Autumn leaves are on the ground

A leaf-covered walkway in Tompkins Square Park near Eighth Street and Avenue B today via Bobby Williams...

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Elinor Nauen
Occupation: Poet, Writer
Location: 5th Street between 1st and 2nd Ave
Time: 2 pm on Saturday, Nov. 15

I’ve been here since January 1977. I’m original from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Between graduation from high school in Sioux Falls and moving to New York six years later, I lived in Michigan, Colorado, Maryland, South Carolina and North Carolina briefly, and Maine. I also lived in a bus for a year just driving around. I got out of high school and said, ‘Oh good, nobody can tell me what to do ever again. Now I’m just going to smoke pot and do what I want.’ The most glamorous thing was driving around the country. I wanted to see America. I’ve been to 49 states.

I’m a poet. Why do people come to New York except to be an artist? I was living in the woods in Maine. I was a hippie. I didn’t quite know that the poets were here, but when I was living in Maine I met Joel Oppenheimer. He was a poet who wrote for the Voice, so somebody connected us because he didn’t drive and I was a big driver. Looking back, I realize I was sort of amusing to him, this wide-eyed, completely uneducated, eager young person. He said, ‘You should be a poet and if you’re going to be a poet you have to move to New York.’

So I took the advice. That was combined with somebody giving me a ride here spur of the moment. I had never been in a city, so I was nervous about what it was going to be like. I was here for 10 minutes and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m a New Yorker now, I live here,’ and I went back to Maine and I got all my stuff. I came with my belonging in two paper bags and $100 in my pocket. I was 24.

I lived on Thompson Street for six weeks and then I came home one day and it was the last day of the month and my belongings were in two paper bags outside of the door. I had been evicted. It was very informal. So I went to the Voice and I saw these ads for students and transients up on 39th Street. I didn’t even know it was Times Square. I had only been here a few weeks. So I went up, this little girl from South Dakota, and there was this long hallway of plexiglass and it said, ‘Short stays. Up to 1-hour: $4. 1 to 4 hours: $6. Up to $24 hours…’

I didn’t know what else to do so I stayed there. They put me in this room that didn’t have a lock and there was a used condom on the mantle. I just sort of sat on the edge of the bed and said, ‘Oh no, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.’ Then the guy came up a few minutes later, really embarrassed, and he said, ‘I think you’ll be more comfortable here’ and he took me to a room that was more like a room for students. But that didn’t deter me at all. Nothing deterred me.

I loved this neighborhood since the first day I moved in. I found cheap rent [in the building above Gringer and Sons]. When I moved into that building half the apartments were vacant. The guy showed me the first one that had the toilet still in the hall. The second one had a slate tub with a flat bottom, and then he showed me the third one and he said, ‘Well there’s nothing wrong with this one.’ So I moved in and I’ve been there ever since.

My first job in New York was as a messenger, and the first day I went to a type shop for desktop publishing, everything had to be typeset, and I ended up going there practically every day until they said, ‘Oh you seem smart, now you can be our proofreader.’ All of a sudden I was a proofreader and then somebody who knew me was like, ‘We need a copy editor for two weeks for two days a week while somebody was on jury duty.’ So then I had this job and on the second week, one of the days I wasn’t there, everybody quit, so they said, ‘Do you want to be a full-time copy editor?’ So then I had a full-time job as a copy editor, which was great because I didn’t really go to college, but once you have a job nobody cares about your credentials.

I started going to St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, which was the home of the Poetry Project. That is how I started meeting people and then I got involved in readings and workshops. I’m still very involved. I’ve been there for almost 40 years now. I love seeing the people coming up and still being excited about art and poetry. But it’s so different [now] because you can’t come to New York with a $100 in your pocket anymore. I feel a tight community of the poetry project people. We’re about to have our 50th anniversary in two years.

Galway Kinnel just died and [I remember] the first thing I did the first day I came to New York was walk on Avenue C because of his famous poem, The Avenue Bearing the Initial of Christ into the New World. I remember the fruits and vegetables for sale on the street. I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m seeing this.’ Avenue C in those days was probably a block you did not want to walk on. I always felt like I had the protection of the innocence around me.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

East Village etiquette for AirBnBers: 'Don't piss off the locals'

[Click on the image for a better read]

Here is an Urban Etiquette Sign from inside a 110-year-old tenement on First Avenue near East Sixth Street that has seen a weekly parade of transients/backpackers/tourists for the past year.

Per the sign's creator:

I know it puts me in the category of 'passive-aggressive note-posters.' I don't care anymore.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman recently announced that nearly three-quarters of all Airbnb rentals in the city were illegal.

High-end rentals and additional floors coming to the former SVA dorm on 3rd Avenue

[EVG file photo]

The former SVA dorm on East 10th Street at Third Avenue will be converted into – who woulda thought? — luxury rentals.

The Real Deal has more on the developments here:

Slate – a Midtown-based development firm headed by Martin Nussbaum and David Schwartz – and RWN Real Estate Partners want to reposition the building as a high-end rental property. They plan to take advantage of more than 8,000 square feet in unused air rights to add additional floors above the existing structure.

Aufgang Architects was hired to handle design, a representative for Slate told TRD. The new owners intend to determine the number of additional floors – and units – after the design is finalized, the rep said.

Third Avenue between East 10th Street and East 12th Street is shaping up to be a high-end rental row alongside the NYU dorms. The Nathaniel on the southwest corner of 12th Street has rentals going as high as $11,500. And at Eleventh and Third, rentals reach $10,000.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East Village now down a dorm

ConEd will be hogging up some parking spots ahead of another transformer replacement

Via the EVG inbox from your friends at ConEd…

Due to transformer replacement work at the Avenue A substation, pedestrian traffic and some parking spaces will be affected from November 17 to December 14, 2014.

There will be no parking on both sides of East 6th Street from corner of Avenue A to the end of the substation from Monday, November 17 until Sunday, December 14, 2014.

On the day of the transformer installation tentatively scheduled for March 1, 2015, East 6th Street will be closed to vehicular traffic and there will be parking restrictions on Avenue A between East 5th Street and East 6th Street on the weekend of February 28.

These disruptions are necessary to accommodate cranes, heavy equipment, and an oversized trailer needed to remove and replace the transformer. This work will help us continue to provide reliable electrical service in your community.

There will be no interruptions to your gas or electric services during this operation.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Hope that you have noted all this in your 2015 calendars.

Anyway, so you know what all this means?

Big crane and transformer photo opps galore!

[January 2012!]


[March 2014 photo by Allen Semanco]

Anyone know how many transformers are inside the substation… and how often they actually need to be replaced….?

H/T EVG reader Creature

Momofuko Ko brings the lucky peach branding to Extra Place

EVG reader Russ happened to notice the discreet sign up at 4-8 Extra Place, where Momofuku Ko is opening a new, larger space…



We haven't been following this one too closely… Eater has some interior details here and here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A look inside the incoming Momofuko Ko on Extra Place

With new restaurant opening, will Extra Place finally become a dining destination?

Extra Place now officially a Dead End

Extra Place and Heidi currently 'closed for renovation' in Extra Place

Anyone ride an 'Annie'-branded Citi Bike today?

We spotted one this morning on East Seventh Street and Avenue A.

Well, you can always ride one Tomorrow. Haha.

Fifty of the "Annie" bikes (to coincide with the movie remake out this December) will be in circulation until the end of the year.

The New York Cares 26th annual Coat Drive is now underway

Per NY1:

With greater urgency this year, New York Cares is launching its 26th Annual Coat Drive.

The agency says it has received requests for 100,000 coats for men, women, and children.

Typically it collects 80,000.

Through December 31, donations of gently used, freshly laundered coats will be collected at hundreds of locations throughout the five boroughs including all NYPD precincts, New York Penn Station, Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center, and Grand Central Terminal.

You may search for a drop-off location here. Around here you can take coats to the 9th Precinct at 321 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... or the Police Service Area 4 at 130 Avenue C at East Eighth Street.

Report: CB3 OKs liquor license for a David McWater-owned d.b.a.

As we reported earlier this month, David McWater, a local bar owner and former longtime member of Community Board 3, emerged as the new proprietor of d.b.a. at 41 First Ave.

And last night, he went before CB3's SLA committee for a new liquor-license approval.

As BoweryBoogie reported: "Nothing about the bar is changing; it’s the same name, same method of operation, and same staff."

CB3 OK'd the new license, though there was debate about the legality of the bar's backyard. (You can head to BoweryBoogie for the back and forth about that issue.)

Paperwork (PDF!) on file at the CB3 site shows that McWater, who also owns part of The Library, Doc Holliday's and Milano's, and Tower Brokerage's Bob Perl as the principals for d.b.a.

Ray Deter and Dennis Zentek opened d.b.a. in 1994. Deter died in July 2011 from the injuries he suffered in a bicycling accident. Zentek died on March 23 from head injuries he sustained in a fall down a flight of stairs.

According to BoweryBoogie, the heirs of d.b.a. had reached out to McWater about taking over the ownership.

Gracefully has closed

[Photo via @thebsap]

That's it for the market at 28 Avenue A between East Second Street and East Third Street. Several readers spotted workers removing contents of the store last evening… workers on the scene confirmed that they were shutting down in a few hours.

We first reported the impending closure on Nov. 10. At the time, the closing date was still unknown.

The shelves were getting empty during our last visit on Friday…





We didn't hear any official reason for the closure. One worker claimed that it was because of the New York Sports Club opening soon in the building's upper floors.

There is a Gracefully on First Avenue in Stuy Town … and one remains under construction on East 23rd Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Gracefully is closing on Avenue A

[Updated] 174-176 First Ave. is in contract

174-176 First Ave. arrived on the market in June 2013 with an asking price of $12 million.

Since 1904, No. 176 has been home to DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe. The DeRobertis family owns the building, so it seemed likely that the bakery would remain despite the sale... until a real-estate listing circulated in May showing that the retail spaces in the basement and first floor of No. 176 would be delivered vacant once the buildings sell. (However, workers there have told us several times that they were not closing... and that the building wasn't even for sale.)

According to the listing at Corcoran, the building is now in contract.



Streeteasy notes that the building entered into contract on Oct. 31...



DeRobertis is one of our favorite places around. So we do hope that they will live on with the new owners.

One troubling sign, though — the DeRobertis website is no long active...



Updated: DeRobertis reportedly will close after Dec. 5.

Papaya King will start serving beer next Monday on St. Mark's Place

Via the EVG inbox yesterday...

Starting Monday, November 24, you can have a beer with your meal at 3 St. Marks Pl. 12oz Heineken Light Bottles and 12oz Brooklyn Lager Cans will be available to start, with new items being added each season.

The beer will be available Sunday through Thursday from 11:00AM – 10:00PM and Friday & Saturday from 11:00AM – 11:00PM. You must purchase a food item off the menu to buy and enjoy a beer.

Unlike the other Papaya and Hot Dog copycat restaurants in New York City, Papaya King on St. Marks Pl. is more than a grab and go location. With a giant projection screen along the back wall, old school arcade games in the front, foosball in the back, loud music and a long picnic table down the middle, it is a place to rub elbows with your friends, neighbors, classmates and someone new.

The Papaya King owners were turned down for a beer license back in May 2013. According to CB3 documents, the St. Mark's Block Association and 8 St. Mark's Tenants' Association submitted letters and testimony in opposition to this application.

CB3 again turned down their application in September 2013, citing a failure "to provide substantial community support from area residents." While five people spoke out in support of the license, only one of them actually lived within the CB3 boundaries, according to CB3 documents.

So it looks as if Papaya King made some concessions, cutting back the proposed hours for beer sales. (They originally wanted to sell beer until 4 a.m. Thursday through Sundays.)

Papaya King opened in the East Village in May 2013. Papaya King opened on East 86th Street in 1932.

122 E. Seventh St. is for rent

The storefront here between Avenue A and First Avenue has been on the market since May... however, the for lease sign is up in the window now that the previous tenant, La Belle Crepe, recently closed.

The rent for the 300-square-foot space is upon request.

Did anyone ever try La Belle Crepe? A veteran street-fair vendor ran the place. We honestly never saw any customers inside. Crepes also seem like a tough sell around here.

Today

Photo from Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams...