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Thanks to our friend AWKWORDrap for these shots....
"Andy Yang tells us he has closed the East Village outpost of Rhong Tiam. “It was a miscalculation,” he says of its predecessor Kurve, with its infamous Karim Rashid design." He's also considering whether to remodel it (bringing the kitchen upstairs) and reopen it with a less off-putting décor, or to simply let go of the space.
The same week the Parks Department cut down 56 trees to make way for Fashion Week, the City released new garden regulations with almost no notice, no community support, and no commitment to permanently preserve the community gardens. Despite overwhelming community support to preserve our parks and community gardens, the City's new rules fail to protect them, and in fact expose each and every one to transfer and development. New Yorkers love their parks and community gardens and for years have fought to protect them, preserve them and keep them open to the public. These green spaces play a vital role in the mental, physical and emotional health of our City's residents and play an ever increasingly important role in our City's environmentally sustainable future.
Importantly, the new rules violate the City’s 2002 agreement with the Attorney General. The City has ignored the permanent status of 198 gardens and has not done a State Environmental Quality Review of the gardens, both required under the 2002 Settlement Agreement
Under the new rules, you can lose your garden for a myriad of reasons — noise complaints, incidents that occur adjacent to gardens, and or failure to maintain "good standing". Gardens can now go into accelerated default for breaking any city, state or federal rules, or failing to renew their license, or registration.
These new rules police the gardens and chill the community’s ability to hold events. Already, gardens are reluctant to hold events for fear of noise complaints. Under the new rules, you can go into accelerated default for playing guitar and having a beer, yet you can enjoy a glass of wine on the great lawn in Central Park while listening to an orchestra.
The new rules establish a division between gardens in good and bad standing, establishing a mechanism for the hyper-regulation and control of public space. Before these new rules, you just needed a license, now if you do not have one, your garden can be bulldozed.
Sin Sin owner Philip [Quilter] seemed unable to muster any kind of serious commitment to dealing with these problems. He did say he would hire an additional bouncer, but only when pressed. His attitude waffled between saying that Sin Sin takes every reasonable measure to ensure quiet ... to denying that Sin Sin was even responsible for the behavior on the street.
He was promptly told that most everyone in the room has personally witnessed the mayhem emanate from Sin Sin. ... We left the ball in his court, asking him to write out his proposal to remediate the problem, asking him to specifically address security and patrons loitering on the street, and to look at his programming to see if changes could be made there.
Thank you for your response. We did, however ask that you give us specific information regarding former and present programmers, DJs or promoters responsible for the various nights at your club, which you refuse to present to us. And, though you would not give any detailed information, when pressed to respond you asked that we “believe you”, that the persons responsible for drawing the violent crowd to your club had been dismissed after our August 4th meeting. In the interim, your patrons have escalated the violence to murdering someone in our streets.
Sir, we do not believe you. Not a word that you say. And, as we said at the meeting on the 4th we have no desire to talk to you or to listen to your hollow promises. Do you think that we do not have eyes and ears? We see the same problematic clientele patronizing your club as before. We are looking for action, and until action is taken, and you begin to court a clientele who is not violent, you will continue to be viewed as a scourge on our otherwise peaceful neighborhood. And, the neighborhood will not rest until you are gone and Sin Sin’s license is revoked.
Extraordinary Opportunity. Two side by side townhouses that have 46 feet of street frontage and a 46 foot by 50 foot rear garden await your vision, dreams and renovation. Extensive original details throughout the townhouses. These properties will be delivered vacant, are currently over 7,000 square feet and come with an additional 10,000 square feet of air rights. Beautifully located across community gardens and on a charming block. This could also be a development site or for institutional use.
For decades, the East Village has been home to countless avant-garde organizations and collectives, drawn to the area by its cultural vitality and low cost of living.
Those days of affordability, however, appear to have largely vanished, and over the last decade or so many of the creative groups that once had a home in the East Village have moved or become defunct.
Faced with tax liens, the group is selling the two old brick buildings on East Fourth Street near Avenue D that it has owned since 1974. The group is also beginning the complicated process of cataloging the contents.
Deep in the Alphabet lies a potential Gem of an investment. Two buildings, old and in disrepair, are on the market as a set. Just recently the price was reduced from $4,300,000 to $3,950,000.
What makes them so special is the air rights that come with the buildings – 17,630 buildable square feet. At the current asking price, that is $224 per square foot to buy. Even with good quality construction you could put up condos at under $700 a square foot, and the lowest condo (a resale) is on the market in the Alphabet for $800 a square foot with the average at $1,051 and the highs around $1,700 per square foot (The Copper Building is selling at 215 Ave B with the remaining units averaging around $1,256 a square foot). Given the 2-3 years minimum before completion, the fact that it would be new development and a likely upturning real estate market, a buyer/developer could be poised for considerable returns.
YOU CAN HELP! Please write a letter to the city today urging the Commission to consider landmark designation for 326 and 328 East 4th Street right away, and to protect these remarkable survivors which capture so many important aspects of the evolving history of the East Village and New York — CLICK HERE for a sample letter and contact information.
An East Village Romeo who passed himself off as a globetrotting NFL exec is accused of ripping off a beautiful, love-struck divorcee to the tune of a quarter-million dollars.
As he allegedly fleeced her and at least one other woman while posing as an accomplished 40-year-old winner, accused con man John Egan was, in reality, a fat, prematurely gray, 32-year-old sports nut and professional loser who lived with his parents on Avenue C, compulsively trolling the Web.
Now, Egan is the subject of a Manhattan District Attorney's Office investigation. The DA plans to seat a grand jury early next month on grand-larceny charges, said a law-enforcement source.
For beautiful Thea Miller, it may be too late. The San Francisco divorcee claims she was financially ruined and emotionally devastated by the beguiling grifter she met online.
"I was naive," Thea admitted.
My partner and I are offering this vastly reduced rent because we would like to maintain access to the room in question. We lead an 'alternative' lifestyle, and use the room to host fetish and bdsm themed photo/video shoots and sessions . It is our photo studio basically. Nothing illegal and absolutely no sex will take place in your living space. We will not ask you to participate, only to shift to another room from time to time, and we will thoroughly clean the room every time we use it. We also rarely use the space for more than two or three hours at a time.