Designs for urban life apparently don't include trees

We first heard rumblings of some kind of Guggenheim pop-up community center or something at the rat-infested lot on East First Street near Second Avenue.

Well! As you may have heard by now, it's happening! This summer... through October.

And this is what it will look like.

Oh. And here's part of the official news release that we received:

Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and Jim O'Donnell, President and CEO, BMW North America, LLC, announced today that the BMW Guggenheim Lab will launch in New York City from August 3 to October 16. Following New York, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will travel to Berlin in spring/summer 2012, and to a city in Asia to be announced later this year. Conceived as an urban think tank and mobile laboratory, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will explore issues confronting contemporary cities and provide a public place and online forum for sharing ideas and practical solutions. The BMW Guggenheim Lab and all of its programming will be free to the public. The new website and online communities will create and extend the opportunity to participate in this multidisciplinary urban experiment worldwide.

Anyway, there has been some work taking place in the last six weeks or so.

And workers have had some success in thinning the rat population, as you can see from this one found in the street of front of the lot.

Unfortunately, a resident who lives adjacent to the lot wrote me to say:

Just to let you know the Guggenheim project next door to my place plans to chop down a 60-foot tree [this] morning. Such destruction for a temporary art installation! That tree has been there for what must be 30 or 40 years!

A small price to pay for some forward-thinking ideas and designs for urban life?

UPDATED: A reader asks —

If I want to conduct work around a City tree, do I need a special permit? Excerpts from the City's Parks & Recreation Department website:

"Any person wishing to plant a tree on city property or do work on or around street or park trees must first obtain a permit from Parks.

"Removing a tree without a permit and damaging trees are very serious offenses, punishable by a fine of up to $15,000 and/or imprisonment for up to one year."

What I don't know is if the tree is a city tree or not.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Guggenheim wants our rat-infested First Street lot

Residents pitching in to help refurbish First Street garden

Next on the extinction list?: Cup and Saucer Luncheonette

Bad news from Grub Street. Daniel Maurer reports that the building housing Cup and Saucer Luncheonette, the old timer on Canal and Eldridge, is now for sale.

One of the owners of the diner, which has been in existence for 71 years, tells Maurer that he's optimistic that they'll work out a deal to stay. We hope so. We need more places like Cup and Saucer in these manly-man, artisanal days of NYC dining.

Doesn't seem as if much else is going on in the building aside from the Cup and Saucer...

In any event, this isn't the first time that we thought that the Cup and Saucer might be in trouble.

For more on the Cup and Saucer (and other LES signage), check out Jeremiah's post from 2007 here.

Be part of Art Around the Park

These flyers went up, appropriaty, around Tompkins Square Park earlier this week...

You can register here.

Another new deli for Avenue C

EV Grieve reader Dave on 7th notes another new deli on Avenue C. The Neighborhood Deli takes over the space from Pollo Cafecito, the takeout shop for Cafecito between 11th Street and 12th Street.

Neighborhood Deli now joins the new Yankee Deli a few storefronts away ... as well as two newly renovated delis three blocks to the south on Avenue C.

Expect a rebranded Cooper Square Hotel one of these days

At the Post today, Lois Weiss reports that "the trendy upscale Cooper Square Hotel" is for sale. As she notes, the sale is expected to attract interest from "equally trendy hoteliers like Ian Schrager and Rocco Forte."

Woo!

The marketing materials boast "an exclusive bar on the second floor featuring floor-to-ceiling windows and an expansive 1,700-square-foot outdoor patio."

The CoHo, you know (sorry!), had to hand itself over, or something, in a $71 million restructuring deal, The Real Deal reported back in March.

But! As Weiss writes:

Things are looking up, however. At least one night this weekend is sold out and the following weekend has availability with rates ranging from $392 to $441 for a king-size room. With city occupancy continuing to bounce upward along with tourism and room rates, Westport Capital probably figured it was an opportune time to hit the market.

A call to Christopher McClure, CEO of Westport Capital, also went unreturned by press time. Harmon is currently wrapping up the sale of the Chelsea Hotel to an as-yet-unnamed buyer for around $80 million.

When the dust settles, sources said, the Cooper Square Hotel should top that price, especially since it is sparkling new and has no hotel management contracts in place.

"It can be totally rebranded," said one source.

That "sparkling new" exterior will need to be hosed down when the demolition and subsequent construction starts directly next door at the former 35 Cooper Square.

Another era, another lost city

Our friend Esquared posted an excerpt from the Dec. 21-28, 1987 issue of New York magazine. It's a cover story by Pete Hamill titled "The New York We’ve Lost."

Here are a few passages:

“It was a city, as John Cheever once wrote, that “was still filled with a river light, when you heard the Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationery store, and when almost everybody wore a hat.” In that city, the taxicabs were all Checkers, with ample room for your legs, and the drivers knew where Grand Central was and always helped with the luggage. ... In that city, you did not smoke on the subway. You wore galoshes in the rain. Waitresses called you honey. You slept with windows open to the summer night.

That New York is gone now, hammered into dust by time, progress, accident, and greed. Yes, most of us distrust the memory of how we lived here, not so very long ago. Nostalgia is a treacherous emotion, at once a curse against the present and an admission of permanent resentment, never to be wholly trusted. For many of us, looking back is simply too painful; we must confront the unanswerable question of how we let it all happen, how the Lost City was lost. And so most of us have trained ourselves to forget. …”

And!

I suppose that 30 years from now (as close to us as we are to 1958), when I've been safely tucked into the turf at the Green-Wood, someone will write in these pages about a Lost New York that includes Area and the Mudd Club and Nell's, David's Cookies and Aca Joe and Steve's ice cream. Someone might mourn Lever House or Trump Tower or the current version of Madison Square Garden. Anything is possible. But if so, I hope that at least one old and wizened New Yorker will reach for a pen and try to explain about our lost glories: and mention spaldeens and trolleys and — if he can make it clear, if he has the skill and the memory — even Willie Mays.

You can access the entire article through Nonetheless here.

Today in that sinking feeling about the Mars Bar

Yesterday, as this photo by Goggla shows, that machine thing was back outside the Mars Bar testing soil samples to monitor the toilet water level. (They were last spotted in February.)

And as for actual closing dates, well, there's plenty of rumors and speculation ... the latest word on First Street is that Prof. John upstairs has to vacate his place by mid-July.

EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams happened by as well. He took these shots...

A call to expand the proposed East Village historic districts

The City's Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is considering proposing two historic districts in the East Village. (See that here.)

Here's a letter on the matter from Andrew Berman, executive director, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP):

[T]he scope of the LPC's current study areas is limited, and only covers a fraction of the neighborhood's important historic resources. The LPC has said that they are willing to consider other areas of the neighborhood for possible historic district designation in the future, and it is important that we make clear that such additional consideration is essential. However, we also believe that, given the areas the LPC is looking at right now, they can and should expand the boundaries of their study areas to include other important nearby historic resources.

Therefore GVSHP, the Historic Districts Council and the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative have asked the LPC to expand their study area to include several adjacent areas. We are hopeful that the LPC will study these additional areas as well as part of their current effort.

The LPC is only studying these areas for possible consideration for historic district designation, and has not taken any formal action towards designation yet. It is therefore critical that we let them know that we want them to move forward with historic district designations in the East Village, that we want them to expand their study area boundaries, and that we want them to consider additional areas soon.

The LPC will be presenting their proposal to Community Board 3's Landmarks Subcommittee this Thursday. This is an important opportunity to let the LPC and Community Board 3 know that we want to see landmark protections expanded in the East Village.

HOW TO HELP:

• Send a letter to the Landmarks Preservation Commission and Community Board 3 supporting the expansion of historic district designations in the East Village, expanding the study area, and ensuring that other critical areas of the neighborhood are considered soon. (Here is a sample letter to use.)
• Come to the Community Board 3 Landmarks Committee public hearing on the proposal this Thursday, May 12 at 6 pm at BRC Senior Services Center in Sara Delano Roosevelt Park, 30 Delancey Street between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets.

Your chance to buy the building that housed the (briefly) notorious 205 Club

Here we are on 205 Chrystie St. at Stanton, where this five-story building is now on the market for $4.85 million. Per Massey Knakal:

5 story mixed-use building on the southwest corner of Chrystie and Stanton Streets. There is vacant commercial space on the ground floor and basement, with 13 apartment units above, of which 7 are free market and 6 are rent stabilized. This is the former home of a two story club / cabaret. The residential portion of the building is renting at an average of $35/SF. The area has recently been upzoned to a C6-3A from a C6-1, increasing the available FAR. The air rights are intact.

There's probably a lot of history in these walls... but the building is most likely known in recent times for 205, the now-shuttered hotspot that ran afoul of the State Liquor Authority in 2008.

As Daily Intel noted in November 2006: "205, the de facto after-party spot for downtown's skaters, bar owners, and artists (not to mention Serge Becker's entourage of models), is such a hipster destination that they recently turned away Keanu Reeves."

Final piece in place for demolition of 35 Cooper Square

... the demolition permit is now posted...

[Updated] Man stabbed to death on Stanton Street

Getting all sorts of reports about "low-flying, military-style helicopters" hovering over the East Village early this morning... Twitter was a place to go for some commiserating at 4 a.m.

In any event, as of 6:30 a.m., we haven't heard any details about what this might have been all about...

Updated: This is likely the cause of the massive air search. Via The Lo-Down:

A 50-year-old man was stabbed to death in the lobby of a building at 190 Stanton Street in the wee hours this morning.

NYPD cruisers and a helicopter converged on Stanton between Attorney and Ridge following a 3:23 a.m. call and found the victim dead on arrival, according to a police spokesman.

Updated: EV Grieve contributor samo is on the scene on Stanton and sends photos of the police presence.

Meanwhile, on First Avenue

Probably not a reason for "low-flying, military-style helicopters" but... from a reader...

A bunch of hipster a**holes just walked up 1st Ave. honking atonally on saxophones and bassoons, like a flock of very loud obnoxious geese. They stopped at every storefront, bodega, bar, restaurant, and aimed their horns at the open doorways and honked and honked, making a noisy mess. 11:00 at night. WTF?

Things that you can do when traffic on the Bowery is backed up

Park and pose, apparently.

Just a little off the restraints please

Dave on 7th notes the following happening now in Tompkins Square Park...

Per Dave: "It's art, I think?"

Live in the Bowery Hotel penthouse — for $30,000 a month

So here's the listing that appeared on the market today via Streeteasy:

Atop of the Bowery Hotel, the peak, the summit, the indistinguishable view and lifestyle that can’t be matched. Living in a hotel is what life should be like.

This unique residence and lifestyle features 360-degree views of NYC through magnificent floor to ceiling windows that remind you of time almost lost forever.

I could tell you what its all about but the photographs do more than I could ever say.

We'll be the judges of that!

No word yet if they'll rent this by the hour.

[Updated: Curbed noted this afternoon that the PH was on the market for $40,000/month in 2008 ... Read more about it here]

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Bowery and Great Jones]

Kenneth Moreno takes the stand in East Village/NYPD rape trial (The New York Times)

NYPD pays visit to chess tables at Tompkins Square Park, overlook booze for this (Neither More Nor Less)

In the new Times Square, Peep-O-Rama is family friendly (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

NYC Gay Pride Month launch party set for June 4 on Orchard Street (Broadway World)

New Rag & Bone mural tagged (BoweryBoogie)

Season 2 of the Hester Street Fair (The Lo-Down)

NYC apartments seen on TV shows (Gothamist)

And the Lower East Side History Project points us to this date in history:

The Astor Place Riot on May 10, 1849 was the 2nd deadliest in NY history, surpassed only by the Draft Riots of July 13-16, 1863. The confrontation outside of The Astor Place Opera House symbolized the growing division between Protestant & Catholic, rich & poor, & patrician & slum-dweller. It was sparked by long-standing rivalry between American actor Edwin Forrest & English William Charles Macready.

How to get a new tree for your block

For months last year, ConEd worked on 11th Street just east of First Avenue ... In late June, ConEd finished up the job... leaving behind a dead tree where the steampipe was working...



Meanwhile, someone removed the dead tree.



Seems reasonable that residents along here might ask about a tree replacement. Here's the response a resident received from Councilmember Rosie Mendez's office about such a request:

Con Edison has informed us that they do not replace trees. All curb line trees belong to the City of New York. Only the City can put in a claim for their property. If you plant a tree on City property (Curb), after one year it becomes the property of the City of New York. According to the City Parks Department, trees should be planted 20 feet from steam mains. The tree that was killed did not meet this stipulation since it was closer than 20 feet from the steam main.

[Y]ou or the block association can request a tree from the City free of charge. You can go to [this website].

However, the city and the Parks Department will probably suggest that you plant it somewhere else to meet the 20 feet requirement.

Got all that?

About the dueling art galleries at the old Superdive space

Yesterday, we reported that AD Projects has taken over the former Superdive space at 200 Avenue A. Just for clarification: This is just temporary. This is not the same art gallery concept that went before the CB3/SLA committee last month. The committee turned down that group's bid to take over the space.

This was the second time they had come before the Board. (The new venture is from the same group who appeared before the CB3 in November with the idea of a restaurant/lounge "that involves all the senses," including the now-legenedary smell machine.)

In April, CB3/SLA told the group — going as Not A Bookstore LLC — to do more (and better!) community outreach. They will appear again before the CB3/SLA committee on Monday.

For starters, they dropped the cutesy Not A Bookstore name and are going by Avenue A Hospitality LLC. The group did meet with neighborhood power brokers last Thursday.

Meanwhile, more about what's coming to 200 Avenue A is on the CB3 website. (Warning! PDF!)

The concept: An "art gallery with a full-service restaurant" open seven days a week. According to the CB3 questionnaire, their proposed hours are 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. Sunday through Tuesday; 11 a.m. - 4 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday. In total, there will be 19 tables, with a capacity (bar included) of 150. No TVs, though the yet unnamed art gallery-restaurant will employ a DJ for "ambient background music" and have "occasional acoustic" music.

In any event, this will be a more challenging sell now that the liquor license for this address has expired.

Meet the Beagle, opening today

Over at the former Orologio space on Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street, the new eatery, the Beagle, opens today (per The Feed)... menus are up on the front window...

The cocktails are $12...

And back in February when the CB3/SLA OK'd this transfer, there were rumbling about a pricy menu of items between $26 and $31. Of the five "large plates" listed on the menu, the items run between $19 (grilled cobia!) and $26 (whole branzino). The small plates are priced between $9 and $15.

The pairing boards, including the pressed pig head and rum, are $17.

Matthew Piacentini is the owner. Garrett Eagleton is the executive chef. According to the Feed, Eagleton is an import from Clyde Common in Oregon's Ace Hotel. The bar manager is an alum of the John Dory Oyster Bar)

9th Street Espresso is back open — and seemingly bigger

9th Street Espresso on, uh, Ninth Street just east of Avenue C closed two weeks ago for some renovations. EV Grieve reader AC reports that they reopened yesterday...

...and the space has been opened up... making it seem a little more airy? Like, in a good way.)

Surprise! Acme Bar and Grill won't be reopening as you probably figured

As we reported back on March 15, Acme Bar & Grill abruptly shuttered after 25 years of serving Creole/Southern-style cuisine on Great Jones. However, after reportedly firing the staff without any notice, Acme owner Bob Pollock quickly changed his mind, saying that he would reopen after a renovation.

Apparently he changed his mind again. According to Grub Street:

We hear that Jean-Marc Houmard, Michael Callahan, and Huy Chi Le — the team behind Indochine and Kittichai (and also involved with Bondst and Republic) — have grabbed up the bi-level space ... The trio is mulling concepts for a restaurant to open in early fall.

Here are some photos of the space from March 31:

Today in photos of large dogs in Tompkins Square Park

By Bobby Williams

The end is apparently nearer at 35 Cooper Square

EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams notes the arrival of workers today at the doomed 35 Cooper Square... making some final touches before the wrecking ball shows up ...

Say your goodbyes very soon...

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

At the Festival of artisanal Ideas (Jeremiah's Vanishing NYC) Check out BoweryBoogie's take here.

Lucy's back open after her return from Poland (Nadie Se Conoce)

Alex unveils an array of photo now-and-thens (Flaming Pablum)

Another Saturday night on Avenue A with LES Jewels (Neither More Nor Less)

A feature on the handball courts at First and First (The Local East Village)

How pigeons came to love New York City (Ephemeral New York)

Cinco de Barfo (EV Heave)

Protection against Bowery bums

On Saturday, a worker continued buffing the fanny fenders here on Bond Street at the Bowery — aka the "new intersection of cool."

Word is the building management is trying to thwart people from resting their buns or bums here, hence the posterior posts...

However, despite the rump rippers, there are a few gaps around the columns, which still allows room for seating. Like this fellow yesterday who was enjoying a cigar.