According to the Downtown Express, it took three calls to 911 before help arrived for a woman suffering a seizure at the Grand Park Settlement's senior center. A staff member, Wally Ruiz, ended up running to the fire station on Pitt Street before emergency teams arrived for 64 year old Eva Delgado. It's unclear whether the trucks came from the Pitt Street station or another location. Delgado was taken to Beth Israel Hospital, where she was declared dead a short time later. There was apparently some question about whether the 911 operator received enough information to send help.But a Grand Street Settlement spokesperson says the staffer who called 911 gave all of the information that would have been needed.
The city has come up with a solution to the dispute over bike lanes along Kent Avenue in Brooklyn. It's worth taking note of the resolution across the river, as we await a plan for the Grand Street bike lanes. You'll recall LES residents unloaded on DOT officials during a "transportation town hall" recently.
A followup to our coverage of the contentious community meeting Wednesday night about noise coming from the Thompson LES Hotel. Jeremiah's Vanishing New York posted a video from a tipster who says a pool party last week was "disgustingly loud." See (and hear it) for yourself:
Three lanes of the Williamsburg Bridge will be closed on Saturday from
4:00 am to midnight to facilitate construction activity. Two
Manhattan-bound lanes and two Brooklyn-bound lanes will be maintained
by reversing the north inner roadway. Brooklyn-bound trucks will only
have the use of one lane and are strongly advised to use the Manhattan
Bridge or Queens Midtown Tunnel as an alternate.
Part of the ongoing Rooftop Films series will feature animated shorts tonight at the Open Road Rooftop at 350 Grand Street. Program notes say these films "defy expectations and bring us images
that have never been seen before–kinetic visions that defy logic
yet seem to make sense to some dark corner of our subconscious."
Tix are still ONLY $9 and the open bar after party is still at Fontana's. More about Rooftop Films here. More on tonight's show and to buy tix here.
The Brooklyn Daily Beagle reports on the "Notify NYC Program", an emergency alert system that has finally gone citywide after a year of testing on a smaller scale. The program was spearheaded by NYC Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler to improve the city’s emergency emergency communications – in the aftermath of 9/11. Participants can register online at the Notify NYC Page to receive notices on their cell phones, landlines or via email. There will be alerts about water main breaks, fires, power outages and other problems.
The Daily News reports on the mayor's budget cuts to after-school programs which "will leave more than
10,700 teenagers with nowhere to go when the exit bell rings". The Lo-Down is currently working on a story featuring the Educational Alliance teen program that's mentioned in the article.
The NYTimes reports Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is widening a probe of immigration fraud and has "issued more than 50 subpoenas to individuals and businesses in New
York City — including numerous immigrant-assistance organizations, a
travel agency, an English-language school and a church". Read the full story here.
The Artichoke Dance Company is currently at the University Settlement with Lynn Neuman’s “Recession Dances, and so can you!”. The performances draw from dance styles of previous U.S. 20th Century recession eras, such as
the Lindy Hop (Great Depression) and Hustle (70’s oil crisis),
refashioned with humor and irony.
For twelve full hours of non-stop FREE music, head down to theWorld Financial Center Winter Garden at 220 Vesey Street on Sunday for the "Bang on a Can Marathon" Co-presented by the River to River Festival, the marathon's schedule includes an "incomparable eclectic super-mix of genre defying music" and has an almost legendary reputation. For the full schedule visit their site here.
The jazz collaborative The Nu Band has released the album "Lower East Side Blues" and received postitive reveiws here and here.
The doors have been closed at Ruby’s fruit and vegetable stand at 400 Grand St. for over three weeks and the word on the street is that Ruby Baumgarten has finally retired. There had been some community concern over his health, but local business owner James Iglesias says he has heard Ruby is doing fine, just decided to close shop as he is approaching 90 years of age.
James, whose dry-cleaning business has been across the street for almost thirty years, said, “I could always hear him yelling over there, talking to people. But then I realized he’s getting up there, him and his friends were just hard of hearing.”
Former New York Times food writer Mimi Sheraton wrote this about Ruby’s in 1997:
Multicultural is also the word for eating habits here. Ruby (the Fruitman) Baumgarten has catered to a primarily Jewish clientele for 50 years, always stocking greens and root vegetables for chicken soup. Now he also keeps fresh ginger root for new Chinese customers. Savvy shoppers are regularly and loudly berated for squeezing produce, but he takes pride in never stocking anything that is too expensive for his customers. ”If they’re not going to buy cherries, why should I buy cherries?” he asks rhetorically.
As reported by a local neighborhood website, Kicking Over the Traces, Ruby’s location at 400 Grand Street is “one of the few old buildings remaining in the Seward Park Extension Renewal Area - and was the last building to enter the City’s Tenant Interim Lease Program (TIL). The program allowed residents in City-owned buildings to take ownership of their buildings as a cooperative. LES activist Chino Garcia added that one of the organizers who led the fight to save this building was former City Councilwoman and current NYCHA board member Margarita Lopez”.
The push to oppose the city's plan to revamp Chatham Square is picking up momentum. Yesterday City Councilman Alan Gerson, NYC Comptroller Bill Thompson and community organizers rallied and delivered petitions to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. They're demanding the LMDC withhold funding due to community opposition to the plan.
In the New York Post, columnist Jacob Gershman speculates about Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's reasons for supporting mayoral control of NYC's schools. He theorizes that, since Governor Paterson is practically on political life support, Silver is, essentially, the state's de facto governor. And, he says, some people believe this has inspired him to "adopt less combative and more statesman-like style."
Also in the Post, an analysis shows that about $1.3 billion in federal stimulus money is already being spent in New York. Among the projects underway: $23 million to reconstruct a portion of East Houston Street.
Three managers of the trendy Thompson LES Hotel on Allen Street got an earful from some of their neighbors last night. They were on hand, along with a lieutenant from the NYPD and representatives of Community Board 3 at a meeting to discuss concerns about late night noise, traffic congestion and unruly crowds on the streets around the hotel.
About 15 residents of the apartment buildings surrounding the hotel did not mince words. They said the noise wafting from the third floor, home of the newly opened outdoor swimming pool, and a second floor tented balcony makes it nearly impossible to sleep. Calling the hotel a “bad neighbor,” they painted an ugly picture of what’s happening, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.
“Blocks and blocks” of black SUV’s idling on Orchard behind the hotel, transforming the street into a “landing pad for celebrity” guests and the paparazzi covering them. One man called the hotel’s management of the situation “not respectful of the neighborhood.”
The sidewalks are so crowded with hotel guests that it’s impossible to walk on Orchard Street in the evenings.
A resident used words like “outrageous”, “brazen” and “a joke” to describe the noise emanating from the first party held around the swimming pool.
Emily Armstrong, one of the residents who organized the meeting, said the hotel is clearly violating New York City’s noise ordinance. “If you can’t hear your tv set you know it’s against the law,” she exclaimed.
Another resident said playing loud music in an open-air tent is “absurd.” He added, “No one could think you could do that. Thats illegal. It’s rude and it’s not working.”
One man, after noting he was happy that an upscale hotel had move to the neighborhood, complained that drunk guests (apparently attending private events at the hotel) stumble out on to Orchard and that doormen in “black turtlenecks” are arrogant, telling him to get off the street.
They’re the culinary buzz words of 2009: fresh, local, sustainable. Super star chef Alice Waters has made it her personal crusade. First Lady Michelle Obama did her part — setting up a garden at the White House to grow 55 varieties of fruits and vegetables. Thanks to a group known as “Just Food,” what’s known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is taking off in New York.
Last night, one of Just Food’s affiliates, the Grand Street CSA, kicked off its second season. They’re sold out for this summer, prepared to distribute produce straight from the Woodbridge Farm in Connecticut every Tuesday night through the first week of November.
Here’s how it works. Just Food connects farms within striking distance of New York City with community groups interested in providing their neighborhoods with fresh, organically grown food. During the winter, each farmer sells shares in that year’s harvest to members of the CSA. That gives the farms the money they need to grow and harvest their crops, not to mention providing the farmers with a living wage. In the case of the Grand Street CSA, a full share costs $590 for the season or just under $26 per week.
Grand Street CSA organizer Meghan Joye told us all 85 shares sold out before the season even began, but they do have a waiting list for next year. In Manhattan alone, there are about 35 CSA’s. Others in the area include the Bluestocking CSA on Allen Street, the Stanton Street CSA in Sara D. Roosevelt Park and the Sixth Street CSA. You can see a full list of New York City locations on Just Food’s web site.
The farms deliver whatever crops are ready to harvest. Yesterday, there was a variety of lettuces, radishes, kale, collard greens, bok choy, mint and dill. Joye said, as the summer progresses, the selection will become much more diverse.
Part of the fun is figuring out what to do with ingredients you might not have selected in the grocery store. The CSA plans to have a nutritionist on hand in the weeks ahead to offer advice to members.
In New York City, access to fresh food varies greatly by neighborhood. A study conducted by the city last year found that around three million New Yorkers, mostly in the Bronx, Queens and central Brooklyn, are under served by grocery stores offering fresh food. The Bloomberg administration has proposed a program of zoning changes and financial incentives to entice grocery stores to open where they’re needed the most.
Many of the residents on the Lower East Side would argue, they too, don’t have access to farm fresh fruits and vegetables. There is Whole Foods on the Bowery — so expensive it is out of reach for many families in the neighborhood.
Joye says there are four half shares available in the Grand Street CSA to low income families. A half share costs $340. They donate any food that’s not taken by the end of the evening to the food pantry run by Our Lady of Sorrows Church.
We recently visited a fantastic show on the roof of New Design High School. The school's third annual Rooftop Legends show included graffiti artists from around the world and resulted in an array of fabulous art on the walls all around the roof top. The school integrates different forms of design into a high school curriculum and uses graffiti art as one way to engage students. We were able to catch some of the artists in action and spoke with students Channel Warner and Sierra Williams about the show.
The Rooftop Legends show is curated by NDHS Dean, Jesse Pais (a former graffiti artist), and is more important than ever as the charter school tries to raise funds for student programs after facing budget cuts three years in a row. Some of the artists featured include: Vins, Dezo, Tatu, Klass, Page, Keo, Cycle, Bounce, El Coro, and Doc TC5. Music from DJ enuff and "Rockin' It" by The Fearless Four (we had to go old school) . For more about New Design High and to help their cause, visit their website.
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