Daily Archives: March 16, 2012

T&V Guide to St. Patrick’s Day

"Beyond the Horizon" will play at the Irish Repertory Theatre on St. Patrick's Day. See listing for details.

The following article was first published in Town & Village on March 8. In case you missed it, read on for the events taking place on St. Patrick’s Day.

Those looking to celebrate the holiday in honor of a saint and Irish culture, who aren’t looking to barhop, need look no further, thanks to a variety of other forms of entertainment, including Irish theater and music that are being offered at the following local spots in Manhattan.

Irish cuisine will  be served throughout the day at the following venues: Barfly, 244 Third Avenue; Pete’s Tavern, 129 East 18th Street; Molly’s, 287 Third Avenue; and Copper Door Tavern, 272 Third Avenue. At Copper Door, there will also be live bagpipe music as well as a DJ spinning popular and Irish music.

Irish Arts Center, 553 West 51st Street—Throughout the week of St. Patrick’s, from March 15 to 23, the center will be putting on a number of performances and children’s events, and even distributing books by Irish and Irish-American authors to straphangers at various subway stations in the city. On the holiday itself, this Saturday, the center will present the closing performance of “I ♥ Alice ♥ I.” The play, which first debuted in Dublin, is about two women in a longterm relationship, who finally come out as a couple. Performances are Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Admission is $27, $23 for IAC members. To order, call (866) 811-4111 or visit www.irishartscenter.org.

Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street—Choose between two plays on St. Patrick’s Day, “Beyond the Horizon” by Eugene O’Neill, and “Give Me Your Hand.”  Both have performances at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. on St. Patrick’s, though their runs will continue through April 15 and April 1, respectively. In “Give Me Your Hand,” Irish actors Dearbhla Molloy and Dermot Crowley take audiences on a virtual “stroll” through London’s National Gallery, discovering the museum’s masterpieces. In “Beyond the Horizon,” which O’Neill won a Pulitzer prize for, two brothers compete for the heart of one woman at a farm in Massachusetts at the beginning of the twentieth century. Tickets for “Beyond the Horizon” are $55-$65 and tickets for “Give Me Your Hand” are $30, and can be ordered by calling (212) 727-2737 or visiting http://www.irishrep.org. Continue reading →

Street closures for St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Photo by Heather Holland

The following streets in Manhattan will be closed on Saturday from 11 am to 5:30 pm for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade:

  • 5th Avenue between 86th Street and 42nd Street
  • Vanderbilt Avenue between 43rd Street and 46th Street
  • 44th and 45th Streets between Vanderbilt Avenue and 6th Avenue
  • 46th, 47th and 48th Streets between Park Avenue and 6th Avenue
  • 80th, 81st, 82nd, 83rd, 84th, and 85th Streets between Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue
  • 63rd and 64th Streets between Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue
  • Madison Avenue between 63rd Street and 64th Street

Suggestions regarding MCI policy in a post-conversion world

The following notice was written yesterday by John Marsh, vice president/treasurer of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association and circulated through an e-mail list by a Stuyvesant Town resident, who asked that her name not be published.

Editor’s note: Marsh said that in this email, he wasn’t speaking on behalf of the TA, but was offering his own ideas to neighbors.

So here is a really good idea as a way to preserve long term affordability for those who choose to remain as renters in a post conversion world.

Post conversion – Renters should only pay their share of the actual cost of a MCI – and not pay in perpetuity.

We are all keenly aware of how Major Capital Improvements factor in to our base rent and how we end up paying for an MCI in perpetuity. What many fail to realize is how this can really drive up the base rent over a long period of time. My base rent has gone up by $400 over the last 15 years for improvements that have been brought, installed, paid for, and now even depreciating. Yet month after month I pay this additional $400.

So in a mixed owner/renter scenario what happens if say a building’s plumbing risers need to be replaced?  

Under the law, the condo or co-op board would divide the total cost of the improvement by the number of owner units and pass a one-time special assessment to the owner units

For the renters, in the most simplistic terms, the law allows for part of the cost to be passed to the tenant as an upward adjustment to the base rent.

The disparity between renters and owners lies in that the renters continue to pay, after their share of the cost has been collected, in perpetuity.  Continue reading →