An update on efforts to save the Pitt Station Post Office on Clinton Street. State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney met recently with Lorraine Castellano, NYC postmaster, to discuss the threatened closure. The Pitt Station is one of 700 retail locations the USPS is studying, as it evaluates which post offices can be shut down to close a budget shortfall. Michael Tumminia, the president of the Seward Park Co-op, the landlord of the Clinton Street postal office, also attended the meeting.
Silver presented Castellano with 14-hundred signatures from LES residents who want the Pitt Station to stay open. He and Maloney are drafting a letter to the USPS, asking for financial details about the location. They believe closing the bustling office, serving many senior citizens who live along Grand Street, would actually cost more than keeping it open. Tumminia says the co-op has made every effort to keep the rent at the Pitt Station low — specifically because the residents of Seward Park benefit from having a post office within walking distance of their apartments.
Knickerbocker Station on East Broadway
Stairs inside the Knickerbocker Station
Elevator on the ground floor of Knickerbocker Station
During a recent community board meeting, USPS officials emphasized that a larger post office, the Knickerbocker Station, is only .3 miles from the Pitt Station. Community board members pointed out that, unlike the Pitt Station, the Knickerbocker Station is not fully accessible to the disabled. Customers must walk up a flight of stairs to reach the office. An antiquated elevator is frequently broken. Asked whether they would address the accessibility issues, the officials said they could not make any promises, but they'd take it under advisement.
Silver and Maloney are asking postal officials to make a site visit to the Pitt Station. Initial recommendations about which locations should be closed will be forwarded to Washington at the end of this month. It will be up to Maloney to continue pressing the matter with officials there.
The Do-It-Yourself Greening workshop will give you ideas about how to green
your business without spending much cash. The workshop will teach you
how to make your own cleaners from scratch, start your own compost bin,
replace your bulbs, clean your filters, and get creative while saving
money and reducing your pollution! This workshop will give you the
opportunity to take your first steps towards becoming a more
sustainable business.
September 22, 2009 | 5:00pm - 6:30pm
Lower East Side People's Mutual Housing Association
228 East 3rd Street, 7th fl.
A panel chaired by Daniel Squadron, our state senator, heard testimony from business owners and other witnesses Friday about the ailing retail industry in New York. Saying there clearly is a problem, Squadron pointed to the increasing number of shuttered shops, spiraling commercial rents and the proliferation of large chain stores. He said the ultimate goal is to identify how the state can help – and to draft legislation to deal with the most critical problems.
Among the witnesses was David Zarin of Zarin Fabrics, the large discount design store on Grand Street — a fixture on the Lower East Side for 70 years. He told the panel the costs of running his business are high and that he is being "nickeled and dimed to death" by a bewildering patchwork of local and state fees. Zarin said it's unfair that big corporations get generous tax incentives and another accommodations to open in the city – while small businesses are penalized and fined. He suggested the state find a way to redirect more tax breaks to local, family-owned businesses.
Susan Stetzer, representing Community Board 3, testified about the lack of retail diversity on the Lower East Side. She lamented the displacement of longtime businesses by bars, clubs and high end restaurants. Stetzer said business owners have repeatedly complained about rents that have doubled or tripled in recent years. While some business owners have suggested that landlords are greedily pushing rents higher – another explanation was offered up at Friday's hearing.
A huge crowd came to Pier 36 on Montgomery Street yesterday to play ball, listen to live music from Kerri Hilson, check out the live gaming kiosks, get free haircuts and, of course, to meet Lebron James. It was all a promotion for Nike and a documentary about James' road to super-stardom in Ohio.
Nike is sponsoring the Lebron James "More Than a Game" Community Day at Pier 36 (Montgomery Street) today. It's a promotion for the upcoming documentary, which according to IMDB, "follows NBA superstar LeBron James and four of his talented teammates
through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Ohio
and James' journey to fame." The event is open to the public: Here's the schedule:
ALL DAY - Icon Interactive Green Screen
ALL DAY – DJ Scratch Academy
ALL DAY - EA Sports NBA Live Gaming Kiosks
ALL DAY - Shoe Whitening Station
ALL DAY - Barber Shops (free cuts!)
Scheduled in between are:
10 am – 11 am Ballers Network Skills Clinic
11 am – 12 pm Ballers Network Hotshot Challenge
12:30 pm – 1 pm Rose City Classic All-Star Game
1:30 pm – 2 pm Conrad McCrae All-Star Game
2:30 pm – 3 pm Gauchos vs. Metro Hawks
3 pm – 5 pm Live Performances by Jabbawockies, Kerri Hilson and more!
Plus Kenny Smith and “The King” himself, LeBron James.
It should be noted this event is being held at Pier 36, the future home of "Basketball City." The privately-operated gym won a long-term lease for the pier, in spite of ptotests from some LES community organizations. Those groups believed the city reneged on a promise to build a community center (open to the public) at Pier 36. The groups are now negotiating with Basketball City for discounted court rental rates and other concessions. See our previous stories on the Basketball City controversy here and here. It is unclear whether Basketball City has any involvement in today's event.
The Museum at Eldridge Street has restored a sacred tablet of the Ten Commandments just in time for the Jewish New Year. The
tablet (one of a pair) was believed to have been lost for decades. Amy Stein-Milford, deputy
director of the museum (which is a separate entity within the synagogue), told us it was discovered a few month ago – carefully wrapped in the building's cellar. Both artifacts
were created for the synagogue when it first opened in 1887. They are made of wood, hand-painted and gilded in gold, and are now installed in their rightful place above the ark that holds the
sacred Torah scrolls. The synagogue was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996. Channel 7 Eyewitness News covered the story here.
The photo below is of the tablets before the restoration.
51 parking spaces around the city are being converted in to parks, plazas and dynamic destinations as part of Park(ing) Day NYC. The website claims "These small, temporary public spaces provide a breath of relief from
the auto-clogged reality of New York City, and aim to spark dialogue
about our valuable public space and how we choose to use it".
Events in the LES area include: The Time's Up/bikeblognyc space at 156 Rivington St./ between Clinton St. and Suffolk. The Community Design Park at Allen and Delancey, sponsored by Hester Street Collaborative, the Peace Park at 250 Mott St. and the Sustainable Seeds Park – Community gardeners and LES children build acommunity garden in a parking space (11th Street between Avenues B and C)
The annual event is sponsored by Transportation Alternatives and the Open Planning Project in conjunction with schools, architectural firms and civic groups from four boroughs. The event began in San Francisco in 2006 (although Transportation Alternatives took over a parking spot on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg before discovering "Park(ing) Day), and has since expanded to more than 100 cities in 20 countries.
It’s going to be an interesting few weeks on the New York City Council. Downtown, the wait continues for Alan Gerson to decide whether he’ll contest Margaret Chin’s victory in Tuesday’s Primary. Saying he wanted to “examine questions about the votes reported,” Gerson indicated it could be two weeks before he concedes. Meanwhile, there’s speculation as to whether Christime Quinn will have enough support to continue as Speaker of the Council. The Daily News reports on the first Countil meeting since the election:
The four council members who lost their primary races showed up and received their share of consolation and sympathy—much like members of a reality survival show e getting kicked off the island. “I’m still so physically fatigued (from the election) that nothing else has really sent in,” said Councilman Alan Gerson as other members and Council staffers kept coming up to him to shake hands or offer a bear hug. “I’m not going to go away. I’m still going to be involved in lower Manhattan.” He said his defeat in a five-candidate race to Margaret Chin was the result of a perfect storm of events that included a general low turnout except in the Chinatown portion of his district, lingering divisions within Democratic clubs, some resentment over his support of extending term limits and the presence in the race of Peter Gleason, who cut into Gerson’s base of support. He said he assured Chin—who will be the first Chinese-American to represent the district that includes Chinatown—of a smooth transition once she’s declared the formal winner.
Alan Gerson… said his vote to support the term limits extension “probably depressed our vote slightly. I don’t think it was a decisive factor.” He added, “What was more significant than term limits was the unusually low voter turnout in all the areas except Margaret’s stronghold.”
Incidentally, Margaret Chin’s campaign rejects the notion that she was only strong in Chinatown. An analysis of the precinct by precinct results, they say, indicates she performed well all over the district, including in Gerson strongholds on the West Side (more on this later today). As for the Speaker’s future, Chin said yesterday she would decide after talking in-depth with Quinn, whether to support her continued leadership of the Council. Reporters quizzed Quinn about her future yesterday:
Speaker Christine C. Quinn, meanwhile, fielded the expected flood of questions from reporters before the meeting: Were voters still mad about term limits, and is that why they ousted so many members? Was her speakership in danger? She answered each with patience and a touch of humor, but was firm in her insistence that her role as Council leader was not in danger. “I don’t know of any challengers right now,” she said.
On top of concerns about her support of Mayor Bloomberg’s successful drive to extend term limits, there seems to be growing consternation over Quinn’s unwillingness to get behind Democratic Mayoral nominee Bill Thompson. From the Daily News:
…several reliable sources confirmed that there is grumbling that Quinn might face a backlash within her ranks if she doesn’t endorse Thompson in his showdown with Mayor Bloomberg, who is running as a Republican
and Independence Party candidate. “Today, you know, barely a day and a half after the primary I haven’t made any decision on what I’m doing in either of the runoffs or in the mayor’s race,” she repeated. Quinn also wouldn’t say if she is leaving the door open to endorsing Bloomberg, with whom she’s had a close working relationship, including partnering in extending term limits last October and turning the campaign plans of many City Hall incumbents topsy turvy, including her own mayoral-bid effort.
Back downtown, the establishment appears to be coalescing around Margaret Chin. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who backed Gerson, called Chin to offer his congratulations. A Silver foe, Paul Newell, won the district leader race in Tuesday’s Primary. A bit of context from the Daily News:
After taking on a big target in the form of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver last year and receiving just 23 percent of the vote, Paul Newell scaled back his expectations this fall and managed to score a political
victory of sorts against the powerful Lower East Side lawmaker. Newell won a district leader race in Part C of Silver’s 64th AD against Avram Solomon Turkel, a former aide to Councilman Alan Gerson. Gerson, who was supported by Silver and his club, the Harry S. Truman Democratic Club, endorsed Turkel. Neither was successful on Tuesday. According to Tuesday’s unofficial results, just 1,408 people voted in this DL race. Newell received 934, or 66.34 percent, of the vote. Turkel got 474 votes, 33.66 percent.
District leader Jean Grillo also defeated a Gerson/Silver backed challenger, Noel Jefferson. Both Newell and Grillo were involved in City Council candidate Pete Gleason’s campaign.
The group’s purpose is to reconstruct and study all aspects of 19th century life and they are concerned with everything from literature to food, fashion to social rituals. “We wanted to start a re-enactment society that doesn’t focus on war,” says Eva Ulz, co-founder of the New York 19th Century Society. The group does not avoid war as a theme, but they are more broadly curious about day-to-day life surrounding historic events, any events, so long as they happened between 1800-1899.
Anyone is welcome to join re-enactors or participate in the online community at The New York 19th Century Society. Ulz (along with fellow founders Ilana Kohn, Sarah Lohman, and Zoh Rothberg) hopes that historians, re-enactors, costumers, and anyone else with a desire for an ongoing conversation about the past will get involved. Future events include a reading of food depictions from 19th century writers (think
Melville, Dickens, and Poe) paired with authentic preparations of the food described. Another idea being discussed is a 19th century fashion show, which may include a time-period appropriate strip tease. Several of the members are costumers including Ulz, who has already sewn a 19th century servant’s costume and a ball gown.
What does one wear to a 19th Century pub crawl? According to the group’s Facebook page, “Nineteenth century dress is encouraged, but by no means required.” As Ulz’s own blog asserts, in the 19th century, no proper lady would have gone to a pub in the first place!
Margaret Chin being interviewed by reporters outside her campaign headquarters on Park Row
Two days after winning the District 1 City Council race, Margaret Chin gathered this afternoon with reporters to discuss her transition plans. Although she faces a Republican adversary in the General Election, in this heavily Democratic district, there’s no doubt Chin will prevail. She vowed to “work hard for every single neighborhood,” not just Chinatown, where she’s been a community activist for decades.
Chin said she has spoken with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and many other elected officials. A lot of community groups have already reached out to her. Chin declared, “I want people to get involved,” by volunteering in her office and becoming engaged in community issues. Chin said she has a strong desire to get residents of different neighborhoods talking. The district stretches across most of Lower Manhattan, from the Lower East Side to Chinatown, Wall Street, Tribeca and Soho.
Chin has a strong interest in chairing the Lower Manhattan Development Committee, which has a role to play in the troubled redevelopment of Ground Zero. She also would like to serve on the housing and education committees.
Chin said she would have discussions with Christine Quinn before deciding whether to support her bid to continue as speaker.
Any organization interested in reaching out to Chin’s office can call 212-964-2009.
The Essex Market is a little quiet this week because Ron and Ira at Tra La La Juice Bar and Bakery are "closed for vacation". They promise to return and re-open on Sept. 22nd.
Our favorite cheese mongers at Saxelby Cheese are apparently away in Italy, tasting cheese at a big cheese festival but not to worry, they are still open. Amy and Nicole, (the nice ladies filling in behind the counter) gave me a taste of the Krugerrand Farm's aged raw goat's milk cheese, from Richfield Springs, NY, ($28.99/lb.) which was featured at the Amsterdam Market this past weekend. The cheese was light and crisp, and almost tasted smoky. I also tried a Summer Snow sheep's milk cheese from Woodcock Farm in Weston, VT ($27.99/lb.). Very sweet and creamy.
I stopped by Roni Sue's Chocolates and she mentioned she will be featured in a Wine and Dessert Tasting hosted by Swirl Events next Wednesday, Sept. 23rd from 7-9pm. Chocolate covered bacon – tbd.
Batista Grocery seems to have the lowest prices for produce and Mexican specialty items (any kind of dried bean you can imagine) at the moment. They are also expanding their large spice collection. They offer all kinds of spices in big 14oz plastic jugs, from garlic powder to rosemary to dried mint leaves and even chamomile – all for $2.99 – $3.99…seems like a steal of a price for spices.
The Cuchifritos Gallery was closed for what I am assuming to be preparation for their upcoming opening of FEED, an "itinerant, interactive experiment in and about public markets" in collaboration with the Fragmental Museum.
Even though City Councilmember Alan Gerson called rival Margaret Chin Tuesday night to offer his congratulations – he has still not officially conceded the race. In its wrapup of the District 1 Democratic Primary, the Downtown Express explains the reasons behind the delay:
Gerson, 51, speaking to a dejected group of supporters — a few with moist eyes — did not concede, but acknowledged that Chin “appears headed toward victory,” and said “this is the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.” He said he was “holding off for a day” so his campaign could regroup, compare the returns with internal tallies and decide what to do next. He promised a “smooth transition” if he lost. He also called Chin Tuesday night after she declared victory. Gerson’s speech to roughly 50 supporters crammed into Silver Spurs restaurant in the Village, sounded much like a concession — he thanked his supporters for all of their hard work over his eight years and for working with him to spawn “a political movement.” He appeared to have accepted defeat, not mentioning anything he hoped to accomplish in a future Council term. But his campaign released a statement Wednesday saying they wanted to examine questions “about the votes reported.” Gerson said he now hopes it will be less than two weeks before he gets the information from the Board of Elections. Chin said Wednesday that when she and Gerson spoke the night before, he said he would be conceding the next day but that he was not going to publicly concede then in order to cushion the blow to his supporters. Gerson said he did “not recall” saying he was planning to make a concession, but does remember saying that he would support her if the results hold up.
The indie musician PT Walkley has sent us word that he will be playing at The Bowery Electric (Bowery and 2nd St.) tonight at 9:45pm. You can check out his music and videos on his website, as well as his myspace page here, and find out a little more about him and his self-released album, "Mr. Macy Wakes Alone", on Billboard.
If you are a musician having a show in the neighborhood, let us know!
LoHo Realty is sponsoring it's annual blood drive today from 4-9pm at Grand Street (near Essex), in the Community Room of Seward Park Housing Corp. The blood drive is in conjunction with the NYC Blood Service. Potential donors are encouraged to schedule a convenient appointment via the internet at New York Blood Center. The center is a community-based, independent blood center that has been supplying life-saving blood products and services to area hospital patients for close to 40 years. Everyone who donates blood will receive an iTunes gift card and will be entered into a drawing to win a free iPod. For more information, contact Jacob Goldman at LoHo Realty, 212-388-1115 or by email at jacob@LoHoRealty.com.
