Preliminary thoughts and concerns about the new Tompkins Square Park playground

Back on Friday, workers removed the construction fences around the newly renovated Avenue B playgrounds in the southeast section of Tompkins Square Park, marking the end of the 12-month project.

In comments gleaned from EVG, social media and various conversations, residents were obviously happy to have the entrances back open on Seventh Street and Avenue B and Eighth Street and Avenue B.

There were also positive comments about the new (already tagged) state-of-the-art playground equipment, which is also accessible for kids with special needs. (We'll have more on that particular aspect in an upcoming post.)



There were also some questions and concerns. One resident wondered why the Parks Department didn't take the time to repave the walkways during the renovations ... with the resident calling attention to the rough patches that make it especially difficult for people with mobility issues to navigate...



The same resident wondered why the Parks Department only replaced some of the benches in the renovation zone...





Another resident shared these photos with a short comment: "Finally we have two new great playgrounds. As a new mom, I went to check them out [yesterday] morning only to find a stash of dirty needles and a bloody rag directly next to the playground. Sad. Let’s hope the Parks Dept. is more cautious with cleanup in this new area."





While not directly related to the new playgrounds, another resident pointed out that the encampments that have popped up in the Park's main lawn have now spread to the area along Avenue B between Eighth Street and Ninth Street...

Year-long renovations expected soon at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street; locals want fence to remain at 8 feet

Now that the Tompkins Square Park playgrounds are back open... Joseph C. Sauer Park is expected to close soon for renovations here between Avenue A and Avenue B...



ICYMI from Friday ... while the redesign of the Park is welcome, there is one sticking point: the new, shorter fence the Parks Department plans to install.

So Park and block organizers have launched a petition...



... which reads in part:

Part of the plan however is to remove the current 8 foot high fence and replace it with a 4 foot fence, which will make the park less secure and an unsafe place for children to use.

We are asking for your help to stop the Parks Department from removing the only proven means of securing our park at night. We have the backing of Assemblyman Harvey Epstein, Councilwoman Carlina Rivera and our Community Board.

Find the petition at this link.



According to the Parks Department website, renovations will start in October 2019 and last until October 2020.

Here's a look the renovations to come...



Previously on EV Grieve:
A petition to keep the 8-foot fence at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street

Here's the all-new storefront at 131 1st Ave.

Workers yesterday removed the plywood from the all-new 131 First Ave., the gut-renovated storefront at St Mark's Place... (thanks to MP for the photos!)



Workers have been dividing the storefront — now using the 82 St. Mark's Place address — into three retail spaces. As noted back in the summer, Eiyo Bowl, a vegan quick-serve restaurant specializing in acai and rice bowls, will be the first tenant. No word yet on who the other two tenants might be for this prime corner space.

Foot Gear Plus closed in July 2018 after nearly 40 years in business.


[EVG file photo]

Previously on EV Grieve:
After nearly 40 years, Foot Gear Plus is closing on 1st Avenue and St. Mark's Place

What's next for 131 1st Ave., the former Foot Gear Plus space?

A look at 131 1st Ave., currently being divided into 3 retail spaces

Eiyo Bowl confirmed for part of the former Foot Gear Plus space on 1st Avenue at St. Mark's Place

Aoi Kitchen coming soon to 6th Street

Signage is now up at 320 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second for Aoi Kitchen (thanks to the EVG reader for these photos and tip!) ...



The incoming restaurant's Instagram account promises "Japanese yoshoku and izakaya."

Aoi marks the fifth restaurant to try this spot in recent years. There was Zerza, which closed in September 2016. Then came the World Famous 'Merica, an alleged attempt at satirizing the "real America," which bombed after three weeks in business. Zerza then returned to service for four months, then there were blink-and-you-missed it stints by Amoun and Mazmaza.

The China Star is now Baji Baji on 1st Avenue

Several readers have noted the new signage at 145 First Ave. near Ninth Street where quick-serve favorite the China Star is now Baji Baji.

China Star owner Jay Yang is also behind Baji Baji in this space, where renovations — which started in July — have stretched beyond the previous reopening timeframe.

Jay told EVG regular Lola Saénz yesterday that they are just waiting now for the inspection from the FDNY before a grand reopening.

No word just yet about what to expect from Baji Baji. Said one EVG reader: "Hopefully he won’t change anything too much and will keep turning out the best fried rice around."

You can read our interview from October 2017 with Jay and learn the backstory of the China Star at this link.

Blessing the pets at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

Yesterday morning, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery celebrated St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, with a blessing of the pets ceremony.



The Rev. Anne Sawyer presided over the service, blessing an array of dogs, a few cats and one Japanese fighting fish named Fifi. EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the church yard on Second Avenue and 10th Street for the ceremonies...






















[Rev. Anne blessing Fifi the Japanese fighting fish]

Reports: Chinatown murders bring renewed attention to the city’s street homeless

[Comptroller Scott M. Stringer at a vigil for the victims this morning]

The shocking murders of four homeless men early Saturday morning in Chinatown have brought more media attention to the dangers of living on the street.

In a story published in today's paper, the Times provides historical context for the area around the Bowery in which the men were killed.

[T]he Bowery, an area of Lower Manhattan known in the 1930s as New York’s skid row, has long served as a daunting example of the city’s difficulties in addressing street homelessness. If anything, the problem is getting worse: The area is now drawing younger homeless people, many with drug and mental health problems, a population that the city’s traditional outreach methods have struggled to confront.

Despite the luxurification of the Bowery and surrounding area in recent years, the area — specifically Community District 3 — still has one of the highest concentrations of homeless shelters (some two dozen) in Manhattan.

The article discusses the ongoing concerns "about a new subpopulation within the homeless community."

A recent report described them as “travelers” or “young homeless people who travel to destinations depending on the weather, and often include instances of drug use and aggression.”

Over the past three years, complaints have increased about these younger arrivals, and the police and homeless outreach workers have said that “traditional outreach is not successful with this population,” according to the report.

The article includes comments from local community leaders on the need for better mental health services and additional supportive housing and safe-haven beds. Find the article at this link.

In court yesterday, the suspect, 24-year-old Rodriguez “Randy” Santos, was charged with four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Meanwhile, city officials say they will dispatch mental health outreach teams and increase the number of homeless outreach teams who have access to psychiatrists and substance abuse resources, per ABC 7.

The Times says that the homelessness crisis "has been the most intractable problem of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure."

Late-morning dance break

All we need is music, sweet music. Dancing around Temperance Fountain in Tompkins Square Park this morning.

Photo by Derek Berg.

Gov. Cuomo approves bill to create public liquor license database

Gov. Cuomo has approved a bill (S55/A4315) that requires the State Liquor Authority (SLA) to create and maintain a public database of information specific to on-premises liquor licenses.

Two local elected officials — Assemblywoman Deborah Glick and Sen. Brad Hoylman — sponsored the bill that will enable residents a means to look up information on a bar, including whether it has permits for live music or sidewalk seating.

The two released statements on Friday after Cuomo's signature made it all official:

Sen. Hoylman:

Community boards, block associations, and residents across my district have for years called upon the State Liquor Authority to make information on these licenses more available and accessible, so that they can better understand their impact on our neighborhoods. This is basic, good government. Yet until now, to our enormous frustration, the only option for the public to learn this information was through filing a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request.

You shouldn’t have to file a FOIL request just to find out whether a bar in your neighborhood has a liquor license that permits live music or an outside patio. What’s more, under these constraints, police precincts aren’t able to respond to neighborhood noise complaints — as they have no way to confirm whether an establishment is operating within the parameters of their license or not.

Assemblywoman Glick:

For too long, it has been nearly impossible for community members to get very basic information about State Liquor Authority licensees that operate in our neighborhood. Now that liquor license information will be easily obtainable, people can see for themselves if nearby establishments are being good neighbors and are operating within the constraints of their license.

The news release included a statement from Susan Stetzer, district manager for Community Board 3: "Having information available online would be a tremendous help. We spend a lot of time working with community groups and with our local precincts to resolve issues that require information about a licensed business, particularly method of operation and outdoor use questions."

No word on when the SLA will actually make this online resource available to the public.

St. Mark's Market is dead

St. Mark's Market has officially closed at 19-23 St. Mark's Place. An EVG reader said they wrapped up this past Thursday evening.

As made known last Monday, the grocery between Second Avenue and Third Avenue was having a buy-one, get-one-free deal to thin out its stock.

We heard a variety of reasons for the closure (nothing related to rent, however). One worker blamed the sidewalk bridge that has been out front for the past two-plus years as a cause for business to drop off. (And as one commenter noted: "The dope fiend brigade hanging out under the scaffolding didn't help matters.")

Several EVG readers mentioned that the store changed ownership several years ago, and the quality of the produce and other offerings diminished — especially in the face of newer competition such as the Westside Market on Third Avenue at 12th Street.

There were anecdotes that Daniel Craig was a semi-regular here while renting the place upstairs. One reader claimed he once cut in line and used an Amex Black Card for a small purchase.

I do recall the place seeming pretty upmarket when it opened in 2003 in the now-mall-like building that replaced layers of history at the address that included the Dom, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (featuring the Velvet Underground as the house band) and the Electric Circus.


[Photo from Saturday]

Prediction: The landlord will chop up the former market into several smaller retail spaces to make renting possibly easier.

Ruby's Café debuts on 11th Street

Ruby's, the popular all-day café with two NYC outposts, debuted over the weekend at 198 E. 11th St. at Third Avenue.

The East Village outpost was open for dinner on Friday and Saturday. Now, moving forward, the restaurant is open daily from 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. The Australian-influenced bistro fare includes a variety of salads, pastas and burgers as well as breakfast items all day.

Ruby's first opened in 2003 on Mulberry Street between Prince and Spring (they expanded next door in 2014) ... with an additional cafe on Third Avenue between 30th Street and 31st Street arriving in 2016.

The space was previously Martina, which opened in August 2017 in 55 Third Ave., aka Eleventh and Third, the 12-floor residential building on the corner. The pizzeria, from Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, never caught on, closing this past March.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Ruby’s Cafe bringing its Australian vibes to the former Martina space on 11th Street

Report: Tenant leasing alleged sex-party house on 7th Street is leading a 'double or triple life'

Orthodox Jew leads double life hosting wild East Village sex parties: wife https://t.co/bav19jm27s pic.twitter.com/15oC04n585

— New York Post (@nypost) October 5, 2019

The Post continues its expose of Avraham Adler, who allegedly hosted advertised sex parties at the tony townhouse he's renting on Seventh Street.

The tabloid claims that he "is leading a 'double or triple life' as an ultra-Orthodox Jew with a pregnant wife and three kids in suburban New Jersey."

“I want a divorce,” an angry Shana Adler told The Post Thursday outside the couple’s modest three-bedroom home in Clifton, New Jersey. “He is not supporting us whatsoever. He’s cut us off completely. My friends are paying our bills.”

For his part, Adler denied that he’s breaking his marriage vows or shunning his religion. "I’m going through a separation and possibly a divorce."

In a Manhattan Supreme Court filing, Wonwoo Chang, the owner of 189 E. Seventh St. between Avenue B and Avenue C, claimed that Adler, who signed a two-year lease here on April 1, has hosted "lewd" parties where "on premises sex took place."

Neighbors have also accused Adler of constantly parking his luxury cars in front of a fire hydrant on the block.

Adler admitted to the Post that he parks in front of the hydrant: If I pay the fees [fines], why is it anybody’s problem?"

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Landlord alleges tenant using 7th Street townhouse for sex parties

Vanessa's Dumpling House temporarily closed for 'modernization' on 14th Street

Cheap-eats favorite Vanessa's Dumpling House is currently closed at 220 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

A worried regular alerted us to the closure last week. At the time, the reader said there wasn't any note on the gate for customers. Meanwhile, the Vanessa's signage has been covered. Worse, this location no longer appears along the other NYC outposts on the Vanessa's website.

However, there is a sign now on the gate — possibly post-dated to Sept. 26 — noting a closure for "modernization" ...

Sweetgreen status check on the Bowery

As we first noted on Aug. 12, Sweetgreen is setting up in the retail base of the 347 Bowery condoplex.

This is the first business for this corner space at Third Street ... and as these photos from Friday via EVG regular Lola Saénz show, this outpost is a ways off from opening...



The California-based chain recently boosted its valuation to $1.6 billion.

Snapshot of the former International Center of Photography space on the Bowery

The International Center of Photography (ICP) ended its three-year tenure at 250 Bowery in late June.

An EVG reader points us to the now-vacant space, where a for lease sign recently arrived on the front window.

The rent is available upon request for the nearly 11,000 square feet of space over two floors. (The listing notes "Divisions Considered.")

As you may know, ICP will open in January on Broome Street in the Essex Crossing complex. ICP announced this move in the fall of 2017. The new venue — encompassing a full city block between Ludlow and Essex — will have space to house both the ICP Museum and the ICP School.

ICP paid $29 million for the Essex Crossing properties. In turn, the Essex Crossing developers bought ICP’s 250 Bowery space for $25 million, in a deal reported in May.

Previously on EV Grieve:
ICP now closed on the Bowery ahead of move to Essex Crossing

Sunday's parting shot

Parishioners from St. Stanislaus on Seventh Street took part today in the annual Pulaski Day Parade ... float photo by Derek Berg...

'Joker' weekend

This sign greeted moviegoers this weekend at the City Cinemas Village East on Second Avenue at 12th Street.

"Downton Abbey" fans who wanted to wear Lord Grantham or Lady Mary masks were out of luck. "Downton Abbey," which has been criticized for normalizing dinner parties, is currently playing here.

The sign arrived here ahead of screenings Thursday night for "Joker."



Theaters across the country were reported to be on high alert for the opening weekend of Todd Phillips' film starring Joaquin Phoenix as the title character. Village East had a lot more employees working the front door than usual, though I didn't see any police presence. The film is also playing at the Loews Village 7 on Third Avenue and 11th Street and the Regal Union Square.

The Associated Press reported the following: "Extra layers of security, intense on-screen action and a frightening incident inside a New York theater combined to create an unsettling experience for some moviegoers who went to see 'Joker' on its opening weekend."

Security had to remove a patron from the AMC Empire 25 on 42nd Street on Friday after he clapped and cheered for a good minute during an especially intense scene.

As for the Village East, "Joker" is playing on two screens, including in 70mm in the Jaffe Art Theatre...

Week in Grieview

[Photo on Astor Place yesterday by Derek Berg]

Posts this past week included...

More details on the city's new plan to keep East River park partially open during flood protection construction (Thursday)

The 29th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade is scheduled for Oct. 20 in East River Park (Tuesday)

August Laura is opening in the former Sidewalk space on Avenue A and 6th Street (Wednesday)

RIP Purushottam Goyal (Friday)

Not much left inside the once mysterious 84 2nd Ave. (Wednesday)

14th Street busway finally set to get moving (Thursday)

A petition to keep the 8-foot fence at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street (Friday)

Koko Wings spreading to 1st Avenue (Monday)

Hitchcocktober is back (Wednesday)

Report: Landlord alleges tenant using 7th Street townhouse for sex parties (Monday)

Longer hours now for Foxface on St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)


[10th Street windows via riachung00]

New Herbal World has moved away from 14th Street (Monday)

Re-covering Cover Magazine at the Tompkins Square Library (Tuesday)

This week's NY See (Thursday)

Here then, the cantilevering condoplex on 4th Avenue and 10th Street (Tuesday)

After a late-summer hiatus, Tuesday Soup Night is back on at Ciao for Now (Tuesday)

At long last, the construction fence is coming down around the Tompkins Square Park playground (Friday)

Gem Spa expanding its product line (Tuesday)

Chi Snack Shop moves into the former Trash & Vaudeville space on St. Mark's Place (Friday)

Elsewhere nearby: the flagship Dean & Deluca is closed for now on Broadway and Prince (Wednesday)

The former Social Tees space on 5th Street is for rent (Monday)

...and over at the Bowery Mural Wall... the intricate new work by Tomokazu Matsuyama, which took nearly two weeks to complete, was tagged the other day...



... and a worker was on the scene yesterday trying to clean off the graffiti...



---

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Suspect charged in murders of 4 homeless men in Chinatown

Update: Suspect arrested and charged with murder after attacks that killed 4 homeless men in NYC"s Chinatown https://t.co/SuCRtxYVVX

— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) October 6, 2019

Several EVG readers shared links to the various published reports about the murders of four men in what police say were random attacks in Chinatown early yesterday morning ... the readers also shared concern about the growing homeless population citywide, including in the East Village. What follows is a recap on what has transpired (the post has been updated)...

The four men and a fifth who was found injured were all believed to be homeless. The victims were brutally assaulted in three different locations around Chatham Square, where East Broadway and the Bowery intersect.



A suspect, named as Rodriguez “Randy” Santos, 24, is in police custody. Police reportedly found Santos, holding a metal pipe, on Canal and Mulberry. He has at least 14 prior arrests, per the Post, and was believed to be homeless.

He is charged with murder, attempted murder and unlawful possession of marijuana.

"The motive appears to be, right now, just random attacks," Chief of Manhattan South Detectives Michael Baldassano told reporters, adding that there was no evidence yet to suggest the victims were "targeted by race, age, anything of that nature."

The Times reported this about the streets around Chatham Square:

[T]he area has been changing rapidly in recent years, as Chinatown has expanded and young professionals, many pushed out by higher rents in the East Village, have begun to move in.

The neighborhood is a bustling traffic hub where commuter vans and long-distance buses vie for curb space. Signs for Chinese family and village associations dot the area. But at night it becomes a place where a growing number of homeless people look for a place to grab a night’s sleep on its quiet sidewalks and park benches.

The murders also highlight the city's struggle to combat the growing homeless population. According to statistics from the Bowery Mission cited by the Times, about 1 in 121 New Yorkers is homeless. The Coalition for the Homeless put the number of homeless people in the city’s shelter system in August at 61,674, and an annual count conducted in late January this year estimated that 3,588 people were living on the streets.

The Times noted Mayor de Blasio's "struggle" to address "the problem of the rising number of homeless people and the high rate of mental illness among them." The Post spoke with former Giuliani and Bloomberg administrators who said the growing, more violent homeless population in NYC "rests squarely with current City Hall policies."

“There’s been an increasing tolerance for the homeless on city streets, sidewalks and subway stations during this administration,” said Mitchell Moss, professor of urban policy at NYU and a former campaign advisor to Michael Bloomberg.

“The police are disempowered to remove the homeless — and New York has become less aggressive on quality-of-life issues. You used to be penalized for urinating on the street!”

As the Times reported, advocates for the homeless said yesterday's attacks "rattled the already struggling community of homeless people who frequent Chinatown and the Bowery."