Sunday, April 15, 2007

 

No More Tonic - Part 3 : The Eviction and Arrests















































Music venue "Tonic " , located on Norfolk St. just above Delancy , in the shadow of "Blue " the bluish architectural monstrosity and testament to the arrogance and self-indulgence of its ambitious , academic architect and his utterly commercial client , was finally closed by NYPD with two individuals being arrested for trespassing on Saturday afternoon .
One of the last places left in downtown Manhattan for alternative ,experimental music performances , "Tonic ", had financial problems and was considerably in arrears on rental payments . Like so many other small performance spaces ,"Tonic " could not compete in the downtown rental market : "Tonic" could not pay the rents being paid by boutiques , restaurants and bars that are now crowding out old NY culture downtown .
Saturday afternoon and evening was to be a day of many last performances at "Tonic " : the police shortened that day showing up around 3:30 PM . The crowd that was inside the building was asked to leave and also told that anyone not leaving would be arrested . Rebecca Moore and Marc Ribot chose not to leave .
For a while there were negotiations between the police and others including the musicians union representatives . The police at the scene did not seem to be all that happy doing a landlords dirty-work and were very considerate even allowing the members of the press to remain inside the space as they were arresting Ms Moore and Mr. Ribot . The crowd that had been asked to leave was allowed to gather outside on the street where its members sang and played instruments while waiting for for Ms Moore's and Mr. Ribot's appearance on the street . The police escorted Ms. Moore and Mr. Ribot , in cuffs , to a police RMP which took them to the 7th precinct where they were charged with trespassing , held till around 9 PM and then released . As Ms. Moore and Mr. Ribot exited the building in cuffs ,the crowd cheered and sang and for some time after their removal from the scene , remained on the side walk and in the street in front of the location of the now closed "Tonic " .
For more comprehensive and up-to-date information on Tonic please go to :
www.takeittothebridge.com and also to enlarge these images just click on them .Of course also see the other two parts of this post .










Comments:
Thanks for documented the arrests of heroes like Rebecca and if you don't report it Bob the community local and broader will be kept in the dark because the newspapers including The Villager (which NYU practically writes -- the newspapers are mainly rich men who own real estate including the villager which shoved david mcwater as a zoning hero and we all know the truth about mcwater and the ultimate conflict of interest of his position as community board chair and his high paid lackee stetzer...it is amazing scott stringer shows his face in the neighborhood.
 
that is too bad.
when I came to NY, the only gigs I went to where at Tonic. I've always looked at the Tonic as an example of indipendence... too much, maybe.

ciao from Milan, Italy
SAPO!!
http://helo.it/killsapo/volume3/

p.s. btw, I found yr blog via MetaFilter, and yet I'm lovin'it. Great pictures.
 
AM NY and Metro both covered Tonic today, Wed. and thank God for these free papers. AM New York and Metro have been more a hero for this neighborhood than The Villager has sold out and both AM NY and Metro are covering the people's issues city wide instead of the mega buck puff pieces like the front page Mike Rosen public relationship that neglected to mention he is an owner of The Red Square -- oops and that Mike Rosen thinks he is a zoning hero when we think he has quite a view high up in his duplex or triplex penthouse on the Krista Dora the first sign of gentrification or standing next to his Lenin statue high above us all his and McWater and Stetzer rule CB3 and they don't want the rest of the community to even know about the meetings let alone attend and NYU high paid rep get special treatment at the meetings...oh and The Villager writes the most phony pieces or lets NYU write themselves selling mcwater as a zoning expert. How mcwater must profit from all these dorms because all these students must love his bars big time and what a conflict of interest have a mega bar owner and his silent partners as the head of the community board.
 
The Villager sold out and tried to sell the community on McWater as zoning hero -- expert and seperate issue is The Villager sold out and lets NYU write or runs NYU phony puff pieces like NYU helping prepare for disasters when NYU is the disaster we need protection from and that is from Stuy Town although down to the tip of City where gobble up as much of NYC under the guise of "not for profit" so the rant above about mcwater and nyu were together but there are seperate yet connected and the point is way too much influence while the community is either is hit over the head with puff pieces or kept out of the loop. How sad most people don't know what a community board is and that even susan stetzer doesn't understand she is paid to serve the community but she doesn't act like she understand it.
 
News flash! The Villager took a break from having NYU write public relation pieces for them and shoving zoning hero only in his own mind, McWater done our throats to actually cover evictions and front page...but they did shove John Fout down our throats. Alexandra mentioned she and he read emails together so did they listen to John on the radio together. I think they both live on a street that doesn't have bars. Where tight circle of representatives and the villager is either shoving p.r. down our throats or mcwater the bar czar wants us to shove it, our wish that he step down completely from the board as it is a huge conflict of intersest him owning all those watering holes...lots of conflicts of interests but maybe that is just politics. Bottom line is the community is not being represented and most don't even know what is a community board or where they meet and if the community doesn't know than we can't express any upset so it is just one being love fest of mutual admiration! The Villager actually seemed to remember itself but it now like The Village Voice -- rarely a voice for the village but at least in The Voice they are not shoving p.r. for certain people here down our throats.
 
let the mayor know what you think. this is one of his assistant's emails:

Michael Hopper
MHopper@cityhall.nyc.gov
 
Rebecca Moore and Marc Ribot should use those photos as their head shots now and forever more. Lovely.

I wish I'd gone. I wasn't following the closing of Tonic and I heard of the protest too late to go. It seems odd to protest the closing of a bar but Tonic did more for music in the city than, say, whatever the city puts into music at summer concerts at Battery Park.
 
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