Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Samoa's 'Candy Coated Evil' opens tomorrow at Howl! Happening



Via the EVG inbox...

Howl! Happening is pleased to present "Candy Coated Evil," a solo exhibition by the multifaceted Samoa, curated by artist and performer Kembra Pfahler.

The exhibition encompasses the full range of Samoa’s diverse art forms — an installation recreating his now-legendary Candy Coated Evil store, which opened in 1996 within The Pink Pony; costumes and props from his performances and music groups; and paintings that capture his deep experience of living in New York City. A major element of the artist’s show are live events — performances by Samoa and Kembra Pfahler, as well as a panel discussion, and an evening of video and film. The exhibition continues through Feb. 11.

The opening reception is tomorrow (Wednesday!) night starting at 6. Find more details on the exhibit as well as the dates and times of the special events here.

Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project is located at 6 E. First St. between the Bowery and Second Avenue.

Noted


[Photo by Derek Berg]

Several EVG readers noted these canvases on the fence at Second Avenue and Seventh Street this afternoon/evening ... featuring Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Bob Marley, Jesus, JFK, President Trump, former President Obama, among other people ... and places...


[Photo by Raquel Shapira]

The artist, Reyaz Nadi, apparently wasn't around...

Stranger in town



Goggla shares these photos of a young (immature!) red-tailed hawk that has been hanging around Tompkins Square Park and Avenue A the past few days...



Goggla notes that there have been several young hawks migrating through the area this winter. Since Christmas, she can confirm three different ones in/around the Park... and for whatever reasons Christo, the Park's resident red-tailed hawk, has been unusually tolerant of this one...

Bella Tile showroom closes on 1st Avenue



Multiple EVG readers have shared the news that he family-owned Bella Tile — established in 1983 — has closed its showroom on First Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street.

This sign greets potential customers...



However, as the sign notes, the Bella Tile Store Room remains open around the corner at 408 E. 11th St. ...



I reached out to a member of the Giurdanella family, who run the business and own the building on First Avenue, to see what might be happening with the space.

The renderings for the all-new 180 2nd Ave. include Leonardo DiCaprio on a Citi Bike


[No. 180 from August 2017]

During the December holiday break, I noted that gut renovations were underway at 180 Second Ave. between 11th Street and 12th Street.

According to the previously approved work permits on file with the city, workers are converting the building to residential use and adding two floors in the process. Permits show that there will be one residential unit on each floor.

A tipster shared the renderings for the building... via Ole Sondresen Architect...



And the description:

This East Village residential building is elegantly comprised of four 2 bedroom units and two 1 bedroom homes. Each unit features its own private terrace with open views down 2nd Avenue. The apartments are composed of two programmatic wooden boxes housing closets, bathrooms, and mechanicals which allows for an open loft-like feeling in the rest of the living space. The building is designed to earn LEED Platinum and Passive House certification, integrating a green roof with solar hot water panels for each residential unit. Reclaimed wood planters are incorporated into each terrace allowing lush plantings to liven the facade. The concrete structure is left with exposed joints and formwork markings, juxtaposing textured concrete surfaces against refined wood and glass. The building's order is achieved through the honesty of materials and the clarity of its design.



Meanwhile, a closer inspection of the rendering reveals a Citi Biker facing the wrong direction in the Second Avenue bike lane...



Celebrities-Who-Citi-Bike watchers will recognize that scalie...



Leo!



As for the ground-floor retail space, the Ninth Ward, the previous tenant, is expected to return.

The Chicago-based Polish National Alliance was the previous owner of No. 180. The building housed the Józef Pilsudski Institute of America, which is the largest Polish-American research institution specializing in the recent history of Poland and Central Eastern Europe. (They found a new home in Greenpoint.) An LLC bought the building for $6.75 million in June 2014, per public records.

Previously on EV Grieve:
2nd Avenue bar Ninth Ward is closing for good on Feb. 14; building rumored to be demolished

Residential conversion underway at 180 2nd Ave.; the Ninth Ward expected to return

CB3 committees to hear update from city on proposed 14th Street tech hub


[Rendering via NYCEDC]

Tomorrow (Wednesday) night, there's a joint meeting between two Community Board 3 committees to hear an update from the city on the "proposed workforce development and digital skills training center" at 124 E. 14th St.

This is the so-called tech hub at the city-owned site that P.C. Richard currently leases on 14th Street at Irving Place.

Last February, the de Blasio administration unveiled the renderings for Civic Hall featuring "a tech-focused work and event space" that will anchor the 20-plus story building.

Per the city's news release on Civic Hall:

“This new hub will be the front-door for tech in New York City. People searching for jobs, training or the resources to start a company will have a place to come to connect and get support. No other city in the nation has anything like it. It represents this City’s commitment to a strong and inclusive tech ecosystem,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

As you may recall, this announcement prompted another push by local residents who fear that the fabric of the neighborhood will be destroyed by a host of new developments south of Union Square along Broadway, University Place and Fourth Avenue. (And not to mention the Moxy hotel coming to 11th Street.)

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has been leading the efforts behind a rezoning of the area to enforce some height restrictions and affordable housing requirements. The GVSHP lays out their case here.

The tech-hub project needs Planning Commission and City Council approval.

Tomorrow's meeting of the Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee and Economic Development Committee starts at 6:30 p.m. This is listed as the first item to be discussed. The meeting takes place at the University Settlement, Speyer Hall, 184 Eldridge St. between Rivington and Delancey.

For more background, NY1 covered the story on Saturday here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Behold Civic Hall, the high-tech future of Union Square — and NYC

Speaking out against a 'Silicon Alley' in this neighborhood

Monday, January 8, 2018

JAM Paper & Envelope is closing on 3rd Avenue


[Photo via EVG reader Gwen]

A "store is closing" sign is now up in the window at JAM Paper & Envelope on Third Avenue between 14th Street and 15th Street.

The home-office stationery and supply shop will close at the end of the month, an employee confirmed. The online business will continue in operation. I reached out to the JAM main office to find out more about the closure.

For now, everything in the store is 50-percent off, per the sign.

Here's a little history via the JAM website:

The story of JAM Paper & Envelope begins in New York City in 1954, when Henry Berger opened Hudson Envelope as a paper and envelope wholesaler and printing service. In 1983, Henry's son-in-law, Michael Jacobs, would open Hudson Envelope's first retail store in New Jersey called JAM Paper & Envelope.

Hudson's first Manhattan location arrived in 1978 ... and in 1983 the first JAM store debuted.

JAM represents the first letters of the owners' first names — Janet, Andrew and Michael Jacobs, the family members who run the company.

The website notes that JAM has had over 10 different Manhattan locations. This JAM, their lone retail outlet in the city now, has been at 135 Third Ave. since 2004.

The standalone JAM addendum next door was demolished in 2008, as Jeremiah Moss noted.


[Photo from 2008 by Jeremiah Moss]

That lot is now the long-stalled 16-floor condoplex.

Gabay's Outlet has closed on Avenue A



After 77 years of doing business in this neighborhood, Gabay's Outlet has closed on Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street.

The designer discount store closed for good at the end of the year.

Third-generation owner Joseph Gabay shared this announcement via Facebook on Dec. 29:

It is with lots of emotion that I am announcing the closing of Gabay's Outlet. We are a third-generation business that has been operating in the east village for well over 50 yrs. I would like to pay tribute to my grandfather who started selling out of a pushcart on the street, my father and myself for lasting through the test of time. It's plain and simple, we are closing because our business model does not work in today's society. Amazon has had a huge impact and made it impossible to compete. THE GOOD NEWS is we have be blessed with some good fortune that will allow me many new opportunities. The future has never been brighter for myself and my family. We had a great run! So far!

The Gabay family owns the assemblage of buildings on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place that will reportedly yield to a 7-story office building. The 99-year leasehold for the properties was reported to be a little more than $150 million.

Gabay's grandfather Sam, a Turkish immigrant, began selling extras from garment factory floors in a pushcart on the Lower East Side in the 1920s. He eventually opened his own shop at 1 St. Mark's Place in 1940, one of several locations the store would call home in a 10-block radius before settling in at 225 First Ave. in 1970. A rent increase forced Gabay's to move from First Avenue to Avenue A in 2014.

Previously on EV Grieve:
After 45 years on 1st Avenue, Gabay's Outlet is on the move

Report: NE corner of St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue will yield to a 7-story office building

Dan & John's Wings looking to expand on 1st Avenue


[Photo from Dec. 23]

The owners of Dan & John's Wings, which opened two-plus years ago in the small storefront at 135 First Ave., are looking to expand into the larger (and currently vacant) space next door.

The owners of the Buffalo-style wings operation are on the CB3-SLA docket tonight for a new liquor license. The proposed hours, according to the paperwork (PDF here) posted on the CB3 website, are noon to midnight daily. The expanded space would allow for 10 tables seating 35 patrons and 1 6-seat bar. (The current Dan & John's just has a few stools as well as a beer-wine license.)



The space has been empty since last March when Rustico, the cafe that specialized in crêpes and Italian coffee here between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street, closed.

Dan & John's opened their first restaurant here in October 2015. They are also regulars on the Smorgasburg circuit and last year started selling their wings at Citi Field for Mets game.

CB3's SLA committee will hear this and other applications tonight at 6:30 at the Public Hotel, 17th Floor, Sophia Room, 215 Chrystie St. between Houston and Stanton.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Dan and John's Wings opening a storefront on 1st Avenue

M&G Foodstuff arrives on Avenue B



We've (OK, Salim and I anyway) have been watching the retail space at 26 Avenue B between Second Street and Third Street ... there's now signage for M&G Foodstuff ...



M&G is a catering and events company (you can read about them here). There aren't any plans for a retail component here at the moment.

This storefront is on the ground floor of the new(ish) condoplex called Poppy Lofts.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] 6-story apartment building ready to rise from the former Croxley Ales beer garden

[Updated] Report: 28 Avenue B has been evacuated

Full-stop work order served at construction site adjacent to evacuated Avenue B building

Resident wants stuff back that workers took from not abandoned apartment

Is 26 Avenue B ready for its new building now?

Avenue B condos near former heroin hot spot named Poppy Lofts

Another applicant looking to open in the former East Village Tavern space on Avenue C



There's another interested party looking to open a bar-restaurant in the former East Village Tavern space on Avenue C at 10th Street.

The applicants will appear before CB3's SLA committee tonight for a new liquor license.

There's not a lot of information on the questionnaire (PDF here) posted on the CB3 website. The configuration shows 10 tables serving 40 people and one bar with 15 seats. The proposed hours are 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday; until 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

According to the paperwork, the space will serve "Classic and New American cuisine," including a variety of sandwiches... as the sample menu with the questionnaire shows...



This is the third applicant to kick the tires on the space since East Village Tavern closed here in November 2016 after eight years in business. Last spring, the operators of a Miami-based restaurant called the Irish Times Pub and Eatery looked at opening an outpost here. Those plans never materialized. In December, CB3 didn't approve a license for the Snow Leopard, a jazz club whose applicants didn't have any ownership experience.

This item will be heard during CB3's SLA committee meeting tonight (6:30) at the Public Hotel, 17th Floor, Sophia Room, 215 Chrystie St. between Houston and Stanton.

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Sunday's parting shot



Treecycle? Photo on Fourth Street today by Derek Berg...

Week in Grieview


[Photo on 2nd Avenue yesterday by Derek Berg]

Strand co-owner Fred Bass dies (Thursday)

Building that housed Lucky Cheng's on 1st Avenue now on the auction block (Tuesday)

It's no longer always Friday: TGI Friday's has closed on Union Square (Thursday)

The latest I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant (Friday)

Caviarteria Beluga Bar looking to bring fine fish eggs and champagne to 9th Street (Wednesday)

Last call at the Grassroots Tavern (Tuesday)

It bomb cycloned (Thursday)


[Avenue A on Thursday]

Are Kmart's days numbered on Astor Place? (Friday)

The state of national retailers in NYC; Dunkin’ Donuts tops the list again (Tuesday)

Pinky's Space now open on 1st Street (Wednesday)

Frisson Espresso opens on 3rd Avenue (Tuesday)

Yerba Buena closes on Avenue A; relocates this summer to Thompson Street (Friday)

Former Pourt space for lease on Cooper Square (Tuesday)

New Year's Ray (Monday)

Here's your Vape N Smoke signage on 2nd Avenue (Wednesday)

Boarding up Mamani Pizza on Avenue A (Tuesday)

Second Avenue cab crash (Monday)

Haque Convenience Store is now the Beer & Smoke Shop on 1st Avenue (Wednesday)

---

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12th and Broadway, Thursday



In the air and on the ground... thanks to Dan Efram for letting me repost the photos...



This morning in Tompkins Square Park

A few random scenes...

As of 8 a.m. or so, there wasn't any sign of the Greenmarket... however, the GrowNYC website says vendors will open at 10 a.m. ... the food-scrap collections are taking place here, though there won't be any clothing drop off today...



...if we could just find the missing fridge and put the door back on...



... Day 2 of the MulchFest is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ...



... the Park smells like fresh mulch...



... and if the mood strikes, you will be able to get a little half-court action in...

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Report: Mayor's office exaggerated affordable housing claims at Stuy Town

An item of local interest from yesterday...in which a report by the Independent Budget Office of the City of New York (IBO) found that the amount of affordability preserved following the sale of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village was inflated.

As the Daily News put it:

Mayor de Blasio’s office inflated the benefits of a deal to keep affordable housing at the massive Stuyvesant Town complex in exchange for $220 million in taxpayer subsidies, the city’s budget watchdog agency found.

Per Town & Village:

The IBO estimated that while the deal was supposed to preserve 100,000 “apartment years” (the equivalent of 5,000 apartments for 20 years), 64,000 of those apartment years would have remained affordable anyway through rent stabilization. This would mean the deal really only saved 36,000 apartment years, not 100,000. The report also noted that when the sale took place, just over 5,000 apartments were already renting at below-market rates due to rent stabilization.

While there has been plenty of debate over just how “affordable” the 5,000 apartments that are preserved and leased through a lottery system actually are, according to the IBO, only three percent of those 100,000 apartment years are reserved for low-income households.

The Blackstone Group and Ivanhoe Cambridge bought the property for $5.3 billion in 2015, and received $220 million in tax subsidies to keep the 5,000 units affordable for 20 years.

Several officials have disputed the IBO report. For instance, Eric Enderlin, president of the city’s Housing Development Corporation who helped broker the deal, “said for the $220 million the city is sinking in, residents will save $505 million in rent compared with what they would have paid without the deal,” per the Daily News.

“We strongly disagree with it,” he said of the IBO report. “They’ve created this kind of academic, ivory tower model ... People live in these apartments, and you can’t know which apartments are going to be vacant.”

You can find a copy of the 23-page IBO report here.

Reminders: MulchFest is this weekend


As previously noted, the city is holding its annual MulchFest/TreeCycle this weekend from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tompkins Square Park is once again serving as a chipping location. Workers will chip your tree, and give you your very own bag of frozen mulch.

Find more details here.

Meanwhile, people have arrived at the site early...


Friday, January 5, 2018

The blame game



Olden Yolk, a Boston-based collaborative, has a new record coming out in a few weeks... the above video is for the single "Takes One To Know One."

The band recently discussed the single via Stereogum: "The song cycles around a group chant at the choruses. It’s instrumentation is highly inspired by the percussion style of Jaki Liebezeit (of the German group CAN), a favorite of ours."

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.



Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: Andy, since 1996





Why did you move to the East Village?

I moved to New York City on April 28, 1991, from Cincinnati. I lived in Hell’s Kitchen on 47th near 10th Avenue, and like everything in the city, it was different than it is now. There were hookers in the vestibule. I loved that, but it wasn’t that much different from my neighborhood in downtown Cincinnati, where you had to run from the bar to your apartment.

I had two roommates. We shared a kitchen and a bathroom. There was no living room. I had a friend who lived in the East Village on 7th, in the next block down from where I am now. I would visit and hang out. When my apartment broke up after a year, I decided to try and find something in the East Village. I started searching. First, I was going to get a roommate or try to move in with somebody, but everyone was nuts. I thought I can’t do this. I’d lived alone since college. I had roommates when I moved here, but I knew one of them from before. He had moved here from Ohio about a year before me. I was worried I couldn’t bring my cat, Sweetness. He said, "come on, bring the cat."

How did you find your apartment?

I walked every block from Broadway to Avenue A from 14th to Houston, looking for notices, looking at super’s numbers and buzzing super’s apartments. Friends of mine, two drag queens (Brandywine and Brenda A Go-Go), had a store on East 7th Street called Howdy Do. They sold toy collectibles and designer sample sale stuff. You could get a Pee-wee Herman doll and a Versace handbag. They were big on the club scene. I was busy on the club scene all through the 1990s.

They said there’s an apartment next door on the first floor. I looked in the window. I didn’t want to be right on the street. So I canvassed the neighborhood. I looked and looked. After all that searching, I came back and I took that apartment.

There are planters in front right now, but when I moved in there were no planters in the front and people were putting their 40 ouncers on my windowsill. I would open the windows from the top. I got used to it. It was also my first apartment in NYC by myself, so that was cool. I was working long hours, I was out every night, I was partying a lot, and so it didn’t really bother me. I was noisier then, too, as my former upstairs neighbor can attest. Now, I’m the one trying to get everyone to shut the fuck up.

I was there for a little over four years when I saw someone moving out. Out of curiosity, I asked the guys who were moving the furniture about the apartment. It was 6B, at the top in the back. So there’s light. The building next door is only four floors. I knew that the synagogue was behind me. I knew it was going to be sunny. Being on the street, I was used to it being not sunny.

I moved upstairs. My rent went up $100. They renovated to a degree — there were many layers of rotten linoleum. They did the floors. The walls were painted dark grey or black. In the summer when it gets warm I roll up all of the carpets, change the bedding to all white, take down the prints and the whole place feels really light and airy. I like to switch it up in the fall for winter, which is what you see now.

When I moved up here I had a futon on the floor. These desks are old classroom desks from 1910 that I got from Open Hunt, that place that used to sell all the furniture on Houston between Elizabeth and Bowery. There are drawers in them from The Container Store. I also got that metal cabinet at Open Hunt. Cheap, but it was painted bright green. I stripped it. Eventually, I got a real bed from a great store called Desiron.

My dad died in 2014; my mom died last June. Some stuff is from her, most of the rugs were from my dad. They had lots of rugs. There were two that I grew up with that are still rolled up. These are ones that my dad bought later, so they’re not necessarily heirlooms. That chair, my parents had before I was born. These prints they had before I was born. They’re just prints from a department store that they bought in the 1960s.



Talk about your work with B&H Dairy.

I’ve got a whole collection of old B&H snapshots — which I collected from the children of three B&H owners — scanned at super high resolution and cleaned up in Photoshop. So now I can blow them up really big. I plan to frame them and B&H will have a little wall of history. Some of the photos are in the 2017 and 2018 B&H calendars.

In late 2013, when mom-and-pop businesses were really starting to close all around the neighborhood, I said, “You guys should really do a t-shirt. People love you. They’ll buy a shirt.” I thought if they can make a couple extra bucks from the t-shirt, it could make the difference between staying open or disappearing. I did the “CHALLAH! por favor” t-shirt and they liked it. I just did the design. Sheila at Works In Progress prints them. They’ve sold about 1,200 over the last four years.

Then the Second Avenue explosion happened in 2015 and the city closed B&H due to no fault of their own. The inspectors put everyone under the microscope. Stuff they would have let go before, they didn’t let go this time around. They were closed for five months. Somebody did an earlier crowdfunding campaign and they raised some money but it wasn’t enough. I organized the second one, it raised about $28,000. There was one donor who donated $7,000 twice!

Also, I did all the press. I’m a publicist and a graphic designer, so I gladly volunteered my skills to help B&H. I stayed involved with B&H through the re-opening and after. Now, I do their Facebook page, Instagram, some graphics. I love that place.



What do you love about your apartment?

I like that it is sunny and there is good cross ventilation. If this apartment had stone walls so I could never hear my neighbors, and if it had an elevator so that I could grow old and die here, I would never leave. I think about moving a lot. You can see half of the Empire State Building. You can see that new building 432 Park, and down here you can see the One World Trade Center. I can also see the top of the Chrysler Building. I love the light and the sun. It’s sunny from mid-morning till sunset. The view is pretty good. You get enough of the skyline.

I’ve got it arranged so that these shelves in the kitchen just absorbed all of my stuff. I used to have a file cabinet, an enormous desk from when I ran a record label, and a tall metal shelf that held my record collection. I got rid of all the office stuff, and these big shelves absorbed everything, including the refrigerator and microwave.

I love reading. I can sit there in that chair and read for hours. It's a great way to spend an afternoon.







If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.

Are Kmart's days numbered on Astor Place?


[Image via]

The Real Deal reports that Facebook and Vornado Realty Trust are in talks to expand the social media giant's presence at 770 Broadway, the landmarked building on Astor Place.

Per The Real Deal:

Vornado ... recently paid roughly $46 million to Kmart – whose department store occupies about 30,000 square feet on the ground, mezzanine and lower-level of the building – in what appears to be a buyout of the retailer’s lease, according to city property records. Observers said it’s unlikely that Vornado boss Steve Roth would take such a risk without a replacement tenant lined up, and speculated that Facebook could be looking to make a splash with a high-profile storefront, a la Microsoft’s store on Fifth Avenue.

A Vornado rep declined to comment.

The building — the former Wanamaker’s department store — is also home to J Crew, Nielsen and Oath, the subsidiary of Verizon that serves as the umbrella company for AOL and Yahoo!

This location was not listed among the 64 Kmart stores that the company will close this year, per an announcement yesterday.

Kmart opened — to some WTF groans — on Astor Place in 1996.