A reader-submitted photo from 13th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... enjoy!
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Today in free stuff on 13th Street
A reader-submitted photo from 13th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... enjoy!
Skateboarders upset over plan to add synthetic turf to the northwest corner of Tompkins Square Park
Word started spreading yesterday that the city plans to cover the multipurpose courts in the northwest corner of Tompkins Square Park with synthetic turf, a move that surprised and angered a major user of that space — skateboarders.
In late May, the Parks Department announced that it was planning to spend $28 million to upgrade various parks and playgrounds on the east side ahead of the March 2020 closure of East River Park for stormproofing during the next three-plus years.
Crystal Howard, a spokesperson for the Parks Department, told this to Patch in May:
"Responsive to the community's need for supplemental [recreation] during the forthcoming $1.45B flood protection and park improvement project at East River Park, we have been working to identify opportunities to create and enhance neighborhood Parks spaces and amenities so they are available for community use during the park closure."
It wasn't immediately clear — until yesterday, anyway — that part of the plan included adding the turf to the courts at Avenue A and 10th Street, space used by people playing baseball, softball, hockey, field hockey, lacrosse ... as well as the skateboarders.
CB3's Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee heard an updated overview on the East Side Coastal Resiliency project during its May 16 meeting. The plan to add turf to this area of the Park was included in slide 17 of the presentation...
The turf plan is currently listed as a "proposed project."
Meanwhile, here's reaction to the turfing news in a post at Quartersnacks yesterday afternoon:
A multi-use, open asphalt area in the East Village is scarce. If the city goes ahead with this approved plan, it would alienate many of the end users of the park, who have called it a home for decades, and built a community around this small patch of sacred asphalt.
Skateboarding has been a part of Tompkins Square Park since the 1980s, when Shut Skateboards would lug over makeshift ramps and throw contests there. Skaters continued to call Tompkins a home ever since. In the years after 9/11, when much of the city was under lockdown and the places we skated in before became closed off for security measures, Tompkins became a hassle-free refuge for the skate community thanks to the nearby ABC and Autumn Skateshops, who would bring ramps to the park, and store them in their stores overnight. We have quite literally shoveled snow out of the way to skate here before.
This isn’t only about skateboarding. A roller hockey league calls Tompkins home on weekends. If you’re trying to teach your son or daughter to ride a bike or any roller sport, you take them to an open asphalt field like this one. And while skateparks have become more abundant in New York City, if someone is learning how to skate, they are definitely not going to a high velocity atmosphere like a skatepark to learn how to ride.
Tompkins is an unshakeable part of our community. Much of the details about the resurfacing remain foggy. Many people have reached out asking how to help convince the city that a synthetic turf field here is a giant mistake.
A petition to "Save Tompkins Square asphalt!" quickly attracted 1,000 signatures yesterday. (Update: As of 7:45 a.m., that number hit 5,400.) You can find it here.
People using #SaveTompkins on Instagram shared their thoughts on the space ...
The Parks Department responded to the various Instagram posts, noting: "We hear you, and understand your concern! The decision to install turf here in 2020 wasn’t made lightly. It is part of neighborhood-wide enhancements being made to provide green space for the community rit large during the reconstruction of East River Park." The Parks rep said that they are working "to setup a meeting to discuss the matter with you directly."
Since the initial posts, there is apparently a meeting set for early next week between reps for the skateboarders and the Parks Department.
[Updated — now open] St. Mark's Market has not been open lately
Updated 7/4 — St. Mark's Market is back open!
Multiple readers shared the news that the 24/7 grocery at 21 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue is out of business...
This address has a storied history (you can read about it here)... the building was demolished in a mall-style upgrade in 2003, which marked the arrival of the market.
The Chipotle upstairs in the complex closed last August.
Updated 8:30 a.m.
There is a makeshift sign out front... photos via Steven...
Another reader said the space has been dark for two days. The fruit remains behind...
Updated 12:30
A worker says that the power is out (though it's on in other businesses in the complex)... and that they'd be back open ...
H/T @randeepk!
Previously on EV Grieve:
Why, yes you can live on St. Mark's Place for $19,500 a month
These 2 adjacent community gardens have merged on Avenue B
You may have noticed that Vamos a Sembrar, the small community garden on the west side of Avenue B near 12th Street, has been emptied out... ditto for the Avenue B Community Garden on the north side of the plot...
EVG regular Gojira, who shared these photos, was alarmed by the site of the empty lot. "As you can see, it has been leveled — all the greenery has been ripped out, the casita torn down."
I asked Bill LoSasso, director of the NYC Parks GreenThumb, who oversees the city's community gardens, for an explanation.
"The two groups that have stewarded the adjacent community gardens at this site are working together to merge and become one group stewarding one larger community garden. This is an exciting project," he said in an email. "GreenThumb worked with the group over the winter to complete a participatory visioning and design process, and we are beginning the physical implementation of their design. We’ll be supporting them with site improvements and plantings."
The garden will debut a little later this year.
"The community gardeners are excited to see their design realized," said LoSasso, who noted that anyone who's interested in getting involved with the group here can reach out to GreenThumb at this email.
The abandoned bus shelters of Avenue A
The M14 SBS routes launched yesterday... and, as noted, several stops were eliminated ... with the remaining spaced out along Avenue A. MTA officials made sure passengers were aware of which shelters were no longer in use with some art-installation quality tape work...
[Photo by Steven]
[Photo by Steven]
These will likely be removed ... though it's not immediately known if new shelters will be erected at the new stops.
[Photo by Steven]
[Photo by Steven]
These will likely be removed ... though it's not immediately known if new shelters will be erected at the new stops.
A-Rod owns part of this building on Avenue D
[133 Avenue D via Streeteasy]
In early June, the Post reported that former Yankee Alex Rodriguez teamed up with real-estate veteran Barbara Corcoran to buy "a 21-unit rental tower" in the East Village. However, the two declined to divulge the address.
In a follow-up piece, the Post discloses that the property is 133 Avenue D, a building between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
That address made headlines last August when Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, sold his stake in the building. According to The Real Deal, Cohen — now serving a three-year sentence at Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York — sold four stakes to Vintage Group, his joint venture partner in the ownership of 133 Avenue D, for $4 million.
As for A-Rod, 133 Avenue D is his first foray into New York City real estate. However, his Monument Capital Management company owns about 15,000 apartments in 13 states. He plans on buying up more NYC properties. Per the Post:
A-Rod Corp. has teamed up with real estate investor and operator Ofer Yardeni of Stonehenge NYC and brokerage guru Adam Modlin of the Modlin Group in what they say is an exclusive as-yet-to-be-named venture to root out and purchase all sizes of apartment buildings and bulk condominium units in the Big Apple.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Michael Cohen sells stake in Avenue D building
Monday, July 1, 2019
Someone has renounced the throne on 3rd Street
EVG regular Salim shared this photo from Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... the sign on the discarded chair reads: "Treat yourself like the royalty you are with this FREE throne."
M14 SBS routes debut today; 14th Street busway now on hold
Starting today, the MTA is instituting Select Bus Service along the notoriously sluggish M14A and M14D lines, as we've been reporting.
So moving forward, passengers can enjoy all-door boarding and off-board fare payments. You've likely seen the new self-serve ticket kiosks along the route. The kiosks also provide handy beverage holders...
To also help speed up travel times, the MTA eliminated 16 stops (down from a proposed 22) along the M14A and M14D routes. You can visit this MTA site for the new route map and info on how to pay the fare on SBS routes.
Several stops along the route were also moved as a result of the cuts. For instance, the southbound M14A stop on the lower part of Avenue A is now directly in front of Boulton & Watt (the taxi relief stand relocated around the corner)...
And we've already heard from a few readers who pointed out that this stop might be a tight fit for passengers entering and exiting buses, having to navigate space with pedestrians as well Boulton & Watt sidewalk cafe patrons...
A little further north on Avenue A, the stop on the west side between Fifth Street and Sixth Street...
... is now between Fifth Street and Fourth Street...
[Photo from Saturday]
There wasn't any mention of this posted, and the city promptly ticketed all the vehicles parked here...
Meanwhile, the car-free busway set to debut today on 14th Street between Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue is now on hold.
Per Gothamist:
In a temporary restraining order issued on Friday, New York Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower ruled that the Department of Transportation had failed to provide sufficient evidence that the new street design did not warrant an environmental review.
The 18-month pilot program, which had broad support from transit advocates, would have restricted private through traffic in both directions between 3rd and 9th Avenues, with the goal of speeding up the notoriously slow 14th Street buses. Paired with the long-awaited arrival of Select Bus Service in the area, the city estimated that bus speeds would improve by as much as 30 percent for 27,000 daily riders.
Last week, the West Village and Chelsea block associations filed a lawsuit claiming that the vehicle restrictions would cause a nightmare of spillover traffic on side streets.
Arthur Schwartz, a frequent opponent of bus and bike lanes who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the community groups, told Gothamist on Friday that he was "feeling happy for my kids who aren't going to have traffic jams outside their windows every day, and for me. I guess my lungs matter too."
As the Post noted, transit advocates ridiculed Schwartz as an out-of-touch "wealthy property owner" who doesn't "understand the needs of the 27,000-plus people who take 14th Street buses each day."
“This sort of small-minded and self-interested behavior has degraded the public transit system to the sorry state it is in today,” said Transportation Alternatives Advocacy Director Tom Devito.
At long last a taxi relief stand for East Houston and 1st Street outside Punjabi Grocery & Deli
With the arrival of the new M14 SBS route today comes another important change: The arrival at long last of a taxi relief stand on Houston Street as well as on First Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...
For a little history... the never-ending East Houston Reconstruction Project finally wrapped up at the end of 2018 — just six years behind schedule.
For nearly nine years, the construction zone eliminated parking spaces for cab drivers, who are a sizable share of Punjabi Grocery & Deli's business here at 114 E. First St., rendering it nearly impossible for them to stop in for a meal or break. Those who did stop faced getting a ticket.
[EVG photo from 2015]
Community members came together in 2014 ... and later in 2015 to petition Community Board 3 and the city for an interim taxi relief stand. (The taxi relief stand was inexplicably some hot-potato issue among various city agencies at the time.)
The temporary taxi relief stand finally arrived on Avenue A between Second Street and Houston in June 2015. That spot on First Avenue outside the Library and Boulton & Watt is, as of today, now an M14A stop.
Now, hopefully, the First Street taxi relief stand will be here to stay — at least until construction picks up next door at 118 First Ave., where a 9-story residential building (with ground-floor retail) is in the works.
Previously on EV Grieve:
How you can help Punjabi Grocery & Deli stay in business
Never-ending construction continues to hurt Punjabi Grocery & Deli
Taxi Relief Stand arrives on Avenue A; Punjabi Grocery & Deli relieved
Concern again for Punjabi Grocery & Deli on 1st Street
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