The VNY Flickr group has been going strong. Now, inspired by Michael Dashkin's "Behavior Enforcing Signage," I decided we needed a place to put all those urban etiquette signs that have been proliferating over the past decade. So I started another group--join here and add your stuff.
...And here's a rather colorful example. [GVDP]
Landlords can evict you to gut renovate? Come August 12, NY State might make it legal. [SLES]
Median household income for white toddlers in Manhattan? $285,000. [NYO]
Alex has a bunch of old photos, mostly of the LES as it was, complete with anarchy symbols and empty skies over Katz's. [FP]
HunterGatherer discovers Rappaport's in the old East Village on TV. [HGNYC]
Contrary to all predictions, the Sunshine Hotel, one of the last flophouses on the Bowery, has been given a stay of execution for the next three years. [Curbed]
Monday, July 21, 2008
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9 comments:
sunshine hotel is a small battle won in a war that will likely be lost. unfortunately.
[I]n Brooklyn, in a majority African-American section of the borough, Councilwoman Letitia James says a handful of predominantly white parents last year asked her if some of their local tax money could be steered to schools in a nearby neighborhood. The parents wanted their kids in schools with a more diverse racial mix, Ms. James says, rather than the majority-black schools in her district.
The parents felt "tax dollars should follow the children, and not the school," Ms. James says. She denied their request.
You have got to be f*cking kidding me!
Your blog is full of negativity.
Grow-up and move-on. You only post comments that mirrors your own opinions, and not those that, say, point out problems with your skewed logic, among others. If you are the last outpost of the EV, the EV has a militant warden censor.
"Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this web blog until the author has approved them."
I'm willing to bet that 50% of posts do not make it on this blog.
you would lose that bet. i reject approximately 5% of comments, maybe less. if someone makes a reasonable, not-too-hostile or attacking argument against, i generally publish it.
but if i'm getting snark and vitriol that makes no attempt to engage in debate, i will reject it.
you're right about the negativity. that is sort of the point of this "bitterly nostalgic" blog. however, it is wearing at times and i've been thinking myself of injecting a little more hopefulness into it.
I don't understand this complaint. VNY is covering very negative social changes (changes which, one might point out, are not much covered anywhere else, unfortunately), so what does that have to do with Jeremiah's "skewed logic"? What does Anon#1 mean anyway, that 300% rent increases are actually good for us? That massive-scale gentrification isn't happening? What's the problem?
Oh also, knicksbasketballny, that slimy little request from the yunnie families in Brooklyn is absolutely in keeping with their usual behavior. "The money should follow the child" is quite interesting considering the massive descrepancies in funding that traditionally affluent-white school districts normally receive. It's a shame those minority parents didn't think of THAT one decades ago. Though I can imagine how those same affluent families would have reacted ("racist!" "divisive!", etc).
Hey, I myself dislike having my tax money used to fund massive park police presences in "parks" that are just greenery around condo developments (such as Battery Park City), subsidies to build massive stadium complexes, and to fill in for the 20 year property tax abatements the city and state like to give prospective condo builders (the 9-building condo complex being built on Roosevelt Island has this deal). Do you think maybe we can get the city to withold our tax money from neighborhoods that get gentrified? That would be interesting.
This blog is not about negativity, it's about recognizing beauty, and how that beauty is being destroyed throughout this city. Melodramatic? Take a look at the old pics of Penn Station. Sure, not every building is a Penn Station, but this city is being changed into Disneyland in the blink of an eye with little regard for its architectural history or its neighborhood character. I bet those who say this blog is negative have lived here less than five years. They wouldn't NY if it bite them on the ass.
I like some of the new buildings going up. Heck, I even like the Meir towers on the river. They are beautiful, and Gehry's building too. Sometimes the new buildings add contrast. But the architectural history of this city is being demolished, and there are 1000s of residents who are heartsick at the endless parade of cranes, glass, and commercial crap, all for $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Jeremiah's blog is necessary. although i get thoroughly depressed when i read it, it is necessary.
Somethng is wrong when a so called "world class" city destroys buildings with character and architectual detail for glass sky boxes that most of it's inhabitants can't afford.
Thanks for the info on the phony gut renovation meeting...my landlord is trying to do that to me right now.
Keep going Jeremiah! and did you ever notice it's the anonymous commenters that have the negative comments?
Don't forget, it's not only about asthetics, it's also about all us "losers" (as TIME puts it) being pushed out of our homes and businesses by the giant flip-flopped foot of massed wealth.
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