The Tower of Toys is coming down

I left work a little early today to swing by the community garden at 6th Street and Avenue B. As Jeremiah noted earlier today, the city started removing the iconic Tower of Toys that was created by Eddie Boros some 20-plus years ago. I walked by around 5:30. Work was done for the day. The garden was locked up. The dumpster sat alone. No one was milling about. In the 10 or so minutes that I stood there, not one person stopped or even paused to look at what was left. I guess I was expecting more of a scene.

Meanwhile, I can't tell how much has been removed. (Hmm...20 feet? It's roughly 65 feet tall.) Whatever, there's a lot of work left when the destruction returns tomorrow morning.





Curbed has more photos from the afternoon here.

All this made me want to watch the opening to "NYPD Blue" again...right before James McDaniel gets his intro...



Earlier on EV Grieve:
"This is one of the last vestiges of the anarchistic, crazy Lower East Side"

New York Post attempts to relate to the economic struggles of the common family man trying to make a living in New York City

The Post has a piece today that so many of us can relate to here in the city: Everything is just getting so expensive.

YIKES! HIKES HIT $1,000+ A MONTH
BLAME FOOD AS MANHATTAN FAMILY'S BILLS SURGE
By JEREMY OLSHAN

The cost of living for a typical Manhattan family has shot up in the past year - just ask Gary Foodim.

Foodim, 37, his wife and two kids saw their expenses increase well over $1,000 in April compared to the same month last year.

Of course, this story runs on the same day that the paper ups its price from 25 to 50 cents. Thanks, Rupert!

[Updated] "Artists, filmmakers, movie theaters — we're getting pushed out of Manhattan"

That's Ray Privett, programmer at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater. In a New York Sun feature today, Privett discusses his latest project: the Queensbridge Theater. According to the article, "As envisioned, Queensbridge will occupy an entire building in Long Island City housing a restaurant, a dance floor, and a space for concerts and performances. Mr. Privett said the venue, which is scheduled to open in the fall, will ideally remain open for 20 or 21 hours a day and cater to both Manhattanites and local residents."

More from the article:

It is yet unknown whether Mr. Privett's decision to remain involved in the local film scene will help to assuage mounting fears that Manhattan is no longer a place where independent artists can thrive. Queensbridge, for starters, has left the borough entirely.

"This is all definitely part of the general trend," Mr. Privett said. "With Queensbridge, I'm working with a lot of people from the Lower East Side who can no longer continue having things on the Lower East Side. People in the film world are going to Texas and Germany. Artists, filmmakers, movie theaters — we're getting pushed out of Manhattan, and my evolution is yet more proof of that."

[Updated] Ray Privett left a comment to this post...He had posted a few clarifications to the Sun article:

The Pioneer is still open. My departure from the Pioneer did not close the Pioneer, nor did the two things coincide. Indeed, my successors booked the three films mentioned in the first paragraph of Mr. Snyder’s article. Clearly, the Pioneer can do interesting things without me. Hopefully they continue to. Good luck to them.

Moreover, the Lower East Side’s gentrification did not cause me to leave the Pioneer. I have never claimed it did.

I left the Pioneer because professional opportunities emerged at the Queensbridge Theater - which is not a movie theater but a performing arts club, and which is now where the bulk of my efforts have shifted. Meanwhile, in film related endeavors, I felt I could be more effective as my own boss.

However, while gentrification did not cause my shift to Queens, that shift does coincide with the general trend of Lower East Side arts people relocating to the outer boroughs. For example, several of my colleagues in Queensbridge have tilted much of their work to the outer boroughs.

Nonetheless, they still sometimes put on shows in the Lower East Side and elsewhere in Manhattan. Many will continue to do so; from time to time, I know I will, too.

Looking at "a cozy downtown watering hole with an uptown look"

In the Sunday Pulse section of the New York Post, we're taken on a cozy tour of the Bowery Wine Company, which Bruce Willis has something to do with:

WHEN this boxy nouveau wine lounge (and the sterile luxury condo complex that houses it) replaced a longtime, unkempt Bowery lot in early April, owners and lifelong New York City residents Chris Sileo and Lenny Linar were befuddled to hear locals complain that their little watering hole would ruin the neighborhood. Now a buzzing after-work hangout for downtown yuppies and longtime locals alike, the 124-person haunt is a cozy downtown watering hole with an uptown look.

This "Making the Scene" feature also points out that the CD jukebox offers classic rock from Springsteen and the Stones. And a bunch actors from The Sopranos -- including James Gandolfini -- "have all but made this their real-life Vesuvio's." And the $9-$13 panini menu is an "after-work hit."

Take your VIP tour here.

Previously:

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

Articles that I won't be reading today (unless I'm aiming to get my blood pressure around 210/140)

Page Six Magazine, which is FREE every Sunday in the New York Post (even though you pay $1 for the paper), devotes a good portion of the magazine to this under-the-rader independent film called Sex and the City. (Per usual, none of the content from the magazine is online.) The coverline! "Sex Symbols: How Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte defined a generation." Yessirree!

But that's not all! We get to meet the men of Sex and the City...and "Confessions of the Real Carrie." Ohh! Candace Bushnell! She offers her choices for her faves in NYC. Like: Best place to lounge: The pool on the Soho House roof. (Of course!) The ultimate cosmo: Balthazar. (Wow! Never heard of it! I must go!) Place that makes her smile: Washington Square Park. (Ahhh!) Why? Well! Her current home, a prewar Greenwich Village apartment, is two blocks away from where she lived in the late 1970s -- though the vibe is now very different, the Post notes. (NO!) "When I first walked through Washington Square Park, there was no grass and it was filled with musicians, jugglers and punks with blue hair," Candace recalls. (Ewww! Gross!) "Now it's filled with strollers and it has the best dog run."

Finally, the pièce de résistance! We meet four 21st century Carries! Women who live the Carrie Bradshaw lifestyle no matter what!





Like Erin, a 29-year-old magazine editor who moved here last year! She is "the kind of person who will eat lentils for four weeks to get a pair of Alexander McQueen gladiator boots." Live the dream, Erin! (And you're getting plenty of fiber!)

14th Street dies a little more

The scaffolding went up April 22...and the building started to come down last week.

From an April 22 post of mine:

Meanwhile, came to the corner of 14th Street and Third Avenue. Scaffolding! And that wasn't there when I passed by Sunday. Uh-oh. This doesn't look good. Housing and a bank? [Housing? Ha! That sounds affordable. No, make this overpriced condos.]

They're back!

Last week, the ads with the bikini-clad rum saleswomen were shredded.



Replacement ads went up almost immediately! Someone is hot to sell some rum!

Dumpster of the Day

On 11th Street between First and Second Avenue.

Dancing in the Park

The Dance Parade 2008 started yesterday at 28th and Broadway and winded up at Tompkins Square Park for a DanceFest. Seemed like 500 people were taking pictures and video of these dancers.



Most everyone I know had something negative to say about this Parade and DanceFest, from traffic (and sidewalk) snarls to closed-off streets to drunken fools hours later.

Beautiful day

Even better when there's construction going on in the building next door all morning.



Speaking of which...did anyone see Noise? Curious about it.