Greenwich Village. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

by Adel Manoukian

A historic house at 186 Spring Street may be torn down by owner and Canadian developer Nordica, but not if the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has anything to say about it.

The GVSHP has recently discovered that the 1824 house, formerly owned by Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz, has historic significance in early gay and AIDS activism. It served as a “gay commune” right after the 1969 Stonewall Riots—a series of violent demonstrations against a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. Residents of the house in the early 1970s included Jim Owles, the first openly gay candidate for city public office and Dr. Bruce Voeller, the co-founder and director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. This organization was the first to advocate gay and lesbian rights and was able to remove “homosexuality” off the list of mental disorders among other accomplishments.

The house is also located within GVSHP’s South Village Historic District, which the organization is trying to preserve as a whole.

The Canadian developer Nordica is planning to build a seven-story building that will have two floors of retail, three single-floor apartments and a duplex penthouse at 182 Spring Street, according to DNA Info.

Because of these recent discoveries, GVSHP has been able to get letters of support from political representatives like State Senator Tom Duane and City Councilmember Danny Dromm. The organization also urges residents and people in support of the fight to write letters to the Landmarks Preservation Committee (LPC). Due to the continued support, the City has not yet issued demolition permits for the space and GVSHP is trying to keep it that way.

Photo by James Kelleher.

NY Press recently reported Developer Stephan Boivin filed for demolition permits for the home at 186 Spring Street, which formerly belonged to Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has been fighting to have the property preserved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).

The LPC recently declared the site not an individual landmark, the Village Voice reports. The property does not retain enough of its original material to be considered. According to the LPC’s statement, the general area is still under review, but not an immediate priority.

GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman told the Press this is not a vote, so the decision could change “at any time.” Berman said his group has sent the LPC further important information, hoping to influence their decision about the property.

This information includes a letter in which Berman and various advocates cite the area’s “powerful and unique connection to the early gay rights movement and New York’s earliest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) communities and their struggle.”

Declaring the area in which the house stands a landmark zone would still preserve the property, even if it’s not independently a landmark.

—Alissa Fleck

Beastie Boys Courtesy of Wiki Commons

Fight for your right…to get historic sites landmarked? Developer Stephan Boivin has filed for demolition permits for an “1824 federal style house” recently purchased from Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz, according to a statement from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. The Beastie Boy’s former residence is at 186 Spring Street in the proposed South Village Historic District. GVSHP reports the developer previously made a public statement “promising to preserve the structure,” saying it would be kept for his personal use. The permit now requests full demolition.

According to GVSHP’s Executive Director Andrew Berman, his group has brought this to the attention of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Berman says the LPC agreed to consider this part of the district years ago, and his group urges them to do so now to save the “historic site.” The LPC has thus far refused to consider the remainder of the district a landmark site.

The house GVSHP hopes to preserve is part of a group of surviving federal style houses all built in the same year. According to the organization’s research, “though altered, the house still has the Flemish-bond brick and  two or three stories plus dormer form characteristic of federal-style (1790-1835) houses.” Horovitz sold the house in April of this year.

Not only does Boivin want the property demolished, he aims to combine it with another development site at 182 Spring Street. The GVSHP provides the facts about the South Village. In March it was designated one of the seven most important and threatened historic sites in NY State. In 2006 the GVSHP submitted a proposal for historic district designation of the South Village. Four years later a third of the proposed district was landmarked, but since the LPC has taken no action on the issue.

Since then several sites in the district have been demolished. Berman released a statement on the prospective demolition of this site: “This can either be yet another case of the city sitting on its hands while the character of one of New York’s great historic neighborhoods is destroyed, or the Landmarks Preservation Commission can finally keep its promise and fulfill its duty by protecting the remainder of the proposed South Village Historic District.”

—Alissa Fleck

(From City & State’s Heard Around Town. To read more from City & State click here.

New York City Comptroller Calls for an End to Stop-and-Frisk
City Comptroller John C. Liu released a statement calling for the abolishment of stop-and-frisk tactics by NYPD officers. According to Liu, there were nearly 700,000 instances of New Yorkers being stopped and frisked last year, nearly all of them targeting Black or Latino people innocent of any crime.
“It’s just impossible to say stop-and-frisk is not racial profiling, and continuation of this practice not only violates the department ban against racial profiling, it raises civil rights questions,” Liu said, decrying the tactic. “It also poses a potential financial liability to the city, as evidenced by rising claims against the NYPD and the federal judge’s ruling allowing class-action status in a stop-and-frisk lawsuit.” Supporting Liu’s claim, there were 2,241 civil rights claims filed against NYPD officers in 2011, up 23 percent from 2010.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer spoke in agreement with Liu’s assessment, but applauded Commissioner Ray Kelly’s acknowledgement that greater training and oversight is needed in current stop-and-frisk procedures after the commissioner announced changes to officer training, monitoring, supervision, transparency and accountability. Stringer also spoke in support of the “call-in” approach, a proven tool for reducing violence.

State Senate Passes Resolution to Honor Beastie Boys Founder
Last Tuesday, May 15, the New York State Senate passed a resolution introduced by State Sen. Daniel Squadron honoring Brooklyn native and Beastie Boys founder Adam “MCA” Yauch for his contributions to music and political activism.
Yauch and the Beastie Boys gained prominence in New York City, which is reflected in the resolution. “The Beastie Boys exemplified New York through a period in which grassroots creativity and a community of iconoclastic artists helped redefine and rejuvenate a city on the ropes, with iconic imagery from Brooklyn to Ludlow Street,” reads part of the resolution.

Governor Ends Food Stamp Finger Imaging
Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the end of finger imaging for food stamp recipients. The practice was thought to prevent many hungry New Yorkers from acquiring much-needed food at a time when one-third of New York City’s children live in poverty. Arizona now remains the only state to continue this practice.
“It makes no sense for children to go to bed hungry while we waste local tax dollars on a senseless program that puts food farther out of reach,” State Sen. Daniel Squadron said, applauding the governor’s decision.
The reform also impacts the elderly. “Removing stigma and ensuring dignity in applying for food stamps for the elderly is critical,” said Bobbie Sackman, director of public policy for the Council of Senior Centers and Services.
The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies  also announced its support of the governor’s decision, praising the removal of this “needless hurdle” in a time of economic hardship.

Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot Directed by Adam Yauch

Midway through 2008, something surprising has happened: two films with human dimension and artful expression–Adam Yauch’s Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot and Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness–have flushed the toilet of summer movies. Neither is a special effects extravaganza but they stir emotion by emphasizing the human scale of what movies can show. (See my mid-year round-up below.)
Gunnin’ documents b-ball culture through eight high school basketball prodigies from across the country who participated in the “Elite 24 Hoops Classic.” It took place in 2006 at the street basketball mecca of Harlem’s Rucker Park, on the corner of 155th street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, where stars like Dr. J. and Wilt Chamberlain first began. Reputations (nicknames) and legends are made at Rucker (“It’s where you get tough,” a fan says) and Yauch’s attention to the authentic passion of folk culture makes the movie vibrant. Gunnin’ is everything the fatuous, condescending Hoop Dreams was not.

As in his remarkable Beastie Boys concert film, Awesome: I Fuckin’ Shot That, Yauch elevates video technology with a hands-on, heart-felt, keen-eyed purpose. A b-ball fan who knows what to look for, he also utilizes the medium to catch fantastic moves: he even turns instant-replay into an art form of amazement and commemoration. The fish-eye lens expresses wide-eyed wonderment at New York life, while a witty scan of internet searches paces background info on the players. In Gunnin’, Yauch’s style has the intellectual and emotional rhythm that DePalma failed to achieve in Redacted.

Most docs are still made according to decades-old models but Gunnin’ has hiphop immediacy and this is not just a matter of technology. Yauch’s feeling for youth culture gives him insight into his subject. Imaginary stats cards for each of the players (Jerryd Bayless, [cq] Michael Beasley, Tyreke Evans, Donte Greene, Brandon Jennings, Kevin Love, Kyle Singler and Lance Stephenson) provide an affectionate motif, but Yauch also conveys how these talented kids get marked for success–hunted by NBA scouts, manufacturers, predatory bloggers and girls. The interview segments are terse but reveal the essence of diverse backgrounds, contrasting suburban genes to ghetto pedigrees. It coalesces different styles of American boyhood; these are the warmest, most recognizable gallery of faces since George Washington.

To read the full article at CityArts click here.