LOOSEYVILLE: WHERE THE POLLO IS SOLD

BROADWAY BOSSES

2010-04-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

RIP

2010-03-31T23:25:00.001-07:00

Keith Haring alter piece at St. John the Divine. 110th upwest

IN an old convent on the Upper West Side, students at the Ascension School go about their ordinary business, attending classes on art or dance. But if they take the stairway to reach their destination, they will pass by something decidedly out of the ordinary: a bold mural, spanning three floors and 85 feet, by the artist Keith Haring.

Along the stairway wall, Mr. Haring’s starkly simple figures dance, pose, slip and jump. Radiant Baby, Mr. Haring’s most iconic character, begins the piece. His other familiar forms are there, too: the barking dog, the man with a hole in his stomach.

Though museums and collectors covet the works of Mr. Haring, who died in 1990, this Haring, painted in the early 1980s, has remained relatively hidden.

Jeffrey Deitch, the owner of Deitch Projects, the gallery that represents the Haring estate, said the mural in the church building, on West 108th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, was unknown to him. “But Keith had a really wide network,” he said, “and one of the great things about him is he was into building relationships with communities that aren’t part of the inner art world.”

Julia Gruen, director of the Haring Foundation, said she had known of the mural’s existence since 1984. But, she said, “Considering that Keith was such a presence in New York City and such a public figure and celebrity, it is quite remarkable that this mural has not been generally acknowledged.”

The story of the mural begins with Grace House, a Catholic youth organization that leased the convent beginning in 1977.

Two veteran members of Grace House, Benny Soto and David Almodovar, said that they and others at Grace House often visited the Paradise Garage, a downtown dance spot and virtual Haring clubhouse. Around 1983, Mr. Soto and Mr. Almodovar became friends with Mr. Haring, and both went to work for him, Mr. Soto as an art assistant and Mr. Almodovar later managed Mr. Haring’s Pop Shop in SoHo.

The two invited Mr. Haring to Grace House. He visited a few times, met the program’s director, Gary Mallon, and along with Mr. Haring’s lover, Juan Dubose, even served as the D.J. at a Grace House party. After six months of prodding from Mr. Haring and the teenagers, Mr. Mallon agreed to allow the artist to paint the mural.

Mr. Haring painted it on a Saturday night in March of 1983 or 1984. More than 50 kids were staying at Grace House for a retreat, and a handful watched Mr. Haring work. In all, it took less than an hour and a half.

“It was mesmerizing to watch him, and for me, I was very proud of having him there doing that,” said Mr. Soto, who is now a party promoter. “I felt like it was for us.”

Kinah Ventura, another member of Grace House, remembers the night vividly. “For kids who were into graffiti,” she said, “it was a different spin on what art is and what art is about, especially because he was so positive.”

The mural is also regarded as a significant work of Haring’s. “In terms of the imagery, it’s like a lexicon of his vocabulary,” Ms. Gruen said.

It might have remained obscure but for Joe Hickey, a member of the Ascension School Advisory Board, who realized it could be worth much money. The Roman Catholic Church of the Ascension parish, which was established in 1895, is exploring ways to profit from its hidden Haring.

The mural was not the only time Mr. Haring’s work would appear at a church. The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on the Upper West Side, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and Saint Eustache in Paris contain altarpieces by Mr. Haring. What many consider Mr. Haring’s greatest public work, “Progetto Italia,” is painted on a church wall in Pisa, Italy.

Like churches, children are a theme in Mr. Haring’s artistic life. He created works with young people in several cities, and one of his murals can be seen at the Lower East Side Boys and Girls Club.

Melissa Staiger teaches art in a room next to the Ascension mural, and her students study the work. “They ask, why did he paint a baby?” she said. “I say to them, we’re all babies.”

Mr. Soto said of Mr. Haring: “He taught me how to have fun. He was like a rock star. I met Madonna, Boy George, Andy Warhol, Diana Ross. I was a kid from the South Bronx. I still can’t believe it.”

NEW york

2010-03-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

“We just sit and stare,” says Melissa Gavilanes, who works nearby

By CAROLINE H. DWORIN

Published: August 30, 2008

EIGHT stories above Broadway, on the southeast corner of 97th Street, construction is near completion on three little houses that sit atop a turn-of-the-century apartment building.

Tan in color, they have jaunty oval windows and tiny gabled roofs. On a recent morning, workers in hard hats scurried about porches resembling those in a community of hillside tract houses.

“I’ve received calls from people asking about those units, especially since they started putting decks up there,” said Edward Balazs of A.A.G. Management, the building’s agent. “There are many different types of penthouses, but it’s rare that they have the gabled roofs.”

He believes that the inquiries may be coming from residents whose apartments look out from the higher floors of neighboring buildings, since the units are barely visible from the street.

According to Mr. Balazs, the building’s owners, the real estate developers Anne and Arnold Gumowitz, have chosen to keep silent about the addition until it is completed, and have not advertised the units. No one will say exactly when the construction will be completed.

Yet, it is hard to keep such a secret. Those with the privileged vantage of elevation have been able to watch the little houses go up over the past year and a half, and have followed developments with curiosity, envy and contempt.

Manny Salas, the building’s overnight concierge, says he is asked by several neighbors a week if he knows the prices of the little houses on the roof. The units will be rentals, but Mr. Salas is unsure what the rents will be.

“I think they have adjustable central air,” he said of the houses. “And attics.”

One of the best views is from the Columbia, the 35-story condominium directly across Broadway at 96th Street, particularly from its 12th-floor health club. Those who work out there dwell, like most New Yorkers, in rooms with walls that are shared by neighbors and ceilings that serve as other people’s floors. In this crowded city, an attic is a rare thing.

“It’s the talk of the building,” said Melissa Gavilanes, the manager on duty at the health club recently. She has been polling residents about how many units they thought the penthouses had. “We just sit and stare,” she said.

Doron Rice, an architect who was holding a large pair of barbells, peered out the window. “You want my opinion?” he said, “It’s out of context. It’s not the same materials, and it’s not the same scale. It looks like it was dropped here from somewhere in Long Island.”

But Ms. Gavilanes found the penthouses alluring. “I would get a car,” she said, “and put it out in the driveway. And then I’d add a white picket fence, and AstroTurf. Maybe have a golden retriever playing in the yard.”

JEFF RAUCH

2010-03-31T18:39:00.001-07:00

All photos by Jeff Rauch. This guy has a great eye and reps the UpWest. Check out his archive here

BIG D, FOWADS SON

2010-03-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

BIG D is the bastard son of my favorite upwest store for cheap gears. FOWAD.

Remember

2010-03-14T19:54:00.000-07:00

The StairCase Poet 1

2010-02-27T17:58:00.001-08:00

Get Educated

2010-02-25T13:02:00.000-08:00

Alexander Robinson School – West 95th Street off Central Park West(Shout out to Mr. Lee!)
The Beacon school- an alternative, non testing public high school on west 61st.(CocoNutz, PTR, Tara B, Greg Shepard, CASTRO! i used to skip school and light up with these dudes every day in the spring )
Booker T – 103 West 107th Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues(Classic spot. Most my homies started out here in the public school system)
Calhoun School(T.V. school. Went to my only summer camp here. herbs)
- Main Building – 433 West End Avenue at 81st Street.
- Robert L. Beir Lower School – 160 West 74th Street, between Amsterdam & Columbus avenues.
The Cathedral School of the Cathederal of St. John the Devine in Morningside Heights
The Center School – 70th between Amsterdam and West End
The Collegiate School(HERBS)
Columbia Grammar and Prep( MAS, BK and a few other legends)
MS 44
Corpus Christi School – next to Columbia University and Teachers College
De La Salle Academy(Shout out to all my Dominicanos!)
Dwight School (Dumb White Idiots Getting High Together)
Manhattan Day school
P.S 79
P.S 87-on 78th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Columbus Avenue.
P.S. 97
P.S. 9- 84th and Columbus
P.S. 163 – West 97th Street, (Lengendary IBM rooftop. So much great art was painted on that roof. Shout to Sho, Risk, Slin 2, Epic, Poke and Doze Green.)between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues
PS 166
PS/IS 187
St. Agnes(HFL! CCL! and i think the infamous SEX 1)
St. Hildas and St.Huges – in Morningside Heights( i went to kindergarten here. shout out to sister Helena Marie!)
Trevor Day School( Fonda, Noobs and bunch of other weirdos)
Trinity School(HERBS)
York Preperatory– near Lincoln Center( for the slow)
laGuardia – behind Lincoln Center(Legendary school. Produced many talented artists, musicians and dancers as well as many derels)

[edit]Degree granting

CountDown to Remo

2010-02-25T12:02:00.001-08:00

Simmy Shimmy

2010-02-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

My Homegirl Simone is a multi-talented artists and designer. Her whole family is creative and awesome. She currently designs handbags for Liz Claiborne and works with the God Isaac Mizrahi. She also designed the cover for the Jones Beach Mixtape.(see posts below) Check out her design site at Simonebrin.com. Also peep her moms milf friendly site Fabover50.com. And her amazing artist dad Doug @ Dougbrin.blogspot.com. You've been put on!

http://www.isaacmizrahiny.com/about/studio_blog/1051/simones_top_5

LEATHERFACE THE ASIAN JESUS

2010-01-19T14:57:00.000-08:00

LEATHER FACE is Team Facelifts newest artist.

trust us he is ahead of his time with this new video "Born in The DMZ"

His music is on Itunes. We suggest you check his myspace here

THE JONES BEACH MIXTAPE

2010-01-19T14:54:00.000-08:00

DOWNLOAD MACHINE FROM TEAM FACELIFTS SUMMER SMASH "THE JONES BEACH MIXTAPE" HERE

YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED

THE FLATS

2010-01-13T14:54:00.000-08:00

The Bandshell.

The Flats Staircase was the center of the action. The two public bathrooms on the left and right were cruising spots and shooting galleries covered in graffiti. If you didn't know anyone here after dark was dangerous.
The Hall leading to Bethesda Fountain. Fully restored.
The fully restored ceilings are beautiful.
Site of the infamous Baby Face Killer murder. Daphne Abdela whom I went to school with, butchered a man with her boyfriend in 1997. Read Nancy Jo Sales tale of upper east kids gone wrong. She was known to bribe private school kids with beer and weed for gossip. Read here
The top of the Rambles. This was the infamous gay cruising zone featured in many movies including "Cruising" with Al Pachino. NetFlix that. Still creepy even at day time. Many ghosts inhabit this area.

The centerpiece of the Rambles Shack.

This is the West side "Rock". I grew up cutting school and drinking here.
This is still a beautiful area. Graffiti free and restored.

CENTRAL PARK HISTORY

2010-01-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

The entrance to The Flats. Central parks infamous skate spot and OG gang hangout. This was the visible divide between the east and west side. This area was packed with all different gangs in the early to mid 90's. Legendary fights, muggings and parties happened here. A few famous skaters came outta this park as well.

THE LIFESTYLE WE LEAD

2010-01-06T16:22:00.000-08:00

NEWPORT 100 Inch Rims!
Newport Pizza Deep Dish Status
Noreaga's Newport Chain. Its holds a pack! BONG

TOWER RECORDS CLASSICS

2010-01-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

Tower Records/Video was located on 66th and Broadway. They had an insane amount of music and obscure dvd's. They also carried every rare graff, horror, music and motorcycle magazine. Local weirdos would always leave their home made 'zines for the public to grab. The "zines were amazing. ill post em soon

Dutch Death Cult Village

2010-01-04T20:32:00.000-08:00

This compound on the south west corner of 95th street and West end is shrouded in mystery. I do know it is a community of Dutch style row houses which all connect surrounding a court yard and garden. You NEVER see peoples in or out. You need permission to enter only after being screened by an administrator and vouched for by a resident. Late nights are creepy. Some night candles burn in each window. Its very House of the Devil. Im sure its all West Side legend but i still need to know whats popping off behind those doors. Im willing to investigate with anyone late night bad idea styles. Shout. fliks at night coming soon

BROADWAY JOE

2010-01-04T18:13:00.000-08:00

WEST SIDE DOUBLE WIDE

2010-01-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

What gregarious Upper West Sider popularized the phrase "A House Is Not a
Home" as the title of her best-selling autobiography?
A. Polly Adler, the most renowned madam of the Jazz Age.

Q. What Upper West Sider claimed to be the "real" designer
of Central Park?
A. Brigadier General Egbert L. Viele, a West Point-educated civil engineer. He sued the city
over the Park issue, and eventually won a court award of ten thousand dollars.

Q. What famous old Upper West Side institution once occupied the present site of
Columbia University?
A. The Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum. Morningside Heights was also known as "Asylum
Hill."

Q. Early in the century, Mary Mallon was arrested while working as the cook for a
family on West 89th Street. Why?
A. "Typhoid Mary" was a carrier of the deadly typhus bacillus. The city health department
had repeatedly warned never to work as a cook, but it was the only trade she knew. She
ended her days in quarantine on an island in the East River.
Several square blocks of tenements were torn down to make way for Lincoln
Center, yet you can still see them today. Where and how?
A. The empty streets were used for location shooting and dance numbers in the movie
West Side Story.

Q. In 1896 two Upper West Siders, Arthur Smith and Henry Bliss, crossed paths in a
tragic landmark event. What and where?
A. As Mr. Bliss turned to help a lady alight from a streetcar at Central Park West and West
72nd Street, taxi driver Smith ran over him, crushing his chest. Bliss dies the next day, the
country's first auto fatality.

Q. Besides Mr. Bliss's accident the peaceful-looking corner of Central Park West and
West 72nd Street has an extraordinary number of associations with violence and
crime. How so?
A. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the convicted kidnapper-killer of the Lindberg baby, worked
as a carpenter in the Majestic Apartments on that corner at the time of the crime. Later,
mob bosses Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello all lived in the Majestic.
Costello was shot (not fatally) in the lobby in 1957. And across the street, John Lennon
was murdered in front of his home in the Dakota Apartments in 1980.
What Upper West Sider was the first woman to be honored with a ticker-tape
parade?
A. Seventeen-year-old Gertrude Ederle, daughter of an Amsterdam Avenue butcher,
became a hero to New Yorkers in 1926, when she became the first woman and the first
American to swim the English Channel.

Q. What Upper West Sider was the first New Yorker to own a private car?
A. The flamboyant James Buchanan Brady, of West 86th Street -- known to history as
Diamond Jim. (Diamond Jim may actually have been beaten out for the honor by another,
quieter Upper West Sider, the industrialist- lawyer-publisher Isaac L. Rice.)

Q. What national dance craze was introduced in an Upper West Side musical?
A. The Charleston, introduced in 1922 by Elizabeth Welch in the last act of the all-Black
musical Runnin' Wild at the Colonial Theatre, Broadway and 63rd Street.

In August 1926 a crowd of 80,000 mobbed the street outside Campbell's Funeral
Church on Broadway and West 67th Street, even broke through the plate-glass
window before the police restored order. Who or what was inside?
A. The body of silent-screen Sheik Rudolph Valentino, who had died at a nearby hospital.
Interestingly, Valentino had started his show-business career just a few blocks away and
13 years earlier as a "taxi dancer" in a cabaret on Upper Broadway.

Irish Thugs

2010-01-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

T.J English wrote one of my favorite books called "The Westies" incredible Hells Kitchen history.
Owney Madden. BOSS

he Westies are a predominantly Irish American organized crime association operating from the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan's West Side in New York City. They were most influential from 1965 — 1986. During this time period, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) Organized Crime Bureau, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and other organized crime experts believe that the Westies murdered 60-100 people. Westies victims were often dismembered and in some cases tortured to death. Organized crime experts consider the Westies to have been one of the most violent and feared crime groups in New York City during the time of their operation.

Despite the long-time presence of Irish-American organized crime in Hell's Kitchen and the notorious generational rise to power in the mid-1960s, the Westies did not receive their title until 1977, from a detective investigating the murder of Genovese crime family-affiliated loanshark Charles "Ruby" Stein.

According to crime author T.J. English, "Although never comprised of more than twelve to twenty members — depending on who was in or out of jail at any given time — the Westies became synonymous with the last generation of Irish in the birthplace of the Irish Mob...."

The most notorious Westie figures were Michael "Mickey" Spillane, James "Jimmy" Coonan, Francis "Mickey" Featherstone, Eddie McGrath and Eddie Cummiskey.

Mickey Featherstone. Thug then Snitch. no props.During the late 1970s, Coonan tightened his alliance between the Westies and the Gambino organization, then run by Paul Castellano. Coonan's main contact was Roy DeMeo, who had brought him word of Spillane's assassination. With Coonan's cunning and Featherstone's reputation, the two men ensured a notoriously vicious stranglehold on the already brutal racketeering circles of Hell's Kitchen. In 1979 both Coonan and Featherstone were acquitted of the murder of a bartender, Harold Whitehead. Another Westie, Jimmy McElroy, was acquitted of the murder of a Teamster in 1980.

Even as both Westies leaders were imprisoned in 1980—Coonan on gun possession charges, Featherstone on a federal counterfeiting rap—the gambling, loansharking, and union shakedowns continued on the streets of the West Side. After DeMeo himself was murdered, Coonan's Gambino family connection became Danny Marino, a capo from Brooklyn. Coonan eventually interacted directly with John Gotti, who took over the Gambino Family after the murder of Castellano in December 1985. From time to time, the Westies worked for the Gambino Family as a contract killer squad.

Bad blood between Coonan and Featherstone, in part due to Featherstone's distaste for Coonan's Italian mob connections, eventually led to Featherstone being framed for the murder of Michael Holly, a construction worker and neighborhood bar owner who refused to give the Westies "protection money." Holly became an enemy of the Westies gang when an off-duty policeman saw John Bokun shoot Michael Holly in Holly's bar. The policeman shot and killed John Bokun and the Westies blamed Holly for the death. Holly was murdered in broad daylight on West 35th Street in April, 1985 by Westie member, and John's brother Billy Bokun, while wearing a wig and moustache to impersonate Featherstone, and renting a car identical to the one Featherstone was driving.

Featherstone was convicted in early 1986 and began cooperating with the government in hopes of getting the murder conviction overturned. The information he and his wife Sissy provided, and the recordings they helped make, achieved this aim. In September 1986 the prosecutor who oversaw Featherstone's conviction in the Holly frame told the presiding judge that post-conviction investigation had revealed Featherstone was innocent of that particular crime. The judge immediately overturned the verdict.

At that point the information provided by the Featherstones resulted in the arrest of Coonan and several other Westies on state charges of murder and other crimes. Shortly afterward, federal prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani announced a devastatingRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) indictment against Coonan and others for criminal activities going back twenty years. Featherstone testified in open court for four weeks in the trial that began in September 1987 and concluded with major convictions in 1988. Jimmy Coonan was sentenced to sixty years in prison on assorted charges. Other leading gang members were also sentenced to long prison terms, including James "Jimmy Mac" McElroy, a top enforcer who was sentenced to 60 years, and Richard "Mugsy" Ritter, a career criminal sentenced to 40 years imprisonment on loan-sharking and drug related charges.

[edit]

Jimmy Coonan. BOSS.

The war began when James "Jimmy C" Coonan, an 18-year-old Irish hood, had sworn revenge against Michael "Mickey" Spillane, the boss of Hell's Kitchen. The vendetta was undertaken for two reasons: the first was the Spillane initiated kidnapping and pistol whipping of Coonan's father. The second reason was that Spillane had an open affair with Coonan's mother. Coonan's whole purpose was to restore his father's honor. The "war" began in 1966 when the younger Coonan purchased an automatic machine gun and fired off a magazine from the top of a Hell's Kitchen tenement building at Spillane and his associates. Although Coonan failed to murder Spillane and his followers, not even wounding one man, Spillane received the word that the younger hoodlum was not to be taken lightly.

Coonan was imprisoned for a short period of time because of murder and kidnapping charges that were pleaded down to a Class E Disorderly Conduct Felony Charge and a Class C Manslaughter Felony Charge. He was released in late 1971 and continued on with his war and his criminal career. He and his gang of young Irish hoods began kidnapping, beating, and murdering Spillane loyalists. Coonan soon enlisted a 24-year-old Vietnam Vet by the name of Francis "Mickey" Featherstone as his right-hand man in his war against Spillane. The war became so intense that citizens of Hell's Kitchen had to choose sides. Those who took Spillane's side were subject to beatings, kidnappings, store vandalism, and robberies, all at the hands of Coonan's younger generation of Irish hoods. Those who chose Coonan's side were immune from these harsh activities because Spillane's gang was much older and more respectable.

Mickey Spillane. BOSS.

n the early 1960s Mickey Spillane — no relation to the author of the same name — stepped into a power vacuum that had existed in Hell's Kitchen since gang leaders fled the area in the early 1950s to avoid prosecution. A mobster from Queens named Hughie Mulligan had been running Hell's Kitchen since then; Spillane, a Hell's Kitchen native, was his apprentice until inheriting the fief.

Spillane ran the area with a "Godfather" style, sending flowers to neighbors in the hospital and providing turkeys to needy families during Thanksgiving in addition to running gambling enterprises such as bookmaking and policy, accompanied inevitably by loansharking. Loansharking naturally leads to assault, and Spillane had burglary arrests as well. However, among all his criminal activities, the most audacious was his "snatch" racket (kidnapping and holding local businessmen and members of other crime organizations for ransom); this probably most contributed to his eventual downfall.

Nonetheless, he was able to add to his neighborhood prominence by marrying Maureen McManus, a daughter of the prestigious McManus family which had run the Midtown Democratic Club since 1905. The union of political power with criminal activity enhanced the Westies' ability to control union jobs and labor racketeering, moving away from the declining waterfront and more strongly into construction jobs and service work at the New York Coliseum, Madison Square Garden and later the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

[edit]

Eddie Comminskey. THUG.

MURDERS

Robert Lagville killed by Jimmy Coonan
Jeremy Morales killed by Jimmy Coonan, William Murtha, Jackie Coonan and Eddie Sullivan
John Riley killed by Mickey Featherstone and Tommy McElroy
Emilio Rettagliatta killed by Mickey Featherstone
Linwood Willis killed by Mickey Featherstone
Michael Yelovich killed by Eddie Cummiskey
Dennis Curley killed by Paddy Dugan
Patrick "Paddy" Dugan killed by Eddie Cummiskey and Jimmy Coonan
Charles Stein killed by Danny Grillo, Jimmy Coonan, Richie Ryan, Billie Beattie and Jimmy McElroy
Walter Curtis killed by Eddie Cummiskey and Jimmy Coonan
Richard Tasiello killed by Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone
William Walker killed by Jimmy McElroy
Harold Whitehead killed by Jimmy Coonan
Henry Diaz killed by Kenny Shannon and Kevin Kelly
Thomas Hess killed by Richard "Richie" Ryan
Thomas Moresco
Vincent Leone killed by Kevin Kelly and Jimmy McElroy
Michael Holly killed by Billy Bokun and Kenny Shannon

Capeman Murders: A Real West Side Tale

2010-01-04T14:14:00.000-08:00

Contrary to popular belief, the 1957 Broadway play and subsequent movie, "The West Side Story" was not based on a teenage gang related double homicide on a playground in Manhattan's West Side. Rather the "Capeman" murders were nothing more than teen violence that played out in the "Hells Kitchen" area of Manhattan's West Side 2 years after the play opened, or life imitating art. But given the hysteria during the 1950's with inner-city teen age violence, the nation became obsessed with this type of violence, Hollywood capitalized on it producing movies such as "Rebel Without A Cause" and "Blackboard Jungle" while Broadway produced the play. The New York media just fueled that hysteria by turning what should have been a local double homicide into a nation wide story. This tragic story of 1950's street gang violence is well described in this story by George Spiegler for the Clinton Chronicle, a local newspaper.

Salvador Agron was dubbed the Capeman by the media because he wore a cape as he headed a gang called the Vampires from the upper West Side, to a rumble with a "Hell's Kitchen" gang called the Nordics on this infamous night in New York.The knife wielding teenager who stabbed to death Robert Young and Anthony Krezenski was convicted and sentenced to death in 1959. After petitions by many including Eleanor Roosevelt and Robert Young's father, his sentenced was commuted to life. In 1979 Agron was paroled. In 1986, at a young age of 42 he suffered a heart attack and died in New York City.

The "Umbrella Man" hated the nickname accorded to him by the media as he brought to the infamous rumble...an umbrella. It is not known if it was a weapon of opportunity or if he (as some have noted) brought it with him with a sharpened point. Luis Antonio Hernandez was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced 7 to 15 years. Paroled for good behavior, Hernandez has embraced obscurity.

The Apthorp

2010-01-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

The Apthorp is one of the rare New York City apartment buildings to occupy an entire city block. The Renaissance Revival building was designed by architects Clinton & Russell, was built between 1906 and 1908, and occupies the full block between Broadway and West End Avenue and between 78th and 79th Streets. The building is built around a huge interior courtyard. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and a City Landmark.

In 2008 the building, which had been rental, became a condominium.The asking prices, nearly $3,000 a square foot, or an average of $6.5 million per apartment, make it "one of the most expensive condominium conversion projects" ever, according to the New York Times.

Notable residents have included Nora Ephron ^[4] Al Pacino, Gelsey Kirkland, Conan O’Brien, Cyndi Lauper, Rosie O’Donnell, 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft, Rita Moreno from West Side Story, Barry Farber of talk radio fame, and newsman Roger Grimsby.

Conan lived here for years before he defected to Hell A.

In 1998 I saw him walking out his building and I said:

" Hey red, I love your work!"

he replied: "I love yours too!"

The Majestic (OG)

2010-01-04T13:44:00.000-08:00

Growing up in Manhattan I've come across incredible apartments. My best friend growing up lived in a duplex on the 16th floor. His family had a wrap around terrace facing Central Park West. I spent many great days and nights in that building. It is truly one of the best residences on the UpWest. Shout out to Tone aka Sone one.

The Majestic was home to some of the former heads of the Luciano crime family (later called the Genovese crime family) including Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello. In 1957, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante shot Frank Costello in the lobby of the Majestic in a failed assassination attempt.^[2]

Louis "Lepke" Buchalter lived in apartment 17J in 1933. Buchalter was a founding member of the New York syndicate, along with Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano, and was head of its security arm, Murder, Inc.^[3]

The Majestic is a housing cooperative located at 115 Central Park West between 71st Street (Manhattan) and 72nd in New York City. The apartment building was constructed in 1930-1931 in the Art Deco style by real estate developed by Irwin S. Chanin. The building has 238 apartments in 29 storeys. Like the San Remo cooperative three blocks north, it has two towers facing the Central Park.

The apartment building replaced the Hotel Majestic designed by Alfred Zucker in 1894. The steel framed building was originally planned as a 45 story hotel, but the plans where changed mid way in the construction due to the depression and the passing of the Multiple Dwelling Act.

The Beresford

2010-01-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

By Carter B. Horsley

One of the world's greatest residential buildings, this huge structure is distinguished by its three towers and its two major facades, one overlooking Central Park and the other Manhattan Square, the park that contains the American Museum of Natural History.

It is one of the masterpieces of architect Emery Roth, who also designed the twin-towered San Remo a few blocks south on Central Park West and whose firm, Emery Roth & Sons would design more office buildings in the city than any other firm.

Although the building is only 22 stories tall, its presence is significantly more because of its scale. The towers, which have illuminated finials, are quite large and are spaced far apart. Originally, the north tower was open. The southeast corner tower contains a multi-level apartment that was occupied for a while by Mike Nichols, the director, and, at another time, by Helen Gurley Brown, the magazine editor, and her husband, David Brown, the producer. Other residents have included Beverly Sills, the opera singer, and columnist Leonard Lyons. In 1998, Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian, bought a duplex apartment in the building from Isaac Stern, violinist, for about $4,350,000. City records indicated in September 2007 that David M. Brown paid $8,400,000 for a three-bedroom apartment next door to another three-bedroom he had purchased in 2004 for $10,500,000, and Vikram Pandit paid $17,850,000 for a 10-room apartment that had been owned by Tony Randall, the actor.

The Eldorado

2010-01-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

The Eldorado at 300 Central Park West, on the Upper West Side of New York City, is the northernmost of four twin-towered luxury housing cooperatives that face the west side of Central Park. The art deco style apartment building fills the complete blockfront extending between West 90th and West 91st Streets, overlooking the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park.

The building has 30 floors. The highest floors are in the two separate towers, a design it shares with other Central Park West co-ops like The San Remo, The Century and The Majestic. It was constructed in 1929-31 to the design of Margon & Holder, for Louis Klosk, a Bronx-based developer. The painted metal finials of the towers are a design of Emery Roth, in association with Margon & Holder."The futuristic sculptural detailing of the El Dorado, as well as its geometric ornament and patterns and its contrasting materials and textures, make it one of the finest Art Deco structures in the city. The towers are terminated by ornamented setbacks with abstract geometric spires that have been compared to Flash Gordon finials," observes Steven Ruttenbaum Details are cast in imitation stone, and there are bronze panels of low relief. The symmetrical massing of the building, with its terraced set-backs can be compared to the strikingly similar massing of Roth's classically-detailed The Beresford, completed in 1929, months before design of The El Dorado began.

The name is an inheritance from the former El Dorado, an undistinguished eight-storey apartment block of 1902 that formerly occupied the full block-front site.

San Remo

2010-01-04T13:25:00.000-08:00

The San Remo (145 and 146 Central Park West) is a luxury co-operative apartment building in New York City located between 74th and 75th streets, about 1/10 of a mile north of the Dakota building (which is located between 72nd and 73rd.) The San Remo is described by Glen Justice of the New York Times as "a dazzling two-tower building with captivating views of Central Park." As a housing cooperative, its board has a "reputation for lenient admissions standards" compared to the conservative, old-money boards on the other side of the park.
When the San Remo was originally designed, it had a wide range of relatively luxurious apartment configurations. The apartments were accessed from opulent lobbies which containedterrazzo floors, marble walls and custom light fixtures of bronze and frosted glass. The addresses of the building are 145 Central Park West and 146 Central Park West. There are two addresses because the building was designed such that each half of the structure (northern and southern) is served by that respective lobby. This avoided wasting space on the ground floor for long hallways connecting the lobbies. This architectural feature is shared by the Beresford. Most of the San Remo's first floor is used by the buildings' staff or leased out as doctors' offices.

The building's architect, Emery Roth, took advantage of new zoning regulations to build the first of New York's twin towered apartment blocks, each ten-story tower topped with an English Baroque mansion in the manner of John Vanbrugh and capped with an homage to the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. The Athenian monument was known to Roth from the reproduction that had featured in the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893. Roth also designed The Beresford and other landmark apartment houses and office blocks in New York. Construction began in 1929, weeks before the market crash initiated the Great Depression. The San Remo's construction process took approximately two years. When the building was completed in the early 1930s, New York and the rest of the nation had just finished the Roaring 20s and was headed into economic distress and World War II. In 1940 both buildings were sold, for $25,000 over the existing mortgages.

The Ansonia

2010-01-04T13:17:00.003-08:00

City Review

The second most famous building on the Upper West Side after the Dakota, the Ansonia hints at the glories of a mid-rise Paris that never was.

It exudes cosmopolitanism and is the city's most European building.

Despite the ravages of time, the building still reeks of sophistication and romance and a mannered luxury more of decadence than gentility. It is exuberant rather than exotic, courtly rather than stately.

Designed as the city's largest and grandest apartment hotel by Graves and Duboy for builder William Earle Dodge Stokes, the 2,500-room building, erected between 1899 and 1904, now misses the tall lantern-like finials atop its corner turrets that now look a bit like empty egg holders. It does not take too much imagination to visualize how much more graceful the finials made the building's composition, but it takes quite a bit more to realize that the building's central tower was, sadly, never executed.

The ornate tower would have been especially potent visually, an odd combination of baroque grandeur and Beaux-Arts articulation. "The building's composition was to have been resolved by a vast baldachino rising the equivalent of ten stories above the roof garden, an amazingly extravagant gesture evoking the roofscape of Chambord," the great French chateau, observed Robert A. M. Stern, Gregory Gilmartin and John Massengale in their book, "New York 1900, Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism, 1890-1915," (Rizzoli International Publications Inc., 1983), which has a full-page reproduction of a rendering of the building with the tower.

"By the mid-1960's, when a new owner threatened to raze the building, one resident estimated that at least three-quarters of the apartments were used by musicians, as homes, studios, classrooms, or all three," Mr. Salwen wrote, adding that official New York City landmark designation did "not come in time to protect the building or its residents from a series of predatory owners: one removed fifty tons of copper ornament, including majestic rooftop lanterns; another was ultimately jailed for embezzling the tenants' rent money."

The building experienced several rent strikes and was given a $400,000 fine for illegal removal and handling of asbestos before its conversion to a condominium in 1992 with 430 apartments.

Before moving to a midtown location, Keene's Chop House was on the ground floor as was the Child's Restaurant where famed bank robber Willie Sutton was arrested. In the 1970's, the building's steam room was converted into the Continental Baths where Bette Midler entertained, and before long the baths became Plato's Retreat, the city's most famous sex club. The building's site was formerly occupied by the New York Orphan Asylum.

"It looks like a baroque palace from Prague or Munich enlarged a hundred times, with towers, domes, huge swells of metal gone green from exposure, iron fretwork and festoons. Black television antennae are densely planted on its round summits. Under the changes of weather it may look like marble or sea water, black as slate in the fog, white as tufa in sunlight," observed novelist Saul Bellow in his 1956 book, "Seize The Day."

THE DAKOTA

2010-01-04T13:10:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia:

The Dakota, constructed from October 25, 1880 to October 27, 1884,[3] is an apartment building located on the northwest corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West in New York City.
The architectural firm of Henry Janeway Hardenbergh was commissioned to create the design for Edward Clark, head of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. The firm also designed the Plaza Hotel.[4]
The building's high gables and deep roofs with a profusion of dormers, terracotta spandrels and panels, niches, balconies and balustrades give it a North German Renaissance character, an echo of a Hanseatic townhall. Nevertheless, its layout and floor plan betray a strong influence of French architectural trends in housing design that had become known in New York in the 1870s.
According to popular legend, the Dakota was so named because at the time it was built, the Upper West Side of Manhattan was sparsely inhabited and considered as remote as the Dakota Territory. However, the earliest recorded appearance of this account is in a 1933 newspaper story. It is more likely that the building was named "The Dakota" because of Clark's fondness for the names of the new western states and territories.[5] High above the 72nd Street entrance, the figure of a Dakota Indian keeps watch. The Dakota was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

The Dakota is built in a square-shape around a central courtyard, accessible through the arched passage of the main entrance, a porte cochère large enough that horse-drawn carriages could pass through, letting their passengers disembark sheltered from the weather. In the Dakota multi-story stable building at 72nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue, elevators lifted carriages to upper floors. The "Dakota Stables" building was still in operation as a garage until February 2007, but it is now slated to be developed by the Related Companies into a multimillion dollar condominium project.
The general layout of the apartments is also in the French style of the period, with all major rooms not only connected to each other en filade in the traditional way, but also accessible from a hall or corridor, an arrangement that allowed a natural migration for guests from one room to another, especially on festive occasions, yet gave service staff discreet separate circulation patterns that offered service access to the main rooms. The principal rooms, such as parlors or the master bedroom, face the street, while the dining room, kitchen, and other auxiliary rooms are oriented towards the courtyard. Apartments are thus aired from two sides, which was a relative novelty in New York at the time. (In the Stuyvesant building, which was built in 1869, a mere ten years earlier, and which is considered New York's first apartment building in the French style, many apartments have windows to one side only.) Some of the drawing rooms were 49 ft (15 m) long, and many of the ceilings are 14 ft (4.3 m) high; the floors are inlaid with mahogany, oak, and cherry (although in the apartment of Clark, the building's founder, some floors were famously inlaid with sterling silver).

Elevation (south front)
Originally, the Dakota had 65 apartments with four to twenty rooms, no two alike. These apartments are accessed by staircases and elevators placed in the four corners of the courtyard. Separate service stairs and elevators serving the kitchens are located in mid-block. Built to cater for the well-to-do, the Dakota featured many amenities and a modern infrastructure that was exceptional for the time. The building has a large dining hall; meals could also be sent up to the apartments by dumbwaiters. Electricity was generated by an in-house power plant, and the building has central heating. Besides servants' quarters, there was a playroom and a gymnasium under the roof. (In later years, these spaces on the tenth floor were—for economic reasons—converted into apartments, too.) The lot of the Dakota also comprised a garden and private croquet lawns and a tennis court behind the building between 72nd and 73rd Streets.
The Dakota was a huge social success from the very start (all apartments were rented before the building opened), but a long-term drain on the fortune of Clark (who died before it was completed) and his heirs. For the high society of New York, it became fashionable to live in such a building, or to rent at least an apartment as a secondary city residence, and the Dakota's success prompted the construction of many other luxury apartment buildings in New York City.

Happy New Year to all the O.G's

2010-01-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

A Quick Shout to some of the Block Stars in no Order:

Smirk MSC, Swift MSC, Doze TC5, KB Mobb, Jal, Emer, Bos, Surf BIA, Ronbo, Ere, Toby Dickems (4th floor legend), Spice one, CM Gang, Devs, Madhatter, Rem, Erotic, Sear, Just 4, War, Wei, 456, SE, WKN, Oli, Buzz, Vango, FYC, Ojae, Zen 2, Ja, Xobes, Nost, Flats boys, Zank, Gone duece!, SEX ONE, SEF ONE, the Trips, BFS, Ruz Caze, Fu, DNC, Havok, Funk, Sho TDC, Risk FC, Share 37, Slin FC, Crazy Danny, Ticher, SLG, Seko, Post, Sen 2, Epic, Geshu, Tace, Thane, Stop one, SNS, ARS, A4, Aque, Hque, Dreads NIW, Size 9, FE, Dest 1, Nomen, NOGA, Jew, 2bad, Cuz, SHEWO!, Grims BFS, Ends BFS, So ATS, Su one, Left, Men aka Menace
MORE TO COME

LEGENDS. photos by SEN ONE IBM

2009-11-04T13:21:00.001-08:00

ROCKSTEADY WALL by Bill Blast

SKY'S THE LIMIT by Bill Blast

SEN ONE WEST SIDE

ALL DAY-photos by Michael Abramson

2009-11-04T12:54:00.000-08:00

LOCAL FAVORITES

2009-11-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

LEGEND

The Goat. Rocksteady Park

OASIS. All your hood needs

Metro Theater. I saw Freddys Final Nightmare and Little Rascals here among other classics

Lucky Star Loosey Spot. Ask for My man Mike or Big Guy. Used to be 15c for a short

Old Jamaican Weed Spot. Had To cop a drink with your dime of Knockout

DOUBLE NINE CREW

LORD SEAR CM

2009-11-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

FREE REMO---LEGEND