East Houston Wine & Liquor coming soon to Red Square

A new addition for the Shoppes at Red Square here on East Houston between Avenue A and Avenue B... a liquor store is taking over the space previously leased to a spa-salon.

More from East Houston and Katz's circa 1986

Last week, we shared a photo from EVG reader Paul Dougherty looking at East Houston and Ludlow in 1986 before the onslaught of luxury apartments and hotels...

Flashback!



Paul found a few more from his archives showing Katz's...

...from 1981...



... and 1986...



... and the scene right before he moved from his apartment in the spring of 2007...



Meanwhile, EVG reader Corey shared a current photo that shows the obvious changes in the skyline...



A little half-assed with my Photoshopping, but maybe you get the idea...


[Click image to enlarge]

When East Houston Street was 'a sleepy backwater'

There has been a lot of talk this week about what's next for Ludlow Street ... with the impending closure of Motor City Bar ... the loss of the Pink Pony Cafe... and a cloudy future for The Hat ...

Which brings us to this photo that EVG reader Paul Dougherty recently came across. He shared it with us. It's a view looking south toward Ludlow Street and beyond from his East Houston Street apartment in 1986...



"I had lived in that building for six years and had just moved to a bigger apartment in the front with this great view ... Can't really put in words the sense of neighborhood context one gets from this. Maybe 'sleepy backwater'? Pretty sure this would have been before the first youth bar/restaurant the Ludlow Street Cafe — nice place. From this acorn a mighty oak — blah, blah, blah."

We don't have a compatible today photo ... one that would show the ongoing building boom, featuring The Ludlow, Thompson LES, et al. And not much else... Except for Katz's.

Repaving East Houston

This past Friday morning, we had a conversation about the incoming bike lanes on East Houston... (read that post here).

Meantime, here's a great shot of the repaving from last week via EVG reader Eric Bryant ... looking east...

Here come the (unprotected?) East Houston bike lanes

Via a tweet by @felixsalmon this morning ... we see that the long-discussed East Houston Street bike lanes are on the way...

The $60 million Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction started in the fall of 2010, and is to include wider medians, bigger sidewalks, fewer traffic lanes and bike lanes... (Earlier this year, DNAinfo reported that the construction would now last through spring 2014...)

Back in 2009, Streetsblog pointed out that "instead of installing a physically protected path for cyclists, the city plans to paint a buffered, Class 2 lane" on East Houston...

From that Streetsblog article:

Currently, 70 percent of drivers on East Houston Street speed, according to studies conducted by Transportation Alternatives. "It's hard to imagine that paint will offer the kind of protection mainstream New Yorkers will need to feel safe biking on this crucial, yet dangerous corridor," said TA's Wiley Norvell. "The city has innovative physically-protected designs on hand, and to not use them on Houston would be a huge missed opportunity."

Based on the top photo, it appears that the bike lanes won't be protected...

This is the official word on the project via the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center:

To improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists along East Houston Street, DDC will be installing a number of traffic-calming measures. One significant measure is the neck-down. A neck-down is an extension of the curb that shortens the crosswalk distance while at the same time requiring motorists to reduce their speed to turn onto a sidestreet. In addition to the neck-downs, medians will be extended into the crosswalk creating a visible traffic-calming measure and safe refuge area for pedestrians. Other improvements include:

• Dedicated Bicycle Lanes and Bike Racks: The lanes will create a safer environment for bicyclists by calming traffic; while the bike racks will encourage bicycle use by providing users a safe storage option.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Coming soon to East Houston: Construction, hell, rodent control stations

Long-threatened East Houston reconstruction starting this month

A Cold Stone Creamery, co-branded switcheroo shocker on East Houston

Back in August, the Tim Hortons banner went up at 203 E. Houston next to Katz's ... So we would get our first taste of Timbits around here...

But wait.

Now EVG reader Chris F., who sent us the above photo, got a look at the apparent new tenant taking over the space... A Cold Stone Creamery...

And the Cold Stone(d) website confirms the arrival... Let's welcome store No. 23064!

But wait again. OK, OK... word is this will be a Cold Stone-Tim Hortons combo... like the ones on West 42nd Street and West 72nd Street... The two companies started co-branding stores in the United States and Canada back in 2009.

Lot of dreams

On Monday, we looked at some dead weeds and new medians along East Houston at Avenue D... On the topic of weeds, the lot on the northwest corner of Avenue D and East Houston remains empty... and it looks like this...

There was talk of a huge development here going on three years ago now... like this, as first reported on by the Lo-Down...


The rendering is still live at the website of Curtis + Ginsberg Architects ... under "unbuilt projects."

Have any tips about the situation here? Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email

Previously on EV Grieve:
Avenue D's future

Weeds and new medians on East Houston

Last month, we talked with a reader, who wondered how tall the weeds would get in the under-construction median on East Houston between Avenue C and Avenue D.

Flashback!

Well, crap. We went back with our measuring tape and found that...

...someone chopped down the weeds ... or they died.

But!

Walk a little further toward Avenue C... and the Field of Weeds picks up again...

Perfect location for our Fall Harvest Celebration!

As I've cut-and-pasted previously, the $60 million Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction is expected to end in the summer of 2014. The plan calls for the widening of sidewalks, enlarging of medians, installating new pavement markings and bicycle lanes from Second Avenue to FDR Drive and creating two new plaza areas.

And things look pretty good the closer you travel east toward the FDR...

Previously.

Today's quiz: How tall will the weeds in the East Houston median grow by the end of summer?

A reader asked this question after taking a cab ride across Houston to the FDR the other day... the reader asked, "Is this what the city means by green streets?" The reader also thinks the weeds will be taller that the Hamilton Fish Park Library across the way.

Hmm... here's looking west from Avenue D toward the construction zone...

The $60 million Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction is expected to end in the summer of 2014. The plan calls for the widening of sidewalks, enlarging of medians, installating new pavement markings and bicycle lanes from Second Avenue to FDR Drive and creating two new plaza areas.

Anyway, we kind of like weeds.

Reader report: Motorcycle accident at Allen and Houston

James Stewart-Meudt sent along this photo via Twitter from earlier this evening... a motorcyclist apparently struck a cab at Houston and Allen... He notes that the rider was "injured but responsive."

How is your Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction going?

Speaking of East Houston... On Monday, we posted information from DNAinfo's report that the $60 million Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction project would not be completed until the summer of 2014. (One year later than planned.)

The DNA article focused on business owners (the Subway in the Red Square shops is reportedly hurting) and traffic ... We asked readers who live along here for any construction horror stories.

Here are a few of the responses:

RyanAvenueA said...
The intersection of A and Houston, where 1st st begins, is still a pedestrian nightmare. Drivers aren't sure where to go which slows down the intersection so that someone eventually ends up flooring it through a red light. A couple months ago I saw a big truck take out one of the construction barriers. As for Subway's decline, I have to imagine the fact that there's now 40 other Subways in walking distance means some of your customers probably live closer to the competing stores.

---

Anonymous said...
challenging to walk around. inevitable that some poor pedestrian will get hit by a passing car. i don't wish that to happen but i just have a sixth sense about disasters...

---

Anonymous said...
Cycling across Houston at A is a weird dash-now-and-hope-for-the-best exercise...mostly because cars don't know where to go most of the time, so bikers are left to dodge.

East Houston Street construction will be a living hell for an extra year

The $60 million Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction started in the fall of 2010... with a scheduled wrap date of next spring.

But!

DNAinfo learns that various complications have added another year to the project — pushing the expected completion date to the summer of 2014.

Per the article:

The news came as an unpleasant surprise to many Lower East Side and East Village business owners, who said the work from the Bowery to the FDR Drive ... has turned the street into a nightmarish obstacle course for drivers and pedestrians, driving away customers and hurting their business.

The franchise owner of the Subway sandwich shop in the Red Square shops "said he's considering closing the location after losing about 50 percent of his customer base because of the narrowed sidewalk, obstructed crosswalk and other construction headaches outside his door."

The article focuses on business owners and drivers... how about residents who live along here? Anyone with any construction horror stories?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Coming soon to East Houston: Construction, hell, rodent control stations

Long-threatened East Houston reconstruction starting this month

[An EVG East Houston file photo]

[EVG repost] Then and now: The Provident Loan Society of New York

Yesterday, BoweryBoogie noted a potentially troubling sign at the old Provident Loan Society building at East Houston and Essex... Workers had delivered a Davey Drill to the site, as BB pointed out, generally employed before a huge construction/demolition project. One Boogie commenter heard the mega-CVS rumor coming here... (Read his whole post here.) We'll stay tuned for further developments...

Meanwhile, it's a good time to trot out this EVG post from November 2010...

-------------------

I've lost track of how many clubs this space has been in the last 15 or so years... The space was originally The Provident Loan Society of New York, which opened here in 1912... the space served as a studio for Jasper Johns in the 1970s...

Amazingly enough, the classic revival brick building has retained its look through the years... Here are some photos from the NYPL Digital Gallery..... the first photo isn't dated...



from 1936...



from 1935...


and today...


I wonder if, in 1912, locals were annoyed that another bank branch was opening...

City removes homeless man's makeshift shelter from Bowery sidewalk

We noticed the hovel here against the Liz Christy Garden fence on the Bowery at East Houston back in the middle of December...

[Bobby Williams]

Eventually, the makeshift shelter of umbrellas and trash bags and old office chairs grew...

In fact, yesterday, we saw that the man now had a lime couch under part of his home... a Liz Christy volunteer said that the homeless man in his mid to late 50s was originally from Cuba...

We were always surprised that the shelter had lasted this long ...

However, this evening, just after 5, various city employees, including from the NYPD and the Department of Sanitation, dismantled and discarded the shelter and, seemingly, all his possessions...

We didn't see the man around... the police were keeping a close, watchful eye on the proceedings...

They weren't in the mood for questions, such as what happened to the man.

Getting a ticket for parking in a crosswalk when there isn't actually a crosswalk

A reader notes the following on the north side of East Houston across from Ridge Street... where workers recently paved the roadway as part of the ongoing plans to widen sidewalks, enlarge medians, etc.

The reader says that the NYPD has been ticketing vehicles parked in the "crosswalk."

However! Per the reader:

Problem is there's no crosswalk lines and never has been, so these guys are getting tickets for parking in a seemingly legal and random spot. I called 311 and left a complaint ... The tickets seem like a clear cash grab and are totally bogus.

Tonight at Rage and Boner

Outside Rag & Bone on East Houston and Elizabeth.

Via Billy Leroy.

Seriously?

10 a.m. or so on East Houston near the Bowery.

The Ludlow getting the inevitable non-fast-food tenant

Well, this isn't really newsy ... BoweryBoogie pointed this out back in December... just kinda wanted it for the record... Anyway, four years after opening, The Ludlow has another retail tenant here on East Houston at Ludlow...

Nail salon! And that name! Petition!

The Blockbuster on East Houston is closing

Several readers emailed us this weekend with news that the Blockbuster on East Houston (part of the Red Square strip) is closing. Well, we've heard this before as far back as December 2009. BoweryBoogie heard the rumors too.

Plus, the store has been on the block for a year now, via JDF Realty... (And it appears Sleepy's is part any lease deal here...)

"All uses considered" according to the listing.

However, a Blockbuster employee confirmed the closure. The employee said that this Blockbuster has ended its rental service. (Yesterday people could only pick up one-day rentals.) The location will stay open through February for a liquidation sale, the employee said.

On Jan. 12, Dish Network Corp CEO Joe Clayton told Reuters that the company will be closing more U.S. Blockbuster stores across than it had originally planned, and will turn the remaining outlets partly into Dish customer-service points.

Dish bought Blockbuster last May in a bankruptcy auction for about $320 million, per Reuters.

And so, the DVD rental business is just about dead. Two Boots on Avenue A seems to be the only place left in the neighborhood to rent DVDs. Even the Blockbuster kiosk inside Duane Reade on 14th Street near First Avenue is gone.

Mondo Kim's is long gone... Cinema Classics is long gone... Intervideo Electronics on First Avenue will become a Subway (sandwich shop).

Of course, you can check out DVDs from the Ottendorfer and Tompkins Square Park branches of the New York Public Library.