day after fryday

rent asunder

west 13th

My earliest NYC rent wasn’t paid in cash.

I worked 40 hours each week for a place backstage in the mid-1970’s. 

My first rented apartment was in the Village. It cost $185, split 2 ways. 

$92.50 was tough to gather every 30 days, back then.

Then rent jumped in various places to $265. $850. $1990. $3300.

Well, brace yourself Mott Haven, we’ve been discovered.

http://clocktowertenants.com/2014/12/the-good-things-never-change.html

http://clocktowertenants.com/2011/02/fair-is-fair.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/real-estate/south-bronx-real-estate-market-suddenly-burning-hot-article-1.2178095’

historic fireplace

Walk along Great Jones Street in Noho and you’ll pass what appears to be just another firehouse.

But look up and see how splendid it really is.

Designed and built at the turn of the last century, about 1898, engine company 33 bore witness to that pivotal era from horsedrawn to steam powered firetrucks.  

http://home2.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/f_a/e33.shtml

...while wrapped in great Beaux Arts style.

This firehouse is so highly regarded for its architectural significance, it is both a NYC Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

Fourteen firefighters are regularly stationed here.

Ten of those fourteen lost their lives on 9/11.

DailyNews

Thank you, FDNY.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehouse,_Engine_Company_33_and_Ladder_Company_9

I second that emotion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Second_That_Emotion

The Supremes are debating gay marriage this week. 

Let’s take a quick tour of the Castro.

The Castro District in San Francisco is like no other gay neighborhood in the world.

“Loud, proud and in your face” comes to mind today.

But back in 1986 the Supremes ruled to uphold a state law criminalizing sodomy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowers_v._Hardwick

Writing for the majority, Justice Byron White wrote:

 “arguments that gay sex hold constitutional protection

 are, at best, facetious.” 

And he won.

wiki

But Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the losing side it wasn’t only about sex itself, but rather:

 “the individual’s right to make certain unusually important decisions that will affect his own, 

or his family’s destiny.”

nbcnews

That, he argued, deserved constitutional protection.

And he lost.

It wasn’t until 2003 (!) the court overturned that narrow-minded ruling, saying: 

“intimacies in a physical relationship, 

even when not intended to produce offspring, 

are a form of liberty protected by the 14th Amendment.”

And so today in America you can screw whomever you like. 

And as long as your partner is 1) human, 2) single and 3) of age, you are constitutionally in the clear. 

Let’s hope the court doesn’t screw this up, 

like they screwed up in 1986.

paint the town red

lower frisk, higher risk

http://coed.com/2015/04/27/baltimore-riots-mom-slap-video-freddy-gray-protests-looting/