Week in Grieview

[@nyyankeedog out for a ride. Photo by Bobby Williams]

Permits filed to demolish 5 buildings on 11th Street to make way for new hotel (Monday) ... Preservationists say city ignored pitch to designate part of 11th Street as a historic district (Tuesday)

Report: Red Square has been sold for $100 million (Wednesday)

Target offers details about its flexible-format store opening summer 2018 on 14th and A (Friday)

Debate over commercial overlay for 255 E. Houston St. and surrounding blocks continues (Thursday)

Box Kite Coffee now looks to be reopening on St. Mark's Place (Thursday)

4 years of Out and About in the East Village (Wednesday)

Former Mercadito space on Avenue B will be home to Guac (Friday)

On 10th Street, Prime & Beyond has closed; popular Japanese steakhouse coming next (Monday)

Workers are putting in the foundation for the return of the Alamo (Wednesday)

The Quad Cinema reopening pushed back to the fall (Wednesday)

Reader report: M2M to move; Wagamama on the way (Wednesday)

Cafe-office space in the works for Cooper Square dorm retail space (Monday)

Roof fire at 190 Bowery (Monday)

Former Barbone space for rent on Avenue B (Monday)

Signs of life at Lanza's (Friday)

The VNYL will feature Long Island Iced Teas on tap, candied-bacon quinoa sushi (Thursday)

The Christodora House in print now, and soon, on TV (Tuesday)

The PokéSpot opens on Fourth Avenue (Friday)

Kotobuki back in action on Third Avenue (Thursday)

Double rainbow (Thursday)

... and last week someone put up this memorial flyer with a rose on St. Mark's Place where performance artist Klaus Nomi once lived ... he died on Aug. 6, 1983, at age 39...

EV Grieve Etc.: An explanation for an increase in panhandling in Tompkins Square Park

[The usual badminton match outside Cooper Union via Derek Berg]

Claim: An increase in panhandling in Tompkins Square Park is a sign of success with curbing the city's street homelessness population (DNAinfo)

Top health union official played early role in Rivington House deed flip (Politico New York)

Jim Power continues work on mosaic poles that will return to Astor Place (B+B)

Opinion: "The L-train shutdown could be the crisis we've always needed to transform our transit system" (Crain's New York)

Fans wait hours in line for the Drake pop-up shop on the Bowery (DNAinfo)

20th anniversary for the New York International Fringe Festival, starting on Aug. 12 (The Lo-Down)

Hawk sibling steals prized pigeon from brother/sister (Laura Goggin Photography)

"The French Connection" plays at midnight this weekend at the Sunshine (Official website)



When a hotel collapsed on Broadway near Bond (Off the Grid)

Cop Shoot Cop at CBGB (Flaming Pablum)

Diamond Corner now a Bank of America on the Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

Diversions: Interview with former Cramps bassist Fur Dixon (Dangerous Minds)

... and here are a few photos via Derek Berg from Tuesday night's National Night Out Against Crime outside the 9th Precinct on Fifth Street... where officers showed off their basketball and dance skills... (and where was the officer on stilts?)

The new Astor Place rolls out the tables, chairs and umbrellas

The tables, chairs and umbrellas arrived on Astor Place this week... as the reconstruction of the plaza inches closer to completion this fall.

More seating is on the way... as are some trees... and the Alamo...


Meanwhile, the Village Alliance Business Improvement District is presenting the "Astor Alive! Festival" Sept. 15-17 "to celebrate the upcoming reopening of the new Astor Place, which will be complete in the fall."

Here's more on that via the Facebook invite:

As a vibrant cultural district with over two dozen theater, dance, music, art, architecture and historic landmarks including Blue Man Group, Fourth Arts Block, Cooper Union, Joe’s Pub, St. Mark’s Church and the Public Theater, the festival will debut Astor Place’s four new public plazas, among other civic space transformations as part of its larger $16 million revitalization project. The vibrant downtown New York City neighborhood will celebrate the imminent reopening with entertainment, workshops, tours, a parade, local restaurant specials and more, which will be free and open to the public.

Astor Place Festival highlights will include:

• Performances & Stages – With four performance stages starting from 4th Street to 9th Street, there will be 20+ groups of diverse local theaters, performing arts companies and schools performing throughout all three days. They include La MaMa, Joe’s Pub, Bowery Poetry Club, The Public Theater, Theater for the New City, Hetrik-Martin Institute, The Standard Hotel’s Sounds, Rod Rodgers Dance Company, Peridance Capezio Center and Danspace Project. All performances will focus on five historical themes of Astor Place, including Theater for All, Alternative Cultures and Radical Politics, Thinkers and Writers, Immigrant Populations and Architectural Frontiers.

• Mosaic Light Pole Dedication (September 15) – Popular East Village Artist Jim Power will debut the restored mosaic light poles throughout Astor Place in honor of the festival.

William Kelley, executive director of the Village Alliance, recently told us that the Alamo would return to the plaza this month, and "it is exactly the same as it was before ... It received a thorough cleaning and coating to protect it from the weather and will return in good shape."

Kelley also said that there will be a single food concession in the north and south plaza spaces at Astor Place (not around Cooper Square or points south), per the license agreement with the DOT. He said that no other vending will be allowed on the plazas.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project

The all-new Astor Place is coming along (for real)

Development watch: 14 2nd Ave.

There's finally some activity to note at 14 Second Ave. ... the now (mostly) empty lot adjacent to First Park that housed Irreplaceable Artifacts until its demolition by the city in July 2000.

According to published reports that summer, a wall and two floors collapsed, which forced the evacuation of 51 apartments in three nearby buildings.

As The New York Times reported at the time:

A construction crew was making alterations to the first floor of the four-story shop, Irreplaceable Artifacts, in defiance of an order to stop work, a spokesman for the city's Buildings Department said.

City officials ordered the building destroyed, along with everything inside — including several Tiffany windows valued at $50,000 each and a walnut ceiling from William Randolph Hearst's collection. Evan Blum, the owner of Irreplaceable Artifacts, salvages fixtures from demolished buildings and refurbishes them. The collection was worth millions of dollars, Mr. Blum said.

No one was injured. (No. 14 was not for residential use at this time.)

The site has been tied up for years with litigation between Blum and the city. (The Observer has a nice recap here.)





Yesterday, in a rather vague post, Real Estate Weekly noted the following:

SKW Funding closed a $12 million first lien mortgage loan for the refinance and cross-collateralization of two Manhattan properties.

The first asset is located between Houston Street and East 1st Street on Second Avenue in the East Village.

The site is a predominately vacant land which contains the foundation from a prior structure that was demolished in 2000.

The second site is on 125th Street... which also happens to be where the Blum-owned Demolition Depot is located.

While there's some financial paperwork (and cross-collateralization!) happening, to date, there aren't any new work permits on file with the city for the address.

Back in 2007, Blum proposed a 10-story hotel for the property. The idea didn't really go over well at a CB3 committee meeting in the summer of 2007. Per The Villager:

While presenting the preview of the hotel proposal to C.B. 3’s Land Use Committee, Blum’s attorney was met by passionate testimony from tenants of the neighboring Cube Building urging committee members to block it based on Blum’s previous record.

“Given the history of Mr. Evan Blum, it’s very hard to have a positive take on any proposal coming from him,” said Valerio Orselli, executive director of Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association, which manages the Cube Building. “He has a very cavalier attitude when it comes to laws and regulations in the city of New York.”

Blum later expounded on the project to The Villager:

“We intend to do something really nice and interesting and beautiful that the neighborhood could be proud of, as opposed to the crap that is being built around the neighborhood,” he said.

Blum described the project as “more philanthropic in nature, rather than a self-serving commercial interest,” and said it would be “geared toward the arts.”

The hotel would also venture into new gastronomic territory.

“We will be attempting to build the finest vegan restaurant in the city,” Blum said. “It’s something I’ve practiced for many years and it’s finally gaining more stature in society. I think it’s important that one evokes these principles.”

We're looking forward (mostly!) hearing about what might be next for the lot.

EV Grieve Etc.: Self-serve craft beer on Clinton Street; WFMU at the movies

[Photo on St. Mark's Place by Derek Berg]

Hello Jean-Georges: "Ian Schrager’s Public Hotel at 215 Chrystie St. will also be a luxe nightlife playground, boasting at least eight separate dining & entertaining spaces" (The Lo-Down)

An in-depth look at Blackstone's Stuy Town-Peter Cooper deal (Gothamist)

A sneak preview of the upcoming exhibit at the Queens Museum called "Hey! Ho! Let's Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk" (NY1)

Never-ending East Houston construction continues to damper local business (DNAinfo)

Self-serve craft beer shop Paloma Rocket opens soon at 7 Clinton St. (BoweryBoogie)

A look at the now-completed condo-plex at 372 Lafayette (NY Yimby ... previously on EVG)

"Sex and Broadcasting: A Film About WFMU" now playing (IFC Center)

The producers of "Barney’s Wall" (about the late East Village resident and Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset and the mural in his home office) need financial help finishing their documentary (East Hampton Star ... previously on EVG)

The average price of a Manhattan apartment surpassed $2 million (Curbed)

The documentary "Notfilm" (about Samuel Beckett's cinematic collaboration with Buster Keaton) makes its NYC premiere (Anthology Film Archives)

Rodenticide likely culprit for a red-tailed hawk's death in Chinatown (Laura Goggin Photography)

About the new zine Time Warp (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

...and everyone wants to get into the act...


[DB]

About the Stuy Town affordable units deal with the city

The term sheet for the agreement between the city and the Blackstone Group to keep 5,000 affordable units at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village is 12 pages long. The Real Deal sifted through it and noted the following:

"None of the Affordable Units will be used by Purchaser on a transient basis or as a hotel, motel, hospital, nursing home, sanitarium, rest home or trailer park."

And one point to reiterate, as The Real Deal summarizes:

Under the agreement, Blackstone can likely reduce the number of affordable units from 5,000 to almost zero between 2035 and 2040.

Blackstone signed a contract last month to buy the 11,000-apartment complex for $5.3 billion in partnership with Canadian pension fund manager Ivanhoe Cambridge.

You can find the PDF of the term sheet here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Local politicos seek answers from the Blackstone Group on the Stuy Town air rights deal

EV Grieve Etc.: the Peace Pentagon sells; the Vanishing New York book

[Photo on East 6th Street by Derek Berg]

Blackstone Group's $5.3 billion deal to buy the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex contains an inducement: Blackstone has New York City's backing to sell the property’s unused development (air) rights. (The Wall Street Journal)

Partial demolition in the works for former Matzos Factory Building (DNAinfo)

Peace Pentagon on Lafayette Street sells (The Commercial Observer ... BoweryBoogie)

New building rising at 138 Bowery will house 46 hotel rooms and 21 residential units (The Real Deal)

Meet the family who runs Fresco Gelateria on Second Avenue (Off the Grid)

Landlords throughout the city are cutting asking prices to make their properties more palatable to tenants (Commercial Observer)

Congrats to Jeremiah Moss on the forthcoming Vanishing New York book (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Mathieu Amalric retrospective starts next Thursday (Anthology Film Archives)

"Full House! The Musical!" extended at Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place (Theatre 80 ... official site)

...bathroom break...


[Photo on 2nd Avenue by Derek Berg]

Nest making with Christo and Dora in Tompkins Square Park (Gog in NYC)

Reviews of Timna on St. Marks Place (The New York Times ... The New Yorker)

Worth a look: The dark, compelling "Meadowland," in which a married couple unravels following the disappearance of their young son, is held over for a second week (Village East Cinema)

Through March 20, the Museum of the City of New York is presenting "Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half," photos from the Lower East Side (The New York Times)

Video: Nomadic youth discuss life on the street (The New Yorker)

5 books about how gentrification works (The Nation)

Not many people buying the Sexy Pizza Rat costume (Bloomberg)

Cat cafe debuts next week on Clinton Street (BoweryBoogie)

A 169 Bar appreciation on East Broadway (The Lo-Down)

NYC's first luxury hotel (Ephemeral New York)

Catching up with 92-year-old Jonas Mekas, a founder of the Anthology Film Archives (The New York Times)

...and at 240 E. Fourth St. near Avenue B, the VolaVida Gallery has decamped to a larger space at 319 Grand St. However, former VolaVida partner Laura K. Reich is keeping the storefront... last night she re-launched the space with a new partner as 212 Arts... its inaugural exhibit will be up through Nov. 12 ... details here.

Selling 216 Bowery

Catching up to an item that arrived in our inbox Thursday… about Eastern Consolidated marketing "a development site" at 216 Bowery between Prince and Spring …

Via the EVG inbox…

The 25-foot-wide property includes a three-story, 4,900-square-foot building that will be delivered vacant. Located in the Little Italy Special District, zoning will allow the construction of a new development totaling 15,000 buildable square feet.

Said Adelaide Polsinelli, senior managing director and principal for Eastern Consolidated: “The property is in an extremely hot area of downtown at the threshold of Soho, Nolita, the Lower East Side, East Village, and Little Italy, neighborhoods that are experiencing tremendous investment and undergoing rapid transformation with a dynamic mix of nightlife and dining options, art galleries, museums, hotels, condos, markets, and specialty retail.”

The last few years have seen the Bowery revitalized through a host of major commercial, residential, cultural, and institutional developments on a 10-block stretch. The Bowery Hotel at East 3rd Street and the Cooper Square Hotel at East 5th Street are among the developments that have taken full advantage of this chic location.

The Commercial Observer and BoweryBoogie have more background.

Week in Grieview

[Friday night's blue moon via Derek Berg]

After 40 years, punk rock mainstay Trash and Vaudeville is leaving St. Mark's Place (Tuesday)

Chase space on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place is for rent (Monday)

The NYPD removes the patrol tower from Tompkins Square Park (Tuesday)

The 3rd annual MoRUS film festival is underway (Friday)

The Church of the Nativity closes (Friday)

Report: 28% of East Village apartments serve as illegal hotel rooms on Airbnb (Thursday)

Checking in with Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street (Friday)

Out and About with Wendy Scripps (Wednesday)

Summer camp at Cooper Union (Friday, 57 comments)

Reader report: Super Mario statue swiped from Sixth Street (Wednesday)

Ashiya Sushi has moved away from the East Village (Monday)

Alex Shoe Repair on Second Avenue has closed (Friday)

Reports: Prep school teacher arrested for having sex with 16-year-old girl in bathroom at Lit Lounge (Thursday)

Shelter for homeless woman on Lafayette sold to make way for retail (Wednesday)

Hoops dreams: Checking in on the Tompkins Square Park basketball courts (Wednesday)

Bed-Stuy is the new East Village, per a Craigslist ad (Monday)

Penthouse comes into view at the former Amato Opera on the Bowery (Tuesday)

Making way for Ben Shaoul's new retail-residential complex on East Houston (Monday)

XYZ puts up its letters on East Seventh Street (Monday)

Homeless model says that he lived on an East Village rooftop for six years (Thursday)

Avenue C subs for Downtown Brooklyn (Tuesday)

Zoltar gets a scrubbing (Tuesday)

Signage spotting: Sea Beauty Spa on Avenue B (Thursday)

A note about some old lady who rammed your car (Sunday)

One year after closing, the Rodeo Bar space remains vacant on Third Avenue (Wednesday)

CVS has teamed up with Watson, IBM’s supercomputer (Friday)

… and parallel parking is always the most difficult part of learning to drive…


[Photo on East 9th Street via Derek Berg]

Former St. Mark's Bookshop space still for rent on 3rd Avenue

[Photo from April 23]

Back in April, we noticed that someone had removed the for lease signs from the former St. Mark's Bookshop space at 31 Third Ave. … perhaps ahead of a new retail announcement?

Well, no.

There are just new signs up for the broker…

Now!



Last September!



Here's the description of the space via the listing at Jones Lang LaSalle:

• Neighbors include: Cooper Union, Organic Avenue, The Smith,The Standard Hotel, St. John’s University, New York University,TD Bank, Muji
• Surrounded by retailers, restaurants and corporate offices
• Manhattan’s hottest tech and educational hub
• Firms in the area include: J.Crew, Facebook, AOL, IBM Watson
• Over 65,000 undergraduate and graduate students in the surrounding area
• Consistent foot traffic with St. Mark’s Place, Astor Place and Cooper Square steps away

The rent is available by request. (St. Mark's Bookshop had been paying $23,500 a month here, according to the Times.)

St. Mark's Bookshop moved last summer to a new storefront on East Third Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former St. Mark's Bookshop for lease

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

Name: Mark Mace
Occupation: Retired, Chef, former Director of Operations for Natural Gourmet Institute
Location: East 3rd Street between 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue
Time: 4 pm on Friday, April 24

I’m originally from Flatbush, Brooklyn. All my family are Brooklynites. My parents moved out to Long Island during the early 1960s when everybody moved out to the suburbs. I lived by the water.

So by the time I was 18, I was a real beach kid. The people I hung out with were all artists and musicians. We were all sort of an artsy crowd as teenagers, but I got bored with that, so we started hanging out here in the 1970s, around 1974. It was dangerous; it was wild. The city was a shithole, plain and simple — an absolute shithole. It was everything that you wanted as a teenager. There was graffiti everywhere; there was filth everywhere. The buildings were dirty; the air was dirty.

There were a lot of things happening in the city. For young people, it was interesting and exciting. There was a lot of good music, a lot of good blues, a lot of good rock, and lot of good performance art. There was a lot of interesting graffiti. The city was a big crucible of art — in all forms.

I had friends who were artists here. They went to Cooper Union. We used to have scotch parties and clam bakes in the school. I remember going to loft parties on the Bowery, and we sat on the ledge of the window and smoked joints and just watched the city. There was almost nobody on the streets. Where the Bowery Hotel is, I remember that was a gas station and there were two junkyard dogs that used to sleep on the pavement ... you could walk right by them and they wouldn’t bother you.

I remember on Second Avenue seeing the junkies hanging out by Gem Spa and we used to call them weebles because they would be standing there with the phone in their hand at the public telephone and they would be leaning over so far that it would be impossible for any human to do that without falling over. That’s why we called them weebles because they would never fall over. Second Avenue was bad and then it pushed back to First and then to Alphabet City.

I’ve had so many careers. I started out in music, as a soundman for a 10-piece bar band with horns and everything. They broke up and then I went to cooking school in Philadelphia. I moved there in 1985 and Philly food-wise was the place to be for some strange reason. I don’t know why and I just happened to be there. I had a great time there and the people were great, but I was a New Yorker. I came back in 1988 and I moved into my apartment on 6th Street.

New York in the 1980s was a great place to be a cook. Food started taking off like crazy. If you were a good cook, and I was a good cook, you could get a job anywhere. I spent 12 years cooking and I moved up the ranks. I must have worked at maybe 15 restaurants, anything from neighborhood places to two- and three-star places.

I then took a job and opened a restaurant in Warsaw, Poland, for a couple in LA, in 1995. My friend called me from LA and said, ‘Hey I got some friends who want to open a restaurant in Poland, do you want to do it?’ My interview was at the Delta Air Lines lounge at JFK and then like six months later I was in Poland opening a California-style cuisine restaurant. It was tough because they didn’t have a restaurant industry.

Then I came back to New York. I worked in a couple of restaurants and then I got a job at a cooking school on 21st Street as the steward. I worked my way into director of operations and I just retired from it. After 25 years of cooking, I hate cooking now. I’ll make a big batch of something and I’ll put it in the freezer.

I appreciate the fact that the city has come up in that it’s renovated and clean, safe and the subways are efficient. You can ride the subways at 3 in the morning and be relatively safe. Now it’s very expensive. A drink will cost you $20. That was a joke when Studio 54 opened up in the heyday of the disco days. Now that’s the normal price. And everything’s a little too precious. I appreciate artisan this and artisan that but it’s gotten to the point where everything is so precious.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

The possibility that the Stage won't reopen on 2nd Avenue

[EVG photo from Monday]

As we first reported on Tuesday, the city issued a Stop Work Order at 128 Second Ave. for what they say was installation of a gas pipe and fittings without a permit.



According to DOB documents, a city inspector on Monday observed this taking place in the cellar of the Icon Realty-owned building, across Second Avenue from the site of the gas explosion that killed two men and brought down three buildings. (Officials have said that a gas pipe underneath 121 Second Ave. might have been "inappropriately accessed" by outside contractors.)

According to a report at Gothamist yesterday: "Some of [128 Second Ave.'s] tenants say they've heard they may be without gas for six to 12 months."

All this has put the Stage, housed in a storefront at 128 Second Ave., out of commission. The beloved diner was able to open for business last Friday and Saturday, but had to close on Monday without any gas for cooking.

A Stage regular spoke with owner Roman Diakun yesterday. Per the regular: "Unfortunately, he might have to close down the restaurant for good. It's going to take much longer to turn the gas on than one would think. Between plans, permits and checking every apartment ... it could take months."

There's also complaint on file with the city Tuesday claiming the following: "Customer is reporting a restaurant hooking up gas pipes. Name of restaurant is Stage."



One resident said that this was a bogus claim, which led to more finger pointing in a building that tenants say has been plagued with problems since Icon bought it in the fall of 2013.

Per Gothamist:

"Tenants have had issues from the get-go," Yonatan Tadele, a community organizer with the Cooper Square Committee, told us. He noted that since Icon took over in 2013, landlords had been taking rent-stabilized tenants to court, then terrorizing remaining tenants with lengthy renovations, frequent gas shutdowns and other quality-of-life issues.

On March 24, the tenants association at 128 Second Ave. filed an HP Action for Repairs and Services against Icon Realty in NYC Housing Court. Among other issues, the remaining residents claim that there is inconsistent heat, broken fire escapes and a lack of fire alarms in the building.

As for the landlord and the city's Stop Work Order, WNYC reported the following:

Mitch Kossoff, a lawyer representing building owner Icon Realty, said the owners were "puzzled" and not aware of any gas work being done.

Early last evening, an Icon rep sent this email to residents of 128 Second Ave., several copies of which landed in our inbox:

Please be assured that Smicon Realty is committed to providing safe and habitable housing to the tenants of New York City, and upon notification of any issues, promptly deals with them.

Unfortunately, and as a backlash of the recent and tragic circumstances that occurred across the street, Con Edison has shut off gas service to a number of buildings, our building included.

Please be assured that we are acting diligently to have the gas service restored as quickly as possible and in the interim, we are trying to make arrangements for a temporary boiler.

We are also going to provide all tenants with double burner hot plates so you can cook. We would like for all tenants who wish to relocate to a Hotel of your choice starting immediately.

For those tenants who are not otherwise in arrears, Management will cover up to $200 per day for your Hotel accommodations until the hot water has been restored building wide.

Management will not cover any expenses that exceed the $200 per diem. Please submit your Hotel receipts into our office for reimbursement.

Your reimbursement check will be processed within 30 business days of receipt.

Your rent will be adjusted accordingly for the days you are without heat and hot water.

We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and hope to have this matter resolved in a timely manner.

Previously on EV Grieve:
City serves stop work order on Icon Realty-owned building for installing gas pipe without permit across from deadly 2nd Avenue blast zone (48 comments)

6 more floors in store for the soon-to-be unrecognizable St. Marks Hotel

[Via Wikipedia Commons]

The Pappas family, owners of the St. Marks Hotel, have filed plans to build a 10-story mixed-use building on the hotel's lot at 2 St. Mark’s Place and Third Avenue.

As The Real Deal reported:

According to the building plans, the expanded building would also have retail on the ground floor, in addition to a medical office and other commercial space in the cellar. The hotel would occupy floors two through 10.

And New York Yimby got a look at a rendering.

Brace.



Hjhdjhsjhuu!!!! klsdfsJF;KLSFKJ;K!!!! KLKJASJJIQIOWUIQOWI!

Sorry.

Whoa.

Well, it looks appropriately garish Midtown Southish to blend in with the Death Star across the street and the Cooper Union Spacecraft down the block.

New York Yimby notes that John Pappas also owns the Park Savoy Hotel on West 58th Street... and that the new address will also be known as 71 Cooper Square, a long way from its hot-sheet hotel days of the 1970s and 1980s... and likely its current clientele of the hostel set and European tourists.

It was the Valencia until what, the early 1980s?


[From Blast of Silence, circa 1961]


[Photo by Michael Sean Edwards from 1980]

Week in Grieview

[Photo by James and Karla Murray]

City OKs residential use at the former Amato Opera on the Bowery (Wednesday)

First sign of future development at 79-89 Avenue D (Tuesday)

Angelica Kitchen is latest East Village restaurant in danger of closing (Wednesday)

Out and About with Mike Schweinsburg (Wednesday)

Security guards and Stop Work Orders for Icon Realty-owned East 12th Street building (Thursday)

That low-flying helicopter above Avenue B (Thursday)

BSA tells Ben Shaoul to remove the illegal penthouse on East 5th Street within 60 days (Wednesday)

An Urban Etiquette Fucking Drugs Sign (Monday, 48 comments)

Workers cut down a red oak in Tompkins Square Park (Monday)

A visit to Fly Dove NYC, a new boutique on East Seventh Street (Friday)

Retail space for lease in the new Cooper Square dorm (Monday)

Touching up the Joe Strummer mural (Friday)

Revisiting Cafe Mogador (Friday)

Boarding up the former Mobil station on Avenue C (Tuesday)

Salon V leaving East 7th Street after 10 years (Tuesday)

Ian Schrager unveiled the sales office and model apartment for his incoming hotel-condo tower at 215 Chrystie (Thursday)

You always post photos of abandoned stuffed lions on St. Mark's Place (Thursday)

Citi Bike fixing all those cracked seats (Tuesday)

… and we forgot to note this yarn installation (???) next to Artichoke on East 14th Street…

Week in Grieview

[Performer Leo Gu Gu in front of Eastern Bloc last week via Grant Shaffer]

Murder charge for driver who crashed into East Village Farm & Grocery (Tuesday)

NoHo flea market gutted for new condos (Monday)

New 12-story, mixed-use building in the works for Avenue D (Thursday)

NY Copy & Printing finds a new home after losing lease on East 11th Street (Wednesday)

Dok Suni is closing after 22 years (Tuesday)

Jennifer Blowdryer's East Village (Tuesday)

The hawks of Tompkins Square Park are now parents (Friday)

Out and About with the shopkeepers of Anna (Wednesday)

New hotel in the works at the Whitehouse Hostel on the Bowery (Monday)

The Russ & Daughters Cafe opens (Wednesday)

A look at the exhibit "Dealing With Things Is Tricky" featuring Frank Ape (Sunday)

Perbacco is closed for remodeling (Thursday)

Demolition commences on East 14th Street to make way for two retail-residential complexes (Tuesday)

Honoring Alan Cumming at Theatre 80 (Tuesday)

Speaking out against Steve Croman (Thursday)

More on the transformation of 243-245 E. Second St. (Friday)

A new Indian restaurant on East 6th Street (Tuesday)

$18,975 asking rent for former South Brooklyn Pizza space (Wednesday)

Liquiteria opening in former Blimpie space on Fourth Avenue (Thursday)

Apiary becomes Après (Friday)

Bibi Wine Bar opens on East Fourth Street (Thursday)

Cooper Square dorm update (Monday)

Work on the Miss Lily's 7A Cafe sidewalk awning (Monday)

Construction watch at 536 E. 13th St. (Friday)

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[On Avenue A, photo by Grant Shaffer]

Landmarks Preservation Commission still not pleased with plans for 9-story hotel adjacent to the Merchant's House Museum on East 4th Street (Curbed)

Early photos of the Merchant's House Museum (Off the Grid)

Mayor de Blasio nixes 'infill' plan for NYCHA properties (The Villager)

The paintings of East Village artist and activist Sally Young are up at the Ottendorfer Library (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

East Village photographer Sally Davies has a show at the Bernarducci Meisel Gallery (The Jewish Week)

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Video interlude... Casey Neistat snowboarding yesterday on the streets of the East Village and LES...



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Join Citi Bike's email list and get a free 24-hour Citi Bike pass (Citi Bike Facebook page)

Playing bocce on First Avenue (Ephemeral New York)

Talking 2 years of Centre-fuge art on East First Street (BoweryBoogie)

A look at new restaurants opening on the Bowery (Eater)

An interview with LES resident Michael Kelly, who stars on "House of Cards" (The Lo-Down)

The last 5 standalone diners in Manhattan (Scouting NY)

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And this week marked the annual wreath-laying on Founder's Day at Cooper Union ... EVG reader Beth Sopko (Cooper Union class of '87) shared these photos (find more here) ... some students turned out on Wednesday, on Peter Cooper's 233rd birthday, wearing all black clothes and carrying black balloons — a statement regarding the board's decision to begin charging undergraduate tuition at the school starting this fall ...

The former East Village Music Store is for rent on East 3rd Street

The East Village Music Store at 21 E. Third St. closed for business at the end of December.

Claude Campbell, who opened the shop in 1994, told us earlier in December that he hoped to find a new storefront. There's no word on that status right now.

Meanwhile, the space is now for rent. According to the Massey Knakal listing:

Wide, side street space on the same block as the Bowery Hotel and its acclaimed restaurant Gemma.

Other Neighboring tenants include Bank of America, The Standard Hotel, B Bar & Grill, Phebe’s Tavern, PiccolaStrada.

Dense residential and student neighborhood.

All uses considered.

The rent is available "upon request."

On Jan. 9, the marshal took possession of the space on behalf of the landlord, Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association.



Previously on EV Grieve:
The day the music stores died in the East Village

What it takes to work at the Standard East Village's 'highly anticipated' new restaurant

[EVG file photo of Café Standard]

The Standard East Village is hiring… there's another open call tomorrow… so in case you might be looking for a job at the hotel's new, still-unnamed restaurant (reportedly opening next month, per Eater) … or just curious about what they're looking for in employees … here's the notice via Craigslist …

THE STANDARD, EAST VILLAGE - highly skilled F&B staff *OPEN CALL* (East Village)
The newly redesigned Standard, East Village is currently seeking highly-driven / ambitious Managers, Sommeliers, Bartenders, Servers, Hostesses, Runners, Bussers, Barbacks and Baristas for our highly anticipated restaurant.
*OPEN CALL* FRIDAY, December 27 from 3pm-6pm.

DO YOU HAVE THE FOLLOWING DIRECT EXPERIENCE:
• Handling a New York based fashion & media clientele.
• Working in a fast-paced, downtown environment.
• Cooperating with a large, creative, and diverse team
• Extensive and in-depth previous food and beverage training required!

YOU'RE WELCOME TO APPLY IF THIS IS SPECIFICALLY YOUR BACKGROUND!

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE IS:
• Skilled with deep casual fine to fine-dining, exemplary and intuitive service and all facets of hospitality.
• Charismatic and possesses natural ability to engage and serve diverse guests and high-profile clientele
• Confident and proactive without being overbearing.
• Able to thrive in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.
• A clear thinker in high pressure situations.
• A background with a 'farm-to-table', product driven menu.
• Interested in growing with an innovative and fast growing company.
• Conveys a personal sense of style and sophistication.
• Comfortable interacting with high-profile guests in fashionable & socially dynamic environments.

We offer a ton of great perks as well as an opportunity to grow!

Thanks, we look forward to hearing from you!

To be considered: You're invited to come by The Standard, East Village (25 Cooper Square) *OPEN CALL* *OPEN CALL* FRIDAY, December 27 from 3pm-6pm. Bring your resume along - you'll be able to fill out an application and meet some of the team.

See you there!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Big changes in the works for the Standard East Village lobby, outdoor space; Café on the Bowery anyone?

Nice townhouse for sale of the day: 301 E. 10th St.

This fine townhouse at 301 E. 10th St. hit the market this week... along an equally fine block between Avenue A and Avenue B...





Details per the listing at Garfield:

Set in between several row houses, 301 East 10th Street was originally built in the late 19th Century by architect Joseph Trench in Italianate style as a single-family home. This property was later altered in a fine interpretation of Queen Anne style with raised ceiling heights, changed lintels, sills, and cornice into a multi-family home.

Currently configured as five, gracious floor-through units, four that can be delivered vacant. Ceiling heights range from 9’ to 13’ at Parlor level. Unobstructed, sunlit views overlooking Tompkins Square Park in front, 360 degree unobstructed Manhattan views from the roof including the Cooper Hotel, the Williamsburg Bridge, and the Freedom Tower to the South and the Empire State, Chrysler, and New York Life buildings to the North. Large, north-facing garden and terrace in rear abutting a historic carriage house on 11th street.

First public offering in over twenty-five years with endless opportunities to renovate and create a strong rent roll, create a 2,700 garden duplex or an upper duplex with fantastic roof deck. Property is currently under built by approximately 3,300 square feet.

Asking price: $7.5 million.

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. James is traveling this week. East Village writer and photographer Joann Jovinelly compiled today's post.



By Joann Jovinelly

Name: Sally Young
Occupation: Mixed-Media Artist, Political Activist and
Preservationist, Photographer
Location: Sixth Street Community Garden
Time: 10:30 AM on Friday, Sept. 27

Part II (Read Part I here)

Beginning in 2005, we started to see a lot more redevelopment [in this neighborhood]. A huge glass hotel went up on the end of my street, the Cooper Square Hotel. We began to see the scaffolding go up around the buildings and then the buildings came down. That was when I started photographing like crazy, both on film and digitally. That was also around the same time the Cooper Union Hewitt building came down; I was photographing it every morning, photos that I eventually assembled in an accordion book.

I was looking at what was going on my block, East Fifth Street, and I noticed that there was a Federal house there, 35 Cooper Square, and it was still standing. I became very interested in Federal houses and the [older] architecture of New York.

In 2006, I set up a stand in front of my apartment building as part of the Art in Odd Places exhibit where I gave away my photo postcards. And I created a book with wooden pages that people could flip through to learn more about the architecture in the neighborhood. That is how I got my Deconstructing Bowery book together.

Eventually, I wrote a history of 35 Cooper Square from the time it was built in 1826, information that was used to help unsuccessfully landmark the structure, which was demolished in 2011. Even though there were major protests to save that building, the landmark proposal was rejected.

Another address I researched, 135 Bowery, which was built in 1817, had been slated for preservation and approved, but it was sold off to build “affordable” office space. In that case, just one council member had overturned the decision to preserve the building in order to provide the aforementioned offices, but the new owners lied, tore the building down, and immediately put the lot up for sale. In 2007, a group of other concerned citizens, myself included, formed the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors to preserve what’s left of the Bowery’s architecture.

I know that when artists come in, eventually gentrification follows, but today we’re talking hyper-gentrification. For instance, now there are areas on West Fourth Street that are so heavily congested with students that you can barely get through the block. I remember a few years ago before the big explosion of NYU, and there were signs up in the West Village that said, ‘Do you think this neighborhood is safe enough for NYU students?’ and I kind of wanted to flip that around and ask, ‘Do you think that the neighborhood is safe enough to withstand NYU development?’ I saw that question as a reversal, much before all of the redevelopment began happening.

The concerns of the newcomers today are far different from those waves of people who came to New York in past generations. We were involved with our community; most of today’s newcomers are not. We had rent strikes. We were committed. There were a lot of problems; there was a lot of crime. Most of those areas were just bombed out. We were under siege. All we could do then was work together. That’s around the time, in the early 1980s, when we stared creating the gardens like the Sixth and B Garden. While this is among the most protected of those green spaces in the neighborhood, others are still at risk.

In the 1980s, people bonded together, and that bond literally grew this neighborhood. Look at all these beautiful places that you can still enjoy. These days, newcomers moving to the neighborhood have slick, renovated apartments for which they pay a great deal. They’re often living with a bunch of people. But there are few among them who are actually fully invested in the East Village; instead they are in transition. They aren’t living here to put down roots. For years, I never saw a moving van on my block; now I see them all the time.

Read Part 1 of our interview with Sally Young here. Check out Sally's website here.

Joann Jovinelly is a freelance writer and photographer who still calls the East Village home.