Help Theater for the New City burn its mortgage on Saturday

From the EV Grieve inbox...

[Via Facebook]

A "BURN THE MORTGAGE" CELEBRATION!
Saturday, January 26th
5:00 to 7:00pm (free admission)

REJOYCE! THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Has Paid Its Mortgage! $717,000 to $0!

Eats! Drinks! And Lots of Love! We want to Thank our Supporters! Champagne for everyone! And a Swinging Opening of a 40-year Retrospectacle: Theater for the New City, 40 Years of Struggle and Triumph!

Help us to put a Match to a 25-year old Mortgage, as we unveil our Donor Plaque.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Celebrates its 40th Year, and celebrates its future as The Cultural Center for the East Village and the Lower East Side — serving its neighborhood with Free and Low-Cost Theater, Art, Music, Poetry, Puppetry, Multimedia & Street Theater.

Performers and Speakers will include: F. Murray Abraham, Charles Busch, David Amram, Vinie Burrows, NYC Council Member Rosie Mendez, Louis Mofsie of the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, and some surprises. Reservations recommended.

RSVP and info here.

Theater for the New City bought their building at 155 First Ave. between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street with a $717,000 mortgage in 1987 ... they moved from the West Village to 156 Second Ave. in 1977...

Steamed espresso

Photo of 9th Street Espresso last night by Meg Lindley.

A cold-tailed hawk in Tompkins Square Park

Bobby Williams spotted the hawk hanging out on top of the Temperance Fountain in the Park this afternoon...

Today in photos of frozen fire hydrants in the East Village

We have learned exclusively that it is cold out today.

This cold out...

East 10th Street and Avenue C via Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C...

... and East Fifth Street and Avenue A via Simon1961 ...

Or maybe these are just sneak previews of new winter drinks from Booker & Dax...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[East 12th Street near Avenue A via Shawn Chittle]

Q-n-A with Missing Foundation's Chris Egan (Flaming Pablum)

More history of the 9th Street Bakery (Off the Grid)

East Village substitute teacher suspended for selling books meant for fund-raiser (DNAinfo)

When the second floor of 1551 Broadway belonged to the Follies Burlesk (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

The story of Kirsten Larson, "an American Girl doll who sat on a shelf in the Ottendorfer branch" of the NY Public Library on Second Avenue (The New York Times)

The New Yorker reviews L’Apicio in the Mall of Avalon Bowery Place (The New Yorker)

Suing Ian Schrager on Christie Street (BoweryBoogie)

One possible future tenant for Seward Park project (The Lo-Down)

Bua on St. Mark's Place has a new menu (Eater)

Where the survivors from the Titanic docked (Ephemeral New York)

It is cold out (Gothamist)

And we've opened the heating center ... there's a 42-minute limit.

East Side Community School students are back, repaired wall and all

As you'll likely remember, students and faculty had to evacuate East Side Community High School and Girls Prep Charter on East 12th Street back in September when a maintenance worker found part of the eastern wall separating from the rest of the structure.

Original estimates via NY1 put the students back in the building in late February.

[The repaired wall last Friday, via Bobby Williams]

However, as East Side Principal Mark Federman tweeted on Jan. 4, the students would be returning sooner... and today was their first day back for classes here between Avenue A and First Avenue... we heard from a few East Village parents who were quite pleased that their kids were in the neighborhood again for classes.

Meanwhile, here is the new wall ... photographed on Monday...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Schools making it work while repairs continue at 420 E. 12th St.

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: Jane Kelton and Little Egg
Occupation: Musician and Dog Walker
Location: 2nd Avenue Between 4th and 5th
Time: 12:10 on Monday, Jan. 21

I moved here in 1977. I’m from Pennsylvania. I came here because there were a lot of Irish music sessions here and I play Irish music. Although I have a good education, I was never very career-minded. I just cared about music and had college friends who played here. I play wooden flute and tin whistle — traditional instruments.

I still play in sessions to this day and I play professionally a bit. It’s not my living. I’m a dog walker for that. There’s a bar called the William Barnacle Tavern that has sessions on Monday nights at Theatre 80 on St. Marks Place and I play in a local, homey bar called Murphy’s in Sunnyside, Queens. I also play at Dempsey’s — there’s a big session there on Tuesdays.

I’ve done a lot of things. I did a couple of degrees at NYU. I did teaching of English and what’s called an MPhil in Performance Studies, which is everything in a doctorate except a dissertation. Within that program, I was doing folk performance, usually Irish stuff. I’ve taught at NYU. I’ve been a technical writer, and when I got laid off from that, I started the dog walking, which was about 13 years ago. I also went back to school and got a degree in teaching art, but when I got out there just weren’t any jobs.

My thing is textiles: weaving, embroidery. I take my style of dress partly from the old Babushka ladies. I dress old but with a vengeance. Right now I’m very involved in knitting. I did a quilt project with University Settlement, which is a wonderful neighborhood resource for immigrant people. I recently found out through my teacher training that something like my great grand-uncle founded it.

I worked for 10 years, up through 2000, for a Gypsy family on St. Mark's. I worked for them taking care of their children and making clothes for them, which is how I met them. I did a lot of things for them and they had me in to the house all the time. I learned a lot about their cleanliness system, which is very complicated. It has to do with their spiritual principles. They had an intense family life and were very funny. They were just very close and people were always stopping in. They run their businesses on family lines and the marriages were arranged. The family is an economic unit. Their main business is buying and selling cars and the fortune telling is just to get extra money for dinner.

I liked the East Village when it was more run-down. There were more bookstores and more thrift stores and antique places. There were more stores that sold whole grains and more people who did their own cooking. People didn’t go out to eat as a thing around here and there weren’t many places to go. It was a big deal when a place called DoJo came in on St. Mark's. And there was a place on Second Avenue and Seventh Street called Kiev. It was a place like Veselka. Everyone used to go there and have soup at night.

There have always been a lot of lunatics in the neighborhood. Always. There used to be a guy who dressed up like William Shakespeare who lived in one of the Bowery hotels. He would walk around Washington Square Park and down the Bowery. He was just an old alcoholic who liked dressing like William Shakespeare.

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

Here is the rest of the former Cabrini Center (aka 'The Neapolitan'?)

On Friday morning, we noted that workers had removed the scaffolding and construction netting from the former Cabrini Center on Avenue B and East Fifth Street ...

By the end of Friday, the East Fifth Street side was free of all that as well. And here's how the incoming luxury residences look ...

We were unsure if this was the final paint job, dubbed by commenter RD as The Neapolitan (in honor of the ice cream).

No word on what the actual building name will be...

Flashback: When 72 Avenue B was a luxurious 1,750-seat theater

On the topic of the new luxury apartment building on Avenue B and East Fifth Street ... here's a relevant EVG repost from Sept. 28, 2009...

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You'll recognize Fifth Street and Avenue B here...


But until 1957, it was a Loew's theater...


According to Cinema Treasures:

Loew's Avenue B is part of one of the great rags-to-riches stories of showbiz history. Movie mogul Marcus Loew erected it on the very site of the tenement building where he was born. Needless to say, his birthplace was demolished to make way for the luxurious 1,750-seat theatre, which was designed by Thomas W. Lamb and first opened on January 8, 1913, with vaudeville as its main attraction and movies thrown in just as fillers.

The Avenue B was the top Loew's house on the Lower East Side until the mid-1920s, when the circuit took over the Commodore on Second Avenue, which was a much busier area for entertainment and shopping. The Avenue B was reduced to playing movies at the end of their Loew's circuit run, and remained so until its closure around 1957-58.

As Cinema Treasures commenter Warren G. Harris noted:

The theatre cost $800,000 to build. In his opening night speech, Marcus Loew said "This is the most pretentious of the houses on our string, because my better judgment was over-balanced by my sentimentalism and my longing to do something better here than I ever did before." According to corporate histories, the Avenue B was never successful, but Loew's kept it running for decades as a memorial to its founder, who was born on the spot.

Top photo via.

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Postscript. Knickerbocker Village has this still (circa 1967) from its days as an abandoned theater.

Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation opened in 1992... and operated here until it lost its lease last summer ... after an unnamed family trust sold the building.

Update on the 'No 7-Eleven' campaign, now with a Twitter account

You've read about the growing unrest regarding the 7-Eleven slated for the corner of Avenue A and East 11th Street... EVG reader Liberation, who is helping to organize residents, provided an update:

Our website team met this past weekend at the East Village Community Coalition offices to begin work on our forthcoming site, due to launch in the next few weeks.

The site will include profiles on local bodegas and how chain stores like 7-11 negatively impact their businesses and families, studies on how chain stores negatively affect local economies and cases where other communities have successfully fought back against chain stores and franchises, to name a few things.

While we prepare for our website launch people can connect with us now on Twitter at @No7ElevenNYC. In the next day or so we'll also be rolling out a new Facebook page. (Some people prefer one over the other so we want to provide options.)

We've set up various teams to support the project such as a research team, a street team and an education team. If people would like to get involved in one of these teams please email us here (no711nyc@gmail.com)

Meanwhile, the Observer and Crain's are the latest media outlets to report on this story.

And in case you missed this post from Saturday, the 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place is now delivering.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] More from the anti-7-Eleven front on Avenue A and East 11th Street

7-Eleven alert: Are 2 chain stores replacing Bar on A and Angels & Kings?

First sign of the incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A

Avenue A's anti-7-Eleven campaign now includes arsenal of 20,000 stickers

Updates on yesterday's bar-restaurant rumors

1. The owners of The Immigrant will open a cafe adjacent to their current home on East Ninth Street. True.

Late yesterday afternoon, owner Jason Corey confirmed his intention to open a similar space next door. If all goes well, then he is "hoping to open our low-key locals hangout bar extension in the next two months." The Immigrant Tap Room is a working name for the new space now, with both beer and wine likely available.

2. The Mermaid Inn is expanding into the Candela Candela space next door on Second Avenue. False.

A Mermaid Inn rep contacted us early yesterday afternoon and said that their news announcement teased via Twitter was not about an expansion.

Their news: Starting on Monday, they'll have a happy hour every day from 5-7 p.m. Also: On March 23, to coincide with the celebration of The Mermaid Inn's 10-year anniversary, they are launching a lunch service on weekends from 12:30-4:30 p.m.

The Mobil on Avenue C is still going strong — for now

[EVG file photos]

Back in September, The Real Deal reported the Mobil station at Houston and Avenue C had been sold to a brokerage firm for $8 million.

Existing zoning allows for 43,000 square feet of residential development on the parcel, which has 120 feet of frontage on Houston Street, according to The Real Deal.

Some people figured that the station would be a goner by year's end. Not so. An EVG Facebook friend stopped by yesterday and noted that they were as busy as ever. (And you saw the crowds post-Sandy.) Darryl Terrell, the station's longtime manager, didn't have any updates on how much longer they'd be here on the corner.

So far, plans haven't been filed with the DOB for any new building.

Previously on EV Grieve:
How much longer will the East Village have gas stations?

A look at the incoming 2 Bros. Pizza on First Avenue

As you may recall, a 2 Bros. Pizza is opening at the short-lived BaoBQ space (and Select Burger!) on First Avenue near East 14th Street... EVG reader Joe got a look inside...

Do you think all this $1 (or .99-cent pizza) around here (Joey Pepperoni, Papa John's, 7-Eleven, et al) can make it...? All of which is making local favorite Vinny Vincenz reduce its prices...

The first 2 Bros. opened on St. Mark's Place in 2008.

'Come on over and let Zoltar tell you how cold it is'

And it will only cost you $2. Second Avenue and St. Mark's this afternoon via Bobby Williams.

How cold was it today?

The rats froze in Tompkins Square Park. Spotted near the East Seventh Street entrnace. By Bobby Williams.

[Updated] Caracas Arepa Bar closed this week for repairs; ditto for Zum Schneider

As you can see on the sign here on East Seventh Street near First Avenue... you'll have to go two doors to the west for Caracas to Go this week...

Updated 2:32 p.m.

Thanks to esquared™ for telling us about Zum Schneider on Avenue C and East Seventh Street too... Per Zum's website:

Elephant KOs Barney on East 13th Street

EVG reader Christine Champagne passes along this photo from this morning on East 13th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Any theories as to what happened, aside from a good old-fashioned ass-kicking? And where were Barney's so-called friends?

About that car alarm on East Fourth Street

From the EV Grieve inbox around 10:30 a.m.

A car alarm has been going off since 8 am on east 4th between a and b. Is it possible to get some service over here?!!?

Sincerely,

A resident and employee of east 4th street

East Village FroYo craze lives on, apparently

Over on Second Avenue near East Seventh... there's a new tenant for the former Spa Belles location ... A Twister self-serve frozen yogurt shop...

Here's the description of one from Long Island:

Twister Frozen Yogurt is a family-owned and -operated, self-serve frozen yogurt shop. It features an ever-rotating selection of 16 flavors, including low-fat and sugar-free options, as well as sorbets. The toppings bar stocks 40 toppings, including fresh fruit, nuts, hot fudge and more.

Meanwhile. The Yogurt Station remains closed on St. Mark's Place ... the NLYU Yogurt on First Avenue near East 10th Street closed after just a few months in business... And there's still no sign of the Yogurt Crazy shop on Third Avenue.

Mystery Lot replacement starting to show itself on East 13th Street

While standing on East 14th Street near Third Avenue... you can see the noticeable progress of the new eight-story, 83-unit luxury condo building.

Not so much on East 13th Street though... until now... As you can just make out a few things starting to rise above the plywood...

Meanwhile, for a time-lapse of sorts aerial view... courtesy of EVG reader Katja...

And, of course, how it will look one day on East 13th Street...

[Via Curbed]

Previously on EV Grieve:
City approves new building for Mystery Lot

The Mystery Lot likely facing a luxurious end

The last days of the Mystery Lot