Bring your dead Christmas trees to Tompkins Square Park, or we're mulching the police car

It is Day 2 of the MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park ... until 2 p.m. today ... And we didn't see many many trees piled up left to mulch. So. There may not be much mulching.

Meanwhile, the gardeners have spread the mulch on parts of the Park...

..while others have spread their unwanted pizza...

[Updated] Heavy FDNY presence on Broadway; Heather Graham's bathroom candles reportedly spark blaze

Several readers are sending us photos of the FDNY responding to a situation at East 13th Street and Broadway around 10:20 tonight ... no sign of smoke or flames.... per EVG reader John who sent these shots: "something going on — every type of truck, including hazmat, is here..."

Updated:
Well! Thanks to the readers for the links... The Post reports that the fire started in actress Heather Graham's penthouse.

[Via the Post]

Per the Post:

A blazing fire in the sexy actress’ Union Square pad was sparked when burning candles left on her bathtub ignited nearby clothes, according to FDNY officials.

The fire in the 12th-floor Broadway home started at about 10 p.m. and took 45 minutes to put out.

“It was candles that maybe caught some clothes that were left near the tub,” said FDNY Chief John Bley.

Heather Graham's Bathroom Candles. Future band name?

The ides of mulch

And here's the scene after Day 1 of the MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park...

Will there be enough to mulch tomorrow, or will we have to dig into our tax records....?

Photos by Bobby Williams.

When you chain your bike to itself on Avenue C

What do we have here on Avenue C between East Seventh Street and East Eighth Street? Well, for some reason, a cyclist locked his/her bike to itself... instead if to something else, which would make it more difficult for someone to steal...

... and a few helpful neighbors left friendly notes offering some advice/warning...

Reads one: "Dumb ass. I could have stole this if I had a car."

Many thanks to EVG reader Kyle for the headline and photos via Twitter.

A 'giddy' Bloomberg's bike-share boast

From the Post today:

A two-wheeled tsunami is about to hit New York — and Mayor Bloomberg couldn’t be more pleased.

A giddy Bloomberg yesterday promised that the perpetually delayed bike-share program would flood the city’s already-packed streets with more bikes than Beijing.

“It’s going to be increased by tens of thousands,” the mayor said of the future bike-share New York on his weekly WOR radio show. “Every city that’s done this, it is phenomenally popular.”

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here are your East Village bike share locations, probably


h/t THE NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N.

Donged! Penistrator proves that he doesn't need any stupid snow

Just noting some sidewalk work here on East 10th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue where that ugly new renovated building sits... and...

Oh no! A permanent sidewalk penis!

Look for a new sidewalk here soon...

This morning

Exciting items from the EVG Twitter account... where all the action is... (Follow here ... )

Breaking: Mulcher arrives for todays's Tompkins Square Park MulchFest twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) January 12, 2013

Bit of an accident here at 14th & 1st Ave. Will blame the guilty party later! twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) January 12, 2013

At the flea market at Immaculate Conception, 14th St. and 1st Ave. twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) January 12, 2013

[Updated] Winter's 'Bones'

New video from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion released this week... "Bag of Bones." And the band will be on Letterman tonight...

Speaking of Letterman... here is that clip from last night. I like Dave's reaction at the end... And Spencer's "No. 1 baby!" yell.

Noted

A scene near from Tompkins Square Park yesterday. Man in Mickey Mouse hat giving his friend a haircut.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Avenue A/Tompkins Square Park in the early morning yesterday]

Hundreds turned out yesterday to mourn Raphael Ward, the teen murdered last Friday on the Lower East Side (DNAinfo)

Reminiscence moving back to 13th and Fifth Ave. (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

As promised, Tiengarden closes for revamp (BoweryBoogie)

Sperone Westwater sues over Ian Schrager's plan to build a bigass new hotel on the Bowery (New York Post)

Some Limelight history (Flaming Pablum)

No decision yet about the new restaurant-bar at 106 Rivington (The Lo-Down)

About the alleged Washington Square bomb plotter (Gothamist)

Information for property owners of landmarked buildings (Off the Grid)

Karate Boogaloo always has good stuff here (Stupefaction)

... and via the EVG inbox...

Guided Tours of East Village Gardens, Historic Sites Open to Public Beginning Saturday, January 12, 3 PM

As part of its mission to preserve and promote scholarship of the history of urban grassroots activism in the East Village, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) is offering weekly tours of community gardens and historic tenements. The tours last approximately two hours covering locations east to Avenue D, west to Avenue A; north and south, Fourteenth and Houston Streets, respectively. Each Saturday the tour will begin at MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between Ninth and Tenth Streets at 3 PM.

Check out the MoRUS website for more information ... and there are a few days left in their crowdsourcing campaign to restore their Sandy-damaged space.

Prepping for the weekend: Here's 'White Girl Wasted' (Woo!)

Here's the latest video from our friend Hila Perry, aka "HiLa tHe KiLLa" ... (and, depending where you are, perhaps NSFW).

AERIAL MOOSE HEAD ALERT!

A reader just snapped this photo at Bleecker and the Bowery... hope that they aren't going to try to mulch this...

To get you into the spirit of MulchFest, and maybe possibly depress you!

Farewell Noel by AE Kessel from 2007... scenes from the East Village and the MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park ... h/t EVG reader l.e.s.ter

And remember, MulchFest is this weekend!

Is an 11-story building in Avenue C and East 14th Street's future?

Our Mystery Building Tour continues... on Wednesday, we looked at the activity happening at the long dormant 6 Avenue B ... today, we turn our attention to the corner of Avenue C and East 14th Street...

The R&S Strauss auto parts store here closed in the spring of 2009. And nothing has happened with the building since then (save the addition of more graffiti...)

According to the Massey Knakal Web site, the building was sold in January 2009 for $12.3 million. As the site noted: "The lot measures 114’9” x 88’and has a total buildable square footage of approximately 36,125 sq. ft. for residential use or 68,262 sq. ft. for a community facility, which will likely be the ultimate use of the property."

Turns out the buyer was Arun Bhatia, who currently has plans in place for a dorm at the former 35 Cooper Square. And the developer filed plans for a new 11-story building here on Dec. 23, 2009, per DOB records. The City disapproved the plans later in 2010. They are apparently still pending.

We've heard nothing of these plans the past two-plus years. And, perhaps, this isn't the best time to be building an 11-story residential building here. After all, this intersection suffered the worst flooding in the neighborhood the night of Superstorm Sandy.

[Photo by Jane Israelson Rubin via Facebook]

On that topic, we've asked several people who live nearby if they've seen anyone in this building following Sandy. No one has. So is there, say, 10 feet of water in the basement here?

Regardless, this is another corner ripe for development. As Jeremiah Moss wrote about R&S back in May 2008, this corner represents "an opening for the overall Meatpacking effect that is rippling up and down this main artery to reach deep into the East Village. The site has 'flagship opportunity' written all over it."

Some day, for sure.

Duane Readed! Time runs out on former First Avenue bank clock

On Monday, we had the post titled: Here's your new Duane Reade signage on First Avenue; plus — will they keep the clock?

That iconic clock here on First Avenue just north of East 14th Street has been providing the time for generations of New Yorkers dating back to 1786, and...

OK. That's not true. I did like the clock though. The building was (is!) really awful, though, with an out-of-place suburban look... Always surprised that no one came along and built 20 stories of condo on top...


... but I liked the clock! (it was actually 10:12 when I took this photo a few years ago...)



Anyway! By now you have likely guessed correctly that the clock is gone... as this photo from EVG reader Joe shows...

Now, for generations, we will only know that it's Duane Reade time. Again.

h/t to Pinch for mentioning that the clock was gone in the comments last night...

Chips ahoy in Tompkins Square Park this weekend

Sure, you could toss your tree in front of your building with the ornaments and stuff still on it...

[EVG reader Corina]

... or you could take it out to get drunk, then abandon it in a grocery cart on East 13th Street...

[Via THE NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N.]

... or you can drag it over to Tompkins Square Park for the annual MulchFest, holiday days of obligation in the EVG household...

The trees continue to pile up in the middle of the Park...

[Bobby Williams]

We've also spotted someone trying to mulch fake cottony snow ... or, perhaps, hide the beard evidence from SantaCon...

Yes, that fake cottony snow...

The MulchFest is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday, and we'll have 38 more posts on it before the weekend is over...

Previously.

Winter Friday Flashback: Last day for Love Saves the Day is Sunday

On Fridays this winter, and probably spring and summer ... we'll post one of the 16,000-plus EVG, uh, posts from yesteryear, like this one from Jan. 13, 2009 ...

-----

On Dec. 2, Jeremiah was first to report that Loves Saves the Day will shutter its iconic corner store on Seventh Street and Second Avenue. A sign on their storefront confirms the store's last day.


Meanwhile, what will become of the pay phones on the south side of the store? No way will Duane Reade keep them once they open their newest location here...(And yes -- I will burn in Hell for writing that...)

Rumors: Is Ben Shaoul selling his East Village properties?

Word began spreading yesterday that controversial landlord Ben Shaoul was selling an unknown number of his East Village properties, estimated to be some 40 buildings in total. (The rumor prompted a discussion on Facebook as well.)

One tipster said that the sale was a done deal. Another source said that some behind-the-scenes employees in Shaoul's empire have openly been telling residents about the sale. No official word on the buyer just yet.

Shaoul's current East Village projects include the addition of the much-maligned 7-Eleven at 170 Avenue A as well as the residential conversion of the former Cabrini Center on East Fifth Street. It is not believed that these two properties are/were part of the deal. Ditto for his pool-topped A Building on East 13th Street.

Back in May, Shaoul, president of Magnum Real Estate Group, put his buildings at the recently renovated 118-122 E. Fourth St. on the market for $25 million. According to public records, 118 East 4th LLC bought the properties in November 2010 for $11.5 million. (The price is now down to $23.5 million.)

Here's a passage from a lengthy feature on Shaoul from The New York Times last July (the article includes quotes from EV Grieve):

Mr. Shaoul made his inauspicious East Village debut in 2006, the same year the 21-story Cooper Square Hotel broke ground and the legendary rock club CBGB closed.

In March of that year, he bought out members of an artists’ squat on St. Marks Place in order to turn the building into rental apartments. A neighborhood photographer snapped Mr. Shaoul, accompanied by sledgehammer- and crowbar-wielding construction workers, as he confronted some of the squatters. At some point the police were called in; the photographs soon circulated around the neighborhood.

The episode led the real estate blog Curbed to dub Mr. Shaoul “Sledgehammer Shaoul” and — although he was not actually holding a sledgehammer in any of the photos — the name and image have stuck. His reputation was reinforced as he renovated more buildings: rent-stabilized tenants in his buildings reported threats of eviction, and he racked up Department of Housing Preservation and Development complaints and violations for the interruption of heat and hot water, blocked fire escapes, broken locks and other issues related to construction and maintenance.

Shaoul's expanding portfolio reportedly includes properties in TriBeCa, the West Village, Harlem, the Financial District and on the Lower East Side and Upper East Side.

Much more as details become available.

What's going on at the Middle Collegiate Church building on East Seventh Street?

[Late December]

Late last year (Dec. 19 to be exact!), you may have noticed the plywood arrive outside the Middle Collegiate Church building on East Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... Since then, workers have been busy gutting the space — a sign that always makes a few people nervous. Like, hey — it's becoming a condo or a hotel or an artisanal condiment shop.

Turns out it's nothing so sinister, in case you haven't heard.

"Our office space is being renovated, so that the building will be fully accessible to the people of the East Village and allowing us to better fulfill our goal of being a place that welcomes everyone," Kate Tull, a technical administrator with Middle Collegiate, told us via email.

The Church website has some construction FAQs here.

The price of a 99-cent pizzeria is now just $100,000

Mamani Pizza on Avenue A near East 10th Street hit the market back in early October ... and the price for the 99-cent pizzeria has been reduced this week, dropping nearly 23 percent to $100,000, according to the listing at Trulia NYC. That's just about 101,000 slices...

A tree grows on Astor Place

EVG contributor James Maher shared this photo with us... a shot of a lonely-looking Chase branch on Astor Place. Upon closer inspection, you can make out a little life...

Per James: "Thought it showed this interesting spark of life and human presence within the soulless empty bank."

Boulton and Watt is open on Avenue A

Boulton & Watt, the new bar-restaurant concept from the people behind Ella and the Blind Barber, officially opened this week at the former Nice Guy Eddie's space.

BlackBook described the space this way:

[T]he prime spot has a steampunk twist with salvaged windows, an antique steam engine used to power the restaurants fan system, and a spattering of repurposed furniture.

[Via Facebook]

And the food? Chef David Rotter said it was "a revised take on rustic American comfort food." Zagat points out that Rotter "pays homage to [the industrial revolution] with twists on throwback dishes such as Scotch egg with béarnaise; and short rib and bone marrow toast in bordelaise. There’s also a 'pickling station' featuring an array of fruits and veggies, including figs, pineapple, radish, Brussels sprouts and beets."

We've heard from people that the food is good, though "pickling station" might make parody fodder for a TV show that has a poster near the restaurant...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumors about the new name for the former Nice Guy Eddie's space

Last night at Nice Guy Eddie's

[Updated] Street fight erupts at Raphael Ward's memorial service on Second Avenue this afternoon

There was a memorial service this afternoon for Raphael Ward, the 16-year-old gunned down for his jacket last Friday night on the Lower East Side.

Witnesses described a wild scene after a fight among students apparently broke out outside the Provenzano Lanza Funeral Home on Second Avenue between East Third Street and East Second Street around 3 p.m.

These pictures by Event Photos NYC show panicked students fleeing the scene, heading south toward Houston...

Bobby Williams was also in the vicinity and took these photos...

He reports that a large contingent of NYPD officers quickly arrived and restored order... no word on any arrests...

Police are looking to question four "persons of interest" about the murder. His funeral will take place at Our Lady of Sorrows Church on Pitt Street tomorrow morning, according to the Lo-Down.

More details on today's altercation as they become available...

[Courtesy of Event Photos NYC]

Updated 1-10:

The Lo-Down has more on the incident:

A friend of The Lo-Down witnessed the confrontation, telling us that at one point a teen was being beaten with a large chain and a frying pan. Another source said at least one fight began inside the funeral home. Cops were forced to shut down traffic on 2nd Avenue to deal with the situation.

Updated 1-10:
The Post reports that the NYPD arrested a 16 year old for his alleged role in the shooting last Friday night.