A late-day look at the fire-damaged 131 Avenue A

Photos by Steven

A fire broke out early this morning at 131 Avenue A on the NW corner of St. Mark's Place. 

According to ABC 7, five residents sustained minor injuries while vacating the six-floor building. 

Starbucks was open today for business in the retail spaces, while TabeTomo next door told us that they suffered “substantial damage.”

Next door, Bad Habit hope to be back open tomorrow...

As for the rest of the building, there is a Partial Vacate Order limited to two residences. 

Per the Department of Buildings: 

FIRE HAS CAUSED EXTENSIVE WATER, SMOKE AND FIRE DAMAGE IN APT#1, ALSO FIREFIGHTER OPERATIONS IN APT#7. WINDOWS AND WALLS HAVE BEEN REMOVED LEAVING STRUCTURES OPEN TO THE ELEMENTS. THESE POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS HAVE THEREFORE RENDERED UNSAFE TO OCCUPY. VACATE APT #1 AND 7. EGRESS WAS NOT COMPROMISED. 

Firefighters recovered a lithium-ion battery from a unit, per ABC 7, though fire officials haven't stated that was officially the cause. Another resident mentioned talk of an "electric scooter explosion."

Report of an early morning fire at 131 Avenue A at St. Mark's Place

The FDNY responded to a report of a fire this morning on the second floor at 131 Avenue A, a six-floor building on the NW corner of St. Mark's Place. 

According to the Citizen app, the FDNY received the call at 5:15 a.m. Firefighters were seen wrapping up by 6:15 a.m.

There weren't any reports of injuries. [Updated: ABC 7 reported five residents suffered minor injuries.] Several building residents were gathered with small bags and backpacks, surveying the FDNY at work. Some of them reported leaving their apartments via the fire escapes. 

While it's too early to determine the cause of the fire, firefighters recovered a lithium-ion battery from the second floor, per ABC 7. 

The building is home to several businesses, including Starbucks and TabeTomo. It's not immediately known how much damage they may have sustained.

The renovation and expansion of 188 1st Ave.

Structural repairs continue at the five-story 186-188 First Ave. between 11th Street and 12th Street. 

Both buildings were severely damaged during a six-alarm fire at 188 First Ave. in October 2018. Fourteen people, 11 of them firefighters, sustained minor injuries, the Times reported. 

As you can see, the renovations include a horizontal expansion ...

Uogashi occupied No. 188's ground floor and an extension in the lot's backyard. FDNY officials said the fire began in the restaurant, per published reports. The back structure was demolished. 

In total, No. 188 had eight apartments. Both 186 and 188 have been vacant since the first.

The retail spaces at 186 First Ave. both have new tenants on the way, Mr. Pizza and Lilly's Shakes & Crepes.

According to public records, HUBB NYC Properties has been the landlord of 186-188 since January 2018, paying $14.25 million.

The $24 million renovation of the Nuyorican Poets Café is officially underway

ICYMI: Last week, officials announced the start of the three-year, city-funded $24.1 million renovation project for the Nuyorican Poets Café on Third Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

The Nuyorican Poets Café, a space steeped in history and cultural significance, closed its doors this past fall after its 50th-anniversary celebration. The NYC Department of Design and Construction is now overseeing the project for the Department of Cultural Affairs that will not only renovate but also expand this iconic space, ensuring its legacy continues to thrive. 

About the work being done:

This project will renovate and expand the Café, with a new main lobby and performance space on the first floor, an additional dedicated performance space on the fourth floor, and a “flex” space on the second floor, which can be used as a classroom or rehearsal space. 

The project will also add a new elevator to the four-story building and office space for staff. These improvements will allow the organization to reach a wider audience by hosting multiple performances concurrently and providing local students with masterclasses and workshop opportunities. 

The project will also entail exterior work, including a new roof, extensive building envelope rehabilitation and waterproofing, a new ADA ramp for public access from the sidewalk level into the facility, new fire exit stairs as well as renovations to the plumbing, HVAC and electrical systems. 

Here's a look at two renderings (Rice+Lipka Architects is designing the project)...

The expected completion date is spring 2026.

Puerto Rican writer and poet Miguel Algarín founded Nuyorican in 1973 as a living-room salon on Sixth Street along with Lucky CienFuegos, Bimbo Rivas, Pedro Pietri and Miguel Piñero. Algarín died in December 2020 at age 79.

The programming here has included poetry slams, open mics, Latin and contemporary jazz and hip-hop shows, theatrical performances, educational programs, and visual art exhibits.

During the renovation, the Nuyorican staff is staging pop-ups and collaborating with other New York institutions. For updates, check Instagram or the Café website.

What a relief: Portable toilets return to Tompkins Square Park

Updated April 2: The toilets have been unlocked!

Hopefully, this isn't an April Fool's Day joke! 

This morning, workers brought in a truck full of porta-potties for Tompkins Square Park. (Thanks to EVG reader Lauren G. for the photo!)

The busy 10.5-acre park had been without toilets since Jan. 9, when city workers carted off the three porta-potties from their temporary home near Ninth Street and Avenue A.

At the time, sources told us that the previous porta-potties were constantly trashed and not really the most fun things to use. So, the thinking was, Why replace them with more only to meet the same fate?

So, in the past three months, anyone who needed to answer nature's call did so in nature, including in, on and around the playgrounds, causing a stink among residents. (Photo below from this morning via our friends at the De Colores Community Yard.)

As previously reported, the restrooms in the Tompkins Square Park field house are closed due to an 18-month (or so) renovation that began last May. The porta potties arrived around the same time ... before an August 2023 relocation.

In February 2023, a Parks official explained that temporary toilets were not part of the contract "and cannot be supplied during construction." The alternative for public use during this period: The restrooms at the McKinley Playground on Fourth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue adjacent to P.S. 63/the Neighborhood School — roughly a seven-minute walk.

By March 2023, though, Community Board 3 noted that porta potties would be on-site after all. 

According to the Parks Department website, work at the field house is 34% complete, with an anticipated wrap-up date of September 2024.

Updated 5 p.m. 

There are three port-potties... located near the ping-pong table by the field house... the two line green models are actually called Key Lime Restroom...

Per the Callahead website: 

The KEY LIME RESTROOM is designed with bright key lime coloring specially for waterfront and seaside locations. The KEY LIME is another design by Charles W. Howard, CALLAHEAD's President & CEO, to add to the long list of specialty designed restrooms to look amazing and add value to any location. The Rockaways, City Island, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Coney Island, Jones Beach, Brighton Beach, the Hamptons, Fire Island and Montauk are just a sample of where the KEY LIME RESTROOM is a popular rental.

And Steven notes the grand opening must be at a later date — all three latrines are padlocked...

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo from 3rd between B and C)... 

• NYPD: Suspect arrested in connection with the 2 recent shootings in Tompkins Square Park (Tuesday)

• Greenpoint hit Taqueria Ramírez is opening an East Village outpost (Thursday) 

• 1st sign this spring of the wisteria on Stuyvesant Street (and that townhouse is for sale!) (Tuesday) ... Walking on Stuyvesant Street in the rain (Sunday)

• Marking the 113th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (Monday) 

• This non-fiction reading series in the East Village turns 10 on Monday (Wednesday) 

• A look inside Trader Joe's Pronto, now open on 14th Street in Union Square (Wednesday) 

• A journey into the COZMOS on 10th Street (Friday) 

• Good Friday on Avenue B (Saturday) 

• Remembering Tim Lomas (Saturday) 

• Checking in on the former mucky tree well on Avenue A (Tuesday) 

• 'Orson’s Shadow' at Theater for the New City (Wednesday) 

• Tribes of Morocco relocates to a larger storefront on 9th Street (Tuesday) 

• Coming soon to the East Village: No More Cafe, 'a haven for alcohol-free celebration' (Monday)

• Openings: The Commodore on Avenue C (Friday) ... Yummy Hive on 2nd Avenue (Monday) 

• Kolkata Chai Co. closed for renovations until April 1 on 3rd Street (Monday) 

• Spa treatment (Thursday)

• About a sustainable Salon No. 17 (Wednesday) 

• Signage alert: Utshob Restaurant on 1st Avenue (Thursday) 

• Art Gotham is the new tenant for the landmarked 4 St. Mark's Place (Monday) 

... annnnnnnnnnnnnd! (Background!)

... and a reader shares the tiniest tree that we may have ever seen discarded... on 14th Street this past week ...

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Follow EVG on Instagram or X for more frequent updates and pics.

Marking the 113th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

Today marks the 113th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

As in past years, volunteers have participated in the chalking project (organized by Street Pictures), writing the names and ages of the victims — mostly young women —  in front of the buildings where they lived on the Lower East Side.

The reader photos are from St. Mark's Place (above) and 11th Street...

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the largest industrial disaster in U.S. history ... causing the death of 146 garment workers who either died from the fire or by jumping from the factory windows.

The Triangle Waist Company was located on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, just east of Washington Square Park. The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition website has more details on the tragedy and its legacy.

Same gunman suspected in shooting today in Tompkins Square Park, police say

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Updated 3/26: Police made an arrest in the shooting.

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No injuries were reported after a gunman opened fire early this afternoon near the chess tables at the 7th and A entrance to Tompkins Square Park, police said

NYPD sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said there were five to seven shots fired, with a bullet penetrating a window above Niagara across the street.

Police said the suspect, described as a Black male wearing a ski mask and dark clothing, was the same shooter who fired shots that struck two innocent bystanders this past Saturday. "It's a beef," per a police source.

The suspect reportedly fled on a Citi Bike.   

"We're not going to stop until we get him," a police official told us. 

The official said that they were "confident in the direction this investigation is going. The detectives here are world-class and won't rest until the job's completed." 

"We already had increased patrol at the park, including when the shooting happened," the official said.

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with some hoops at Sara D. Roosevelt Park via Stacie Joy) ...

• Two bystanders shot after a nearby argument escalated to gunfire in Tompkins Square Park (Saturday)

• 1 year after building fire, A&C Kitchen grandly reopens on Avenue C (Wednesday) 

• Housing lottery underway for units in this new building on 10th Street (Monday)

• The NYPL's archive of the legendary East Village Eye now available to the public (Tuesday) 

• 'Americans in Paris' at the new Grey Art Museum on Cooper Square (Friday) 

• Architectural sculpture digest: A look at some unique 'Houses and Hotels' at O’Flaherty's (Thursday)

• A familiar face returns to Key Food (Wednesday) 

• Coming attractions: The 'Kim's Video' documentary debuts at the Quad on April 5 (Thursday) 

• Full reveal at 14 Avenue C, where the team behind The Commodore is opening a new outpost (Monday)

• An update from G's Cheesesteaks, opening May 1 on Avenue B and Houston (Thursday) 

• This day on the Bowery in 2007 (Thursday) 

• Your faceless Charlie Brown mural update from 12th Street (Tuesday) 

• Boris & Horton reopens on Avenue A (Tuesday)

• Openings: Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday) ... Not as Bitter brings the fresh fruit lattes to 10th Street (Tuesday) 

• PLNT Burger closes its Union Square outpost (Monday) 

• Meet Belvedere, the Russian tortoise (Thursday) 

• Perk Espresso & Coffee Bar closes on 14th Street (Monday)

• Goodbye Dolly (Monday) 

• Awash in debt, Body Shop shuts down operations (Tuesday) 

... and a post we didn't get around to posting this past week... Starlight Convenience coming to 110 Third Ave. between 13th Street and 14th Street... (bring back the Variety Theater!)

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Follow EVG on Instagram or X for more frequent updates and pics.

1 year after building fire, A&C Kitchen grandly reopens on Avenue C

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

Great news for fans of A&C Kitchen — the longtime quick-serve and affordable Chinese restaurant reopened yesterday at 136 Avenue C after more than a year on the sidelines. (H/T Ryan John Lee for the first report.)

Mr. Li, who has owned the business for 30-plus years, was happy to see many returning customers...

It had been a rough 13 months here. 

On Feb. 27, 2023, a two-alarm fire broke out behind the building between Eighth Street and Ninth Street. Initial reports blamed a "lit object" discarded from a window down to the courtyard. 

The fire destroyed a ground-floor apartment. A&C Kitchen sustained some water damage — mostly in its basement. 

However, as we understand it, the gas was shut off as a precaution, and it took some time (and red-tape cutting) to get all the proper approvals in place ... and the various inspections.

We've mentioned this before: One of the original chefs from Dojo works here, and the menu includes such old favorites as the hijiki tofu burger. 

Find the restaurant's website here. For phone orders: (212) 677-8112. 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• The owner of A&C Kitchen on Avenue C would like to reopen his business now

Restaurants can now apply to participate in NYC's new outdoor dining program

Workers removed the curbside dining structure outside the 

former Huertas space on 1st Avenue last week. Photo by adammash

A new era for the city's permanent outdoor dining program began yesterday.

And you may not noticed — yet. Yesterday marked the first day that food service establishments could start applying online to join the Dining Out NYC program. (Apply here.)

City officials released the new guidelines, "Dining Out NYC," early last month. As previously noted, the significant change is that enclosed, year-round roadway dining structures will no longer be permitted. The revised regulations stipulate that roadway cafes must now be open-air, easily portable, and simple to assemble and dismantle. Additionally, these establishments are restricted to operating only from April through November. 

According to city officials, if restaurants plan to offer diners open-air options, owners will have to remove their old outdoor dining setups and replace them by the summer. 

"We're getting outdoor dining right, getting sheds down, getting trash off our streets, and fundamentally changing what it feels like to be outside in New York City," Mayor Adams said in a statement yesterday announcing the new dining portal.

Per the city's release announcing "Dining Out NYC" ...

Final program rules include clear design requirements, siting criteria on where outdoor dining setups can be located in relation to other street features, like subway entrances, fire hydrants, and more, and the types of materials that can be used in outdoor setups. They also require that the setups preserve clear sidewalk paths and emergency roadway lanes — including water-filled, rat-resistant protective barriers for roadway setups — and use easily moveable furniture and coverings. Ultimately, the final rules will create a lighter-weight outdoor dining experience with lines of sight, as compared to the fully enclosed shacks of the temporary COVID-19-era program. 

This link has guidelines for roadway and sidewalk dining.

Meanwhile, last week, the city unveiled a prototype for a new style of outdoor dining structure. One of the test-pilot restaurants was Sunday to Sunday on Orchard Street.  

As for the existing structures that went up during the pandemic, per CBS 2: "Any restaurant participating in the temporary outdoor dining program that does not apply to join Dining Out NYC by the deadline will need to remove their structures after Aug. 3."

The city's first public e-bike charging site for delivery workers unveiled on Cooper Square

City officials yesterday: 

... activated the first of five public e-battery charging locations as part of the city's new six-month pilot program to test safe, public charging of lithium-ion batteries by an initial group of 100 delivery workers. The first charging site is located in Cooper Square ... and is a key component of the administration's overall “Charge Safe, Ride Safe: New York City's Electric Micromobility Action Plan" to support safe e-bike use and prevent deadly lithium-ion battery fires. New York City is among the first major cities in the United States to launch a public e-bike charging pilot program.

The Essex Market will also receive an e-bike charging station in the coming weeks. 

Per the Times:

During the pilot program, up to 100 delivery workers can volunteer to use the charging hubs for free and provide feedback to the city. The program will cost about $950,000 in city funding. Its results will inform the city’s efforts "to expand safe and affordable e-battery charging to all New Yorkers," city transportation officials said.

The new charging sites come amid ongoing concerns over fires sparked by lithium-ion batteries.

According to ABC 7 and other media outlets, 18 people died, and 150 people were injured in 268 fires caused by lithium-ion batteries in NYC last year. 

Last Friday, 27-year-old journalist Fazil Khan was killed and 22 others injured during a fire in a six-floor apartment building in Harlem. FDNY officials said the fire started in an apartment shared by six delivery workers charging lithium-ion batteries. 

Meanwhile, the Times pointed out that the city received "a $25 million federal grant last year to install 173 outdoor charging stations for e-bikes and other e-mobility devices at 53 of the city’s subsidized public housing complexes, but none have been built yet."

It will likely be months before you see any signs of these, The City reported.

And another angle brought up in Streetsblog's coverage:

When it comes to electric charging infrastructure for cars, DOT has been able to install 100 chargers at sidewalks in all five boroughs within 18 months, and the agency is eyeing tens of thousands more in the coming decade, Streetsblog reported. 

Nevertheless, the asked why it appeared to be easier for the agency to accommodate electric cars than e-bikes, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Commissioner contended it was not more challenging to set up the e-bike infrastructure.

Photos courtesy of the DOT

Tuesday morning in review

Photo from 9th and A by Steven 

Waking to a slushy snowfall this morning... as the entire NYC metropolitan area and northeast corridor remains under a Winter Storm Warning (the first in two years) until 6 p.m. 

Readers have reported gusty winds and sloppy sidewalks... though not close to the 4-8 inches forecast (yet).

Meanwhile, flames were spotted coming from a manhole on the southbound lane of Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street ... as the salty runoff caused some sparks here... the FDNY was quickly on the scene. 

Thanks to EVG reader Emma for this clip...

 

... and a shot with Con Ed and the FDNY via Derek Berg...

Updated 5 p.m. 

We've heard from several readers about the stubborn (and dramatic) manhole fire ... the FDNY (with Con Ed) eventually had to clear out part of (half of?) the open-air curbside space at Kazuza Lounge...

Jolene set to close soon on Great Jones

Updated 2/9: Jolene closes on Feb. 10.

ICYMI: Jolene, the bistro-cafe at 54 Great Jones St. between the Bowery and Lafayette, will close soon.

Gabriel Stulman, founder of the West Village-based restaurant group Happy Cooking Hospitality, made the announcement last week. 

Per the media alert that we received:

I'm writing to break the news that Jolene will be closing soon. We have had to write a letter like this before, and it never gets easier — but the experience has only strengthened my belief that we learn as much from our experiences that don't succeed as the ones that do. 

We didn't go looking for the restaurant that is Jolene, it found us. My kids went to school with the grandchild of the building owner. Over drop-off one day, a connection was made that unlocked the doors. We loved the tiny space and the block with its proud fire station... 

... we're leaving with our heads held high and we hope that all the good mojo will make the next keyholders of 54 Great Jones a storied success. 

Stulman started here with The Jones, an all-day cafe that opened in August 2019... changing concepts to Jolene, named after the Dolly Parton song, in May 2021.

The closing had been rumored since an application landed on the Community Board 2 website (PDF here) last month for a new concept via Eric Kruvant and Darin Rubell, who operate Mister Paradise on First Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street.

Before The Jones, No. 54 was home to the Great Jones Cafe, which never reopened after Jim Moffett, the longtime owner, died in July 2018 at age 59. The Cafe, a popular yet low-key spot, first arrived in 1983.

City unveils the final rules for the permanent outdoor dining program

Workers remove the curbside dining structure from Phebe's on Jan. 27 

The final rules for the city's permanent outdoor dining program, set to launch next month, are now in the books. 

On Friday, city officials released the new guidelines, titled "Dining Out NYC." The significant change: Enclosed, year-round roadway dining structures will no longer be permitted. The revised regulations stipulate that roadway cafes must now be open-air, easily portable, and simple to assemble and dismantle. Additionally, these establishments are restricted to operating only from April through November. 

According to city officials, if restaurants plan to offer diners open-air options, owners will have to remove their old outdoor dining setups and replace them by the summer. 

Per the city's release announcing "Dining Out NYC" ...

Final program rules include clear design requirements, siting criteria on where outdoor dining setups can be located in relation to other street features, like subway entrances, fire hydrants, and more, and the types of materials that can be used in outdoor setups. They also require that the setups preserve clear sidewalk paths and emergency roadway lanes — including water-filled, rat-resistant protective barriers for roadway setups —– and use easily moveable furniture and coverings. Ultimately, the final rules will create a lighter-weight outdoor dining experience with lines of sight, as compared to the fully enclosed shacks of the temporary COVID-19-era program. 

"This administration has found a way to continue outdoor dining in New York City while prioritizing cleanliness,' said New York City Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch. "Under these rules, New Yorkers will be asking for a table, and the rats will be saying, 'Check, please!'"

 This link has guidelines for roadway and sidewalk dining.

Meanwhile, Kazuka at 107 Avenue A has brought the booths outside for some open-air hookah action here near Seventh Street... 

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These East Village tenants held a dance party to call out their landlord's sewage treatment

This past Tuesday, East Village residents and their supporters gathered outside 256 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue to call on their landlord for safe building conditions. 

The newly formed EV Scharfman Coalition, along with the Cooper Square Committee, was behind this "Scharfman, Cut The Sh*t!" Dance Party. NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and Assembly Member Harvey Epstein also spoke on behalf of the tenants.

Some background, per Cooper Square officials: 

Tenants of landlord Mark Scharfman are calling on their landlord to meet with them as they've requested, stop taking tenants to court for legally withholding rent during sewage flooding, treat them respectfully, and provide safe, sanitary living conditions. 

After three rounds of sewage flooding in one East Village building and similar issues in another building, several responses from the fire department, and requests for repairs and maintenance unanswered or seriously delayed, tenants have banded together to bring attention to the terrible conditions they've lived through as well as their experiences with their landlord and management company as some now face housing court because they legally withheld rent for unlivable conditions. 

Mark Scharfman, the owner of the buildings and a landlord associated with close to 150 buildings in NYC, many of which are managed under his Beach Lane Property Management Company, has been accused of tax fraud by multiple organizations, serious maltreatment of tenants, and more for years. In addition, Scharfman has been on the Public Advocate's Worst Landlord List, coming in at number 44 in 2021 and number 28 in 2020.

"The conditions that these tenants have suffered through, including fecal matter entering into their apartments, is beyond the pale," said Cooper Square Committee organizer Illapa Sairitupac. "Scharfman has an obligation to listen to his tenants and keep his buildings in good repair at the very minimum. We demand he take them seriously."

 

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A post shared by Cooper Square Committee (@coopersquare)

EVG Etc.: Remembering Wayne Kramer; celebrating Black History Month

Early evening view from 2nd Avenue

• RIP Wayne Kramer of the MC5 (Pitchfork ... The Associated Press... Detroit Free Press) 

• New York eyes rule changes to hire thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers who have legal work status in the U.S. (Bloomberg ... Gothamist) 

• Police seek four men who robbed the market on Eighth Street at Avenue D (CBS 2 ... The Post)

WANTED ROBBERY: 1/31/24 @NYPD9pct @ 8:00 AM inside 403 E 8 St four unidentified individuals approached a store employee. One of the individuals displayed a firearm & the others proceeded to remove currency & tobacco products from the deli. Any info call us at 800-577-TIPS pic.twitter.com/cj8PBdb5u7

— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) February 1, 2024

• Gov. Hochul called the rollout of New York's cannabis program a "disaster" (The City) 

• Celebrating Black History Month at the Abrons Art Center on the Lower East Side (Official site) ... take a guided tour of African American history in the East Village (Village Preservation)

• Inside the new exhibit, called "A Union of Hope," at the Tenement Museum (PIX11 ... official site) 

• Veselka has closed its outpost in the Market Line food hall on the LES after five years (Eater) 

• Inside the home of a yoga instructor on St. Mark's Place (Curbed)

• East Village students call for a ban on horse carriages in the city (The Village Sun)

• Sietsema praises the Thai dishes at the newish Rynn, 105 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue  (Eater) 

• A quickie review of Potenza Centrale on Avenue B (The Infatuation ... previously on EVG) 

• A tiny Orthodox synagogue, a relic of the old Jewish Lower East Side, struggles to survive (NY Jewish Week) 

• Yu and Me Books reopens on Mulberry Street after fire (NY1 ... NBC 4) 

• Check out NYC's new garbage truck (Gothamist)

• Next up in the 35mm series at the Village East by Angelika on Second Avenue and 12th Street — "Casablanca" on Feb. 12 (Official site) 

• Vaya con Dios! It's the North American premiere of a new 4K restoration of... of "Point Break"! (Metrograph) Too cerebral? You could also see "Alphaville."

 

Amid an influx of asylum seekers in the East Village, elected officials urge the city to open more reticketing centers

Photos last week by Stacie Joy

City Council leaders say the Adams administration needs to create more reticketing centers in NYC to meet the demand created by the Mayor's 30- and 60-day shelter limit stays. 

The letter, signed by District 2 Councilmember Carlina Rivera, House Speaker Adrienne E. Adams, and Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, calls the situation at the city's lone center, located at the former St. Brigid School on Seventh Street and Avenue B, "untenable and increasingly unmanageable." 

The lines here are only getting longer as more asylum seekers arrive here to reapply for a cot assignment or shelter location. Those in the line have been evicted due to the city's shelter limit, implemented late last year, which is 60 days for families and 30 days for individuals.

As previously reported, the long lines often result in many people being unable to enter before the site closes, forcing some to sleep outside the building or in Tompkins Square Park, where the city removed the public restrooms on Jan. 9.

Here's more from the letter: 

With more than one center and a consideration for locations in each borough, the City can ensure people do not stand on line in the cold without access to even basic facilities like bathrooms. Multiple locations would also ensure that people are closer to culturally competent, community-based programs and services. 

Volunteers with LESReady!, a Lower East Side nonprofit with organizing and service-provision experience, have identified four potential sites in Council District 2 alone that could support overflow pending the City's approval. It is important that we provide the same services available at St. Brigid's at these additional locations and ask that the managing agencies also do more to provide translation services for both those seeking asylum and the local police precincts who help with the crowds present. 

And... 

Currently, having one reticketing center has not only led to physical capacity concerns, it has created a burden on the adjacent local community and its public spaces. Resources are needed to keep up with quality of life issues. It appears that efficiency at St. Brigid's has been in decline, with travel hardships and the overall cost-effectiveness of the process in place in question. Public safety concerns have increased without a support network available even locally to those waiting. 

Line-cutting has been an ongoing issue. Other problems have been observed by officials and residents ... which likely prompted this newly posted Reticketing Center Code of Conduct. (The city published the Code in multiple languages.) 

The 18 points covered include "ignoring directions from staff and City partners" and "setting fire to anything."

The letter concludes with the Council leaders urging the city to act "quickly and compassionately in creating a better system for the thousands of people coming to St. Brigid's for assistance."

Since October, the former school has operated as a Reticketing Center overseen by the NYC Emergency Management (formerly the Office of Emergency Management or OEM).

According to published reports, the city has spent more than $3 billion on housing and services for asylum seekers since the spring of 2022. 

Previously on EV Grieve:

Observations on the growing humanitarian crisis with asylum seekers in the East Village