Not a Citi Bike either... photo on Fourth Avenue by Derek Berg...
Monday, February 25, 2019
Yet another reminder that February is nearly over
Workers removed the holiday lights today on Ninth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, as these photos by EVG Ninth Street Holiday Lights Correspondent Steven show... the lights had been up since Dec. 5 ...
Grant Shaffer's NY See
Here's the latest installment of 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. (And recently featured on the #ArtOnLink campaign via LinkNYC.)
Last call at Sidewalk and St. Mark's Comics, now closed after a combined 70 years in business
[Photo early Sunday by Day Clancy]
The Sidewalk closed after service on Saturday night... ending 34 years on Avenue A and Sixth Street. New owners are taking over the restaurant and live-music venue.
And there were many thank yous and goodbyes on social media from musicians who have played here through the years... just one example ...
Meanwhile, on St. Mark's Place, St. Mark's Comics closed its doors after 36 years in business last evening. Owner Mitch Cutler cited a variety of factors behind the closure. "I have been working 90 hours a week for 36 years, and I no longer have the wherewithal to fight them — all of these various reasons," he told me last month. The storefront at 11 St. Mark's Place is currently for rent.
amNY stopped by yesterday for a final report. You can read that piece here.
100 Gates project coming for East Village gates
The Lower East Side Partnership is bringing the 100 Gates Project to the East Village.
Here's the pitch:
Interested artists will be paired up with like-minded businesses for these site-specific mural collaborations that will be installed on exterior roll-down security gates. Artists are paid a supply and artist stipend of $400 for each gate installation and the project comes at zero cost to merchants.
EV merchants can email this account to apply for a gate revamp. (And artists can apply to work on a gate at this link.)
The 100 Gates project started on the Lower East Side in 2014 ... and eventually expanded to Harlem and Staten Island.
The 100th gate was completed (by LAmour Supreme) on the LES in September 2016... over at Katz's (this photo is from last year)...
New playground equipment alert in Tompkins Square Park
[Photos Friday by Steven]
New playground equipment is arriving in the under-renovation playground on the Avenue B side of Tompkins Square Park (H/T @dens!) ...
Renovation work started last Oct. 1 on the Avenue B children’s playgrounds.
According to the Parks Department website: "This project will reconstruct two playgrounds with new play equipment, safety surfacing, spray showers, seating and fencing."
The project has a 12-month timeline for completion. Construction here is listed as 37 percent complete, per the Parks Department website.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Playground renovations underway in Tompkins Square Park
Heavy-duty fencing arrives as playground renovations continue in Tompkins Square Park
Ravagh Persian Grill is back in action on 1st Avenue
Ravagh Persian Grill has returned after a months-long interior renovation here at 125 First Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.
This is one of five outposts for Ravagh (three in Manhattan and two on Long Island).
People seem to like this place. Eater gave it high marks in a roundup of Persian restaurants ... while the reader comments were positive, with one noting on our last post: "I eat here all the time! The ghormeh sabzi is the best I've ever had in a restaurant. Very much hoping they open up again soon."
BeetleBug sits empty now on 9th Street
Several EVG readers have noted that BeetleBug, the floral design shop, has been emptied at 441 E. Ninth St. at Avenue A.
There's no message on the site's website or social-media properties about any type of closure. (They do have operate a small-scale market and flower farm in the Hudson Valley.)
BeetleBug opened in early 2017, and they were the first tenant in Icon Realty's renovated retail spaces here at 441 E. Ninth St. (aka 145 Avenue A).
According to one previous retail tenant here in 2015, Icon either wasn't renewing leases or offering new terms with unmanageable rent increases. (Icon bought the building for $10.1 million in April 2014.)
The last previous tenant to leave — in February 2016 — was the Upper Rust, who found a new space in Chelsea for their antiques.
Another new business along here, Mahalo New York Bakery, which served Hawaiian-inspired desserts, closed back in fall after seven months in business. That 300-square-foot space is now for rent with an ask of $4,500 monthly, per the Icon website.
Report: Discussions on a mixed-income community for former St. Emeric property
[EVG file photo]
There is some development news to report about the former Church of Saint Emeric, which has sat empty since merging with St. Brigid's in early 2013.
St. Emeric's, built in 1950, is on a lonely stretch of 13th Street near Avenue D. The church sits next to the NYC Department of Environmental Protection's Manhattan Pumping Station and across the street from the Con Ed power plant ...
[EVG file photo]
As Curbed reported late last week, the Archdiocese of New York is considering a proposal to turn the 300,000-square-foot property, which includes a former school, over to a land trust for 400 units of below-market-rate housing.
Per Curbed...
The Cooper Square Community Land Trust has offered to partner with developer Jonathan Rose Companies to create a mixed-income community ...
The Archdiocese has already committed to devoting 100,000 square feet of the property toward affordable housing — though they have yet to define tenant income requirements — on land that houses the former Church of St. Emeric. But housing advocates say the church should further its charitable mission by devoting the entire lot to low- to middle-income housing.
And...
[I]f the trust’s proposal to develop St. Emeric's is accepted, the project would also include community space, as well as services for mental and physical health, senior services, and educational programming. The group would fine tune the plan based off of community feedback.
And if all this goes through, given the proximity to Con Ed, the land would require environmental remediation from contaminated soil.
Meanwhile, the Archdiocese doesn't seem so keen to convert the former Church of Nativity on Second Avenue between Second Street and Third Street into similar housing.
The Church closed after a service on July 31, 2015, merging with Most Holy Redeemer on Third Street. In the summer of 2017, the archdiocese desacralized the former church, clearing the way for a potential sale of the desirable property.
Back to Curbed:
The Cooper Square Community Land Trust ... offered to buy Church of the Nativity for $18.5 million (with $5 million in closing costs) over a 30-year period, but the Archdiocese has instead expressed interest in seeking market value for the land and using the funds to address needs at the Most Holy Redeemer and parishes across the city.
The Cooper Square Community Land Trust is currently organizing a town hall this spring with Community Board 3 to discuss "how decommissioned churches can be best utilized by the Archdiocese and the communities they once served." Something other than demolishing them to make way for ultra-luxury condos.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Looking at the Church of Saint Emeric on East 13th Street
From St. Emeric's to St. Brigid's
Educator: Turning the former Church of the Nativity into luxury housing would be a 'sordid use' of the property
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Week in Grieview
[Christo hunting in the Park Friday via Bobby Williams]
Stories posted on EVG this past week included...
The untold tale of East Village shopkeeper Santo Mollica's comic-book past (Thursday)
After 50 years on the block, the Hells Angels appear to be selling their 3rd Street clubhouse (Friday)
The birds and the bees: Mating season commences in Tompkins Square Park for red-tailed hawks Amelia and Christo (Wednesday)
The final days of Sidewalk (Tuesday)
An evening honoring extraordinary women at Middle Collegiate Church (Saturday)
Crooked Tree closes after 20 years on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday)
More details emerge about the revamped Webster Hall, returning this spring with Patti Smith, Sharon Van Etten and Royal Trux (Friday)
The foot race to beat the M14 along 14th Street (Thursday)
A "new wave gay bar" for the Standard East Village (Wednesday)
C&B Cafe now part of new venture taking over the former Cafe Orlin space on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday)
Under St. Marks won't be available for the Frigid Festival (Monday)
Plywood report: 101E2, aka 101 E. 2nd St. (Thursday)
Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices coming to 2nd Avenue in Gramercy Park (Tuesday)
Kikoo bringing all-you-can-eat sushi to the former Papa John's outpost on 1st Avenue (Wednesday)
An anniversary for McSorley's (Monday)
Report: Danny Meyer is closing Martina on 11th Street (Tuesday)
... and on Fourth Avenue, another children's kitchen closure to report...
[Photo yesterday by Derek Berg]
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