Photo by Bobby Williams.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Silver Man in Union Square
And there's a Silver Man sighting today... he'll be walking from NYC to Los Angeles in August to raise funds/awareness for autism.
Via EVFlip
This morning in Union Square
Per EVFlip: "While others have moved onto newer, sexier issues, the EV's Catholic Workers stand silent and hooded to remind us of the President's broken promise to shut down Guantanamo Bay."
Aiko's finished product on Houston and the Bowery
Just realized that I never posted a shot of Aiko's completed mural on the Houston/Bowery wall...
...and using theannoying "pop art" setting on the camera...
...and on the Bowery side from last week...
Previously.
...and using the
...and on the Bowery side from last week...
Previously.
Noted
Seems like a really lousy time to have a film called "Safety Not Guaranteed" in theaters. At the AMC Loews Village 7 on Third Avenue and East 11th Street.
(The time-traveling comedy was released on June 8.)
Friday, July 20, 2012
[Updated] Reader report: Fire in the Union Square subway stop
There are reports of a fire in the Union Square subway stop... no word how extensive this might be... possibly contained to one small area on the south side of East 14th Street outside the Duane Reade ... am posting tweets/photos as people post them to Twitter...
[@geri]
[@daviddellamura]
Updated 1:17 p.m.:
Per a witness: "Word on the street is electrical converter on fire underground at Union Square."
[@1pinkdaisy]
[@natashafrakes]
[@SanaAndTheCity]
[@sefgray]
Updated 2:49 p.m.
Per Gothamist: "Con Ed says the fire at Union Square is out, and was caused by 'failure of electrical cables.'"
@evgrieve what's with the fire at union sq subway station? I saw flames come up through the grates on the sidewalk!
— Meredith Franks (@mfranks715) July 20, 2012
Fuck, something on fire in Union Square & it's rumbling & who knows what all. Anyone know scoop? Either way, I'm outta here!
— Patty Garcia (@opattyg) July 20, 2012
Union Square subway entrance on 14th and Union Sq E is basically on fire & making exploding noises.
— Remington Tonar (@remtonar) July 20, 2012
Fire in the subway station at Union Square. Walked out through tons of nasty smoke! Hooray!
— Megan (@meganlibrarian) July 20, 2012
Updated 1:17 p.m.:
Per a witness: "Word on the street is electrical converter on fire underground at Union Square."
Major subway wire transformer explosion at Union Square just happened abt 15 min ago. ConEd and emergency at the scene #BreakingNews #NYC
— Sarah Sobel (@SarahSobel) July 20, 2012
Updated 2:49 p.m.
Per Gothamist: "Con Ed says the fire at Union Square is out, and was caused by 'failure of electrical cables.'"
Report: Stuy Town full of fire code violations
"The survey, conducted in late spring by Tenants Association volunteers, discovered instances in all but four buildings in which fire doors do not close properly, in violation of Fire Code requirements that fire doors be self-closing. The TA has brought the survey results to the attention of Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano and Sean Sullivan, General Manager of ST/PCV.
In addition to the findings on the doors, the TA’s volunteers noted buildings that were missing floor indicator signage in hallways, on stair doors, and in stairwells; standpipes that were locked and chained; piping passing through holes larger than the pipes themselves creating a path for fire and smoke to travel; and what are unsafe and non-code-compliant window safety panes, such as plastic, in the fire doors themselves."
A FDNY Fire Inspector described the failure of self-closing doors as “extremely dangerous, because it could fail to stop the spread of fire, and especially smoke, to other areas of the structure."
To make matters worse, they found evidence of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use in the stairwells as well as indications that people have been using stair landings to relieve themselves and their dogs.
Anyway, at least they have a snappy new cafe!
Read the full report from the Tenants Association here:
Over 580 Fire Doors Are Found Not To Close In Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village
Also:
Building study reveals fire code violations (Town & Village Blog)
Will people still be able to sleep on the sidewalk near David Schwimmer's house once he lives there?
Whenever I walk by the incoming Schwimmer Estate on East Sixth Street in the morning, I usually spot some people sleeping on the sidewalk two doors to the east... in front of the new cafe that's opening...
As far as I can tell, they are travelers... likely around just for the summers, of course. But other people who have camped near here have been a little more permanent — at least when they weren't going to Rikers.
Anyway, once the Schwimmer Clan moves in, do you think they'll be OK with people sleeping so close to their million-dollar home? Maybe that's part of the flavor of living here? Or perhaps he'll have the 9th Precinct keep the area free of any sidewalk sleepers... sending them up the block...
Guess we'll find out soon enough.
And here's how the Schwimmer Estate was looking as of yesterday....
[Bobby Williams]
As far as I can tell, they are travelers... likely around just for the summers, of course. But other people who have camped near here have been a little more permanent — at least when they weren't going to Rikers.
Anyway, once the Schwimmer Clan moves in, do you think they'll be OK with people sleeping so close to their million-dollar home? Maybe that's part of the flavor of living here? Or perhaps he'll have the 9th Precinct keep the area free of any sidewalk sleepers... sending them up the block...
Guess we'll find out soon enough.
And here's how the Schwimmer Estate was looking as of yesterday....
Cash Mob for the Move tomorrow at St. Mark's Bookshop
In case you didn't see this on Monday at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York... there's another Cash Mob at St. Mark's Bookshop... tomorrow at 3 ... the owners are in the preliminary stages of moving to a smaller space... plus, sales are slow now in the summer doldrums...
The Details:
Date: Saturday, July 21
Time: 3 p.m.
Place: St. Mark's Bookshop, 31 3rd Avenue between 8th and 9th
Goal: Spend money on books! Tell them "Jeremiah sent me" and if you're one of the first 20 people to spend $10, you get a $5 gift certificate for your next visit.
After the Mob: Head over to Bar 82 at 136 2nd Ave., between 8th and 9th, to drink and celebrate with your fellow cash-mobbers.
Meanwhile, in an article in this week's of The Villager, the paper reports that co-owners Terry McCoy and Bob Contant are looking to move to a place 2,000 square feet or less, with a proportionally lower rent to match. (The current space is roughly 2,700 square feet.)
And to move somewhere else in the neighborhood.
Said McCoy: "This store’s whole identity is linked to the East Village. We can't go anywhere else. It's our reason for being."
BBQ for B?
After reading about Eater's scoop on Mighty Quinn's BBQ opening in the Vandaag space ... a tipster told us that a BBQ joint has been in the works for 172 Avenue B in the former Mercadito Cantina space... the tipster offered up zero information about who was behind the possible venture...
In any event, 172 Avenue B has been on the CB3/SLA agenda the last two months... and has scratched each month...
Perhaps the mystery applicant will try again in August...
Conversations that we kinda wanted to hear
The NYPD pulls over the Laboratorio del Gelato truck on Second Avenue near St. Mark's Place yesterday afternoon.
Photo by Bobby Williams.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Report: East Village man arrested in 25-year-old cold-case murder
The NYPD arrested 53-year-old Edwin Alcaide of East 10th Street this afternoon and charged him in the death of 19-year-old Lissette Torres. She was found stabbed to death in Sunset Park on New Year's Day in 1987. (Daily News)
Noted
East 10th Street and Second Avenue... Hijinks? "Dark Knight Rises"-related pub crawl?
The State seizes Fares Deli on Avenue A
Bobby Williams passes along word this afternoon that the State has seized Fares Deli on Avenue A for "non payment of taxes."
Perhaps this is all temporary, as we saw in February with Avenue A Wine & Liquor ... Or maybe this is the second deli to close on Avenue A this year...
[Updated] Q-and-A with Michael Dominic, director of 'Sunshine Hotel'
In 1999, filmmaker-photojournalist Michael Dominic set out to document the residents at the Sunshine Hotel, one of the few remaining flophouses on the Bowery. He wanted to know more about the men who had been living there, in four-by-six-foot cubicles topped by a ceiling made of chicken wire, with no particular place to go.
Dominic's ensuing documentary, "Sunshine Hotel," released in 2001, received a slew of festival awards and played on the Sundance Channel. The independently funded film was recently released on DVD for the first time. On this occasion, Dominic answered a few questions via email for us.
Have you been back to the hotel in recent years? Have you received any updates about the people who you featured in the film?
I pass by the hotel all the time but haven't been inside since 2002. But I have kept track of the changes to the hotel and the area. As far as I know, none of the residents that I knew are still living there. Many I know for a fact have died. The owners have stopped allowing new tenants and there are only a handful living in one section of the building now. [Updated: Dominic has learned that two of the men in the film, Bruce Davis and Tyrone, are still living at the hotel.]
The sister of one of my subjects in the film named Vic contacted me recently. He died in 2006, but she only found him again after nearly 50 years through my film. She and her brothers were able to gain some sort of closure after a very long time of believing he was a missing person. It was a moving experience.
For you, what are the most profound changes of the Bowery during which the film is set and the Bowery of today?
The Bowery is ever changing. Now it's on an upswing. On the ground floor of the Sunshine Hotel there is a new restaurant and an art gallery. It looks like they're planning another restaurant as well on the corner. As soon as the last of the tenants leave the Sunshine, I'm sure that they will convert the buildings into luxury housing.
When I shot Sunshine Hotel back in 1999, the Bowery was already what I thought of as gentrified. But now, looking back, that wasn't anything. Certain parts have been completely rebuilt and there's really nothing left of the old strip as far as the goings on. There are expensive restaurants, hotels and apartment buildings — and there isn't a single actual flophouse on the Bowery anymore.
Is that a bad thing? Times change and probably a long strip of drunken homeless men running through the center of the Lower East Side isn't the best idea. Still, when I look at the Whole Foods on the corner of Bowery and Houston, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
The DVD release allows a new audience to experience the film. What would you like people to take away from "The Sunshine Hotel"?
People should remember what NYC was. They should remember it as something unique and beautiful, albeit seedy. We as a city have overdone it on clean-up. We have lost character. I hope that my film caught a little of the last of that era of New York, "when the Bowery was the Bowery."
Some 13 years later, what has stayed with you about making this film?
Nathan [Smith — the hotel's manager]. His friendship. He died 10 years ago, but rarely a day goes by that I don't think about him.
You can buy the DVD here ... it's also available on Amazon. Dominic is now working on a documentary titled "Clean Hands," which chronicles the residents of La Chureca — Nicaragua’s largest, most dangerous garbage dump.
All wet?: More about Molecule and the healing properties of water
Co-owner Adam Ruhf said that he "knows first hand the healing properties of purified water, claiming that drinking it regularly helped eased the pain caused brought on by two serious car accidents that left him without a spleen and a leg held together with metal pins."
Aside from selling single servings of the water in the shop (16 ounces for $2), the store will also have a delivery service for East Village residents seeking 3 or 5 gallons of purified water for the home.
Read the whole article here.
Meanwhile, this morning. The Wall Street Journal features the store as well, pointing out that water quality has long been a source of pride for New York City. However, Ruhf, described as "a former world champion boomerang player, musician and self-described social-justice activist" who moved here from California a year ago, countered that the water in NYC is "terrible."
"I don't want chemicals in my water. I don't even want chlorine in my water. Chlorine is like bleach. Do you want to drink bleach?"
Anyway, per the article:
To counteract critics, Molecule is planning a weekly naming ceremony to imbue its water with personality and Sunday blessings involving religious figures from all faiths, including Tibetan monks and pagan worshipers.
Finally, the Molecule media tour continues this morning with a scathing review by Steve Cuozzo in a Post piece titled "Molecule bottled water is ‘pure’ nonsense."
My editors asked me to turn my famously infallible palate loose on a blind-tasting of Molecule, three popular bottled waters and ordinary, unimproved tap water.
Guess what? Molecule was the only one I didn’t like.
The Post also had a video feature...
[Image of Adam Ruhf by Serena Solomn]
Free tonight in Tompkins Square Park: 'Summer of Sam'
The Films in Tompkins series continues tonight with Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam," with pre-movie music by The Debonairs and Brendan O’Hara...
The trailer...
And as we'll cut-n-paste all summer long:
Free. Gates Open at 6 p.m. Music Starts ½ Hour before the Start of the Film (sundown)
July 26 — Goldfinger, Music by The Luddites
Aug. 2 — Donnie Darko, Music by The Rad Trads
A Two Boots 25th Anniversary Event with Free Pizza!
Aug. 9 — The Big Lebowski, Music by Main Squeeze Orchestra
A Two Boots 25th Anniversary Event with Free Pizza!
Aug. 16 — Poltergeist, Music by Timbila
Dates subject to Rain Delays.
Films In Tompkins is sponsored by Ella, The Blind Barber, Two Boots, Grolsch, GalleryBar, Tower Brokerage and NYC& Company.
The trailer...
And as we'll cut-n-paste all summer long:
Free. Gates Open at 6 p.m. Music Starts ½ Hour before the Start of the Film (sundown)
July 26 — Goldfinger, Music by The Luddites
Aug. 2 — Donnie Darko, Music by The Rad Trads
A Two Boots 25th Anniversary Event with Free Pizza!
Aug. 9 — The Big Lebowski, Music by Main Squeeze Orchestra
A Two Boots 25th Anniversary Event with Free Pizza!
Aug. 16 — Poltergeist, Music by Timbila
Dates subject to Rain Delays.
Films In Tompkins is sponsored by Ella, The Blind Barber, Two Boots, Grolsch, GalleryBar, Tower Brokerage and NYC& Company.
Dead pigeon on East Sixth Street AC unit still dead
So, we did that post back in February titled "How long before this pigeon decomposes?"
Flashback!
Well, Suz on Sixth, who took the photo, has an update for us.
Mmmmm.
Efforts have been made to get the tenant across the shaftway to do something about the poor dead bird. But the tenant does nothing.
So how long before this pigeon decomposes?
Said tourist back in February: "Before full decomposition you will have three more Subway sandwich shops in your neighborhood."
Close!
Flashback!
Well, Suz on Sixth, who took the photo, has an update for us.
I thought that you may be interested to know that the dead pigeon is a) still dead, b) still outside of my window, and c) not at all pleased with the soaring temperatures — its feathers are all a-jumble! Of course, that could also be due to the exploding bacterial colony where its gut used to be and the oddly curious pigeon bretheren that visit, and preen, on occasion. But, I digress.
Mmmmm.
Efforts have been made to get the tenant across the shaftway to do something about the poor dead bird. But the tenant does nothing.
So how long before this pigeon decomposes?
Said tourist back in February: "Before full decomposition you will have three more Subway sandwich shops in your neighborhood."
Close!
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