[Updated] Trees coming down for L train expansion on 14th Street

As previously reported, preliminary work is underway along 14th Street for building new entrances at Avenue A and an underground power station at Avenue B for the L train.

And to make way for all this, some trees need to come down. On Friday, workers removed several trees (I counted three barrels on top of stumps) on the cobblestone median along 14th Street/the Stuy Town service road between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Several EVG readers shared emails about this taking place.

Wrote one: "I am appalled and sickened to see [the trees] being cut down and fed through a chipper. Did anyone know that this was going to occur? I am sick at heart and will never see full grown trees on this block for the rest of my life. Incredible."

And more will be coming down between Avenue A and Avenue B... X marks the doomed trees...



These six trees have Xs on them...



... and the trees that will remain ...





Updated 8/15
Several readers noted that the six trees came down yesterday...

When Webster Hall reopens, there might be a Moxy Hotel across the street

[Photo from Saturday]

Webster Hall's Ballinger era has come to an end. The venue closed after a performance by Action Bronson on Thursday. (You can find a Webster Hall timeline here. The building has been around since 1886. It re-opened as Webster Hall in October 1992 after the Ballinger family purchased and renovated the space that was known as The Ritz during the 1980s.)

Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, along with AEG-backed The Bowery Presents, teamed up to buy the landmarked building from the Ballingers for $35 million this past spring. The new owners will renovate the space, doing away with club nights to focus on live music.

Heath Miller, vice president and talent buyer at Webster Hall, told amNewYork last week that the venue will likely be closed for the next 18-plus months for renovations.

"When I was first told about the sale, it was supposed to be a short closure for minor renovations and I was told the buyers had plans to retain the venue staff, but now the closure period has grown to 18-plus months and that plan has switched from a short-term closure to a long-term closure."

As of this morning, the new owners have yet to file any work permits with the Department of Buildings (DOB) for the property on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. So that process awaits as does getting the OK for the work via the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Meanwhile, across the street, construction hasn't started yet on the 13-floor hotel for Marriott's Moxy brand...



The DOB approved the permits last week, per the DOB website.

The Moxy website optimistically says the hotel will be open in late 2018.

So as of now, the revamped Webster Hall and the Moxy hotel have roughly the same opening/reopening dates.

Updated:

Billboard has an extensive piece on the past and future of Webster Hall.

The renovations could drag into 2020, and there may be a name change too.

Ahimsa Garden is open on 10th Street

[Photo Friday by Cheyenne]

Ahimsa Garden opened last Monday at 265 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

The vegetarian Indian restaurant is an offshoot of the Thompson Street location, which boasts an $11.95 lunch buffet. (Not sure if they are offering that deal here.) They are, however, using the rear garden like the previous tenant, Moustache, which closed in May.

You can find Ahimsa's Thompson Street menu here.

DBGB has closed, and erased from the Bowery

As announced, DBGB shut down after service on Friday following eight years in the Avalon Bowery complex between First Street and East Houston Street.

"In this location, it’s busy on weekends but erratic in the early part of the week," chef-owner Daniel Boulud told The New York Times. "I hope to find a more appropriate space for it in New York."



On Saturday morning, workers (above) were prepping to clean out the space on the Bowery ... and by the end of the day on Saturday...





... and a last look at the former sidewalk cafe (for now...in case Boulud decides to do something else with the space)...



For now, three of the five retails spaces in this Avalon Bowery section are vacant as DBGB joins L'Apico and Tatyana Boutique as former tenants.

Previously on EV Grieve:
How DBGB is 'pissing on the grave' of punk rock

Why we're writing about Duke's Bohemian Grove Bar in Buffalo

Breaking: DBGB making sidewalk cafe look less barren

Tasty Tasty won't be reopening on 14th Street

Tasty Tasty Chinese Take Out (previously Tasty King) has closed for good at 534 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

The gate has been down since the third week of July. There was some thought that this might just be a temporary closure. (As we understand it, the quick-serve Chinese restaurant changed ownership several months ago, with one family member buying out another.)

Late last week, a building resident here saw a worker cleaning out the space. The worker said that they decided to close the restaurant, that it wasn't a landlord/rent issue.

Perhaps it was a business issue? The restaurant (as well as the residents in the building) have endured noisy construction the past three years (here and here, for example) with the demolition and subsequent development of Extell's 7-floor retail-residential complex next door...



H/T Michael Paul!

Week in Grieview

[Those fake Alice Cooper eyes]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

New City Council legislation aims to protect tenants from construction as harassment (Friday)

No charges for driver who struck and killed East Village cyclist (Saturday)

LPC signs off on expansion for the Anthology Film Archives (Thursday)

A little more about Limited to One, a new collectible record store on 10th Street (Friday)

Out and About with Puma Perl (Wednesday)

The Living Gallery Outpost is a new exhibition and event space on 4th Street (Thursday)

Someone returned a book to the Tompkins Square Branch of the NYPL that was overdue by 38 years (Thursday)

Landlord and partner sues Root & Bone chefs for spending profits (Thursday)

Renderings reveal the MTA's plans for the Avenue A L station; why does everyone look so happy? (Tuesday)

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists & the Make-Up headline the Seaport Music Festival (Tuesday)

A look at 'Carole Teller’s Changing New York' (Wednesday)

New photo exhibit celebrates the neighborhood's storefronts (Thursday)

Dr Smood to call on the LES (Wednesday)

Dog Beach (Tuesday)

Cheers Cut bringing Taiwanese fast food to St. Mark's Place (Thursday)

New York Health Choice (aka Eastside Market) has gone dark for now on Avenue C (Monday)

Former Eye Beauty Spa for rent on 4th Street (Wednesday)

More legal drama with Raphael Toledano and 97 2nd Ave. (Tuesday)

Horus Kabab House airs out their sidewalk cafe on 6th Street (Monday)

Shake Shack announces itself at the Death Star (Monday)

A Starbucks sneak peek on St Mark's and Avenue A (Friday)

Turntable 5060 has been closed today for awhile (Monday)

Mayahuel has closed (Wednesday)

So long to those spiky structures outside Cooper Union (Tuesday)

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Blast from the past

Given the world we live in these days... France 24 checks in (H/T cmarrtyy!) with a feature on the city's mostly forgotten fallout shelters, specifically the one at the Cooper Station Post Office on Fourth Avenue and 11th Street:

The yellow and white metal sign on the Cooper Station Post Office is one of perhaps thousands that can be found scattered throughout the city -- largely forgotten relics of the days when the threat of annihilation via a Soviet nuclear attack seemed like a very real and terrifying proposition.

But as the war of words between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un intensifies, the idea of nuclear war, however remote, has made its way back into public consciousness for the first time since the Cold War.

The shelter at Cooper Station is now used for storage, per the article. (Maybe this could serve as a fallout shelter?)

Also at Cooper Station, someone affixed the word Trump to the top of the sign...



P.S.

Bonus Fallout Shelter signage from Second Street between Avenue A and Avenue B (photo taken on June 12)...

Another LinkNYC kiosk, which may be guiding autonomous vehicles one day

Yesterday saw the arrival of another LinkNYC kiosk... as crews installed one on First Avenue near 14th Street... in proximity to two other LinkNYC kiosks right around the corner on 14th Street...



Not sure about the placement of these. There are four LinkNYCs on 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue ... yet they did keep a pay phone on the block...



Look for another kiosk soon on First Avenue at Fourth Street, among other locations ...



Meanwhile, there are grand plans for the LinkNYC network. MIT Technology Review had an article on the company behind Link a few weeks ago...

Link is poised to be far more than an advertising and Wi-Fi network, however. Intersection, the company that manages the Link projects in London and New York, is considering upgrading them to support everything from augmented reality to autonomous vehicles. “Phase One was about making sure we’re offering robust services to people,” says Intersection’s chief innovation officer, Colin O’Donnell. “Now we’re figuring out how we can leverage all the different data sets we have access to and make [this technology] as dynamic and responsive as it can be.”

Intersection’s ambitions bear attention because it is one of the few private firms that large cities have partnered with on high-profile public-information projects—and its digital technology is likely to spread to other major U.S. cities, such as Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, where it holds multiyear municipal and transit advertising contracts.

According to the article, there are currently 900 active kiosks in the city ... with plans for up to 7,500.

Remembering Erin O’Connor

[Photo by Steven]

Erin O’Connor, a longtime East Village resident, died on July 25. She was 50. (The cause of death was not disclosed.)

The Villager published a feature obituary in this week's edition:

Erin was a poet, an artist and a humanitarian. She was also a natural gifted dancer. She was humble and her passions were raising her son and advocating for social-justice issues in her local community. She gave thousands of volunteer hours to the Catholic Worker’s Mary House, on E. Third St., the Holy Name Center for homeless men, at 10 Bleecker St., and Judson Memorial Church.

Friends and loved ones are coming together tomorrow afternoon for a memorial in her honor at El Jardin del Paraiso, the community garden on Fifth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D. The memorial starts at 3.

There's an online memorial here.

Report: No charges for driver who struck and killed East Village cyclist

The NYPD has declined to charge the garbage truck driver who struck and killed Neftaly Ramirez (pictured), an East Village resident biking home from his job at Paulie Gee's in Brooklyn early on July 22.

Per DNAinfo:

While the Brooklyn District Attorney's office said they are still investigating the deadly July 22 crash, no criminality is suspected, an NYPD spokesman said.

Detectives based their conclusion on the unidentified driver's behavior after the crash.

"He continued to pick up the garbage from his route," NYPD spokesman Ahmed Nasser said. The person, based on the speed of the vehicle, where the vehicle was the whole time, indicated that this person probably didn't realize he had hit the victim."

The driver worked for Action Carting. According to published reports, the private trash hauling company has been responsible for five (three pedestrians, two cyclists) deaths since 2008.

Per Streetsblog:

In the last 24 months, Action Carting drivers were involved in seven crashes involving pedestrians, resulting in eight injuries, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records. In that same period, the FMCSA says 44 percent of Action vehicles were taken out of service due to safety violations — more than twice the national average.

The company has five standing contracts with city agencies — three with DOT adding up to about $2 million and two with the Department of Environmental Protection worth about $35 million apiece. All but one of those — an $800,000 contract with DOT — were signed during the de Blasio administration.

Paulie Gee's proprietor Paul Giannone told Gothamist yesterday: "I'm very upset right now ... Because nothing is going to happen to this guy [the driver]. The guy said he didn't know, I think he's full of it ... I think he's a liar, and I hope he rots in hell."