Artists Tossed into the Street- 475 Kent Evacuated

If I was a resident of 475 Kent in NYC right now I would probably not have anywhere to live, and very little of my own possessions with me.

Last week was a very bad week for the artist community that has called the building home for years. Sunday, January 20th the community located in Brooklyn's waterfront neighborhood of Williamsburg was issued a Vacate Order by the NYC Fire Department at 7:30pm, being told that the building was unsafe and immediate action had to be taken.

It must have been a bomb, right? Or fire? Or unsafe wiring? I mean, 200 tenants given until 2:30 in the morning to get out in the middle of a 30 degree weather. Think again. The fracus was caused by what we all know and fear....two 10; diameter metal canisters containing grain used for making Matzo. Sakes alive! Alkida-you must be behind this travesty.

Turns out that the FDNY inspected the basement and noticed a Matzo bakery operating on the site...might I mention that the building, which is inspected quite often, has been home to said bakery for more than ten years. But, on that night the grain resulted in a "hazardous emergency" situation that gave the FDNY and the DOB license to vacate the building. When the landlord and several residents offered to alleviate the problem and remove the "dangerous" grain from the premisis they were told "they were not qualified to move the grain". Dangerous, dangerous grain.

Folks, can you say "follow the money". Talk about yelling fire in a theater. Here's a snippet from the press release sent out by the residents association....

"Upon the issue of the vacate order 200 people scrambled to rid 110 spaces of their most crucial belongings. The following day people were given 6 hours access to remove their belongings, tools and equipment, a scenario that for most people who had been in residence for 5 - 10 years with substantial equipment and installations was completely untenable. From there the scene snowballed.

On Tuesday January 22, tenants arrived with moving trucks at 10am having been told they would have another 6 hours access to the building. They found all entrances blocked by NYPD and FDNY and no one was allowed upstairs. Finally, at 1pm the leaders of each agency stood on the staircase and delivered their plan to the crowd:- residents would be allowed into the building six people at a time for one hour, followed by another group of six people each being granted one hour.

Do the math.

No, I'll do it for you. 200/6= 33.3 hours it would take to allow each person ONE hour access to collect their stuff.

Then they shut down the elevators, insuring that the task was impossible. People, in a panic that this would be their last chance to save their belongings, began to carry equipment and valuables down ten flights of stairs, creating a real hazard."

As of Wednesday, the grain has been removed. But, tenants are still being evicted. On Saturday night the building will be padlocked for the foreseeable future. Although requested repeatedly the DOB has never provided a complete list of the violations on the building. They do know that one of these violations is an inoperable sprinkler system, a problem that can mitigated with the presence of fire-guards while the system is repaired, allowing continued occupancy of the building.

Does this sound like total crap to you? It does to me. I'll say no more, I'll just close by giving you the last of the press release. And, if you've got a sheckel to share, you can go to http://www.475kent.com/ and help these poor folks out.


"Since the 1960's New York City's tacit urban renewal policy has been reliant on artist's moving into derelict buildings in less desirable neighborhoods. The city does nothing to bolster or support economic activity in these down and out areas, nor do they do anything to create affordable, legal, usable space for live/work entrepreneurs. 475 Kent is a prime example of this kind of turn-a-blind-eye urban renewal that has been a boon to the City of New York. A decade ago South Williamsburg was a dangerous neighborhood. Once artists take the initiative to live on the edge and restore and renew unused real estate in what were marginal areas the City becomes predatory. The transformation of Williamsburg by the artist community into one of New York City's most desirable neighborhoods encourages the city to move artists out as they calculate the tax revenue of luxury condo developers moving in. No one in any city agency cared about our health and safety ten years ago. Now that our building has become hot property the City is ready to muster all the powers of its many agencies to assist in the muscling of the property from the owners and the tenants. The tenants of 475 Kent Avenue call into question the hypocritical policies being put forth by the agencies of the City of New York. We cannot help but wonder what forces are driving this vacate and why the agencies are suddenly so concerned for out health and safety."

"There is No Such Thing in Anyone's Life as an Unimportant Day"

A member of The Algonquin Round Table, Aleck Woollcott, hailed from Phalanx, New Jersey. From childhood he was an avid reader, with a particular love of Charles Dickens. After working his way through Hamilton College in update New York, Woollcott crashed around through a few different jobs, but settled in as one of the New Yorker’s most acclaimed theater critics. At one point he was even banned from reviewing certain Broadway shows. As a result he sued the Shubert theater organization for violation of the New York Civil Rights Act, but lost in the state's highest court in 1916 on the grounds that only discrimination on the basis of race, creed or color was unlawful.

His lawsuit was a perfect example of the moxie of Aleck Woollcott-an owlish character whose caustic wit either joyously attracted or vehemently repelled the artistic communities of 1920s Manhattan. His judgments were frequently eccentric. Dorothy Parker once said: "I remember hearing Woollcott say reading Proust is like lying in someone else's dirty bath water. And then he'd go into ecstasy about something called, 'Valiant Is the Word for Carrie', and I knew I had enough of the Round Table."

I’m with Dorothy on that one.

He was known to greet friends with, "Hello, Repulsive." Famously, he published the shortest theatrical review in history by submitting to his editor simply: "Ouch."

After being kicked out of the apartment he shared with The New Yorker founders Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, Woollcott moved to an apartment at the far end of East 52nd Street. The members of the Algonquin Round Table had a debate as to what to call his new home. Franklin P. Adams suggested that he name it after the Indian word "Ocowoica", meaning "The-Little-Apartment-On-The-East-River-That-It-Is-Difficult-To-Find-A-Taxicab-Near". But Dorothy Parker came up with the definitive name: Wit's End.

He was one of the most-quoted men of his generation. Among Woollcott's classics is his description of the Los Angeles area as "Seven suburbs in search of a city" — a quip often attributed to his friend Dorothy Parker. Describing The New Yorker editor Harold Ross, he said: "He looks like a dishonest Abe Lincoln."

You either loved him, or you hated him. As I didn’t have the chance to meet him personally (he collapsed of a heart attack during a panel discussion of the war in Europe on CBS radio and passed away a few hours later at the age of 56) I think he’s absolutely caustically magnificent.

A character among characters, it is said that he was the inspiration for the character of Sheridan Whiteside in George S. Kauffman’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, that the character of Nero Wolfe was modeled upon him (though the author denies it) and that the Brandy Alexander was delicious alcoholic concoction named after him (supposedly it was created at the occasion of the wedding between Princess Mary and Lord Lascelles in London in 1922).

Here’s the recipe. Drink up!

Ingredients for the Brandy Alexander:
1 1/2 oz Brandy
1 oz Dark Creme de Cacao
1 oz Half-and-half or Heavy cream
1/4 tsp grated Nutmeg

In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine the brandy, creme de cacao, and half-and-half. Shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with the nutmeg.

If you’ve actually taken a minute to go mix up one of these tasty little ditties, then welcome back. I’ll end this by saying that he’d have gotten a kick (though an outraged one) out of his own final ending. Woollcott was buried in Clinton, New York, at his alma mater, Hamilton College, but not without some confusion. By mistake, his ashes were sent to Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. When the error was corrected and the ashes were forwarded to Hamilton College, they arrived with 67¢ postage due.

God bless ya Aleck. Here’s to you.