Name: Margery Teplitz
Occupation: Massage Therapist
Location: Avenue A, Between 4th and 5th Street
Time: 4:30 on Weds, March 12
I was born in Chicago. I was around 30 when I moved here. I was living in San Francisco and needed a change and always wanted to live in New York. I used to work in restaurants in those days but I’ve been a licensed massage therapist since 1992.
I have been on the Lower East Side since 1989. I lived on Rivington Street for a couple years when it was the wild wild east and I moved to Ludlow Street, just south of Houston in 1991. It was rough and ready — a lot of fun, dangerous, very old New York. Everything was negotiable with landlords and things like that. You didn’t need to prove that you made $80,000 a year in order to move into an apartment. Even though it had its dangers, it was much more fun.
My favorite aspect of the neighborhood was that anything goes. This was the land of the freaks. There used to be anarchists all over the neighborhood, but most of them have died off. One of my favorite moments was [going to] Wigstock. It was a Labor Day event that used to start in Tompkins Square Park. It was a family event believe it or not but it was all drag queens. I remember seeing RuPaul and Debbie Harry and everybody wearing wigs with their kids on their shoulders.
The past 10 years we’ve had around five construction sites on one block. I have giant holes and cracks all over the inside of my apartment — over every part of my building. All the artwork is out of their frames and the landlord keeps saying, ‘Oh we’re going to come and do it,’ but it never quite happens. It’s been that way for two or three years.
I’m very political and I like that about this neighborhood — that people seem to give a shit. Right now we’re battling this restaurant that they are trying to open in my building called Sweet Chick. They have not been able to get their liquor license but they’re building it up anyway. I met the owner at the Community Board 3 meeting and he seemed like a normal person, but he’s hired one of the biggest shark lawyers in the city, Helbraun Levey & O’Donoghue.
From the look of their plans, they want to put the exhaust system in the airshaft, which goes right next to my bedroom as well as a bunch of others. They also want to remain open 17 hours a day cooking fried food in a 120-year-old building that’s basically like a sieve. My neighbor upstairs makes chili a couple times a week and you can smell it for seven hours, so you can imagine fried chicken.
We’re trying to get pro-bono legal representation, which the state bar refused to help us with. They said they don’t do those type of things, but who needs help more than us? I volunteered for Bill de Blasio and this is his kind of issue and I emailed him. They said, ‘oh yes,’ and nothing, and I emailed the governor and they said, ‘oh yes,’ and nothing. We still hope we can turn it around.
I’m not against gentrification — gentrification is a fact of life, but if you look at cities like London and Paris they manage to gentrify and change while maintaining the architectural integrity of the city. We’re supposed to have a reasonable quality of life, which does not include a blaring exhaust system 17 hours a day and the smell of fried chicken.
MAN ALL HANDS 145 2 AVE, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE IN BASEMENT,
— FDNY (@FDNY) March 19, 2014MAN ALL HANDS 145 2 AVE, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE IN BASEMENT, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNY (@FDNY) March 19, 2014
People are actually taking selfies with a fire while people could have lost their homes or lives. Unreal. @evgrieve pic.twitter.com/5Ux75RqOeU
— Eric Nolan (@ericnolan_) March 19, 2014
Giovanni said...
Now that is a great looking building, love the color and design. Note to all future developers who are planning to build in the EV or any other historic area: this is how you do it.
This is a classic brick design that reminds me of many industrial and pre-war buildings which have all stood the test of time, with a bit more glass which is fine in the smaller panes, and nice looking balconies and brickwork that blends well with the location.
Join us for an exclusive evening in Strand’s rare book room to honor the paperback release of Richard Hell’s acclaimed I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp. The autobiography has been called “A candid, sometimes brutal tour of punk’s gritty early days" by The New York Times Magazine, and "radically self-aware…wielding prose keen as a diamond knife" by cultural critic Luc Sante.
Richard will read briefly from I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp before being interviewed by NYU professor Bryan Waterman (author of the 33 1/3 volume Marquee Moon), and will then take audience questions. At the evening’s conclusion, Richard will inscribe copies of I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp. No other memorabilia, please.
Buy a copy of I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp or a $15 Strand gift card in order to attend this event, which will be located in the Strand's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at our store at 828 Broadway at 12th Street.
While never particularly gourmet, Stromboli's made and sold pefectly solid, dependable pizza, and the place exuded a great sense of place and neighborhood.
Recent conversion sales in addition to 37 East 12th Street include, 110 University Place (currently home to Bowlmor Lanes), and 809 Broadway (the former Blatt Billiards Building). These sales will continue to transform the Central Village over the next few years.
"Their lentil soup is essentially a panacea for all the ailments that might plague a body, mind or spirit. (Of course, it must be eaten with hot sauce and with lemon.) And at $5, it's quite possibly the most bang for a buck to be had in all of Manhattan. Plus, all the guys that work there are incredibly warm and friendly. I'll be really sad to see it go. I only hope it'll move (not far away) and not close up shop for good."
MAN ALL HANDS 279 E 4 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON FIRST FLR,
— FDNY (@FDNY) March 18, 2014MAN ALL HANDS 279 E 4 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON FIRST FLR, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNY (@FDNY) March 18, 2014
Why are all the Santas wearing green? #EastVillage
— David Menschel (@davidminbklyn) March 17, 2014
