Above First and First...
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Week in Grieview
[Early evening neon courtesy of Block Drugs]
Stories posted this past week included...
RIP Brendan Cregan (Monday)
Reader reports: Car making U-turn strikes woman on Avenue B sidewalk (Monday)
City extends deadline for community garden licensing; Monday's City Hall rally cancelled (Saturday)
Medina's worldly chef brings Mediterranean street style to Second Avenue (Tuesday)
The latest I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant (Wednesday)
At Festival Calle 6 (Sunday)
14th Street busway halted once again by last-minute appeal (Monday)
DOB fines crane operator $110,000 for boom collapse last month at the Riis Houses (Tuesday)
Get your Gem Spa t-shirts or photos of Madonna — at Gem Spa! (Friday)
Pylons for offset crossings arrive on 1st and 2nd Avenue intersections (Friday)
This week's NY See (Thursday)
Fast-casual chain Sweetgreen bringing the salads and bowls to the Bowery (Monday)
Bike shop making the Trek to the Bowery (Monday)
[Devil in disguise on 2nd Avenue]
Crane crew spotted at the former P.S. 64 on 10th Street (Wednesday)
The serious renovations happening at China Star (Tuesday)
5 Napkin Burger shrinks on 14th and 3rd (Tuesday)
In case you are feeling the spirit of Halloween this August (Thursday)
Your McDonald's renovation report (Wednesday)
Report: By Chloe joining Chase in the former Coffee Shop on Union Square (Monday)
Strings Ramen vying for 188 2nd Ave. (Monday)
Upscale nail salon casualty on 13th Street (Thursday)
In case you forgot that CVS is coming to Houston and Orchard (Monday)
... Hulk Hogan/Supreme wheatpaste on Second Avenue near First Street via Matt E. Whyte...
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Saturday, August 17, 2019
City extends deadline for community garden licensing; Monday's City Hall rally cancelled
The city has extended an olive branch of sorts to community gardeners.
As reported yesterday, community gardeners across NYC planned to a rally on the steps of City Hall on Monday against what they're calling a new one-sided license agreement to operate their volunteer-run green spaces.
This morning, Bill LoSasso, director of the NYC Parks GreenThumb, sent the following letter to the GreenThumb gardeners:
As you know, we are in the process of relicensing GreenThumb community gardens operating on NYC Parks property. As we near completion of that process, we are extending the deadline for submission of the relicensing documents until Friday, September 20, 2019, and also making several updates to the Gardener's Handbook to better support our network of gardens and gardeners.
Please review the details in the attached letter. Your GreenThumb Outreach Coordinator will be happy to speak with you about any questions that you might have.
I hope that your gardens are doing well and in full bloom, and I look forward to seeing many of you again soon. Enjoy your weekend!
As a result of the extension and updates, Monday's rally has been cancelled. Here's a statement to us via Charles Krezell, head of Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS):
We are very happy that GreenThumb has extended the license agreement deadline to Sept. 20.
We hope to continue negotiating in good faith. We all love our gardens and want to continue to have a
good relationship with GreenThumb and the Parks Department.
In light of the new deadline we are canceling the Rally scheduled for Monday at City Hall.
We are very grateful for the vigorous support of our community gardeners. We continue to recognize that our strength is in unity; and our goal is to continue to help New York grow.
H/T Stacie Joy!
✌️
This arrived this past week at the St. Mark's Place entrance to Tompkins Square Park...
Thanks to Vinny & O for the photos. ✌️
Last Saturday for Summer Streets
[Photo from last Saturday]
The last Summer Streets for the, um, summer takes place today (Aug. 17!) from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. ... as the 12th annual Summer Streets celebration wraps up another Saturday where people can enjoy the nearly seven miles of NYC roadways that are closed to vehicles for running, walking, biking, complaining, etc.
You can find more details about today's pit-stop activities at this link.
Once again, it's worth noting just how far Summer Streets have come from its early days on Broadway...
Friday, August 16, 2019
A 'Heartworm' of gold
Today sees the release of the 22nd (!!!!!) Oh Sees record, a 73-minute, two-record opus called Face Stabber. The video here is for "Heartworm," one of the punkier tracks on the record.
See them live out at the Warsaw in October. They're a great live band.
Get your Gem Spa t-shirts or photos of Madonna — at Gem Spa!
[Photo from last evening]
Starting this evening (Friday!), Gem Spa will have a limited supply of Gem Spa t-shirts for sale at the shop here on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place.
In recent weeks, they've been filling orders for people who purchased them via PayPal. Now they'll have an extra supply on-hand. (The t-shirts come with a Kiehl’s lip balm that the company donated.)
As we've been reporting, the venerable shop has been struggling of late, in part due to its temporary ban on selling cigarettes and lottery tickets and various landlord issues.
Parul Patel, who is running the shop for her father Ray, the owner since 1986, decided to sell the t-shirts to help raise money for the shop.
Meanwhile, longtime St. Mark's Place resident David Godlis is pitching in to assist the longtime corner shop. He's donating prints of this photo of Madonna outside Gem Spa in 1984 during filming of "Desperately Seeking Susan" ... you can order various sizes of the photo at Gem Spa...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Will you buy a Gem Spa T-shirt?
What is happening at Gem Spa?
A visit to Gem Spa
[UPDATED] Community gardeners to rally at City Hall Monday over new license agreement
[Dias y Flores Community Garden on 13th Street]
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Updated 8/17: The city has extended a deadline for the licensing agreements, and made several changes to the Gardener's Handbook. As a result, the rally has been cancelled. Scoop here.
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Community gardeners across NYC are taking to City Hall on Monday morning to rally against what they're calling a new one-sided license agreement to operate their volunteer-run green spaces.
In April, community gardeners received a new four-year license agreement that they say substantially changes the relationship they've enjoyed with the city since 1978.
According to the New York City Community Garden Coalition, the 2019 Community Garden License Agreement and GreenThumb Gardeners’ Handbook contain additional requirements that are burdensome for both parties, and "which will hinder the community outreach and engagement that are hallmarks of community gardens in New York City."
Here's part of a media advisory via Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS):
Under the new license, GreenThumb becomes an enforcement agency rather than a garden-friendly helpmate. This new license imposes new regulations, restrictions and obligations on garden groups.
It was written by lawyers with no sense of the historical and cultural significance of the gardens and their communities. Now we are being told that we are being allowed to garden on city property and if we don’t like the new license we don’t have to garden.
Gardeners have voiced great concerns. At a Town Hall in May, gardeners voted unanimously to not sign the license. In the past 40 years there has never been widespread opposition to garden licenses.
We have tried to negotiate changes to the license; we want to continue to work toward a better license. But the City is threatening garden groups with a lockout. We have grave concerns about these items in the new license:
• There are three sets of regulations that gardens are required to follow, these regulations are inconsistent, contradictory and confusing.
• Liability issues remain unresolved. The term “Licensee” in the agreement is not defined, what does it mean for the person signing the license on behalf of their community garden?
• Gardens are required to hold two free public events a year but must obtain written permission far in advance from GreenThumb to hold these events.
• Many of the new rules will be impossible to effectively enforce given the size of GreenThumb’s staff. This can only lead to arbitrary, discriminatory enforcement. Gardens will be lost because of developers’ greed not garden infractions.
A recent meeting between the Community Garden Coalition and city officials did net some progress, such as gardeners will once again have the option of allowing dogs into their spaces.
Officials for the Parks Department downplayed any garden drama.
"These renewals happen every four years and always have small changes based on experiences from the previous four year cycle — this cycle is no different," Crystal Howard, assistant commissioner for communications at the Parks Department, recently told amNY.
And:
She said changes include "making the gardens more accessible by keeping them open to the public during the weekend; allowing gardens to host more fundraising events so they can sustain themselves; and increasing safety by asking gardens to coordinate with Green Thumb ahead of planned events."
Monday is the deadline for signing the new license. Patch reported that the Parks Department has told groups that they won't be permitted to continue operating without one. (Patch also noted that nearly 180 gardens have already signed the agreements "out of 353 gardens expected to sign.")
The City Hall rally on Monday starts at 10 a.m.
[Spreading the word one van at a time]
Previously on EV Grieve:
Concern over new GreenThumb regulations for community gardens
Pylons for offset crossings arrive on 1st and 2nd Avenue intersections
[At 9th Street]
The city has finally finalized the offset crossings on several intersections along the First Avenue and Second Avenue bike lanes. (The markings had been in place; the plastic pylons arrived this week.)
News of the offset crossings was first announced on May 21. This after the city resurfaced First Avenue and repainted the bike lane.
As Streetsblog reported in May, the arrival of offset crossings in the East Village comes two years after the driver of a box truck reportedly made an illegal left turn turn — across multiple lanes of traffic on First Avenue at Ninth Street — and slammed into cyclist Kelly Hurley, who later died from her injuries.
Per Streetsblog:
In the aftermath of her death, advocates implored the agency to rethink its use of “mixing zones” — which force cyclists and drivers to negotiate the same space at the same time.
After Hurley’s death, Upper West Side architect Reed Rubey came up withan alternative design, which was subsequently endorsed by Manhattan Community Board 4.
Rubey’s efforts partly inspired DOT’s chosen solution: the offset intersection, which it piloted at select locations in 2017 and 2018. In September, DOT’s “Cycling at the Crossroads” report showed that cyclists felt significantly safer at intersections with offset crossings [PDF].
Other offset crossings with newly added pylons include on First Avenue at Seventh Street...
... and First Avenue at Fourth Street ...
Quoting Streetsblog from earlier this week: "Last year in New York City, car drivers caused more than 225,000 crashes, resulting in injuries to more than 60,000 people — and the deaths of 10 cyclists, 120 pedestrians and 96 motorists." So far in 2019, 19 cyclists have been killed by cars or trucks on city streets.
Emmy Squared closed this weekend for a 'routine refresh'
In case Emmy Squared was in your weekend plans. The pizzeria specializing in Detroit-style square pies on First Avenue at Fifth Street was closed yesterday... and will remain that way through the weekend for a "routine refresh."
Emmy's Instagram account states they'll be back open on Monday.
The East Village location opened in July 2018. Emmy Squared owners Matthew and Emily Hyland also operated Violet, serving a completely different style of pizza, on Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.
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