Thursday, May 1, 2014

A Softee spot for legal battles



Hey, you remember a few weeks ago when we posted the above photo (thank you arrows!) of the Master Softee truck on East 14th Street... and there were comments about lawsuits between Mister Softee and Master Softee and all that?

Sure EV!

Well, the Daily News has a piece on all this lawsuit stuff today if you are interested...

The New Jersey-based owner of the ubiquitous ice cream trucks is suing a rogue Queens vendor, charging he opened his depot in Long Island City to peddle a knockoff version.

A mix of about two dozen nearly identical Master Softee and Mister Softee trucks are lined up inside and outside Dimitrios Tsirkos’s 11th St. garage.

The fledgling business has soured tempers throughout Mister Softee headquarters in South Jersey and its franchisees across Queens and the Bronx. Owner Jim Conway cried trademark infringement in a March lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court and demanded Tsirkos drop the Softee con.

“They want to confuse the public,” said Conway, who is no stranger to the courthouse. His 58-year-old family-owned company has spent “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in legal fees since the mid-1990s chasing down copycats in more than 10 cases.

Read the whole article here.

H/T Eater

Previously on EV Grieve:
So what's the deal with 'Master Softee?' (20 comments)

The 1st Lower East Side (LES) History Month starts today


[Yet ANOTHER butter and eggs shop!]

From the EVG inbox…

May 2014 brings the first annual Lower East Side (LES) History Month, a month-long celebration of the rich, diverse history of New York City's Lower East Side, including the neighborhoods of the East Village, Chinatown, Little Italy and Alphabet City. With participation by more than 60 Lower East Side-based cultural and community groups, LES History Month will feature over 80 affordable and unique events, including live performances, exhibits, gallery and walking tours, talks, film screenings, festivals and more.

LES History Month opens with Chalk/LES, a weekend-long participatory project to bring LES history, art and stories onto the streets of the neighborhood. Starting Friday, May 2, numerous LES sites will be emblazoned with chalked trivia and memories of their lived histories. On Saturday, May 3, public chalking sites will be open for all, encouraging passersby to participate with their own stories and images of the LES. Game participants are also invited to join scavenger hunt teams, organized by Guerilla Haiku Movement, who will head out and cover the neighborhood with sidewalk-chalked poetry, and engage passersby in their own creative storytelling about the LES.

Chalk/LES culminates on Sunday, May 4, as artists and volunteers will chalk a pathway from various LES transit hubs toward East River Park, along the waterfront, and arriving at Pier 42 for Picnic on the Pier. As a partnership with Paths to Pier 42, LES History Month will present salsa dancing with las Dinimicas of Grand Street Settlement, gypsy swing from Sugar Hill Gypsy Jazz, songs from the young singers of Downtown Art, and an afternoon of family friendly art activities led by The Tenement Museum and the Museum of Chinese in America.

To celebrate, LES History Month will also announce the inaugural LES Heroes award, recognizing the often unsung contributions of neighborhood residents, activists and leaders.

To find out more about LES History Month, its participants and opening weekend programming, visit here.

Photo via NewYorkHistory.info

Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield eyeing the former San Loco space on Avenue A


[Photo from February]

San Loco closed on Feb. 16 after 15 years at 151 Avenue A, as we first reported here.

Word is now that high-profile restaurateurs Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield are eyeing the former San Loco location for a cafe-bar concept that would be open early for breakfast … and late night for cocktails (with lunch and dinner in between). The place would curate a specific coffee, wine and cocktail program.

This application is on the May CB3/SLA agenda released yesterday (though their names aren't on it just yet).

Friedman and Bloomfield own such places as high-profile places like The Spotted Pig, The Breslin and The John Dory Oyster Bar … while Friedman has teamed with the likes of Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter at The Monkey Bar and Taavo Somer at The Rusty Knot.

Avenue A looks to be going even more upscale in a hurry … with projects such as this, the all-new 7A and Alex Stupak's new Mexican restaurant at the former Sushi Lounge space.

The former 7A will apparently be called Miss Lily's 7A Cafe



It appears that last night's storm brought down the tarp protecting the new sign at the former 7A space... revealing that the new place will be called Miss Lily's 7A Cafe here on East Seventh Street and Avenue A ...



Various EVG tipsters told us previously that the place will be the second outpost of restauranteur Paul Salmon's Miss Lily's along with a Melvin's Juice Box.

A rep told Eater last month that the new place will "pay homage to the cafe history of 7A," but it will also have "elements of Melvin's Juice Box and Miss Lily's."

Looks pretty accurate by the look of the new signage.

7A closed after nearly 30 years on Jan. 26.

H/T @derbyon

Previously on EV Grieve:
Some part of 7A will stay in the new 7A's name

Details emerge about what's next for former the 7A, Odessa Cafe & Bar spaces

[Updated] Reader report: 7A will close at the end of the month

Renovations underway at former 7A space

[Updated] Rumors: 7A space will become a 2nd outpost of Miss Lily's and Melvin's Juice Box

A Mars Bar comeback gains more traction

[Hi! Remember me? Photo from July 2011 by Bobby Williams]

Community Board 3 released its meetings rundown for May … and a conspicuous item appears on the SLA committee docket:

Paul Mil Cafe Inc, 11-17 2nd Ave (op/alt/gut renovation) (Mars Bar)

The listing appears twice, under "alterations" and "items not heard at Committee."

Back in 2011 when Mars Bar was displaced by the impending Jupiter 21 monstrosity on Second Avenue and East First Street… the rumor was that owner Hank Penza had someone in mind to reopen a bar in the retail space. In fact, the person has the actual bar and jukebox from the Mars Bar for the next place.

In early January 2013, Billy Gray at the Commercial Observer reported that the J21 retail lease includes "a second retail space that could assume the notorious Mars Bar's trade name and liquor license."

Per that report:

The development company BFC Partners reached an agreement with the Mars Bar crew that would allow the next commercial tenant to occupy a 4,456 basement and ground floor space under the proud, stubborn and – who knew? – business-minded Mars Bar auspices.

The TD Bank appears to be taking most of the retail space… so where would a bar fit?



Well, there is also retail space on the East First Street side … and the aforementioned basement…



So… is it such a good thing to do a Mars Bar redux? Would it be like making a TV series out of "Casablanca" with David Soul in the Bogart role?

Or something.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The former Mars Bar is becoming a fucking bank branch

So where's that fucking bank branch that's taking the former Mars Bar space?

Rumors: Mars Bar owner Hank Penza ready to open a new space in the next few months

That's it: The Mars Bar is closed for good

Gentrification, Steve Croman targets of this East Village tenant parade



Via the EVG inbox…

You are invited to attend a press conference at Tompkins Square Park and join an East Village Parade to resist gentrification in NYC communities. The loss of affordable regulated housing in the East Village and the displacement of tenants have been caused by landlords like Steven and Harriet Croman of 9300 Realty.

This landlord currently owns about 70 buildings in the East Village alone and hundreds throughout the city. He has been exploiting the vacancy decontrol laws for over 20 years using abusive tactics to force tenants out of rent-regulated apartments.

After the press conference the parade will go to Croman’s 9300 Realty buildings in the area to reach out to his tenants. Many of Croman’s tenants have the same problems and need to know how to protect their rights.

Paradise Alley
The parade will stop at Paradise Alley to dramatize the difficulty of being an artist in NYC today. On Avenue A and East 11th St. the building known as Paradise Alley was located before being replaced by the current building in 1987. While this little-known location is famous for the beat artists, musicians and writers from the 1950s and 1960s, there is a lesser-known association with East Village artists during the depression.

In 1938, Paradise Alley was known as a bohemian artists’ colony. The landlord raised rents so high that the residents refused to pay it. The landlord got evictions but when the artists still refused to leave, the landlord got the police to brake down the doors and evicted the artists at gunpoint. This event in 1938 mirrors what artists are experiencing today in NYC.

Rent Freeze
The goal of the Parade action is also to alert the East Village tenant community about the need to support the Rent Freeze. Mayor de Blasio is asking the RGB to impose a rent freeze this year to put a brake on rising rents. NYC tenants have to demand the same with feet on the street.

Come to the East Village Tenant Parade and Paradise Alley remembrance. The parade will move through the East Village starting at noon at the corner of East Seventh Street and Avenue A.

Sponsored by The Stop Croman Coalition and The Good Old Lower East Side

Here is an article about Croman from a May 2000 issue of The Village Voice.

The fat lady sings: Chubby Mary's has apparently closed on East 14th Street



Multiple readers have pointed out that Chubby Mary's, the hero shop run by the Artichoke guys next door on East 14th Street, has closed.

There isn't a closed sign on the door… though MenuPages notes that Chubby Mary's has closed.



The shop opened here at 328 E. 14th St. in November 2012… this took over for another Team Artichoke concept — Led Zeppole, the fried-dessert homage to Coney Island.

With this closure (unless it's a temporary renovation), this would make the second Artichoke-related venture to close of late… joining This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef.

The closure would also mark the third quick-serve sandwich shop to close of late in the East Village … joining (yes) This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef and JoeDough.

'All uses considered' for new retail space at 165 Avenue B


[EVG file photo from January]

The building at 165 Avenue B just north of East 10th Street is undergoing a head-to-toe renovation.

Meanwhile, there's a new listing for the retail space that will be (re)carved out of the ground-floor unit...



Per the RKF listing:

NEIGHBORS
Back Forty, Discovery Wines, Eleven B, Mercadito, Ninth Street Espresso, Waffles [sic] & Dinges

COMMENTS
Newly created retail space
New storefront, HVAC, bathroom and mechanicals
Non-contiguous Basement space can be made available
Situated at the base of a luxury residential building
Steps from Thompkins (sic) Square Park
Venting is possible
All uses considered

(An aside: Nothing against Discovery Wines and Wafels & Dinges, but aren't there businesses not 8 blocks away to highlight?)

Maybe the previous tenant, the junk shop Waldorf Hysteria, can return. Heh. We know!


Previously on EV Grieve:
165 Avenue B back on the market

165 Avenue B has been sold, and 2 apartments are on the market

Find 'Looking for Johnny' Monday at Anthology Film Archives



Via the EVG inbox

Directed by Danny Garcia ("The Rise and Fall of The Clash"), "Looking For Johnny" is the definitive documentary on New York legendary guitar player Johnny Thunders.

In 90 minutes, this film covers Johnny Thunders career from his beginning in the early 70's to his demise in New Orleans, where he died under mysterious circumstances in 1991.

Here's an earlier trailer for the film …



You can find the new trailer and more info at the film's Facebook page.

And "Looking For Johnny" has its NYC premiere Monday at the Anthology Film Archives. Find those details here.

Finally, here's an anecdote that New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain shared with us about Thunders back in March 2013:

Johnny Thunders had an apartment on Avenue A. His closet was like — everything would be pressed and dry cleaned. He had a real unique way of dressing and picking this and this and that and putting it all together.

When we were picking names for the band, he called me, well, he called Ricky Corvette, and run names by me. 'What do you think of Johnny Thunder?' I'd was like Yeah, that's pretty cool Johnny. The phone would ring five minutes later. What about Johnny Thunders?

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

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: Karen Fleisch
Occupation: Clothing Designers, Artist, Door Girl at Delancey
Location: 14th Street and 1st Avenue
Time: 3:30pm on Thursday, April 24

I’m originally from North Jersey, so I used to take the bus over from the time I was a teenager. I would go shopping and go to CBGB on the weekends. I moved to the Lower East Side around 1997.

I design clothing and I also design for theatre, I do styling, and I’m an artist. I work with film and often end up often doing set design and background acting. Throw me in and I’ll do it. For my art, I do illustration and I to create these mirror collages that are kind of fairly land based. That I do for me. I’ve never really shown my art.

Originally, I lived down on Grand and I’ve lived in the same area of the Lower East Side ever since. I remember coming to my friends up here on 10th Street and hanging out, getting drunk, going home, and as soon as I would get to Houston Street, I’d have my keys through my fingers. I was suddenly aware of everything and no longer as drunk as I was. There were no beat cops and hardly any streetlights. You still had the shops on Orchard Street, but they were the stores that had been there forever.

Within around five years it changed immensely. Now it’s designer shops and chic restaurants and there are now beat cops. There are cops out on their horses at night. I find it funny, walking down the Bowery late at night, how you have all these kids running around and these girls in their six-inch heels running around, ready to fall over. Granted, I used to do the same thing, but the Bowery was different. We’d go to CBGB and the whole vibe was different. You were on the Bowery and you were aware that you were on the Bowery. Now the Bowery still has a lot of that element there, but no one pays attention to it in the same way.

It’s going to be like the Meatpacking District. On one hand, it’s New York City and it’s supposed to change. It’s supposed to keep moving forward. I’m all for that. My only problem is that you don’t really have these funky neighborhoods anymore with people that have been there forever. Fifteen years ago there were a lot more artists and musicians. I have artist friends who’ve all moved out because they can’t afford the rent anymore.

That’s the whole reason that most people come here, I think, because there is this creative energy. You can be a misfit. I’ve always called it the island of misfit artists. You can be a misfit here and it’s okay, no matter what you’re into or what your sexual preferences are. No matter what, you will find your niche here. I find that most people that do get messed with here are getting messed with by people who don’t live here. It’s like they come in to go to the zoo and they’re looking for misfits to make fun of. Which, again, is something that’s always happened, but I’ve noticed it more. There’s more of a dividing line now, whereas before it was not as much.

I’m also the door girl at the Delancey on Friday and Saturday nights, which are the nights where it’s more of a dance party kind of thing. I’ve been there for a year, you know, just a way to make some extra money for groceries and things. I’ve had more jobs than… everything and anything.

Funny thing, doing one of my art projects six weeks ago, I recently sliced the top of my thumb off with an Exacto knife. It was hardcore. I went to the emergency room and they wanted me to do all this follow-up stuff, and at the time I had no kind of insurance. So I’m like, ‘How the hell am I going to do this?’ I can’t afford to go to all of these specialist doctors. Of course, as I’m working the door, everybody that’s coming in is asking what happened to my thumb, and then, all of a sudden this one guy comes up to me and he’s like, ‘Oh do you need to see an orthopedic doctor?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah as a matter of fact I do.’ He was one, so he gave me an appointment immediately to go to Columbia Presbyterian. It’s a walk-in clinic, but he told me to just mention his name, no problem. So I did and they took care of me. It was totally awesome. The perks of being a door girl. You never know.

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

Continued development concerns at 243-245 E. Second St.


[243-245 E. Second St. today]

From the EVG inbox...

For more than 30 years, the residents of 245 East 2nd Street have overcome many obstacles to rightfully occupy and inhabit their home. They are not only witnesses, but founders and contributors to a downtown art scene based on community action, political protest, and tenant’s rights.

With the recent purchase of their building, and the continuing gentrification of the surrounding neighborhood, these residents are facing increasing pressures in the neighborhood they have fought for decades to transform.

Artists Peter Cramer, Carl George, Kembra Pfahler, and Jack Waters have lived at 245 East 2nd Street since 1984. David Orama, a community youth organizer, has lived in the building since childhood where his family moved in the early '70s. In 2010, their building was sold commencing a construction nightmare that has lasted for more than two years.

The construction continues at 245 East 2nd Street and in the adjoining building to the west, 243 East 2nd Street — both buildings purchased in tandem for $1.6 million dollars by partners Jon Ostrow and David Stein of JD 245 LLC and JD 243 LLC.

For more than two years the new owners have embarked upon non-stop construction, sometimes six or seven days a week, violating court ordered stipulations as to how and when the work should be done, compromising tenant’s health and quality of life to such a degree as to cause tenants to feel like they are being harassed.

Cramer and Waters are filmmakers and a performing duo that manage Allied Productions, Inc, a non-profit arts service organization, and Le Petit Versailles, a community art space and NYC GreenThumb garden. George is an artist and curator, and the creator of "DHPG Mon Amour," a pivotal film short about AIDS. Pfahler, a painter and performance artist, heads the rock band The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black.


[Jack Waters by Alice O'Malley]


[Peter Cramer by Alice O'Malley]

In 1984, Cramer, George, and Waters toured for three months in Europe with their performance/dance company P.O.O.L., only to discover upon returning that in a few, short months, rents had risen to impossible heights and were still escalating. Costs were so prohibitive the only place they could afford to live was a warehoused tenement building in the LES — the epicenter of the drug trade at the peak of the global heroin epidemic.

As residents of 245 East 2nd Street, they collectively rehabilitated their individual apartments and the tenement building, which at the time they moved in was on track to be emptied by intentional negligence and violent harassment of the occupants of two of the units — both Puerto Rican families.

Hoping to make one last bit of coin before allowing the building to deteriorate further, the then owner permitted the artists to move in and renovate their crumbling units in the all but abandoned building with no front door, no heat or hot water, and a constant flow of drug traffic to the notorious heroin shooting gallery that occupied the top floor. The artists united with the remaining two families in the building to form a tenant's association.


[The former exterior of No. 245]

From that point on and for the past 30 years the residents of 245 East 2nd Street maintained the building and worked to improve living conditions on the block through sweat equity, community organizing and upholding their rights in housing court against negligent owners.

Next door to the east of 245 is Le Petit Versailles (“LPV”), the operation GreenThumb garden started by the artists in cooperation with neighborhood residents. They created LPV as a defense against the vandalism attracted by the drug dealing and auto theft for which the previously abandoned empty lot had become a fortress.

The 2nd Street artists' collaborative work was galvanized by their performing in the club circuit of the '80s typified by the Pyramid Club on Avenue A, Danceteria on 21st Street, Club Armageddon at the Jane West Hotel, and other nightspots around the city where they performed and organized art events.


[The former exterior of No. 245]

The artists knew each other from ABC No Rio, the alternative community center they ran and organized shows for on Rivington Street.

No Rio is a socially progressive cultural center founded in 1981 by the artist organization Collaborative Projects, Inc. (CoLab). CoLab is famous for The Times Square Show that brought attention to the sprawling midtown urban blight of its day. CoLab followed up with The Real Estate Show, the inaugural show at ABC No Rio which highlighted the corruption and blatant collusion of the Koch government with real estate speculators in Lower East Side and East Village neighborhoods — eerily similar to the Bloomberg administration’s 12-year mandate to facilitate and tax abate luxury real estate developers and push working class and poor New Yorkers out of Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs.

======

There is a press conference/celebration tomorrow morning at 11 at Le Petit Versailles on East Second Street near Avenue C ... the event is titled "Residents And Urban Gardeners Resist Gentrification." Find all the details about the speakers here.



Previously on EV Grieve:
On Second Street, the 'Milky Way Dragon' disappears

Renovations, penthouse in the works for 243 E. Second St.

Here comes a 15-story retail-residential complex for East 14th Street and Avenue C

[EVG file photo]

The large development that everyone has been waiting for (or not) is finally coming to the southeast corner of East 14th Street and Avenue C... where the R&S Strauss auto parts store here closed in the spring of 2009.

Last June, Billy Gray reported at the Commercial Observer that Avison Young was exclusively marketing 644 E. 14th St. "And a near-absence of height restrictions has brokers dangling the possibility of a tower on a site with 65,689 square feet of development rights."

As New York Yimby pointed out yesterday, the developers have filed permits for the space ... and none other than Karl Fischer is the architect of record. To NYY for some project details:

Permits indicate that 644 East 14th Street will total 61,789 square feet, including 8,578 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor. The remainder of the first five stories will host a ‘community facility,’ which will span 18,937 square feet, and apartments will sit above; the structure will stand 15 stories tall, with 34,274 square feet of residential space divided between 50 units. At only 120 feet to its roof, ceilings heights will apparently be crypt-like.

No word just yet if there will be an extra charge for units with Con Ed plant views.

So, doing a little math ... there will be 150 residential units one block to the west with the additions of the two 7-floor buildings at No. 500 and N0. 524.

In total that is 200 new residences from Avenue A east to Avenue C. Perhaps it's time for another L stop ... or at least a grocery store?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Development back in play for East 14th Street and Avenue C

More details on the sale of 644 E. 14th St.

Longtime Second Avenue Launderette will close this summer



The longtime laundromat here on Second Avenue between East Sixth Street and East Fifth Street is closing... some time in August, most likely.

EVG regular peter radley shares these photos... and the sign on the front window goes into great detail about the situation here...


[Click on image to enlarge]

Douglas Pratt, president of the Launderette, discusses how his family operated this laundromat since the early 1970s ... that they were "forced" into buying the building a short time later or face losing the lease. However, more recently, the family had to sell the building here at 97 Second Ave. "for a host of personal and business reasons."

According to the letter, the new owners are courting a variety of tenants — restaurants, convenience stores and laundromats. As of now, Pratt doesn't believe a new tenant has signed a lease.

Aug. 15 is the tentative closing date.

Calliope has closed; new venture coming very soon


[File photo]

Calliope, the nearly two-year-old French bistro at 84 E. Fourth St. and Second Avenue from alums of Prune and the Waverly Inn, has closed.

However, a new venture is in the works for a seemingly speedy turnaround. Per the Calliope website:

It's one of those good news/bad news things. The bad news first: Calliope has closed. It's sad to see something that meant so much to all of us and to you come to its end... but we're putting together a new project right here in the same space. That's the good news... starting this weekend, you can come into dinner at Contrada! Full details coming soon!

Probably not a big surprise. Grub Street reported back in January that chefs Ginevra Iverson and Eric Korsh split with Calliope's financial partner, Eric Anderson, and were no longer running the restaurant.

As for Contrada... sounds like Italian is on the way. (Maybe?)

Brian Van, who passed along this tip, also notes that the now-former Calliope interior is undergoing a minor rehab. The tables and chairs are all stacked but intact.


[Photo by Brian Van]

The space here was previously home to Belcourt, which, like Calliope, we never tried.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

33 ways Buzzfeed's East Village feature may depress you

Buzzfeed unleashed a post late yesterday afternoon titled "33 Ways Manhattan’s East Village Has Changed In Only 7 Years."

Using Google's new "time travel tool," Buzzfeed rounded up a whole lot of then (2007) and nows... such as!





And!





Head on over to Buzzfeed for 31 more! It's rather a lot to take in one viewing, so be warned...

20 years of Flower Power in the East Village



Photos and story by EVG contributor Stacie Joy

Last month, Flower Power Herbs & Roots, Inc. celebrated its 20th anniversary in the East Village.

The shop has had two storefronts in the neighborhood, beginning with East First Street between Avenue A and First Avenue, and now at its current location, 406 E. Ninth St. between between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Flower Power, which bills itself as "an indispensable resource to superlative organically cultivated herbs, roots, flowers, leaves and seeds," provides herbalist education (they do not diagnose or prescribe) on working in accordance with nature.



As Lata Chettri-Kennedy, the shop's founder and owner said, "It's not a religion or creed, it's a way of life, incorporating Earth-awareness and integrity; using local, organic, wild and well-sourced material."

The shop has more than 300 plants for sale, all stored in glass jars (the shop encourages avoiding plastic).





I asked her what has changed about the area since she first opened her doors. She recounted tales of drugs and cash stored under loose wooden planks in the floor and shooting galleries on the block.

As for who shops at Flower Power today, Chettri-Kennedy offered a lengthy list: Midwives, peace corps officers, musicians, wise women, witches, artists, herbalists, families and neighbors, visitors from all over the world.



The shop's staff, all educated herbalists, discuss teas, infusions, tinctures, salves and baths with the customers. The day I dropped by, I was greeted with a cup of garcinia cambogia antioxidant infusion (it was tart, like rose hips tea, but with a less astringent aftertaste) as Chettri-Kennedy sewed lavender and herb dream pillows and talked about green witchcraft and traditional herbalism.

The shop is open every day from noon until 7 p.m. Workshop and education, as well as internship info and schedules can be found here.

Writer Greg Masters revisits the 1980s East Village gallery scene


[Artist Larry Rivers in his 14th Street loft. Photo by Barry Kornbluh, from the book "For the Artists"]

Longtime East Village resident Greg Masters recently compiled the book "For the Artists: Critical Writing, Volume 1," which chronicles the neighborhood's burgeoning gallery scene in the 1980s. At the time, Masters was writing for a number of publications. This collection includes interviews with Rudy Burckhardt, Sandy Skoglund and Larry Rivers, among others, as well as reviews of museum and gallery shows from that time period.

We asked Masters a few questions about the project as well as his feelings about the East Village of 2014.


-----

How did you go about selecting the essays/interviews for Volume I? Were you looking for a common thread among the subjects?

This first volume of my critical writing focuses on visual art on display in Manhattan in the 1980s. For ARTS Magazine I made the rounds of the galleries on 57th Street primarily showing established artists. For Cover magazine, I wrote reviews and artist profiles covering the East Village scene – when 70 or so galleries suddenly sprung up in this neighborhood.



I enjoyed responding to the mix of recognized artists uptown and then also championing the work of less-established artists downtown whose work I felt was deserving of public recognition. The range of work was disparate – money and class uptown, plus the fervent energy of dedicated practitioners of the arts here below 14th Street – but a sense of community united it all, a clubhouse for those possessed of a proclivity for the creative.

I have a Volume 2 in manuscript that gathers my essays on books and music – from extended essays on Miles Davis, William Wordsworth and William Carlos Williams to interviews with Richard Hell – written over the past 25 or so years for various publications and websites. I plan to issue that soon.

Anything in particular surprise you about the materials when you went back to revisit the work for the book?

Not really. I believe the writing holds up. I'd been mainly a poet and short-story writer when I began writing art criticism. There was a precedent of poets doing this going back at least as far as Baudelaire. More recent precedents for me were Ted Berrigan and John Ashbery, though it was poet Edwin Denby's dance criticism and the painter Fairfield Porter's art criticism that were my real models. It was a way to reach a broader audience than the 20 or so friends who showed up for poetry readings. It also gave me an entrance into journalism.

Has this project made you nostalgic for this particular time and place?

Maybe a bit of nostalgia for my youth. It certainly documents an era when it was cheap enough to live in Manhattan that artists of all sorts could devote more time to their work, and we were all young enough to spend a lot of time together – showing up at each other's art openings, readings, performances, beds. The East Village was especially vibrant.

[Photo of East 7th Street by Cactusbones via Flickr]

Between the burnt-out buildings, oppressive political environment and the winters in tenements with no heat and hot water there was a lot of collaboration and support and socializing among the painters, sculptors, filmmakers, poets, dancers, writers, musicians and unclassifiable creative types.

You've been on the LES since 1975. Obviously there have been enormous changes... what, however, remains the same about the East Village in your estimation?

Well, physically the scale is still charming. It still has the feel of a village. It's still enjoyable to walk around here. There are not a lot of buildings higher than five or six stories and there's still remnants of the ethnic diversity that so enlivened the experience of living here. Certainly the nature of the shops and the demographic has changed. It's safer. I'm still getting acclimated to the idea that when walking down the block I don't have to look over my shoulder.

Meanwhile, on Avenue A...



EVG reader RJ shares this Urban Etiquette Sign from inside an apartment building on Avenue A.

Some context.

So apparently a few newer residents in this building are upset with a longtime resident smoking with his door open. And the two sides took to signs to hash it out.

The response from the longtime tenant is quite something ...

"Yeah, all right. Guess what? You uptight whiney little punk. Instead of my cigarettes I'm going back (exclusively) to my old favorite — cigars. Just to piss you off! I suggest you either relax yourself and chill out or move back in with your parents (who are probably paying your rent anyway)

Ya' punk!"

Your move, newer resident.

Construction watch: 415 E. Sixth St.


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

We haven't spotted much activity of late over at 415 E. Sixth St., where there's a condo conversion in the works for the Congregation Mezritch Synagogue. A sign out front notes that the project is expected to be completed by the winter of 2015…



The city approved the plans back on Dec. 27 … Workers will be rehabbing the building and adding two floors here at an estimated cost of $520,000, per DOB documents.

As previously noted, the landmarked building was in disrepair and the congregation's population had dwindled. Synagogue leaders signed a 99-year lease with East River Partners worth some $1.2 million. The renovations include a penthouse addition and an elevator. The synagogue will reportedly retain space on the ground floor and basement for their use.

DOB records show the project is still waiting approval on several fronts, including new sprinkler heads and "installation of manual and automatic heat detection system."

In 2008, Kushner Companies was reportedly close to purchasing the building. However, the deal to demolish it and replace it with condos fell through.

Eastern European immigrants founded the synagogue in 1892.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Plan to add condos to historic East Sixth Street synagogue back on

Play spot the potential penthouse atop the East Village synagogue

A final look inside the Anshei Meseritz synagogue on East Sixth Street

Monday, April 28, 2014

Reader report: Car slams into Saifee Hardware



Wow. Close call on the southeast corner of First Avenue and East Seventh Street just after 4.

Per @wlodarczyk: Watched this happen from across the street. No bystanders hit, amazingly.

Here's another photo via Bill the Libertarian Anarchist...



... and a few more shots via EVG reader Dillon Krug showing the emergency response...





So far, there haven't been any reports of injuries...

Updated 5:05 p.m.
This is Bill the Libertarian Anarchist's report of the collision:

"At 4 pm a car traveling north on 1st Ave. (supposedly at a high rate of speed) rammed into a van (not pictured) then spun over and hit the front of the flower-hardware store on the southeast corner of 7th St. and 1st Ave ... Just before I took [the above photo], the paramedics placed the driver (then on a stretcher) into an ambulance. He was mumbling incoherently."

Updated 5:49
This photo via EVG Facebook friend Michael Hirsch shows passersby attending to the driver (in the tank top) ...



Updated 6:41

NBC New York reports that "one person was taken to Bellevue Hospital in serious but stable condition" ... no mention if this was the driver or a pedestrian...

Updated 10

The Post reports that the BMW, which was heading north up First Avenue, "crashed into a parked van and then careened into" the store.

Saifee executive manager Mike Taheraly said that the plants out front "took most of the impact," and that the accident destroyed some $15,000 in merchandise.

As for the driver: "Witnesses claimed the BMW was speeding, but authorities said there was no criminality in the smash-up."