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TCQ&A: George Carroll
The TCQ&A rules: You can choose which of 45 questions you’d like to answer, but you have to answer questions one through four (and at least 15 total).
1. How long have you lived in the area? Where did you move from? Where are you originally from? I have lived in Tribeca proper for two-and-a-half years; before that I lived in Battery Park City (TriBeCa Green) from 2007 to 2010. I am originally from Houston, Texas.
2. Married? Partnered? If so, what’s his/her name and occupation? I am partnered creatively and romantically to the wonderful and beautiful Christina Tyler. You may remember her—she does a great “Xena: Warrior Princess” battle cry. [It’s true. She showed me at a BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center Meet & Greet after I mentioned that Lucy Lawless had recently admired my glasses. —Ed.]
3. Kids? Pets? I have two cats, Pookie and Ray Ray. They are litter mates and were abandoned by my ex-girlfriend when she left, so I took them in. They were fat bastards but I recently put them on a diet, so they are quite svelte now.
4. Where do you live? I reside on N. Moore between Greenwich and West, and I have great view of the Hudson River, which is, as you may know, an estuary—you can actually see the fresh and salt water flowing into one another.
5. What do you do for a living? I am a playwright. My latest production, based on the life of 2pac, is entitled The Tragedy of Tupac Amaru Shakur or Who Shot Me? It’s nominated for a Pulitzer. [It’s being produced this year at Black Spectrum Theatre.] I also have a private business called Legacy Playwrights. We are private business and cater to the so-called 1%. What we do is private-estate writing for select clientele and private entities who want their story dramatized. It could be for a family reunion, corporate party, or just a really eccentric client.
6. The best deal around: Gray’s Papaya.
7. Most-frequented restaurants: Mangez Avec Moi on W. Broadway between Murray and Warren. Great vegetarian selections.
8. For special occasions, I go to: Scalini Fedeli. The owner/proprietor, Mike Cetrulo, is a great guy. Great wine.
9. Best sandwich: The banh mi sandwich served at Mangez Avec Moi Express.
10. Sweet-tooth satisfaction: Milky Way Caramel ($1.51) from Duane Reade at the base of IPN.
11. Most delicious cocktail: A bespoke cocktail from Tiny’s, usually something with tequila—it varies upon the season of course.
13. I can’t resist popping into: Laughing Man [right].
14. The last non-essential item I bought: Drugs. Scratch that: one of those wood-and-wool sheep from Kaffe 1668, the small one.
15. When I walk into my apartment, the first thing I see that I bought in Tribeca is: My Abici Uomo, from Adeline Adeline.
16. I’m so glad some eccentrics are still in the neighborhood, because without them I’d be stuck in Jerksville.
17. How I stay fit: Boxing, boxing, boxing.
18. Where I get beautiful: Beauty sleep, my darling. Eight-to-ten hours nightly.
19. What’s the area’s best-kept secret? Washington Street between Hubert and Canal. It is the most peaceful strip in Manhattan. John Allan’s salon and private club is there, as are Featherstone Design jewelry and my favorite, Canal Park Playhouse [left], which is also a B&B.
20. A recent enthusiasm: Guinness at Walker’s.
21. A worthy splurge: Chippendale table from Working Class.
22. A recent case of sticker shock: A trip to Whole Foods for fruit.
24. Rainy-day activity: Cooking. I love cooking and watching PBS or reruns of “Friends” or “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
27. I’ve never been to Bubby’s and I don’t know why. (But I do know why—it smells putrid outside, or at least did. I used to run a restaurant in Midtown, so that totally turned me off.)
28. I’m sorry, NYSC on Reade Street, but I won’t be coming back.
29. How does Nili Lotan stay in business?
32. My very favorite spot: My terrace.
33. Pet peeve: People not acknowledging other on an elevator. If the elevator is full or occupied by say four or more people, it’s not necessary, but if it’s just you and another person, have some courtesy and acknowledge the other person, for Pete’s sake! It’s just rude to walk out with nothing leaving either person’s lips. You never know who you may need someday.
34. If money were no object, I’d… also have a place in London.
38. The most romantic spot around: Sunset on the Hudson.
39. Tribeca could use more “artistic” people and fewer stuffy ignorant financial types. And fewer parents. It’s just tacky at this point—most of them are very suburban with no style.
40. If I could change one thing about the neighborhood: (See above.)
41. A business I’d like to have here: 500-seat Broadway-style theater.
44. Someone who lives here who I really think you should meet: David Bressler, a really great guy who lives in the neighborhood.
45. Proof that change is good: I’m here.
46. If I couldn’t live here, I’d live in…. Tri-ghetto, the section of Tribeca east of Church. Yes, I said it.
47. I wish you had asked me about: How much I make per year.
Recent TCQ&As:
• Dana Mass
• Stephen Dimmick
• Meghan Farrell
• Yasmine Karrenberg
• Terri Pitts and Ivli Salman
• Peter Hannert
If you want to suggest a TCQ&A subject, email tribecacitizen@gmail.com.
15 Comments
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Tri-Ghetto? hahahahahhahahaha I’ll have to borrow that one since that’s where I live. How about ‘Chi-Beca’ the part of Tribeca that’s closest to China Town :-)
The banh mi sandwich served at Mangez Avec Moi Express is good as any i’ve tried thus far, and i’ve tried many.
i am a parent and have lived in this neighborhood for almost 20 years
i could use fewer of people like this guy
I’m sorry-but why the hang up on the the various parts of Tribeca? First you point out that you now live in “Tribeca Proper” versus BPC (oh, the horror) and then you go for the “Tri-Ghetto” dig. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but based on the streets where you say your apartment is located (and the mention of a terrace) I’m guessing it’s Independence Plaza? Sorry to be a jerk here, but anyone that lives in Tribeca will probabaly agree that the original “Tri-Ghetto” are the Independance Plaza towers. They can try all they want to make it luxury living, but let’s face it–it’s one the biggest eye sores in the neighborhood.
I have never referred to it as Tri-ghetto–more like Tribeca adjacent.
-Stuffy ignorant financial type
Tribeca had only creative people when I moved into TriGhetto 30+ years ago.
Only someone who has lived here for a hot minute doesn’t know that, before the finance types drove them out and turned this into Triburbia, it was an amazing neighborhood.
Just ask the folks who played Sunday volleyball in front of Barnabas Rex.
@Anna – My food just got here and I am too hungry to rehash this saga…just know we covered this month’s ago. https://tribecacitizen.wpengine.com/2011/11/17/did-that-really-happen/
@Jim Smithers
I read that. And I have lots of photos of downtown industrial architecture Pre 1983 – not documentary, abstracts. Oh, what a fine place it was!
Wow – no kids – no parents – no wall street types? Maybe you should try to sneak into an over 55 Florida condo where you can write and look at water
to your heart’s content or maybe you don’t have to sneak? Tribeca won’t miss you.
Okay, so his parent comment was sure to get comments but he has a point.
I’m a 20 yr TriBeCa veteran and my husband 30+ years We are parents.
But I know what he means….holding the door for a double stroller and the mother looking at you like your her maid. The shocking unfriendliness of these newest arrivals.
The complete lack of interest in the history of the area – am I the only one who misses the chocolate malts at Socrates?
4 inch $400 heels and $300 skinny jeans for a laid back day at the park!!
Yup, money can’t buy you manners but it can buy you more comfortable clothes!
Stating that everyone who lived here in the “old days” was “creative”, “polite” and “friendly” and that all the newbies (those who moved here in the last five? ten? years) are not, and are just “financial types” who could never also be creative or polite or friendly, and who wear four-inch heels and skinny jeans (!!!), are prejudicial pronouncements. IMO, you guys need to stop judging folks by the date on their leases or deeds….
In contrast to some above I am pleased and relieved to see that someone who’d have fit right in here in back in the 70s (when I moved here) would still want to move to and live in what we used to call LoCal (beLOw CanAL) before it became Triburbia, someone actively working in the arts who honestly speaks his mind, and is also not happy to have to cross the street because the traffic jams of strollers have blocked the sidewalk. Mangez Avec Moi is a treasure, BTW, and Bell Bates is another.
I cant think of a more ghetto area downtown than the area between greenwich and west from n moore to duane. Turns out this clown posing as an artist doesnt even know he’s on the wrong side of the tracks.
Btw, Independance Plaza looks like a husing project. Not sure id call it “Tribeca Proper”.
I think that The Tribeca is all full of people who think there super special and cool and there NOT…they destroyed the flavor of the quiet dark dingy streets that i call home all my life. The Private lives of Artist ,Actors and People that work hard grew up here and hate the change.Honestly do u think JFK JR would of lived on Northmoore Now with all the Bars and All the…I THINK IM COOL PEOPLE? The Answer is NOPE !!!!!! It became a ZOO like most of manhattan with all these Yuppy’s thinking they come from NEW YORK….THEY DON’T go home and destroy your home town….. Lets hangout on your block all night and yell and be drunk.They walk next to there carriage and let a Nanny take care of there kids…LOL A JOKE LOL ………No wonder why there kids grow up with no respect for there parents.