Think outside the bug

Bedbug artist Samuel Mark shares this photo from in front of the Taco Bell on 14th Street...

L.E.S. Jewels returns to Tompkins Square Park

In April, as Bob Arihood reported Joel Pakela, a.k.a., L.E.S Jewels, was arrested and charged for assault and resisting arrest. He was sentenced in early summer, and since then, has been staying in the Eric M. Taylor Center (EMTC) at Rikers. He was released yesterday... and as this photo by Bob from shows, he has returned to Tompkins Square Park ... where some people are curious about what kind of reception he receives.

More details on Halloween night protest/fiesta in Tompkins Square Park

Longtime East Village activist/photojournalist John Penley passed along more details about a Halloween evening protest in Tompkins Square Park:

On Halloween there will be a Protest/Fiesta in Tompkins Square Park to make some noise and ask the question, Whose Fukin Park? Unelected Real Estate/Yuppie/NYU Student lovin members of Community Board 3 have decided they want cops with sound meters and much fewer music and cultural events in the Park next year.

It will take place roughly 7 p.m. to midnight... and at that hour: "At Midnight we will go to the Apt. of the person behind this."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Movement afoot to limit the number of concerts in Tompkins Square Park

[Star Fucking Hipsters Photo by John Penley]

A slice of Sunshine for rent on the Bowery

BoweryBoogie is keeping tabs on 245 Bowery at Stanton Street, soon to be home to a tapas eatery possibly, regrettably, named "SRO." (Speaking of BoweryBoogie, he has more details on this site today too.)

Meanwhile, the space at 241 Bowery that formerly housed part of the Bari empire is on the market... The Sunshine Hotel — one of the remaining Skid Row Bowery holdouts — hangs on upstairs...



It's a massive space — 5,000 square feet...and the number on the "for rent" sign is for "A Consolidated Auctioneers & Liquidators Incorporated," listed at 240 Bowery, home of the other Bari stores across the way...



And so the old Bowery remains on the clock. But how much time has the Bowery of Olde have left? And what will go into this big space? The Marc Jacobs Bowery Flagship?

The Theater For The New City Building is a good investment, probably

The Theater For The New City Building went up in 2001 at 10th Street and First Avenue... well, no reason to get into all that ... On Tuesday, a new two-bedroom home hit the market:

2 bedrooms 2 bathrooms GEM! Tucked away ,you'll find a meticulously design home in one of the most unique boutique condos in the East Village. This expansive and flexible floor plan allows you to live an open-loft lifestyle with all the comforts of a traditional apartment. The sponsor has upgraded the unit with raydoor wall dividers, new hardware and a granite fireplace to sweeten the deal. Both Master and 2nd bedroom are of extremely generous size with and cavernous closets allow for plenty of storage throughout the apartment. Your balcony faces north right of the living room with a quaint and classic East Village view.

Etc., etc., etc.




And it's going for $1.599 million.

I looked at the sales history of this unit on Streeteasy...

2/11/2003 — Previous Sale recorded for $677,500.

02/15/2008 — Previous Sale recorded for $995,000.

10/19/2010 — Listed by Corcoran at $1,599,000.

If my math is correct, which isn't usually the case, then the place has gone up in price 136 percent in seven years...Even with some new "raydoor wall dividers" and stuff... that's quite a jump....

[Top photo via Flickr]

Coming to 194 Avenue A: Mexican restaurant

That's the word from EV Grieve reader tintin2000, who was walking by and asked a worker on the scene.

Per tintin2000: "I thought it was going to be a bar cause it had a big bar in the space, but they said it is going to be a Mexican Restaurant. I asked if it will be overpriced ... and they said no — authentic Mexican and cheap."



A lot of work is going into the former Raven space here... Also, In May, the CB3/SLA committee denied their application for a liquor license for a Mexican eatery doing business as El Camion III Inc.

A reader request: "WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE SIDEWALK SEATING AT DBGB???”

Well! I do take requests! And! It just so happened that I walked by last evening.... and the DBGB sidewalk cafe was up!





Read the previous 10, 11 posts on this topic here.

This headline is temporarily out of order

From the Post:

Only 26 percent of New York City voters want Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president in 2012, according to a poll released Wednesday. The Marist College poll found that nearly two-thirds of people in the Big Apple -- 64 percent -- want him to stay on the sidelines.

Throw up your love

Missed Connections, for sure...

Your friend was passed out - you wanted the ride - m4w - 30 (East Village)

Date: 2010-10-20, 12:43PM EDT

Saturday 1am, you were 3 girls, 1 of which wasn't feeling well. I'm one of the 3 guys that were waiting for you to get in the car to take you home, but your friend started throwing up.
I'd love to get to know you.

Looking for a shred of truth on Ninth Street

My Coney sends along this shot from Ninth Street at First Avenue.

I dunno... Leftover from the Conflux festival? A belated statement about Enron? UFOs? Random act of shredding violence against VW Rabbits? Need some answers here, people!

No Five Guys for 171 Avenue A, but the fishmonger is back — and with a Plan B

So, there won't be a Five Guys coming to 171 Avenue A. (However, we're certain to see them pop up somewhere else in the East Village.) After that post, a tipster said that the fishmonger was coming back...

Indeed, Keith Masco confirms that he is moving forward with his plans for Sea on A in this space despite his last go-around with CB3.

A quick recap!

At the April CB3/SLA meeting, the committee approved a full-liquor license (within a resolution area) for Masco's seafood market/restaurant/high-end cocktail bar at 171 Avenue A.

Masco will sell fresh fish in the front of the space during the day ... with room for 48 diners in the back along with a bar selling specialty cocktails.

However, the full CB3 rejected the plans. So it was back to the CB3/SLA in June ... and they denied his applications.

Via e-mail, I asked Masco if he was amending his original plan that the CB3 denied.

"We are going ahead exactly as planned. I see no reason to bow to the communists at the community board. My business plan is perfect, it is exactly what the vast majority of residents here want and need."

And if CB3 says no?

"If the SLA doesn't see it the same way, I will be locked into a ten-year lease anyway. So if that be the case, I will give the under-represented and underage residents something they don't have — an all ages 24-7 diner/arcade. Having raised two children here, I know there is absolutely nothing for these kids to do, and by kids I mean even 18-20 year olds, whom despite having thier own apts, can't even hang in the park after midnite. We would have an entire dessert bar and juice bar as well. It will also be a great place for all those AA people who can now hang in an alcohol-free bar."

9th Precinct community topics: Diablo Royale, bike lanes

I commend anyone who takes the time to attend the various community meetings... and Jill did so last night at the 9th Precinct's Monthly confab....

A few highlights via Blah Blog Blah:

• "There was a complaint about Diablo Royale, the crowds, noise and violations of their agreement to not use the backyard after 11pm."

• "There was discussion about the bike lanes on 1st and 2nd Avenues. The police explained that they are distributing pamphlets and issuing summons to everybody who isn't following the rules".

Lordy, we may have to issue rewards to anyone who receives one of these pamphlets... In fact, I may set my bike on fire while riding on the sidewalk up and down Fifth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue just to get one...

We're still in a recession

This and the dumplings special at Vanessa's confirms it.

Oh, and $2,100 for a one bedroom apartment? Hate to see it we weren't in a recession...



At 10th Street and Avenue A.

Proof that Gary Busey is still alive, we think

As you likely read yesterday on Gothamist and Runnin' Scared and elsewhere ... Busey and some other entertainer types were at airport-pizza-specialists Famiglia on Eighth Street and Broadway yesterday as a fundraiser for Donald Trump. (Or maybe a charity.) This shot, in which the Busenator is starting a Spectoresque-trial-poof, is from the NYU Local.

Anyway, I kind of like Gary Busey in the movies... back in the day. Like 1988's "Bulletproof," in which he'd taunt the bad guys by calling them "butthorn."

Noted

I still say there's never a good way of writing these kinds of Urban Etiquette Signs.

Noted

Night falls on Con Ed

The Sin Sin-Leopard Lounge website has expired

Last week, we heard that the embattled Sin Sin-Leopard Lounge on Second Avenue at Fifth Street was closing at the end of the month...

And now the bar's website is no longer active...the domain name expired last Tuesday....Or they added an outdoor pool and hotel when we weren't looking...



Grub Street noted that Sin Sin "has decided to close, re-open and go a different route." Either way, it appears Sin Sin is done.

Meanwhile, we're thankful that we saved this Sin Sin website souvenir screenshot...

NYU has annoyed neighbors for a long time, apparently

Well, this is almost too good to be true...It's from a New York Times article from January 1914, back when NYU was (mostly) in the Bronx. You can read a PDF of the article here.

Members "sing and tango." Heh. Nellie Vought, early NIMBY?

The photography of Cary Conover

I've always liked the photography of East Village resident Cary Conover, a freelancer whose work has appeared in the Voice and the Times ... and starting tonight, you can catch his work at Lunasa, 126 First Avenue (between Seventh Street and St. Marks Place).



The exhibition is the latest in the Lunasa Photo Series, which is a curated program of photography exhibitions. This show features one print from each of the last 10 years that Cary has lived here. The opening is from 6-9 p.m., and the exhibit will remain up indefinitely.

Cary, an avid pool player, also has a billiards-dedicated site called Bank the Nine. Here's a nifty piece he assembled titled, A Night at Sophie's, Part III, where he captures some the the bar's pool-playing characters:

A Night of Pool at Sophie's, Part III from Cary Conover on Vimeo.

Next month, Cary and his family are moving to Kansas where he will teach photojournalism at a Wichita High School. (Here's a Q-and-A with Cary from yesterday in Street Reverb Magazine).

Cary fielded a question from me yesterday on his way to Lunansa:

How has New York City as a photographer's canvas evolved since you've been shooting here?

It's noticeably more touristy and people are more tech-savvy. I remember when the red double decker tourist buses showed up, I feel like it was 2002 or so. I always felt odd being watched as one would pass by. Technology has made a mark, too. The digitization of everything, brightly lit cell phone screens, video advertisements on top of taxis, the ubiquitous white earphone cords. Don't even get me started on the last one...I used to scoff (and this dates me), "What, you can't leave your home without your Norah Jones?" Same is true of coffee shops, it's a room full of people on laptops, all plugged into the same power outlet strip. I think of Bowery and Houston a lot, it's really changed in 10 years. There was always the mystique of that building north of Houston on Bowery, McGurk's Suicide Hall. You used to walk by a building and it would make you think about the past. I don't feel like that happens so much anymore.

Cause and effect at the Blarney Cove

A backed-up sink in the men's room.



Unkind words on the men's room wall.

And no explosives

Given all the drama at the other Marble Cemetery early last week...Here at the New York Marble Cemetery on Second Avenue... a new "no trespassing" sign went up the other day...



...perhaps to ward off anyone thinking of dumping an old bag of explosives inside the gates or something...

"You're Indian"

Per Craigslist today:

sat night L train, you're indian - w4m (East Village)
you got on the L train at bedford, and I got off at 1st avenue. I was with a guy who seemed like my boyfriend, but he was just a friend. And you and I kept making eye contact, and I didn't know what to do. If you read this, let's chat! I thought you were hot!

That Missed Connections headline could be a band name: Saturday night L train, you're indian

Hi, we're Saturday night L train, you're indian and we have T-shirts for sale in the back...

RUMORS: Five Guys looking at Avenue A

171 Avenue A has been vacant for several years now... The space almost became home to a fishmonger and a bagel shop this year...



Anyway, the place seems to have been spruced up a little of late...



And one persistent rumor: This space may become home to a Five Guys Burgers, the Virginia-based chain with a handful of locations in Manhattan.



Never had one myself, but people I know love these guys....

At Friday's bike lane protest

Well, after all that ... Due to work commitments, I couldn't make it to the bike lane protest on Friday afternoon.

However, I'm thankful for the readers who sent along quick reports and photos...





Per one reader: "it was very dull.there were more hyperlocal reporters than protesters and most people were pro-bike lane. the reporters shown here are from the NYU LEV."




Another reader noted, "There were lots of people with bikes, and many with signs like the one in the photo. It seems to have been taken over by pro-bike lane people."

In an e-mail to me, Leslie Sicklick, who planned the protest, said that she will likely hold another one in the future, though at a different time and place.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Protest planned for reconfigured Avenues (153 comments)

Papa John's is such a tease

Still no official word yet on Opening Day here on First Avenue between 12th Street and 13th Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Papa John's shows off its big, green awning; plus, reader reaction!

Make yourself at home on a First Avenue Refuge Island

First Avenue and 12th Street the other evening. This photo is courtesy of @marakaufman, who notes, "I'm excited the refuge islands are getting a home-y touch." Ha! Agreed!

All you need is cash on East Sixth Street

At $269,000, this two-room studio on East Sixth Street is one of the least-expensive homes on the market. (And the seller reduced the price by 10 percent last week...)





Here's the listing ... do those last three words give you pause?

East Village charmer! This lovely two-room studio has been recently renovated and boasts a modern kitchenette with a Gaggenau range, and cheerful custom bath with yellow and white penny tile. Classic prewar details include original pressed-tin ceilings, exposed brick and exposed beams. The layout of this studio is very functional, with sliding doors separating the sleeping quaters from the front of the apartment. Great light and open city views make this well-worth the walk up to the fifth floor! CASH BUYERS ONLY

East Village eatery odds-and-ends: Porsena progress on Seventh; new cafe for Avenue C?

Just noting the progress of Porchetta chef Sara Jenkins' new eatery on Seventh Street... will be called Porsena.



Looks as if a new coffee shop/pressed-sandwich-kinda-cafe is opening on Avenue C at the former Rico hookah joint next to C-squat.





East Village Feed brings word of a new tea shop opening on 10th Street near First Avenue... at the site of the former Vinyl Market... this brings the number of places for tea in the East Village to 3,459.