The campaign against Bar Veloce continues with new flyer campaign

Back in January, we pointed out the flyers along Second Avenue accusing the Bar Veloce owners of allegedly underpaying workers and taking money from the tip pool.

In April 2011, several Bar Veloce workers reportedly sued the owners of the restaurant group for wage and labor violations.

Then, as Eater reported on Feb. 21, the owners were counter-suing the workers for a smear campaign that they believe is tarnishing the Veloce name.

According to the new suit: "customers have been driven away, potential investors lost, and employees unnecessarily upset and confused."

Per Grub Street on the lawsuit, "A note to disgruntled restaurant employees: Taking out a telephone-pole flyer smear campaign may not be such a hot idea."

In any event, we spotted new flyers up and down First Avenue yesterday afternoon... involving a few more parties to the smear campaign — Porsena, Porchetta and Ugly Kitchen ...

We asked chef Sara Jenkins of Porsena and Porchetta if she had seen the flyers. Jenkins said that she had, though she declined to comment on them.

Approaching record highs today, and it's not the weather

According to a report at The Real Deal today... "Manhattan rents continue to approach record highs."

From information via Citi Habitats, vacancy rates sat at just 0.42 percent for Soho/Tribeca, 0.84 percent for the West Village and 1.15 percent for the East Village and Lower East Side.

Avenue C sinkhole update

Here at 13th Street yesterday afternoon... not so sinky looking any longer... ConEd has been working on it the last few days...

Photo by Bobby Williams.

City removes homeless man's makeshift shelter from Bowery sidewalk

We noticed the hovel here against the Liz Christy Garden fence on the Bowery at East Houston back in the middle of December...

[Bobby Williams]

Eventually, the makeshift shelter of umbrellas and trash bags and old office chairs grew...

In fact, yesterday, we saw that the man now had a lime couch under part of his home... a Liz Christy volunteer said that the homeless man in his mid to late 50s was originally from Cuba...

We were always surprised that the shelter had lasted this long ...

However, this evening, just after 5, various city employees, including from the NYPD and the Department of Sanitation, dismantled and discarded the shelter and, seemingly, all his possessions...

We didn't see the man around... the police were keeping a close, watchful eye on the proceedings...

They weren't in the mood for questions, such as what happened to the man.

[UPDATED] Source: Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation will close in 4-5 months; condos on the way

Ongoing negotiations to preserve the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on East Fifth Street at Avenue B have been unsuccessful. According to an anonymous source, Cabrini has run out of options and will close its doors in four to five months. During this time, Cabrini officials will find new homes for its residents as well as placement for current day-care clients.

Cabrini officials informed their employees of the impending closure today. Cabrini will work to help place the nearly 300 employees elsewhere.

In November, we reported that developer Ben Shaoul was the mystery buyer of Cabrini. The building's previous owner was an unnamed family trust who, according to the Lo-Down, sold Cabrini for $25.5 million.

According to several sources, Shaoul discussed flipping the building, and at least one interested party was seeking to purchase the property (one estimate put the price in the $36 million neighborhood) and continue operating the site as a for-profit nursing facility. However, those negotiations have ended.

Shaoul's attorney, Kenneth Fisher, had said at the end of 2011 that if Cabrini and the potential new operator failed to reach agreement, then eviction proceedings would commence. "My client purchased the property in good faith, with the intention of upgrading it for an as-of-right use. Their financing is in place and architectural design in under way,” Fisher wrote in a letter published by the Lo-Down on Dec. 30,

The nonprofit, 240-bed nursing home — sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — provides health care for low-income elderly residents in the East Village. The location at Fifth Street and Avenue B opened in 1993. This location serves 240 patients and employs nearly 300 people.

Cabrini officials had been planning to relocate to an unspecified site owned by the Archdiocese of New York in the next five years. However, without a lease extension on East Fifth Street and ample opportunity to find a new home, the facility would lose its state-issued operating license.

The anonymous source believes that the Cabrini building will be converted into condominiums.

UPDATED 5:30 p.m.

A clarification from Kenneth Fisher:

Your statement that we would not grant an extension so that Cabrini could build a new facility on land provided by the Archdiocese isn't quite correct. We were willing to consider something, but Cabrini turned out not to be able to move forward with it. We also at their request attempted to sell the building to a for profit operator at their request who turned out not to be able to perform. It was only after those alternatives failed that we advised Cabrini that no extension would be granted. Please bear in mind that this situation was created when the previous seller decided to sell ad set a price that Cabrini couldn't meet. We attempted to work with them in good faith.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Ben Shaoul is the new owner of Cabrini nursing home, will convert to condos

Report: Local politicians reach out to Ben Shaoul as re-sale of the Cabrini Nursing Center seems likely

Mary Pupillo - 'A true relic of the East Village'

Mary Pupillo was a seamstress who worked for many years with Gino DiGirolamo at the Royal Tailor Shop when it was on Avenue A and 12th Street. She lived directly above the shop.

Mary died on Feb. 23. She was 95.

Her friend of 30 years Cynthia Chaffee called Mary "a true relic of the East Village." Cynthia shared some background about Mary:

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"Mary was the real thing. She lived her entire life on the same corner at 12th Street and Avenue A at 441 E. 12th St. and across the street when she was a child. She would look out her window and always see where she grew up and where her sister died at 19 years old."

[Mary on the bottom left with her family]

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"As a child she played in Tompkins Square Park. She remembers the sound of the horses on the cobblestone streets and selling fruit and vegetables and saying 'ice man.'"

[Mary is in the hat]

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"To the day Mary entered the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on East Fifth Street at Avenue B two years ago, she continued to use the old-fashioned washing board to hand wash her clothes, and the hand-held iron — that you heat on the stove top flame to press her clothes. In the winter, she piled several bricks on her stove top and turned the gas burner on to heat up her apartment. (It worked great.) She sewed all her own clothes, including her hats. Mary was a character, both feisty and fiery."

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"She had deformed feet that prevented her from walking any distance... Later on in her life she had to drag a bag tied to a string around with her on the streets because she was in pain and unable to carry any weight.

"Mary took care of both of her parent's until they died, so she never married. She said that guys didn't ask her out because she had trouble walking and never could go to dances because of her feet."

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"Mary went to Mary Help of Christians as a child and later attended Washington Irving High School on Irving Place and graduated. She was fluent in both French and Sicilian Italian. She loved opera and classical music, and could sing and act out word for word whole scenes from different operas. Her family was from Gange in Palermo, Sicily. She was full of the stories of the Italian neighborhood history."

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"Many East Villagers will remember Mary. She was a fixture in the neighborhood."

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Her funeral mass will be at the Immaculate Conception Church, 414 E. 14th St. near First Avenue tomorrow morning at 10 followed by a private burial.

[Thanks to Cynthia for the photos.]

Reminders: Cash mob tonight at Odessa

As you may have read at Jeremiah's on Monday... there's a cash mob starting at 6 tonight at the Odessa Restaurant at 119 Avenue A... dinner first, then to the Odessa Cafe Bar next door for drinks afterwards... so even if you're not around right at 6, you can come by later. (And bring cash, which is the whole idea of a cash mob... as Jeremiah described it, they're "like flash mobs, but their purpose is to infuse a local business with cash.")

Thanks to Goggla for coordinating the event with Odessa ... perhaps this will be the first of many cash mobs to help other struggling businesses around the neighborhood...

And as we recently mentioned, the old Odessa space is quite a nice spot for drinks... (you can order food there too...)

[Michael Sean Edwards]

P.S.

We like the grilled cheese on Challah from Odessa ...

Today's sign of the apocalypse: A real for sure cupcake ATM in action

So you probably heard that story about Beverly Hills-based cupcakery Sprinkles launching 24-hour cupcake ATMs ... a Sprinkles took over the Gino space on the Upper East Side... and we heard that the Lower East Side will likely get one of these cupcake ATM thingys ... (According to the Daily News, the city will soon have three of them.)

Anyway, we spotted this at Eater National (via Eater NY) ... Do with this information as you please...

Noted

A reader shared this from a Seventh Street apartment building.

Proto's Pizza coming to Second Avenue

As you can see, coming soon to where Enzo's was between Third Street and Second Street... Enzo's closed last May... dunno much about Proto's... (found a Proto's in Boulder, Colo.)

Today in East River Park

Photos by peter radley.

Noted

A random find on East 13th Street near Avenue A. Photo shared by @bonatron9000