At the Mary Help of Christians rally this evening

[Photo by Crazy Eddie]

Various community groups and residents came together for a rally tonight at Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church on East 12th Street ...

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman (pictured) has said that there is plenty of open space on this parcel for a new residential complex, and that the existing properties "would be great candidates for adaptive re-use."

We'll have a report on the rally in the morning.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Permits filed to demolish Mary Help of Christians church, school and rectory

Tonight in walk-in specials

EV resident Rachel Borg spotted this on East 10th Street and Fourth Avenue this evening...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Photo by Derek Berg]

The East Village photography of Ann Sanfedele (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Turmoil at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum? (BoweryBoogie)

Bialystoker Building landmarked (The Lo-Down)

Revisiting "The Warriors" (Flaming Pablum)

More great photos from the Dance Parade (Gog in NYC)

"Psycho Killer" with Arthur Russell on cello (Dangerous Minds)

Some history of 17th Street and Irving Place (Ephemeral New York)

Time's Up has put together this video highlight the drama that unfolded last week at the Children's Magical Garden on Stanton and Norfolk ...



And tonight at 7, Mike Malone reads from his recently published novel, "No Never No More," which is set at the Village View apartments in 1999. "The main character, Declan Coulter, bristles when his neighborhood is called the East Village. Growing up in the Village View, it will always be the Lower East Side to him." The reading is at Dorian Gray Tap & Grill, 205 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Mary Help of Christians rally tonight; workers spotted taking apart rectory roof

As noted Monday, various preservationists and community groups are coming together for a rally tonight at Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church on East 12th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...



Developer Douglas Steiner has plans filed to demolish the now-vacant parcel of Mary Help of Christians, which includes the church, school and rectory.

This morning, a reader spotted workers started to tear up part of the roof of the rectory...



"The first affected — a family of starlings nesting in the northeast corner of the roof," the reader said. "It was a sickening feeling I had when I heard those saws cutting up the roof."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Permits filed to demolish Mary Help of Christians church, school and rectory

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: Edward “Eak the Geek” Arrocha.
Occupation: Coney Island Circus Performer
Location: East River Promenade, East River Park.
Time: 3:30 on Friday, May 17.

I’m a suburban kid. I was born in downtown Mexico City but I grew up in a neighborhood called Lomas Verdes, which was known to be the most ‘Fresa,’ which would be the equivalent of the word square, suburban neighborhood in Mexico City. My dad’s a lawyer from Mexico and my mom’s a professor from the East Coast. I didn’t want to be a professor or a lawyer but you don’t really aspire to be a circus performer. I actually think I was the kid who had the balls to do what I wanted to do.

It was my lifelong dream to live here. I remember going to Times Square and thinking I wanted to be there. It was perverted and cool and weird. I moved to the East Village in the early 1990s and I’ve lived in the same apartment for 20 years. There used to be dealers in the building where I live. The prostitutes would sometimes be plying their trade in the halls at 4 in the morning. I always had a soft spot for the working girls. I kind of feel that in a lot of ways they’re somebody’s sister or somebody’s mother. I used to kick them out of the building but they always were nice to me. The dealers and the junkies and the working girls, I was always nice to them and they were always nice to me for whatever reason. The ones who were really nasty were the Johns. They had paid for it and would be like, “Mind your own business,” and I would go into my apartment and walk out with a baseball bat and that was it.

My first job here was as a street vendor, selling jewelry. I moved here to make it as an artist. I really was not into being a sideshow performer. I played in bands as a vocalist. I was into weird bands, anywhere from somewhat punk and hardcore to weird art bands. I was more of a screamer than anything else. I also wrote a lot of poetry and did a lot of poetry readings. I still write poetry — it’s kind of what I do. I write everyday. I’ve never really had a straight job. I didn’t want to become the hamster in the wheel going around and around in a circle. That, to me, was perhaps the most terrifying place to end up in.

I lost my street vending job and I needed a job badly, so this woman said they needed a ticket guy in Coney Island. It was incredible. There was so much energy and so much weirdness. There was such an intense vibe. It really was a war zone, although once you got to know people it was not a bad place.

The people I worked with were interesting but the people who really intrigued me were the people who hung out there. You’d have the kite flyers, the beach walkers, the beach combers, you had the people who would sit there and watch the sun all day, you’d have some old Italians who had been there for many years, you had the people from the projects who were really nice and coming to enjoy the beach. You had a wide variety of people that made up New York. No matter that they had all these gangs, it still had this nice and laid back vibe.

There was a big difference when I tattooed my face. A lot of people get really obsessed with the tattoos and then they start talking to me and realize I’m more than just the tattoos. When I tattooed my face I had to go work inside and there was a bed of nails and I said, ‘Oh, let me go do that.’ Little did I know that I would be Eak the Geek. I was the guy who got squeezed by the bed of nails. I was the pain proof man. It was one of the classical sideshow acts.

It was always really hard, hard, gritty work. There was a time when you would do 12, 45-minute shows a day. People would get very tired and beat up from doing the shows. It was not ideal working conditions. You spent a lot of your year with the five people in the backstage, that you’d see everyday, everyday, everyday. You were kind of a dysfunctional family. There was a lot of fighting and arguing.

After 15 years, when it stopped becoming a place for me to write about, that’s when it became time to leave. It had an interesting shelf life and then it became a job. I always liked fishing but I began to fish seriously in 2007 after I left the sideshow. The sideshow took so much of my time and life that I needed something to fill in the void.

What an amazing day to go fishing.

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

Countdown to Citi Bikes bike share in the East Village

The Citi Bikes bike share program will officially launch on Monday for the 8,000 or so people who bought the annual membership in the City. (We saw on Twitter that at least one East Village resident received her membership card in the mail.) For everyone else, weekly and daily passes go on sale June 2.

Ahead of this, Citi Bike officials were checking out the docking stations to make sure each rack works here on East 13th Street and Avenue A, as EVG reader Gary pointed out...



This was the docking station that someone festooned with dog poop and colorful signs last week. In fact, this post (briefly) served as the backdrop for Greg Mocker's report on Citi Bikes Sunday night on WPIX ...



Here's the segment. (Thanks to Shawn Chittle for this.)

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Meanwhile ... several readers noted that someone placed MasterCard stickers on the docking stations on East Second Street at Avenue B... and East Sixth Street at Avenue B... Seventh Street and Avenue A... initially we thought this might be some act of tomfoolery, though that's not the case... The program is funded jointly by Citibank and Mastercard, who paid $41 million and $6.5 million, respectively, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek.





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Finally, as a refresher. For accurate (probably) information on how Citi Bikes work... here is the official information on pricing ... and here are FAQs.

Sad sale of the 9th Street Bakery continues

As you probably know, 9th Street Bakery is closing in the next few weeks. And owners Oleg and Tetyana are selling off pieces of the bakery, including the dry-curved glass showcases.

Even more of the bakery's accessories are now on Craigslist... this one is a gut wrencher — the sale of the wood-framed chalkboard noting the daily specials...



A juice/smoothie shop is apparently taking over the space.

CB3 turns down The Living Room's bid to move to East 2nd Street

Catching up with Monday night's CB3/SLA committee meeting. One item of particular interest: The Living Room's proposal to take over the soon-to-be-former Klean & Kleaner laundromat on East Second Street. (Read the background on this here.)

Living Room co-founders Jennifer Gilson and Steve Rosenthal (pictured) were on-hand to make their case, though, ultimately, to no avail. The committee voted down the applicants. Let's have BoweryBoogie pick up the action:

As it stands, this stretch of Second Street was grandfathered into a general residence district, and doesn’t allow for any performances with cover charges. There was reportedly contact with the DOB to settle this issue, but the Living Room hadn’t heard any news as of last night. And they didn’t have the luxury of laying over the application another month due to landlord/lease constraints, so a vote had to transpire.

BoweryBoogie also has news of what went down with the Soho House vote on Ludlow Street. (Spoiler: Denied, though it likely won't matter in the end.) Head on over to BB's for more details on the three-hour drama.

Eater has more on Monday night's meeting here. The Lo-Down has coverage here.

[Photo via BoweryBoogie]

Avenue A's incoming 7-Eleven loses its plywood, gains a sidewalk

[Bobby Williams]

Workers continued to pour the new sidewalks outside the incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A and East 11th Street yesterday ... which is expected to be ready now for a November opening...



And there was someone on duty during the evening to prevent anyone from doodling on the fresh concrete...

Left behind by Treeman perhaps?

Bobby Williams spotted this today outside Tompkins Square... just one day after the Treeman sightings in these parts ...