Sunday, November 30, 2008
Bike lanes on Avenue A
I had the same reaction to this as East Village Idiot: Where did these things come from -- seemingly overnight. I walked across Avenue A yesterday and there were...bike lanes...Went back for a few photos this morning.
More sap!
Christmas trees are now for sale on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. Also: Trees spotted for sale at the Stuyvesant Supermarket at 14th Street and Avenue A.
And now on First Avenue and Fifth Street.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Being Sappy
"This is the time to think about the importance of old buildings in New York's urban fabric -- and how to preserve those worth keeping"
Julia Vitullo-Martin, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has an op-ed in the Post today on why it's time to save the city's imperiled landmarks:
The pause in New York City's building boom may have one side benefit: It gives everyone a chance to think. As projects skid to a halt and buildings get stopped in mid-construction, developers - and their neighbors -- have an opportunity to reassess their plans and consider different options for the future. Can that gorgeous but crumbling church on the corner be saved with neighborhood support? Is an old industrial warehouse a candidate for rehabilitation rather than demolition? Could a clever architect renovate that empty commercial skyscraper for residential? This is the time to think about the importance of old buildings in New York's urban fabric -- and how to preserve those worth keeping.
The Post also offers up a listicle of the 10 endangered buildings in the city worth saving, such as the Corn Exchange Bank in Harlem (pictured above) on the northwest corner of 125th Street and Park Avenue. You can view the slideshow here.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Noted
Buffalo Exchange opened last week on 11th Street. I remarked at the time that the old Cinema Classics sign was still up. I wondered if the BE folks may keep it...
Uh, no.
A rush to destroy history
The Times continues to take it to the Landmarks Preservation Commission:
The strategy has become wearyingly familiar to preservationists. A property owner ... is notified by the landmarks commission that its building or the neighborhood is being considered for landmark status. The owner then rushes to obtain a demolition or stripping permit from the city’s Department of Buildings so that notable qualities can be removed, rendering the structure unworthy of protection.
And later:
The number of pre-emptive demolitions across the city may be relatively small, but preservationists say the phenomenon is only one sign of problems with the city’s mechanism for protecting historic buildings. “This administration is so excited about the new that it overlooks its obligation to protect the old,” said Anthony C. Wood, author of “Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City’s Landmarks.”
Previously on EV Grieve:
A Landmark article
Friday, November 28, 2008
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition
East Village preservation group gets a nice check (The Villager)
The most-ticketed block in New York City is 14th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. (The New York Times)
Commercial mortgage crisis looms (AP)
New Yorkers spent less on Thanksgiving this year (Runnin' Scared)
How to get legs like the Rockettes (Time Out)
Wal-Mart employee trampled to death by shoppers in Long Island (New York Post)
Being sappy
The Christmas tree stand on 14th Street near First Avenue in front of O'Hanlon's is ready for action. This is the first stand that I've seen open in the neighborhood. They should be up soon on Avenue A in front of TSP...on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery and Houston near Norfolk.
Noted
The return of table tennis. From the Fashion & Styles section in the Times yesterday:
Grand Opening, a glass-fronted gallery space between tenement buildings on the Lower East Side, has old Chinese men playing hipsters on its table despite the language barrier. “People can communicate through their game,” the owner, Ben Smyth, 27, said.
[Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times]
"Where are all those wonderful folks now?"
From Page Six yesterday:
Eric Bogosian misses the dangerous and dirty old Times Square. In the monologist's upcoming novel, "Perforated Heart," his hero describes walking along the new "Deuce" between Seventh and Eighth avenues and being "jostled by tourists munching kosher hot dogs, their souvenir Playbills clenched in pale Midwestern fists . . . [taking] pictures of each other." He continues: "Thirty years ago, these same darkened doorways framed girls who chanted, 'Wanna go out?' 'Wanna party?' Prostitutes, drug dealers, pickpockets. Where are those wonderful folks now? Grown old. At home with their grandkids, or in drug rehab or in prison or pushing up daisies." The book hits stores next spring.
[Photo by Flo Fox via The Villager]
Horse sense
I like this shot from a newsstand on Third Avenue in the 20s for two reasons...any store that sells so many horse racing publications is good with me...and anyplace still using a collectible New York Sun paper holder....
Thursday, November 27, 2008
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition
Ugh: Five Rose's Pizza is closing Saturday (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
The rats are having a party in the EV/LES (The Villager)
Gray Line tour guides may strike (New York Times)
Christie's runk/punk auction results (Stupefaction)
"Anything for Thanksgiving?" (Ephemeral New York)
Strange Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons (The Bowery Boys)
Wishing for the old days of the LES (BoweryBoogie)
A toasty Toyota in the EV (Curbed)
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
"I don't know what to say, except that the whole neighborhood is in mourning"
A double-whammy on the P & G from the Observer.
First.
At the end of the year, the beloved corner bar at Amsterdam Avenue and 73rd Street will be forced to close. (New tenant? Bank. Fucking Branch.) Anyway, P & G's owners sign a new 20-year lease on the former Evelyn lounge space at 380 Columbus Avenue.
As the Observer reports, "The new venue will also have a more refined look than the previous stripped-down dive. One corner of the new L-shaped space, for instance, will feature a fireplace, chess tables and shelves of books. “I want to really do it up like a man’s study in deep burgundy and walnut,” [owner Steve] Chahalis said, explaining, “On Columbus Avenue, you can’t just open a shithole.”
But what about that great P & G sign? As the paper notes:
"Your heart almost gets ripped out every time these things happen," said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, calling just past deadline on Tuesday to comment on the hallowed P & G bar's looming departure from its longstanding location at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 73rd Street.
"Many patrons of P & G call me all the time," Ms. Brewer said. "Even though it's not leaving the neighborhood, I hate to have it move -- and I don't know what happens with the sign."
"I don't know what to say, except that the whole neighborhood is in mourning."
Brooks has been following this story at Lost City...he has a nice tidbit about the new location.
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition
Two rooftop tumors must come down in the EV (Curbed)
The decline of yelling at people about stuff (Vice)
A fellow sewer steam aficionado (Bowery Boogie)
Renaming Citi Field (Runnin Scared)
How many hipsters does it take to change a lightbulb? (Erica Saves the Day)
One reason to give thanks for a new SATC movie (Colonnade Row)
Danny Hoch: "This ain't New York anymore" (New York Times)
Because nothing says Happy Thanksgiving more than a young Pilgrim holding a gun
And when will breeches, doublet and stockings with shoes make a comeback?
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