|
|
The NYPD and the Chinatown YMCA are hosting an open house at the Two Bridges Community Center today from 4-8pm. At "LES – Home Sweet Home," there will be air hockey, pool, table-tennis and music by DJ Ansel. The staff at the center will also have information about their after school teen program. Plus, the NYPD's PSA4 (Police Service Area) will offer services such as free ID etching for cell phones, ipods and other electronic devices. They'll be issuing "Operation Safe Child" ID cards and have some giveaways. The community center is located at 286 South Street. The entrance is on Clinton, between Cherry and South Street.
Incidentally, the Chinatown YMCA recently learned it has been awarded a contract to run the community center for the next three years. Earlier this year, the New York City Housing Authority cut off funding to many of its facilities, including Two Bridges. The YMCA had been running the center on an interim basis. They are now negotiating a formal contract with NYCHA. We'll have more on their plans for the center after the Thanksgiving holiday.
 
A city official told the Lower Manhattan Development Committee, residents should not be worried about holding the trial of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Downtown Manhattan. Committee Chair Alan Gerson said during yesterday's hearing, he did not believe downtown is "an appropriate location for this trial."
The New York State Court of Appeals has thrown out the convictions of two men, imprisoned for 19 years. Danny Colon and Anthony Ortiz were found guilty in a drive-by shooting on the Lower East Side in 1989 that left two men dead. The court found an assistant district attorney misled the jury about the extent of the help she gave to the prosecution’s star witness in exchange for his testimony. The DA is vowing to retry the men.
Continue reading 9/11 Trial Concerns, Convictions Overturned, Chinatown Stabbings
 Cemi Guzman is still in high school but he's decided there's no time like the present to give back to his community. The son of well-known character actor Luis Guzman (Carlito's Way, Boogie Nights, Traffic, Beverly Hills Chuahua), Cemi is the mastermind and host of a benefit and celebration on Saturday for the Lower East Side Girls Club. When Cemi (pictured at left with his father) started to think about his senior project to improve a community, there was no doubt in his mind he wanted to help an after school program in the neighborhood in which he has deep roots. Not only is he the driving force behind the event, to be held at the Bowery Poetry Club (Noon-3:30pm), but he's been involved in the planning every step of the way.
Continue reading High School Student Plans Benefit for LES Girls Club This Weekend
Korean performance artist Sung Hwan Kim brings One From "In The Room" to The New Museum tonight in conjunction with the currently on-going, city-wide Performa '09 biennial. In the Netherlands and Korea, Sung Hwan Kim developed the “In the room”
series—which comprises film, video, concert, drawing, and writing—in
both private and public spaces. The series explores how one form of
storytelling can be transformed into another by juxtaposing the
different languages of cultures, genres, genders, and generations. Watch an in-depth video interview with The Art Newspaper where he discusses the meanings behind some of his video and performance works of the last few years here.
Last night CB3's economic development committee was briefed on three major neighborhood development projects:
- 710 East 9th Street: Loisaida, University Settlement and Phipps Houses
are collaborating on housing for young adults (18-24), who have aged
out of foster care or are homeless. There will also be a community
center in the building. City Councilmember Rosie Mendez came to the
meeting to express her support.
- 302 East 2nd Street: a 161-unit rental apartment building near Avenue D & Houston (see map). There will be at least 34 permanently affordable units in the development (or 20-percent), and 9-thousand feet of commercial space. A "businessman" whose name was not disclosed is buying the property from the city. The developer is Madison Equities.
Continue reading Community Board Briefed on Three Development Projects
Malachi Farrell: The
Shops Are Closed
© Malachi Farrell, 2009, ARS, New York
/ ADAGP, Paris
Photo: Bernard Fontanel, Courtesy CAPC
Musée d'art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France
Abrons Arts Center (466 Grand) will host Malachi Farrell's installation exhibit, The Shops Are Closed with an opening reception on Friday from 6pm -9pm. Malachi Farrell: The Shops Are
Closed is curated by Jane Kim/Thrust Projects and is concurrent
with Farrell’s show at Thrust Projects: Strange Fruit in the Streets
(November 13, 2009 – January 3, 2010). The evening will include special animation screenings by the artist and a dance party with guest DJ Jools Palmer.
 New York Times Columnist Gail Collins (the first woman to edit the Times editorial page) will be at the Tenement Museum (108 Orchard Street) tomorrow night for the reading/lecture series, Tenement Talks, discussing her latest book, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present.You can read an interview with her on Jezebel here.
Talks begin at 6pm and are FREE and open to the public. The event will be open captioned.
Photo by Tony Cenicola for The New York Times
 Your only chance to catch Lily Tomlin in NYC this year will be at Dixon Place next Monday for their Grand Opening Benefit, celebrating their new home on Chrystie Street. The award-winning actress and ground-breaking comedienne (Laugh-in, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,
West Wing, I Heart Huckabees, Desperate Housewives) will perform a selection of her timeless characters, including the beloved Ernestine and Edith Ann. The evening will be hosted by Lily's pal, comedian RENO
(Rebel Without a Pause, Reno Finds Her Mom, Reno in Rage and Rehab) and a special dessert reception will be held for the two of them, after the show.
NYC will debut new express bus lanes on the East Side by next fall.
Experts offer up advice to Mayor Mike on coming across as "humble."
The Daily News: "Older locals want lower east side post office to stay."
Buffalo's WIVB talks with Shelly Silver about the state's budget crisis.
EV Grieve examines the high-end makeover of 229 East 2nd Street.
Bowery Boogie checks in on the progress at 38 Delancey: 30-thousand feet of retail/commercial space available for lease.
The Allen & Delancey saga continues.
Yesterday, we mentioned tonight's District 1 Community Education Council meeting, in which the future of the Girls Prep Charter School will be debated. Now Gotham Schools has a good overview of the controversy – and details on a campaign by parents to protest the school's expansion plans.
The charter school currently shares a building with P.S. 188 and
P.S. 94, a school serving disabled students, and cannot expand further
in the space it occupies there. DOE officials have three ideas for how to accommodate the new middle
school, which they plan to present at tomorrow evening’s District 1
Community Education Council meeting. In one scenario, P.S. 94 would move out of the district, allowing
Girls Prep to expand in its current location. To compensate for the
loss of P.S. 94, a new program for disabled students would open,
sharing space with PS. 184, the Shuang Wen school. Another suggestion would have the Girls Prep middle school open in a
building currently shared by three secondary schools: the School for
Global Leaders, the Marta Valle Secondary School and the Lower East
Side Preparatory High School. The School for Global Leaders would then
move into P.S. 20. This plan would also allow P.S. 94 to expand in the
building it shares with P.S. 188 and the Girls Prep elementary school. The third proposal would have the Girls Prep middle school share a
building with P.S. 20. (The full memo from the Office of Portfolio
Planning outlining the three scenarios is below the jump.)
Continue reading Parents Mobilize to Fight Proposed Girls Prep Expansion Plan
As explained in the post below, last month's CB3 meeting dealing with SPURA (the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area) became rather heated. At last night's committee meeting, it was cited by Committee Chair David McWater as one reason he was hesitant to resume SPURA deliberations. Here's the audio recording from last month's contentious discussion.
Download CB3 SPURA cancellation
David McWater, chairman of a CB3 committee charged with formulating a plan for the redevelopment of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), threatened tonight to put the panel’s work on indefinite hold. For months, the economic development committee has been working towards a goal that has eluded the LES for 42 years: a plan all of the neighborhood’s constituencies can accept. But this evening, McWater told committee members he was unwilling to continue deliberations because some factions on the committee were “pursuing their own agendas.”
After a tense 30 minutes of debate, McWater agreed to add SPURA to the December agenda. But he vowed to walk away from the table if future meetings became a forum for protests and name-calling, rather than negotiation and compromise. McWater also said he was “100-pecent certain” city officials, who recently began collaborating with the committee, would end their involvement if they sense the community is not unified.
Continue reading McWater Threatens to Suspend Work of SPURA Committee
Girls Prep, the LES charter school seeking to expand, will be discussed once again at tomorrow night's District 1 Community Education Council meeting. The school, located n P.S. 188, made its case for adding grades and taking over more classroom space, at last month's meeting. School officials and District 1 representatives will discuss possible scenarios for expansion during tomorrow's gathering. Some parents and advocates of traditional public schools are strongly opposed to the expansion. The meeting takes place at 6pm, at P.S. 20, 166 Essex Street. Anyone wishing to speak should sign in at 530.
It's been a good fall for one of this year's hottest newcomers, An Choi. Owner Tuan Bui tells us the Orchard Street banh mi/pho emporium has seen a 30-percent sales increase since his beer and wine license finally came through. He doesn't think it's the only factor. An expanded menu has helped, as well. Among the new items: thit kho, caramelized pork belly with Vietnamese pickles, and com suon bi, a grilled lemongrass pork chop with shredded pork skin over rice. There are also some heartier banh mi offerings, including one featuring a grilled pork basil meatball and hanger steak. Tuan says the continued positive buzz in the neighborhood and in widely read publications (including a mention in Details Magazine) have not hurt. Tuan mentions that pop-up sensation "Asia Dog," a weekly visitor over the summer, is taking a bit of a break.
|
|
