for visitors. The work consists of hundreds of stainless steel rods projecting from the ground to a uniform height of around six metres (20 feet). Rows of 20 rods extend for one mile, while rows of 16 extend for a kilometre, making a square grid of standard and metric proportions. The work is designed to attract spectacular lightning strikes."
NY Songlines has a few more details: "This building, which looks like a giant-robot laboratory, was actually built in 1919-21 as a New York Edison transformer substation — turning DC current into AC. Since 1980 it's been owned by artist Walter De Maria."
Wonder if we'll ever get to see the inside of this space...
I've noticed a few more people than usual moving from the neighborhood. (Perhaps there's a reason for so many more men with vans signs.) Given the drop in some rentals, maybe these people are just moving a few blocks away to a building with better deals. Or maybe they lost everything and have to go bunk with a relative. Or maybe they came here during the heady days of, say, 2005 and figured to become the next Carrie Bradshaw. (Or at least have the chance to sit on her stoop!) I wish I could go up to these people and conduct exit interviews. Why are you moving? What will you miss about the neighborhood? What are you glad to be leaving behind? I'm always curious about this.
Luckily, I came across a blog written by a young professional living on the LES. After one year here, she is moving to another undisclosed neighborhood. Almost in answer to my questions, she provided a list of things she will miss and not miss about her apartment and the LES. Among the items:
Things I will miss:
--The gym. I hope I can still force myself to go to the gym when it isn’t in my building!
--My stainless steel stove
--Dry cleaning in the building
--The statue of Vladimir Lenin on top of the Red Square building. I can see him from my bed so I wake up to him with his right arm in the air every single morning.
Things I will not miss:
--The girls who scream, “Where’s my boyfriend!?” at 4 a.m. while leaving the Lower East Side bars on any given day
--The symphony of honking on Houston Street that forces me to sleep with earplugs
--The fresh vomit that I sometimes step over while leaving for [work] on any given day
--The smell of pickles from Katz Deli that I am forced to inhale when walking home every day
--The fact that there is not a close enough Starbucks
--The mural of Kiss on the brick wall on the bar across from my apartment
