Urbanite

An out-of-towner walking down Second Avenue might be confused by this strange juxtaposition outside this East Village watering hole. The Chow Mein sign belongs to a longtime Chinese restaurant, Jade Mountain, that occupied the space until a few years ago. And the new sign, for Shoolbred's, was installed by the successor eatery.

We love the clash of the old and new signs here. And the Shoolbred sign, while new, looks as though it's been there for 50 years. An instant classic.

-- Rolando Pujol

As Starrett City residents eye their future, the video above offers a glimpse of its early days. It's a commercial from the 1970s touting the complex's high quality of life and affordability. (via robatsea2008 on YouTube)

Community organizers want to make one thing clear tonight to developers competing to buy Starrett City: They should honor the agreement to keep the complex an affordable, high-quality oasis in Brooklyn.

“We want to make sure that any prospective owner knows that we intend to honor the agreement,” said New York City Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn).

This agreement, reached this past summer, allows for the sale of the community under the guidelines that the new buyer maintains the neighborhood’s affordability and quality of life. The complex could go for as much as a billion dollars, but estimates are now closer to $700 million.

Starrett City, officially known as Spring Creek Towers since 2002, is comprised of 46 brick towers with 5,881 apartments. The complex has its own power plant, shopping center, and a community paper.

The complex was created in 1974 under the Mitchell-Lama program, which provides affordable rental and cooperative housing to moderate- and middle-income families, according to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Tonight’s meeting, organized primarily by national non-profit ACORN Housing Corporation, is a dialogue between the current tenants of Starrett City and the four potential buyers.

Maria Maisonet, a Starrett City resident and ACORN’s East New York leader, said that the developers would present their plans for the area and the tenants would express their desire to have their community maintained as it is now.

“It’s nice for us to give our opinion, but I don’t think it will make any difference in the final decision of who buys the complex,” she said.

If you go: Starrett City tenants interview the four finalist developers tonight at 6:30 p.m.; P.S. 346, 1400 Pennsylvania Ave., Brooklyn.

-- Amanda Magnus

Plus: Will the Wall Street meltdown lower the price of a Starrett City deal?

There's good news for the person who left this note outside the Trader Joe's building in Brooklyn. (Photo by mtrelaun on Flickr)

Tired of lugging your Trader Joe’s groceries all the way from Union Square to your Brooklyn abode? Is the journey on the L train melting your frozen foods and reshaping your popsicles?

The end is in sight: Brooklyn’s first Trader Joe’s opens Friday, Sept. 26. The store is throwing an opening celebration that morning with a ceremonial lei cutting, live music from a Caribbean steel drum band, an appearance by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and giveaways to the first 100 customers on opening weekend.

The quirky, California-based grocery chain has stuck to their usual interior design of cedar-covered walls and Hawaiian-inspired elements, but this particular store has tried to stay true to its Brooklyn location. The store’s workers teamed up with the Brooklyn Historical Society to put up murals of the borough’s key sites around the store. The huge photograph-like scenes depict places like Coney Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, Ebbets Field, and Downtown Brooklyn.

A sleek place to buy your morning newspaper. Just what this lower Manhattan corner needed.(Photo by Rolando Pujol)

Yet another authentic, old-school newsstand has been replaced with the sleek but sterile offerings from Cemusa that are corner by corner sapping character from the city's streets. The Times did a fine job recently of documenting the woes these new kiosks have brought upon the newsstand operators. Above, a fresh one is examined at the corner of Whitehall and State streets on Saturday afternoon.

More coverage of the mass newsstand slaughter here, here and here.

-- Rolando Pujol

Keens Steakhouse is all about tradition: The countless ceramic pipes, the Pipe Club and its illustrious membership list, the Lincoln Room, the memorabilia of the 16th president's assasination, those lip-smacking mutton chops, and the great lore that goes with a place that opened in 1885 as a Herald Square theater district hangout and is still going strong, having operated in, count 'em, three centuries.

On Sunday, we learned of another Keens tradition: the annual family day outing, for which the restaurant was shuttered. The dark windows on a Sunday night momentarily alarmed us as we swung by, but happily, all was well. The tradition dates to 1937.

The restaurant, by the way, now markets itself as Keens Steakhouse, but its awning offers a quiet nod to its history. One side goes by "Steakhouse," and the other retains the historic "Chophouse" name.

-- Rolando Pujol

This is the only remaining visible sign for the old Morris Brothers department store. (Photo by Rolando Pujol)

Morris Brothers, the Upper West Side department store that clad neighborhood kids in summer-camp gear for decades, is still empty 13 months after it was shut down. All that's left of the shop is this one sign, visible on West 84th Street. The others have been covered up, and signs promote the retail space (between 1,300 and 5,600 square feet available). The spot did briefly serve as a Halloween accessories store last year.

This reminds us of a New York retail development that has driven neighborhood residents batty in recent years. Longtime shops that are vital to the neighborhood are forced out by higher rents. The landlord then waits to find the perfect tenant, or simply one that is willing to pay the new, astronomical lease. If no takers come along, the space sits empty, sometimes for years. In the meantime, the old business could have hung on a little -- or a lot -- longer, and the landlord could have kept making some money on the space.

We could fill a blog post every day on this dispiriting and incredibly frustrating phenomenon.

-- Rolando Pujol

The Sphere was at the center of the World Trade Center Plaza for decades, and survived the collapse of both towers with damage, but essentially intact. You can visit it today in Battery Park, where an eternal flame sits beside it.

One man who knows a thing or two about The Sphere is Guy Tozzoli, the Port Authority official who oversaw construction of the World Trade Center. We profiled him and his organization, the World Trade Centers Association, earlier this week. Read the stories here and here. I asked him whether anything from his 63rd floor North Tower office survived the collapse.

One thing did: A maquette, or model, of The Sphere, by German artist Fritz Koenig. We found it amazing that both The Sphere and its model managed to survive the destruction at Ground Zero.

Tozzoli shared a bit about the struggle to get the Sphere to New York from Germany.

"We had to transport Der Kugel an hour outside of the port, all the way out across the ocean ... and then, at night, took it through the Holland Tunnel," Tozzoli says, using the phrase Koenig's wife would use for the sculpture, German for "The Ball."

One of the best ways to find out more about the history of The Sphere is to watch the film, "Koenig Sphere," which details its creation, its arduous trip across the ocean, and its survival amid the destruction downtown seven years ago today.

-- Rolando Pujol

Photos by Rolando Pujol

Two of New York's finest neons signs are neighbors. There's the lush red sign for El Quijote, the Spanish restaurant that's been holding the fort on 23rd Street since 1930. If you've never been, you're missing a great, authentic New York experience. And right next door stands the great sign for the Hotel Chelsea.

Alas, there used to be a great third sign, for Capitol Fishing Tackle. You can see it here. That sign was taken down a few years ago when the store moved to the Garment District. At least it stayed in business.

-- Rolando Pujol

Photos: Rolando Pujol

The Tribute in Light, which honors the 9/11 dead and evokes the lost Twin Towers, was turned on last night in an apparent test run, several days before the seventh anniversary of the World Trade Center attack. This was the view from Eighth Avenue at 22nd Street in Chelsea, around 9:30 p.m. Monday.

It's impossible to overstate how comforting the sight of these lights was when they were first activated on March 11, 2002, on the sixth-month anniversary of the attack. We had the privilege of attending the inaugural ceremony, and it was an unforgettable, moving experience.

The lights on the 11th will be turned on at sunset, and will fade into the sunrise the next morning. They will shine from a lot at West and Morris streets, but will be visible for up to 30 miles away.

-See photos of the first Tribute in Lights, from 2002

-Here are photos of steel beams, crushed fire trucks and other WTC relics

-And here are photos of Tribute WTC, the temporary museum next to Ground Zero

-- Rolando Pujol

Large pieces of steel called tridents recovered from the World Trade Center site, and once a structural part of the ground level exterior arches of the twin towers, are preserved in Hangar 17 of Kennedy International Airport. There are about 1,350 pieces of steel, many weighing over 30 tons. (Photo by Lane Johnson)

Two years ago, we had the honor of visiting Hangar 17 at Kennedy Airport, where the Port Authority meticulously cares for relics from the World Trade Center, saving them for the day they either return to Ground Zero or are sent to other museums.

Here's our story from the visit, plus a flash presentation with video and photo gallery. In addition, check out these blog posts for more from our visit.

"Memorial Sites: New York to Nairobi Photographs by Julie Dermansky," an exhibit opening Sept. 10 at the Center for Architecture, will also present images from Hangar 17.

-- Rolando Pujol

Nothing could go right for New York in the early 1980s. If the crime, the street trash and the graffiti wasn't enough, then there was the water shortage. With the upstate reservoirs running low, the Koch administration took to the airwaves with the memorable campaign, "Keep New York Wet, Save Water."

From a New York Times' article of the era: "In December 1980, Mayor Koch named every child in the city a deputy mayor in charge of saving water. Flanked by 44 of his deputy mayors in one television commercial, Mr. Koch offered tips on saving water and concluded, in chorus with the children, "Keep New York wet." In fact, on Dec. 31, 1982, the Times made the slogan one of its "quotations" of the day.

The spot shown above dates from this time, and indeed features city kids with incredibly thick Noo Yawk accents reminding you to conserve. It's priceless stuff from another New York.

-- Rolando Pujol

Video via trainluvr on YouTube

A bungalow in the Rockaways. (Photo via LaurenKrohnRichman on Flickr)

The Historic Districts Council will be exploring the leisure destinations of old New York in its fall lecture series, “Out for the Day in New York: Historical Resorts and Amusements.”

“The Bungalows of the Rockaways,” a documentary, will be screened at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 9. The historical quaint homes that once laced the peninsula have dwindled from nearly 7,000 in 1933 to only 500 today. The film will be followed by a Q&A session with Richard George, of the Beachside Bungalow Preservation Organization, preservationist Caroline C. Pasion, and the filmmakers, Jennifer Callahan and Elizabeth Logan Harris.

In the tour, “From the Shore to the Sideshow,” participants will delve into the history of Brooklyn’s Coney Island, getting a taste of the amusement park’s humble beginnings and its impending future. The tour will visit landmarks such as the Cyclone Coaster and Parachute Jump. The tour starts at 11 a.m. Sept. 14.

“Fun in the Sun: Resorts, Pools, Fairs and More!” will look at the venues of amusement and relaxation in all five boroughs. Various noted speakers will discuss the racetracks, railroads, and resorts of Brooklyn, New York’s WPA-era swimming pools, the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, and the Bronx’s Freedomland amusement park. This event will be held on Sept. 16.

Lecture tickets are $15, tour tickets are $35, and you can snag a full series package for $60.

Click here for more.

-- Simone Herbin

The Slammin' Salmon in upstate Millbrook has a neon lobster in one of its windows. (Photos by Rolando Pujol)

Has the neon lobster from Armando's in Brooklyn Heights retired to greener pastures in Dutchess County?

We did a double take during a recent visit to the postcard-perfect town of Millbrook, where an Armando's-style lobster holds court in the window of the Slammin' Salmon fish market.


The Slammin' Salmon lobster, left, rotated to reflect the way the Armando's lobster was positioned. The lobster in Millbrook is slightly different.

Apparently, there are more than a few of these lobsters still glowing around the country. One of somewhat different design can be found at the Lobster Pot in Provincetown.

But the one in Millbrook seems pretty similar to its lost cousin in Brooklyn Heights.

-- Rolando Pujol

More signs photos here. And submit yours here.

The overall neighborhood of Kew Gardens is not protected. (Photo by Phil S. Kropoth)

Despite its historic significance, Kew Gardens lacks landmark protection -- an issue that frustrates local residents and preservationists.

"Kew Gardens is definitely one of the planned communities in Queens that is very significant and hasn't gotten its due in terms of preservation," says Frampton Tolbert, deputy director of the Historic Districts Council, which has Kew Gardens on its endangered list. "Only in recent years do people have a better appreciation for these neighborhoods.

By that time it might be too late. Residents have on eye on Richmond Hill, Kew Gardens' sister neighborhood, and fear that the insensitive development there might soon encroach upon their turf. Requests for rulings before the Landmark Preservation Commission have gone unheeded, but civic leaders aren't ready to give up.

"It's the attrition battle--who's going to give in first," says Crawford. "We're not going to give in. This is really an important neighborhood, a real demonstration of smart community development. I think we have to understand rational development.

"In the meantime, you just do your local battle to prevent as much damage as possible."

-- Lana Bortolot

Read more about life in Kew Gardens here.

Murals in the parking lot of the Neptune Inn on City Island include one of the World Trade Center, which is peeling away, and another for the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is intact. (Photos by Rolando Pujol)

If there's one thing that City Islanders enjoy in great numbers, it's seafood places. The Neptune Inn, on the island's southern tip, has been closed for years because of a fire, but still draws the curious because of the murals in its parking lot.

Two murals in particular attract attention. One is in shabby condition, and shows the World Trade Center. A local restaurant worker who noticed us snapping photos of the murals last weekend told us that the paint began to flick away shortly after 9/11, in a coincidence that some felt poignant, if a touch bizarre. But what raises even more eyebrows is the mural right next to it, which shows the Virgin of Guadalupe. That mural is in excellent shape, with no serious signs of damage.

This juxtaposition, this person said, has inevitably led people to impute some greater meaning to the murals, and, he says, even pay their respects at the murals. (A third mural, right next to the one of the WTC, has some paint damage but not as much.)

We later asked around and found no other such reports, but we can say for sure that the murals are striking. Another sight-seer also noticed the murals and was snapping away while we were there. Other Web sites have found the Neptune Inn's murals worthy of mention.

Soon, these conversation pieces may be a memory.

The restaurant -- its windows smashed open and trash and furniture everywhere -- is poised for demolition, we were told. And that means those murals that attract so much attention may well disappear along with the old Neptune Inn.

The murals are 35 City Island Ave., across from the popular Sammy's and Lobster Box restaurants. And keep an eye on Urbanite for more dispatches from our recent visit to City Island.

-- Rolando Pujol

Mimma's in Yorkville was a solid spot for a slice. (Photo by Emily Hulme)

On my way to work this morning, I noticed this sad sight: My favorite neighborhood pizzeria -- Mimma's, on 84th Street and Second Avenue -- is now the future home of another Two Boots.

Now, I know people like Two Boots, and I myself have enjoyed a slice from time to time. But it's a very particular taste, and we already have a gourmet pizza shop in the neighborhood: Pintaile's. Sometimes you're just in the mood for a slice's slice, and that's what Mimma's excelled at. Also, they were open late, making them a perfect post-bar stop on the way home.

Mimma's was nothing fancy, but they had a good sauce and served simple pizza done right. You will be missed. RIP Mimma's ... long live Two Boots.

-- Emily Hulme

Do you know the story of this Bronx building? Urbanite wants to know. (Photos by Jefferson Siegel)

In the Bronx, at 436 Westchester Ave. near Bergen Avenue., just blocks from the area known as The Hub, sits this small two-story building. In faded letters one can read "N Y Post Office Station R"

The ground floor appears to be empty; the second floor is occupied by "John's Gym" where boxing is offered for women. Several women wearing boxing gloves were observed running around an empty lot across the street one day, obviously part of their training.

Does anyone know the history of this building? Or, to be more specific, about its post office days?

-- Jefferson Siegel

Unless something is done soon, a century-old temple in the East Village may turn to dust.

Some neighborhood residents and preservationists are upset that the congregation had a deal with mega New Jersey developers the Kushner Companies to demolish the Mezritch Synagogue on East Sixth Street and turn it into high-end residences with a ground floor place for worship.

But synagogue's few remaining congregants and the temple's rabbi say that the building is in such disrepair that it is a danger to the surrounding area, and selling to the highest bidder remains the only way to ensure having a safe place to worship.

"This is a battle about the heart and soul our neighborhood," said Andrew Berman, president of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, who is battling to save the synagogue "It tells the story not only of how New York City grew but how our country did."

The Mezritch Synagogue is the last operating "tenement synagogue," so named because of the narrow slot it occupies mid-block, still in operation on the Lower East Side. Read on ...

-- David Freedlander

Synagogue photos

Photo: Jefferson Siegel

Mega New Jersey developers the Kushner Companies have pulled out of a controversial plan tear down a century-old synagogue in the East Village and build residences in its place, Urbanite has learned.

The board of Congregation Mezritch Synagogue voted last month to give Kushner Companies the rights to demolish the stately structure on East 6th Street in a controversial move that left many involved with the sale feeling that they were excluded from the process.

The sale was slated to undergo review by the state attorney general.

Preservationists and neighborhood activists are holding a rally and news conference in front of the synagogue this afternoon to urge that the building be preserved.

Many were unsure what to make of today’s news that the Kushners had pulled out.

“It doesn’t mean that the synagogue won’t look to do this again, and then what will the ground rules be,” said Joel Kaplan of the United Jewish Council of the East Side. “If they are going to do things in a nontransparent way you never know what’s going to happen.”

As recent as yesterday, Brian Bursin, an attorney representing the board of the synagogue sung the praises of the Kushner Companies for striking a deal that would allow the congregation to continue to meet in the first two floors of what was supposed to be a six-floor residential rental development.

“There were three years of discussions with developers,” he said. “We are actually the Davids in the battle with the Goliaths.”

Requests for comment on what Anshei Meseritz plans to do now that the Kushner Company is no longer were not returned by Bursin or by the synagogue’s rabbi, Pesach Ackerman.

A demolition permit for the temple has already been filed with the city’s Department of Buildings but has yet to be approved.

“It’s not only a beautiful building, it’s a critically important link to the history of the neighborhood and what was once the most important Jewish community in America,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. “We just want to see it saved.”

-- David Freedlander

This diner at 357 West St. was manufactured by the famed Kullman Diner company, possibly in the late 1940s. (Photo by Tiffany L. Clark). More photos [HERE]

It was once called the Lost Diner, and now, the name truly fits.

The 1940s chrome diner in Greenwich Village sits abandoned, its glass door broken and its interior filled with trash.

But what is lost may have been found again. Preservationist Michael Perlman, who has already rescued the Cheyenne and Moondance diners in Manhattan from sure obliteration, tells Urbanite that he has submitted a proposal to owner Peter Moore Associates to preserve the diner and bring it back to its former glory. In fact, the Moondance is set to reopen next month in Wyoming.

The eatery, at 357 West St., has been known over the years as Terminal Diner and Lunchbox Food, and was most recently Rib, a North Carolina-style barbeque joint.

But that establishment closed in 2006, and the building has since fallen into disrepair. Perlman says he and Peter Moore Associates, which bought the property in 2006, will further discuss his proposal in October. He says that it would be more affordable to renovate the space than to demolish it. The owner could not be reached for comment.

Perlman said a metal tag bearing the name of the famous Kullman Diner manufacturer still hangs above the door. It’s details like that that Perlman wants to preserve as much as possible.

"Diners are becoming an endangered species, especially in the tri-state area,” Perlman said. “They definitely don't manufacture them like they used to. And diners are the ultimate public institution; they were places where people from various classes would mingle side by side."

-- Megan Stride

amNY photo galleries

Great NYC diners, past and present

Remembering the Munson Diner

Images from the collection of Joe Kinney. Check out our photo galleries HERE , HERE, and HERE and check out Lauren Johnston's great video tour of the hotel with Joe Kinney.

The maze of tunnels under New York includes one you probably never heard of. It lies 30 feet below the intersection of West 34th Street and Eighth Avenue and links the New Yorker Hotel to Penn Station.

This tunnel is no utilitarian slouch: It's sheathed in sumptuous Art Deco tile and long-empty glass sign displays that promoted Duke Ellington shows to travelers being whisked through the passage by bellhops. You'd say, "Take me to the New Yorker and you wouldn’t have to go outside,” Joe Kinney, the hotel's engineer and historian, said during a recent tour of the hotel.

Indeed, the New Yorker's historic spirit is filling all of its corridors again, as a room-by-room renovation draws toward completion, powered by the strong Art Deco genes that gave it life almost 80 years ago. But for many of those years, the hotel had lost touch with its history. It closed in 1972 and was purchased by the Unification Church. In 1994, it reopened under its original name, but only now is it truly reclaiming its lost history and pride of place among the city's hotels.

It's easy to see how Kinney, 57, who joined the staff in 1996, became captivated by its history, and how he was able to sell senior management on the idea that the hotel's future lay in its past. The striking pyramidical, set-backed tower was financed and built before the Wall Street crash of 1929, and opened into a sobered-up world on Jan. 2, 1930, with the Great Depression already under way.

The 43-story hotel boasted many extremes when it opened: It was the biggest, the tallest, the one with the largest switchboard, the largest kitchen, the largest private power plant. Today, its massive LED sign is a skyline fixture and is possibly the largest of its kind anywhere.

You hear of the ice follies at the Terrace Room, of visits by actor Mickey Rooney and band leader Benny Goodman, and of Nikola Tesla, the electrical genius whose obsession with numbers and his love for pigeons still draw the curious to the hotel, where he spent his final years.

The New Yorker Hotel's historically minded renovation comes at a time when the future of its former swing-era arch enemy, the Hotel Pennsylvania, has been in question, and during a time when the wrecking ball has been tearing down old New York with abandon.

The hotel’s rebirth is due in no small part to Kinney's curiosity and cheer-leading for the hotel's history.

“I feel very happy that I was able to push the Art Deconess of the hotel and that the architects took that into consideration," Kinney said, speaking of the work of the firm Stonehill & Taylor. "They did a great job.”

Photo of the group Giuda performing in Tompkins Square Park by Jefferson Siegel

Two days of concerts were held over the weekend in Tompkins Square Park, to mark the 20th anniversary of the famed riots between police and homeless squatters/activists.

In the photo above, a group of slam dancers were doing their thing as the group Giuda
performed.

The park's an almost unrecognizable place today, with picnics and baby showers being held where people once feared to tread.

And the battles today are mostly verbal, as we noted last week in Vets of Tompkins Square battle ready to fight again.

--Jefferson Siegel and Jamshid Mousavinezhad

This sign greets you at the museum's front desk. (Photos by Rolando Pujol)

If you've never been to the City Reliquary, then you're missing one of Gotham's gems. It's a Williamsburg storefront museum that's home to all kinds of New Yorkiana. It's the one place in the city where you can find everything from a salvaged sign for the Second Avenue Deli, to World's Fair memorabilia, to peep-show tokens and subway-station paint "specimens" that display generations of color layers. And that's just a sample of what awaits you.


Memorabilia from the 1939-40 World's Fair. Find your own Trylon and Perisphere salt-and-pepper shakers on eBay here.

The reliquary is a compelling reminder that we live in one of the most interesting cities on earth, and it opens your eyes to the history and curiosities -- urban archaeology, as we call it -- that practically every block contains, your own home included.

We're happy to see this sign found a safe and caring home.

It's well worth a visit, and equally worthy of your financial support. Thursday night at 7, you'll have a chance to do both, as the reliquary hosts a Summer Benefit Party. Among the offerings: a chance to win a date with a reliquarian! Click here for more details.

-- Rolando Pujol

A folk-art portrait of Jackie Robinson is surrounding by seltzer bottles and a can of Piels, a good drinking beer if there ever was one.

We happen to own a Redbird subway grab, but we never thought of mounting it on the wall thusly. We love it.