The Cooper Square CommiTTee wishes to thank The SponSorS of our FeSTival ❖ Community access Cooper Square mutual housing association owners of 10 Stanton Street nY health and racquet Club east village independent merchants association Jimmy’s no. 43 luke’s lobsters ❖ media parTner The village voice Welcome to the first taste of the east village Festival! thanks to the restaurants and eateries participating in this event, we have many types of cuisine represented. We hope you enjoy the culinary diversity of our community, and that you’ll want to come visit the participating restaurants to explore the many dining options in the east village and lower east Side. We hope to grow this festival into an annual event. This event is a benefit for the Cooper Square Committee, a tenant rights organization that has worked for 57 years to preserve the racial, economic and cultural diversity of our community. Cooper Square Committee blocked an urban renewal plan that would have demolished a dozen city blocks, including this one, to build middle income high rises, and got the city to adopt their community based alternative plan instead, which preserved our historic neighborhood. learn more about their current work in this program book. The east village has become a thriving community and restaurant destination, with hundreds of eating establish- ments. You’ll understand why it’s so popular when you visit the ones here today. Your ticket entitles you to four small plates from any one of them. enJoY! Sincerely yours, Jimmy Carbone, owner, Food Karma projects Steve herrick, executive director, Cooper Square Committee our parTiCipaTinG reSTauranTS and eaTerieS BuTTer lane CupCaKeS, 123 east Seventh Street – nuGGeT SpoT, 230 east Fourteenth Street – Compact gourmet bakery offering buttercream industrial-chic fast-food stop for fried bedecked cupcakes, baking classes & catering. chicken, pork, fish or veggie nuggets with choice of sauce. eaST villaGe meaT marKeT, 139 Second avenue – Bringing old-world comfort food, smoked ham porCheTTa, 110 east Seventh Street – east village and sausage and premium cuts of meat, to spot seating 6 & serving nothing but italian roast the bustling streets of nYC pork, from sandwiches to platters. porSena, 21 east Seventh Street – it’s all about inSomnia CooKieS, 299 east eleventh Street – the best pasta in nYC at this contemporary specializing in delivering warm, delicious cookies, trattoria from chef Sara Jenkins. brownies, and cookie cakes right to your door. Sir KenSinGTon, 270 lafayette Street – luKe’S loBSTerS, 93 east Seventh Street – Serving french fries with the finest Seafood counter serving maine-style lobster all-natural condiments. rolls with toasted buns, plus clam chowder & microbrews. VAN lleWYn arTiSan iCe Cream, – 48 east Local 92, 92 Second avenue – an israeli Seventh Street - retro sweet shop featuring restaurant serving their signature hummus gourmet ice cream made from innovative platter with warm pita bread, as well as ingredients, pastries & coffee. salads, sandwiches, and entrees like chicken tagine and lamb ossubuco. veSelKa, 144 Second avenue – Since, 1954, veselka has been serving up traditional ukrainian food, JimmY’S no. 43, 43 east Seventh Street – Cozy from borscht to pierogis and stuffed cabbage, east village bar with an upscale pub menu, also in the heart of the east village. hosting tastings, art events & performances. The Cooper Square Committee 4 Taste of the East Village ABOUT THE The Bea arThur reSidenCe For homeleSS COOPER SQUARE COMMITTEE: lGBT YouTh (222 eaST ThirTeenTh STreeT): We are a community based housing preservation organization, formed We purchased the building from the City in 1959, that has sponsored the renovation and development of over in June, 2015, with our project partner the 580 affordable housing units. We created a mutual housing association ali Forney Center. We are managing the that now manages 382 low income apartments. We co-founded Fourth renovation work which will create housing arts Block (FaB), a cultural association of dozens of performing and for eighteen homeless lGBT youth. The visual arts organizations. We are currently developing the Bea arthur ali Forney Center will provide on-site residence, a transitional housing facility for eighteen homeless lGBT programming. renovation should be completed by January, 2017. The youth. We counsel and organize residential and commercial tenants project got a lot of media attention when we did a ground-breaking facing the threat of eviction, “cheesecake cutting” ceremony in July of last year. lack of services and harass- We are also assisting the ali Forney Center to develop plans for ment. our Green Buildings twenty-two studio apartments for homeless lGBT youth in astoria, program works with low queens, working in partnership with the episcopal diocese of long island. income cooperatives to help them become more energy REnOvATIOn Of: efficient and resilient. la mama experimenTal TheaTre CluB (eTC): We administered a $180,000 urban initiatives grant to help la mama eTC renovate their our CurrenT WorK: basement space to create a dance studio and a multi-purpose room. COMMUnITy DEvElOPMEnT: renovation was completed in the Summer. We held our annual Gala in hdFC GreeninG proGram: We have enrolled the beautiful new space in october of last year. more than fifteen buildings in the Weatherization assistance program since 2012, enabling them to install high efficiency boilers, replace windows or do other energy efficiency upgrades. We have enrolled many of these buildings in the White roof project as well. The Cooper Square Committee 6 Taste of the East Village TEnAnT COUnSElIng We recently mobilized tenants & ORgAnIzIng: to testify at the rent Guide- TenanT CounSelinG: We counsel several lines Board hearings to win a hundred tenants a year regarding lease rent freeze for one year leases. renewals, rent overcharges, preferential We’re active in campaigns to rents, roommate issues, holdovers and dispossess notices. We also fight “predatory equity inves- provide benefits assistance to low income tenants who need to tors” like icon realty, rafael recertify for Section 8, or obtain one shot deals to pay rent arrears Toledano, Steve Croman and others who are buying up buildings with or seniors who need to obtain rent increase exemptions. the aim of displacing long term tenants. We brought Steve Croman to the attention of the new York State attorney General’s office, ForminG TenanT aSSoCiaTionS: resulting in a two year investigation and his indictment on twenty We have formed dozens of tenant felony counts. We’re working with groups city-wide to get the associations in recent years to help mayor’s enforcement unit to go after landlords who illegally rent out tenants fight back against abusive, rent stabilized apartments through air BnB. predatory landlords who try to emp- ty their buildings of rent regulated SOCIAl SERvICES: tenants through harassment and gut Senior healTh, advoCaCY and reCreaTion proGram (Sharp): renovations. We have won numerous We formed a Senior-led committee to increase services for local legal settlements in housing Court. seniors, and were successful in getting the Cooper Square area CiTY-Wide orGanizinG CampaiGnS: We are working work housing designated a neighborhood groups city-wide to strengthen the rent laws and improve housing naturally occurring retire- code enforcement. We have been working with the Stand for Tenant ment Community (n-norC). Safety Campaign to deal with disruptive renovation practices in The added services include occupied buildings that pose a risk to tenant safety. We’ve helped a weekly senior program at organize press conferences and rallies, and worked closely with 200 east Fifth Street, a series the City Council which has introduced several bills to deal with this of health, nutrition, legal and problem, and make the nYC department of Buildings more responsive. financial workshops for seniors, as well as movie nights, bingo, opera, theater nights and pot luck dinners. We did a “needs assessment” of seniors which will help inform our programming. The Cooper Square Committee 8 Taste of the East Village diSaSTer preparedneSS and reCoverY: Since Superstorm Sandy, we have worked to provide disaster preparedness trainings for hundreds of local residents, especially seniors who are at risk in the event of a power failure or flood. We will be holding a series of resiliency workshops for co-op boards and shareholders about how to make their building more resilient to mitigate the impact of a major storm and flooding on the lower east Side. We’re working with the Cooper Square mutual housing association on plans to install rooftop solar panels on their 21 buildings. We also assist tenants after building fires such as the Second avenue gas explosion in march, 2015. We placed ten residents from the destroyed buildings in new apartments, and helped affected buildings in the imme- diate area around east Seventh Street and Second avenue to organize and get cooking gas restored and speedy repairs to the damage caused by the explosion. We are proud oF our manY aCCompliShmenTS in The paST Year our development of new multi-building tenant coalitions fighting bad acting landlords, our increased visibility citywide as one of the main community based groups spearheading an organizing campaign to reform doB, our pioneering project developing transitional housing for homeless lGBT youth, our ongoing work greening low income hdFCs, and our efforts to launch a neighborhood norC. ThanK You For helpinG To maKe TheSe aChievemenTS poSSiBle. YourS TrulY, The Cooper Square CommiTTee The Cooper Square Committee 10 Taste of the East Village Congratulations to Cooper Square Committee, we wish you continued success. Yours truly, Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association The Cooper Square Committee 12 Taste of the East Village The Cooper Square Committee 14 Taste of the East Village standard hotel FPO The Cooper Square Committee 16 Taste of the East Village The Cooper Square Committee 18 Taste of the East Village The Cooper Square Committee 20 .