The local paper for the Upper East Side
WEEK OF FEBRUARY-MARCH VISIONS AND VISIONARIES < P 18
23-1 2017
Leo Lauer, the proprietor of the East Harlem Bottling Co. Photo: Michele Willens
ONE MAN’S DREAM, ONE GRATEFUL COMMUNITY HANGOUTS A gastropub on uptown Lexington Avenue is a theater producer’s second act BY MICHELE WILLENS
Sometimes a city, or neighborhood, doesn’t even know it needs something — until that thing emerges. (The High Line being the ultimate example.) The recently opened East Harlem Bottling Co. may qualify for that category. The gastropub on Lexington Avenue and 107th Street is the creation of
Leo Lauer, who has lived in the area for 12 years, but never felt there was a place to hang with, and get to know, one’s neighbors. Then again, he was busy running a theater company and producing stage projects. But always in the back of Lauer’s mind was a dream that had nothing to do with moving a play from Off- to on Broadway. Instead, he envisioned folks standing around a bar at all hours, sharing stories of their day. The Bottling Co. is barely six months old but has helped rejuvenate uptown Lexing-
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Chelsea residents protested last spring over the closure of one of the only affordable suppliers of fresh produce in the neighborhood after the supermarket’s rent was drastically increased. Photo: Madeleine Thompson
‘SAVE OUR SUPERMARKET’ COMMUNITY Brewer and Johnson defend affordable grocery stores BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
In New York City, the well-known abbreviation S.O.S. has been repurposed by neighbors as a rallying cry: “Save our supermarket.” Last spring, residents of Chelsea vehemently used it to protest the closure of an Associated Supermarket on West 14th Street that had been priced out of its location. Several months earlier, residents of
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Turtle Bay collected signatures for a petition against their local Food Emporium turning into a CVS. High rent and competition from more expensive grocery stores are just a few of the reasons affordable supermarkets have been closing at an alarming rate. A package of bills recently introduced in the City Council aims to tackle another barrier to their survival. Instituted in 1963, the commercial rent tax charges businesses in Manhattan between 96th Street and Murray Street that pay at least $300,000 per year in rent an additional 3.9 percent in taxes. Businesses paying between $250,000 to $300,000 are also included, but on a sliding scale.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Council Member Corey Johnson hope to pass a bill that would exempt affordable supermarkets from the commercial rent tax, boosting the staying power of the much-needed resources. “[Affordable supermarkets]
CONTINUED ON PAGE 9 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, February 24th – 5:24 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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