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.

LES home of the week

From this week's real estate section in the New York Post. One of the "dream" homes of the week (descriptions are written by Victor Wishna):

$3.475 MILLION

A century ago, you might have found two or three families squeezed into one tenement apartment along this stretch of Norfolk Street. Today, you'll find the 16-story Blue, a sparkling new condo of "pixelated" blue glass, and at its top, this roomy 2,494-square-foot penthouse duplex. It features two bedroom suites, three full bathrooms, a designer kitchen, a large private terrace and "stunning" city, river and bridge views through 40 windows. My how times (and prices) have changed.

Meanwhile, go here to feel a little more Blue.

Is this really fiction?

The Wall Street Journal yesterday ran an excerpt from the new novel by Julie Salamon titled "Hospital." This passage caught my eye:

He traveled on the overnight flight from Phoenix, landing bleary-eyed in New York on a cold morning in December Sunday. He spent the day in Manhattan, staying with a friend on the Upper West Side. She showed him Times Square, Central Park, the usual tourist stuff. On Monday morning he took the subway to Borough Park, crossing the East River, away from the Manhattan skyline toward Brooklyn, once described by another transplanted midwesterner, Ian Frazier, as having "the undefined, hard-to-remember shape of a stain"—in other words, a place you wanted to be from, not head toward. In recent years, however, the real-estate craze in Manhattan had given the borough new definition, no longer stain but hot spot for the disenfranchised young people who couldn't afford the East Village or Lower East Side and for cramped, growing families looking for bigger spaces, more sky, yards.

Reminder! The Ukrainian Festival

The Ukrainian Festival starts this afternoon on 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue.

Here's a brief on it from The Villager:

Ukrainian festival to rock Seventh St.

St. George Church is sponsoring its 33rd annual street festival May 16-18 on E. Seventh St. between Second and Third Aves., featuring Ukrainian music, dance, art, food and more.

The three-day festival will benefit the St. George Elementary School and the College Preparatory Academy. Hours of the festival, which is held every year the weekend before Memorial Day, are 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fri., May 16; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sat., May 17, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sun., May 18.

St. George students will give a concert of dance and singing at 7 p.m. Friday and at 2 p.m. Sunday. Two other main-stage shows will be at 7 p.m. Saturday and 3:45 p.m. Sunday. Featured performers will include the Ukrainian violin virtuoso and recording artist Inessa Tymochko-Dekaj and the New York City-based dance group, Syzokryli.

The Halychany Orchestra, originally from Ukraine, will play popular Ukrainian music at a dance in the school auditorium from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday.

St. George Church was founded in the East Village Ukrainian community in 1905 and the festival draws thousands of visitors from the tri-state area who come to celebrate their ethnic heritage in the old neighborhood.

Of course, though, it has to rain. I swear it has rained every year during at least part of the Festival. Still, just bring your umbrella...

Good news!: New York is not one of Relocate-America's top 100 cities to live in the United States

How embarrassing would that have been?

Here's the whole list.

Curious, at least, about the top 10?

1. Charlotte, N.C.

2. San Antonio, Texas

3. Chattanooga, Tenn.

4. Greenville, S.C.

5. Tulsa, Okla.

6. Stevens Point, Wis.

7. Asheville, N.C.

8. Albuquerque, N.M.

9. Huntsville, Ala.

10. Seattle, Wash.

Another day, another small business closes to make way for condos

The headline from this feature in the Times says it all:

From Metalwork to Luxury Condos: Century-Old SoHo Shop Ends Its Run

The shop, which opened in 1907 and had been run by three generations of the De Lorenzo family, closed yesterday.

Reports the Times:

Even today, the shop has plenty of work making custom furniture and fittings for the glitzy galleries and expensive lofts and apartments in the area, which is now known for manufacturing high-priced meals and cocktails. But no bending brake or arc welder or cutting torch can alter the hard economic fact that to the De Lorenzos — the third generation is now running the business — the place is worth more closed than open.

A developer seeking to put up a luxury condominium building has agreed to buy the De Lorenzos’ one-story building, a 30-foot-by-100-foot structure on Grand Street near West Broadway, said Thomas De Lorenzo, 84, who owns the shop with his son Thomas 2nd.

One more blow for the art community.

“This place is really the last of its kind in an area that used to have so many manufacturing businesses,” said Robert McDougle, a designer who has worked in SoHo for 30 years. He said he enjoyed and benefited from having a small metal shop with an experienced staff fabricate his designs and suggest methods and materials that expanded his vision as a designer.

“They helped many, many artists in SoHo,” he said, as the De Lorenzos and three longtime employees rushed to finish their last few projects.

Wow.

Mr. De Lorenzo Sr. said that in 1968, he and his father paid $65,000 for the building — “and that was a lot of money then.”

Now, he said, he will retire to his house in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The price he is getting for the building is more than the business ever made in a century, he said, without revealing the amount.

There are beautiful photos by Chang W. Lee, like the one above, accompanying the article. I think Jeremiah wrote the very appropriate headline for the photo essay: A Remainder of SoHo's Industrial Past Vanishes.

[Photo: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times]

New York Times finds that New Yorkers cuss a lot and don't even really notice

Clyde Haberman takes a look at "fucking" in the Times today (uh, the word):

The reality is that this vulgar word has been tossed about with such abandon in public for so many years that New Yorkers tend to tune it out. Its endless, and mindless, repetition left them numb long ago. By now, the word is no longer shocking, just tedious.

Through frequent use, “a word like this begins to be less of a curse word,” said Ricardo Otheguy, a sociolinguist at the City University of New York Graduate Center. “The more you use it, the less dirty it is.”

You routinely hear Wall Street suits use the word at high decibels in the subway. Police officers bounce it casually among one another, no matter who else is around to hear. Teenagers use it all the time. Some people walk around with the word screaming from their T-shirts — an insight, perhaps, into their capacity for self-degradation.

But for how much longer? I wouldn't be surprised if legislation was passed making it illegal to swear in New York City. At least indoors. If we want to swear, we'll have to go outside -- as long as it isn't 500 feet from a school or place of worship. And they'll be a steep swear tax. And landlords will begin offering apartments that allow swearing. That will jack up rents by $400 a month...

P.S. Thanks Sue Simmons!

Related (kind of!): Joan Acocella's essay in Smithsonian Magazine on why New Yorkers seem rude -- and smart!

[Via Gawker]

There are so many great New York movies

Though this isn't one of them -- Hercules in New York, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Still, a hoot to watch. At least the highlight reel below.

Celebrating Arthur Russell

Happy to see so much press this week for something worthy of the attention — Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, the debut feature from Brooklyn-based filmmaker Matt Wolf. I had a chance to see a screening of this captivating documentary. I was only vaguely familiar with Russell, a talented player on the fringes of the downtown New York scene in the 1970s and 1980s. As many writers have noted in discussing this film, it's difficult to characterize what Russell was all about. (Part of what makes him so intriguing, of course.) He had a passion for all things related to music. He was a native of Oskaloosa, Iowa, who wore trucker caps long before they were, you know, ironic. He later became a Buddhist. He was an avant-garde composer and cellist. He liked the Modern Lovers and the Ramones. And he loved disco.

Upon arriving to New York CIty from San Francisco in the early 1970s, he collaborated with everyone from Allen Ginsberg to Philip Glass. Russell and his longtime partner, Tom Lee, lived on East 12th Street next door to Ginsberg. Richard Hell lived in the same building. (Lee, who first met Russell at Gem Spa on St. Mark's, still resides in the same building.) Going by Dinosaur (one of several monikers that he used), Russell wrote and produced “Kiss Me Again,” the first disco single released by Sire Records. Russell was later a co-founder of Sleeping Bag Records, which released hip-hop and oceanic dance music in the early 1980s. He wasn't afraid to admit that he wanted to be famous.

Russell died of AIDS in 1992. He was 40. He left behind thousands of partially finished songs that spanned every genre. His catalog was overlooked until recent years, when a series of reissues and tributes garnered the attention of a new generation. I hope the movie creates even more Russell fans. There are screenings of the movie tomorrow night at the Kitchen. It's sold out, but there are a few tickets available at the door, I'm told. The Kitchen is also hosting a celebration of Russell's music this weekend.

The Wild Combination blog has all the links to the recent articles as well as information on other screenings this summer.

Here's a trailer for the film:

Checking in on "the dildo of darkness" and other sun-blockers in the neighborhood

The good people at East Village Podcasts bravely took to the streets this past weekend for a video update on the 2,398 hotels and condos sprouting up in the neighborhood. (They call the Cooper Square Hotel the "dildo of darkness." Like it!)

Here's what they found:

The New York Post doesn't take kindly to cussers

Today's front page, from the arbiters of good taste.



So you just watch your mouth, OK? No more swearing people!

Report: A Big Apple coming to 23 Wall Street

"The Corner" is the iconic former home to JP Morgan & Co. at 23 Wall Street that sits across from the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall. Now it looks like the luxurious space will become home to ... an Apple store.

According to the New York Post:

Sources tell us that Apple is seriously negotiating for the entire 12,500-foot building at 23 Wall St.

It's now an empty building connected to its tall residential and luxury condominium neighbor at 15 Broad St., which has an Hermes shop on the Broad Street side, facing the New York Stock Exchange.

Lovely.

More from the Post:

Recall that 23 Wall also serves as the quirky Philippe Starck and Yoo Development-designed rooftop terrace for the residents of 15 Broad St.

It has tremendous windows that we're sure Apple CEO Steve Jobs will enjoy illuminating with neon Apple logos.

My office is nearby...so I walk by this area quite often. I'm sure the folks who sit on the steps of Federal Hall taking in the city's history may be lured to go buy an iPod.

Meanwhile, Forgotten New York has the story on the bomb that exploded in front of 23 Wall Street in 1920 that killed 33 people and injured some 400 people.

So what's the worst thing to ever happen to the Brooklyn Bridge?

Being torn down to make way for a floating bank/Starbucks/Duane Reade!

Oh, wait. That happens next year.

OK, OK...As we celebrate the 125th birthday of the Brooklyn Bridge, I wonder...what's the worse thing to ever happen to the Brooklyn Bridge? I'm thinking movies now. I Am Legend? Cloverfield? War of the Worlds?

NO! Getting blowed up by aliens or zombies would be sweet, sweet relief instead of being a plot point in Eric Schaeffer's heinous If Lucy Fell, in which the characters played by Schaeffer and Sarah Jessica Parker agree to jump off the bridge if both of them don't find true love by the time the time they turn 30. Or something.

Let's keep it clean, people

(Shh! It's a secret!)

I've said this before. I've seen these posters up around the neighborhood advertising the May 15 hillbilly extravaganza at Madison Square Garden. Whatever. But! What about the "with surprise appearances by" Rev Run and Peter Wolf part? How can it be a surprise if they're telling you they'll be appearing?

Reminder!

There 's an Informal Celebration of the Tower of Toys tonight from 7-9 at the 6th Street and Avenue B Community Garden.

The Villager has an article about it this week.

[Props to Jeremiah for having the original scoop. He has an update here.]

I'd love to be there, but I'll be far away at a family function. I look forward to hearing about it.

(And if you're new to all this, swing by Sophie's to take a look at some of his other pieces of art.)



Meanwhile, Alex has a great post at Flaming Pablum on another iconic piece of Avenue B that disappeared some 13 years ago....

Dare of the day

Walk into Nevada Smith's and ask if they'd put on the Mets-Reds game.

A shooting on Avenue A

Was running a few errands around Union Square yesterday morning. Started talking to one store employee who mentioned that he lived on 6th Street between Avenue A and B...and he asked if I saw all the police cars on 6th and A early yesterday. I hadn't. He said cops and news crews were everywhere...and that one passer-by told him it was a double murder. Before I could say anything, he offered. "It's a really nice neighborhood." A pause. "There's no regard for human life these days." I went home to check this out. I didn't see a thing about this on any news site. Later yesterday, I heard from a few other folks that there was a shooting outside Sing Sing Karaoke on Avenue A around 3 a.m.
The Daily News has this account:

A bouncer at an East Village bar called Sing Sing Karaoke took a bullet to the chest early Saturday after breaking up a series of melees, police and witnesses said.

As someone belted out Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" on stage, Carlos Salome staggered into the bar around 3 a.m. screaming that he'd been shot.

"He was yelling, 'My arm, my arm!'" said playwright Marissa Kamin, who was inside Sing Sing at the time of the shooting.

Salome was in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital.

The bouncer had been standing outside the singalong spot at 81 Avenue A when two groups of drunks began brawling, witnesses said. "He whipped out his security badge," said a worker at a neighboring bar.

After going their separate ways, the beer-muscled brawlers returned, the worker said, and the bouncers stepped in again. Two of the men walked by the bar a few minutes later, he said. "They walked to the corner and started shooting," he said.

No arrests have been made in the shooting outside Sing Sing, which lists a song by the rapper 2 Pistols atop its list of new tunes and counts celebrities like Cameron Diaz among its customers.

"[Carlos] had good intentions," the worker said. "He didn't want to fight those guys."

[An aside: Was it necessary to mention that someone was singing "Tiny Dancer" ... and that the place has a song by 2 Pistols on its playlist?]

I'd like to know a few more details on the case (and not who was singing what...) and the aftermath. Perhaps Bob Arihood was able to capture some of this?

Countdown to the Ukrainian Festival

Ah, yes -- one of my favorite neighborhood traditions kicks off this Friday afternoon on 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. (Been saving up my $1 bills for Chuk-a-Luck all year!) Community spirit at its finest.

Here's a little on the history of Ukrainians in New York. And on the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church, the centerpiece of the festival.


[©HK/BRAMA.com]

A little of the entertainment from last year:




Of course, how will this feel this year with all this crapola going on behind us?



Watch out for the cranes.

Scotch fans, perhaps?

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to deface these hideous ads for Rum. Not bad, people. Oh, why do you know they're selling rum? Because the women are all wearing bikinis and making suggestive faces. Duh.

EV Grieve Etc.: Looking at The Observer

Lots of good stuff in The Observer this week. (And why does my copy arrive Thursday or sometimes Friday? I know I can read it every day online. Still.)
The headline to a piece by Choire Sicha asks, "Who's Running New York? The Council sinks, rents rise, few notice."
Indeed.
He has a nice account of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board meeting from this past Monday, particularly an impromptu speech by Adriene Holder, a Legal Aid attorney and tenant representative.

“First of all,” she said, “I want to know where everybody is.” There were not so many folks there! When confidence in city government runs low, the people abscond.

“The tenants are here but not in the number that you would expect,” Ms. Holder said, “given how important this situation is, and how dire this is to what’s going to happen to tenants here in New York City. Perhaps they’re not here because they’re still working; perhaps they’re not here because they’re working their second job; maybe they’re not here because they’re discouraged, they’re disappointed; and maybe they’re not here because they’ve become weary of a process that guarantees that there’s going to be an increase.

“Increasingly, what we are seeing is two different cities,” Ms. Holder said. “We’re seeing a city that’s becoming increasingly rich, and a city that’s becoming increasingly poor, and a middle or moderate class that is moving away from the city.”

This week's issue also features a terminallly ill singer facing possible eviction from the Chelsea Hotel. Read it here. If you haven't already.

The 2008 Siren Festival, and one more summer at Coney Island as we kind of remember it?

[Photos of Coney Island courtesy of Mrs. Grieve]


Stereogum (and several other sites, actually) had the news yesterday about the 2008 Village Voice Siren Festival. Here's the good-looking lineup thus far:

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
Broken Social Scene
The Helio Sequence
Beach House
Times New Viking
Jaguar Love
The Dodos
Annuals
Film School
Parts & Labor
Dragons Of Zynth
These Are Powers

I went to the very first Siren Festival in 2001. And it was ungodly crowded. Too many stupid people there for the show. There was a line for Ruby's; people visiting it for the first time started acting as if they owned the place. Regardless! Seeing the festival lineup (I thought last year was it, to be honest) gives me hope for at least one more fairly normal summer at Coney Island, eating more expensive hot dogs at Nathan's and having beers at Ruby's. (They managed to eek out one more summer, right?) I don't know what's going to happen with this whole ridiculous development being bandied about. Still. But I plan on enjoying every moment I'm at Coney Island this summer.







Meanwhile, Gothamist has details on the May 22 rally to save Coney Island from the evil Thor Equities.

Posts that I never got around to posting: What could have been!

Heh.

It has begun

Looks as if street festival season has started up again...Third Avenue between 14th Street and, I'm guessing, 23rd Street was closed off last Saturday. Counted seven of them taking place in Manhattan this coming weekend. (That's SEVEN opportunities to buy four Gap T-shirts for $10 Or bags of tube socks! Or quickie back rubs!) Do these offer any benefit to the local community? I've never heard anyone actually say they look forward to a street festival -- or even admit actually going to one. I'm all for things to bring the community together (such as the various rummage and porch sales different blocks have), but just not the street fairs that seem to peddle the same crap weekend after weekend throughout the spring and summer.

Revisiting an old favorite

In a bit of a lousy mood for various reasons. (The whole city is going to hell -- more than usual, anyway!)

So! In times like these, I watch/listen to an old favorite. (Only seen this a few hundred times. But still.)



Oh, I liked that. Let's do another.

"This is one of the last vestiges of the anarchistic, crazy Lower East Side"

Jeremiah has the scoop that the Tower of Toys is coming down at the community garden at Sixth Street and Avenue B. This, of course, is the work of the late Eddie Boros, a lifelong resident of the East Village...not to mention a legendary regular at Sophie's. (A lot of his artwork still adorns the bar.) Mrs. Grieve and I just had a conversation about the tower over the weekend. The garden had an open, uh, garden on Saturday and Sunday. In the short time that I was there, I'd say some 20 tourists walked by and took admiring photos of Eddie's creation. However much we liked the sculpture, we wondered how much longer it would be part of the garden. (Eddie passed away in April 2007.) For starters, there was the community garden politics: Many people involved there hated the thing. Here's an article from The New York Times dated Nov. 22, 1998, by Karen Angel:

Junk Art Roils a Garden
The junk sculpture on Sixth Street and Avenue B looms above the surrounding tenements like a psychedelic treehouse. From its limbs of raw lumber hang a huge headless Godzilla, a gold mannequin with a horse's head, stuffed animals and other motley objects. For the community garden that houses Eddie Boros's growing sculpture, it has become a source of controversy along with the artist himself, a self-described alcoholic and trash picker who finds his materials in garbage cans and Dumpsters.

Mr. Boros, 66, began building on a 4-by-8-foot garden plot about 15 years ago, as a form of protest. He had been using the vacant land to make carvings, and when the Sixth and B Community Garden was organized, the founders wanted to relegate him to one plot. "I decided to build a little open shed," he said. "I was going up 10 feet, and something started in me. I went up 15 feet, 25 feet." Now the sculpture is about 65 feet tall and occupies six garden plots, and he plans to take it 5 feet higher.

"Eddie is building out of anger," said David Rouge, a founder of the garden. "He has never accepted the authority of the garden." Seven years ago Mr. Rouge led an unsuccessful effort to evict the sculpture. He had to settle for a ruling that forbade Mr. Boros from making it bigger. But Mr. Boros follows his muse, not the ruling.

The sculpture often elicits debate among garden members. "There are these wild raucous meetings with screaming," said Karen Schifano, founder of the garden's mediation committee.

Jimmy Dougherty, a garden member and a film maker, said that most members are defenders of the sculpture. "People are either repulsed by the sculpture, or they think it's beautiful," said Mr. Dougherty, who did a documentary about Mr. Boros that was broadcast on PBS stations this year. Because the sculpture elicits such strong reactions, he said, "it's a successful art piece."

Mr. Boros often climbs to the top of his sculpture. "He sits up there like a pirate in a crow's-nest surveying the neighborhood," Ms. Schifano said. "This is one of the last vestiges of the anarchistic, crazy Lower East Side."

(Here's another piece on Eddie from the Times.)

As Jeremiah notes, you can pay your respects: "Before it's gone, come to An Informal Celebration of the Tower of Toys, Sunday, May 11, 7pm - 9pm at the 6th Street & Avenue B Community Garden."

Anyway, another day, another piece of the neighborhood's soul is lost.

[A reader on Curbed pointed out this video from 1988:]

This is exactly the reason why we'll never get a Wal-Mart in this town

Ha on that headline. Anyway, for whatever reasons, the editors at Time Out New York thought it would be a good idea to ask New Yorkers to strip for this week's issue. And there were plenty of volunteers. See for yourself. (Really NSFW.)