Harvest in the Square Coming Up

It’s back. The Holiday Market returns on November 18.

Next week (November 25th to November 29th ), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on the academic floors inside the building.

The following week (December 2nd to December 6th), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on academic floors

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday and Sunday, November 23rd and 24th for interior activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.

Ikea opens in Red Hook on June 18 and promoted that fact with pop-up apartment in Union Square. How do you feel about promotions such as this that sometimes take over the south end of the park. Do these advertisers pay for the privilege? And if so, who gets the money?

Why is 4th Ave,. so short? Why is the Strand on 12th St.? When was the Post Office built. To take a great visual tour of the history of 4th Avenue, click here.

Rock venue Irving Plaza is set to go quiet this summer for an eight-month renovation. The 150-year-old venue hosts its last scheduled show for the year on June 30—headlined by tropical band Guaco—before shutting down for work that is scheduled to last until next spring.

Live Nation, the concert hall’s operator, announced the planned renovations this week along with the Polish Army Veterans Association, which has owned the building since 1948.

The 3,300-square-foot hall was converted from a Polish-American community center into a concert venue in 1978. Since then, Irving Plaza’s marquee has listed big-name artists including Bob Dylan, the Foo Fighters, Radiohead and the Talking Heads. Paul McCartney played a surprise show there to a capacity crowd of about 1,000 on Valentine’s Day in 2015.

But, as some Yelp reviews document, concertgoers have complained about the venue’s narrow interior and a layout that makes it difficult to buy a drink or use the restroom without missing segments of the show.

Live Nation is promising that the venue will reopen with a revamped lobby, new bars, a downstairs VIP lounge and a remodeled mezzanine with a new configuration for box seats. A Live Nation spokesman said four new bathrooms are on the way as well.

Have you noticed that many dry cleaners, including the one on 13th closest to our building, are now billing themselves as “organic?” What does that really mean. Not much in reality. Click here to read an article and watch a video report.