Colonnade Row

7/19/12

Fran Lebowitz Rips Mike and NYU A New One

This can't wait until my September re-launch so I'm posting this video now of Fran Lebowitz ripping into Mayor Mike and NYU for destroying New York City. She says it plainly, distinctly, and hysterically. Her books and articles were the reason I moved here in the early 80's and I want to invite her over for drinks and dinner with a few of the neighborhood curmudgeons so we can mourn the loss together. Like she says, "They won." So what is there left to do except be with like-minded neighbors? Fran, come on over for drinks. I'll even let you smoke in my house.

7/10/12

Supercharged Iced Coffee

Until I formally relaunch Colonnade Row in September, cool off with my new favorite version of iced coffee. Rub the inside of a short cocktail glass with fresh mint, add lots of ice cubes, pour in 2 shots of Patron Coffee Tequila, add a splash of cream, garnish with mint, insert a short straw and you'll soon forget how fucking hot it is. This may not be the iced coffee you drink in the morning, but on second thought, maybe it is.

7/8/12

Times Profiles Gigantic Asshole Sucking Up Manhattan

I haven't posted in about, oh....3 years now but this bears putting out there. Ben Shaoul, spawn of Satan, just got a profile in today's Sunday Times, and holy shit is he a sinister, heartless parasite.

11/5/09

The Vanishing City Film Debuts on Friday

The long awaited documentary, The Vanishing City, is screening Friday, November 6th and you're invited. This film focus on how New York City has been transformed into a 'luxury product' - Thanks Mayor Mike! - and has been in the works for several years by Jen Senko and Fiore DeRosa where they have interviewed hundreds of displaced residents and mom and pop shops.

Literally hundreds of luxury high-rises are in development in Manhattan and the outer boroughs. While low-income housing such as Mitchell-Lama is being phased out, the new low and moderate income units being constructed are grossly inadequate. It is increasingly obvious that the economic development is not being evenly spread and that New York is moving closer and closer to a two-tier city of rich and poor.

10/1/09

Is New York's Tackiest Hotel For Sale?

Rumors are swirling in the Cooper Square neighborhood that the universally despised and poorly received D-list magnet, The Cooper Square Hotel, has quietly been put on the market. Our information comes from a well-connected source to the large white shaft who knows both insiders and consultants working for the property's investors. The source said that there simply isn't enough tourist business in the worsening luxury hotel economy, and that Andre Balazs's The Standard Hotel has gobbled up all the glitz and glamour that the Cooper Square had hoped to attract. Not helping matters were the stinking reviews of Govind Armstrong's Table 8 restaurant in CSH which had hoped to seduce what's left of the New York's shrinking fashion and media elite. The Standard, on the other hand, has been receiving praises from top to bottom on all aspects of their rooms, service, and various restaurants and has lured the city's most sought after waiters, hostesses, and managers with generous salaries as well as the scene-making crowd that ensures the lemmings will follow them with full wallets. Adding to the mess, is the persistent story about the feuds between the CSH developing partners and their hired henchmen. NYU, you may have just found your next dorm. Stay tuned. Click here for more background on the eyesore.

9/30/09

Lost New York - Oct 2-3 NYU

Click here for details.

9/21/09

Vanishing City Part 3 - September 28 - 7PM

THE VANISHING CITY

THE VANISHING CITY
Monday, September 28th
7PM
Dixon Place
161 Chrystie Street
(Delancey/Rivington)
Tickets regularly $15
Special $10 Rosh Hashana discount!
Buy Here and put RoshHash in promo code for $10 tickets!
www.dixonplace.org
212 219-0736

The Historical and Cultural Price of the Changing Bowery

The Bowery: Past, Present, and Future:

A celebration of its richly diverse heritage,

and a cautionary discussion on how reckless overdevelopment is

displacing residents, small businesses, cultural diversity, and

the area’s low-rise, historic charm.

David Mulkins, a history teacher and co-founder of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, is curating the third installment of The Vanishing City, the popular community, historical, and preservation series launched by Dixon Place in early 2009. www.boweryneighbors.org

Program panelists include:

*Doris Diether, whom The Observer recently called “The Grand Dame of New York City Land Use.”

One of the city’s foremost zoning experts, Diether has been an active CB2 board member and community preservationist since the 1960s.    Most recently, Diether designed the “East Bowery Preservation Plan.

 http://www.observer.com/2009/real-estate/grande-dame-new-york-city-land-use

 *Helena Wong, representative from the Committee Against Asian-American Violence which has evolved into a leading community activist group

fighting for tenants rights and local preservation.  Most recently, CAAAV/Chinatown Tenants Union has represented the low income tenants of 81 Bowery who were mass evicted last winter and only recently returned to their home.    http://www.caaav.org/

 *Eric Ferrara, Founder and executive director, Lower East Side History Project and expert on immigrant

and early gang history of the lower east side.

Special Music by Poor Baby Bree

Bree was named in the Top Ten cabaret acts of 2008 by Time Out!

The will be a rare opportunity to see Poor Baby Bree

perform her tattered waif cabaret act

that has been interpreted as one of the most

original performances to hit New York in years.