Sunday's opening shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

The Labor Day weekend move-in/out and capturing all the feelings on Fourth Street and Avenue B... 

Cautionary tales: A song inspired by an East Village move

David Farrow, the musician behind the East Village project Certain Lives, shared this recently released video. 

He explains the story behind the track: 

This song was written while I lived on 13th Street between A and B, and tells the story of moving from Ninth street to 13th Street. Foolishly, I thought I didn't need to rent a U-Haul, but could instead carry all of my stuff over the course of a week from 9th to 13th. 

As the distance added up and I started to lose my mind, I fell for a scam buyer on Craigslist while trying to sell my bed frame. 

The song is a cautionary tale, but also an embrace of the naivety that comes from letting yourself trust someone else. 

Check Out "Craigslist Scammer" below...

   

Saturday's parting shot

Moving day on St. Mark's Place... photo by Vinny & O

Moving Day aftermath

East Seventh Street at Avenue A last night via Dave on 7th.

Seemed as if people were moving in or out of practically every building around this past weekend…

Today's move-out haul

[Random trash photo — NOT the trash mentioned below]

An EVG reader shared this email with the subject line "Left items from transitional suburban students"

"I go out back to put my recycling in the bin, and there are mounds of crap this month's brats have left behind. Feeling badly for our super, I attempt to sort everything into glass, paper, trash, etc.

Among other items I found: 1 $20 Starbucks card, 1 $18 MasterCard gift card, a Metro Card, several travel toiletries, 1 French nail kit, etc.

My point — we could make a list of places these kids could be giving this stuff to.

The reader sent a follow-up note:

"I found out the Metro Card had $7.50 left on it during my trip to work!"

Did anyone NOT move out this past weekend?

Well, sure seemed like a lot people were coming (but mostly!) going the past few days... seemed like more than the usual end-of-summer exodus... we saw plenty of piles of left-behind crap... like above at East Seventh Street and Avenue C... but this shot by Dave on 7th at East Seventh and Avenue B is the winner so far...

Moving day

Someone piled leftovers outside Tompkins Square Park on Avenue A...

[Bobby Williams]

... and some people apparently moving on Avenue B saved time by dropping trash bags of items onto the street below...

[Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C]

No one EVER said moving was easy

Contrary to what the slogan says on the moving truck. On East Fourth Street at Second Avenue.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Moving day(s)

As you probably noticed, the entire neighborhood a lot of people moved these past few days... Maybe you did too? I know of three people who moved to Brooklyn.

The first tenants moved into 315 E. 10th St. on Friday ... also, someone apparently outgrew his or her "Star Wars" phase...

I saw a sanitation official writing a ticket for an apartment building on East 13th Street where someone left huge piles of crap out front... which is why some people chucked their stuff away from buildings...

... and people left two-part notes on this throwaway couch on Second Avenue and East Fifth Street ... via @Ewingweb ...

Did it seem like a lot of people were moving this past weekend?

[East 11th Street Saturday night. Photo by Shawn Chittle]

Of course it's commonplace to see people moving (in or out) at the end of a month... But this month seemed like more than usual... on Saturday morning, during a short walk, I counted 11 moving trucks/vans/station wagons in just a few blocks... anyone else notice more people coming and going...?

Is it time to leave the East Village?

A reader left this comment on the Starbucks post from yesterday... and I've been thinking about it...

It's a whole new demographic around here at this point. I know because I've talked to some of my neighbors who are recent college grads from places like Wake Forest or Villanova or Bucknell, etc. I've heard it from the horse's mouth — there is a whole culture here of these type of transplants. They really do hang out together at places like "13th step" and they really are clueless about this neighborhood and what it once was. It's a tidal wave, it's an epochal shift. The EV as you knew it is officially over. I hate to be a defeatist but IMO it is time to wave the white flag. I myself am planning to move out within a couple of years and it is the thought of that helps get me through my New York days.

I've heard variations of this sentiment many times — more so in the last few months than in any recent years ... I know people who have left — chased by the luxurification — to find lower rents in the upper reaches of Manhattan or the outer sections of Queens or Brooklyn... and I know people who continue to talk about moving, disgusted by the luxurification ... some people I know who discuss leaving cite as a reason the continued influx of more and more bars (and bargoers), one concept seemingly dumber than the previous one. Some people tell me that they don't fit in any more. Too old. Too weird. Too broke. Time to go.

Understandable.

Are you thinking about moving too? Are you ready to raise the white flag?

In closing, here's some perspective from a New York Times article (excerpted via Ephemeral New York here) titled "The affluent set invades the East Village."

The article is from November 1964.