New Yorkers: Weigh in on the Swiftly Sprouting ASTOR PLACE "Luxury" High Rise

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http://artsavant.com/images/wtcnyc/astorplace02.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:05 (nineteen years ago) link

http://home.flash.net/~ral1/starbucks/bigimages/DSCN3414.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:06 (nineteen years ago) link

http://paperweight.cooper.edu/administration/eas_drafteis/EEKimage.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:07 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.nycjpg.com/2003/pictures/jpg/0728.c.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:09 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.bhag.net/2003/2003clayj/vaclayj2003asto.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:11 (nineteen years ago) link

http://nlp.cs.nyu.edu/directions/nyu3.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:11 (nineteen years ago) link

in 1980, apparently...

http://www.godlis.com/street_pages/Images/17.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:19 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.godlis.com/punk_page1/images/2.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:20 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.godlis.com/punk_page1/images/15.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:21 (nineteen years ago) link

God, those images make my teeth ache with longing.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Television on St.Mark's Place...

http://www.godlis.com/punk_page2/images/1.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:22 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.godlis.com/punk_page3/images/3.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:23 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.godlis.com/punk_page3/images/8.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:24 (nineteen years ago) link

One of the neighborhoods deservedly less celebrated moments:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000IX6W.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:51 (nineteen years ago) link

On a more positive note, Astor Place can be seen in a pivotal scene in "The Takng of Pelham 1-2-3" (a police car carrying the ransom money skids out of control and flips over) and Jean-Michel Basquiat has a bizarre conversation with eccentric artist David McDermott on the corner of 8th street right in-front of the dinner that became Starbucks in "Downtown `81"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 02:56 (nineteen years ago) link

http://kiatta.blogharbor.com/_photos/joe

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 03:38 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.rockfest.net/archives/flyers/flyer74.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 03:45 (nineteen years ago) link

omg: http://www.desordre.net/photographie/photographes/robert_frank/astor_place.jpg

that is roman ahbramovitch.

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 14 August 2004 08:20 (nineteen years ago) link

It's ironic that the great shot of the guy in the snap-brim fedora is in front of... an ugly billboarded monstrosity that blocks the view of the Fischer building!

I'm just praying for a good long recession coupled with a few years of really high gas prices to really rip the heart out of the purportedly "high productivity" tech sector of the economy, for the sole reason that parts of Manhattan may just possibly regress to a wilder, more affordable state. I mean let's face it, the 70s were a bad time for New York, but they were also pretty good. I'd love to see cold-water flats downtown again. We could use the giant foreskin as a printing house.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 14 August 2004 08:31 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.lightningfield.com/logphotos/0408.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 09:00 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.netwrx1.com/CherryAmes/sarahbrandt.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 09:29 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/AstorPlaceRiot.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 09:30 (nineteen years ago) link

ihttp://www.1313-studios.com/images/2d/astor2.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 09:32 (nineteen years ago) link

See, we need more big riots.

I remember when the huge building went up across from Forbidden Planet at Union Square and thinking "oh my Lord." And of course I just walk by it now without noticing. I lived on 46th and 5th and 6th when the new Condé Nast building was being put up. I could see its progress each day, and remember the odd fact that the windows went on the steel frame (or whatever it was made out of) first, before the actual bricks and mortar went on (or whatever the faux-bricks-and-mortar solid-looking part was). So for a few days it was this shiny bug-like box. Then the sudden boredom when it was possible to see what kind of design was taking shape. Shurely the VURST Manhattan construction decision must, after the demolition of Penn Station, be whatever it is that blocks the sunlight from streaming into Grand Central.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 14 August 2004 10:42 (nineteen years ago) link

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/gcs3.jpg

http://www.darkworldbynight.com/rooms/9012/images/nybn_grand-central-station.jpg

http://arch.ou.edu/arch/2423/Chapter%2026/Grand%20Central%20Station.jpg

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 14 August 2004 10:56 (nineteen years ago) link

(the people in the 3rd picture have been partially vaporized by the thranging sun-bolts in the second)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 14 August 2004 11:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Jean-Michel Basquiat has a bizarre conversation with eccentric artist David McDermott on the corner of 8th street right in-front of the dinner that became Starbucks in "Downtown `81"

I remember this scene. Pangs of longing, etc.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 14 August 2004 11:07 (nineteen years ago) link

I really miss the old Leshko's:

http://www.dyske.com/rest/leshkos-original-4.jpg

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 14 August 2004 11:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Throngs of longing pangings, thranging! Go on strong, young womang. Clanging wrongs have long gone on.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 14 August 2004 11:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Shurely the VURST Manhattan construction decision must, after the demolition of Penn Station, be whatever it is that blocks the sunlight from streaming into Grand Central.

the Chrysler building?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 14 August 2004 14:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Yes exactly, it's a modern monstrosity.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 14 August 2004 15:41 (nineteen years ago) link

Fuck fucking Grand Central. They've got the constellations on ceiling BACKWARDS.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 14 August 2004 15:44 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm just praying for a good long recession coupled with a few years of really high gas prices to really rip the heart out of the purportedly "high productivity" tech sector of the economy..

Hello, where have you been the past three years Traitor?!?!?

Personally, I would like the economy, and more importantly the labor market, to recover.

― hstencil (hstencil), Saturday, 14 August 2004 17:29 (nineteen years ago) link

http://jupiter.walagata.com/w/alexinnyc/screenshot_02.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 17:32 (nineteen years ago) link

also there's some sort of reason why the constellations are on backwards, it was explained to me once, but I've forgotten.

― hstencil (hstencil), Saturday, 14 August 2004 17:33 (nineteen years ago) link

http://jupiter.walagata.com/w/alexinnyc/screenshot_04.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 17:33 (nineteen years ago) link

http://jupiter.walagata.com/w/alexinnyc/screenshot_05.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 17:35 (nineteen years ago) link

also there's some sort of reason why the constellations are on backwards, it was explained to me once, but I've forgotten

Yes, there is a reason, and it's not a very good one.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 14 August 2004 17:52 (nineteen years ago) link

That's crazy.

stence, how to explain the continuing popularity of luxury flats etc. The heart may have been ripped out but the garlic is not working.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 14 August 2004 19:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Still ridiculously low interest rates explain it. On the one hand, when rates rise more (and they will), that might get rid of the hubris, but it will also destroy the ability of non-high rollers to buy a house in this town (which is already pretty fucking difficult). I don't understand, though, why you'd ACTIVELY wish for things to be worse. Speaking as someone who was unemployed for 10 months and is now working at a job that pays me 50% less than what I used to make (with the same level of aggravation, pretty much), I think that's kind of a bullshit, immature way to look at things. And there are PLENTY of people way way way way worse off than me (at least I'm working) - in hard times, people at the bottom feel it much more than people at the top. Which is also kinda why this thread bugs me, to be honest: at least Alex and his family have some freakin' equity, and own their apartment. I'll NEVER be able to afford to own in New York City, even in an outer borough. So stop bitching about some dumb high-rise, esp. when you COULD HAVE done something to stop it. Developments don't come out of nowhere - they have to have the tacit approval of the community. Don't bitch at the rest of us because you failed to uphold your end of the social contract.

― hstencil (hstencil), Saturday, 14 August 2004 20:21 (nineteen years ago) link

PS. thanks for the link Michael.

― hstencil (hstencil), Saturday, 14 August 2004 20:22 (nineteen years ago) link

at least Alex and his family have some freakin' equity, and own their apartment.

For now, but this is invariably our final stop in Manhattan. Failing the option of Brooklyn, hello suburbs, here we come.

Developments don't come out of nowhere - they have to have the tacit approval of the community. Don't bitch at the rest of us because you failed to uphold your end of the social contract.

To be fair, there was a grassroots movement afoot too block this, but the land is owned by Cooper Union (who, you'd have thought, more than anyone else, would've had more respect for the sanctity of the neighborhood). It's their land. If they want to sell it to Ian Schrager, who was really going to stop them?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 21:24 (nineteen years ago) link

these are hard fights, but I don't think communities are completely out of luck vs. developers. Of course, I may feel differently if Bruce Ratner gets his way.

― hstencil (hstencil), Saturday, 14 August 2004 21:29 (nineteen years ago) link

Always nice talking with ya, stence.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 14 August 2004 21:49 (nineteen years ago) link

sorry if it offends you, Tracer, but I can't not say how I feel about this. I had pretty much the same opinion as yours during the halcyon days of the late 1990s, and looking back I just find it shameful. Sorry if it rubs you the wrong way, but hey, that's life on ye olde ILXe.

― hstencil (hstencil), Saturday, 14 August 2004 21:51 (nineteen years ago) link

ihttp://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2004-08-14%2016.49.59%20-0700/Image-74234532EE4B11D8.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 22:29 (nineteen years ago) link

Well I can't not, either! Why do you think it's shameful to want overinflated media wages to come down to something that more approximates the contribution made by the labor they represent? I don't want to the economy to do BAD. I want us to change our definition of "good" if in a "good" economy all the waiters in a city to have to commute an hour to work because they can't afford to actually live there. Now I know it's a leap to say that high rents are the exclusive consequence of overpaid mediosos. I really just threw that out there so that somebody could tell me why the same studios I saw for $800 less than a decade ago are going for twice that much now. Low interest rates? See, that's something that economist say is economically stimulative, so how come I'm not feelin stimulated?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 14 August 2004 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Nice shot, Alex!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 14 August 2004 23:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Thanks, Trace. Took that this afternoon...along with...

ihttp://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2004-08-14%2016.49.59%20-0700/Image-74242ADEEE4B11D8.jpg

ihttp://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2004-08-14%2016.49.59%20-0700/Image-74243493EE4B11D8.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 23:31 (nineteen years ago) link

1974

http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0402/images/at/000.jpg

2004

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2004-08-14%2016.49.59%20-0700/Image-74243E2EEE4B11D8.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 14 August 2004 23:38 (nineteen years ago) link

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