What a slow news day this has been. Other than the Pathmark closing (which everybody knows about), there’s been nothing out there in medialand to have fun with. So we’ve decided to go with out motto: "When in doubt, do big truck trying to make the turn into Stanton Street." Maybe tomorrow something important will happen and then we’d feel sassy and borderline functional again.

It’s basically kind of official: Pathmark under the Manhattan Bridge is closing. Another grocery store bites the dust. According to a tipster, the Pathmark at 227 Cherry Street between Rutgers Slip and Pike Slip on the far southeast edge of the Lower East Side is shuttering in a few months. The email: “Pathmark Supermarket@FDR/Pike St on Lower East Side to close Jan ‘08 and it seems that Goldilocks Trump has purchased the site. Gilding the LES!!!" (RackedWire)

Mary’s Dairy Goes Tits Up. Nothing but closings news this morning – it’s got to be the end of October 1929 evil spirit. East and West Village sweet tooths went into withdrawal last weekend with the abrupt closure of both Mary’s Dairy ice cream and chocolate bars. Reached by phone this morning, the co-owner of the parlors, who insisted on being referred to only as Mary, blamed the usual suspects in her Dairy’s demise: "We have very loyal customers who all say they’re going to miss us, but it just comes down to Con Ed and rent." As to the Gothamist headline, we think it should be Teats up.

Velázquez: Vet businessmen should get preferential treatment. Service-disabled veterans who own small businesses should get top priority in government contracting, according to a bill the House passed today. "For those men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, many with life-altering injuries, this bill will provide the tools to start a new endeavor and begin a new life," said Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Small Business Committee, in a statement. (FCW)

Gentrispeek? We love diatribes of all ilk and shade, so here goes this one, sub-headlined: They came together in the heart of East Harlem at the Encuentro for Dignity & Against Gentrification. In East Harlem, they have organized building by building to reclaim El Barrio from those who would "develop" them out of it. In Chinatown, they’ve rolled out a rent strike to win the repairs needed for tenants suffering from landlord neglect on Delancey Street. In the West Village, they’ve mobilized LGBT young people of color to stand up for their right to gather on the Christopher Street Pier. And on the Lower East Side, they’ve built a tenants’ union to defend "what is most beautiful about New York, the city that welcomed everyone…[that’s now] welcoming only money." And so on and so forth. (NYC Independent Media Center)

Investigators are focusing on a hot nightclub on the Lower East Side that is best known for celebrity sightings. Police say two women were abducted outside the club, driven out of Manhattan and sexually assaulted.
Police believe that the same person is responsible for both sexual assaults. The cases are very similar: They happened in the […]

by Yori Yanover
This letter was handed to Borough President Scott M. Stringer last night, during his open house with Grand Street Co-op residents at the Educational Alliance.

Dear Mr. Stringer,

The community boards are unquestionably the domain of the Borough President - not only do you appoint individual members, you also provide resources for the day-to-day running of the boards. Having been following closely for almost five years the workings of Community Board 3, which represents the Grand Street co-ops, I believe our board is hostile to the working middle class families living on and around Grand Street.

Transportation is one of the glaring areas where there exists a clear bias among the board leadership. To illustrate, I once proposed in my magazine, the Grand Street News, that on days when entire blocks are taken out of the parking stock to accommodate film productions, there should be a moratorium on alternate-side parking nearby, so motorist are not penalized while their neighbors are benefiting from film industry jobs. I received an email from CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer, calling local motorists "people who for some reason think they have a God-given right to free parking on a public street," and adding, "I don’t think the majority of people would want that."

In the geographic make up of our community board it does come down to the fact that the co-ops are a minority, with roughly seven board members representing our area. The result is a tyranny of the majority.

We have one serious commercial area in our neck of the woods, stretching from Essex to Allen Streets and from Delancey to Canal. The Dept. of Traffic is merciless in ticketing shoppers who dare double-park even for a minute, even with a driver behind the wheels waiting for his wife to come out. But our community board has been deaf to requests to ease up on double-parked cars in the Business District. there are communities throughout the City where the rule is not ticket first ask questions later. All we’re asking for is that same leniency.

There’s a six-lane highway called Houston Street, which could be used to get traffic from the FDR Drive to the Williamsburg Bridge. Instead, the DOT has chosen to direct bridge traffic through Grand Street, with the full support of our board. We have a disproportionate number of elderly. One of them was killed on Grand Street because of DOT uselessness, with our community board’s tacit approval.

We used to have four car lanes and a median on Grand Street. The DOT took out two lanes to create bike lanes, which make for perpetual congestion on Grand and a guaranteed two-red-light wait for a left turn against oncoming traffic. More than that, these bike lanes were voted down by the community board the year before, when DOT revisited the issue, without putting it on the agenda. The CB did not inform the local community that they bike lanes were going in. We found out about them when we woke up one morning to discover zebra stripes. This is fundamental failure of the CB’s responsibility to act as liaison and advocate between City govt and the community.

We have about two cyclists an hour using those lanes. But on Houston, where there are several schools along the south side, with dozens of parents and children biking to school, risking their lives – there are no bike lanes. And the chairman of our CB3 Transportation Committee, David Crane, didn’t even bother to show up for a discussion of those bike lanes when invited by the DOT, much less elicit opinions from us down here. What a dereliction of duty that was.

Our neighborhood is bursting with cars seeking parking, especially on nights when the leagues are playing in the East River Park. People returning from work spend hours looking for parking. The co-op garages are way too small and the local commercial garage charges prohibitive rates. But there used to be parking garages under the Williamsburg Bridge, until the city closed them down to renovate the bridge in the 1980s. Now the DOT owns five vast and empty garages under the bridge – but Chairman Crane refuses even discuss asking DOT to share the space and help bring down the cost of parking. It is understood that the DOT is not in favor of this proposal, but in what other community has this CB failed to advocate b/c of resistance from the city

Our community board may be the last holdout in Manhattan without an agreement on rezoning with the But even when they do settle their differences, we on Grand Street, south of the proposed rezoning area are not be included. Down here, where you can still find stretches of 6 story buildings, an area ripe for the protections that down zoning provides, developers are free – and will still be allowed - to build their monstrosities using air rights and other legal fictions intended to rob the rest of us of our resources.

Not a year ago you, Mr. Borough President, invited the head of GOLES, Demeris Reyes—who hopes to choke us with even more low income housing—to a panel discussion. I have pictures for you of GOLES members dancing on the stage in a CB3 meeting, mouthing anti-Semitic threats against the Jews of the co-ops. It doesn’t disqualify Ms. Reyes from participating in the debate – but you made hers the dominant, singular voice in a town hall meeting conducted at 466 Grand Street!

Mr. Stringer, I know you to be a fair minded and effective public servant. Please use your office to protects the rights of our minority group – folks living south of Houston Street.

by Yori Yanover
Last night at the Educational Alliance Mazer Theater, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer hosted a town hall meeting, headlined Lower East Side Co-op Forum and sponsored by the United Jewish Council of the East Side, East River Housing Corporation, Hillman Housing Corporation, and Seward Park Housing Corporation. At least two organizations were glaringly missing from the sponsorship list: the Amalgamated Housing, the fourth cooperative on Grand Street; and Community Board 3, which declined an invitation to sponsor, a snide that was remedied by asking Seward Park resident and CB3 member Dominic Pisciotta to sit on the dais.

Alongside Stringer and Pisciotta sat UJC Executive Director Joel Kaplan, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s representative Judy Rapfogel, and the Educational Alliance’s Community Center Director Lauren Greilsheimer. They were later joined by State Senator Martin Connor.

My estimate of the crowd was around 50, and according to my friend who lives in Seward Park, the vast majority came from East River and Hillman. That’s surprising, considering the geography — Seward Parkers live right next door to the Edgies, the rest of us have to walk upwards of half a mile. I have no idea how many folks from the Amalgamated showed up.

Stringer maneuvered swiftly through the obligatory niceties, to open the mic and allow local residents to share their gripes. Those ran, more or less, around these issues:

1. CB3 hates Grand Street

2. Our transportation stinks

3. We have rats

The Borough President ably dealt with all the “shares,” offering a hopeful context in which our gripes are in the process of being dealt with. Those of us more familiar with the reality of the Borough President’s office under the new city charter were well aware that when Stringer said, “Those accordion buses must be banned,” he didn’t really mean to suggest that he had any power whatsoever over any buses, with or without accordions.

But there is one area where the BP can actually make a difference — the running of our community board. It is possible that my own litany last night, over the overt hostility of the board towards the co-op neighborhood, will begin a dialogue. An intelligent man, Stringer understood that our problem is not with the competence of our board members and leaders, which no one doubts. Our problem is that they view us as the rich, white minority who dared to privatize our co-ops. As long as this bias remains at the crux of CB3’s view of Grand Street, we’ll never get a fair shake, even if all we ask for is just a phone call to the DOT.

by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
As the first session of this Congress draws to a close, I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the progress we have made together standing up for New York in the United States Senate.

In this Congress, I have continued to work to fight for the rights of working families throughout New York and the country.

Earlier this year, Congress passed into law the first minimum wage increase for workers in almost a decade. The law will increase the minimum wage to $7.25 by 2009. As in past sessions of Congress, I was an original cosponsor of this legislation, and worked to get it enacted into law.

As in past sessions of Congress, I was an original cosponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation to ensure that workers can exercise their right to organize and bargain collectively without fear of coercion or intimidation. I was also an original cosponsor of legislation to guarantee collective bargaining rights to law enforcement officers when it is introduced in the Senate later this year, and was an early cosponsor of the RESPECT Act, legislation to expand collective bargaining protections to millions of workers designated as ’supervisors’ by the Bush administration NLRB.

I joined with my colleagues to introduce legislation called the FOREWARN Act, which would modernize and improve the enforcement of the federal law that gives workers notice of an impending mass lay off. The legislation is designed to ensure that workers receive a real opportunity to obtain training and find new employment prior to the imminent loss of their jobs.

I also cosponsored legislation to strengthen the protection of working conditions in the country, introduced legislation to invest in our nation’s child care workforce, and led a bipartisan effort to block the rescission of unspent Workforce Investment Act funds.

I was one of the lead cosponsors of bipartisan legislation to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. The legislation would ensure that workers are able to enforce their legal right to equal pay under Title VII.

I also worked to block the Bush administration from downsizing and privatizing essential government services throughout the state and the country. This session, I introduced and obtained passage in the Senate of a measure to block the Bush administration from downsizing the Federal Protective Service, which provides law enforcement and security services to federally owned and leased facilities throughout New York and nationwide. I also worked with other members to introduce an amendment and get language into an appropriations bill to block the Bush administration from privatizing the employees who operate, maintain and repair the nation’s locks and dams.

[ November 13, 2007; 8:00 pm; ]

TASK FORCE ON FAMILIES
& CHILDREN AT RISK PRESENTS

YOUR KIDS ALREADY KNOW…DO YOU?
Protecting Our Children From The Dangers Of The Internet

Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 8:00 to 10:00 PM

Bialystoker Shul ~7-11 Bialystoker Place ~ NYC
 

Greetings
Rabbi Zvi D. Romm
Morah Deasra of the Bialystoker Shul

Guest Speakers
Rabi Abraham J. Twerski, MD
Renowned Author and Lecturer
Founder, Gateways Rehabilitation Center

Philip M. Rosenthal
Computer […]

It’s Your Neighborhood – We Can Make It Better … TOGETHER!
sponsored by
United Jewish Council of the East Side
East River Housing Corporation
Hillman Housing Corporation
Seward Park Housing Corporation
Featuring:
Manhattan Borough President
Scott M. Stringer
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
6:30 to 8:00 pm
Educational Alliance, Mazer Theater, 197 East Broadway, (be. Jefferson & Clinton Streets)
To RSVP email townhall@manhattanbp.org
Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer […]

Ubiquita NYC’s seven-year anniversary. November is the official month Ubiquita was created at the Lower East Side nightclub, Guernica (now known as Midway) in 2000. In addition to the Anniversary Party, UNYC will host a series of events to celebrate this month in Brooklyn and Manhattan, including a party at Midway on Thanksgiving night (Thursday, November 22). But then all the online copy suggests this is a completely East of the East River phenomenon: In the late 1990s, a group of artists, poets and musicians came together to collaborate, perform, and party at a weekly Sunday event, the Sunday Tea Party at Frank’s Lounge in the trendy Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. We think it’s all extremely hip hop, what the kids like. Check out the Ubiquita Giant Step Party music video. It’s kinda’ stopless.

The what of what? Blogger Brian Carpenter writes about Jazz bass player William Parker, and declares him as the central figure of the free jazz renaissance of the last ten years. We won’t argue, to make things move faster. He goes down the kudos, until he makes this bizarre announcement: He is known by his colleagues and New York City audiences as the Mayor of the Lower East Side, often seen performing several times a week all over the city. What the fudge? So we went to the web and put in the eky words and discovered there really is such a quote about Parker being the mayor of the LES, made in 2002 by… Brian Carpenter. Ah, Brian, how well you self reference…

Jim “The Mosaic Man” Sells Out. Our friend Eric Ferrara of East-Village.com writes: Jim “The Mosaic Man” Power is an East Village fixture. For 20 years, Jim has adorned the streets with beautiful mosaics, which are mini-history lessons, giving our neighborhood a unique identity. But Jim has moved on, leaving his legacy in the hands of the root of gentrification. But, apparently, that’s soon over with.

Landlords to poor: Drop dead. With gentrification spreading into low-income areas, many landlords in struggling neighborhoods of New York City, who once welcomed tenants with federal Section 8 rent subsidy vouchers, are now turning them away, according to some housing activists and real estate agents. Supporters of a City Council bill banning such discrimination claim that landlords often deny Section 8 applicants as a way to mask broader discrimination against single mothers and black and Hispanic tenants. No kidding. (NY Times)

by Jonathan Slaff
For the 36th year, Peter Schumann’s Bread and Puppet Theater will return to Theater for the New City November 26 to December 17, 2007 with two new works, one for adults and one for children.

For the grownups, it’ll be “The Divine Reality Comedy,” a brand new translation of Dante’s Divina Commedia, which is divided into four parts. In “Paradise,” the old human Born-to-Die gene is replaced by the brand new Born-to-Buy gene. In “Post-Paradise Horsemanship,” a herd of white equestrian cutouts (of all sizes) is manipulated by a crowd of dancers in a picturesque, prancing dance. In “Purgatory,” the shadows of the indefinitely detained speak to you. In “Hell,” the Guantanamo interrogation process is staged with an eight inch papier maché population, whcih recites actual interrogation transcripts and then witnesses three cases of torture as demonstrated on three over life size puppets.

November 29 to December 16, 2007
“The Divine Reality Comedy” (for adults): First week: Thursday through Sunday at 8:00 pm. Subsequent weeks: Wednesdays through Sundays at 8:00 pm. Runs 1:20.
“The Divine Reality Comedy Circus” (for kids of all ages): Saturdays and Sundays at 3:00 pm. Runs :55.
Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Avenue (at E. 10th Street)
Presented by Theater for the New City
Tickets $12 (all events). Box office (212) 254-1109. Online ticketing available at theaterforthenewcity.net
Critics are invited to all performances.

by Tibi Z. Singer
Renowned New York City singer/songwriter, Lach, will be play a solo acoustic set at The Sidewalk Cafe, 94 Avenue A, on Saturday, November 10th at 10 pm.

As a songwriter Lach founded the Antifolk art and music movement which is sited as a main inspiration by hundreds of performers today from Beck to Regina Spektor.

“Lach is the mastermind of Antifolk, a loose concept involving acoustic guitars and punk-rock attitude, like a Lower East Side rendezvous of Bob Dylan and Patti Smith. Like black snow, stalled subway cars and random violence, Lach is a Manhattan institution.”- NY Times

Lach’s latest album Today (FortifiedRecords) is available in stores nationally (Virgin, HMV, Tower etc.) and on-line (cdbaby.com, amazon.com, borders.com etc.) and through digital download at Apple I-Tunes.

The Guardian UK wrote: “Lach - one of the originators, and one of the sharpest arrows of the New York antifolk scene. Think battered acoustic thrashings, think sarky, smart-mouthed wit and wisdom but most importantly think Lach. A Lach show is rarely less than a face-ache funny, beat-punk-unplugged joy, and likely to send you home with several favorite new songs.”

Pomerances planning Thompson Lower East Side "boutique hotel." The Pomeranc family, which built the 100-room hotel at 60 Thompson in SoHo, will launch a 141-room hotel down here in 2008, as well as the Smyth in TriBeCa, with 100 rooms and 15 condominiums, and Gild House near Wall Street, with 126 rooms (NY Times)

City cuts 73 NYCHA management positions, move will save $7.7 million a year. Ok, let’s do the math, wait… wait… It comes down to an average $105,479.45 per annual salary. We think the rest should be told to take 80 grand or go home. After all, NYCHA is facing a $225 million budget deficit. The cuts trimmed the managerial ranks by 10 percent, consolidating administrative functions but preserving services to the agency’s 408,000 residents. (NY Times)

Post Office to add 117 trucks to our streets. If those guys become any more efficient, they’d be running trucks on our sidewalks… Sen. Charles Schumer is urging the U.S. Postal Service to halt a planned merger of Bronx and Manhattan mail-processing centers that would add nearly 117 new daily truck trips between the boroughs just as the city pushes congestion pricing. Incidentally, NY Post winner headline for this item: Pols Going Postal over Mail Plan. We give it 2 bialys.

Hungarian synagogue and Turkish bath on landmark list. The NY Sun reports this morning that the city will consider designating five East Village buildings as landmarks tomorrow, possibly adding development restrictions on the properties as new hotels and condominiums sprout up in the surrounding neighborhood. Tomorrow will be a busy day for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, as the agency is slated to vote to designate two historic districts and seven individual landmarks, in addition to holding the hearings on the five East Village structures.

Remembering Brad Will. Brad Will was a freight-hopping, guitar-playing activist, who spent years on the frontlines of countless movements from efforts to save squats and community gardens in the Lower East Side to engaging in "tree-sits" for weeks at a time high in the canopy of Oregon’s endangered old-growth forests. He was killed on Oct. 27, 2006, while covering a teacher-led social uprising in the impoverished southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. (The Indypendent)

The hunt is over for an armed ATM bandit in Manhattan.
Police say they have arrested 37-year-old James Palmer outside a methadone clinic in midtown Manhattan Saturday morning.
Palmer is suspected in at least eight gunpoint robberies at ATM machines in Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side and Midtown. He’s struck almost every day this week. Apparently, he takes […]

by Tibi Z. Singer
Even Natalie Portman couldn’t get a table at the busy Lower East Side restaurant Apizz. On a recently packed night at the joint, one bystander saw Portman walk in with model boyfriend Nathan Bogle. “They didn’t have a reservation,” said the source. “So Natalie leaned in, flashed a mischievous smile, and asked, ‘Are you sure?’ ” The steely manager reiterated that, yes, he was sure - but he did find them some space to sit in the lounge.

by Tibi Z. Singer
City Food Tours & Events, New York City’s most critically acclaimed food tour and artisan event company is proud to announce that due to popular demand, it will be starting regularly scheduled public food tours of the Lower East Side beginning on October 29th, 2007. The Lower East Side food tours will be running 5 times a week, once a day, Wednesday through Sunday. Tickets are now available for purchase at www.cityfoodtours.com . The price is $40 per person. Both day and evening tours are available.

According to City Food Tours & Events founder and president, Joyce Weinberg, a food industry expert, the Lower East Side food tour consists of a “two hour guided walk which includes tastes of some of the best food and beverages this thriving culinary mecca has to offer.”

Weinberg says that her food tours are particularly popular with tourists, out-of-town visitors, foodies, families and conventioneers. “From the best chocolates, artisanal cheese and organic fair trade coffee to sinful donuts, pastries and more, you’ll learn about how these foods are made, how to enjoy them and you’ll meet the people who make and sell them. It’s not your grandmother’s Lower East Side anymore. There are many wonderful, handmade foods to enjoy…it’s not just knishes and corned beef.”

by Tibi Z. Singer
Jerry Stiller is most memorable for the roles of Frank Costanza in Seinfeld and Arthur Spooner in King of Queens. The two characters may seem identical at first glance, but the ingenious Stiller has loaded each of them with so many subtle individual wrinkles, true fans of the two shows would distinguish between them in a blind test any time. Costanza is brutish and violent; Spooner melancholic and imaginative. They’re both completely nuts, of course, manipulative, self-centered and relentlessly bruising their family members, neighbors and all innocent bystanders, but as years and reruns go by, Spooner emerges as the sweeter of the two.

Jerry Stiller grew up under the Williamsburg Bridge, on Columbia Street. We’re delighted to present an excerpt from his biography, which is available in hard and soft cover, on cassettes and video and, probably, in Semaphore, too (abridged).

Click to purchase Growing Up Poor

The town of Frampol, Poland, existed for me long before Isaac Bashevis Singer immortalized it in his stories. The Citrons — my uncles and aunts and my mother — arrived in America in waves, each child In care of the one before. My Tanta Faiga arrived at first and my mother, Faiga’s kid sister, Bella, last. The entire Citron family (some of them spell it Citrin) lived in one building, a Tenement at 61 Columbia Street on the Lower East Side.

Yussef and Devorah Citron, my maternal grandparents, never reached America. Having gotten their children to the land where the streets were said to be paved with gold, they were content to remain in Poland. My mother told me it was because their parents looked down on things modern; for their children, though, they knew America was the future.

My mother had been born in Poland around 1900. My father, William Stiller (called Willie), had been born in America maybe four years before that. His parents had arrived from Chijika in Galicia. When Bella Citron was in her twenties, her sisters and brothers, anxious to find a husband for the youngest sister, matched her with this young boy from Stanton Street. They were married soon after.

I was born June 8, 1927, in Unity Hospital, Brooklyn, two years ahead of my brother Arnold, three years ahead of my sister Doreen, eighteen years ahead of my sister Maxine.

We moved a lot when I was a kid: ten different places in twelve years. Then in 1939 we made the big jump to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, first to the fifth-floor walkup on Goereck Street, and a year later, to the projects, the Vladeck Houses on Jackson Street, from where my father could walk to Houston street to start his new job driving a bus to South Ferry.

My father, the oldest of ten children, never finished public school. He became a taxi driver, then an unemployed taxi driver, and later a driver for the Triangle Bus Company.

My mother’s wish was to become Americanized. She taught herself to read, write, and speak English. Her optimism was undiminished by the poverty that surrounded her.

On the morning my mother was to go down to take the test to become an American citizen, I sat with her at the kitchen table, going over questions like “who was the father of our country?” and “what are the forty-eight states?” Together we drilled until she could recite them by heart.

“Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?”

“Thomas Jefferson,” she said, puffing on a Chesterfield.

“How many presidents have we had?”

“Thirty-two, including President Roosevelt. I’ll have to write,” she fretted. “My handwriting is terrible.”

“It’s fine. Don’t be nervous, you’ll pass,” I told her.

I knew she would. She spoke English without any accent.

“What do you call the first ten amendments?”

“The Bill of Rights.”

“Right. What was the Eighteenth Amendment?”

“Prohibition. The Volstead act.”

“And the twenty-first?”

“Repeal, thanks to President Roosevelt.”

There seem to be something unfair about a country that allowed me to be a citizen automatically because I was born here, but not my mother. “America-gonif” — I was getting a way easy.

“You know, my friends think you were born here,” I told her. “You speak perfectly.” It seemed to be just what she wanted to hear.

“It comes natural. I feel like a citizen,” she said, taking another puff.

I loved it when she smoked. It made her look so modern, the way American women were supposed to look. They all smoked in the movies — Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Bette Davis — a certain sophistication.

“Why don’t you go downstairs and play. But watch out for cars,” she said. “When I come back I’ll be an American citizen. Wish me luck.”

I kissed her, and she headed for City Hall.

A week later she was notified: Bella Citron Stiller was an American citizen.

My mother was no longer a greenhorn.

A couple of years ago I came across a photostat of her citizenship papers. They were dated June 8, 1937 — my tenth birthday. But my memories go back a lot farther than that.

Police nabbed a Wisconsin resident who allegedly stabbed another man in the face and back on the Lower East Side, authorities said yesterday.
Jamie Muñoz, 25, attacked the 20-year-old at Catherine and Henry streets at 3:55 a.m. last Wednesday, police said.
Responding cops arrested Muñoz on charges of assault and menacing.
The victim’s wounds were not life-threatening.
NY Post

by LoHo Realty
We have 3 open houses scheduled for this Sunday, Oct 28, 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 at 212-388-1115 (x100 or x101).

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we’re raising funds to support Gouverneur Hospital’s Breast Cancer Program. Please stop by our office at 563 Grand Street to learn how you can help support this campaign.

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Friends-Approved!
FDR Drive & Grand Street (East River), #E44473, Open House Sunday Oct 28, 11:30am-1:30pm, 473 FDR Drive, #K707, 2 bed, 1 bath, 1000 s.f., balcony, $670,000, Maint. $719, Doris Elpin
212-388-1115 x101

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Birdsong Sonatas, Partitas, and Cantatas!
Price Reduced, East Broadway & Montgomery (Seward Park), #S11380, Open House Sunday Oct 28, 11:30am-1:30pm, 266 East Broadway (cr. Montgomery), Apt. #B607, 1 bed, 1 bath, 800 s.f., balcony, $565,000, Maint. $482, Jacob Goldman 212-388-1115 x100

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Small Price, Large Efficiency!
Motivated Seller!! Grand & Lewis (Hillman), #H22268, Open House Sunday Oct 28, 11:30am-1:30pm, 550 Grand Street (cr. Lewis) #H9F, 1 bed, 1 bath, 500 s.f., $369,000, Maint. $498, Doris Elpin 212-388-1115 x101

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The Economist loves those Chinatown buses so much, we almost stopped dreaming of pushing them into the East River. It used to be that you had to venture below the grime-caked pylons of the Manhattan Bridge, to a scene more reminiscent of Luoyang than of the Lower East Side, in order to catch a cheap bus ride between New York and Washington, DC. Even now at the intersection of East Broadway and Forsyth St, ticket hawkers scream out destinations in thick Cantonese accents—"DC, DC, DC!" "Philly, Philly!"—and grab the arms of passers-by toting luggage. Loading queues often disintegrate into a Hobbesian struggle to nab untaken seats.

Despite all this, the business is a model of thrift and ingenuity, revolutionizing travel in the north-east by selling tickets between its big cities for as little as $12. In a testament to the power of the invisible hand, the rough-and-tumble success of the Chinese bus lines is attracting new competitors, and the industry is becoming less dodgy in the process.

Cops and bar owners rule on our safety, the rest of us don’t really matter. Club owners and elected officials said bars will have better safety and a more law abiding environment because of a new Best Practices guidelines published last week. But some community board and neighborhood representatives said they were left out of the year-long consultation between the N.Y.P.D. and owners that resulted in the 58-point guidelines. (The Villager)

Festival brings art back to beer-soaked L.E.S. – but who’s moralizing… What a self righteous headline to a decent report on the upcoming Crown Point Festival. Executive Director Kelly Markus is the organizer of the Crown Point Festival, which starts Oct. 27 and runs until Nov. 17 at the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side. It shakes up the classic festival format by showcasing three different mediums at once. Each night will feature back-to-back theater performances, film screenings, and live music on a single stage over the course of approximately two and a half hours. All the beer soaking is strictly in the feverish mind of the headline editor… (The Villager)

Rise and march, gay witches! Growing from a small community parade to an event known around the country, the Village Halloween Parade, now in its 34th year, invites all to take flight on “Wings of Desire” for the yearly trek up Sixth Avenue beginning at 7 p.m. An estimated two million New Yorkers rally for a view of the hundreds of giant puppets, 42 different bands, and the 50,000 costumed revelers who travel the route from Spring Street in Soho to 21st Street in Chelsea. The top of the Empire State Building will be bathed in orange light from dusk ’til dawn on the 31st, providing a beacon for the throngs heading uptown. (Gay City News)

An abridged history of kosher wine in America. In 1948, Royal Wine was acquired, and Kedem winery began operations on New York City’s Lower East Side. They would move several times over the years – from the Lower East Side to Long Island City, from the Bronx to Brooklyn, and finally settling in Bayonne, N.J. Unquestionably, Kedem pioneered the first steps of a process that has created the dynasty run by CEO David Herzog, and his brothers Phillip and Herman (affectionately called Shmuly, Faish and Sheya, respectively). (Jewish Exponent)

Visit the Lower East Side for the pigs. I go to the lower East Side for knishes, pastrami and Il Laboratorio del Gelato’s sublime dark chocolate ice cream. But I never thought to go there for authentic, no-apologies barbecue until I visited Georgia’s Eastside BBQ, a narrow 14-seat cafe a few steps to the south (of course) of Houston St. (New York Daily News)

Bloomberg Housing Subsidy Program Targets Domestic Violence Victims. Here’s the real difference between NY City and the United States: We have good government that mostly works. New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced the start of the first-ever housing subsidy program targeted to victims of domestic violence exiting the Human Resources Administration’s (HRA) domestic violence shelters. The Domestic Violence Work Advantage program will provide a rental subsidy for these families and for the first time will grant an extension for a period of six months after they obtain housing to secure employment while they recover from the trauma of abuse. (All American Patriots)

Last night’s hearing on Congestion Pricing at Hunter. With the Lexington Avenue subway line down Thursday night, congestion was worse than usual around Hunter College, where the New York City Congestion Mitigation Commission held its first public hearing. The commission, which will present recommendations to alleviate traffic congestion to the New York State Legislature in March, entertained short speeches from a number of elected officials and nonprofit group leaders. While speakers were overwhelmingly in favor of a congestion pricing scheme, almost all expressed dismay with what they characterized as the meeting’s short notice and disorganization. "If the commission is to be legitimate, it must give the public a real opportunity to be engaged in the process," said Micah Kellner, D-Upper East Side. Attendants who wanted to speak were turned away if they had not signed up in advance. (CU Columbia Spectator)

Local pols looking to shield us from the congestion plan. Council Member Rosie Mendez said, “With this terrible bus service, one can’t blame these residents for wanting to drive.” And Council members Daniel Garodnick and Jessica Lappin suggested that residents of the congestion pricing zone receive special parking permits. (New York Sun)

Bloomberg not convinced MTA fare hike needed. Cool, let’s not hike ‘em. Bloomberg Thursday said he’s not convinced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s proposed increases are warranted. “I do not think that we should be going and discussing the fare increase - or not fare increase - until we answer the question: Where is the MTA going to get the monies to improve the service and expand the service that the MTA should be providing to people in our region?” Bloomberg said. (New York Daily News)

L.E.S. children rally for after school funds. Henry Street Settlement organized a rally of about 300 children and parents at Sol Laine Park last week, outside P.S. 134 on East Broadway, joining a national campaign to prevent cuts to after school programs. Donning bright yellow T-shirts with the slogan "After School For All," the students — who attend free after school programs offered through the Henry Street and University settlement houses — signed a petition in the courtyard of P.S. 134 that asks Gov. Eliot Spitzer to increase state funding for such programs. (The Villager)

by Laure & Sean
One could not tell from the green trees and the summary temperatures, but Halloween is approaching, and we are not one to miss a good opportunity to have a party.

Sooooo, if you have not yet figured out your Halloween outfit, start thinking about it, Halloween is next Wednesday, Oct 31st, and we are throwing our second Clandestine/Halloween party that same day, starting around 9 pm.

No theme this year but be witty, be sexy, and be thirsty !

35 Canal Street near Orchard, 212.475.5505

Cheers !!!

Visit the Clandestino website

by Rabbi Yossi Pollak
This Shabbat we welcome Dov Lederberg and Yael Avi-Yonah, two artists from Israel. They have been creating for three decades in Jerusalem original artworks with a deep spiritual and meditational impact.

Shabbat morning our Shacharit services begin at 9:30 AM. Following services, Dov and Yael will speak about “The Converging Vectors of Modern Science, Art, Healing and Kabbalah.” Dov and Yael will also be available to speak about their art during our kiddush.

Shabbat afternoon between Mincha & Maariv Dov and Yael will speak again, this time on the subject of “G-d Created Man in His Image-The Secret of the Cube and Other Forms in Jewish Mysticism.”

Saturday night at 8 PM, please join us in our new Zvi Baruch Berkowitz Bais Medrash for a Melava Malka in honor of the 13th Yahrtzeit of R’ Shlomo Carlebach. Join us for food, music, and stories, and the chance to see, discuss, and purchase some of the art of Dov Lederberg and Yael Avi-Yonah.

For a preview of the artwork of Dov Lederberg and Yael Avi-Yonah, visit their website.

Essex Street’s comeback is right on schedule. Eater today comments , under the headline "Suddenly, Quite the Excess on Essex Street" that Long an afterthought in the Lower East Side bar and restaurant scene, Essex Street is suddenly, out of nowhere, experiencing its 15 minutes of fame. As one clever Eater tipster has it, “Is Essex Street becoming the new restaurant row?" Well, if you live anywhere long enough, you become aware of cycles. Back in the 1970s, Lower East Side commerce was all Sundays and all Essex Street, for two main product lines: Judaica and Electronics. The leader on the north block was Foto Electric (the spelling is, possibly, Rumanian), which at the time was the biggest importer of small electronics and appliances, but there were easily five or six other stores, all owned by Orthodox Jews, between Grand and Canal. Incidentally, the Judaica stores were also owned by religious Jews. What happened later is described in a June, 2005 Grand Street News interview with Isaac Meir Meir (see image), who was manager of the since closed Etronics, and had managed Foto Electric in its heyday.

"Anyone looking for a discount came to Essex," Meir recalls. Foto Electric catered to mainly tourists - like most stores on Essex Street. But those happy times began to decline when the city closed Essex to traffic for a year for repairs. "It killed the overseas business," Meir says. The culprit, by the way, was David Dinkins, the last really terrible mayor of NY City.

Have you noticed St. Marks Place getting livelier? We have, on those few occasions when we coast across town on our way to Ave. D and the short trip home. Now the NY Sun is confirming it. One of the fastest retail turnover rates in the city is shaking up St. Marks Place. Over the past several months, more than eight new retail tenants have moved in, and at least three new food vendors are expected to relocate there soon, brokers said. Some of the most notable changes are occurring on the St. Marks block between Second and Third avenues.

The problem with cultural icons is they can go bust… New doubts about what killed a New York City police officer who worked in the ruins of the World Trade Center now threaten the yearslong effort to create a treatment program for other ailing Sept. 11 workers. The New York City Medical Examiner, Charles Hirsch, concluded last week that the foreign matter found in Detective James Zadroga’s lungs definitely — according to him — did not come from dust. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., co-sponsored a Sept. 11 bill named after Zadroga, and gave a speech on the Senate floor hailing him as “the kind of detective they make TV shows about.” (AP)

New Yorkers file for bankruptcy in droves. Yes, look to your right, now to your left – the man or woman sitting next to you may already have filed their Chapter 11. Have you? It’s 10 pm, do you know where your money is? And so on and so forth, like it’s October 1929 all over again. Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings in the city increased to 10,541 over the past 12 months, marking a 69% increase. The largest increase, 83%, was recorded in Chapter 7 filings in the Brooklyn branch of U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which includes filings for that borough as well as Queens and Staten Island. In the Manhattan branch, which includes filings for that borough and the Bronx, Chapter 7 filings were up 59%. (Crain’s New York Business)

Bush defending Constitution against small businesses. resident Bush opposes new legislation that would update contracting programs for small-business contractors because some provisions raise constitutional concerns. The Small Business Contracting Program Improvements Act, introduced by Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Small Business Committee, would strengthen and modernize the Small Business Administration’s programs and set standards for programs that help firms with contract applications. But the White House says some provisions in the bill are "constitutionally suspect." Oh, the care he shows for our constitution, it renews our faith in hypocrisy. (FCW)

A motorist was nabbed after a booze-fueled crash killed his passenger, authorities said.
Joel Clervil, 37, was speeding south along the FDR Drive at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday when his BMW smashed into several cars at 23rd Street.
His passenger, Lashawn Davis, 31, died in the wreck.
A test revealed that Clervil was legally impaired, cops said. He […]

Miguel Pinero

by Yori Yanover
Just ran into this Women of Color blog, in my tireless quest for Google keywords, when this not half bad poem by Miguel Pinero (1946–1988, Puerto Rican playwright, actor, and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café) caught my attention. It’s titled A Lower Eastside Poem. The opening is kinda’ Lenny Cohennish quirky and selfpitiful:

Just once before I die / I want to climb up on a / tenement sky / to dream my lungs out till / I cry / then scatter my ashes thru / the Lower East Side.

But the third stanza stung me as particularly out of step with current geographic convention, and I was wondering if it could be thrown into the great debate over where the heck is this Lower East Side everybody’s been talking so much about lately:
From Houston to 14th Street / from Second Avenue to the mighty D / here the hustlers & suckers meet / the faggots & freaks will all get / high / on the ashes that have been scattered / thru the Lower East Side.

So, as late as the 1980’s, at least Miguel Pinero was thinking NoHo when writing about the LES. Except that NoHo doesn’t think it’s anywhere near Ave. D, it prefers to think of itself as a kind of lower West Village.

A fine mess you got us into, Mr. Pinero.

Samantha Murphy

by Jonathan Leeder
I don’t know how you guys are feeling but I’m still recovering from CMJ. Scratchy throat and some sniffles, but hopefully some Emergen-C supplements and some new (to me) bands will get me back to 100%!

This Thursday eve at The Mercury Lounge is California’s Film School, who are doing a heckuva job crafting dark psychedelic anthems that recall the good ole days of My Bloody Valentine. Eulogies and Small Sins will be supporting. Also, over at The Cake Shop is The King Khan & BBQ Show, truly a band beyond description. Ok, I’ll attempt: R&B, rockabilly, garage, doo-wop, psychedelia, punk and whatnot.

On Friday night at R Bar is Blue Number Nine, making the long haul all the way from Jersey City. Led by front woman Stefanie Seskin, computer geek by day and funk groove goddess by night. The #9 will be laying down some groove, rock, sould and R&B.
Over at The Bowery Ballroom is southern indie rock act Drive By Truckers. This group has been put on a pedestal by many a rock critic, and to be honest, I don’t really get it. Since I’ve only listened to their albums, perhaps I need to see them to get it, so that is what I plan on doing.

Saturday brings The Go! Team to The Bowery Ballroom to play their brand of Indie Pop Hip Hop, from Brighton UK. The show is SOLD OUT, but I’ve already seen tickets up on Craigslist, so don’t despair. The Bowery Poetry Club will be hosting The Attic, a jazz and blues band undercover as a classic rock outfit.

At Rockwood Music Hall on Sunday night is Basement Band, a local Brooklyn based folkie alt-country band playing hushed melodies. Sometimes they even put a bluegrass spin on things, and their harmonies recall CSN&Y. Perfect Sunday eve music.
Keeping up with my tradition of keeping it mellow (and cheap) at The Living Room is David Massengill, a folkie Americana singer/songwriter and Samantha Murphy, a pop rocker from Honolulu.