Stacie Joy took these photos during a trip to MoRUS this past weekend...
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space is at 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
Friday, December 18, 2020
A holiday market this weekend at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space on Avenue C
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Thursday's parting shots
Sanitation worker spares snowman's life on 7th Street!
This afternoon, Goggla spotted a city snow plow making its way along the block:
I watched the snow plow head down the block and fully expected it to wipe out the snowman and was prepared to witness its death. To my surprise, the plow swerved out of the way and you can hear the sanitation worker shout, "Gotta save the snowman, y'know!"
Watch for yourself...
Grant Shaffer's NY See
Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood and NYC...
2 scenes from Winter Storm Gail in black and white
The top photo is looking south on Broadway at 14th Street, 2:24 a.m. Long exposure, low angle, shot from the street.
And below, the Alamo at Astor Place, 2:36 a.m. ... (click on the images to go big!)...
The snowpeople of 7th Street
A post-storm look at East Village curbside dining
In a snow alert situation, restaurants are required to secure their furniture, remove electric heaters from the road, and remove overhead coverings, if possible. Restaurants don’t, however, need to remove any structures or barriers this time around.It's possible that restaurants will be able to resume roadside dining this evening at the earliest.
The city recently imposed more guidelines on restaurants, such as requiring that streetside barriers being filled with 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of sand or soil.
And the structures, many of them quite elaborate, looked to have made it through Winter Storm Gale...
... and even some of the less-sturdy-looking structures along St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue seemed to fare OK...
The next question is whether NYC bars-restaurants will be able to survive winter with a ban on indoor dining, reluctance on behalf of patrons to eat outside in cold weather and other ever-changing restrictions that will make staying open extremely difficult, owners and operators have said.
Restaurant industry officials point to the state's own data showing that restaurants and bars made up 1.4 percent of COVID-19 cases in the last three months, compared to private gatherings, which constituted nearly 74 percent.
11 p.m. in the East Village, and scenes from Winter Storm Gail
Forecasts for final snow totals range from 8-12 inches to a Jake Gyllenhaal/"The Day After Tomorrow"-type event ... we'll have more on the particulars in one of the 78 upcoming snow posts this morning.
Meanwhile, EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared these photos from a stroll around the neighborhood last night at 11...
... and in Tompkins Square Park...
Report of a small fire inside the empty P.S. 64 building on 9th Street
The fire was said to be contained to the southeast wing. No word on the cause, such as if a squatter was inside the former school.
EVG reader Alta Tseng
shared the top photo and this video clip...
Developer Gregg Singer, who bought the property from the city during an auction in 1998, has wanted to turn the building into a dorm called University Square. The DOB continues to maintain a Stop Work Order — dating to August 2015 — on the property.
In years past several local elected officials, community activists and residents have asked for the return of the building for community use. The building became the Charas/El Bohio Community Center after the school left in 1977. The group was eventually evicted when Singer took over as the landlord. It has sat empty these past 20-plus years, causing locals to be concerned about its crumbling façade.
H/T Eden and Steven!
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
And we're off...
Gallery Watch: In the Woods by Sally Saul at Rachel Uffner Gallery
Text and photos by Clare Gemima
Rachel Uffner Gallery, 170 Suffolk St.
In the Woods showcases a packed room and a half of new ceramic sculptures created with a sense of humor, anxiety and down-to-earthness from Sally Saul in her second solo show at Rachel Uffner Gallery.
The array of sculptures within the space play and interact with our senses of familiarity and comfort while also introducing us to a "new normal." A new struggle, a new challenge, a new moment and a new movement. This show forces us to understand that one way to deal with this shitshow of a pandemic is well, to embrace it. (While wearing a mask, please).
During the last several months of living amidst the coronavirus and its subsequent social sorrows, Saul (married to the incredible Peter Saul) reflects on this confusing but unavoidable new world through her detailed expressions and use of finer details as a ceramicist. The work to me almost felt like a personal chronicling of the artists' time in lockdown, a documentation of pandemic experiences and a tribute to the American lives lost.
Sally Saul consistently incorporates the everyday into her sculptural practice, and this time is no different. At In the Woods, we get to surround ourselves with her forest of birds, flowers and the natural world too, which we can understand as her refuge over the course of this work being created.
Taking time to find enjoyment in the smaller pleasures, Saul's sculpture garden at Rachel Uffner Gallery remains light-hearted but is also question-provoking owing to its sophisticated documentative style.
Will artists who are alive in 2020 continue to make reference to the pandemic we currently occupy? Will self-portraits include protective gear as political or apolitical symbolism? What sort of art history are we forming or moving away from?
But forgetting about all of the more serious stuff, the works bulky form and playful undertones are also cause for a much deserved and maybe overdue giggle. This show has all of the right ingredients in it to make you forget about the weight of the world ... just for a moment.
In the Woods is showing at Rachel Uffner Gallery until Jan. 30.
Clare Gemima is a visual artist from New Zealand. New-ish to the East Village, she spends her time as an artist assistant and gallery go-er, hungry to explore what's happening in her local art world. You can find her work here: claregemima.com
NY AG: Madison Realty Capital to pay more than $1 million for victims of fraud and tenant harassment
The legal fallout from Raphael (Rafi) Toledano's brief yet soul-crushing stint as an East Village landlord continues.
Yesterday, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced an agreement that secures more than $1 million in rent credits for harassed tenants and provides housing placements for 10 homeless families.
The agreement with private equity firm Madison Realty Capital comes after James found that the company aided and abetted tenant harassment and other fraud by Toledano.
"Today's agreement stands up for all the tenants harassed and pushed out of their homes by a fraudulent landlord and the lender that financed his unlawful operation," James said in a statement. "Madison Realty Capital aided one of our city's worst landlords in his unlawful scheme, but we're holding the company to account and delivering real relief to the many victims through rent credits and housing placement."
Here's more of the background and current narrative via the AG's office:
With the financial backing of Madison Realty Capital, Toledano harassed tenants through coercive buyouts; executed illegal construction practices; and failed to provide tenants with utilities, repairs, and other necessary services.
Even with this track record, in 2015, Madison Realty loaned Toledano over $100 million to purchase a 15-building portfolio in the East Village, despite his limited experience in managing a portfolio of this size, evidence of prior tenant harassment, and plans to continue to vacate rent-stabilized tenants and renovate units in violation of law.
Attorney General James’ investigation found that Madison Realty Capital knew or should have known of Toledano’s history, that the proposed conversions were unlawful, and that the aggressive schedule for buyouts and renovations was likely to result in tenant harassment.
As a result of the loan that allowed Toledano to take over management of the East Village Properties, Toledano did exactly that — harassing hundreds of tenants, engaging in dangerous construction practices, and failing to provide basic services. In March 2017, the East Village properties filed for bankruptcy.
Under the terms of this agreement — which also resolves claims filed against Toledano’s former business entities in New York bankruptcy court — Madison Realty Capital must now take ownership of the 15 buildings in the East Village portfolio subject to $1.05 million in rent credits.
These rent credits will be shared among the remaining tenants who suffered through Toledano’s mismanagement of these properties. The owners of the buildings will also ensure placement of 10 formerly-homeless families and will adhere to tenant health and safety protections during construction there.
Under the settlement agreement with the AG's office, Madison wasn't required to admit wrongdoing.
"We are pleased to have resolved this matter without admitting or denying any of the allegations raised, and will continue to work with the tenants and community stakeholders to continue to improve the buildings and bring positive change to the community," a spokesperson for Madison said in a statement obtained by The Real Deal.
In June 2019, James announced a settlement with Toledano to put an end to his harassment of tenants and to prevent him from engaging in speculative real-estate deals designed to profit by violating New York's rent-stabilization laws.
In previous years, Toledano purchased 28 buildings in two separate portfolios from the Tabak family for a total of $140 million. Experienced real-estate players raised red flags about Toledano's heavy reliance on debt.
In an interview with The Real Deal in June 2016, Toledano, then 26, made "frat-tastic boasts about his wealth," including: "I’m worth a fuckload of money, bro."
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Tenants call out Madison Realty Capital: Stop warehousing rent-regulated apartments
• Report: Raphael Toledano files for Chapter 11; $145 million deal for EV portfolio is off the table
Workers clear lot ahead of new-building construction on 6th Street and Avenue C
Workers have chopped down the three trees in the long-vacant lot on the northeast corner of Avenue C and Sixth Street... ahead of new-building construction here.
As we first reported on Oct. 19, there are approved permits for a 6-floor building with 11 residential units, a storefront and space for an unspecified community facility.
There has been development talk for this lot dating to 2003. A former gas station, this corner has been vacant since the early 1980s.
The rendering shows an aggressive fall 2021 completion date.
Speaking of the rendering, someone has let his or her feelings be known about the project...
Previously on EV Grieve:
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