Scenes from this morning...
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Mom jailed for leaving toddler outside Dallas BBQ speaks out 20 years later
She said that she was treated unfairly by the city and the media, and never had the chance to tell her side of the story.
Sørensen, and the baby's father, a playwright named Exavier Wardlaw, reportedly stopped for dinner at Dallas BBQ on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place in May 1997. She left her daughter Liv, 14 months old at the time, outside sleeping in her stroller.
I had lived in New York [during school], so, of course, I knew that I didn’t see prams all over the city," said Sørensen. "But ... I had been living in Copenhagen, I had given birth to my daughter in Copenhagen, I was raised myself in Denmark ... That’s just how you do it in Denmark."
Someone called 911 about the child. Sørensen said at the time that she and Wardlaw were keeping an eye on the child.
Officers charged both parents with child endangerment and Wardlaw with disorderly conduct.
Sørensen spent 36 hours in prison, where she said she didn’t get much sympathy from the other inmates. Liv was put in foster care by the city’s Administration for Children’s Services. The case made the front page of the Post.
“I didn’t know where my child was,” said Sørensen. “I don’t think there’s any greater punishment than to have your child taken away from you.”
Mother and daughter were reunited four days later.
In 1998, Sørensen, who nows lives in Germany, sued the city for $20 million.
Per the Daily Mail:
She was awarded $66,400 by a civil jury, which found only that she should not have been strip-searched and that the city commonly failed to advise arrested foreigners of their right to notify their consulates.
In 2012, she used the experience as a basis for a novel published in Denmark. Now she has launched a crowdfunding campaign to get it translated into English. Liv, the 14 month old at the center of this story, created the graphic design for the book's cover. She's 21 now.
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Miracle on Ninth Street now open for the holidays
[Photo yesterday by Bobby Williams]
For the fourth consecutive year, Miracle on Ninth Street — a Christmas inspired pop-up bar — is open for the season (as of yesterday) inside Mace, the cocktail bar at 649 E. Ninth St. at Avenue C.
Per Facebook:
Escape the cold and soak in the festive atmosphere while enjoying a glass of Jingle Ball Nog or a Christmapolitan.
Miracle on Ninth is open 11/24 through 12/24. The pop-up ... will be open Mon-Fri 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. & Sat-Sun 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Previously
La Palapa turns 17
[Image via Facebook]
La Palapa, the Mexican restaurant at 77 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue, is celebrating its 17th birthday... Per their Facebook page: "Love our fabulous team, guests and the whole La Palapa family! Special people make a special place."
Seems like a good time to revisit our January 2014 interview with owner Barbara Sibley (right here).
A new generation for 'Blank Generation'
The Village Voice has a piece on the reissue, and Hell's initial reluctance to take part:
He’d already mined his memories and exorcised his demons from the period in his colorful autobiography, "I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp," and he wasn’t exactly eager to resurface those emotions.
On top of that, as Hell admits, he’s scrupulous and a control freak. “I knew it was going to be really demanding, because whether or not I thought that it was meaningful or justifiable — as opposed to being a marketing idea — it was going to take a lot of attention from me,” he says. “And it did. I oversaw every aspect of it, but as it went along, I got more engaged and now I’m feeling really satisfied and fulfilled.”
Hell, a longtime East Village resident, signed copies yesterday at Generation Records on Thompson Street. He'll do the same this afternoon (starting at 2) out at Rough Trade in Williamsburg.
Back to the Voice:
Working on the reissue of "Blank Generation" certainly evoked the time and place, mainly the essence of the Lower East Side in 1976, but it was as if he was observing moments rather than reliving them. For Hell, it’s another world entirely.
“It’s really like you’re looking at another person, but you know at the same time that it’s actually you,” Hell says. “You can feel a kind of affection or horror at this person that you once were, but it’s only personal in a very uncanny, eerie way. It’s not like a direct nostalgia because you were somebody else at that time. There is this sense of fondness — it’s almost a pattern for some previous self.”
Friday, November 24, 2017
'Gone' too soon
Singer-songwriter Tommy Keene died in his sleep Wednesday. He was 59.
The video here is for his 1984 song "Places That Are Gone," which shows him at his power-pop best.
Tall tall trees are here
The trees are arriving today outside the St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue at 10th Street... these
Updated 5:15 p.m.
EVG regular Lola Sāenz shared these photos... more trees on the scene...
...some smaller ones too...
Boarding up the former Papaya King on St. Mark's Place
On Wednesday, workers boarded up the entrance to the former Papaya King on St. Mark's Place at Third Avenue...
Not sure why this happened ... perhaps to prep for the eventual demolition of this assemblage of buildings on the corner. (Background here.) There aren't any demo permits on file yet. Plus, the timeline isn't clear on when this corner will come down. The Continental around the corner announced that they would close after August 2018.
Or maybe the plywood went up to keep people from camping out inside the front entrance...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Papaya King closes on St. Mark's Place ahead of new development
The Continental says it will close late next summer
Space Mabi is open on 1st Avenue
Been meaning to note that Space Mabi opened (as of Nov. 3, after a few other announced dates) at 67 First Ave. at Fourth Street...
They open at 8:30 a.m. for coffee and cafe service with free Wi-Fi...
Dinner service starts at 5 p.m.
Here's more about them via Facebook:
Space Mabi is a new gastropub with cozy atmosphere in East Village that specializes in New Korean cuisine, plus creative Korean alcoholic beverages.
Under the sun, we operate as ‘Cafe Space Mabi,’ under the moon, we serve as ‘Restaurant Space Mabi’, and under the stars, we turn into ‘Bar Space Mabi’.
You can find their website with menus here.
Previously
Report: Claims of paid pro-dorm supporters are 'fake news' says developer Gregg Singer
On Sunday, the Daily News reported that some of the 30 participants who showed up at a City Hall rally to support turning the former P.S 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center into a dorm were paid extras.
The organizers — a group called East Village Cares — strongly denied that the extras received money ($50) for their time.
In a follow-up piece at the News yesterday, property owner Gregg Singer also denied that any of the supporters were paid to attend the rally on Nov. 17. Singer also blamed those opposing his dorm project.
"You ever heard fake news? I think the people that are against us are twisting it — it's probably the other side that paid the money!" Singer said.
In other Singer news, The Villager reported:
[A] judge ordered Singer to pay a settlement of more than $8 million to his investors, who have sued him for failing to develop the building while continuing to pay himself management fees of up to $30,000 a month.
Singer bought the property on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C from the city in 1998. He wants to turn the landmarked building into a dorm, and continues in a holding pattern while the DOB maintains a Stop Work Order on the building. As previously reported, there's deed restriction on the property, which can only be developed for "community facility use."
Crain's also has an article, published Wednesday, on Singer and the ongoing issues with the address.
Some excerpts:
Depending on whom you believe, owner Gregg Singer is either the victim of a decadeslong political conspiracy or he has squandered tens of millions of dollars and years of his life pursuing schemes to circumvent the deed restrictions and convert the building into a massive youth hostel.
And...
...P.S. 64 seems destined to remain a fossil from the old neighborhood, a shell petrified for posterity, of no use to the community or anybody else.
Kellogg's Union Square cafe closer to snapping, crackling and popping
Just noting that the signage went up this week for the Kellogg's NYC Café on the north side of Union Square. It's scheduled to open on Dec. 7. Menu items include unique combinations of cereal and Pop Tarts.
Previously.
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