“The image of New York is important to New Yorkers, and it’s part of their self-image,” said Jonathan Mahler, the author of the 2006 book “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City.”
Many people who stuck with the city through tougher times now feel that they have a stake in its continued prosperity, and, he said, “are now sticking out their chests a little bit. ‘Yeah, I may be living in this little studio apartment, but I’m making it and I’m surviving here.’ ”
Not that New York was utterly beyond redemption in these bygone years: As a kind of modern-day frontier town, Mr. Mahler said, it was teeming with peril, but also with frantic energy and with havens where experimental subcultures could flourish.
“As parts of the city became abandoned and forgotten, they would be taken up by these urban pioneers who would use them for their own purposes and create interesting things there,” he said, pointing to the gay culture of the West Village, the punk rockers of the East Village and the nascent art scene in SoHo, all of which emerged during those years.
Mr. Mahler added, however, that that the 1970s were not in any way a better decade to be living in the city. “I’m much happier to be living here and raising my family in New York now,” he said. “Or at least I could have said that six months ago.”
AS the New York of today continues to look more like its unsavory 1973 self — a declining economy, upticks in violent crimes like murder and bank robbery and an ever more crumbling infrastructure starved for resources — it remains to be seen whether the romantic feelings of the “Life on Mars” creators (and its viewers) will endure. After all, who wants to turn on a television and be reminded of the bad old days when evidence of bad new days can be seen right outside your window?
Although many of the fire escapes built during New York’s second wave of immigration still exist, these well-worn structures have been lamentably overlooked. Even the venerable Encyclopedia of New York City neglects to give them a separate entry. Perhaps it’s time for New Yorkers to give these old cultural symbols a second look.
Its makers claim to have uncovered evidence which reveals that a series of police blunders and apathy by detectives led the authorities wrongly to pin the blame on the star.
In fact, the film contests, medical tests carried out on Vicious at the time of his arrest showed the musician would have been incapable of the attack, because he was out cold at the time after taking so much of a powerful sedative that it would have killed all but the most hard-bitten drug users.
Instead, the film Who Killed Nancy? asserts for the first time that 20-year-old Spungen, the daughter of a wealthy middle-class Philadelphia family, was killed by another resident at the hotel - a shadowy British man named Michael, who spent that last fatal night in the room with the couple.
As the murderer robbed and killed Spungen for the huge stash of cash they kept there, Vicious, it is claimed, slept through the attack, only waking to find his lover's dead body in the morning.
The documentary's British director, Alan G. Parker, who has spent 24 years investigating the life and death of the star and has written a series of well-received books on the subject, tracked down more than 180 witnesses and unearthed previously unseen police reports.
He also spoke to several witnesses who are adamant that Vicious was innocent. Crucially, Parker says police found the fingerprints of six people who had been in the couple's room at New York's rundown Chelsea Hotel in the early hours, but none was ever interviewed.
Richard Leck, the East Village habitue whose death we reported two weeks ago, was buried today in Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island.
Leck, 75, a former soldier, died of heart disease on Dec. 19 without next of kin. His friends had contacted the Voice because they feared that he would end up in a pauper's grave.
But the city Medical Examiner, the Mayor's Office of Veteran's Affairs, the VA, and a coalition of veteran's groups got together in impressive speed and took care of the transportation and burial of his body.
In other words, the system worked. Kudos to them.
We wrote about Leck because he was one of that disappearing class of people who make the neighborhood colorful and interesting.
Hi! I'm the owner of Bespoke...I specifically left the opening date so open-ended because the fiery hoops you have to jump through to open a small business (especially in a corporate-owned building) in New York City will never cease to amaze me. It's been months trying to get the appropriate permits to install a sink. Anyway, we'll be open soon enough, and I'm hoping that my small, independently owned shop making handmade products manages to make more people happy than it does horrifically offended. Cheers, Rachel P.S. EVGrieve: where's your sense of humor? "Charming" is a joke!
You're speedy! Thanks for posting. If I ever get my damn doors open, please come by for a chocolate and a chat!
I've lived on East First between First and Second for a few years now. I love the East Village and I'm excited to be part of a long history of unique small businesses.
To be clear: I am not trying to say that people shouldn't prefer things "the way they were." Bemoan me all you want; a little controversy is hard to come by when you make chocolate anyway. :)
But I am asking that folks give me a chance and at least let me open my doors before deciding that I am going to be a detriment to the neighborhood. Remember: CBGB's was once a new business. So was Moshe's Bakery.
Times are tough, and small locally owned businesses need all the support they can get, lest Extra Place be filled with six more Chase Banks. I'm proud of my handmade products and the fact that I can create a few new jobs for New Yorkers.
I will yield your blog back to you now, thanks. :)
FORGET 46th Street - Martha Stewart has crowned a new Restaurant Row.
In a four-part restaurant tour kicking off Monday on "The Martha Stewart Show" (11 a.m., Ch. 4), the domestic diva is visiting a quartet of tiny downtown eateries on E. 10th Street.
"I have never been on a street anywhere in New York where restaurant after restaurant is just so, so good," says Stewart, citing "diverse" menus and "fantastic" prices as reasons for her latest foodie obsession.
While E. 10th Street seems to be edgier territory than Stewart's usual four-star stomping grounds, this funky strip popular with college kids and night crawlers isn't such a big departure for Stewart.
"She's just as game to be in the East Village as she is uptown," says [Stewart supervising producer Lisa] Wagner. "She has her favorite places - it's not always Nobu."
Friends of Ray Alvarez are really getting concerned about his situation. Alvarez has operated his Ray’s Candy Store, on Avenue A at Seventh St., for years, and everyone just assumed he’d saved up a nice nest egg. But it turns out, he’s broke. He needs new glasses and has a bad hernia you don’t want to hear the details of, and his diet is mainly leftover potatoes that he doesn’t make into Belgian fries and maybe some soft ice cream.
Ray is a lower east side icon who is loved by many...He makes the best belgian fries around and will serve you with love and a smile...Home to old timer regulars, drunks, tourists, wingnuts, political activists and hipsters, Ray's is a unique piece of old new york in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.. Please come to Ray's and support this beloved treasure!!
Funny, Stupid, Sexual, Weird, whatever…these are the top 10 New York bars with the best names. Some I’ve been to, some I refused to go to…if you’re at one of these bars, hit “broadcast now” from the bar’s mobile MNL page to let us know!
Here are the top ten great bar names of New York:
1. Wogies - West Village - anyone have any clue where this came from?
2. Murphy & Gonzalez - West Village - So an Irishman and a Mexican walk into a bar…
3. 1 2 3 Burger Shot Beer - Midtown West - It’s like calling your bar “$3 Drafts”
4. Kettle of Fish - West Village - wtf?
3. Arlene’s Grocery - Lower East Side - No Arlene and definitely no groceries going on in this place.
4. No Idea - Flatiron - exactly, no idea.
5. Otto’s Shrunken Head - East Village - uhhmmm….yyyyyeah.
6. Chumley’s Bar - West Village - Sounds like something you do after a long night of boozing or could be one of those sex postions…”I gave some girl the sickest Chumley last night!”
7. Galway Hooker - Garment District - So many guys walk into this place with a handfull of cash and completely pissed off.
8. Burp Castle - East Village - Amazingly this place is actually a nice place to bring a date.
9. The Redhead - East Village - If you go downstairs to the basement, it too is also red.
10. I’m Gonna Kill You Tavern & Grille - OK, I made this one up.
Honorable Mention:
Happy Ending - Chinatown - because a happy ending is NOT what you get here
Slaughtered Lamb - Greenwich Village - just a gross name
Nowhere - East Village - cause thats exactly where you tell people you were last night if you went here last night
Ding-Dong Lounge - Upper West Side - AKA “Penis Tavern”
