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themenendezbrothers · 21 days ago

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From the Archives: Lyle Menendez Case Ends in a Mistrial; D.A. to Retry Brothers

By Alan Abrahamson

Jan. 29, 1994 12 AM PT

The Menendez murder case ended Friday without a single verdict as a second jury was declared deadlocked, the jurors hopelessly polarized over whether Lyle and Erik Menendez were coldblooded killers or long-suffering victims of abuse within their family’s gated Beverly Hills estate.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg declared a mistrial in the Lyle Menendez case Friday afternoon, ending the six-month trial. A separate jury for younger brother Erik Menendez was declared deadlocked two weeks ago in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents.

Prosecutors promised to try the brothers again for first-degree murder.The trial, broadcast live to a nationwide television audience, was dominated by a bold defense, which insisted that the brothers killed in fear after years of being raped and molested by their father, Jose Menendez.

That defense, it turned out, transformed jury deliberations, dividing both panels into rival camps--believers and skeptics. Jurors said their debate took on a nearly religious fervor at times.

Records unsealed Friday showed that the juries were split almost in half on most counts, with those skeptical of the brothers’ stories pushing for murder convictions, while the believers held out for lesser manslaughter convictions.

“There was basically a war,” Leslie Abramson, Erik Menendez’s lead attorney, said outside the Van Nuys courthouse.When the Erik Menendez jury deadlocked Jan. 13, Abramson declined to call it a victory win for the defense--as some legal experts did. But Jill Lansing, Lyle Menendez’s attorney, did not hesitate to proclaim Friday’s hung jury a victory.

“I don’t think that anybody at the beginning of the trial believed . . . these two young men were abused or that they could have been motivated by fear,” Lansing said. “Obviously a great number of people now understand that that was the situation.”

Both defense attorneys said they did not believe that jurors at any new trial would convict the brothers of first-degree murder, and Lansing suggested that “it would be in everyone’s interest” to reach a plea bargain.

Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said that was out of the question. “There will be no plea bargain,” he declared at a news conference in a courthouse law library.

Garcetti said he had an “ethical, professional and moral responsibility to go forward” with a retrial, despite the $1 million-plus price.

“Be damned with how much money it’s going to cost. We’re going to seek justice in this case,” he said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Bozanich, the lead prosecutor in the trial, dismissed suggestions that the hung juries were a loss. “I think that society is a loser in this case,” she said. “It appears now that vigilantism is not against the law, at least in some minds. And that’s a terrifying thought.”

Weisberg scheduled a Feb. 28 hearing to set a new trial date for the brothers. Lyle Menendez, 26, and Erik Menendez, 23, remain in custody without bail.”It is just very sad,” said Marta Cano, an aunt of the brothers who--like many relatives--testified in their defense. “The discouraging thing for me is I cannot imagine the state of California is going to continue spending money in a case like this, where there is no way they will ever find 12 people to agree.”

Though prosecutors have hinted that the discovery of new evidence will help them in a retrial, legal experts cautioned that the abuse defense seemingly had a strong emotional pull on many jurors.

“The question remains whether, even with changed prosecutorial strategies, the district attorney will be able to share his vision. The evidence to date . . . suggests that prospect is not very likely,” said Peter Arenella, a UCLA law professor.

The jury votes show that neither panel was close to a conviction on any count, though no juror voted for an outright acquittal of either brother.

The votes also served as a reminder of the unpredictability of juries. Although Erik Menendez was widely viewed as more sympathetic than his cooler older brother, his jury had more votes for first-degree murder--five--and proved far more contentious than the Lyle Menendez panel.Members of the Erik Menendez jury said their deliberations became almost a battle of the sexes, split largely along gender lines. All votes for first-degree murder were reportedly cast by men.

The judge asked each jury to choose from four verdicts, from first-degree murder--meaning premeditated--down to involuntary manslaughter, the legal term for an accidental killing. Some experts had speculated that jurors might compromise on second-degree murder, meaning a killing that was not premeditated.But compromise was not to be.

The Lyle Menendez jury, five men and seven women, voted this way:* In the killing of Jose Menendez: three for first-degree murder, three for second-degree murder and six for voluntary manslaughter.* In the killing of Kitty Menendez: three for first-degree murder, three for second-degree murder, five for voluntary manslaughter and one for involuntary manslaughter.* On the charge of conspiracy to commit murder: three for first-degree murder, three for second-degree murder and six for not guilty.

The Erik Menendez jury, six men and six women, voted like this:* In the killing of the father: five for first-degree murder, one for second-degree murder and six for voluntary manslaughter.* In the killing of the mother: five for first-degree mother, three for second-degree murder and four for voluntary manslaughter.* On the conspiracy count: five for first-degree murder, one for second-degree murder and six for not guilty.

Two juries were used in the trial because some evidence was admissible against only one brother.

It was a case that began as a whodunit, evolved into a lurid soap opera and finally set off debate on the cutting-edge social issue of childhood sexual abuse.

Marked by twists worthy of a theatrical melodrama, the case saw the Menendez brothers go from being portrayed as the orphaned victims of a possible mob hit to--after their arrests--spoiled brats who killed their parents out of hatred for everything but their money. Then the defense once again offered them up as victims--a claim belittled by prosecutors but which earned Lyle and Erik Menendez passionate supporters among courtroom and television onlookers.

Of those, there were many. The trial, replete with tabloid-style elements--homicide, sex, family wealth, secret tapes, a philandering psychologist and the cachet of Beverly Hills--became a staple of the cable Court TV network. Jay Leno made the brothers and their post-killing spending spree part of his monologue for weeks. “Saturday Night Live” did a skit.

Just a few weeks into the case, defense lawyer Abramson proclaimed in court: “Let the sleaze fly!”

And so it did, often in astonishing detail. The defense introduced a love poem written by a key prosecution witness, psychologist L. Jerome Oziel, to his paramour. Prosecutors prodded defense witnesses to delve into Erik Menendez’s sexual orientation. And a parade of witnesses provided a virtual trivia test of incidents to portray the Menendez household as the flip side of Ozzie and Harriet’s.

Their testimony revealed that Kitty Menendez did not clean up ferret droppings around the house and that her hair needed a “bleach job.” Jose Menendez made a niece eat caviar against her wishes.

The brothers spent 19 days on the witness stand, providing more such minutiae, but also the broad drama of the trial--with their tearful tales of sexual abuse and descriptions of the shootings.

Erik Menendez said he was molested from age 6 to 18, and that Jose Menendez stuck pins in him during sex. Lyle Menendez testified that his father molested him, too, from age 6 to 8. Crying, he said he also abused his younger brother.After they testified, thousands of people from around the country wrote the brothers at County Jail, identifying or empathizing with them, defense lawyers said.At first, the case hardly seemed like it would inspire such emotions. When Jose Menendez, 45, and Kitty Menendez, 47, were found dead, the sons were seen not as suspects but as grieving victims, even by the police.Interviewed at Beverly Hills police headquarters hours after the slayings, Lyle Menendez suggested that his father’s business dealings might have provoked the killings.

Jose Menendez was the boss at Van Nuys-based Live Entertainment, a video distribution business, and “could step on a lot of toes,” his older son said.Lyle Menendez hired bodyguards for 10 days, saying his parents “were murdered by either the cartel or the mob and he was in fear of his life,” a guard testified.

Fear, however, did not slow Lyle Menendez’s shopping. He spent $15,039 on three Rolex watches and money clips, $70,484 on a Porsche and even made a $300,000 down payment on a restaurant in Princeton, N.J.

But in March, 1990, seven months after the slayings, the spending came to a halt as the case took a 180-degree turn: The brothers were charged in the murders.For police, the key break came when a woman named Judalon Smyth alerted them that her ex-lover, psychologist Oziel, was treating the brothers--and that they had confided to him that they killed their parents.

It took more than three years to bring the brothers to trial, largely because of legal wrangling over the admissibility of notes and tapes made by Oziel.

During that time, books and movie deals were cut. The media portrayal of the brothers--now as greedy playboys--was so pervasive that when jury selection began, nearly all the potential jurors knew of the rich Menendez family. Some said they were sure the brothers were guilty.

Then, a week before trial, Abramson disclosed that the brothers would claim they acted in fear after years of abuse, portraying them as children who erupted when they could take it no more.

At the trial, the brothers came dressed in sweaters to make them look younger. Defense lawyers referred to them as “the boys.”As part of its strategy, the defense called about three dozen teachers, coaches, relatives and friends of the Menendez family, who related tale upon tale of the brothers’ childhood, portraying the household as a grim place where hugs and smiles were rare.

Amid the references to caviar and ferret droppings, Jose Menendez was depicted as domineering and authoritarian; Kitty Menendez as a cold, rage-filled enigma with a drug and alcohol problem.

When the defendants took the stand, each said the killings took place after a series of confrontations that began when Kitty Menendez ripped off her older son’s toupee on Aug. 15, 1989.

Two days later, the defense said, Lyle Menendez threatened their father that he would tell outsiders about the alleged molestation of Erik Menendez if it did not stop.

Though such testimony might have gained sympathy for the brothers, under California law it was not enough to make a case for self-defense. Under the law, child abuse--no matter how severe--does not justify murder.

But the brothers’ attorneys went a step further, contending that the years of abuse made the brothers incredibly fearful of their parents. The brothers testified that they were sure they were about to be killed on the night of Aug. 20 when their parents entered the TV room and closed the door behind them. The brothers said they thus burst inside to kill their parents first.Prosecutors gave a different version, saying that the parents were coldbloodedly blown away while watching TV, eating berries and filling out a college application for Erik Menendez.

Still, the defense made an all-out effort to bolster the notion that the brothers perceived that their lives were in danger. A string of experts in child abuse--a psychologist, a psychiatrist and professors in nursing, psychology and social work--said extensive jailhouse interviews persuaded them the brothers were telling the truth.

Prosecutors did not put on any expert witnesses, saying that would only have lent credibility to what Bozanich belittled as psychobabble.

Prosecutors reminded jurors how Lyle and Erik Menendez had lied in the past to police, the media and family about the slayings. In one dramatic moment of the trial, prosecutors also caught the brothers in an apparent lie in court.

The setup was their testimony that they went to a Santa Monica Big 5 store on Aug. 18, 1989, to buy handguns. Deputy Dist. Atty. Lester Kuriyama then disclosed that the sporting goods chain had not sold handguns since 1986.

Prosecutors also scored a victory when Weisberg ruled that jurors could hear a tape recording of a session the brothers held with Oziel several months after the slayings. The defense had fought to get the tape sealed on the grounds of patient-client confidentiality, but the judge ruled it relevant because the brothers had made their mental state a central issue.

On the tape, the brothers said they killed their mother to put her “out of her misery,” and that their father’s infidelity caused her despair. There was no mention of sexual abuse or self-defense.In the end, though, no piece of evidence was enough for a verdict. The Erik Menendez jury gave up after 19 days. The Lyle Menendez jury took 25 days--although it met for only five hours over three days this week, after enduring a long break because of the Jan. 17 earthquake, which damaged jurors’ San Fernando Valley homes and the courthouse.

Jurors insisted that the quake had little impact on deliberations that were seemingly doomed from the start.

“We regret to inform the court that we are still unable to reach a verdict on any of the three counts or lesser charges,” said the note sent Friday by the jury foreman, a 35-year-old mailman.

At that, Weisberg declared a mistrial.

As the courtroom cleared, Abramson draped an arm around Lyle Menendez. Looking over at Lansing, the other chief defense lawyer, Lyle Menendez smiled.

Link to article.

Chronology of The Menendez Case in the next post.

#lyle menendez #erik menendez #menendez brothers #the menendez brothers trial

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vecchiorovere · 4 months ago

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Anno 1880 ca. Estrazione degli Oli Essenziali dalla scorza degli agrumi

(Agrumaria Arenella) Palermo - Foto di Eugenio Interguglielmi.

Negli agrumi, gli Oli Essenziali sono racchiusi all'interno di strutture, chiamate vescicole oleifere, che si trovano nella parte colorata della buccia (epicarpo o flavedo). Per ottenerli quindi si opera eliminando dalla buccia la parte bianca (albedo) e sottoponendo a pressione, mediante torchiatura, il flavedo.

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forfamily · 2 years ago

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Given the size of Bianca's turf, I realized she'd need more than three capos to run it all, so I revamped a lot of things. Now, I may not ever write a number of them, but I do like to have the info on hand as it adds more depth. And I'm always a slut for deeper lore. Please remember that this is just how I visualize Bibi's turf/gang/whathaveyou and her rivals. I will not force this on others, especially those who are part of Passione and whom I interact with.

The city has ancient churches, narrow artistic streets, imposing palaces, and unique underground landscapes, many of which are situated within Zeppeli's turf. Naples is broken down into thirty quarters which are then grouped together into ten governmental community boards for administrative purposes. Zeppeli controls four of these administrative areas, for a total of nine quarters; these are marked in red above. Thus Zeppeli has eight capos, one assigned to each quarter with their share of soldiers. Now, you might be asking, Nana, you said there are nine quarters, so why only eight capos? Posillipo is watched over by Zeppeli's Underboss, Dante, himself.

1st municipality of Naples Posillipo An affluent residential quarter, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples. Rocky, it is 6km (just over 3 miles) long and surrounded by cliffs with a few coves with breakwaters at the western end of the Bay of Naples. The stronghold of Zeppeli, palazzo Beatrice, is located here on the cliffs and is one of the safest properties within Napoli. Unless a certain spicy vampire is present in a particular verse. Chiaia An affluent neighborhood on the seafront, bound by Piazza Vittoria on the east and Mergellina on the west; one the wealthiest districts in Naples, with many luxury branded shops on its main street. It's also home to a business school, medical school, and a number of other public schools. A landmark is the large public park known as the Villa Comunale, developed in the late 16th and 17th centuries. San Ferdinando A southern district that includes the Royal Palace, Piazza del Plebiscito- the most celebrated square in Naples, the San Carlo opera house, and the church of San Ferdinando, from which the district is named.

5th municipality of Naples Arenella Sitting on Vomero Hill, above the city, and near the main hospital section, many years ago it was considered a place to "get away from it all". Vomero Up on a hilltop accessed by funicular, upscale, leafy, and dotted with gelaterias, alfresco cafes, and refined Italian restaurants; both chain and department stores cluster around Piazza Vanvitelli.

9th municipality of Naples Pianura Bound on one side by Soccavo and the other by the town of Pozzuoli, it's a lively residential area with archaeological sites like Roman mausoleums, and a Roman villa. Pizzaerias, dessert shops, and bars are in the historic center, where the 13th-century Church of San Giorgio stands in the main square. Bargain hunters often hit up the Mercatopoli Napoli Pianura thrift market. Soccavo A western quarter, bounded on one side by the area of Fuorigrotta and the other by the Camaldoli hill; at the base of the hill is a historic quarry, which gives its name to the area. While it's technically a division of Pozzuoli and not Naples, it was included within the administrative limits of Naples when it started being developed as a residential neighborhood in the 1920s.

10th municipality of Naples Bagnoli Beyond the confines of the original city, it's beyond Cape Posillipo, thus looking over the coast of the Bay of Pozzuoli. The North Warf is the longest promenade in Europe, while Città della Scienza is an interactive science museum for adults and children. Between the Astroni Reserve, which sits an extinct volcano, and the archaeological Terme area, there is Ippodromo di Agnano, the biggest racecourse in Italy and one of the oldest in Europe. Fuorigrotta Beyond Posillipo Hill, it is the most populated suburb of Naples, housing the San Paolo Stadium. There is a Roman bath, the Vesuvian Observatory, the oldest volcanological observatory in the world, and the Naples Zoo.

Within these quarters is Zeppeli's legitimate businesses: Restaurants, cafes, pizzerias, laundrettes, and nightclubs. Chiaia is the location of the five-star hotel, Beatrice; much like the palazzo was named for Bianca's grandmother, so too was Zeppeli's hotel chain, the first opening in Napoli back in the 50s. There is a Hotel Beatrice in New York, London, Tokyo, and Singapore, by 2001.

Of course, among all the glistening glamor, there is also the seedy underbelly of Zeppeli. Gambling dens, fight clubs, and whorehouses. But we'll get more into that later.

#;headcanons #;the famiglia

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telodogratis · 22 days ago

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#NewsPA - Dichiarazione Leopoldo Piampiano (FI): "SODDISFAZIONE PER I RISULTATI DELLA PRIMA FASE DEL CONCORSO REINVENTING CITIES"

“Esprimo grande soddisfazione per l’esito della prima fase del concorso internazionale Reinventing Cities, che rappresenta un’opportunità storica per la rigenerazione urbana della nostra città e in particolare per l’area della ex Chimica Arenella… Read More “Esprimo grande soddisfazione per l’esito della prima fase del concorso internazionale Reinventing Cities, che rappresenta un’opportunità…

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gennarocapodanno · 9 days ago

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Vomero: basta alla sosta dei motocicli sui marciapiedi!

Una situazione favorita dall’assenza dei necessari controlli Motocicli parcheggiati sul marciapiede “ Oltre che con l’occupazione con pedane, ombrelloni, tavolini e sedie dei numerosi esercizi pubblici, con l’arrivo delle belle giornate gli abitanti del Vomero sono di nuovo alla prese anche con il problema della presenza sui marciapiedi di un numero sempre maggiore di motocicli…

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#Arenella #Comitato Valori collinari #Gennaro Capodanno #motocicli sul marciapiede #Napoli #Vomero

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norajworld · 1 month ago

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It’s hard to pinpoint when things began to change around here but you might start with the arrival of Yolanda Hadid in 2017.Ms. Hadid, a onetime regular on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” bought a farm just outside New Hope, Pa., to be closer to her daughters, the models Gigi and Bella Hadid, who were then living in New York City.The 32-acre property, with its stone farmhouse, horse barn and formal garden, became a family retreat, and the Hadids’ social media feeds filled with pastoral images: Gigi in a two-piece bathing suit, posing with a bowl of newly picked vegetables beside a patch of basil; Yolanda in black boots, bluejeans and a puffer vest, showing off a heap of fresh-cut lavender.“We ride horses, we have a vegetable garden,” Yolanda told The Toronto Star in 2018, describing her life in the countryside with her famous daughters, who between them have 140 million followers on Instagram.The presence of the Hadids attracted other famous people to Bucks County, a woodsy area known for its rolling hills and 12 covered bridges. In 2018, Zayn Malik, the British pop singer who was in a relationship with Gigi, bought a farm there. “It is quiet,” he said in an interview with British Vogue. “There are no human beings.” People magazine shared the news that Gigi gave birth to the couple’s daughter at home in Bucks County in 2020.Tranquil Bucks County was back in the media spotlight the next year, when TMZ and Billboard reported on an altercation involving Mr. Malik, Gigi and Yolanda that took place at one of their country homes. Facing four charges of harassment, Mr. Malik pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 360 days of probation; he and Gigi broke up after the incident.In 2023, the actor-writer-director Bradley Cooper, widely reported to have succeeded Mr. Malik as Gigi’s love interest, paid $6.5 million for a 33-acre gentleman’s farm close to Yolanda’s property. Then came local sightings of Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin and Hailey Bieber. Just across the Delaware River from New Hope, in Lambertville, N.J., Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney were filming a movie.Suddenly, New Hope and the quaint neighboring towns were becoming a celebrity enclave. While a census might reveal fewer famous people per acre than in the Hamptons, Malibu, or Aspen, the area’s glamour quotient was on the rise.Located between Philadelphia and Manhattan, New Hope has long been a haven for wealthy part-time residents. The surrounding countryside has been compared to that of the Cotswolds in England, and the artists and artisans living in the area add a touch of bohemia to the rusticity. But in past decades the weekenders tended to be lawyers and executives from Philadelphia, not supermodels, Hollywood actors and pop stars.Michael Arenella, a musician and the founder of the annual Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governors Island, bought a weekend house in Bucks County in 2014, when he was living in Brooklyn. He started living there full-time two years later in the belief that he had chosen a place well off the cool map.“Beacon is like Brooklyn 2.0,” Mr. Arenella, 46, said, referring to the Hudson Valley town that has been nicknamed “Bro No,” an abbreviation of Brooklyn North, because of the many former Brooklynites residing there. “I wanted to get away from New Yorkers. Bucks County is not quite as pretentious.”Lately, though, Mr. Arenella has been seeing plenty of New York license plates in and around New Hope. Beyond sightings of Gigi Hadid or Jakob Dylan, another famous transplant, there are other signs of change in the area.Humble inns have been refurbished to attract a new clientele, and several luxury hotels have sprung up, including River House at Odette’s, where the average nightly rate for a Saturday in November was $560 and the private rooftop club charges members $1,250 a year.Philadelphia magazine cited the hotel and its in-house restaurant as the most glaring example of “the new New Hope.” Opened in 2020 by a group of investors that includes Ed Breen, the executive chairman of DuPont, it was built on the former site of Chez Odette’s, a restaurant and cabaret presided over by an eccentric French actress and poet, Odette Myrtil.Along with Bucks County Playhouse, which opened in 1939 and drew such stars as Grace Kelly and Robert Redford, Odette’s came to symbolize New Hope’s bohemian culture. It closed in 2007, after three consecutive floods struck the town, and the stone building that housed it was painstakingly relocated to another lot, where it now sits empty.Just up the Delaware, in Stockton, N.J., population 494, the historic Stockton Inn recently reopened after a two-year renovation. Its owners hired a James Beard Award winner to manage the property and its two restaurants. They also opened Stockton Market, a gourmet café that sells Frankies 457 olive oil and matcha tea made on site. Nearby, another high-end dining establishment, the Northridge Restaurant, opened last month after a three-year transformation of a weathered barn on the property of the Woolverton Inn.Real estate values have soared in the area as the ultrarich supersize musty, low-ceilinged 19th-century abodes. “The old Bucks County farmhouse is now being blown out and expanded into true estates,” said Michael J. Strickland, a real estate agent with Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty who moved from Manhattan to Bucks County full-time in 2000.Part of the appeal, he added, is that “property values are still accessible here, versus the Hamptons.”‘Everyone Is From Brooklyn’Mira Nakashima has seen the changes up close. She moved to New Hope as a child, in 1943. Her father, George Nakashima, was a woodworker and designer whose sculptural tables and chairs were displayed at the Museum of Modern Art and today fetch thousands of dollars at auction.Mira took over George Nakashima Woodworkers after his death in 1990 and still runs the complex of workshops he built on a tree-lined property above the town. Sitting at a walnut table made by her father, Mira, 82, recalled the old New Hope as low-key and artsy.“A lot of landscape painters came because the landscape was so beautiful,” she said. “There was fishing on the river. And there were canals running both sides of the river. And it was quiet and peaceful.”For years, Nakashima Woodworkers held an open house on Saturdays. Recently, Mira said, the grounds became so overcrowded that she now offers guided tours by appointment only.“Everyone is from Brooklyn. I can smell Brooklyn on them when they arrive here,” added Soomi Hahn Amagasu, Mira’s daughter-in-law and the studio’s sales manager. “So many young people are coming here.”They won’t find Williamsburg-on-the-Delaware, however. New Hope’s commercial drag still has a hippie vibe distinct from the increasingly refined retail atmosphere of that Brooklyn neighborhood, with its Hermès and Chanel stores.Mainstays include Witch Shop Gypsy Heaven, MagiKava teahouse and Love Saves the Day, a vintage bric-a-brac emporium formerly located in New York’s East Village. Another store sells tie-dye rock T-shirts. Those places, along with the homey bars and reasonably priced restaurants, bring in the suburban teens, twentysomethings and other day-trippers who clog the streets on weekends.The lack of luxury stores of the kind you might find in East Hampton is by design, said Larry Keller, New Hope’s mayor for the last 27 years and an antique dealer in town. The town is also not so hot on national chains: After Starbucks and Dunkin’ moved in, the council revised zoning laws to favor local businesses.“You don’t have the square-footage,” Mr. Keller said, referring to the tiny storefronts. “Where is Ralph Lauren going to have a store and sell enough gear to make sense? These are boutiques.”One of New Hope’s shops made the grade for Gigi Hadid: Ditto Vintage, on Brick Street. Last winter Ms. Hadid stopped in and bought a Nahui Ollin handbag, a leather jacket and a necklace.There are some upscale shops in nearby Lambertville: Albucker Gallery sells contemporary art and an assortment of found objects; Ten Church offers vintage clothing; and Rago Arts and Auction Center sells works by Nakashima and other design goods. Lambertville is also on the foodie map: Canal House Station, which serves American fare in a converted 1870s train station, earned a Michelin star.Back on the Pennsylvania side of the iron bridge, there are signs that New Hope is in the early stages of a makeover. The building that houses Farley’s Bookshop, which opened in 1967, was recently renovated into a bright, modern space. A few doors down, a scruffy indoor mini mall was turned into a Ferry Market, a food hall. A high-end eyeglass store, Kitto Optical, opened on the same block.“The French fries the restaurants serve are now truffle fries,” joked Katsutoshi Amagasu, 21, a Nakashima family member who grew up in New Hope.Some of the town’s structures date to the colonial era, like the circa.-1727 Logan Inn. But on the residential north end, beyond the protected historic district, a Victorian house overlooking the river was bulldozed and replaced with a modernist compound befitting Bel Air. On an adjacent empty lot, a builder promises four luxury condominiums, each with a terrace, elevator and private dock. The asking price for one unit is $3.5 million.Lorraine Eastman, a real estate agent at Berkshire Hathaway, said the riverfront has been built up to the point that portions of the Delaware are no longer visible to passers-by. Ms. Eastman lived in New Hope back in the ’80s, before moving to Los Angeles and eventually returning seven years ago.“I bartended with Big Sue, who was 6-foot-1, wore size 13 motorcycle boots and smoked a cigar and sang jazz,” she recalled of her time working at John and Peter’s, a bar and rock club on South Main Street that’s still in business. “I lived in a loft on Ferry Street, which is now the Nurture Spa. New Hope was very artsy, gritty, very bohemian. It still has a little bit of all those qualities, but it is changing.”Eat, Pray, SpendLike many picturesque small towns, New Hope seems to have been discovered during the pandemic by urbanites who gobbled up property and drove up real estate prices.“People are always looking for a place to go that’s a hidden little storybook town,” said Ms. Eastman, who recently listed a renovated 1769 farmhouse with a pool and “party” barn on 37 acres for $4.5 million.Celebrity residents aren’t exactly new, either: Paul Simon had a weekend house in Bucks County in the early ’70s; more recently, the “Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert lived in Frenchtown, N.J., 16 miles north.But the presence of the Hadids and Mr. Cooper, who grew up in suburban Philadelphia, has lent glamour to the area and whetted the appetites of developers and entrepreneurs.A few miles from Yolanda Hadid’s estate, in the hamlet of Carversville, Pa., another hospitality project is nearly complete.Milan Lint and his husband, Mitch Berlin, each of whom have had finance careers in New York, are renovating the Carversville Inn, a circa.-1813 stone building that the couple bought in 2020.Standing amid the construction one morning last month, Mr. Lint, who has owned a weekend home with Mr. Berlin in Bucks County for 20 years, described the plans for the space, which is slated to open soon.The new Carversville Inn will be a European-style boutique hotel with six rooms priced around $500 a night, Mr. Lint said. Its 65-seat restaurant will have “a French brasserie menu, in the Pastis or Balthazar style,” Mr. Lint added, name-checking a pair of Manhattan stalwarts.Asked why he and Mr. Berlin had chosen Bucks County as the place for their venture, rather than, say, the Hudson Valley, Mr. Lint shared a memory of a boring, rainy summer spent in the area.“The Hudson Valley is very pocket, and weather-dependent,” he said. “Here, the towns dot up and down the river. You can have a full weekend four seasons a year.” Source link

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forfamily · 1 year ago

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the famiglia.

dario zeppeli. 81. 6'2". likes cat naps in the sun, a strong coffee, and his wife's smile. dislikes slackers, pickles, and modern architecture. former don of the zeppeli family; still commands great respect. not as scary as you think he is once you get to know him. hamon user.

beatrice zeppeli. 79. 5'5". likes afternoon tea, playing the piano, and the opera. dislikes messiness, unnecessary violence, and sour foods. the wife of dario; some claim she was the true power behind the scenes during her husband's reign. a kind, strong woman. a master sharp shooter.

dante zeppeli. 39. 6'2". likes dogs, sleeping, and when the day is relatively stress-free ( it is, in fact, never stress-free). dislikes fucking paperwork, incompetence, and when someone takes a romantic interest in his cousin. the son of dario's younger sister, giada. the current underboss and the one bianca trusts the most in the world (next to her grandparents). hamon user.

vincent galilei. 60. 6'3". dario's consigliere, now bianca's. knows the law inside out and backward (in italy and other countries). cool under pressure. manages all of zeppeli's legal financial interests. stand user.

tommaso "tommy" granita. 24. 5'11". enjoys chess and mathematics. capo of chiaia. rumored to be related to the zeppeli's consigliere but nothing is confirmed. hamon user.

tira "titi" misu. 23. 5'5". capo of san ferdinando. likes collecting earrings. enjoys tea at the end of a long day. originally worked at one of zeppeli's brothels; intervened during an assassination attempt while the don was visiting nd saved bianca's life. stand user.

giotto "toto" panetone. 29. 5'10". collects keyboards. capo of arenella and the intelligence squad. the watchers and gatherers. this squad knows things before the government does and knows things the government wishes they didn't. stand user.

petrarca "pet" affogato. 25. 6'. capo of vomero. a true playboy and lady's man who enjoys collecting perfume. he and leo have beef, much to bianca's dismay. hamon user.

donatello "dona" ricotti. 31. 5'11". capo of pianura and search and recovery. when there seems to be no hope or the government fails to find a missing (or stolen) loved one, sometimes one needs those who can move where the police cannot or aren't willing to. often partners with the intelligence squad. stand user.

michelangelo "mich" pomodori. 28. 6'1". a self-proclaimed foodie. capo of soccavo and the demolition squad. the heavy hitters, when brawn is needed above everything else... or a good distraction. stand user.

raphael "raph" scacci. 30. 6' capo of Bagnoli and the assassination squad. a group who moves in the shadows of napoli. once bianca issues a hit, the target is already dead; it's just a matter of when they stop breathing. stand user.

leonardo "leo" panello. 34. 6'2". capo of fuorigrotta. enjoys fast cars and going for long rides when he can; he also enjoys building model cars. has a low tolerance for bullshit. may or may not have a thing for the boss and dislikes when petrarca (attempts) to flirt with bianca. hamon user.

#;headcanons #;the zeppeli famiglia #i'll probably come back later to add more to this as I flesh them out #but here are the basics

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