Stephen Rex BrownGood morning, East Village.
A press release from District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. announces the indictment of Jeffrey Bernstein. Mr. Bernstein once owned Pudgie’s Famous Chicken, an outpost of which is opening on First Avenue; he’s accused of stealing more than $2,500,000 from the Albert Ellis Institute. For more on the charges of grand larceny and money laundering, read the press release here.
Capital New York reflects on urban etiquette signs such as the one outside of Heathers bar that reads “if you go outside to smoke, please go all the way over to the corner of Avenue A.” The piece theorizes that “through the ’80s and ’90s [East Village] residents were paying rents low enough that they could overlook nighttime noise. As rents increased, so did complaints.” Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York disagrees with the idea: “We didn’t overlook noise prior to 2003–we remember when the East Village was much quieter and less crowded than the nightmare of screeching it is today.”
The Wall Street Journal notes the trend of Lower East Side and East Village restaurateurs opening offshoots in Williamsburg. A broker points out that Williamsburg’s retail rents are much lower: from $30 to $80 a square foot, compared with $100 to $150 a square foot. “The cheaper rents allow [restaurant owners] to experiment with new concepts with less risk involved.”
“Pull My Daisy” – starring Larry Rivers, Allen Ginsberg, and other East Village fixtures – and “Yudie” are the latest films to be screened by the Seward Park Library as part of its L.E.S. Heritage Film Series.
Pointing to a 1959 performance piece by Allan Kaprow at the Reuben Gallery in the East Village as a breakthrough moment, The Times presents an oral history of the Happenings, interviewing artists like Red Grooms and Jim Dine.
Finally, The Times drops into the Ludlow Street apartment of Gray Burton, a publicist who used to work at John Derian Company. The East Village interior design shop is responsible for many of the furnishings in the 250-square-foot pad.
