Friday's parting shot

Birthday celebration at Mee Noodle Shop on First Avenue via EVG regular Dan Efram (read about his new book here) ...

On the road

Highway Hypnosis, the latest album from Sneaks (aka Eva Moolchan), is out on Jan. 25 on Merge Records. The video here is for "Hong Kong to Amsterdam."

The now-closed Chelsea Thai on 1st Avenue is selling all its equipment

After five months at 192 First Ave., Chelsea Thai closed following the holidays. Founder-chef Saruj Nimkarn said that there wasn't enough business here between 11th Street and 12th Street to keep the quick-serve restaurant open.

Nimkarn and his family members are selling off the contents from inside the space... thanks to EVG regular Lola Sáenz for the tip and photos...











The restaurant debuted here in August after 21 years in the Chelsea Market. (A rent increase there forced Nimkarn to look elsewhere.)

Nimkarn will be holding the sale until 8 tonight, then again tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The space is now also for rent... Steven took this photo earlier today...

EVG Etc.: City office for bad landlords; Secrets of the St. Mark’s Historic District

[Photo on 4th Street via Derek Berg]

City launching office to protect tenants from terrible landlords (Curbed)

Speaking of bad landlords, Mr. Mayor! This podcast explores NYC's public housing crisis (City Journal)

Mayor seeks vacancy tax on empty storefronts (Daily News)

And the deB says that bus speeds will increase 25 percent by 2020 (amNY)

The struggle to own and operate a restaurant in NYC (Eater)

Indictment for lawyer accused of sexually assaulting several women, including in the East Village (Post ... previously)

Secrets of the St. Mark’s Historic District (6sqft)

Check out the free activities at the Tompkins Square Library branch on 10th Street this month (Official site)

The need for an NYC Bike Mayor (Gothamist)

RIP Highline Ballroom (Brooklyn Vegan)

The Merce Cunningham Centennial continues (Anthology Film Archives)

The Academy at Metrograph series features "The African Queen" and "Eve's Bayou" this weekend (Official Site)

... this past summer, for rent signs arrived at Julie's Vintage, the eclectic vintage/thrift shop at 84 E. Second St. at First Avenue. A tipster tells us that a deal was struck with the landlord and the shop is staying put...

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.

Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenants: Alex, since 2001

How did you find your apartment?

I was living in Atlanta. I moved here in 2000. I spent the first year in Midtown. I was right in Times Square. My parents were living in Jersey. They were here first. The Midtown apartment was a sublet. I found the apartment through the gay roommate service. After that ended, I lived with my parents for six months to save money.

I grew up in Virginia. My dad has a second career as a Presbyterian minister. He was an associate pastor in his first church. It was on the Upper East Side. They had an amazing apartment. It was owned by the church. It was an old pre-war building. Then they moved to New Jersey and I moved to Atlanta. I don’t know why. I didn’t love it. I always wanted to live in New York City. I was just nervous about it. My parents lived in NYC in the 90s. I went to school in Connecticut. I would come down to visit. I always wanted to live here, I just had some detours.

I was working at an internet company in Soho. A co-worker sent and email that said, “I’m giving up my apartment on Avenue C if anyone is interested.” I answered the email and he showed me the apartment. I asked myself if I wanted to live that far East. And did I want to live that far from a train? Then I saw the apartment and thought, this is going to be it.

That was in June 2001. When I talked to the landlord he gave me an amount for the rent that was higher than the previous tenant. Then Sept. 11 happened. I had just moved into the apartment in June. I heard that people were leaving and that landlords were nervous. I called my landlord and he lowered the rent.

I have a preferential rent. Which means that the landlord is charging me significantly less than the legal rent-stabilized rent. I can only assume he is offering preferential rent because he would not be able to get the legal rent-stabilized rent for this apartment. I signed a paper that says “I acknowledge that I have a preferential rent and that this preferential rent can be revoked at the end of the lease term.”

[According to ProPublica, “the number of leases offering preferential rents is increasing: more than 250,000 of the city’s approximately 610,000 rent stabilized units in 2015 were offered at a preferential rent. Landlords are allowed to hike preferential rents to the legal maximum upon lease renewal.”]

The rent laws are up for renewal in June. One of the platforms is that if you have a preferential rent that it will become the new legal rent-stabilized rent. I am hoping that with the new democratic State Senate, my preferential rent will become the new legal rent.

I am nervous when it is time for lease renewal. A few years ago, there was a knock at the door. Someone from the management company introduced the person he was with as someone from the bank. And that they just want to walk around and look at the building. I was nervous about the visit and was concerned they would be selling the building. It is stressful always wondering if the rent will remain the same or increase to the legal rent. And if the building were to be sold how would that affect my rent?









What do you love about your apartment?

I love that the kitchen is separate and that there is a passthrough. The passthrough makes it feel open. I like the light.

The trade off of facing the street is the noise. There is a lot of noise with the construction. They are always digging up the intersection. I would definitely choose facing the street though because of the light that comes in. I like that it is on the 3rd floor and not too far of a climb.

The guy in the apartment below mine is a jewelry designer. We’re good neighbors. I opened the door recently and a woman across the hall opened her door and she turned out to be someone I knew from graduate school. She moved in with the guy across the hall who is her boyfriend.

I could not account for every apartment, so there are definitely people who I absolutely never see. There is a guy who lives here — he is a much older man who looks very gruff and never looks at or talks to anybody. I’m kind of an introvert but now I’ll say hello to him, “how are you?” and he’ll say “I’m fine how are you?” He talks back to me. He’s a little bit of a grump, which makes the interactions even more endearing.

I value the neighborhood and the apartment more now than when I first moved here. It still feels like a neighborhood.







If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.

Reminders: MulchFest (aka Chip-a-thon) is this weekend in Tompkins Square Park

[Photos by Steven]

The trees are piled highish in the middle of Tompkins Square Park ahead of this weekend's MulchFest (now a 2-day extravaganza, though surprisingly without any corporate sponsors — The Official Amber Lager of the 2019 MulchFest, say).

Anyway!



The Chip-a-thon (aka Chipping Weekend) happens in the Park tomorrow and Sunday. Per the Parks Department website: "We'll chip your tree and give you your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree."

The chipping hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. We'll have all eight hours available later as a prime-time PPV event and for purchase as a DVD with bonus content. Look for coverage this weekend as well as red-carpet interviews from the mysterious sinkhole by the holiday tree.

Meanwhile, the drop-off site on Ninth Street and Avenue A isn't catching on as expected...

The Starbucks on Broadway and 9th Street has closed

Last June, Starbucks reported that it would close 150 poorly performing company-operated stores in 2019, mostly in urban areas that are densely populated with other locations, per CNN.

Apparently the Starbucks on the northwest corner of Broadway and Ninth Street was on that hit list ... this location is now closed... the sign on the door directs would-be Starbuckers to nearby outposts...



The Starbucks took over for the Starbucks-owned Teavana in 2016.

This corner space previously housed Silver Spurs, the diner that closed in December 2013 after 34 years in business. After the rent hike, several EVG readers lamented that a Starbucks would likely take over the space.

Milk Hops, the beer-cheese store next to the Starbucks, closed this past Nov. 30.

Previously on EV Grieve:
After 34 years, Silver Spurs is closing on Broadway

Teary letters to landlord show that local children are devastated over closure of Silver Spurs

Starbucks-owned Teavana coming to the former Silver Spurs space on Broadway

Thursday's parting shot

Taking the monitor for a walk today on Seventh Street. Usually this time of year the salt used to melt ice on the streets irritates the CPU.

Photo by Derek Berg...

JR's 'Gun Chronicles' is no longer on the Bowery Mural Wall

Workers today removed the remaining sections of JR's "Gun Chronicles" at the Bowery Mural Wall, as this photo via EVG regular Lola Sāenz shows.

JR's mural featured images of 245 Americans who represent various viewpoints on the gun debate. The artist collaborated with Time magazine back in late October for this interactive special report on gun violence in America.

Someone added an 11 — representing the number of victims in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre on Oct. 27 — in red paint... the 11 became a XII after 12 people were gunned down in Thousand Oaks, Calif., on Nov. 8.

In recent weeks JR's mural was started to peel, and the wall had been tagged multiple times. No one from the wall's landlord, Goldman Properties, decided to clean up the piece. As one EVG reader commented: "It is a shame of the condition this mural has fallen to. This was an important mural with an important message that should have been maintained and protected. Instead of being marked up with graffiti that has covered up important parts of the mural."

No word at the moment on what might be next for the wall.

Morning visitors

EVG reader Sara shares these photos from this morning along Ninth Street...when a juvenile Cooper's hawk stopped by bearing a bloody hunk of something in its talons...



Meanwhile, Paul W. had a Cooper's sighting from Seventh Street...





Thanks to Goggla for helping ID the hawk(s) ... at least one Cooper's hawk was recently trying to start some shit with Christo and Amelia, the resident red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park.

As Goggla recently noted:

Cooper's hawks are also in the area. I've counted at least one adult and two immature Cooper's hawks around the park, but there could be more. In the past, the red-tails have mostly tolerated the Cooper's hawks, but as nesting season approaches, Christo and Amelia are getting more aggressive about chasing them out of the area.