|
|
 The original version of the Daily News story. A couple of weeks ago, the New York Daily News published a story that sounded just a little too wacky to be true. The paper reported that a Long Island woman had bought a one-bedroom apartment in the Seward Park Co-0p on Grand Street at a foreclosure auction for a mere $33,000 in May, only to have the co-op’s board reject the sale price as too low, prompting her to pursue legal action to keep her bargain.
As it turns out, the most outrageous part of the story was, indeed, not true: the price was off by 1,000 percent. While bidder Linda Salamon did enter into a contract to buy a foreclosed apartment from lender Chase Home Finance, the $33,000 was only a 10 percent down payment on a total purchase price of $329,000 – still a good deal for an apartment that would sell for at least $400,000 on the open market.
Continue reading Grand St. Apartment for $33K: Too Good to be True
 
This weekend the Theater for the New City is hosting the Voice 4 Vision Puppet Festival, with two family-friendly puppet shows and a workshop where kids can make their own puppets.
On Saturday and Sunday at 11am, I Laid an Egg uses ”the elements of Shadow Theater, Object Theater, music and a dialogue between an Egg and a Baby” to “bring the audience into a child’s imaginary world.” On Saturday and Sunday at 1pm, Wonderspark Puppets retells the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
Continue reading Weekend Kids’ Pick
 Arleen Schloss at home in her office. Photo courtesy of Arleen Schloss via Stuart Ginsberg. Arleen Schloss has been described as a creative force of nature. She is a prolific experimental artist whose work over the course of 30 years, beginning in the 1970′s, occupied the avant-garde edge, encompassing performance art, sound poetry, video, digital multimedia and other hard-to-categorize creative genres. Schloss, who lives and works on the Lower East Side, is the subject of a remarkable new documentary called “Wednesday’s at A’s” that chronicles her work and profound influence on the underground art scene in New York. Continue reading “Wednesday’s At A’s,” A Fascinating Window Into Arleen Schloss’ Avant-Garde World
- More Chinatown supporters of Comptroller John Liu are under scrutiny, as a federal investigation widens (NYT).
- The “Delancey Underground” is not the only potential development project in New York inspired by the success of The High Line (Metro Focus).
- Inside one of Grand Street’s better herbal medicine shops (WNYC).
- A lovesick Kickstarter employee professes his infatuation for a Gossip Girl star (tumblr).
 Life imitates art in front of Alias Restaurant on Clinton St. Photo by NY Portraits (nyportraits.blogspot.com) Sunny skies and breezes will kick off our weekend today, with highs in the low 50s. Saturday and Sunday will be partly cloudy and a little chillier, with highs in the mid-40s. Enjoy your weekend!
Protesters have gathered in Columbus Park tonight for a vigil in support of Army Private Danny Chen. The 19 year old Lower East Side resident was found dead in Afghanistan in October. The protesters are demanding answers from the Pentagon about the circumstances behind Chen’s death.
Last week, we started a collection of options for closing out 2011 with a bang here on the Lower East Side. New Year’s Eve is now two weeks from Saturday, so we’ve got another installment of ideas for the big night. Send us your event at tips@thelodownny.com and we’ll put it in the next roundup.
Click through for the latest list.
Continue reading New Year’s Eve on the LES, Part II
 Akiko Thurnauer recently opened "Family Recipe" on Eldridge Street. For years, Eldridge Street, the block I grew up on, was littered with empty crack vials. Businesses of any kind were scarce. These days, new, enchanted establishments are popping up. From Apizz, where my parents (artists who renovated their tenement home in the ‘80′s) proudly spent an anniversary dinner, to Family Recipe, a sleek Japanese restaurant run by Akiko Thurnauer.
Akiko was born in Japan, but has spent the past fifteen years in New York. “I wanted to open a restaurant that was a little bit hidden, not on an obvious street like Orchard or Ludlow, where it’s more party and people come for drink. I like to have people who really come for food,” Thurnauer told me in her open kitchen space, which she helped design. “I moved to Grand Street five years ago, but I’ve always lived in Nolita or the Lower East Side, so I know the neighborhood.” Continue reading Royal Young: “Family Recipe” Keeps Creative Spirit Alive on Eldridge Street
Pizza a Casa, the learn-to-make-pie-at-home school at 371 Grand St., is having a New York Times moment today.
Reporter David Koeeppel delivers an interesting blow-by-blow account of the school’s battle with TripAdvisor, a travel site that categorizes and rates dining, lodging and entertainment venues for tourists. A few months ago, thanks to rave reviews from its students, Pizza a Casa sat atop the list of NYC attractions–above other “things to do” such as visit the Statue of Liberty, for example. Class sign-ups rolled in and owner Mark Bello was thrilled.
And then, TripAdvisor reclassified Pizza a Casa as a “tour” instead of an “attraction” and everything changed. An e-mail battle ensued. The term “tour” was dissected and debated. Consultants were consulted. Continue reading NYT Chronicles Pizza A Casa’s TripAdvisor Drama
The New Amsterdam Market hosts its fourth annual Wintermarket this weekend, the last event of 2011, and it promises to be festive, fun and full of fish.
Organizers tell us this Sunday’s event will be the largest Wintermarket yet, with more than 70 vendors. They include a special emphasis on seafood, with 11 vendors from throughout the Northeast selling marine products from fresh-shucked oysters and wild-gathered seaweed obtained through more responsible fishing practices that protect the environment. James Beard Award winner Paul Greenberg, author of Four Fish, helped select the vendors and will be on hand to sell and sign copies of his book. Chef David Pasternak of ESCA Restaurant will be cooking up local striped-bass chowder.
Continue reading New Amsterdam’s Wintermarket Sunday
- Anthony Amato, founder of Amato Opera on the Bowery, died Tuesday at 91. (Local EV, EV Grieve)
- The Lower East Side Girls’ Club gets an Airstream trailer. (MakeZine)
- In a completely entertaining Q&A, actor David Cross (Arrested Development, Mr. Show) talks about why he’s moving out of the East Village and across the river to Brooklyn: It’s all 7-Eleven’s fault. (Gothamist)
- Helicopter noise pollution in Lower Manhattan gets a thorough discussion and pledges of problem-solving from our local elected leaders at a Community Board 1 meeting. (DowntownExpress)
- The new East River Ferry is one of many reasons to love New York (and maybe we’ll get a closer landing next year). (NYMag)
- Original screenplay Oscar contender Thomas McCarthy (Win Win) holes up in an LES office with his dog to write. (LA Times)
 Photo by Roey Ahram. Take your umbrella when you leave the house today. There’s a 50 percent chance of showers today and this evening, with highs in the mid-50s. Tomorrow’s looking brighter, though.
 Each month, on the second Wednesday, we post this report of restaurants in the 10002 ZIP code that scored 28 points or more on their most recent health department inspections, the equivalent of “C” grades under the city’s rating system. We also call out establishments that excelled by earning 3 points or fewer.
For more details on how the city grades food establishments, see the guide (PDF). Because of the way the online search function operates, we cannot link directly to individual restaurant reports here, but you can visit the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website, type in the name of any restaurant and view the details of inspectors’ findings for all recent visits. You can also read our Restaurant Report Card archives. Please note that restaurateurs are permitted to post a “grade pending” certificate while they await reinspection or appeal an unsatisfactory score, so those listed here may not currently display a “C” grade in their storefronts.
Here’s the report for November. Continue reading Restaurant Report Card: November 2011
 This apartment at 570 Grand St. in the East River Co-op, along with another in Seward Park, remained unsold at last week's auction. Last week, we previewed two properties that were up for bid at an auction held by the Public Administrator of New York County. Neither of the one-bedroom co-ops, one in East River at 570 Grand St. and one in Seward Park at 210 E. Broadway, sold at the Dec. 8 auction. Continue reading Follow Up: No Buyers for Grand Street Co-ops at Auction
 The retail/residential combo building at the southwest corner of Grand and Essex is on the market. In Lower East Side real estate market news this week, we learn that 355 Grand St. (aka 51 Essex St.) has just been listed for sale at $4.5 million. Per the listing from ERG Property Advisors:
The building is 3,200 square feet and is located on a 1,173-square-foot lot. It has approximately 7,061 total buildable square feet. The three-story property is comprised of two retail stores, one 2-bedroom apartment and one 1-bedroom apartment with outdoor space. … There is a high amount of daytime foot traffic outside of the property. The area is relatively quiet at night and ideal for residential development.
The building currently houses Flowers Cafe, a small eatery facing Grand Street, as well as Vic’s Pizza, facing Essex. It is owned by Fizzo Realty, a New Jersey company headed by Joseph Pizzo, who acquired it in 1976, according to city land records. The structure dates back to at least 1901, when the buildings department first recorded work done there.
|
|
