54 Years on Washington Square North“Well, I married the apartment,” says John Githens of the floor of the 19th century townhouse he shared with artist Ingeborg ten Haeff.
That Amazing House From ‘Moonstruck’ Is Still Up for Grabs, Only Now It’s Cheaper!Brooklyn Heights: The sale price of the Cranberry Street house where they filmed Moonstruck has dropped from $5 million to $3.95 million since early 2006. That’s still très Cher! [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Coney Island: Astroland opens Sunday … possibly, for the second year in a row now, for its last season before major Coney development begins. [amNY]
East New York: It’s “the new Harlem,” did you know that? So if you’re bitter you didn’t buy uptown twenty years ago, you’ll want to buy here, where cribs are going for up to $300,000. [NYDN]
neighborhood watch
Ghost Towns and Old BonesFlushing: Time to buy a new bathing suit! Or, um, ice skates? The plush, $66.3 million Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Natatorium and Ice Rink is opening today. [Curbed]
Lower East Side: Loud messy construction from Jason Pomeranc’s hotel at 200 Allen Street and Morris Platt’s 26-story condo on Orchard Street has turned the surrounding blocks into “a ghost town.” [NYO]
Lower Manhattan: Signs that speak of the World Trade Center in the present tense will be removed. [NYT]
neighborhood watch
The Plaza Will Soon Let You Throw Money at It AgainGowanus: The Gowanus Village is on the market for $27 million, and Curbed has a photo gallery, including shots of the “beautiful canal waterfront.” [Brownstoner]
Lower Manhattan: Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The visitor center down there will have a public program at 7 p.m. in remembrance. [WTC Visitor’s Center]
Midtown: The Plaza’s final opening date is scheduled for March 1. It starts at only $1,000 a night. But that comes with wireless! [NYT]
intel
Adam Duritz Knows How to Fix His Own LightsOkay, so on Sunday night we went to this Delta event with the Counting Crows, and ever since then our friends and co-workers have been making fun of us because we love that band. But we are not ashamed! Sure, you may have abandoned them after “Mr. Jones” got annoyingly stuck in your head too many times, or even as recently as their “Big Yellow Taxi” remake which was offensive to almost all humans. But we love them nonetheless, and they have a new album coming out. It was supposed to come out in November, but it got delayed. Lead singer Adam Duritz, who has been a New Yorker since their last album, Hard Candy, five years ago, recorded half here and half in his native Berkeley. The album is called Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings, and they’ve begun testing out some of the tunes — including the ballad “Washington Square” — on concert audiences. And we are excited about it and don’t care what you think. At the Delta event, where the airline announced an exclusive collaboration with the band (they’ll offer an all-Crows music station on their onboard radio menu and will sponsor the band’s tour), we actually got to sit down and talk with Duritz for a while about the album, the music industry, and living in the city. After the jump, we’ve posted a portion of our Q&A for your enjoyment. Nobody’s looking, we promise. You can click through.
in other news
New Plans for Washington Square Park Revealed! Again!
Last night, for the umpteenth time, the Parks Department unveiled its latest plans for a new, improved Washington Square Park. Being a bit obsessive-compulsive, we’re stoked that the blueprints propose to move the fountain so it aligns with the arch; it’s been bugging us for years! Still, just like the earlier iterations of the same plan, this one is likely to die at the hands of the community representatives. “People feel very strong about this park,” the Sun quotes a Parks spokesperson deadpanning. An understatement, that. In 2005, local activists killed the proposal to put in gates because it would “take away from the tradition of openness”; a plan to level several seemingly functionless mounds was met with even more indignation. As of now, there’s a total of five lawsuits dragging down the project, the latest two of which protest the environmental impact of the renovation. Plus there’s the little matter of old burial grounds below. In other words, it’s time for the Parks Department to consider bold new steps if they want this thing ever done. Here are two that we think could instantly convert nearly all Greenwich Villagers to the renovation cause: a fenced-in hacky-sack zone and a parkwide ban on acoustic covers of “No Woman No Cry.”
Washington Square Park Plans Get Cool Reception [NYS]
photo op
Yay, Immigrants!
It’s now a May Day tradition: nationwide rallies for immigrants’ rights. In New York, fewer marchers were expected today than last year, but Washington Square Park this afternoon still drew a significant crowd. Gothamist says the action was focused on the park, with a prayer service at Judson Memorial Church kicking things off, a rally, and then a march to Union Square. Flickr photographer Boss Tweed caught the scene in the park, where protesters were focusing on the impact strict immigration laws have on families.
Boss Tweed’s Photos [Flickr]
Related: Immigration Rally and March Today [Gothamist]
intel
In a Post-Apocalyptic New York, There Will Be Lightsabers
Yesterday afternoon we brought you Intern Everett’s photos from Washington Square Park, where production crews for a forthcoming Will Smith movie were turning the central fountain into a post-apocalyptic wasteland by means of a large, inflatable thing. Eager Everett went back last night, when presumably the shooting was taking place, to see just how much more post-apocalyptic things would get. Not very, he reports: “The extent of what they were bordered on nothing. They spent an hour with a giant jungle-leaf thing, putting it in various positions in front of a light so that it’d reflect up at the monument and cast a giant leaf shadow.” On the other hand, there was also a lightsaber battle. And you can’t complain about that.
Earlier: Will Smith Brings the Apocalypse to Greenwich Village
intel
Will Smith Brings the Apocalypse to Greenwich Village
So how do you turn New York into a post-apocalyptic world? Practice, practice, practice? Let Al Shanker get hold of a nuclear warhead? (Ha! We kill ourselves.) No, apparently you do it with a large, inflatable thing in the middle of Washington Square Park. Production teams for a new Will Smith project, I Am Legend, are out in NYU-land this afternoon, preparing for what our intrepid intern-photog, Everett Bogue, gathers will be a shoot this evening. In addition to the large, inflatable thing, Everett reports the addition of a variety of fake trees, random species of plastic jungle underbrush, and a half-dozen large lighting rigs. Will the Fresh Prince himself show up? Will the Square get even more post-apocalyptic? Developing, as they say.
(Oh, also? In this post-apocalyptic New York, that might not even be Washington Square. As New York reported a few months ago, the script puts the MetLife Building on Seventh Avenue and Balthazar on 14th Street.)
