When I went to Japan to revise my book, “Japan on $5 a Day,” I had been dating Sherry Needham. When I returned, he was dating her.
Q.
Did you fight?
A.
Of course not. I was just worried that she wouldn’t fulfill her promise to bare a breast in the fourth picture of a story I wanted to tell in one of those-25 cent photo machines.
Q.
And did she?
A.
Yes, Walter came along and we had a high old time, assisted, as I remember, by the benevolent herb. Walter told me he was starting a new paper and I agreed to write for it. My first column was about how forgery had been a constant presence on the art scene for centuries. I called it “Art & Other Scenes” but Walter eliminated the “Art &.” The appearance of the column in EVO infuriated Ed Fancher [Village Voice founder and publisher] who insisted I choose between the two papers. Read more…
Fred W. McDarrah/Getty ImagesFrom left: Dan Rattiner, Walter Bowart, and brothers Allen and Don Katzman. Jan. 14, 1966.
Little is it known that Dan Rattiner, doyen of Dan’s Papers, helped launch the East Village Other alongside its more celebrated founders, the late Walter Bowart and the late Allen Katzman. In 1964, having abandoned graduate school in architecture at Harvard, Mr. Rattiner, in between gigs producing a summer newspaper in Montauk, rented an apartment in a brownstone on West 10th Street in Greenwich Village. A year later, in the fall of 1965, something amazed him on the newsstand at Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue. He picks up the story from there.
It cost 15 cents and was an enormous piece of newsprint all folded up into tabloid size. The four pages, when unfolded looked more like a work of modern art than a newspaper. A new way to print a newspaper was on the market. It involved using scissors and rubber cement to put together a proof of a page, then making a plate from a photograph of it and then printing from that. But I had never seen anyone make use of the new process like this before; most people just used it to mimic the old.
As for the content, it was also revolutionary. The lead headline read: “TO COMMEMORATE THE GLORIOUS NEWSPAPER STRIKE THE HERETOFORE UNDERGROUND ‘OTHER’ EXPANDS ITS PATAREALISM.” In huge black type, the words coiled along the perimeter of the page and ended with a half-tone photograph of a half-closed eye. “Peace Rally Breeds Strange Bedfellows,” was the headline below. “Generation of Draft Dodgers” read another headline below that.
I bought it. And I looked for, and found the name, address and phone number of the publisher and editor, Walter Bowart. Read more…
The police and fire departments said that a person was struck and killed by a Brooklyn-bound subway train near the Third Avenue station shortly before 8:21 a.m. this morning. L train service was suspended between Bedford and Eighth Avenues. No further details were available because the investigation is ongoing. Update: The MTA announced at 11:27 a.m. that service had resumed in two sections: between the Eighth Avenue and Bedford Avenue stations, and between the Bedford Avenue and Rockaway Parkway-Canarise stations.
Daniel MaurerPolice outside of the store on Jan. 6.
A cell phone store on East 14th Street near First Avenue was robbed again last night, two weeks after a pair of men held it up at gunpoint.
A police officer was seen dusting for prints inside of the Metro PCS store at 350 East 14th Street last night. The police said that shortly before 7:10 p.m., a black man wearing all-black clothing walked into the store, demanded money while keeping a hand in his pocket, and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. No further details could be revealed because the investigation is ongoing.
Two weeks ago (also on a Friday evening) two men entered the same store, flashed a gun, and left with around $4,000. The police released surveillance camera footage of that incident.
Ralph Feldman, 76, was a fireman in the Bronx with Engine 45 for two decades, and then in Harlem with Engine 37 for several years. Before retiring about 26 years ago, he served as a fire marshal intermittently. In 1969, he bought a building at 315 East Eighth Street and in the 1970s and ’80s he photographed fires near there, sometimes giving a hand to his fellow firefighters.
On his block of mostly vacant buildings, there were as many as five fires a week, said Mr. Feldman. “At the same time when the Bronx was burning, the East Village was burning,” he said. “All of Brooklyn was burning. In the ’70s and ’80s, big portions of the city burnt down.” Mr. Feldman spoke with The Local about his photos. Read more…
Police are searching for a suspect who locked a local woman in her bathroom while he ransacked her apartment on Jan. 16.
The 31-year-old victim told police that the suspect got in the elevator with her, followed her, and then forced his way into her apartment. He then locked her in the bathroom while searching in vain for valuables in the bedroom. The victim screamed for help, perhaps leading to the suspect leaving empty-handed.
The suspect is described as a white or Hispanic man in his 20s with brown eyes who was last seen wearing a long jacket, hooded sweatshirt, dark jeans and black-rim glasses.
The end of the East Village’s biggest drag destination is just around the corner.
Lucky Cheng’s will move to 240 West 52nd Street in May or June, and owner Hayne Suthon says that club-kid turned designer Richie Rich, formerly of Heatherette, will sell a new fashion line in the space.
“He wants to put his new designs for clothing on the upper floor,” said Ms. Suthon of her new collaborator. “It’s kind of a wild venue, and he’s a wild guy.” Read more…
Last week the Lo-Down reported that neighborhood activist Ayo Harrington complained to Community Board 3, among other organizations, about a mural on East Second Street near Avenue A that she considered “racially offensive” as well as sexist (the complaint was forwarded to New York City Commission on Human Rights).
Tats Cru, the Bronx-based graffiti artists who painted the mural, told the Lo-Down it was nothing more than “a marriage proposal where the guy wanted to depict cartoon versions of him and his girlfriend where he is trying to rescue her, sort of saving the princess type of thing.” Later, the man who commissioned the mural, Adam Sirois, wrote, “it is a shame that something bred of love is getting sprinkled with negativity because one individual misconstrued it – a piece of art, no less.”
Time-lapse video of the mural’s creation has now hit YouTube – what do you think: retrograde or romantic?
The New York Post reports that the police arrested Ariel Herrera and Logan Delfugeo on East 14th Street between Second and Third Avenues on Wednesday “after busting up their half-baked East Village drug deal and discovering a sweet stash of dozens of marijuana-laced Rice Krispies Treats.” The Post calls the block “a drug-sales hotspot.” Officers found the stash in the back seat of Mr. Herrera’s 2011 Honda Accord. “I guess these guys wanted to take care of the high and the munchies all at once,” a law enforcement source told the paper. Check out The Local’s crime blotter for more neighborhood crime news.
The Bowery Alliance of Neighbors reminds us that The International Center of Photography has a current exhibition, “Weegee: Murder is My Business,” on the photography of Weegee, who shot some of the most iconic photos of the Bowery and the Lower East Side.
EV Grieve writes that the Centre-fuge Public Art Project, “a rotating outdoor gallery with work by multimedia artists,” kicks off this weekend on East First Street. Rotating artists will beautify a drab, gray trailer, used by Second Avenue subway workers, that’s sitting on the south side of First Street. Read more…
Less than a week after 12-year-old Dashane Santana was killed crossing Delancey Street, a new report finds that intersections near public housing complexes are by far the most dangerous for children.
In the East Village, Lower East Side and Chinatown, “a person struck by a car is nearly two times more likely to be a child than a crash victim on the Upper East Side,” according to the new report released by the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. The data, culled from statistics from the state Division of Motor Vehicles from 1995 to 2009, also highlights intersections on East Houston Street and Delancey Street as high-crash areas.
According to the figures, Ms. Santana, a resident of the Jacob Riis Houses, was disproportionately exposed to dangerous intersections on the east side compared to her peers in other parts of the city. Read more…
A memorial service for Mary Spink, the local activist who died on Jan. 16 at the age of 64, will be held this Sunday at 5:30 p.m. at Cooper Union on East Seventh Street and Third Avenue. In an e-mail to The Local, Rona Clemente, the acting executive director of the Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association, wrote, “We are extending an invitation to the entire Lower East Side to join friends and colleagues at the memorial service.”
Last month, The Local filmed artist Nicolina as she left a goodbye mural on her East Second Street block before setting off on a trip to Valparaiso, Chile and other locales. If you’re curious to see what she’s up to abroad, read this press release and watch the accompanying video released by the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile: She recently collaborated with three Chilean artists and a group of children on a mural for the Instituto Chileno Norteamericano de Cultura in Valparaiso, as well as embellishing her existing paintings on the historic town’s funicular cars. Proof that the ol’ Lower East Side exports more than just salamis to boys in the Army.
The Local will now offer weekly roundups of notable crimes within the confines of the Ninth Precinct, which covers the East Village. In addition to possible gunshots at Lillian Wald Houses on Friday, here’s who fought the law in recent days.
New Year’s Mayhem
A knife-wielding thief from New Jersey took cash from a New Year’s reveler mere hours after the ball dropped.
The victim told the police that a trio approached at the corner of East Fourth Street and Avenue A at around 1:40 a.m. and said, “Happy New Year. Let me see your wallet.” The victim then tried to walk away, and the suspect reiterated his demand and flashed a blade while his cohorts looked on. The victim handed over $50 and the group left. About 20 minutes later, the police arrested Dion Watson and charged him with robbery, possession of a deadly weapon and possession of stolen property. His alleged cohorts, Krishard Jones and a 17-year-old girl, were also charged with robbery.
Trouble at the Tavern
A thief chatted up a bar-goer on Jan. 7 at the Village Tavern and then forced him to hand over $200.
The victim told the police that the suspect kept chewing the fat with him in the bar on Avenue C at East 10th Street. At around 2:15 a.m. the suspect reached into the victim’s pocket, took his cellphone and wallet and said, “You’re not getting this back unless you give me money.” The suspect then forced the victim to go to an ATM and withdraw $200. About 30 minutes later, the police arrested Adam J. Soto, a 31-year-old resident of Campos Plaza, and charged him with robbery in the third degree and grand larceny. Read more…
In case you missed it last night, The Local reported that Benjamin Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group, the new owner of the building that houses Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, has failed to come to terms with a potential new operator of the nursing home, increasing the likelihood that it will close when its lease expires in April.
EV Grieve has photos of workers dismantling the roof at 315 East 10th Street, which is also owned by Magnum. The building sits on the block that the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated a historic district on Tuesday. Grieve writes that the work started at 8:30 a.m., shortly after Magnum got the go-ahead for a controversial rooftop addition only hours before the L.P.C. vote.
The New York Post has a cover story on “East Village apartments with eye-popping asking prices,” including penthouses for between $3.6 and $4.525 million at 123 Third Avenue. The Post also reveals that 74-84 Third Avenue, the former home of Nevada Smith’s, will be turned into a rental building, and the vacant lot at 211 East 13th Street will house an 82-unit, eight-story development. Read more…
The new owner of the building that houses Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation has failed to come to terms with a potential new operator of the nursing home, increasing the likelihood that it will close when its lease expires in April.
Kenneth Fisher, an attorney representing Magnum Real Estate Group, which bought the building at Avenue B and Fifth Street late last year, said that negotiations to resell the building to a for-profit nursing home operator fell apart earlier this week. “On Sunday, we believed there was an agreement on the price,” he said. “On Tuesday, they had walked back from the agreement.” He added, “We’re disappointed that the transaction wasn’t reduced to a written contract.”
Michele deMilly, a consultant for Cabrini who is authorized to speak for the company, confirmed that a deal is no longer in the works: “Yesterday we heard that Magnum, meaning Ben Shaoul, was no longer negotiating with the prospective new operator of the nursing home facility on that site – he had terminated all negotiations – and that Cabrini was going to proceed with their closing plan.” Read more…
What happens when you leave a bike out for a year? Red Peak, a branding and design company, decided to find out by chaining one to a pole in SoHo and photographing it every day. Their time-lapse video, posted by EV Grieve, shows the bike disappearing by day 270. Maybe we’re jaded from so many bike thefts, but isn’t this a little man bites dog?
If you want a real story, take a look at the glorious Huffy above. Back in 2009, the author of this post chained it to a pole in the East Village, stupidly lost the key to the lock, and decided it wasn’t worth spending the $75 to $95 that a local locksmith would’ve charged to cut the chain. It was December (not quite biking weather), and this thing wasn’t exactly Tour de France material. But, man – more than two years later, it’s still there. As you can see, the tires have gone flat and the wheels have rusted, but still – impressive! Heck, after two years of salary bumps, it might just be time to spring for a locksmith. Every time we pass by it, it gives us the saddest little puppy-dog eyes.
Isabella Aqel grew up in a house where her family ate Arabic and Dominican meals, so it was only natural that she bring the cuisines to Tink’s, which she’ll open on East Seventh Street in about four to six weeks.
“My father is from Jordan, my mother is Irish[-American], and we had a Dominican nanny growing up while my parents worked,” she told The Local. “We’ve been cooking since my mother could sit me on the counter.” With a laugh, she described her family as “ethnically confused.”
Adding to that, Ms. Aqel, 24, who studied pastry-making at the French Culinary Institute and graduated about a year ago, said her cooking would also have a French spin. Read more…
Further to yesterday’s news that the Department of Buildings issued a permit for a rooftop addition to a building on East 10th Street shortly before the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a historic district on the block, State Senator Daniel Squadron has issued a press release stating that “the timing of D.O.B.’s permit to allow the expansion of 315 East 10th Street is disturbing and raises serious questions about coordination between city agencies.” The text of the release, along with the senator’s testimony yesterday can be found on his Website.
The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards.
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