Avenue C is the place to be

On Monday, someone (or something!) mysteriously moved this haul to the east side of Avenue C near East 10th Street...


[Bobby Williams]


[BW]

... where it remains ... and, as Brett Pants notes, it has become a bit of popular spot for hanging out...



...just don't tell anyone about it...

RIP Taylor Mead

[Being crowned King of the Mardi Gras at a Lower Eastside Girls Club benefit last year. Photo by Greg Masters]

Lower East Side icon Taylor Mead has died after suffering a massive stroke last night in Colorado. He was 88.

In a brief farewell ahead of a full-length obituary, the Times refers to him as "the Warhol 'superstar,' Beat poet, stray-cat feeder and sweet face and voice of an era."


[Andy Warhol and Mead in 1975]

Here's a passage from a profile on Mead published last summer in The Paris Review:

When Taylor drifted to New York, after a stint in the poetry clubs of San Francisco in the late fifties, he found himself in the midst of a vibrant scene. “McDougal Street is where everything was,” he remembered. He fondly recalled night after night spent at the Gaslight, a basement café that no longer exists. Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso would read there often. Bill Cosby was a regular. “The police wanted to close the place because of Allen's and my language. The owner would sit there with a shotgun. This was the early days of New York. He sat down there with a shotgun! New York was so wild.”

Mead was a familiar figure in the neighborhood, whether performing at the Bowery Poetry Club or eating at his favorite restaurant, Lucien on First Avenue. He lived in the same apartment on Ludlow Street the past 34 years. Mead continued to live in his rent-stabilized apartment while the rest of the building that Ben Shaoul purchased last summer was converted to market-rate homes. (You can read more about that here.)

Mead eventually accepted a buyout in April and moved to be with his niece in Colorado, as BoweryBoogie noted.

Back to The Paris Review piece, which discussed how Mead found his home at Max's Kansas City in 1965.

After Max’s closed, things weren’t the same. Taylor spent some time at the Mudd Club, where he filmed a public-access television show and continued to read poetry and perform in theatrical productions at La MaMa Theatre; later, he spent time at Max Fish, before, as he claims, he was insulted by the bartender and forced to take his business elsewhere. The Mudd Club closed in 1983; La MaMa is a shell of its former self; Max Fish will, it’s being said, close in the next year due to escalating rents. People and places are gone for good, and during our conversation the East Village begins to sound more and more like a ghost town. Taylor is the last resident, the final holdout.

Papaya King is NOW OPEN on St. Mark's Place

As noted yesterday... at 3 St. Mark's Place...

Who is going to be The King's first customer in the East Village? Doors open at 10am. #thekingisreadytorock #eastvillage #puredeliciousness
— Papaya King (@Papaya_King) May 9, 2013

We thought Paul Kostabi was first in line as of last night. Or he was just waiting for the M8.


[Via Twitter by @nranra]

Retail plans revealed for 12-floor condo building replacing open-air market on Broadway

Time is running out on the open-air shops on Broadway near East Fourth Street... One vendor told a reader that he'd be shutting down very soon.

Curbed has been reporting on the 12-story terracotta and brick-faced condo building in the works for 688 Broadway. The Landmarks Preservation Commission reportedly raved about the new building last October. (Read that here. Read more about the luxury condos here.)

And now there's a new listing for the retail portion of the building at RKF:



The rendering shows a store called "Premium Goods." And the listing notes possession in the first quarter of 2015.

A quick look at DOB records show plans have yet to be approved at 688 Broadway. (The records show that the plans were disapproved in December 2009. Karl Fischer is listed as the architect of record on this application.)



As for the long-running, ragtag flea market that the condo building is replacing...



... back to the reader and the vendor.

I asked him where he would go. He said, "Nowhere. There's no place to go."

[Updated] Proposal to place a 'silhouette of a community member' in Tompkins Square Park

Here's an interesting item on tonight's CB3 Parks, Recreation, Cultural Affairs, Landmarks, & Waterfront Committee docket:

• Proposed silhouette of a Tompkins Square Park community member to be located along a pathway on the east side of Tompkins Square Park from June to November 2013

There's a PDF with the following image...



There's no other information currently available ... we have the usual questions, such as who and why.

Anyway, we looking forward to hearing more about the proposal.

Hopefully it will last longer than the last installation in Tompkins Square Park...

[July 2011]

Walk Man lasted three days. Artist Scott Taylor removed the sculpture after someone (or thing!) rammed it and knocked it over, as DNAinfo reported.

The committee meeting tonight is at 6:30 — BRC Senior Services Center, 30 Delancey St. between Chrystie and Forsyth.

Updated 2:30

Serena Solomon at DNAinfo has more about this project, which is in honor of Christopher Gamble, who was homeless for 28 years.

A life-sized sculpture of his silhouette is currently being created by French artist Fanny Allié to be installed at Tompkins Square Park, a place where Gamble spent many days and nights.

And!

The sculpture will consist of a metal outline of Gamble, according to Allié.

"I like it because it has some hope. It's a positive," the artist said, of the silhouette's open stance with arms outstretch to the sky, like “he is about to fly."

Gamble now lives in an apartment run by the Bowery Residents' Committee.

Read the whole article here.

Details on the 'Save Our Community Center MARCH AND RALLY' happening next Wednesday

[November 2011]

From the EV Grieve inbox...

Save Our Community Center MARCH AND RALLY
Wednesday, May 15
March starts at CHARAS/El Bohio, 605 E. 9th Street @ 5:00
Cooper Union rally starts @ 6:00

Join us for a march and rally to return old P.S. 64, formerly CHARAS/El Bohio Community & Cultural Center, to our community! Meet at the former site of CHARAS/El Bohio for the march at 5:00 and Cooper Union for the rally at 6:00.

With speakers: CHARAS co-founder Chino Garcia, Council member Rosie Mendez, Assembly member Brian Kavanagh, Senator Brad Hoylman, Students For a Free Cooper Union, & music by members of Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Tiny Band and others.

Developer Gregg Singer, who purchased old P.S. 64, formerly CHARAS / El Bohio Community & Cultural Center at 605 East 9th Street, at public auction in 1999, has once again filed plans to convert our former school and community center into a 500 bed dormitory & youth hostel. In plans filed recently with the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Department of Buildings, Singer claims to have a signed lease with Cooper Union for 200 of the proposed 500 bed facility, though no lease has been submitted. In addition, Singer must submit proof that all beds have been leased by an educational institution for a ten-year period.

It is time to ask the City to return the building to the community!

Join us on May 15, & spread the word! Meet at the former site of CHARAS/El Bohio for the march at 5:00 and Cooper Union for the rally at 6:00.

Find the Facebook events page here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rebranded P.S. 64 up for grabs: Please welcome University House at Tompkins Square Park to the neighborhood

Deed for 'community facility use only' at the former P.S. 64 now on the market

Efforts continue to fight the dorm planned for the former PS 64 on East 9th Street

Testimony Of Councilmember Rosie Mendez regarding the former PS 64

El Diablito Taqueria is now open on East 3rd Street

Several readers have told us that El Diablito Taqueria opened yesterday on East Third Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

We didn't grab a menu just yet. Two readers have already tried it ... and gave the place high marks. Per one neighbor: "So far so good. I had the chicken burrito for lunch. Looking forward to trying their breakfast menu (breakfast burrito) since they open early."

They are opening every day from 10:30 a.m. to midnight.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A few more details on El Diablito Taqueria, opening this spring on East Third Street

(Kind of) An update on Mono + Mono

[Via jdx]

Mono + Mono at 116 E. Fourth St. remains closed since a two-alarm fire swept through the restaurant during the early-morning hours of April 21.

Difficult to tell the extent of the damage from outside. And we haven't seen much activity walking by every day...





Here's a look at the damage the next day via Occupy East 4th Street...



We understand that several apartments next door at No. 114 remain uninhabitable.

As for Mono, this sign remains on the front window...



Yesterday, they provided an update via Facebook:

Fans of @MonoMonoNYC, here's the latest update.

Due to the recent fire, we're now renovating the restaurant.
We're committed to reopening in a few weeks as your favorite East Village destination for 30,000 jazz albums, Korean fried chicken and soju cocktails.

Thanks for your support. We'll be back stronger than ever!

Cheers,
MONO+MONO Team

Of course, not everyone is excited about a return...


[Photo via Occupy East 4th Street]

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Early-morning fire at 116 E. Fourth St., home of Mono + Mono

First Citi Bikes docking station casualty*

An EVG reader noted early last evening that someone (or something) broke/smashed (accidentally or otherwise) the glass on the Citi Bikes docking station that arrived a day earlier on East Sixth Street at Avenue B...



A worker in an unmarked van was on the scene replacing what needed to be, uh, replaced, per the reader.

---

* As far as we know. We heard that a truck ran into a docking station on East 11th Street, but never saw any photographic evidence to support this claim.

Workers remove tree that survived 51 Astor Place construction

Along Third Avenue between East Ninth Street and Astor Place, one tree remain throughout construction of 51 Astor Place... Having survived all that, a worker was spotted yesterday...




[Stephen Popkin]

...removing the tree...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Workers chopping down trees at 51 Astor Place