The campaign to ruin Derek Jeter's good name in East Village dive bar bathrooms

Last week, I posted this charming little bit of graffiti that was quickly removed from the men's room wall at Sophie's...



In looking at the comments from that post, I see where readers spotted this same message on the walls at Blue & Gold and 7B. Oh, an insidious plot, Red Sox fans. We'll be watching for your handiwork at Lucy's, the Blarney Cove, Joe's...

Posts that I didn't get around to posting in 2009: The work of a Red Sox fan?

Graffiti that was up in the Sophie's men's room...before being quickly removed.

Plump Dumpling opens in new location

The Plump Dumpling has opened at its new location on 11th Street and Second Avenue...just steps from its former space. At the former Citi-Spaces office. Hope the Plump owners paint over that color combo...




Previously on EV Grieve:
A short history of Citi-Spaces at Second Avenue and 11th Street

Marshal law at former Citi-Spaces location

So long, roll-down gates

The Times follows up on its story about the city's newly endangered roll-down gates.

[O]n orders of the City Council, roll-down gates have joined the ranks of fatty foods and cigarette smoke: they have been legislated against, some right into extinction.

And!

The head-scratching dismay expressed by Pyung Lim Lee upon learning that City Hall had taken a regulatory interest in the rickety old solid gate outside C.H. Plaza Dry Cleaners, 400 Court Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., 11231, was typical.

"If the government pays, then O.K.," said Mr. Lee, the owner of the shop, who was not surprised to learn that the government would not, after all, be covering the cost of a new gate. "They make law, law, law, and people's life is more difficult."

Previously on EV Grieve:
City leaders take another step toward making NYC completely sanitized


[Photo by Richard Perry/The New York Times]

City leaders take another step toward making NYC completely sanitized

From the City Room:

Citing high rates of graffiti, the City Council voted unanimously on Monday to gradually ban the use of rolldown metal security gates, a move that would eliminate what has been an enduring if forbidding feature of the urban streetscape.

Image via City Rag.

Since Le Souk has closed...

So yeah, since nightlife hellhole Le Souk has moved on ... the doorways of the adjacent apartment buildings on Avenue B between Third Street and Fourth Street have been painted...

Now!




Then!



Previously.

The ramenators continue the branding process

The folks at May Chan Ramen & Robatayaki on Second Avenue and Seventh Street (the former Love Saves the Day location) have introduced a new logo for its charmless brown storefront and bricked-up windows...




Flashback to this spot last year...



Previously.

The Cooper Square Hotel officially unveils its new graffiti mural

Well, last night was the big party at the Cooper Square Hotel to unveil its new graffiti project....which is now all illuminated for us to enjoy...



Meanwhile! Inside the hotel, yours truly was hobnobbing with a bevy of beauties...







OK, OK. None of this is true. Except the first part about the mural party. I was NOT invited, for some reason. Oversight, most likely. Yeah, I just typed in "Party at Cooper Square Hotel" in Google and...

MEANWHILE:
Bob Arihood has a great shot of the mural here.

Vandals continue to violate the sanctity of the "East Village is dead" mural

Oh, wait....

The Cooper Square Hotel's attempt to fit in with the neighborhood ready to be unveiled

As Curbed noted, the Cooper Square Hotel is throwing a bash tonight to unveil its new graffiti mural...

Here's what the mural looked like as of Saturday...



And we did a little research to learn more about the origins of the Homer Simpson tribute.

Also, for the record, I want to be clear that I really like the work of the four graffiti artists -- Joyce Pensato, Nick 1, Vizie and Shinique Smith -- who were hired to create this mural. And I'm happy that they have such a high-profile canvas to show their work. My problem is with the Cooper Square Hotel's lame attempt to suddenly try to fit into the neighborhood. As the Post reported:

Klus Ortleib, the hotel's managing partner, wants the place to fit in with the edgy local art scene. "When I came up with the idea, people said I was crazy," he said.

Anyway! We assume that the mural is finished. The bushes that were removed to make way for the crane...



...have been replanted.



Sort of. I'm not much of a gardener, but I always thought plant life did better in the ground if you first took off the burlap around its roots...



Previously.

Homer getting whitewashed at the Cooper Square Hotel?

Previously.

Day 4 (nighttime edition)

At the Cooper Square Hotel. Previously.

Cooper Square Hotel wants graffiti on building "to fit in with the edgy local art scene"

On Friday afternoon, we noted that some sort of graffiti mural was going up on the wall at the Cooper Square Hotel. (Curbed posted photos too.)

Yesterday, we walked by for an update...




Today, the Post follows up on the story.

Graffiti vandalism is apparently so cool that an East Village hotel has decided to fake it.

In a wacky attempt at earning street cred, the swanky Cooper Square Hotel has commissioned four graffiti "artists" to tag the Fifth Street wall of an adjacent building it recently bought.

One of the taggers, Joyce Pensato, was going to town yesterday on her section of the mural, which the hotel owners hope will be finished by Nov. 10, and then updated annually.

Pensato and three others -- who go by Nick 1, Vizie and Shinique -- were each paid to fill one quarter the wall.

His section spells out the words "Tropical Fantasy," a tribute to a friend who died over the summer and a reference to a local soda company.

Klus Ortleib, the hotel's managing partner, wants the place to fit in with the edgy local art scene.

"When I came up with the idea, people said I was crazy," he said.

At least one tenant of the tagged building agreed.

"They came in without regard for others," says Katy Able, 63.

"They say they can't fix a leak because they don't have money, but now they've paid to have a crane to put up graffiti."

Cooper Square Hotel honors Homer Simpson

Yesterday, most of the the shrubbery (which was new!) was ripped up on the Fifth Street side of the hotel...



...to make way for, uh, this.

Welcome to the neighborhood!: First tag spotted on the new Cooper Union Building

Also, noticed that some folks are finding shelter alongside the building.



I also noticed that someone threw up alongside the building. I took a photo. But I decided to spare you.

Speaking of the Bowery (And mixed messages)

Spotted near Fourth Street.

A vote against Mr. $115 ticket

Just a little anti-Bloomy (Mr. $115 Ticket!) graffitti on Cooper Square near Fourth Street.

Posts that I never got around to posting: Donut calamity

Barely visible on this tag on Sixth Street...Dunkin Donuts calamity....

Buck Floomberg returns

On Avenue B near Eighth Street.



Earlier!



And before that!

Physical anti-graffiti on the LES

Ran into one of the city's anti-graffiti crews the other morning on Essex and Broome in the LES. (The sworn enemy of the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve.)



The fellow was busy waterblasting the tags on the Eisner Brothers memorabilia/sporting goods/underwear store at 75 Essex...






What was coming from the building seemed like blood...pouring into the streets...




I went back hours later to see what was left. I guess they don't do windows.