Friday, April 24, 2009

Ending the day on a high note

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition



Inside an EV-bound party bus (Slum Goddess)

Starbucks on Astor Place is closing (Eater)

Varvatos to do a "Battle of the Bands" (Esquared)

An emotional rescue? (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

The Avenue A groper gets some help (Neither More Nor Less)

A makeover for Allen Street/Pike Street malls (The Villager)

Not quit under the boardless boardwalk at Coney Island (Kinetic Carnival)

Russ and Daughters has a blog? (Russ and Daughters)

LES/EV streetscenes (Upset)

One way to mark a pothole (BoweryBoogie)

FYI -- The Party Starts Now



A special thanks to the Intern of EV Grieve for finding this gem.

With high rises and new shops in the works, it's time to take a look at the area around Yankee Stadium


A few weeks back, the Post had the following item:

First, a new stadium. Next, a new neighborhood.

Just as The Bronx gears up for Opening Day at the new Yankee Stadium, city planners yesterday unveiled a proposal to transform the blocks around the ballpark into a neighborhood of high-rise towers, wider sidewalks and new shops.

The plan, which would rezone a stretch of River Avenue and 161st Street, would clear the way for developers to replace streets filled with the one-story bars, souvenir stands, empty lots and repair shops that now dominate the neighborhood.


Meanwhile, like Jeremiah, I was curious about what kind of impact the Stadium would have on businesses now a little farther away from the new digs. Before the game Tuesday night, I figured I'd better take a look around...

The first casualty appears to be the Press Cafe on 157th Street. With panini sandwiches and Stella on draft, the owners were trying to be a little more upscale... With high rises and other luxuries coming, the Press Cafe was maybe a little before its time...



The bodega is gone on 157th and Gerard. Lost to a fire. (Was always a good spot to drink a few beers before games. No one seemed to mind. Just be cool.)



I imagine the city's plans call for the destruction of these shops and old structures along Gerard Avenue.





The Yankee Tavern on 161st Street and Gerard Avenue has some new awnings...(By the way, the Tavern's owner, Joe Bastone, was charged yesterday with evading more than $1million in state and city taxes.)



A few other signs and scenes from the neighborhood...






I also looked to see if any new businesses popped up along River Road directly across from the new Stadium. No... but the McDonald's on the corner got a big outdoor facelift...And you have to wonder how long places like a family eyecare center and a 99-cent store will last directly across the street from a $1.5 billion stadium.



The DUGout (pictured below on the left), has been around for five years. As the Times noted March 27, it became "the most coveted location on the block." It's directly across the street from the new Stadium. The bar's owner, Tyrone Robinson, 31, expanded the 2,400-square-foot space by 4,000 square feet and opened a roof deck, the Times reported. “There’s a term I’m looking for,” Robinson said in trying to describe his bar to the paper. “Midtown comes to the Bronx — that’s it.”



Finally, in that March 27 feature, the Times wondered whether the new Stadium would have an impact on the 30-year-old Stan's, the bar that once had the closest proximity to the Stadium... On Tuesday night, Stan's was packed...More crowded than the DUGout.



For further reading:
A Late Rush to Tidy Up the Yankees’ New Home (The New York Times)
Bonus excerpt:

Wally Jimenez, 27, an audio engineer who grew up in the neighborhood, said the work was not primarily for the community’s benefit.

They want to turn this into a commercial area, but they don’t think about the consequences for the people around here who don’t have the resources to get a new place when rents go up,” he said. “They are trying to push the community out.”

Mr. Jimenez said of the cleaning efforts, “I’ve never seen something like this, and I was born and raised in this area.” He added, “It’s good that they are cleaning up, but they are definitely not doing this for the community.”

The Ram-into-the-ATM-in-a-van bandit busted


As only the Post can report:

Cops who busted a dumb-as-chum crook suspected of trying to steal an ATM won't have trouble finding the loot from his previous heists -- he used his one call from the station house to contact a friend and blurt out: "Get all of the cash out from my mattress!" sources said yesterday.

The bizarre saga -- which included a dip in the East River -- began when Valentin Garcia attempted to swipe the cash machine outside a store at 23 Rutgers St. on the Lower East Side by knocking it from its foundation with his van, the sources said.


Cops said Garcia is also the prime suspect in a rash of other knock-over ATM thefts around the city, including the LES, in December and January.

Honoring Linda Stein


From Page Six:

When Mandy Stein debuts her movie, "Burning Down the House: The Rise and Fall of CBGB," tonight, she won't just be honoring the now shuttered club's most famous band, the Ramones, but her late mother, Linda Stein, as well. Linda was the band's manager and a punk rock scenester before she became uptown's real estate broker to the stars. She would have celebrated her 64th birthday today, had she not been tragically murdered in 2007. "The film is dedicated to Linda, who would lead the celebration of her daughter's film," said a spokesperson for the flick. Debbie Harry, Mary-Louise Parker and Jim Jarmusch are expected to toast the Steins during the Tribeca Film Festival screening tonight at the Village 7 and the after-party at Bowery Electric.


[Photo by Bob Gruen]

Fashion models

The Times recently had a photo essay that I liked on Lifestyle Forms and Display, which "designs and produces mannequins and clothing forms at a plant at Cozine and Alabama Avenues near Starrett City in Brooklyn."

And, despite Kim Cattrall, I've always been fascinated by mannequins. Need to get my mannequins set up on Flickr. Meanwhile. Until then...

From somewhere on 27th Street. (And if these aren't the scariest damn things around....)



And...



During the recession, marketers turn their attention to yuppies, pervs

How else to explain these newish ads on 14th Street near Third Avenue?





Yeah! Get into it!

Drinking this new tea will give you that sexist pig feel



A new ad in the Cemusa shelter outside Lucy's on Avenue A.

Reliving the 1980s in the Financial District

There's a fairly nondescript frame shop at the corner of John Street and Pearl Street that I never paid any attention to....Until now. What chestnuts!



It would be a much better post had the Federal Cafe busted out a "Recession Special" happy hour

As a follow-up to Tuesday's post on the new Federal Cafe at the Hotel Reserve in the Financial District... They've introduced some specials...

Thursday, April 23, 2009

"I would like you to be a slim attractive girl who is OK with occasionally walking around or hanging out in her underwear"


Nerve brings several Craigslist ads to our attention, including this one:

$130 Unique offer for a unique woman (East Village)

Many of you who read this ad are going to find it very offensive. Please understand that while this offer might not work for you, there are people out there in this world that have different levels of comfort with certain ideas that might be offensive to the majority of the population.

I got this idea from an article in Time Out New York that I read a while ago. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment that I inherited and now own. I live alone in the East Village, and have an empty bedroom and a lot of space. I am offering the empty room w/private bathroom for only $130 a month. Here is the catch...of course there is a catch. I'm a white late 20's guy that works in finance. I work A LOT and therefore my social life has become nonexistent. So, I want to add a little bit of excitement to my life. I would like to rent the room to a woman between the age of 18-27.

You should be a free spirited, liberal minded person who is very open minded. I would like you to be a slim attractive girl who is OK with occasionally walking around or hanging out in her underwear <---yes...that would be the slightly crazy part.

I would never ask you to strip or do anything at all. You must be someone who occasionally walks around like that and is ok with me being around when you do. I know this is a strange arrangement, but like I said earlier, I am trying to add some exitement to my life:) I am not looking for anything to develop into a relationship, or to have you start acting like a girlfriend. If you are interested, send me an email so I can discuss it further with you. There is no sexual contact or anything involved. I WOULD NEED THE ARRANGEMENT TO BE 100% CONFIDENTIAL. I know that it makes no sense to put my pic on here if I want it to be confidential, but I figured it was a necessary risk to take if I wanted solid responses. If you are interested please send me your pic. It does not have to be a provocative pic. But a body pic would help.

The apartment is huge-near St Marks. The kitchen is big...very bright living area. The room for rent is very big too AND HAS ITS OWN BATHROOM. I don't need the money which is why I am able to do this. The $130 is just a nice round number I came up with. PLEASE do NOT respond by saying "WHY WOULD A GUY AS GOOD LOOKING AS YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS". We all have our reasons.....Thanks
-Keith

At the new Yankee Stadium

As I mentioned, I had a free ticket to the Yankees game Tuesday night, which gave me the opportunity to walk around the new stadium, shop, eat and mingle with friends (if I had any with me). Oh. And perhaps watch some baseball. (For the record, I didn't shop or eat. But I did have a few beers. And checked out the Yankees-A's.)

First thing, of course: The place is a palace. You've read about all the amenities. In fact, you've probably already read too much about the new Yankee Stadium. That's the thing: Between the hype and the backlash (cost overruns, city's shady role in the construction, etc.), it's nearly impossible to actually just come here and watch the game.

Anyway, it doesn't seem as if any expense was spared, except for maybe chintzy seat cup holders. So, despite ample amounts of Yankee history everywhere ....



... (not to mention the location), the new stadium feels like suburbia. Where the parents can let the kids run around sitter-free while they bask in the glow of the food court. For me, it seemed like a vacation: Some resort that was kind of fun, but I miss home. And it doesn't help that the stadium feels a little cold and manufactured, though I'm sure things will improve with age.



So here's a quick tour, which begins with Derek Jeter channeling Paul Bunyon next to the Hard Rock Cafe...



Now to the other first thing: The food choices. Sushi and ramen, which made me feel as if I was right back on St. Mark's!



There's popcorn....



...and, oddly, pears. Danjou and Bartlett. Two for $3.



...white tablecloth restaurants...



...lots of meat...



...and well-displayed sandwiches.



There are also many lounges to have food and watch the game on a flat-screen TV. Though not any ol' schlub can walk in: You need the tickets that also give you the right for access to, say, the Jim Beam Lounge. I did not have the right tickets, but the guy working the door was friendly and said that I was welcome inside. Really, they guy working the door was friendly.





Also, the Jumbotron big screen thing in center field is as high-def as they come.



As the season progresses, I'm sure there will be more interesting things to say about the player who's up to bat.



Meanwhile, only at the $1.5 billion stadium does a penny cost $1.01.



Eventually the novelty of the stadium will wear off, and people will turn their attention to the game again.



I've talked with several Yankees fans who said they'd never set foot in the new stadium. I'm sure people said that about the renovations that neutered Yankee Stadium in the mid-1970s. I understand that point of view. I think I'd go again. See how it feels in a few months. Maybe even without a free ticket.



If you want to know more about how people felt when the stadium reopened in 1976, check out the April 26, 1976, issue of Sports Illustrated and the article by Robert Lipsyte titled "A Diamond in the Ashes."

Meanwhile, across 161st Street....

The old stadium sits empty... looking a little derelict...







... waiting to be torn down...







... while the new trophy wife gets all the attention.



Of course lifelong Yankees fans/NY residents talk about how Yankee Stadium hasn't been the same since the renovations of 1973-1975. As Maury Allen wrote in Baseball Digest when Yankee Stadum reopenend 1976:

"It was a building of stone and steel, that old Yankee Stadium, a massive monument to excellence in the middle of The Bronx, a structure of love and life and legend.

It is gone now, the old replaced by the new, the low fence in right where Babe Ruth set records and Roger Maris broke them, the vastness of DiMaggio's center field country, the hanging facade from the roof that Mantle would crush one day, the bullpen fence jumped by Joe Page, the dugout where Casey sat, the soft dirt around home plate where Lou Gehrig stood and thousands cheered.

Now it is of the past. Only the memories remain, the awe and the shock, the pride and the wonder, when a young man walked up through that tunnel and saw those seats, that size, that history surround him."


To be fair, I'm sure a kid will have that same sense of awe walking into the new stadium today.