Friday, April 6, 2018
Lunatic fringe
Vive la Void is the new solo project of Sanae Yamada, co-founder and keyboard player of Moon Duo ... the above video is for "Red Rider," from her LP due May 4 on Sacred Bones Records.
I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant
East Village resident Susan Schiffman documents the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.
Photos and text by Susan Schiffman
Tenant: ilyse, since 1977
Why did you move to the East Village?
In 1977, a friend from my hometown asked me if I wanted to share a sublet with her for the summer in NYC. Within a month, I knew that I wanted to stay. I didn’t like the first neighborhood I moved into but then discovered the East Village. It felt like I finally discovered a place where I could fit in. I’ve been in this apartment since December 1977.
How did you find your apartment?
I was actually in another apartment down the street near Phebe’s restaurant, which used to be a kind of wild off-off Broadway scene. I worked there. That was the job I had found. There was a customer in the restaurant who noticed me when I was eating in the Binibon on the corner of Fifth Street. Manhattan Plaza had just been built. It was for actors and he was an actor and he got an apartment there.
He recognized me from my work in the restaurant. He asked me if I was interested in taking over his apartment for what we used to call “key money.” Which meant that you pay the previous tenant a couple hundred bucks and they make the arrangements with the management of the building. It was very old school and you could actually talk with the manager of the building. I got my first lease for $135. That was the rent not the key money. It doesn’t work like that anymore.
What do you love about your apartment?
First of all I love that I feel a connection in this apartment to the immigrant past of this neighborhood. I don’t like to call them ghosts because that sounds unhappy. But I feel that there has been a continuous spirit of something here since this neighborhood was built as a refuge for people coming from other places. People who worked very hard when they got here and made the life that my generation has possible.
Second of all, I love this apartment because it has low rent and where it is located it has been a platform for a really unstructured, exploratory and unconventional lifestyle — where I was able to take acting classes for a little while, photography classes for awhile. I had so many different jobs in 4 or 5 very different industries and have met so many interesting people. I was able to raise two daughters completely on my own in this place.
Because of the milieu that existed in the neighborhood, when my daughters became school age I was able to send them to amazing public schools that were started by parents and teachers. I was able to get involved with community gardening and composting.
I’ve had such a rich life. That doesn’t mean I have a dime in my bank account because I barely do. It doesn’t mean that I take vacations because I don’t. Or that my clothes don’t come from curbside finds because they do. It just means that I’m rich. It has been a very rich existence. I have so many memories tied to this location.
If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.
Photos and text by Susan Schiffman
Tenant: ilyse, since 1977
Why did you move to the East Village?
In 1977, a friend from my hometown asked me if I wanted to share a sublet with her for the summer in NYC. Within a month, I knew that I wanted to stay. I didn’t like the first neighborhood I moved into but then discovered the East Village. It felt like I finally discovered a place where I could fit in. I’ve been in this apartment since December 1977.
How did you find your apartment?
I was actually in another apartment down the street near Phebe’s restaurant, which used to be a kind of wild off-off Broadway scene. I worked there. That was the job I had found. There was a customer in the restaurant who noticed me when I was eating in the Binibon on the corner of Fifth Street. Manhattan Plaza had just been built. It was for actors and he was an actor and he got an apartment there.
He recognized me from my work in the restaurant. He asked me if I was interested in taking over his apartment for what we used to call “key money.” Which meant that you pay the previous tenant a couple hundred bucks and they make the arrangements with the management of the building. It was very old school and you could actually talk with the manager of the building. I got my first lease for $135. That was the rent not the key money. It doesn’t work like that anymore.
What do you love about your apartment?
First of all I love that I feel a connection in this apartment to the immigrant past of this neighborhood. I don’t like to call them ghosts because that sounds unhappy. But I feel that there has been a continuous spirit of something here since this neighborhood was built as a refuge for people coming from other places. People who worked very hard when they got here and made the life that my generation has possible.
Second of all, I love this apartment because it has low rent and where it is located it has been a platform for a really unstructured, exploratory and unconventional lifestyle — where I was able to take acting classes for a little while, photography classes for awhile. I had so many different jobs in 4 or 5 very different industries and have met so many interesting people. I was able to raise two daughters completely on my own in this place.
Because of the milieu that existed in the neighborhood, when my daughters became school age I was able to send them to amazing public schools that were started by parents and teachers. I was able to get involved with community gardening and composting.
I’ve had such a rich life. That doesn’t mean I have a dime in my bank account because I barely do. It doesn’t mean that I take vacations because I don’t. Or that my clothes don’t come from curbside finds because they do. It just means that I’m rich. It has been a very rich existence. I have so many memories tied to this location.
If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.
Recycle your e-waste Sunday on Avenue A
[EVG office photo from March 2018]
This Sunday, you may bring your working — and non-working! — electronics to Tompkins Square Park for a recycling event hosted by the Lower East Side Ecology Center.
The recycling action happens from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (rain or shine!) on Avenue A between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
And here is the list of items they'll accept:
• Computers (laptops & desktops, servers, mainframes)
• Monitors (CRT and flatscreen)
• Network devices (routers, hubs, modems, etc.)
• Peripherals (keyboards, mice, cables, cords, chargers, etc.)
• Tablets and e-readers
• Components (hard drives, CD-ROMs, circuit boards, power supplies, etc.)
• Printers under 100 pounds, scanners, fax-machines, etc
• TVs, VCRs, DVRs, DVD & Blu-ray Players
• Digital Converter Boxes, Cable/Satellite Receivers
• Portable music players
• Audio-visual equipment
• Video games
• Cell phones, pagers, PDAs
• Telecommunication (phones, answering machines, etc.)
There are some e-waste items that we accept, but we charge a recycling fee for:
Media such as CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and cassette tapes
Computer battery backup systems (Uninterruptible Power Supply [UPS])
FAQ page here.
Flashback Friday: Anthony Bourdain and Nick Tosches at Sophie's
You may have seen food personality Anthony Bourdain in the neighborhood of late ... filming scenes (to air this fall) for his CNN series "Parts Unknown" ... among his stops: Ray's Candy Store, John's of 12th Street, Veselka and Max Fish. (You can read more about all this over at Eater, Bowery Boogie or Bedford + Bowery ... or Bourdain's Instagram account.)
So for this Flashback Friday, we'll head back to February 2009, when Bourdain's previous show, "No Reservations," aired an episode titled "Disappearing Manhattan."
In the last segment, he stopped by Sophie's on Fifth Street to meet with writer Nick Tosches... here is a grainy clip showing 90 seconds or so of the three-minute scene...
As Bourdain said, "Sophie's in the East Village remains a good place to stop time." Still mostly feels that way too.
So for this Flashback Friday, we'll head back to February 2009, when Bourdain's previous show, "No Reservations," aired an episode titled "Disappearing Manhattan."
In the last segment, he stopped by Sophie's on Fifth Street to meet with writer Nick Tosches... here is a grainy clip showing 90 seconds or so of the three-minute scene...
As Bourdain said, "Sophie's in the East Village remains a good place to stop time." Still mostly feels that way too.
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Go on a tour of the East Village tour in 1985
The link to this 45-minute video comes courtesy of Alex at Flaming Pablum...
Per the YouTube description:
An early film by Alan Steinfeld and the experience of living in the East Village in the1980s. Recently shown at the Museum of Modern Art as part of the Club 57 retrospective:
That Club 57 retrospective ends Sunday.
In memory of Kelly Hurley
[Photo by Steven]
On the morning of April 5, 2017, Kelly Hurley was struck by a box truck while biking to work on First Avenue at Ninth Street. Hurley, who lived on the Lower East Side, died the following week from her injuries. She was 31.
Flowers in her memory arrived today on the southwest corner of First Avenue and Ninth Street.
Last June, the driver of the box truck was arrested. Per DNAInfo at the time:
Kyung H. Hyun, 59, was arrested at 1:57 p.m. and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian — the city's "right of way" law under the Mayor's Vision Zero initiative — failure to exercise due care, and making an improper left turn, according to authorities.
Previous reports stated that he had come to a complete stop on First Avenue before making the abrupt left turn onto Ninth Street across four lanes of traffic. He struck Hurley, who had the right of way.
Police gave Hyun a desk appearance ticket. He first appeared in Manhattan criminal court on Aug. 29, the Daily News reported.
According to public records, the case has been adjourned multiple times...
He's due back in New York Criminal Court on May 3.
CB3's Transportation Committee recommended last summer that the Department of Transportation consider more carefully separating bike and car traffic in the so-called "mixing zones" found at intersections like Ninth Street and First Avenue. (Read more about that here.)
Streetsblog reported in February that that DOT is expected to release full results of its study of bicycle intersection designs sometime this spring.
Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Kelly Hurley
Reactions to Kelly Hurley's death
NYPD offers explanation into Kelly Hurley's death: 'she slipped'
ICYMI: Groups file lawsuit ahead of the L-train shutdown
Always so much drama with the L train. A group of Manhattan-based coalitions and co-ops have sued the MTA and other state and federal agencies over the impending L-train shutdown. (Just one year away!)
Here's Town & Village on the suit, which was filed Tuesday:
The suit accuses the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the city Department of Transportation and the Federal Transportation Administration of ignoring the needs of disabled riders along the L line, and disregarding the communities who’ll be dealing with constant congestion from diesel-spewing buses.
According to the attorney representing the groups, dubbed “the 14th Street Coalition,” Arthur Schwartz, the FTA “has failed to enforce compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) even though the nearly $1 billion project is being federally funded.” The MTA and DOT meanwhile, he said have failed to prepare a required Environmental Impact Statement, which he said would have compelled the agencies to be more responsive to community input.
Per NBC 4:
MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein said in a statement that the agency does not comment on pending litigation, but added that “the repairs to the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel are desperately needed to ensure the tunnel’s structural integrity so we can continue to provide safe and reliable subway service to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who depend on the L train every day.”
Read more on this at The New York Times and Curbed.
The shutdown of the L — between Bedford Avenue and Eighth Avenue to repair the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel — is expected to last 15 months with a start date of April 2019.
The 31st annual Loisaida Festival is May 27
Finally a sign of spring... the Loisaida Center recently announced the 2018 date for its 31st annual Loisaida Festival... happening this year on May 27 in the usual place — Avenue C from Sixth Street to 12th Street.
Find more details here.
Viewing for Gino DiGirolamo is Sunday
The viewing is Sunday from 2-8 p.m. at the Provenzano Lanza Funeral Home, 43 Second Ave. between Second Street and Third Street.
He was the proprietor of the Royal Tailor Shop, which was most recently housed on 11th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.
Gino is survived by his son Vito.
A longtime customer has created a crowdfunding campaign "to raise funds to honor Gino with a donation in his name or potentially a plaque or marker in the neighborhood." Find details here.
Photo from 2014 by Michael Paul
Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Gino DiGirolamo
The historic 137 2nd Ave. — the former Stuyvesant Polyclinic — is for lease
A tipster shared this listing (PDF here) for 137 Second Ave., a landmarked building between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street that has been on the rental market this winter.
A few notes for the 21,896 square feet that spans four levels:
• Possession November 2018
• Completely Renovated
• Fully Wired
• Move-in Ready
• Great for HQ Building
• Short Walk from 6, R and W train
There isn't any mention of the asking rent for the neo-Italian Renaissance brick building, the former German Dispensary, which opened in 1884. (In 1905 it became the Stuyvesant Polyclinic.)
Here's more about the building in this 2008 New York Times feature:
Like the branch library next door, the Second Avenue building of the German Dispensary was the gift of Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer, who ran the German newspaper New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung. That journal had great influence in Little Germany, on the Lower East Side around First and Second Avenues below 14th Street. The 1886 edition of Appleton’s Dictionary of New York described an area in which “lager-beer shops are numerous, and nearly all the signs are of German names.”
And...
In more recent years — until its sale [in 2008] — the old dispensary building was part of Cabrini Medical Center. Although hospitals are notoriously hard on historic architecture, the interior of the Schickel building was remarkably intact, if run-down, with intricate stairway ironwork and door enframements, red marble wainscoting and a highly colored tile floor.
In 2008, a British consulting firm called ?What If! bought the building for $13 million. Following the sale, the firm hired architects David Mayerfield Associates to restore both the interior and exterior.
Per a feature at Daytonian in Manhattan:
When dropped ceilings in the main hall were removed, the 1884 skylights, blacked out in World War II, were rediscovered. Similarly, stained-glass panels in the ceiling of the staircase were uncovered. The colorful encaustic tile floors had been covered over with concrete which was meticulously scraped away.
The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1976. Learn more about the building's history and architecture at Off the Grid here.
The Two Boots on Nassau Street no longer appears to be happening
EVG reader Carl Bentsen shared this photo from Nassau Street near Fulton in the Financial District ... showing a for rent sign on what was to be the next location of Two Boots, the East Village-based pizzeria.
The folks at Two Boots were also going to keep and restore that Loft's Candies neon signage that workers uncovered during renovations at the address.
No word on what happened to this multi-level location for Two Boots. (They didn't respond to an email for comment.) The Two Boots website still lists this location as coming soon in the spring of 2017.
Two Boots, which got its start on Avenue A (different location than its current home) in 1987, has 13 locations in multiple states.
Previously on EV Grieve:
This post has nothing to do with the East Village, except for the part about 2 Boots Pizza
This post still has nothing to do with the East Village, except for the part about 2 Boots Pizza
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