Sunday, April 13, 2008

Third Avenue near 12th Street, 7:41 a.m., April 13


Spring has sprung on Avenue C


People waiting in line for an outdoor table at Zum Schneider yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile, activity continues at 111 Avenue C next door, home to the now-closed Bao 111. The Bao owners packed it in at the end of February and are reportedly moving to the West Village (emphasis mine) because the rents became too high on Avenue C.

Flashback!

On Oct. 16, 2005, The New York Times did a piece on how hip Avenue C had become. According to the article:

Raising the style quotient several notches is Bao 111, 111 Avenue C (between Seventh and Eighth Streets), (212) 254-7773, a slick Vietnamese restaurant that draws fashion model types.

(I saw James Iha, formerly of the Smashing Pumpkins, in there once!)

A prediction from the article:

"C will keep its edginess for five more years," predicted Melvina Goren, a partner at Porch, 115 Avenue C (Seventh and Eighth), (212) 982-4034, a candlelit bar known for its large backyard. "And then the scene will move on to Avenue D."

What do you think? We have two years left. Is C still "edgy?"

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Signs of the times

Random collection of photos that I've taken in the neighborhood the past few years.







He would have loved the 37 bank branches that popped up around the corner



So someone told me that Butch Cassidy (as in Butch and the Sundance Kid, Newman and Redford!) lived briefly in the East Village. That someone was right. As the story goes, Butch Cassidy lived in a boardinghouse run by Mrs. Catherine Taylor at 234 E. 12th St. between Second and Third Avenues. This was in 1901. Butch (joined later by the Sundance Kid and his squeeze, Etta Place) hung out here for awhile, spending money, among other things, on their way to Argentina. There's no more No. 234 on the block. That building was torn down to make way for a nursing school. The building now houses a doctor's office and some nice-looking apartments.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Miracle on Pearl Street



Outside my jurisdiction again! But I do work around the corner from this project at Maiden Lane and Pearl Street. So I have the pleasure to see this concrete hell inch skyward every week day. As Curbed as reported, the developers are such preservationists that they decided to make the old facade at 211 Pearl Street a permanent part of this gaudy insult to centuries past. As the City Room reported, 211 Pearl Street WAS a five-story counting house completed in 1832 for William Colgate, the founder of Colgate-Palmolive.

Anyway, as I understand it, the lovely old Pearl Street Diner -- with that classic neon sign -- will live on. It closed for a few days when the construction began at the Rockrose stinkpit late last fall.

I'll do more on the Greek diner later. Until then, if you're in the neighbor (lord knows why), please stop in....it's a rare gem (50-plus years) in a fast-changing neighborhood. With escalating rents and things like Subway and Chipotle (where you can get a week's worth of sodium in one meal!) open now around the corner on Maiden Lane, who knows how long Pearl will/can last.

"How many rich jerks that want to be in Sex and the City can there possibly be in America?"


In a Q-and-A published at Gothamist today, singer-songwriter (and Brooklyn resident) Mike Doughty was asked: If you could change one thing about New York what would it be?

His answer (bravo!):

The forward march of the gentrification cold-front. But I keep in mind that gentrification hasn't been around forever, and is a trend, not a universal unstoppable force. How many rich jerks that want to be in Sex and the City can there possibly be in America? OK, a lot, but there's not a limitless supply. If the upcoming Sex and the City movie tanks, it will be for the societal good.

A little off point: I miss his "Dirty Sanchez" column that he wrote back in the day at NYPress. (And how I miss the sister of Sanchez!)

From an interview from 2005 with Doughty in the Black & White weekly in Birmingham, Ala., by his former NYPress colleague J.R. Taylor:

Sadly, Doughty’s less likely to return to rock criticism. I’m proud to be on record as part of a mutual admiration society, since Doughty’s post-fame stint as the pseudonymous scribe “Dirty Sanchez” was easily some of the best rock writing in the genre’s sad history. “Rock critics are just failed writers” was a typically great line—although Doughty doesn’t look back at his glory days with much compassion.

“I wrote all that angry shit just about when I first got clean,” Doughty says. “What a dumb thing to do. I was really mad about rock critics being mean to people, so I set out to be really mean to them. It was pretty much the ultimate in pointless, hypocritical behavior.”

"We want to show our opposition to right-wing Republicans opening yuppie wine bars in our neighborhood"


From today's Page Six:

BRUCE Willis is not being warmly welcomed by the anarchists, Marxists and counter-culture riffraff of the Lower East Side now that he's opened the Bowery Wine Company on East First Street. "We want to show our opposition to right-wing Republicans opening yuppie wine bars in our neighborhood," activist John Penley told Page Six. Penley, who is organizing the August celebration of the 20th anniversary of the riots in Tompkins Square Park, said, "We're getting a pig and we're naming it Bruce." The whole, roasted pig from Chinatown will be served while folk singer David Peel serenades with his anthem, "Die Yuppie Scum!"

East Village Podcasts recently paid a visit to BWC and filed this report:

BWC feels like an upper west side transplant with its wide-open, gymnasium-like space and track lighting. I’d say loft-like.. but the whole Avalon Place structure reminds me of a new development from the suburbs - spotless and well-fireproofed. Surely, there must be a few doctor’s offices nearby.

[Image Weber Anita/SIPA]

Monday, April 7, 2008

EV etc.: 40 years and 196 cultural works


This week's New York magazine looks at 196 cultural works "that best defined the city since this magazine began." Which was 1968. Haven't had time to dig through it at all, but I did see the list of movies they have. Pretty much what you'd expect.

In any event, the list reminded me again that it has been too long since I've seen The French Connection. I thought about the film last week when Jeremiah was disucussing the history of Ratner's. I remembered that scene where Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Cloudy Russo (Roy Schieder) do a stakeout at the now-defunct Ratner's on Delancey.

The bowery boys had some nice observations on this classic when it played last summer at the Film Forum.