Things about a "Changing City"

Alex at Flaming Pablum has his tickets for the WNYC-hosted forum tomorrow morning titled "The Places that Bind: Examining Preservation and Culture in a Changing City."

Meanwhile, Norman at the Atlantic Yards Report posted WYNC's program from Monday that serves as a sneak preview for tomorrow. Brian Lehrer talked with Rosie Perez, who's hosting the event, and writer/filmmaker Nelson George, on "the importance of mom and pop shops, stoops, civic gathering places, and neighborhood character in a changing city."

Atlantic Yards noted one of the comments from a caller to the program:

"A caller named Manny, who grew up in the Lower East Side and Washington Heights, expressed understandably mixed feelings. 'Is the city safer, yes, but at what cost?' he asked rhetorically. 'To have $90-a-plate food [at restaurants] on Avenue B is crazy... It's good, but it's also bad, because the poor people at the end have to pay.'"

Norman also posted two videos of the Dictators doing "Avenue A," from their 2001 record "D.F.F.D."



In this performance, as Norman, wrote, Mantioba "disses Avenue B (home of his bar Manitoba's) as 'Avenue Bistro,' laments seeing a New York University dorm go up where AC/DC opened up for the Dictators, and snarls, 'Give me back my fuckin' neighborhood.'"



P.S.
In case you missed it.... last week, WNYC hosted Lou Reed, Santigold and string quartet Ethel in a program Titled "Downtown: World in a Word."

Rent increase proposed; tenants are disappointed

From the Times:

The board that oversees rents for New York City’s one million rent-stabilized apartments proposed a range of rent increases on Tuesday, disappointing tenants and their supporters, who say the recession warrants a rent freeze.

In a preliminary vote, the city’s Rent Guidelines Board proposed increases of 2 percent to 4.5 percent for one-year leases and 4 percent to 7.5 percent for two-year leases. Last year, the board approved its highest set of rent increases since 1989 — 4.5 percent on one-year leases and 8.5 percent on two-year leases. The board will hold two public hearings, on June 15 and June 17; it is to take a final vote at a meeting June 23.

That time of year

CBS 2 has an early report on the Rent Guidelines Board's meeting tonight at Cooper Union.

Goodbye New York

Coco McPherson has lived in the Meatpacking District for 25 years ... and has had a front-row seat to its slow death march toward glitz and glass. At her photo-driven site Goodbye New York, McPherson captures three vanishing areas of the city.

As she writes on the site: "The original High Line, the old meatmarket -- before it was banished to the Bronx -- and Coney Island are three of the most beautiful, dreamlike places in New York City."

Here are two of her shots...

The Kelly Building circa 1984 at 400 W. 14th St. at Ninth Avenue. In the 1970s, it was home to The Toilet... Now it's the Gaslight...



The next photo is titled "Digging the Hotel Gansevoort" from 2000. McPherson writes: "I can't remember when they started building that hotel, but this was Day One as they began to rip up the parking lot. Amazing how big and out of place the hotel is, how ugly, and how small and beautiful the scale of the neighborhood once was."



Check out the rest of photos at Goodbye New York.

McPherson contributed an essay to the Voice's "Best of New York" issue in 2000... in the "My Obsession" section:

Until recently, the meat market was my secret dreamworld, a place most alive in the middle of the night, surreal for its rows of hanging animal carcasses and the white-coated men — with names like One-Eye (blinded by bleach after he bugged a waitress once too often), Dog Eddie, and Rabbit — who attended them, and the prostitutes who fought on the cobblestoned streets and who later gathered at Dizzy Izzy's (closed this spring) for coffee. All this is over now, and a new neighborhood is rising like Disney's version of New Orleans, drunk and rich, with lots of money and a little help from writers who shill for developers in the Sunday real estate section. My neighbor rides around on his bicycle shouting into a bullhorn, "Go back to Soho," and like a gentle but insistent traffic cop, "Soho is south of here," and only occasionally, "GET OUT OF MY NEIGHBORHOOD." Indeed.

I hope that "Salt" is a more exciting movie than these photos

I walked on Second Avenue and Second Street yesterday around 5 where the crew was camped out for the CIA thriller "Salt" starring Angelina Jolie. And I saw...not much. Trucks! Lights! Did I miss the mayhem? Anything? Later, it was suggested that they might not have done any filming because of the rain. It was my understanding, though, that the crew would be filming inside and on the steps of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection on Second Street. Let's say that they didn't film, does all this sit around for a few more days...? Or will this be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader later this summer? And when will it actually stop raining anyway, June?

High school junior aims to unseat Rosie Mendez on City Council

Meet 18-year-old Dodge Landesman. And his campaign his raised $6,500 so far, thanks to contributions from Julianne Moore and Danny Meyer. District 2 includes the East Village and the Lower East Side. (NY1)

Cleaning up the White Negro

A lot more White Negro tags have been spotted in recent weeks...





...of course, not everyone appreciates it.



But the tags seem like a challenge to remove.



For further reading:
From Mailer's "White Negro" to the Post-Hipster? (Patell and Waterman's History of New York)

Brunch may have to wait

There's a stop work order, dated Friday, on the door of Permanent Brunch on First Avenue near Sixth Street. They were also hit with a stop work order back in September.

"The Jerry Garcia of the sintir" behind Sintir

New York has the scoop on Sintir Restaurant, Cafe & Lounge on East Ninth Street near Avenue A. As the magazine reports:

Unless you are an aficionado of world music, you may not have heard of the Marrakech-born Hassan Hakmoun, but he is something like the Jerry Garcia of the sintir — a long-necked, three-stringed wood-and-camel-skin lute. He’s also somewhat of an authority on good Moroccan food: “In New York, there is none,” he says matter-of-factly. To rectify that sorry situation, he opens his own place this weekend in the East Village. Unlike his distinctive sound, which fuses Western influences with the music of Morocco’s Gnawa people, Hakmoun’s kitchen specializes in straight-up traditional fare (couscous, bisteeya, harira), and is run with an iron fist by his sister.

On Feb. 9, Sintir went before CB3's SLA Licensing Committee. Bailly Roesch was there to cover the meeting for Eater:

Sintir . . . met some opposition from nine members of the Block Association. They collected a petition with 109 signatures trying to block the restaurant and cited ads the owners had apparently posted on their MySpace pages advertising upcoming live music performances. After a half an hour struggle, the ap was denied, the owner was in tears.

Still want to know more about this sign.

P.S. Here's Hakmoun in concert.

We'll always have Donald Trump

“I just sold a house for $100 million in Palm Beach, though I don’t want to be bragging.”

Meanwhile, read about Trump's ongoing development efforts in Scotland and the one local man, Michael Forbes, who refuses to sell his property.

Mr. Trump swept in a few years ago and bought 1,400 acres here at the edge of the North Sea, eight miles from Aberdeen (Mr. Forbes’s 23-acre holding is part of the project site, on a fragile, frequently foggy, shifting sand dune). Mr. Trump pronounced it the perfect place to build two golf courses, a 450-bedroom hotel, 950 vacation homes, 500 single-family houses, a conference center and a golf academy.

(New York Times)

Mayoral campaign

Key Food looking for someone to do something

A variation of the standard "help wanted" sign.

Cemusa classes it up

Avenue A near Ninth Street.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Why you won't be able to see the July 4 fireworks very well this year on your EV rooftop (NewYorkology)

Le Souk is leaving Avenue B (Eater)

A makeshift first concert in TSP this spring (Little Stories and Maybe Poems From Now and Then)

Can the old Delphi space survive Bouleyville? (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

At the Worker and Immigrant Rights rally (Slum Goddess)

Horizonless Manhattan (Esquared)

Study break on Avenue A? (Neither More Nor Less)

L Train riders mock Stuy Town (Lux Living)

Jim Jarmusch likes to walk (Filmmaker)

Capturing a hidden part of Hudson Street (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

Finding gold and silver on Stanton (BoweryBoogie)

Times Square terror courtesy of Nic Cage film (New York Post)

Things to do if you're filming a movie today on Second Street and have some downtime

You know moviemaking! You stand around for 10 hours waiting to film a 45-second scene. Lots of downtime. So for the cast (Angelina!) and crew of "Salt," filming today on Second Street, here are some things that you can do right around the shoot location...

Shop for Christmas and Valentine's Day decorations at the 99-cent store on First Avenue near Fifth Street...



Buy a few beers to go from the Houston Village Farm on First Avenue at Fourth Street...



Window shop at Brickman and Son's on First Avenue...



Take your dry cleaning to the Hollywood-sounding Exquisite Cleaners on First Avenue at Third Street...



See if "Salt" will be a box-office hit at the modest-sounding Gifted Psychic on Third Street...



Sell your Academy Award here... (or at least get your bangs trimmed)



Try a massage at the Waterfront Spa on Second Street...



Do a few loads of laundry at First Avenue at Second Street...



Watch the NYC theatrical debut of "Ice People" at the Anthology Film Archives at Second Avenue and Second Street...



Drink at the Mars Bar...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Why the paparazzi will be in the East Village tomorrow (OMG! Angelina!)

SHOCKER: Something other than ramen and froyo coming to St. Mark's Place

The little fella here has left his perch, of course...



And coming to this space on 18 St. Mark's Place? An ice cream shop. This per one of the tightest-lipped construction crews ever. Seriously. You thought I had asked, "Can you tell me when Air Force One will do another photo shoot over the skies of Manhattan?"

New bar for Avenue A?

Something is coming to this space on 32 Avenue A near Third Street (next door to Aces & Eights)... the former sushi joint that closed last spring.



The work permit mentions "ground floor bar." Haven't seen anything about a liquor license for this space.

Daughter of Peeler Man booted from Union Square Greenmarket

For some reason this article isn't posted yet online at the Post. Anyway, Ruth Ades-Laurent, whose dad sold the vegetable peelers on Union Square and elsewhere for 15 years... has been booted from the Union Square Greenmarket, she said. Joe Ades died Feb. 1. He was 75. She was allowed to take over for her father for several weeks, then she was sent packing by Greenmarket officials. "They said, 'We put up with him long enough, and we're not putting up with you,'" she told the paper. Greenmarket officials said that only official vendors can operate on market grounds. The article is on Page 2 of the Post today. The headline: Losing all her a-peel.

For further reading:
The Gentleman Grafter (Vanity Fair)

New Dominican restaurant coming to Avenue B

The folks at Chabela's, 40 Avenue B (site of the former pizza joint Russo's)...



are on the docket for a beer and wine permit next Monday.



Interesting to see what transpires: This is an application within one of CB3's "restricted areas." According to CB3, there are 42 liquor licenses on Avenue B between Houston Street and 14th Street. (Is this number still accurate?)

Meanwhile, this addition will bring the Avenue B empty storefront count down to 19.

Signs from the H1N1 (swine flu!) pandemic

I'm so looting this store now. Must find cure...