Truthful liar

Playing at CBGB From Ulli Lommel's 1980 movie "Blank Generation." For the Vans advertising team.

Did it seem like a lot of people were moving this past weekend?

[East 11th Street Saturday night. Photo by Shawn Chittle]

Of course it's commonplace to see people moving (in or out) at the end of a month... But this month seemed like more than usual... on Saturday morning, during a short walk, I counted 11 moving trucks/vans/station wagons in just a few blocks... anyone else notice more people coming and going...?

Week in Grieview

[As seen at El Camion]

Posts this week included...

• RIP Ali Yasin (Tuesday)

• RIP George Eshareturi (Thursday)

• Gem Spa will not reopen (Thursday)

• Investigation for excessive force demanded after social-distancing arrests on Avenue D (Monday) ... Caravan protest on Avenue C addresses racial bias and police violence in social-distancing arrests (Friday)

• A rooftop musical salute to frontline workers (Friday)

• A visit to Juicy Lucy on Avenue A (Wednesday)

• Now that the L-train tunnel work is complete, here's what to expect along 14th Street (Monday)

• Making beautiful music: The pandemic-era arias coming from 4th Street (Thursday)

• Checking in on Brooklyn Bean Roastery (Monday)

• Checking in on East Village Meat Market (Tuesday)

• The ballfields are currently locked up in Tompkins Square Park (Monday)

• Help Limited to One stay on their feet with these limited-edition Vans (Tuesday)

• This week's NY See (Thursday)

• Asian Taste is back open (Monday)

• Construction watch: 799 Broadway (Wednesday)

• The East Village Social Distancing All-Stars (Friday)

• A Cool collab (Tuesday)

• Ruffian Wine Bar now selling bottles of wine to go (Tuesday)

• A sign of things to come? (Tuesday)

• Demolition watch: 535 E. 12th St. (Thursday)

• Temakase Hand Roll Bar coming soon to 2nd Avenue (Wednesday)

... and a flashback to Thursday's sunrise...



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The most quiet that I can ever remember St. Mark’s Place... can hear the wind thrumming through the trees between 2nd Avenue & 3rd Avenue (looking to the west)... #eastvillage #stmarksplace #thrumming

A post shared by EV Grieve (@evgrieve) on May 9, 2020 at 6:54am PDT

Report: May Day march through East Village leads to several arrests

[Via EVG friend Heidi on Facebook]

May Day began around 9 a.m. ... as the NYPD arrived at Tompkins Square Park... ahead of the march to Union Square that was to commemorate International Worker's Day.

By 1 p.m., per those in Tompkins Square Park, about 100-125 people had peacefully gathered for the rally...



According to accounts in The New York Times and on Gothamist, the group started walking north on Avenue A around 2 p.m. ... when we received these photos from a tipster showing people heading east down East 11th Street...





Per Colin Moynihan at the Times:

At 11th Street, the marchers suddenly turned east and began running in the roadway, some of them brandishing red and black flags. The police gave chase. At Avenue C and 12th Street, an officer tried to grab a black banner with the words “Never Work” from a man, who scrambled away.

Several people taking part in the rally were reportedly arrested here.

The group reassembled and continued to East 14th Street, where they turned to keep going toward Union Square...

At Second Avenue, the crowd turned north and a moment later a police commander wearing a white shirt began moving briskly toward a young man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and walking on the sidewalk.

Then more than a dozen other officers, some uniformed and others in plain clothes, plunged into the crowd of marchers, grabbing and arresting at least three additional protesters, shoving others against a wall and pushing news photographers.

Gothamist captured part of this scene on video:



According to Gothamist, the group, "followed by at least 100 NYPD officers on scooters, in vans, and on foot, then marched to Union Square without incident."

Read the Gothamist story here. Find the Times article here.

Depending on the source, either five or six people were arrested.

Throughout the rest of the day, many people noted the presence of helicopters buzzing about the neighborhood...

Reader report: Mysterious late-night activity at the former Cabrini Center

[Bobby Williams]

As you know, work continues on converting the former Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation into residential apartments on Avenue B and East Street via developer Ben Shaoul.

Meanwhile, a tipster notes some late-night activity behind the building, where the construction staging is taking place. The tipster notes that construction usually takes place between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. (and with permit, on Saturdays). Recently though, a few workers returned at 8-9 p.m. Now, a few more developments have made our tipster curious.

To the tipster:

To begin, they've covered the gate with plastic sheets (perhaps to keep out the wind) but also obscuring the site from any onlookers from outside on the street.

Of more interest though, there have also been several unmarked white vans after hours. Most suspicious was [Tuesday night], because this was the latest and largest vehicle I've seen yet. I heard the bang of the truck gate opening at 2:30 am.
There was a large unmarked white truck with a few non-uniformed men in dark clothes.
There was also a red truck and a beige minivan — one of the vehicles belonging to a man in a white shirt.

They were in and out in less than half an hour quickly moving garbage bags. This is odd because there is a large dumpster right beside the truck that could have been used or a garbage disposal service could have been hired. Perhaps it's just my imagination and there is nothing to hide and its merely waste materials that need to be specially delivered to the dump. Yet its still suspicious that they would do this after hours — especially after midnight.

Any theories...?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cabrini Center patients out by the end of today; closes for good June 30

Hotel Toshi vans make an appearance on 10th Street

An EV Grieve reader passes along these photos from the new Hotel Toshi location at 325 E. 10th St. ... I also hear some neighbors have reached out to the DOB about the legality of a hotel at this address.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Hotel Toshi takes over 325 E. 10th St.

Noted

Thanks to the tipster who pointed out an item that I had missed Friday: American Apparel is laying off hundreds of employees. We linked to a piece a few weeks back that claimed American Apparel was hiring.

Meanwhile! I didn't realize AA had vans. Do they deliver?

Bloomberg boombox

Per Dave on 7th: NYPD vans on Avenue C equipped with speakers telling Zone A residents that they face a misdemeanor of some sort if they don't evacuate...

Reader report: Flood causes damage to under-renovation 315 E. 10th St.

Neighbors were buzzing about the under-renovation 315 E. 10th St. last week... Jose Garcia tells us about the following that neighbors said happened last Wednesday...

"Just as they were putting the finishing touches on 315, there was a flood that apparently did a good amount of water damage on multiple floors to several of their brand new apartments. There were all kinds of cleaning-service vans around ..."

No word from the workers on the extent of the flood damage.

As you'll recall, the city OK'd a one-floor rooftop addition here in January hours before the Landmarks Preservation Committee approved the East 10th Street Historic District.

Developer Ben Shaoul has been converting the building from nonprofit use to residential.

Previously.

[Photos by Bobby Williams]

Paint splattering van vandals strike again

Back in January, we noted the above on East Seventh Street near Avenue A... at the time, we weren't sure if it was some kind of van-owner-created art... or vandalism. (Turned out to be vandalism, or whatever you'd like to call throwing paint bombs at vans.)

Fast-forward to yesterday... a resident reports the following...

"This is my van and I found the lovely work this morning. Odd thing is that I moved the van into that spot at 4:30 am and didn't notice it when I left on foot at 11 am."

The resident discovered the splatter upon returning three hours later.

"The paint was still warm and came off a bit when I came back at 2:15 pm. The police [officer] said he noticed it earlier and was wondering if that was intentional. (Ha! No.)

Such a pain in the ass."

Space for Target now stumping for Vans

At Avenue A and St. Mark's Place.

May!



Today!



Previously on EV Grieve:
Goodbye yellow brick ad

Game over for Kobe Bryant video game ad on Avenue A

So, you know, back in the fall, we devoted a few hundred several posts to Chico's "spay/neuter" mural on Avenue A near 12th Street that was painted over for a Kobe Bryant video game ad.



Anyway, last week, workers painted over the Kobe ad...




So what will we see next on the wall? I'm going with a Vans ad.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Kobe Bryant's slam chunk

Searching for the truth about the cats and dogs mural on Avenue A

Sunday morning around Union Square

Yesterday's peaceful protests turned chaotic in the late-night hours as demonstrators set fire to nearly a dozen NYPD vehicles around Union Square... it marked the end of the third day of protests against racist police violence in the aftermath of George Floyd's death Monday in Minneapolis.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy surveyed the scene this morning around Union Square, including on University Place where many of the police vehicles — specifically the Homeless Outreach vans — had been parked.

Report: Relief supplies for Ukraine stolen from 2nd Avenue nonprofit

Updated 3/19: The Post published a surveillance video showing two vans and masked thieves taking boxes from the building.

Donations destined for Ukraine have been stolen from an East Village building, according to police and media sources.

The supplies, including 400 bulletproof vests, were taken from the offices of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Ukrainian National Women's League of America on Second Avenue between 12th Street and 13th Street. 

Police responded around 9:15 a.m. to a call of a burglary, the Associated Press reported. 

Per the AP via ABC 7: 

Andrij Dobriansky, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, said last week that the plan was for donated gear to be shipped by air to Poland and then transported into Ukraine. 

The items were most likely to be used by civilian security and medical teams, including citizens who have joined the fight against the Russian military, not Ukrainian soldiers themselves, officials said. 

The Post noted that the used vests were donated by the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office. Officials there were working to confirm the report.

Hopper Lives ... in Open Road Park

The folks at NYC Streets & Eats sent us this shot of the Hopper Lives Vans ad going up in Open Road Park off of East 12th Street...Scoboco also passed along a link to this short film about the painters who bring ads like this to life...

UP THERE from Jon on Vimeo.

And a close-up of the Dennis Hopper ad...

Ad of the day

On West Broadway. Just one of the four icons that Vans has chosen for this new campaign. Oh, and Motörhead's new album is out today.

Why the East Village will be remembered for the Great Winter of 2010-2011

Yesterday, courtesy of RyanAvenueA, we learned about a sinkhole and an Icicle Audi on Second Street...

Gothamist has more on the story ... As they note, the car has come to symbolize the Great Arctic Blast of Jan. 24, 2011©. Gothamist spotted three news vans parked on that block this morning.

Meanwhile, CBS 2 tracks down the car's owner, who has the right attitude about material possessions: “It could be worse like if that was me or a family member covered in ice that wouldn’t be good; so it’s all relative.” (A leaky pipe under the street caused this, per CBS 2.)

(Photo/Steve Sandberg)

The Icicle Audi is the latest East Village ride to become an Icon for the Great Winter of 2010-2011©. Our bike, which we never really named.