Current Events

 

Tour Bus Sound Legislation won the City Council Vote  - Do you live where open-air tour buses and their public address systems are a major annoyance?  Forty-four members of The City Council voted to pass the legislation....Visit Our Streets Our Lives

 

Celebrate Borough President Scott Stringer's Birthday on May 4th !

 

 

The New York City Department of Transportation invites you to a Public Input Session
for the Bleecker/Houston/Bowery Transportation Study Thursday, May 6, 2010 6:30PM
Bowery Mission Chapel – 227 Bowery (btw Rivington & Stanton)
Download the Flyer & Details

 

New applications this month for liquor licenses:  Brio Bar Corp., d/b/a Brio, 26 Astor Pl., NYC 10003, and Metacompany, LLC d/b/a Hung Ry America, 55 Bond St., NYC 10012 to be heard this month at CB#2,  Tues., 5/11@ 6:30 PM-Judson Memorial Church, 239 Thompson St., Assembly Hall.  PLEASE sign the ONLINE PETITION or write a short e-mail to the CB#2 SLA Committee, c/o Gormley@cb2manhattan.org
 

NoHoNY BID plans a major Branding Campaign for NoHo.  Anticipating that they will expand to the Bowery, the NOHO BID has decided to hire an advertising agency to ramp up their branding for NoHo.  Now, so far BID branding has included the expansion of chain stores along Broadway, advocated for every street fair that is slowly moving east of Broadway, installed Bishops Crook lights on Lafayette St where their should be Boulevard Lightoliers, has done little if anything to help the businesses on Lafayette that have been severely affected by the MTA Construction - in spite of the BID'S ties to the Mayor's office....and has aided every single application for more bars and restaurants in the area.  The Wall Street Journal called us last week to get our opinion:  we clearly stated that, at least Eastern NoHo, was not interested in commercial branding, that we are quite well-known already (every real estate website in town now has a NoHo section, as does curbed.com, Eater.com and the Gothamist) and that the precious businesses we have here are likely not too interested in more bar and restaurant or chain store competition or any help from the Mayor's office to increase it.

 

Tisch/NYU Project at 383 Lafayette
Update:  Further development of this site is on hold pending further evaluation regarding the stability of the site and building as a result of recent under-ground test findings.  NoHo had its first working group meeting on July 22, 2009. More than 50 people attended. NYU provided a thorough background on the project to date; acknowledged that there would be more detail provided as to the use and the volume of regular use as well as that for performance nights at the 3 small theaters planned. Renderings were provided for both the existing building (landmarked) and the proposed addition on the 4th St parking lot. There were questions largely centered on the massing and the design. We will notify everyone well in advance of any more planning sessions for 383 Lafayette. 

 

The NYU purchased 726 Broadway, former home of The Wiz, will be opening soon with its new ground floor book store and emporium. A planning and review session for the design and use of this space was held over the summer and was well received for its integration of NoHo industrial design as well as offerings contributing to non-university patrons. The upper floors will relocate administrative offices from the core area around Washington Square, and the total square footage will count toward their projected need for 3 million square feet in the Greenwich Village core area.

 

NYU Plan 2031 - For those who may have missed the Open House presenting the updated strategy for NYU expansion, you can visit a very thorough new website

 

Follow continuing discussions and further developments at Community Task Force on NYU Development  site: www.communitynyc.org

 

Great Jones St. Hotel - LPC has approved the facade design as well as the design of entrances on Great Jones and Bond St., sorry.  And the first panel is up, see http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/7046 and for a complete chronology, see:  http://ny.curbed.com/tags/great-jones-hotel

 

It has been rumored that Todd English has dropped out of this project for financial reasons.  A recent conversation with the Developer, however, indicates that there may be an investor interested in backing Mr. English as the operator.  Meanwhile, the only work on the property seems to be the addition of an extremely dark panel for the planned scrim.  Architect Henry Smith-Miller says, "It's dark, brooding, and tangley."  Others feel this a more apt description of his architectural legacy.

 

Great Jones Hotel Memorandum of Understanding  See the full text of the Memorandum.

Here's layout from cellar to second floor (click here for full-size PDF)

 

 

Chinatown 197a Planning - For the last two years a broad coalition of stakeholders has been working on a 197a plan for the Chinatown Area which, at present encompasses Houston St. south to Worth and the East River to Broadway.  The Study area is likely to shrink, but we continue to serve on the Working Group to assist with the project and to ensure a compatible transition with our sister neighborhoods.  You can see what's going on at www.chinatownworkinggroup.org

 

8-10 Bond St. - UPDATE:  This parcel is up for sale again.  See Curbed.com
 

38-50 Cooper Square gets approval for classroom use in an M1-5B district.  The space has, purchased by Grace Church where they will be putting a high school.  The Special Permit application was heard before CB#2 Zoning this month…nobody from NoHo showed up.  We raised objections about breaking zoning and the potentially looming issue of NYU classrooms among some NoHo constituents at the Full Board meeting, Feb. 18th and managed to get approval for a friendly amendment that would limit this special permit to classrooms for grades 9-12, only.  The Board was not going to vote down a Grace Church School on the precedent of no undergraduate classroom space allowed in NoHo.

The Astor Center now includes the former Serafina space.   See the Community Agreement here. 

Water Tunnel Station on East 4th St. will be open space but possibly not under Parks Department jurisdiction.  The CB#2 meeting of Jan 6th introduced new criteria from the NYC Dept of Environmental Protection as to the public use of this space.  Watch for announcements of further meetings.

 

 

NoHo's MTA Project

We couldn't do better than Curbed coverage.....Here's the plan.

 

Houston St construction continues with the new MTA incursion at Lafayette Street.  This project will last for four years affecting the Lafayette/Houston intersection and Lafayette St. and all subway entrances.  The eastern side of Lafayette is finally complete, the western side begins in January, but is not scheduled to last as long.  We will keep you posted as we can - the MTA is not terribly open to conversation - but the resulting connected #6 uptown and downtown stations, elevators and better connection with the Broadway/Lafayette station should be an improvement when it is all done.

See Map and Detail on NoHo Public and Private Construction Projects

 

Water Tunnel Construction
The connection of the new water mains from the new water tunnel will last thru 2011. Phase I involves moving utility lines and locating old mains. This will occur from Astor Place, down Bowery to Great Jones and along East 4th St from Bowery to Broadway and Great Jones from Bowery to Lafayette and then along Lafayette from Great Jones to East 4th St.

Attached is the latest presentation from the Department of Design and Construction. There is a liaison and weekly/daily updates are available, from Karen Flores, T. 212-228-0731, F. 212-228-1259


And, here is a rough map of all the pending City and Private Construction currently in the works for NoHo.

 

The NYU purchased 726 Broadway, former home of The Wiz, will be opening soon with its new ground floor book store and emporium. A planning and review session for the design and use of this space was held over the summer and was well received for its integration of NoHo industrial design as well as offerings contributing to non-university patrons.  The upper floors will relocate administrative offices from the core area around Washington Square, and the total square footage will count toward their projected need for 3 million square feet in the Greenwich Village core area. 
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SLA LICENSING -  PLEASE sign the ONLINE PETITION regarding the granting of future licenses to NoHo area addresses not previously licensed...this may seem obscure, but it IS important.