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West Village

  1. the in-box
    The Battle of (Little) Britain Rages On We wonder if perhaps our across-the-street/pond conversation with the jolly good folks at the Campaign for Little Britain is coming to an end. We’ve received another missive from them this afternoon, and this time there’s no humor, no suggestions of a special relationship. We’re keeping a stiff upper lip, but we’re concerned: From: info@campaignforlittlebritain.com Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 12:41:38 PM To: intel Dear Intel Let’s address the real issue, regardless of any rational arguments and examples of precedent we might make you can’t get over your central objection — “it’s a marketing gimmick.” This is a specious.
  2. the in-box
    Little Britain: We Will Never Give In, Never Give In, Never Never NeverWe’ve received an offer of détente in our ongoing battle with the Campaign for Little Britain, to which we have heretofore entirely objected. Yesterday we suggested, dismissively, that if they succeed in getting Greenwich Avenue between West 12th and West 13th Streets — the British-ish shops Tea & Sympathy and A Salt and Battery are on the north side of that block — renamed “Little Britain,” we’ll campaign to have the southern side of that same block, from which we’re writing this, renamed “Little Place Where Some Jewish Writers Live.” Late in the day, we received a supportive reply. Here, a Balfour Declaration just for us: From: info@campaignforlittlebritain.com Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 2:41:42 PM To: intel Terrific idea! We’ll vote for you if you vote for us. We’ve put the kettle on… Sean Sigh. If only we could bring ourselves to vote for them. Earlier: Daily Intel’s self-indulgent coverage of Little Britain.
  3. intel
    Now It’s Rose’s Turn to Cry — for $3.5 Million Rose’s Turn, the Grove Street piano bar that’s been a West Village institution for seventeen years, will close Sunday after a last round of drinks and show tunes. Henry Pham, who owns the bar — his mother’s name is Rose — told Daily Intel that his family sold the building for $3.5 million. (The Observer’s the Real Estate blog reported the bar’s imminent demise yesterday.) “It’s time to move on,” he said. “There just isn’t much demand for this type of establishment anymore,” which would come as news to anyone who’s seen how packed it and its neighbors, like Marie’s Crisis next door, can be on a Saturday night. Renovation begins next week, he said; rumor is it will become a real-estate office.
  4. neighborhood watch
    Sir Ben Kingsley Goes to Columbia HeightsBrooklyn Heights: Nice to see that the new, lime-green bike lane is getting used … by motor vehicles, that is, while bikers brave the middle of the street. [Flickr via Curbed] Bushwick: If you complain enough, trash heaps eventually get cleaned up, even here. [BushwickBK] Columbia Heights: You lost your parking spot to The Wackness, a movie starring Ben Kingsley that’s shooting here through tomorrow. [Brooklyn Heights Blog] Greenpoint: A local blogger recommends avoiding the Greenpoint Hotel. [11222] Harlem: Graceline Court, that peach-trimmed, cantilevered condo-in-progress on West 116th, has been issued a stop-work order. But why? [Harlem Fur] Red Hook: The container port here may not be supplanted by a bigger cruise-ship port after all. [Curbed] South Jamaica: Locals fret that area vandals will shatter the hood’s swank new glass Cemusa bus shelter. [Progressive Southside] Sunnyside: Now that the hood has been landmarked, when will plans to refurbish the Sunnyside Arch, two years on the table, finally become reality? [Queens Chronicle via OuterB] West Village: Rose’s Turn, the legendary Grove Street piano bar, will have its last sing-along this Sunday. Thank God there’s still Marie’s Crisis down the street! [Lost New York City]
  5. the in-box
    Correction: The British Are Bemused! The British Are Bemused!If anthropomorphization is when human characteristics are applied to things not human, what’s the opposite? Because we got another letter today from the Campaign for Little Britain, which writes very much as though it’s one human being but signs its notes as though it’s an intangible entity. In any event, our new pen pal Campaign takes issue with both our response to his (her?) letter yesterday, and with our (punning) headline description of the Brits as angry. Here’s London calling, from a far-too-close place: From: info@campaignforlittlebritain.com Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1:11:08 PM To: intel Subject: Angry? Me? Dearest Intel Not remotely angry. Bemused, perhaps.
  6. the in-box
    The British Are Angry! The British Are Angry!Earlier this afternoon we noted our disgust with the PR-driven plan to rename a block of Greenwich Avenue as “Little Britain,” a ploy by the proprietors of two British-ish businesses on that block to get themselves onto the city’s official street map. We objected to many things, among them the attempt to liken this designation to Chinatown or Little Italy, which, we argued, organically developed because of the immigrant populations who clustered in the area, not because a tea shop got a few bucks from Richard Branson to hire a PR firm. The Campaign for Little Britain responded, refuting some of our claim and charmingly using the words “recognised” and “cheers”: From: info@campaignforlittlebritain.com Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 2:20:24 PM To: intel Hi Got to take issue with your article, it is in the tradition of already recognised neighborhoods, check out Little Brazil, Koreatown, or Little India — they were started by businesses, too.
  7. neighborhood watch
    Horseshoe Crabs Invade Washington HeightsBay Ridge: A community board here enthusiastically green-lighted a new Home Depot at 200-plus housing units. [The Brooklyn Paper] Chelsea: The don’t-walk signal on Eighth Avenue and 19th Street has mysterious stigmata. [Blog Chelsea] Cobble Hill: Freebird Books and Goods is up for sale on Craigslist; $45,000 will buy you the store with inventory and liquor license. [Brownstoner] Maspeth: An ugly confrontation took place yesterday between tree-cutters and protesters at the site of the set-for-demolition St. Saviour’s Church. [Queens Crap] Washington Heights: How did a dead horseshoe crab come to be on 185th Street? [Copyranter] West Village: Nothing ruins a birthday cruise for 3-year-olds more than spotting a body in the water. [Gothamist] Williamsburg: Locals are pissed that the brand-new East River State Park closes before 8 p.m. on beautiful summer evenings. [Gowanus Lounge]
  8. in other news
    Defy British Imperialism: A Belated Call for a New York Tea PartySo did you notice in yesterday’s City section that little article about the proposal to rename a stretch of Greenwich Avenue in the West Village as “Little Britain”? Yeah, we almost missed it, too — but it reminded us about this insipid idea, first announced a few months ago, about just much how we object to it, and that we ought to explain why. See, here’s the thing: It’s all a marketing gimmick. For a private business. The couple behind the plan own Tea & Sympathy and A Salt and Battery, respectively a tea shop and a fish-and-chippery, on that stretch of Greenwich. And they want the name of the street changed simply to boost their own business. (Hey, great idea: Let’s rename Madison Avenue between 49th and 50th “Magazine Avenue!”)
  9. intel
    Schnabel Playing Coy With West Village Condo TowerDespite charging what some brokers say is an astronomical $4,000-plus per square foot — only the likes of the Plaza can top that — artist Julian Schnabel’s not making it easy to buy an apartment in his shocking-pink West Village condo tower. Madonna’s penthouse walk-through notwithstanding, a source says marketing has been nonexistent and that there’s neither sales office nor sales agent for the project. To see the units, brokers have to make arrangements with a “construction manager,” and there are no brochures or Website to check out floor plans. (Don’t even ask about concierge service and other pedestrian amenities.) Still, the spaces are apparently very much worth the trouble — stunning and “baronial” and oh-so-grand. At the prices he’s asking, they better be. A representative at the project would not comment. —S. Jhoanna Robledo Related: Music at Big Pink? [NYM]
  10. neighborhood watch
    Let’s Go to Red Hook and Burn Cars!Brooklyn Heights: The Henry Street bike lane has been painted solid green … and it looks kinda cool! Will other bike lanes citywide get the look? [McBrooklyn] Chelsea: Even as the Chelsea Hotel, under new corporate management, prepares to go sorta fancy, it’s slashing nightly rates to as low as $99. What gives? [LivingWithLegends] Coney Island: The circus is coming here for a week starting July 30, complete with Pastel Poodles and the Human Cannonball! [KineticCarnival] Dumbo: The hood just wasn’t complete without a full-service pet-supply store–slash–kung fu academy. And now it has one. [DumboNYC] Greenpoint: On Franklin Street, E.T. mounts a lemur from behind while simultaneously ruining your childhood. [Newyorkshitty] Red Hook: Ritual car-burnings on Beard Street continue here, even in the shadow of the in-progress Ikea. [GowanusLounge] West Village: Work is under way to bring some order to the chaotic (and a wee bit dangerous) meatpacking-district intersection of Ninth Avenue and 14th Street. [Streetsblog]
  11. it just happened
    A Sad Day for Overhyped Pastries: Magnolia Shuttered But what will become of the fanny-packed tourists?! The city Department of Health’s recent cleanliness crusade has claimed another victim: the Magnolia Bakery. Originally known for its admittedly fairly good cupcakes, Magnolia has since become the epicenter of all that is unholy about the aughts-era West Village: tour buses, a willingness to wait on line for confections, overpriced cutesiness run rampant. The (painfully slow-loading) blog Eater, which broke the news, reports that it’s simply an issue of too few sinks and that the destination snack bar will soon reopen. Alas. Breaking: Magnolia Bakery Closed by Department of Health [Eater]
  12. neighborhood watch
    Will Little West 12th Go a Little British?Bedford-Stuyvesant: The local little league team will play on the White House lawn July 15 as part of a Jackie Robinson tribute. [Bed-Stuy Blog] Bushwick: When you move into this hood, the so-called welcome wagon is a napkin full of trash dumped at your door. [BushwickBK] Long Island City: Nespresso, a division of Nestle, will move its HQ into Court Square Place, the new blue glass building near the Citibank Tower. But … will they move in Quik? [OuterB] Lower East Side: It’ll get very fancy on old Delancey indeed when H&M opens its latest branch there, which is today’s hot retail rumor. [Curbed] South Slope: Snarks are saying that this new building on Fourth and Baltic is so ugly they yearn for the gas station that used to be here. Ouch, mama! [Gowanus Lounge] West Village: At least one British expat thinks it’s disingenuous that a “grassroots” campaign to rename part of the hood “Little Britain” is being backed by corporate giant Virgin Atlantic. [Englishman in New York]
  13. buy low
    Can’t See the Apartment for the Carpet It’s not every day you’ll find a respectably sized two-bedroom in the West Village for less than a million. Even after a recent price cut brought this 1,100-square-foot co-op at 165 Christopher Street down to $999,000 (meaning the buyer is exempt from the one-percent mansion tax), it’s still available. After six weeks on the market, could the deep magenta carpet be to blame? It does distract from the ample light and sensible layout. If you can ignore what’s underfoot — not to mention a few super-bright walls — you might be able to see the space for what it is: the downtown aerie you’ve always wanted. —S. Jhoanna Robledo
  14. intel
    West Village Rents Swallow PB&J The decidedly quirky children’s store Peanutbutter & Jane, a nook near the corner of Hudson and Jane Streets for 26 years, closed its doors this weekend, the victim — like many other longtime West Village retailers — of wildly increasing rents. There was no formal celebration, but if you stopped by the shop Saturday afternoon — the last day of the month, and of the lease — there was plenty of misty-eyed reminiscence from nostalgic customers and grandmotherly clerks. “We’ve had customers coming in here for generations,” manager Timmie Reilly said. For the first time in decades, walls were visible in the typically hypercluttered shoebox of a store. Gone was the ruffle of tutus that previously hung from the ceiling, and only two pairs of ruby slippers remained. Moving men hauled off a shelf, and the now-antique light fixtures were sold to a dealer.
  15. developing
    On Perry Street, the Death of Real-Estate Bling?Luxury-condo marketing went through the looking glass at a brokers’ breakfast this morning for 166 Perry Street, a new 24-loft, bumpy steel-and-glass condo set to rise just east of Richard Meier’s sleek towers in the far West Village. The building has private swimming pools for its penthouse duplexes and art-installation screens over the ground floor, but, interestingly, Corcoran Sunshine marketers are pushing it as, well, simple. “There’s an architecture-collector market,” marketer James Lansill told us in Jean-Georges’s Perry Street restaurant, which will deliver room service to the building. “It’s not about bling at all.” Oh, no. Not at all. —Alec Appelbaum
  16. neighborhood watch
    Splasher Sighting at Dumbo Gallery?Carroll Gardens: With little legal recourse at this point, desperate locals are circulating this petition demanding that out-of-scale development stop at once. [Gowanus Lounge] Dumbo: Was the duo trying to set off a stink bomb at an art opening last night actually the Splasher, or is that too obvious? [Gothamist] Financial District: Has a little Greek church been bribed into not squawking that the forthcoming Chase tower’s cantilevered middle will block all its light? [Curbed] Harlem: So it looks like Trump won’t be building at 110th and Central Park West after all … “for now,” that is. [NYO] Prospect Heights: A man slept this week in the window of a Dean Street art gallery to make a statement about the controversial Atlantic Yards project soon to happen across the street. [Brooklyn Paper] West Village: As though its chattering, chain-smoking 12-steppers don’t make enough ruckus out on the sidewalk, the gay community center on West 13th will enjoy a $50-million expansion. [365gay via Kenneth in the 212]
  17. neighborhood watch
    Cyclists Threaten Double-Parking RightsAstoria: Get your towels ready. Astoria Pool opens June 29. [LICNYC] Clinton Hill: The fast-growing Brooklyn Waldorf School will move here from Fort Greene. [Brownstoner] Park Slope: Not one but two chickens have been spotted running around Prospect Park like, uh, yuppies with their heads cut off. [Gowanus Lounge] Prospect Lefferts Gardens: With the new bike lane on Lincoln Road, it will be that much harder to double-park. [Across the Park] Upper East Side: A six-ton boring machine has been lowered into the 63rd Street tunnel to link Grand Central Station with the Long Island Railroad. [Gothamist] West Village: Verizon confuses advertising with drug propaganda. [Copyranter]
  18. neighborhood watch
    The Subway Transfer We’ve All Been Waiting ForBedford-Stuyvesant: A new building on Spencer Street turns out to have some Technicolor character. [Bed-Stuy Blog] Bushwick: Doing wonders to improve the area’s reputation, kids hit new trees with baseball bats. [BushwickBK] Carroll Gardens: A self-described distant relative of Frank Lloyd Wright is organizing opposition to a massive, shiny condo planned for brownstone-y Smith Street. [Gowanus Lounge] Red Hook: It appears that Willy Wonka’s dream house has officially relocated here. Actually, this artifact-packed domicile has been here a while. [McBrooklyn] Soho: Plans are finally underway to renovate the Broadway-Lafayette/Bleecker Street subway station, where only the very clued-in escape paying twice to transfer from the 6 to the B/D/F. [Second Avenue Sagas] Upper East Side: Phone ads dissing the area, meant actually for the Upper West Side, were stupidly posted here, causing local dudgeon. [Radar] West Village: A large, glassy, undulating condo is coming to that big empty lot at Eighth Avenue just below 14th Street. [Curbed]
  19. buy low
    A Studio With Reasonable Strings Attached Can’t resist the siren call of the Village? This studio that’s just returned to the market (a previous buyer fell through) may be the answer. Tucked in a 60-unit co-op in the prototypically adorable 26 Cornelia Street, it’s priced like many similar apartments in the area at $411,000. For that, you’ll get a space flooded in light, a brick fireplace, and tons of storage. (The building itself has a courtyard, laundry facilities, and a live-in super.) What makes it all the more attractive, though, are the extras: The board welcomes pied-à-terre buyers (usually a no-no at co-ops), parents buying for their kids (attention NYU students!), and pets (though no dogs), and it allows sublets, as long as you’ve owned the place for at least two years. —S. Jhoanna Robledo
  20. neighborhood watch
    Did Brooklyn Inspire ‘Urinetown’?Chelsea: Blogging about the McBurney Y has inspired at least one documentary about gentrification. [Blog Chelsea] Clinton Hill: Nothing like finding a used colostomy bag on the street. [Clinton Hill Blog] Malba: Residents of this Queens enclave are protesting the construction of a massive Korean day spa, saying it will cause a traffic nightmare. [Times Ledger via Queens Crap] Park Slope: What’s with the kids peeing on trees? [Gowanus Lounge] Turtle Bay: East 48th Street at Second Avenue may be renamed for a former resident, the recently deceased author Kurt Vonnegut. Call it Slaughterhouse 48? [NYS] West Village: Behold the first High Line’s–eye view of the in-progress Standard Hotel straddling the old elevated rail line. [Curbed]
  21. neighborhood watch
    Gramercy Park: Now Elitist Only 364 Days a YearBrooklyn Heights: Does having the same landlord entitle you to “accidentally” park in your neighbor’s driveway? Vote now! [Brooklyn Heights Blog] Carroll Gardens: Starting this Sunday, it’s the attack of the weekend street fair. Beware of tube socks. [Gowanus Lounge] Chelsea: Times Square moves south with the arrival of advertising projected onto a building at 23rd and Eighth. [BlogChelsea] Dumbo: Beacon Tower residents are starting to move in. Lucky for them, they don’t have to endure those high-powered spotlights on the side of the building. [DumboNYC] Gramercy: Gramercy Park Day no longer exists, so the grubby public is shut out save for some Scrooge-like caroling on Christmas Eve. [NewYorkology] Prospect Lefferts Garden: Council Woman Letitia James doesn’t represent the district, but that doesn’t mean you can’t complain to her about supporting the loud circus that angers the neighbors. [Across the Park] West Village: Help wanted in getting rid of loitering teens. [Curbed]
  22. neighborhood watch
    When Demolished Buildings AttackDumbo: Neighborhood maps distributed by Two Trees Management show 77 retail outlets, up from a paltry 23 in 2002. [Brooklyn Eagle via Dumbo NYC] Long Island City: The New York Blood Center’s got swank new digs here, but at least one local would prefer a real hospital. [Queens Chronicle] Park Slope: The Department of Transportation is considering a new traffic safety plan for 9th Street, but residents and cyclists are clashing over it. [Streetsblog] Prospect Heights: After the Atlantic Yards demolition caused debris to rain down on Pacific Street, local politicians want construction to halt. [The Brooklyn Paper] Tribeca: Miffed residents want to know why plans for a massive sanitation garage were moved from the West Thirties to their area, within a stone’s throw of new luxury housing. [The Villager] West Village: Folks are massing against megadeveloper Related’s bid to turn sleepy Pier 40 into an entertainment complex they jeeringly call “Vegas on the Hudson.” [NYS]
  23. neighborhood watch
    Harlem on Only $600 a NightChelsea: The nasty Jag ad is gone from the side of the old McBurney Y, but a giant glass of Stella Artois has taken its place. [Blog Chelsea] Flatiron: Coming soon to Madison Square Park: steel trees! [Polis] Harlem: Marking yet another gentrification benchmark, a former Associated supermarket on 124th will become a $600-a-night W Hotel. [Columbia Spectator] Parkville: Is Ocean Parkway the “Madison Avenue of Brooklyn”? That’s what the condo developers say. [Kensington (Brooklyn)] Prospect Lefferts Gardens: Neighbors suspect a developer of wanting to tear down a single-family home on Ocean Avenue to make way for condos. [Across the Park] West Village: Richard Meier’s glass towers on Perry Street will soon compete with a spire from edgy husband-wife design duo Asymptote. [Curbed]
  24. in the magazine
    Sex Diaries: The Single GirlIt’s the Sex and Love issue of New York this week, and for it six New Yorkers kept Sex Diaries that chronicled their sexual lives (or lack thereof) over a period of seven days. Daily Intel has even more diaries, and we’ll bring you a new one each day this week. Today, the Single Girl: female, 31, lighting designer, West Village, “the kind of girl who kisses girls and sleeps with guys.” DAY 1 2:29 a.m.: Got high and fucked a new boy. I hope the spanking and screaming didn’t wake my roommate. 3:00 p.m.: Just ate breakfast that my new lover cooked for me. It was good, but he is talking the whole time while I’m trying to check voice mail/e-mail/get shit done. 4:00p.m.: New lover is a photographer I call Paparazzi. We had semi-undressed portrait session. 7:00 p.m.: Dinner with the girls (roommate and best friend). We talk about everything: love, sex, jobs, apartments, gossip, and Paparazzi’s penis. 9:00 p.m.: We disturb the next table with our graphic discussions about sex. (They didn’t say anything; they just got really quiet.) 11:00 p.m.: Dirty texting with Paparazzi. He’s so scatological.
    By Arianne Cohen
  25. intel
    PlaNYC 2007 Dear Mr. Mayor: We’re pleased that you and your planning department are working to ensure New York remains pleasantly habitable in the year 2030. But we think it’d be pretty great if you worked to ensure New York is pleasantly habitable in 2007, too. And you know what might help that? Not sending heavy machinery to tear up streets in residential neighborhoods in the middle of the night, at hours when normal people — like, say, those who have to get up early in the morning to edit Websites for well-respected city magazines — are trying to sleep. (Crazy, right?) We know what you’ll say. You’ll say you do these things overnight so as not to interfere with traffic. But explain this: Why do you expect traffic to successfully navigate itself around yet another Italian-sausage-and-cheap-socks mid-afternoon street fair but not around this? Or, at least, can’t you notify residents that the work will be coming, so we can perhaps make plans to sleep elsewhere? Because it certainly isn’t fun to find the above scene — be sure to note the two men with jackhammers — 50 feet outside your bedroom window at around 11:30 at night. That’s all, Mr. Mayor. Hope you slept well. Best, Daily Intel Daily Intel’s coverage of PlaNYC
  26. vu.
    Paying Today’s Prices for Yesterday’s West VillageIs there a more magical place downtown than the West Village? The brick-fronted townhouses, the canopied stores and bistros, the angular streets — it all makes for a surprisingly serene setting. (Just beware the tourists lined up for cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery.) Unlike many others in the city, this neighborhood has managed to cling to its history, despite the additions of luxury condos like One Morton Square and Richard Meier’s glass trilogy. (It’s landmarked in large swaths, which helps.) More change is in the offing when the High Line redevelopment gets going, but with so many diehards playing guardian to the past, the West Village won’t change much more. At least not without a fight. Still, it’s hard to argue with old-timers when they mourn for the old days — there’s little place for bohemia now that it’s become one of the most expensive places in the city. After the jump, a guide to this weekend’s open houses. —S. Jhoanna Robledo
  27. grub street
    Employees Only Is Always Crowded, Sometimes With a Brass BandAt West Village cocktail joint Employees Only, the place is jammed from eight till midnight or so nearly every night, on weekends the line to get in runs down the block, and the upstairs neighbors sometimes throw fruit on revelers in the back garden, according to manager and maître d’ Dagny Mendelsohn. But it’s also just about impossible to get a bad drink from one of the expert bartenders, she says, and there’s a decent chance you might snag yourself a barback. Find out the other secrets of Employees Only at Grub Street, where Mendelsohn is this week’s Ask a Waiter. Dagny Mendelsohn of Employees Only Defends Her Customers From Flying Fruit [Grub Street]
  28. neighborhood watch
    The Decline of West Village Sex ShopsBay Ridge: Sad to say, news of revived ferry service between the hood and Staten Island was simply an April Fools joke. [Bay Ridge Blog] Clinton Hill: The city will take a noisy church to court for gathering in a building zoned as an art gallery and irritating neighbors for fifteen years. [The Brooklyn Paper] Dumbo: A reward will be given to anyone who can identify this greedy mom who hoarded far more than her share of eggs at yesterday’s Brooklyn Bridge Park egg hunt. [Brooklyn Record] Lower East Side: Madonna’s hung up on 179 Ludlow, which she may convert into a three-floor Kabbalah center. [NYO] Park Slope: A falling glass shard from a decrepit brownstone nearly decapitated a prominent Windsor Terrace preservationist last week. [The Brooklyn Paper] South Bronx: Will the city pay for parking decks at Yankee Stadium, encouraging more cars to visit this asthma-choked area? [Streetsblog] West Village: Between the Internet and gentrification, it’s rough times for the area’s sex and fetish shops. [Manhattan Offender]
  29. vu.
    Inside a West Village Townhouse The West Village townhouse at 727 Washington Street features three bedrooms, a gallery, and its own reflecting pool. Join New York’s S. Jhoanna Robledo on a video tour of this $15.9 million home, owned by fashion designer Richard Tyler and his wife, Lisa Trafficante. The couple likes to switch locations every five years, but why abandon a retractable glass roof that almost lets the garden into the house? It’s worth sticking around, even when people wander in off the street for a closer look. Watch the video. [NYM]
  30. gossipmonger
    Big HouseV.C. Fred Wilson sold a townhouse on West 10th Street for $33.14 million — a record for private property below 14th Street. Beyoncé and her mother won the $1.5 million lawsuit filed against them regarding their House of Dereon fashion line, but the plaintiff plans to appeal. Robert Rodriguez left his wife of sixteen years for Rose McGowan during the filming of Grindhouse, but the split was amicable. The split between golfing great Greg Norman and his wife, Laura, however, is less so. Millionaire Miami developer Thomas Kramer was arrested during the birthday party of Fairchild Corp. CEO Jeffrey Steiner for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in the bathroom. Lindsay Lohan and Steve Aoki are hanging out a lot. This here New York Magazine is moving downtown, but no one knows what to do with the signs on top of the current building.
  31. neighborhood watch
    Will Gramercy Succumb to High-Rise Condos?Clinton Hill: Cops will respond to the recent spate of thefts and break-ins around here, but only if you actually report them. [Clinton Hill Blog] Gramercy Park: How long will it take for the abandoned buildings at 23rd Street and Second Avenue to go high-rise condo? [This Is What We Do Now] Prospect Heights: Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project starts to become real as demos proceed within the project’s footprint — save those lots whose owners have filed suit, that is. [Atlantic Yards Report] West Village: From top loin to Thom Browne? Yep, it looks like Barneys might be opening a new store in the meatpacking district’s former home of Western Beef. [Curbed] Williamsburg: Government environmental honchos want City Councilman Tony Avella to know that everything is all right with that oil oozing out of the ground at North 11th and Roebling. How reassuring. [Gowanus Lounge]
  32. the morning line
    The British Are Coming! • Remember Steven Johnson, the freak who terrorized Bar Veloce in 2002, splashing kerosene on patrons? Well, he just got 240 years in prison. Yeah, we don’t know what took five years, either. [NYP] • Renaming corners, part one: A coalition of local businesses, backed by no less than Virgin Airways, is campaigning to call a slice of the West Village “Little Britain.” The stage-one strategy apparently involves sub–Benny Hill humor. (“What’s one more queen in the Village?”) [MetroNY] • Renaming corners, part two: Elaine Orbach may yet get the intersection of 53rd and Eighth named after her late husband, Jerry. After striking out with the grumpy Community Board 5, she found fans on Board 4 — which controls the west side of the same avenue. [NYT] • In a high-tech twist on a classic, a married couple is suing a Park Avenue clinic for allegedly inseminating the wife with the wrong man’s sperm: The father is white, the mother Dominican, the baby black. [NYDN] • And New York has joined more than twenty states moving their presidential primaries up to February 5. With any luck, Assemblyman Keith Wright’s coinage for the occasion — “Super-Duper Tuesday” — won’t get any kind of traction in the media. Oh, crap, we just did it. [NYT]
  33. neighborhood watch
    New Zoning Laws Make Queens Boulevard Even UglierBrooklyn Heights: Looks like the popular eatery Le Petit Marche (there’s no “e” on Petit, people, it’s masculin!) is getting a fancy face-lift. [Brooklyn Heights Blog] Fort Greene: The landmarks commish last month gave the nod to the Carlton Mews Project — which, remarkably, everyone seems to love. [Brownstoner] Harlem: Now that H&H bagels are at Saurin Parke Café it requires 24-hour police surveillance. [Harlem Fur] Hell’s Kitchen: After two pedestrians were killed and one injured by vehicles on Ninth Avenue, it’s Manhattan’s latest “Boulevard of Death.” [Streetsblog] Park Slope: You think all those Saabs and Volvos cruising Seventh Avenue are just out wildin’? Nah, they’re looking for parking … because, a new study finds, there isn’t any. [Gowanus Lounge] West Village: Longstanding and beloved bistro Florent, the last bohemian holdout of the newly flashy meatpacking district, is now taking credit cards. Sacre bleu! [Blog Chelsea] Woodside: The upzoning of Queens Boulevard has led to ugly, cheap buildings too tall for the area. [Queens Crap]
  34. buy low
    West Village Pad Seeks Patient BuyerThis one’s kooky but intriguing: If owning property in the city is your ultimate dream, and you don’t have any plans to sell anytime real soon, or even live in it, this one-bedroom in a full-service, doorman building in the West Village could be what you’re looking for. Priced at $449,000, 175 West 13th Street is definitely a deal — maybe even 25 percent less than market rate — for the area. But here’s the catch: You’ll have to be game to play landlord, and for an indeterminate amount of time. A rent-stabilized tenant’s in place, and it’s unclear if what that tenant’s paying will cover your monthly mortgage and maintenance nut. The Prudential Douglas Elliman listing suggests that the “enormous pot of gold comes in the future,” but what that actually means is you’re free to swoop in when the tenant doesn’t want it anymore. Or, let’s face it, dies. There are some fancy tax advantages too, but check in with a lawyer or an accountant to clarify whether this deal is good for you. —S. Jhoanna Robledo
  35. gossipmonger
    Also, There Were Parties After the OscarsLeonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling, and Vince Vaughn cruised the Vanity Fair Oscar party at Morton’s solo. (Everyone who is anyone was there.) Except Brad Pitt, who was a no-show at the Oscars despite having starred in Babel and been a producer on The Departed. Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard are leaving the West Village for Brooklyn because of the paparazzi. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams are fighting. Oprah says that Barack Obama didn’t start the Clinton-Geffen feud. Zero-star Kobe Club owner Jeffrey Chodorow has banned Frank Bruni from all 29 of his restaurants. At $70,000, a private soccer lesson with David Beckham was the lowest winning bid at Elton John’s Oscar-night AIDS benefit. Natalie Portman left an Oscars party with Gael García Bernal.
  36. neighborhood watch
    H&H Bagels Completes Harlem GentrificationClinton Hill: What the hell is this Legos-meets-Mondrian thing that’s sprouted up on Reuben north of Myrtle? [Clinton Hill Blog] East Village: Apparently only the “big” L-stations get those train arrival-time signs. So much for Third Avenue. [CitySpecific] Flatbush: Seems like this ain’t the only Brooklyn hood the city has failed to provide with those free, slickly packaged condoms. [Flatbush Gardener via Gowanus Lounge] Harlem: If only Bagel in Harlem had stuck it out another month or so. She could have picked up H&H bagels at the Saurin Park Café. [
  37. grub street
    Balthazar Boss Turns BologneseKeith McNally created the New York iteration of the French bistro. Now he’s gone Italian. The Underground Gourmet talked to him about his new West Village trattoria, Morandi, the great floor his wife picked out for it, and why this could be his last restaurant. It’s at Grub Street. Keith McNally on Why Morandi Will Be His Last Restaurant Ever [Grub Street]
  38. neighborhood watch
    Happy Chinese New Year!Carroll Gardens: Will a bank, national chain store, or real-estate office replace Bleach House, the Dickensiansly named, now-defunct launderette on Court Street? [423smith] Chinatown: Party like it’s 4705! That’s right, the Chinese New Year kicked off this weekend. Welcome to the Year of the Pig. [Gothamist] Coney Island: The PR firm for development giant Thor Equities has released another homemade-looking “newsletter” about future Coney fun — which yet again makes no mention of Thor’s planned condo towers for the area. [Gowanus Lounge] Greenpoint: From the looks of the floor plan, it seems like the Polish movie house turned Burger King at 910 Manhattan Avenue is due to become Greenpoint’s first Starbucks. Rejoice or recoil? [Curbed] West Village: When special people like Sarah Jessica Parker, Lucy Lawless, or Christine Quinn need to pick up a package, they do it at Something Special, a mailbox-rental place on Macdougal and Houston. [The Villager]
  39. intel
    Gay TV Station ‘Dominates’ Eighth Avenue Subway Stop Get the odd feeling as you passed through the 14th Street and Eighth Avenue subway station this morning that every billboard around you seemed exactly the same? Good news: It wasn’t your imagination. For the month of February, Here!, the new gay cable network, is running a “station domination” campaign in station, blanketing every available ad slot with propaganda for its gay soap, Dante’s Cove, and two other shows. The “station domination” program is run by CBS Outdoor, which leases advertising space in a number of terminals, and they’ve got similar dominations scheduled in the next six months for 25 major gay markets nationwide. So of course they picked the stop at the Chelsea–West Village border! Frankly, we’re just sad this whole targeted, dominating, subway-based TV marketing campaign didn’t arise sooner. Think how much an effort at the 125th Street A station could have helped to save UPN.
  40. neighborhood watch
    Last Call at NorthsixClinton Hill: Lots of abandoned homes up for sale—for first-time homebuyers, that is, not folks looking to trade their tiny co-op for a spacious fixer-upper. [Clinton Hill Blog] Coney Island: Developing Coney Island isn’t “financially feasible” without high-rise housing on Stillwell Avenue, says Thor Equities. [Kinetic Carnival] Harlem: That empty lot at 1405 Fifth Avenue will soon be low- and middle-income housing. [What About the Plastic Animals?] Prospect Heights: Turns out there are still five privately owned acres smack in the path of Atlantic Yards. [Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn] Prospect Lefferts Gardens: Would expanding the historic district help prevent new development eyesores? [Across the Park] West Village: Which fashion label will grace the N.J. Turnpike–size billboard being affixed to the Gansevoort Hotel? [Curbed] Williamsburg: Catch the last show at Northsix before the space closes to magically transform into the Music Hall of Williamsburg. [FREEwilliamsburg]
  41. neighborhood watch
    What Lies Beneath: In Gowanus, You Don’t Want to KnowDumbo: Those three empty townhouses on Old Fulton Street between Water and Front Streets are finally on the block — for $7.5 million. [DumboNYC] Gowanus: Sulfur and cyanide and SVOC s— oh, my! New plan catalogs the nasty goop that lies beneath the nabe. [Gowanus Lounge] Greenpoint: Borscht meets bling at the Polish hip-hop festival Friday. [Newyorkshitty] Midtown: The Bryant Park skating rink is closing — and just as it gets cold! — but there are still other places you can take your skates. [NewYorkology] Park Slope: Writer Adarro Minton hits the identity-politics jackpot with story collection Gay, Black, Crippled, Fat. He reads from it tonight at the Old Stone House. [Brooklyn Record] West Village: 2086: A Beer Odyssey. The Bedford Street building housing Chumley’s is up for sale, but the venerable pub’s lease lasts nearly another 80 years. [Curbed] Williamsburg: It’s a shonda: Built-in-a-fortnight shul just stands there buck naked. [Brownstoner]
  42. grub street
    A New Restaurant for Old Grange Hall Space?Grub Street has news today that there may finally be a new tenant for the West Village restaurant space best known for housing Grange Hall (and, more recently, Blue Mill) — and it’s not highfalutin mixologist Sasha Petraske, who’d previously said he was interested. Nope, the new guy is Harold Moore, a chef who’s worked for some of New York’s top French toques. Josh Ozersky explains at Grub Street. Harold Moore of March to Take Over Grange Hall-Blue Mill Space [Grub Street]
  43. it just happened
    It’s Snowing! (Briefly) After the record-setting dearth of snow this winter, Daily Intel is pleased to report we saw the first flakes fall at 9:49 this morning, in the West Village. Our Carroll Gardens correspondent reported snowfall in that Brooklyn neighborhood shortly thereafter, although our Park Slope correspondent says his location remains unflurried. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. UPDATE: As we were typing, the snow stopped and the sun came out. So much for that. ANOTHER UPDATE: An email correspondent reports flurries in Park Slope at 9:30. Wacky Weather Hits New York City as Temperatures Hit Record High [Newsday]
  44. neighborhood watch
    There’s Graffiti Life After 11 Spring Street Brooklyn Heights: We promised an update: Boccelism beat the Old Dirty Barristers to be champeens of the Floyd NY Bocce League fall season. [Brooklyn Heights Blog] Clinton Hill: It seems the Pratt Area Community Council believes residents want an Applebee’s on the corner of Clinton and Fulton. Eatin’ bad in the neighborhood! [Brownstoner] Gowanus: Looking for the World War II rescue boat known as the Empty Vessel Project? Now it’s moored between the Carroll Street and Union Street bridges. [Gowanus Lounge] Lower East Side: If you missed the show at 11 Spring Street, there’s still a Jace mural (above) at Houston and Bowery. [Razor Apple] Midtown: It’s Santacon! And if a pack of Santas storming Times Square, Central Park, and the subway don’t put you in a festive mood, nothing will. [NYCStories] West Village: Shopsin’s shutters, but look for a smaller, less stressful booth in the Essex Street Market in a few months. [Gridskipper] Williamsburg: Things got a little stabby at Kellogg’s Diner over the weekend. [Gothamist]
  45. grub street
    Charlie Rose Stole Their Chicken (and That’s Not a Euphemism, Sadly)Yes, yes. We all know boldfaced names often get preferential treatment, and we know that loyal regulars do, too. So it’s no particularly great surprise that when Charlie Rose waltzes into a neighborhood joint in the West Village, he’ll be favored and flattered a bit. But recently, Rose went a step further, “accidentally” receiving nearly immediately upon his arrival a roasted chicken destined for — and long-ago ordered by — other diners. Here’s the truly delicious part: The patrons whose dinner he droit du seigneured were none other than New York’s Underground Gourmets, Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld. At Grub Street, read their tale of woe — and remember that the pen is always mightier than a fawning maître d’. Charlie Rose, Chicken Thief [Grub Street]
  46. neighborhood watch
    Indie Rockers Losing Death Grip on WilliamsburgBoerum Hill: Atlantic Yards’ next sin? Illuminated billboards that are fifteen stories tall. [Gowanus Lounge] Chelsea: The High Line might not make it north of 30th Street after all. [Blog Chelsea] Park Slope: Park Slope Towers is really a dorm, not a condo building. [Curbed] Upper East Side: Meet the Gael Pub Quizmaster, David Jacobson. [Upper East Side Informer] West Village: On Saturday, join the memorial ride for Eric Ng, a 22-year-old bicyclist who was killed December 1 by a drunk driver on the West Side bike path. [onNYturf] Williamsburg: Parks Department placates angry residents by promising to diversify McCarren Park Pool concerts with Colombian and Polish music. [Brooklyn Downtown Star via Brooklyn Record]
  47. neighborhood watch
    NYU Tuition Funds Mice InfestationDumbo: Biking across the bridge is like pedaling through a field of wildflowers. With ice at the bottom. [Razor Apple] Clinton Hill: Brand new townhouses ditch stoops for Rocky steps. [Brownstoner] Prospect Heights: Is the neighborhood so hot that houses are suddenly appearing on the market without the owner’s knowledge? [Daily Heights via Brooklynian] Staten Island: A walk through Richmond Terrace, from the ferry to the bar. [Forgotten-NY] West Village: NYU students learn to live like real New Yorkers, with mice. [Washington Square News]
  48. neighborhood watch
    Have a Global Warmy Christmas in Prospect ParkBrooklyn Heights: A tree may grow here, but apparently grass doesn’t. [Twofones via Brooklyn Heights Blog] East Village: Cooper Union students respond to impending demolition of the Hewitt building with apropos typeface. [RazorApple] Kensington: Don’t be jealous of South Slope. There are plenty of permit-less contractors for everyone. [Brownstoner] Maspeth: It’s not like you forgot about this neighborhood. You had no idea it existed. [Forgotten NY] Prospect Park: It’s above 60 degrees today, so it must be time to turn on the Christmas lights at Grand Army Plaza. [Brooklyn Record] West Village: Expect the mother of all beg-a-thons when WNYC moves into new digs. [The Villager]
  49. the morning line
    No Thanks • The police blotter shows no intention of taking a holiday. In the West Village, a New Yorker’s after-dark nightmare came to life when a woman hailing a taxi was kidnapped and raped by the three men who offered her a ride. The nearby NYU dorm is abuzz with freaked-out students exchanging stories. [NYP] • And in this heartwarming Thanksgiving bit, an estranged gay son came home to reestablish contact with his Brooklyn parents; what he found was Dad’s bones, which the mother had squirreled away to continue picking up his Social Security checks. [NYDN] • So much for the fantasy Spielberg offered in The Terminal: A judge rules that a Harlem grocery clerk’s deportation to Somalia shouldn’t be affected by the fact that Somalia, well, has no government and is currently kinda-sorta run by an Islamist junta. The deportee’s pro bono lawyer is furious. [NYT] • In what’s shaping up as the worst week in race relations since Katrina, MTA executive Gary Dellaverson stands accused of racism after joking to the reporters that he was “putting needles in [his] Roger Toussaint doll.” Al Sharpton is already calling for Dellaverson’s resignation, saying — and we quote — the remark was “the same as if he said, ‘I want to stick pins in my Al Sharpton watermelon.’” Except that actually, Al, no, it’s not. [amNY] • And just to break up the relentless gloom of today’s news, the Black Eyed Peas won three American Music Awards. Wait, that’s just as depressing as the other ones. [Newsday]
  50. buy low
    Price Drops Make Perry Street Cheap(er)Even millionaires love deals, so moneyed types would do well to take another look at this 4,000-square-foot condo in the south tower of the Richard Meier–designed 176 Perry Street. After languishing on the market for more than a year — 384 days to be exact, according to Streeteasy.com — it’s so ripe for the picking it’s practically falling off the tree. And with three bedrooms (one, a luxurious master suite), full river views, and three exposures, not to mention the designer’s cachet, why shouldn’t it get a little love? (It has a library and a terrace, too.) Since April 2005, it has undergone numerous price cuts, the asking price sliding from $8.95 million to $7.65 million. The most recent reduction, twelve days ago, brought the numbers down by $300,000. Number-crunchers take note: On a per-square-foot basis, it’s going for a little less than what a neighboring unit sold for in September. — S. Jhoanna Robledo
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