EV Grieve

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

The death (and life) of Ruth Greenglass

There's an obituary in the Times today on Ruth Greenglass, who passed away this past April. She was 84. (News of her death was only recently disclosed.)

The story of this Lower East Side native is fascinating.

As the Times notes, her husband, David, was an Army sergeant assigned as a machinist to the Manhattan Project, the program to develop the atomic bomb, at Los Alamos, N.M. Long story, but her testimony in the Rosenberg atomic-bomb spy case of the early 1950s helped lead to the execution of her sister-in-law Ethel Rosenberg. On June 19, 1953, Ethel and her husband Julius Rosenberg were put to death in the electric chair at Sing Sing. Greenglass' testimony was later called into question. She had lived the last four decades of her life under an assumed name.

It's all quite complicated. The FBI has the full story of the case here.

EV Grieve Etc.

[For no reason, a photo of Hilly Kristal, which was taken by Spencer Drate. Via Gothamist]

The area around 1 Jackson Square getting closer to becoming that "charming urban oasis." (Jeremiah's VNY)

Alex sees a legitimate punk rocker on Saint Mark's -- and a lovely sunset (Flaming Pablum)

Out with Madonna . . . in 1984 (Ephemeral New York)

The horror: Jill comes face-to-face with "the deep-core rottenness of the 'new' East Village" (Blah Blog Blah)

Please DO NOT take photos of the Bayview Correctional Facility. (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

"Kinda sad to see Manhattan as it is now." (Bohobait)

Overheard on the Bowery: "Bruce Willis owns a spot around here, let's find it." (Colonnade Row)

Looking at some of those buildings that are for sale

In recent months, I've noticed several buildings for sale in the neighborhood...nothing unique about that, of course. Except! It's just that each of these signs are hanging on buildings that house bars. (Bars that I happen to like.) Maybe this doesn't mean a thing. The signs are for other buildings that are for sale. The bars all have long leases. It will all be business as usual. New landlords, no rent increases! You know, all is well! (I'm trying...)

Oh, and in the case of the "space available" along 14th Street in the (blurry, sorry) third photo, I don't even know if that includes the beloved Blarney Cove. Still, given some of the reports (via Jeremiah, Curbed and The Villager) about that ripe-for-development eastern stretch of 14th Street between Avenues A and C, I'm not very hopeful. About anything.

Fulton Street construction update

Hmm. We'll check back around 2010.

Flier of the day

At Starbucks, Park Row and Beekman.

Drug store celebrity exit wars

Duade Reade has Mario Lopez gracing its exits (and disguising the store's security system). Not to be outdone, Rite Aid (at least the one on 14th Street between Avenues A and B) wants us to smell like David Beckham.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Nassau Street, 4:54 p.m., July 8

How condos are named

The Times has a dandy piece today on why every new condo name these days seems to have something to do with the sky.

. . .the floor-to-ceiling glass towers popping up in record numbers across New York City are starting to sound an awful lot alike.

Two new high-rises, one on the Upper East Side, the other in Brooklyn, a have the same name: Azure, a deep shade of blue. Seem familiar? It should. On the Lower East Side, another new building is called Blue.

Sky House, under construction on East 29th Street, is not to be confused with the Cielo (Italian for “sky”), on East 83rd Street. And then there are Star Tower, in Long Island City, and Solaria, in the Bronx.

It is an unintended consequence of the city’s historic building boom: a traffic jam of similar sounding names. To showcase the sweeping views from buildings with huge, wrap-around windows, real estate developers are flocking to a set of words that evoke the sky, clouds and stars.

Builders say there are only so many ways to describe a glass box, the undisputed architectural aesthetic of the moment. Similar names, they argue, are inevitable.

Classic!

(And what, no My Blue Heaven as a name for a condo?)

Meanwhile!

Trends in New York building names are not new. Builders seized on the American West around 1900, producing the Wyoming, on West 55th Street, a block away from the Oregon, on West 54th, and across the park from the Idaho, on East 48th. And, of course, there is the Dakota, on West 72nd Street.

Soon after, a wave of Francophilia yielded the Bordeaux, the Cherbourg and the Paris. Native American motifs were enshrined in the Iroquois, the Seminole and the Waumbek.

Trees (Laurel), Greek mythology (Helena) and Spanish cities (Madrid) have all woven their way into the city’s skyline.

And mailing addresses are often used as building names, especially when the street is considered prestigious, like Park Avenue or Perry Street, in the West Village.

Occasionally, names flop. When developers converted the Stanhope Hotel, across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue, into luxury apartments two years ago, they called the project the Stanhope. Few takers emerged, and the name was discarded in favor of the street address, 995 Fifth Avenue.

What is striking about the latest wave is just how closely — or haphazardly — some of the names overlap.

The goal, after all, in a crowded real estate market like New York, is to stand out, not to blend in, said Mr. Wine, of Related. Most of the units in the new towers go for $1 million or more.

“You need to be distinctive,” he said, “and a good name can do that.”

Oh, lordy, there's more. But my head is going to explode.

The grocery stores of Saint James Place

There's one stretch of the city downtown refreshingly free of Whole Foods...or Gardens of Edens...or Gourmet Garages...or...

The C Town at 5 St. James Place has a 1970s suburban feel to the exterior. Meanwhile, about 100 yards north, there's Peter's grocery store at 25 Madison Street on the corner of St. James Place.

A great sign.

And I love the corner angle.

"Pure poo"

We were talking about the Holiday Cocktail Lounge on St. Mark's in a post yesterday. I later spotted this user review of the Holiday at Zagat.

Understandable...he probably wants to buy a place at the Theatre Condominiums...

"I’d lower the rent for stores so all of the cool, small shops could afford to stay afloat"

That's Albert Hammond Jr.. who was a good sport and did the "Six Seconds With" feature in Page Six the Magazine (the content is finally available online) on June 29. The second solo record -- ¿Cómo Te Llama? -- from the guitarist for the Strokes comes out today.

The East Village resident was asked:

What’s your favorite place to people watch? The Gracefully deli on Avenue A between Second and Third. You can see the whole spectrum, from crazies to beauties, walk by.

Where’s your favorite bar in the city? In the 10 years I’ve been here, I haven’t found one. I’d like someone to build a nice one that’s not behind velvet ropes and filled with pretentious people. [EV Grieve note: Safe answer. Do you really want to tell people where you like to drink?]

If you were mayor of Gotham, what would you change? I’d lower the rent for stores so all of the cool, small shops could afford to stay afloat. The huge chains are making the city start to lose its personality.

He also said: “On the weekends, the East Village can be overrun with undesirables,” says Albert. “But I love Manhattan. I’ve been around the world and it’s my favorite city.”

Sidebar: Why is this feature titled "Six Seconds With..." It takes more than six seconds to read.

Uh, meanwhile, here's the video to "Back to the 101," a song from his debut record, Yours to Keep, one of my favorites from 2006: