"The rich are staging a coup!" [Michael Moore]
The New York Times has been chock-full of good stuff the past couple of days. Here they cover the drama of Extra Place--and toss VNY a little linkage. [Times]
NYU students have moved into Gramercy Green, the luxury condo-dorm that devoured a block and continues to mount the Gramercy Pawnbrokers. Said student Damon Beres, "Young students like us don’t need this quality of living or, at the very least, we don’t need it provided by our college." [Times]
Read Damon's full story on his blog: "Perhaps NYU could’ve done something better with its hundreds of millions of dollars, something other than establishing a beautiful castle for college kids to dump in."
You've got to have balls behind the wheel to withstand being swallowed by the blob of the Cooper Square Hotel. Here's a rare backside shot of Hettie Jones' home. The hotel occupies the first two floors and added this wraparound tail that seems to let guests peer right into the tenement. The builder did say it's "an asset that guests in the $100 million hotel...may peer down on a tenement roof where laundry is being hung out to dry. 'That’s the kind of thing people want to see,' he said." [Times]
photo by the times
Let's tear down some big ugly buildings, including the Astor Place tower: "The East Village...has emerged as a crossroads between the world of would-be punks, awkward students and rich Wall Street types. The Gwathmey building serves only the last camp: it’s a literal manifestation of money smoothing over the texture of everyday life." [Times]
Saying goodbye to Shea Stadium. [Times]
Check out Margaret Atwood's new book: Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth. [Times]
Get ready to glimpse the hideous future: With Americana at Brand, you can live in your condo at the mall--in a faux neighborhood--and never interact with anyone from outside. [Times]
NY Post steers clear of the LES on Saturday nights because it's "Meatpacking District Lite. Overpriced drinks? Check. Annoying restaurants? Check. And don't even get us started on the people... one of the more obnoxious night-life scenes." [EVG]
MePa creep is creeping further north on 9th Ave, filling in the blanks, as two more luxey-looking shops open next to Homestead:
5 comments:
I phoned and wrote Cemusa over six months ago (in March) about this idiotic typo on the Bowery bus shelters. They are clearly too arrogant and incompetent to fix the error.
My impression of the Americana at Brand article was the exact opposite. This is in southern California where the norm is to drive 60 miles in your air conditioned car to the mall, do your shopping, drive back home to your home, and all the while never interact with anyone.
At Americana seems the norm would be more like leave from your condo, walk to get a coffee, do some shopping, meet a friend at fountain. Sort of sounds like living in a city...
Shame most of CA developed as it has such that lifestyles like these have to be enabled by such "faux" means but I think it's way preferable compared to the suburban model.
And why would anyone living here never interact with "anyone from outside?" This place isn't private, gated or surrounded by a moat.
According to its promo, The Americana at Brand (aka Malltown, USA) "rises..like the setting for a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald". Gag me with a diamond as big as the Ritz-- Scotty must be whirling in his grave!
Um, it IS actually called Bowery Street, you know.
no it's not. the dutch named the road "Bouwerie" , i.e. FARM. to indicate the road leading to peter stuyvesant's farm house.
the english who took over the new amsterdam corrupted the name to "Bowery"
the street has been, and will always be known as "The Bowery".
and the ny post spoke to a cemusa spokewoman, and the company will change the sign
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10072008/news/regionalnews/no_sign_of_street_smarts_132506.htm
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