Hawk above the McSorley's crowd East Village

I don't have fancy cameras but you can see the hawk sitting on the roof. This was from a couple of days ago and there was a line outside of McSorley's bar.

scantily clad men on 2nd Avenue in frigid weather

This was the day before I posted and if you click on the top photo you can see he is healthy.

email from Andrew Berman re: Pier 40 & NYU's open house

Dear friend,

I want to encourage you to attend two very important upcoming events:

1) There will be a rally to show support for community-compatible park uses on Pier 40 this Sunday, January 27th, at noon, at the pier's courtyard fields (see flyer at www.pier40.org/Pier40Hearing.pdf -- Pier 40 is at Clarkson Street). A decision by the Hudson River Park Trust on the current development proposals for the Pier is expected on January 31, so it is CRITICAL that we show strong support for maintaining a pier which is compatible with our park and our neighborhood. You can also help by signing an on-line petition to the Trust at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/RallyForPier40/.

For more info, see www.gvshp.org/Pier40.htm.

2) NYU will be holding another Open House regarding its 25-year campus plan on Wednesday, January 30th from 4-7 pm at Hemmerdinger Hall, 100 Washington Square East (see www.gvshp.org/documents/NYUOpenHouse1-30-08.pdf). The event will provide information about the University's development plans as well as an opportunity for the public to provide feedback. We strongly urge you to attend -- to find out more, and to let the University know that their #1 priority MUST be to cap new development in our neighborhood and to seek alternative locations for its continued growth.

GVSHP is a member of the Borough President's Community Task Force on NYU Development, which has been helping to move the University towards agreements on appropriate approaches to, and limits on, development in our neighborhood. However, the University continues to assert that it must add an additional six million square feet of space over the next 25 years, and that half that amount must be in our neighborhood -- the equivalent of seventeen more of NYU's recently-built 26-story mega-dorms on East 12th Street. It is therefore CRITICAL that we continue to push for further limits on NYU's planned growth in our neighborhood.

See the front page article on this topic in today's AM New York at www.amny.com/news/local/am-collegetown0125,0,6122493.story and www.amny.com/media/acrobat/2008-01/23136028.pdf.

For more information, go to www.gvshp.org/NYUexpansion.htm.

Best,

Andrew Berman, Executive DirectorGreenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Fire hydrants missing caps

AM New York St. Ann's mega death for NYU mega dorm front cover

Please pick up AM New York today and read the article about NYU and Columbia University crushing our communities.

Brian Leetch No. 2, 9-11 hockey helped me, my letter in the sports section for him 2004

Tomorrow I will put a picture up of my painted pucks and uniquely framed letter with other supporters that were riled by trading Leetch published in The New York Post Sport Section, March 7, 2004.

Post 9-11, I got fascinated with different things that were not my main staple pre-9-11. After this letter I bought his shirt but last year donated it to PAL. I was moved by his grace with his speech tonight as they retired his shirt. Post 9-11, I can count the experiences that were significant in a way that kept me going and one was hockey related. I painted these pucks with this and the Leetch letter in mind. I am giving one puck to a 9-11 friend who reappeared when I need a helping hand and an unconditional one...help without agendas.

ps I love the NYC skyline on the motorcyle custom seat they made for Brian Leetch and it is the skyline of "real" New York.

Beautiful birds return to nature or as close to "it" as this concrete supersized city allows

The bird watchers told me about a bird visiting here that has never been seen before but I can't remember the name..."something Oriole"...should have written it down but too tired. They told me this is a yellow belly sap sucker and it was happily dining.
Amazing as people are forced out of their beloved city as gentrification becomes supersification, the beautiful birds are returning...still so funny to see seagulls flying high above the city. I can see seagulls from my bedroom window. A park close by that is not Tompkins....

Cooper Union, Dubai on the Bowery so fast in contrast to Deutsche Bank's taken down so slow

This is a back view of Cooper Union's speed build and to the left is Dubai on the Bowery as named by New York Magazine...Cooper Square Hotel. Yes, I am very upset because I believe two very special firemen, amazing good souls, one who I am honored to say I knew, died down at Deutsche Bank and I just don't understand how St. Ann's got torn down and NYU got the newest hideous mega dorm built so fast and the same here in contrast to Deustche Bank.

Go New York Giants! Cheering East Village style...

Do to incredible stress I have focused on the NY Giants. I am wearing a kids blue NY Giants hat because Paragon was sold out and won't be stocked up until Saturday. My inner beauty switch is off and I prefer this "self portrait" because it is so East Village. NY Giants, win the Super Bowl!!!!!!!!!!!

Landmark NY Historical Society is under threat, sign the petition

"Transparency is needed for an honest society, with out it we lose democracy and mini-oligarchs do as they please serving greed." Suzannah B. Troy, I signed the petition and wrote this by my name. I urge you to sign the petition and read what other people wrote.
This email was sent to me by an activist...

The landmarked New York Historical Society is under threat. Please click on the link to sign your name to the online petition urging the Society to be upfront with the community, make its process transparent, and hold a public forum on its plans to develop its site on Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets. Please send the petition to your contacts, friends and neighbors.
PETITION:
http://www.petitiononline.com/nyhspe/

Just left The Strand Bookstore where I sold some of my Holocaust books but one just makes me cry. It is incredible heavy to carry and it is photos of the children swept up and turned over to the Nazi's from Paris, France. I love children and every child's face is on every page and the book is massive. I just won't have room for all these books so I have to let go...More on all this later. I also posted a piece on letters to me on myspace and my favorite letter on the Viet Nam Vet memorial (walls of glass with letters) downtown. I will post what I wrote on the comments for this posting and it includes 9-11 rescue workers.

Found Karl last night and 2 poems about Tompkin Square Park

I found Karl heading towards Tompkins Square Park last night and he was cold so I got him a hat. I hope he made it back downtown to Heuss House last night. I know his right leg was hurting him. He was sober so I bought him a cup of coffee. He doesn't "push a Cadillac" aka "shopping cart" so he wouldn't take a blanket. He travels lightly and with grace. He is one of the few New Yorkers that is anti-clutter and I hope to lose a lot of clutter; live clutter free finally. Karl is not a lost soul. He just needs a room of his own and a safe place. I understand. We understand about needing a home and needing a safe place to call home.

2 poems and a sketch of a tree in Tompkins Square Park in the pack of my date book...I don't have the tech skills yet to clean up the photo but I want to contrast the writing with the key board which is part of my art -- it is all my art...

Tompkins

Lost souls

sit in Tompkins Square Park

waiting as if some bus

will arrive

but it ain't ever going to arrive,

toothless, vicious cycles, broken dreams and needles,

empty bottles of cheap alcohol and drugs,

under the stunning green canopy Tompkins

Tompkins

light illuminates

magnificent trees

connecting living tapestry

shelter from chaotic city

swaying softly

beauty

living canvas

enduring stories

poetry alive at peace

I am at peace rich moments precious quietude

under the stunning green tapestry

*hard to read my quick notes but this is the jist of my poems...one rough real one too pretty.

Also on the page with the drawing and poems wrote this down...

"A Survivor once said to me when the desire to live becomes greater than the pain inflicted on you, you cease to be a victim and you become a survivor. "

Leslyn Stewart widow of Det. Dillion Stewart

Tompkins Square Park this afternoon people feeding people

It is a freezing cold day and as usual people are helping people. A group of people had hot food they were handing out and of course it is moving. I have gotten frustrated with Parks Dept. enforcement for such a small park and Tompkins should be a place to relax but it is a park of fences more than welcoming green which is sad. The goodness and generosity are like the canopy of beautiful trees than even in cold weather look like beautiful line drawings.

The other day I wrote a myspace piece which I accidentally deleted about a homeless man who is enigmatic and mystical. I handed him Maya Angelou "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" because I am *letting go of books and he told me he would re-read the book. I spoke to him about what was upsetting my soul and he was more generous than some altruistic billionaire listening and with his kind response. He also always mentions this one woman and I know he cares about her...very touching, his warmth and love for her, his kindness to me...very touching, the richness in people's soul even under dire circumstances.

*Books are like best friends and my interests are diverse. Of course like most New Yorkers my home looks like The Strand Bookstore . You hit these walls of realization and the aftermath, letting go and moving forward. What a luxury to have had them.

The physical world is always in a state of change; life and death cycle. I do hope the good energy, kind actions, generosity continue like beautiful energetic echos throughout the universe.

Avenue A, my friend Akko took me here a long time ago before she died

So tired to day...my brain feels fuzzy tired...think of Akko, miss her...she was a tolerant loving soul...a hit and run accident took her from us. We were both going to "Women in the Martial Arts Special Training, 1989 Healing Through Training, San Luis Obispo, California; just found the t-shirt. We travelled to the other side of the USA to accidentally meet and find out we lived so close to each other in the East Village. We became friends immediately. I remember Akko introduced me to this eatery. I like it because you can sit and look out at the park.

Akko built bridges...

www.amny.com/ video Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech

Bike Polo Chrystie Street and Broome

Sammy's still there Chrystie Street

I was vegetarian for a while but my Dad loves this kind of food...still there...

Rally today to save a hotel that should be protected...hope they got lots of press

http://www.savethehotel.org/

Neighborhood people honoring the memory

There is a very touching note typed up honoring this man's life along with a collage of photos and other loving gestures by people. This is the difference between the "village -- East and West" and NYU-Las Vegas-ville.

Eddie L. Graham, Mayor of 4th Street

East Village water main break leaves thousands without water May 27, 2007

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?&aid=69978&search_result=1&stid=8

May 22, 2007
This was one block from all the construction by Cooper Union.

You can see me on this video footage with a diverse group of community members.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/us/08sink.html
Gaping Reminders in Cities of Aging, Crumbling Pipes by William Yardley, Feb. 8, 2007
This was a piece that ran in the national section of The New York Times with a front page photo of a large infrastructure break in NYC and it ran a month after my letter last year.

From the article...
"Still, Mr. Allbee, the E.P.A. official, said age and neglect could prove as fatal to a system as a catastrophic natural event or a terrorist attack.
“You can lose that system all at once because of terrorism,” Mr. Allbee said but you can lose it over time by just not taking care of it.”"

Destroying 'old' New York, Jan. 11, 2007 AM New York

Thursday, January 11, 2007 (That is right last year before the horrifying infrastructure break mid-town but after Jodi Lane died here in the East Village.)

Destroying "old" New York

I continue to write the mayor about over the top development of this new hideous New York being built on the old infrastructure. Also, how the gas smell may be somehow related to this issue, which has been completely ignored by the Bloomberg administration. A powerful example is next door to me, St. Ann's Church from 1847, which was torn down. St. Ann's, where religious staff members resided and homeless people slept on the stairs, now will be replaced by another hideous NYU megadorm an the tallest building ever in the East Village, with 700 students. But New York City, NYU and Hudson Realty have never answered questions about infrastructure concerns like sewage removal, water, electricity, etc. Stop the exploitation and start protecting the people of New York City!
Suzannah B. Troy
Manhattan

* Since this letter was published we all witnessed the horrific infrastructure break that looked like a terrorist attack mid-town and one person died and others were terribly injured.

+NYU want to cram far more students in the building and I video taped the new pipes but my question is how does it affect the old pipes they connect to?

Taller buildings have been built but NYU weighs the heaviest on infrastructure in the East Village with the most mega dorms and their actions evoke all kinds of environmental concerns.

another notice under my door, cancelled the water shut down for NYU mega domination

You know how I feel coming home each day to the notes under my door so the latest one says the water shut down is cancelled...there is more but I will get back to you on the bigger "canvas".

www.rightrides.org Because getting home safely shouldn't be a luxury

www.RightRides.org
Because getting home safely should not be a luxury
dispatch No. 718-964-7781
I am posting this and every university that has pushed us out for their student housing and encourage the high density party atmosphere should support and even model this dynamic organization that deserves support.

Flower Power of the East Village Lata shines on Eyewitness News with Laura Glassberg

Lata Chettri Kennedy shines on ABC Eyewitness news with Laura Glassberg and anyone who has met Lata knows why I use the word "shines". She has such a beautiful heart, soul and incredible compassion for everyone. I have bought amazing books on herbs, trees and healing from her unique collection plus lavender oil, tinctures, teas and moisturizers. I love rose and have many rosey items from Flower Power as well. This store is one of the magical stores that still remains in a rapidly changing neighborhood. Check out this gem and experience some mother earth Flower Power East Village style...that means with a lot of heart!!!



http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=5895474#bodyText
Here is the link to read the article and see the video that was aired on ABC.

DEP gives us a little more notice this time(yes for NYU) & FYI city gov does get "thank you" notes from me

Another note under my door and you know if you read my blog how I feel about that. DEP will shutting down the water Saturday 8am-5:00pm.

I do want you to know that many "thank you" notes have gone out praising people from different divisions of city gov. including Manhattan Borough Commissioner Margaret Forgione for responding to my concerns re: safety for kids by Anna Silver School and Junior H.S. 25 because Alfredo from the http://www.kidsmagicgarden.net/ made me aware these concerns needed to get addressed. I felt DOT was responsive and the same with DEP when I contacted them about streets signs here including getting "No honking" signs and again they were responsive. The same for the parks dept. praising amazing dedicated staff at Tompkins Square Park and others divisions so I wanted to share the positive as well.

I do wish the people of New York could get the response, results and support that NYU does; the mega speed build on St. Ann's Church grave from 1847 demonstrates that NYU student housing is the city's priority. I know many people feel this way city wide as they struggle to remain in their neighborhoods and the lack of support also includes 9-11 issues as well.