As State Senator Daniel Squadron called for tougher gun laws at a press conference at Campos Plaza today, new information emerged about a shooting outside of The Central Bar on Sunday. Some believe the incident was tied to ongoing beef between certain residents of Campos Plaza in the East Village and their rivals in the Baruch Houses, on the Lower East Side.
Norris Barrino, 55, told The Local that his son, 26-year-old LeRon, was the organizer of an open-mic event at the sports pub where a fight broke out at around 10:40 p.m. Everything was fine, said Mr. Barrino, until “some gang members weeded in.”
Mr. Barrino was at Central Bar early in the night and heard an account of later events from his son, who did not respond to The Local’s request for comment earlier this week. According to Mr. Barrino, the trouble started with a rap about the killing of Donovan “Keith” Salgado, almost a year ago. “There was a comment made about a woman whose son was killed here,” said Mr. Barrino this morning at Campos Plaza. “One of the guys knew that some of the guys who were involved with that were there. He got up and rapped about him. He said, ‘The guys who killed Keith are here.’ That’s what started the whole thing.” Read more…
Han Joo, the Korean barbecue joint that’s been going into the Sox in the City space on St. Marks Place, will open Tuesday.
According to manager Kitae Um, the Manhattan offshoot will serve the same menu as the Queens original, with one addition: soju cocktails.
Oh, and there’s one other big difference. “This space is a lot more trendy,” said Mr. Um, “and even has a bar.” A sleek marble bar, at that, with hot red stools.
Each of the 22 tabletops is equipped with a grill where chefs will prepare food as visitors dine. Check out the no-joke ventilators via The Local’s slideshow.
San Matteo Panuozzo couldn’t cut it on St. Marks Place. Literally. The pizza-dough-sandwich shop has closed (and, contrary to a sign in the window, won’t be reopening) because it wasn’t allowed to serve proper pies.
Vincenzo Scardino, an owner of San Matteo Pizza and Espresso Bar on the Upper East Side, said that he and is two partners decided to close its downtown spin-off at 121 St. Marks because the landlord wouldn’t allow them to sell pizza, fearing it would interfere with the business of his other tenant, Nino’s, a couple of doors down.
“They thought it would take business from the guy on the corner, even though our product is completely different,” said Mr. Scardino. The restaurateur added that San Matteo had always planned to start serving pizza, just like its uptown location does, once it obtained its liquor license. But when the owners went back and asked their landlord about it, he put the kibosh on the plan. Read more…
Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong continue sorting through their archives of punk-era concert footage as it’s digitized for the Downtown Collection at N.Y.U.’s Fales Library.
Time’s a funny thing, especially where musicians are concerned. If the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones doesn’t scare you, perhaps the realization that we’ve shared nearly 36 years with Bono and 29 with Madonna will.
Still, it’s a little surprising that a mere 21 years separates the release of “Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely” in 1958 and the above video of Iggy Pop covering the LP’s iconic track, “One for My Baby,” at Hurrah’s in 1979. At first glance, the culture wars of the ’60s would seem to render irrelevant the bars, broads and bruisers ethos that Ol’ Blue Eyes represented. But for the generation that made up the original punks, those childhood memories of cigarette smoke, parents’ late nights and Sinatra’s music ran deep. Read more…
Ralph Nader isn’t on the ballot this year, but the consumer advocate managed to fire up around 350 people, including rocker-writer Patti Smith, at Barnes and Noble in Union Square last night.
Introduced by former public advocate Mark Green, Mr. Nader touched on themes from his new paperback, “The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future,” and recalled how mass movements led by a handful of people produced radical change.
These days, Mr. Nader said, many everyday folks seem to have lost their passion for activism and have become far more narrowly focused – and with lame excuses to justify it. “They’ll tell you,” he said drily, “that they’re too busy changing their profile on Facebook.”
Others, he noted, fear being ostracized or crushed by the powers that be because of their belief that the “the big boys own the system and you can’t control it. There’s been a loss of nerve. But it took six women in 1840 to start the suffrage movement” in New York, he said. Read more…
At a meeting on Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission may well create a new East Village/Lower East Side Historic District encompassing over 300 buildings. But the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative isn’t waiting till then to celebrate: the group marked its fifth anniversary last night with bubbly and birthday cake at Smart Clothes Gallery on Stanton Street. Since preservation architects Richard Moses and Britton Baine – inspired by a screening of “Slumming It: Myth and Culture on the Bowery” – started the organization in 2007, they’ve gone on to become instrumental in the creation of a 10th Street Historic District and have led countless tours and discussions about neighborhood history and architecture. The Local chatted with Mr. Moses as he prepared for last night’s birthday bash.
Q.
You’ve garnered opposition from religious groups in the community in regards to landmarking. Have others opposed your projects and how do you handle the situation?
A.
There were a few property owners who were opposed. They came out and expressed their opposition, but there wasn’t a huge number of them by any means; I would say a few.
It’s a tricky situation because emotions tend to run high on both sides. Certainly we’re sympathetic to concerns of religious institutions on the idea that they want their congregation to be thriving and we certainly want them to be thriving – we don’t want them to burdened. We feel sometimes that there’s a misunderstanding of some of the requirements of the Landmarks Commission and that there’s a different focus on short-term versus long-term goals. Read more…
The Public Theater showed off some $40 million in renovations yesterday, as The Local reported. City Room also covered the rededication ceremony, and ArtsBeat reported that Meryl Streep gave $1 million to the theater’s renovation. Now, for your viewing pleasure, here’s video of Vanessa Redgrave, Mayor Bloomberg, and others celebrating the theater’s relaunch, with Shanta Thake, director of Joe’s Pub, telling us more.
If you’re looking for an excuse to check out the new digs in person, remember that Andrew Carmellini’s mezzanine lounge launches next week (he’s also bringing musical performances, top mixologists, and chefs Marco Canora, Seamus Mullen, and Karen DeMasco to the space as part of the New York City Wine & Food Festival). And the Daily News notes that Colman Domingo’s new play, “Wild With Happy,” will premiere Tuesday. And, of course, there’s a big ol’ block party Saturday.
Funny, we were just talking about the East 13th Street penthouse with the slide in it. The Post reports that the apartment has been purchased for $3.3 million by a Canadian who “made a bundle selling a software company.” He plans to remove the slide and donate it to a children’s museum or a charity, but not before one last slide party.
The Times informs that John Derian has taken a floor in an 1850s East Village building and plans to give it a “makeunder.” “It comes as a relief to know that he is jettisoning the fetid, jerry-built shower, and though you sense he’d like to keep the light bulbs that swing from frayed wires overhead, he knows it’s an electrical debacle waiting to happen. Likewise, the sad excuse for a kitchen has got to go. But the brown tinge on the walls — the sculptor was a chain smoker — he is intent on preserving.”
Off the Grid admires the Astor Place subway station, noting that in 1990 it was “listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places for its engineering and architectural significance. The latter consists of Faince (fine tin-glazed pottery) plaques, marble wainscoting, ceramic cornices, and mosaic tablets.” Read more…
A tipster spotted this sign affixed to Spanky & Darla’s. The health department notice, dated Oct. 3, indicates the bar was closed for operating without a permit.
It’s not the first time the dive at 140 First Avenue has been forcibly shut down. In 2010, the bar’s predecessor, Cheap Shots, was closed after underage drinking busts and fighting caused it to be declared a “public nuisance,” a police department attorney told NYC the Blog.
During its time as Cheap Shots, the bar had to pay a total of $11,000 for offenses that included sales to minors, unlicensed security guards, and unlimited drinks specials, according to State Liquor Authority records.
The Liquor Authority’s Website indicates that a liquor license for the establishment was recently renewed, and activated on Oct. 1, 2012. The premises name and trade name are listed as Cheapshots rather than Spanky & Darla’s.
In May, Big Apple Reviews called the bar “a great place to go for a low-key night to just get some drinks, or get plastered before painting the town red.”
Suzanne RozdebaDereese Huff with shooting victim David Cruz
State Senator Daniel Squadron will visit the scene ofMonday morning’s shooting in Campos Plaza to rally for an emergency session in Albany addressing gun violence. At the same time, a Campos resident is circulating a petition demanding security upgrades to the complex and refusing to pay rent until they’re made.
Senator Squadron’s press conference tomorrow will follow an op-ed he penned for today’s Daily News, calling for the passage of a package of bills that “would ensure that New York State has the nation’s strongest gun laws.” The series of “common-sense measures” he advocates includes microstamping shell casings, broadening the definition of “assault weapon,” and limiting the number of guns that one person can purchase in a month.
As Senator Squadron implores state lawmakers, Dereese Huff, president of the Campos Plaza Tenant Association, is appealing to her neighbors via a petition titled “We Must Take a Stand They are Killing our Children with Drugs and Bullets.”
“I put it under everybody’s doors,” she told The Local. “I already got 60 returned to me, signed. They’re signing this petition because they feel that they’re not getting help from N.Y.P.D. nor N.Y.C.H.A. They have to step up on their jobs.” Read more…
As the Public Theater unveiled its renovations today, another conspicuous construction project was also celebrating, right down the block. A communion of suits and hard hats marked the addition of a final structural beam to the top of 51 Astor.
The office tower’s “topping out” ceremony was attended by some 170 construction workers who have been working at the site since July of 2011, as well as 75 guests that included financial partners, architects, engineers, and contractors of the site.
The building, designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, now stands at its proposed 12 stories with 400,000 square feet of space. Read more…
Mayor Bloomberg showed off his Shakespeare this morning as the Public Theater celebrated the completion of a four-year, $40 million renovation.
Addressing a crowd of city officials, theater big-ups, and community members in the redesigned lobby, Mayor Bloomberg requested a round of applause for the taxpayers who helped make the renovations possible. “This public-private partnership is really putting the public in The Public,” he said, referring to the city funding that footed over two thirds of the project. “It takes a village, if you pardon the pun, and this one certainly did.” he said, adding that the community is still being repaid in free renditions of the classics.
The Public has presented Shakespeare in the Park since 1962. Joe Papp opened the theater in 1967, paying $1 a year to take over the building that once housed New York’s first public library.
“This building has always served a public purpose,” Oskar Eustis, the theater’s artistic director, told this morning’s crowd, adding, “The greatest art belongs to everybody and it is made greater when it belongs to everybody.” Read more…
For every East Village business that’s opening or closing, dozens are quietly making it. Here’s one of them: Sixth Street Pilates.
Courtesy Sixth Street Pilates
Pilates used to be more of an Upper East Side thing, but for nine years, Sixth Street Pilates at 525 East Sixth Street has quietly been aligning and providing intense, balancing workouts to those who don’t dare travel above 14th Street. Of course, the East Village is also a Mecca for yoga students, but co-owner Jeremy Laverdure doesn’t sweat that. “I am much more worried about spin and spin hybrid classes,” he said. “SoulCycle keeps me up at night more than Bikram. There are also five million other Pilates teachers out there and while there aren’t many in the neighborhood, there are a lot of teachers out there who are not working for us.” The Local spoke to Mr. Laverdure about the core strength of Sixth Street Pilates and how the roughly 1,000-square-foot studio has made it for nearly a decade.
Q.
You’ve been surviving as a business owner in the East Village for almost a decade.
A.
We’ve been in business for nine years in one way or another. Our first year we were in a little studio apartment across the street. My friend Abby started the studio and I was the first person to work there for her. After a year and a lot of flooding – we were in this kind of ground level subterranean unit – we moved to where we are now. After another three years Abby moved to Texas and sold the business to me. I was the sole proprietor for four years until I made Anula Maiberg a partner about a year ago. Read more…
Courtesy “Bayside! The Unmusical!”The students of Bayside, with Mr. B.
It’s not every musical that has even the house band cracking up, but last night at a packed Kraine Theater, “Bayside! The Unmusical!” did just that with its raunchy, irreverent send-up of “Saved by the Bell.”
The zippy one-hour production – back after an earlier run in May – starts by reintroducing the archetypes of the early-90s sit-com: Zack Morris (JD Scalzo) is the naïve “cool guy” in acid-wash jeans who thinks his ditzy cheerleader girlfriend, Kelly (Caitlin Claessens), is a virgin even though a giant, er, “zit” on her stomach keeps her from going to homecoming. Slater (Israel Viñas) is the “greasy, sexy stud-muffin” who just wants to be respected: “I want to go to collage someday,” he mispronounces. Lisa (Shamira Clark) is the bubbly token black girl who does nothing but shop and gossip while fending off Screech, the nerd who, appropriately enough, is played by lanky comedienne Rachel Witz. And Jessie, well, she’s another story entirely.
The stereotypes quickly come undone like a defective Trapper Keeper: for all its Disney Channel-esque cheeriness and its “uncomfortably Christian creator” (per “Bayside’s” program), “Saved by the Bell” is the show whose cast members went on to get naked in “Showgirls” (Elizabeth Berkley) as well as in an honest-to-goodness porno (Dustin Diamond). “Bayside” revels in that, via an almost Benny Hill-like parade of slapstick hormones and homoeroticism: the kids need to raise an “unreasonable” amount of money (a whole $500!) to save their favorite diner, The Max, and their ideas range from gay prostitution to stripping to pornography. Read more…
Just posted to YouTube, here’s a performance of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” at Middle Collegiate Church.
Curbed gets wind of a new building going up at 535 East 11th Street. “The project is described as 46 units of affordable housing for formerly homeless and mentally disabled East Villagers. The building is subsidized by HPD’s Housing Loan Program, and the community space on the first floor will go to local organization Community Access.”
Off the Grid looks back at the history of the “mystery lot,” which in 1913 was the site of the B.F. Keith’s vaudeville theater. “As vaudeville died out and film became popular, the theater was re-branded as the RKO Jefferson Theatre. The Jefferson operated into the late 1970s as a theater, when it was closed for good.”
Hi! Just wanted to quickly clear something up. The Local will not be attending Café Khufu’s “Burlesques Bitches and Gents” costume party this weekend. Yes, yes, we know there’s going to be a lap dance competition and a high heels contest, but unfortunately we’re just not going to be able to make it.
So why does the latest invite say “NY Times attending this weekends event!”? We assume it’s because, when we saw the initial e-flyer suggesting that female guests come dressed like this (not safe for work) and male guests come dressed like this (perfectly safe for work), we thought: wait a minute, is this the same quiet cafe that, despite the community board’s policy against supporting side-street liquor licenses, got a rare show of support when it applied for a beer and wine license earlier this year? And now it’s advertising an “I’ll Lychee Lick Me” cocktail and a “Sexual Healer” hookah?
Back in January, the board, which had thrice declined to get behind the coffee shop’s application, finally voted to support it after much debate, in part because operator Lisa Buriss was a longtime neighborhood resident and a former director of organizing at Good Old Lower East Side. (And also because the board is loosening up about beer-and-wine licenses.)
And so, one of The Local’s reporters e-mailed the owner of Café Khufu to ask whether another lap dance contest (there had also been one advertised for Sept. 29) was the wisest way to make use of its new license, which went into effect in July. (After all, city records show that at least one person called 311 to complain of an “adult establishment” at 103 Avenue B back when Casimir launched a burlesque night.) We never heard back – that is, until the e-flyer below went out today, announcing that The Times would be in the house!
We didn’t mean to cause any confusion, Café Khufu – maybe catch you next time? Read more…
JapaDog, the Japanese hot dog joint that opened on St. Marks Place in January, is giving ’em away in Union Square.
Nodding to its humble origins as a Vancouver food stand, the brand set up a cart outside of Best Buy this morning and gave away beef and veggie dogs, topped with cherry mayo. They’re now going for $3.
Same deal tomorrow: free dogs from 10 a.m. till noon, then $3 dogs till 6 or 7 p.m.
Joshua Heeki, a chef and manager at the St. Marks location, said JapaDog hopes to eventually launch a more permanent cart somewhere in the city, but this one is mostly a publicity ploy. “We want the public to know about us a bit more,” he said.
In other wiener news, Bowery Boogie hears that Links is set to open tomorrow at 188 Allen Street, with another hot dog spot, Los Perros Locos, opening soon across the street.
While developing “Micro-Mini Maxi Mystery Theater: En Total,” Jessica Dellecave asked the five dancers in the cast to recall their most embarrassing protest moments. With their help, she created a show that explores the often cringe-inducing intersection between activist fervor and queer young love.
The work, premiering tomorrow tonight at Dixon Place, grew out of three 10- to 15-minute studies the playwright, who goes by J. Dellecave, wrote between 1999 and 2010: one was about her experiences as a young, queer activist in the late ’90s, another about her frustrations with activism in 2005, and the other dealing with her mixed feelings about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
In a controlled frenzy, Ms. Dellecave and her “pod” of dancers travel to space, find love at the protest march, and belt out Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Ms. Dellecave humps the floor in a pink mini skirt while delivering a monologue on love and activism. “Isn’t this romantic, going out in the street and smashing the state?” she asks.
It’s not romantic at all, but it is familiar. Like love, first experiences of activism can be both nostalgic and awkward to remember ten years, or even ten hours, later. Ms. Dellecave, whose full first name is Jessica, pokes fun at her history as a queer activist and, in doing so, pushes audiences to examine their own experiences. Read more…
The folks who are trying to bring a floating pool to the East River have just started a second round of fundraising in hopes of raising $1 million in the next six months. You can watch a video promoting + POOL, as the project is being called, above. Its organizers tell Gothamist that, assuming they can bring the water-filtering pool’s design up to code and sell everyone on it, they hope to launch it in summer of 2015.
While you wait for that to happen, here’s an easier but pricier way to take a dip: rent out this $6,500-a-month three-bedroom apartment at 425 East 13th Street (yup, the “A” building, where that wacky slide is located) and you’ll have access to an “engaging rooftop pool,” according to the Corcoran listing. The rooftop lounge boasts private cabanas and presumably an awesome view of the “private rooftop cabana terraces” going up just a couple of blocks away.
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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Suzanne Rozdeba
