Daniel Maurer At Eighth and Avenue B.In a show of solidarity for Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested in Oakland, a group marched from Washington Square Park, as far north as 29th Street, and then back south to Tompkins Square Park – with a symbolic stop at the former Charas/El Bohio community center. Witnesses reported smashed bottles and arrests in the East Village last night.
Shortly before 10 p.m., protesters who had gathered at Washington Square Park three hours earlier made their way to the former P.S. 64 building on East Ninth Street, which was at the center of demonstrations last month. As The Local has reported, some residents want the developer who owns the vacant building to use it as a community center again.
After hearing a few words about the building’s history, the group – escorted by a column of police officers in the street – walked down Avenue C, then Eighth Street, and then Avenue B before stopping at East Seventh Street, at the entrance of Tompkins Square Park. Read more…
Joel Raskin Good morning, East Village.
The owner of 77 East Seventh Street, Robert Koziej, is among those honored on public advocate Bill de Blasio’s 2011 list of “NYC’s Worst Landlords,” with 110 infractions listed.
So do you think teachers should be allowed to wear flip-flops and tank tops to school? An editorial in the Daily News sides with East Village principal Marlon Hosang of Public School 64, who wants a “professional” dress code. The paper sarcastically says of the teacher who filed a complaint: “Good policy: Defend the right to look like a slob. Challenge the ability of a school leader to set a respectful tone in his building.”
Jazz musician Sam Rivers died on Monday, reports The New York Times. Studio Rivbea, the noncommercial performance space he ran out of his Bond Street loft, was an anchor of the 1970s loft scene, and “served as an avant-garde hub through the end of the decade.” Read more…
An assortment of locals want one of the East Village’s largest vacant buildings to once again host community groups — it’s just unclear whether they have the leverage to force the owner’s hand.
After a discussion on Friday night at Theatre 80, roughly 20 residents decided they would press the owner of the old P.S. 64 building, Gregg Singer, to designate as much as two stories of the six-story building as public space. (On Friday, The Local posted interior shots of the building in its current state, as well as renderings of its potential redevelopment.) The group — still very much in the planning and strategizing phase — leaned towards making one floor a community facility that would be open to anyone living within a boundary to be determined. The other floor would accommodate local groups. To entice Mr. Singer, the coalition would present him with a list of potential tenants for the other floors in his 100-year-old building. Read more…
Singer Financial Corp and Stephen Rex Brown.
Less than an hour before a meeting at Theatre 80 regarding the long-vacant building that once housed P.S. 64, The Local has obtained new images of what its future could be. A flyer commissioned by the building’s owner, Gregg Singer, states that the 100-year-old building on East Ninth Street between Avenues B and C “will soon undergo a cutting-edge, comprehensive redevelopment and historic restoration to transform this turn of the century, New York City landmark into a modern community facility use such as a new school, medical, hospital or health-related use, college or school dormitory, museum, non-profit organization with or without sleeping accommodations or any other use as defined as a ‘Community Facility Use'” by city zoning laws.
The flyer, which depicts the former school building’s courtyard being used as an outdoor cafe, then goes on to raise the possibility of condominiums in the 152,075-square-foot building, or the separate leasing of its six stories. Lastly, the flyer notes that a gymnasium, pool, auditorium or theater could be built on the ground floor. Read more…
