New Year's Eve 1977 with the Ramones

Live from London...

Ice cream dreams in Tompkins Square Park

Via The NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N.

[Updated] Gone but not forgotten

Remembering a few of our friends and neighbors who died in 2012...

Markand Thakar, artist, Mona's and Sophie's regular

[Photo by Thomas D. Ward]

Donald Suggs, friend, activist, mentor

[Photo by Stacie Joy]

Mary Pupillo, lifelong resident of Avenue A

[Via Cynthia Chaffee]

Bob Spedalere, longtime bartender at the Grassroots, New York Giants fan

[Via Facebook]

Connie Bush, director of the Cornelia Connelly Center

Mike Hamm, loved living in New York City

Mary Spink, community activist, executive director of Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association

Andrew Kowalczyk, last East Village landlord of his kind

Christine Ebel, co-owner of Arcane on Avenue C

The top-5 viewed EV Grieve posts of 2012

Why? Because it's the Season of the Listicle! All based on Google pageviews... No. 1 is not much of a shocker...

1. [Updated] There is a woman who has been walking around the East Village topless (Maybe NSFW), May 18

2. [Updated] We do not know what this is on St. Mark's Place, Aug. 4

[Spotted by @thestarkonline]

3. Everyone loves a really bad meatball sandwich!, May 18

4. Here comes the East River, Oct. 29

5. Despite plea, landlord doubling rent on East Village family with cancer-stricken 2 year old, Oct. 9

The top-10 least-viewed EV Grieve posts of 2012

Continuing this Season of the Listicle, nothing is safe from becoming listicled. Here then are the most unpopular EV Grieve posts of 2012 ... whether because of the subject matter or the complete and utter disregard the editor-publisher showed for any kind of intelligent headline... The following posts had no pageviews...

Are those two pillows or are you just happy to see me? Oct. 21

Breaking: Wet Paint spotted on Downtown 6 platform at Astor Place; caution urged; you likely shouldn't be wearing white pants now anyway
Sept. 23

Person in pretty-darn expensive car stops and talks to workers on Cooper Square
Sept. 5

This corner deli has a lot of fruit for sale, May 23

Talk about a mix tape! Sept. 27

Noted, Oct. 12

This is what happens when you leave your luggage tied up outside stores, Aug. 30

Elvis is Back — and upside down in this window display! Dec. 8

Where the Wild Things Are Stored in Dumpsters on Lafayette Street, May 9

Brokers now marketing to one-night stands on St. Mark's Place, July 7

[Updated] More from the anti-7-Eleven front on Avenue A and East 11th Street

So far, we've seen signs of opposition against the incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A and East 11th Street. First, someone carved "Fuck 7-11" into the sidewalk (twice) ... then we saw the anti-7-Eleven stickers ... and now... sidewalk chalk ... several of these are around the plywood...

[Thanks to @JGerbz for the photo]

And last night, someone created giant "No 7-Eleven" signs in the middle of the intersection... via an EVG reader...

Can't wait to see what's next in the anti-7-Eleven arsenal...

Previously on EV Grieve:
7-Eleven alert: Are 2 chain stores replacing Bar on A and Angels & Kings?

First sign of the incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A

Reviving those 7-Eleven + another chain rumors for Avenue A

2 new coffee shops in the works for the East Village

EVG reader Tony shares this tip... an espresso bar is ready to open at 319 E. 14th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... in space that previously housed a Verizon store... It will be called Madman Espresso.

Meanwhile, EV resident Bill the libertarian anarchist gets word of a new coffee shop opening in the former Stogo space on East 10th Street just west of Second Avenue. This will mark the second NYC location for Third Rail Coffee, which currently has a shop on Sullivan Street.

[Verizon image via Google]

Avenue C leads the Year in Pictures

I didn't look at the Times today. Just too much going on... However, Dave on 7th sent me a photo of the front of the Sunday Review section... a photo looking north on Avenue C from East Seventh Street following the Superstorm Sandy surge... looking at this photo, I'm amazed that anything is back open, to be honest ...

Updated:

Here's a direct link to the above image... thanks to Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C for the link...

Week in Grieview

[Photo of Avenue A the other evening via Bobby Williams]

An anti-7-Eleven sticker campaign (Wednesday)

Your picks for East Village dream homes (Thursday)

Classic menu typo (Monday)

EVG favorite Whole Earth Bakery & Kitchen has closed on St. Mark's Place (Friday)

Holiday greeting from Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street (Friday)

Little Italy Pizza abruptly closes on Third Avenue (Monday)

Living above Mighty Quinn's can be mighty smelly (Monday)

East Village bars that will be open all night on New Year's Eve (Thursday)

An amenity to die for in Stuy Town (Thursday)

SantaCon evil spreads upstate (Monday)

La Vie returns (Monday)

[Updated] Hard up for attention, Penistrator imitator strikes on slow news weekend

EVG regular Spike was out enjoying the quiet, picturesque snowfall last night when he came upon this ...

The Penistrator Imitator left this one on East Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. There's never just one. Dicks never travel alone. Anyone else spot one this x-rated snowffiti?

Previously on EV Grieve:
An EV Grieve investigative report: In search of the Penistrator

A stunning development: Is Haley Joel Osment the Penistrator?

Snow is in the forecast tonight, which means....

Updated:

EVG regular Lori E. Seid shared this shot from East First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...

Then there, uh, this... spotted by @JGerbz on East 11th Street and Avenue A...

There must be a connection...

Runaway dog

A reader shares this from late this afternoon:

I was walking west on St Mark's Place toward Broadway. I heard somebody shouting "Stop that dog!" Then saw a group of guys running down Lafayette, but I didn't see a dog.

Shortly thereafter, I saw an exhausted woman with a leash trying to run to the direction of the shouting.

I kept walking and turned north on Broadway. I had reached 9th Street when I heard the shouting again. I saw a very wet golden retriever-ish dog running in the street and against traffic, but directly toward me. The dog skillfully dodged my attempt to catch it, and proceeded to dart its way through oncoming traffic before ... disappearing again.

The reader asks:

Any other reports of this story? Does anyone know how it ended?

Another wet-tailed hawk sighting in Tompkins Square Park

Was hoping for a snow-tailed hawk. Photo by Bobby Williams.

The NYPD is looking for this suspect in attack on jogger in East River Park Thursday

Just before noon on Thursday morning, a man attacked a 42-year-old woman jogging in East River Park near East Houston. The attacker reportedly removed the woman's pants, but he left the scene when she fought back, according to CBS New York.

The victim was taken to Beth Israel Hospital in stable condition, with minor bruises, DNAinfo reported.

The NYPD released the above sketch of the alleged suspect. Police describe him as a light-skinned black or Hispanic male in his late teens, early 20s. He was seen wearing a grey hoodie and green sweat pants during the time of the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).

[Image via CBS New York]

Report: The Living Room set to close in January

Potential bad news for live music fans. BoweryBoogie has the scoop that the Living Room is set to close at the end of January.

Skyrocketing rents (shocker!) will chase the Living Room from its home these past 10 years on Ludlow.

However! The owners have launched a crowdsourcing campaign to help them fund a move to new space somewhere else in the neighborhood. You can read about their campaign at Pledge Music.

And you can watch this video...



Also, yesterday, The Lo-Down reported that the team behind Piano's (and 7A and Virage) are looking to take over the Living Room's current space for some kind of live music-gallery venture. The group appears before the CB3/SLA committee next month.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Luna Lounge owner Rob Sacher on Joey Ramone, a new CBGB and what killed the Lower East Side

Last Friday of 2012...

From late this afternoon... looking south from Tompkins Square Park by peter radley...

...and to the west via Bobby Williams....

What a way to Go

Yaz (Yazoo in the UK) with "Don't Go" circa 1982...

Happy holidays from Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

We first met Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street in March after her owners brought her home from a shelter.

Since then, she has had a few adventures. Such as going for a swim. Or chasing pigeons, avoiding aggressive terrier mix types and dining out. And buying her first Christmas tree.

And now, a year-end message from her owners.

Kita has had a marvelous first East Village holiday. She got some neat presents but none have impressed her as much as the ever more esoteric doggie snacks she gets from that fancy pet food shop on East 9th Street. Her favorite is some sort of a yak milk bar she guards jealously. We’ve tried discussing the carbon footprint of imported yak milk but she is so far unimpressed.

After being shut in during the hurricane, Kita was delighted to go back out into the light of day and exercise her right to vote.

She was a bit dismayed by the long lines but had nothing to compare it as this was her first time voting in this district. We’re pretty sure she voted straight ticket for the Working Families Party but she’s reluctant to disclose that publically given she’s still mulling a run for CB3.

Kita wishes everyone a happy and healthy New Year. And may it be filled with yak milk chews!

On the next episode: Kita attends her first CB3/SLA meeting, and receives dirty looks when she barks out loud upon hearing an applicant say "We just want the license to pair wine with our homemade peanut brittle."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The further adventures of Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

The further (often truly) amazing adventures of Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Auction Sunday at the closing Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen on St. Mark's Place

As we've been reporting, the Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen at 130 St. Mark's Place is closing for good after 34 years in business... tomorrow is the last day. Be sure to stop by and say goodbye to owner Peter Silvestri. Neighbors are planning a farewell party at 6 p.m.

And on Sunday, the auctioneer arrives to sell off the remaining equipment...

Per the Craigslist ad, the auction starts at the shop at 2 p.m.

And another little piece of the community dies...

Previously.

Farewell to these East Village takeout and delivery menus

I last cleaned up the Grieve menu drawer back in October 2011. (Relive the memories here!)

It was time to do so again: The drawer doesn't easily open. Or close. Too many menus.

Which, as I said at the time, is quite stupid. I usually order from the same few places. But the volume does impress guests.

"Want to order in some food? Great! Here are 768 menus to choose from!"

Until your guest selects something from a place that closed four years ago.

And so — farewell to the menus...

Reports: Jogger attacked in East River Park

There's not much new information to report about the jogger who was attacked in East River Park near Delancey Street yesterday morning.

Per DNAinfo:

An apparent teenage attacker tried to sexually assault a woman in broad daylight as she jogged through East River Park just before noon Thursday, police said.

The victim, 41, was running through the park near the FDR Drive and Delancey Street about 11:47 a.m., when the attacker approached her from behind, threw her to the ground, and attempted to pull off her pants, the NYPD reported.

The victim screamed and fought the suspect, who then fled the scene on foot, leaving the woman with minor bruising, police said.

According to multiple reports: "The suspect was described as a man in his late teens, with a stocky build and facial hair, wearing a grey hoodie sweatshirt and green pants."

Here's is WABC-7's report...

Has the great old Pearl Diner closed?; and check out its new neighbor

The 50-year-old (plus) Pearl Diner on the fringes of the Financial District sports some of the best neon signage in the city...

It's a classic place that I don't have the chance to eat at too often... Amazing that it still exists, really. This is a corridor filling up with chains — everything from Chipotle to Potbelly seem to be the dining spots of choice...

So during the holiday I thought I'd go there for breakfast. Won't be so crowded with so many people away... Uh-oh.

Ugh. There's brown paper on the windows. And no note about just being closed during the holidays or anything. There's no outgoing phone message, and Seamless Web isn't taking orders.

This area got hit hard during Sandy. Perhaps it was a Sandy casualty? (Though there is a Yelp review as late as Dec. 7.)

Will hold off on an obituary for the time being.

And there's not much left down here with much soul. Just a half block away, one of the last Andrews Coffee Shops in the city closed in August 2010, as Jeremiah Moss noted.

Meanwhile, right across the street from the former Andrews (now a Post Office branch!) and within sight of the Pearl are signs announcing an exciting new business on Pearl and John streets...

Welcome to New York City, 2013...

[Top two photos via Yelp]

Winter Friday flashback: The East Village Penistrator finally gaining attention of the international community

On Fridays this winter, and probably spring and summer ... we'll post one of the 16,000-plus EVG, uh, posts from yesteryear, like this one from Jan. 28, 2009...

-----


Thanks to the good people at the River blog for reporting on this news that deserves global coverage, especially overseas. Anyway, my Italian isn't so good. So I have no idea what this post says.

Our intern ran the post through The Yahoo! Babelfish translator...and it goes something like this:
-----
To Rome on the dirty cars there is who writes "washes to me", or more varying others veraci. To New York, from some time, there was a joker who went designing make them and an other series of "obscenity" on the parked cars. After a big wave of collective curiosity, of the case the net has been taken care also pettegolezza of Tmz, that it has sguinzagliato for Manhattan its photographers. At the end the graffitaro-penologo has been pecked: it would be such Haley Joel Osment, university student and protagonist of "The Sixth Sense".

Previously on EV Grieve:
A stunning development: Is Haley Joel Osment the Penistrator?

What is your East Village dream home?

Kind of a timeless topic to bring up during a slow news week holiday week. Had a conversation recently with an East Village friend... and somehow we started talking about our ideal East Village home. I quickly suggested one with two closets.

Not grand enough.

My friend said that he'd like to live in one of the apartments here at East 10th Street-Stuyvesant Street overlooking the Abe Lebewohl Triangle and St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery ... (Didn't Nicole Kidman's character live in one of these apartments in "The Interpreter"?)

Sure. Why not. Seems like a nice spot.

I've always had my eye on 421 E. Sixth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.

According to Forgotten New York: "421 was a Con Edison substation built in 1920-21 that converted direct current to alternating. It is at present (2008) the studio of modern artist/sculptor Walter De Maria."

Off the Grid just had a post on this landmarked building, offering more background:

According to a 1919 Board of Appeals resolution, the “four-story fireproof transformer building” would accommodate a switchboard room, static air chambers, blower room and rotary foundations on the first floor; rotaries, transformer, and booster compensator on the second floor; a battery room on the third floor; and a high tension room and blower and exhaust chambers on the fourth floor. Three people would work on the first floor and two on the second.

I've never met anyone who has been inside. I'm not sure if any photos exist of the interior. Kinda "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"-ish.

So, for a moment, toss aside reality, like rent or practicality or heating bills ... or the fact that you'd be displacing, say, 50 residents or an entire church parish. (Not that this has stopped some developers ...)

This is your dream home! Where would you like to live?

A few ideas to start the process...

Maybe you'd want to live in the penthouse at the Christodora?

Or maybe the entire building!

Or maybe fix up the dilapidated secret theater inside 100 Avenue A?

[Kevin Shea Adams]

For people who with a lot of electronics, consider the Con Ed plant...

[Shawn Chittle]

Anyway, your turn...