Sunday, November 30, 2008
Bike lanes on Avenue A
I had the same reaction to this as East Village Idiot: Where did these things come from -- seemingly overnight. I walked across Avenue A yesterday and there were...bike lanes...Went back for a few photos this morning.
More sap!
Christmas trees are now for sale on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. Also: Trees spotted for sale at the Stuyvesant Supermarket at 14th Street and Avenue A.
And now on First Avenue and Fifth Street.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Being Sappy
"This is the time to think about the importance of old buildings in New York's urban fabric -- and how to preserve those worth keeping"
Julia Vitullo-Martin, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has an op-ed in the Post today on why it's time to save the city's imperiled landmarks:
The pause in New York City's building boom may have one side benefit: It gives everyone a chance to think. As projects skid to a halt and buildings get stopped in mid-construction, developers - and their neighbors -- have an opportunity to reassess their plans and consider different options for the future. Can that gorgeous but crumbling church on the corner be saved with neighborhood support? Is an old industrial warehouse a candidate for rehabilitation rather than demolition? Could a clever architect renovate that empty commercial skyscraper for residential? This is the time to think about the importance of old buildings in New York's urban fabric -- and how to preserve those worth keeping.
The Post also offers up a listicle of the 10 endangered buildings in the city worth saving, such as the Corn Exchange Bank in Harlem (pictured above) on the northwest corner of 125th Street and Park Avenue. You can view the slideshow here.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Noted
Buffalo Exchange opened last week on 11th Street. I remarked at the time that the old Cinema Classics sign was still up. I wondered if the BE folks may keep it...
Uh, no.
A rush to destroy history
The Times continues to take it to the Landmarks Preservation Commission:
The strategy has become wearyingly familiar to preservationists. A property owner ... is notified by the landmarks commission that its building or the neighborhood is being considered for landmark status. The owner then rushes to obtain a demolition or stripping permit from the city’s Department of Buildings so that notable qualities can be removed, rendering the structure unworthy of protection.
And later:
The number of pre-emptive demolitions across the city may be relatively small, but preservationists say the phenomenon is only one sign of problems with the city’s mechanism for protecting historic buildings. “This administration is so excited about the new that it overlooks its obligation to protect the old,” said Anthony C. Wood, author of “Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City’s Landmarks.”
Previously on EV Grieve:
A Landmark article
Friday, November 28, 2008
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition
East Village preservation group gets a nice check (The Villager)
The most-ticketed block in New York City is 14th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. (The New York Times)
Commercial mortgage crisis looms (AP)
New Yorkers spent less on Thanksgiving this year (Runnin' Scared)
How to get legs like the Rockettes (Time Out)
Wal-Mart employee trampled to death by shoppers in Long Island (New York Post)
Being sappy
The Christmas tree stand on 14th Street near First Avenue in front of O'Hanlon's is ready for action. This is the first stand that I've seen open in the neighborhood. They should be up soon on Avenue A in front of TSP...on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery and Houston near Norfolk.
Noted
The return of table tennis. From the Fashion & Styles section in the Times yesterday:
Grand Opening, a glass-fronted gallery space between tenement buildings on the Lower East Side, has old Chinese men playing hipsters on its table despite the language barrier. “People can communicate through their game,” the owner, Ben Smyth, 27, said.
[Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times]
"Where are all those wonderful folks now?"
From Page Six yesterday:
Eric Bogosian misses the dangerous and dirty old Times Square. In the monologist's upcoming novel, "Perforated Heart," his hero describes walking along the new "Deuce" between Seventh and Eighth avenues and being "jostled by tourists munching kosher hot dogs, their souvenir Playbills clenched in pale Midwestern fists . . . [taking] pictures of each other." He continues: "Thirty years ago, these same darkened doorways framed girls who chanted, 'Wanna go out?' 'Wanna party?' Prostitutes, drug dealers, pickpockets. Where are those wonderful folks now? Grown old. At home with their grandkids, or in drug rehab or in prison or pushing up daisies." The book hits stores next spring.
[Photo by Flo Fox via The Villager]
Horse sense
I like this shot from a newsstand on Third Avenue in the 20s for two reasons...any store that sells so many horse racing publications is good with me...and anyplace still using a collectible New York Sun paper holder....
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