St. Mark's Place
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
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
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
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Here's a photo of Elisabeth on a stoop on St. Mark's Place in 1985...
By James Maher
Name: Elisabeth Diekmann
Occupation: Office Manager and Writer
Location: 7th Street between 2nd and Cooper Square
Time: 5:15pm on Saturday, June 8
I’m from New England originally. I came to New York in late ’77 when I was 20. I came down here for love. A boyfriend brought me here but I kind of had it in my mind to come here anyhow. I met him up in Maine and he lived in the City at the time. My father lived in Boston, I loved to travel, and I wanted to come to New York. I wanted to experience it. We got an apartment on 37 First Avenue.
I also subletted on 5th and A and on 12th Street. For awhile I lived in abandoned buildings, a couple of working ones, squatters. I had a lot of problems that I hadn’t dealt with that surfaced. I was ripe for addiction and I had an alcohol problem. But I survived. I lived in a good squat that was on 7th Street. There were a lot of politics and game playing within them. It was not the greatest experience, but I’m glad that I had it and I’m glad that I saw it. I had some friends that bought the buildings for $1 and worked on paying the back taxes. I have two friends that still have them. Then I got an apartment on 3rd Street and that’s where I lived for 17 years.
I loved walking down the street, I loved sitting on the stoops, even though there were drugs. In general, I always had really good experiences here. People sat on the stoops until around the late 80s when that became more forbidden. People began putting gates up by the end of the 80s when they started working on the real estate here. One of the things was to put gates up and not let people sit.
There were so many great people around. Keith Haring was a good friend of mine. He lived below me. Keith was just a really great, sweet guy — very low key, calm, casual. Before he even became well-known he used to have these art parties. He was very prolific and he would invite you to his space and he had his art all over. It was like a gallery showing but informal, with all kinds of drawings all over. You hung out and he’d try to sell stuff to pay his rent and whatever. He gave me a couple of pieces, which my boyfriend and I argued about who owned when we broke up.
There’s very few of us left that had survived all of the changes — a lot of people sold out, but they sold out for nothing. It’s hard to convey to the young people now what it was like then. It wasn’t what the outsiders think of it. It was the kind of community and the sense of comfort walking out on the street. Maybe the word comfort isn’t good. There was a dynamic or an energy, but to me it was very comfortable because I felt good in it.
And there was always something happening. Even if it was just on the street, there was an energy. You’d find things happening by walking down the street. There were also so many great, cheap places to eat. That’s where a lot of people would meet in the mornings, at Leshko’s and the one right next to it [the Odessa]. There were a lot of cheap breakfast meetings and gatherings.
I’m reading a historical novel by Jeannette Walls, who I really like, called "Half Broke Horses." Her writing is really amazing. "The Glass Castle" was her first book and was the memoir of her being brought up by a very transient family. Her father had a hard time holding a job and living in normal society and so he and his wife traveled a lot and it was the experience of the children and what they had to go through. The kids were more of the parents and they finally broke away. The first child moved to New York back in the mid 1980s and came to this neighborhood. True Story. And the parents eventually followed them here, no kidding, and lived in an abandoned building on 9th Street. Jeannette had gotten a good job by then and remembers in a cab seeing her mother on 3rd Avenue, right up there, picking garbage out of a dumpster. It was really an incredible story about coming out of a difficult life.
It’s been very inspirational, especially for my historical novel, which I’ve been working on. This whole time I’ve always wanted to be a writer or an artist. That was really my goal so I’m still working on that in my spare time.
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
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Here's a photo of Elisabeth on a stoop on St. Mark's Place in 1985...
The Landmarks Preservation Commission approves application for modifications at PS 64
[Photo from June 4 by Edward Arrocha]
Back on May 8, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) heard public comments regarding the former PS 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center on East Ninth Street. As you know, developer Gregg Singer will need approvals from the LPC in order to make changes to the exterior of the landmarked building for his proposed 500-bed dormitory.
During the May meeting, the commissioners reportedly responded positively to the architect's plans for renovation. While they did not vote on the proposal, the commissioners made suggestions to the applicant to modify the plans.
And yesterday, the LPC approved the application with some minor modifications. (How minor? The stair bulkheads were modified to be narrower, the rooftop railings will be black-painted metal instead of glass and will be set back an additional 2 feet, etc.)
As expected, for preservationists, the next battlefront will be with the Department of Buildings, who must approve plans to convert the building into a dorm.
"We always knew this battle would really revolve around the dormitory use, rather than the landmarks approvals. Working with a coalition of groups and elected officials, we are continuing to challenge the legitimacy of the dormitory arrangement, which has not yet been approved by the Department of Buildings, and which we hope and will fight to ensure is never approved by DOB," Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, told me in an email. "We are still quite optimistic that this plan, like all of Singer's prior totally inappropriate plans for the old PS 64, will end up in the dustbin of history."
Preservation groups and some local residents want to see the building returned for community use.
[Edward Arrocha]
Previously on EV Grieve:
Rebranded P.S. 64 up for grabs: Please welcome University House at Tompkins Square Park to the neighborhood
Deed for 'community facility use only' at the former P.S. 64 now on the market
Efforts continue to fight the dorm planned for the former PS 64 on East 9th Street
Testimony Of Councilmember Rosie Mendez regarding the former PS 64
[Updated] At the 'Save Our Community Center MARCH AND RALLY'
Landmarks Preservation Commission asks to see modified plans for former PS 64
The staging obviously sold this Avenue C duplex
An EVG regular shared this apartment listing with us...
Step right up to a UNIQUE 2BR/CONV3 with space for four to share!
Nestled on Avenue C - the new block du jour of the East Village, this is a sprawling listing in a new building.
Upstairs you'll find the kitchen, two HUGE bedrooms (Queen sized beds and dressers, check) a full kitchen and full bath.
Down the spiral staircase you'll find a MEGA studio space plus alcove, plus half bath. And a private second entrance. It's like a whole other apartment. You also have access down here to your HUGE OUTDOOR SPACE!
Yes, blah, blah. It was the accompanying photos, though, that really bring home this duplex's best features ...
... no word if the can of Lysol and the plastic beverage cooler are included on the HUGE OUTDOOR SPACE!
Anyway. Doesn't matter. Staging sells, of course, and devotees of the lived-in bro look likely couldn't pass this one up! Plus, demand being what it is, this place was on Streeteasy less than a week before some people rented it. Price: $3,595.
'Global tapas' on tap for 186 Avenue A
[February 2013]
Here's a look at another item on this month's CB3/SLA docket. (The meeting is Monday.) A "global tapas" bar going by the name Cork 'N Fork is vying for a beer-wine license at 186 Avenue A, which previously housed Kamui Den near East 12th Street.
According to paperwork (PDF) filed ahead of the meeting at the CB3 website, the proprietor is Demetrios Klidonas, who has been in the restaurant business in Manhattan and Queens for three decades ... most notably Isadora's Cafe on East 52nd Street, which he ran from 1990 until 2008 when he sold his interests in the business. (Isadora's is still in operation.)
Plans show 16 two-seat tables ... and a bar seating 10 people. Proposed hours are 11 a.m. - midnight Sunday through Thursday; until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
In May, an applicant withdrew plans for a ramen joint at 186 Avenue A.
The meeting is Monday night at the University Settlement Neighborhood Center, 189 Allen St. between Houston & Stanton.
An Evening with John Strausbaugh
Via the EV Grieve inbox...An Evening with John Strausbaugh
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) will host author and cultural commentator John Strausbaugh as he reads from his latest book, "The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues" (Ecco 2013) on Thursday, June 13. The reading will begin at 7 p.m. with a Q&A session with Strausbaugh to follow. MoRUS is located at 155 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets. $5 - $10 suggested donation.
The Village is a collection of profiles and stories from events and personalities going as far back as 1640 that shaped and colored the cultural landscape of New York City below 14th Street.
Ada Calhoun writes in the May 31 issue of The New York Times Book Review: How rare and refreshing it is to find a chronicler who can remain dry-eyed and funny while describing the Village’s transformation from laboratory for change to “Sex and the City” tour stop.
Meanwhile, the folks at MoRUS conducted a Q-and-A with Strausbaugh, whose credits include serving as an editor of New York Press.
An excerpt:
MoRUS: Do you believe that the increasing gap between the rich and poor is effecting radical, progressive thinking in New York City? If so, in what ways?
JS: I suspect this is a very low point for radical, progressive thinking in NYC. Again, I’m speaking from what I know of the history. New York City was, for so many decades and in too many ways to enumerate here, a hotbed of forward thinking, not only in traditional political terms but in social and cultural movements as well. All the reprogramming and refashioning of the city over the last quarter-century or so to create the affluent, suburbanized, generic, tourist-friendly New New York has had, I think, a severe dampening effect on the city as a place that nurtures radical or progressive thinking on any front — political, social, or cultural. New York used to be a fantastically creative place on all those fronts. Now it’s being repurposed as a place of recreation, not creation.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Sinkhole threatens to swallow Avenue A, or at least this trash can
Uh-oh! Run! Or walk briskly! Dave on 7th reports that a sinkhole is growing (or getting deeper) here on Avenue A between East Third Street and East Second Street ...
Meanwhile, developers have until 5 today to submit their bids for the sinkhole.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Save a public school library, get cool art
From the EV Grieve inbox...
Last year, families at The Neighborhood School on East Third Street (aka P.S. 363, aka TNS) found out that due to a perfect storm of craptastical budget crises on both the local and federal levels, the school had lost funding for its library. We now have to raise an additional $40K a year to keep our library and wonderful librarian Cheryl Wolf — no small feat for a school in which a third of the children qualify for free lunch and many more live just above the poverty line, and the PTA is already stretched to its limit.
So we're doing an online auction of children's book art to raise funds. Some of the amazing artists who’ve donated original paintings, prints and/or autographed books include Maira Kalman, Sophie Blackall, Paul O. Zelinsky, Mo Willems, Calef Brown, Betsy Lewin, Jaime Zollars, Javaka Steptoe (whose psychedelic portrait of Jimi Hendrix from Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow will thrill music fans), Betsy Lewin, Beth Krommes, Emily Arnold McCully, David Milgrim, Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman and many more.
The auction runs though June 21. New items will be added regularly, and of course, straight-up donations can be made here — fully tax-deductible, as The Neighborhood School PTA, which funds the library, is a 501(c)3 charitable organization.
Why bother? Because research shows that having a school library and librarian is strongly correlated with student achievement, and the less wealthy the school, the stronger that correlation is. Our school also has one of the largest percentages of children with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) in our district, and Cheryl is a magician at reaching reluctant and emerging readers.
Our PTA is already stretched to its limit providing art, music, field-trip subsidies and supplies for students. That's why we're reaching out to the public. There’s nothing left to cut from the budget: In the last three years, we’ve cut our Reading Recovery program, our math coach, our literacy coach, our assistant principal, a school aide, all professional development contracts and our supplies budget, and we’ve increased class size in all grades. We don’t want to lose our library too!
Previously
The tree chair of East Sixth sports new amenities
[From February via Bobby Williams]
After briefly going missing, the tree chair of East Sixth Street recently returned... and now there are several new features, as this photo via EVG reader Daniel Root shows...
The chair's caretaker was also captured in this photo... we understand that he seems pleased that so many people like his creation...
Previously on EV Grieve:
What happened to the tree chair on East Sixth Street?
The tree chair of East Sixth Street is... back!
New York Supreme Court upholds revocation of La Vie's liquor license
[Via Flickr]
In late November, the State Liquor Authority revoked La Vie's liquor license on East First Street. (The license had apparently expired in February 2011, but La Vie had been operating under the NY State Administrative Procedures Act, aka SAPA).
In December, we were told that La Vie's lawyers "petitioned a court for a stay of the SLA's decision based on financial hardship while the Article 78 proceeding is pending."
Now it appears as if the ongoing battle between La Vie and its neighbors is over: Last Thursday, the 1st Department of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court upheld the revocation of La Vie's liquor license. (You can find a PDF with the decision here. (Starts on page 88.)
The decision, in part, reads:
Evidence supporting the sustained charges includes numerous complaint reports, as well as the testimony of two police officers and an investigator employed by respondent, detailing incidents of ... disorderly activity, assaults, and violations of fire and safety regulations at petitioner’s premises in violation of sections 106(6), 114(6) and 118 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law and the Rules of the State Liquor Authority.
And.
The record shows that petitioner has a lengthy history of violations and there is no indication that petitioner took any steps to prevent the repeated incidents of disorderly conduct on or about its premises ...
We have considered petitioner’s remaining arguments, including that respondent improperly considered evidence outside the record of the proceedings when issuing its determination, and find them unavailing.
Neighbors have long complained that La Vie was operating as a club under the guise of a restaurant. According to residents speaking out at past CB3/SLA meetings, the dance music emanating from the club was loud and disruptive to their quality of life ... and they claim there was often chaos in the streets as patrons entered and exited.
Records on file with the State Liquor Authority show that the liquor license has expired.
There's no mention of an impending closure on La Vie's website or Facebook page. The last message is from Saturday, and it reads: "SATURDAYS AT LA VIE ARE LIKE NO OTHER!!! JOIN US FOR AN AMAZING TIME!!"
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] La Vie closed for now on East First Street
More details on the sale of 644 E. 14th St.
We noted last Thursday that there is renewed interest in the southwest corner of East 14th Street and Avenue C. Avison Young is now exclusively marketing the former auto-parts store with a lot of development rights, as Billy Gray first reported at the Commercial Observer.
Here's are a few more details about the property and sale, via EVG reader J-Dough, who recently came across the flyer...
Per the listing:
Previously on EV Grieve:
Development back in play for East 14th Street and Avenue C
Here's are a few more details about the property and sale, via EVG reader J-Dough, who recently came across the flyer...
Per the listing:
Based on the applicable C1-5 and C2-5 overlay in an R7-2 zoning district, the Property is a suitable candidate for redevelopment as a multitude of uses including residential, community facility and retail including potential logical uses serving the neighborhood such as dry cleaners, specialty food, pet store, day care facilities, doctor offices and veterinary offices.
The Site can accommodate a developable area of up to 34,764 square feet for residential, 65,689 square feet for community facility and 20,212 square feet for retail with a maximum square footage dictated by the community facility zoning floor area. In addition, there are potentially 70,000 square feet of unutilized development rights from the properties directly to the west of the parcel that, with a zoning lot merger, can be incorporated into the site.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Development back in play for East 14th Street and Avenue C
Report: Loan dispute could be the end of the Yippies at 9 Bleecker St.
More troubling news from 9 Bleecker St., longtime headquarters of the counterculture group and home of the Yippie Museum Cafe. As Colin Moynihan reported yesterday at The New York Times, Yippie leaders have been fighting an attempt by a lender to foreclose on their three-story home. Things took a turn for the worse last month "when a judge appointed a receiver to manage the building and collect rent."
Per the article:
In court documents, Steven L. Einig, a lawyer for a company called Centech, which holds the building’s mortgage, stated that Yippie Holdings, which bought Number 9 along with a nonprofit called the National AIDS Brigade, had failed for more than five years to make payments on the $1.4 million mortgage.
A lawyer for Yippie Holdings, John Diffley, said in an e-mail that his clients “were compelled into foreclosure with payments being rejected” by Centech as part of a scheme or plan to take over the building.
Read the whole article here.
Previously on EV Grieve:
The Yippie Museum Cafe is in financial trouble
So close to a full reveal at David Schwimmer's new East Sixth Street mansion
Several residents noted yesterday that workers stripped away most of the remaining plywood at 331 E. Sixth St., where the demolition and construction of David Schwimmer's new home is entering the 22nd month.
[Via an EVG reader]
Maybe we will have a rooftop BBQ here after all this summer.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Is David Schwimmer the 'Friends' star who now owns the demolished 331 E. Sixth St. townhouse?
Outrage over total demolition of historic East Sixth Street townhouse
[Via an EVG reader]
Maybe we will have a rooftop BBQ here after all this summer.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Is David Schwimmer the 'Friends' star who now owns the demolished 331 E. Sixth St. townhouse?
Outrage over total demolition of historic East Sixth Street townhouse
Monday, June 10, 2013
Remembering Corey Capers 1 year after his death on 5th Street and Avenue C
There's a makeshift memorial on the southeast corner of East Fifth Street and Avenue C in honor of Corey Capers. The 31 year old died here last June 9 after being stabbed in the chest at a nearby party.
Last July, Carl Knox, 47, pleaded not guilty to a variety of charges in the alleged murder of Capers, including second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, assault and possession of a criminal weapon.
According to DNAinfo, Knox, who has also gone by the name Abdul Hakim, had a history of 26 prior arrests including an attempted rape and assault.
Capers, who lived in the Vladeck Houses, had a son and was engaged to be married.
[June 10, 2012]
Previously.
A rainy afternoon look at a Citi Bikes docking station
First, we promise not to post about a docking station every day.
Meanwhile! EVG reader Dan Scheffey noted the docking station on East 10th Street along Tompkins Square Park this afternoon ... one bike remaining on a
Several people have told us that this docking station has been a little buggy (or, "wildly dysfunction," as one person put it) ... For instance, on Saturday, when you tried to return a bike, the green light would not go on signaling that it was locked into the rack.
One Citi Bike user thought that he had safely locked his rental back in place here ... only to learn later that someone took it for a 7-hour joyride.
[Updated] Buying up the Bowery
The tenants include Pulino's "and a smattering of Chinese good stores." A Massey Knakal rep says that a lot of the tenants have leases expiring in the next few years ...
A family trust sold the portfolio to a group led by Joseph Betesh, whose family owns the Dr. Jays hip-hop clothing stores.
Douglas Elliman's Faith Hope Consolo says that the Bowery "is the place to be." She notes that current rents are $175 to $200 a square foot now... and if the lux boom continues along here, she predicts they will hit $325 in the next five years.
Updated 2 p.m.
A few more details from a Massey Knakal news release:
The properties are located at 83, 85, 88, 103, 105, 219, 221, 262, 276, 280, and 284 Bowery. The buildings total approximately 143,230 above grade square feet with all air-rights intact. The properties are not contiguous, but nine of the 11 buildings are paired with an adjacent property, excellently located between Houston and Canal Streets.
These properties have been family owned since the 1930s which presented a rare opportunity for Milestone Equities to acquire a portfolio with tremendous upside.
[Random Bowery storefront photo from 2012]
Applicants looking to take over the Odessa Cafe and Bar off June's CB3/SLA agenda
[Bobby Williams]
Well, as the headline says: The mystery applicants vying for the beloved Odessa Cafe and Bar on Avenue A are no longer on this month's CB3/SLA docket.
We've heard rumors for months now that the old Odessa was on its way out. Meanwhile, looks like you have a little longer to visit (or revisit) the place and, say, take in the movie star portraits hanging behind the bar...
And you never know who might be there.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Building that houses Odessa Cafe and Bar for sale on Avenue A
Is the end nearing for Odessa Cafe and Bar on Avenue A?
Helpful flyer reminds residents what they can flush down the toilets in this East Village building
[Click on image to enlarge]
A reader shared this letter that the super dropped off over the weekend... seems as if residents in this building or using the toilets to flush stuff other than [censored] or, as some people crudely call it, [censored].
Other items mentioned in the flyer that should not be flushed: "Stolen government files, drug stashes, pet alligators or last night's leftover meatloaf."
The super/landlord then goes on to list exactly what can be flushed. "If what you're thinking of flushing does not meet the requirements of the above list, then do not flush it."
Kidding aside, probably a good reminder for some folks, like the ones I heard who discard their kitty litter via the toilet. Or the remains of the baby deep fryer.
As we wrote last year: Letters addressing what you can and can't flush down your toilet are always so... awkward.
See this 'rarely seen duplex' at 1 Avenue B
Well, I knew the units at 1 Avenue B on East Houston were nice... but not quite like this. The listing for the "rarely seen Penthouse One" is now on the market...
First, a little descriptive listing action via Douglas Elliman:
The fob-keyed elevator opens onto a private landing and gracious gallery foyer that leads into a stunning sun-filled great room boasting 19-foot ceilings, soaring floor-to-ceiling windows with electric shades, custom gas fireplace, Lutron lighting system and a 63" TV home theater system.
The entire main level is bordered by a beautifully landscaped 2,618 sf private wrap-around terrace with built-in hot tub, outdoor grilling station, and unmatched open sky views.
Additional features of the home include dual zone central HVAC and Humidification System, Brazilian walnut flooring throughout, laundry room with side-by-side Whirlpool washer/dryer and an abundance of storage space, and extensive security features. Enjoy endless summers dining under your Ipe pergola draped in wisteria or relish in the unparalleled views, light and space throughout the year.
... as you can see, there's even a painting that pays homage to the gas station that used to be on this corner...
Asking price: $5.95 million.
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Then!
Now!
Crunch announces itself to the Bowery
As we first reported on May 31, Crunch is moving from its current home on Lafayette Street to the Bowery and East Fourth Street — specifically the retail space at 2 Cooper Square... The storefronts here have been vacant since the apartments hit the market in 2009 ...
And in other gym news... Crossfit East River opens today on East Ninth Street near Avenue C.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Crunch moving to the Bowery; CB3 OKs New York Sports Club on Avenue A
Cemusa newsstand now open for action on the Bowery
[Bobby Williams]
The Cemusa newsstand is now open on the Bowery at East Second Street... offering most of the comforts (cigarettes, 5-hour ENERGY® shots) of the nearby 7-Eleven, minus the GO-GO Taquitos® and Spicy Wing Zings, among other items.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Newsstand in the works for the Bowery and Second Street
The Bowery just got a little more bland
A Picnic for Second Avenue
Renovations continue over at 117 Second Ave. at East Seventh Street... And as you probably figured, Song 7.2, the Korean joint in the corner space, isn't returning. The place closed in early January for renovations, with a sign noting they'd be back open on Jan. 19. ... workers subsequently gutted the interior ...
Now signage has arrived for the new eatery here... a place called Picnic...
We don't know much about Picnic, other than that they will serve American comfort food like meatballs, sandwiches and macaroni and cheese, as the Local reported in April.
No word on who the owner is ...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Storefront renovation for 117 Second Ave.; last call for Song 7.2?
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Puke Island 2013
In Tompkins Square Park this afternoon... Puke Island 2013... The Minor Cuts...
... and The Graveyard School...
And at the pop-up piano... some mindless bloodletting.
Photos by Bobby Williams.
Goggla has some photos here.
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