Wednesday, August 22, 2012

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Bobby Williams]

City Planning Commission OKs SPURA plan (The Lo-Down)

Some history of The Claremount on East 12th Street (Off the Grid)

Mama's owner Jeremiah Clancy on the new, "very homogenous" East Village (The Atlantic)

10 "great punk songs about New York City" (Prefix)

Other Music's new record label (The Village Voice)

The trip wire atop 118 East 4th St. (Occupy East 4th Street)

What would Bloomy's big soda ban do to EV bubble tea shops? (DNAinfo)

A history of NYC's push carts (BoweryBoogie)

New music venue for Coney Island (Curbed)

Jeremiah Moss writes a High Line op-ed today for the Times titled "Disney World on the Hudson" (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Bonus excerpt:
It’s easy to forget that until very recently, even with the proliferation of art galleries near the West Side Highway, West Chelsea was a mix of working-class residents and light-industrial businesses.

But the High Line is washing all that away.
[From the EVG High Line Collection]

'Eleanor Rigby' filming: Day 19

OK. Today is just the second day this week for "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" crews here on this portion of Seventh Street ... (they were on Seventh at Cooper Union a few weeks back...)


... per the signs, they'll be filming from approximately 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. today... and 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. tomorrow... not sure how approximate this is...


As BoweryBoogie noted, they've also been filming along Avenue B between East Second Street and Third Street this week (they were using the interiors of the former Zaitzeff space on Monday) ... and they'll be back here on B all of next week.

The film tells the story of a troubled marriage, in two installments, from the husband's and the wife's perspective ... it stars Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy ... as well as Viola Davis, Bill Hader, Isabelle Huppert and William Hurt.

McAvoy makes his triumphant return to the East Village, where he hung with Angelina Jolie on the side of the now-demolished Nevada Smiths on Third Avenue in June 2008...

An update on sand, bread and rats in Tompkins Square Park

Several readers have asked us what was happening with the sandbox in the playground on Avenue A and East Ninth Street in Tompkins Square Park... the sandbox has been closed in recent weeks...


We didn't hear back from anyone at the Parks Department... we also asked Chad Marlow, who helped launch the Tompkins Square Park & Playgrounds Parents' Association (TSP3A) in 2011 to address such issues...


Marlow confirmed that the Parks Department had closed the sandbox because of a recurring problem — the sharp lip is exposed when the sand level gets too low ... kids are apparently removing the sand for various reasons...


Marlow said that the parents lobbied to have a sign placed next to the sandbox ...


"The jagged edge in the sandbox and its proximity to the sprinklers are serious design flaws, but they are manageable if parents and caregivers enforce the rules for their own kids and others," said Marlow, who noted that the sand is on order.

In other Park matters, we asked Marlow for an update on the ratstravaganza... that made headlines this time last summer... TSP3A first raised concerns of the growing rat population last summer.

[Last night, photo by Bobby Williams]

Back in March, The Villager reported that Park officials had brought Ratstravaganza under control.

However, as you may have noticed, there seem to be more rats around... not quite a return to the bad old days of July 2011. Still.

"Sadly, moronic actions like when people are dumping mass quantities of bread for the pigeons — and rats — to eat undermines our efforts," Marlow said.


"Contrary to popular opinion, these old bread dumps are not being done by the food charities but by the restaurants across Avenue A," Marlow said. "It takes a year to improve things and a few weeks to ruin them again. So sad."

Previously.

[Photos courtesy of Chad Marlow]

Out and About in the East Village

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


By James Maher

Name: Patrice Suncircle
Occupation: Caretaker, Student
Location: The Creative Little Garden, East Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B
Time: 12:19 on Friday, Aug. 17

"I’ve lived around here for the last two years. I spent most of my life in San Francisco and would still be living there except I have an elderly aunt who’s been living in this neighborhood for about 40 years who needs help. So I moved from the Bay Area to take care of her and I also go to school online at the University of Maine. When I was young, she used to warn me about going right where I am now. And now it’s where everybody goes.

A lot of work goes into keeping this garden up. I’ve been volunteering here for about a month. I’m one of many neighbors who volunteer here; I think maybe there are a dozen of us. I started volunteering because I would come here and sit and they said they needed someone to help since a lot of people were leaving. It’s a bird sanctuary, so they have to change the feeders and the water and we have to do a lot of watering. It’s open everyday from 11 a.m. until sundown."

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

185 Avenue B is nearly gone

Demolition crews arrived at 185-193 Avenue B on July 25 ... Bobby Williams stopped by yesterday for an update... and there doesn't appear to be much left of the building ...






There are plans pending city approval for a 7-story apartment building that will include community space and the new home for the Elim Pentecostal Church.

The address was a movie theater for many years, first the Bijou in 1926, then the Charles. (The theater closed in 1975, and a church took over the space.) A fire broke out in the building in October 2006.

Here's the Charles in 1966. (Via.)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Revival planned for church and theater on Avenue B

Inside the Charles

Former landmark countercultural theater now for rent on Avenue B

7-story building in the works to replace former countercultural theater/church on Avenue B

Here's the Mother of all bendy things


We've seen the concrete pumps bendy things here at 21 E. First St. in the past... but not like this one that Goggla spotted yesterday...

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Here's what's coming to 35 Cooper Square: 9-story dormitory


After months of waiting, we finally know what's coming to the former 35 Cooper Square — dorms. Today, reps for developer Arun Bhatia pre-filed paperwork with the DOB for 200 E. Sixth St.

Here's what we learned from the pre-filing.


The proposed plans call for a 9-story dormitory with 43 rooms ... plus retail on the ground floor. In total, the building will be nearly 35,000 square feet (at a height of 117 feet). The paperwork lists Debra Kossar of Kossar & Garry Architects as the architect of record.

No indication just yet who the dorms are for — NYU and Cooper Union would have to top the list of guesses, of course.

The closing of the Asian Pub in January 2011 at 35 Cooper Square set in motion a sequence of events that led to the demolition of the 185-year-old, Federal-style house.

The Arun Bhatia Development Organization has developed dorms for the New School and Marymount Manhattan College, among others, through the years.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Doom and doomer: More of Cooper Square primed for development

Cooper 35 Asian Pub part of development deal on Cooper Square

Cooper 35 Asian Pub putting up a fight before being torn down

Another tree lost in Tompkins Square Park

Ugh. Bobby Williams reports that workers removed a tree today in Tompkins Square Park... this one close to the Avenue B/East Ninth Street entrance...





... and later...


We hope to hear from a Parks official about why workers had to remove the tree... we seem to be losing far too many trees/limbs ...

[Updated] Has the Lyric Diner closed on Third Avenue?

[Image via @McCollumAshley]

EVG reader @Sheba passed along word earlier today that the Lyric Diner on Third Avenue at 22nd Street appears closed... Several other people have tweeted this... there is brown paper over the windows and a large CLOSED sign. We called, though no one answered the phone... it's possible that this is just a late-summer clean up/renovation, though you'd think they'd leave a note ...

I haven't been here in a few years... I heard that the quality had slipped... I recall that they served egg creams and had something on the menu called the Twin Tower ice cream soda...

Updated: Per KB in the comments... the Lyric is only closed for renovations...

Reader report: Murals on East Fifth Street

Earlier this afternoon, EVG reader prop noted the in-progress murals that Paul Kostabi was creating on East Fifth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery...


... then the NYPD arrived... who told him to move the canvas onto the sidewalk...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Spotted on Avenue C and East Third Street via Glenn Belverio]

Do you have any tips for NYC tourists? (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Scaffolding woes on East Fourth Street (Occupy East 4th Street)

Checking in on the 163 Orchard Street Hotel eyesore (BoweryBoogie)

Glaze Teriyaki Grill opening soon on Fourth Avenue (Grub Street)

More details about the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival at Pier 36 next month (The Lo-Down)

One idea for vacant LES storefronts (DNAinfo)

Ice cream at the Standard East Village (Fork in the Road)

At the Johnny Ramone tribute (Rolling Stone)

CBGB promoters planning to raise money for Pussy Riot (The New York Times)

...the former Animal Crackers storefront on East Second Street is for rent...


... and on Avenue B near East Second Street... the former boutique New World Order is now a ... Law Office!


... though we hear that they will be applying for a beer-wine license, just to pair with documents being notarized...

6 St. Mark's Place on the market for $14.5 million


6 St. Mark's Place, currently home to NY Tofu House and a very large karaoke bar, is now on the market. The building between Second Avenue and Third Avenue is currently asking $14.5 million.

Per the Massey Knakal listing that arrived yesterday:

[T]his elevatored commercial 5 story plus lower level building is 81% NNN on one of the busiest downtown retail corridors. The average rents are $52/SF and all have long term leases in-place. The seller is willing to escrow 1 years rent for the second floor for $15,000/month until a suitable tenant is found. This is an excellent opportunity for an investor who is looking for strong in-place cash flow in one of the busiest corridors of the East Village.

It likely is an excellent investment... 51 Astor Place is rising about a 1/2 block or so away... and once that thing is up and functioning, the retail landscape along here could change dramatically ... marking a switch to restaurants/businesses catering to an office crowd...

Previously, before the quick succession of failed businesses, No. 6 was home to Mondo Kim's ... and going back ... No. 6 was first, starting in 1913, home to the Saint Marks Russian and Turkish Baths ... which, in 1979, became the New Saint Marks Baths, the gay bathhouse (purportedly the largest one in the world) that the city eventually closed in 1985 during the AIDS epidemic.

Also, in 1914, The Modern School — "an anarchist school with Emma Goldman on the board," according to NY Songlines — had space in the building.

About that 'terrible screeching noise' on East Ninth Street

A more specific sign has arrived on East Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C ... we posted a photo of the first sign yesterday... it was a little skimpy on details...

Now, though...

[Bobby Williams]

And a reader left this in the comments:

The noise is a high pitched sound that sometimes sounds like a whine and at present more like a shriek that varies in pitch. It's affecting people in the upper stories, especially at the rear of buildings on the eastern half of 9th and 10th Streets between B and C. It continues 24/7 for days at a time. It first began last Thanksgiving and returns intermittently. The latest episode has lasted more than a week and those of us affected are getting pretty desperate, as the sign indicates. Calls to 311 have got us nowhere so we've now appealed to CB3 to use their influence with the DEP. As the sign indicates, we can't trace where the noise is coming from but it's most likely a ventilation system.

Your chance to stand in line outside a 7-Eleven to meet Shaun White today


So Gold-Medal-winning snowboarder Shaun White will be at the 7-Eleven today at noon on IHOP Way as part of a promotion for his new flavor of gum — Mintacular ...


According to the flyer the gum dude handed me this morning... "Shaun White and Stride will ... completely take over this 7-Eleven" which "will be transformed into a Stride super store, carrying only Stride's two Shaun White flavors ..." According to the Times, 7-Eleven will also serve a batch of Mintacular-flavored Slurpees. (Read Andrew Adam Newman's article here.)

Be kind of cool if the left the 7-Eleven this way permanently. We need a good two-flavor gum store around here.

Bon Vivant replacement closed after 13 months on Broadway; long live Bon Vivant

Burger House, the so-called "Zen Grill," opened on Broadway near East 12th Street in June 2011... it was another in the rather suddenly trendy Asian-style burger places popping up (see Bento Burger) ... there were better places for burgers, though the fare here was always solid enough... anyway, the place closed on July 10 and the space is for lease...


Prior to this ... and for decades, Bon Vivant served always-reliable, reasonably priced diner food... Eater reported that the same owners were behind the new concept...


As New York magazine noted: "Imagine a prototypical old-school diner and, chances are, you’ll get a close approximation of Bon Vivant. Owned for decades by a Greek family, it has a huge illustrated menu, vinyl maroon booths, and chrome chairs."

That description sounds like the makings of an obituary in the new New York City. (See Jeremiah's Vanishing New York for the graveyard full of diners that have closed ... Tiffany Diner, Chelsea Gallery Diner, the Galaxy Diner, etc.)

The landlord upgraded all the storefronts along here... given them a sleek, impersonal feel ... So even if the owners were to reopen Bon Vivant, it would, of course, never be the same... Or could it work again, some equilibrium maintained...?

Previously on EV Grieve:
A bad sign at Bon Vivant

[Updated] Joe Strummer would have been 60 today


John Graham Mellor, better known by his stage name Joe Strummer, was born on this date in 1952.


Updated: Today at 4, East Village Radio has a special Strummer birthday tribute, hosted by Jesse Malin. Details here.

------------

And now... an EVG repost from Dec. 22, 2011...

Joe Strummer died on this date in 2002. He reportedly had an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. He was 50.

In November 2003, REVOLT painted a mural in honor of the former Clash frontman on the side of Niagara on Seventh Street at Avenue A ... seen here in this video featuring Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros singing "Redemption Song."




Since then, I've taken far too many photos of the mural, which REVOLT updated in February 2009...


Look, Smokin' Joe! (Eh, sorry...)



There's always something comforting about seeing the mural there... looking rather calm about anything going on around it...




Let's end this with a Strummer solo number from Aki Kaurismäki's "I Hired a Contract Killer" from 1990...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Joe Strummer gets a splash of Niagara

Joe Strummer gets a new look, skyline

Monday, August 20, 2012

[Updated] You can now sit outside at Nicoletta



Not real cozy-looking just yet here on Second Avenue and East 10th Street. And is that police tape?

Updated:

A reader walked by around 7:45 tonight and noted two tables were occupied so far ...


They'll likely need to add some greenery to the space a la DBGB to make it look a little more inviting...