While one of them waved a gun around, the men ordered two employees and one male customer into a back room. The suspects then forced an employee to turn over 40 Apple and Samsung phones off a shelf as well as approximately $1500 in cash from a safe.
A few bus lines that East Village residents may — or more likely, may not — depend on have been recognized. And not really in a good way.The “winner” of the 2015 Schleppie is ... a tie! The 2015 Schleppie goes to the M1 and the combined M101/102/103, both with a dismal 37 percent of buses arriving with big gaps in service or bunched together.
New York City Transit calculates “wait assessments” for “42 high-volume routes,” the same routes first chosen by Transit two decades ago. Wait assessment measures how closely a line sticks to scheduled intervals for arrival. Wait assessment becomes poorer the more buses arrive in bunches or with major gaps in service.
“In the realm of unreliable bus service, the M1 is the king, and the local M101/102/103 is the queen," said Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives. "Their unhappy subjects, the riders, must endure the tyranny of frequent and long waits, followed by a parade of buses that pass by in bunches, like a herd of lumbering elephants."
The Houston St. corridor continues to re-invent itself, now including new high-rises, redeveloped tenements, and dazzling penthouse additions to historic commercial buildings. Developers continue to create a newer, more diverse context with glass-clad high rises towering through unchanged rows of ornate tenements.
Unfortunately, we are losing some commercial buildings, which helped to open up the tight streets and sidewalks into their private spaces, adding to the context of this corridor. Further south, commercial spaces like this one-story branch office building are becoming less common. The Provident Loan’s branch office on Essex and Houston is a valuable contributor to the neighborhood, and helps balance the diversity of uses in the area.
Prices at Ben Shaoul’s new Katz Deli-adjacent condominium, designed by Ismael Levya Architects, will start at just under $1 million for studio apartments and $1.23 million for one-bedroom units, the developer tells The Real Deal.
With studio sizes starting at 555 square feet and one-bedroom homes starting at 655 square feet, that pegs the starting price per square foot above $1,800. The total blended price per square foot is likely to top $2,000 a foot, however.
In the summer of 2014, a New York landlord with a modest portfolio received a letter from a certain Raphael Toledano, Esq. In the letter, Toledano allegedly identified himself as belonging to Truman & Wildes LLP, a Park Avenue law firm. He claimed to be representing real estate investor Josh Zegen in a 1031 exchange, and assured the landlord that his client was interested in one of his buildings and would “pay above market value” for it.
The issue, however, is that Truman & Wildes LLP is bogus. It is not a licensed law firm in the tri-state area, and isn’t even a registered entity in Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey or New York. Its website, which was taken down shortly after The Real Deal began making inquiries, appears to be a basic web template with language lifted verbatim from legitimate law firms. Misrepresenting oneself as a lawyer is illegal.
For his part, Toledano, a former broker and now a prominent local real estate investor, denies any connection with the law firm. But property records and interviews with his former employees, business associates and industry players indicate otherwise.
Curiously, there are numerous websites with similar URLs purporting to have been created by Raphael Toledanos across the country that fill up Google search results for his name. One Raphael Toledano is "a fervent traveler from the incredible state of Chicago," another is a "19-year-old boy from Ohio who wants to become an internationally recognized soccer player," and still another is "an Assistant Principal in one of the reputed schools of Rhode Island." Each of these sites was created on January 28, 2015 according to registration information on whois.net.
"I'll be showing images from 'Invisible City' and 'Night Walk' as well as the video trailers with music by Live Skull and Sonic Youth and telling some of the stories from when I moved to the East Village when I was 17, how I ended up on Avenue B, what the neighborhood was like and what happened when the landlord abandoned the building. I'll talk about how I came to make these two books — especially 'Night Walk' more recently. I'll have copies of some of my books for a book signing at the end. I timed the talk at about 50 minutes. That'll give me time to take questions ..."
Defense lawyer Mark Bederow had argued that the prosecutor’s hardline approach in the bribery case “results from the people’s ongoing investigation into the East Village explosion.”
Kukic was inside 121 Second Ave. on March 26, where he had a permit to do renovations, when the building exploded. He dragged the landlord’s son to safety.
Santacon NYC 2015 was blessed with its best weather yet, a huge turnout and, per NYPD only a few minor disturbances during our event. Beginning in WIlliamsburg's McCarren Park and later transitioning to the East Village, the official route and venues all reported relatively orderly fun and a wealth of positive interactions. Again, Our organization worked in conjunction with the NYPD, Parks Department, city officials as well as several NYC area art collectives. The event has transitioned, becoming a more widely supported expression of the holiday season. A celebration, that invites all to join, if they want to share in the season’s festive spirit.
The Santacon Charity Drive again was a significant success with the participation of over 40 official venues and donations by a vast majority of the santas, elves, reindeer and the many other holiday characters. A full report is forthcoming but all proceeds will go to support City Harvest, Materials for the Arts, Dance Parade and the Ali Forney Center. For 2015, Santacon NYC was gratified by more “balanced” reporting. We understand the "Bad Santa" narrative makes for easy and often funny copy but we are glad that journalists also describe the exceedingly positive spirit and the many creative people who make such an effort every year.
For 2016, Santacon NYC has already reached out to the concerned elected officials inviting any who are truly interested in NYC's creative culture to get involved during the offseason and demonstrate their interest in assisting us...
