A Hidden Lower East Side

      The Archdiocese of New York announced early this February that, after 163 years, they will be closing St. Brigid's on the corner of 7th and Ave A –– as well as four other schools serving a large base of low-income students across the city (one in Harlem, two in the Bronx, and one in Staten Island). Citing low enrollment rates, this news came as a shock to many of the students, parents, and staff of these schools who must now suddenly navigate the vast NYC school system. Throughout the 20th century as schools crumbled, shuttered, and were re-built, affordable private education like St. Brigid's has provided a reliable and safe environment for low-income predominantly Black and Latino communities across the city. The Archdiocese's lack of commitment to these "underperforming" schools only mirrors the deeper struggles facing perhaps the most segregated school system in the country. St. Emeric's School on Ave. D        The St. Brigid S...

      Last month, Bowery Boogie reported that the building at 527 Grand Street, home to the People Choice Pharmacy, went on the market for $5.4 million. Dating back to 1857, this structure at the intersection of Grand and Henry, has long served as some sort of deli/grocery/pharmacy for the surrounding public and coop housing. Listings for 527 Grand Street prominently advertise the air rights that come with the purchase, almost 550 feet for a new residential building or over 4,000 for a commercial building –– the sky's the limit for your dream corner property.       Two blocks down Columbia will bring you to Luther Gulick Playground, a desolate stretch behind the Amalgamated Dwellings (one of the oldest housing cooperatives in the United States), named after Luther Gulick, the "Godfather of Basketball", NYC public school advocate, and founder of the Public School Athletic League. The playground was built in the early 1930's, originally as the Ber...

      In a previous post  I discussed the city's plan to demolish the LaGuardia Bathhouse building, one of the oldest public baths in NYC, an attempt in-part to save face in the wake of the recently unveiled plans to raise the East River Park. I anticipate similar news for the "White House", the former Rivington Street Public Baths, which sits squatly in the middle of the Baruch Houses, maybe a 15 minute walk from the LaGuardia Bathhouse building.        A short history: At 118 years old, the Baruch Bathhouse building is not only the oldest public bathhouse in the city, but also the first of its kind to be opened in New York. It's namesake, Dr. Simon Baruch, was an Eastern European Jew who moved to South Carolina in 1855 (at 15 years old) to live with, and work for, a wealthy German-Jewish family. After receiving his medical degree in 1862, Baruch served as a surgeon in the f*cking Confederate army (even treating soldiers for weeks after...

             Today will be the SideWalk Cafe's last day after 33 years on Avenue A. For the last twenty-five of those years, SideWalk has been home to the annual Anti-folk Festival, which will have its last performance at the venue tonight as well as the final open mic night (one of the longest running open-mics in the city). For many, the SideWalk Cafe was the home of the anti-folk scene, providing a stage for the burgeoning careers of many, including Jeffrey Lewis, the Moldy Peaches, Beck, Regina Spektor, and more. While ownership of SideWalk changed hands last year, it was unclear what would be come of it until recently. For those who want a last taste, there are performances going on all day starting at 3pm, with closing ceremonies around midnight.              Yesterday, LES residents learned that the "safest block in NY" will have to relinquish that title, as the Hells Angels prepare to sell th...

            After almost forty years, the simple block letter sign reading "Paper Bag Players" was taken out of the window at 185 East Broadway, almost a year after the building sold for 6.1 million dollars. Founded in 1958 (four years after the start of Joe Papp's "New York Shakespeare Festival", later Shakespeare in the Park, which first held productions at the nearby East River Amphitheater) the Paper Bag Players are a non-profit children's theater group which in many respects attempted to meld aspects of alternative theater with programming for children's education, arriving at 185 East Broadway around 1981. I called and spoke to somebody at Paper Bag Players a week ago and was told they had relocated uptown, having permanently left their space at 185 East Broadway after the building was sold.       I wish to speak briefly on the history of 185 East Broadway, but in doing so must include 183 and 187 East Broadway as well (to the ri...

     The Bialystoker Home for the Aged, a striking Art-Deco building on East Broadway and Clinton, was opened in 1931, a symbol of the Jewish community's dedication to providing care for the significant elderly population of the neighborhood. Between the 1860's and the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of the Jewish population of Bialystok, Poland, (yes you guessed it, the town to which the bialy owes its name) settled in the Lower East Side - numbering in the tens of thousands, they made up a significant portion of the Jewish population of the neighborhood. As the Jewish immigrant community on the LES swelled in the beginning of the 20th century, so too did the need for a community-centered system of elderly care increase, especially one which would cater to the large Orthodox community which made up a significant portion of the older Jews in the area.       In an incredible effort, Yiddish mutual aid societies organized the poor and w...

      Two days ago, the Department of Buildings issued a violation for the 110-year old LaGuardia Bathhouse, declaring its walls in danger of collapsing at any moment - following demolition it will be replaced by a turf field. I had passed by this building, situated next to the Little Flower Playground at Madison and Jefferson (about two blocks from where I was born) around the end of November, originally to take photos of the mural which stretches across its entire height at one end.      An epic depiction of Puerto Rican history and life, the mural moves from scenes of enslaved Africans led in chains by conquistadors, to more contemporary sites of music, community, or figures like Pedro Albizu Campos (a leader in the Puerto Rican independence movement and namesake of the Campos Houses) and Roberto Clemente. Like the large mural depicting scenes of Jewish life, religious themes, images of the Holocaust, and more which once adorned the recently ...