Third Avenue and 11th Street, 7:50 a.m., Sept. 21

And now a word from our sponsor

In honor of the last game at Yankee Stadium. Or an excuse to run a silly commercial featuring Mickey Mantle.

And now, another word from our sponsor

Ditto.



Hmm, Dextrose food energy...

Breaking records; wasting gas

Hot off the wire! (And I'm assuming this is today...since it's hot off the wire and all...)

NY attempt at record for largest tow truck parade

NEW YORK (AP) -- Get ready for the rumble of 400 or more tow trucks parading through the streets of Queens and Brooklyn.

New York's towing industry plans to break the world record for the largest tow truck parade with a procession of 50-ton rotators, medium-duty trucks, flatbeds and wreckers.

The procession is slated to leave Shea Stadium and cruise along the Van Wyck Expressway before finishing at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. The trucks will then park on the 5,000-foot runway to spell out the words "New York."

Guinness Book of World Records representatives will be on hand to certify the results of the parade. The previous world record was set on Aug. 20, 2004, at Wenatchee, Wash., by a parade of 83 tow trucks.

Hmm, given the price of gas these days....seems like money well spent. Good luck fellas! Anyway, this is all well and good, but does anyone remember what happened last time?

Down and out in NYC

Headline from today's Wall Street Journal:

As Times Turn Tough, New York's Wealthy Economize:
Plastic Surgeons, Jewelers, Yacht Builders Brace for Leaner Times; Saying No to Caviar

And the first few parargraphs:

A nose job in a hospital with a private nurse in attendance had been something of a rite of passage for Joan Asher's children. But when her fourth and last child was ready for her own rhinoplasty recently, Ms. Asher asked her to postpone it.
The financial markets were simply more out of whack than her 16-year-old's proboscis.
"The other noses were more prominent," the stay-at-home mother from a tony New York City suburb in Westchester County told her 16-year-old daughter. She could get hers done when things settled down.
The financial crisis on Wall Street has New York's well-to-do reeling.

No one attended the schmancy Sex and the City DVD release party

Horrors! Writes Sheila at Gawker: There's no satisfying way to explain the party, other than a PR clusterfuck/fuckup. However, maybe people are getting a little tired of the franchise after a six-year TV run, one of the most-hyped movies of the year, and a cultural reach that, on some days, seems to have infected the entire city with luxury brand names and bus tours. What does this say about the sequel? We're guessing nothing good. Sometimes you just have to get the shotgun and take the old mare out behind the barn.

Saturday morning bonus!

Here's a feature on the Sex and the City Tour from April 2004 by Norwegian journalist Henrik Pryser Libell:

Dee Dee Ramone and Spikey Tops on the Uncle Floyd Show

From April 1991.



Who's Uncle Floyd?

Lucky Cheng's leaving the East Village for the wilds of Times Square

News from GNML via Eater.

As Down by the Hipster notes: "We are also happy that it will be bringing its legions of tourists and bachelorette parties with them. Walking past the restaurant on a weekend night is like walking through a gauntlet of cheese. You know what we mean. You know."

Thanks for the memories!

EV Grieve Etc.

A few things...

Avalon to buy Extra Place from City? (Save the Lower East Side!)

The growing number of tent cities (CNN)

Ken remembers HoJo's (Greenwich Village Daily Photo via Jeremiah)

An evening to save the Bowery (Bowery Boogie)

SJP on the possible Sex and the City sequel (Us -- no giggling, please)

Oh, to be rich and white...to have the ways and means to help out other rich white people (esquared)

[Photo via Forgotten New York]

In which EV Grieve panics for a brief moment

Was startled the other day when I saw the ominous-from-a-distance sign hanging above Life at 1oth Street and Avenue.

Just an "apartment for rent" sign. Uh. Carry on. Nothing to see here...

Anyway, forgive me for being a little jumpy. Last time I made note of a building for sale, the business on the ground floor moved...in this case, Vasmay Lounge at 269 E. Houston St.

Previously on EV Grieve:

Rent lives; Life lives on

Did the Donut Social cause a headache for HOWL?

Scoopy's Notebook in The Villager this week has more on the fallout from the Donut Social on Sept. 5:

The L.E.S. Slacktivists’ sound-permit flap spilled over to the recent HOWL! Festival, causing some howls of frustration from festival organizers. After John Penley, Jerry “The Peddler” Wade and Bill Cashman, Leftover Crack’s manager, argued in federal court that the local crust-core band’s planned concert outside the Ninth Police Precinct on Sept. 5 was being held to unfairly low decibel levels, police apparently felt they had to make a better show of monitoring HOWL! sound levels. Artist James Romberger, whose wife, Marguerite Van Cook, ran this year’s festival, as she did last year, said that “The Death to the Police Rally,” as he called it, caused a headache for HOWL! “We were enforced,” Romberger said. “They stood there all day with whatever those were…sound guns, or whatever.” Actually, Romberger said he’s more concerned about the whole “death” trend of late by local singer/activists, from Leftover Crack’s Sturgeon singing “Kill cops” to David Peel leading choruses of “Die yuppie scum!” “Anyone who’s against the death penalty cannot be behind calling for death,” Romberger stated. “Throwing donuts and pies is O.K., funny, ha ha. But calling for death is anti-reasonable and uncivilized.” Speaking of throwing donuts, we hear that the harassment charge against Sturgeon for trying to pelt police with the pastries on Sept. 5 was dropped but that he was asked to perform 200 hours of community service, which he refused.

Previously Donut Social coverage on EV Grieve.

The oldest tattoo shop in Manhattan

City Snapshots had a nice post this week on Mike Bakaty, proprietor of the only tattoo parlor left from the days when tattooing was illegal in New York. His shop, Fineline Tattoo, is on First Avenue between First and Second Street in the East Village.

As CS notes:

Mike Bakaty draws tattoos with a signed picture of Gandhi hanging in a frame over his shoulder: “To Mike. Your man, Mahatma.” He traveled a lot as a young sailor, and the navy is where he got a taste for tattooing. Then, during what Bakaty refers to as the bootleg years – the period in which tattooing was illegal in New York – he started practicing the art behind closed doors on the Lower East Side.

Among the people who have received a tattoo from Bakaty: Wilford Brimley.

Via a link at City Snapshots, here's a brief look at the history of tattooing in NYC:

For 36 years, there were no tattoo shop storefronts in New York City - not even on the Bowery, where modern tattooing was invented in the 1890s. There were no televisions in street-level store windows showing people getting tattoos, no advertising - save for the tattoos themselves - fliers or vague messages in the back of the Village Voice. Every Tom had to know Dick who knew Harry who knew where to get a tattoo.

Tattooing in New York City went underground after the City Health Department found what it said were a series of blood-borne hepatitis cases coming from tattoo parlors in 1961. Tattoos were done on the second story of buildings on Canal Street, in basements, apartments and backrooms.

Noted

The city’s unemployment rate rose to 5.8 percent from 5 percent in July — the largest monthly increase in more than 30 years — as about 5,200 private-sector jobs were eliminated . . . Many of the layoffs came in the tumbling financial sector, which is one of the city’s biggest employers and the provider of nearly one-fourth of its annual wages and salaries. (New York Times)

What a Steel!

Ads have gone up around the East Village, like the one below seen at 8th Street and Avenue C, for The SteelWorks Lofts coming soon to Williamsburg. The sales gallery is opening in October for the lofts that are priced from $495,000 to $1.5 million.


Seems perfect for the East Village resident who's sick and tired of the overdevelopment and condofication of this neighborhood...to move to a neighborhood with even more ridciulous overdevelopment and condofication.

P.S.
What exactly is "handcrafted living"? And what's up with the blowtorch? Why is Jennifer Beals coming to mind?

"Its quirky feel has come to symbolize the avant-garde, rebellious East Village spirit"

The Daily News takes a look at Red Square on East Houston:

Conceived by self-proclaimed radical sociologist-turned-real-estate-developer [Michael] Rosen in 1989, Red Square occupies land that served as an automobile service station for more than 25 years. Rosen's wife's family bought the property in the 1960s, and, he points out, no homes were destroyed and no businesses were displaced.Red Square was designed by graphic artist legend Tibor Kalman, a Hungarian immigrant. Its quirky feel has come to symbolize the avant-garde, rebellious East Village spirit.

Hmmm.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Looking back: Red Square and gentrification

Otis Williams Jr. on Wall Street

Otis Williams Jr. -- street performer, sculptor, poet and self-proclaimed health fanatic and ex-con -- took to the steps at Federal Hall on Wall Street after work Tuesday to talk about being clean and sober and, uh, some other things that I couldn't quite make out. The tourists seemed entertained. And the Federal Hall officer was jovial enough in ushering Otis off the stairs (in the second video).

Story of a City: New York (1946)

Here's a revved-up version via Rocketboom:


[Via AnimalNewYork]

"Freaks" and cheeks

Sorry, a little off topic here, but I wanted to make mention of this....On Monday, cops raided an S&M parlor in Tribeca and arrested two people, including the club's alleged proprietor, Collin Reeve, 35, of Staten Island. They two were charged with promoting prostitution. Whatever! Let's find out more about Reeve. As the Post helpfully notes in its case to assassinate the man's character:

Marie Santiago, who used to be the superintendent of a Staten Island building where Reeve lived for several years, called him a "freak."

"When they left, we found out they were total freaks. We found videos of him and people playing with people dressed up as dinosaurs," she said.

"When they had a party, the people who came were weirdos. They wore all leather. They would wear spikes around their necks, too."

Noted

Mayor Bloomberg is the 8th wealthiest person in America with a net worth of $20 billion. (Forbes)

A letter from The Bowery Presents

The following e-mail showed up in in-boxes last night...By posting this, I'm neither endorsing or criticizing what they're trying to do at 19 Kenmare...just telling people what is happening with the space. (Eater's coverage of the proposed new restaurant is here.) Oh, I did always like Little Charlie's Clam House, which was at 19 Kenmare on the LES for 80 years.

This email was sent to you by The Bowery Presents, 156 Ludlow St., 5th Floor, New York, NY 10002. You are receiving this email advertisement because your email address was used for a ticket purchase or you signed up via our website.

Dear Friends:
I am asking that you please forward the following email to http://us.mc904.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=TRAV200008@hotmail.com to help support a new restaurant that plans to open near The Bowery Ballroom. The restaurant, named Travertine, will be located at 19 Kenmare Street (near Elizabeth Street) in part of the space that was occupied by Charlie's Clam House. We want to encourage new, well-managed restaurants to open in the community so that our guests will have a place to eat both before and after shows. The Community Board has requested that Travertine show its widespread community support through letters or by having supporters attend the Community Board meeting tomorrow evening 96 pm [ED note: Eh?] at SEIU HQ, 101 Sixth Avenue, 22nd floor, between Canal and Spring Streets). If you are able to attend, the Community Board leadership is merely going to ask supporters of Travertine's liquor license application to stand up or show their hands (this should take no more than an hour).
Thank you,
Michael Swier

Following is the Following is the email that you can either cut-and-paste or revise and send via email to the email address stated above:
Mr. Ray Lee
Chair, SLA Committee, Manhattan Community Board 2
3 Washington Square Village, NYC, NY 10012
Dear Mr. Lee,
I am writing to ask you and CB2 to support the application by Travertine (19 Kenmare Street) for a liquor license. I look forward to the opening of a well-managed, quality dining option in my neighborhood. The location has been a restaurant for many years and the owners of Travertine should be allowed to open at this site, create jobs, pay taxes, and improve the neighborhood.
I hope that you will encourage your fellow board members to approve the application on Thursday, September 18.
Sincerely,
Name
Address

OH, THANKS A BUNCH, TIME OUT NEW YORK

In this week's "Best 'Hoods" issue, the East Village gets the nod for "best bar scene." As the magazine notes: "Hate on college students all you want: Fancy pants, fuddy-duddies and everyone in between still love the E-Vill for a night of boozing." Just what we need! More TONY-toting bargoers! Here's the write-up on the "E-Vill." (And if that catches on...)

Meanwhile, on the too-many-bars front. Save the Lower East Side! has news on the most recent CB3 meeting...while Tim at Colonnade Row has the latest on the Box.

Welcome to the East Village!: We're rich, drunk, snotty and LOVE John Mayer!

Also in Time Out this week:

What do you think of when you hear…We asked New Yorkers to play a little word association with NYC neighborhoods. Let the stereotyping begin!

East Village:

“Snotty — they like to go out every day, like to drink.”
Sohaib Marie, 22; Sunset Park, Brooklyn


“Rich people who come from a rich family. They listen to John Mayer.”
Thomas Morales, 16; Bronx


“They’re fun people. Easygoing, easy to mix with.”
Carson Roberts, 26; Bronx

The Times discovers Chinatown

Oh, boy. From today's Times. Titled: General Tso’s Shopping Spree.

In the film version of “Sex and the City,” Miranda, played by Cynthia Nixon, hunts for an apartment in Chinatown, eager to sink roots into this roiling neighborhood. Once a bit remote and gritty for Miranda and her acquisitive ilk, this Lower East Side enclave — home to Chinese, Burmese and Vietnamese, among others — is on the cusp of gentrification. Wine bars, art galleries, restaurants and boutiques have proliferated, turning the area into a magnet for real-life style seekers who can be seen on weekends casing out the string of shops scattered in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge.
Intent on exploring this two-mile-square area loosely bounded by Kenmare and Delancey Streets on the north, and East and Worth Streets on the south, they thread their way past old tenements, knickknack shops and vendors selling windup toys. And they shop.
“It’s crazy how things are blossoming here,” said Zia Ziprin, the owner of Girls Love Shoes on Ludlow Street, just south of Canal. “It’s definitely becoming a little mecca.”
Merchants are lured by affordable rents; shoppers by the promise of forward-looking, and sometimes budget-friendly, wares at boutiques popping up along Orchard, Ludlow and Division Streets — and, more recently, on Canal, where closet-size outposts of chic rub shoulders with electronics and hardware stores.
For retailers, “Chinatown is a last frontier,” said Faith Hope Consolo, the chairman of retail leasing and sales for Prudential Douglas Elliman. Merchants leap at the chance to lease stores for $100 to $150 a square foot, roughly one third to one half the rent for comparable space farther uptown. “Here they can be big fish in a little pond.”

Lehman Brothers 1928 staff Christmas party

I hope they were serving a lot of booze...this is one dull bash.

A touch of Blarney

Not sure what to make of the stickers for EV Grieve favorite the Blarney Cove being plastered around the neighborhood. The "I love to party" message seems awfully fraternityish for the Blarney Cove. (ED note: Duh.) Unless they're trying to drum up some more business. Which I understand. That stretch on 14th Street between A and B is up for grabs in spots. Still.

Are you there God? It's me, Carrie

Candace Bushnell, whose mid-’90s New York Observer column was the basis for Sex and the City, has signed a deal with the children’s division at HarperCollins to write a young adult novel about Carrie Bradshaw’s high-school years. Hello! (New York Observer via Gawker)

Our billionaire mayor speaks out on the "I want it now" society

An "I want it now" society that refuses to live within its means is partly responsible for the subprime-mortgage crisis, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.

"I think you just can't blame the banks," he said, taking borrowers to task.

"They say, 'I want the great American dream. I want it now and I'm not going to wait until I put some money in the bank.' . . That's where we lost the moral compass of saying no to people who did not have the earning capacity to support a mortgage."

(New York Post)

Emily Brill weighs in on the Eldridge

On her Essentially Emily: Confessions of a 5th Avenue Misfit site, Emily Brill had this to say about the Eldridge, you know, the hidden lounge/restaurant on Eldridge Street with only 13 tables "manned by chaperones, butlers, table attendants, and a hospitality consultant"...:

The Eldridge is a nice space, but indeed, there’s nothing mind-blowing about it–unless, of course, you wanna talk location (and my friends are as obsessed with this neighborhood right now as I am). I know how stupid this sounds but for an uptown girl like me, stepping out of the cab last night on Eldridge Street was like stepping on to a soundstage. Maybe it’s because they had the sidewalk all glammed up for this party and the collision of flashbulbs and the unassuming nonchalance of East Village streets, graffiti and neon is what got me. I know the west village always used to give me this ‘you’re in a storybook’ feel and it still does from time to time–and the bowery can still feel like that during the day but it’s hard to feel like you’re in little ‘untouched’/unchartered new york by night. It’s an incredible feeling.

So whether or not we’re comin’ back to the eldridge, this is an area, I think, that’s going to see a lot of activity this year. But I hope it holds onto everything I described.

Here's the first comment in response to the post:



Related!: Jeremiah looks at the faux-bookshop facade of The Eldridge. What a kick in the balls.

Leaving Manhattan for Hooterville

For no reason, really. The intro to the long-running sitcom Green Acres from 1966.



Seems as if they could have reached a compromise -- just go to Hooterville on the weekends or something. You have to question how happy their marriage was. Sure is fun to over-analyze old sitcoms!

Condo calls

As the Post notes, in a tough real estate market, new buildings are doing whatever it takes to lure these buyers. "In an effort to be competitive, buildings are offering more and more extreme amenities," says Nathaniel Faust, vice president of Citi-Habitats.

Well, let's just have them report all this:

"Recently, rental buildings are going more full-service, and a lot of condos are making moves towards hotel amenities. Buildings going up now are gearing up to sell units over the next 24 months - they're counting on the weak dollar attracting foreigners - by providing the services that hotels do."

That's where Dr. Robert Glatter comes in.

Glatter is a board-certified emergency physician who has worked with high-profile clients - in certain circles he's known as the official doctor of the city's "fashion bitches" - such as Elie and Rory Tahari, Diane von Furstenberg, Devi Kroell and the cast of "Gossip Girl."

But when he's not taking the temperatures of the famous creative class or attending to patients at Lenox Hill Hospital, he's running his new business, Dr. 911. In addition to being sort of an old-fashioned house call medical care service, the business, which employs four other doctors, caters to luxury buildings such as 15 Central Park West, The Miraval and 40 Bond.

"And a lot of busy people - especially corporate types who have difficulty getting away from their desks - long for days of traditional house calls."

While the service might seem charmingly quaint and old-fashioned, it's not really for everyone - specifically, it's not for the poor. Prices vary on a case-by-case basis, but this personalized service does not come cheap.

"We have an upscale clientele," he says. "Sometimes we'll get a call from an outlying area, but the price deters them a little bit. I don't take insurance, and it's the patient's responsibility to submit the invoice to their company for partial reimbursement."

Love the cheesecake photo shoot the Post did for him, by the way.

Finally! Some positive financial news for NYC!

Federal homeland security officials are giving $29.5 million to the New York Police Department to develop a system to prevent a radiological or nuclear attack on the city.

Oh.

Tourists on hand to document our nation's economic collapse

Can't wait to show the kids! These photos were taken minutes after the Dow closed down more than 500 points yesterday. With the NYSE and Federal Hall right here, this is a heavily traveled area for tourists. Still, there were a lot more tourists milling about yesterday. Could have been the lure of the media trucks and lights...and blood.

Meanwhile, down the street. A few people in Tiffany's.



Not so many people shopping for BMWs. Except some dummies.

Dwell95 fiddled after Wall Street burned

About 90 minutes after the Dow closed yesterday, the big doings began at Wall and Water Streets. As Curbed reported yesterday, the Moinian Group, in some unfortunate timing, had scheduled the launch party for their Philippe Starck-designed luxury rental conversion at 95 Wall St. last night. Uh, oops? No matter! Despite a 500-point tumble (collapse?) on the NYSE, the mood was festive at the location known as Dwell95! A tux-clad musician with an electronic fiddle was on the red carpet delighting all who walked by, mostly confused tourists at the onset.

To hold space for the incoming town cars, Dwell95 planners implemented those festive "do not slip" signs indigenous to maintenance crews.

Meanwhile, here's a snippet of the energetic fiddle player's performance. (Oh, yes -- it's "La Bamba.")



I didn't stick around long enough to hear if he did "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."

Looking at the unintended victims of yesterday's stock market meltdown

How about the US Women’s Soccer team? They visited the NYSE yesterday to celebrate their Gold Medal victory in Beijing and ring The Closing Bell.

One argument for not mourning the destruction of Yankee Stadium

"The Yankees are pretending that, with a final, unimportant game this Sunday, they’re leaving the house that Ruth built: the majestic stadium that opened back when Harding was president. Wrong. That park died in 1973. In its place is a typical seventies improvisation, gritty, rickety, and ugly, something not built for the ages but just good enough to get us through the bad times." (New York)

Those who grease the wheels in Manhattan without (shudder) alcohol; and what's the booziest borough of them all?

Page Six Magazine covers an alarming trend: People who don't drink to wretched excess! No!

Meet the Wagonistas
There was a time when the fashion and media industries were known for their bacchanalian ways. Not anymore: The truly ambitious are giving up booze to boost their careers.

But while tastemakers often justify getting loaded as a way to grease the networking wheels, a growing number of ambitious New Yorkers in creative fields like fashion, media and entertainment say they are passing on the cocktails this year. It's not to lose weight and it's not a post-rehab regime. Instead, the impetus is much more mercenary: They're hoping that not nursing a hangover at work will give them a competitive edge in a tight job market.

And here's a stat from the piece:

According to the city's health department, about 16.8 percent of New Yorkers drink excessively, which is defined as imbibing more than two drinks a day for men and more than one drink a day for women, or consuming more than five drinks on any one occasion. Manhattan is the booziest borough of all, with about 23 percent of the population drinking excessively.

More than two drinks a day for a man is excessive? Good lord. What does three drinks an hour for, say, most of Thursday night and the weekend translate to?

Uh, any help here? Someone? Anyone? Jay McInerney?

"These people are probably giving themselves an unfair advantage by not drinking," says Bright Lights, Big City author Jay McInerney. "My friends still drink happily and copiously—except for the ones who went to rehab. These [ambitious teetotalers] are probably missing out on a certain amount of fun."

The last frontier on the LES?

Million dollar condos abound, of course, on the fringes of the Lower East Side, with River Ridge setting up shop on the wilds of Ridge Street and Karl Fischer soon to follow on Ridge and Stanton. Not to mention 32 Clinton at Clinton and Stanton. Still, for better or worse, there's still at least one stretch of the area where you can enjoy what the neighborhood used to look like -- the empty lot and few dilipidated buildings on Attorney Street between Rivington and Delancey. (Seems like the perfect place for a secret club!)






I have a few more shots from earlier this summer on my Flickr page.

Wishful thinking...?

For some reason I was looking at the CBGB Web site...Guess it hasn't been updated in a few years...And whatever became of the Vegas dream?