Wyndham Garden Hotel starting to sprout on the Bowery

When we last looked at the coming-soon high-rise at the corner of Hester and the Bowery last October...there wasn't much progress to report...



...and the 108-room Wyndham Garden Hotel, expected to open in 2010 (according to a Wyndham press release), didn't seem popular with everyone...



In any event, the site is showing signs of life...





For further reading:
LES hotel saturation: A map (BoweryBoogie)

Coming to Union Square: Chipotle Mexican Grill

Lois Weiss reports today that Chipotle Mexican Grill will open in the Zeckendorf Towers on the northwest corner of Irving Place and 14th Street. It's at the former site of Rhyme & Reason, the card shop, which closed last September. As I noted then: "What's to come? I have no idea! But it's a prime spot in NYUville. Also! There's a Duane Reade a block away on 14th and Third...and a Walgreens across the street. So this seems like a good spot for a drug store. Rite Aid?"

Anyway! Jeffrey Roseman of Newmark Knight Frank represented Chipotle. He told the Post: "Union Square is still buzzing and is a hot market." It will open at the end of the summer.

Band looking for someone to experience cliches with

Hmm... the photo is a little blurry... It reads: "3 cowboys blasting full speed into the black hole of BIG, ORCHESTRAL ROCK need both a new DRUMMER and a KEYBOARDIST/ORGANIST/SYNTH WIZARD OF THE COSMOS for kamikaze commitment...cause once we go in, we 'ain't coming back."

Spotted on Avenue A. Over a Wilco live poster.

Kid A

I enjoyed watching the additions to this ad on the side of East Village Farms on Avenue A near Seventh Street....




Sadly! The kid was papered over with an ad for flavored vodka.

Just the blues then

"[F]or the first time in 37 years, there will be no major summer jazz festival in New York." (The New York Times)

Goodbye yellow brick ad...

After nearly a month, the handpainted Target ad on St. Mark's Place at Avenue A...



is gone...



Meanwhile!
The Target ad was also painted over on Hicks Street in Carroll Gardens (Lost City)

Noted

A reader sent me this link from the Pissed Off Teacher blog...of a photo taken on East Broadway:

Everyone seems to be latching on to this "violent crimes are up" story

CBS-2 has coverage here.... And ABC-7 here....Full-on hysteria!

Post: Assaults on the rise in East Village, Lower East Side

According to the Post today:

Downtown Manhattan, the city's party mecca, has been hit by an alarming spike in vicious street violence.

Assaults in Greenwich Village lead the frightening upturn, with a whopping 43 percent increase so far this year compared with the same period in 2008. Other hot Manhattan neighborhoods tainted by the crime wave include TriBeCa, with a nearly 17 percent jump, and Gramercy, which has seen a 24 percent increase in assaults.

The danger zones also include the East Village from East 14th Street to Houston Street and the East River to Broadway, which has seen a 27.7 percent rise, from 47 to 60 assaults. The Lower East Side has experienced a whopping 30 percent hike in assaults.

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne attributed the crime jump largely to the neighborhoods' huge restaurant and bar scenes, which attract large numbers of late-night revelers.

The accompanying chart in the Post is incorrect: The number for the East Village is 27.7 percents, not 42.9 percent.

Updated: Runnin' Scared notes that the Post is seeing a bigger crime increase than the NYPD. As Roy Edroso writes: "The Post is apparently using something other than CompStat figures, though: the latest for the East Village's 9th Precinct shows crime reports only up 4.44 percent year-to-date, and murders at zero. Reported rapes are up from three to five, robberies from 63 to 66, and felony assaults from 47 to 60."

Ramenification of Love Saves the Day continues

Yesterday morning, we noted the new plywood surrounding the former Love Saves the Day store on Second Avenue at Seventh Street... Now one of the last remaining bits of the former shop was removed -- the tiled Love Saves the Day sign above the storefront...



Here's how it looks now...




Also, as the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFOEVG) noted, the plywood covered two tags by longtime NYC graffiti artists, SEN4 and KAY2... their fate will soon be sealed under several coats of paint along with the rest of the colorful LSD façade...



[LSD tile photo via Racked]

One year ago today: The Tower of Toys begins to vanish

Was one year ago today that the iconic Tower of Toys officially came down in the community garden at Sixth Street and Avenue B.

Jeremiah broke the story about the Tower's demise.

One last reminder of the Tower remains today: a sticker honoring its creator, the late Eddie Boros.



For further reading.

A few new things on Avenue C

This two-story building at 151 Ave. C -- two doors south of C-Squat between Ninth Street and 10th Street -- is now on the market. There was no information about this property listed on the My Broker Web site. (And is Speakeasy still around on the second floor? I thought it closed...)



And between 10th Street and 11th Street -- a dry cleaner is opening...



And there's a new cafe called Bread & Butta opening between 11th Street and 12th Street...in a space that has been empty for a few years, as I recall...