The Scourge of Grease Recycling Trucks (and the Deteriorating Quality of Life Around Petrosino Park)

Below are remarks I’m planning to make at the next meeting of Community Board 2 on September 24:

I’m here to talk to you about the noise pollution caused by grease recycling trucks, which are primarily operated by a company called NYC Clean Air Group. These trucks typically start operating at 7am, run for 20 to 30 minutes at a time and can be heard from several blocks away. I’ve emailed the company several times and asked if they could schedule their trucks for after 9am, and they initially agreed to do so, but continued to schedule them at 7am. The result has been that I’ve been woken up at 7am at least once a week for the past several years and this has affected my physical and mental health. (Not surprisingly, noise is recognized as a prohibited form of abuse by the Geneva Conventions.)

I’ve even taken to moving to a couch in the back of my apartment when this noise starts, but I can still hear it even in the back of my apartment with my windows closed and a pillow over my head.

The company maintains that they are legally allowed to start operating at 7am (I’m picturing someone from their company holding a stop watch), but just because you’re legally allowed to do something doesn’t mean you should. It’s also legal to carry a concealed weapon in some parts of this country.

I would compare this problem to the recent outcry about data centers. AI companies say they serve an important need, but they also create a lot of noise and use a lot of water and energy. (Granted, grease recycling trucks don’t have the capacity to wipe out civilization.)

I think we’ve all witnessed a deteriorating qualify of life around Petrosino Park, whether it’s skateboarders commandeering Lafayette Street, people showing up with amplified sound equipment, buildings being turned into 3D advertisements, the lines we see outside every retail establishment, and companies taking over not just the sidewalk but sometimes the street itself in order to promote their products.

I would like to add that my city council member, Christopher Marte, hasn’t responded to a single email I’ve sent him throughout his two terms in office, even though I spoke to him in person outside my polling location before his first term about quality of life issues in Nolita (which, at that time, just concerned the skateboarders on Lafayette Street and the garbage and graffiti around Petrosino Park).

My local precinct, the Fifth Precinct (which is in Chinatown), has also been somewhat unresponsive. There really should be another police precinct for Nolita and Soho. Maybe they could return the Police Building to its original function!

Thank you for listening.

The Heterosexualization of Christopher Street

Last night I had a disturbing experience.

It started when I went to see a show called Broad Strokes at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, which starred a 35-year-old actress and comedian named Cat Cohen. I noticed that I was nearly twice as old as everyone in the audience. While I have to admit there were some clever lines, the audience around me was lapping it up. (Maybe young people have a different sense of humor?)

But the real shock happened when I left the theater. I was suddenly surrounded by straight people!

Next door to the theater, in the space that was previously occupied by gay bar The Hangar was something called Dandelion. Was it a bar? Was it a restaurant? All I could tell was that there was a vaguely exclusionary vibe. Think Studio 54, but, unlike Studio 54, it appeared they were trying to keep out gay people!

Now I realize this is partly a story about gentrification. After all, I’m sure the cocktails they were selling were more expensive than the beer that was The Hangar’s stock in trade.

Across the street from the theater was L’Industrie Pizza in the space formerly occupied by the gay Factory Café (I used to call it the Fag-tory Café), an establishment that usually has a long line in front. (I thought this obnoxious habit only happened in my neighborhood!)

Around the corner on Bleecker Street, there’s yet another pizza place called Mama’s Too, which also has a line in front of it!

Even the landmark Village Cigars is now a bar! What in the name of Stonewall is happening?!

I’m old enough to remember when the West Village was synonymous with gay pride. The Stonewall, which still exists on Christopher Street, was the site of the Stonewall riots, the unofficial start of the gay pride movement.

In the ’90s, the gay population gravitated to Chelsea, because the rents were cheaper and the gay population of the West Village had been decimated by AIDS. The rise of Chelsea as a gay neighborhood coincided with the opening of the upscale bar Splash and the building of the Grand Chelsea apartment building. Eighth Avenue became the new gay Champs Elysees with numerous gay bars and restaurants such as Food, Big Cup, Viceroy, Gym Bar, The Break, G Lounge and Barracuda.

Then, in the 2000s, the gays migrated again (also because of rising rents) to Hell’s Kitchen. In the meantime, the West Village was going from upscale to super luxury.

Hudson River Park was developed, launching a Starchitects' Row of co-ops and condos along the West Side Highway. (Why the creators of the West Village Historic District didn’t extend the boundaries to the Hudson River has to be one of the worst mistakes in New York history.) As gentrification crept from the Hudson River all the way to Sixth Avenue, it took a number of gay bars, restaurants and retail establishments with it, among them Badlands, All American Boy and now The Hangar.

After the show, I crossed the street and walked into Ty’s. the venerable gay bar where my late partner was the doorman for 20 years. Some of the old familiar faces were still there: bartenders Julian and Gary, as well as a new barback who looked surprisingly like my late partner.

It’s nice to know that some things never change.