DHS flyers on 1st Street

Workers recently removed the scaffolding and sidewalk bridge from 18 Second Ave.

While the sidewalk bridge was up, multiple people started living in encampments along the First Street side... (Earlier this year, the Daily News reported on one of the women who was living along here. Her pitbull reportedly bit a man who was tormenting her.)

On June 14, reps from the NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS) taped flyers to the remaining poles along here...



The flyers states that the DHS along with the NYPD and other city agencies "will complete a clean-up" of this area...



... and people need to vacate along with their belongings. Anything left behind by today may be discarded...



I don't recall seeing flyers like this before... the reader who shared this wondered, at the very least, if the city could have taped one to a flat surface to make it easier to read.

Also tomorrow: Block for the First Street Children's Park

Don't have any other info at the moment than what's on the flyer...

La Vie has closed; neighbors rejoice

The long battle between East First Street residents and La Vie has finally come to end. The club has officially closed.

As we first reported on June 11, the 1st Department of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court upheld the revocation of La Vie's liquor license. Although that decision was handed down on June 6, the club remained open.

However, last evening, a tipster on the block told us the following:

"They are moving all of the red velvet seating out to a Budget truck out front right now! The block is rejoicing."

La Vie owners left the following message on the club's Facebook page:

Dear friends, Thank you for all your support during the past couple of years. Unfortunately La Vie will close due to certain circumstances. We hope you all enjoyed La Vie while it was around. We will miss you all!!

Neighbors have long complained that La Vie was operating as a club under the guise of a restaurant. According to residents speaking out at past CB3/SLA meetings, the dance music emanating from the club was loud and disruptive to their quality of life ... and they claim there was often chaos in the streets as patrons entered and exited.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] La Vie closed for now on East First Street

New York Supreme Court upholds revocation of La Vie's liquor license

Going Hollywood on East First Street

What, you expecting Daniel Craig?

Hollywood Nail and Spa has taken over the space of the former Cozy Lounge, the hookah bar that the Marshal seized last summer here on East First Street near Avenue A.

And they are offering a Grand Opening mani-pedi special for $20.

Report: Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken frying soon on East First Street

Diner's Journal at the Times is reporting this afternoon that the chefs/restaurateurs Eric and Bruce Bromberg of Blue Ribbon fame are opening Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken on East First Street in the spring.

Per FloFab:

And for the first time, they will be making their own small-batch ice cream. The new place, in an increasingly foodcentric slice of the East Village, will have 65 seats and will be designed for quick service, takeout and delivery.

The address: 28 E. First St. If my address memory is any good, this puts the Fried Chickeners right here in the long empty Avalon Bowery retail space...

And a few years earlier on this corner ... via EVG reader Steve Carter circa 1997 ...

XOXO at 19 Second Ave. was Julius Klein's performance space and gallery ...

But it is so tempting

Just admiring some of the artifacts from the Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction ... piles of leftover, unwanted, unused, etc., construction materials and what not along East First Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...

I like this urban junkyard...

So many little nooks and crannies ... and it makes for a great place to take a ...

Oops. Guess not then.

Anyway. Now you know.

DNAinfo reported in May that the $60 million Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction project would not be completed until the summer of 2014. (One year later than planned.) Long time to wait.

L'Apicio marks its territory at Avalon Bowery Place

Over on East First Street in the Shoppes at Avalon Bowery Place... signage is up for the restaurant that is taking the Bowery Wine Company space...

Back in June, Grub Street reported that the name of this new place will be called L'Apicio. According to Eater: "Chef Gabe Thompson, of L'Artusi and Dell'Anima, will create an 'Italian inspired' menu, and Joe Campanale will be in charge of the wine and cocktails."

As we've noted in our previous posts about the space ... Not familiar with Dell'Anima? (Like us!) Here's a summary via New York magazine:

This is what happens when a former Babbo sommelier and an ex–Del Posto kitchen whiz get together and open an unassuming little trattoria: mobs of salivating foodies and goggle-eyed scenesters clamoring to get in.

Meanwhile, this tree obscures the signage over what appears to be the main entrance...

Let's hope that the tree doesn't meet with any accidents...

Previously on EV Grieve:
August Cardona buying Bowery Wine Company, expanding next door

Bowery Wine Company has closed

At the Bowery Wine Co. protest Friday night — in pictures

The new restaurant for the former Bowery Wine Co. space

Before the May 2011 CB3/SLA committee meeting, we learned that the people behind restaurants like Dell'Anima and L'Artusi were taking over the Bowery Wine Co. space as well as the empty storefront next door in the sterile bowels of Avalon Bowery Place on East First Street.

Yesterday, Grub Street learned that the name of this new place will be called L'Apicio. (Here's the take from Eater.)

According to the original proposal, there'll be 50 tables seating 160 people with plans for outdoor dining and a sidewalk cafe. The proposed hours of operation were 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week.

Grub Street has the opening date as late summer or early fall...

Anyway, renovations continue in the space ... here's how it looked yesterday...



We noted this in our previous post about the space.. and we'll repeat it here... Not familiar with Dell'Anima? (Like us!) Here's a summary via New York magazine:

This is what happens when a former Babbo sommelier and an ex–Del Posto kitchen whiz get together and open an unassuming little trattoria: mobs of salivating foodies and goggle-eyed scenesters clamoring to get in.

Meanwhile, say goodbye to those GIANT SUSHI ROLL PHOTOS along here...

Previously on EV Grieve:
August Cardona buying Bowery Wine Company, expanding next door

Bowery Wine Company has closed

At the Bowery Wine Co. protest Friday night — in pictures

When a sculpture arrives on East First Street

A reader takes us over to East First Street late yesterday afternoon... where four men were delivering this...

The sculpture arrived in style...

The movers understandably didn't have much to say about what they were transporting...

Anyone know what this is...? Or who the artist is?

City discovers bicycle graveyard on East First Street

Several readers have pointed out the pile of dead bikes on East First Street, along the construction-choked corridor between Avenue A and First Avenue ...

Now the city has posted these rather unintentionally funny signs on the bikes.

Wonder how city workers deduced that these are, in fact, abandoned? Anyway, if one of these bikes belongs to you... the city will remove it after today.

Also, does anyone know how all these bikes got here?

The Marshal seizes the shuttered Bowery Wine Company

Last weekend, as we reported, the Bowery Wine Company called it quits on East First Street... On Friday, the Marshal served the now-vacant restaurant with a seizure notice.

As we've noted, August Cardona, owner of dell'Anima, L'Artusi and Anfora, will take over the space ... and expanding into the empty storefronts to the east.

Bowery Wine Company has closed

An EV Grieve reader notes that the Bowery Wine Company has closed... A trip to their website confirms it...

Ditto for a walk by their front door...

Now this closure was expected... Back in May, we first reported that August Cardona, owner of dell'Anima, L'Artusi and Anfora, would be taking over the space ... and expanding into the empty storefronts to the east.

So now you can expect "mobs of salivating foodies and goggle-eyed scenesters," as New York magazine described dell’anima.

Meanwhile, here's a look back at the protests outside Bowery Wine Company...



Find more on the protests outside Bowery Wine Company from June 2008 here ... and here.

Cars on East First Street tagged with neon-pink spray paint

A reader sends along these photos, noting that someone took a can of neon-pink spray paint to what looks like almost every car along the south side of First Street between First and Second Avenues.

Why there isn't a brunch line at Prune

Over on East First Street this morning...

Mobile crane alert! BMW Guggenheim Lab construction closes East First Street today

East First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue is closed today, as you might expect after seeing the crane photo.

Workers are on the scene to install the urban think tank, which we're told is the yellow thing on the back of the truck.*

Previously.

* Yes, that was a terrible joke.

Trying to save a parking space on East First Street

Early yesterday evening, a man was trying to hold a parking spot on East First Street near Extra Place. Meanwhile, another motorist pulled up to take the space. No, the man said. I'm reserving this spot. The woman rolled down her window, and said something like You can't save a space. She inched toward him. He didn't budge. They faced each other for a little longer than you might imagine.

The man motioned down the street to the person in the white car that he was saving the space for. The second motorist, a woman, then tried to back into the space. However, the first motorist wouldn't budge. An impasse. The man continued to gesture and claim that he had saved the space.

Then another man showed up. He got into the debate. You can't save a space. It appeared that he was friends with the woman in the first car. They continued the discussion.

Eventually, the man who had been saving the spot then parked the car two vehicles to the west of where he was saving the original space.

Drama over. The evening continued.

Continuing to question the BMW Guggenheim Lab's benefits to the local community

Work continues in the former rat-infested lot on East First Street near Second Avenue where, starting in August, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will open as "as an urban think tank and mobile laboratory."

As the news releases goes, "the BMW Guggenheim Lab will explore issues confronting contemporary cities and provide a public place and online forum for sharing ideas and practical solutions."

Meanwhile, more leaders on East First Street are continuing to question the Lab's benefits to the local community. For instance, according to one local restaurant owner, the Guggenheim selected Roberta's, a Brooklyn-based restaurant, to hold the food contract at the Lab's outdoor café. In turn, Guggenheim officials have asked what kinds of free programming East First Street businesses could provide to the Guggenheim.

While local leaders support the rat-reduction efforts in the long-empty lot, the insult to the dignity, sustainability and history of the community is bothersome. Here are more points from a letter to local leaders by Lyn Pentecost, executive director of The Lower Eastside Girls Club on East First Street. (This is a shorter version of the original letter.)

It takes great chutzpah for an uptown museum and a high-end car company to promote community sustainability at the expense of...well, community and sustainability!

As they say in their press release: "The theme for the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab will be Confronting Comfort: The City and You — how urban environments can be made more responsive to people's needs, how people can feel at ease in an urban environment, and how to find a balance between notions of modern comfort and the urgent need for environmental responsibility and sustainability."

And yet First Street was chosen as the location for this "urban experiment" precisely because we have addressed many of the problems the brains behind the Guggenheim/BMW lab have newly discovered. We already have a strong and viable community structure in place! One that residents have spent the past 30 years cultivating and nourishing. We have at least a dozen tenant-owned coops and homesteads, heavily used recreational facilities: handball court and playground, a wonderful community garden, the historic Catholic Worker house, and many mom-and-pop galleries, restaurants and small businesses. Was there really no need to 're-think' and study the critical problems of, say, urban Bushwick or any other community lacking the organization and amenities of the newly gentrified/touristified LES?

To add insult to injury, the main entrance to our new community center/think tank has been placed on Houston Street. Right across from Whole Foods, and will host a lovely outdoor café in the just finished Parks Department garden. It is highly unlikely that our small businesses and organizations will benefit from this expression of urban caring. The only impediment to the beauty of this scenario was the homeless bicycle repair man who has provided a valuable entrepreneurial service on the NE corner of 2nd Ave and Houston St. for a number of years. A few weeks ago, the Parks Department had his entire tool pushcart confiscated and dumped into a sanitation truck.

Forgive my outrage — but am I the only one who sees the irony/tragedy in both ruining a man’s livelihood and making it more difficult for bicyclers to bike the city. How sustainable is that? But why would BMW (or an art museum for that matter) care? They are a car company, and this is a huge PR opportunity for all involved!

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Guggenheim wants our rat-infested First Street lot

Residents pitching in to help refurbish First Street garden

Designs for urban life apparently don't include trees

With restaurant approval, an end to the GIANT SUSHI ROLL photos on First Street

As I first reported on May 6, August Cardona, owner of Dell'Anima, L'Artusi and Anfora, is buying the Bowery Wine Company and expanding to the empty storefronts next door on East First Street.

On Monday day, the CB3/SLA committee approved this transfer. According to Eater: "They didn't say much about the food but spoke eloquently about their project: they want to be really good and active neighbors."

The good news here is that this means an end to the GIANT photos of the sushi rolls and ties that Avalon Bowery Place has subjected us to for the last few years.

It's just embarrassing.

Previously on EV Grieve:
August Cardona buying Bowery Wine Company, expanding next door

The Guggenheim makes good on promise of chopping down tree

Yesterday, we noted that to make way for the BMW Guggenheim Lab in the former rat-infested lot off First Street, workers would need to chop down this tree below...

...and yesterday, workers did take it away...

A reader noted yesterday the City will replace this tree once the Guggenheimers move on in October... In addition, word is the Guggenheim is donating 25 trees to the City as well.