Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo by Louise & Danny)...

• Election Night 2024 (Wednesday) 

• Mixed messages about the future of 7-Eleven on Avenue A (Monday) 

• The return of O'Flaherty's, now on Allen Street for the next month with Matthew Barney & Alex Katz (Thursday) ... At the opening of 'The Bitch' at O'Flaherty's (Saturday) 

• On Sunday, a sneak preview of Mary O's Irish Soda Bread Shop ahead of its Nov. 16 grand opening (Friday) 

• A new East Village vintage clothing store opens, and a cat is the curator (Tuesday) 

• Halloween night with Pretty Sick at Bowery Ballroom (Monday) 

• B Cup Café is on the move on Avenue B (Tuesday) 

• About the Community Boutique & Café, an inclusive gathering place on 12th Street (Thursday) 

• It's not just you — the whole area smells like smoke. Here's why. (Saturday) 

• More stabilization work at the former P.S. 64/Charas/El Bohio Community Center (Thursday) 

• 325 E. 14th St., sells and farewell to the Crocodile Lounge sidewalk awning (Monday) 

• Owner of 2 Brooklyn restaurants taking over the Lollo space on Avenue B (Thursday)

• Coming attractions: Mrs. Green on 14th Street (Tuesday) 

• Renovations underway at the former Boulton & Watt (Thursday)

• The former Houston Village Farm is for rent (Tuesday) 

• A bad sign at the Sunflower East Village on 2nd Street (Monday) 

• Stuffed closes and the owners promise 'a brand new, never seen before' ice cream concept (Monday)

Also, this past week, workers removed the sidewalk bridge from Third Street and Avenue A (part of the ongoing work at the First Houses).

Also! The Budget Mart on A between Second and Third is expected to open SOON (photo below by Stacie Joy).

What's next for the former smoke shop next to Ray's Candy Store on Avenue A?

Green World Convenience has been closed in recent months next to Ray's Candy Store on Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place. 

We got some closure, so to speak, last week: The Marshal paid a visit on Oct. 1, and the landlord is now in legal possession of the space.

The unlicensed shop opened last fall, and was pretty promotional with sidewalk boards advertising flowers, edibles and pre-rolls. 

The business was, until May 2023, known as East Village New Deli. Then, in June 2023, it returned without the deli counter... only to close again and reopen as another exotic snack shop/weed shop. 

We have no idea what might be next... how about: Bring back Alphabets!

A look at the ongoing renovations at First Houses

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

We've fielded several queries about the extensive renovations at the city-owned First Houses on Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street, both in the residences and above the strip of retail spaces.

For starters, a little history of the eight four-story and five-story buildings with the residential entrances on the south side of Third Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. First Houses was the first publicly funded low-income housing project in the U.S., opening in December 1935 under the auspices of the just-created New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). 

Per Village Preservation: 

First Houses was originally planned to house 120 to 122 families, and all apartments had steam heat, hot water and were equipped with the modern amenities typically found in middle-class housing. Within two months of opening a rental office for the project, the Housing Authority received between 3,000 and 4,000 applications. Prospective tenants were carefully selected by a team of social workers, with preference given to the inhabitants of the worst slums and relatively small families. All but one of the families chosen were residents of the Lower East Side. 

First Houses became a NYC Landmark in 1974. 

In recent decades, the buildings have shown their age, revealing ongoing bureaucracy issues plaguing the NYCHA.

In 2011, City Limits documented many of the residents' issues here. There were stories of mice eating their way through the worn floorboards and a resident battling the NYCHA for 15 years over a persistent leak. 

Fast forward to the start of the renovations last year. According to an architect working on the $24.8-million roofing replacement and exterior restoration:

[The] project is for restorative work throughout all of the facades of buildings within the complex, including rebuilding brick parapets in kind, repointing masonry and replacing brickwork, precast coping stones and metal lintels. 

Entrance porticos will be temporarily removed to allow for the replacement or restoration of green-painted cast iron columns and railings. Work on porticos includes the replacement of portico copper roofs, copper cornices, new concrete entrance stairs, landings, and footings, and replacement of nearby concrete or asphalt pavers pathways. Roofs of all buildings will be replaced with new liquid-applied roofing membrane over new insulation. 

In addition, the construction site manager told us: "We are replacing the roof and doing masonry restoration. We've also started on the interior work, which includes drywalling and lead and asbestos removal." 

Here's a look around the complex earlier this summer...

As you may have noticed, many tenants have moved out, including the local folk hero known as The Chillmaster, known for blasting classic R&B from his open window (year-round).

Local Assemblymember Harvey Epstein told us that tenants were temporarily relocated to other complexes, including the Jacob Riis Houses and the Wald Houses, and some public housing further away from the Lower East Side. 

Epstein said that all tenants can return to the First Houses upon completion of the work, set for 2025, per the posted signage.

A visit to Groove Garden, a community music studio on Avenue C

Photos and story by Stacie Joy 

You can't miss the brightly painted, all-green slender storefront at 89 Avenue C between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. 

I paused to admire the façade before heading inside to talk to musician and songwriter Rob Taube, owner of community music studio Groove Garden.

He's surrounded by kids, all participating in the Song Camp program. Some are tucked into the sound booth, a couple at the drum kits, and even more crowded around a mic. 

It's a hot, swampy summer day, but the energy in the small space is contagious. I took a few photos and waited until the recording session ended before chatting with Rob about what brought him to this location, his passion for music, and why he loves the neighborhood.

On his start as a music teacher: 

Somewhere in the 2010s, I decided to take on a few music students and produce some recordings to help make ends meet. I had no idea what the resulting influx would be, and soon, I had more students and musical clients than I could handle in our tiny apartment, which was now constantly overflowing with players and singers. 

On finding a home for Groove Garden: 

Funds were tight, but the NYCHA rental guy guided me to this small space tucked between two brick buildings on Avenue C. It was naturally soundproofed due to the bricks, and it had an old closet space in the back with some odd pieces of wood and junk in it, which I immediately saw as a potential sound booth. It was kind of an "if you build it, they will come" moment. 

And over the last seven years, they have come to take music lessons, write and record songs, rap, and jam — so much so that it's hard to keep up. I'm not here 24/7, but I am more like 12/7, teaching them, recording them, and performing with them live and on their tracks. 

On spreading the word about his business: 

100% of my business comes from word-of-mouth or from people who walk by and say, "What is this place?" So often, they are creative artists who need a place to create, and the fact that I'm right here in a storefront makes the whole process so accessible they actually can wind up with their stuff out there in the world when otherwise it would have died in the vine as they went about their lives. 

On being in this neighborhood:

For me, this could only happen in the East Village, where there is such a crazy quilt of businesses and characters that someone like me, who has lived as an outsider, can thrive.

Even when I lived elsewhere, I loved this neighborhood for its eccentric characters, and now I'm one of them — how amazing is that?

 

You can hear some of the finished products from the studio at this link... and this link.

Visit the Groove Garden website here.

Week in Grieview

Posts that past week included (with a photo from 7th and A)... 

• Reports of multiple people stabbed on 14th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue; 1 fatality (Sunday) ... A look at 14th Street after the triple stabbing and homicide on Sunday (Monday) ... NYPD light tower arrives on a cleaned-up SE corner of 14th Street and 1st Avenue (Thursday) ... This morning on 14th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue (Saturday) 

• Emma Rogue is opening an events space on Houston Street (Saturday) 

• At the Harold Hunter Skate Jam in Tompkins Square Park (Friday) 

• At an East Village benefit for Washington Square Park Mutual Aid (Wednesday) 

• East Village singer-songwriter Jesse Malin will return to the stage this Dec. 1 and 2 (Wednesday) 

• A plaque dedicated to a former longtime Parks employee is missing from Tompkins Square Park (Tuesday) 

• Now people are stealing Invader's mosaics in the East Village and elsewhere (Wednesday) 

 • The Rite Aid on 1st Avenue doesn't look like a store that will be in business much longer (Wednesday)

• Check out an aerial view of the refurbished Tompkins Square Park basketball courts (Wednesday) 

• Opening weekend for Carnitas Ramírez (Monday) • City pools are open (Thursday)

• High winds bring down a branch in Tompkins Square Park (Monday) 

• A tribute to Patti Astor at First Street Green Art Park (Sunday)

• This smoke shop won't be reopening after an assault and robbery (Tuesday)

• Openings: Pasta de Pasta on 1st Avenue (Thursday) 

• 3 new bakeries-cafes have opened in the East Village (Tuesday) 

• A permanent closure for Dhom on 12th Street (Thursday) ... M & J Asian Cuisine on 14th and B (Thursday) ... and Joey Bats Café on Avenue B (Wednesday)

• The NW corner of 1st Avenue and 2nd Street awaits its new development (Monday) • The all-new Boiler Room announces itself on 2nd Avenue (Monday) 

• Lamia’s Fish Market is 'temporarily closed for maintenance' (Wednesday) 

• From the EVG archives: Q-&-A with Susan Seidelman, director of 'Smithereens' and 'Desperately Seeking Susan' (Friday) 

• Today in parallel parking (Monday) 

... and some of the recent chairs of Avenue A...

A tribute to Patti Astor at First Street Green Art Park

First Street Green Art Park is celebrating the life of Patti Astor, the "First Lady of Graffiti Art." 

Astor, a cofounder of the Fun Gallery in the East Village in 1981, helped introduce a range of graffiti artists to the broader art world. She died in April at age 74. 

A handful of artists created this tribute (this Instagram post has more info about the artists and curators) ...

On the main wall, Shiro_one finished this large mural on Wednesday, which includes work by Al Diaz.

The Astor tribute got underway on June 15 with music by Large Professor... and the start of the various mural work... (photos below by Stacie Joy)...

The murals are expected to be up through the summer. First Street Art Park is at 33 E. First St. There's an entrance on First Street just east of Second Avenue... and another on Second Avenue near Houston.

Blank Street Coffee reopens on 1st Avenue and 13th Street

Photo by Lola Sáenz 

The green-fronted Blank Street outpost reopened on the NE corner of First Avenue at 13th Street. 

This outpost of the V.C.-funded coffee chain closed to the public in May 2023 to become a "training + innovation lab." 

With this return, the East Village is back up to two locations — joining the one on Avenue A between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included... (with the word from 10th and A)... 

• At NYU, 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment' leads to arrests of over 150 people (Tuesday)

• Police searching for suspect in unprovoked daytime stabbing on 7th Street on April 9 (Monday) 

• The untold story of Snack Dragon's attempted East Village comeback (Tuesday) 

• An early-morning fire at 131 Avenue A (Wednesday) ... assessing the fire damage (Wednesday) 

• Violet times: An Earth Day look at the wisteria on Stuyvesant Street (Monday) 

• From the Poetry Window at East Village Books (Saturday) 

• Dan & John's has closed its original East Village location after 9 years (Tuesday) 

• The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival returns to Tompkins Square Park this Aug. 25 (Wednesday) 

• Celebrating the birth of the Pyramid Club at Howl! Arts (Thursday) 

• A benefit concert for East Village musician Jesse Malin (Wednesday)

• About Stylus, a private members-only club coming to the Lower East Side (Friday) 

• Workers removed a dead elm from Tompkins (Thursday) ... and the city has been planting new trees in the neighborhood (Friday) 

• Closing notices: J-Spec Wagyu Dining and Esora Omakase on 5th Street (Wednesday) 

• Openings: Pizza Pazzo on 1st Street (Monday)

• A retail reset at 20 St. Mark's Place (Monday)

• So long to the longtime sidewalk bridge on 12th Street, and hello to SMØR Bakery (Monday) 

• Sushi Fan has not been open lately on St. Mark's Place (Friday)

• Where to see Films on the Green this summer (but not in Tompkins Square Park) (Friday)

• A smoke and vape shop for the former Gaia Italian Café on 3rd Street (Wednesday) 

• A changing of the bar at 16 1st Ave. (Monday) 

... and beware of those dubious rental listings promising various "doorman amenities" (photo on 9th Street by Steven)...

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Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo of Nation of Language on Monday during their sold-out 3-night stand at the Bowery Ballroom)... 

• Planned student protest gets the DOB to take action on closed-off school playground (Monday) 

• Veselka looks to ease back into a 24/7 schedule starting with weekends first (Monday) 

• City unveils 3 refurbished East Village buildings with affording housing opportunities (Tuesday) ... Honoring Puerto Rican freedom fighter Pedro Albizu Campos with a mural on 12th and C (Friday) 

• Restaurants can now apply to participate in NYC's new outdoor dining program (Wednesday) 

• A new signage era for Best Housekeeping on Avenue A (Thursday) 

• The Veselka documentary gets a third week at Village East by Angelika (Friday) 

• This is why Most Holy Redeemer is green around the bells on 3rd Street (Saturday)

• To be: Eddie Izzard's 'Hamlet' coming to the Orpheum Theatre in the East Village (Monday) 

• Look at the former Dallas BBQ now (Friday) 

• The Joyce Theater has rehearsal space to rent to nonprofits and freelance dance artists (Tuesday) 

• Checking out just part of the ongoing New Colossus Festival (Saturday) 

• Asian Taste closing in on a reopening (Friday) 

• A now-and-then look at the former Provident Loan Society on Houston and Essex (Circa Thursday)

• Vacant parking garage gets the plywood treatment on 9th Street (Thursday) 

• Apollo Bagels now with signage on 10th Street (Tuesday) 

• Today in discarded finds of the century on 2nd Street (Friday) 

• Former Mad for Chicken spot for rent on 14th Street (Monday) 

• Closures: Wild Rabbit Coffee on 7th Street (Wednesday)

• Signage alert: Bungalow from restaurateur Jimmy Rizvi on 1st Avenue (Thursday) 

• EVG readers had early access to tickets to see The Damned this May in NYC (Wednesday) 

... and neither here nor there, but this Scotch Tape display has been in a different aisle every time we visit Key Food on Avenue A (which is more than we'll admit)...

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RIP Vinie Burrows

Vinie Burrows, an acclaimed actress and activist who lived in the East Village in Village View along First Avenue, died on Dec. 25. She was 99. 

From her obituary:

Burrows began her Broadway career in the 1950s, starring alongside Ossie Davis in "The Wisteria Trees." She continued to perform on Broadway for several years, appearing in such shows as "The Green Pastures," "The Skin of Our Teeth," and "The Blacks." But Burrows became frustrated with the narrow range of roles available to Black women, and she left Broadway to pursue a solo career in one-woman shows. 

Burrows' one-woman Off-Broadway show, "Walk Together Children," was critically acclaimed and continued as an international tour after its initial run. She went on to perform other one-woman shows, including "Sister! Sister!" "Dark Fire" and “The Great White Way: The Story of Rose McClendon." 

In 2020, she was honored with an Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement. Burrows was also an activist who represented the Women's International Democratic Federation at the United Nations.  

As the Amsterdam News reported, Burrows "once noted that her greatest role in life was the one she performed for truth and justice." 

She has been the subject of several tributes in recent days...

Vinie Burrows, an actress who made her mark on Broadway in the 1950s but who grew frustrated by how few choice roles were available for Black women and turned her focus to one-woman shows exploring the legacies of racism and sexism, has died at 99. https://t.co/qakbhiKE74

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 5, 2024

... including this piece in The New Yorker titled The Many Lives of Vinie Burrows. 

Here's a video message from Burrows from April 2020...

   

Burrows is survived by her son and daughter, six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

Illegal cannabis dispensary seeing blue this morning

Photos by William Klayer 

A quick note via the EVG tipline... law enforcement officials were spotted inside the Recreational Plus Cannabis Dispensary on the SE corner of First Avenue and 11th Street. 

A Restraining Order is also posted on the front window here at 180 First Ave. (FYI: This building is also for sale.) 

From the street, the shop appears to be empty. (The business' Yelp page notes, "Recreational Plus East Village is temporarily closed. Scheduled to reopen on January 1, 2024.") 

The signage arrived for it back in October... it was later removed, though the shop remained in operation.

This happens to be one block north of Go Green Dispensary, where on Tuesday, local elected officials came together, spoke out against unlicensed cannabis shops in Lower Manhattan, and called on landlords to stop renting to these businesses.

Like Go Green Dispensary, this operation is close to multiple schools (East Side Community School and PS 19 East Village Community School) and the mosque on the NE corner of 11th Street and First Avenue.

Local elected officials call out landlords renting to unlicensed cannabis shops

Image via Harvey Epstein's office 

Local elected officials came together yesterday to speak out against unlicensed cannabis shops in Lower Manhattan and call on landlords to stop renting to these businesses. 

Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, Councilmember Carlina Rivera and Sen. Brian Kavanagh gathered with community members outside Go Green Dispensary on the SE corner of 10th Street and First Avenue. Officials pointed out that this dispensary is close to multiple schools (East Side Community School and PS 19 East Village Community School) and the mosque on 11th Street and First Avenue. 

According to officials, legal cannabis dispensaries — licensed by the New York State Office of Cannabis Management — are prohibited from operating within 500 feet of a school or 200 feet of a religious institution.

As of August, a new city law that holds commercial landlords responsible for renting storefronts to unlicensed cannabis shops is in effect. 

Introduction 1001-B, known as Local Law 107 of 2023, prohibits owners of commercial spaces from knowingly leasing to unlicensed sellers of marijuana or tobacco products, imposing fines of up to $10,000 on landlords for violations. 

During the rally, Epstein announced that he was sending letters to the landlords of 22 shops stating their renters were selling cannabis illegally and advising them of their responsibilities under the law and penalties for failure to comply.

"Unlicensed cannabis shops are a threat to consumers, the legal market, and our entire community,” Epstein said. “As a supporter of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, I believe that the sale of cannabis should be used as an instrument of social justice, allowing individuals who have suffered the impact of criminalization to enter the market legally and receive priority status when applying for their licenses. Unlicensed shops like these perilously undermine that goal while also evading safety requirements and taxes."

Representatives from Housing Works Cannabis Co., NYC's first legal dispensary that opened last December on Broadway at Eighth Street, were also present to talk about the negative impact these businesses have on the legal market.

"Currently operated illegal cannabis businesses are supported by multiple out-of-state and international investors. These investors can afford to pay the fines and renegotiate terms for retail space," said Anthony Feliciano, vice president of the advocacy department at Housing Works. "Additionally, landlords repeatedly allow their commercial storefronts to be re-opened by either the same tenant or a new renter after being seized by the sheriff's department. We need more administrative mechanisms and legislation designed to get the landlord's attention."

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a sunrise-on-Seventh-Street shot from Thursday)... 

• 19-year-old worker killed by father in a construction accident on First Avenue (Friday) 

• Demoliton of the fire-damaged Middle Church façade starts on Monday (Thursday) 

• The unhoused residents living on 9th Street and First Avenue (Friday) 

• Community members speak out against a tactical gear pop-up shop on 9th Street (Monday) 

• Q&A with Colin Simpson, aka reggae artist Ras Redemption (Thursday) 

• CB3 committee to hear presentation on the proposed 'City of Yes for Economic Opportunity' text amendment (Tuesday) 

• Revisiting 305 E. 11th St. and 310 E. 12th St. (Thursday) 

• Five Guys coming to 12th and 2nd (Tuesday) 

• East Village resident pleads guilty to running a 'sophisticated ghost gun factory' (Friday) 

• This East Village lot is now home to this 60-foot-long photograph of a car cemetery in Ukraine (Tuesday) 

• ICYMI: Flaco is backo on the Upper East Side (Wednesday) 

• Openings: Red Onion on 10th Street (Wednesday) 

• Signage alert: Crêpe Master on 7th Street (Monday)

• Cookie Walk is now side-of-church-signage official (Tuesday) 

• Bench mark: A throwback to 1939 arrives on the Tompkins Square Park multipurpose courts (Monday)

• Ugh, SantaCon is on the way (Tuesday) 

• Everything's gone Green (Wednesday) 

... and for anyone keeping track, it appears the Whole Foods Market® Bowery was first to the market with (live) Christmas trees this year...

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Everything's gone Green

We are behind in noting all (and there are a lot) the recent comings and goings with smoke shops, like which ones closed, which ones closed and reopened, and which ones closed and reopened under a new name.

The smoke shop opened up next to Ray's Candy Store on Avenue A near Seventh Street nearly a month ago, though the signage for Green World only just arrived.

The sidewalk board (pic from Oct. 31, before the new signage but with festive balloonage) shows items for sale including flowers, edibles and pre-rolls...

The business was, until May, known as East Village New Deli ... then they returned in June without the deli counter... only to close again and reopen as another exotic snack shop/weed shop. 

East Village cultural landmark Nuyorican Poets Café now closed for a 3-year renovation

Photos by Stacie Joy

After celebrating its 50th anniversary this past month, the Nuyorican Poets Café has closed for a long-awaited $24 million, three-year renovation project. 

This so-called "Nuyoricanstruction" phase will usher the organization into into the next 50 years, leadership says.

Here's more about the extensive renovation at the iconic space on Third Street between Avenue B and Avenue C, as reported by The City:

There will be new elevators, a new first-floor performance space, a green room and changing area in the basement, and more offices and performance spaces on the second, third, and fourth floors, according to a spokesperson for the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, which is partially funding the renovation along with the City Council and borough president's office. The electrical and mechanical systems will also be completely overhauled. 

And...

The space at 236 East 3rd Street was an abandoned tenement building, built more than 100 years ago, when it was purchased in 1971 by the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. The Poets Café founders bought it in 1981 after starting off in an East Village living room eight years earlier. 

The Café owns the building, but has had a restrictive covenant on its deed since 2013, which is a requirement for all city-funded capital projects on private property.

Through the years, the Café has been a venue for for underrepresented artists through weekly Latin jazz, slam poetry, theatrical performances and open mic events.

The staff is planning on staging pop-ups and collaborating with other New York institutions during the three-year renovation. You can check Instagram or the Café website for updates.

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.

RIP Maryanne Byington

Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) shared the following information about longtime East Village resident Maryanne Byington... 

Maryanne left us Friday, Oct. 13, after a long battle with a pulmonary illness. 

Maryanne was a resident of East Eighth Street since 1982 and an integral part of Green Oasis and Gilbert's Sculpture Garden. She was one of the founders of LUNGS and served as Vice President from 2011 to 2020. 

Maryanne was a trophy-winning professional ballroom dancer. She was Emeritus Dean of High Heels at Miss Vera's Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls, where she offered students expert instruction in the arts of dressing up, making up, going out, and acting like a lady. Maryanne said, " Do you enjoy wearing high heels? Sometimes, the technique of rumba will create just the right walk for the right situation." 

Maryanne loved to dance and dress in Oscar de la Renta's most colorful Latin-influenced festive party gowns. She also loved to sit in her garden, watch children carve pumpkins, and listen to the birds sing. She was partial to shrimp cocktails, grilled cheese sandwiches and chilled Negronis served in a pretty cocktail glass. 

Maryanne's graciousness, sense of humor and beautiful smile are already greatly missed.

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a reader-submitted photo from Avenue B and Fourth Street)...

• Here's how you can contribute to the East Village Community Cookbook (Tuesday) 

• Barnyard Cheese Shop will return with Barnyard Express on Avenue B (Wednesday) 

• 9th Street parking garage being offered for redevelopment (Monday) 

• Report: City temporarily halts demolition of 6-building parcel on 3rd Avenue (Tuesday) 

• The owners of Whim Golf on Avenue A are hoping to donate their putting green to a community garden, school or outdoor residential space (Thursday)

• Listing for 7th Street triplex reimagined "with Barbie’s (and Ken’s) signature style in mind" (Tuesday) 

• Stuyvesant Street storefronts return to view (Thursday) 

• Openings: Seasoned Vegan Real Quick on 2nd Avenue (Wednesday) 

• This is the last weekend for the East Village outpost of Pink Olive (Friday) 

• HBD Joe Strummer (Monday) 

• Reader report: K'ook has closed on 6th Street (Thursday)

• The LES Shake Shack debuts (Monday) 

• J Crew on the Bowery remains closed due to "technical difficulties" (Thursday) 

• The former Local 92 space is for rent (Thursday) ... as is the former Raíz Modern Mexican space on 1st Avenue (Monday) 

• This shop may not be long for this (Bong) world (Monday)

• Snack Stop shutters on St. Mark's Place (Wednesday) 

... and some rolldown gate drama yesterday on St. Mark's Place at Second Avenue... at the kiosks selling hats, sunglasses, etc. (top pic by Derek Berg) ...

... and Steven...

The gate was eventually repaired ... and the sales were able to continue...

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