Reminders tonight: Rally for East Third Street residents facing eviction

Yesterday, we asked resident Sue Palchak-Essenpreis what the group hopes to achieve with the rally.

"We're hoping to show that the real-estate market in NYC is about more than units, square footage and market rates. It's about people, families and homes. Neighborhoods are about more than "hipness and hot spots." All we are asking is to be treated fairly. We have a voice, and at the very least, it deserves to be heard. While currently the NYC law may state that any new owner may evict current market rate tenants at will, just because it's legal, doesn't make it right. These are our homes, and we won't leave without a fight."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Three apartment buildings sold on East Third Street

Know your rights: Help with understanding NYC rent laws

More about the lease renewals at 50, 54 and 58 E. Third St.

Tenants at 50, 54 and 58 E. Third St. banding to together in face of building sale

[Updated] Here is the city's new Citi Bike

From the EV Grieve inbox...

NYC DOT and NYC Bicycle Share are happy to announce that Citi is the official sponsor of the NYC Bike Share system. Private sponsorship, combined with user fees, means that no taxpayer dollars will be used to operate the system in NYC.

Citi Bike is a revolutionary new way for you to get around New York City, scheduled to launch summer 2012. Bike sharing expands your transportation options; it empowers you to go your own way.

Citi Bike is a self-service system that provides members with easy access to a network of thousands of bicycles. Pick up a bike close to home or work, ride, then return it to any of the hundreds of stations to be located throughout the city.

Citi Bike will consist of 600 stations, 10,000 bikes in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Visit CitiBike to learn more about system pricing, membership, upcoming events and system launch.

Here’s one of the first shots of the bikes. We can’t wait to see them action on New York’s streets!

Hmm.

No word yet on where some of the 600 share locations will be ... there will, of course, be several bike stations around the East Village...

Last October, we got a sneak preview when the Great New York City Bike Share Tour made a stop on Avenue A along Tompkins Square Park...

[Photos by Bobby Williams]

I liked the idea a little more when the bikes didn't look like an ATM on wheels. Will you take a CitiBank bike for a cruise? Oh, and here's the price list...

[Updated] Another record store leaving the East Village

[EVG file photo]

Over at Flaming Pablum, Alex brings news that Norman's Sound & Vision on Cooper Square is leaving for Williamsburg in August.

Ugh. I enjoy rooting through the piles of CDs and what not at Norman's. Always found some kind of bargain.

As I've written ... as much as I hate to see record stores close, we are fortunate to have several good choices left in the neighborhood, such as...Kim's ... Good Records NYC ... Turntable Lab ... A-1 Records ... Other Music ... Academy Records ... Gimme Gimme ... Big City Records ... Rainbow Music...

Updated 2:21 p.m.:

A reader tells us that the Norman's has already opened in Brooklyn at 555 Metropolitan Ave. Sure enough, here's a photo from the Norman's Facebook page...

Previously on EV Grieve:
There is now only one record store left on St. Mark's Place

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[On Great Jones yesterday. Photo by Bobby Williams]

Bowery Poetry Club kicks off Crowdfunding campaign for new restaurant (BoweryBoogie)

Thurston Moore and John Zorn at the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (The Village Voice)

Ed Sanders, the only beatnik who can yodel (NPR)

New building permits up 169 percent this year (The Wall Street Journal)

Meet the 4th generation owner of Russ & Daughters (The Lo-Down)

New home for 76-year-old Blaustein Hardware on Greenwich Avenue (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

The old and the new clash on Union Square in 1936 (Ephemeral New York)

Cannabis Peace March in Union Square (Slum Goddess ... and the Gog Log)

More MCA (Flaming Pablum)

...and via ‏@cbgbomfug ...

Another high rise rising on 14th Street and Third Avenue

Back in November 2008, workers demolished the addendum to Jam Envelope & Paper on Third Avenue just a few steps north of East 14th Street, as Jeremiah's Vanishing New York reported.

As he noted at the time, "You can bet some clever architect is somewhere licking his chops, delighting in a scheme to slip a sliver of glass into this narrow cleft of sky."

Indeed, the time has come for that...

[Via Google]

We just noticed that work has started on the sliver...

The city previously approved plans for a "new mixed use 16-story building."

According to the DOB, they'll be commercial space on the ground floor ... and one unit on each of the subsequent floors — 15 "residential apartments" in total.

We didn't come across any renderings just yet. Regardless, the plans will be tall and skinny looking. Meanwhile, the construction has pushed the M103 stop to the south side of East 14th Street.

Stuyvesant Grocery returning to East 14th Street

EV Grieve reader LvV brings good news for fans of Stuyvesant Grocery, the deli on East 14th Street and Avenue A that a fire destroyed in May 2010. Per LvV: "Stuyvesant Grovery is back, albeit in smaller form, but it is back. The guys are working on the old locksmith place on the southside of 14th between 1st and A, right next to Petopia."

Now if we can just get a new location nearby for Pete's-a-Pizza... And anyone know what happened to the locksmith-hardware place?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Conspiracies: What next for 14th Street and Avenue A?

Renovations in order for Stuyvesant Grocery and Pete's-A-Place?

Lakeside's photobooth has a new home

The Lakeside Lounge closed after last Monday night... Meanwhile, Trixie, the owner of the venue's vintage photobooth, was looking for a new home for the machine... and she has found one...

The booth arrived at HiFi on Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street on Friday... And here's how it's looking inside HiFi...

We like point No. 3. And No. 4. Have a drink.

[HiFi photos by Shawn Chittle]

Zi' Pep has closed at seemingly jinxed East Ninth Street location

Zi' Pep opened in November on East Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... The owner based the Southern Italian eatery on the East New York restaurant, Pep's, that his grandparents ran from 1935 to 1972, as Grub Street reported.

Anyway, Zi' Pep is now closed... and the owner and chef are now focusing on their Italian sandwich shop in Tribeca. Here's the official message about Zi' Pep:

It is not without regret that we are closing Zi' Pep, but as they say, we were made an offer we couldn't refuse. This is for the best, as now we'll have the opportunity to focus on our friends & family over Pane Panelle. We thank you for your patronage, and look forward to seeing you in Tribeca.

The Zi' Pep space had been on the market for several months... per the listing, the rent is $9,000 plus $175,000 for key money.

This looks like a tough sell for a restaurant. Zi' Pep is the third eatery to close here in quick succession, following Olivia and Sintir.

We'll see what gives this space a go next...

Angels & Kings closed; did anyone notice?

The Pete Wentz-backed bar on 11th Street just east of Avenue A closed several weeks ago ... we didn't actually notice or hear about it until this past Friday...

Via their Facebook page:

Unfortunately, its with great sadness that we announce that Angels & Kings NYC has officially closed for good. We’ve had an amazing run and met so many amazing people on the ride but it was time for a change. If you are in Chicago, LA or Barcelona, check out our other sexy locations and you never know, we could be back in NYC in the near future ;-)

Here's how UrbanDaddy announced the bar's arrival back in April 2007:

Launched in part as a hangout for the members of Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is... and Gym Class Heroes, Angels and Kings — or AK-47, as the kids are calling it — is your chance to sip a cheap bottle of beer and chat up attractive TRL aficionadas.

And here's how Joshua Stein announced the arrival on Gawker.

When emo-troubadour Pete Wentz opened Angels and Kings, a bar in the East Village, our douche canary in our douche mineshaft keeled over and died. First of all, Pete Wentz is going to be there. As he tells Page Six: "Yeah, I'm just gonna be local and drink umbrella drinks." So this isn't your normal dive. According to one of his business partners, this is a dive where "anyone can go and have sex in the bathroom and not get in trouble." So it's located in international waters?

Cops shut the place down briefly in May 2009 for underage drinking... sparking headlines worldwide (seriously).

Eventually the emoness wore off... The bar became the home to Penn State football games last fall...

As for what's next... I recall that, in January, the CB3/SLA OK'd the people behind Keybar on East 13th Street taking over the space and opening a bar-restaurant serving Hungarian food. With DJs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. (You can read the official CB3ese here.)

Fine Fare moves recycling to Avenue C

Back in October, DNAinfo reported that some neighbors were angry about Fine Fare's recycling center on the East Fourth Street side of the grocery store at Avenue C. The residents noted constant problems such as fighting, drinking, urinating in public...

One commenter on our post said, "Noise in NYC makes sense... but the degree of noise on that corner is just absurd."

Among other things, Fine Fare put up some signs and painted a no-hanging-out zone along East Fourth Street.

In a follow-up story in March, DNAinfo reported that the store would move the recycling operation to the front of the store on Avenue C... and, late last week, the move became official...

[EVG reader Steven]

... and a look at the East Fourth Street side now...

Have any nearby residents noticed a difference already with the move?