Councilwoman Rosie Mendez will be joined by colleagues and community residents to celebrate a major step in trying to reclaim the historic landmarked building The Former P.S. 64 that once housed CHARAS/El Bohio Cultural Community Center.
On Sept. 22, the Department of Buildings (DOB) issued a Stop Work Order to halt any construction that may have begun under a Partial Work Permit that was issued based on misinformation to the Department.
Gregg Singer, the owner of 9th & 10th Street LLC, entered into separate lease agreements with Cooper Union and the Joffrey Ballet Center Concert Group Program (CGP) to convert the building into a student dormitory. On July 25, 2014, the Department of Buildings (DOB) approved Singer's application to have the CGP considered a not-for-profit with housing accommodations as opposed to a dormitory and issued a partial work permit in August to convert the ground and 1st floor into dormitory rooms for CGP.
After reviewing the objections raised by Councilwoman Rosie Mendez in a letter dated September 3, 2014, DOB determined that the lease agreements in which Singer and the two parties entered into did not meet the agency's criteria for a lease with an educational institution.
Moreover, DOB determined that CGP could not be considered a not-for-profit with housing accommodations since the application contained misinformation that disqualifies CGP for this status.
The Councilwoman surrounded by community residents will be presenting DOB’s findings in the latest of that this long standing battle to reclaim the building for community use.
AORE Capital, which purchased the site for $32 million, will take charge of the site’s development. There are no details yet on how tall the building will stand, how many residential units it will include or the prices of those units.
For New York cyclists, red lights means go almost 80 percent of the time — despite an NYPD crackdown and the recent deaths of two pedestrians hit by bikes, The Post has found.
From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, reporters at three busy intersections observed 1,006 cyclists encounter a red signal — often with pedestrians in the crosswalks — and a staggering 796 of them passed through before it turned green.
Name: Michael “Mikey” Cole
Occupation: Owner and Head Chef, Mikey Likes It Ice Cream
Location: 199 Avenue A (Between 12th and 13th)
Time: 1:30 pm on Wednesday, Sept. 17
Thirty-Five years ago, born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I grew up in Stuyvesant Town, across the way. My parents are from Sierra Leone, West Africa. [They came here] when they were around their late 20s or 30, I think.
They tried to teach me lessons that I didn’t really know. They tried to be very rigid when I was a child, which kind of also makes you want to venture off and see the crazy side of the world. My mom was a nurse. My dad worked at the supermarket and then he worked for the City of New York. He carried like two, three jobs and my mom had two jobs, so sometimes they wouldn’t see each other for two or three days. I see my parents work hard and that’s what instilled the value of working hard myself. They tried to get me what I needed. I wanted them Jordans, ‘You’re getting the Avias.’ Damn. But they’re sneakers, so, you know? I’m glad that they instilled a hardworking value in myself.
As a child the neighborhood was cool. You had to stay out of trouble. You went anywhere around here and there was trouble up and down. I remember Friday the 13th or Rookie Day, that’s what we used to call it. It was real. I would get out of school at PS 19 and would go outside and be like, ‘Man, this is some fake bullying holiday.’ There were like 60 kids waiting outside to pummel you. You were like, ‘Damn, I’m gonna have to pull the Barry Sanders off to get home.’ But it was definitely fun growing up.
From Avenue B, 14th and Avenue B, the Campos projects there, they always had problems with the kids from Avenue D, which was two blocks from there, so when you came down to this area people didn’t want to venture off past Avenue B. Even Avenue A was tough. You would get off the train and just stay on First Avenue until you’d find your street and then you’d turn left or right. People rarely wanted to come into these areas. On 14th and First, there was drug dealing going on and clashes between people. In the 80s, even the 90s, you’d come outside and there was always something going on. You’d walk outside and walk down 13th Street and there was a bunch of people hanging outside and drinking on the stoop.
What was cool was the competitiveness. Kips Bay, up on 28th Street, these guys played basketball. Then you’d get the kids from Campos, Avenue D, 12th Street, 6th Street, who would play basketball. So all of us would roam around with our own teams of five. You’d roll five deep. After you’d lose, ‘Okay lets pack it up, let’s go over here.’ That’s what the weekends were like. You’d get to know other kids because we were all playing basketball. We all did the same damn thing anyway. You might not know their names but you’d say what’s up walking by. I can’t really walk down the street without someone saying, ‘Hey Mikey, how you doing?’ Now I have the store but way before that it was like that.
I got into ice cream because of my aunt. [Yesterday] was her birthday. When I was younger she would take me to school in the morning. Her name was Luciana but I called her Lucy. She was on my mother’s side. My grandfather was a chef on cruise ships, so my aunt came over and all she wanted to do was learn to cook just like her father.
So when I was in the third, fourth, fifth grade, since my parents weren’t home, I would sign up for Boys Club and go there a couple days a week. But my parents still didn’t want me out, so I was forced to go to cooking school with my aunt. I was the kid in the corner who would sit at the table with a whipping bowl or something smaller. Because of that, I was intrigued with cooking at a young age.
When my parents left me at home, my mom would leave like five dollars. ‘Get some pizza for you and your sister,’ and I’d be like, ‘Let’s not get pizza today, lets go to the supermarket, see what we can get for five bucks and make something.’ I made some nasty tasting ramen noodle experiments. But one day I was like, ‘I’m not eating like this anymore, I’m going to eat good tasting food’ and I just sort of learned cooking. Growing up, I became the kid that, showing up at any barbeque, and people were like, ‘Pass Mikey the tongs!’ I would be anywhere. I would be like, ‘Hey guys, I’m hanging out today,’ and it would automatically become, ‘Yo, Mikey’s cooking burgers.’ Everybody’s running to the grill.
I went to high school in Rhode Island, and then I ended up going to Johnson and Wales culinary course out there when I was in high school. I wanted to cook all the time. My mom would leave and my dad would be like, ‘I’m glad she’s gone, you’re cooking tonight.’ Then my aunt Lucy passed away. When she passed away my parents sent me to her apartment to clean. So I’m cleaning up the apartment and I saw four or five cookbooks up in the shelf. I’m short and I tried to reach for it and all the books fell and one of them opened up to an ice cream recipe and she actually was writing one herself. The school would make her write menus and stuff.
So then I came home, went to the supermarket, bought all the stuff and tried making the ice cream. I didn’t have an ice cream maker, I didn’t have nothing, I just did it in a freezer with a bowl and would stir it every half an hour. The texture came out disgusting, but the taste was kind of old school. It was like Julia Childs type stuff, but it needed to get some Mikey [influence]. So I sat there and started researching.
That recipe from my aunt is actually the base of ice cream that I use to make all these ice creams. The flavor is me giving it flavor on the top.
The rest of the Lower East Side can obsess over filament light bulbs and salvaged barn beams; Sammy’s, virtually unchanged since opening in 1975, will be ready when fluorescents and drop ceilings make their triumphant return to fashion. Inside the dining room, lighted like a bail bondsman’s office in Detroit, are hundreds of faded business cards, yellowed newspaper clippings and curled snapshots taped and tacked to every surface. Outside on Chrystie Street, scaffolding obscures the faded red and yellow painted signs in front of the building, which looks as if it has been marked for demolition. Like a Mississippi juke joint, Sammy’s seems to have been put together under the theory that nobody is likely to stay sober long enough to inspect the décor. (Known for selling vodka bottles encased in ice, Sammy’s is New York’s original bottle-service restaurant, and still the only tolerable one.)
It's not clear whether Mr. McMillan will be on the ballot come November. His petitions have been challenged by Mike Welch, a Schenectady science teacher who alleges Mr. McMillan photocopied signatures to meet the 15,000 required for a spot on the ballot. Mr. McMillan says Mr. Welch didn't follow proper procedures filing his objection. The Board of Elections is expected to rule [this] week.
He's already selected an outfit if he is included in a coming debate — his karate uniform. And he sees no need to go out campaigning.
His most convincing campaign literature, he tells people, is their rent receipt: "If you can't see that your rent is too damn high, don't pay me no mind."
