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Photo in Tompkins Square Park today by Bobby Williams
Name: Jon Gerstad
Occupation: Contractor
Location: Tompkins Square Park
Time: 2 pm on Friday, March 21.
I’m from Midtown but I went to school on 11th Street and 2nd Avenue. I moved down here in 1987. Music and art attracted me to the neighborhood and I was working around here and all my friends were here, so it was natural.
I’m a contractor. I was working for a lot of landlords doing repairs and maintenance, plumbing and plastering, electrical, boilers and all of that. Being that I was working for landlords, the budget was never quite what I wished but it was work that I was proud of.
I was also in a rock band — several, actually. From that period of time, my favorite was the Fabulous Barbatones, with James Romberger. I played drums. Because I was working for landlords, I was able to rent places cheap, so I was able to get a basement on 3rd Street on the Hells’ Angels block and I built a recording studio.
I worked with a lot of bands and played a lot of places. It was always really convenient. If we had a gig at CBGB we wouldn’t have to get the man with the van, we’d just bring up the trap case on wheels, load stuff on it and wheel it around the corner. East 3rd Street was the safest block in the whole neighborhood and it still is. Right next to the 9th Precinct on 5th Street, somebody was going to steal the front wheel off your bicycle or take your seat. They’d strip your bike right outside of the police precinct but that would never happen on 3rd Street.
At the time there was a lot of drug dealing in the neighborhood and there was always the abandoned, stolen car out there up on blocks, and we’d use it as a dumpster. If you were doing renovations, you’d have to find someplace to dump your plaster and we’d just put it in the back of those stolen cars.
In 1983, I had this opportunity to rent a storefront for $250 a month. I had been thinking about it for awhile, so I started an art gallery. Since all my friends were artists, I thought it would be cool. I did a little art too and I went to art school, but nothing much. I felt that my friends, because they were really applying themselves much more than I was, were doing better work than I was. The first gallery was called Nolo Contendere and then a year and a half later I broke up with my partner, so I decided to use a name that nobody could take from me — my own. So I started the Jon Gerstad Gallery.
It was very vibrant when we first started. There was great artwork going on down here. People uptown and in SoHo had no idea what we were doing here. They couldn’t fathom it. Now easily a dozen of those artists, both dead and still alive, are famous. Maybe 20 galleries or 25 galleries moved to SoHo if they had the money, and you could get a sizeable loft in SoHo for like $2,500 or $3,000 a month, but that was never in my budget.
The gallery was open for five years, till ’87, until Michael Musto said on the front page of The Village Voice, ‘Downtown is Dead.’ I was one of the first six to open and one of the last six to close. It ran its course. It got the point where housewives from New Jersey would rent storefronts to show their friends’ bad art, which had nothing to do with the East Village. The scene just got overly diluted.
SPACE
Ground Floor 2,250 SF
POSSESSION
Immediate
TERM
Long term
FRONTAGE
36 feet on Avenue C
SITE STATUS
New Construction
NEIGHBORS
C-Town, Cafecito, Matilda Restaurant, Yankee Deli
COMMENTS
Landlord may deliver a warm shell
Potential for Tenant Improvement Allowance
All retail/medical uses accepted
He wears a measuring tape around his neck. He has two televisions sitting one on top of the other. His walls are covered with pictures of the Italian soccer team, boxer Rocky Marciano, and a poster showing popular lengths of sleeves and trouser legs.
Best kept little secret....Amazing art gallery & views on the rooftop, perfect for photoshoots, selfies or drinks with friends.
The first home to have a Christmas tree with electric lights was in the East Village at 269 E.10th Street in 1883. It was owned by Edward Johnson, an associate of the famed inventor Thomas Edison.
While the stores typically consign higher-end names — their list of acceptable designers includes Chloé, Balenciaga, Judith Leiber, and Rag & Bone — they'll now also be accepting what they're dubbing as "secondary brands." That includes J. Crew, BCBG, Urban Outfitters, Uniqlo, Diesel, Theory, Banana Republic, Express, and Anthropologie.
Throughout June and July, fans can look for codes on specially marked Lone Ranger 30 oz. cups and avocado sandwich wrap stickers. The codes access free plays on the new "Partner Up And Win" interactive game on www.subway.com, offering fans the chance to win cash, rides, adventures and more. Customers can also receive playing codes through SUBWAY® social media channels, and by tweeting a photo with Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer standees found in SUBWAY® locations across the U.S.
@evgrieve why does our hood smell like a campfire?
— Amy Marsh (@amyruthmarsh) April 7, 2014
The smell of smoke wafted over New York City early Monday after a brush fire broke out in a state forest in central New Jersey, authorities say.
Storm Team 4 meteorologists say that winds most likely carried the smoke to the area Sunday evening. Winds died down overnight, settling the odor over the city. The odor should be observable for the next eight to 12 hours.
Founded in 1986, City Lore’s mission is to foster New York City – and America’s – living cultural heritage through education and public programs. We document, present, and advocate for New York City’s grassroots cultures to ensure their living legacy in stories and histories, places and traditions. We work in four cultural domains: urban folklore and history; preservation; arts education; and grassroots poetry traditions. In each of these realms, we see ourselves as furthering cultural equity and modeling a better world with projects as dynamic and diverse as New York City itself.
Photographed during the "Golden Age of Graffiti" in the '70s and early '80s, Chalfant and Cooper's images of graffitied subway cars are among the major documents of American popular culture in the late twentieth century. Moving Murals presents the images in a wall to wall mosaic of over 850 muraled trains, creating an ultimate All City graffiti trainyard environment. Complimenting the murals: photographs of the writers in their element.
And for the first time, the exhibit provides an interactive audience experience through the addition of Chalfant's recently published iBook viewed on a large screen, complete with the train image archive, artist interviews, and videos.