Lopate: From my perspective, there’s been a healthy shift from seeing cities as basically dying to essentially buoyant, yet still requiring help.
Huxtable: We’ve seen a reversal. Years ago there was white flight to the suburbs, the inner cities were crime-ridden, there was a lot of poverty. We still have poverty, but people started moving back to the cities.
Lopate: There’s also been a shift in attitude regarding density.
Huxtable: Yes, urban renewal tried to get rid of density. It was viewed as concentrating poverty and disease. Now there’s the awareness that density is more energy-efficient and less destructive of the environment than urban sprawl.
Lopate: I take it you’re for density but not for overbuilding.
Huxtable: How can I be against density? I’m a New Yorker! I grew up with density. Still, in a way I’m glad for this downturn in the economy. Because so much bad stuff was being built. This will give us a chance to think, to take stock. I am so weary of these stupid alliances between developers and cultural institutions in which the cultural institution is given a block of space and the developers overbuild the rest and make an enormous profit.
The Museum of Modern Art has become a real estate operation. I admit a certain amount of nostalgia: I remember a street that was once one of the best streets in New York, 53rd Street. Watching it change over the years, I can’t help but view their new Nouvel tower as the last destructive nail.
There was community opposition to 8 applications.
The committee unconditionally denied 4 of these.
Under pressure from the committee, another 2 withdrew,
and the committee approved 2 (both transfers of existing licenses to new owners).
The 2 that were approved had only one resident speaking in opposition.
"[T]his morning, we received a cheerful note from developer Bruce Kaplan about his new condo building at First Street and First Avenue. He wondered if a Voice feature might be in the offing, seeing as how Kramer, in an episode of Seinfeld, once referred to "First and First" as the "nexus of the universe."
Yeah, that's clever, and a nice selling point, no doubt. But with Kaplan's one-bedroom condos going for about a million bucks each, we shot back a response: what sort of a feature was he looking for, with his building only adding to the difficulty the non-filthy-rich are having staying in the city?
Perhaps you might take a longer view.
From http://www.gvshp.org/history.htm, and as you probably know:
"between 1825 and 1840...shrewd speculators subdivided farms, leveled hills, rerouted Minetta Brook, and undertook landfill projects. Blocks of neat rowhouses built in the prevailing Federal style soon accommodated middle-class merchants and tradesmen. From 1820 a more affluent residential development emerged to the east near Broadway."
So without the actions of those shrewd speculators, there would not have been the canvas to paint on what would become the Village. Presumably the Minetta Brook Voice mourned that transformation.
As one of the Village's more famous residents wrote:
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
If one looks back over time, there are several theorists (Ricardo, Mills, Alonso's Urban Land Theory) whose theories are that rising prices increases, not decreases supply. See also, http://www.chpcny.org/default.html
In any event, for what it's worth, what this shrewd speculator hopes to do with his million bucks is create affordable rental housing in the outer boroughs and preserve that diversity you value.
Eight holdout tenants who fought for five years to keep their millionaire landlord from turning their Lower East Side tenement into a mansion for himself agreed to be bought out yesterday.
The last rent-stabilized tenants of 47 E. Third St. said they gave in because they weren't confident they would beat real-estate baron Alistair Economakis in the Manhattan Supreme Court trial scheduled to begin yesterday.
Economakis, the son of a Greek shipping magnate, bought the six-story building for $900,000 in 2003 and said he needed it as a home for himself, his wife and two children.
He reached deals with seven of the 15 tenants but the others fought until yesterday.
The tenants will each receive $75,000 under the settlement, except for one elderly resident, who will get $175,000.
...will be home to the forthcoming East Village Pie Lounge.
The sign on the door promises everything from Apple to Pecan to Banana Cream Coconut pie -- for $5.25 a slice. Now this stretch of Seventh Street already counts the Chocolate Bar at 127 as a tenant (since June).
[Deathly silence]
So that's the Chocolate Bar. And Pie Lounge. Can we expect, say, the Tapioca Tavern in the vacant store front at 125 E. Seventh St.?
In April 1928, York had the honor of having Avenue A from 59th Street northward named for him. The move was sponsored by the First Avenue Association in an effort to revive the fortunes of the east side, which was better known for its German enclave (later dubbed “Yorkville”) and Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert’s brewery. Back in 1807, when the city deployed surveyor John Randal, Jr., to map out the new Cartesian grid plan, he and his team chose to create twelve wide avenues that ran the length of the island from Houston Street north. However, this left the problem of the area of the Lower East Side and Upper East Side where there was enough room east of the grid plan for more streets. Randal solved this problem by naming these eastern avenues “A,” “B,” etc. and on the original 1811 map of Manhattan, there is both an Avenue A in today’s East Village and one on the Upper East Side. (East End Avenue was originally designated Avenue B.)
You’ve all accidentally stumbled into a bar that’s so disgusting that you wouldn’t even send your ex-girlfriend’s rich, better looking new boyfriend to. That bar that smells like throw-up and poop on top of a freshly burnt cat? You know what I’m talking about. Here’s a rundown of those bars.
1. Mars Bar - East Village - Why? Let’s just say last time I was there, there was a used bloody condom in the window sill.
2. American Trash - Upper East Side - Why? This place is the unflushed turd left in the toilet at the frat house that is the Upper East Side. Go here to score drugs.
3. Billymark’s West - Chelsea - Why? This place was featured in a previous post giving it the title of “Weirdest Bar in Manhattan.” Loaded with local homeless people, this place is more shelter than hot nightspot.
4. Rawhide - Chelsea - Why? Rawhide is your typical rough ridin’ Gay joint. Fully equipped with big burly old men who drag tiny little boys out the door 24/7. Stay away or go have some fun…either way.
5. Welcome to the Johnson’s - Lower East Side - Why? The used, very old, “white trash” furniture is just plain musty. Don’t sit down or else you’ll get herpes.
6. McSorley’s Ale House - East Village - Why? This place is gross due to its age. One of the oldest bars in NYC, McSorley’s sports an old spongey bar top, 2 types of beer (Dark or Lite) and has an inch of sawdust on the floor. Tread lightly because you may step on an old drunk that went missing 2 nights ago.
7. J Mac’s - Hell’s Kitchen - Why? J Mac’s is a dingy little place you can stop off at on 57th street right before you head out on the West Side Highway. Other than that? Not really sure why anyone would go here.
8. Blarney Cove - East Village - Why? Just walk by this place and peak your head inside. That’s about as far as you want to go with this place.
9. Down the Hatch - Greenwich Village - Why? Although this IS one of my favorite Saturday drinkin’ spots, DTH is pretty dirty. The fact that it is in a grungy basement doesn’t help at all.
10. Pussycat Lounge - Financial District - Why? Part awful strip joint, part stink hole, the PCL is a great place to die. No one will ever find you.
Honorable mention: Jimmy’s Corner & Coyote Ugly.
$100 Yes I'm that crazy, but I want the minimum possible (anywhere in manhattan)
I want to get rid of my expensive rent and be semi homeless. Obviously there are a lot of risks so I'm wondering if there's anybody out there willing to lower my risks with a certain place to stay. I know the economy is bad so maybe you would like some extra money. I want to believe that there are people who are willing to help a person in need. I have up to $100 to spend on housing a month. Could I sleep outside in your backyard? Sounds crazy I know, but I've been practicing as I plan to get rid of my rent. So I'm in no danger of dying or getting sick. I'm probably the healthiest person within any given 2 mile radius. Maybe you have unused space in your garage. I could buy a filter/face mask. All I need is a small 6 x 3 corner of your living room. I have a sleeping pad to sleep on the ground as I prefer it to the couch. I can actually sleep on 3 lined up cushioned chairs.
I would only use your place for sleep. I will pay for any extra services/amenities. My goal is to live as simply as possible and try to be as unobtrusive as possible (unless you like having me around, I'm a very laid back good listener). I would wake up in the early morning and leave right a way and come back at night at a convenient time for you (unless I'm sleeping outside). I have one large book bag which houses all of my supplies.
I actually do have a lot of knowledge skills that could better your life if interested. I graduated magna cum laude at a tier 1 school recently. So maybe in return for room and board, I can provide errand services. I can clean your house, cook, pick up your dry cleaning, movie tickets, make reservations, wait in long lines, food shopping, walk your dog, water your plants, house sit, pick up your mail, research work on the computer etc. Anything that I can do while listening to music is fine. I'm in love with the Internet, and I read up on all sorts of information. I think I'm pretty qualified to tell you how to effectively learn languages, how to strength train and lose weight, what kind of gadgets to buy, how to save hundreds on groceries. My main passion lies with personal health (i'm cut with a six pack) and I'd love to help educate you on fitness and even cook great meals for you.
Those locksmith guys will even leave a card on a building being demolished.
One of the condo-rumor spreaders frets that such change will usher in even further development (even in this economy) on this little stretch of the East Village.
Oh, sorry...This is just a prop set for filming the TV series Cupid today. But don't give anyone any stupid ideas!
In October, our friend BoweryBoogie reported that the beloved graffiti exterior of the building had been cleaned. Perhaps this is why...for the film shoot?
