'This is elderly abuse' — Warhol star Taylor Mead lives in squalor during building's gut renovation

Taylor Mead's home life in his fifth-floor walk-up continues to be a living hell, the Post notes today.

As you may have read in The Villager or at BoweryBoogie, Ben Shaoul bought the building Mead lives in and two others on Ludlow Street for $16.5 million last summer. Mead, 88, continues to live in his rent-stabilized apartment while the rest of the building is converted to market-rate homes. (Mead has lived here for 34 years and pays $380 a month in rent.)

Per the article:

Workers hammer outside his door from 7 a.m. till the evening. Plaster falls from his walls and roaches crawl up his legs. The kitchen sink doesn’t work.

Mead’s friends suspect Shaoul wants the poet to evict himself.

“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.”

You can read more about the legendary Mead, an actor, writer and poet, here. (Read this feature on Mead from The Paris Review last summer here.)

Of course, history doesn't mean much to developers.

“[Shaoul] is out for profit. He doesn’t give a shit about who I am,” he said. “It’s going to be hell.”

The end of the Viking Age?

Avenue A this morning.

A moment with Super Bad Brad in Tompkins Square Park yesterday

Thanks to EVG reader John G. for sharing this video of Brad Prowly (aka "Super Bad Brad") from Tompkins Square Park yesterday...

Today's hawk and squirrel show in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Saving the world in time for Easter

Our friend Curt Hoppe sent along these photos from today... where Arturo Vega was installing a mural on Prince and Elizabeth...



Vega says that it's "for the people saving souls."

Tomorrow is Opening Day at Coney Island, where Zoltar is only $1

Coney Island has its grand opening tomorrow... the Cyclone, Luna Park and Deno's Wonder Wheel Park are all set to reopen ... this after millions of dollars in Hurricane Sandy-related repair work and upgrades.

Our friends at Amusing the Zillion have been carefully documenting the opening-day developments. Find more details on rides and restaurants here ...

Per ATZ:

The amount of activity far exceeds anything we’ve seen in past years because of the extra added work of recovering and rebuilding from Superstorm Sandy. Even though Palm Sunday, Coney’s traditional opening day, is early this year, the great majority of the rides, games and eateries are ready to open.

Sandy KO'd Deno's Wonder Wheel Park's Zoltar. But! There is a new one...



And, as ATZ reminds us, the Coney Island Zoltar is only $1, as opposed to the $2 Zoltar outside Gem Spa.

Speaking of Zoltar... here's a shot of our own Zoltar this morning ... flashing some jewelry and his carefully placed flute, as always...



[Thanks to Amusing the Zillion for permission to repost the photos]

[Updated] Cab ends up on sidewalk outside Horus Café on Avenue A and East 10th Street

A reader sent along this photo from Avenue A at East 10th Street... we do not have any information on what happened or if there were any injuries... another reader thought it happened around 10:15 a.m.

Updated 10:41

Via @mikebarish — "didn’t see it happen but saw him extricating himself (with police help)"

This might be the largest pink limo ever in the East Village

Bill the Libertarian Anarchist spotted this on Ninth Street between Second and Third Avenues... Per Bill: "I walked off 35 feet for the length. Biggest limo I ever saw."

Freaky Friday

At the ping-pong table in Tompkins Square Park today... photo by Bobby Williams.

Color my World

Siouxsie and the Banshees with "Song from the Edge of the World" circa 1987.

Why there'll never be a Ramones bio-pic

Marky won't let it happen.

The drummer insists former bandmate Johnny Ramone's widow, Linda, who is the driving force behind a proposed new film about the band, is not qualified to oversee such a project - because she has little insight into the band and was not around when the group formed and first started performing together in New York.

And!

But even if that project was in the works, Marky wouldn't be a part of it - because he doesn't like how his peers have been portrayed on film.

He adds, "I wouldn't allow my image to be in it... They can't get it right unless there are people involved that were there in the nucleus. I know it would be inaccurate, like The Runaways movie; that was a good indicator of how these movies go."

[Source: Express UK]

At the residents meeting for the Smith Houses

On Wednesday night, New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) officials briefed residents of the Smith Houses on the Lower East Side about their plans to to lease playground and community-center space to developers within public housing areas.

As The Lo-Down reported, members of the Smith Tenant Association boycotted the meeting, in part, because residents wanted at least a 10-day notice and opportunity to review the proposals. The city pushed ahead anyway.

Six Lowa, a DJ and music producer who was born and raised in the Smith Houses (his grandmother has been a resident since the complex opened in 1953), attended the meeting to document what took place. He shared his thoughts on a newly created blog. (You can read that here.)

He concludes:

My personal thoughts are that the projects in the Lower East Side and along the FDR Drive have always been eyed at by developers for some years now. They now realize it's prime real estate next to the waterfront, all 3 bridges, City Hall, South St Seaport, World Financial District, & Police Headquarters. It all starts with the building of private housing on NYCHA playgrounds and parking lots. What's next? Whose next?

[Boycotters outside the meeting. Photos courtesy of Six Lowa]

The Daily News has coverage of the meeting here.