Friday, October 5, 2012

The Secret Garden, or a Private Garden?

As you saw in the above post, the "Harvest Arts Festival in the Gardens" will take place this weekend in community gardens throughout the Lower East Side.

One space that won't be taking part: The Secret Garden on Avenue C at East Fourth Street. The garden has been closed since late June.

After the closure, the following signs were posted (since removed) noting some of the forthcoming improvements that "will enhance the experience for our children and their families."


[Click images to enlarge]

According to the sign, "The Secret Garden will become a more welcoming place where each and every member our our diverse community may enjoy the quiet pleasures of green space, especially our children."

The sign goes into detail about a "community member who has been at the center of the controversy involving the many violations in the garden." The sign's author has also taken note "of the many violations with the garden, including illegal outhouse, storage of lighter fluid, fires, alcohol, smoking, dumping or urine, and the disturbing noise levels."

The Secret Garden was tentatively set to re-open on Aug. 4 "beginning with an orientation for membership followed by an open house for the community at large." (There will be a $20 membership fee.)

Two months later, the Garden is still closed. And it currently doesn't look too differently from the photos taken earlier in the summer after it closed...




Of course, all these developments are not sitting well with nearby residents who formerly had access to the Garden. One resident said that this was a "beautiful garden that was fully maintained by an existing community of mostly Puerto Rican senior citizens from the neighborhood — lovely people ... always warm and friendly."

Another tipster claims that this group have been displaced, and will not be invited back to revamped Secret Garden.

Slide show ending in A Building


Back in March 2011, we first noted the condo in the A Building with a slide. Yes — this slide.


Phil Galfond, a professional poker player, owned this place and put it on the market.

According to the Post:

The new owner of the two pads atop the East 13th Street building, identified by sources as Daniel Gieschen, a Canadian who made a bundle selling a software company, paid $3.3 million for the ultra-modern residence.

“He plans on inviting all his friends to America for a slide party, and then he wants to donate the slide to a children’s museum or to a charity,” said listing broker Elizabeth Kee of Core.

In times like these, there's only one thing to do: SLIDE PARTY!


Previously on EV Grieve:
Just your everyday penthouse combo connected by a stainless steel slide

Places where I never watched a baseball game in 2012

Veselka Bowery.


Had always planned to watch a game here during the regular season, which ended Wednesday night for the Yankees. I often saw the chalkboard sign noting the game time. And there are several flat-screen TVs at the bar.

I was going to do a post on watching a game at a seemingly unusual place. The thought of doing this at Second Avenue and East Ninth Street would be very strange.

But I suppose the Bowery branch is trying to build a bar crowd, tap into the increasingly sports-minded neighborhood. The things that you have to do to survive.

Anyway, guess I can go for a playoff game...

Fall Friday flashback: Yesterday's First Avenue manhole explosion, the movie

On Fridays this fall, and probably winter and spring and... we'll post one of the 12,000-plus EVG, uh, posts from yesteryear... like this one from Oct. 27, 2010 ...

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Many thanks to EV Grieve reader Jason B. for this video...

A few highlights:

• The onlooker in the beginning eating a banana
• The firefighter dragging the Voice box out of harm's way (32-second mark)
• The young man crossing the street right in front of the smoking manhole and getting yelled at (46-second mark)

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated]: Explosion, fire on First Avenue and Ninth Street

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Red-tailed hawk making it easier for you

Just sitting there on the railing right out in the open ... just waiting to be photographed...



Photos by Bobby Williams.

Today on East 10th Street and Avenue B


Photo by Bobby Williams.


...a little earlier via Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C.

Yu've likely seen other sukkahs around the neighborhood... the Jewish holiday of Sukkot continues through Sunday.

A quick Bowery retail inventory


Change seems to be happening quickly on the Bowery... or maybe not. So we thought we'd add up some of the recent developments.

Starting at East Fourth Street.

1) 2 Cooper Square
The plentiful retail space remains on the market... minus a pop-up tenant here or there, the storefront has been empty since the building officially opened in 2010.


2) 350 Bowery
The address was recently home to Gallery 151, which is now in Chelsea on West 18th Street. One reader thinks another gallery is going into the space. Anyone else hear differently?


3) Bowery at Great Jones
Downtown Auto & Tire moved away in April. There were all sorts of rumors of suitors — Eddie Bauer, Quicksilver — though no takers just yet.


4) 332 Bowery
Steve's on the Bowery closed last week. BoweryBoogie has reported that the Intermix brand is taking over the Steve's space.


5) Bowery and Bond
Jeez, The Washington Mutual closed up in March 2009 ... and the space has gone though an assortment of brokers... and remains empty...



6) 302 Bowery
The Patricia Field boutique moved a few storefronts away in the spring. The space remains on the market for $30,000 a month.


7) 319 Bowery
The Amato Opera building has sat vacant since the company closed on May 31, 2009. The new renderings are a hoot, though sadly realistic.


8) 313 Bowery
Most recently, the space was home to the Morrison Hotel Gallery and the Steven Tyler pop-up shop Riff (and once, the CBGB Gallery). BoweryBoogie got word that it will become the first East Coast Patagonia Surf Store.

[Bobby Williams]

9) 3 E. First St.
Loris Diran, the high-end Bowery boutique in Avalon Bowery Place, has moved away. Their assistant designer and tailor Robert Pendleton recently died due to heart failure.


10) 303 Bowery
I only just noticed that the Mischa Nicole boutique is gone... no word of a move on their website... the store opened in early 2011...


...and two quick notes south of Houston...

11) 263 Bowery
The Karl Fischer-designed building is now on the market for $5.95 million. Per the listing:

263 Bowery, located between East Houston and Stanton Streets, is a newly constructed 7-story mixed-use condominium building with three commercial condominium units totaling approximately 6,500 square feet. The combined Basement and Ground Floor commercial unit is currently vacant, while the Second Floor commercial unit is currently in contract to be leased for a 10 year term and the Third Floor unit is currently leased through 2012.

263 Bowery presents an opportunity for a retailer to establish a ground floor presence in a vibrant neighborhood that includes an array of trendy restaurants, boutique retail shops, hotels and bars.

[Via BoweryBoogie]

12) 260 Bowery
Currently home to the Standard Sheetmetal Fabrication Corp. It remains on the market.

Empty East 11th Street lot will yield to 8 stories of affordable housing

The long empty lot here on East 11th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...

[Google]

... will soon be home to eight stories — 46 units — of affordable housing for formerly homeless and mentally disabled East Villager residents, according to Curbed. Here is the design by Edelman Sultan Knox Wood Architects...


Per Curbed, the building "is subsidized by HPD's Housing Loan Program, and the community space on the first floor will go to local organization Community Access. The design includes a passageway between East 11th Street and Joseph Sauer Park on East 12th Street."

Read more about the project here.

Second floor returns to East Sixth Street church

[EVG file photo]

Back in May, we noted that work had started on Iglesia Pentecostal Sarepta at 701 E. Sixth St. (just east of Avenue C). Some years back, the DOB OK'd plans to "build a new 2nd story over exiting one-story masonry building." But not much happened with the church.

In May, though, workers removed the existing second level ...

[Bobby Williams]

We went back for a progress report this week. The new second floor is under way. The DOB permits say that this space will hold the church offices and an activities room.



Meanwhile, the Avenue C's own little Mystery Lot remains mysterious, and with the large hole still in place...


[From 2011]

4 views of the incoming 51 Astor Place

Yesterday, we noted that 51 Astor Place was getting its outer shield... thought we should take a look at how the new 430,000-square-foot tower has been shaping up in recent weeks from various views...




[Bottom photo by Donna Delmas via Facebook]

Previously.

Marketing some prime-time Union Square space

The cheapo Shoe Mania that anchored the southwest corner of 14th Street and Broadway abruptly closed on July 17. It's prime Big Box space that's now being heavily promoted...


I looked at the listing (PDF) to see how the brokers are marketing the space...

About what you'd expect here:

Reminders: Free marijuana screenings tonight

From the EV Grieve inbox... a reminder from the folks at the Medical Marijuana Association of New York...


The Villager discussed the screenings in this article on Aug. 2. Longtime East Village activist Kenneth Toglia says that there is a cancer-causing fungus called Aspergillus fumigatu found in a lot of NYC street pot. The screenings are free and anonymous Thursdays at 6 p.m. at the University of the Streets on East Seventh Street and Avenue A.

This is what 12 Avenue A looked like on Sept. 30, 2012


This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

EV Grieve Eatery Etc.: Gruppo moving news; Maltida's new outpost

A reader sends along a photo of the chalkboard outside Gruppo on Avenue B ... As noted earlier, the pizzeria will be moving into the former Layalay space, the onetime B&T hookah hotspot at 98 Avenue B, from its current home at 186 Avenue B .. per the sign, this will happen in the "late fall."


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And Matilda is now serving tapas at La Zarza on First Avenue (as of last night) ... However, the Maltida folks said that they will continue to serve their Tuscan-Mexican cuisine from their main outpost on East 11th Street near Avenue C...


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EVG reader JB sends along a few photos of Ballaro, the new bakery that opened last week on East Fifth Street between Second Avenue and First Avenue...



Try it yet?

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Noted


Spotted on East Fourth Street near Avenue B today.

Death Star getting its shield!

EVG reader MP takes note of the following today at 51 Astor Place...



Per MP: "How long before the Empire attacks?"

And one day...



Hat tip to MP for the headline too...

Study: Bicyclists and pedestrians power local East Village businesses

Here's part of a news item from StreetsBlog from yesterday...

Transportation Alternatives has released a new study [PDF] showing that people who walk, bike and take transit to the East Village are local retailers’ best customers.

In a random survey of 420 East Village pedestrians, 95 percent of respondents said that they usually walk, bike or take transit to the neighborhood, with only 5 percent using a taxi or private automobile. TA asked respondents how often they visit the area and how much they usually spend per visit, using the replies to calculate how much each person typically spends per week in the area. The interesting patterns emerge when you segment that information by how the respondents got to the neighborhood. It shows that bicyclists and pedestrians are bigger spenders than those who arrive by taxi and car.

StreetsBlog has a few charts and some analysis if you'd like to dig into it here. The report itself is 19 pages.

Bonus chart!




Angel Memorial House for sale on Avenue B; condos or single-family home in the offing


The longtime home of the New York Gospel Mission at 149 Avenue B near East Ninth Street just hit the market for $5.5 million. According to the Massey Knakal listing:

This 5 story plus lower level elevatored building is located directly across from Tompkins Square Park and will be delivered vacant. The property was gut renovated in the mid 90’s and is currently constructed of concrete and steel. This is an excellent opportunity for either a user to convert to a single family or a boutique condo conversion.

According to its website, New York Gospel Mission was founded in 1895 by Dr. Bernard Angel. He died in 1929, and his daughter Ruth became the director. In 1944 the mission purchased the five-story building at 149 Avenue B, and named it Angel Memorial House after the founders.

God's work is no longer necessary in the East Village, just more places for people to enjoy $27 cocktails.