Week in Grieview

[An East 4th Street moment via Derek Berg]

Citi Bike: A Reluctant Love Affair (Thursday, 49 comments)

How to help Punjabi Grocery & Deli stay in business (Thursday)

A look at Bulb Concepts on East Seventh Street (Tuesday)

Out and About with Alex Shamuelov (Wednesday)

Good Samaritan thwarts bike theft, leaves note (Tuesday)

The BP property on Second Avenue sold for $32 million (Friday)

Where are they now: the Cadillac with the Tiger in it edition (Friday)

New murals for Best Housekeeping at 17 Avenue A (Monday)

The New Amsterdam Market at the Seaport has closed (Monday)

Checking in on Gabay's new Avenue A store (Thursday)

Rent at the Snack Dragon is $4,495 (Thursday)

No ghosts in the office space for rent! (Tuesday)

The Films in Tompkins series returns (Wednesday)

Buy this lovely East 7th Street townhouse, save it from demolition (Wednesday)

Apartment 13 will not reopen (Thursday)

Listen to this interview with Richard Hell (Tuesday)

It rained (Tuesday)

Unidentified Flying Chickens now open on Third Avenue (Monday)

Micro loft! (Wednesday)

A look inside the rebranded Eleventh and Third (Tuesday)

The animals of a Judd Apatow film shoot (Wednesday)

Where to get a flat fixed (Wednesday)

The Bao coming soon to St. Mark's Place (Monday)

…and this looks nice on East Sixth Street at Avenue C …

St. Mark's Bookshop is now open on East 3rd Street

The store made its debut here at 136 E. Third St. just west of Avenue A yesterday.

Hours: Noon to 10 p.m. daily.

Image via @stmarksbookshop H/T @SeanCarlson

Background on the move here.

Reader report: Kids these days

Via the EVG inbox…

At around 11:20 pm, July 19, a group of drunk friends (who obviously were all still in college) were playing truth or dare outside 97 East 7th. They were obnoxious and loud.

Bro #1 dared bro #2 to climb the fire escape.

Bro #2 foolishly did, but he immediately fell from hanging onto the 2nd floor fire escape to the basement staircase.

There was a loud thud.

The girl friends of the bros started to panic and a commotion ensued. Bro #2 was unconscious. Calls to 911 were made.

The ambulance came to the scene 10 minutes later and bro #2 seemed seriously injured. I witnessed the whole thing … from the moment the group of friends started hanging outside the bldg till bro #2 got injured and was brought to ambulance. Everything happened so quick.

I don't know how to feel about this whole situation. I am livid about how these kids think that it's okay to just party like that on the sidewalk. They were bothering several neighbors as they were loudly hanging out on the sidewalk and they bothered even more neighbors the moment bro #2 fell to the basement up until the ambulance came.

I also feel quite sorry for bro #2, but he clearly brought this upon himself and it's sad how NO ONE among his friends tried to stop him from climbing the fire escape..

Oh, by the way, seconds after the ambulance left, his "friends" who were left at the scene started to laugh and giggle about what just happened.

Tompkins Square Park, 8:23 a.m., July 20

Giuseppi said that it is a blessed day.

Beware ATM Skimming these Beware ATM Skimming signs say

Apparently the NYPD wants us to beware aware of ATM skimming. We spotted a dozen or so flyers around the neighborhood.

About five years ago ATM skimming in the East Village made the news.

Anyway, beware! And just one more reason to only carry Krugerrand gold coins like we do. (Admittedly, the exchange rate sucks, especially at bars.)

Thanks to @fnytv for the tip and photo.

[Updated] Feast your eyes on this new mural on East 2nd Street and Avenue C

Anyone happen to know who the artist/artists is/are?

Photo from Thursday night via @evgrieve

Updated 7/19

Oh! Here is the final product…



Alternate headlines:
For Your Eyes Only
Eyes Without a Face on a Mural

Today's hawk vs. squirrel action

The squirrel was in a taunting mood ... and managed to escape... Not everyone was happy.



Photos by Bobby Williams

Let's Dance

Manchester band Dislocation Dance appearing on Dutch TV in 1982. Catchy! But what's up with the cutaway shots to the toaster?

[Updated] Reader report: The 2 Bros. Pizza on 1st Avenue has apparently closed

EVG reader Michael Hirsch spotted workers hauling out the ovens from the dismantled $1 pizzeria between East 13th Street and East 14th Street.

There isn't an official word of a closure just yet.

This 2 Bros. branch opened in February 2013, much to the dismay of next-door neighbor Vinny Vincenz, who has been here for 11 years now. In respond to 2 Bros.'s arrival, Vinny's started offering $1 slices.

For now, it looks as if Vinny's has won this battle…

Updated 7-20

One reader said that a worker on the scene said they were merely remodeling the space.

Previously on EV Grieve:
First Avenue $1 Pizza Wars — now with draft beer

Checking in on the $1 pizza war on First Avenue

Latest weapon in the First Avenue $1 slice wars: Dancing Pizza Menu Woman

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[East 12th Street at 2nd Avenue the other day]

Former Dumpling Man employee suing for allegedly abusive work conditions (The Post)

The surprising story of one of the East Village's oldest schools (Off the Grid)

Frontman from the Walkmen recalls the "grimy" East Village of the 1990s (Mashable)

Can pop-ups sustain small businesses in pricey downtown New York? (The Guardian)

Shakespeare and Co. is still open on Broadway (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

History of the Essex Theatre (BoweryBoogie)

All-kids version of "Bye Bye Birdie" starts tonight at the Connelly Theater on East 4th Street (Kidz Theater)

The latest on the Floating +Pool in the East River (Curbed)

The Post's strange fascination with the wardrobe of occupy activist Cecily McMillan (Runnin' Scared)

...and! Via Dangerous Minds: Pizza-themed punk albums are stupid but funny...

Report: The BP property on 2nd Avenue sold for $32 million

As we first noted last week, the BP station on Second Avenue at East First Street closed for good after July 6.

Now comes word via The Real Deal that this chunk of space exchanged hands for $32 million.

To The Real Deal:

The seller of the lot is listed in public records as 24 Second Ave. Corp., whose phone number was disconnected. The buyer took out a $39.5 million mortgage on the property, according to records, and is listed under an LLC. Yan Ouaknine, who appears to be the co-founder of development firm AORE Holdings LLC, is listed as the borrower in the mortgage.

What's next here is anyone's guess. Nothing is on file with the DOB just yet. Workers at the stations were heard talking about some kind of boutique hotel coming here.

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

The East Village will soon be down to 1 gas station

RUMOR: Gas station going, boutique hotel coming on Second Avenue? (31 comments)

BP station on 2nd Avenue closes this month

Oh no! Here come the sketchy blue boxes!

Well, just as the city was removing those illegal sketchy pink boxes that recently arrived around the neighborhood … here comes a sketchy blue box on Second Avenue near East First Street where the BP station was.

The MO is the same: Organizations place the boxes near or on vacated properties, making it less likely that the owners would call the city for removal. The number on the box goes to a full voice-mail box at Viltex, the for-profit New Jersey-based company who resells the donated goods to other clothing vendors as well as to companies that use the materials to make rags, as DNAinfo reported.

Here's the Times from July 6 with more on the uptick of these boxes all over NYC.

City law bans such bins from being placed on sidewalks and streets; they are legal on private property with the consent of the owner. Once found by Sanitation Department enforcement officers or reported by residents to the city’s 311 help line, an illegal bin is tagged and the owner has 30 days to remove it. Summonses are not issued, a department spokeswoman explained, based on the theory that those distributing the bins have factored any fines into the cost of doing business.

And one downside to the proliferation of the for-profit boxes.

A similar pattern has emerged nationally, according to officials at leading charities. They are alarmed by the misleading competition, which, they maintain, is undermining their own efforts.

“These dark-of-night property violators have proliferated nationwide,” said Jim Gibbons, the president and chief executive of Goodwill Industries International Inc. “They use a charitable veneer then extract the value for their business, versus the Salvation Army or St. Vincent de Paul, where the value is distributed in a more thoughtful way throughout the community.”

You can report the boxes to the city here. And did anyone happen to see any other of the blue donation boxes around…?

Previously on EV Grieve:
About those new sketchy pink boxes around the East Village

The sketchy pink boxes are going away

Epilogue from the Cadillac with the Tiger in it

[Photo from June 7]

Sadly, as you know, the 1978 Cadillac Sedan Deville — aka, the Cadillac with the Tiger in it — has left its 22-year-home on East Second Street. Ernest, who works nearby as a custodian, is the proud new owner of the car and has it in a different borough.

Several readers/residents have asked about the status of the Cadillac with the Tiger. Here you go.

Hello and thanks to all of you who attended our farewell gathering on June 7 and/or have inquired about our well-being.

The Tiger and I are in the capable hands of Ernest. He's young and filled with inspiration. He reveres and respects us.


[Via Kevin Wick Photography]

During the last month the Tiger and I have had a chance to rest and reflect on the 22 years we spent in the neighborhood and ponder the question: What did we mean to you all?

Were we a nuisance? Was I a rusty, pock-marked eyesore whose noisy engine and fumes were out of step with the "new" East Village? Or were we old friends who welcomed you each day and made you smile and evoked in you a sense of wonder?



Truth be told, one's actions and thoughts reflect a lot about themselves. Those in the nuisance camp are probably the same self-entitled folks who don't say "thank you" when you hold the door open for them or who run the red lights on their Citi Bikes and nearly mow down the pedestrians who have the right of way. The Tiger and I actually feel sorry for those in the nuisance camp.

But the announcing of our farewell showed us that we had many more friends than foes.

Like the Second Avenue gas station manager from Ghana who said that he grew up and became a man during the years he knew me — as he ponders his next job because his gas station closed down recently and yet another high rise will take its place.

Or the Egyptian deli worker who told my owner to keep me because I would be a valued antique car in his country —which he may soon have to return to when his deli's 30-year lease ends next year.

Or the car repair shop owner on Attorney Street who said that I was a classic car and it was a damn shame my owner couldn't keep me in the neighborhood. That same shop owner pisses off the real-estate speculators (who hound him daily to sell his building) when he tells them to get lost — that he loves his work and is loyal to his older workers and no amount of money will persuade him to sell his building and close down his shop. (Quite a rare, remarkable guy he is don't you think?)

Nor do we have to look further than our own block to find our good friend Camille — she yelled at the frat boys who shoved a table under me that tore off my exhaust system a couple of years back.

Her landlord took her to court to remove her from the apartment she shared with her 93-year-old mother for over six decades until her mother died last year. Camille fought valiantly to keep the apartment — until two malignant tumors where discovered in her brain in March. Weakened by chemotherapy and stressed out by her housing court case she has decided to give up her lifelong home and move in with her boyfriend in Pennsylvania.

I don't begrudge her decision. The Tiger and I stayed as long as we could but we decided to move on, too.

We were tired and had been having trouble keeping up. The rapidity with which the East Village is changing exceeds the cruise limit on my speedometer. The greedy developers and the city are turning the neighborhood into a giant shopping and entertainment complex.

When they're done, they will have succeeded in turning every block from Delancey to 14th Street into a soulless glut of high-rise luxury condos and mega-stores making it indistinguishable from any other such Manhattan block.

But ultimately it will be their loss. No amount of dollars will buy them the rich, cultural and multi-ethnic heritage of the Lower East Side.

Parting thoughts from me and the tiger?

We — the former and current residents of the neighborhood — are outnumbered. We might win some battles but we're going to lose the war.

We're losing as many old time Mom & Pop stores in the East Village each month as the country is losing World War II veterans.

But never let the interlopers crush your spirit. Stay as long as you can. Like Pete and Sandy did. Like Camille did. Like the Tiger and I did. Remind them that you're still here. It will annoy the hell out of them. And maybe some good will come out of it. Maybe some in the nuisance camp will grow up and say "thank you" when someone holds the door for them and appreciate what the old neighborhood has to offer before it disappears. And you should all say "thank you for sticking around as long as you did" to the small business owners who are closing up shop.
And if and when you decide to leave, try to do it on your own terms

The Tiger and I saw and were moved by the spirit of all of our friends and well-wishers on EV Grieve and those who came to say farewell over the last few weeks. And in return we hope that even if you don't believe in magic maybe for a brief moment in the midst of all this mayhem, an old rusting car and a stuffed animal brought something magical into your life on East 2nd Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
That Cadillac that we've long admired on East 2nd St. now has a stuffed tiger on the front seat

And now, stories from the Cadillac with the Tiger in it on East 2nd Street

And now, another story from the Cadillac with the Tiger in it on East 2nd Street

Alas, the end is near for the Cadillac with the Tiger in it on East 2nd Street

Everything that you wanted to know about the Cadillac with the Tiger in it

Also! The Cadillac with the Tiger in it now has its on website. Find that here.

Imitators already lining up to become the next Cadillac with the Tiger in it

Oh, nice try.

@evgrieve I saw that Audi too...Looks like *someone* prefers sporty imports now. #GoldDigger pic.twitter.com/PNC4F7rzsV

— Pinhead (@evpinhead) June 20, 2014

For the record, we flat-out rejected this proposed series: The Audi R8 V10 With a Tiger in It.

Sample passage:

"Italian White Alba truffles again for dinner. Sigh."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Today (last night) in photos of cars with starting costs of $114k on East 4th Street

And now, stories from the Cadillac with the Tiger in it on East 2nd Street