Images 2016

January

RIP David Bowie...


[First Park]

The great Blizzard of Jan. 23...


[East 10th Street via Peter Brownscombe]

... and the day after...


[East 1st Street near 1st Avenue]

The great snow, oh you know...


[Photo via ‏@sandispino]

DOUBLE RAINBOW...


[Photo by Caz Lulu via Facebook]

Panhandling evolution...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

February

Losing the war against the rats...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

St. Mark's Bookshop closes...



Another cold, cold night...


[Photo by @georgygirlnyc]

March

One year later...


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

A new era begins...


[Photo by Steven]

April

Here's Johnny...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

You will be missed...



May

So long Yaffa Cafe mural...


[Photo by Allen Semanco]

Saving Air Shaft Rabbit...



At least Chris Christie isn't actually going to be Secretary of the Interior...


[Photo by Karts]

June

Tompkins Square Park's Prince-inspired piano...


[Photo by Steven]

At the annual Drag March...


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

ABC No Rio closes for now...


[Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk]

July

The kids learn to fly...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

A Sunday morning walk on St. Mark's Place...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

Campaigning in Tompkins Square Park...


[Photo by Steven]

Bagging a Rattata ...


[Reader-submitted photo]

August

A hotel in the works for 11th Street...


[Photo by Grant Shaffer]

A sign of progress in the ongoing Astor Place/Cooper Square Reconstruction project...


[Photo by Vinny & O]

September

A new space on Seventh Street for Abraço...


[Photo by Steven]

111 years later...



A fire at Caracas Arepa Bar...


[Photo by EVG reader Joaquin]

A new home for Comrade Lenin...


[Photo by Peter Marciano]

October

Fall in Tompkins Square Park...



A crowd in Tompkins Square Park for Choking Victim ...


[Photo by Goggla]

November

The cube returns to Astor Place at long last...


[Photo by @unitof]

A vote for the neighbor's best restaurant ...


[Photo by Peter Brownscombe]

Another March Against Trump...


[Photo by Steven]

After a brief closure at McSorley's...


[Photo by Steven]

December

The NYPD vs the Hells Angels...


[Photo by Event Photos NYC]

SantaConned again...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

At the 25th annual Tompkins Square Park tree lighting...


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

A look at the future?...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

The 3 most-viewed EVG posts of 2016

In keeping with the spirit of the listicle season...

1) Report: Man reportedly shot moving orange cones outside Hells Angels HQ on 3rd Street (Dec. 12)

2) The fall of Lenin: Iconic statue removed from Red Square on East Houston Street (Sept. 30)


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

3) Breaking (pretty much!): Target is coming to 14th Street and Avenue A (July 29)

Sunday times

Iggy Pop's Post Pop Depression made some year-end listicles for best records of the year... here's "Sunday" from that March release from the former EV resident.

Gone but not forgotten

Remembering a few of our friends and neighbors who died in 2016...

Stephen Konzen (aka the East Village Magic Man), friend, magician



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Richard Kopperdahl, writer, patient



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Carmen Pabón, community activist, gardener



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Bill Gerstel, father, musician


[Photo from 2014 by James Maher]

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Ernest Russell, father, artist


[Photo by Legacy Russell]

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Adrian Gilboe, store owner, collector



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Brett Kilroe, designer, music lover


[Photo by Dan Winters]

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Lorraine Levine, sophisticated lady, advice giver

Don't freak out, but I died on Sunday. You can now reach me via the Ouija board. Will do hauntings for a buck. ❤️u pic.twitter.com/4x01HWTYGT

— Lorraine Levine (@ask_lorraine) May 23, 2016

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Tom Mulligan, Army veteran, Tompkins Square Park regular


[Photo by Michael Sean Edwards]

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John Farris, poet, mentor

[Photo of John Farris by EVG from 2010]

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Alan Vega, musician, icon


[Image via]

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Roland Legiardi-Laura, poet, director of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

[Image via Nuyorican Poets Cafe]

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Al Orensanz, author, director of the Angel Orensanz Center



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Coca Crystal, writer, cable-access star


[Image via Facebook]

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Jim Hayes (aka Cowboy Jim), Tompkins Square Park, St. Mark's Place fixture


[Photo courtesy of John Caldwell]

---

This evening's fiery sunset

From several positions...

On Avenue A (photo by Greg Masters) ...



From Third Street (photo by Felton Davis)...



From 10th and C (photo by Bobby Williams)...

Year-end Citi Bike stats: 14 million trips (bike trips)

[Photo from July by Derek Berg]

Mayor de Blasio released some year-end stats-n-stuff about Citi Bike this morning.

To the news release!

Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced that Citi Bike had set another ridership record in 2016, with nearly 14 million trips – shattering the record set in 2015 by more than 4 million. The Citi Bike program, the largest bike-share program in North America, now regularly serves over 60,000 trips per day – on par with Boro Taxis and the Staten Island Ferry. By one estimate, this year’s record number of Citi Bike trips have kept New Yorkers out of carbon-producing vehicles, sparing nearly 5,000 tons of CO² out of New York City’s air.

And!

Citi Bike served more than 60,000 trips on 23 different days this year; on October 19, riders completed nearly 70,000 trips – a one-day system record. Operated by Motivate, a national leader in bike share, Citi Bike continues to attract the highest ridership volume of any bike share system in North America. This year’s record represents a 40 percent increase over the previous year, an indication that Citi Bike’s popularity continues to surge all across the city.

And!

The Citi Bike program also added 139 stations and 2,000 bikes to its fleet in 2016 – expanding the network from Harlem to Red Hook in the second phase of an expansion plan that will double the size of the bike share network from 6,000 to 12,000 bikes by 2017. Citi Bike will continue to expand to Astoria, Prospect Heights and Crown Heights in the coming year.

Gothamist's coverage of the announcement noted ...

Citi Bike currently costs $12/day (unlimited 30-minute rides) or $177 for an annual membership (unlimited 45-minute rides). There are also lower-cost options for NYCHA residents and IDNYC holders, as well as some credit union members, Oxford health plan participants and Citi card holders. For comparison, currently one subway ride is $2.75 and a monthly unlimited pass (not including new card fee) is $116.50.

152 2nd Ave. storefront to yield a combo Greek yogurt and smoothie shop

[Photo by Steven]

Signage went up yesterday for the combo business coming to 152 Second Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street — a Greecologies and Pure Green.

Here's more about Greecologies from a June 2015 New York Times feature:

Yogurt is made on the premises at Greecologies, an airy emporium in Little Italy that offers the thick and tangy strained style of Greek yogurt as well as a sweeter, unstrained variety that comes with a layer of cream on top and whey on the bottom. Both use Hudson Valley milk, as does a lovely cultured butter spread that can also be stirred into strong coffee.

The menu includes a variety of Greek yogurts as well as desserts, coffees and teas. This will be the second NYC location for Greecologies.

Here's more about Pure Green, which has multiple NYC locations, from the company website:

Pure Green's focus is to make it easy to live a healthy lifestyle. Our philosophy is everyone should experience sustained energy throughout the day. Starting your day with our cold-pressed juice, drinking our handcrafted smoothies and nutrient-rich snacks will restore your energy and RECHARGE YOUR LIFE.

This is an ultra-competitive market for juices and smoothies. For starters, one block to the north, there's the well-entrenched Juice Press on 10th Street just east of Second Avenue … and Liquiteria on Second Avenue and 11th Street ... and there's beQu Juice on Ninth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... with a a shop called JuiceGo opening soon directly across Ninth Street. Plus, there's Juice Vitality at 192 First Ave. between 11th Street and 12th Street ... and East Village Organic on First Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place sells fresh juice ... as does Commodities on First Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street. (Added: The Be Juice shop next to Basics Plus on Third Avenue between 12th Street and 13th Street.)

152-154 Second Ave. is the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel that Icon Realty bought, gutted, added three extra floors and opened as luxury rentals.