Who Is “They”? I’ll Tell You Exactly Who “They” Is!

It’s not often that you can pin the shadowy, nebulous forces of gentrification on one person. Good thing we still have Clinton to kick around:

Harlem residents gathered outside President Clinton’s office yesterday to protest against the former president as a symbol of Harlem’s gentrification and the displacement of its residents.

The Harlem Tenants Council hosted the protest at 125th Street between Lenox and Park avenues that was attended by about 40 mostly elderly, African-American residents of the area. A HTC co-founder, Nellie Bailey, said the primary goal of the protest was to draw attention to what she calls a “housing crisis in Harlem,” due in part to displacement because of price increases by landlords and evictions.

“We’re hoping to have a dialogue with a president of enormous influence,” Ms. Bailey said, “so he can understand the concerns of Harlem tenants,” including the lack of a comprehensive, beneficial housing policy and legal services. A Clinton Foundation spokesman, Jay Carson, declined to comment on the protest.

Hey, Suit! Your Ferry Is Waiting!

New York Water Taxi proudly kicks off service to Wall Street from Williamsburg’s Schaefer Landing:

Williamsburg’s tenure as “the new East Village” may have ended yesterday morning when the new ferry port at Schaefer Landing sent its first bright yellow Water Taxi on its way to Wall Street.

Not so long ago, Williamsburg was considered a hip new frontier for Brooklyn’s artists, writers, and musicians. The arrival of the Water Taxi — with its grandmotherly onboard offerings of cookies and hot chocolate — suggests that the wealthy financiers, consultants, and entrepreneurs who have recently made their nests along the waterfront are there to stay.

. . .

“It’s going to provide a quick transportation into Manhattan, and it’ll therefore make the area more desirable,” said Helene Luchnick, the executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman who proudly claims to have kicked off Williamsburg’s development boom four and a half years ago. “In the two towers at Schaefer Landing, the monitor in the elevator will show the taxi schedule.”

Ms. Luchnick said she sees Williamsburg heading in the same direction as Dumbo and Soho, both neighborhoods which started seedy, turned artsy, and developed eventually into prime real estate for wealthy professionals. “There are still artsy types living in Williamsburg, but they’re not the ones buying into the new condominiums,” Ms. Luchnick said. “Every site up through Greenpoint has been sold for towers.”

Life Imitates The Jaundiced Eye Of Urban Outfitters Designers

The “Gowanus Canal Conservancy” sounds like an excellent idea for an ironic T-shirt:

One smells like fresh-cut grass and the other like an open sewer, but now Central Park, that breathtaking urban oasis, and the long-polluted Gowanus Canal have something in common — their own conservancies.

Activists in southwest Brooklyn recently announced the creation of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy in hopes of ensuring a brighter future for an industrial waterway once dubbed Lavender Lake — for its chemically altered hue.

“Everybody agrees the canal has to be cleaned,” said Thomas Chardavoyne, head of the nonprofit Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp., which formed the conservancy. The group will raise money and seek volunteers to convert the canal — which opened in 1866 and was once hailed as one of the world’s most important waterways — for dual recreational and industrial use.

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.

Say It Ain’t So!

The borough of cemeteries, airports and Archie Bunker now has its own Not For Tourists guidebook:

Looking to entice “explorers” into the borough, Not For Tourists hosted a release party Sunday for its first-ever guide to Queens.

The pocket-sized guide book with the obscure title, “Not For Tourists Guide to Queens,” consists of more than 100 pages of local hot spots, compiled by residents and mapped out in detail on every page.

. . .

With an open bar and buffet to celebrate the release at the Sculpture Center in Long Island City, hundreds of people milled about inside where the floors are sprinkled with glitter and the walls are filled with artwork. Meanwhile, the pocket-sized books sold steadily at $10 a piece.