Week of June 8, 2009: Sel de Mer and Saraghina.

In more pool party news, the Gansevoort Hotel brings the Hamptons to the Meatpacking District with a party that goes on and on–“get your glam on”–Sunday nights from noon until sunrise? It’s a good thing no one lives in that neighborhood anymore. Right? [CF via Eater]

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Union Square has been a site for social and political activism since the 1800’s. In 1861, after the fall of Fort Sumter, there was a patriotic rally with an estimated 250,000 people, considered the largest public gathering in North America up to that time. Since that time, Union Square has continued its role as a locus for protests and gatherings.
On Sunday, May 17, the Veggie Pride Parade ended in the north plaza - see here. At the same time, Reverend Billy appeared at the NYC Plastic Bag Protest.There were various activities - crafts, street theater, advocacy and petitioning. A number of characters were present such as the Plastic Bag Monster seen in the photo and No Impact Man.
I applaud the efforts being made here as reduction is the biggest key to this problem. As I wrote in White Christmas, substitution of disposable materials or recycling is not an effective solution with the volume of bags being used, which is why complete bans are being enacted worldwide.
In 2002, Bangladesh became the first country to ban plastic bags. Taiwan prohibits not only plastic bags, but also disposable plastic cups, plates, and cutlery used by fast food vendors (threats of fines have resulted in a 70% reduction in the use of plastic bags, and a 25% cut in landfill waste.) A number of African countries have banned plastic bags such as Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. London has banned giving out free bags, Ireland has levied a tax. Paris has banned them and plans to ban them nationwide by 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Get the scoop on last night’s meeting to fight noise from the Thompson LES. [Lo-Down]

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For some time, the New York Post has notoriously been ripping off blogger Miss Heather over at New York Shitty. She writes about neighbors angry at ice-cream truck noise, a day later, the Post is on the scene. She writes about weird graffiti, bam, there’s the Post with an “exclusive.” In that case, the journalist huffily defended himself saying that because he went to the scene and did his own research, that counts as an exclusive.

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Notes from the Backside gets matrixed! Well, sort of. In this week’s New York Approval Matrix, the Cooper Square Hotel’s encroachment on its neighbors has been deemed “Despicable”:

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The Coop isn’t the only hotel upsetting the neighbors. Please attend the Community Meeting to discuss nightlife noise from the LES Thompson Hotel: May 27, 6:30 p.m., in the Raphael Hernandez Community Room, 189 Allen (bet Houston & Stanton):

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