Saturday, July 23, 2022
July 23
Puke Island returns to Tompkins Square Park
Scheduled to play:
- 2 — The List
- 2:45 — Prostitution
- 3:30 — Skappository
- 4:15 — Iconicide
- 5 — Hell's Teeth
Per the invite: "NONE of the bands performing at this event have ANYTHING to do with one another, other than two simple words: GOOD MUSIC."
You can read more about the history of Puke Island here.
Friday, July 22, 2022
'Face' time
Because Grace Jones was trending on Twitter today (collaboration with Beyoncé) ... here's the video for her 1981 track, "I've Seen That Face Before"...
This part of Avenue A is now officially a dedicated bus lane
As previously noted, parking is no longer allowed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. seven days a week in select corridors on Avenue A and Avenue D in an effort to speed up bus times for the M14.
This is one of the transit improvements the city announced as part of the "Better Buses Restart" campaign in May 2021.
Posted signage along Avenue A lists other additions to bus lanes on the Lower East Side...
Today in grand openings
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Seth Tobocman on the story behind a long-covered mural on 9th Street
Interview and images by Stacie Joy
For 22 years, from 1979 to 2001, 605 E. Ninth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C served as the home to the Charas/El Bohio Community & Cultural Center.
At its peak, it was used by thousands each year, and hosted a wide array of activity: community meetings, children’s programming, art exhibits, music concerts, film screenings, plays, dance recitals, bicycle recycling, construction training, a substance abuse treatment, and political organizing.
Unfortunately, the abandoned building, the onetime P.S. 64, has sat in disrepair for more than 20 years. (See the end of the post for more background.)
Workers recently removed the plywood from the Ninth Street side, revealing artwork from the days leading up to Charas’ eviction in 2001, including a drawing by longtime East Village-based artist-illustrator Seth Tobocman (above).
The art reads:
A 7-year-old drew this picture at a class here at Charas. The boy was upset because he and his family had found the body of a woman who had been decapitated on their doorstep. That was in the 1980s when they called the Lower East Side the warzone. Now all of N.Y.C. is a warzone. The world is a bad neighborhood. We need cultural centers like Charas more than ever to keep our sanity.
We reached out to Tobocman to learn more about the piece and the story he referenced in the painting.
How did it feel to see your recently uncovered work in front of Charas? When we first sent you the image, you expressed surprise at seeing it — it had been under plywood for 20-plus years.
When EV Grieve first contacted me, asking me whether I had a mural at Charas, I said “no” because I had completely forgotten about this project. But when I saw the photograph, I immediately remembered it.
It is strange that this artwork was covered over with plywood to emerge almost intact 20-plus years later like some kind of time capsule, and it makes the past seem close and far away at the same time.
Can you tell us how that work came to be? Why did Charas invite you and other artists to paint the walls outside the building?
We painted these murals — with Charas’ permission — because the building was facing eviction, and this was a form of protest. Our group, World War 3 Arts In Action, was an artist collective formed to provide signs and banners for the protests against the invasion of Iraq. It included Christopher Cardinales, Sharron Kwik, Samantha Wilson, Carlo Quispe, Diane Jarvis, and others.
We volunteered to paint these murals ... We started in the afternoon and continued into the evening. Eventually, the police stopped us saying, “No graffiti!” out of a loudspeaker. We did not consider this to be graffiti because we had Charas’ permission. We complied with the police order to avoid creating an incident that might reflect negatively on Charas.
In 1983, an older community organizer, Fred Siedan, started the art classes at Charas with Lupe Garnica’s nonprofit, Chicana Raza Group of the Performing Arts, acting as an umbrella organization and occasionally providing a very small amount of funding.
A number of artists were concerned about the role of art galleries in gentrifying the Lower East Side. We wanted to find positive ways for artists to work with the community. Eric Drooker and Paula Hewitt Amram had organized a tenant union called Angry NOHO Tenants or ANT.
I was involved in a rent strike in my building. Sabrina Jones was working with a feminist art group called Carnival Knowledge that had studio space in Charas. We all worked on the magazine World War 3 Illustrated and did political postering and stencil graffiti in the neighborhood.
Seidan invited us to teach classes.
He said the real purpose of these art classes was to keep the kids away from the drug operation, which dominated the blocks around Charas. Parents would bring us all their kids, from toddlers to teenagers.
Classes were very orderly because the older kids kept their younger siblings in line. Kids liked the classes so much that sometimes I would be walking through the neighborhood, and a group of children would stop me and ask, “When are we gonna have art class again?”
One day I walked into class and saw this group of very small children sitting in one corner talking quietly to one another. Now that’s unusual, small kids talking quietly. So I listened in. The kids had found the body of a woman who had been decapitated. They were telling each other about this. Trying to describe it. Trying to figure out what it meant.
I was fascinated by their plain but forceful language, without adjectives, value judgments or cliches. One of the kids eventually painted this wild picture of a screamy-faced woman.
At the time, I was trying to do political art, but my real influences were comic books and science fiction illustrations. I really had not found my voice as a writer.
After hearing the kids, I resolved to learn to write the way they talked and to draw the way they drew. The result was an account of my own witness to violence on the streets of New York called “I Saw A Man Bleed To Death,” which was the beginning of the art and writing style most people associate with my work. I owe a lot to those kids.
When was the last time you were inside Charas and what do you hope becomes of the building?
The last time I was in Charas was as part of a protest against the murder of Brad Will. A crowd broke in and held the building for about an hour.
Charas was where the East Village art scene met the Nuyorican art scene, but always on terms set by Puerto Rican community organizers. New York still needs a place like that.
As previously reported, ownership of the property is in transition. In January, Supreme Court Justice Melissa Crane ruled that Madison Realty Capital could move forward with a foreclosure against building landlord Gregg Singer after years of delay.
Madison Realty Capital reportedly provided Singer with a $44 million loan on the property in 2016. Court records show that he failed to repay the balance by its maturity date in April 2016, and by that September, the lender filed to foreclose, as reported by The Real Deal.
Singer bought the property during a city auction in 1998 for $3.15 million. He has wanted to turn the building into a dorm, though those plans never materialized. There has been a call to return the building for community use in years past.
The new East Village location of the Brindle Room set to open next week on 11th Street
Owner Jeremy Spector tells us that they will debut on Wednesday, July 27, with an abbreviated preview menu through Labor Day.
For the first few weeks, he said they'll be open Wednesday through Saturday from 5-11 p.m. ... with expanded hours, days and brunch to come soon.
The Brindle Room, known for its burgers, spent 11 years at 277 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. The restaurant was doing takeout during the early days of the pandemic but stayed shut after the spring of 2020.
Spector vowed to find a new home for The Brindle Room. He had to say about the space at No. 647 earlier this year.
"The place has really cool ceilings, and it's bigger and nicer than my old spot. But most important to me is that it's in the same neighborhood. I'm pretty fired up — it's been two long years."
The previous tenant here, Virginia's, will reopen this fall in the old Root & Bone space on Third Street.
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Wednesday's parting shot
Reader mailbag: Syringe disposal in Tompkins Square Park
Today in Tompkins Square Park I noticed a bin labeled Syringe Disposal/Biohazard near Seventh Street. I couldn’t find any reference online to syringe disposal or needle exchange in the park and wondered if it's "official" or maybe just put there by someone wanting to help out. Do you know anything about it?
We do not know anything about it... does anyone else?
A crowdfunding campaign for Andy Gil, killed by a hit-and-run driver on East Houston Street
Andy lived with his parents and two siblings.
Here's more from Jesus Gil:
Andy was just beginning his adult life. At the young age of only 21 years old, Andy had multiple talents that nourished and grew within him daily.While working full-time at Casa Cipriani as a lobby door ambassador, Andy also focused on creating, producing and managing bold and understated photo shoots and fashion pieces such as clothing and handbags. His ambition and drive to become a successful and hard-working son to provide for our mother and family touched the lives of everyone around him.Andy, being the sweetest and most kind-hearted person he was, threw himself into all of these different projects as a way to provide for our mother. He believed in nothing more that he would one day buy a house for our mother and was even planning a trip to Mexico so that she could see her mom, whom she hasn't seen in decades. He was ultimately the kindest and most gentle family-oriented young man.
Police say Gil was crossing Houston at Forsyth from south to north when he was struck and dragged by a sedan that continued westbound. The driver remains at large.
You can find the GoFundMe link here.
Openings: Dhom on 12th Street
Soulayphet "Phet" Schwader and Nick Bradley, whose credits include Tribeca's Khe-Yo, are behind this Southeast Asian cafe and cocktail bar.
Monday-Wednesday — 11 a.m. to midnight
Thursday-Saturday — 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Sunday — 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Mace, the high-end cocktail bar, left the address in the summer of 2020.
Kura has apparently closed on St. Mark's Place
Photo by Steven
A large for-rent sign now hangs on the gate at 130 St. Mark's Place just west of Avenue A... apparently bringing an end to Kura.
There isn't any official notice of a closure, though the restaurant has been closed during listed business hours and Resy is no longer accepting reservations. (The phone goes unanswered as well.)
The upscale sushi spot opened in early 2013, and its omakase meals and presentation drew praise from The New York Times.
This space has the dubious distinction of housing Tre Scalini, an Italian restaurant that opened and closed in less in two weeks in July 2011.
The 9th Precinct will add bicycle patrols to the East Village
Due to popular demand and as we promised we’ve gotten some of our Officers to be bicycle trained. You will be seeing them patrolling the east village on bicycles. pic.twitter.com/4A065T2Usi
— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) July 16, 2022
The 9th Precinct recently announced that officers will soon be canvassing the East Village on bicycles.
There have been calls to get more officers to patrol their communities via bicycle, such as in this Streetsblog op-ed from last July. Per Jeremy Posner: "Just as NYPD officers are being asked to get out of their cars more often as part of community policing, they should experience cycling on the streets they police."
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Tuesday's parting shot
EVG Etc.: Remembering Hunter Reynolds & Claes Oldenburg; looking at de Blasio's campaign donors
• Remembering Hunter Reynolds, East Village artist and AIDS activist (POZ)
• RIP Claes Oldenburg (CNN ... more background on his LES history at Off the Grid)
• Family looking for answers after murder of Jesse Parrilla (PIX 11 ... previously on EVG)
• Police seek man on e-bike accused of sexually assaulting 2 women in Manhattan early Saturday morning, including a 28 year old on Avenue A and Fourth Street (Westside Rag ... CBS 2 ... ABC 7 ...
• A $95 million lawsuit alleges sexual assault against famed East Village restaurateur Shuji Bon Yagi (The Post)
• City under a heat advisory through tomorrow night (Gothamist ... find a cooling center via this city map)
• De Blasio scores campaign cash for the Congressional District 10 race from subjects of his ethics probes (The City) UPDATE: The former mayor drops out of the race (Axios)
• Displaced Lower East Side Ecology Center heading now to Canarsie (NY1 ... previously on EVG)
• Jesse Malin pays tribute to his longtime friend Howie Pyro (The Village Voice)
• The MTA has put up a want ad for companies seeking to install platform barriers at three stations in the subway system, including the L at Union Square (The City)
• History of Mechanics Alley on the LES (Ephemeral New York)
• More on the Acne Studios handbag ads with the butt shots (The Post ... previously on EVG)
Some 13th Street residents want the fried-chicken smell to stop
Wing Stop, a multinational chain of aviation-themed restaurants specializing in chicken wings, opened here in late April.
A resident who lives behind the fast-food establishment in the A Building at 425 E. 13th St. shared this photo of the Wing Stop's industrial ventilation system, which "is blowing the smell of fried chicken into roughly 50 condominiums."
"We are getting blasted all day, every day," said the resident, who's doing outreach for the building's board. "I've lived here for 14 years — it's literally unbearable."
The resident said the new management at 426 E. 14th St. has not been responsive.
Condo reps have been in touch with the Wing Stop corporate office. (The company is publicly traded, and while many locations are franchises, this location is corporate-owned.)
After multiple calls to the corporate office, the resident received an email from the company in late June:
We appreciate you reaching out to us in regards to our restaurant NY New York — E. 14th Street.We discussed this with our VP of Construction and Operations and we are within our rights per the terms of our lease.We suggest that you reach out to your landlord to discuss your concerns.
The resident and others facing Wing Stop, which has daily hours of 10:30 a.m. to midnight, say they are at a loss over what to do now.
"Since Wing Stop opened, we are unable to use our balconies, open our windows or even use our AC systems because the ongoing smell of fried chicken and/or french fries is blasted directly into our homes," the resident said. "It comes so quickly without warning and continually throughout the day, so there is no way to mask the smell because you don't realize it until it hits you. Then you feel like you're wearing it — it's truly disgusting."
Construction watch: 204 Avenue A
As previously reported, this city-owned property, along with the one at 535 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, will make way for affordable housing.
The project is an income-restricted cooperative with units available to households earning no more than 80% AMI. When the new construction is complete, No. 204 will rise to seven stories, yielding 10 units (8-1BRs & 2-2BRs). There are 11 one-bedroom rental units planned for the 6-story No. 535.
No. 204 and 535, part of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development's Tenant Interim Lease Program, have been vacant since 2008. "Due to deteriorating structural conditions," tenants from both buildings were relocated then.
The former tenants of each building will be able to purchase the co-op units in the newly constructed building at No. 204, which will include ground-floor retail.
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