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Someone added a little detail to the new anti-rat, Big Belly trash can that the city placed here on the northwest corner of Avenue A and Seventh Street last Thursday. Big Belly watchers believe the addition arrived Monday night.
Name: Brian Breger (and Molly)
Occupation: Writer/TV Producer
Location: 3rd Street between 1st and A
Date: 3:45 pm on Sunday, July 16
I’m originally from Brooklyn. I moved to the neighborhood when I was in college. It was a place where I could get a cheap apartment, and they weren’t very particular about who rented ... I don’t know if it was actually the worst neighborhood in New York in terms of the crime, but it was one of the few.
So I moved here in 1970, and I lived on 3rd Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue right near the Hells Angels. The buildings on either side of me were abandoned. One of the things we did that first summer was rush out of the building when the fire engines came because there were inevitably fires there. A lot of homeless people lived in the buildings – we didn’t call them homeless people then, we called them street people.
I was a college student and a young writer, and there were lots of other young writers, painters, dancers, and theater people. As students we had no money, and as bohemians we continued to have no money. It was filled with people who wanted to have the opportunity to make art and live cheaply.
I graduated from City College, and many of us stayed in the neighborhood because we could live here and work a couple days a week and make art. A friend of mine ... had a tiny gallery on 5th Street, and then more and more galleries started to come – and there was a very active scene in the 1980s into the 1990s.
But at the same time also things like the Nuyorican Poets CafĂ© first opened in the 1970s, so it wasn’t just a white scene, it was a multicultural scene. There was a genuine mix of people. I used to say that everybody in the neighborhood hated each other, but everybody got along because they had to. I’m not saying that the Latin families in my building across from me were particularly friendly to me, but they weren’t unfriendly. There was no hostility. Everybody was basically poor – so that was a great leveler.
I was primarily a poet. I ran readings in various places with a couple of friends, Chuck Wachtel and Harry Lewis, also poets. Chuck is a distinguished novelist as well. I eventually started to work in documentary and was a screenwriter, and then I came back to documentary. It was independent, it still is, but I also make films for places like National Geographic, Discovery, A&E — all sorts of documentary channels. So that’s what I’m doing now.
There was a great energy here. There had been people here in the mid and late 1960s before us who had been the original bohemians in this neighborhood, and that just grew, and it continued to grow through the 1970s. There was a very active jazz scene in this neighborhood. I was a bartender at a jazz club called the Tin Palace, which was a central place where young musicians came and played, and I also ran a reading series there.
The Tin Palace was on the Bowery and 2nd Street, so it was bad outside. That was when the Bowery was a place that you wouldn’t go to after dark unless you had a place to go to. This was an extremely dangerous neighborhood. There were places that you wouldn’t walk at night. You wouldn’t even go to Avenue A unless you were going to a specific spot, but you wouldn’t be strolling along Avenue A.
There were two blocks in the neighborhood that were actually safe – one was 5th Street between 1st and 2nd because of the police precinct, and the other was 3rd Street between 1st and 2nd because it was the Hells Angels block, and the Hells Angels would actually ask people if they lived on the block if they were strangers.
The thing that has always made it special is the remarkable mix of people that live here, and still live here despite the gentrification. I raised two daughters here, and I chose to raise two daughters here along with my wife because it was a place where you had every imaginable kind of person, every income, from people with fancy apartments to people who could barely meet their rent. There were people who were interested in everything — in art, in politics, in every imaginable activity that the city had. They congregated here, and not to the same degree as they did, but they still do.
I think the fact that this neighborhood always had that incredible mix of artists and real people, and people from different backgrounds and different cultures – it’s always been a very alive neighborhood — and that’s what I wanted my children to experience, and I think it made them good people. They accept difference in every aspect of things.
As of mid-July, much of the building’s exterior is complete. Closings are expected to begin this fall with occupancy likely following soon after. A recent episode of Million Dollar Listing featured the building, where celebrity broker Fredrik Ecklund just so happens to be leading sales. Reflecting on the social impact Steiner East Village may have on the community, Ecklund and others commit thousands of dollars to fund a cooking program for kids at a local park.
With Martina, Anderer will experiment with hospitality — he wants to figure out how to toe the line between serving customers food quickly, but not making them feel like he made their meal before they walked in the door. That means snacks and drinks ready right after you order and take your buzzer.
Meatballs, Martina Mista salad, seasonal vegetable dishes (starting with zucchini), potato croquettes, etcetera.
For booze, Anderer wants to offer the same quality of craft wines and champagne as his recent spots. "So if somebody does want to go high-brow, low-brow and have a seven-dollar pizza with some awesome champagne they can do it without breaking the bank," he says. Not to mention that gelato machine, serving a basic vanilla flavor that he'll use to make desserts like affogato.
I live in the building in which this now-former tenant’s apartment is located. First, I can confirm that the apartment was definitely not staged, and that it is, indeed, in the East Village.
I must admit, as awful as it has been over the past couple of years living in the building where this person lived (though I and that tenant have each lived there for about 15 years), it’s a bit painful to see this described simply as the situation of a “hoarder.” That’s not at all to criticize EV Grieve, because I’m sure that is the only context in which it was presented to him. I just hope to add a little context before too many people comment without, understandably, knowing more about the situation.
As Martin, the contractor, noted, the tenant was not always living this way. We are a pretty closely knit bunch in this building, due to our occasional battles with our landlord ... and while most of us weren’t close friends with the tenant, we knew him for many years as maybe a bit eccentric (as most of us living here could probably be described as well), but as a good neighbor and not someone anyone would imagine ending up in this kind of situation.
Sadly, over the past two years, we all witnessed his mental and physical health decline for reasons that should remain private. We tried, individually and as a group, to intervene, but it quickly became clear here was not willing or able to accept our offers to help, which was frustrating both because of the declining conditions in the building, and because it is painful to watch someone go through what he was going through.
Let me be clear: it’s been pretty hellish living here for the last couple of years. While none of us had seen the full extent of the decay in his apartment until now, we have all been dealing with the effects. Those roaches invaded every apartment in the building and, while not nearly as numerous as they were in his, it’s been nearly impossible for any of us to cook or keep food for over a year now, and it’s a very defeating feeling to know that no matter how much one cleans, there will always be more roaches arriving from the source. Living in an old tenement building, we’ve certainly learned to expect the occasional rodent or critter of some sort, but this was clearly on a scale that made the building next to unlivable.
As I mentioned, we’ve been through battles with our landlord over the past couple of years (and came out on top thus far, thankfully), and he was well aware of the situation. While I’d love to blame him for not addressing the issue, I do know that he attempted to do so, sending multiple exterminators upon our request over the past couple years, all of whom left when the tenant cursed at them and would not let them into his apartment.
As I understand it, the landlord bought out his lease nearly a year ago, but he did not leave after accepting the buyout. Eviction proceedings followed.
It was a difficult situation for everyone, because clearly the tenant’s living situation was a threat to his own health and that of everyone in the building, and we certainly knew this couldn’t continue. On the other hand, we were conscious of his poor health and limited resources, and I don’t believe anyone wanted him end up living on the street. The courts apparently agreed, as they stayed his eviction for many months due to his health. And so, at something of a stalemate with our desire for a decent place to live and our consciences, the situation dragged on.
Last week, he was finally evicted and, as I understand it, he has moved into another building in the neighborhood, where I can’t imagine he or his new neighbors will be any better off than we were.
As for our building, as you can see, contractors immediately moved in to attempt to clean out his apartment, and clearly it is not a pleasant task. And it will surely be some time before we can fully eradicate the roaches from the building – though we will certainly hold our landlord to doing so as quickly as possible.
I suppose this is all a very long way of saying that it’s been a very rough couple of years, and it would sure be convenient if there was was one person to hold to blame, or to simply call the tenant a hoarder and put him on a reality show, or just call the landlord an asshole, or even to say that we (or his closer friends/family) should have done more, but maybe the lesson in the end is just that illness – mental and physical — really fucking sucks. And while none of us were able to help him address what he was going through, and maybe no one could, I just wish there were better options than watching this happen or getting him kicked out onto the street.
This video and the images of the apartment are out there now, and as we all know there’s no way of retracting them. And I don’t blame people for sharing them now that they’ve become public – I understand there’s a natural fascination with these kinds of graphic images, particularly in a city where we all may wonder from time to time what lies behind our neighbors’ doors. But wonder as we may, we do not generally step through those doors uninvited.
Our former neighbor never gave consent for his very private struggle to be held up to public view and inevitable ridicule, and it’s disappointing and saddening to me that Martin felt the need to offer them to the press. What purpose could it serve? The fact that he has left comments on the article at several news outlets asking people to subscribe to his YouTube channel and promising additional videos may provide the answer. Or perhaps he genuinely felt the need share an experience that he found traumatic as his own way of coping.
Whatever the case, I sincerely hope that he will reconsider posting whatever additional videos/photos he may have. And if he cannot resist doing so, I hope that this backstory will at least allow those who read it to view those images through the lens that we, his neighbors, have viewed them: certainly with disgust at the conditions, but also with an understanding that what we are witnessing is a glimpse into the very personal struggles of a person who, just a few years ago, was laughing with us at parties and showing off, with great pride, the furniture he custom built in his apartment.
For now, I can hope for nothing more than that he gets the help he needs and deserves, that we get to return to the decent living conditions we deserve, and that his new neighbors somehow avoid experiencing what we have endured over these past couple of years. And I hope that if our old neighbor is reading this, he knows that despite our frustrations with him over the years, we know his life is more than the images coming out of his apartment, and we wish him health and happier days ahead.
In 2015, NIKE, Inc., Kevin Durant, and the KDCF partnered to create the BUILD IT AND THEY WILL BALL Courts Renovation Initiative to increase the number of high quality basketball courts accessible to underprivileged youth across the United States and internationally. BUILD IT AND THEY WILL BALL will propel the mission of the KDCF to enrich the lives of youth from low-income backgrounds through various educational and athletic programs.
The bright, welcoming interior is a mix of modern and nostalgic features that reflect the classic architecture of the Bowery and Lower East Side. We’ve outfitted the large, open bar with a sleek, custom Nuova Simonelli Black Eagle Espresso machine that is quite the conversation piece, and six nitro taps – three cold brews, two nitro teas and kombucha. Our baristas will be hand brewing and batch brewing small microlot coffees from all over the world.
Salt therapy is a natural way of healing ailments related to respiratory disease, skin conditions and inflammatory symptoms. You will be surrounded with tons-literally tons of Himalayan salt that is both anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory. The cave is a beautiful setting for you to come and simply feel better. If you suffer from allergies, asthma, cystic fibrosis, COPD or any respiratory illness...you have found the right place.
In cooperation with the Department of Health, Boris & Horton will serve coffee and snacks in a dog friendly environment. The coffee bar will be glassed in with double doors leading to the dog side, which will feature café style seating and upscale pet products. We have a lifelong passion for animal rescue so Boris & Horton will be a hub for adoption events and fundraisers.
Former financier Jacob Ding is using family recipes to open a Guilin boiled rice noodle and dim sum parlor, after his wife told him she wished that type of restaurant existed.
Ding grew up in Guilin, China, where rice noodles reign. They’re thick and come with various topping such as roasted peanuts, scallions, chiles, and assorted pickles. Ding will serve his dry, as opposed to with soup, alongside a condensed gravy-like sauce and with options like roast pork and braised beef.
Yuan Noodle will also offer classic dim sum dishes, such as shumai, har gow, and vegetable dumplings.
When spring and summer come to New York City, so do homeless travelers from far away suburbs and cities.
They gather in Tompkins Square Park.
Police said some of the disheveled newcomers hopped freight trains from as far away as Seattle.
The park is their central gathering place, and they fan out to the surrounding East Village streets to panhandle.
“I’m homeless myself,” he said, “A lot of these guys believe it or not, their parents are rich. They’re traveling and doing this purposely.”
“There are people who are in desperate need and maybe don’t know there’s other options. But there are also people who are doing it purely out of choice. This is a fact — who somehow think it’s fun, or think it’s a way to make easy money. And I resent that, I really do.”
“I’m very upset at the notion of anyone who in effect gives people the impression they’re homeless to make money. That’s what I think is going on. And I don’t like it one bit,” he said, acknowledging there’s little cops can do unless the panhandlers commit a crime. “As frustrating as it is, and this bothers me to say this, but panhandling per se is not illegal.”
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"With a mix of luxury contemporary fashion labels, high-end dining options and influential neighbors, the area is a perfectly curated mix of downtown cool and cultured sophistication."
"Whatever you've seen, you've never seen nothing like this," Fernandez says ...
"When I first started doing work, we gave him a new stove and he was a very clean guy," he recalls about the tenant.
The apartment is filled with rotting garbage, empty bottles and assorted junk.
Cockroaches swarm across the the walls, floor and furniture.
"The refrigerator caught on fire," Fernandez notes as he peers into the scorched interior of the appliance.
The City will purchase 336 solar compactors that restrict access to trash with a “mail-box” opening and that have resulted in 90% rat reductions when fully deployed in concentrated areas. The City will also replace all the remaining wire waste baskets in the zones with 1,676 steel cans — both in parks and on street corners — which should meaningfully reduce rats’ access to food sources compared to current wire baskets.