This new map will immerse you in the neighborhood's Greek Revival style

Village Preservation has unveiled an impressive new interactive map celebrating the many examples of Greek Revival architecture in Greenwich Village, the East Village, NoHo and beyond (look for guest appearances from Staten Island, Brooklyn Heights and Chelsea).

The launch coincides this week with the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, which helped inspire Greek Revival architecture in America, where the young democracy looked to the world's first democracy and its struggle for independence as a template for architectural expression. 

Local entries that showcase the Greek Revival style include Colonnade Row on Lafayette Street, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery and what's now the East Village's Sixth Street Community Synagogue (originally the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Matthew, pictured above). 

"You'll find many other familiar landmarks, as well as some obscure ones and surprises, as well as great Greek Revival buildings of these neighborhoods which have been lost over the years, and some of the original Ancient Greek models that inspired them," said Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman in an email. "It's a great way to mark the anniversary of an event that took place over 5,000 miles away which nevertheless had such a profound effect right here at home and can still see today."

You can access the map and more history at this link.

Here's an updated interactive map with what's open in the East Village

The volunteer effort to update an interactive map of what's open in the East Village during the pandemic continues. 

The East Village Community Coalition and resident Paul Gale are maintaining the site that launched back in the spring. (And they could use some volunteers! Email director@evccnyc.org if you're interested.) 

They've been busy keeping tabs on openings and reopenings in recent weeks, adding in opticians, salons, tattoo parlors and cultural institutions, among other businesses. They're also updating the free meals section.

There's also now an indoor dining filter for places with confirmed inside seating to go with the outdoor dining listings.  

You can find the map at this link (and below, but the link is better).

Here is an updated map of what's open in the East Village right now

Back in the spring, we told you about the volunteer effort led by the East Village Community Coalition (EVCC) along with residents Perry Leung and Paul Gale, who created an interactive map of what's open in the neighborhood during the COVID-19 crisis. (The site was designed by Zhi He of BetaNYC.)

The group has completed a redesign of the site, which includes almost 650 establishments in the East Village.

What's new? Well! If a establishment has outdoor space, then that info can be found in the notes section of their entry.

Among the other new features:

• Results are now also displayed in list format

• Users can sort by Minority/Women-owned, Black-owned, and LGBT-owned businesses

• A bulletin section, which include links to local human-interest pieces, volunteer opportunities and profile pieces about businesses during the pandemic (many of those link to EVG features).

At the bottom of the map, there's a list of the four most recently updated locations, for users curious about the most latest activity on the site.

And here it is... you can also access the map at this link.

New city site let's you know about real-time transit delays and disruptive banging and pounding noises

The city is rolling out a new website — www.neighborhoods.nyc, now in beta — to provide up-to-the-minute updates on what's happening on your block.

We'll cut-and-paste this overview from Curbed:

The site reflects real time updates to transit, construction, and traffic alerts, 311 service requests, emergency notifications, event permits, and other data. The data is also displayed on a neighborhood map that can be used to look up things like restaurant grades, greenmarkets, and parks.

I checked on it last night to learn that there were delays on the 4 and F trains... that a sewer backed up at 111 Avenue C ... that "Rats were reported in a park at Avenue A and East 7 Street last weekend" ... and my favorite — "Disruptive banging and pounding noise was reported last Tuesday at 103 Avenue A."

Each neighborhood page includes details on the weather, garbage and recycling schedules, school closures and alternate-side parking.

The site, which went live on Wednesday, arrives via the Mayor's Office of Technology and Innovation and Vizalytics, a local tech startup. DNAinfo noted that the developers will continue to tweak the site over the next 90 days or so. Specific sites — with names like EastVillage.nyc — are expected in early 2016.

East Village home prices are up by 38% since 2004

Just checking out an interactive map via PropertyShark, which shows how home prices in NYC neighborhoods have changed in the past decade.

Average prices (adjusted for inflation) for condos, co-ops, and single- and two-family homes in the East Village have increased 38 percent — from $1,026 per square foot to $1,416 between 2004 and 2014. On the Bowery, prices climbed 62 percent, from $844 per square foot to $1,365.

These prices have nothing on Williamsburg, which shot up from $275 to $1,015 per square foot between 2004 and 2014 — good for a 269 percent increase, according to PropertyShark's data.

Border this: Aspiring Penistrator looking for tri-state dominance, or something

DNAinfo has a cool map thing (as Curbed might call it!) that lets readers/residents use an interactive map to draw where they think their neighborhood's borders are.

Given the debates around the East Village about borders, specifically where Midtown South ends and New York Harbor begins, we're curious to see the results.

Anyway, all good...



EVG reader Tad took a shot at drawing the EV borders. And what did he see upon submitting his outline? For starters, the borders that other readers drew... as well as a very large...



You guys!

We checked a few other neighborhoods, and only noticed the work of a wannabe Penistrator in (or hovering over) the East Village section. (Oh, and the Pac-Man eating Atlantic Avenue.)



Per Tad: "Given the state of our neighborhood, this seems about right."

Immerse yourself in archival photos of NYC

The New York Public Library today unveiled OldNYC.org, an interactive map that brings its digitized collection of vintage photos to life by street/avenue/neighborhoods.

Per OldNYC:

This site provides an alternative way of browsing the NYPL's incredible Photographic Views of New York City, 1870s-1970s collection. Its goal is to help you discover the history behind the places you see every day.

And, if you're lucky, maybe you'll even discover something about New York's rich past that you never knew before!

Where did these images come from?
The images all come from the New York Public Library's Milstein Collection. While many photographers contributed to the collection, the majority of its images are the work of Percy Loomis Sperr, who documented changes to the city from the late 1920s to the early 1940s.

We clicked on Avenue A and East 10th Street...



... and found this shot (and more) from 1934...



Enjoy your Memorial Weekend. (And if you don't like historical photos, then....)