[Updated] Water main break on East 13th Street

@evgrieve huge water main break on 13th&2nd!! Flooding fast ! twitter.com/whiskandanchor…
— melissa (@whiskandanchor) February 7, 2013

1:24
Apparently the water is coming from the Mystery Lot construction site!

1:27
The NYPD is on the scene!

[Via @whiskandanchor]

1:44
A shot from East 13th Street, where a water main broke ... water still bubbling up from the depths... FDNY on the scene... photo via Marjorie Ingall

2:11
Report from the scene: The bubbling water has subsided. An inch or so at its deepest on East 13th Street...

2:23
Some photos via EVG reader Katja a little earlier ...

Con Ed is at the scene... and gave the all clear on electric and gas... However, an unknown number of residents will be without water for several days, according to what officials told Katja.

3:17
DEP on the scene ... photos via Katja...

4:55
Workers are digging into the guilty party...

'My Mars Bar Movie' back for 2 encore presentations, including tonight

"My Mars Bar Movie," the 87-minute documentary directed by Jonas Mekas, the acclaimed filmmaker-poet-writer-curator (His full bio is here.) ... makes a return engagement to the Anthology Film Archives ... there's a screening tonight at 7:30. The film will play again on Feb. 24 at 4:45.

Here's a description of the film via Mekas:

For some twenty years Mars Bar, on the corner of First Street and Second Avenue, Manhattan, has been my bar. That's where we went for beer and tequila whenever we had to take a break from our work at Anthology Film Archives, and it was also a bar where most of those who came to see movies at Anthology ended up after the shows. We always had a great time at Mars Bar. It was always open, there was always the juke box, and very often there was no electricity, and it was old and messy and it didn't want to be any other way — it was the last escape place left in downtown New York. So this is my love letter to it, to my Mars Bar. Mars Bar as I knew it.

Take a step back ...



The Mars Bar closed on July 19, 2011. But maybe it will come back somewhere nearby one day.

The Anthology is on East Second Street and Second Avenue.

Previously.

Scott Stringer has big plans for the East River

Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer is giving his annual State of the Borough speech tonight ... and part of his talk will include his vision for the East River Blueway Plan, which will "reconnect residents with the riverfront," as The New York Times reported.

The plan won't be unveiled officially for a few more weeks, but the Times got a sneak peek.

Of particular interest around here:

One proposal — the most costly to execute — would elevate the bike and pedestrian path over the F.D.R. Drive at 14th Street, where the path currently narrows to four feet near the Consolidated Edison substation.

The plan calls for a new pedestrian bridge that would rise gradually from blocks away, allowing users to avoid that difficult bottleneck. The bridge would also serve as an inland sea wall that could help prevent flooding and an explosion like the one that rocked a substation during Hurricane Sandy, which contributed to the blackout across Lower Manhattan.

Read the whole article at the Times here. Gothamist has more details and renderings like the one above right here.

Flashback:

Avenue C and East Eighth Street on Oct. 29, before the power went... via Daniel Scott ...

Demolition starts on former garage and lot; new developments coming for Lafayette Street

Goggla passed along these photos yesterday, noting that the demolition had started on the former ZP Auto Repair Shop on the southwest corner of Lafayette and Great Jones. The shop moved out to Brooklyn in the spring of 2011. This prime real estate (car-care center? hahaha!) had been on the market for years. Workers started prepping the space for demolition back in the fall.

By the end of the afternoon, the garage was mostly gone...

The demolition extends to the parking lot and billboard on the northwest corner of Lafayette and Bond...

There are big plans in place for each corner.

At 10 Bond Street, developers have aspirations for a 7-story, 11-unit condo building. (Find more details and renderings at Curbed.)

[Via Curbed]

One note: Earlier reports list Annabelle Selldorf as the architect of record for 10 Bond Street. However, the plans waiting approval at the DOB list the notorious Gene Kaufman as the architect.

Meanwhile, there are other big plans for the opposite corner at 372 Lafayette. The city just approved architect Morris Adjmi's plan for a new 6-story apartment building...

The last rendering we saw looked like...

The above image came via Off the Grid, who has more details on this project here.

Now where do people get their cars repaired?

Previously on EV Grieve:
New skyline for Lafayette Street?

Another corner still primed to fall on NoHo

Meanwhile, farewell to Claire Forlani's disembodied scotch ad hands

With the demolition yesterday of the former garage on the southwest corner of Lafayette and Great Jones...

[Goggla]

... we bid a tearful farewell to Claire Forlani's disembodied scotch ad hands, who have been gracing us with their giant, B-movie-severed-prop presence on the wall above since early December.

...until we meet again...

On the rocks — just like you like it.

MoRUS hosting 'Direct Action Fashion Show' this Saturday night

From the EV Grieve inbox...

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) presents: DIRECT ACTION FASHION SHOW

Celebrate how activists use costumes, puppets, and props to draw awareness to various environmental, social, and political issues and create positive, sustainable change.

At the same time that parts of our city will be taken over by Fashion Week’s bold images intended to grease the wheels of extreme consumption, we plan to explore the ways in which spectacle can be used for the greater good, rather than corporate gain.

Prior to the event, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra will lead a march to pay tribute to the community gardens, as a reminder that this vital community resource still needs our support. Earth Celebrations, Time's Up!, People's Puppets of OWS, The MoS Collective and other organizations will be in attendance, and Arrow Chrome will DJ. Special appearance by Gene Pool, the "Can Man." Expect food, drinks and sparkles galore.

WEAR YOUR BEST PROTEST FASHION — EVERYONE IS WELCOME ON THIS RUNWAY.

MoRUS (Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space) History Museum
155 Avenue C, between 9th and 10th Streets, Manhattan
7pm; Saturday, February 9, 2013; $5-10 sugg., no one turned away

Find more info at the MoRUS website... and at the Facebook event page.

Get well soon, Chester

A reader noted that Chester, longtime grill man at EVG favorite the Stage on Second Avenue, has been out of work in recent weeks with some health issues. We understand that he's doing better, though.

So get well soon, Chester. See you behind the counter again soon...

Updated 12:30

In the comments, our friend esquared™ notes that there's a photo of Roman and Chester from a digital video installation at the NYPL Lunch Hour NYC exhibit ...

The 'No-7 Eleven' elves were at it again

Back at it on the corner of Avenue A and East 11th Street, site of the incoming 7-Eleven...

...and now, with a reference to the building's new owner, developer Jared Kushner, publisher of the New York Observer...

Previously.

Nino's Pizza has closed, again

At this point, it is safe to say that we have no idea what's going on with the Nino's Pizza space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place.

To recap.

Nino's Pizza on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place closed sometime after Superstorm Sandy... and we heard multiple stories about its future ... Then! A few days later, a sanitized, woody Nino's reopened under new ownership, but the place didn't seem the same. One reader said, "It looks like the inside of a pine coffin."

Plus, the pizza was a little different. Then the place closed again. The it reopened. Then closed. Then closed. Then reopened. (Or maybe it's the other way around?) The DOH temporarily closed the storefront in early December... It reopened by the end of the month.

We first noticed that they were closed again this past Sunday, when we walked by during the Super Bowl. A fine time for a pizza place to be closed.

For now Nino's 2.0 remains closed. Outgoing message says that the number has been "temporarily disconnected."

So. If you happen to know the status here, please let us know via the comments or the trusty tipline.

Another tree comes down in Tompkins Square Park

Bobby Williams notes that workers removed yet another tree in Tompkins Square Park today... we haven't heard anything official yet, though Dutch Elm Disease is always a likely culprit.