Results tagged “portmanritz”

A brief note regarding the City Diner we told you about not too long ago: We have learned that it is supposed to open this week, either today or Friday, depending on who you believe. We assume the source that said today is reliable, because he was seated in one of the City Diner's booths working on a computer. We'll explain: We ate at Eat, Drink, Man, Woman on Saturday (delicious, as always) and afterwards decided to snoop around upstairs to see what the diner was looking like. Honestly, it looked a lot like Eat, Drink, Man, Woman -- the same beige pseudo-suede upholstery. We were kind of hoping for some red vinyl and at least one jukebox. The only things that really screamed "diner" were the retro Coca-Cola fridge, the hanging lights and the neon sign outside. So, we figured they still had some redesigning to do. But the guy with the computer sitting in the booth (who we didn't notice at first -- good thing we didn't steal that wine) said it was scheduled to open on Monday. And who would doubt a guy sitting in a booth working on a computer? Well, we would. We just called iiiit!, another one of Eduardo Vargas's establishments, and they said the City Diner will open Friday, but that it didn't have a phone number yet. If any of you decide to go with the computer guy's word, let us know what you find.

Chinese residents of New York City are about to get a little homesick -- or perhaps they will just be reminded of why they left China in the first place. Beginning October 20, New York based Brazilian artist Solange Fabiao will project her street scene videos of Shanghai and Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China, on a building facade on Canal and Centre Streets in New York City's Chinatown. Called Transitio, Fabiao's "city within a city" project will run through October 31 with nightly showings at 6:30 pm and 11 pm. Fabiao has been doing these Transitio things for a few years now, including one about New York (and Shanghai and Nanning) last year in Beirut.

On the heels of the recent forced-eviction protests in front of Shanghai's Portman Ritz-Carlton comes news that two city real estate agents were sentenced to death for torching the homes of residents who refused to abandon their neighborhoods in 2004 and 2005. One of the acts of arson killed an elderly couple back in January.

Shanghaiist first encountered housing eviction protesters last week in front of the Portman Ritz-Carlton on Nanjing Road Lu. Most of the protesters were involved in housing disputes that involved the demolition of their homes and their forced relocation to other areas. However, in some cases, years of trying to solve their problems through the normal means (i.e., the police and the courts) prove fruitless, and thus these protesters and tenants' rights activists ocassionally take to the streets. From August 8-12, they gathered in front of the Portman because city officials were meeting across the street in the Exhibition Hall, and they hoped to attract both the attention of these officials and both local and international media.

Shanghaiist was interviewing housing eviction protesters at approximately 5 pm Wednesday outside the Portman Ritz-Carlton on Nanjing Lu when suddenly a scuffle broke out on the sidewalk. We rushed to see what was happening, and saw at least two young men wearing basketball jerseys shouting and running from the crowd. One had taken a camcorder from someone and proceeded to smash it to pieces on the ground, tramping on the tape.

A Shanghai Daily story provides example number 1,029,349 why the Shanghai real estate market is so ridiculously inflated. With 47 square meter, semi-serviced studio apartments at Shanghai Centre going for $2,300 a month, it's no wonder Shanghai consistently manages to rank as one of the most expensive cities in the world ... all with the help of clueless foreign companies throwing piles of money at employee housing. According to the story: