April 5

An EVG reader shares this festive holiday discovery on Fourth Street at Avenue B.

It's not known at the moment if the person (or people!) who discarded the tree also tossed the broken Portable Tailgating Table.

Q&A with Jake Dobkin, co-founder of Gothamist and author of 'Ask a Native New Yorker'

After helping launch Gothamist in 2003, co-founder and native New Yorker Jake Dobkin enjoyed answering questions and offering advice (often unsolicited!) about NYC to staffers who recently arrived here.

Eventually, Editor-in-Chief John Del Signore suggested that Dobkin, a third-generation New Yorker who grew up in Park Slope, share his humorous and opinionated perspective to readers who may have questions about adjusting to the NYC way of life or to longtime residents looking for a unique point of view.

And so, in the summer of 2013, Dobkin wrote his first "Ask a Native New Yorker" for the news site, tackling a topic that people may wonder about but couldn't find an answer to: "Is It Normal For Roaches To Crawl Through My Hair At Night?"

Now, after 150 columns — addressing questions ranging from "Should I Wash My Hands After Taking The Subway?" to "When Should I Call The Cops On My New Neighbors?" — the series has been turned into a book. I recently asked Dobkin a few questions about "Ask a Native New Yorker."

You've written some 150 "Ask a Native New Yorker" posts for Gothamist. However, the book isn't a repackaging of those. What can readers expect to find in this volume?

I wanted to start from scratch here and really create a volume of advice that could guide a New Yorker from birth until death. I thought a lot of the original columns on the web were pretty good, but they were written under the usual blogging time constraints.

For the book. I had a lot more time and so I think the answers are a lot more thoughtful, and hopefully more amusing. Turns out banging out eight blog posts a day ain't the best way to create quality writing!

In the book, you write that to be considered a native New Yorker, you must have, for starters, been born in one of the five boroughs. What are your feelings about people who say they are a native New Yorker — they just grew up a quick LIRR ride away in, oh, Valley Stream?

I feel bad for these people, because the truth always comes out, and then they look like real chumps. Listen, I grew up in Park Slope — it's not exactly the most hardcore neighborhood in New York, and so I understand why someone might want to shade the truth on their origin story. In college I used to tell people I grew up in South Brooklyn or something.

But ultimately to achieve wisdom you must be honest with the world and yourself about who you are and where you come from, and anyway, it could be worse — you could be from Jersey!

Do you allow for any wiggle room for iconic figures from the city's past or present — people who made an impression on NYC's culture and history though they weren't born here and hence not native New Yorkers? People such as Mickey Mantle, Andy Warhol, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Patrick Ewing, Debbie Harry and Patti Smith to randomly name six...

Newcomers, immigrants and refugees from the suburbs all contribute to the wonderful tossed-salad that is NYC culture — I'd never denigrate anyone who took the extreme act of courage it takes to move here. That said, I think it's fair to say that natives have a different, and valuable point of view, that is too often overlooked, and which I hope the book shines a light on.

You went to school at Columbia. At the time while making your collegiate choice, did it occur to you that attending, say, Brown or Dartmouth, would have watered down your native New Yorker status by being away for four years?

I was raised by hippie radical communists in Park Slope, whose style of parenting was to avoid parenting as much as possible. So when it came to applying to college I was pretty much on my own.

Stuyvesant High School in those days had about one college counselor for every 950 kids, so there wasn't much advice there either — it was pretty much "don't forget to apply to college!" So I was actually totally unaware Columbia existed until after I graduated from high school — basically everything above 14th Street was like one of those old maps where the far north is labelled "there be dragons."

So I didn't apply there, and actually got rejected by every school except Dartmouth and Binghamton. Now, I knew I couldn't go to Dartmouth, because I had a feeling my whole sarcastic Jew schtick wouldn't play well in New Hampshire. So I ended up going to SUNY Binghamton for 12 weeks, and then dropping out, and at that point, finally, someone suggested I check out Columbia, and I did. It was like I discovered El Dorado — an amazing lost city of gold.

So I wish I could say my college choice was the product of my New York Native realness, but it was actually just a kind of ridiculous stumbling ass-backwards into a situation that worked for me. The moral of the story is I'm not letting my kids apply to any school you can't get to on NYC public transit. Maybe I'd make an exception for Rutgers or something.

The book provides a lot of helpful tips for people new to the city. Do you have any specific advice for residents who are new to the East Village?

I remember when I first got to Stuy, back in 1990 — I was 13, and in those days it was on 15th and 1st, just outside the East Village. Everything south was this giant mystery which took me years to unravel. I actually think the first time I walked down St. Mark's I was 20 years old! But since then I've developed tons of favorite spots, none particularly original — Veselka, Sobaya, 7B, etc.

One of the best secret spots in all of NYC — the New York Marble Cemetery off Second Avenue — I love going in there whenever the gate is open.

Do you still believe — as you write — that New York is the greatest city in the world? You finished this book before Hudson Yards opened.

New York is the greatest city the world has ever seen, and probably will ever see, since between climate change and our current politics, the human race doesn't seem like it has so much time left.

You can't let things like Hudson Yards bother you too much — New York has always changed at a blistering pace, and somehow we always turn out OK. I was up there [the other day] shooting the Shed, and I saw like four hot-dog carts already colonizing the edges of the site. I have no doubt in 10 or 20 years the place will be totally over-run with real New York chaos.

---

"Ask a Native New Yorker: Hard-Earned Advice on Surviving and Thriving in the Big City" (Abrams Image) is now available wherever books are sold.

CB3 wants you to attend the MTA Select Bus Service Open House this Monday night

[EVG file photo]

The MTA and DOT are currently gathering community feedback on the proposed changes to the M14A and M14D bus routes.

As previously reported, with a new planned SBS route to go into effect ahead of the partial shutdown of the L train later this month, the MTA may eliminate several M14A and M14D stops throughout the East Village and Lower East Side in an effort to speed up service along the bus lines. (Hit this link for more on the MTA's plan.)

However, local elected officials have opposed the proposed plan ... and now Community Board 3 is encouraging residents to attend an MTA Select Bus Service Open House on Monday night (details below) to voice their opposition to any plans that eliminate local stops along the M14A/D routes.

Last month, CB3 passed a resolution stating just that. The resolution reads, in part:

CB3 is underserved by public transportation, though fewer than 9% of workers in the district use a car to commute to work. Despite CB3 being the third most densely populated community district in New York City, many residents are poorly served by the subway system and 11% live more than a half-mile from the nearest subway stop.

Therefore:

• There is a need for more east/west busservice south of 8th Street. The ease of East/West travel has been diminished by the elimination of the Grand Street Bus in the early 1980s and by the limited number of M14A buses.

• The City should take strong, creative measures in CB3 to reduce traffic congestion, which contributes to a vicious cycle of reduced ridership and reduced service. The MTA/NYCT will reduce service after ridership on a bus route drops below a certain threshold. Service cuts have a severely negative impact on vulnerable populations, including the elderly and disabled, who rely on public transportation ...

According to CB3, the following M14 stops would be removed under the MTA's proposal:

Avenue A/Essex:
• Ninth Street
• Third Street
• Rivington
• Grand/Abraham Kazan
• Cherry/Jackson

Avenue D:
• 11th Street
• 9th Street
• 8th Street
• Columbia/Rivington

Per a flyer about Monday's meeting via CB3: "We need you to attend the following meeting and say 'NO, we need our local stops.'"

For their part, local elected officials held a rally on Avenue A and Fourth Street on March 22. Per a statement from City Councilmember Carlina Rivera's office afterwards:

A real M14 SBS with supplemental, local service, would service vulnerable populations while improving on the proposed SBS plan and providing real “express” travel times that other routes have. In fact, there is already a successful model for this kind of plan just a few avenues away, where the M15 SBS runs parallel to an M15 local route. The MTA must pursue a similar strategy for the M14 route.

This opposition isn't sitting well with NYC Transit President Andy Byford. As the Daily News reported yesterday, Byford "wants the city’s community boards to get out of his way."

Per the article:

With the passage of congestion pricing in Albany over the weekend, the self-described railwayman now has a dedicated pot of money to pay for his $40 billion "Fast Forward" plan, which aims to transform New York’s subway and bus networks over the next decade.

But in order to get the job done, Byford said he needs the nitpickers and naysayers to keep their typical "not in my backyard" attitude to themselves.

"Fast Forward is dead in the water if we have just absolute NIMBYism across the city," Byford said Wednesday at a panel discussion hosted by the U.K. government. "We absolutely have to embrace that if we all want better transit as a system, then we’ve got to think the big picture."

Byford took a not-so-subtle shot at community groups and elected officials who are opposed to the MTA’s plan to cut stops on the sluggish lower Manhattan M14 bus route in order to replace it with select bus service.

"If every single thing we want to do, like speed up buses by taking out just a few stops, gets 'nope, you’re not doing it' (then) I'm wasting my time," he said.

Ben Fried of TransitCenter told this to Curbed in a post from March 25:

"New York City’s bus stops are spaced too close together, which is a big drag on bus riders' time. Some of the current bus stops on the M14 are spaced just one block apart. The MTA's bus stop consolidation plan for the M14 will improve transit access in the East Village by speeding up buses, and stops would still be no more than two and a half blocks apart."

The MTA Select Bus Service Open House is Monday (April 8) from 6-8 p.m. at the 14th St. Y, 344 E. 14th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Blue Bottle Coffee Company coming to Astor Place

A Blue Bottle Coffee Company outpost is opening at 2 Astor Place at Broadway.

As you can see, the BBCC branding is up in the space that previously housed Middle Eastern chain Semson.

No word on an opening date. BBCC currently has 14 locations in NYC, including on University Place.

Noted

Someone along 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue left a note — FYI! — on this body-shaped item left on the curb for sanitation — "Not a body."



Thanks to @thepunkguy for the photo!

EVG Etc.: Fishing in the East River; Celebrating the Acker Awards

[Moishe's Bake Shop this a.m. — coming back this spring?]

The Bowery Film Festival kicks off its second year (Official site)

How to get involved with Ecological City, a cultural and climate action project on the LES (Official site)

Justin Davison on Essex Crossing: "In a development largely without Instagrammable architecture, it’s the unlikely Rubik’s cube of uses that gives cause for thanks. Instead of treating the area as a blank slate for a developer’s dream, planners stitched together institutions, homes, entertainment, offices, non-deluxe shopping, cheap food, sidewalks, wide avenues, and narrow streets." (New York)

Mixed emotions in leaving the Essex Market (The Lo-Down)

The fish you'll find in the East River (Gothamist)

Bathing with Amelia! (Laura Goggin Photography)

Exploring the Tibetan speciality shop DöKham on First Avenue (Off the Grid ... previously)

Celebrating the Acker Awards (The Villager)

Remembering former Parks commish Henry Stern (City & State)

City Acupuncture East Village is opening a new outpost at 52 E. Seventh St. There's an open house/grand opening party today (April 4) from 5 - 9 p.m. (Facebook)

MORE BUBBLE TEA: Modern Taiwanese chain the Alley coming to Astor Place (Eater)

The city missed a federal deadline to appoint a permanent chair to oversee the NYCHA, but was given 45 days to fill the position (CBS New York)

One view on what New Yorkers think of congestion pricing (Daily News ... more on congestion pricing at Streetsblog ... )

More on the the MetroCard replacement plan (amNY ... previously)

Keep on truckin' — a series featuring 18-wheelers on film, including "Duel," "White Line Fever" and "Convoy" (Anthology Film Archives)

A look at the city's new “progressive mansion tax” (Bloomberg)

A mystery mosaic on University Place (Ephemeral New York)

ICYMI: You have until April 14 to watch images of Earth from Ludlow Street (Untapped Cities)

This figurine of Iggy Pop (Dangerous Minds)

... speaking of rock star poses... a squirrel in Tompkins Square Park strikes one...


[Photo by Steven]

RIP Leslie Sternbergh Alexander

[Leslie Sternbergh Alexander and Adam Alexander]

Leslie Sternbergh Alexander, a longtime East Village resident and respected underground cartoonist and illustrator, died on March 27. Alexander, who was 58, died from multiple systems atrophy, according to a friend.

In a tribute yesterday, Bleeding Cool News noted the many publications where Alexander's detailed work had been published through the years.

[H]er work appeared over three decades in the likes of Twisted Sisters, Real Stuff, The Comics Journal, Cherry Poptart, Juxtapoz, Weirdo, Dori Stories, Wimmen’s Comix, Tits & Clits but also Mad Magazine, Vogue, "DC’s Big Book of Urban Legends," "Big Book Of Thugs" and "Big Book of Little Criminals" and unusually inking a story in a Wonder Woman Annual and contributing to "The History of the Marvel Universe." She even appeared in the "Crumb" movie as one of Robert Crumb’s human chairs, as well as appearing in – and creating comic book illustrations for – the 1989 movie "Alien Space Avenger."

She came to comic books after reading old Mad Magazine paperbacks and collections of Playboy’s Little Annie Fannie when younger, before coming to comics from DC, Warren and the underground scene, learning skills from anatomy classes given by Sal Montano at the New York Academy of Art, including both life drawing from dead bodies.

In 2014, she and her husband, Adam Alexander, who died in late 2017, started an Emergency Rent Party 2014 (aka "Save the Hippies!").

The campaign overview provides more background on both Leslie and Adam, and their relationship...

They're enduring a housing court case after income challenges following Leslie's bout with cancer — successfully cured with surgery — and their adopted store cat Zoubi's end of life expenses. Zoubi succumbed to cancer last year at age 21.

Adam's lived in his apartment for 44 years. Leslie's lived there with Adam since 1985, as Mrs. Alexander since 1986. They'd like to continue to dwell there on an ongoing basis and are amidst various arrangements to ensure that it can happen.

Adam, a bohemian mathematician, is the inventor of Ideal Toys' official sequel to Rubik's Cube, Alexander's Star.

Leslie's drawn comix and written about art and in recent years made wearable art and far as anyone knows she was the first woman to receive a call-back to do a second comic art job for Mad Magazine, nearly 20 years ago now (took 'em long enough!)

They're artists with big hearts and comedic intellects ...

You can find a sampling of her work here and here.

In a tweet, cartoonist and illustrator Colleen Doran wrote: "She was a brilliant underground cartoonist. artist model, and a stupendously funny and beautiful person."

Alexander's friend, illustrator Danny Hellman, left this tribute to her last week on Facebook: "Brilliant. Witty. Talented. Feisty. Eccentric. Unforgettable."

---

Felton Davis shared this photo of Leslie and Adam stopping by to gaze at the stars a few years back ...

Prepping for the Spring Awakening in the neighborhood's community gardens

On April 14, Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) is once again hosting a Spring Awakening in honor of the neighborhood's community gardens.

Per the LUNGS website:

This is LUNGS 6th Spring Awakening. It is a neighborhood celebration of the season and the opening of the community gardens. It is all FREE. There will music, a greening theme, kids’ activities, art as well as community-based programs and environmental and educational workshops. Please come and enjoy!

Ahead of that, there's a costume and poster-making workshop this Saturday at the Green Oasis Garden, 368 E. Eighth St. between Avenue C and Avenue D. The activities take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Per the flyer: "We've got the supplies, bring your imagination."

A future look at the former 650 E. 6th St.

Beyond the plywood here are the remains of 650 E. Sixth St., the former four-story building just west of Avenue C that workers demolished to make way for a 7-story building that will apparently house condos.



This comes nearly three years after the building's new owners filed plans for the project.

As New York Yimby noted in January 2016: "The 8,491-square-foot project will include 7,761 square feet of residential space, which means units will average 1,552 square feet apiece, indicative of condominiums."

No sign of an official rendering just yet via RSVP Architecture Studio, whose other EV work includes the BP-replacing condoplex on Second Avenue and First Street.

This is this on the plywood...



---


[EVG photo of No. 650 from February 2018]

Noted

Derek Berg shares this Urban Dog Etiquette Sign from Seventh Street: "Stop putting your dog shit on our garbage cans!!!!!"

There's a Rent Laws Town Hall this Saturday

Via the EVG inbox...

New York's rent laws are set to expire this June, giving tenants a unique a chance to push for comprehensive legislation to protect and expand rent stabilization across the state — but we won't win without a fight!

Join the Cooper Square Committee, the Metropolitan Council on Housing and University Settlement, along with a number of local elected officials to learn more about the Housing Justice for All coalition's bold policy platform and to find out how you and your neighbors can get involved in the fight to defend the rights of tenants in New York!

The Town Hall is Saturday (April 6) from 2-4 p.m. at Speyer Hall, 184 Eldridge St. at Rivington Street.

You can read more background on this Gothamist post from March 21 titled "Push For Stronger NY Rent Laws Goes Up Against Powerful Landlord Lobby."

A spirited sendoff for Hattie Hathaway

On Monday night, friends of Hattie Hathaway, aka Brian Butterick, gathered in Tompkins Square Park for a festive sendoff for the gay cultural icon who died on Jan. 30 from lung cancer at age 62.

From the Park, the group — stretching nearly a block long — marched through the East Village to La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theater on Fourth Street for a "night of memories, performance, dancing and celebration."

Organizer Chi Chi Valenti, who worked in collaboration with Howl! Happening, Jackie Factory and DJ Johnny Dynell, explained how the evening came together:

"When [Howl! Director] Jane Friedman approached us about helping to stage a big public funeral for this figurative and literal giant, we knew in Hattie's spirit it had to include the East Village community. We organizers were inspired by the Drag March every year from Tompkins Square during Pride weekend, and decided to add such a procession. We did part of the planning from our second home in New Orleans, so naturally the Second Line tradition was also an inspiration as were the LUNGS community garden parades in the East Village that Hattie so loved."

EVG contributor Stacie Joy tagged along with the group, and shared these photos starting in Tompkins Square Park...









Accompanied by a brass band, the group headed out of the Park and onto Avenue A...





The group stopped outside the Pyramid Club on Avenue A, where Hathaway served as creative director...









... and then to LaMama on Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery...









At LaMama, the full house enjoyed a three-part program with a variety of poems, tributes as well as spoken word and musical performances.



As one participant said, "It was a sendoff fit for a queen."

[Updated] The building housing the former Sidewalk sells on Avenue A

[EVG file photo]

We've heard rumors in the past week that 94-96 Avenue A, the building that housed the Sidewalk Bar & Restaurant for nearly 34 years, had a new owner. (The asking price had been $11.9 million.)

On Monday, the paperwork (dated March 14) for the sale was filed in public records. The documents show that the sale price was $9.6 million. The (so far) mystery buyer is listed as PSC Avenue A LLC. The address on the paperwork corresponds to a law firm (Robinson Brog Leinwand Greene Genovese & Gluck) in Midtown.

Not sure what might be next for the building — or its current tenants. According to the listing, the floor area ratio (FAR) allows for one more floor to be added to the building. And per the listing: "The legendary location has seen many walks of life and now it can be yours. The building is a goldmine in the waiting."

As you likely know, new owners have taken over the former Sidewalk, which closed after service on Feb. 23. So far not many details about what's to come here have been made public. There have been rumors that the new establishment will retain the Sidewalk name... and at least one of the open-mic nights.

Don't look for the new place to be open anything soon. Just last week the city issued a permit for renovation work in the bar-restaurant space.

Updated 4/4

Penn South Capital is the owner, Patch reports. Parag Sawhney, founder of Penn South, had this to say:

"We have a new restaurant tenant that will keep the open mic tradition alive," he said by email. "We love the East Village and believe in preserving what make its so special. We had a very peaceful transition from the previous landlord who also owned and managed Sidewalk. That owner has now retired from business and had no interest in staying on as our tenant."

Previously on EV Grieve:
New owners set to take over the 33-year-old Sidewalk Bar & Restaurant on Avenue A

Sunshine Cinema-replacing office building moving forward; demolition watch back on

[EVG file photo]

An item from Crain's to note... especially if you've been wondering about the status of the Sunshine Cinema's corpse on Houston.

The business journal reported yesterday that demolition will soon commence now that the developers have nabbed some loans.

Developers East End Capital and K Property Group just secured a $67 million construction loan from CapitalSource and $19 million of mezzanine financing from Canyon Partners to fund the roughly $90 million project at 141 E. Houston St.

The builders will now break ground on the planned nine-story, 68,000-square-foot office property, which will seek rents above $100 per square foot. The project, catering to deep-pocketed tenants in search of luxury boutique offices, is expected to be completed in about two years.

In an interview with the Commercial Observer in late March 2018, Gregory Kraut, a managing partner at K Property Group, originally said that the demolition of the former theater that dates to 1898 would begin that spring.

East End Capital and K Property Group, who bought the building for $31.5 million in the spring of 2017, have a website marketing the spaces.

Here's the building's "redefined vision" ...

From acclaimed architect Roger Ferris, the only new development of its type on the Lower East Side, 141 East Houston is a new frame for viewing the neighborhood. Column-free and unbounded by walls, it reinterprets the area through a bold geometric perimeter of cladding and glass. State-of-the-art workspaces and private terraces reframe expectations, while a well-connected location recasts perspectives.

With its glass frame and dynamic courtyard running the length of its eastern side, doubling as a second facade, 141 East Houston challenges the distinction between indoors and out.

The ground-floor space along Houston Street will include outdoor seating in "Houston Alley" ...



The five-screen Landmark Sunshine Theater closed Jan. 21, 2018, after a 17-year run.

As Curbed noted in January 2018: "Rising rents put the theater into financial duress; it was served a death blow in 2012 when the Lower East Side community board rejected Landmark’s proposal to offer food and beverage service at the theater."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Discarded theater seats and goodbyes at the Sunshine Cinema

The 9-story boutique office building coming to the former Sunshine Cinema space

A celebratory ad on the purchase of 139 E. Houston St., current home of the Sunshine Cinema

The boutique office building replacing the Sunshine Cinema will be 'unbounded by walls' with an outdoor space called Houston Alley


[Photo outside the Sunshine on Jan. 22, 2018, by EVG reader Karen]

One Manhattan Square moves to the north

You've certainly seen the towering presence of the 72-floor One Manhattan Square off in the distance from Avenue B... Extell's tower is down at 250 South St. near the Manhattan Bridge.

EVG reader Paul Gale shared this photo yesterday ... part of an Extell mailer that unwittingly shows just how imposing this building is on the LES skyline...



Apparently this is what the intersection of "grit and glamour" looks like — somewhere right at Houston and B.

Report: Irving Plaza closing for 8-month renovation

[That time I saw the Damned last October]

Just as Webster Hall is returning to concert action, another area music venue is closing for renovations.

Irving Plaza on Irving Place and 15th Street will close this summer for an 8-month rehab.

Billboard has the story:

[T]he renovations at Irving Plaza will be overseen by Live Nation clubs and theaters division and include revamps of the lobby area and the music hall, new bars on all levels, the addition of a downstairs VIP lounge and remodeling of the mezzanine including a new box-seating section configuration.

Shows are booked through June 30. Live Nation officials say the venue will reopen in 2020 after eight months of work.

The 1,200-capacity venue has been in use for concerts the past 41 years. The Polish Army Veterans of America have owned the building since 1948.

Here's more history via the Irving Plaza website:

Originally, the building was four separate brownstones, which were eventually combined into a hotel in the 1870s. In 1927, the building was gutted and turned into a ballroom-style theater and christened Irving Plaza.

Over the next few decades Irving Plaza would serve as a union meeting house, a performance space for folk dance troupes, and a Polish Army Veteran community center, as well as a venue for the Peoples Songs Hootenannies with Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.

In 1978, Irving Plaza was converted into a rock music venue ...

I've always liked the Irving Plaza, though not everyone shares that sentiment.

'Lucky 20' opens today at the Theater for the New City Art Gallery

EVG regular Lola Sáenz is curating a group show titled "Lucky 20" that opens today at the Theater for the New City Art Gallery, 155 First Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

The exhibit features works — paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media — by artists who live or have worked in the East Village/Lower East Side.

"Lucky 20" features art from the following: Blanka Amezkua, Marcus Carter, Kathy Creutzburg, Selear Duke, Klay-James Enos, Kris Enos, JT Gray, Blake Greene, James Maher, Alisa Muir, Kanako Nagayama, Rochelle Pashkin, Carolyn Ratcliffe, Irene Rodriguez, Daniel Root, Bonnie Rosenstock and Sáenz.

The opening reception is April 10 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. And the gallery is open for viewing daily from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

The Hells Angels have left the East Village

[Photo yesterday via EVG reader Erin S.]

The last of the members of the Hells Angels who lived in their clubhouse at 77 E. Third St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue have moved out.

By yesterday, the Hells Angels logos had been removed from the building's exterior ... and the front door — featuring flaming skulls and a pitchfork-wielding, helmeted-winged demon — had been painted over.

Also gone: The plaque in memory of Big Vinny inscribed "When in doubt knock 'em out." (In 1978, according to published reports, Hells Angel Vincent "Big Vinny" Girolamo was arrested after throwing his girlfriend, Mary Ann Campbell, from the roof of No. 77 to her death. He reportedly died as the result of a knife fight the following year.)


[Image via Wikipedia Commons]

As first reported here in February, there's a Memorandum of Contract (the form preceding a contract of sale) dated this past Dec. 21 between Church of the Angels, Inc. (aka — The Church of Angels) and 77 East 3rd LLC ...



The document was signed by Bartley J. Dowling, president of the NYC Hells Angels chapter, and the purchaser, Nathan Blatter of Whitestone Realty Group.

In a cover story published Sunday at the Post, Blatter said that a deal hasn't been finalized yet. The units in the building are expected to hit the market as rentals.

The Hells Angels have had a presence in 77 E. Third St. since 1969. They eventually bought the six-floor building, which included their clubhouse and member residences (Realtor.com lists 14 units), from Birdie Ruderman in the Bronx for a reported $1,900. The deed on file with the city from November 1977 shows the then-dilapidated building changed hands for $10...



In 1983, chapter president Sandy Alexander took over ownership of the building. The deed from that time states that Alexander, his wife Collette and their family could live on the premises rent free. In addition, in the event that the building was sold, she would stand to receive half of the proceeds.

This agreement was later the basis for a legal tussle in 2013 between the clubhouse and Alexander's family. (Sandy Alexander, who spent six years in prison for dealing cocaine, died in 2007.) That deed was eventually reversed in April 2018, per public documents.



So why now for the Angels to move away? A member named Tony told the Post: "We're being harassed by the yuppies down here [who are] sitting on our bikes and pissing on the sidewalk."

And: "When the neighborhood was s–t, nobody minded us because we kept the place clean. It comes a point where it’s useless to be down here because of the harassment. [We want to] go somewhere we can live comfortably."

The yuppies have apparently been a problem dating to 1987, as this People magazine article from that year shows...



Some excerpts from the article, dated Sept. 7, 1987:

Across the street from the Angels’ clubhouse a banner touting co-ops for sale flaps in the fetid breeze. A partial rehab, featuring a fresh coat of tan paint over a soot-blackened facade, has transformed a sagging old apartment building into trendy housing for the affluent young. You might think that a beer can’s throw away from the lair of a notorious band of bikers would be a less-than-desirable homesite — and you would be right. That’s why a dark, airless, 400-square-foot, one-room apartment there can be had for only $68,000 (plus $388 a month maintenance), about half the going rate in the city’s tonier precincts.

The Angels ... view the neighborhood’s sudden ascension with mixed feelings. "We’ve moved up in social class without leaving the block," jokes chapter president Brendan Manning. But his smile can’t hide that tinge of resentment common to an area’s old families when the nouveaux riches arrive. As his biker buddy Butch Garcia notes, "We always kept this block clean when it was a ghetto, a slum. Now the rich people moved in and everybody’s trying to keep it clean."

Manning, 31, who lives in an apartment above the clubhouse, as do a number of Angels and their families, anticipates no trouble with the new upscale neighbors. "If they don’t bother us, we can deal with them," he says. "As long as they don’t complain and don’t call the cops and" — his barbarically handsome face grows stern — "don’t hit our motorcycles." He vows with a resolve as ineradicable as his tattoos that, even if the clubhouse becomes an island of sweaty denim in a sea of pin-striped wool, there will always be the Angels: "We were here first. We’re not gonna change. We don’t change for nobody. If they can’t handle it, they can move."

In 2009, the Angels started having issues with hostel guests from next door sitting on their bench. You may recall that episode here.

In recent years, there were other territorial issues involving parking spaces and their orange cones. In 2016, there was a reported shooting over a parking spot outside the clubhouse. And in late December, a deliveryman was allegedly sucker punched by a member when he parked his car in front of motorcycles outside the clubhouse.

No word yet on where the members may relocate. According to the Sunday Post: "The gang hopes to relocate to a neighborhood where they won’t be bothered by Starbucks traffic, pushy tourists and nosy cops." As Giovanni noted in the comments on Sunday: "I sincerely hope they enjoy their new home in Wyoming."

CineKink returns to the Anthology Film Archives

[2018 photo by Stacie Joy]

CineKink NYC returns for its 16th annual engagement starting tomorrow (Wednesday) through Sunday ... and the Anthology Film Archives on Second Street at Second Avenue will be the main venue again for the curated program of films and videos that celebrate and explore a wide diversity of sexuality.

A few details via the EVG inbox...

Billing itself as "the kinky film festival," the event is presented by CineKink, an organization dedicated to the recognition and encouragement of sex-positive and kink-friendly depictions in film and television. Works featured at CineKink NYC will range from documentary to drama, comedy to experimental, mildly spicy to quite explicit — and everything in between.

The CineKink NYC festivities commence tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8 p.m. with a fundraising kick-off extravaganza to be held at M1-5 Lounge (52 Walker St.)

The festival then moves to Anthology Film Archives from Thursday through Saturday with several different film programs scheduled for each day.

The festivities conclude Sunday with an afternoon workshop titled "From Fantasy to Film: Design Your Own Porn Film."

One item of local interest to mention: Saturday's slate of shorts includes "The Baroness," who "navigates the ever-growing world of latex fashion." The Baroness has her shop over on 13th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Find all the detail about CineKink 2019 at this link.

And here are a few photos from last year's CineKink via EVG contributor Stacie Joy...