February 1st, 2010
Our story last month about a luxury development planned on East Houston Street touched off an interesting debate among some of our readers about affordable housing. That debate continued during Community Board 3′s full board meeting last week. As you may recall, CB3′s land use committee had voted 9-4 to approve the sale of a city-owned parcel to a private developer. The developer, whose name was not disclosed, intends to build on the corner of Houston and Avenue D. There would be 166 rental apartments, 34 of them affordable. This past Tuesday evening, CB3 accepted the committee’s recommendation to approve the deal, with 18 voting yes and 11 voting no.
Continue reading Luxury Housing on Avenue D – More Debate, and a Decision
February 1st, 2010
Will Johnson photo by Traven Rice
This weekly feature spotlights a wide variety of people who live and work on the Lower East Side. If you would like to participate in “My LES”, please email us here.
What do you do?
Owner and Stylist at Whistle Salon.
How long have you lived on the LES?
On and off for 11 years. (First in the East Village and now farther down in the Lower East Side.)
Continue reading My LES – Will Johnson
February 1st, 2010
The Chinatown Working Group wants to get the word out about tonight’s town hall meeting at P.S. 130 on Baxter Street. Everyone is welcome to attend. For the past year, the organization has been developing what they hope will be a “broadly supported community based plan” for the future of the neighborhood. By the spring, they intend to present the city with a 197A plan, a comprehensive blueprint for the development of Chinatown.
As we reported last week, their work could have reverberations well beyond the historic core of Chinatown — extending to blocks traditionally thought of as being part of the Lower East Side. Organizers describe the town hall as a “working session where everyone is encouraged to participate in smaller breakout ‘charrette’ groups, honing in on specific topics of interest or issues.” If you would like to see the Chinatown Working Group’s guiding principles or their draft working plans, visit their web site.
The town hall will be held at 7pm, at P.S. 130, the Hernando de Soto School, 143 Baxter Street.
February 1st, 2010
Some gallery openings of note this past weekend:
Charles Dunn’s first solo-show of paintings, “Demons” opened at Number 35 Gallery on Saturday. “In the few paintings in this exhibition, Dunn created forms that try to soar, move and dance and yet are confined within the limited size of the rectangular canvas,“states the press release. Dunn was also in the last show at Number 35, alongside Gary Rough, which was explained as resembling “postcards from the edge” by curator Gavin Morrison in a letter he wrote to the artists.
Fusion Arts Museum presented, “Selected works 1966-2010″, an overview of over forty years of work by founder Shalom Neuman. In this show, according to the press release, “the artist sees his work as a language which speaks directly to American culture with its chaos, conflict, waste and utter confusion.” Neuman, the creator of Fusion Arts has been written about by art critic Donald Kuspit, who says that Neuman is “an unprecedented phenomenon,” and “a multi-talented, brilliant draughtsman.” The article can be read here.
February 1st, 2010
White House adviser David Axelrod says no decisions have been made about moving the 9/11 terror trial from Lower Manhattan, but added “we have to take into consideration the concerns of the local authorities.” Meanwhile the President’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, says, “we want to see this man tried and brought to justice in the place in which the crime was committed.” As the Daily News suggests, the dueling Sunday gab show comments left many New Yorkers bewildered:
Insiders who have been assured the Manhattan option is dead were scratching their heads over Gibbs’ comment yesterday. And Julie Menin, Manhattan Community Board 1 chairwoman, called on Washington to be clear. “It’s important for New Yorkers to know for certain that these trials will not be held in our city,” she said. “I don’t see any reason why that cannot be confirmed.”
Continue reading Mixed Signals on Terror Trial, Summer Jobs Program Threatened, White Slab Scene
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