Year: 2011

  • Park Arrests Way Up

    Something has gone wrong in Union Square Park this summer. Complaints about illegal behavior, drug use, and vagrancy have led to a 320% increase in police citations. Now the police are patrolling much mor aggressively, as are hired security teams from the Union Square BID.

  • Entertainment in the Park

    The 2011 “Summer in the Square,” at Union Square, provides early morning fitness, family fun for kids and parents, and live music every Thursday until Aug. 11.  In the evening, live music is presented, beginning at 6 p.m., from a diverse mix of genres like latin, rock, jazz, and folk and a mix of local and touring bands. The exception was June 30, when three groups performed. One of them, “Million Dollar Quartet,” is based on the grand recording session where legends Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis were brought together.

  • Hyatt Hotel Update

    Hersha Hospitality Trust, owner of upscale and select service hotels in major metropolitan markets, announced that the Company has entered into a purchase and sale agreement to acquire the 175-room Hyatt Union Square hotel in New York City at 4th Ave and 13th Street for total consideration of $104.1 million, or approximately $595,000 per key. The transaction is expected to close shortly after the seller completes the hotel’s construction. The consideration to the seller consists of $36 million paid to the seller in cash, the cancellation by the Company of a $10 million development loan made to the seller, accrued interest on the loan and the assumption by the Company of two mortgage loans secured by the hotel in the original aggregate principal amount of $55 million. While this purchase and sale agreement secures the Company’s right to acquire the completed hotel, the Company is not assuming any construction risk, including the risk of schedule and cost overruns. The hotel is expected to open in 2012.

  • Upcoming Event: Walking Tour

    What: LGBT History of the East Village:
    A Walking Tour

    When:
    Sunday, June 26
    12:00 – 2:00 P.M.
    Where: meeting location available upon registration
    Cost: free; reservations required
    RSVP: rsvp@gvshp.org or 212-475-9585 ext. 35

    Co-sponored by the Lower East Side History Project

    Back in the 1880s queer and transvestite bordellos opened on the Bowery not far from the theaters where, 80 years later, Andy Warhol staged transvestite musicals for gay audiences. The East Village was home to the pre-eminent gay artists of the 20th century—Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Taylor Mead, William S. Burroughs, Quentin Crisp, Klaus Nomi, Keith Haring, among many more. On this walking tour, we will explore significant sites of gay history, along with the artists, writers, and musicians whose contributions dovetailed with LGBT culture. (More information)

  • Upcoming Event: Book Talk

    What: Hotel No Tell:
    A Book Talk by Daphne Uviller

    When:
    Monday, June 20
    6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
    Where: Jefferson Market Library 425 6th Avenue (btwn West 9th/10th Streets)
    Cost: free; reservations required
    RSVP: rsvp@gvshp.org or 212-475-9585 ext. 35

    Zephyr Zuckerman, the lovable, hapless heroine of Daphne Uviller’s Super in the City, is back. In Hotel No Tell, she’s armed and undercover as a concierge at a Greenwich Village hotel, tracking down a missing hundred grand. Please join third-generation Villager Daphne Uviller as she reads from Hotel No Tell which will be available for purchase and signing. (More information)

  • New School Construction: More of the Same

    This week (June 6-10), contractors will continue to excavate earth and rock, and load out material. We will complete the underpinning of the adjacent buildings. Installation of rakers, line drilling, lagging and sheeting around the perimeter will progress as well. Concrete foundation walls are scheduled to begin.

    The following week, we will continue line drilling, rock excavation, and loading out, as well as lagging and sheeting.

    Concrete foundation walls will progress.