By Kim Velsey 5/17 2:21pm

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The Unlikely Protesters of Park Avenue: Neighbors Wave Sheets at Planned Toll Brothers Tower

The residents of Carnegie Hill are not particularly experienced in protest techniques—they are more likely to walk through throngs of the demonstrators than to walk among them. But a new Toll Brothers development on Park Avenue has inspired angry Upper East Siders to take up the picket.

In a vertical city like New York, simple signs on sticks do not do much good, so neighbors have resorted to a more high-flying technique for their “visual protest” this morning, unfurling homemade banners from one of their buildings that read “Save Our History.”

“We’re all rookies at this, not professional protesters,” said Lucinda Ballard, who lives in 1112 Park Avenue, right next to the two pre-Civil War townhouses that the Philadelphia-based Toll Brothers is almost certainly planning to replace with a tower, but has thus far refused to confirm. Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/05 11:41am

Making History

Classy! (Harlem Bespoke)

‘Ghetto’ Wine Shop Bows to Humbler Harlem

Last month, The Observer wondered aloud if there was some value to the preservation of New York’s ghetto character. If we are saving brownstones, cast-iron lofts and now modernist skyscrapers, why not the urban grit that overtook the city in the 1970s and 1980s. Most preservation is a form of urban theme park, so a little graffiti and some chintzy signs seems appropriate to convey the full sense of New York over the centuries.

This thought experiment was prompted by a liquor store sign that offended the sensibility of its neighbors in Harlem, who sought to transform the section of the hood into a certain Brooklyn enclave. “We want to be Park Slope with charming little stores and become a destination for people,” Ruthann Richert told The Times at the time.

Well, the gentrifiers have won out, the paper reports. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/24/11 10:03am

Making History

Ah, the good old days. (Bowery Alliance of Neighbors)

Save Our Grit! Bowery Listed to State Register of Historic Places

It used to be the Bowery was the last place anyone wanted to be caught dead in New York—quite likely because you could wind up dead on skid row. But as it has become the locus of over-the-top downtown development in recent years, nostalgists and preservationists have joined forces to try and preserve the area. Even Assembly Speaker and local representative Shelly Silver has expressed an interest to seeing the Bowery stay the same. The state has finally come through and given the historic byway a boost, though it may be too little, too late. Read More