The New York Post on John Penley: "quite possibly New York City's cuddliest anarchist"

The New York Post profiles John Penley today.

And we begin:

AS the unofficial leader of what is known as the East Village "slacktivist" movement, John Penley routinely protests: real estate developers, wine bars, wine bars owned by Bruce Willis, landlords, Republicans and the evergreen that is yuppie scum. "Frat boys throwin' up or takin' a p - - s on your building," he says. "Drunk, blockin' sidewalks, not lettin' baby carriages pass . . ." The 56-year-old Penley also enjoys shouting down obnoxious NYU students, inserting himself into neighbors' landlord disputes and making daily calls to newspapers and networks about area goings-on.
Penley is also, quite possibly, New York City's cuddliest anarchist: a burly 56-year-old Vietnam-era military man and ex-felon with two gold front teeth, lots of tattoos and a deep affinity for children, animals and the writings of Thomas Wolfe. He was married once, briefly, but doesn't like to talk about it.
One of his roommates was rock star Cat Power, who moved out and on long ago, but still pays her third of the share on Penley's $600-a-month apartment on Avenue B, where he has lived the bulk of his 25 years in the city. (His other roommate is a graphic artist.) Penley is something of a local on-call baby sitter, and is quick to dispense loose change or cigarettes to anyone who asks.

Read the whole article here.

Here's a quick video clip of Penley from the protest at 47 E. 3rd St. from July 11.



For further protest reading on EV Grieve, here's where to go.

Remembering Petrella's Point

For 30 years, Adam Petrella ran the funky newstand with the directions at Bowery and Canal called Petrella's Point. (You might remember his portraits of Bruce Lee and Marilyn Monroe that adorned his stand.)

As the Times reported, on May 16, 1997, "Giuliani signed into law new rules governing sidewalk newsstands, increasing the annual fee charged the city's 330 vendors from $538 to as much as $5,000, depending on the location. The law also provides for 100 more stands to be put out for competitive bids. Current renters will have five years before the city decides whether to continue renting the stands or to seek bids. The law is part of the initiative to replace current street furniture (newsstands and bus shelters) with new streamlined versions that will be built by the company that wins a 20-year city contract. The new items and 30 public toilets will be financed by selling advertising space on them, generating hundreds of millions for whoever gets the contract.

Mr. Petrella wonders when he'll become a victim of design and progress."

The newstand was removed in 2004 to make room for a bank. Petrella died in 2006 at the age of 85. According to his obiturary in The Villager:

"His is the story of a proud New Yorker who persevered and documented three decades of change on the Bowery. He is a true and significant source of inspiration for our own small museum,” said Dave Herman, president of the City Reliquary Museum in Williamsburg, Brooklyn."

Speaking of the City Reliquary Museum, Herman has some of Petrella's old newstand on display, along with the original 2nd Avenue Deli sign construction workers tossed when the restaurant shuttered in 2006. The Museum is holding a summer benefit tonight.

Appreciating what's left of the Bowery while it's still there

The gloom and doom about further development on the Bowery has been well documented. (Jeremiah took in the Lighting District in a post yesterday.) I recently paid a visit too, walking from Hester to Houston, careful to pay attention to every detail. Which might explain the 500 photos of doorways that I ended up taking...

(The sandals billboard was recently replaced by a Coors Light ad.)



At least there's some good news relating to the Sunshine.













Meanwhile, there are a few more photos on my new fancy Flickr page. Jeremiah has more photos here.

THIS is the Bowery that I miss!

A CLASSIC! (And it's APPROVED by Bela Lugosi's estate!)

Here's how allmovie descibes this 1942 CLASSIC:

Bowery at Midnight casts Bela Lugosi as Professor Brenner, a psychology instructor at New York University (which looks a lot like Berkeley in the exterior shots!). When not enlightening his students — most of them buxom Monogram starlets — Brenner is engaged in charitable work, running a mission in the Bowery. In truth, however, the kindly professor is a fiend in human form, who uses his mission as a front for a vast criminal empire. When Judy (Wanda McKay), one of Brenner's students, stumbles onto the truth, she's targeted for extermination by the Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde prof.

Can't wait for the remake, in which the kindly NYU instructor is a fiend in human form who uses his mission as a front for a vast condo/hotel development! (I shouldn't joke...)

Anyway, someone on YouTube was nice enough to upload the entire 60-minute movie, though they disabled the embed function. So you'll need to go here to watch some of it. I highly recommend that you do.

I challenge them to work in "Octopussy"

Sean Connery continues to squabble with his neighbor on 71st Street. I only follow the story to see how the Post can work in a James Bond reference. For instance:

007 IN A FIX OVER TOWNHOUSE
By DAREH GREGORIAN

July 30, 2008
Sean Connery's downstairs neighbors are proving to be a bigger headache for the former James Bond than Dr. No, Blofeld and Goldfinger combined.


'HOUSE ARREST' AT THE CONNERYS'
By MELISSA JANE KRONFELD and CHUCK BENNETT
July 26, 2008
Sean Connery's family nemesis - his neighbor "Dr. No" - was at it again yesterday.

JUDGE POINTS 'SCOLD' FINGER
CONNERY & FOE SPANKED
By DAREH GREGORIAN
MOLD FINGER:Dr. Burton Sultan (left) accuses Sean Connery of causing water leaks and other mayhem at their East Side condo.
December 27, 2007
A Manhattan judge has had enough of a court feud between Sir Sean Connery and his neighbor, and is urging the James Bond star and his arch-enemy Dr. Sultan to make peace.

JUDGE SAYS DR. NO TO 'BOND' SUIT
By DAREH GREGORIAN
December 30, 2006 -- Even at 76, the original James Bond can still take down his archenemies.

Bonus!
James Bond billboards in Times Square:





Unrelated but, c'mon, it's funny...What a crew: Dick Van Dyke and Connery in a hep stache meet Queen Elizabeth II at the You Only Live Twice premiere.

Tour buses continue to remind us of awful summer movies

On lower Broadway, July 29.

East Village 1988: "A Neighborhood of Vigorous Opinions"

[Photo by dmax3270 via Flickr]

Gertrude Briggs, 77, has been selling used art, dance, and literary books at her store, Books 'n' Things, for 41 years, most recently from a stuffy little shop on East Seventh street that has books stacked to the ceiling or in boxes.
''Most of the creative people have been displaced,'' she said, as she closed a sale with a customer from the Bronx. ''Of course it still attracts a lot of freaks, because it's still a place you can be free. For a lot kids, coming here is a way to get away from the choking atmosphere of suburbia.''
''It's almost like geographical determinism -- he gravitates here because he has no choice,'' offered the customer, who identified himself only as Carlos. ''That's what attracted me in the first place when I was going through my Marxist phase. The flyers, the posters, the cracking peeling walls -- it's a glimpse of Old Amsterdam, of Old New York.''

(From an Aug. 13, 1988, New York Times article titled The Talk of the East Village; A Neighborhood of Vigorous Opinions)

"every time i look at this photograph, i want to cry..."

That headline is part of the caption to this photo from 1987: "Astor Place looking west towards the subway and restaurant...every time i look at this photograph, i want to cry..." The photo was taken by dmax3270. Check out his other black-and-white photos from NYC in the 1980s and early 1990s on his Flickr page. You can see another one of his photos in the above post.

Commoners have nerve to use dumpster in front of new building that will be reserved for wealthier people

On East Seventh Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Tonight in Tompkins Square Park: Bag searches (oh, and a movie)

More bag searches in store for tonight's movie presentation in the Park?

As for the movie, it's Better off Dead.  An American classic. (Oh, c'mon -- just give me this one...)

"How to not be a douchebag tourist in NYC"

That's the headline to a post on joshinthecity, a blog by a 36-year-old Sydney, Australia, resident. He starts: "I didn’t write this, but do the right thing, read up. As someone who has spent quite a bit of time there over the years, trust me.. ALL of this rings true."

Among the advice for tourists that he's passing along:

Dress: First, don’t f**king wear Crocs, don’t let anyone you’re with wear Crocs and don’t tell anybody you own a pair back home. They’re uglier than pretty much anything else in the city, and that’s saying something. New Yorkers don’t wear shorts and only chicks wear sandals, so stick with long pants, jeans, and dark color shirts–light colored button-downs are ok–dress shoes or Nike Dunks. Avoid Hawaiian shirts and NASCAR apparel like your life depends on it. Pastels suck, and fanny packs and passport lanyards scream “douche” from a block away.

Don’t stand in groups at street corners, subway entrances or in front of doors. Basically, just make sure you’re not in anybody’s way, ever, and you’ll be good to go.

Oh, and don’t ask us to pick you up or take you to the airport. We have plenty of cabs, trains and buses to do that for us, and we don’t want to, anyway.

Update: It was written by Andrew at Hunter College in a post that appeared last Thursday.

EV Grieve Etc. -- the economy is doomed edition

From an op-ed by in today's Post by Nicole Gelinas, a Manhattan Institute fellow:

Our elected leaders have been making long-term spending commitments as if Wall Street would never slow for more than a year or two. But the industry now faces its worst crisis in decades. The city and state must drastically change their approach -- or this crisis could turn into a longterm disaster.

Also: Gov. Paterson will deliver a grim economic address at 5:10 p.m. today in the state Capitol. The speech will be broadcast live on NY1.

Will need to buy the right outfit for this!

Signs that the economy is really bad

The ATMs don't work anymore.


People throw away their luggage because they can't afford to travel.

People can't afford to fix their nice cars.

Park Avenue residents subjected to white bread.

Revisiting the decline of New York City

As you can see, the Sept. 17, 1990, issue of Time had this cover story, The Rotting of the Big Apple.

Excerpt:

Skyrocketing real estate prices (a one-room apartment that rents for $800 a month is considered a bargain) have driven middle-class families out of Manhattan and are threatening the creative enterprises that make the island a cultural oasis. Twenty years ago, about 50 or 60 new productions opened on Broadway each year. Today soaring costs have driven the price of an orchestra seat to $60, and a healthy season yields no more than 35 new shows, only 12 of which are deemed successes. In dance alone, New York lost 55 world-class studios in the past four years. Others, including Martha Graham Dance, are considering following the example of the Joffrey Ballet by establishing second and third homes in other cities. That means a shorter season in New York. "This is the most expensive, difficult and competitive city for arts organizations," says David Resnicow, president of the Arts and Communications Counselors, which arranges sponsorships for corporations and cultural institutions. "You don't have to be in New York to make it. "

Full article here.