Mars Bar Gets New Paint Job

For a grungy dive, the East Village's Mars Bar is certainly interested in exterior design. The Second Avenue joint changes it look about every six months or so. Recently it traded in its white paint job (blasted with the ominous slogan "After the Mars Bars, Then What?") for this brick-red look, and the more friendly tag lineof "Mars Bar NYC Welcome." Still white on top, though.

Where's the Basil?

Last summer, I breathlessly covered the bloody, violent, costly (OK—mildly amusing) Basil Wars of Carroll Gardens. Basil was brazenly stolen from a planter outside a green-brick building on President Street near Henry. Parents were angered. Children wept. An angry sign scolded the herbaceous thieves. And then the greenery was completely withdrawn altogether! Peace returned to the valley when an Good Samaritan anonymously donated new basil.

Whew! What a summer that was. I anxiously awaited a possible repeat. It was way past the time when basil-planting should be done with. (My own basil is flourishing.) But there was no basil in the planter outside the box. There was—what is that? Not parsley. Lemon Verbena? Maybe not a herb at all. What produce robber would want to steal that? Ah, no fun.

Stanton Street Bike Lane Coming Your Way

Big green stripe cutting east-west across the Lower East Side. Looks like it's almost ready to go.

Last Day at Gino Is May 29

From City Room:

This time, Gino’s means it.

On April 17, City Room published a post saying that this East Side restaurant, once a stop for the likes of Ed Sullivan and Frank Sinatra on the see-and-be-seen circuit, might close on May 15. That was based on what the owners had told a meeting with the union that represents the staff.

May 15 came and went, and Gino’s is still open. It signature zebras are still frolicking on the darker-than-royal-red wallpaper.

Read more »

Cruising Down Court Street

Around the intersection at DeGraw, looking south, circa 1970s.

Nothing But Sad News For Admiral's Row

From today's NY Times:

FOR three years, some of the most powerful forces in New York real estate — including the federal and city governments, developers, preservationists and community advocates — have fought over the fate of a cluster of historically significant turn-of-the-last-century houses known as Admiral’s Row in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Last month, the parties finally arrived at a compromise that seemed to strike a balance between preservation and development, in a $60 million project that would add a large supermarket to an underserved neighborhood, while also salvaging some buildings of deep architectural and cultural significance.

But it now appears that those historic buildings may be in such precarious condition that they cannot be saved.

“This is one of the worst cases I have ever seen in terms of neglect,” said Alex Herrera, the director of the technical services center at the New York Landmarks Conservancy. “It is a disgrace.”

For more than three decades, Admiral’s Row, like much of the nearby industrial waterfront, was largely left to rot. Further complicating matters was the fact that even though much of the 300-acre site was turned over to New York City in 1966, 10 former officers’ homes and a timber shed that was once used to repair masts of large sailing vessels remained under the control of the federal government....

And now the delicate compromise, having been reached, is under threat. The federal government agreed to sell the city the land to develop as long as it met certain conditions. Because the timber shed and the homes on the site are eligible for placement on theNational Register of Historic Places, the government required that the shed and one of the homes be restored and useable. Last month, after protracted debate, negotiators accepted a proposal from PA Developers of Manhattan to build a supermarket — serving the 15,000 residents who live in three public housing projects bordering the yards — along with new retail stores and an additional 125,000 square feet of industrial space.

But after the bid was accepted, Kristin Leahy, the cultural resources manager for the National Guard Bureau, the federal agency that controls the site, said engineers had found that the historic structures, particularly the timber shed, might be beyond repair. “We hired these engineers with tools to stabilize the buildings,” she said, “and that is when they came back and said we had a problem.”

Funny how, when you let historic buildings rot for nearly half a century, they tend to be unresponsive to fixer-upper efforts. This affair has been riddled with cynicism from the start. I don't think any of the involved parties—the Federal Government, the City, the developers—ever for a second considered seriously the idea of saving any of these buildings.

The Kensington Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library is still for sale for just under $3 million. Massey-Knakal encourages would-be bidders that "Due to the close proximity of public transportation the library sees a significant amount of foot traffic on a daily basis. The property is perfect for an investor looking for a strong income producing asset in a well located safe neighborhood."

410 Ditmas Avenue, the branch's address, is on the block because the Brooklyn Public Library is building a new Kensington library at 4207 18th Avenue. It will be the first “Green” BPL library building.

Bloomberg Doesn't Allow Pictures

I was strolling around New York last week, snapping pictures along the way, as I do most every day. I was in Midtown and noticed I was near the historic restaurant Le Cirque, so I veered into the circular glass courtyard on E. 58th Street where the place is located, an address formally known as One Beacon Court. Place reminds me of that circular shaft where Luke and Darth Vader had their duel in "The Empire Strikes Back." I saw Le Cirque to the right. I swiveled. Opposite it was a doorway with the word "Bloomberg" above it.

Oh, yes. I remembered. This building is also the headquarters of Bloomberg L.C. They take up 700,000 of the 900,000 square feet available in the thing. I lifted my camera to take a picture, and a big man in a blue jacket approached me with a stern look on his face. "No pictures!" he said. A security officer. "Why not?" I asked. When people say I can't do something, I always ask why not. Deniers must always be made to explain. If only to inconvenience and annoy them. "They're not allowed," he said. Well, that clears it up.

I didn't take it further. Arguing with security guards never pays off. They only parrot the company line. They don't ask why. I noticed he said nothing when I took a picture of Le Cirque. It was only the Bloomberg entrance that he objected. Draw your own conclusions. I drew mine: more evidence that Bloomberg is a jerk who has one set of rules for us and another for himself.

The Backs of Buildings

I was passing by an empty lot on Third Avenue in Midtown the other day. A large building, or block of buildings, had been torn down. Whatever is supposed to go up here hasn't begun being built yet, so we're lert with this view of the backs of several other older, smaller buildings on the street to the north.

The tall, tiered building with the exhaust and drainage pipes snaking down it is particularly fun. You wouldn't see that kind of construction day. So quirky. Ugly, yet in an interesting way.

The fire escapes on this squat, brick structure created a wonderful pattern of lines and angles. The graffiti actually improves the picture, adding a little colorful chaos to the geometry.

This one sort of looks like a patchwork quilt. You have to wonder how it got that way.

I guess what mainly struck me about these rear facades was that I knew instinctively that the backs of these buildings were more interesting looking that would be the front of whatever glass tower that will eventually block them from view again. Old Manhattan inside out has more character than anything new Manhattan has to offer.

This Week on Lost City

Lost City Goes to La Petite Auberge; We Face Down the Intersection of Forced Shopping; Skyline Books Lives on Tin Pan Alley!; the McHale's Sign Is Found Inside Another Irish Bar!; Swastika in Red Hook; Day-O Restaurant Gutted; Hallo Berlin Food Cart Imperiled.