Faced With The Alternative, I Think We Can Afford To Be A Little Pragmatic Here

The Villager reports that some East Village residents seem to be deciding that a gastropub may be better than a methadone clinic after all:

Some members of the E. Fourth St. A-B Block Association have shifted their opinion on a beer and wine license for the European Union restaurant, a turn of events that may allow the restaurant to sell alcohol after all.

“I’d like to see something work out,” said Frank Macken, the block association president, who previously opposed a liquor license for E.U. “It could be a model for the kind of restaurant we’d like to have in our neighborhood.”

E.U., at 235 E. Fourth St. has been closed since the week of May 14. The State Liquor Authority denied its request for a liquor license in early March, citing a rule that makes it harder to obtain a liquor-license in an area where there are three within 500 feet of each other. The S.L.A. also cited opposition from Community Board 3 in its decision.

Restaurant owner Bob Giraldi said he closed the restaurant because it was unprofitable to operate without alcohol.

But after a block association meeting on June 22 attended by Giraldi and his wife, Patti Greaney, both parties said they were looking for a compromise that might allow E.U. to obtain a beer and wine license, which is more limiting than a liquor license.

A June 8 meeting between Giraldi and the block association was tense, attendees said, but the meeting last week was far more civilized.

“I thought it was very fair,” Greaney said of last week’s meeting. “I thought both sides were able to voice their opinions.”

Opinions on the block are split “about 50-50,” Macken said. “Some are adamantly opposed, some are more pragmatic.”

Backstory: My Fist, Your Gastropub; Make Way For The Methadone Clinic!;
The Problem With Community Boards, Too, Or, Making The East Village Oversaturated With Boutiques, One Denied Liquor License At A Time.

Don’t Let The Gasoline-Soaked Bedbugs Burst Into Flames In The Middle Of The Night, Setting Your Living Quarters On Fire

And for God’s sake, if you happen to do this, please remember not to smoke in bed:

Firefighters have responded to reports of gas odor in several Queens apartments this year — only to find that the residents had soaked their mattresses with gasoline to kill bedbugs, The Post has learned.

One woman had even wiped gasoline on her arms to keep the bugs from biting her. Another had also wiped her children’s beds with gas.

“Gasoline is very explosive — even static electricity from a rug can ignite it,” said Battalion Chief Robert Turner, who responded to two of the incidents. “Luckily, all of the apartments were well-ventilated.”

The incidents happened in Corona, Queens, at separate apartments as recently as this month.

Gerritsen Is The New Howard

Three Brooklyn teens have taken the title of “Most Racist Beach” away from Queens, making decent people forget about Howard Beach for the time being:

Three white Brooklyn teens were charged yesterday with committing a hate crime after they pummeled three black kids riding their bicycles on a Gerritsen Beach street and incited onlookers to join in the attack , police said.

The victims — Joseph Pascall and Deon Davis, both 17, and Aaron Adams, 16 — said they cycled into the neighborhood because they were lost, a police source said.

The thugs allegedly cornered the victims with their car near Florence Avenue and Celest Court on Monday at 9 p.m.

They taunted the teens with racial slurs before knocking them off their bikes with the car, and pinched and kicked them when they tried to get away, the source said.

Cops said an unknown number of people in the neighborhood saw the incident and joined in the taunting and violence.

Alessandro Cerciello, Christopher Rapuzzi and Joseph DeSimone, all 17, were charged yesterday with assault as a hate crime, gang assault as a hate crime, aggravated harassment, menacing and unlawful imprisonment, police said.

I’ve Got It: A Glass Prism Bunker!

The big question is What Will Nicolai Ouroussoff Think? We’ll see:

Eager to avoid creating a fortress that overshadows the World Trade Center memorial, the architects of the Freedom Tower unveiled a new approach yesterday. They would clad its 187-foot-high, bomb-resistant concrete base in a screen of glass prisms rather than metal panels.

This and other notable refinements were described by the building’s lead architect, David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He spoke at an awards ceremony held by the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 7 World Trade Center, overlooking the Freedom Tower site, which is under excavation.

Even after the revisions, the building would still evoke the twin towers in its height and proportions. Its rooftop parapet would be 1,368 feet above the street, as was that of 1 World Trade Center, the north tower.

It turns out that in another important respect, the Freedom Tower would echo the twin towers: it would have a sky lobby. Tenants headed to the upper floors of the 102-story building would take express elevators to the 64th floor and then transfer to local elevators.

If all goes according to plan — and almost nothing has at ground zero — the $2 billion, 2.6-million-square-foot Freedom Tower would be completed in 2011.

In the first redesign last year, the base of the tower was to rise 200 feet and perhaps be clad in stainless steel, aluminum or titanium. Though Mr. Childs envisioned these panels as enlivening the almost windowless facade, others despaired about its monolithic quality. The phrase “concrete bunker” was tossed around.

“There were a lot of concerns that this was going to look like a fortress,” said Kenneth J. Ringler Jr., the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, for which Silverstein Properties is developing the Freedom Tower. “I think David’s artistic skills should alleviate many of those fears.”

Backstory: Impenetrable! Impregnable!

Can You Pick Out My New 125-Story Building On The Banks Of The Bronx River?

The New York City Panorama at the Queens Museum of Art, recently listed by USA Today as one of ten places you should go out of your way to see, is slated for a “major multi-media update,” including an inventive way to pay for its continued upkeep:

QMA Director Tom Finkelpearl did not know ahead of time that the panorama would be making USA Weekend’s list.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “It’s not like it’s that surprising. It really is a kind of legendary place. Sometimes I’ve been a little frustrated that the panorama is more famous than the museum itself.”

The panorama was initially built for the 1964 World’s Fair by Robert Moses with the help of a 100-member team. During the World’s Fair, an average of 1,400 viewed the panorama each day. Finkelpearl said that when visitors first view the panorama, the first thing he sees them do is find their house. He said it also gives them a chance to get a different look at the city.

It’s kind of a spectacle. It has that excitement to it,” Finkelpearl said. He continued, “It’s the special thing that nobody else has and I think that helps differentiate us from other museums.”

From when it was first built, the panorama did not change a great deal until 1992, when it underwent a major renovation. It was a $1 million project that added approximately 6,500 buildings to the panorama.

Currently, the panorama, which is sponsored by The Roslyn Savings Foundation, will soon undergo a major multi-media update. It will include relighting the model.

Finkelpearl, who used to bring his friends to see the panorama even before working at the museum, said that the museum also hopes to embark on a program where companies could pay to have their building added to the panorama.

Emph. added because now my wheels are really turning . . . bwahahaha!