by Rob Hollander
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing about this Historic District for Orchard and Ludlow, from east Allen to west Essex.

The hand-wringing is not about the project itself, but about its initiator, the Tenement Museum. Several years ago, in an effort to acquire the building next door, the Museum tried to use eminent domain (!!) to evict everyone from it.

That’s not easy to forget. Locals are justifiably reluctant to support anything initiated by the Tenement Museum for the sake of that memory and its lesson. But this landmarking project is a good one that benefits local residents and the community at large, not just the Museum.

Residents benefit not having to deal with landlords and developers trying to squeeze them, but just with landlords. The only repairs that will be more expensive will be external repairs. How often do you complain about the pointing of your exterior brick? I never have. Most of my complaints are about heat, hot water and plumbing. These will not be affected by Historic District status. From the Landmarks Preservation Commission:

“You do not need a permit from the Landmarks Commission to perform ordinary repairs or maintenance chores. For example, you do not need a permit to replace broken window glass, repaint a building exterior to match the existing color, or caulk around windows and doors. If you have any doubt about whether a permit is needed, call the Commission at (212) 669-7817.”

Floorplan for the new exclusive

by Jacob Goldman
This morning, LoHo Realty got a new exclusive on a sublease of a large one-bedroom apartment, high floor, located at Grand Street and the FDR, with nice views. Asking: $2,200.

Normally the process of taking photos, putting together a description, fact-sheet, placing listing on ours and other websites and the entire process of fully marketing can take at least a week.

But, we were thinking, we have a blog. We can start letting the world know about the sublease within hours. So here it is - you now know about our new listing within hours of us receiving the listings.

If you are interested in sub-leasing this apartment, call or e-mail us: 212-388-1115 or email to info@lohorealty.com

David Chan

by Pat Arnow
David Chan thinks the east end of Grand Street is ready for sushi at last. He knows the neighborhood, having been for years the co-owner of Wa Lung, the Chinese restaurant on Grand between Jackson and Madison. He’s been seeing the eager young people coming into the area in the past five or six years. They order their sushi from outside the neighborhood. Sushi needs to be prepared and served quickly to taste its best, he says. That’s what Chan, who is young and eager himself, wants to provide. “We want to deliver faster and fresher.”

He’s got a chef with 15 years’ experience. He’ll get fresh deliveries every day. People know and trust Wa Lung, which has been delivering food to the neighborhood for 28 years. Chan, whose family has been involved with the restaurant from the beginning, hopes the customers will extend their loyalty to the new business.

The new restaurant / takeout / delivery storefront on Grand near East Broadway (just a couple doors down from El Castillo de Jagua, another excellent recent arrival), will be ready in a week or so, says Chan. It looks great, with a snappy LES Sushi awning, black tables and red chairs.

by Laure Travers
On Thursday, Clandestino launched a party gathering all in the neighborhood over three common causes: a toast to its own 18-month birthday (!), the health of Mick Jagger who also had a birthday that day (64 years and still going), and an homage to Stanley Kubrick, for whom this was his 79th (posthumous) birthday.

A few of us came costumed (Lolita and “Clandestine” turned out to be especially inspiring). A slide show mixing pictures of Lower-East-Siders, Mick, and Kubrick’s actors (Nicole, Tom, Jack, Peter etc…) was shown around 9 PM. There were a lot of discussion about people’s favorite Kubrick movies, whether Jagger is or is not still sexy, and how good people feel about Clandestino’s remaining so “home”-like to so many of its neighbors. Let’s hope all these wishes while backing some champagne will be realized!

by Tibi Z. Singer
While Senator Hillary Clinton is supporting (albeit 5 years too late) US withdrawal from Iraq, she appears to be pushing the enhancement of the less overt US involvement there, the contractors. In her most recent press release, our senator is advocating paying them bonuses for a job well done. If you’ve been worried about a clandestine, private US army staying behind as contractors, you may have Hillary to thank for it. Read how she debates DHS not whether or not we should be paying private companies for jobs our own military can do better and cheaper (not to speak of local contractors) - she’s much more concerned with paying these combination death-squad / pirate gangs a good day’s pay for a good day’s job. Like Bill, Hillary is shaping up to be a great Liberal Republican.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today announced that her amendment barring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from giving award fees or bonuses to contactors for work they haven’t done was included in the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations bill, which passed the Senate late last night. Senator Clinton’s amendment requires DHS to give award fees, or bonuses, to contractors only if the contractor meets specific outlined stipulations in the contract. This bill will now move to be conferenced with the House and then to the President for signature.

“It’s common sense that if an employee doesn’t show up for work or they turn in work that’s incomplete, a bonus is not merited,” said Senator Clinton. “I don’t think private contractors should be treated any differently and I’m pleased that my Senate colleagues agree. The corrupt practice on the part of DHS to give bonuses to contractors for work they didn’t even perform has to come to an end. My amendment ensures contractors will have to earn any award fee that they receive.”

by Don Cruise
According to The Huffington Post News Team, a gay S&M sex club, closed down in November by New York City health authorities for allegedly constituting a criminal nuisance, operated for seven years out of a small Lower East Side building co-owned by a Milberg Weiss attorney, who also lived on the premises.

The attorney, Paul D. Young, 48, was a partner at Milberg Weiss until late January or early February 2005, when his status at the firm changed to “of counsel,” which is what it remains today. Neither he nor the firm would comment on why his status changed — or, indeed, on any other aspect of this article. (”Of counsel” is a grab-bag term with many meanings; sometimes it refers to partners who are retired or semi-retired, or phasing out their practices.)

by Jacob Goldman

We have 2 open houses scheduled for this Sunday, July 29, from 11:30am - 1:30pm. If Sunday is not convenient for you, please give us a call to schedule a private appointment. You can reach us as 212-388-1115 (x100 or x101).

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Howzabout the Chrysler Building Out Your Living Room Window?
530 Grand St, cr. Columbia, #F9C (Hillman), #H22258, Open House Sunday Jul 29, 11:30am-1:30pm, 1 bed, 1 bath, 620 s.f., $430,000, Maint. $510

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Birdsong Sonatas, Partitas, and Cantatas!
266 East Broadway, cr. Montgomery, Apt. #B607, (Seward Park), #S11380, Open House Sunday Jul 29, 11:30am-1:30pm, 1 bed, 1 bath, 800 s.f., Balcony, $599,000, Maint. $482

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Doris Elpin, 212.388.1115 x101

by Don Cruise
Basketball City (soon to come to our LES shore, just south of the East River Park) and Hugo Boss partner to provide free week of basketball camp for underprivileged youth. For a second consecutive year, Basketball City partners with Hugo Boss, the fashion powerhouse with a long history of sports sponsorships, to run a week-long FREE basketball camp for 200+ underprivileged youth from the New York metropolitan area.

Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, NY Knicks Nate Robinson, Indiana Pacers Troy Murphy and former NY Knick John Starks will teach the kids the fundamentals of basketball and will address the importance of making positive life choices through leading a healthy lifestyle. The camp will also provide the participants with a week-long experience through daily games, contests and prizes.

The kids will each receive an official Basketball City / BOSS jersey, duffel bag, and hat (plus other giveaways).

In addition, Steve & Barry’s has generously donated a pair of Starbury sneakers to each camper.

When: Monday, July 30th – Thursday, August 2nd (9:00 am – 4:00 pm)
July 30th 9:30 am – John Starks*
July 30th 1:00 pm – Troy Murphy*
July 31st 1:00 pm – Nate Robinson*
August 1st 9:00 am – Steve Nash*
*times subject to change

Where: Hunter College
West Building Level B3 Gymnasium
SW corner of Lexington Avenue & 68th Street

This one week experience for these inner city kids will be the highlight of their summer. For more information please contact Bruce Radler at Basketball City at (718) 786-4242 or visit www.basketballcity.com.

[ July 27, 2007; 7:15 pm; ] Shabbat Vaetchanan Schedule
Shabbat Begins (Candlelighting) @ 7:58 PM

Havdallah is @ 9:02 PM

�
Please join us this Shabbat Vaetchanan.

  

Important: One of the steps in our main entrance has broken.  That door will be locked, and we will resume entering the shul through the right side entrance.  Please do not go down to the Beis Medrash level, […]

[ July 27, 2007; 6:45 pm; ] Candles: 7:59 PM
Mincha I: 6:45 PM
Mincha II: 8:09 PM

by Tibi Z. Singer
22-year-old Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, also known as Moliere, is not yet the writer that history recognizes as the father & true master of comic satire, author of “the Misanthrope and Tartuffe, and a dramatist to rank alongside Shakespeare & Sophocles. Far from it. He is in fact, a failed actor. His Illustrious Theatre Troupe, founded the previous year, is bankrupt. Hounded by creditors, Moliere is thrown into jail, released, then swiftly imprisoned again. When the jailors finally let him go, he disappears.
Official Web Site
Director: Laurent Tirard
Cast: Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Laura Morante, Ludivine Sagnier, Edouard Baer, Annelise Hesme, Jean-Michel Lahmi, Fanny Valette, Mélanie Santos, Gonzague Requillart
Genre: Comedy
Check out movie times at Sunshine Cinema, 141-143 Houston Street

by Don Cruise
Police arrested a suspect in a series of sexual assaults and attempted rapes on the Lower East Side and East Village. Police believe they have the man responsible for the three attacks that took place on June 12, July 7, and July 13 of this year that left women in the area on edge. Asunscion DeJesus-Garcia, 20, was arrested and charged with sex abuse, assault, robbery, burglary, and criminal possession of stolen property.

DeJesus-Garcia was wanted for a series of three attacks in June and July, the last of which occurred July 13. Over the past month, they had released a sketch and had asked for the public’s help in bringing him to justice. Each time he would follow his victims into their apartment buildings and forcibly touch them. The victims did not report seeing any weapons.

[ July 28, 2007; July 29, 2007; ] There are closures in the vicinity of Grand Central Terminal because of the steam pipe explosion on Lexington Avenue. Please visit nyc.gov or call 311 for updates.

One tube of the Battery Park Underpass (between Joe DiMaggio Highway and FDR Drive) will be fully closed at a time (usually southbound Joe DiMaggio to FDR) Sunday nights […]

by Yori Yanover
Last night on the steps at the Henry Street Settlement Abrons Arts Center amphitheater, the Greeks were back in force, with the tragedy of Antigone (girl meets dead brother, girl buries brother, king buries girl), with a troop from the Makor / Steinhardt Center. If ever the medium were the message, it was last night, at least for yours truly. For years I’ve been passing by those amphitheater seats, wishing for a day when real actors perform real plays for real LESers, right there, at the heart of the neighborhood, with buses and passers by and sirens and pedestrians.

Actually, watching pedestrians go by was nearly as exciting as watching the Oedipus progeny going through the final stages of daddy’s curse. Folks coming home from the subway would slow down, first to figure out what’s going on, then to hear better, and then the talented usher would be on them with a stack of programs and many of them would scoot onto the seats, mesmerized by the old master Sophocles. Parents with baby carriages were the best draw that way. In fact, as the play began, a real tragedy was prevented when a small child began choking and turning blue and needed to be Heimliched by a member of the audience (Hatzolah arrived in under 2 minutes, but the child was already out of danger – are we an educated neighborhood or what?).

Director Harriet Spitzer-Picker (who was pacing the top step like mother hen at the wolves’ bar mitzvah) took advantage of the outdoorsy nature of the place not just as a means of perpetually attracting new spectators, but also in utilizing the slow-setting summer sun as a source of very dramatic lighting, with the characters’ world growing ever darker the deeper they step into their unavoidable fate. Spitzer-Picker also utilized well the balcony overlooking the amphitheater as the base for the Sophocles’s chorus.

The acoustic dimensions of the steps worked just as they were supposed to, but the street traffic required all the actors to belt it out considerably, which they did quite gracefully. Kudos to Russell Jordan as King Creon, whom the play keeps onstage for much of the action, and whose vocals never frayed; indeed, I suspect his angry hollering at poor, self righteous, little Antigone (played on the thin edge of a farce by Sarah Jessica Parker lookalike Lauren Gray) drew in a slew of innocent bystanders-turned-theater goers.

Last night’s production lasted just under 80 minutes, which is a good pace for a Greek talkie. The director mercifully cut out a few speeches (the play survived). Marylin Duryea was impressive as the seer, clad in all-black like a widow straight out of Zorba.

If the wise men and women of Abrons pay attention, they would do well to continue with this fledgling tradition. We want more stuff on the steps – and we’re ready to show up in droves to watch. Last night and on Saturday night the audiences numbered near 100. keep it alive!

by Yori Yanover
The lobby of East River Housing Building 2, at 573-7 Grand Street, was flooded this morning, with a team of workmen laboring to clear the ankle-deep water out into the street. The flood was the result of a routine cleaning of the building’s water tank. According to one workman, the water descended into the building sewer pipes with great force, dislodging a plug.

Like most LESers this time of the year, ER residents were coming downstairs in sandals and the cool water did not pose danger to expensive shoes. In fact, it brought a nice relief from the 80+ degree weather we’re having.

by Don Cruise
Three thugs were arrested for beating a stranger in an apparently unprovoked attack on an East Village street, authorities said yesterday.

Ronald Sudol, 20, of the Lower East Side, Rochelle Trivett, 20, of Oregon, and Craig Krieger, 20, of New Hyde Park, L.I., attacked Robert Boyce, 22, on East 10th Street at 4:08 p.m. Sunday, sources said.

The trio allegedly jumped, punched and kicked Boyce and knocked him to the ground. They continued to kick him as he lay on the ground, fracturing an eye socket, investigators said.

Read NY Post Police Blotter

Steele with pole

by Tibi Z. Singer
Follow up post on stripper pole apartment:

So LoHo Realty got some decent press on the “stripper pole apartment” from NY Mag, and, of course, Curbed’s take on the NY Mag piece.

Curbed publisher and fellow LESer Lockhart Steele approved of the listing description but took broker Jacob Goldman to task for not having a picture of the stripper pole in the listing. But Lock is nothing but a good friend and willing to help. He came by and took a picture of himself with the stripper pole for all the world to browse.

There’s probably a lesson for all of us in there, somewhere, but we probably shouldn’t spell it out in this PG rated blog.

Oh, and the Grand & Lewis 2 Bedroom apartment for $685,000 is still available, stripper pole and all. call Doris Elpin, 212.388.1115 x101

Hillary with war guy

by Don Cruise
Following reports of cutbacks to the Federal Protective Service (FPS) Senator Clinton announced today that she has filed amendment to the Fiscal Year 2008 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, which is on the Senate floor this week, to prevent further cutbacks and restore the number of officers to a minimum of 1,200 in-service Commanders, Police Officers, Inspectors, and Special Agents. Senator Clinton also sent a letter to Department of Homeland (DHS) Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, expressing her concerns about the current plan to significantly reduce the size of the Service.

The proposed downsizing plan would affect the security at government buildings in New York State, many of which are considered high-risk facilities. In New York, the FPS is responsible for many sites including Federal Buildings like 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan and local air control facilities.

“These proposed staff cuts are clearly inconsistent with the ongoing threat that New York faces,” said Senator Clinton. “It is confusing at best that at the very same time that the Department of Homeland Security is warning us about the growth of al Qaeda and a possible terrorist attack on American soil this summer, they are also cutting staff for the only federal agency that is tasked with protecting the thousands of non-military federal buildings throughout the United States. The Deputy Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security said that further reductions in the FPS ‘could lead to uneven effects across the nation, perhaps place some facilities at risk.’ We are all tragically and painfully aware that our federal facilities have been the target of attacks before and we must do everything we can to protect them for the future.”

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Protective Service (FPS) provides law enforcement and security services to over one million tenants and daily visitors to federally owned and leased facilities nationwide. The FPS oversees approximately 15,000 contract security guards. The DHS plans to reduce the size of their federal police officers and staff from 1,150 to 950.

Senator Clinton’s amendment to the DHS Appropriations Bill would halt the DHS’s attempt to further downsize the Federal Protective Service. It requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that the workforce of the FPS includes no fewer than 1,200 Commanders, Police Officers, Inspectors and Special Agents engaged on a daily basis in protecting federal buildings. The amendment also requires the Office of Management and Budget and DHS to adjust security fees as necessary to ensure full funding of not fewer than 1,200 in-service Commanders, Police Officers, Inspectors, and Special Agents at the Federal Protective Service.