Fifty-three Chinese-American investors have put down $8.5 million to buy a corner of the Lower East Side they plan to call home.
Organized under a corporation known as Delancey Bridge Tower, Inc., based in Flushing, the investors have pooled their resources to build themselves a 12-story condominium building on a plot of land that abuts the Williamsburg Bridge, where Delancey and Pitt streets meet.
The project means the imminent closure of T & J Auto Repairs, a neighborhood fixture which has occupied a garage at 210 Delancey St. since 1954 and whose current proprietor, Tony Marano, gradually acquired the land surrounding his family’s business during the ’80s and ’90s. While the family stands to profit handsomely on the sale, it’s still been an emotional end of an era, said Anthony Marano, Tony’s son, a real estate developer.
“I’m really heartbroken about it, but I don’t know who feels worse, me or my dad,” said the younger Marano, who started working in his father’s shop as a boy of six. “In the end, it was a smart business decision.”
Because the garage is grandfathered under current zoning laws that allow residential uses only, the Maranos were not permitted to expand the auto shop, Marano said. As a result, the adjacent lots at 206 and 208 Delancey St. and 49 and 51 Pitt St. remained undeveloped except for use as parking. In recent years, the grounds around 210 Delancey have also sprouted an eclectic, lush garden featuring a few large trees, bright flowers and the partially sunken hull of a 1967 Firebird that served as a compost bin.
Sam Sifton says 456 Shanghai Cuisine “is both the simplest and most marvelous of discoveries in a city that undergoes constant change: a Chinatown restaurant of the old school and new generation, a taste of the past and present combined.”
Eater reports Mexicue’s Lower East Side location at 106 Forsyth opens September 9th.
The World Trade Center site. Photo by Phillip Kalantzis-Cope.
This week, it was announced that people living throughout much of Lower Manhattan will be covered by the $2.8 billion 9/11 Compensation Fund. The expanded zone encompasses portions of the Lower East Side, meaning those who became sick due to toxic fumes and dust from Ground Zero will be eligible for compensation, even if they did not live or work in the immediate area around the World Trade Center site.
100 years of NYPD motorcycles at the New York City Police Museum
Visit the New York City Police Museum this weekend for the all ages exhibit dedicated to 100 years of NYPD motorcycles. The exhibit displays a selection of vintage department-used motorcycles, including a late 1940s-model classic red Indian Motorcycle and a late 1960s model silver Harley. Memorabilia includes the squad’s leather jackets and 1950s-era early speed detection devices. The Museum, located at 100 Old Slip, is open Saturday 10 to 5 and Sunday noon to 5. Adults are $8, children $5, kids under 2 are free. For more information on this and other kids events, visit our kids page.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver urges the city to do something about noise resulting from reconstruction of the Brooklyn Bridge (DNA Info).
Silver says he opposes allowing a full fledged casino to operate in New York City (Daily News).
Hurricane Irene destroys a tree, inside La Plaza Cultural Community Garden, that had been viewed as a symbol of the neighborhood’s efforts to fight over-development (NYT).
The Times acknowledges the August 9th historic designation of the Bowery Saving Bank with a nice slide show (NYT).
LES non-profits reflect in the lessons of 9/11, ten years later (The Jewish Week).
LES Runway successfully completes its Kickstarter campaign in time for Fashion Week (Blackbook).
Irene forced Summerstage to cancel a few performances at East River park. But tonight the free series in the amphitheater gets back on track. The Faux-Real Theater Company presents “Oedipus Rex.” Here’s the description:
The Greeks, like us, knew that Oedipus was going to gouge his eyes out, even before the play began. And yet they still came out in droves. Come see what all the fuss was about as The Faux-Real Theatre Company brings their Dionysian depiction of Oedipus, featuring an all-male cast of twelve utilizing the performance techniques of the ancient Greeks including: brightly colored wigs, fantastical costumes, and masks that act as megaphones. By incorporating the colorful aesthetic of these ancient performances and utilizing a broad physical style of acting powered by live music, songs and dancing, this work looks beyond the “fate versus free will” interpretations of this classic, to explore the alluring underbelly of this primal text. Their heightened approach reveals what is terrifying and vital in this most tragic of tragedies, enhancing the story’s power to roil our subconscious and to awaken the heroes within.
Tonight’s performance begins at 8 p.m. Tomorrow night (and Friday) the Faux-Real Theater presents another production, “Seven Against Thebes.” They’re also on stage Thursday with a second night of “Oedipus Rex.”
Buzzwords are funny things, especially when it comes to restaurants. Some places comically tout “authenticity,” others present an expensive mishmash of ingredients as “fusion“, while still others bandy about words like “original,” “modern” or “seasonal”. “Tapas” has come to mean miniscule portions paired with overpriced drinks, regardless of whether the food bears any resemblance to something one might find in Spain.
How did that happen? I stay away from places that associate themselves with buzzwords, as I’m convinced they mean I’ll be paying a premium for the privilege of taking part in somebody’s concept. I have nothing against concept dining, I‘m simply not interested in paying extra for it. My favorite places are more pedestrian: hole-in-the-wall joints where I can get a great meal without an obligatory side of pretense. I go out to eat, not to affirm my social status.
Beginning September 4th Lower East Side documentarian Clayton Patterson will be hosting a series of “Sunday Salons” at the BMW Guggenheim Lab. On the lab’s blog, they’ve posted a video interview with Clayton about the “real LES.”
A knife-wielding hood stabbed a man during a botched robbery in Chinatown yesterday. The 24-year-old victim was on Forsyth Street near Delancey Street at 1:20 a.m. when the punk tried to swipe his iPod. The victim fought back, only to be stabbed by the thug, who ran off. The victim was treated and released from Bellevue Hospital.
It didn’t take White Slab Palace long to reopen after the NYPD shut the bar down earlier this month. Nonetheless, the operators apparently have some explaining to do about a lapse in their liquor license — when they go before CB3′s State Liquor Authority Committee next month. This is just one of several interesting items on the community board September agenda, which also includes an application from the owners of Woodward Gallery to serve beer, wine and liquor at a new cafe they plan at 132 Eldridge St.; see our story from yesterday here. Read the complete list of liquor license applicants after the jump.
The space at 132 Eldridge, which briefly housed Panade bakery, will be home to a new cafe run by the folks behind Woodward Gallery just across the street.
Woodward Gallery co-owner Kristine Woodward plans to open a new cafe in the Eldridge Street space vacated this summer by Panade bakery.
The notice of application for a full beer, wine and liquor license is posted on the door of 132 Eldridge, which has been shuttered since Panade moved back across the street to its original location in July. The notice, which is filed under the corporate name Second Nature NYC LLC, is an invitation for public comment at the Community Board 3′s State Liquor Authority committee on Sept. 19.
In Corlears Hook Park this afternoon, work crews are almost finished cleaning up the damage from Hurricane Irene. Aided by heavy duty equipment they have cleared away debris and twisted branches left from the destruction of several trees. The park remains closed until the work is competed.
