Hawklet watch is on now in Tompkins Square Park

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Goggla reports that feedings were witnessed at Christo and Dora's nest in Tompkins Square Park this past weekend... meaning at least one of the hawk eggs in the bi-level nest near Avenue B and Eighth Street has hatched.

The red-tailed hawk parents started the nest-building activities back in early February, as Goggla documented.

The nest watch is decidedly different this year... Christo and Dora built their nests on air conditioners the past two years... on the Christodora House in 2014... and the Ageloff Towers in 2015.

Without windows or roof access, it will be more challenging for the hawkarazzi to keep tabs on the action.

Meanwhile, expect to see more food deliveries from Christo, who was busy hunting in the Park yesterday...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Red-tailed hawks nest on the Christodora House

The hawks of Tompkins Square Park have laid an egg at the Christodora House

More eggsciting hawk news from the Christodora House

Breaking (heh) news: The hawks of Tompkins Square Park are officially parents

Hawk (and egg) watch continues on Avenue A, now with the help of a live webcam

Christo and Dora are parents! (Again!)

Welcome home, you have a new landlord

[Image via Streeteasy]

Residents of 615 E. Sixth St. returned home last week to discover notices on the front door of the building between Avenue B and Avenue C... noting that there's a new landlord...

There are two letters. One — addressed to Dear Sir or Madam — is from the now-former owner, E&H Members LLC ...


[Click to go big]

The other letter is from the new landlord, A.D. Real Estate Investors, a company that we don't know too much about...though they do have an email address for residents to use in case of an emergency...



This transaction has yet to hit public records. Any residents of this building have more details on the transition (via the EV Grieve email)?

H/T Dave on 7th!

Key Food will no longer sell loose beer on Avenue A

Meanwhile, in the beer aisle/section at Key Food...noting a recent change in the way beer is sold here on Avenue A at Fourth Street...

How do you feel about Key Food's recent decision to stop selling single beers?

This will likely cause me to drink more because I will have to buy full six or 12 packs.

It's actually a better deal to buy a full six or 12 pack or case, research has shown

It doesn't matter because I get my beer delivered via Fresh Direct

I only binge drink on weekends

Beer Store!

 

pollcode.com free polls

DumplingGo expected to reopen later next month

DumplingGo is entering its third week of closure on Second Avenue at East 12th Street ... and there still isn't any "temporarily closed for renovations" sign on the door for customers ... the phone goes unanswered and their website is down.

However, as we previously noted, there is a freshly approved permit for a "minor renovation of the existing restaurant" on file with the city. And we looked in the window where there wasn't any paper ... and saw a fairly disheveled-looking interior...



Can't really tell what's happening... aside from the workers are getting KFC to go...



Anyway! According to a message on Yelp, the quick-serve restaurant is expected to reopen on May 28...



The DumplingGo team was getting the OK this month from CB3 for a beer-wine license. (Suppose they could just turn it into a bar with a "small bites" menu.)

DumplingGo opened 13 months ago. After Shima closed here in early 2014, the asking rent for the storefront was just over $25k.

Noted

On this Monday night, I'm looking at the Sunday Post, which included an interview with former East 13th Street resident Bret Easton Ellis... on the occasion of "American Psycho" opening on Broadway.

To his thoughts on NYC today:

Ellis finds current-day New York a bit unsettling: “I ate last night at the Ace Hotel and it was like a hipster museum. Dinner was incredibly expensive and I was the oldest person there; everyone was dressed in their artisanal finery and going home to watch ‘Girls.’

“New York once seemed to be a place for adults. You went knowing that it was going to be about sex and grit and drugs. Now New York seems childproof, like a moated, gated community for tourists and rich people.”

But do they like Huey Lewis and the News?

Today in the Rivington House deed scandal

More headlines about the controversial sale of the former Rivington House on the Lower East Side.

The Daily News reports that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office was misled about the sale.

The attorney general’s office signed off on the sale of the property in October 2014, not knowing the buyer, Allure Group, was going to push the city to lift the deed restriction that required the property to be operated as a nursing home, an official said.

The Allure Group turned around then and sold the property to a developer for $116 million.

Meanwhile, the Post reports that "panicked officials at the highest levels" of Mayor de Blasio's administration were working to undo the deal they made to life the deed restriction for 45 Rivington St., the former Rivington Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation.

On Feb. 24, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen’s chief of staff frantically offered a $16.1 million refund to The Allure Group, which had paid the fee to get a deed restriction lifted on the property at 45 Rivington St. The deed change allowed Allure to sell the property to a luxury-condo ­developer for $116 million.

In return for the refund, Allure was told, the city sought a long-term care facility or affordable housing, according to a source close to the negotiations and evidence reviewed by The Post.

And The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the previously little-known municipal agency that wields "vast power."

The Department of Citywide Administrative Services oversaw the deed modification, which allowed the Allure Group to sell the building for a $72 million profit. The Journal names the senior official within the Department who approved the modification.

Also, per the Journal:

At the time of the deed modification, the department’s commissioner was Stacey Cumberbatch, who was appointed by Mr. de Blasio in 2014. She resigned in January. No reason was given for her departure, and she moved to an administrative job with the public hospital system NYC Health + Hospitals.

Previously

Ongoing concerns about demolition work and elevated lead levels in Toledano-owned buildings

[Image from April 12 via the Toledano Tenants Coalition]

We received the following letter on Friday (other recipients include Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Sen. Brad Hoylman and City Council member Rosie Mendez)....

To: Raphael Toledano and Brookhill Properties
From: Toledano Tenants Coalition
Date: 4/20/16

The Toledano Tenants Coalition is gravely concerned about demolition taking place at buildings owned by you, or entities controlled by you.

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has placed violations for elevated levels of lead dust in several of your buildings, causing the Coalition concern for tenant safety during ongoing demolition. Specifically, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) found that samples taken at three buildings you own contain elevated lead levels ranging from 1.5 to 16 times acceptable levels.

The three buildings, 235 East 5th Street, 233 East 5th Street, and 514 East 12th Street, were found to have elevated lead levels in common areas. Two of these buildings are home to children under six years old. Elevated lead levels can be hazardous to anyone, and can cause physical and developmental disabilities in children under six years old.

When you, or entities controlled by you, do demolition work that poses a potential risk of lead exposure to tenants, we demand that:

• A proper lead mitigation plan that utilizes an EPA-certified abatement contractor is put in place;
• Local Law 1, the New York City Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act of 2004, is followed.

In addition, we demand you take the following precautions to protect tenants:

• Notify building residents two days in advance of demolition work.
• Post warning signs outside work areas while work’s in progress.
• Clean, clear, and seal off work areas.
• HEPA-vacuum before doing work.
• Cover/seal ALL windows, floors, vents and doorways with plastic and waterproof tape.
• HEPA-vacuum and wet-mop work areas after each day's work.
• Store work materials in sealed containers, or remove them from premises after each day’s work.
• Carefully discard debris, and ensure that no dust or debris is tracked out of work areas.
• Spray plastic barriers with water mist, and safely remove them; fold and seal plastic in plastic bags.

Tenants have been advised that if they don’t believe you’re complying with the law, including the legally mandated demands outlined above, they should call 311, and report your activities to the relevant city agencies, including DOB, HPD, DEP, and DOHMH.

In closing, please don’t use demolition/renovation as a ploy to begin buyout discussions with tenants.

Sincerely,
The Toledano Tenants Coalition

On April 12, several members of the Toledano Tenants Coalition and other activists gathered in front of the Brookhill offices at 298 Fifth Ave. "to fight against eviction efforts and other problems at their buildings," as The Villager reports in its current issue.

A Brookhill spokesperson told The Villager that they dispatched "a professional remediation crew [that] quickly rectified the situation and brought the property into full compliance" upon receiving a notice from the Department of Health.

"We continue with constant monitoring of the property to ensure the health and safety of all of our tenants, which is our primary concern," the spokesperson told The Villager.

However, Coalition members said that the work continues unabated.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened 'to drop dynamite on the building'

Report: State investigating East Village landlord Raphael Toledano

Report: Uncle suing nephew broker Raphael Toledano over $100 million East Village deal

Report: Raphael Toledano completes purchase of 16-building East Village portfolio

More about alleged harassment and landlord visits via Brook Hill Properties

In op-ed, Raphael Toledano says that he wants 'to make the East Village a better place'

Report: East Village landlord Raphael Toledano allegedly misrepresented himself as a lawyer

The Villager looks at landlord Raphael Toledano's criminal past

An open letter to landlord Raphael Toledano from the Toledano Tenants Coalition

Report: Management company sues Raphael Toledano for backing out of $130 million loan

Historic copper door returns to synagogue-turned condos on 6th Street

[EVG photo]

On Saturday, workers placed the refurbished front door back on the former Congregation Mezritch Synagogue at 415 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue... the door is made of red oak and faced with copper on its outside. The New York Times noted last December that the door "is being returned to its original state, though some wooden panels are being replaced by glass."


[Photo by Michael Hirsch]


[MH]

Here's a photo of the door as it looked in April 2014...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

A worker told EVG Facebook friend Michael Hirsch that this main entrance will no longer be used... that the entrance to the building will be on the right-hand side...



...right by the newly arrived Prince tag...



The worker also claimed that the congregation will no longer have a presence in the building, which, if true, comes as a surprise.

As previously reported, the synagogue — active here since 1910 — had fallen on hard times, "with a dwindling membership and few resources to maintain the building," as the Times noted. Previous plans called for the demolition of the building. Those plans never materialized, and a new developer, East River Partners, emerged and proposed the current arrangement.

Also, for background via the Times:

As part of the current agreement, the developers are providing at least $20,000 annually to the congregation for the next 198 years, in addition to a $600,000 payment up front. East River is also giving the synagogue a $180,000 “fit-out allowance” for the synagogue to design and rebuild the sanctuary and other spaces, like offices or meeting spaces in the basement.

So, if the synagogue isn't going to have a presence here, what's the money going for... and who has it? Of course, the worker could have simply been confused (or misspoke), meaning that the whole structure will no longer house the synagogue.

The three residences (two units will have the original stained-glass windows) will range in price from $2.95 million to $4.4 million.

The building's slogan is "History reimagined … For modern living."

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

Stained-glass windows removed ahead of condo conversion at Congregation Mezritch Synagogue

Condos at former East 6th Street synagogue will start at just under $3 million

Sidewalk bridge comes down as condo conversion continues at former East 6th Street synagogue

History reimagined with $4.4 million penthouse at former 6th Street synagogue

Former Ricky's space rebranded and ready to rent on 1st Avenue

Ricky's closed in March here at 112 First Ave. between Seventh Street and Sixth Street, as we first reported.

The for rent signs have now arrived. Per the ad in the window, the space is "surrounded by the most exciting restaurants & bars in the East Village." (Not sure if the brokers know that this address shares the block with a Subway, McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts. But there are nice restaurants nearby. And bars. The Coal Yard! The International!)

The 112 storefront can be combined with 92 E. Seventh St. around the corner...



This was the Revolver Salon space attached to Ricky's. (They left last year.) This space is being pitched "for dry & food use." There's mention of a garden area too.

Before Ricky's, the space was home to Miracle Grill, which closed in 2007. The restaurant's garden space was where the residential building is now at 92 E. Seventh St. So there's still a garden back there somewhere.

The signage just arrived on the storefronts... so the listings are not live as of this moment at the Easy Street Properties website. So we don't know what the asking rent is. Yet.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Miracle Grill garden not-so-suddenly looks like a condo

Former Miracle Grill space on the market

One restaurant, two buildings

Miracle (Grills): A Ricky's and not an eatery opening on First Avenue

The Ricky's on 1st Avenue has apparently closed

Bluestone Lane officially opens today at 51 Astor Place; part of profits going to Bowery Mission

And at 51 Astor Place, Bluestone Lane Coffee opens today (a few weeks later than previously announced)...

This is the eighth NYC location for Bluestone, which "is influenced from the renowned coffee culture hub of Melbourne, Australia, where premium coffee is a way of life" per their website.

Also, in honor of Anzac Day, a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, all the locations of Bluestone Lane are giving part of their profits on sales of flat whites (Australia's signature coffee drink) to the Bowery Mission...

#ANZACDay Monday with $0.50 going to the @BoweryMission for every #flatwhite sold + free #ANZACBiscuits pic.twitter.com/revKx0rqmD

— Bluestone Lane (@BluestoneLane) April 22, 2016

Feet don't fail me now

[East 4th Street]


[1st Avenue]


[The Bowery]


[Tompkins Square Park]

Photos by Derek Berg...

Headline h/t

Week in Grieview

[Fern delivery photo by Derek Berg]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Arrest made in last week's shooting death on East 12th Street (Wednesday)

The estate of Nicholas Figueroa files wrongful death lawsuit (Tuesday)

Tim Burton-themed bar opening in former Confessional space on East Sixth Street (Thursday)

Hillary Clinton makes a campaign ice cream stop at Mikey Likes It on Avenue A (Monday)

Matzo madness as Streit's documentary by East Village resident debuts at the Film Forum (Wednesday)

Concern for East Village Cheese Shop (Friday, 30 comments)

New plans for a 6-story building at 253 E. Seventh St. (Friday)

Out and About with Alan Good (Wednesday)

L train shutdown looms in 2019 (Tuesday)

Video: "Last Days at the Mars Bar" (Wednesday)

That time when there were two awnings for Top A Nails (Wednesday)

Bingbox Snow Cream Co. opens on Second Avenue (Friday)

Pink Bear Ice Cream coming soon to East 14th Street (Monday)

Moneylowball: City appraiser underestimated value of former Rivington House by $51 million (Wednesday)

Retail space at historic 330 Bowery is for rent (Monday)

Converted East Eighth Street synagogue (with hot tub for 8) returns to market for $30,000 a month (Thursday)

Verameat robbed on East Ninth Street (Tuesday)

Rapid progress at Stei town (Monday)

Openings: Desi Galli on Avenue B (Saturday)

... and a few of the tributes to Prince that appeared around the neighborhood in recent days...


[5th and A]


[5th and A]


[6th Street]


[6th and A]


[Outside the Wren on the Bowery]


[East 3rd Street]

... and via Instagram... Doc Holliday's on Avenue A...

A photo posted by Rosella (@rosellapix) on Apr 21, 2016 at 4:24pm PDT

...and at Black & White on East 10th Street...

A photo posted by Dan Krupin (@dankrupin) on Apr 23, 2016 at 2:51pm PDT

And you'll see and hear more Prince at 3:30 in Tompkins Square Park ... with the Prince Memorial Dance Ride.

Noted

A video posted by Leanne Tschirhart Papillon (@lideefixe) on Apr 24, 2016 at 9:58am PDT

Sunday in Tompkins Square Park...

Previously

RIP Roland Legiardi-Laura

[Image via Nuyorican Poets Cafe]

Several residents have passed along the sad news that longtime East Village resident, Roland Legiardi-Laura, died on Wednesday of cancer. He was in his early 60s.

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe on East Third Street, where he served as a director, posted this on Facebook:

With sadness and fond memories, we raise our glasses to poet, filmmaker and longtime Cafe board member Roland Legiardi-Laura, who passed today. A champion of East Village arts groups, Roland directed the Fifth Night Screenplay Series, founded Power Poetry and co-directed the film "To Be Heard." He was a friend and mentor to many, and he will be greatly missed.

In July 2000, The New York Times profiled Legiardi-Laura (focusing on how he bought a derelict loft space for $10,000 in 1978 inside the former Tompkins Square Boys' Lodging House on Avenue B at Eighth Street):

A poet and filmmaker, Mr. Legiardi-Laura, 47, is perhaps best known as a director of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the East Village institution he helped to revive after years of dormancy. His colorful curriculum vitae also includes "Azul," a documentary he directed about the Nicaraguan passion for poetry, and founding Words to Go, a traveling troupe of poets who brought verse to museum steps and street corners.

Now, he is beginning work on a three-part documentary about the history and purpose of American public schooling. "Roland is that rarest of modern social phenomena," said John Gatto, the 1991 New York State Teacher of the Year, who was the project's inspiration. "He is a significant player in cultural and community affairs who's not beholden to institutions or corporations -- a citizen, in the Jeffersonian sense of the word."

Mr. Legiardi-Laura is also the consummate autodidact, the sort who knows the ages of trees in Tompkins Square Park because he dug up the original survey maps.

And he is passionate about the East Village. Asked what he likes about it, he replied, "I'll give you a history of the neighborhood, briefly." Then he continued, straight-faced, "Twelve thousand years ago..."

The Times reveals the Streit's-replacing condos; Ben Shaoul wordsmiths gentrification

[Streit's factory photo via BoweryBoogie]

We've been talking about "Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream" this past week.

The documentary by East Village-based filmmaker Michael Levine started its week-long run Wednesday at the Film Forum. (There's also a Streit's-related exhibit happening at Art on A Gallery, 24 Avenue A between East Second Street and East Third Street.)

The last family-owned matzo bakery in America closed its four-building factory on Rivington Street last year after 90 years in that location. As you likely know, the developers who bought the property have condos planned for the site.

Today, The New York Times published the first rendering of the new residential complex (the article was online on Thursday, which is why you may have seen this already elsewhere) ...


[Volley Studios via the Times]

Per the Times, 150 Rivington will be a 7-story glass condo "that will house 45 one- and two-bedroom apartments. Sales begin in May, with one-bedrooms starting at around $975,000."

Developers said that they plan to decorate the lobby with memorabilia from the original building.

BoweryBoogie also has part of an interview with Streit's co-owner Aron Yagoda, who tells of Mayor de Blasio snubbing his offer of a tour of the factory.

Streit's now operates out of more modern facilities in Rockland County.

-----

The piece in the Times focused on small businesses on the Lower East Side that are disappearing... and how Katz's was able to continue moving into the future by selling their air rights for $17 million... so that developer Ben Shaoul could then tear down the rest of the block
for an 11-(or 12!) story condoplex with an Equinox Fitness in the retail space on East Houston between Ludlow and Orchard.

Ray's Pizza, Bereket and Lobster Joint, among others — closed or moved in the process.

"I’m sorry they went out of business, but it’s part of evolution," Shaoul told the Times. "You call it gentrification, I call it 'cleaning it up.'"

Last legs for East 7th Street street art

[Photo from November by Derek Berg]

Back in November, artist Ernest Zacharevic created this tribute to Lil Crazy Legs on East Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue (next to Porchetta).

Now it's gone... buried under a tag last night... (the aerosol cans disappeared earlier...)



Zacharevic recreated photojournalist Martha Cooper's shots from the 1970s-80s around the city. Lil Crazy Legs — aka Richard Colón of the Bronx-based Rock Steady Crew from the early 1980s — is on the cover of her photo book "Hip Hop Files: Photographs 1979-1984."

Video interludes: NYC in 1993

An EVG reader shared this video... a pleasant 5-minute excursion around Manhattan (sticking to Central Park, Times Square, Wall Street, etc.) in 1993. Its purpose, via the YouTube explanation: "In 2002 D-Theater D-VHS launched in the US — the dealers needed a demo tape of HD footage. JVC reused some HD video [from 1993] that had been shot."

The camera is on East Third Street at the 1:42 mark, where a member of the Hells Angels enacts the no-camera policy... and there's a quick scan on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue then from 1:44 - 1:54 ...

Openings: Desi Galli on Avenue B

As previously reported, the proprietors of the well-regarded Desi Galli on Lexington Avenue and East 27th Street were opening a location at 172 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street (the old Mercadito Cantina space).

Anyway, Desi Galli, which offers quick-serve Indian food, opened this past Wednesday (a few days later than previously announced) ... and they are open late (or early depending on your schedule) ...

Open until 3am in the #eastvillage. #midnightsnack

— Desi-Galli (@DesiGalliNY) April 23, 2016

'Summer' happens so fast

The Barcelona-based Zephyr Bones have a new single out today... which might be a good time — given the temps today — to play "Weird Summer" from their debut EP "Wishes/Fishes" from 2014.

Prince tribute at Dallas BBQ?

Or maybe just a coincidence here on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place.

Photo by EVG Dallas BBQ correspondent Steven