La Plaza's grand willow tree comes down tomorrow

Back in July, officials at La Plaza Cultural announced that the last two willow trees in the community garden on the southwest corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street would have to be removed.

The trees, nicknamed Cher and Krusty, are rotting, and may be in danger of falling during a storm. La Plaza gardeners have said that the trees are more than 40 years old.

The Parks Department announced that they will have the larger of the two willows — the one near Avenue C nicknamed Cher — removed tomorrow morning. (The second willow, Krusty, located near the gazebo, is also in poor shape and will likely need to come down at some point.)

During the work on Friday, La Plaza will be closed.

Last night, La Plaza gardeners removed any lawn furniture in Cher's path ... and said their final goodbyes.

Rev. Billy presided over a Weeping Willow Wake on July 9.


[Photo on July 9 by Steven]

Updated 5 p.m.

EVG regular Jose Garcia shares some flyers that someone placed at La Plaza...





Previously on EV Grieve:
A wake for the last willow trees at La Plaza Cultural

At the Weeping Willow Wake

A letter for new NYU students: 'think good thoughts about yourself and others'

EVG reader Lori Kohn shared this letter that she spotted taped to a light post on Ninth Street and Third Avenue...


[Click on image for more detail]

The letter of support reads in part:

The struggles among new students at NYU are no doubt taking different forms. You might be struggling with how to meet friends or how to socialize with people who drink when you don't, or how to get involved in something, anything, when time seems so precious, etc. Some of you are wondering if everyone's smarter than you or if you're smart enough to be at NYU. Some of you are stressed with performance anxieties, with being cool. Some of you are just missing a home-cooked meal.

The struggles are real and sometimes hard, but they are normal. They are not a sign of a problem, but just the normal challenges of transitions to a new phase in one's life.

Dismiss any idea that your enrollment at NYU was a fluke. You belong here.

My suggestion: think good thoughts about yourself and others. Relax. And through it all, know that you are where you belong.

The letter is signed by "your neighbor," Mr. Steck.

Report: Threats made in ongoing battle over 97 2nd Ave.

Raphael Toledano continues to build his impressive tapestry of quotable quotes in his tenure as an East Village landlord.

“I’m worth a fuckload of money bro.” @markgmaurer’s profile on the rapid & rocky ascent of EV landlord Rafi Toledano https://t.co/Y3Qvbea8jT

— Kerry Barger (@kerrybarger) June 1, 2016

His latest keepsake soundbite came during the ongoing battle over 97 Second Ave. between Toledano and Michael Shah’s Delshah Capital. Both landlords are claiming ownership of the 11-unit building. (It's complicated.)

The Real Deal has all the details about the legal drama here.

In August ... Toledano filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on the property and tried to procure a buyer. According to court documents filed by Shah, Toledano also used that time to threaten and extort him. Toledano threatened to instruct the tenants to withhold rent, according to the documents, and told Shah, “I will bury you, literally. I will bury this building and make sure of it.”

The 6-story building between Sixth Street and Fifth Street was one of the first East Village properties purchased by Toledano. Public records show that Toledano paid $4.95 million for it in April 2014. Toledano said in the bankruptcy protection filing that the property is valued at $15.1 million, per the Commercial Observer.

As for the status of Tolednao and his other neighborhood properties, The Real Deal reported:

The 27-year-old landlord is awaiting approval for the sale of the deeds of 15 distressed East Village properties to lender Madison Realty Capital, which recently replaced him as property manager on the buildings.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened 'to drop dynamite on the building'

NYC's first Nutella Cafe coming to University and 13th Street

The retail space in the base of the in-progress condoplex on 13th Street and University Place will house the city's first Nutella Cafe. (There's a Nutella kiosk in the Eataly food hall.)

According to the Commercial Observer, who first reported on this yesterday, the cafe and coffee bar will occupy 2,200 square feet here at 116 University Place.

The first U.S. Nutella Cafe, in Chicago, "serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including waffles, croissants, crepes, panini, and family-style fondue," per Eater.

As previously reported, the Adjmi Architects-designed seven-story condoplex will feature one unit per floor. The starting prices for the homes are $6 million.

The corner previously housed University Place Gourmet as well as several adjacent storefronts, including Bennie Louie Chinese Laundry.

Developer Ranger Properties paid $22 million for the lot.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Major changes coming to University Place and East 13th Street

Report: Incoming condos for 13th Street and University Place will start at $6 million


[Photo from June 2015]

Wednesday's parting shot

Christo in Tompkins Square Park today. Photo by Bobby Williams.

Goggla said that Christo's been molting and looking pretty raggedy of late, but he should be back to his sleek self soon.

Dreaming of a Bluelight Christmas

It's that time of year again, at least at Kmart on Astor Place... (hopefully the Halloween stuff is still out) ... thanks to @supagirl13 for the photo...

About Bodega, a start-up that aspires to be the new neighborhood market

[At the former Golden Food Market on 7th and 1st]

A story today at Fast Company that may be of interest... From the article, titled Two Ex-Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete:"

Paul McDonald, who spent 13 years as a product manager at Google, wants to make this corner store a thing of the past. Today, he is launching a new concept called Bodega with his cofounder Ashwath Rajan, another Google veteran. Bodega sets up five-foot-wide pantry boxes filled with non-perishable items you might pick up at a convenience store. An app will allow you to unlock the box and cameras powered with computer vision will register what you’ve picked up, automatically charging your credit card. The entire process happens without a person actually manning the “store.”

Bodega’s logo is a cat, a nod to the popular bodega cat meme on social media – although if the duo gets their way, real felines won’t have brick-and-mortar shops to saunter around and take naps in much longer. “The vision here is much bigger than the box itself,” McDonald says. “Eventually, centralized shopping locations won’t be necessary, because there will be 100,000 Bodegas spread out, with one always 100 feet away from you.”

And...

I asked McDonald point-blank about whether he’s worried that the name Bodega might come off as culturally insensitive. Not really. “I’m not particularly concerned about it,” he says. “We did surveys in the Latin American community to understand if they felt the name was a misappropriation of that term or had negative connotations, and 97% said ‘no’. It’s a simple name and I think it works.”

But some members of the Hispanic community don’t feel the same way. Take Frank Garcia, the chairman of the New York State Coalition of Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who represents thousands of bodega owners. Garcia’s grandfather was the head of the Latin Grocery Association in the 1960s and was part of the original community of immigrants who helped settle on the term “bodega” for the corner store. “To me, it is offensive for people who are not Hispanic to use the name ‘bodega,’ to make a quick buck,'”Garcia says. “It’s disrespecting all the mom-and-pop bodega owners that started these businesses in the ’60s and ’70s.”

Bodega began trending on Twitter this morning...

Trying to destroy bodegas with a startup called “Bodega” that has a bodega cat logo is… just awful. https://t.co/1W4pSnXoXn

— hello i am anil (@anildash) September 13, 2017

my bodega owners are yemeni immigrants and the bodega not only affords them a life in new york but also allows them to send money back home

— Jessica Roy (@JessicaKRoy) September 13, 2017

Weird that they're calling this heinous vending machine "Bodega" and not "Gentrification Box" https://t.co/xPCozclRRD

— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) September 13, 2017

If Bodega were called Nile or Mississippi, would reaction have been the same? FreshDirect, Amazon are active in NYC & not great for bodegas.

— Anjali Khosla (@hellomountfuji) September 13, 2017

I see the Bodega backlash backlash has begun.

*rubs hands together* Just as the machine learning predicted.

— Ian Bogost (@ibogost) September 13, 2017

Updated

NcDonald addressed the backlash and offered an apology in a follow-up post on Medium.

Primary victory for Carlina Rivera in District 2 City Council race

In yesterday's Democratic Primary, Carlina Rivera handily won the District 2 race to succeed City Council member Rosie Mendez.

Rivera, a former Mendez staff member who grew up on the Lower East Side, received nearly 61 percent of the vote, according to election information published by NY1.



The seemingly runaway race wasn't without its last-minute drama. In a rare political turn, former New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter reportedly threw his weight behind Ronnie Cho with an endorsement released Monday night.

Turns out that while Jeter may have nice things to say about Cho, he wasn't endorsing him. As the Post followed up: "There was a communications mix-up and a draft release was sent out prematurely."

In addition, supporters of Rivera's opponents on Monday were also peddling since-deleted Facebook photos of her husband, CB3 chair Jamie Rogers, sailing on his father's yacht during races in recent years. Other critics questioned why/how they were living in Section 8 housing. The Villager explores that angle here. Rivera and Rogers both said that "it’s perfectly legal for them to live in the apartment and that their incomes were fully vetted under the requirements of the Section 8 program."

Finally, as The Lo-Down reported, developer Gregg Singer, who owns the former P.S 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center on East Ninth Street, began campaigning against the District 2 candidates, including Rivera, who might try to force his hand at returning the property for community use.

In other election news, Mayor de Blasio won big.



The Villager has other local election results here. According to the Daily News, there was "terrible voter turnout" yesterday.

Try a 'Taste of East Village' this Saturday

The second annual "Taste of East Village" is this Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. on Seventh Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square.

Here are some details via the EVG inbox...

Twenty local restaurants and bars will participate, including Luke’s Lobster, Porsena, Veselka, Porchetta, Brick Lane Curry House and Le Petit Parisien. The $25 ticket gives attendees a chance to try 4 small plates from participating restaurants – additional tastings are available for purchase at the event.

You can buy tickets here. (They are $30 the day of the event.)

The festival benefits the Cooper Square Committee's affordable housing preservation and organizing work, including the soon-to-open Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth on 13th Street.

Mr. Bing will sell traditional Northern Chinese street crepes on St. Mark's Place

[Reader-submitted photo]

Yesterday morning, workers put up the signage for Mr. Bing at 115 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Mr. Bing has been a regular on NYC's food market and festival scene the past two years, selling jianbing, "scallion- and sesame seed-studded crepes stuffed with eggs and other fillings that are artfully composed on a flat-top grill," as Eater describes the popular street food in Northern China.


[Photo by Steven]

Here's more on Mr. Bing's founder, Brian Goldberg via a piece in the Times back in January:

Mr. Goldberg, a Chinese scholar who grew up in Spring Valley, N.Y., in Rockland County, became a professional luge racer and worked in finance before running a couple of places in Hong Kong. He decided a few years ago to do something, he said, “that would be interesting and make people happy.” He’d like to do his part to make jianbing as mainstream as ramen.

Aside from various pop-up locations, Mr. Bing currently has a presence in the UrbanSpace Vanderbilt food hall ... this appears to be the first traditional storefront for the operation.

Mr. Bing is also on this month's CB3-SLA committee docket for a beer-wine license. (This item will not be heard before the committee.)

The previous tenant at 115 St. Mark's Place, Water Witch Mercantile, closed at the end of 2016 after just two months in business.


[Photo by Steven]