Sunday's parting shot

Photo on the Bowery by Lola Sáenz...

Week in Grieview

[Avenue A]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

After the last call: East Village photographer captures bars at dawn (Thursday)

Concern over potential air-rights transfer for new office building on St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue (Tuesday) ... The lobbyists behind the air-rights transfer and zoning variance for 3 St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)

Here's how to reserve free tickets for the Basquiat exhibit opening next month at the Brant Foundation on 6th Street (Monday)

Jerry's New York Central is closing on 4th Avenue (Monday)

Patti Smith, John Zorn and Jim Jarmusch headline tribute to Jonas Mekas at City Winery (Friday)

UCB East has closed; what's next for their space on Avenue A and 3rd Street? (Monday)

SMØR now serving Nordic fare on 12th Street (Friday)

Raising awareness of the vacant storefronts in the East Village (Tuesday)

Craft+Carry outpost slated for 116 St. Mark's Place (Monday)

Patisserie Florentine has closed on 10th Street (Thursday)

Explosion-site condoplex now in the pile-driving phase on 2nd Avenue (Monday)

Bookstore trends we like to see (Monday)

MTA releases more details on the new L-train rehab plan (Thursday)

Virginia's reopens after December fire next door (Monday)

Your 'Russian Doll' reader (Sunday)

Attention Kmart drinkers... (Tuesday)

No one seems to want to keep these historic Anglo-Italianate townhouses on 10th Street (Wednesday)

The write stuff? Short Stories debuts on the Bowery (Monday)

KC Gourmet Empanadas debuts on Avenue B (Friday)

Two new quick-service options for Houston and Allen: pizza and gyros (Thursday)

Melt Shop makes way back to 4th Avenue (Tuesday)

The Marshal serves notice at Tapanju Turntable on 4th and B (Tuesday)

Donosita on Avenue B is for lease (Wednesday)

...

The Patti Smith/Punk mural arrived last July on Second Street at First Avenue... it was tagged, and stayed that way for months...



... and it was cleaned off this past week...



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Next steps for the proposed office building on St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue

[The current northeast corner of St. Mark's Place at 3rd Avenue]

As I first reported on Feb. 3, Real Estate Equities Corporation (REEC) wants to transfer the air rights from the landmarked Hamilton-Holly House at 4 St. Mark's Place to add more floors and square footage to their office building in the works for the northeast corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place.

In the first step in this process, REEC reps appeared before CB3's Landmarks Committee on Wednesday night. The committee ultimately voted against the special permit (it was a 2-1 count). This nonbinding vote goes to the full CB3 board on Feb. 26.



Three media outlets had reporters at the meeting. You can read the recaps at Curbed ... Gothamist ... and Patch.

And a few excerpts from the various coverage. Per Curbed:

"I think a number of us are concerned. This is the entrance of St. Mark's place which is a really historic street in our neighborhood," said Carolyn Ratcliffe, a member of the board’s landmarks committee, who noted a 19th century apartment building will be demolished and small businesses booted to make way for the new office building. "It's about how we feel about that street and the entrance to that street and it’s like having the whole corner turned into a modern glass [building]."

And in response...

REEC pushed back and said neighborhood advocates are being shortsighted about the deal’s implication’s for the Hamilton-Holly House.

“People are talking about preserving the neighborhood and the way it feels but they’re not thinking about the long-term benefits of the preservation of 4 St. Mark’s (the Hamilton-Holly House) going forward simply because people are upset that there might be a building on the corner seems out of spite to want to hurt the individual landmark building,” said Brandon Miller, a managing partner at REEC.

Under the approved deal, REEC would pay $4 million for the air rights to Castellan Real Estate Partners, the owner of 4 St. Mark's Place. During the meeting, Miller said the company also contributed $500,000 toward the recent restoration of No. 4. And 5 percent of the air rights sale proceeds — $200,000 — would go into a dedicated account for future maintenance of No. 4.

And Patch lays out the complicated steps ahead:

REEC is asking asking the Landmarks Preservation Commission to issue a report to the City Planning Commission to allow for 10-story building. If the LPC gives the greenlight, REEC would then apply for a special permit for around 8,300 square feet of air rights and modify part of the zoning resolution through a special permit.

Once in City Planning's hands, the special permit would snake through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which is ultimately sent to City Council where the local councilmember, Carlina Rivera, would have a binding vote. Rivera has not yet weighed in, but her spokesman said the councilmember is listening to community feedback.

Regardless, REEC already filed permits (last October) for an as-of-right five-story, 29,030-square-foot building on the corner.

The full CB3 board meeting is Feb. 26 at 6:30 p.m. Location: P.S. 20, 166 Essex St. (between East Houston and Stanton).

Previously on EV Grieve:
Developers of 3 St. Mark's Place are looking to increase the size of their proposed office building at 3rd Avenue to 10 floors with air-rights deal

The lobbyists behind the air-rights transfer and zoning variance for 3 St. Mark's Place

Concern over potential air-rights transfer for new office building on St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue

Foxy Flea & Festival this evening at Coney Island Baby on Avenue A

Coney Island Baby is playing hosting this evening (starting at 5) to Foxy Flea & Festival, where you'll find vendors selling a variety of vintage clothing and assorted records ... there'll also be a handful of live performances and DJs at the venue, 169 Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street. There's a suggested $5 cover.

Saturday's parting shot

One of the murals by East Village-based artist Scooter LaForge on display now at Howl! Happening. His show, titled Homo Eruptus, is up through March 13 at the gallery, 6 E. First St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Deconstruction at Theater for the New City; Homo Eruptus at Howl! Happening

Grant Shaffer's NY See

Here's this week's NY See, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's comic series — an observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood — and NYC.

St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church in the morning

A view this morning of St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church on 10th Street and Avenue A.

Some history of the landmarked building via The New York Times in 2008:

The church, at 288 East 10th Street, near Avenue A, was built in 1882 and 1883 as the Memorial Chapel of St. Mark’s in the Bowery, one of the city’s oldest Episcopal parishes, as the gift of Rutherford Stuyvesant, a descendant of the Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant, in memory of his wife.

In 1911, St. Mark’s rented the church, which served members of the area’s large Eastern European immigrant community, to the Holy Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church, which remained there until St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church, a Carpatho-Russian congregation, assumed the lease in 1925. The church is named for the archbishop of Myra (located in what is modern-day Turkey), who is a patron saint of children, sailors, merchants and students. The congregation bought the building from the Episcopal Diocese of New York in 1937.

The church is also known for its annual Cookie Walk ... perch for the red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park ... and, now, the exterior for Maxine's apartment (that bathroom!) in "Russian Doll."

P.S.
I forgot that "Gossip Girl" filmed here in 2010.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Your 'Russian Doll' reader

Hanging 'Tough'

Ex Hex is back with a new album, It's Real, out on March 22 via Merge Records. The video here is for "Tough Enough."

EVG Etc.: European-styled police sirens for NYC; 30 years of the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black

[Photo on 9th and 2nd this a.m. by Steven]

This East 14th Street resident is missing (Town & Village)

Local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera co-proposed a new bill calling for European-style hi-lo sirens on NYC emergency vehicles (Gothamist)

Longtime East Village activist Carmen Trotta is currently under house arrest on First Street as he awaits an out-of-state trial for breaking into a Georgia nuclear-missile submarine base and splattering human blood inside of it to mark the 50th anniversary of MLK's assassination (The Villager)

East Village Inky has "Russian Doll" real-estate envy (Book & Film Globe)

The 10 things that NYC should do with Amazon’s $3 billion subsidy all have 1 thing in common (Curbed) ... and Bloomberg's article, Amazon’s Escape From New York, includes this Steph Davidson photo illustration of Jeff Bezos as Snake Plissken...


[Bad iPhone pic]

Checking out the reasonably priced vegetarian cruise at Divya's Kitchen on First Avenue (CBS 2)

The old Bowery Savings Bank at 190 Bowery is headed to auction, where it could fetch upwards of $50 million (Bloomberg)

De Blasio's ally pans NYCHA-HUD deal (The New York Times)

Some East Village architecture history (Off the Grid)

East Villager Kembra Pfahler on 30 years of the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black (Dangerous Minds)

Academy Records on 12th Street is selling some gems from the recently purchased personal collection of Harry Belafonte (Instagram)

Rehab of Luther Gulick Park alongside the Williamsburg Bridge is finally about to begin (The Lo-Down)

LES mainstay Russ & Daughters opens a supersized outpost in Brooklyn (Grub Street)

"Casablanca" screens at the Metrograph (Official site)

About the newish HUF-Eric Haze mural at Eastside Community High School on 12th Street (HYPEBEAST)

Can you dig it? "The Warriors" is 40 (The Guardian ... Flaming Pablum)

And here's the cabaret action in March at Pangea on Second Avenue between 11th Street and 12th Street ... via the EVG inbox:

Tammy Faye Starlite will tangle with Marianne Faithful's "Broken English." Raven O is going to dance cheek to cheek with Sinatra. Claywoman will be put under the microscope thanks to special guest John Cameron Mitchell. Jazz phenom Tammy McCann measures up to the great masters from Ellington to Wonder. And Zachary Claus stands up for the woman in us all in “Hey Girl.” Five incredible performers taking risks, flying without a net and landing, we think, almost effortlessly.

Ticket info here.


[The cabaret room at Pangea]

After a garbage truck burst a hydraulic line on Avenue B

EVG reader Robert Miner shares these photos on Avenue B between Seventh Street and Eighth Street this morning... word here is that the hydraulic line on a city sanitation truck ruptured, creating a slick mess on the Avenue... workers spread a ground absorbent on the spill...



... and reaction...

Did the sanitation truck find itself after this looking in the mirror with that Harry Nilsson song playing

— happy dunk on Amazon day (@brianvan) February 15, 2019