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  • Bid to save Cheyenne Diner

    Monday March 31, 2008 2:42 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Updated 8 p.m: The Cheyenne [amNewYork print story here], one of Manhattan’s last railroad-car-style diners and a cozy refuge for Farley Post Office workers and Penn Station travelers, is closing its doors after more than half a century.

    An employee confirmed yesterday that the neon-lit, chrome-covered diner would shutter “around the end of the week,” but referred further questions to the eatery’s owner, who did not return messages before deadline. A city preservationist who led a successful effort last year to rescue a similar establishment said he would launch an effort to save the Cheyenne after amNewYork informed him of the diner’s fate.

    “Definitely. I’m going to get right to it,” said Michael Perlman, who founded the Committee To Save The Moondance Diner.

    Regulars of the 24-hour diner were stunned by the news, which was first reported yesterday on the blog Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.

    “I’m so upset right now,” said regular Raquel Sanchez, 36, of Harlem, upon learning the news. “This is like the feel of an old-school diner. It’s warm, it’s good food, big portions.”Located on Ninth Avenue at West 33rd Street, the Cheyenne, which was built in the 1940s, is one of Manhattan’s last half-dozen or so remaining prefabricated diners, designed to resemble railroad cars, said Daniel Zilka, director of the American Diner Museum.

    He said Cheyenne officials contacted him in November to seek preliminary information on how to relocate the diner. It is unclear if the diner’s portable structure might be moved, or if the business will reopen in another building.

    Last year, the Moondance Diner was driven out of SoHo, its home since the early 1930s, by new construction and soaring rents. With the help of preservationists, it found a new home in LaBarge, Wis.

    At one time, dozens of prefabricated diners decorated Manhattan, Zilka said. The handful that remains today include Chelsea’s Empire Diner, TriBeCa’s Square Diner, lower Manhattan’s Pearl Diner and Harlem’s West Market Diner, which is threatened by Columbia University’s expansion plans. The Market Diner in Hell’s Kitchen, which closed in 2006, will reopen this summer. It originally opened in 1962.

    “Free-standing diners citywide are becoming an endangered species,” Perlman said. “The Cheyenne Diner’s pretty much intact from its heyday.”

    Zilka said he encourages the Cheyenne’s owner to contact his museum to try to save the structure.

    “It is sad to see,” Zilka said. “We hope that at some point we don’t lose all of them.”

    -- Ryan Chatelain

    Diner defined: The word "diner" comes from "dining car," as they were once based on a railroad design. They started as mobile lunch wagons 150 years ago, and evolved into the prefabricated, easy-to-move structures we know today. The true stand-alone railroad-car diner is down to just a few in Manhattan. With Cheyenne vanishing soon, survivors are down to places like the Square Diner, 33 Leonard St. at Varick Street.

    Photo: RJ Mickelson/amNewYork

    Tags: cheyenne diner, manhattan, restaurants, endangered nyc, development, architecture

  • Contraband at the Met

    Monday March 31, 2008 1:39 PM By Daisy Carrington

    This weekend, my boyfriend, Sean, and I trolled the Union Square farmer’s market for some good dinner loot. After a stop at Maoz (my vote for best falafel in the city), we picked up some wild mushrooms and black salsify for risotto and ... okay, not yet sure what to do with the salsify. Regardless, afterwards, we headed to the Metropolitan Museum to check out the Gustave Courbet exhibit (more on that later). Unfortunately, we were stopped in our tracks by an overeager security guard who refused to let us in with our farmer’s market goodies.

    “But it’s only mushrooms,” I pleaded. “I’ll check it in at the bag check.”

    “I’ve never seen nothing like that brought in here,” he said before shoving us off on his supervisor, who confirmed that we were not allowed in the museum with fresh produce, even if we did check it.

    Sean was about to argue the case, fruitlessly, before I dragged him out. Reluctant to throw away our finds (farmer’s market food isn’t cheap, after all), we figured out where we could hide the goods so that the guard wouldn’t stop us again. The salsify went into my sleeve, and the ‘shrooms underneath Sean’s shirt. This time, we glided past (though the guard continued to eye us suspiciously. Afraid we might peel root vegetables all over the Rodins).

    I was glad we weren’t caught and strip-searched, mainly because the Courbet exhibit was exceptional.

    Courbet was a 19th century French artist who proclaimed himself the "proudest and most arrogant man in France.” His arrogance is apparent in the dozen or so self-portraits on display, each portraying a different persona. Some of his work takes on an angsty quality, not unlike a young Johnny Depp.

    See what I mean?

    Even if you didn’t dig Sweeney Todd, the movie, the Courbet exhibit is vibrant, and … massive. If you go, I definitely recommend grabbing a latte on the way in (just make sure to hide it in your pant leg).

    Tags: food, gustave courbet, metropolitan, art

  • Salvation Army clears out of new landmark

    Monday March 31, 2008 11:55 AM By Rolando Pujol

    The Ten-Eyck Troughton Residence was a Salvation Army home for women from the middle 1950s until recently, when the organization sold the Murray Hill building to a developer. Last year, most of the furniture was cleared out and recently, the facade wall plaque was finally taken down. The awning of the East 39th Street building remains, as does a leftover of its mid-century roots -- a bomb shelter sign.

    The building has been in the news a bit recently. The Times documented the battle by several residents to hang on there and at another Salvation Army residence, the Parkside Evangeline in Gramercy Park. Here's the Salvation Army's take on the dispute.

    A few weeks back, this building, whose historic name is Allerton House, was landmarked, so whoever does move in will have to preserve the building's Northern Italian Renaissance charms, which include a remarkable roof line.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: salvation army, allerton house, murray hill, landmarking, architecture, manhattan, endangered nyc, signs

  • Circus lows

    Monday March 31, 2008 11:00 AM By Emily Ngo

    Protesters were on hand during the march of the elephants last week. (Photo via Artex on Flickr)

    Our trip to check out the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus this past weekend was meant to be silly. We wanted to drink beer, gloat that we were children-free and debate whether the acrobats really were all related.

    But several animal rights activists with several hard-to-forget signs were parked outside Madison Square Garden. Showtime rolled around and admittedly the Globe of Steel speeding racers and triple-somersaulting trapeze artists were impressive, but the elephant act was … depressing. I don’t know if they’re mistreated by whatever standard, but they are certainly made to look silly. And not the kind of silly my friends and I were hoping for that night.

    -- Emily Ngo

    Tags: circus, circus elephants, animal rights, manhattan, entertainment, stuff that's cool

  • Modern threads with a mod spirit

    Monday March 31, 2008 9:59 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Tucked behind the Trader Joes at Union Square is the small boutique shop Apt 141. The colorful prints and cheery store window caught my eye one recent Saturday. I spotted a black top with an Art Nouveau print that I just couldn’t pass up. Here’s what I found out about the boutique and its label 3Free:

    Designer and co-owner Lisa Foti opened Apt 141 13 years ago with her partner Cornelius Byrd. What started out as a vintage clothing boutique evolved into their own original women’s clothing line – 3Free. “We saw a need for more feminine dresses,” Foti says. “We like to play with shapes, mix colors and textures together.” Wrap dresses in bold prints, jersey tops and skirts are their mainstay. Depending on the body type tops can be worn as dresses, skirts as tops and some items are reversible.

    “We listen to our customers and ask them what they are looking for, she said. They also name each new dress style after women – the Ruby dress, or the Emily, for example.

    Nothing is mass produced. “It’s all made here in the U.S.,” Foti said. “We won’t be going to China to cut costs.” They offer limited numbers of each dress and are always changing up the looks. Foti is also working on an “environmentally conscious clothing” line. Dubbed the “Clover,” the clothes will be made from natural fabrics like bamboo.

    The 3Free label can be found in boutique shops in Manhattan and the boroughs. Foti hopes to take 3Free nationwide over the next few years. They are in the midst of getting a Web site up and running.

    3Free dresses go for $98-138. Tops and skirts typically sell for $68.

    Location: 141 E. 13th Street, (off Third Avenue)

    Store hours: Mon.-Sat. Moon-8pm, Sun. Noon – 7pm

    Phone: 212-982-4227

    Apt.141@gmail.com

    threefreedesign@gmail.com

    -- Peggy Mihelich

    Tags: shopping, manhattan

  • Yankee Stadium: Beginning of the goodbye

    Sunday March 30, 2008 5:49 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Our Ryan Chatelain catches up with Bucky Dent, neighborhood businesses and fans as the team begins its final season at the House That Ruth Built. This will be a strange season in many ways. One fascinating aspect is that you'll have two Yankee Stadiums side by side: The 1974-75 version, which undid lots of the original detail, and the new ballpark, which is a throwback to the old stadium Ruth knew, and restores that lost detail in a slightly more compact stadium.

    The new Yankee Stadium took another symbolic step forward Saturday with the installation of the "eagles" next to the stadium name. Compare Saturday's photo with the way the sign looked in 1948. It's uncanny.

    It seems that, somehow, the Yanks could have worked with the original, keeping the team on the same sacred ground. It's one of those turn of events we'll never accept. But it's hard to dismiss the beauty of the stadium rising next door.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Flags fly at half-staff at Yankee Stadium in 1948 to mark

    the death of Babe Ruth. (AP)

    The New York Yankees unveils the re-created "eagle" medallions and lifts them into place Saturday at the main entrance of the new stadium (Alejandra Villa/Newsday).

    Tags: yankees, stadium, history, bronx, sports, architecture

  • City kids bring history to life

    Sunday March 30, 2008 4:00 PM By Rolando Pujol

    "On these wheels: FDR's desire to save a nation" was among 191 exhibits from 370 New York City students judged yesterday at the 18th annual History Day at the Museum of the City of New York. (Photos by Kathleen Bulson)

    Ryan McEvoy, 12, of Brooklyn, turned a corner at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C last May to find a model of a Danish boat used to transport 7,000 Jews to safety during World War II.

    Inspired by his findings, McEvoy soon found himself visiting more museums, speaking with refugees and writing the Danish Embassy for his project on the Danish resistance movement. His was among 191 individual and group history projects displayed at the 18th annual History Day, held Sunday at the Museum of the City of New York, which sponsored the contest.

    McEvoy, a seventh grader, was impressed that "a country so small could save so many people out of the kindness of their hearts; they didn't turn away."

    The 370 students focused their projects on the theme “Conflict and Compromise,” and were divided into two groups: juniors (sixth through eighth grades) and seniors (ninth through 12th graders).

    "This process allows students to choose something meaningful to them and to present in various ways expressing it creatively," said Franny Kent, director of the Frederick A. O. Schwarz Children's Center at the Museum of the City of New York.Diana Fedorkova, 13, Mona Abuhamdeh, 14, Valerie Kipnis, 14, Natalie Vintoyn, 14 and Mirela Music, 13 students at I.S. 30 in Brooklyn, interviewed Bay Ridge residents about the construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in the early 1960s. The five Brooklynites made a documentary on the bridge’s construction, a feat that required the bulldozing of thousands of homes. The bridge directly connected Staten Island to the rest of New York City for the first time.

    "History makes up our future. We were learning what and how it changed the place we live," Fedorkvoa said.

    Four eighth graders from I.S. 78 in Bergen Beach researched "Field Order 15," which was granted by Union Gen. William Sherman after the Civil War. It famously gave the freed slaves “40 acres and a mule.”

    Gallal Dharhan, 13 said the group wanted to understand Sherman’s motives in helping the freed slaves through the land grants. (The order was later repealed by President Andrew Johnson after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination.)

    "It makes me want to learn more about my ancestry and the Civil War," said Shameeka Skeete, 13, who worked on the project with three other students.

    The other projects included examinations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration, women's suffrage, the Space Race, gay rights, chemical warfare, Wicca, Chinese immigration and even baseball.

    The winners, whose names weren’t immediately available, will advance to a state competition in upstate Cooperstown in May, which is followed by a national competition in College Park, Md. in June.

    “History Day gives students ownership of history," said Jenny Lando, educator and one of the volunteer judges.

    -- Kathleen Bulson

    This project exmained Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations.

    This project, by James Matlow, 14, of Genesis School in Bay Ridge, examined the Irish Republican Army.

    A group of students from I.S. 78 in Bergen Beach displays their project on "Forty Acres and a Mule."

    Joined by his father, Ryan McEvoy, 12, displays his project on the Danish resistance movement.

    Students from I.S. 30 in Brooklyn interviewed Bay Ridge residents about the construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in the early 1960s.

    "Hero on the Field: Roberto Clemente" was produced by students Giselle Cortes and Adrian Raffa.

    Tags: history, museums

  • Take it to The Bridge

    Sunday March 30, 2008 3:00 PM By David Freedlander

    This weekend was NY's take on The Bridge Art Fair, as part of the city's crazy art-fairapalooza weekend.

    Impressive art, all told, but a little bit of an overwhelming experience out there at The Waterfront, almost like walking through a tony nightclub with art flying at you in all directions. This inspired a thought: As bars become more like art galleries, (as amny.com perceptively pointed out) is the art world turning into clubland?

    The setting, after all, was in a famously former nightclub

    And besides the fabulousness, there was this, shown after the jump:

    It wasn't all bad though. We loved Glowlab's free money give-away (though we were informed no one actually took them up on their offer:)

    And these were cool too:

  • Princess hair for a pauper's sum

    Sunday March 30, 2008 12:47 PM By Julie Gordon

    Gorgeous locks don’t just get that way without a little work (unless you’re some freak of nature). And, in New York, you also need some moolah.

    So imagine my excitement when I heard a salon was actually giving away highlights.

    To bring on more hair clients, DEX New York (which is mostly a photography studio and makeup salon) is offering complimentary partial highlights until June 30. They usually start at $120.

    I took DEX up on its offer Friday, plus forked over some dough for a haircut.

    I was definitely happy with the results (and the flow of compliments that followed). The staff was also really friendly and attentive.

    The only disappointing part of my experience was the extra $40 blow-dry fee tacked onto the price of my haircut. Ug.

    That said, I really can't complain. Free hair services are like sample sales multiplied by ten.

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: hair, salon, dex, haircut, highlights, shopping

  • Tyra’s audience full of actors?

    Sunday March 30, 2008 12:02 PM By Daisy Carrington

    You might have heard that Tyra Banks wants people to start taking her show more seriously. Perhaps, for a truly serious show, it’s best not to leave audience-generated questions in the hands of an actual audience. Who knows what they might come up with?

    Tom, a recent Tyra audience member, and America's Next Top Model buddy of mine, recently called me up ecstatic.

    “I’m going to Tyra,” he announced. The show booked an all-male audience for a segment on, well, men and relationships. Tom noticed that those in the audience who got to ask questions or interact with Tyra weren’t in the waiting room with the other audience members before the show began, and at the end of filming all left through a separate door as the other audience members.

    His conclusion? The lot of them were actors. To a degree, this made some sense. As Tom himself pointed out, “it’s supposed to be a show about heterosexual relationships, and the entire audience was filled with gays.”

    -- Daisy Carrington

    Tags: tyra banks, antm, actors, entertainment

  • Ghosts of the Garment District

    Sunday March 30, 2008 10:05 AM By Rolando Pujol

    A sign for Lombardy Dresses is accentuated by the steeple of Holy Innocents Catholic Church on West 37th Street. (Photos by Rolando Pujol)

    The Garment District still has plenty of bustle during the week, giving you a quick jolt of unmistakable Manhattan adrenaline. On a Sunday morning, however, it's an eerily quiet place, a neighborhood whose heart is not overrun with Sunday brunchers or tourists, except for the odd one sauntering through on the way to the Empire State Building. The desolation lends itself well to ruminating on the neighborhood's lore, and to find it, all you have to do is look up and examine beautiful hand-painted signs. With the late-morning sun just so and the blue sky a severe clear, we had to snap these shots -- hardly a definitive collection. More images after the jump.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    The shadow of a water tower covers what little is left of a sign.

    Two generations of signs for Kaufman Property Management are among the highlights on this wall along Seventh Avenue.

    This ad, I believe, is covering up an interesting sign, but Ms. Monroe somehow works here beside the ancient brick.

    Tags: manhattan, urban archaeology, signs, old school, endangered nyc

  • Here comes the new 2 Columbus Circle

    Friday March 28, 2008 11:36 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Well, here it is -- no longer the vision for the new 2 Columbus Circle, but the real thing. Curbed is already on the case, but we just noticed the beginning of the facade's debut this afternoon and brought back this shot, with more after the jump. The pics offer a hint of what Brad Cleopfil's vision for the former Huntington Hartford Gallery will look like.

    A real view of the building seems almost surreal, given the long dispute over preserving the original facade, designed by Edward Durrell Stone. The original controversially never got landmark protection, and some, including Landmark West! and even Tom Wolfe, vociferously fought for its survival. In fact, Landmark West! uses the upper portion of the original building's facade for its Web site's logo.

    Stone's 2 Columbus Circle was seen by some as a quirky, but important example of "proto post modernism" that was worth saving. We shared that view, but the marble building had long been a failure as a useful thing, sitting empty for long stretches. Eventually, the city sold it to the Museum of Art and Design and with the funds and will in place to move in and transform it, its fate was sealed, despite the last-ditch effort to save it.

    It's a little too early to draw conclusions about the new building. The comments on this Curbed thread, which includes many more pictures, tilt toward approval, We are certainly waiting to see how the building's iconic, lower-level "lollipops," made famous by a classic bon mot by critic Ada Louise Huxtable, appear when all is said and done.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    And the lollipops in the original, untouched state:

    Tags: 2 columbus circle, architecture, manhattan, history, endangered nyc, development

  • Duly Noted

    Friday March 28, 2008 7:45 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Pier 40, by leahlb on Flickr.

    * Jeremiah follows up on his sad post about a Chelsea block's fate with a visit to Sweet Banana Candy Store, where you can buy eccentric treats and even candy cigarettes. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * Next step for St. Saviour's is a news conference on Monday. [Queens Crap]

    * The DKNY Wall and its pre-9/11 skyline shot may be endangered. [Gothamist]

    * The Waverly Restaurant will get a new sign in keeping with the old. [Lost City]

    * The High Line-straddling Standard Hotel may open in the late fall. [Curbed]

    * A sound recording BEFORE Edison? Yes. [Vulture]

    * Add Pier 40 to the list of projects that have hit the skids of late. [Curbed]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • Who loves ya baby: Kojak's creator dies

    Thursday March 27, 2008 4:42 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The mind behind "Kojak," perhaps the definitive 1970s NYC TV cop, has died. Abby Mann, who won an Oscar for writing "Judgment at Nuremberg", penned the 1973 TV movie, "The Marcus-Nelson Murders," which introduced the character of Theo Kojak to America. It was a huge hit, and spawned five seasons worth of one-hour episodic drama, ending when the ratings petered out in 1978.

    The movie that brought Kojak's character to life was inspired by a real-life New York case -- the career girl murders of 1963, in which two women were brutally raped and killed, and the wrong man sent to prison -- a man who had confessed to a crime he did not commit. The character of "Kojak," however, appears to have been a composite. From a New York Times' correction on a 1996 obit for Det. Thomas Cavanagh, who had been credited as the inspiration for "Kojak": "The character was a composite, based on a number of detectives, lawyers and reporters -- including Thomas Cavanagh -- who were involved in the 1963 Wylie-Hoffert murder case. He was not its sole inspiration."

    Mann was proud of the TV movie, but once Universal had to fill airtime with his character once a week, his view soured considerably. What bugged him may well have been the cops-and-robbers cheesy goodness that makes it a cult classic. The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago tells us:

    Although he was not involved in the production of Kojak, Mann was unhappy with the treatment of the series by its producer, Universal Television, which, he argued, re-framed the police melodrama as a formulaic cops-and-robbers potboiler, whereas he had sought to show, in The Marcus-Nelson Murders, that law enforcement officials should be watched.

    We enjoy "Kojak" reruns to savor Telly Savalas' work, and to enjoy glimpses of 1970s Gotham street life. One New York street icon the show captured frequently is those "snakehead" lamps that are the DOT standard. They were so ubiquitous whenever Kojak would drive his gas-guzzler around town that you might call them "Kojak" lamps.

    Want to indulge a "Kojak" fix and revisit the character Mann created? Hulu has the first 22 episodes, complete and with limited commercial interruption.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: television, old school, nypd, entertainment

  • MSG stays put; Farley left alone

    Thursday March 27, 2008 3:22 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Two quick observations after the news that Cablevision won't move Madison Square Garden to the back of the Farley Post Office.

    First, Madison Square Garden -- for now -- survives. They'll rehab it, just as they did in the early 1990s after dropping a plan to move farther west. Today's MSG isn't widely beloved, but heck, we have a weakness for its spherical, brutalist, space-age vibe. Today's iteration is the fourth complex bearing that name.

    Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan outside the building that may one day yet bear his name. (Getty)

    Second, the Farley Post Office is left alone. Damaging the integrity of a McKim, Mead and White building in this neighborhood would seem to invite bad karma. They were, of course, the creators of the original Penn Station, itself knocked down for today's MSG.

    We'd still like to see Moynihan Station happen. The kernel of the idea seemed good enough, before it morphed into the project that would consume midtown.

    Stay tuned.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: endangered nyc, manhattan, history, arts, architecture

  • Throwback Thursday: Cracking Egg McMuffin's past

    Thursday March 27, 2008 1:31 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Herb Peterson holds several examples of his Egg McMuffin. (AP)

    Herb Peterson, the inventor of the Egg McMuffin, has died in Santa Barbara, Calif., the city where he invented the dish in 1972. He was 89. The sandwich, however, did not hit market until a few years later -- and is the lowest-cal breakfast dish McDonald's serves! Today, the breakfast staple is a part of Americana. Long gone are the styrofoam containers that housed it, but you can still taste the sandwich's past by hitting play on these two commercials.

    The top is from 1989 (from the "Good Time, Great Taste" campaign), and was shot in Manhattan. Be sure to watch out for the Shuttle train, and a glimpse of the Citicorp Center, as the Citigroup building was then called. The second is about a decade older, and a relic of the "We do it all for you" campaign.

    Fun fact: A year after the Egg McMuffin was invented, the first McDonald's restaurant opened in Manhattan. The day was March 23, 1973, and the place was 215 W. 125th St. It had taken the chain two decades to crack Gotham City. You can't miss them now.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: throwback thursday, television, old school, manhattan

  • No skirting the issue

    Thursday March 27, 2008 1:29 PM By Julie Gordon

    “When’s the last time you wore a skirt?” designer Rebecca Taylor asks me.

    Um … does a bathing suit cover-up count? A towel wrapped around my waist paired smashingly with a tank top?

    Like the rest of NYC gals, I’ve been loving the dress trend for the past few seasons, as my friends, co-workers and anyone else I’ve so much as encountered in the last year can attest to. But Taylor’s enthusiasm has got me thinking that it’s time to change things up a bit.

    “It’s the craziest thing,” she says. “I’m so desperate for a skirt.”

    That sentiment is mirrored in her spring collection — which includes several knee brushing, slightly A-line styles in a variety of colors (strawberry, cream, grey, black). Taylor recommends tucking a shirt into one of her feminine pieces to create a neat, tailored look (no pun intended).

    A cute addition? Pockets. And, thankfully, hers are stitched down and have no extra fabric around the thighs.

    “Men just don’t get it — you don’t need extra bits of fabric around the thighs,” Taylor says.

    We agree in more ways than one.

    Check out more spring skirt tips from Taylor, and other designers and experts, in Monday's Style section in amNewYork.

    — Julie Gordon

    Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

    Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

    Tags: rebecca taylor, skirt, dress, shopping, fashion

  • Pocket of old Manhattan poised to disappear

    Thursday March 27, 2008 12:16 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Ninth Avenue between West 17th and 18th streets is a remarkable pocket of Manhattan the way it once was -- homegrown shops that cater to their neighbors. That's it. The eastern side has a barber shop (with hand-painted sign), a liquor store (alive with bold neon), a dry cleaner (with 1960ish plastic sign), and so forth. And these are long-running businesses, with the kind of patina and roots that enrich the neighborhood. You take them as a group and you ask yourself how such places can hang on -- and what can be done to save them.

    Th building that houses them has a new owner seeking to lure high-end retail -- that was the plan back in November. Now, Jeremiah at Vanishing New York reports in a compelling read that most of the shops have been told their days are numbered.

    As he observes, "I've been wondering when the block would begin to vanish, but I didn't know it would happen with just one real estate deal."

    It's a thought we've had from time to time about this stretch. We made a point of walking by here occasionally just to soak in the old-school flavor.

    After the jump are a few more cell-phone shots we took of the street back in October. We plan to make another visit soon. Time is of the essence, as it is for so many of these places in today's New York.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: endangered nyc, shopping, restaurants, old school, manhattan, history, economy, development, signs

  • Salvation for St. Saviour's?

    Thursday March 27, 2008 10:42 AM By Rolando Pujol

    The beautiful original wood is now exposed at St. Saviour's, an 1847 work by the noted

    Richard Upjohn. Here's a photo gallery. (Photos by Robert Holden)

    St. Saviour’s Church, a 19th-century wooden church in Queens that’s on the cusp of demolition, may itself finally have a savior.

    Built in 1847 by master architect Richard Upjohn, who also designed the landmark Trinity Church in lower Manhattan, the Maspeth church has been at the center of a desperate campaign to save it since 2005, when Maspeth Development LLC purchased the site for a housing development.

    Since then, very little has gone right for the church. Promised funding for moving it never materialized, its parsonage was torn down, and old-growth trees on the property were cut. But now, the developer has set aside his housing plans and has given the Juniper Park Civic Association, which has fought to save it, until late April to move the church off the property.

    And in a heaven-sent development, a nearby cemetery, All Faiths in Middle Village, has agreed to give it a home. As the clock ticks, the biggest challenge now is who will pay to move it. The group had been counting on $1 million in city funding that never materialized.

    “We can’t find the money and we can’t wait,” says Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park group. “We just want to get [the church] out of harm’s way.”

    Representatives from Juniper Park are to meet Friday with building movers to determine costs and tactics for moving the church. The exterior vinyl siding was recently removed, revealing the church’s original wooden decorative shingles and other Gothic Revival details. Holden hopes if all goes as planned, the church might qualify for landmark designation.

    “They’re going to be surprised when they see what we have. It’s going to be a real jewel,” Holden says. “I think this is going to be a rallying cry for a lot of groups not to give up.”

    It’s a welcome turn of events after a years-long campaign by politicians, community advocates and preservationists staved off the demolition, bolstered with that reported promise of $1 million in funding that was to have been secured by former Republican Councilman Dennis Gallagher.

    Moving the church has always been a possible way out, an option the advocates had hoped to fund with the never-obtained money. But now, the offer by All Faiths Cemetery represents the best shot yet for the church’s survival.

    “I’ve been following this saga since it began, and they really ran out of options.” said Dan Austin Sr., president and chairman of All Faiths Cemetery. “It just so happens I have a location and I had the physical assets needed to accommodate the church.”

    All Faiths’ legal status prevents it from paying for the move, but Austin said he foresees working with Juniper Park in the future to create a community resource should St. Saviour’s move to the cemetery grounds. A Lutheran church on the site burnt to the ground in 1977 and was never rebuilt.

    Moving the church presents enormous challenges, requiring permits to dismantle utility lines and reroute traffic. If the church can’t be moved in its entirety it may be dismantled and reconstructed on its new site. Either strategy will be costly, but so will losing a significant Upjohn church, preservations say.

    “Upjohn was an urban architect, so it’s highly unusual to have an Upjohn church in that setting,” said Colleen Meagher, manager of grants and technical services at the New York Landmarks Conservancy. “Usually we say moving a building compromises its context—but sometimes this is preferable to demolishing it.”

    -- Lana Bortolot

    To help: Call 718-651-5865 to find out how to donate. You may also go to www.junipercivic.com for donation information.

    Here's a photo gallery. For more, check out coverage on Queens Crap.

    Tags: st. saviour's, maspeth, juniper park civic association, queens, politics, parks, history, endangered nyc, development, architecture

  • Postcards from yo momma

    Thursday March 27, 2008 8:34 AM By David Freedlander

    You know when you find something online that’s strangely mesmerizing even though it’s without any real news content but you still have to spend hours looking at it?

    That was our experience yesterday with this new site Postcards From Yo Momma, which is a collection of emails from people’s mothers (with names redacted, of course) in all of their crazy, nagging, non sequituring, random glory.

    To wit, they have the poorly relayed assessment:

    Hi,

    Here are the results of today’s lunch with the prospective groom: I think he is not for you: He is kind of short although he is really nice, but my gut feeling is you will not click with him. Also he is not bad looking at all.

    So don’t accuse me with all the accusation you dump on me all the time. In the mean time you can meet him if you want.

    I guess I’ll elaborate when I talk to you. Love, Mom

    The never ending reminder of people you went to high school with:

    I also saw an engagement announcement for Dan [redacted]. He is living in FL near grandma. Wasn’t he on the cross country team?

    MOM

    The too close for comfort interest in your personal life:

    Hi Honey:

    Here is the email and cell phone # of the nice girl I made friends with at the gym. She is there every day at 5:30 and then commutes to NY. She is 25, and the thing that impressed me was her friendliness and kindness. She always answers my questions with patience and a smile, even though she is there to work out herself. If you want, contact her. Her New Years resolution is to have more fun.

    What is it with mothers, or shall we say people of a certain age, that turns their communication skills to mush when they get in front of a keyboard? Is it because they weren’t there at the creation of this here Internet Age, and never really caught up?

    Your thoughts welcome here.

    And your crazy mom email, welcome there: Postcards From Yo Momma

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: stuff that's cool

  • Duly Noted

    Wednesday March 26, 2008 5:47 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The neon of Chiam Hand Laundry glows in Brooklyn Heights. (Rolando Pujol)

    * The IRT, BMT and IND: Their spirits survive even in just-built subway station architecture, not just in old-school New York speak. [City Room]

    * Troubling sign: The building that houses Chin's laundry in the Village is for sale. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * Can't wait to get this book: A celebration of Brooklyn's storefronts. [Gothamist]

    * We checked out "Old Forge pizza" when we lived in Pennsylvania for a few years. But now this town is claiming they are the pizza capital of the world? Dems fighting words. [Slice]

    * Stroller gridlock in Brownstone Brooklyn! [Curbed]

    * A chance to vent: Public forums next month on improving No. 7 train service. [Jackson Heights Life]

    * Racked reports on Princeton ski shops' demise. Here's a piece amNY did a few weeks back on Princeton's fate, as well as other ski shops in the city.

    * $35 movie tickets? Read it and weep. [Vulture]

    * Phillip Glass rides the Cyclone as part of a documentary on the composer. [Gowanus Lounge]

    * Photographer Nathan Kensinger explores Hunter's Point South. [Nathan Kensinger Photography]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • City Hall Dispatch: Right on Rosie!

    Wednesday March 26, 2008 3:55 PM By David Freedlander

    068-%20Back%20Bay%20District%20walking%20tour_%20from%20the%20left-%20the%20Dean%2C%20Daniela%2C%20Zuzana%2C%20Iva%2C%20and%20Jara.jpg

    Photo not of an Urbanite walking tour

    Right on Rosie…

    In November of 2006, the NYPD proposed new “parade permit” which would have required that any gathering of more than 10 people get permission from the city.

    They were accused at the time of trying to restrict public protests like Critical Mass and anti-war demonstrations, but the net effect would have been to effectively outlaw being in public with other people

    Naturally, we thought this law absurd. It would basically mean that if the Urbanite staff gathered for a walking tour and picked up a few friends along the way, we could be thrown in the slammer.

    Of course, this would never happen. I mean, who would want to hang out with a bunch of journo-bloggers on a walking tour? But still, in theory, it was cause for concern.

    The regulations eventually got bumped up to 50 people, (no way even we got that many friends!) and took effect last year.

    Well, fortunately, East Village councilwoman Rosie Mendez has put a stop to all this nonsense. She introduced a bill in the council today called the First Amendment Assembly Act, which would overturn the NYPD’s rules.

    “Groups wishing to assemble and stay within the limits of the law should not be required to obtain a permit; the First Amendment is our permit,” Mendez said.

    We hope the City Council moves quickly on this.

    For more check out Assemble For Rights NYC

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: politics, walking tour, protest

  • Welcome to Yogurtville

    Wednesday March 26, 2008 3:20 PM By Julie Gordon

    Stop calling it Murray Hill. 10016 is officially the zip code of Yogurtville.

    Everywhere you turn in this 'hood boasts another frozen yogurt shop. So we took a quick walk and counted. On our little excursion, we found the following places that sell fro-yo (and a lot of people with hair gel). And we have a stomachache.

    Tasti D-Lite (29th and Third, 31st and Second, 36th and Third), Berrywild (30th and Third), Crème Lite (around 31st and Third), Baskin Robbins (around 30th and Third). And there’s a Pinkberry and a Flurt a little ways down.

    Mmm ... I’m hungry for … anything but fro yo.

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: shopping

  • Obama and Clinton's surprising family tree

    Wednesday March 26, 2008 3:09 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    I don't know about you, but we were all surprised today at just how many random celebrities Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton are related to.

    The connections are generally pretty distant--we're talking 9th cousin twice removed--but here are some of the names: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, President Bush (!), Madonna, Celine Dion, Robert E. Lee, James Madison, Lyndon Johnson....

    Our multimedia producer David Holland whipped up a quick Flash that shows all the celebs, and exactly how Obama and Clinton are related to them.

    Check it out by clicking here.

    Tags: politics

  • Urban archaeology: Banking on hotel's history

    Wednesday March 26, 2008 9:57 AM By Rolando Pujol

    The New Yorker is one of those hotels that somehow manages to fly under the radar of many who call themselves New Yorkers, but it's always jammed with tourists. Navigating the packed sidewalk outside its Eighth Avenue entrance requires skill and some patience; it usually brings our quick city strut to a stop.

    But slowing down outside this 1930 Art Deco hotel also offers an opportunity. The Eighth Avenue facade has a beautiful vestige of Manufacturers Trust bank. This golden door reeks of stolidity and wealth -- your money is safe here, it seems to be telling its Depression-chastened audience. The details are noteworthy -- check out the rays emanating from the female figure.This bank certainly invested in good architecture -- it's responsible for one of the city's finest modern buildings.

    The New Yorker recently upgraded its Art Deco-style signage in a faithful way as part of an overhaul that includes a new restaurant, Cooper's Tavern, that has a bit of a Deco flair. Indeed, the management seems to have an appreciation for its history. When you're done marveling at the bank's door, be sure to check out an informative window display of New Yorker history, including a panel (visible after the jump) showing Muhammad Ali chilling in a New Yorker bed while he was at the height of his fame.You have to appreciate a place that understands fully its role in history -- big bands played here, the "Call for Philip Morris" bellhop worked here, Nikola Tesla lived and died here, one of the world's largest barber's shop existed here. It even had the largest private power plant in the country, and a high floor chock full of busy operators frantically fielding phone calls. There was even a tunnel (who doesn't love secret tunnels) that whisked guests to nearby Penn Station.

    The New Yorker closed in 1972 and became offices for the Unification Church of Christ before re-emerging as a hotel in the 1990s, still under the church's ownership.

    The Times had a piece on the New Yorker in November, and speaks to Joseph Kinney, its engineer and unofficial archivist, who has done a lot to protect the hotel's legacy. Sounds like our kind of guy. The hotel is right down the block from our office, so we'll be writing more about it. We took the picture, shown at bottom, of the redone but still iconic New Yorker sign from our 17th-floor office window.

    It's a great skyline slice of 1930s Gotham.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: new yorker hotel, art deco, history, banks, hotels, old school, manhattan, architecture, signs

  • B&B's horses gallop off to restoration

    Tuesday March 25, 2008 1:56 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Bishoff and Brienstein Carousell horses wait to be shipped for restoration. (Photos by Jed Kim)

    Fifty ornate carousel horses sat in a warehouse in the Brooklyn Army Terminal Tuesday morning, waiting to be shipped to a new location. Even under wraps, their bright blues, reds and greens cheered the dusty workspace, and the horses looked alive enough to breathe, to whinny, to buck and kick – their marble eyes rolling forward, their hooves never quite touching the ground as they pounded around an unending track.

    “I think there’s something innate about the carousel, going back to childhood,” said John Krawchuk, director of historic preservation for New York Parks and Recreation. “People love to tell me a happy memory of coming to ride the carousel.”

    New York is losing one of its icons, the Bishoff and Brienstein Carousell; but the iconic attraction will return to Coney Island in a new home at the Steeplechase Pavilion in about two years. Today, its many dismantled pieces were loaded onto a truck headed for Marion, Ohio, where they will be restored by Todd Goings, a renowned expert in carousel restoration.

    Even with the carousel horses standing motionless in a silent room, it’s easy to imagine riding one.

    John Krawchuk, director of historic preservation for New York Parks and

    Recreation, stands beside a Bishoff and Brienstein Carousell horse. (Jed Kim)

    The red paint is smoothest on the saddle where thousands of children’s legs gripped and polished it to a dull sheen. You want to run a hand over a flank, but chunks of the wood have already fallen out; and you know you shouldn’t touch it, even though you have an urge to reassure the horse as it waits to be nailed shut inside a crate alongside 49 of its brothers.

    Last month, the New York City Economic Development Corp. awarded a $1.6 million contract to Goings’ company, Carousels & Carvings, Inc., for restoration of the historic ride. After the carousel reaches its destination, Goings and his team will test patches of the original paint and strip off years of touchup paint. Despite the numerous dings and scratches, Goings said the B&B Carousell is in excellent condition.

    “It just shows the degree of care it had before,” said Goings. “Some carousels had a harder life.”

    When Goings is finished, the carousel should have regained the glory it had when it was built in 1919. It will stand between the parachute jump and Keyspan Park, the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones.

    In the past, Coney Island had as many as 25 wooden carousels running at the same time. The B&B Carousell has been a mainstay since 1932 and is the last carousel of its kind in Coney Island.

    In 2005, the McCullogh family planned to put it up for auction to be sold piecemeal. However, the city struck an agreement with the family and purchased it outright for $1.8 million. The carousel was dismantled and put into storage shortly after the purchase.

    “In the carousel industry, the value of the parts is greater than the whole,” said Lynn Kelly, president of the Coney Island Development Corp. “We felt this was an important vestige of the city’s past.”

    The restoration will be completed well before the rest of the Steeplechase project is finished. When the horses come back to New York after their makeovers, they will sit in another warehouse, waiting for their unveiling and triumphant return.

    Carousel afficionados have felt the loss of the B&B Carousell. Some carousel-themed Web sites have mourned the loss of the iconic “Carousell” sign that used to mark the ride’s location. Krawchuk said that it would have been impossible to keep it.

    “We thought about taking the sign, but it was an integral part of the building,” he said.

    Despite the loss of the sign, Krawchuk said that most of the response towards the renovation has been positive.

    “It’s been a big love fest around the carousel.”

    -- Jed Kim

    Tags: brooklyn, coney island, bishoff and brienstein carousell, endangered nyc, real estate, history

  • Red-eyed for Red Sox

    Tuesday March 25, 2008 12:54 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Dave Mandel, Melissa Conners and Sal Miciotta enjoy the early morning

    game at Professor Thom's, a safe space for Red Sox fans in Gotham. Below,

    bartender Jim McGuire wears his Red Sox pride. (Andy Martino)

    The first batter of the 2008 season approached the plate, bent his knees and waited for the pitch.

    He watched the ball all the way into the catcher’s glove. Strike one.

    He waited for the next pitch. This time, the ball made contact with the bat, and the batter dashed to first. He was safe, and the crowd in the Manhattan sports bar erupted into cheers and applause.

    A typical scene? Hardly. For one thing, it was 6 a.m., and the game on the screen was being televised live from Japan, 11 time zones away. For another, the fans cheering this batter may have been New Yorkers – but they were loyal Red Sox fans.

    Enemy forces last occupied New York from 1776 to 1783, when the Redcoats drove Washington’s army from the city.

    This morning, however, evidence of a more insidious enemy invasion was apparent at Professor Thom’s pub in the East Village, where, nearly 100 Red Sox faithful turned out before dawn to watch their team defeat the Oakland Athletics in Tokyo, Japan, in the first game of opening season.

    Jim McGuire, co-owner of the bar, was also a founder of the Riviera, a Red Sox-friendly pub in the West Village. He opened Professor Thom’s in 2005, and said that in the wake of Boston’s two recent World Series titles, he’s seen Boston fans increasingly willing to come out into the open, even though they’re living in Yankee- and Met territory.

    “People have more confidence to stick it in the Yankees’ face,” he said.

    Dave Mandel, 25, of Manhattan, is one of them. Though Yankee fans have thrown peanuts at him at Yankee Stadium, the life-long Boston fan has felt more comfortable of late in his Red Sox gear.

    "It wasn't out and about as much before they became a Cinderella team," he said while enjoying a Bloody Mary while watching yesterday’s game—he was not due at his job at a television station for three hours. "A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon then. Now that the Sox are doing well, you can administer the taunting, rather than have to take it."

    As the team has become more successful, the psychology of their fans has changed, Mandel says. "As a Red Sox fan, it is inherent to be nervous. The difference now is, you've seen that they can [win], so you think they can."

    Melissa Conners, 22, of Washington Heights, says she lives in Yankees territory but proudly displays her Sox hat around town. Last week, she passed an old man on the sidewalk who was also wearing a Boston hat. Without speaking, they high-fived and continued walking.

    "It's like being part of a club," she said.

    Sal Miciotta, 35, of Brooklyn, said he has cheered the Red Sox for decades -- a stance that began with his Yankee-hating family, who were Brooklyn Dodger fans. It has been easier lately to root for the Sox in New York, he says. But the pessimism born of Boston's many losing seasons has been difficult to shake.

    "The best way to describe us now would be cautiously optimistic," he said, also enjoying a Bloody Mary before work.

    But there seemed nothing cautious about the enthusiasm at Professor Thom's. At 7:57 a.m., Boston's Manny Ramirez doubled to tie the game 2-2. The crowd yelled in piercing unison, clapping and chanting "Let's go Red Sox."

    When Brandon Moss launched a dramatic ninth-inning home run to tie the game, people stood on chairs, raised their arms in the air, and chanted again.

    Earlier, Miciotta pulled out his cell phone to display a picture of his infant son smiling behind a Red Sox bib. Carlo Miciotta, five months, is already a proud member of Red Sox nation, Brooklyn chapter.

    -- Andy Martino

    Tags: sports, manhattan, bars

  • Let's make some sausage!

    Tuesday March 25, 2008 11:54 AM By Daisy Carrington

    How often do we really sit down and think about how some of our most-loved foods are made? As far as I’m concerned, not often enough. If you shudder to think what goes into your food (as I do when I picture the quality of meat in a Big Mac), it’s probably food best avoided.

    But such is not always the case. Some foods, like ice cream and sausage, are difficult to make, but can still be divinely fresh. I recently wrote spoke to Robert Esposito, the owner of Hell’s Kitchen butcher shop, Giovanni Esposito’s & Sons. He walked me through the process of making my own sausage, and you know what?It’s not so scary. So for those that would like to give sausage-stuffing a try, check out Esposito’s fine, and surprisingly simple, recipe for mozzarella and broccoli rabe sausage.

    simple%20life

    Hopefully you’ll be more successful than Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie in the Simple Life.

    Tags: food

  • Star Wars -- at your bus shelter

    Tuesday March 25, 2008 10:45 AM By Rolando Pujol

    The Star Wars ad lit up at night; the day shot is below. More examples of the ad campaign here.(Rolando Pujol)

    Kudos to Spike for this incredibly cool bus-shelter ad. The network has installed Stars Wars faux "light sabers" where the ad would normally go, with the promo text at the bottom. We are instructed to "use only in case of Sith." At first, we thought we were seeing the fluorescent lights of an empty ad slot, not a clever ad campaign. We snapped this at West 34th Street and Eighth Avenue Tuesday. More examples of the campaign can be found here.

    Though nobody has been dumb enough to smash the glass and try to grab the pseudo sabers -- yet -- this campaign reminds us of the media kerfuffle that Levis created in 1996. The company sandwiched $50 Dockers pants into bus shelters, and people being people, they proceeded to smash and grab them. Here's a Channel 5 report on that incident, with Rudy Giuliani slamming the campaign and a pre-MTA Elliot Sander, then running the Department of Transportation, promising ad-policy changes.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    * See photos of die-hard Star Wars fans

    * Photos from Phantom Menace

    * Photos from Attack of the Clones

    Tags: star wars, advertising, manhattan, signs

  • Airlines give OK to pee on seats

    Tuesday March 25, 2008 9:58 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    Well, not the airlines exactly -- the appeals court that today overturned New York's airline passenger's bill of rights. So what does that mean exactly?

    Pretty much means the next time you're stuck in a Jet Blue plane on the runway at JFK for more than 10 hours (a la Valentine's Day 2007) you'll be starved, parched and forced to pee on your seat as the airline will not be required to provide food, water, clean toilets or even air.

    The court said: "If New York's view regarding the scope of its regulatory authority carried the day, another state could be free to enact a law prohibiting the service of soda on flights departing from its airports, while another could require allergen-free food options on its outbound flights, unraveling the centralized federal framework for air travel."

    So our advice -- next time you fly -- pack a lunch, a lotta water, an oxygen tank -- and your "own facilities" a la "In Living Color" starring Damon Wayans as Anton Jackson. See below aforementioned facilities - and a minidoc from a passenger stuck on the runway for hours with no bill of rights. It's not pretty.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: airports

  • Two horrific NYC fires share anniversary today

    Tuesday March 25, 2008 8:52 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    March 25 has been an ominous date in New York City history - it marks the anniversary of two of the deadliest and most horrific fires the city has ever known: the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in Manhattan that killed 148 factory workers, and the 1990 Happy Land social club fire in the Bronx, which killed 87 people.

    The notorious fires share other eerie similarities: in both cases the majority of the victims were under 25 years old and were immigrant workers. And in both cases the victims perished because the buildings were unsafe and had blocked exits or locked doors.

    The Shirtwaist factory was a typical sweatshop of the industrial era, and was housed on the top floors of the 10-story Asch Building at 23-29 Washington Place on Washington Square. When flames engulfed the upper floors of the building, many of the women workers - mostly Jewish and Italian immigrants - were unable to escape. Fire truck ladders reached to only the sixth floor at that time and the fire was on floors 8 -10. Doors on the ninth floor were locked and the fire escape was flimsy and balked under the weight of so many people desperate to escape.

    The blaze sparked major reforms in labor safety laws.

    The Happy Land arson blaze ignited in an illegal after hours social club that two years before the deadly1990 fire had gotten building violations for lacking fire exits, fire alarms and sprinkler system.

    The blaze was set by Julio Gonzalez, a Cuban immigrant, whose ex-girlfriend worked at the club. After an argument with her, he left the club, returned with gasoline and doused the stairs to the second floor club, which was packed with Honduran immigrants celebrating Carnival.

    Fire exits had been locked to prevent people from sneaking in without paying the cover and it was a disaster for the club-goers inside.

    Gonzalez was arrested and charged with murder and arson. He is still in jail. CBS2 has extensive archival footage of its coverage from the fire online HERE.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: history, bronx, manhattan

  • City Hall Dispatch: Holy marketing ploy, councilman!

    Tuesday March 25, 2008 7:45 AM By David Freedlander

    One way you know you are a local is when you start hating your hometown's nickname. In SF, for example, residents bristle at the stupid beatnik handle, "Frisco."

    In the big city, we got lots to hate. Surely, no self-respecting New Yorker refers to their hometown as "The Big Apple" or "Gotham" in mixed company.

    Well, Queens city councilman Hiram Monserrate is taking the law into his own hands, as he tries to push the city council to officially designate our home base "Gotham City."

    The reason for this new appellation? The summer release of the newest Batman feature, "Batman: The Dark Night."

    He tells the Village Voice's blog:

    I see that as a marketing tool, ‘Come visit the real Gotham City,’ taking advantage of this movie which will be one of those gate-breaking, record-selling movies like it always is.

    When we talk about Gotham we also talk about the rich architecture that our City enjoys. A lot of Gothic architecture exists in New York City. So Gotham’s also obviously related to Gothic and Gothic architecture which is a form of art, so it’s very important for our art community to strengthen its reconnection to being a Gotham City

    We actually kind of like the way Gotham looks on the silver screen--all canyons and towers of skyscrapers, everything sharp and art deco.

    But The City Council hawking naming rights to The City of Fear, The City that Never Sleeps, The Capital of the World?

    That we're just so-so on.

    Councilman Goes to Bat for Gotham City: VV

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: city hall dispatch

  • Duly Noted

    Monday March 24, 2008 3:59 PM By Rolando Pujol

    * New York Times reporter David Dunlap was roughed up because he photographed men putting up illegal advertising. We're sorry to hear this, and happy to find out he's fine. We're not too happy about how irresponsible corporations continue to defile our streets with guerrilla advertising and other illegal marketing. [City Room]

    * A great restaurant find. Margon in midtown, a 1960s Cuban oasis. Go support it. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * The James Beard finalists are out. Danny Meyer and Jean-Georges Vongerichten are duking it out for outstanding restaurant. [Eater]

    * Chelsea Barnes and Nobles closing up. [Racked]

    * Some sort of wild animal caused a stir at Roosevelt Island's Motorgate. [Roosevelt Islander]

    * A closer look at a mass arborcide in Inwood. [Inwoodite]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • City Hall Dispatch: The taxi drivers' take

    Monday March 24, 2008 12:34 PM By David Freedlander

    Photo courtesy of NY Times

    During today's marathon (as in 2 cups of coffee, a pack of No-doz and a bottle of Jolt) congestion pricing hearing, we were surprised to find this woman, rabble rousing head of the Taxi Worker's Alliance, Bhairavi Desai, sitting demurely in the gallery, and even more surprised to find out that she was there to testify against the plan to relieve Manhattan of cars. After all, less cars=more room for taxis, right? And, don't less cars=more potential fares?

    Ahh, but the fine print tells another story. All fares heading to or originating in the congestion zone will come with an automatic $1 surcharge, which Desai says will diminish hacks' tips.

    "It's money coming out of driver's pockets," she told amNY. "After gas prices skyrocketed after Katrina, we were fighting for a 50-cent fuel surcharge and they denied it. Who has ever heard of increasing a tax on an service at the expense of workers? It's completely lost on us."

    --- David Freedlander

    Tags: taxi, manhattan, congestion pricing, city hall dispatch, transportation

  • Well, leggo my Eggo, Tuesday is world Waffle Day!

    Monday March 24, 2008 11:50 AM By Rolando Pujol

    The license plate from the Wafel and Dinges truck in Manhattan

    (Ara Chekmayan/Tactical News Service)

    Waffles. We love 'em. For one, we bemoan the fact that there is no Waffle House in NYC. (You Florida-bound I-95 road-trippers know of its wonders.) But we also, wary of midsection girth, keep our waffle-eating adventures to a minimum ... just the occasional Sunday brunch or late-night freezer raid for Eggos.

    But all bets are off on Tuesday, which is International Waffle Day, a tradition which began in Sweden. The roots of the day trace to the feast of the Anunciation of the Virgin Mary (or VÃ¥ffeldagen), which is celebrated each March 25. That's the day the New Testament says Mary was informed by the Angel Gabriel that she was with child. Eventually, the Swedish pronunciation morphed into something akin to "Waffle Day," and a tradition was born. (Quick aside: National Waffle Day is celebrated August 24, recalling the first patent of the waffle iron by a man from upstate Troy. So you'll have a second excuse to eat waffles in the summer.)

    Most any diner or coffee shop offers the treat. (And there's the ever-reliable Eggo, old commercial below.) If you want to go to Waffle House, well, good luck, the nearest one, pictured at left, is in Bethlehem, Pa., which given the religious origins of the holiday makes for a fitting road trip idea.

    But if the diner (or that trip on I-78) isn't your bag, the Wafel and Dinges truck, which alerted us to this curious celebration, is an option, too. We've seen it around town and never checked it out. The truck's schedule is after the jump. And do let us know of your favorite spots in the city for waffles.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Click below, and Leggo my Eggo!

    Photo of Waffle House: iandavid on Flickr.

    Wafel and Dinges Truck (Ara Chekmayan/Tactical News Service)

    Truck schedule

    * Monday - Friday (8am- 3pm) - 23rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue

    (South side, closer to 5th)

    * Monday - Friday (3:30pm - 7:30pm) - 14th Street, in front of Trader Joe's

    at 3rd Av.

    * Monday - Sunday (8pm - closing) - Sheridan Square (7th Av and Christopher

    Street)

    *

    * Saturdays: 11am - 6pm - Now we have a WEEKLY stop at 7th Avenue and

    Carroll Street, in front of the Key Foods

    * Sundays: 11am - 6pm - We're at Broadway and 75th Street (at Fairway

    Supermarket)

    Tags: food, religion, manhattan, holiday traditions

  • Take the train to Vanderveer Park (where's that?)

    Monday March 24, 2008 2:29 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The past has a knack for resurfacing, even from under the weight of decades of paint. To wit: This sign at the Borough Hall station in Brooklyn, which, if you struggle to read it, directs straphangers to the Nos. 4 and 5 trains that will take you to a Dutch-sounding eden known as Vanderveer Park. From what we can make out, the sign says: "To Atlantic" on the first line, "East New York" on the second, and "Vanderveer Park" on the third. Below the words is a directional arrow.

    If you wanted to go to Vanderveer Park today, you'd be visiting the Flatbush area. According to nyfd.com:

    Vanderveer Park was the northern most part of the Town of Flatlands, which was annexed along with the Towns of Flatbush, New Utrecht and Gravesend in 1894. Today Vanderveer Park lives only in name at the Vanderveer Park Houses on Foster, to Newkirk Avenues between Nostrand and Brooklyn Avenues. Other than the housing projects the name is lost in history and the area is now the junction of Flatbush, Farragut and Midwood.

    The name also survives in Vanderveer Park United Methodist Church. Vanderveer Park was also the name of an LIRR station. Here's a look at the vanished regal homes of Vanderveer Park.

    The neighborhood made the news from time to time. For instance, in 1898, Vanderveer Park had some burglars "prowling around." From the New York Times of Oct. 2, 1898:

    Capt. Knipe and Acting Detective Betts of the Flatbush Precinct, Brooklyn, went sleuthing yesterday morning in such a crafty way that they aroused the suspicions of the residents, and were "held up" by eight citizens with revolvers. Burglars have been prowling around the Vanderveer Park section, and the residents have agreed that if one of them sees a burglar he shall fire a pistol as a signal to rouse the neighborhood.

    A year before, one of the Vanderveers was involved in a lawsuit, according to a Times article:

    Peter F. Vanderveer, principal owner of Vanderveer Park, in Flatbush, and one of the wealthiest representatives of the old-time families in that suburb, has been sued by Dr. William H. Nans, a Flatbush physician, for services alleged to have been rendered Miss Kate Hoffman at the instance of the defendant.

    Please share with Urbanite whatever you know of Vanderveer Park's history, tabloid friendly or otherwise.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: endangered nyc, signs, history, brooklyn

  • Doin' time at the coop

    Sunday March 23, 2008 2:33 PM By Daisy Carrington

    I thought I’d take a moment to describe my weekend, a weekend that in one respect has come to resemble many others. I shopped, and while this may not excite many of you run-of-the-mill, Gristedes (ew!) shoppers, those, who like me, are members of the Park Slope Food Coop will understand what an all-encompassing experience food shopping is, especially when it follows doing one’s shift.You see, to shop at the Coop, where the produce is mainly organic, often local and unbelievably fresh, one has to work one shift a month. My co-op duty is to stock shelves. In an entire shift, I will make, and promptly lose, friends, confidents, enemies, loves. In a 10-minute period, I’ll feel incredibly close to someone while hanging out in the freezer while organizing dairy. Usually one or both of us is making up a previously missed shift. We discuss learn about each others jobs, likes, dislikes, diet (perhaps above all else) in short order, and then, one of us is transferred out to meat. After a couple of months at the Coop, one’s diet inevitably becomes more idiosyncratic. I have already sworn of microwaves, high fructose corn syrup, and if things keep going at this rate, I might even renounce meat and dairy … or maybe not, their beef department is so excellent.

    Some people say it’s a cult, but how can a cult of good food be wrong? Trust me, one bite of their reduced priced, high quality cheese, or a walk down their spice aisle (where no spice, not even vanilla or saffron, exceeds $2), you’ll be willing to pledge allegiance yourself.

    -- Daisy Carrington

    Photo: allysonmmurphy's photos on Flickr.

    Tags: food

  • Entropically favorable

    Sunday March 23, 2008 2:16 PM By David Freedlander

    This weekend we checkout Urbanite fave Glowlab's show at the Leo Kesting Gallery in the Meatpacking District.

    They turned over the top half of the space into a one-woman exhibition by Beka Goedde, a Brooklyn based artist whose training is in neuroscience.

    Her pieces are these exceptionally delicate, intricate renderings of anonymous cities, imagined places where urban life is both scrambled and fragile.

    She says, “I am building a house around myself. I am able to sense my movement in surrounding space. I contribute to the surrounding space my interior architecture, by transferring my sense of movement to the movement of physical material. The intimate space spreads outward systematically and geometrically, growing into structures and forms. It shoots off further than I can reach with my hands, hangs higher than where I can focus, dwells behind the reach of light.”

    Here's a few more:

    Also, for what it's worth, it's still possible to find flanks of skinned cows near the gallery.

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: art, galleries, meatpacking, arts

  • Urban archaeology: Not just any planter

    Sunday March 23, 2008 11:46 AM By Rolando Pujol

    There's history wherever you look in New York -- even on a sidewalk planter. We must have passed this planter dozens of times before noticing this weekend that it's just not any planter, it's an Adlai Stevenson planter! The Democrat and former Illinois governor twice tried to wrest the presidency from Ike before finishing his career as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the 1960s. He passed away in 1965. This planter, on East 35th Street off Park Avenue, is dedicated to Stevenson, an intellectual's intellectual whose name is probably lost on many of the neighborhood's growing share of young professionals.

    The planter is outside Community Church of New York, which has an interesting modernist facade. We make a point of walking by here from time to time because of the ever-changing display of inspirational messages on this bulletin board. Here's the one the faithful, or anyone walking by, encountered on Easter morning:

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: signs, religion, real estate, politics, urban archaeology, manhattan, history

  • Saving "The Bat"

    Sunday March 23, 2008 10:18 AM By Rolando Pujol

    After a vigorous fan campaign, the Mets came to their senses and agreed to save -- kind of -- the Apple that has graced Shea Stadium since 1980. We hedge because they've only committed to having an Apple presence at the new Citifield -- not necessarily our favorite Apple.

    But what about The Bat at Yankee Stadium, that most cherished of meeting places? Newsday's Anthony Reiber couldn't get a firm answer about the prospects for the 120-foot-tall Louisville Slugger. Will it be kept in place, moved to the new stadium, get demolished or be auctioned off? It's anyone guess at this time.

    Maybe it's time to launch a "Save the Bat" campaign, before it's too late.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Photo: Getty Images, 2006

    Tags: yankees, mets, endangered nyc, arts, bronx, development, history, old school, sports

  • Thank You Easter Bunny!

    Saturday March 22, 2008 10:49 AM By Rolando Pujol

    We're easy marks for holiday sentimentalism on Urbanite, so when Easter comes around, we expect to turn on the tube and get some retro comfort. Here's a look at some of the holiday goodies Urbanite craves:

    1.) That M&M commercial with the kids

    This commercial for M&Ms is warmly remembered as the "Thank you Easter Bunny" campaign. A veritable United Nations of adorable tots thanks the Easter Bunny for those delicious treats that melt in your mouth, not in your hands. A classic jingle and old-fashioned emotional manipulation make for a dependable nostalgia inducer.

    2.) The bunny Cadbury's Creme Eggs commercial

    The gravely avuncular pipes of Mason Adams provide the warm and fuzzy narration for this commercial. The adorable little bunny clucks like a chicken (these are eggs, after all.) Mr. Adams, one of the most prolific commercial voice-over artists of the 20th century, gently reminds us to buy those eggs ASAP: "Why, they're the best thing to come along since the Easter Bunny, and when he's gone, they're gone."

    3.) Dudley Rabbit shills for egg-painting kits

    The first ad, from 1984, features a goofy rabbit telling us of four exciting ways to paint eggs, including the classic "Shake-an-Egg"and "Dip-an-Egg." Dudley's instructions for dipping: "Just mix my coloring crystals with water. Dunk a hard-boiled egg. And look at the snazzy eggs you can make!" I can still smell the vinegar now! The second ad is just for "Shake-an-Egg," and dates to 1982.

    4.) "The Ten Commandments" on ABC

    Here's a promo, voiced by the great Ernie Anderson (of "The Loooove Boat" fame), for a batch of ABC shows, including the 1981 presentation of "The Ten Commandments." Some traditions die hard: Last night, ABC once again trotted out "The Ten Commandments."

    5.) "Jesus of Nazareth" on NBC

    Robert Powell's iconic performance as Jesus Christ, a sterling supporting cast, Maurice Jarre's stirring soundtrack, and Franco Zeffirelli's direction all combine to make "Jesus of Nazareth" appointment viewing each Easter. The following clip is "The Sermon on the Mount," with that haunting musical theme providing the accompaniment -- definitely one of the strongest scenes in the miniseries.

    6.) "Peter Cottontail"

    This is more of a Chicago tradition, but here's a black-and-white"Peter Cottontail" cartoon that made the rounds for years on WGN-TV. Part of the same Windy City tradition that gave us "Hardrock Coco and Joe," "Suzy Snowflake" and "Frosty the Snowman."

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: retro, easter, commercials, endangered nyc, television, old school

  • Reminders of a parcel's past

    Thursday March 20, 2008 8:34 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The Wingate Inn on West 35th Street in one of several sliver buildings that are sprouting up all over the Garment District. And while this slender tower is impossible to miss, so are two reminders of the city's past that are co-existing with it.

    Notice the old painted ad for Kaufman Property Management, part of it covered up by the new hotel. The firm's old signs can still be found here and there in the neighborhood. Right beneath the ad -- for that perfect touch of irony -- is some old-school graffiti.

    The juxtaposition of the gritty layers of the past with that sleek steel and glass is a textbook reminder of how development is changing the texture of these blocks. It seems whatever side street you take here, there's a few buildings that have been knocked down, awaiting skinny, tall successors. These folks are fighting to save the Garment District before it is truly gone. Here's an amNY story on the subject from July. The Observer took a nuanced look at the neighborhood's challenges last month.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: gentrification, garment district, development, signs, endangered nyc, old school, manhattan, architecture

  • A Superior visual treat

    Thursday March 20, 2008 1:47 PM By Rolando Pujol

    There are so many good things to say about this collection of signs for the Superior Sewing Machine and Supply Corp. Let's begin with the wonderful font, the turquoise paneling, and the varied presentation, from the large main sign to the one above the door to the painted logo in the window. They're perfectly imperfect -- notice how the lettering in each sign (notably the "S") is inconsistent. The overall look is very pleasing and soothing.

    The shop, at 48 W. 25th St., is Superior's world headquarters. The company describes itself as the wholesale leader in parts and supplies for industrial sewing and cutting machines. Its roots trace back to 1949, when the company only supplied the local garment trade. The company resides in a historically significant loft building built by Abraham Lefcourt, a garment industry pioneer, according to New York Songlines.

    As for the signs, they are very much a product of the company's early years. They speak to that post-war, mid-century moment of optimism. Call it a superior time.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: chelsea, signs, garment district, endangered nyc, history, manhattan

  • Throwback Thursday: Clean up your act, NYC

    Thursday March 20, 2008 12:24 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The streets of New York have never been particularly clean. But in the 1970s and 1980s, the problem had reach epidemic levels. So messy were our streets that the New York Times devoted a three-part series to the crisis in August 1980. A graph from the first-day story struck us:

    Perhaps the main problem of dirty streets, the researchers have found, is that New Yorkers are learning to live with them. From the Mayor and Sanitation Commissioner, who say they do not have enough money to pay for the necessary men and machines to keep the streets clean, to the pedestrians, motorists, merchants and building superintendents who contribute to the mess or turn their heads and step around it, the people who live and work in the city have come to tolerate dirty streets much as they have come to tolerate other signs of a city with severe problems.

    We've come a long way from those years, but the other day, we noticed a garbage can in an otherwise spotless public plaza in Murray Hill that serves as a quiet reminder of those dirtier times. It promotes the city's early 1980s campaign, "New York, Let's Clean Up New York." The campaign showed the city's desperation and offered a solution: New Yorkers had to take responsibility for the mess they were making.

    Above, check out a classic commercial for the campaign, and, after the jump, get to know the oddest tool in the city's 1980s street-cleaning arsenal: the "Ed Koch talking broom." What we'd do to hear it bristle at illegally parked cars today.

    -- Rolando PujolNew York Newsday

    "May 14, 1988

    Mayor, Dog Join To Clean Up City

    By Kevin Flynn

    The Sanitation Department, following in the storied tradition of its cartoon legend Phil D. Basket, yesterday unveiled its latest weapons in the war on litter - the "Ed Koch talking broom" and Buddy the Wonder Dog.

    The "Ed Koch talking broom" is a specially equipped sweeper truck that, upon command, broadcasts a recorded message from the mayor. The mayor, in his trademark New Yorkese, tells illegally parked cars to get out of the street cleaner's way.

    "This is Ed Koch, your mayor," the tape says. "You know the Sanitation Department cannot sweep this street if you don't move your illegally parked car. Please get it outta here."

    Buddy the Wonder Dog is a 10-year-old mixed breed that has been trained to deposit trash in garbage cans. It has appeared on the "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment of "Late Night With David Letterman," where it performed such feats as opening a beer can with its teeth.

    Buddy and the mayor, acting as coach, went through some trial runs yesterday outside City Hall, pretending for the cameras that Buddy's red water dish was really worthless trash.

    "We will try just about anything to help New Yorkers clean up their act," said the mayor as he kicked off the city's new "Looking Great in '88" anti-litter campaign.

    As if to prove that, sanitation officials announced that the campaign, which is being co-sponsored by We Care About New York Inc., will feature rewards for faithful "pooper scoopers." They will get free doggie treats, courtesy of a petfood company, if volunteers spot them performing the dutiful endeavor.

    Sanitation officials said they are optimistic that the 95 "Ed Koch talking brooms" will succeed where prior techniques - honking horns and "getting out and being nice to folks" - have failed.

    Koch said he expects motorists to imagine "I'm on their tail and that I'm in the car immediately behind them. And if they don't get out, well, we may just have to give them a summons and they'll expect me to get out of the truck and give them the summons."

    There are still some kinks to work out, however. It seems the mayor's message is too low at times to be heard over traffic.

    "The noise of the engine is right where the speaker is," said Mike Barbarotto of the Sanitation Department's Audio Visual Unit. "But we think we can make an adjustment by making a better copy of the tape and repositioning the speaker."

    Koch said litter-prevention efforts will be especially important this year because "our uncertain fiscal picture has forced us to be more prudent in spending on services." The mayor's budget proposes cutting 460 sanitation employees through attrition.

    Tags: throwback thursday, sanitation, trash, murray hill, zany, urban archaeology, history

  • Flush about Flushing

    Thursday March 20, 2008 12:09 PM By Rolando Pujol

    I have to admit I was a little skeptical about the demand for $2 million condos in Flushing like the one's being offered at Sky View Parc, now under construction at the crossroads of Roosevelt Avenue and College Point Boulevard.

    But then again the only things I know about Flushing are the Mets and a Simpsons episode when the family visits New York: Homer sees a Flushing-bound bus and drools the words "Flushing Meadows," as he fantasizes about frolicking in a field of flushing latrines. The name Flushing Meadows is a bit misleading.

    However, after a few hours in downtown Flushing I actually could see myself living there, I like a place where you can get dumplings served from a window outside your train stop. Also, I spoke with a 28-year-old woman who said there is plenty of nightlife and she seemed in the know.

    The developer at Sky View Parc said that most of the units will sell for between $450,000 and $800,000, and stressed that only a small portion will sell for $2 million.

    I don't know if I'll be able to afford even the moderately priced condos at Sky View Parc, but perhaps a cheap rental somewhere over that dumpling window.

    -- Garett Sloane

    Tags: flushing, development, sky view parc, queens, architecture, real estate

  • I'll have another

    Thursday March 20, 2008 7:26 AM By Julie Gordon

    Sometimes, a jam-packed bar can be cool — if you’re in the mood to chat up strangers, you’re with a big party or, more likely, you’ve already had a few cocktails. But you know what’s never cool? When a place is so crowded you can’t catch the bartender’s attention long enough to order a drink.

    Perhaps new lounge Antik has solved that problem. The 74-capacity spot is waitress-only service; in fact, there isn’t even a bar. And reservations are requested.

    The vibe is intimate and laid-back, the decor is vintagey, with black chandeliers, low marble tables, patterned wallpaper and a red and gold color scheme.

    The drinks, $10-$13 each, are creative and certainly potent. And we didn’t even have to push our way to the bar to get one.

    Antik opens Friday. 356 Bowery, between Great Jones and Fourth Street, 212-388-1655

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: nightlife, bowery, antik, bar, lounge, entertainment, bars, manhattan, shopping

  • City Hall Dispatch: A touch of Paris in Albany

    Wednesday March 19, 2008 5:02 PM By David Freedlander

    Quick! Which of these is the seat of the government of the state of New York and which is the world capital and center of culture?

    We know, it's getting mighty hard to tell the difference these days, what with the near daily developments that lusty Albany is such a den of sin.

    In fact, our friends at the NY Sun have been wondering the same thing

    Fortunately for those of us who find politics dull when it's just limited to zoning variances and affordable housing schemes, this story doesn't seem to be going away. Today, our newest luv gov had a press conference with the Mayor at City Hall and was asked, by Inside Edition, no less, how his marriage had survived all the hanky-panky and what advice he would have for other couples.

    Needless to say, the gov and hizzoner demurred.

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: politics, romance, albany, eliot spitzer, david paterson, city hall dispatch, manhattan

  • Urban archaeology: Futuristic phone booths

    Wednesday March 19, 2008 12:37 PM By Rolando Pujol

    "In the future, all phone booths will look this way." That must be what the folks at New York Telephone were thinking when this funky pay phone was installed in Brooklyn Heights, no doubt in the 1970s.

    You can drop a few dimes in it and complete the retro look by actually using the thing. (Wait, we didn't actually pick up the receiver, so we can't tell you if it is working.) We did test our pipes inside the metallic shell, and found that the shape does magnify your voice nicely, but the sound echoes, not making for a particularly private conversation. But who can argue with its aesthetics? (Though admittedly, it's not particularly contextual with Brooklyn Heights brownstones.)

    It's a nifty relic and we're glad it's still there. You can find it by the Brooklyn Promenade, at the end of Montague Street.

    As for the history of this style of phone booth, we see a few from time to time on 1970s television shows and movies. But they hardly became a Bell System standard.

    Here's more on city phone booths from Forgotten NY and the Payphone Project. And here's something we wrote last year on the demise of pay phones (and the possibly last public rotary phone.)

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: pay phones, brooklyn heights, montague street, endangered nyc, signs, urban archaeology

  • City marks 5-year Iraq War anniversary

    Wednesday March 19, 2008 8:44 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    Many groups in the city are marking the five-year annivesary of the Iraq war with protests or candlelight vigils. Here's a rundown of scheduled events:

    Noon and on: Granny Peace Brigadeholds “knit-in for peace” to mark fifth

    anniversary of Iraq war; Times Square Recruitment Center, Broadway and 44th Street.

    5:30 p.m.: Korean American peace group marks fifth anniversary of the Iraq

    war; The Plaza in front of Woori Bank, 32nd Street and Broadway.

    5:30 p.m.: Silent march and peace rally marking fifth anniversary of the

    Iraq war; West End and 86th Street to 73rd Street and Broadway.

    5:30 p.m.: MoveOn.org protest march and vigil marking fifth anniversary of

    the Iraq war; Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn.

    6:20 p.m.: Protesters to march down Flatbush Avenue to

    Livingston Street.

    6:30 p.m.: Candlelight vigil marking fifth anniversary of Iraq war;

    intersection of 125th and Lenox Avenue.

    7:30 p.m.: Rally in St. Rutger’s Church, 73rd Street and

    Broadway.

    7 p.m. to 8 p.m.: Candlelight vigil marking fifth anniversary of the Iraq war;

    Madison Square Park, Broadway at 23rd Street.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: today's check it out

  • Duly Noted

    Tuesday March 18, 2008 4:07 PM By Rolando Pujol

    * Perhaps we'll add the JP Morgan tower to the collection of designs that will never materialize at Ground Zero. [Curbed]

    * Charlie Rose banged up his face in a successful attempt to save his tumbling MacBook Air. [Gothamist]

    * Dispute grows on which direction to place Alexander Hamilton's home, which is being moved in Hamilton Heights. [Curbed and supportthegrange.com]

    * The demise of journalist watering holes. [Eater]

    * Slice visits the original Patsy's in East Harlem. [Slice]

    * Meet Dan Dunn, now imbibing in amNY.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Photo: trudence on Flickr

    Tags: duly noted

  • Landmarks Lollapalooza Part II

    Tuesday March 18, 2008 12:19 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Back in October, preservationist Roger Lang described the slew of landmark designations on October 30 as a "landmarks Lollapalooza." We were so taken by the phrase that we made it a cover headline. Well, the Lollapalooza tour is back, and this time, its stopped at Webster Hall, which became a landmark today. The several other designations today bring the number of protected sites in the city to 1,189. Take it away commission:

    * Webster Hall in Manhattan, 125 E. 11th St,

    Says the commission:

    Constructed in 1886 in the Renaissance Revival style, Webster Hall is one of New York City’s most historically and culturally significant 19th-century assembly halls. Architect Charles Rentz, who was responsible for a number of flats and tenements, factories, and stables buildings across the City, designed the assembly hall, which is clad in red Philadelphia pressed brick with brownstone trim and features a metal cornice and unglazed red terra cotta ornament. Now a nightclub, Webster Hall has been the venue for numerous balls, receptions, lectures, meetings, conventions, political and union rallies, military functions, concerts, performances, and sporting and fundraising events. It was the site of the formation of the Progressive Labor Party in 1887, and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1914.

    Here's AP on Webster's landmarking.

    * The Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park Historic District in the Flatbush

    Per the commission:

    This district comprises 250 eclectic houses that were largely completed and occupied by 1914, and were built by two prominent local builders and developers. Most of the houses in the district adhere primarily to the popular early 20th-century architectural styles, especially the Arts and Crafts, Colonial Revival and Dutch Colonial Revival styles. The houses were typically constructed in one of three forms: the box-like foursquare, crowned by a hipped or pyramidal roof; the temple-house, featuring a prominent front-facing gable; and the bungalow, with its low profile, deep porch with thick tapered columns, and broadly overhanging eaves.

    * Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Anshe, 242 E. 7th St.

    Per the commission:

    This Beaux Arts-style synagogue, whose name translates to Great House of Study of the People of Hungary, was constructed in 1908, and rebuilt from an existing house by the architects Samuel Gross and Joseph Kleinberger for a Hungarian congregation that had formed in 1883. The congregation ceased to exist by 1975 and in 1985 the building was converted to residential use.

    * Elizabeth Home for Girls, 307 E. 12th St.

    Completed in 1891, Elizabeth Home for Girls was a shelter for young women operated by the Children’s Aid Society, which was established in 1852 by Charles Loring Brace to house and educate the City’s poorest children. The Elizabeth Home for Girls, a four-story brick and sandstone building in the Queen Anne style with German Renaissance flourishes, was used by the Children’s Aid Society until 1930. It has retained virtually all of its original defining characteristics

    11th Street Public Bath, 538 E. 11th St.

    Per the commission:

    This elaborate Beaux-Arts style building was designed by Arnold W. Brunner, the architect and city planner who is responsible for the public baths at Asser Levy Place, Shearith Israel Synagogue and Temple Israel—all of which are New York City landmarks. It was used as a public bath until the 1950s, and purchased in 1995 by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams and converted into a fashion and corporate photography studio.

    * The Allerton 39th Street House in Murray Hill.

    Per the commission:

    The Allerton House was completed in 1918 as a long-term residential hotel for young, middle class, single men. Designed in the Northern Italian Renaissance style by architect Arthur Loomis Harmon, the Allerton House was one of a chain of six that were built in New York City between 1913 and 1924. The base of the building is clad in granite and its main façade is structured around three bays of windows, constructed primarily of red brick with projecting headers that ascend to a central hipped roof tower. The prominent roof garden, emphasized by the three arched openings separated by twin terra cotta columns forming the crown of the building, was a central feature of the hotel’s communal facilities. In 1956, the Salvation Army converted the building to the Ten Eyck-Troughton Memorial Residence for Women, and remained in use by the organization until it was purchased recently by a private developer.

    And the commission held a public hearing, a key step toward landmarking, of this neighborhood:

    * The proposed NoHo Historic District Extension, which includes 60 buildings, and the proposed designations of the former American Society of Civil Engineers Clubhouse, now the site of Lee’s Art Supply at 218-222 West 57th St. former Fire Engine Company No. 54 at 304 West 47th St.; and St Michael’s Church, Parish House and Rectory at 201-225 West 99th St.

    In addition, the commission scheduled hearings for Chase Manhattan Plaza and these sites:

    * The West Chelsea Historic District in Manhattan, comprised of 55 19th- and early 20th-century industrial buildings; to expand the Douglaston Historic District in Queens, with a proposed extension that includes 21 Greek Revival, Italianate, and Mediterranean Revival-style structures.

    * George Bruce Branch of the New York Public Library at 518 W. 125th St., a Georgian Revival-style building designed by Carrere & Hastings; the East 125th Street Branch of the New York Public Library at 224 E. 125th St., a Renaissance Revival style building by McKim, Mead & White; 275 Madison Avenue, a 42-story Art Deco-style skyscraper at 40th Street

    In related landmarking news, the Daily News today looks at an issue we covered last month: Complaints that Queens is behind on the landmarks game. Here's David Freedlander's story, an Urbanite post, the News piece today, and a post on Queens Crap.

    Photo: Wallg on Flickr

    Tags: landmarking, queens, manhattan, brooklyn, endangered nyc

  • Chase Manhattan Plaza gets landmark love

    Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:22 AM By Rolando Pujol

    One Chase Manhattan Plaza, the modernist complex that helped revive lower Manhattan's financial fortunes, will be considered for landmarks protection, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously Tuesday.

    The complex was designed by one of the most significant architects of the International Style, Gordon Bunshaft, the mind behind the already protected Lever House and the Pepsi Cola buildings on Park Avenue, and the Manufacturer's Trust bank on Fifth Avenue.

    The commission seeks to protect the entire Chase complex, which includes an elevated plaza and a sunken rock garden, left, by Isamu Noguchi. A noted sculpture, Group of Four Trees, top, by French artist Jean Dubuffet, also sits on the plaza.

    The complex' merits go beyond architecture and design. Under the guidance of Chase's leader, David Rockefeller, the completion of the complex in 1961 helped pave the way for other significant downtown projects, such as the World Trade Center. Interestingly, a stroll through the plaza and lobbies of Chase Manhattan evokes a somewhat similar feel to the lost trade center.

    According to the commission:

    The complex drew widespread attention from the media when construction ended, including former New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable, who wrote, “These are ambitious structures of character and quality, surrounded by the most expensive urban luxury money can buy. In a remarkable duality of purpose, reconcilable only in the commercial age, they aspire to be trademark and work of art.”

    As with any discussion of "tower in the park" complexes, even ones that are beautifully executed, observations are rightfully made about the low-rise street life that may have been lost to build these giants of commerce. When the subject is lower Manhattan, these discussions often replay the loss of the Radio Row neighborhood that was cleared for the Twin Towers. A comment in a New York Times report on the Chase story Tuesday captures this view: "This unfortunate though capable modernist design led the way to the ruin of the lower Manhattan skyline and the gross congestion that came with it."

    As for JP Morgan Chase, the firms supports designation, and renamed the plaza after David Rockefeller on Tuesday. David Dunlap at The New York Times has more.

    Now that Chase has been calendared, the complex needs to pass a few more steps before it actually becomes a landmark. The commission will schedule a public hearing, and then hold the formal vote. After a City Planning Commission review, the City Council then gives the final nod in a vote.

    More later today on other landmarking matters, including Webster Hall.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Top photo: Lisanne! via Flickr. Photo of garden: Greenswardspark.org

    Tags: one chase manhattan plaza, banks, skyscrapers, landmarking, brooklyn

  • What would Katharine and E.B. think?

    Monday March 17, 2008 12:15 PM By Rolando Pujol

    It goes without saying that Saturday's deadly crane collapse is a scandal that should have us more in a lather than this little episode. The neighborhood where the collapse happened, Turtle Bay, has been under assault for several years by aggressive residential development. Indeed, the neighborhood's low-rise charms drew the likes of Katharine Hepburn and E.B. White. And development is lapping right on Hepburn's once placid block.

    If you haven't seen it already, you must read this pitch-perfect rant against the building-by-building decimation of Turtle Bay that appeared in the New York Post. It's guaranteed to ratchet up your rage.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: turtle bay, crane collapse, endangered nyc

  • City Hall Dispatch: Albany edition

    Sunday March 16, 2008 2:52 PM By David Freedlander

    We've spent the better part of the day here trying to figure out why everybody is referring to David Paterson as the 55th governor of New York. The Green Book, the bible for all city reporters, lists 56 governors ahead of him in its chronological listing from George Clinton (1777-1795) to Eliot Spitzer (2007-2008.)

    The reason for the discrepancy, it turns out, is this guy, DeWitt Clinton.

    And Al Smith. And Horatio Seymour.

    Each of them served non-consecutive terms thus inflating the number. So while there are 55 governors of New York state, there have been, as of tomorrow, 57 inaugurations.

    Yes. Our head hurts too.

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: city hall dispatch

  • Uncle O'Grimacey, where have you gone?

    Sunday March 16, 2008 12:09 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Remarkably effective (and long defunct) marketing by the McDonald's Corp, and its co-conspirator, Uncle O'Grimacey, a now retired resident of McDonaldland, sets off a Pavlovian response in us every March 17. Must drink Shamrock Shake.

    But the folks at McDonald's, after years of bombarding our market with ads for this minty treat, pulled Shamrock Shakes from the New York area years ago. The corporation said last year that area franchisees haven't shown interest in bringing back the shake. So we'll add our voice to the chorus at Bring Back the Shamrock Shake, which has been on the case for years. And here, the road trip minded can get intel on where to find a McDonald's with a Shamrock Shake.

    It appears they pick up again from Trenton on south, and from southern Connecticut on north. You can't miss them in Boston. Saturday night, it so happens, some friends invited us to dinner at a Thai restaurant in Norwalk, Conn. So, sensing an opportunity, we stopped at a prominent McDonald's off I-95 ... and left with a vanilla shake. Our attempt to describe a Shamrock Shake to the man at the counter was comical. He'd never heard of it, but he did helpfully offer that he could blend vanilla and chocolate.

    Great. I'd be better off trying this.

    There is, by the way, hope, New Yorkers. Shamrock Shakes have returned to Canada after a five-year absence.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Here's evidence of those oh-so-successful decades of marketing:

    Tags: restaurants, zany, quick bite, history, food

  • Go on a historic pub crawl for St. Pat's

    Sunday March 16, 2008 12:03 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Reuters and Metromix have each put together what could make a great historic Irish pub crawl. The Reuters piece focuses on two places:

    Carroll Gardens: P.J. Hanley's, which claims to be Brooklyn's oldest Irish tavern, middle-aged men can be found chatting at the bar in a mixed crowd. Established in 1874, it has had three Irish family owners.

    Manhattan: McSorley's Old Ale House, established in 1854 not long after New York became a prime destination for the Irish emigrating during the years of Irish potato famine ... McSorley's is not far from the former "Little Ireland" district that emerged in the 1830s and is near a host of modern glass-fronted buildings being built along The Bowery district.

    We learned, for one, that Abe Lincoln patronized McSorley's!

    The piece also mentions P.J. Clarke's, which amNY profiled last week. And it gives a nod to places in traditional Irish neighborhoods, such as Woodlawn and Woodside, that could be worth seeking out on Monday.

    In addition to those places, Metromix touts the taps at Landmark Tavern, the Ear Inn and Desmond's Tavern, which is the baby on the list -- it opened in 1936 -- "but the few times its ownership has changed hands makes it the fourth-oldest continuously operating bar in Manhattan -- not an insignificant claim to fame."

    Cheers!

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Photo via peterbourgon on Flickr

    Tags: endangered nyc, history

  • The best shopping discovery ever

    Sunday March 16, 2008 11:41 AM By Julie Gordon

    It pays to be a technical tourist.

    Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s both offer 11 percent discounts to New York “visitors.” In other words, if you have an out-of-state driver’s license, you’re golden!

    Here’s how it works.

    Bloomingdales, 11 percent discount: Go to the Visitor’s Center on the balcony for a one-day discount pass. It can be renewed as often as you’d like. (1000 Third Ave. at 59th Street, 212-705-2000)

    Macy’s, 11 percent discount: Head to the Visitor’s Center on floor 1 ½ for your five-day discount pass. It can be renewed as often as you’d like. (151 W. 34th St. at Seventh Avenue, 212-695-4400)

    Now I'll never change my Jersey license over to New York.

    — Julie Gordon

    Photo: AP

    Tags: shopping, macy's, bloomingdale's, manhattan

  • Farewell, Armando's

    Sunday March 16, 2008 10:32 AM By Rolando Pujol

    In Brooklyn Heights only occasionally, we'd always be sure to pass Armando's on Montague Street, marveling at the neon sign and savoring the idea that such places were still among us. But we didn't get around to dining there until we were hit with this news: Armando's is closing Sunday after more than 70 years in business.

    So we stopped by with some friends Thursday night, and were immediately taken by the coziness of the place, with its leather booths and chummy bar, its eclectic decor (images of old-school Hollywood actors, historic Brooklyn scenes, fancy lamps), and well-trodden wooden floors. It's simply what we just knew it would be: A place we wish we'd been savoring for years, instead of in a last-minute attempt to soak up its charms.

    Our meal was satisfying, thanks to our congenial waiter, who so enthusiastically touted the Chicken Rollatini that we each ordered it. The meal, served with salad and side (we chose pasta) was so generous that we skipped dessert. And we spent plenty of time just walking around, trying to make mental notes.

    Retirement of the owner sealed Armando's fate, but it's impossible not to put its loss (it will be replaced by a chain store called Spicy Pickle) into the greater scheme of unique New York institutions that have vanished in recent years.

    And as much as we bemoan the dimming of the sign's neon, we think this contributor to Brooklyn Heights Blog, which launched an effort to save the sign, summed it up nicely in this excerpt:

    It’s not about the sign ... Armando’s had “classed up” Montague Street for 72 years with good Italian food in a classic setting. It is a piece of history in this neighborhood, and we all know there are so few left. I remember eating at Foffe’s with my parents and seeing former governon Hugh Carey there — think him and his ilk would come to Brooklyn Heights for Spicy Pickle? It’s a shame.

    The Brooklyn Paper did this round-up in 2001 on classic Brooklyn eateries, which is now painfully out of date. Gage & Tollner, for one, was still around, and if ever there was an unthinkable restaurant loss, it was that place.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Check out more photos from our visit after the jump.

    Tags: armando's, endangered nyc, brooklyn heights, urban archaeology, signs, restaurants, real estate, quick bite, old school

  • Urban archaeology: New York, Let's Clean Up New York!

    Saturday March 15, 2008 3:05 PM By Rolando Pujol

    New York Newsday

    May 14, 1988

    Mayor, Dog Join To Clean Up City

    By Kevin Flynn

    The Sanitation Department, following in the storied tradition of its cartoon legend Phil D. Basket, yesterday unveiled its latest weapons in the war on litter - the "Ed Koch talking broom" and Buddy the Wonder Dog.

    The "Ed Koch talking broom" is a specially equipped sweeper truck that, upon command, broadcasts a recorded message from the mayor. The mayor, in his trademark New Yorkese, tells illegally parked cars to get out of the street cleaner's way.

    "This is Ed Koch, your mayor," the tape says. "You know the Sanitation Department cannot sweep this street if you don't move your illegally parked car. Please get it outta here."

    Buddy the Wonder Dog is a 10-year-old mixed breed that has been trained to deposit trash in garbage cans. It has appeared on the "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment of "Late Night With David Letterman," where it performed such feats as opening a beer can with its teeth.

    Buddy and the mayor, acting as coach, went through some trial runs yesterday outside City Hall, pretending for the cameras that Buddy's red water dish was really worthless trash.

    "We will try just about anything to help New Yorkers clean up their act," said the mayor as he kicked off the city's new "Looking Great in '88" anti-litter campaign.

    As if to prove that, sanitation officials announced that the campaign, which is being co-sponsored by We Care About New York Inc., will feature rewards for faithful "pooper scoopers." They will get free doggie treats, courtesy of a petfood company, if volunteers spot them performing the dutiful endeavor.

    Sanitation officials said they are optimistic that the 95 "Ed Koch talking brooms" will succeed where prior techniques - honking horns and "getting out and being nice to folks" - have failed.

    Koch said he expects motorists to imagine "I'm on their tail and that I'm in the car immediately behind them. And if they don't get out, well, we may just have to give them a summons and they'll expect me to get out of the truck and give them the summons."

    There are still some kinks to work out, however. It seems the mayor's message is too low at times to be heard over traffic.

    "The noise of the engine is right where the speaker is," said Mike Barbarotto of the Sanitation Department's Audio Visual Unit. "But we think we can make an adjustment by making a better copy of the tape and repositioning the speaker."

  • Miracle of the Market Diner

    Saturday March 15, 2008 2:11 AM By Rolando Pujol

    When the wonderful Market Diner closed in 2006, it seemed yet another predictable chapter in the whittling away of New York's soul. The place was loaded with history and charm, including the Googie decor and signage, the lore of late-night meals with Frank Sinatra and the Westies, and, well, that parking lot, a head-scratcher in Manhattan but logical given its appeal to cabbies as well as suburbanites who could indulge a midnight snack just a block away from the West Side Highway.

    We last swung by its abandoned home at West 43rd Street and 11th Avenue in July, and found weeds growing in the parking lot and the sense that this place had an inevitable date with the wrecking ball. But, folks, the Market Diner is getting its soul back.

    The New York Times is reporting that the diner will reopen in its old home in about two months, now under the control of the family behind the venerable Cosmic Diner, which recently moved from its longtime, soulful Columbus Circle perch. The family told the Times the new Market Diner may go a tad more upscale, add a bar, and yes, even sacrifice that parking space for outdoor seating. Indeed, when the diner opened in 1962, this area was not even remotely like the residential enclave it is becoming, so trading parking spaces for tables makes sense. It's those new residents that made the diner an attractive opportunity for the new proprietors. So this is a curious outcome: The gentrification of Hell's Kitchen and environs has helped destroy interesting places, but, in this case, may be reviving one that was killed by those same forces.

    The Market Diner was a welcome spot for us on many a late night. We could never get over the novelty of parking our car in a diner parking lot -- in Manhattan! The burger and fries were always solid, and hit the spot after our long drive back to Manhattan from Newsday in Melville.

    The diner's return -- parking lot or not -- is great news, and is nicely timed, coming a day after we had our last meal at Armando's in Brooklyn Heights.(You must go, it closes Sunday; try the Chicken Rollatini. And watch for our blog post later this weekend.)

    The family taking over the Market Diner won't be paying the about $500,000 a year in rent the landlord had been seeking, the Times reports, though how much it will pay is not known.

    In a separate but important matter, the article didn't address how sensitive the new hands will be to the original decor and signage. My first hopeful guess would be that these features won't be seriously fiddled with -- after all, they are part of the joint's appeal.

    So to the Market Diner, we offer a hearty welcome back! We'll add your name to the list of miracles that include the revived Second Avenue Deli.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: market diner, restaurants, endangered nyc, signs, manhattan, history, food, architecture

  • Duly Noted: Kristen's rich! South Slope's hot!

    Thursday March 13, 2008 6:57 PM By Rolando Pujol

    * Wednesday, Ashley Alexandra Dupre was complaining to The New York Times that she might have to move back to New Jersey because she couldn't afford her Flatiron apartment. Umm, get this from New York magazine:

    But in fact, in the less than 24 hours since that interview took place, Dupre's personal wealth has increased considerably. The two songs on her Amie Street profile, which each cost 98 cents, have been downloaded more than two million times, and Dupre will receive 70 percent of the total profit. Playboy and Penthouse are both interested in setting up photo shoots.

    More maddening details over at Daily Intel, which also has word of a great quip from governor-in-waiting David Paterson.

    * So what are high-priced prostitutes and their clients saying about the Spitzer scandal? Go right to the source at Bound, Not Gagged and the theerroticreview.

    * Jim Cramer is choked up by his buddy Eliot's downfall. You must check out the old camera booth photos of Eliot, Jim and an unknown friend. [Dealbreaker]

    * Our cover today (Out with a Bang) gets some love from the Village Voice and NY1. Thanks! [Running Scared and NY1 "In the Papers"]

    * It's been quite a week for Harlem, between Paterson's ascension and City Planning's approval of the 125th Street rezoning. [Uptown Flavor]

    In other news ...

    * Our City Living profile of South Slope revives the South Slope vs. North Slope debate. [Brownstoner and Curbed]

    * Fiterman Hall's demolition may be nearing. The building was severely damaged on 9/11 ... [City Room]

    * ... And here comes the new World Trade Center. For real, it seems. [Curbed]

    * The Elephants Walk to Madison Square Garden is March 18. [Gothamist]

    * A inside look at Admiral's Row. [Gothamist]

    * Water Taxi Beach a public nuisance? [Queens Crap]

    *Rosemary's Baby" is a classic that defines an era in New York. It may get the remake treatment, just like another similar vintage classic -- "Taking of Pelham One Two Three." [Fishbowl NY]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted, world trade center, real estate, queens, politics, endangered nyc

  • I'll make him a pizza he can't refuse

    Thursday March 13, 2008 5:44 PM By Daisy Carrington

    My boyfriend thinks I’m a psychopath. His evidence is that after watching Goodfellas, Munich, or a few bloody episodes of the Sopranos, the first words out of my mouth are usually, “I’m hungry.” In my defense, the few scenes in these movies or shows that don’t incorporate violence usually incorporate food. If you mentally block out the violence, what are you left with? Exactly, a raging hunger for garlic sliced with a razor blade.The connection between food and mafia movies is not in my head, that’s a given. Otherwise HBO wouldn’t make a killing putting out cookbooks and my local pizza store wouldn’t be hanging a painting of Don Corleone holding a slice over the caption “I’ll make you a pizza you can’t refuse.” (sic). Real life mobster Henry Hill even got in on the act, writing a cookbook of his own, and later opening up a restaurant, Wiseguys (which later burned... hmm), in West Haven, Connecticut.

    It seems lately everyone's getting in on the act. Many of the former "Soprano" cast members have since adopted projects that show off their culinary leanings. Steve Schirripa, aka Bobby Bacala, and author of “The Goomba Diet” filmed nine episodes of “Steve Shirripa’s Hungry” for cable network Lifeskool back in December. And just last month, Lorraine Bracco threw a launch party at the Hard Rock Cafe for her new wine company, Bracco Wines. And who can forget Tony Sirico, aka Pauly Walnuts, in those Denny’s ads?

    Some of you might not know this, but he also did a Dunkin Donuts ad before he was Pauly Walnuts?

    What does it all mean? Who knows. Maybe I’ll let this Seinfeld scene sum it all up for me.

    Did that answer your questions. No? Don’t blame me, I just watched the Godfather and am loopy for some marinara. And now that I start to think of it, maybe I’m lumping myself in with an unsavory group. Oh my God! Maybe I am a psychopath after all.

    Tags: sopranos, godfather, goodfellas, food, bracco wines

  • City Hall Dispatch: Mayor Kelly?

    Thursday March 13, 2008 4:18 PM By David Freedlander

    Interesting new poll out today from uber-pollsters Quinnipiac.

    Apparently, at this early date, most NYers want police commish Ray Kelly to be their next mayor, with 22% saying they want him to be the Decider, followed by Rep. Anthony Weiner (14%) Brooklyn BP Marty Markowitz (ditto%) City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (13%) and Comptroller William Thompson (8%)

    This fits with a theory we've long had, that despite New Yorkers supposed crazy liberalism, they (we?) still really like strong, law and order, take no guff kind of mayors (see Giuliani, Rudy; and to lesser extent Bloomberg, Mike)

    It's hard to put too much stock in this poll though. For one thing, the election is pretty far away, and people who even follow politics slightly have most likely been consumed with the 08 presidential contest, so a lot of the support for Kelly and Weiner is probably based on name-recognition.

    Still, assuming he wants it, Kelly would have an uphill climb from here on out. For one thing, the three front-runners--Weiner, Quinn, and Thompson--are all very competent and qualified candidates.

    Secondly, Kelly would most likely have to run as a Republican, and the thinking here is that most New Yorkers are tired of Republicans after 16 years of 'em. 'Course, we said that in 2001, too.

    Finally, he may run into the same problem that Wes Clark ran into when he ran for President in 2004. Clark too was a well-respected tough guy, but fell flat out on the hustings. Let's face it, to be a elected official in this town, much less mayor, you gotta put up with an incredible amount of BS, from pretending to be interested in whatever rubber chicken political gala is being thrown that night, to kissing every baby, to hearing every sad-sack tale about potholes in your street and noisy neighbors.

    Unless he's cut from a certain kind of glad-handing cloth that we haven't seen much of yet, hard to picture Kelly measuring the drapes in Gracie Mansion any time soon

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: ray kelly, mayor, politics

  • Urban archaeology: Second Avenue surprise

    Thursday March 13, 2008 2:43 PM By Rolando Pujol

    We've been frequenting the "Your Choice Convenience" grocery store at East 39th Street and Second Avenue for years, and never paid much attention to its architecture.

    Not long ago, however, we noticed these little beauties promoting "2nd. Ave. Tobacconist" and "Pipes" In fact, you can still load up on pipe gear here, so these signs aren't entirely vestigial. Their survival seems somewhat precarious, though, and it appears there is a missing panel on the left side, right over the doors.

    The main sign, at left, is typically bland signage fare.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: signs, shopping, endangered nyc, real estate, old school, manhattan, urban archaeology

  • Depression

    Thursday March 13, 2008 1:15 PM By David Freedlander

    You ever wake up some mornings with just the vaguest feelings of melancholia, a certain heavy-heartedness, and you're not sure where it comes from? Then you open the Daily News, and see that now only are Urban Outfitters and Target moving to your borough, but your neighbors are actually excited about it.

    To wit:

    Brooklyn shopaholics rejoice: Urban Outfitters, a trendy clothing store, and a brand-new big-box Target store opened their doors to borough shoppers this week.

    The hipster thread mecca will greet its first Brooklyn customers with free Brooklyn totes Thursday at its new location on Atlantic Ave. at Clinton St.

    Meanwhile, shoppers have taken the new Target in Midwood by storm since it opened Sunday

    Meanwhile, Andrea Esposito, 17, of Carroll Gardens, beamed at the sight of the Urban Outfitters store, longing for a new clutch purse.

    "I've been waiting forever, since I knew it was opening," said the bubbly teen.

    "I like their fashion and stuff. It's better, because I don't have to take the train."

    Her mother, Cecilia Esposito, 46, agreed.

    "Brooklyn has enough restaurants. Now all we need are stores and we're complete, and we don't have to go to the city," she said.

    Khristen Genga, district merchandising manager for Urban Outfitters, was equally psyched.

    Excuse us. If you need us, we'll be off whimpering in a corner.

    NYDN

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: shopping, big box, brooklyn

  • New School; old neighborhood

    Thursday March 13, 2008 11:08 AM By David Freedlander

    There is a big public meeting tonight at the New School over plans to build this Skidmore Owings Merrill mother at the corner of 14th and 5th Avenue. The New Schoolers are trying to get special permission from the Board of Standards and Appeals to ignore existing height and bulk regulations and build straight up. Residents mostly fear the school's "Quads in the Sky" plan, which will attempt to build a traditional quadrangular campus in the uppermost floors of the new building.

    "If you look at NYU's Kimmel Center, it glows like a spaceship, and we fear we will get the same here," said Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation pres Andrew Berman. "Nobody's asking them to recreate a 19th Century townhouse, but we're concerned the office building aesthetic isn't appropriate for a residential neighborhood."

    14th and 5th of course isn't the "quaint" part of the Village, really, but residents are still trying to fight for whatever kind of light and air they can get.

    "I am happy the New School is expanding, I think it's wonderful that are sucessful and more young people want to come to the neighborhood," said local resident and New School alum Susan Kramer. "But they think they are a suburban campus. It looks like a scary monolith is coming in for the landing."

    If you make it to the meeting tonight do let us know.

    And for more, read this

    -- David Freedlander

    Tags: colleges, neighborhoods, architecture

  • City Hall Dispatch

    Wednesday March 12, 2008 7:16 PM By David Freedlander

    There has been a lot of speculation in the last day or so that Spitzer's downfall opens up room for Mayor Bloomberg to pursue an Albany run in '10.

    Indeed a new poll showed him with a stratospheric 70% approval rating and 73% say he would make a good governor.

    But we here at Urbanite don't really see it.

    For one thing, like, um, have you ever been to Albany?

    No offense to civic boosters, but it's hardly a place fitting for a billionaire. Would you give up an Upper East Side townhouse?

    And glamor aside for a moment, Bloomberg would likely get a far different reception in Albany than he got around City Hall. City Hall is filled with bright, ambitious politicians, who, like Bloomberg will be termed out of office in 2010. The statehouse though is filled with a bunch of old dinosaurs who never get serious challenges for re-election, and so basically just have to show up for work a few times a week. And, the rules up there basically mean that unless you head one of the houses of government,you don't really have all that much to do.

    Finally, Bloomberg started out as a Democrat, then switched to the GOP to run for mayor, before eschewing party labels all together in preparation for a run for governor. Too many New York state voters vote along strictly party lines for a Independent to have a serious chance, which means Mayor Mike would have to switch parties again, which would make him look fickle at best, and opportunistic at worst.

    But we'll see.

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: city hall dispatch

  • 'Warhol's Jews'

    Tuesday March 11, 2008 7:08 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Six hundred and ninety-eight spools of red, yellow and white thread hang from steel chains on a wall at The Jewish Museum. From a distance, they look like a pixilated, mostly red rectangle. But peer into a clear acrylic sphere positioned several feet from the wall, and it all comes into focus as a thumb-sized refraction of Andy Warhol’s familiar Campbell’s soup can.

    The display is part of a pair of Warhol-centered exhibits opening at the museum on Fifth Avenue on Sunday. They include a series of paintings called Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered which couples 10 portraits of 20th-century Jewish figures with the photographs, sketches, collages and paintings Warhol used to develop the final silk-screen prints.

    “The Jewish audience that saw the series,” said exhibit curator Gabriel de Guzman, “many of them saw it as an affirmation of culture and pride.”

    In 1975, Warhol, who was a practicing Catholic, was commissioned to create a series of five portraits of Israel’s fourth prime minister, Golda Meir. The portraits were displayed in a gallery in Israel in 1975, and afterward, a friend of New York gallery owner Ronald Feldman suggested that Feldman commission Warhol to do 10 more portraits of Meir.

    Feldman rejected the idea, according to Guzman, and instead asked Warhol to do portraits of 10 Jews, a project that would include the Marx brothers, Gertrude Stein and Sigmund Freud.

    The original Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, which debuted in Miami in September 1980, withstood criticism from people who claimed that Warhol, an artist who was a frequent friend of commercialism, had created the portraits in an effort to exploit a wealthy demographic.Part of the exhibition features the list of possible portrait subjects, handwritten by Feldman. Four neat columns list names of twentieth century Jewish political, cultural and philosophical figures, flecked with check marks and other small notations, such as “NJ,” which Guzman said he believes stood for “Not Jewish.”

    Although the original list of perspectives included living Jewish figures, Guzman said that fairly early in the process, Feldman decided to include only historic figures who had already passed away.

    The most complete illustration of Warhol’s process in developing the series is a portrait of famed physicist Albert Einstein. The display includes the original photograph of Einstein, whose characteristically big hair hangs limply. Also on display are Warhol’s line drawing of the photograph and an acetate collage of the photograph consisting of a line drawing and colored paper, which Warhol used to play around with the look of the piece before finalizing the silk screen.

    A black-and-white painting of Einstein is next. Warhol’s traditional method, which Guzman said he began using in the 1970s, involved painting large blocks of color on the canvas and then screening the enlarged photograph over top. This series involved the line drawing as well, which he used later in his career.

    Warhol never met the selected 10, which included U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis; philosopher Martin Buber; Sigmund Freud; the Marx Brothers; George Gershwin; Franz Kafka; Gertrude Stein; and Sara Bernhardt.

    Both Art, Image and Warhol Connections and Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered will open to the public on March 16 and run through August 3. The museum is open Saturday through Wednesday, 11 AM to 5:45 PM and Thursday, 11 AM to 8 PM. Visit www.jewishmuseum.org or call 212-423-3200 for more information.

    -- Emily Meredith

    Photo: Hot Grill on Flickr

    Tags: andy warhol, art, arts, museums, 1970s, pop, jewish museum, manhattan

  • David Paterson's political roots grow deep

    Tuesday March 11, 2008 6:30 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    Check out this election card for Lt. Gov. David Paterson's father, Basil A. Paterson, which was unearthed by Andrew Morris in the Hempstead, Long Island home where young David grew up.

    Basil A. Paterson served as New York Secretary of State, and was the first African-American deputy mayor of NYC. You can see his bio here.

    This card is apparently from his run for State Senate in 1965, when David would have been 11.

    Newsday Photo by Howard Schnapp

    Tags: politics

  • Letterman

    Tuesday March 11, 2008 4:18 PM By David Freedlander

    Cant believe this took us so long:

    Letterman's Top Ten List of Eliot Spitzer Excuses:

    10. “Oh come on, like you were never involved in a prostitution ring.”

    9. “Hookers is fun.”

    8. “Just trying to help the economy.”

    7. “Have you ever been to Albany?”

    6. “It’s part of my new MTV prank show, ‘Spitz’d.’”

    5. “Haven’t been myself since Roy Scheider died.”

    4. “Uh, tainted beef?”

    3. “Whether it’s a hooker or your wife, you’re always paying for – you married fellas know what I’m talking about.”

    2. “Wanted to be known as the Charlie Sheen of politics.”

    1. “I thought Bill Clinton legalized this years ago.”

    ----David Freedlander

    Tags: humor, politics

  • City Hall Dispatch

    Tuesday March 11, 2008 3:13 PM By David Freedlander

    Today there was a mad scrum of reporters at the New York Public Library, and it wasn't to see this guy, Stephen Schwarzman, even though he gave $100 million smackeroos to the stately old bookhouse

    No, we were there along with everyone else to see if Hizzoner would say anything, anything at all really, regarding what seems to be The Biggest Story of All Time.

    As we waited with baited breath, the mayor said, "I did talk to Governor Spitzer this morning, and I told him my thoughts are with him, and wished him all the best, and said if he ever wanted to talk, wanted my advice, I'd be happy to give it to him."

    So not exactly earth-shattering stuff.

    And if it's any consolation, the main branch of the public library will be renamed after Schwarzman, which means someday soon we will all be able to say things like., "Man I need to find some peace and quiet. I'm going to the Schwarzman."

    --- David Freedlander

    Tags: bloomberg, spitzer, city hall dispatch, manhattan, politics

  • Waiting for Eliot

    Tuesday March 11, 2008 12:24 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Present today outside 633 Third Ave., which houses the governor's offices: An unexpectedly small collection of news vans and reporters, photographers and TV cameras, mostly clustered on the northwest corner of East 41st Street, which affords television friendly views of the office tower. The scene was not as chaotic as we thought. No doubt, this is because the real action is outside Spitzer's Fifth Avenue apartment, where a gaggle of media awaits his emergence.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: eliot spitzer, sex scandal, politics, manhattan

  • You gotta see this...

    Sunday March 9, 2008 5:41 PM By David Freedlander

    Really. We went to see Chop Shop over the weekend at Film Forum and came away remarkably impressed. The story is about a couple of kids living on their own and making their way in the big city, or more specifically an area of the city known as the Iron Triangle, in the shadow of Shea, where there are no streets, sewers, or schools, but an seemingly endless stream of cars coming in for repair.

    It's a tribute in an odd way to one of Gotham's most ragged edges, a place that may be not so ragged too much longer but also to the city itself, which despite all its glamor and glitz is still pretty tough living for a lot of people.

    One of the cooler things about the film is that director Ramin Bharani doesn't use actors. The leads in the movie are just schoolkids on the Lower East Side, and the guy who owns the chop shop actually owns the chop shop. He doesn't show the actors the script either, just telling them what the script says and letting them figure the rest out.

    Anyway, it's only at Film Forum 'till Tues, so go go go!

    -- David Freedlander

    Tags: film, queens, stuff that's cool

  • Meet Capitol One, which was North Fork, which was ...

    Sunday March 9, 2008 2:11 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Well, another New York area bank name officially bites the dust. The latest entrant into the halls of history? North Fork. The Melville-based company was purchased by credit card giant Capital One in 2006, which only in the past few days got around to switching the branding on branches.

    We remark on this change not so much because we have any particular sense of nostalgia for North Fork, but because it is simply another home-grown banking fixture that has disappeared.

    Of course, long-timers Chase and Citibank are inescapable presences on city streets -- Chase's bold circa 1960 logo has never been more prominent, or more blue -- but many other banks that were once also inescapable have shuffled off.

    Most of these vanished banks are around in the sense that they were absorbed by larger concerns, some of whom have been swallowed by even bigger fish. Here's but a sampling of the names that were once all around the city:

    Bowery -- Joe DiMaggio was the longtime spokesman. The bank, chartered in 1834, disappeared in 1992, along with the ads featuring Joltin' Joe. It became Home Savings of America, which was swallowed by Greenpoint, which was swallowed by North Fork. And now North Fork is Capitol One ... you get the idea.

    Chemical -- Founded in 1823, this titan was absorbed by Chase Manhattan in 1995.

    Manufacturers Hanover -- Nicknamed Manny Hanny, this New York institution long ago bit the dust. Chemical swallowed it in 1993. Here's a commercial announcing the merger.

    Dollar Dry Dock -- Founded in 1848, this bank got creamed by the last real-estate debacle in the early 1990s, and most of its customers were sent along to Emigrant Savings, which is still going strong.

    Crossland Savings -- Crossland's DNA survives in HSBC. Crossland's parent was sold in 1995 to Republic National Bank, which HSBC later absorbed.

    Dime -- The road to riches starts with the Dime, went the old TV jingle. Washington Mutual absorbed this chain in 2002, but the logo survives as part of the corporate identity of Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh.

    Marine Midland -- Originally from Buffalo, Marine Midland held on until it took the name of parent HSBC in 1998. Marine Midland's legacy survives in the celebrated modernist building that was once its headquarters, 140 Broadway, noted for the red "Cube" sculpture by Isamu Noguchi.

    Anchor Savings Bank -- If you're of a certain age, your remember the ad slogan uttered by the bank's chairman and his wife: "Your Anchor banker, he understands; your Anchor banker, she understands." Anchor was absorbed by Dime in the 1990s.

    For more on New York banking history, check here.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Chemical memorabilia from eBay auction.

    Tags: banks, real estate, history, endangered nyc, signs

  • NYPD rescues stranded Bronx goat

    Friday March 7, 2008 3:27 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    There wasn’t supposed to be a happy ending for Denny, a young goat found wandering alone on a Bronx street corner on Wednesday.

    The one-and-a-half-year-old goat was likely headed for the slaughterhouse before he wrangled free and was found by police officers with the 40th Precinct, said Animal Care & Control of NYC spokesperson Richard Gentles.

    “People don’t typically lose their pet goat in New York City . They get off the truck, they escape to their freedom and thankfully the officers found him,” Gentles said.

    For now, Denny – who is light gray and weighs 22 pounds – is being cared for at the agency’s Manhattan shelter at 326 East 110th Street, but Gentles says he’ll soon move toward greener pastures.

    Shelter workers have contacted farm sanctuaries upstate to arrange for Denny to be taken in by local farmers.

    It’s unusual but not unheard of for the city shelters to give refuge to stray farm animals. In July 2006, animal rescue workers found a sheep with bound feet left in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.

    “With the goats and the sheep, thankfully it’s always a happy ending. The farm sanctuary will take them and farmers will adopt them,” Gentles said.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: bronx

  • Don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows....

    Thursday March 6, 2008 8:36 PM By David Freedlander

    We're super relieved no one was hurt in today's crazy-ass Times Square bombing but thought one bit of conspiracy theory motive interesting: that it occurred the same day that the Weather Underground mistakenly set off a bomb in the Greenwich Village townhouse, which killed three of the group and sent the rest truly underground, where they stayed for over a decade.

    If you don't know, the Weathermen were basically a group of radical leftists who thought the only way to advance the causes of social justice were through the violent overthrow of the existing order.

    This was a pretty cool movie about them.

    One interesting local note: Great, dimly lit Morningside Heights bar Night Cafe used to owned by an ex-Weatherman. Was, 'cuz sadly, Night Cafe is no more

    -- David Freedlander

    Tags: bars, radicalism, vanishingnyc, history

  • Duly Noted: 3/6/08

    Thursday March 6, 2008 8:20 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The Hotel Chelsea -- take a look at our

    recent story on the fight to save

    it. (amNY file/Lane Johnson)

    * Battle of the giants: How the Hotel Chelsea stacks up against the Plaza and the Algonquin. [Living with Legends]

    * The crumbling Renwick Ruins: A visit to this endangered icon. [Roosevelt Islander]

    * A glass tower will grow in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens -- by the park. [Curbed]

    * Minetta Tavern is applying for a liquor-license transfer. What could that mean? [Eater]

    * An ungraceful end: Grace & Hope Mission closes. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * Barton's candy shops were once all around the city. We spotted a recently revealed sign earlier this week. But evidence of the kosher candies has turned up before. [Lost City]

    * If there's a public work of art in Manhattan, you'll find it on this cool map. [CultureNow via Tropolism]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • We're buzzing about: shamrocks, perfume and youth

    Thursday March 6, 2008 6:13 PM By Julie Gordon

    724169_fpx.tif

    Our favorite fashion and beauty finds this week:

    bliss’ ‘bite-sized beauty’ youth group kit

    The sensitive-skin-friendly products in this kit will help you keep a fresh-faced look — no matter where you are in the aging process. It includes a travel-sized cleanser, toner, concentrate, eye cream and moisture cream.

    $68, bliss SoHo, 568 Broadway, second floor; bliss 49, 541 Lexington Ave., bliss 57, 12 W. 57th St., third floor; 212-219-8970

    Shamrock Airwalks

    Get prepped for March 17 with these kitschy kicks from Airwalk.

    $19.99, Payless, 110 W. 34th St., 212-947-0306, and other locations throughout NYC

    Burberry The Beat

    Burberry Brit and London devotees will love this similar but lighter springtime scent from the beloved brand.

    $62, Saks Fifth Avenue, 611 Fifth Ave., 212-753-4000

    Primal Elements Democratic & Republic Soaps

    The election heated up this week, meaning we got more worked up, sweatier and in desperate need of some soap. We opted for political-themed product. For more election style, read this past Urbanite blog entry.

    See www.primalelements.com for NYC locations or to buy

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: shopping, beauty, fashion

  • From City Hall: Mike needs a new mic

    Thursday March 6, 2008 6:02 PM By Rolando Pujol

    For once, the mayor has nothing to say.

    Fans of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s weekly call-in show may be surprised when Hizzoner is nowhere on the radio dial.

    The mayor had appeared nearly every week of his two terms on WABC-AM's John R. Gambling’s Friday call-in show.

    Gambling, though, was abruptly dismissed after last week’s show, leaving the mayor with a radio silence, at least temporarily.

    “The mayor likes the opportunity to talk to New Yorkers, to talk about what he’s done that week,” said Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser. “He can move beyond the sound bites and short quotes that TV news and radio news and print news leave him with.”

    The mayor has no immediate plans or timetable as to when he’ll go back on the air with another host.

    WABC replaced Gambling with longtime radio personality Curtis Sliwa, who is expected to syndicate the show nationally.

    Loeser did say that the administration has received a couple of offers and are weighing their options. His advice to fans of the show:

    “Stay tuned.”

    -- David Freedlander

    Tags: radio, michael bloomberg, wabc-am, politics, john gambling

  • A history of violence

    Thursday March 6, 2008 5:27 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Police investigate the scene of the Fraunces Tavern

    bombing in 1975. Image via latinamericanstudies.org.

    The New York area has scene multiple bombings over the years, the most recent occurring in Times Square Thursday morning. Not including the two World Trade Center attacks, the incidents include:

    July 30, 1916 - The Black Tom explosion.

    Hundreds were injured, and possibly seven people killed, when barges and railroad cars filled with munitions bound for England and France were exploded by saboteurs on Black Tom Island, west of Ellis Island. The attack was carried out by U.S.-based German officials and their agents to stop the munitions from reaching French and British troops in World War I.

    Sept. 16, 1920 - Terrorist attack on Wall Street.

    A horse-drawn wagon filled with TNT exploded down the street from the New York Stock Exchange. Thirty-nine people were killed and another 300 were injured and burned. No one was ever charged for the attack, but police suspected Italian anarchists or Communists.

    1940-1956- The Mad Bomber.

    A disgruntled former employee of Con Ed named George P. Metesky planted 33 homemade bombs around the city, and became known as “The Mad Bomber.” Only 23 of the bombs actually went off before being found. The explosions injured a total of 15 people. He was arrested on Jan. 18 1957 and was released in 1974.

    March 6, 1970 - Weather Underground blast.

    Theodore Gold, a Columbia student and Cathlyn Wilkerson were building bombs in Wilkerson's family's townhouse in Greenwich Village. Some of the explosives went off accidentally, killing three people and demolishing the entire townhouse. Wilkerson was a member of the radical organization “Weather Underground” but never said what the group was planning to do with the bombs.

    1970s and 80s – Puerto Rican liberation group, FALN (or Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional) commits violent attacks all over the city.

    In 1975, they set off a bomb that killed four people at Fraunces Tavern on Pearl Street. The group claimed responsibility, but no one was ever prosecuted. It also planted pipe bombs in several big corporations and the New York Public Library and set fires in La Guardia, Kennedy, and Newark airports. In 1982 they bombed the NYPD headquarters and many financial houses on Wall Street. In the end, they were blamed for more than 50 bomb attacks in the New York area that killed six people and maimed or injured dozens more.

    -- Laura Berger

    Tags: terrorism, faln, mad bomber, bombings, crime, manhattan, history

  • Serving motorists and transients

    Thursday March 6, 2008 2:39 PM By Rolando Pujol

    It's not every day you see the word "transients" in bright neon lights. Does this garage offer a place to park cars and house transients? Is it a garage that has been converted into an SRO?

    This is hardly a seedy relic of the old Times Square. Quite the opposite, it can be found on a quiet Upper East Side street. This fantastic sign, worthy of mention alone for its form and bold neon, offers a window into an odd use of the word "transient." To be sure, most of us think of "transient" as having a very specific connotation -- a vagabond, a drifter of probably questionable character. But here, the word "transient" is promoting the services of the lot for motorists wishing to park their cars temporarily. A quick Google search finds "transient" still in reasonably common use on parking-lot Web sites. But how often do you see it lit up on a massive garage sign?

    We know of another lot that serves "transients," shown at left. It's on East 60th Street near the Queensboro Bridge, so perhaps these signs were quite common at one point.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: endangered nyc, signs, manhattan, history, stuff that's cool

  • Living the High Life

    Wednesday March 5, 2008 3:42 PM By David Freedlander

    Updated 6:54 p.m. The transformation of the High Line from a rotting railway to a postmodern park traveled further down the track Wednesday as plans were unveiled for a new tower slated to open next year.

    The building, shown above, called HL23, is the first project by architectural theorist Neil Denari. It will lean above the elevated park at an angle and taper upward to give the appearance of growing out of the old rail bed.

    “The site makes what the building is, happen,” Denari said. “ The High Line is the start of the action. I used to live near there, and I always thought that if you could give me my choice of places to build in the city, I’d take this one.”

    Denari’s not the only one. There are now more than 40 projects going up around the elevated railway, and the area is quickly becoming known in architectural circles as a global hot spot for new and interesting buildings.

    “Because there is no context in this neighborhood, I thought you could do something different,” said Alf Naman, the project’s developer.

    The 11 residences at HL23, which gets its name from its location on West 23rd Street between 10th and 11th avenues, will range in size from 1,850 to 3,600 square feet, and cost between $2.65 million and $10.5 million.

    The project was unveiled yesterday at craftsteak, a Chelsea restaurant, to brokers and industry insiders.

    The 14-story building will be the focus of a June exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York on new architecture and the High Line.

    Some locals are wondering, though, if development in the area has gone too far.

    “It’s too much, and it’s a lot of dust and traffic,” said Silvia Baldwin, 58, a 16-year resident of the neighborhood, as she pointed to the forest of construction cranes looming over her West Chelsea street. “I feel like we’re losing too many low-income people.”

    John Tyler, 65, a life-long resident of the area, agreed. He used to work on the piers unloading ships and remembered when the neighborhood was mostly tenements and trains ran on the strange tracks that seemed to float in the air.

    “I wish it didn’t change so fast,” he said. “What was here they should have left alone. They should just let certain parts of Manhattan be.”

    -- David Freedlander

    Tags: chelsea, architecture

  • Duly Noted: Midtown with no MSG and more

    Wednesday March 5, 2008 3:23 PM By Rolando Pujol

    A photo from Friends of Moynihan Station shows what the overall Penn Station redevelopment might look like. That is, if it ever happens.

    * Friends of Moynihan Station present a stunning vision: Midtown sans Madison Square Garden. The plan that would make this happen has run into trouble. [Curbed]

    * We go for a walk around Crown Heights for City Living.

    * With ER visits for the flu hitting 1,000 a day, a push to allow pharmacists to give flu shots. [City Room]

    * Murray Hill bar Tonic East settles discrimination suit. [Gothamist]

    * With vacancy rates higher than the city average at Stuy Town, new renters are getting a month free. [Gothamist]

    * Will it be shovels to the dirt soon at Harlem Park? [Curbed]

    * It's official: Armando's in Brooklyn Heights will close March 16, taking 70 years of history with it. [Brownstoner]

    * One Jackson Square brings Wi-Fi to Jackson Square Park, which is getting the quick cleanup treatment. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * Conjuring the famous who once lived in Jackson Heights. [Jackson Heights Life]

    * It's not as cheap as the Fung Wah bus, but the Boston-bound may consider the Limoliner. There's even Wi-Fi, people! [Metroblogging NYC]

    * We're All Connected, all right: A live map, New York Talk Exchange, shows which neighborhoods are calling which parts of the world. [Gawker]

    * Find out how to "Go Green" in Queens, this Saturday. [Lost in the Ozone]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • A perfect corner

    Wednesday March 5, 2008 12:26 PM By Rolando Pujol

    When they build a museum to the Manhattan of yore, they would do well to recreate the southeast corner of West 39th Street and Eighth Avenue. It is perfect in ways that speak to the random, organic nature of Gotham street life. Such spots have become so rare in Manhattan that they take on a surreal, Hollywood-set quality.

    It's all there: The old-school barber shop, the shoe-repair business and the liquor store with a set of wonderful neon signs.

    Long may they thrive.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: times square, signs, small business, endangered nyc, real estate, manhattan, history

  • Bronx journal: Banding together for better housing

    Tuesday March 4, 2008 6:14 PM By Rolando Pujol

    A group of Bronx residents who say their apartments are infested with rodents and roaches and that their ovens were their main source of heat this winter have banded together in a rare class-action lawsuit against their landlord.

    Residents of 1849 Sedgwick Ave. are asking the Bronx Housing Court to appoint an independent administrator to take over the building, receive the rents, and repair hundreds of alleged building-code violations, according to the Urban Justice Center, the nonprofit legal organization that is representing them.

    This is the second suit the tenants have filed against the landlords, Mario and Lucia Milevoi. The first, filed last August, was to compel them to make repairs to hundreds of violations. The landlords agreed to do this on four occasions, but according to the tenants and attorneys, more than 400 violations still remain.

    The Milevois did not return calls requesting comment.In addition to the rodents, roaches and lack of heat, problems in the 15-story building included broken doors and windows, water damage and mold, said attorney Garrett Wright, who is working on the case.

    Isaac Agyemang, 60, who has lived in the building for 12 years, said he and his family had to wear winter jackets inside in order to keep warm throughout the winter. Three of his four children have asthma because of the rodents that always “run back and forth” in his apartment, he said; rodent droppings are well established as asthma triggers.

    Ernestine Bonilla, 68, echoed this, saying that “rats have been running wild” and that the electric heater she has had to use to heat her apartment has led to an exorbitant electricity bill. Bonilla, who has lived in the building for 32 years, said she was taken to court in November because she owed $3,000 on that bill, an amount she is still unable to pay.

    Many residents contend that the problems began when the building, formerly Mitchell Lama housing, was sold to the current landlord in 2002.

    “This was once a beautiful property that many tenants have very fond memories of,” said Wright.

    Estelle Rollins, who has been living in the building for 21 years, said it took her eight years to move in because of the waiting list. “It was a wonderful building,” she said. “It’s not the building it used to be.”

    -- Mathilde Piard

    Tags: real estate

  • Duly Noted: 3/4/08

    Tuesday March 4, 2008 4:47 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The Survivors' Stairway once led to the elevated, sprawling Austin Tobin Plaza at the World Trade Center. Photo via Megalho on Flickr

    * The Survivors' Stairway, the last remaining aboveground portion of the WTC complex that is still at Ground Zero, is being removed for safe-keeping. [City Room]

    * Translating developer speak: A user's guide. [Lost City]

    * Right next to the storied Pete's Tavern in Irving Place, where O. Henry is said to have written "The Gift of the Magi," will rise a condo tower. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * The Shake Shack: Once, it was a little joint in Madison Square Park, but soon, it will become a chainlet. [Gothamist]

    * Live in lovely Pomander Walk on the Upper West Side for a cool $2.295 million. [Curbed]

    * The mystery of the protected tree that grows next to a Bayside McMansion. [Queens Crap]

    * The horror as John Varvatos still preps the former CBGB space for a new Bowery store. [Racked]

    * Scary: When the F train is out, the Roosevelt Island Tram will be overwhelmed. [Roosevelt Islander]

    * John Teti, our former humor columnist and "Daily Show" alum, pays a visit to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. [Geek Out New York]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • Together At Last

    Tuesday March 4, 2008 1:31 PM By David Freedlander

    Wow. I guess this is what they mean by synergy. Today, downtown, by City Hall, we saw multiple sellers hawking a special newspaper combo meal of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post for the bargain basement price of $1.00.

    For you economists out there, that's basically like getting 30 percent off the Journal by agreeing to take the Post off their hands. Which, now that we think about, may have been how that whole Rupert and Bancroft deal went down in the first place.

    -- David Freedlander

    Tags: newspapers, shopping

  • Duly Noted:3/3/08

    Monday March 3, 2008 5:00 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The High Bridge tower once figured in the Croton Aqueduct. Now it's an icon that's open occasionally for tours. (Via westofthehudson on Flickr)

    * New York is all about change, right? Not quite. [Lost City]

    * Major development imperils another big chunk of Columbus Circle. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * Can Moynihan Station, the No. 7 line extension, and Hudson Yards all get built? Hmm. [Curbed]

    * Where's Manhattan's only Arby's? It used be at the Manhattan Mall, and now the fast-good eatery is gone amid big retail changes there.[Racked]

    * Touring the High Bridge Tower in upper Manhattan. [NewYorkology]

    Tags: duly noted

  • King Kong on Channel 9

    Monday March 3, 2008 3:02 PM By Rolando Pujol

    King Kong just celebrated its 75th anniversary on Sunday with a double screening and Fay Wray "scream-alike"contest at the Film Forum. Back in 1983, New Yorkers marked the 50th anniversary by turning on Channel 9, which for decades owned the rights to the film. Indeed, for New Yorkers older than 35 or so, Channel 9 is inextricably tied to King Kong, thanks to repeated showings on Million Dollar Movie, and, of course, during the Thanksgiving Day monster fests.

    In his story on Friday, David Freedlander quotes Film Forum programming chief Bruce Goldstein on the power of repeated exposure through local television:

    "This is not only how we got to see King Kong but how we got to become familiar with it in a modern way, where you watch it over and over and get to know it frame by frame."

    Get a little taste of the old days by seeing this ad for the 50th anniversary showing on Channel 9, with longtime WOR announcer Phil Tonken at the mic. Here's a little something we wrote last year on Channel 9's holiday monster movie tradition, which continued from 1976 to 1985.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: television, old school

  • Urban Archaeology: Sign's sweet memories

    Monday March 3, 2008 2:06 PM By Rolando Pujol

    With small businesses routinely closing, a curious phenomenon has emerged: The revelation of old, long-hidden storefront signs, which serve as a reminder of a time when the city was considerably more hospitable to mom and pops.

    Oftentimes, what happens is a business closes, and as the current signage is stripped, an older generation sign for that shop is revealed. Or sometimes a sign for an entirely different business comes to light that has long been lost to history.

    This sign, which surfaced at a shuttered shop at East 33rd Street and Madison Avenue, is a real gem, and is an indication of how unique business signs could once be. The chief name is Jeanettes Cards and Gifts, and, on the left, is a sign for Barton's Bonbonniere. Barton's, according to this site, sold kosher candies, with the first shop opening in 1940. We found this thread reminiscing of a time when Barton and Barricini candy shops were widespread. (We know of a Barricini that's still going at One Penn Plaza, at least, the name is still there.)

    This candy shop sign offers an interesting visual treat. (See close-ups below.) Check out the variety in fonts; the effort that went into the individual metal letters; and the overall flair and class and thought that the sign still displays, even now in its well-worn state. Consider how today, a simple awning and some computer-generated words are usually considered sufficient. Notice, indeed, how these old signs were an art of sorts, a lost art that is increasingly being trashed every day.

    Savor this sweet sign while ye may.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Update: More from Vanishing New York, with news that this and other businesses here were shuttered to make way for a condo/hotel tower. And Vanishing NY notes that the reliable and tasty World of Pickles closed across the street, for what will likely be another tower. This place was a favorite stop when we worked at the nearby 2 Park.

    Tags: urban archaeology, old school, manhattan, endangered nyc, signs

  • A break for hip hop's birthplace

    Monday March 3, 2008 1:22 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Updated 6:06 p.m. There was new hope for the tenants of 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the Bronx yesterday when the city nixed a deal to sell the building - the birthplace of hip-hop — to a real estate developer.

    Residents of the 100-units of affordable housing have been living in fear since learning that real-estate mogul Mark Karasick had made an offer on the Morris Heights property where DJ Kool Herc pioneered the art of mixing beats on dual-turntables in the rec room in 1973. The city could not legally listen to the hip-hop historical argument in considering the sale, but the Department of Housing Preservation and Development did looked at the finances of the sale.

    “We couldn’t see a way the rents allowed under Mitchell-Lama could cover the purchase price,” said Neill Coleman, a spokesman for HPD.

    Tenants currently pay an average of about $1,200 for the 1, 2, and 3-bedroom units, said Dina Levy of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. The concern is that those rents, which are already close to market rate, would have significantly increased to cover Karasick’s confidential purchase offer, Levy explained.

    A woman who answered the phone at Karasick’s office said that he would not be commenting on the city’s decision. Steven Frankel, attorney for the ownership group, 1520 Sedgwick Houses Inc., said that he had no formal notification from HPD regarding their rejection of the deal and could not comment.

    But tenants have not won the war yet. The building’s owners have the right to opt out of the Mitchell-Lama program, which offers tax reductions and other incentives in return for providing affordable rent.

    If taken off the Mitchell-Lama rolls, the building can be sold to the highest bidder without public review. No application to leave the program has been filed yet, Coleman said.

    In the meantime, tenants have found allies in Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and two not-for-profit tenant advocacy groups like Levy’s as well as Tenants and Neighbors. With their assistance, the residents hope to raise money and use subsidies that will allow them to buy the property and turn it into an affordable co-op building.

    Schumer said the building's struggle was a small part of a greater need to preserve affordable housing around the city.

    “At 1520 Sedgwick, we have the glimmer of hope of stemming the tide,” he said.

    -- Matthew Sweeney

    Photo: Mary Fountain, a resident of 1520 Sedgwick in the Bronx is fighting to keep the building affordable to tenants. 1520 Sedgwick is credited as the birthplace of hip hop. (amNewYork file/Jefferson Siegel)

    Previous amNY coverage:

    Residents fight to save hip-hop birthplace

    Web special: 30 years of hip hop

    Tags: rap, hip hop, bronx, endangered nyc, real estate, history, architecture

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