EV Grieve Etc.: Lead-dust nightmare on 12th Street; more vendors for the new Essex Market

[A view on Avenue A yesterday by Grant Shaffer]

An ongoing lead-dust nightmare in this 12th Street building currently owned by Madison Realty Capital (The Villager)

City Council passes bill to increase transparency for urban renewal areas (The Lo-Down)

Thoughts on "What About Me," Rachel Amodeo's drama shot in the East Village in the early 1990s, playing Dec. 27 and Jan. 1 as part of MoMa's "New York Film and Video: No Wave–Transgressive" series (The New Yorker)

Critic Robert Sietsema likes Gino Sorbillo Pizzeria, recently opened on the Bowery (Eater ... previously)

Incoming vendors at the New Essex Market include a new concept from Radouane Eljaouhari, who ran Zerza (and briefly, the dubious 'Merica) on Sixth Street (The Lo-Down)

A cinematic celebration for Jonas Mekas’s 95th birthday (Anthology Film Archives)

A feature on the mother-son who run Au Za’atar on Avenue A at 12th Street (The Daily Meal)

Some photos from the East Village Arts Festival at the Tompkins Square Library (Slum Goddess ... previously)

Essex Crossing rental will be named for Sonny Rollins (Curbed)

The Luke’s Lobster’s "Star Wars" giveaway (The Voice)

From the Gilded Age, Christmas in the tenements (Ephemeral New York)

And several EVG readers have shared crowdfunding campaigns currently underway for two East Village residents... Barbara Caporale, a longtime community gardener and activist who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, is in danger of losing her home. You can read about the campaign here. There's also a campaign for Jimmy Carbone, owner of the currently closed Jimmy's No. 43 on Seventh Street. The campaign is to help him cover medical treatment and other debts. Read about that here.

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.



Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: Johnny Rozsa, since 1999

When I moved here in 1999 I [started] living on Avenue A. I sublet from a friend of mine and I had that place on Avenue A for two years. It was a railroad apartment and it was really nice. I didn’t need an AC because there was a magical through breeze. When I moved out I found my present flat accidentally.

This apartment and the apartment next door were both available. The apartment next door had a basement. Mine has a sunroom, so I went for the greenhouse. That’s been there for like 30 or 40 years. I brought all of my stuff over, I just walked it all over from the other apartment.



What do you love about your apartment?

Even though it is tiny, it is warm and cozy in the winter. It’s got 12-foot ceilings ... so it doesn’t feel cramped. And it’s only me. I don’t need to be in LA in a 12-room mansion — I don’t need that. I’ve had that and it’s OK that I don’t have that now. I also had a little cabin in the woods in the middle of Beverly Hills. It was sort of like this.

What I love about this is I have the backyard and I have the Park in the front. Look at how quiet it is. I don’t hear sirens, I don’t hear anything. It’s quiet. It is dead quiet. I’ve got so many pluses. I don’t feel like I’m in New York City — I feel like I’m upstate somewhere.

It’s nice to have the greenhouse so the lemon tree will survive the winter. I love the mourning doves, hundreds of them, every day. It’s just like living in the country.

















If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.

Thursday's parting shot

Happy holidays from Seventh Street ... photo today by Derek Berg

Citi Bike of the day

Spotted on Allen and Stanton on the LES... at least you wouldn't have to adjust the seat. Or worry about the tire pressure.

Last SantaCon reveler ready to call it a week?

Kidding! This looks like a real Santa.

Photo from Ninth Street and Avenue A this morning via @xtea ...

A morning scene from Tompkins Square Park

Photo today via Peter Brownscombe ...

The lion in winter*

Outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery this morning via Lola Sáenz...

* OK, technically still fall for another week

Bea Arthur Residence nearly ready to accept first tenants on 13th Street

[Photo from Sunday]

The Ali Forney Center recently celebrated a major milestone — the naming ceremony of the now-completed Bea Arthur Residence at 222 E. 13th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

As previously reported, the 18-bed facility will house participants in the center's two-year transitional living program designed to prepare homeless LGBTQ young people for successfully living alone.

From a Facebook post on Dec. 1 via the Ali Forney Center, an organization supporting homeless LGBT youth...

This building ... was made possible by the love and generosity of the icon Bea Arthur. We are proud to dedicate this residence in her honor, and humbled to celebrate this momentous occasion alongside Bea Arthur's son and grandson.

The Bea Arthur Residence marks an important shift in the way that we are able to house and care for young people who have been discarded by their families simply because of who they are. Pending city approvals, we hope to begin housing young people here within the next few weeks.

To the countless staff, donors, city and state officials, architects, and friends of the Ali Forney Center who have breathed life into this remarkable project, we extend our sincerest gratitude and love, and look forward to moving our young people in to begin their journey to a bright future.

Arthur, who died in April 2009, left $300,000 to the Center in her will. In 2012, City Council as well as then-Borough President Scott Stringer awarded the Center and the Cooper Square Committee $3.3 million for the residence.


[Image via the Ali Forney Center]

Plans for this long-abandoned building were first announced in 2012. (The property had been owned by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.) The groundbreaking took place in July 2015.


[EVG photo from 2012]

Previously on EV Grieve:
A haunted house on 13th Street?

Abandoned 13th Street building becoming the Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth

Here's what the Bea Arthur Residence will look like on East 13th Street

Groundbreaking today on East 13th Street for the Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth

MTA, DOT outline plans for life without the L train

[Image Monday via @katebirmingham2]

During the upcoming L train shutdown, parts of 14th Street will become car free while 13th Street will get the city's first two-way protected crosstown bike lane, officials announced yesterday.

The MTA and the city’s Department of Transportation unveiled the long-awaited plans on how to accommodate the estimated 225,000 people who use the L on a daily basis.

Major changes include:
🚌 exclusive 14th St #busway with rush hour restriction from 3rd-9th Aves
🚲 new 13th St 2-way protected #bikenyc lane
🚗🚚 #WilliamsburgBridge HOV3 restrictions & bus-only lanes from Grand BK to Delancey MN
🚶🚌🚲safety improvements along Grand St BK pic.twitter.com/ypM3SwshEV

— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) December 13, 2017

Here's more from NBC 4:

• 14th Street closing to cars from Third Avenue to Ninth Avenue eastbound, and Third Avenue to Eighth Avenue westbound, to become a "busway" with rushphour restriction. Bus lanes and Select Bus Service will be added to that core of 14th Street in the next year, which will bring sidewalk expansion and tens of thousands of square feet in new pedestrian space.

"No street will be more affected by the L train disruption than 14th Street, and changes expanding access to pedestrians, bus riders, and cyclists will play a major role in moving L train riders quickly and efficiently," the DOT says.

• A bikeway running along 13th Street to keep cyclists out of the buses' way. Daily cycling volume is expected to double when the L train closes in Manhattan, so the DOT will add Manhattan's first two-way protected crosstown bike lane to 13th Street.

The DOT will also create brand new pedestrian space on Union Square West from 14th Street to 15th Street and 16th Street to 17th Street and a pedestrianized street that features a new bike parking hub on University Place from 13th Street to 14th Streets.

The shutdown of the L — between Bedford Avenue and Eighth Avenue to repair the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel — is expected to last 15 months with a start date of April 2019.

Previously

---

More sources: NBC 4 ... the Post ... Curbed ... 2nd Ave. Sagas... MTA website...

$1 coffee talk

[EVG photo from May 2016]

In her Metro Money column yesterday at The Wall Street Journal, Anne Kadet tackled a popular topic — the price of coffee at NYC delis/cafes/coffee shops.

She mentions a deli in Brooklyn Heights that sells a small coffee for $1. The owner reportedly loses money on that deal. The piece, available to subscribers only, goes on to outline why inexpensive deli coffee is unrealistic — especially with NYC rents.

Mike Kruszewski, founder of Pourt, which recently closed on Cooper Square, crunched some coffee numbers for her:

The ingredients in a small cup of high-end, direct-trade, “sustainable” coffee costs 62 cents, he says. That includes 43 cents for the beans, 14 cents for the cup, sleeve, lid, and stirrer, and 5 cents for milk and sugar.

But a cafe owner also has to pay rent on a New York City storefront, not to mention wages, insurance, supplies, utilities, trash service, software and payment processing. All told, says Mr. Kruszewski, expenses easily reach $600 a day.

If a cafe only sold $1 coffee, he says, it would have to sell 2,150 cups a day to just break even. That’s 3.5 cups a minute. The barista would have to serve faster than humanly possible.

At $2 a cup, the cafe would have to sell 500 cups a day, or one cup a minute—still too much volume for a small business.

“At $3.50,” says Mr. Kruszewski, “we get to a doable 250 cups a day.”

Some exceptions to this are street carts, which don't pay rent, and chains such as McDonald’s and 7-Eleven "that enjoy massive economies of scale."

The owner of that Brooklyn Heights deli said that he hoped the $1 coffee deal would attract new customers.

It hasn't.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The 75-cent coffee at Subway