As of 8:16 a.m. We didn't stick around to watch...
…and moments before the trucks arrived...
Previously on EV Grieve:
UGH: Bendy tree in Tompkins Square Park has been condemned
Owner Nino Camaj, however, denied most of the allegations. He said there were no mice in the restaurant and that the inspector overstated the number of flies observed.
“This place is the cleanest place in New York City. I tell the truth,” said Camaj, who has owned the pizzeria for 27 years.
Camaj said there were only two or three flies in the pizzeria when the inspector visited Monday and that they came from Tompkins Square Park across the street.
“Every time the door opens, you see a fly come in and out,” he said.
I've been in my rent-stabilized apartment for about 15 years now. The first day of move-in I became immediately and seriously ill with flu-like symptoms. I was diagnosed with asthma, which I never had before.
In the first or second winter (I cannot remember) we realized that there was a serious roof leak that led directly to our bedroom ceiling. Anytime snow melted on the roof, we'd get the leak.
By 2005, it was sort of "fixed" but again, whenever the show or rains were serious, we'd get the leak.
A few years ago, while making the bed, I leaned my hand against the wall where the leak was. It collapsed into a hole about the size of a human head. I covered it immediately with duct tape, in several layers, because the smell of mold was so bad.
I've told my landlord about the problem in writing several times as well as over the phone. He refuses to fix it or even look at it. Neither he nor the super will help me.
Because I am constantly behind in rent (I've not been fully employed as an editor since 2010), I have not pursued the matter. While I'm currently making some strides in paying back rent thanks to eBay, I'm always in the hole for at least $2K...and I'm running out of stuff to sell.
I'm broke. I have no money or resources to move. I went through my 401(k) and savings paying for rent years ago. No health insurance now. No social services of any kind ... and no family to help.
What can someone like me do? I have no legal representation. I'm afraid that the expense of a gut renovation in this unit will force the rent beyond the current $1,630. I cannot afford a penny more. What I'd love would be to go to court and seek an abatement for the use of my bedroom for the past however many years and apply that money to the money owed as well as removal of the mold (or cleaning) and new sheetrock.
Currently, I'm thinking of moving the bedroom into the living room and closing off the bedroom and then calling the inspector. Is this the best solution to both solve the problem while keeping me in my home? I really have no other place to go.
Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) is hosting its 3rd annual Harvest Arts Festival this weekend — a celebration of the arts, community gardens and Loisaida.
On Saturday, 30-plus community gardens throughout the East Village and Lower East Side are hosting performances in music, dance, poetry, comedy, spoken word, the arts, environmental workshops and teach-ins, and more.
On Sunday, the Festival gets on its feet as gardeners march together in the People's Climate March en masse.
Find all the info right here.
Mogador is, arguably, the truest culinary expression of what was once called a modern East Village restaurant. It's hip, laid back, and older than it seems (it opened in 1983), but it's also vibrant.
The menu is more relaxed than Goat Town's, with a strong emphasis on pizza, and some ingredients still coming from the backyard. Pies include the "Ev Greenery", which is topped with greens, lamb chorizo, sauce vert, grano padano, cherry tomatoes and pickled red onion. There is also a clam pie with three varieties of bivalves on it and a pie topped with morcilla and ricotta. Slices of two pies are available daily for around $4 at lunch.
The East Village Eye Archive, in conjunction with Printed Matter, Inc., presents the First "Officially Sanctioned" Back Issue Selloff, in which selected copies of the East Village Eye magazine will be put on sale to the public ... as well as several fabulous t-shirt designs sporting historical East Village Eye covers.
East Village Eye was a monthly magazine that produced 72 issues from 1979 through 1987, focusing on the music, art, film, words, performance and social movements of the era, much of which was being made in the neighborhood it called home. The magazine is known today for its uncanny and prescient sense of culture´s evolution and direction, fluidly moving between the street, the avant-garde and the world at large.
To mark this big selloff event, we are presenting a mini-symposium entitled “How Hip Hop Came Downtown,” covering the process in which members of New York’s media and fine art communities brought rap music, graffiti art and breakdancing from the inner-city ghettos to a wider audience that has since spread across the world. Leading this discussion will be Eye publisher/editor Leonard Abrams, scholar Yazmin Ramirez, musician and multimedia artist Michael Holman, and Fab 5 Freddy.
THE OWNER OF THE BUILDING LIED TO THE CITY CLAIMING THE BUILDING WAS EMPTY IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A PERMIT TO DO CONSTRUCTION ILLEGALLY. THERE ARE 7 TENANTS STILL LIVING INSIDE THE BUILDING.
CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ARE CONSTRUCTING LUXURY APTS INSTEAD OF NECESSARY REPARS., NO TENANT PROTECTION PLAN FOR ALT
Tonight, 4 – 8 pm: Banner and Puppet Making for People's Climate March
@ La Plaza Community Garden, (9th St & Ave C)
Bring paints, props, and food to share as we make ecological puppets and props in our green space for the upcoming People’s Climate March and Ride.
Friday, 4 – 8 pm: Sign and Patch Making for People’s Climate March
@ Loisaida Harvest Festival; La Plaza Community Garden
Join in the festivities of the Loisaida Harvest Festival and make signs and patches for the People’s Climate March and Ride.
Saturday, noon – 2 pm: FREE Lower East Side Sustainable Community & Garden Walking Tour
@ At MoRUS
The Lower East Side has the highest concentration of community gardens and squats of any neighborhood in the country. Come explore these sustainable buildings and spaces on this one-of-a-kind, full-access walking tour.
Saturday, 6:15 pm: Presentation on the History of Grassroots Environmental Activism in New York City
@ At MoRUS
Come learn how sustainable grassroots community projects have ignited social change and policy change in NYC. Hear about different sustainable subjects, like how community bicycle activism changed the whole city to a more safe and sustainable design with bike-lanes, auto-free plazas and greenways. Hosted by the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space featuring a conversation and video screening by Wendy Brawer of Green Maps and Bill DiPaola of Time’s Up Environmental Organization.
Prices start from more than $7 million for a two-bedroom, half-floor apartment, while the full-floor units on the 30th and 31st floors will be more expensive, naturally. The penthouse, which takes up the whole 32nd floor plus a roodtop deck, will be "in the twenties."
@evgrieve There's a tiny hole on Avenue A and 7th. pic.twitter.com/XAU2BlNSea
— Eden Brower (@edenbrower) September 17, 2014
“The building is in terrible shape. There’s no heat, Jay lives in just a small area of the building, another winter is coming, and it was time,” said Mr. Rosen, who spent six months cajoling Mr. Maisel into selling the home. “When you own a property for that long, and you are not a real estate professional, it takes a lot of convincing.”
Mr. Rosen, who has yet to close on the purchase and declined to reveal the price, said the building could be converted for retailing at the base with condominiums above, or possibly offices or even an art gallery.
Name: Mike Schweinsburg
Occupation: Community Activist
Location: Tompkins Square Park, East Eighth Street and Avenue B
Time: 3:20 on Thursday, Sept. 11
I was born in San Francisco and raised in Buffalo, from where I escaped when I was 16. Came here to New York City. Since then, I’ve lived and worked all over this country, Europe and Africa. And every location I went to, I always came back to New York.
It was a New York interruption. When I finished with one career or endeavor then I’d come back to New York. You would think it was pursuing a career, but no. I’ve been involved in real estate, broadcasting, international shipping and trading, food supply, transportation, temporary employment services, and then I said, "Mike, what is the matter with you? Why can’t you just grab ahold of one of these things?" This was around 1995.
So I had to examine where I was at. I realized that sadly all my family was dead, so there was no one whose expectations I had to live up to. Not going to have any children, so I don’t have to amass a fortune, leave an inheritance, fund a college education or a wedding. I was really free, so I decided one day to do whatever it was I wanted to do. I realized that the only common thread to all those sort of endeavors was that one way or the other, each of them exposed me to some form of social injustice, and so I wanted to help do something about that. I wanted to help create change. I wanted to make a difference.
So then I became a full-time activist — first with the Anti-Violence Project. Now at the time I believed that all politics was bullshit and all politicians were bullshit. But I was very close with the executive director of AVP and her partner. One day she came to me and said, "Mike I’m leaving." I was crushed. Besides the work that the agency performed, she was my inspiration. So I felt kind of rudderless. "Where are you going? Why are you doing this?" She said, "Well I’m going to run for political office." I said, "I believe in you. Sure, get somebody like you in elected office and then we’ll do some shit."
That person was Chris Quinn, who became Christine Quinn and became less recognizable as the hero that she was to me. But, it did get me involved in politics.
So I was actually thrust into a district leader campaign over on the West Side for Arthur Schwartz, who was running for district leader against all the established clubs. It was a big win. Now I’m really interested in politics. So I began, and a candidate came to me named Larry Sauer, who wanted to run for City Council on the Upper West Side. I tried that. I’m not going to say I saw that one through because it was just too full of holes, but during that time Margarita Lopez approached me ... So I went to work for her. Now that got me involved in the Lower East Side, and that captured me entirely. The great thing to come out of that experience was meeting Rosie Mendez, who was chief of staff [for Margarita López]. That tied me forever more to the Lower East Side.
So I’ve been [in this neighborhood] now for about 10 years and stayed involved, well not as involved as I should be. I started to get complaints from my friends here saying, "Mike, you know, when you lived out in Queens we saw 10 times as much of you as we do now that you live here." I was working for a Brooklyn Councilwoman for eight years as her communications director and she is the only incumbent in the last cycle to have lost her election, so I was unemployed from the first of the year, but I didn’t rush into getting another job. I said, "I need to reconnect with my old community."
So that’s what I did for several months, got involved in housing justice issues with GOLES, several community things, but the thing I’m happiest with is I formed a block association for East Eighth Street from Avenues B to D and that’s going very well. We have 45 members already and we’ve only had one real general meeting. We’ve been helping with the plantings on the street and all that working with the Parks Department and the Lower East Side Ecology Center. We’re planning a big block party next year with a pet fair, bringing in the ASPCA with half a dozen of their big vehicles to give free vaccinations, spay-neutering, microchipping, behavioral and grooming advice, and bringing in all the animal care agencies.
That’s kind of the vision for next year for the block party, but we have a lot of other things to do. You know, we’ve got a couple of Croman-owned buildings on the block, so [we’re] always at war. We certainly have no objection to our more wealthy neighbors. That makes for the mix, you know. It’s been a very rewarding experience because I’ve gotten to know my neighbors through all of this, and the more I know them the more I love them. I used to have dreams of retiring in Africa, which held my heart for a long, long time after I left there. Now my sole dream is to get old and die here.
After a couple of very difficult years including a hurricane and a debilitating winter 2013-2014, Leslie — Angelica's owner — had to make the tough decision of either closing the restaurant after almost 40 years in business or signing a new lease skyrocketing the cost of occupancy. She signed the lease in March.
Dine often with friends and family at Angelica's. Get takeout. Give Gift Certificates. Recommend us. Share our posts on social media, like us on Facebook. The fact is, we need your financial help and we're not messing around here. Keeping Angelica's doors open is not something we can do without you!
We will be holding "Kitchen Table Talks" in the coming weeks to discuss Angelica's situation and what is needed to prevent the non-stop proliferation of chain stores and banks in the East Village. Please come to our first "Talk" Sunday Sept. 21, 4:30 PM; appetizers and beverages will be served.
We’re excited to announce that over the next few months, we will be installing new seats on the entire Citi Bike fleet.
1,500 new seats have already arrived and are being installed on bikes as they come through our shop for other repairs. Soon an entire shipping container full of seats will arrive with an additional 6,000 seats. This means we’ll have plenty of seats to cover all of our bikes plus extras to spare.
So where do all the old seats go? We’ve partnered with Bikes for the World, a nonprofit dedicated to providing affordable bikes in developing countries. Rather than let used bike parts sit in a landfill, Bikes for the World rescues and recycles them to help individuals travel to work, school, and health services.