I Was A Teenage Homeless Decoy

A dispatch from one of the quality-control plants in the latest citywide homeless census:

Two pairs of pants, outer layer ratty. Check. Boots, thermal socks from my scouting days. Check. Hat, gloves, hoody, survive-the-winter-apocalypse jacket. Check.

I left home for a church basement on 107th St., our staging area. There were roughly two dozen “plants” at our location, part of an army of 150 across the five boroughs. We were posing as street dwellers to serve as a control group for HOPE 2006, an annual attempt by the city to conduct a census of thousands of homeless New Yorkers.

. . .

I was just nodding off when a passerby had dropped two sandwiches in front of me: turkey and cheese on sesame bread, wrapped in tinfoil. The real homeless man continued to snore. I soon joined him. I don’t know how much time elapsed, but I was roused by a gentle foot.

“It’s better to sleep in the middle,” said a man, whom I would later hear called Carl. I made a groggy noise in reply, and he continued. “You’re not in people’s way.”

I followed him to the bench the original man had occupied. I offered him the sandwiches. He and two companions gladly accepted. “How long have you guys been out here?” I asked. Carl gave me a skeptical eye, and I began to elaborate, telling him about the homeless count.

“So are you dumb or are you stupid?” the man next to Carl, wearing a flute in a case around his neck and sporting a tam and dreads, leveled.

Wait for it . . . wait for it . . . yes! The post-modern flourish!

He starting cursing like a sailor, focusing his rage on me and all the others who came out to try to “understand” the homeless. People who later write about their experiences in some evocation of self-worth and pity. People like me.

See also: Ben McGrath’s Talk of The Town piece about homeless decoys during last year’s census.

57th Street Automat Building To Be Demolished?

The last remaining automat building in New York may be demolished:

The city’s last-standing Automat appears headed for demolition. The Times recently confirmed that a new development would obliterate one of Manhattan’s last surviving temple to working-class opulence, where coffee was poured out of dolphin spigots and everything from mashed potatoes to chicken potpie could be enjoyed for a nickel.

The building, located on West 57th Street west of Sixth Avenue, is an Art Moderne treasure, with gentle curves and wide, flat lines that make it look like a giant jukebox. But it’s also in a prime location.

It’s the Shelly’s picture on this page . . .

No Local Bands From New Jersey But Boy That Plasma Television Has A Great Picture!

Those proud photos of the Spin Doctors performing there may have been a bad omen:

C.B.G.B. won’t be the only East Village music venue to close this year. Continental, the punk club where Joey Ramone, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, D-Generation and the Dictators once took the stage, will no longer host live music after Aug. 26, said Trigger, the club’s owner.

A little after 6:30 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, Trigger sat in the club’s basement greenroom and talked about his decision to stop hosting bands after 15 years. Wearing a winter hat with earflaps, snow boots and a black zip-up sweater, his deep voice echoed in the empty room. “There’s not much of a scene anymore,” he said. “We have a few great nights a month here, but nothing like the old days.” The club currently books four to five bands a night, seven days a week.

Back when the club opened, there wasn’t a Kmart on Eighth St. or even a single Starbucks on Astor Pl., and the late Joey Ramone, who lived a block away from the club, was a regular. The first year Continental was open, Iggy Pop came in and asked Trigger if he could book a show. “I told Iggy to bring in a demo,” Trigger said. Pop took him seriously — for a minute — before Trigger told him he was joking, he said.

The neighborhood has changed since then. Continental, which is near the corner of St. Mark’s Pl. and Third Ave., is now sandwiched between a McDonald’s and a kosher falafel restaurant named Chickpea. “A punk rock club on a corner like this — it’s just impossible,” Trigger said. Band members who used to live in the neighborhood have been priced out of the East Village. “Rents have really changed the complexion and energy of the city,” he said.

A little after 10 p.m. on a recent Sunday, about 40 people filled the long, narrow club space. T-shirts, baseball caps and various laminated signs advertising drink specials hung above the bar. Black-and-white photos taken at the club of various musicians, including Iggy Pop, Dee Dee Ramone, the Spin Doctors and the Wallflowers, decorated the black walls.

. . .

The renovations will not be dramatic, and the overall look and feel of the club will remain relatively similar, Trigger said. He plans to install a jukebox and a flat-screen plasma television screen upstairs and a pool table in the basement greenroom. The greenroom’s benches, red-and-black-checkered floor and sticker-covered walls will stay completely intact, he said.

Silvercup Studios Plans $1 Billion Expansion, Q-Plaza Motel Threatened

Silvercup Studios unveiled a plan to build a massive $1 billion studio/housing/office complex on six acres of East River waterfront in Queens:

The six-acre project in Long Island City, which formally began wending its way through the city’s land use review process yesterday, is called Silvercup West, an expansion of Silvercup’s existing operation six blocks to the east, the home studio for television shows like “The Sopranos” and “Hope & Faith” and where many movies have been filmed.

If it is approved, the expansion would include eight soundstages, production and studio support space, offices for media and entertainment companies, stores, 1,000 apartments in high-rise towers, a catering hall and a yet-to-be-named cultural institution. Silvercup would easily be the largest production house on the East Coast, although Steiner Studios in Brooklyn has the largest single soundstage.

“With added studio space, more productions that may have been filmed elsewhere will now take advantage of all the benefits of filming in New York City,” said Stuart Match Suna, who together with his brother Alan formed Silvercup in 1983. “In addition, we are creating a 24/7 live, work and leisure community.”

The Post notes the size of the buildings:

Two residential towers and an office building at Silvercup West will range from 49 to 57 stories.

“These are tall buildings, but they’re located right on the biggest back yard you can have, which is a river,” said Alan Suna, who is building the project with his brother, Stuart Match Suna.

The project will go on six acres just south of the 59th Street Bridge. The site is now home to a 79-megawatt generating station, a city salt pile and the historic Terra Cotta Building, which the developers will restore.

Not sure how many feet that would be, but if it’s taller than the 48-story, 663-some-odd feet Citibank Building, it could become the tallest building on Long Island.

Meanwhile, this is sure to disrupt the activities of that cozy little hidden place to take prostitutes, the whimsically named Q-Plaza Motel which has been under fire for a while now:

State, city and community officials converged on the Q-Plaza Motel in Long Island City on Sunday, January 27 to protest the pimps and prostitutes that frequent the hotel and often do business on surrounding streets. The hotel, located at 42-11 Vernon Blvd., has created an increase in quality of life crimes, according to state Assemblymember Catherine Nolan, who organized the protest/press conference on behalf of her constituents in the Ravenswood and Queensbridge communities. “We are fed up with the growing problem of prostitutes in Long Island City,” Nolan said.

. . .

“When I walk my dogs in the morning I find used condoms,” said Gabriela Granados, who with her husband is opening a dance studio on 9th Street, behind the hotel. “I have the right in the morning to walk my dogs without being stalked by men who are looking for (prostitution) services.”

. . .

Prior to the rally, [Community Board 2 Chairman Joseph] Conley explained that the hotel, which had been closed down in 1998 after repeated efforts by police and the community, was able to reopen under a flaw in zoning. The hotel is situated directly south of the Queensboro Bridge; to the immediate north of the bridge are the Queensbridge and Ravenswood developments and much of the remaining area is industrial.

“It’s an example of poor planning,” Conley said, explaining that the hotel is allowed to exist in that spot because it’s zoned residential when everything around it is industrial. The hotel is an anomaly in the area. “You don’t see a national chain coming here,” Conley said of the site. “You don’t see a brand name here.” The hotel was most recently a cinder block parking garage before being reopened as a hotel.

Greenwood Cemetery Vista Saved?

Will the wave on Battle Hill be saved? Minerva boosters are skeptical:

It may “save the wave,” but Greenwood Heights advocates have ripped a new deal promising not to block a long-celebrated sightline between a landmark statue and the Statue of Liberty.

The view between Minerva and Lady Liberty would have been blocked by a condo planned in the neighborhood.

But developer Chaim Nussencweig signed an agreement with the Green-Wood Cemetery last week promising to alter designs for the unpopular condo plan so it will not block the wave.

In exchange, cemetery officials agreed to stop publicly criticizing the project or participating in a neighborhood campaign to make sure the building is scaled back to fit within new zoning regulations.

“I feel they’re dancing with the devil,” said Aaron Brashear of the Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights, which has been leading the fight against the agreement Green-Wood Cemetery signed with the developer.

“The agreement is too little, too late,” he added. “It’s inadequate and it’s irrelevant because this building should not be built under the current zoning.”

At issue is whether the condos at 614 Seventh Ave. will be built at the originally-proposed height of 70 feet or will have to be scaled back by a third because of the new zoning — though that still could be high enough to block the view.

Nussencweig has appealed so he can build to 70 feet.

Brashear’s group charged the agreement is so vague that the view would not necessarily be saved and that the pact would only preserve a sliver of the view.

Green-Wood Cemetery President Richard Moylan said he negotiated the best deal possible to protect as much of the view as feasible.

Minerva:

Current view from Battle Hill:

See also: Greenwood Cemetery.