Week in Grieview

[Photo on 9th Street from Thursday by Michael Rosenthal]

Report: 2nd Avenue gas explosion trial to start in September (Monday)

In memory of Kelly Hurley (Thursday)

Jane's Exchange closing this summer on 3rd Street; owners looking for a buyer (Wednesday)

Go on a tour of the East Village tour in 1985 (Thursday)

The latest I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant (Friday)

The 31st annual Loisaida Festival is May 27 (Thursday)

7-story residential building planned for former Blue Man Group facilities on 3rd Street (Tuesday)

The Post looks at the Night Mayor's fines as an East Village bar owner (Wednesday)

RIP Gino DiGirolamo (Monday)


[Photo outside Royal Tailor Shop by Dan Scheffey]

'Heeere's Kubrick' at the City Cinemas Village East (Monday)

Full reveal at Thirteen East (Tuesday)

Bubbleology Tea seeking full liquor license for the former International space on 1st Avenue (Tuesday)

Groups file lawsuit ahead of the L-train shutdown (Thursday)

Matthew Kenney bringing yet another plant-based restaurant to 2nd Avenue (Wednesday)

Coney Island Baby opens on April 26 with Murphy's Law (Tuesday)

What you are missing if you went away on Spring Break this week (Monday)

Shi Miaodao Yunnan Rice Noodle opening in the former Mark Burger space on St. Mark's Place (Monday)

Red-tailed hawk week in review: Easter in the nest (Sunday) hawk fight (Monday) Dora re-injures her wing (Wednesday) Dora won't be returning to Tompkins Square Park for awhile (Sunday)

Checking in on 886, opening later this month on St. Mark's Place (Monday)

The historic 137 2nd Ave. — the former Stuyvesant Polyclinic — is for lease (Thursday)

Gothamist turns to Kickstarter to speed up its return (Wednesday)

Flashback Friday: Anthony Bourdain and Nick Tosches at Sophie's (Friday)

The Two Boots on Nassau Street no longer appears to be happening (Thursday)

... and this past week, 212 Arts left Fourth Street near Avenue B for a larger space on 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...



Check out their website for current and upcoming exhibits.

Dora's wing is not broken, but she won't be returning to Tompkins Square Park any time soon

[Photo of Dora Wednesday by Steven]

Back on Wednesday, Dora, one of the red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park, was rescued and sent off for an examination and a possible rehab assignment.

Bobby Horvath of the Long Island-based WINORR (the Wildlife In Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation) provided an updated on her injured wing via Facebook:

She has no broken bones but will not be going back to her Park ... She has had some bad luck and needs to regroup and stay out of trouble. She will be staying with us until we figure out what the next best step is. Also people were asking if she had any eggs inside her. The answer is no. So she will be our house guest for awhile. No more soap opera sagas for this gal for now!

And here's an x-ray of Dora's wing...



Goggla has video from Wednesday of Horvath examining Dora's wing in the Park.

Dora had been in WINORR's care starting in late November for an injury unrelated to the current one ... she was declared fit, and returned to the Park on Feb. 26.

Meanwhile, as Goggla pointed out, as Dora was leaving the Park, a new female red-tailed hawk (not Barucha/Nora) had already taken up residence in the nest. Christo and the new hawk mated then for good measure.


[Photo of Christo and the new hawk by Bobby Williams]


[Photo of Christo from Friday by Bobby Williams]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Dora the red-tailed hawk returns to Tompkins Square Park

Dora re-injures her wing, leaves Tompkins Square Park for examination, possible rehab

Reminders: Recycle your e-waste today

Reps from the the Lower East Side Ecology Center will be on Avenue A (between Ninth Street and 10th Street) today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ... where they'll be accepting your old (or new maybe) electronics.

And as noted on Friday, here's the list of items they'll accept during the e-waste-apalooza:

• Computers (laptops & desktops, servers, mainframes)
• Monitors (CRT and flatscreen)
• Network devices (routers, hubs, modems, etc.)
• Peripherals (keyboards, mice, cables, cords, chargers, etc.)
• Tablets and e-readers
• Components (hard drives, CD-ROMs, circuit boards, power supplies, etc.)
• Printers under 100 pounds, scanners, fax-machines, etc
• TVs, VCRs, DVRs, DVD & Blu-ray Players
• Digital Converter Boxes, Cable/Satellite Receivers
• Portable music players
• Audio-visual equipment
• Video games
• Cell phones, pagers, PDAs
• Telecommunication (phones, answering machines, etc.)

There are some e-waste items that we accept, but we charge a recycling fee for:
Media such as CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and cassette tapes
Computer battery backup systems (Uninterruptible Power Supply [UPS])

FAQ page here.

Open house tomorrow (Sunday!) at Studio 55C on Avenue C

Via the EVG inbox last night...

Studio 55C, a new Home for Somatic Movement + Arts on the Lower East Side, is hosting an Open House this Sunday, April 8 from 2-5pm.

The Open House will include 15-minute sample classes in the Nia Technique, EyeCare Exercises, Moving for Life, Pranayama, and mini-bodywork/healing sessions. The art of Tasha Robbins will be on view and offered for sale, with proceeds benefiting Moving for Life to fund their free classes for seniors and cancer survivors. Studio 55C also will provide light bites and refreshments.

Studio 55C is a conscious movement collective formed by three leaders in the field: Martha Eddy, Dana Davison and Kristin DeGroat. Classes and workshops educate students on how to move from deep within the body to increase awareness, self-regulation, and the ability to self heal. As each student is encouraged to move fluidly in their own way, they experience a joy that goes beyond the average exercise experience.

Studio 55C is at 55 Avenue C between Fourth Street and Fifth Street. You can find their website here with more details about their classes and events. (Their next open house is May 11 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.)

The space was previously home to the East Village Dance Project, which recently relocated to the Abrons Arts Center.

Le Sia on 7th Street is one of the neighborhood's (and city's) most exciting new restaurants

Le Sia quietly opened in January at 11 E. Seventh St. near Cooper Square.

I hadn't heard anything from readers about the restaurant, which serves Chinese barbecue, seafood and an assortment of kebobs. The dining room was empty the few times I walked by during the winter.

However, as Eater noted yesterday, Le Sia is catching on, especially with students.

Eater's Robert Sietsema paid a visit and came away impressed. (The headline: "NYC’s Most Exciting New Chinese Restaurant Dares to Pile the Heat on Seafood.")

An excerpt:

Beyond the seafood, the menu also offers robust menu of other Chinese dishes — many of them offered here for the first time outside Queens. It’s a bold move; many of the newer Chinese restaurants in neighborhoods outside of immigrant enclaves like Sunset Park or Flushing either come from restaurateurs with experience in Western-style restaurants (like Little Tong) or offer water-downed versions of traditional Chinese fare (like Han Dynasty).

Hunan and Sichuan restaurants nearby already stir fry fresh green chiles with sliced pork or pork belly, for example, but here, fiery peppers are instead tossed with gluey cubes of pig trotter, with a texture something like melting gummy bears. Called “wok-fried hog hoof jelly with pepper” ($16.95), it’s one of four chef’s specials. Another less-known dish available here is a “dough drop and assorted vegetable soup” ($12.95), a comforting tomato broth with free-form dumplings.

And in conclusion...

For now Le Sia is BYOB, making it one of the better restaurant deals in the neighborhood, and also one of the most exciting. With a restaurant right in the East Village, the owners clearly have faith that people other than first generation Chinese immigrants will dig the foods of their hometowns — it’s pure genius that may pay off in a big way.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Le Sia opens today on 7th Street

Lunatic fringe

Vive la Void is the new solo project of Sanae Yamada, co-founder and keyboard player of Moon Duo ... the above video is for "Red Rider," from her LP due May 4 on Sacred Bones Records.

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman documents the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.



Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: ilyse, since 1977

Why did you move to the East Village?

In 1977, a friend from my hometown asked me if I wanted to share a sublet with her for the summer in NYC. Within a month, I knew that I wanted to stay. I didn’t like the first neighborhood I moved into but then discovered the East Village. It felt like I finally discovered a place where I could fit in. I’ve been in this apartment since December 1977.







How did you find your apartment?

I was actually in another apartment down the street near Phebe’s restaurant, which used to be a kind of wild off-off Broadway scene. I worked there. That was the job I had found. There was a customer in the restaurant who noticed me when I was eating in the Binibon on the corner of Fifth Street. Manhattan Plaza had just been built. It was for actors and he was an actor and he got an apartment there.

He recognized me from my work in the restaurant. He asked me if I was interested in taking over his apartment for what we used to call “key money.” Which meant that you pay the previous tenant a couple hundred bucks and they make the arrangements with the management of the building. It was very old school and you could actually talk with the manager of the building. I got my first lease for $135. That was the rent not the key money. It doesn’t work like that anymore.



What do you love about your apartment?

First of all I love that I feel a connection in this apartment to the immigrant past of this neighborhood. I don’t like to call them ghosts because that sounds unhappy. But I feel that there has been a continuous spirit of something here since this neighborhood was built as a refuge for people coming from other places. People who worked very hard when they got here and made the life that my generation has possible.

Second of all, I love this apartment because it has low rent and where it is located it has been a platform for a really unstructured, exploratory and unconventional lifestyle — where I was able to take acting classes for a little while, photography classes for awhile. I had so many different jobs in 4 or 5 very different industries and have met so many interesting people. I was able to raise two daughters completely on my own in this place.

Because of the milieu that existed in the neighborhood, when my daughters became school age I was able to send them to amazing public schools that were started by parents and teachers. I was able to get involved with community gardening and composting.

I’ve had such a rich life. That doesn’t mean I have a dime in my bank account because I barely do. It doesn’t mean that I take vacations because I don’t. Or that my clothes don’t come from curbside finds because they do. It just means that I’m rich. It has been a very rich existence. I have so many memories tied to this location.











If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.

Recycle your e-waste Sunday on Avenue A

[EVG office photo from March 2018]

This Sunday, you may bring your working — and non-working! — electronics to Tompkins Square Park for a recycling event hosted by the Lower East Side Ecology Center.

The recycling action happens from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (rain or shine!) on Avenue A between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

And here is the list of items they'll accept:

• Computers (laptops & desktops, servers, mainframes)
• Monitors (CRT and flatscreen)
• Network devices (routers, hubs, modems, etc.)
• Peripherals (keyboards, mice, cables, cords, chargers, etc.)
• Tablets and e-readers
• Components (hard drives, CD-ROMs, circuit boards, power supplies, etc.)
• Printers under 100 pounds, scanners, fax-machines, etc
• TVs, VCRs, DVRs, DVD & Blu-ray Players
• Digital Converter Boxes, Cable/Satellite Receivers
• Portable music players
• Audio-visual equipment
• Video games
• Cell phones, pagers, PDAs
• Telecommunication (phones, answering machines, etc.)

There are some e-waste items that we accept, but we charge a recycling fee for:
Media such as CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and cassette tapes
Computer battery backup systems (Uninterruptible Power Supply [UPS])

FAQ page here.

If you can't bring your unwanted electronics here, then at least leave the items in a public place where someone can photograph them for a future EVG post.

Flashback Friday: Anthony Bourdain and Nick Tosches at Sophie's

You may have seen food personality Anthony Bourdain in the neighborhood of late ... filming scenes (to air this fall) for his CNN series "Parts Unknown" ... among his stops: Ray's Candy Store, John's of 12th Street, Veselka and Max Fish. (You can read more about all this over at Eater, Bowery Boogie or Bedford + Bowery ... or Bourdain's Instagram account.)

A post shared by Harley Flanagan (@harleyfflanagan) on Apr 4, 2018 at 3:34pm PDT

So for this Flashback Friday, we'll head back to February 2009, when Bourdain's previous show, "No Reservations," aired an episode titled "Disappearing Manhattan."

In the last segment, he stopped by Sophie's on Fifth Street to meet with writer Nick Tosches... here is a grainy clip showing 90 seconds or so of the three-minute scene...



As Bourdain said, "Sophie's in the East Village remains a good place to stop time." Still mostly feels that way too.

Thursday's parting video

First Avenue cloud maker via Grant Shaffer...

Go on a tour of the East Village tour in 1985

The link to this 45-minute video comes courtesy of Alex at Flaming Pablum...

Per the YouTube description:

An early film by Alan Steinfeld and the experience of living in the East Village in the1980s. Recently shown at the Museum of Modern Art as part of the Club 57 retrospective:

That Club 57 retrospective ends Sunday.

In memory of Kelly Hurley

[Photo by Steven]

On the morning of April 5, 2017, Kelly Hurley was struck by a box truck while biking to work on First Avenue at Ninth Street. Hurley, who lived on the Lower East Side, died the following week from her injuries. She was 31.

Flowers in her memory arrived today on the southwest corner of First Avenue and Ninth Street.

Last June, the driver of the box truck was arrested. Per DNAInfo at the time:

Kyung H. Hyun, 59, was arrested at 1:57 p.m. and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian — the city's "right of way" law under the Mayor's Vision Zero initiative — failure to exercise due care, and making an improper left turn, according to authorities.

Previous reports stated that he had come to a complete stop on First Avenue before making the abrupt left turn onto Ninth Street across four lanes of traffic. He struck Hurley, who had the right of way.

Police gave Hyun a desk appearance ticket. He first appeared in Manhattan criminal court on Aug. 29, the Daily News reported.

According to public records, the case has been adjourned multiple times...



He's due back in New York Criminal Court on May 3.

CB3's Transportation Committee recommended last summer that the Department of Transportation consider more carefully separating bike and car traffic in the so-called "mixing zones" found at intersections like Ninth Street and First Avenue. (Read more about that here.)

Streetsblog reported in February that that DOT is expected to release full results of its study of bicycle intersection designs sometime this spring.

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Kelly Hurley

Reactions to Kelly Hurley's death

NYPD offers explanation into Kelly Hurley's death: 'she slipped'

ICYMI: Groups file lawsuit ahead of the L-train shutdown

Always so much drama with the L train. A group of Manhattan-based coalitions and co-ops have sued the MTA and other state and federal agencies over the impending L-train shutdown. (Just one year away!)

Here's Town & Village on the suit, which was filed Tuesday:

The suit accuses the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the city Department of Transportation and the Federal Transportation Administration of ignoring the needs of disabled riders along the L line, and disregarding the communities who’ll be dealing with constant congestion from diesel-spewing buses.

According to the attorney representing the groups, dubbed “the 14th Street Coalition,” Arthur Schwartz, the FTA “has failed to enforce compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) even though the nearly $1 billion project is being federally funded.” The MTA and DOT meanwhile, he said have failed to prepare a required Environmental Impact Statement, which he said would have compelled the agencies to be more responsive to community input.

Per NBC 4:

MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein said in a statement that the agency does not comment on pending litigation, but added that “the repairs to the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel are desperately needed to ensure the tunnel’s structural integrity so we can continue to provide safe and reliable subway service to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who depend on the L train every day.”

Read more on this at The New York Times and Curbed.

The shutdown of the L — between Bedford Avenue and Eighth Avenue to repair the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel — is expected to last 15 months with a start date of April 2019.

The 31st annual Loisaida Festival is May 27

Finally a sign of spring... the Loisaida Center recently announced the 2018 date for its 31st annual Loisaida Festival... happening this year on May 27 in the usual place — Avenue C from Sixth Street to 12th Street.

Find more details here.

Viewing for Gino DiGirolamo is Sunday

Gino DiGirolamo, who ran a tailoring business in the neighborhood since the early 1960s, died this past Friday. He was 82.

The viewing is Sunday from 2-8 p.m. at the Provenzano Lanza Funeral Home, 43 Second Ave. between Second Street and Third Street.

He was the proprietor of the Royal Tailor Shop, which was most recently housed on 11th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Gino is survived by his son Vito.

A longtime customer has created a crowdfunding campaign "to raise funds to honor Gino with a donation in his name or potentially a plaque or marker in the neighborhood." Find details here.

Photo from 2014 by Michael Paul

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Gino DiGirolamo

The historic 137 2nd Ave. — the former Stuyvesant Polyclinic — is for lease

A tipster shared this listing (PDF here) for 137 Second Ave., a landmarked building between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street that has been on the rental market this winter.

A few notes for the 21,896 square feet that spans four levels:

• Possession November 2018
• Completely Renovated
• Fully Wired
• Move-in Ready
• Great for HQ Building
• Short Walk from 6, R and W train

There isn't any mention of the asking rent for the neo-Italian Renaissance brick building, the former German Dispensary, which opened in 1884. (In 1905 it became the Stuyvesant Polyclinic.)

Here's more about the building in this 2008 New York Times feature:

Like the branch library next door, the Second Avenue building of the German Dispensary was the gift of Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer, who ran the German newspaper New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung. That journal had great influence in Little Germany, on the Lower East Side around First and Second Avenues below 14th Street. The 1886 edition of Appleton’s Dictionary of New York described an area in which “lager-beer shops are numerous, and nearly all the signs are of German names.”

And...

In more recent years — until its sale [in 2008] — the old dispensary building was part of Cabrini Medical Center. Although hospitals are notoriously hard on historic architecture, the interior of the Schickel building was remarkably intact, if run-down, with intricate stairway ironwork and door enframements, red marble wainscoting and a highly colored tile floor.

In 2008, a British consulting firm called ?What If! bought the building for $13 million. Following the sale, the firm hired architects David Mayerfield Associates to restore both the interior and exterior.

Per a feature at Daytonian in Manhattan:

When dropped ceilings in the main hall were removed, the 1884 skylights, blacked out in World War II, were rediscovered. Similarly, stained-glass panels in the ceiling of the staircase were uncovered. The colorful encaustic tile floors had been covered over with concrete which was meticulously scraped away.

The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1976. Learn more about the building's history and architecture at Off the Grid here.

The Two Boots on Nassau Street no longer appears to be happening

EVG reader Carl Bentsen shared this photo from Nassau Street near Fulton in the Financial District ... showing a for rent sign on what was to be the next location of Two Boots, the East Village-based pizzeria.

The folks at Two Boots were also going to keep and restore that Loft's Candies neon signage that workers uncovered during renovations at the address.

No word on what happened to this multi-level location for Two Boots. (They didn't respond to an email for comment.) The Two Boots website still lists this location as coming soon in the spring of 2017.

Two Boots, which got its start on Avenue A (different location than its current home) in 1987, has 13 locations in multiple states.

Previously on EV Grieve:
This post has nothing to do with the East Village, except for the part about 2 Boots Pizza

This post still has nothing to do with the East Village, except for the part about 2 Boots Pizza

Dora re-injures her wing, leaves Tompkins Square Park for examination, possible rehab

[Photo today by @alexlawrens]

Dora, one of the red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park, continued to have difficulty today flying. She was spotted sitting on a porch rail along Ninth Street between Avenue B and C.

She eventually made it into Tompkins Square Park ... and into a tree, but the hawk-watchers said it was a struggle. (All photos below via Steven.)



Ranger Rob (aka Rob Mastrianni, a Manhattan Ranger supervisor) and a worker from the Animal Care and Control of NYC were eventually able to safely secure Dora ...







Bobby Horvath of the Long Island-based WINORR (the Wildlife In Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation) arrived in the Park to take Dora away for examination...







At this point we don't know the extent of the injury and when she might be able to return.

Dora had been in WINORR's care starting in late November ... she was declared fit to come back to the Park on Feb. 26 for an awkward-at-first reunion with her longtime mate Christo.

Hawk watchers on Saturday noticed that Dora's rehabbed wing was starting to droop. She likely aggravated it on Monday during the tussle with an unknown red-tailed hawk who invaded her nest.

Meanwhile! As if that wasn't enough drama. Here's a dispatch from Goggla in the Park: "There is a stranger hawk [NOT Barucha/Nora] in the nest right now and Christo is on the Christodora."

She'll post more on today's development at her site later today. Updated: Her post is here, and includes video ... and details about yet another female red-tailed hawk who arrived in the Park!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Dora the red-tailed hawk returns to Tompkins Square Park

Gothamist turns to Kickstarter to speed up its return

Back in February news broke that Gothamist was returning, thanks to WNYC and its parent company New York Public Radio — along with two anonymous donors — who had acquired the local news site's assets.

And yesterday (ICYMI), the Gothamist co-founders launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $100,000 by May 4.

Per Kickstarter:

And now it’s our priority to build out the site and bring back the Gothamist you love. We aim to get Gothamist back to full strength and make it sustainable for years to come.

With your support, Gothamist will have the resources to expand coverage of issues that are vital to the social fabric of New York City: transportation, affordable housing, gentrification, demonic landlords, immigration, and the living wage struggle. We’re proud of our past work on these topics—as well as our vibrant culture and food reporting—and we’re committed to deepening and diversifying our coverage of New York City.

Gothamist is now a part of member supported New York Public Radio, which is a registered 501c3. Your pledge is tax deductible, minus the value and/services of your selected reward and credit card processing and Kickstarter fees. At the end of the campaign, when we reach our goal and credit card transactions are completed, we will send out tax acknowledgement letters.

It’s simple: all funds raised with this Kickstarter will go to funding Gothamist. The first $100,000 will help revive the website and bring back our popular newsletter. It will also enable us to preserve the Gothamist and DNAinfo archives. But this is just the beginning. The more we raise, the better we can serve you.

As of this morning, they'd already raised more than $73,000.

And a few more details via the Observer:

It might seem strange for a site to crowdfund after being acquired by another company. But the Kickstarter funds, along with the funding for the acquisition, will help Gothamist relaunch faster than it would have otherwise.

“We were fortunate to be able to quickly shore up the support we needed to make the acquisition by connecting with funders who share our commitment to local journalism,” Jennifer Houlihan Roussel, vice president of communications for New York Public Radio, told Observer. “The Kickstarter will enable us to launch as quickly and as robustly as possible.”

Dobkin will handle strategy and revenue at the new Gothamist, while co-founder Jen Chung will be in charge of editorial matters.

After this initial funding push, Gothamist will transition to WNYC’s fundraising model, which relies on membership, philanthropy and sponsorship. Dobkin said he hopes to garner 10,000 to 20,000 subscribers for the site and also woo new advertisers.

Publisher Joe Ricketts abruptly shut down Gothamist and DNAinfo last Nov. 2 after the newsrooms of both sites voted to join the Writers Guild of America East. DNAinfo, however, will not be returning. Its archives will remain online.

In unrelated news about local sites, prospects remain at their dimmest for a return of EV Heave, though the publisher will listen to offers in the two-figure range, we're told.

For further reading:
Gothamist's Kickstarter Raises More Questions Than It Answers (Splinter)

The Post looks at the Night Mayor's fines as an East Village bar owner

In case you haven't had your fill of Night Mayor articles (apparently the Post hasn't), the tabloid reports today that Ariel Palitz paid nearly $30,000 in fines when she owned the Sutra Lounge for 10 years on First Avenue between First Street and Second Street.

Per the Post:

“She racked up a number of violations, for sure,” said Liquor Authority Spokesman William Crowley.

Palitz was slapped with 24 violations in the 10 years she ran the club that was dubbed the noisiest in the city.

The majority of complaints against her watering hole were for noise but the bar was also cited for serving underage patrons, selling booze past the 4 a.m. cutoff, and allowing dancing and a DJ without a license.

Investigators also cited the bar for various problems with signage, exits and rearranging the layout for the DJ and dancing.

In an interview with The Lo-Down from 2012, she blamed a single neighbor for the multiple 311 calls.

According to the Post: "Her bar was forced to shut down for a week in July of 2011 and she paid a total of $28,250 in fines."

Palitz, an East Village resident, was recently appointed senior executive director of the Office of Nightlife (aka Night Mayor). In her role, she'll serve as a point of contact among city agencies, communities and the city's nightlight industry.