Volume 78 / Number 8 – July 23 – 29, 2008
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since
Scoopy’s Notebook
Give me back my nectarines! Linda Meyers was indignant when she paid a visit to her local fruit stand on Sheridan Square the other week to find a police officer telling the operator he had to move his setup, which, in violation of city code, was less than 20 feet from a doorway. “He’s been there seven years, and I’ve been shopping with him since he’s been there,” she said. “It’s been all these years and they haven’t enforced it; why are they enforcing it now? I went into Sloan’s and I had to pay $1.88 for a nectarine, when I could have gotten one at my fruit stand for 50 cents,” she said, noting that two other fruit stands in the neighborhood disappeared the same day. “That’s not right,” she said. Luckily for Meyers and her fellow fruit eaters, the vendors were back the next day. Ahmet Ali Ozdemir, who operates the Sheridan Square stand, said that the police officer told him that someone had called 311 to complain, but the officer did not give him a ticket or a warning, so he was not inclined to leave. “All fruit stands in Manhattan are less than 20 feet from doors,” he reasoned, bagging up some cherries for a still-loyal customer, discussing what he would do if he were truly shut down: “I’m going to call 311 and I’m going to complain about all the fruit stands.” The officer involved in the incident could not be reached for comment, but Ozdemir thought that he knew the culprit responsible for the 311 call. “Maybe it was a grocery store,” he said. “There are a few grocery stores around here, and I’m selling cheaper than them.” … In more Sheridan Square news, across the street, some may be worried about the fate of the always-bustling newsstand on the traffic island outside the uptown No. 1 subway entrance. Never fear — the newsstand is merely undergoing renovations in line with those being done to all of the city’s 330 newsstands. The city entered into a contract last year with the Spanish designer Cemusa to replace aging bus stops and newsstands with the sleeker, more corporate design coming to Sheridan Square. The new newsstands provide large swaths of advertising space.
Punk’d-up anniversary: In a news flash from Chris Flash, publisher of The Shadow, the local East Village community anarchist newspaper, here are the lineups for the punk bands that will play a series of free concerts commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park riots of July 30 and Aug. 6, 1988. Sun., July 27: Hammerbrain, False Prophets, Reagan Youth, Nihilistics, APPLE, David Peel and Professor Louie. Sat., Aug. 2: Planned Collapse, Thought Crime, Black September and Casa de Chihuahua. Sun., Aug. 3, Leftover Crack, Death Mold, Team Spider, DisAssociate, Witch Hunt, Star F—ing Hipsters and Hungry March Band. All shows are in Tompkins Square Park, starting at noon and ending at 7 p.m.
Dog-run dilemma: It’s been a month since Community Board 3 voted to shut down Lower East Side resident Calvin Knight’s “unofficial dog run” after noise complaints, but dogs continue to dominate the lot on Stanton St., just east of Pitt St. Garrett Rosso, a local dog advocate who manages the Tompkins Square Dog Run, said he had heard that the Parks Department had chosen to side with Knight. “Parks said to leave it,” Rosso reported. “The guys at Parks say they don’t see any point in shutting it down.” According to Parks spokesperson Cristina DeLuca, the department has not determined yet what to do with the space, but a dog run is among the options. “We’re still working with the community board and the dog run groups to determine if we’re continuing the dog run,” she said. Susan Stetzer, district manager of C.B. 3 and an opponent of the dog run, wrote in an e-mail that the board would not endorse that plan, given that “it is noisier than ever at night, and there are more dogfight complaints. We asked Parks to either remove the gate or install higher fencing — or do what is necessary so that people living nearby will not suffer from qualify of life complaints that have actually increased since the community board vote,” she wrote. A discussion of alternate uses for the lot will be on the board’s September agenda.
