Advocacy group pedals ‘bike mayor’ for New York
BY GABE HERMAN | Now that the city has a ‘nightlife mayor,’ could a ‘bike mayor’ be next? The nonprofit group Transportation Alternatives, which advocates for street safety in the city and nonvehicular forms of travel, is calling on Mayor de Blasio to appoint the city’s first so-called bike mayor. The group says this person would […]
Locals float ideas for even more ferry routes
BY GABE HERMAN | Mayor de Blasio’s State of the City speech on Jan. 10 included an announcement of expanded NYC Ferry service, which received mostly positive feedback — but also some calls for expanded service to other parts of Manhattan that were not mentioned. The 2020-21 expansion plan includes a Staten Island route that will […]
Police Blotter, Week of Jan. 16, 2019
SEVENTH PRECINCT Bad remedy Police are searching for a suspect for questioning regarding the slashing of a 32-year-old man in a Lower East Side eatery on Jan. 11. Around 4 a.m. last Friday, at the Remedy Diner, at 245 E. Houston St., two men got into an argument, and one slashed the other in the […]
M.T.A. emergency L-train meeting had ‘tunnel vision’
BY LESLEY SUSSMAN | Details of a new alternative plan to repair the L train’s East River tubes were presented at a hastily called emergency board meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Tuesday afternoon. However, speaking afterward, Downtown Manhattan residents said they had hoped to hear about more than just the minutiae of the tunnel-repair […]
Village doyenne Doris Diether turns 90! Feted by friends at Judson bash
BY TEQUILA MINSKY | It was the party of the year — and we’re only 10 days in! Decked out in a red velvet frock with a “Happy Birthday” sash, Doris Diether held court like a queen, her glittery birthday hat festooned with paper flowers. Diether turned 90 on Jan. 10. She helped save Shakespeare in the […]
Lower East Side ‘activist estates’: A tale of three buildings
BY BILL WEINBERG | It gives a sense of passing time to see much of your life reflected in a work of recent history. This I experienced while reading “Counter Institution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side,” by Nandini Bagchee, new from Empire State Editions. In her review of oppositional spaces in the neighborhood over […]
Costs make Upright Citizens Brigade decamp to SubCulture
BY SYDNEY PEREIRA | The Upright Citizens Brigade announced last week that it is set to close its East Village location next month. The venue for improv, stand-up and sketch theater, at E. Third St. on Avenue A, opened in 2011. In an e-mail to the U.C.B. team, Michael Hartney, the group’s artistic director, wrote the […]
San Francisco couple left their heart in NYC
BY MARTHA WILKIE | A West Coast couple is looking to return to New York City after living in the San Francisco area for years — but now with a kid who needs a good public school. Does the crazy-to-us-New-Yorkers real estate market seem tame compared with the insanity of the Bay Area? The husband is […]
An open letter to Council Speaker Johnson post-‘L-pocalypse’
BY DAVID MARCUS | Dear Corey, Happy New Year. I wish you good health, happiness and success in the New Year. Quite a list of accomplishments you can be proud of. It demonstrates the power of your office and the value of your advocacy. Nevertheless, I remain deeply disappointed that the full measure of your […]
Broken glass and sharp words over L-shutdown bike lanes
BY RICO BURNEY | The L-train shutdown may no longer be happening, but the flap surrounding the Department of Transportation’s plans to mitigate the effects of the repair work continues. Cyclists posted photos on Twitter on Thursday night and Friday morning of glass shards in multiple locations in the new 12th and 13th Sts. bike lanes […]
Big chill at Westbeth: Tenants freezing due to bum boilers
BY KATE WALTER | Westbeth tenants have been freezing all week with no relief expected until boiler parts arrive from Canada. Tenants in apartments on the river have measured temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Apartments are very chilly and radiators are lukewarm while the temperature outside is 27! Westbeth, the famed affordable artists-housing complex, located […]
Manhattan Happenings, Week of Jan. 10, 2019
BY SYDNEY PEREIRA | ARTS “Battle! Hip-Hop in Armor”: Hip-hop dancers will meet knights in armor in a dance performance commissioned by MetLiveArts with the Met’s Arms and Armor Department and dance organization Dancing in the Streets of the South Bronx on Sat., Jan. 11, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at The Met […]
She’s the thread keeping the community together
BY SYDNEY PEREIRA | In the cozy basement of the Henry Street Settlement’s offices at the Vladeck Houses, Ruth Taube, 95, has kept a fortress of fabric scraps, knitting and crocheting tools and sewing machines. She even has a fitting room. Since 1966, the basement has been the location of Taube’s Home Planning Workshop — tea […]
Blaz slams the rich and landlords, touts prison reform, ‘3-K’ in State of City
BY SYDNEY PEREIRA | Mayor Bill de Blasio laid out a cornucopia of new plans for the Big Apple in his annual State of the City address on Thursday — including for a mayoral office of tenant protection and free eye exams and glasses for kindergartners and first-graders. Some of his talking points seemed to speak […]
‘Village Nights’ brings back that ’60s vibe
BY GABE HERMAN | On Sun., Jan. 13, “Village Nights” returns to the Washington Square Hotel. Season two of the monthly musical salon series continues the vision of its founder, Richard Barone, to keep alive the musical spirit of 1960s Greenwich Village. The guest on the first Sunday night will be singer-songwriter Terre Roche. She […]
