What will the city look like after another Bloomberg term?

Speaking of how much things change, Alex has an extensive here-and-now series over at Flaming Pablum. As an example, this is Bowery and East First Street from 2002, the year Bloomberg took office ... 2002 doesn't seem like that long ago...but just look...



You probably know what it looks like now...



Sure, the city landscape is getting sterilized... but I fear that we're losing our spirit and character as well... can we withstand another four years?

For further reading:
Cleaning up people (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Photos via Flaming Pablum. Go there for a lot more.

Readers respond to Le Souk's closure

[Image via Eater]

Several people left comments yesterday in response to Le Souk closing up on Avenue B. A sampling:

First Le souk has been on Ave B more than 8 yrs. (get your facts straight bro the club has been there since 1999)

This place has been closed by several parties (no pun intended).

1 The peeps who moved in years after Le Souk and several other biz wrestled the area away from the crime that kept these same people hiding in there safe hoods.

2 The Neo fascist LOCAL and NYC administration, that is more intent on trying to facilitate/negotiate mutli-billion dollar deals with construction developers than creating programs to help build and sustain small businesses.

This seems to me an amazing situation in the current economic climate. To crush any kinda business, let alone one that brings thousands of dollars a day to the local economy. Call me silly or irresponsible but it just seems like an absurd maneuver to me.

And!

Why all the haters? This neighborhood was nothing before Le Souk arrived. You will regret your petty 311 calls and waa-waaing baby talk to the community board when the rats and drugheads take over. You will beg us to return. Guess we will be giving our money now to the good people on La Guardia Place, home of the Le Souk Harem. I hope they will appreciate all that Le Souk regulars have to offer a neighborhood.

And!

If you don't want to live on a street or ave. that has businesses, perhaps moving out of the city would be best for you. The city is alive and people go out and night life abounds.

And!

Forgive me if I'm wrong but isn't LeSouk a Mom & Pop shop that has been put out of business by people complaining everyday about the noise and their over crowding?
Are we mourning the loss or congratulating the NIMBYs who blocked them from doing business.

And!

It's very arrogant to feel that just because someone wants to go out get really drunk and be loud and obnoxious that it's okay to be a disturbance to others and that residence ought to be "grateful" for you coming and bringing revenue into the neighborhood - because of course it was rat and drug infested before, right? And was "nothing" before you came spending your money, right? Unfortunately this is the mentality that is causing clubs and bars to experience difficulty when it comes to getting liquor licenses.

And!

It's worth noting that -- neighbor complaints notwithstanding -- Le Souk's liquor license was terminated by the SLA because the club failed to operate in compliance with applicable laws, not because residents had issues with it. Surely the complaint history did not help, but this termination was about more than noise complaints, and it went through the court system.

For all of the talk about the negative impact on businesses, why did local business owners not show up en masse to speak on behalf of Le Souk at community board meetings, if this one particular club was truly that important? Closing Le Souk does not represent a fast track back to 1980. Countless nightlife spots in the East Village operate successfully as good neighbors and no one has less fun as a result.

Previously.

The Blarney Stone is closed (again)

Uh-oh. Thanks to a tipster who points out that FiDi fave the Blarney Stone on Fulton Street has been closed now for five days. As you may recall, the bar was mysteriously closed for seven days or so this past February.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Blarney Stone is back in business

Day 4 (nighttime edition)

At the Cooper Square Hotel. Previously.

Beats the advertising that was on this spot

Good ol' dickchicken. On Houston near Avenue A.

Halloween leftovers: The missed opportunity to make an Olsen twins sighting joke

On St. Mark's Place.

Noted

Via The Washington Post:

The closeness of his victory is sure to raise speculation about the impact of the term-limits change and how much that served to trump Bloomberg's accomplishments in office. That subject had already dominated conversation at polling places around the city Tuesday.

"The main thing is to get Bloomberg out," said Véronique Doumbé, 52, a filmmaker from West Africa, speaking at an East Village polling place. "I'm coming from a country where the president never wants to leave. Term limits are essential for a democracy."

Meanwhile, at the Mars Bar...

Here's a photo that Slum Goddess took at the Mars Bar for another entertaining post... and she mentions that nagging rumor making the rounds that we just don't want to believe: The Odessa is going to close for good.

"Whether or not the seedy Lower East Side will ever catch on as a trendy destination is open for debate"

Vice magazine celebrated its 15th anniversary this past weekend. To mark the occasion, the editors allegedly reissued their very first issue from 1994, which included this piece titled "Ludlow Street, Mon Amour."

The first paragraph:

The Lower East Side of Manhattan is not a fashionable destination. Populated primarily by dive bars, nodding junkies, and boarded-up storefronts, the thought of anything even remotely related to trendiness, fancy clothes, or art happening down here would be pretty hard to believe. In fact, the only reason anyone from another neighborhood would even set foot on the LES in 1994 would be if they were looking for illicit substances, of which there are plenty.

The last paragraph:

Whether or not the seedy Lower East Side will ever catch on as a trendy destination is open for debate. My guess is probably not. In fact, I hope not. Seeing Ludlow Street overrun with normal people looking for a “hip kick” would turn my stomach faster than a bad bag of dope. But last weekend, if only for one night, the Lower East Side was most certainly the place to be in New York.

I'm curious if anyone fell for this prank...

Related:
Hipster Media Magnate Picks $2M East Village Flower (Curbed)

Noted

From the Guardian UK's review of the new Julian Casablancas solo record:

[W]henever Casablancas strains for seriousness, the album loses focus. Ludlow Street is a schlep partly because the mock-country backing doesn't suit his voice, but mostly because a lecture on the yuppification of the Lower East Side is a bit hard to take from a bloke who has built a career selling a glossy version of late-70s CBGBs scuzz to a mass market.

For Mayor of New York City: Veronica Palmer Oliana

The real test of any mayor is how well the city works. During her campaign, Veronica Palmer Oliana has managed to make the unpredictable city of New York work astonishingly well.

The Democratic nominee, Comptroller William Thompson, is a worthy opponent. Mr. Thompson has been a competent comptroller in a turbulent period and is a quiet, conciliatory man. But he has spent too much of his campaign attacking Veronica Palmer Oliana rather than explaining how he would manage the city, and Veronica Palmer Oliana is simply the stronger candidate.

What makes Veronica Palmer Oliana stand out is not her political skill, although she has come a long way since her first clumsy days campaigning.

Her plans suit the times. With little city money to spend, Veronica Palmer Oliana wants to focus more on helping working-class and middle-class residents with cheap banking or aid in fighting foreclosures or finding jobs and housing. She wants to give a lift to small businesses.

Like Mr. Thompson, who has made the mayor’s wealth a major issue, most New Yorkers are concerned about Veronica Palmer Oliana spending 85 cents — so far — to win election.

We enthusiastically endorse Veronica Palmer Oliana for mayor.

OK, I saw these fliers on Second Avenue between Fourth Street and Houston a few weeks ago. I have no idea who she is, if this is serious ... or if this is a gag, cruel joke or viral marketing campaign for a new HBO series. In any event, I just went with it, lifting The Times endorsement of Bloomberg above. As the sign says, "Write her in, she will win!"

Perhaps he just saw Extra Place for the first time in 15 years or so?

Happened upon this scene Sunday morning on Extra Place just off the Bowery.





Oh, it was nothing serious. Just a 5-7 person film crew doing something involving a man and a van.

Chico's back; ditto for the Rat Pack

As you may know, Chico is back in town to do a few more murals in the neighborhood. Aside from his anti-violence mural on Houston and Avenue B, he created this tribute to Eric "Taz" Pagan on 13th Street and Avenue A.



He also did this Rat pack mural on the gate of Summit, the new bar that replaced Baraza on Avenue C near Ninth Street.


Saturday:



Sunday:



For further reading:
A well-preserved Chico mural (BoweryBoogie)

Chico, ‘The Messenger,’ spreads message of peace back on L.E.S. (The Villager)

52 pickup: Numbers up at E2E4

More progress at the E2E4 tower of condo on the Bowery...

Then!





The 52 --- for 52 E. Fourth St., of course -- is now in place on the gated driveway...

Now!




Previously on EV Grieve:
Scarano's gated community continues to get gated and secure on the Bowery

Election Day special

This mural was created during Art Around the Park in September. This past weekend, it appeared on the gate of a community garden on Eighth Street.



For further reading:
Just Say No (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Noted

There's probably a very good reason why these Burger King receipts were put up on 10th Street and Avenue A...

A tribute for Snoopy

Late yesterday afternoon, a woman stood on the southeast corner of First Avenue and Third Street with a makeshift memorial for her beloved dog Snoopy.



When I asked her what happened, she quickly said that she was not asking for money. She said that a man had come up to her a little earlier and started screaming at her for being on the corner.

She explained how on Thursday she was walking across First Avenue, slipped on a manhole cover and landed on her beloved pet. The dog died before she could get him medical attention.

Her tribute below tells more of the story. It is her aim to get more and better emergency medical treatment for pets in the city. She will be circulating a petition soon.






I asked if I could take her photo. She thanked me but declined. She did tell me to take pictures of the tribute and post them on YouTube.

Halloween weekend in review: cab crashes, high-end hotel graffiti, NYC marathon, Dakota Fanning's crotch and lots more!

We took some photos of the Halloween punk rock show in Tompkins Square Park.



We saw two cabs collide with a Sleepy's truck.



The Cooper Square Hotel wants graffiti on building "to fit in with the edgy local art scene."



We created an East Village of the Damned photo essay



We lived blogged the NYC marathon for three minutes.



And we saw Dakota Fanning's crotch courtesy of the Post.

Broadway cab crash leaves six injured

Just saw this on WCBS:

A pair of taxicabs collided in the East Village Sunday night, careening into a sidewalk scaffolding and leaving six people injured.

The two cabs crashed and, in the process, brought down the scaffolding, and were left under the mangled mess hours after the accident.

A witness tells CBS 2 that one of the cabs tried to overtake the other before the two collided and careened across Broadway at the corner of E. 8th Street, jumping the curb and coming to rest on the sidewalk under the scaffolding.

Gothamist has more photos. Looks like the Gap was taken out in the accident.

And this was the second crash involving cabs in the neighborhood yesterday.

Butcher Bay deep-sixed?

Yet another strange chapter in the short history of fish-shack eatery Butcher Bay, which opened back in February on Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... after the owners gutted the space from the short-lived Seymour Burton... there have been menu changes, new chefs and CB3 lawsuits...and now, the restaurant is closed...the windows are papered over...with the following note:



"...closed temporarily to write our memoirs..."