Paul Smalera

For the last six months, after only two successful trips to the Daisy May’s cart that roams Midtown West roughly between 44th and 50th Streets, I’ve been dying for a pulled pork sandwich or some beef-tip chili, but DM pulled their carts off the street for the cold New York winter. I can understand that. Working a cart in the dead of cold must HURT, even if the cart operator has unlimited access to that chili.

But Daisy May’s, it’s MAY already. Time to either pull down this inane message about the carts not being back until spring or FESS UP, and tell us why you’re keeping us Midtown office drones pulled away from our pork. Don’t make me wait for Daisy Damned July to not have to venture to 11th Avenue for some pig. Or at least drop these guys a line so we all know what’s going on. Deal?

I’d like to briefly report something I just noticed. When I started this job in January, I went to the supply cabinet and got four pencils, four pens, and a highlighter. Through massive amounts of work in the period since then, I have yet to fully extinguish even one of my pencils. (I rotate them so they are all roughly even in length.) I even added two coveted Mirado Black Warrior Pencils, and two red copyediting pencils to the collection, but have yet to put them into the rotation. I’m waiting for a big assignment to do that.

I am a model of efficiency.

I do have a bit of a love affair with Vegas. After three days there, I get sick of it, but I invariably find myself wanting to return. So I was thrilled when I had the chance to to the back page “Room with a View” for May’s issue of Condé Nast Traveler, the Hot List issue. I wrote the blurb for an awesome picture of a suite I’ll probably never stay in: The Cherry at Red Rocks Resort. $10,000 a night, can you afford it? Room with a View: Condé Nast Traveler. (NB: This was a nice gatefold, and bylined, in the printed issue; c’est la vie.)

Also continuing in my role as Traveler’s Quizmaster General (ok, I gave myself that title), I try, this month, to teach my fellow statesiders about our neighbors to the north, eh? See if you can tell  a canuck from a poutine: Interactive Quiz: Conde Nast Traveler

Another week, another clip. Read my meandering feature on the east side of Broome Street–its history, its culture, and its future. For out of towners, Broome is one of those little streets on the Lower East Side that, while part of the whole, also looks like a microcosm of all of New York. Ok, there are alot of streets like that. But Broome is more interesting than most. Read: New York Press.

It’s true, computers are made of very bad things, and for a long time, we consumers, and we corporations, have ignored what happens to those bad things after we’re done with them. But since 2007 is the year of the Greening, it’s no longer so easy to ignore where our detritus ends up. In fact, Apple godhead Steve Jobs recently announced their initiatives in cleaning up our digital trash, strongly noting, in response to Greenpeace’s nonstop pestering, that they’ve in fact been way ahead of the pack for a number of years now. I wrote a small piece on it for Portfolio.com.

I haven’t posted much lately (and sorry to have to write that, as I hate reading it on other people’s blogs) but that’s becuase I’ve been at work for Condé Nast Portƒolio and things have been a bit too busy there for me to keep up my normal pace of pitching and writing articles as a freelancer.

The good news is that I still have managed to contribute a small piece of analysis to Portfolio.com, launched today, the online companion to the print edition. I could try to describe it to you, but by the time I did that, I would’ve rewritten the whole thing. So why don’t you just click on the headline below and head on over to Portfolio.com to read it for yourself? It’s a really nice site, speaking as a former web developer, I’m really happy to see how nicely it turned out. Have a look:

Daily Brief: McClatchy Jilts Tribune and Gannett for Yahoo

Another issue of New York Press brings with it another restaurant review from yours truly. Harlem is still mostly undiscovered territory to me, dining wise. I’ve eaten at perhaps a half a dozen restaurants above 96th street. One of the ones I enjoyed most (though you can hardly call it a restaurant) is Charles’ Southern Kitchen on 125th. So good it inspired me to reach back to my ’80s childhood for a headline: Charles’ in Charge.

For those who read my post about The New York Times’ thoughts on the East Village, circa 1985 , I’ve found another gem from their archives, this time from 1997, closer to the time I was boppin’ around the Village, Soho, Chinatown, etc. The story chronicles the very start of a new building trend in my neighborhood: Along East 2d Street, New Market-Rate Apartments. Some quotes:

HISTORY has shown the East Village and the Lower East Side to be tough places to operate real estate. Most buildings are old and many tenants, among them many immigrants, are poor.

Jesus. Besides my landlord, there are at least another dozen or so that have become real estate barons based almost completely on picking up buildings in the East Village and Lower East Side at firesale prices, and sitting on them, until, well, now.

 Current market-rate rents for a one-bedroom apartment run from $900 to $1,400 a month and are usually between $1,100 to $1,200, said Robert T. Perl, president of Tower Brokerage on East 10th Street, which manages about 250 apartments in the area. But tenants who arrived about 15 years ago are paying anywhere from $300 to $600 for a similar-sized apartment — though at the time about half of them lacked a modern bathroom or kitchen, Mr. Perl said.

If my rent was $600 a month, I would gladly bathe with a bucket and sponge, and cook on a hot plate or camping stove.

Mr. Quillen, the son of Parker and Joan Quillen, antiques dealers based in Palm Beach, has been making all-cash deals for semi-distressed properties. Last year he bought a 20-unit building at 104 Suffolk Street, and in April he closed on the 26-unit 109-111 Ludlow Street, with a largely Chinese tenancy. The sale price, $905,000, was four times higher than what the seller had paid for the building six years ago, he said.

Something tells Mr. Whitney Quillen is doing pretty well for himself these days. Although, unless he is unscrupulous, he has to wait for those tenants to kick off, move out, or violate their lease before he can make those apartments market rate. I wonder if he managed to do so in these ten years. After all:

”Only the children can speak to me,” Mr. Quillen said.

And they very well may have grown up into LES hipsters who would rather throw away their Converse sneakers than give up a cheap apartment on Ludlow Street. Next time I walk by, I’ll try to gauge the building… Stay tuned…

As you’ll see in my latest New York Press review, I was quite smitten with the soy-fueled goodies at Kyotofu. Have a read, and do yourself a favor– check it out!

PS-Yes, Alone in Kyotofu is a play on the Air song from Lost in Translation. I highly suggest you check that out too!

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