Thursday, November 2, 2017

Today in sidewalk hazards on St. Mark's Place



There's a report of a major tahini spill outside Holyland Market on St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue, via @ArthurBovino.

So bring your crudités for a healthy dip alternative.
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Out and About in the East Village

In this ongoing feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village or Lower East Side.



By James Maher

Name: Siobhan Meow
Occupation: Anything I could get
Location: Avenue C and Second Street
Date: Friday, Oct 20

In Part 1 last week, Siobhan, a Brooklyn native, discussed how she and several others opened a squat on Avenue C that they called opened a squat called Umbrella House.

We started out with three people, which became six, and then grew quickly once we hooked into the squatter circuit. We had people from all over the world coming and working. At one point it was like the United Nations.

And we were always kind of strict about it — paying dues, whatever you could afford to kick in for materials and stuff, also work days were very important, and then we were pretty tough on no serious drug addictions or anything like that, because that’s a good way to have the building burn down. Now we have two storefronts that pay the going rate and that help us.

I ended up going to Europe for a summer. I was able to because we were so hooked up into the international squat community. I could stay at squats everywhere, and that was really interesting. In Berlin, they actually offered me a space at Köpenicker Squat, which is right over the East German wall. I was there when they had just made the holes in the walls, and we were actually crawling across. It was amazing. I really mourned that culture that survived because I knew what was coming behind it, the American shit capitalism, which ruined it. It was a little time machine back to the 1960s in Eastern Europe. I then ended up on Lake Balaton in Hungary, and that was just beautiful.

I came back and things were starting to really settle in, but like I said it was 17 years before we got heat, we got the boiler in and everything, and didn’t have to rely on stolen electricity anymore. But the neighborhood was beautiful. God I miss it. No cabs would come down here, no tourists, no drunks, only junkies.

The community was really tight. Everybody knew each other, there were lots of really good shops. There were tons of artists here, people of all stripes. Everybody was making art, and there were clubs where you could go to see really good bands. It was more peaceful back them. It was quiet. I can barely walk down the sidewalks anymore, it’s so crowded. They keep building shit buildings here and packing more people in and they do nothing about the infrastructure.

I miss the freedom. I could climb the tower of the Williamsburg Bridge. A friend was making a movie and we threw an effigy of me off the tower, to film someone jumping off the tower, and I walked down the stairs and off the bridge. Even though traffic was stopped nothing happened to me.

I did anything I could get. Since we were working on the house, I was able to get jobs in New Jersey at the scenic design places, which would be preparing the sets, loading them in, loading them out. I was doing fashion shows, movie sets— all kinds of stuff.

Also, I’m very into other species rights as well. I care for a little feral cat who lives in a garden, and I work with city critters helping place cats. I’ve been doing so for awhile. And I have 18 cats. Feeding the cats isn’t a problem, feeding myself is another story.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
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Report: 'Creepy ex' had stalked his one-time girlfriend before killing her on Cooper Square

According to published reports, a jealous one-time boyfriend shot and killed Elizabeth Lee yesterday morning as she docked her Citi Bike near Cooper Union. Lee, a mother of two, was 56.

The man, identified as Vincent Verdi, 62, then shot himself in the face. He is listed in critical condition at Bellevue. (Police originally stated that he had died, as DNAinfo noted.)

Lee worked at the Grace School high school campus at 46 Cooper Square. She often rode a Citi Bike to work on Cooper Square from her Upper East Side apartment.

School officials expressed their grief and offered a few details in a series of tweets yesterday...





As the Daily News reported about Verdi:

He stalked her for months after she dumped him following a failed Match.com romance — leading her to lock in an order of protection that wasn’t enough to keep her alive.

Creepy ex Vincent Verdi was spotted by neighbors peering into Elizabeth Lee-Herman’s Upper East Side building and loitering nearby in an apparent effort to catch her alone.

He was facing stalking charges filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office after he was arrested Oct. 5 for threatening her.

After she broke up with him on July 7, he peppered her with emails and calls to the school where she works, court records show. He sent her chocolate and flowers. He showed up at her dentist appointment on Aug. 10.

Judge Angela Badamo issued the order barring Verdi from contacting Lee-Herman and demanded he turn over all firearms.

He spent seven days in jail and was released Oct. 12, records show.

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Ho Foods coming to 7th Street



Ho Foods, a Taiwan beef noodle soup pop up, is opening a full-time restaurant at 110 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Applicant Richard Ho is on CB3's November SLA commitee agenda for a beer-wine license. This item will not be heard before the committee on Nov. 15, per paperwork on file at the CB3 website.

Ho started his career at Blue Ribbon, where he advanced from waiter to GM of the Columbus Circle location during eight years there. He moved on to pursue his passion for cooking with Ho Foods (per this article).

Ho Foods has taken part in one-night-only events such as the first Dragon Boat Festival back in May with Nom Wah Nolita, among other restaurants.

The smallish Seventh Street space was home to Porchetta until last November.

Meanwhile, you can see some of the Ho Foods menu items via their Instagram account...

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Landmark Bicycles looks closed on Avenue A



Multiple EVG readers have noted that the Landmark Bicycles shop has apparently closed on the corner of Avenue A and Third Street... the storefront is now empty and the gates remain down... all this follows the arrival of clearance signs several weeks ago. There isn't any mention of a closure on Landmark's website or Facebook page.

Landmark first opened in 2008 around the corner on Third Street (where St. Mark's Bookshop later moved) selling vintage bicycles and parts... before relocating to the corner space in late 2012 where the scope of their merchandise expanded to include new bike models and accessories. Landmark opened a location in Williamsburg in the spring of 2012.

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Wednesday, November 1, 2017

An early start on the holidays on St. Mark's Place



These went up yesterday (Halloween!) on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...





These seems about three weeks earlier than usual...
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The horse head moved again, of course, of course

For those of you keeping track ... the concrete horse head bust has been on the move these past few days... from Avenue A and Seventh Street to Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue to Tompkins Square Park.

And now... it's on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue outside the Shape of Lies...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

One EVG commenter noted that the horse head's first appearance was actually here outside the art-jewelry shop.

Where will it end up next?
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Updating: Reports of a shooting on Astor Place


Unconfirmed reports that this happened at the CVS.

The Daily News has a brief report here.

Updating...



8:35 a.m.



8:40 a.m.



9:05 a.m.

Per the Daily Mail: "A woman has been shot in the stomach while parking her CitiBike in Manhattan before the gunman is believed to have then shot himself."

Also:

The woman ... was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries. The gunman was also rushed to hospital and his condition is also believed to be serious.

10:30 a.m.

DNAinfo reports that the police haven't provided further information about the circumstances or motive for the shooting just yet.

DNAinfo also reconstructs what happened via witness accounts:

"He didn't say a word. He shot her in the chest both times. It was point-blank range. Her feet went in the air and she hit the floor," [nearby office worker Jerry] Simo said.

The shooter, then kicked the woman's feet to make sure she was shot, witnesses said.

"Then he put the gun under his chin and finished himself," Simo added.

Cooper Union has issued a series of tweets...





10:45 a.m.

ABC 7 reports that the woman and the man were rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. (The NYPD now says the man is still alive.)

The station reports that the 62-year-old man and the 56-year-old woman were a couple.

11:30 a.m.



11/2

The post continues here with details on the murder victim, Elizabeth Lee.

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1st Avenue fruit vendors pack up for the season


[EVG file photo]

Last night was the last call this season for the fruit-vegetable vendors here on First Avenue and Sixth Street outside Village View ... EVG reader Rainer Turim shared these photos from last night (there was word of a small going-away party) ...





The vendors returned for the season here back in April...
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RIP Richard Hambleton



Richard Hambleton, a street artist who came to prominence in the 1980s East Village, died on Sunday. He was 65. (A cause of death was not mentioned in published reports.)

Here's more from artnet News:

The enigmatic artist burst on the scene alongside a group of confidants and collaborators that included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Kenny Scharf. Hambleton soon became known for his signature “shadowman” motif, a splotched, black, leering figure that appeared on the walls of buildings in downtown Manhattan.

Just as Hambleton’s career took off he started using drugs, including heroin and crack. He relied on the drugs, particularly the heroin, to reach a mental state that he felt helped him depict the sublime. A long battle with addiction would plague him throughout his life.

Hambleton, who most recently was living in an East Village studio, had enjoyed a revival this year. "Shadowman," Oren Jacoby's documentary about his life and work, debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival back in the spring.



Hambleton's work is also part of "Club 57: Film, Performance and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983," an exhibit that opened yesterday at MoMa.

"Right up to his death he was painting," Kristine Woodward of Woodward Gallery told artnet News. "We'd never known anybody who lived to paint the way Richard did, he was just such a dedicated artist, it's all he cared about, he was not a careerist, he just wanted to paint."

There were many tributes to Hambleton on Twitter...








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Happy No. 50 to the cube of Astor Place


[Photo from November 2016 by Peter Brownscombe]

The Alamo officially turns 50 today on Astor Place.

Some cube history via the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP):

On November 1, 1967, an 8′ x 8′ x 8′ 1,800-pound giant black cube was installed in Astor Place as one of 25 temporary public artworks by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. However, it was so popular that local residents petitioned the City to keep it, and except for its absences for restorations over the past few years, it has stood there ever since.

Bernard “Tony” Rosenthal’s sculpture was originally named “Sculpture and the Environment,” but was eventually renamed The Alamo by his wife, Cynthia Rosenthal, because its size and mass reminded her of the famous Alamo Mission in San Antonio.

GVSHP and the Village Alliance are hosting a birthday party today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can do things like make your own cube from origami, eat birthday cake and take part in 50 continuous minutes of spinning the cube in an attempt to break the record and raise money for the GO Project. Find more details here.

Signing off with one little piece of recent cube history — that time in October 2011 when Agata Olek yarn bombed the thing...


[Photo by EVG reader Anne]
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Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Tuesday's parting shots



Halloween at Ray's Candy Store on Avenue A... photos by Lola Sāenz ...



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Con Ed hosting public meeting to discuss cleanup plans for former Gas House District


[East 20th Street looking east toward 1st Avenue in 1938 via]

As you might know, the current home of Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village was once the Gas House District in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The area was named for the Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) stations and facilities that converted coal and oil into gas. Con Ed and its predecessors ran the stations. (Read more background here and here.)

Here's a map circa 1897 showing the area when Avenue A (yellow arrow) and Avenue B (blue arrow) crossed north of 14th Street. (Threw in a black arrow for Avenue C too.)


[Click for more detail]

As Ephemeral New York has posted, by the 1930s, most of the storage tanks were gone.

Soon, it was deemed the perfect place to put Met Life’s new middle-class housing developments, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

In 1945, 3,000 families were moved out of the Gas House District ...

Per reports in Town & Village (here), Con Ed has been testing and looking for contaminants in the ground, groundwater and air in recent years. (The State Department of Environmental Conservation and the State Department of Health are reportedly coordinating the testing.)

From Town & Village on Oct. 19:

According to the study’s findings from investigations in 2006 and 2008, contaminants were found, but located deep in the ground (at least five feet) with most even lower, and in groundwater beneath the site, though that water is not used for drinking. MGP residential levels tested in the air indoors were found to be typical. Outdoor air samples collected were also found to be normal for an urban area. Because of this, Con Ed said in an advisory this week that it’s unlikely people will come into contact with these contaminants, though air monitoring will continue.

Still, the company is now proposing a “remediation” (cleanup) plan for the site that involves, among other things, the placement of wells.


The Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association and Con Edison are holding a public meeting tomorrow night at 7 to discuss the cleanup plans. The meeting is at Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s Podell Auditorium in the Bernstein Building, 10 Perlman Place, one block west of First Avenue between 15th Street and 16th Street.

In addition, the State Department of Environmental Conservation is accepting public comments in writing Nov. 10. You may submit those to Douglas MacNeal, project manager at the DEC, at douglas.macneal@dec.ny.gov or 625 Broadway, Albany, NY, 12233.

Con Ed has more posted more documents and background here.
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The roving horse head continues to rove


[Photo from Oct. 21 by Derek Berg]

As noted on Sunday, the (quite heavy) concrete horse head bust outside Bonefade Barbers on Avenue A near Seventh Street was roaming around the neighborhood... having made it to Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue, where it remained yesterday...


[Photo by Steven]

... and today, the horse head is in Tompkins Square Park...


[Photo by Grant Shaffer]

Looks like we got a runner...
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HiFi’s last stand


[HiFi's Mike Stuto]

On Oct. 18, Mike Stuto, the co-owner of the HiFi on Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street, announced that the bar would close at the end of October after 15 years. HiFi closed after service on Sunday.

In a letter posted on his Facebook page, Stuto said that business had been off, noting that the weekend bar crowd was "mostly indifferent to the place." He also stressed that the closure had nothing to do with the landlord, a management company that he said has been "ideal ... in pretty much every sense of the word."

The bar opened in 2002, after a 13-year run as the rock club Brownies, where Stuto started booking shows in 1994.

-----

Text and photos by Dan Efram

After 23 years, the Mike Stuto-helmed bar HiFi (previously Brownies) has closed its doors for the last time. Stuto, who fostered community and literal harmony, set up one last hurrah this past Thursday with its popular series "Under Your Influence," a monthly live-music tribute. Thursday evening's show was titled "The Final Chapter: Tom Petty."

"Mike Stuto has always a strong advocate for bands/acts he likes," relays Dave Foster, who, along with Adam Rubenstein, John Brodeur and Mike Fornatale, co-produced this specific "Under Your Influence" show. "From back when it was Brownies he put my band Bubble on bills with acts I'm still friendly with… to HiFi where it’s been a musical home away from home for a lot of the NYC indie music folks. The quality was always top notch."

Some of the featured singers on the final tribute night included Gabrielle Sterbenz (Wheatus), Travis Morrison (of The Dismemberment Plan), Beth Wawerna (Bird of Youth), Matt Keating, John Brodeur (Bird Streets), Don Piper (A Don Piper Situation); Rembert Block, Erica Smith, Lizzie Edwards (Murderer’s Row); Steve Shiffman (The Land of No), Freedy Johnston, Dave Derby (Gramercy Arms), Graham Norwood, Tony Zajkowski (Lotion), Richie Birkenhead (Youth of Today, Into Another), and Adam Rubenstein, among many others.


[Adam Rubenstein, Jeff Litman, Gabrielle Sterbenz]


[Joanna Choy]


[Travis Morrison]


[Jeff Litman and Gabrielle Sterbenz]


[Matt Keating with Murderer's Row]




[Don Piper, singer, songwriter and longtime live sound engineer]



"Most of us have so many wonderful memories playing Brownies," says guitarist and original Under Your Influence instigator Adam Rubenstein. "Our shared fondness of that place and Stuto made every Under Your Influence feel like a reunion of old friends. I will miss it."



Previously on EV Grieve:
The HiFi Bar, home of NYC's best jukebox, is closing at the end of the month
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4 East Village restaurants earn Michelin stars


[Ko photo from August]

Michelin announced its 2018 Starred Selections for New York City restaurants yesterday ... for the 13th edition of the "Michelin Guide New York City."

Four East Village restaurants are on the list of selections:

Two Stars, "excellent cooking, worth a detour"
• Momofuku Ko, 8 Extra Place

One Star, "high quality cooking, worth a stop"
• Jewel Bako, 239 E. Fifth St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square

• Kanoyama, 175 Second Ave. at 11th Street

• Kyo Ya, 94 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue

Eater reports that Cagen, 414 E. Ninth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue, was dropped from the list.

In summation, the 2018 NYC selections include:
• 5 restaurants with three stars
• 11 restaurants with two stars
• 56 restaurants with one star
• 127 restaurants with a Bib Gourmand (13 East Village restaurants made this list)
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Hitchcocktober concludes tonight with 'Psycho'



Hitchcocktober comes to end this Halloween night at the Village East Cinema on Second Avenue and 12th Street with a screening of "Psycho" at 8.

A boy's best friend is his mother...



You can buy advance tickets here.
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Report: Cabaret law to be repealed today; they'll be swinging, swaying, records playing

City Council today is expected to repeal the 91-year-old cabaret law that prevents people from dancing at the majority of city bars and restaurants.

City Councilmember Rafael Espinal from Brooklyn introduced the repeal bill earlier this year. "It’s over for the cabaret law," said Espinal, who also introduced the city's Office of Nightlife with a yet-to-be-appointed Night Mayor.

Some background via The New York Times:

In New York City, only 97 out of roughly 25,000 eating and drinking establishments have a cabaret license. Obtaining one is costly and time-consuming, requiring the approval of several agencies, and only businesses in areas zoned for commercial manufacturing are eligible.

And!

The Cabaret Law was enacted in 1926. It made it illegal to host “musical entertainment, singing, dancing or other form of amusement” without a license. The law is widely believed to have originally been used to target racially mixed jazz clubs in Harlem, but it was broadly applied. Music was not permitted at unlicensed bars at all until 1936, when the law was amended to allow radio- and piano-playing. The same year, operators of a ship that had taken men from the Bowery Mission on a day cruise were fined for running an unlicensed cabaret because a tap dancer was on board.

Updated 6:30 a.m.

Unsolicited statement via the EVG inbox...

When asked about the repeal of the NYC Cabaret Law, Gerard McNamee, former executive vice president of community affairs and special operations at Webster Hall and now candidate for Senior Executive Director of Nightlife for New York City declared, "The cabaret laws have been the bane of Gotham proprietors and revelers alike since the days of prohibition. It's a long time coming, let’s dance! Congratulations New York City."
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Monday, October 30, 2017

Monday's parting shot



11th Street near Avenue C via Vinny & O...
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East Village subs for the Forest Moon of Endor in Halloween speeder video


[Image via @jessewelle]

As mentioned yesterday, Casey Neistat, Jesse Wellens and crew filmed around the East Village — and other parts of the city — for a "Return of the Jedi"-Speeder Bike Chase video for Halloween.

They released the video today ...


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