Triangle: Remembering The Fire

Last night I watched Triangle: Remembering The Fire, an HBO documentary which commemorates the 100 anniversary of NYC's Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

The filmmakers interviewed many of the descendants of the victims/survivors of the fire - a tragedy that still haunts New Yorkers to this very day. Most memorable for me was a firefighter who responded to the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 and witnessed people jumping from the towers - just as his grandfather (also a NYC firefighter) had witnessed when his grandfather responded to the Triangle fire back in 1911.

Also interesting was the discussion of how relevant this century-old tragedy is today. Because of what happened in Greenwich Village on that horrible day, the labor movement was able to grow and increase their advocacy for worker's rights. The same rights that wingnut conservatives are trying to do away with at this very moment.

BTW - the building which housed the Triangle factory still stands (below) and is owned and used by New York University. Every year a remembrance ceremony is held at the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place (outside the building), where local schoolchildren read the names of the victims and place flowers at a makeshift memorial.

Snowmageddon II - A Tale of Two Boros

It looks like we got about 8 inches of snow in Astoria last night (above), and I noticed this morning that all of the streets in my neighborhood had been plowed. But when I got off the subway for work (in the Village), I could see that some of the side streets had yet to be touched by the Department of Sanitation (below).

During the real Blizzageddon, streets in Queens took DAYS to be plowed. Could it be that our BillionMayor actually listened to all the Queens and Brooklyn politicians (who screamed bloody murder last time) and made sure our streets were taken care of first???

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Birthday Boy - Vin Diesel

My future ex-husband Vin Diesel turns 43 today, which means I will also be turning 43 in about 5 weeks. We're cosmically linked like that, you know.

Here is some inside scoop on Big Daddy Diesel: despite all the rumors, he is NOT gay.  "Mark Vincent" (his real name) grew up in Greenwich Village, the neighborhood I work in. I've spoken to people who hung out with him as kids and they say Mr. Vincent got into a lot of shizz during his youth (don't we all) - but other guys was never one of them.

But make no mistake - I'm not about to let a little thing like heterosexuality stand in the way of our love...

The Northern Dispensary

Photo Credit: Lost City

The 3-sided Northern Dispensary building in the heart of NYC’s West Village is an oddity.  One side of the building is located on two streets (where Grove and Christopher Streets come together), and the other two sides of the building are located on one street (where Waverly Place divides into 2 separate blocks).  Check out the map …

The deed of the Northern Dispensary, which was built in 1831, stated that the property had to be used to provide medical care to the “worthy poor.”  In fact, Edgar Allen Poe was treated here in 1837 for a head cold when he was an unknown writer.  Most recently it was home to a dental clinic, but the doors were shut in 1998 and most of the equipment remains inside the building getting rusty.

I always thought they should open the Northern Dispensary at Halloween.  I think a “Haunted Dental Clinic” would be downright terrifying.

Photo Credit: Greenwich Village Daily Photo

St. Vincents Hospital Covered In Plywood

Photo Credit: Lady Bunny Blog

St. Vincent's Hospital - the 160-year-old institution that treated Titanic survivors and bore the early brunt of NYC's AIDS epidemic - closed their doors for good last week.  This leaves the West Side of downtown Manhattan with no hospital, and many residents are heartbroken.

The emergency room ambulance bays have been covered with plywood, where people have been spontaneously leaving messages and lighting candles in loving memory of St. Vincent's.  I actually entered the emergency room through this ambulance bay one evening with my elderly friend Bill - he died at the hospital a few days later of lung disease.  St. Vincent's was the last place I ever saw him.

It is widely assumed that the the people overseeing St. Vincent's assets will sell the prime Greenwich Village real estate to developers, who will no doubt build luxury condos for rich people.  Just what this town needs...

Source: Jeremiah's Vanishing New York

NYC's St. Vincent's Hospital To Close

The Board of Directors of St. Vincent’s – NYC’s last Catholic hospital – voted to shut down operations last night after 160 years due to financial insolvency caused by crushing debt. St. Vincent’s had a fabled history in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan – treating everyone from survivors of the Titanic to many of the East Coast’s earliest AIDS patients.

When I first moved to NYC I lived in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. But I had no idea where any Brooklyn hospitals were located, so when I got sick I took the subway to the Village and went to the emergency room of St. Vincent’s.  St. Vincent’s was also the hospital where my friend Bill died of old age and lung disease – after our harrowing 4-block trip with me riding in the back of a St. Vincent’s ambulance.

I also remember passing by St. Vincent’s on September 11th, 2001 – and wrote about it in my 9/11 remembrance post:

One of my most vivid memories of that day is walking past St. Vincent's hospital - which is a huge hospital and trauma center located a few blocks north of the restaurant. They were in "emergency mode" - with doctors, nurses, etc., posted outside to take care of the incoming wounded. And they were all just standing around, waiting for people who never came. Unreal.

With the closing of St. Clare’s hospital a few years ago (which was conveniently located around the corner from my apartment), the West Side of Manhattan is left with only one Hospital – St. Luke’s-Roosevelt on the Upper West Side.

I Heard It Through The Grapvine

According to Ephemeral New York - a fantastic blog, btw - the phrase "I heard it through the grapevine" may have originated in an 19th-century Greenwich Village bar.

Located on the southeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 11th Street, it’s probably the first legendary Village bar. The Old Grapevine attracted artists, businessmen, Union officers, Southern spies, and politicians, who dropped by after visiting Jefferson Market Courthouse two blocks south.

It was such a gathering spot that the phrase “I heard it through the grapevine” originated there. (Yep, a grapevine used to cover the 11th Street side of the tavern).

The pub closed in 1915, and that corner now houses an apartment building with a "French Roast" cafe/coffee shop on the ground floor.

This edumacational moment brought to you by DavidDust and the good people at Arby's....

NYC Celebrity Sighting - Kiefer Sutherland

OMG - I just passed Kiefer Sutherland on the street! As I was walking toward my restaurant a few minutes ago, I saw a man get out of a cab and pause for a moment in front of my job. As I got a little closer I noticed it was Kiefer Sutherland, and he had stopped so a delivery man could take a cell phone picture of him. Jack Bauer was dressed in jeans and a plain white t-shirt, cigarette dangling from his mouth, and he was smiling from ear-to-ear. Then he went on his merry way, right past me - still grinning.

I have to say this ... Jack Bauer is shorter in person than I thought. Although he may not be tall, here are some "true facts" you may not know about Jack Bauer...

Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.

Jack Bauer sleeps with a gun under the pillow. But he could kill you with the pillow.

Jack and Jill went up the hill. Only Jack came down. Jill was a f*cking terrorist.

For more True Facts About Jack Bauer, go HERE.

Walking In NYC...

I walked home from work on Thursday, and these are some of the things I saw on my journey...

Tiles For America

In the days after 9/11, many impromptu memorials sprang up around New York City. Some were simply pictures of the "missing" (which always made me sob) - but one tribute in particular was very unique. A few ceramic tiles, made by children, were attached to a chain-link fence surrounding a small NYC Transit utility shed. As time went on the number of tiles grew. Eight years later, this corner in Greenwich Village has become a tourist attraction.

I pass the Tiles For America memorial every day I walk home from work, and it always moves me. Last week I took a couple of pictures.

Check out there website HERE to learn more and see some of the individual tiles.

New York City Fire Escapes

This great picture, from the excellent photoblog Greenwich Village Daily Photo, captures a colorful block of tenement buildings here in NYC. From the looks of it, I would guess it was taken on Macdougal Street in the Village near N.Y.U. One of the buildings says "Macdougal" at the very top - but that could have been a company or family name.

The block I live on consists entirely of similar tenement (or "walk-ups", as we call them) buildings - but my block isn't nearly as colorful. Check out Greenwich Village Daily Photo HERE.

Wanna Buy a Racist Cookie?

Would you like to buy a "Drunken Negro Face" cookie?!? Well, you CAN - right here in one of the (supposedly) most liberal and enlightened places on the planet. Our local Fox 5 TV station did a "Shame, Shame, Shame!" segment last night regarding the Lafayette French Pastry shop - which is an institution in Greenwich Village, one of the (supposedly) most liberal and enlightened neighborhoods in the city.

Ted Kefalinos, the owner of the bakery, reported told customers he made the cookies in honor of President Obama's inauguration. And he allegedly didn't always use the word "negro", if you smell what I'm stepping in. Kefalinos reportedly also told customers that Obama "will get what's coming to him - like Lincoln". These customers alerted Fox 5 News.

Even when confronted by the famed Fox 5 "Shame Shame Shame" reporter - Arnold Diaz - Kefalinos didn't dial back his rhetoric much. The owner claimed there was nothing racist or objectionable about "Drunken Negro Face" cookies, which is how he referred to them on-camera. He also stated that no one complained when he made "Dead Geese" cookies after the recent US Airways crash.

Keep it classy, Asshat. Read a short piece regarding this story on Arnold Diaz's blog HERE.

Jefferson Market/Courthouse/Prison/Library

The Jefferson Market branch of the New York Public Library is one of the most unique buildings in Greenwich Village - and indeed one of the most beautiful in all of New York City.

The site started as a market - with court proceedings taking place in rooms above the market shed in the mid 1800's. In 1883, the building you see above was completed - and served as a courthouse until 1945. It remained vacant until the 1970's, when it was saved from the wrecking ball by e.e. cummings and a group of Village activists. The city turned the building into a library branch, which it still functions as today.

The building next door that served as the New York Women's House of Detention was demolished in 1973-74 to make room for the Jefferson Market Garden - which community gardeners continue to keep beautiful.

On my way home on Monday, I took these pictures (from the opposite side than the pic above). It had been snowing lightly for a couple of hours, and the sun was starting to set...

Edna St. Vincent Millay House

Poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay (above) was one of the "Bohemians" who put Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood on the map. Millay and others such as dancer Isadora Duncan and writer Eugene O'Neill made "The Village" a place where anything goes - an identification the neighborhood still clings to today.

Back in the 1920's, Millay lived at 75 1/2 Bedford Street in a former carriage house and cobbler's shop. It is said that this is the house where Millay seduced literary critic Edmund Wilson - one of her many lovers (male and female). The nine and a half feet-wide structure still survives today (see picture below), and it is said to be the narrowest house in Greenwich Village. In 1993 the house sold for less than $300,000 - but today would probably sell for a few million. It is not unusual for larger townhouses in the neighborhood to sell for $10 million or more.


I work about 3 blocks away from this house, but have only walked past it two or three times in all the years I've lived in New York. Bedford Street is almost exclusively residential, with very few (if any) businesses - thus there isn't much reason to go there unless you live there.


Sources: Ephemeral New York and Wikipedia.