Couple living under the FDR threatened
with removal over construction work
BY DEAN MOSES
They had been living under
the FDR Drive for months,
but on April 5, a homeless
couple faced an attempted eviction
from city workers.
Impending construction work
appears to be the move for relocating
Alex Lively and April
Saccoccio, who constructed an
encampment on 18th Street and
Avenue C, just below the FDR
Drive. Their dwelling is made
up of clothing, lawn chairs, and
objects such as umbrellas and a
panel room divider donated to
them by nearby residents.
Earlier this year, amNewYork
Metro profi led the growing camp.
Lively and Saccoccio say they
have been saving funds to rent a
storage unit in order to keep their
beloved gifts safe.
But on April 5, the couple said
they faced eviction. They’re staying
put for now, though how long
they will remain there is not clear.
At 10:30 a.m., amNewYork
Metro received a report stating
that NYPD offi cers and homeless
outreach was attempting
to remove them from the area.
Upon arriving, several police offi
cers from the 13thPrecinct and
a representative from a homeless
outreach program were asking the
couple to leave the area.
However, once it became apparent
the offi cials were being
photographed, they retreated to
curb and begin snapping pictures
of their own. They refused to
comment on the situation.
Visibly distressed, Lively
pointed to white markings spray
painted on the sidewalk around
his makeshift home.
“I was sleeping, they woke me
up and told me they are going to
be doing a fence. I was like what
do you mean they are ‘doing a
fence?’ Then the construction
people came and started painting
white lines,” Lively said,
exasperated.
Alex Lively, who has been living under the FDR Drive for months
now, points to where workers want to place construction fencing
that may force him and his companion to relocate.
The couple live just ahead of
a parking lot beneath the FDR,
which has been surrounded by
a fence since they arrived. On
Monday morning, construction
workers were attempting to bring
the fence forward and over the
sidewalk, in turn pushing Lively,
Saccoccio, and their two dogs
from the area.
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
But the pair stood their ground
and refused to be uprooted.
However, another homeless individual
who had also taken up a
base of his own a few feet away on
another sidewalk was forced out.
After this man had been removed
the workers immediately began
drilling polls into the sidewalk
and extending the fence forward.
With nowhere else to go, this
individual wedged himself in
between an on ramp to the FDR
Drive adjacent to Murphy Brothers
Playground.
“He came after we moved in,
but he talks to himself. We don’t
really speak to him,” Lively said.
Lively watched with dismay as
the construction moved swiftly
and the fence was shifted forward
over the nearby sidewalk, which
now forces pedestrian traffi c into
the roadway.
Saccoccio shook with anxiety
while feeding her dogs, periodically
peering over at the encroaching
workforce. The couple claims
they were given no notice and
very little explanation; merely
told they would have to vacate
the vicinity.
After about an hour and what
appeared to be a long conversation,
both the NYC Home-STAT
Homeless Outreach representative
and NYPD left without comment
or explanation.
The couple breathed a sigh of
relief and hugged one another.
amNewYork Metro reached out
to DSS-DHS and DOT for comment
and are awaiting a response.
East Village’s Pyramid Club closes for good
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
The Pyramid Club, an iconic
queer venue that helped
escalate legendary drag
performers like RuPaul and Lady
Bunny, is shuttering due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
For more than 41 years, the
venue at 101 Avenue A in Manhattan’s
East Village served as a
historical mecca for drag culture,
including the start of Wigstock,
an annual outdoor drag festival
that began in the 1980s. Since
the start of the pandemic, the club
has been closed, and it will not
resume operations, the venue’s
managers, Maria Narciso and
Quirino Perez, or house DJ TM.8,
announced earlier this month.
“We are another sad consequence
of Covid-19,” the club’s
managers wrote in an Instagram
post April 1. “Our number one
priority has always been to provide
a safe environment for everyone
to be who they truly are.”
The club’s closing is still shocking
for the venue’s managers.
The iconic Pyramid Club, known for its drag and queer scene,
is closing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve patiently waited for
over a year, and we never thought
that we’d permanently close,” the
club added. “Our hearts go to
YOU, our community, who’ve
kept us going over these past 41
years, as well as other nightclubs,
live music venues, and theaters,
businesses that, like us, have suffered
the most from this “Pause”
and are facing our very same
predicament.”
PHOTO VIA GOOGLE MAPS
Since opening in 1979, the
club has become a popular and
even historic fi xture within New
York’s LGBTQ nightlife scene.
In October 2007, the Greenwich
Village Society for Historic
Preservation proposed that the
venue become the city’s fi rst drag
landmark.
“Historically, the Pyramid
Club was one of the great LGBTQ
gathering spots,” Andrew
Berman, an out gay executive
director at the Greenwich Village
Society for Historic Preservation,
told Gay City News. “That’s the
heyday of New York City nightlife.
The Pyramid Club somehow,
in some form, hung on. Its loss is
noteworthy.”
While the New York City
Landmarks Preservation Commission
declined the proposal, in
2012, the Pyramid Club garnered
landmark status as part of the
East Village/Lower East Side
Historic District.
“We fought very hard to get
them to extend those boundaries
to include that building specifi -
cally because of the club’s history
and cultural signifi cance,” Berman
recalled, noting that the city’s
original plans excluded the venue.
“This was also a great watershed
moment in recognizing the
importance that the LGBT community
has played to New York
and American history, especially
to the role of drag performers and
transgender people to the cultural
lifeblood of our city.”
Berman, a former partygoer at
the club, said the venue had left a
lasting mark on LGBTQ nightlife.
“It was the perfect combination
of a place that was just a total
blast,” Berman told Gay City
News. “It was where conceptions
about gender and sexuality and
who’s the audience and who’s
the performer were radically
challenged.”
He added, “Even though the
Pyramid Club was not the Pyramid
Club of 40 years ago, having
that last connection severed is a
sad occasion.”
While the Pyramid Club will
not return to the East Village,
the venue’s managers told EV
Grieve, a blog that fi rst reported
the closure, that they have found
a new home for DJ TM.8’s events
and will announce the details in
the coming weeks.
“We will continue to take
you back to the 80s!” the club’s
managers wrote. “The Pyramid
Spirit Lives On!! We’ve done all
we can. It’s time to turn the page
and carry on.”
12 April 8, 2021 Schneps Media