[Sunset over Tompkins Square Park last night via @cecilscheib]
• Upper West Siders upset with plan that relocated residents from two East Village-based shelters to the Lucerne Hotel on 79th Street (West Side Rag ... NBC 4)
• Homeless group secures city pledge to fund hotel stays (The City)
• A breakdown of protections New Yorkers currently have from eviction (Curbed)
• Café Tucano — the former Cloister Cafe — on Ninth Street Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue is said to now be a hotspot for exclusive all-night pandemic parties (Gothamist)
• Staffers at The Neighborhood School on Third Street encouraging parents to request full remote learning on Department of Education surveys (The Post)
• Nearly 50 NYC restaurant owners, including Danny Meyer and David Chang, are pledging their support of a new "Safe and Just Reopening" plan for restaurants (Eater)
• Chinatown dining scene making a comeback (Eater)
• "An uncommonly good summer show" title "(Nothing but) Flowers" through Sept. 13 at Karma on Second Street (The New Yorker)
• Club Cumming on Sixth Street launching series of virtual variety shows (Instagram)
... and out on virtual platforms today... "Creem: America's Only Rock 'N' Roll Magazine" ...
MTA officials yesterday officially unveiled the two platform-to-street ADA elevators on either side of 14th Street near Avenue A that are now servicing the L-train stop.
In announcing the completion of this project, MTA officials, along with accessibility advocates, used the moment to call upon the federal government to provide funding to help secure the MTA’s 2020-2024 Capital Plan ... and bring more accessibility across the system.
Officials have stressed that the MTA needs $12 billion in federal aid in order to maintain operations through the end of 2021. A coalition of 13 advocacy groups sent a letter to Washington lawmakers today calling on them to make transit funding the "highest priority" in Congress's next Covid-19 relief bill.
"We have fought hard alongside transit advocates to make accessibility a top priority at the MTA and remain committed to doing so," said Janno Lieber, president of MTA Construction & Development, at the announcement. "As historic as the 2020-2024 Capital Plan is, I want to be very clear: it can't happen the way we originally envisioned it, unless Congress steps up and provides us with meaningful aid."
The MTA says they are currently losing $200 million a week in revenue from fares, tolls, subsidies and COVID-19-related expenses. (This Streetsblog post from yesterday explores the MTA's financial options — none of which are too good.)
Meanwhile, here's a look at the elevators now in operation on both sides of 14th Street...
In addition to the elevators, the First Avenue L stop now has four working entrances — two at First Avenue and two at Avenue A.
The work — part of the Sandy-damaged Canarsie tunnel rehabilitation — officially began along this corridor between Avenue B and First Avenue in July 2017. Since that time, both Target and Trader Joe's have opened.
Karma Lounge, the two-level hookah club on First Avenue between Third Street and Fourth Street, announced yesterday that the venue had permanently closed.
Ownership shared the message on their website and social media properties:
After 21 years, Karma has closed. On behalf of everyone at Karma, we thank the community, our neighbors, our patrons, and our employees for the years of support and wish everyone the best of health and happiness in the future. Thank you for being a part of our family.
Karma, which hosted a variety of DJs and comedy nights, had not reopened since the COVID-19 PAUSE went into effect back in March.
And it was one of the few places in the city where patrons could still legally smoke cigarettes inside the establishment. As the Timesreported in 2010:
Opened in 1999 as a hookah bar, it was able to get the cigar-bar exemption because it served alcohol and derived at least 10 percent of its income from tobacco products by the cutoff date in 2001.
Here's Ola, the co-owner of B&H Dairy, bringing in some plants to place around the lunch counter's handful of outdoor seats at 127 Second Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place... photo today by Derek Berg...
The folks at the Most Holy Redeemer Church on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B shared this information about a free food and milk pantry tomorrow (Aug. 7)...
In collaboration with our friends at Catholic Charities of New York, we have arranged for some much-needed relief for our community! One truck will provide FREE nutritious groceries and the other truck will provide fortifying milk.
The distribution will be in front of Most Holy Redeemer Church, 173 E. 3rd St, August 7, from 10 a.m. - noon, and is on a first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last. No pre-registration is required. Please observe social distancing and wear a face covering.
Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood and NYC.
Idlewild Coffee Co., 300 E. Fifth St. at Second Avenue, closed this past Friday after service — less than two months from opening day.
It was awful timing for the cafe. We first spotted signage for the shop in late February. The COVID-19 PAUSE arrived about one month later, forcing them to hold off on a grand opening.
Idlewild finally debuted on June 15 ... nearly two weeks after this block between First Avenue and Second Avenue went on lockdown on May 30 as the 9th Precinct, located mid-block, placed barricades and an array of officers at both ends of the street to protect the station house from the threat of protesters.
A note on the door for patrons points to the ongoing presence of the barricades as the main reason behind the coffee shop's quick closure...
The letter reads in part:
These are crazy times and there have been too many things completely out of our control that have affected business. The police barriers at the ends of the block which have greatly restricted foot traffic has probably been the biggest obstacle for the entirety of our opening, so hopefully for the sake of our more established neighboring businesses, the barriers will be completely removed at some point soon so that some sort of normalcy can return to the wonderful block.
Thank you so much for the warm welcome and all the positive feedback you've given us.
Last Thursday, a member of the Save Our Storefronts (SOS) coalition spoke with Idlewild owner John Harper, who said that he ran out of cash between the COVID-19 pandemic and the 9th Precinct's lockdown. He said 10 to 15 years of his savings went down the drain.
As far as we know, Idlewild didn't send out an opening announcement — other than an Instagram post. And we didn't know the shop had opened. Our previous attempts to walk on the block were rebuffed by officers on duty who said that only residents could access this stretch.
Here's a look at the barricades the other day...
The barricades are less restrictive than they were in June and early July... and pedestrians are now OK'd to access Fifth Street ...
In an op-ed published in The Village Sun on July 15, Stuart Zamsky, who owns White Trash a few doors away from Idlewild, addressed the ongoing presence of the barricades.
[M]erchants and residents on these blocks are having a hard enough time trying to survive. We should not be interrogated in order to gain entry to our homes and places of business. If police have ongoing concerns about the safety of their station houses, couldn’t they limit the enclosures to the precinct buildings themselves?
In interviews (with CBS 2 for instance), the NYPD has repeatedly said that the streets around the station houses will reopen when there is no longer a threat. As the closure of Idlewild Coffee Co. shows, the barricades remain a threat to local businesses.
In some positive retail news, Manhattan45 recently opened at 220 E. 10th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
The small shop offers a finely curated selection of dance music from labels such as — cutting and pasting from their website! — Pinkman, Crosstown Rebels, Body N' Deep, Curtis Electronix, Rekids, Defected, Glitterbox, Hot Creations, Kompakt, Moustache, Nervous, Vault Wax, etc.
Manhattan45 is open 1-8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. You can find them online here ... and on Instagram here.
Saturday saw their last evening in service. By Sunday, neighbors spotted workers discarding tables and chairs and other equipment on the curb...
While there wasn't any official notice of this closure, Oda House did confirm via a Facebook message that the East Village outpost had shut down. The restaurant will continue on with its West 73rd Street location.
Oda House founder Maia Acquaviva, a plastic surgeon by trade, moved to the United States from the country Georgia in 2007 and was said to have rediscovered her culinary calling here. The restaurant opened on Fifth and B in May 2013.
The property has two existing, conjoined structures that will be delivered vacant. 45 Avenue D is a six-story building that spans approximately 48-feet wide, totals 20,174 square feet, and contains an elevator. 51 Avenue D is a two-story building that spans approximately 44-feet wide and totals 6,141 square feet. Investors have the flexibility to renovate either one or both structures into a valuable residential asset.
Alternatively, investors can elect to demolish both structures to pave way for an approximately 92-foot wide, ground-up project that could be developed into a building with approximately 53,338 zoning floor area through New York City’s Inclusionary Housing Bonus Program (IHB).
In the event an investor decides to reposition the existing six-story structure and demolish only the two-story structure, there will be approximately 22,422 ZFA remaining as-of-right that can be further increased to approximately 33,164 ZFA through the IHB program for a ground-up project on the remaining 44-foot wide lot.
The Bowery Mission reportedly decided to sell this property between Fourth Street and Fifth Street, which has been part of its portfolio since 1994, to fund programming at its other locations, totaling eight in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
