Spotted along Avenue A between East 11th Street and East 12th Street…
Not even a Kushner property…
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Noted
Spotted along Avenue A between East 11th Street and East 12th Street…
Not even a Kushner property…
[Updated] An urban garden grows atop Umbrella House on Avenue C
Via the EVG inbox…
Today from 4 to 7 pm the former Lower East Side squat Umbrella House will host an open house to inaugurate its urban farming project. At 5 pm members of Umbrella’s Rooftop Garden Committee will speak briefly about the development of the project.
EVENT RAINDATE: Sunday July 19; 4 — 7 pm.
This 820 square foot intensive green roof serves as a source of fresh produce for building residents, as a means to assist in storm water management, and as a model for other New York
The garden was initially conceived in early 2012 and construction was completed in December 2014. Now in its first growing season, the garden is producing swiss chard, broccoli, white onions, eggplant, okra, spinach, zucchini, basil, sugar snap peas, jalapeno peppers, lamb’s quarters, and several varieties of tomatoes; as well as medicinal plants: hyssop, lemon balm, chamomile, calendula, and passion flower.
Umbrella’s Rooftop Garden involved extensive construction: structural steel framing and concrete planking were required to build the raised 8” planting bed. Construction cost was $150,000. Area architect Paul Castrucci was the project architect.
Umbrella House members believe that this project is a worthy example for other co-ops and property owners to emulate.
Umbrella House Garden Committee and Co-op Board Member Parker Pracjek states: “Access to healthy food through Farmer’s Markets, Green Food Carts, and Farm to Table initiatives have made some improvements to food health literacy in New York City, but more must be done. Food justice should be expanded to urban farming to transform underused spaces into productive environments. The benefits of urban farming are far-reaching and include decreased carbon footprint, responsible use of natural and human resources and community health.”
[Image via the Umbrella House website]
Umbrella House is at 21 Avenue C between East Second Street and East Third Street.
Read more about the garden here. The New York Times has a feature on the garden here.
Updated 9:26 a.m.
Due to showers and thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon, the Umbrella House Garden Open House has been rescheduled for tomorrow 4-7 p.m.
Friday, July 17, 2015
Call of the 'Wild'
After playing the 4Knots Festival last Saturday on Pier 84, New Jersey's Screaming Females hit the road for the remainder of the summer... Here's "Wild" from 2011.
EV Grieve Etc.: Looking at deregulated apartments; Going Beyond Cassavetes
[Photo outside Gem Spa by Derek Berg]
More than 50,000 NYC apartments have been deregulated in the last eight years, with heavy losses in the East Village and Lower East Side (Gothamist)
The Bowery Mission receives donation of 300 new luxury mattresses (DNAinfo)
Housing advocates stage sleep-in to push for more affordable accommodation (Daily News)
About the #crashnotaccident campaign (Gizmodo)
Happy 10th anniversary to Alex! (Flaming Pablum)
Scaffolding and a sidewalk bridge arrive at 190 Bowery (BoweryBoogie)
This weekend: "Beyond Cassavetes: Lost Legends of the New York Film World (1945-70)" (Anthology Film Archives)
2nd Floor on Clinton closing on July 29 (The Lo-Down)
Fire Escape Season (Gog in NYC)
So long to one of the city's last vintage, stand-alone diners (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
The Papaya King story (Eater)
Boston subbing for NYC in "Ghostbusters" reboot (Runnin' Scared)
Commercial flashback: Phil Rizzuto pitches The Money Store (Ephemeral New York)
... and The New York Times has a feature on East Village resident and astronomy buff Felton Davis, who has been kind enough to share his stargazing photos from Second Avenue (and elsewhere) with us through the years...
Find the article, titled Strangers on the Street Find a Connection in the Stars, here.
Welcome back Ray!
[Photo yesterday by Peter Brownscombe]
Back on June 16, Ray Alvarez, the 82-year-old proprietor of Ray's Candy Store at 113 Avenue A, had heart valve replacement surgery.
Doctors discharged him on Wednesday evening from VillageCare Rehabilitation on West Houston Street with his new pacemaker.
[Photo Wednesday via Facebook]
Here's an update via the Ray's Candy Store Facebook page ... from Wednesday night:
Ray was released from his rehab facility today! His first stop, NATURALLY, was Ray's Candy Store, to get some oatmeal...and to try and help fix the air conditioner. A month after heart valve replacement surgery. Because, Ray.
The doctors and nurses FELL IN LOVE WITH RAY and were sad to see him go, but he's got a business to run and a neighborhood that needs him back where he belongs.
It may be a while before Ray is working the night shift again, but having him home means the world to us.
Yesterday, Ray was at work during the afternoon… taking it easy, but the same ol' Ray…
[PB]
[PB]
Previously on EV Grieve:
Get well soon, Ray!
Remembering East Village resident Mary Bellis
Via the EVG inbox...
Longtime East Village resident Mary Bellis aka CalmX was a filmmaker, artist and writer.
She received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and funding from the National Film Board of Canada to create her experimental works. Her 1984 independent film "Agent of Paradise" shot in the New York underground art scene starred numerous downtown performance artists, including John Kelly, The Unknown Comic, Philly McAninch as well as James Oseland star of Bravo TV’s "Top Chef Masters." "Agent of Paradise" premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and screened in art house theaters worldwide.
Mary worked as an independent video game developer, animator and journalist while continuing to make and exhibit her computer-generated art. She was the originator and author of the Inventors site for the web portal about.com.
Mary loved tending her garden at 6th Street and Avenue B and dancing at the Pyramid Club. Mary was a beautiful person and dear friend and will be greatly missed by all of those she touched.
Please join us in a celebration of life for our friend at the 6th Street and Ave B Community Garden on Sunday from 4-8 p.m.
Bellis died on March 28 following a short illness.
A change at 84 2nd Ave.
[Photo by Jill from 2009]
There has been some activity this week at 84 Second Ave. near East Fifth St. … a building that has intrigued many of us for years…
First, before any history … on Monday, workers started replacing the long-empty storefront's front windows…
[Photo by Paul Kostabi]
[PK]
The first thought among 84 watchers: The storefront is being put to use again as a… storefront… there's nothing on file with the DOB to offer any hints… for now the work has stopped…
[Photo Wednesday by Derek Berg]
As for history.
In February 2009, a man who said that he lived and worked nearby for years told Jill the following about the building:
It used to be a place that sold tuxedos and formal wear. The family had several children, but one of them, a daughter, was raped and murdered in the top floor, possibly in the 1940's [note: it was actually 1974].
The killer was never found. The children (or one of them and a spouse?) still live there and refuse to renovate or change anything. The top floor is exactly the way it was when the daughter was murdered and you can still see the powder where the cops dusted for fingerprints. This man had been inside once and was witness to its originality. He said they have no intention of selling or changing or even of renting out the storefront.
The name of the family is Sopolsky.
This is from The New York Times, dated Jan. 18, 1974:
The nude body of a 40-year-old woman propietor of a tailor shop that rents tuxedos on the Lower East Side was found bludgeoned to death. The victim was Helen Sopolsky of 84 Second Avenue, near fifth Street, whose shop is one flight up at that address. The motive of the attack was not determined immediately...."
Here's more history of 84 via Lost City from February 2012:
It was a temporary home for women in 1884, open to "self-supporting homeless young women, with or without a child." Morris Kosturk, 40, was found dead there in 1921. And Aaron Schneider, who lived here in 1964, was the victim of a hit and run driver.
For years (decades?), you could see a plastic-covered dinner jacket in the second-story window with the neon sign that reads "DRESS SUITS TO HIRE."
[Photo by Jeremiah Moss]
More recently there was an ad for Jamie's now-closed check-cashing shop around the corner … as well as for a walker for $60.
Here's Jeremiah Moss writing about the building in July 2011:
We're all a little nervous about #84. There are those of us who watch it and wait, anxiously, for the day when it will be sold, when a multi-millionaire will turn it into a grand mansion, or the ground floor will be converted into a trendy farm-to-table restaurant, and all the mystery will be sucked away.
Free production of 'The Taming of the Shrew' in La Plaza Cultural this weekend
Via the EVG inbox...
William Shakespeare
"The Taming of the Shrew"
July 18 and 19 at 6 pm
La Plaza Cultural, Avenue C at East Ninth Street
Tale Told Productions, a nonprofit theater company based in NYC, now in its 4th season, will be presenting "The Taming of the Shrew" as part of our 7-Day Shakespeare Series! With only seven days of rehearsal Tale Told Productions strives to present performances that are visceral and authentic, capturing the actor at their most raw and honest self while maintaining the truth and core of the plot.
Admission is FREE. For more information please visit the Tale Told website.
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