DOH temporarily closes Papaya Dog

Ugh. The DOH paid a visit to Papaya Dog on East 14th Street and First Avenue yesterday ... and apparently didn't like what they saw during the inspection. The report isn't yet online...

Photo via James and Karla Murray.

About the swimming pool rumor at the former Cabrini Center

Last week, some neighbors adjacent to the former Cabrini Center were hearing rumors of an outdoor pool at the incoming luxury apartments on East Fifth Street and Avenue B... perhaps what would be the end product of all that jackhammering out back.

However! A resident spoke to the construction manager at the site of the former health care facility for elderly patients ... According to the manager, they are putting in an "at grade" recreation area, with benches and a little lawn/garden.

Per the resident: "We'll see."

Previously.

Organic Avenue coming to Third Avenue

EVG regular William Klayman pointed out yesterday that there's a new tenant arriving at the former travel agency on Third Avenue and East Ninth Street... a new location of Organic Avenue, which is, according to their website:

[T]he leading provider of organic cold pressed juices, raw food cleansing programs, snacks, superfoods, truly natural beauty products, healthy lifestyle education and community building events. The company helps people learn how to transition and maintain a healthy lifestyle that is pleasurable and sustainable, while also friendly to people, animals and the environment.
Organic Avenue is controlled by Weld North, an investment company concentrating on education, health and wellness, consumer services and marketing businesses.

They have nine locations now in Manhattan, with three more on the way soon... Seems like a good fit for the office crowd/workers arriving soon at 51 Astro Place next door?

School of rock

From the EV Grieve inbox... via a parent at the Children's Workshop School on East 12th Street between Avenue B and C ...

This year's annual Schoolapalooza event for the Children's Workshop School is at the Clemente Soto Velez Center on Suffolk and Rivington tomorrow night ... and will feature Lisa Lisa (of 1980s Cult Jam fame) and the Demolition String Band. There will also be a silent auction ... find more details here.

Children's Workshop has seen more than $500K in budget cuts over the past five years, and we completely depend on this event to bridge the budget gap every year.

And in case you were curious, Lisa Lisa, born Lisa Velez, is the sister of school principal Maria Velez-Clarke.

'Newsroom' flash!

You may have sign the signs up like this one on East 12th Street... Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom" will be filming in parts of the neighborhood today and tomorrow...

Dave on 7th, who took the photo, asks, "Wonder what big news event they'll be recreating?"

Oh, and the second season starts on HBO on July 14. Guest stars this season will include Jane Fonda, Patton Oswalt and Marcia Gay Harden.

Another show that I've never seen. Anyone?

[Updated] Max Fish is apparently moving to Brooklyn; eyeing August close date

Well, the EVG inbox is filling up with news that Max Fish will be moving from its Ludlow Street home to... Metropolitan Avenue, according to this online petition, first noted this evening by The Lo-Down.

Per the petition:

‘We’ll Take the Spirit and Everything Else With Us’ -Ulli
The Lower East Side institution and cultural icon Max Fish will be moving. We are seeking a 2pm - 4am liquor license for the following address:

132 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211

If you've enjoyed time at The Fish please sign and share this petition. And if you live or know anyone that lives within 500 Feet of either 132 Metropolitan Ave or 99 North 1st St in Brooklyn, please contact me directly at: tmq777@gmail.com.

Several people have been sharing the petition on Facebook. No other info is immediately available, such as when Max Fish would close up on Ludlow Street... where it opened in 1989.

In December 2010, reports surfaced that the demand of rising rent costs might lead to Max Fish's closure. However, by January 2011, owner Ulli Rimkus had received a lease extension.

Updated:

The petition is also posted on the Max Fish Facebook page... word we received from the Max Fish camp is that they're eyeing an August closing date on Ludlow Street ...

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

Because every New York mayor needs an anthem

You may have seen this video making the rounds earlier today (Gawker, Politico) ... St. Mark's Place resident Jimmy McMillan who's running for mayor representing the "Rent is Too Damn High" party ... it comes courtesy of Animal New York...

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Bryan Alejandro Scott
Occupation: Speech Pathologist, Dancer / Dance Teacher
Location: Matilda, 11th Street between Ave B and C
Time: 5 on Wednesday, April 17

I’ve been in the neighborhood for 29 years. I’ve lived in the same place on 12th and C the whole time. I’m a creature of habit. I was born in London and I used to live in Queens, where I went to high school. Part of my life was in London and part of it was in Queens.

We got to the city and I felt that this was one of the greatest neighborhoods. It was slightly unexplored. Most people didn’t even know that anything existed past 3rd Avenue, but we did. Plus it was affordable for us. I feel like some people made it out to be like it was so bad and dangerous, Alphabet City, but I don’t think it was unlike any other community. If you were looking for trouble you could easily find it, but if you were careful about what you did you were safe. There was a lot of respect for neighbors. People worked; people had families; people did their thing. There wasn’t a lot of activity on Avenue C. It was very quiet.

I feel like I’ve always been a jack of many trades. I’ve worked all kinds of jobs. I went to school for speech and language pathology and communication disorders and when I got out of college I worked for the International Paper Company in business as a marketing sales rep.

Now they were very conservative and I think you can tell from the Liberace vest that I’m not. I did the best I could. I was an in-style conservative, but selling paper, for me, I’m not putting it down, but I couldn’t see myself doing it for 20 or 30 years. I also worked in Paris for a year as a makeup artist, I worked for the city as a health coordinator, and eventually I got back into school at NYU and got my masters in speech pathology.

I started late with dancing. I was a gymnast when I was young but it got expensive. I was in high school and I was doing fairly well and I went to gymnastic camps where everybody was into it. But then my coach thought I might benefit if I took ballet class. So I did and from there I developed a love of dance. So I pursued it.

I did some auditions for some plays and through a play I got involved in a workshop for dance and that’s really how I became a Dunham technique, which is a type of modern technique from Katherine Dunham, and eventually got into a Dunham based dance company and performed in Theatre Row from around the 90s through around 2002. I stopped, not because I got too old, but because the director died.

The Dunham technique is a combination of ballet, African and Caribbean movement. It’s a modern technique usually done to drums. Katherine Dunham was the first black female to have a dance company in the United States and she was a person that led the way for many others. People like Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and Eartha Kitt took classes at the Dunham School.

I’ve parlayed my career from being a dancer to a more of a choreographer and mentor. I started teaching dance out of the lobby of my building. Those kids are probably 25 years old now. I started teaching straight out of college and I progressed to the school system. I now work at the Children’s Workshop School on East 12th street as a speech and language therapist during the day and one day I went to the principal and I said, “Hey I have this idea, I would like to start a dance company.”

It started as a small experiment, working with special-ed kids. I thought that the kids who had emotional or behavioral problems, if they learned dance and found something that they liked, then their academics would approve. And it did. I do think the arts needs to be back in the schools. I think it will help many children embrace the educational process.

Now we’ve got an after-school program and we meet once a week for two and a half hours and we are ready. The kids are ages 7 to 11. I teach them the Dunham technique, jazz, and other modern techniques. They have to do reports on different people. I want them to know a little bit of everything. We’re called the Experimental Dance Group, EDG.

This year, I’m doing my first fundraiser, which is going to be [tonight, April 24] here at Matilda. It’s a really good family restaurant and the owner’s daughter is actually part of my dance company. This affair is to raise money for costumes and the cost that’s involved with doing what I do because I’m not funded by the school. And it’s a way of giving young people something positive to feel about themselves.

The fundraiser is a disco theme. I love disco; disco was a great time. People don’t realize that disco brought a lot of people together. All races, sexuality, all levels of income. It was a fun, fun period. I don’t know why people got into hating disco. That’s not for this interview, but if you ever want to go into that with me, I can talk to you about that.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Note: Matilda Restaurant hosts Disco With EDG, a disco-themed fundraiser for the Experimental Dance Group tonight at 5. Matilda is located at 647 E. 11th Street at Avenue C. With a $20 donation, guests will receive two drinks and samples of the restaurant's Tuscan-Mexican menu.

Proposed dorm for former 35 Cooper Square looks to be 4 floors taller

[December 2012]

Nearly two years ago, the historic, circa-1825 building at 35 Cooper Square was quickly demolished.

As we first reported last Aug. 21, developer Arun Bhatia filed paperwork for a 9-story dorm for an unspecified school in this space.

The proposed plans called for a 9-story dormitory with 43 rooms ... plus retail on the ground floor. In total, the building would be nearly 35,000 square feet (at a height of 117 feet).

And that was that. The plans continued to be "pending" with the DOB.

Until this week, when subsequent paperwork filed with the DOB yesterday show a 13-story dorm in this space instead...



Perhaps if they wait a little longer they can get it up to 18 floors.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Here's what's coming to 35 Cooper Square: 9-story dormitory

Straight to hell: Keeping a watchful eye on the Joe Strummer mural

Workers continued putting up the scaffolding and construction netting at 112 Avenue A and East Seventh Street yesterday ...


[Bobby Williams]

DOB permits point to "facade repair" on the building.

As long as that doesn't turn into "oh, we accidentally painted over the Joe Strummer mural."



And we're off to a fine start... Per Dave on 7th, the workers "ran the conduit for the scaffold lights uncaringly across Joe's face. Prophetic?"

Previously on EV Grieve:
Joe Strummer gets a splash of Niagara

Joe Strummer gets a new look, skyline

[Updated] Joe Strummer would have been 60 today