*Everyday Chatter

VNY reader BaHa offers a taste of Economy Candy, one of the last old holdouts of the LES. [ELE]

Woody's filming in NYC again after a long hiatus from our deadened city. He said, "There are certain areas that have not been encroached upon too much... But once they put up those big new buildings, it looks the same as Houston." That's Houston, Texas, not Houston Street. Oh, is there a difference? [Urbanite]

This stuff about Veniero's (temporary!) closure--where in NYC are there not mouse droppings? [Eater]

Gotta love this Oniony Stuy-Town satire. [StuyTown] via [Curbed]

Whatever you do, do not sit on any wooden subway benches! [NYShitty]

May 22: Join the save Coney Island freak show/protest. [Gothamist]

The graffiti additions to this ad make a pic too good to ignore, concealing as it does an old Kelvinator ghost sign. Looks like someone's a little nipplephobic:

Toy Tower Update

I got more background info about the Tower of Toys from my tipster, who says, “The garden contacted The Folk Arts Museum and others in hopes that they could take Eddie Boros’ carvings and maybe maintain the sculpture, but while they showed interest, nobody could do it. Eddie himself said he didn't care what happened to the sculpture after he was gone. He said he didn't care if it was torn down.”

Due to risk of collapse, the garden voted to let The Parks Department take the sculpture. There’s a chance they will let 10 feet of it remain (it’s 5 stories tall now). They can send a cherry-picker at any time and don't need to notify the garden. Hopefully, it will stand until the celebration this Sunday, so people can say goodbye.

“We loved Eddie,” my tipster says, “and his sculpture was what he did, but it becomes like a long tenure of graffiti--eventually someone covers even the best of what you did and it's gone.” Somehow, that does make me feel a little better.


painting of Eddie in Sophie's Bar

To buy a DVD of a documentary film about Eddie Boros, email One Gun Press at sallysonegun(at)gmail(dot)com.

Tower of Toys

VANISHING

Awful news just came in from a tipster who is affiliated with the community garden at 6th St. and Ave B: Eddie Boros' famous Tower of Toys is coming down. Here's the official announcement from the garden's executive committee:


photo by Goggla

"Recently the NYC Parks Department has determined that the Tower of Toys is unsafe and has ordered it be removed. Parks Department will begin dismantling it soon. As the tower's future is now very uncertain, the 6 & B Garden would like to invite all admirers of the tower and its creator, Eddie Boros, who passed away a year ago, to spend an evening in the garden with each other and celebrate this landmark of the East Village."


photo by Gammablog

How ironic that this should be done at the time of LES street-artist Keith Haring's 50th birthday. This makes me sick to my stomach. I guess the new residents of the EV don't like it in their view. Before it's gone, come to An Informal Celebration of the Tower of Toys, Sunday, May 11, 7pm - 9pm at the 6th Street & Avenue B Community Garden.

P.S. You can get a DVD about Eddie Boros and his artistic process by contacting Sally at One Gun Press.

Weird Way West

Let's take a trip up the far west side of Greenwich Village, during which we will encounter a new world, a post-Apocalyptic vision of glass towers, and end up at Palazzo Chupi, face-to-face with Schnabel himself.

At 685 Washington Street, plywood plastered with fembot queens conceals a gutted lot waiting for another tower of power to grow from the ruins of the old Village.



We turn down once-quaint, cobblestoned Charles Lane, cast into shadow by Richard Meier's ice-towers, soon to be joined by 166 Perry Street, rising now to its future glassy undulation. Here, the world feels sterile and bare. Sheets of slate shift unsteadily underfoot like ice floes. Hudson Blue contributes its sliver to the chilly atmosphere.



We keep walking up West. A banner for "Something Super" appears, but as we move closer it becomes "Something Superior." The Superior Ink factory is vanished, against the protests of preservationists. A hulking tower-townhouse combination is putting on its prefabricated brick face.





On the opposite corner, tiny green 399 West 12th crumbles under a questionable demolition. Built in 1880, bought years ago by Bill Gottlieb, it is 1 in 150 buildings he acquired and left intact and untouched. Gottlieb and his immediate heir now deceased, the fate of these 150 remains uncertain. But with nearly $1 billion in the portfolio, the vultures are descending to gobble them up.



Looming over the green demolition, 385 West 12th has risen and awaits its metal skin.

One stands out above the rest. We turn back to 11th, following the hot-pink palazzo in the sky.

It isn't glass. It isn't metal. It does not undulate. Unsure of how to feel, we stand actually admiring the artistry, right down to the faux make-it-look-real "no parking" signs, when what to our wondering eyes should appear? Julian Schnabel on his way to the Tribeca Film Festival where his Lou Reed film, Berlin, is premiering.



He waits for his car. Nearby, a woman appears with cellphone, also waiting for a car. She tells her phone, "You're giving me my life lesson in carpets. Whatever happens, I need them to be pristine." Schnabel stands silent, shaggy, leonine in the middle of the street, not once betraying the fact that, hidden under his long cashmere coat and colorful scarf, he is sporting purple pajamas.

• More photos on my flickr

*Everyday Chatter

Though I can't fathom why I never read him before, I just discovered Jim Knipfel. A recent Slackjaw of his gave me the chills--he seems to be reading my mind and telegraphing my thoughts--so read his so-crazy-it's-sane take on the Park Slope stroller madness. [Slackjaw]

NYU president: "My answer to people who want to cap or severely restrict the capacity of NYU or Columbia is... Maybe you should move to Sioux City..." [Observer]

Aristo-brat, nepotista, celebu-spawn--Radar coins some great new terms for the growing population of rich kids who are taking over the world. [Radar]

And, as a too-often rejected writer, it really irks me to see the children of the "publishing elite" get handed multi-book, mega-bucks deals for writing that is (in the words of reviewers) cartoonish, awkward, flat, and flailing. [Radar]

The SATC girls say it's not their fault that New York has been changed "into a real-life set for the show, with gaggles of cosmo-swigging young women chasing the lifestyle it depicts." [AMNY]


With all their over-the-top amenities, the new condos make people feel angry and robbed, even when they don't really want those amenities. Here's a sad statement: "Once our choice set has been expanded to include things that we never dreamed of that are gloriously better than what we have, it’s very tough for us to be content with the things that used to give us pleasure." [Times]

As plans for killing Coney turn away from luxury housing, they swing toward mall-trashy Times Square. Again, we're given two choices for the city: High-end luxury or middle-American garbage. It's no choice at all. [Brownstoner]

Disappearing affordable supermarkets--next step in The Big Plan to oust NYC's poor, elderly, and disabled? [Times]

Feeling depressed now? Take a ride on the Third Avenue El in this fabulous old film. [youtube]

Saving 9th Avenue

On Saturday, an angry but subdued crowd gathered on 9th Ave between 17th and 18th to protest landlord Morris Moinian's plan to push out the small businesses and rent-regulated tenants of his newly acquired building. I broke this news not long ago and it was exciting to see how quickly information can spread and turn into action.



Andrew Berman, Miguel Acevedo, and Gloria Sukenik organized the demonstration which included, by my estimation, 200 people.

The politicians showed up. Senator Tom Duane spoke about the need for small businesses in a place where "not everybody is rich." Assembly member Dick Gottfried made a plea to bring back commercial rent control, saying, "A neighborhood is not a neighborhood if it's overrun by high-end boutiques, banks, and chain stores." And Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer addressed the city-wide problem, saying, "This isn't about a single store, but an entire neighborhood and the city as a whole."


Berman, Sukenik, Duane, Acevedo


Scott Stringer

One of the most powerful speakers was Phyllis Gonzalez, president of the Elliott-Chelsea Tenants Association, who spoke from her wheelchair about her personal relationship with the shops on the block. "I can be outside any of these stores and in minutes someone comes out and says, 'What can I get for you Ms. Gonzalez?'" This won't happen, she predicted, if she rolls up to the new high-end businesses that are planned. To those people, she's just an undesirable outsider.


Phyllis Gonzalez

She recalled that her children could run for safety into these same stores and their keepers would shelter them, saying, "Stay in here and let me call your mother." Is that going to happen when Equinox moves in? Or the wine bar that's already under construction? I doubt it.



Yes, these businesses are shabby-looking, but they provide an invaluable community for many. They are in integral part of a vulnerable social network--at times, a safety net--that keeps people connected to each other in an increasingly isolating city. When these businesses are gone, the people they serve will fade away. And isn't that the master plan?

More than one speaker noted that the wealthy new New Yorkers will soon grow tired of looking at the housing projects from their floor-to-ceiling windows, their sidewalk cafe tables, and their potted-plant promenades. Then they'll petition the city, with all their deep-pocket power, and the projects will become luxury housing and hotels, the "undesirables" washed away.

Upon the shoulders of these little shops rests a world. Their demise will have a ripple effect on the entire city. And this is how the world ends--not with a bang, but with the whimpers of one man, one woman at a time.

• Wine Bar coming to the block
• Interview with Miguel Acevedo
  
• Death of a Block
• More pics of demonstration on my flickr
• NY1's Coverage
  

Schaller & Weber

Continuing the tour of Yorkville survivors, next door to the Heidelberg restaurant is Schaller & Weber, a family-owned food and butcher shop specializing in wursts since 1937.



Its address, 1654 Second Ave, was originally listed on the MTA's deathlist of private properties to be seized for the Second Ave Subway. The "4-story residential with ground floor meat market" was meant to accommodate the 86th Street station entrance. Thankfully, someone came to their senses and, in a project update, eliminated this entrance, thus sparing the building. (Miraculously, the MTA has also decided to seize a Chase Bank and a Duane Reade! Imagine a city in which eminent domain only affected chains, banks, and luxury condos. What a concept.)


Nusschinken and Nivea

So Schaller & Weber will live on. They seem to be doing well. The place was very busy when I was there and they got some good press during the Pope's recent visit, thanks in part to Mr. Schaller's invention of the "Popewurst," a combination of bockwurst and bratwurst wrapped in a pretzel.



Although business was brisk for the lone cashier, when an elderly customer with a walker needed help getting out the door, the cashier left her post and held the door for the woman. No one in the line complained.

I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that these are the little moments that save us, that renew us and keep us feeling human, connected. When the city is completely taken over by Generation O, with their hollow brand of commerce, these moments won't happen anymore. And some essential part of us will simply die, quietly and with a whimper.

There is more Yorkville to come. Until then, check out ForgottenNY's tour for more Schaller & Weber.

• More pics on my flickr