One last flea market for 2020 at 1st and 1st

There's one more flea market this weekend on First Avenue and First Street at Peretz Square ... this will be a two-day grand finale for the vendors, many of them from the Avenue B Flea. 

Some East Village-based musicians will be providing the soundtrack from 1-3:30... find a list of participants at the Facebook Events page here.

Organizer Lisa Marie promises to be back with more flea markets in the spring.

Friday's parting shot

Here are the resident red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park, Amelia (top) and Christo, enjoying the pleasant weather today atop St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church on 10th Street and Avenue A... thanks to Steven for the photo...

Gleaming the 'Cube'

 

The prolific John Dwyer and his merry band of Osees are releasing an epic live set titled Live at the Henry Miller Library Big Sur... which you can stream next Saturday, Dec. 19. (Details here.) 

Ahead of that they've released a view tracks from the show, including "Gelatinous Cube."

P.S.

Save Our Stages

Indoor dining at 25% comes to an end after this weekend

Indoor dining will close in New York City starting Monday.

Hospitalizations have not stabilized, and with a rising infection rate and NYC’s density, this means that indoor dining is too high of a risk.

Takeout, delivery and outdoor dining will continue.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 11, 2020

As expected, Gov. Cuomo announced today that NYC restaurants must end indoor dining after this weekend following an ongoing increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.

Restaurants will still be able to continue outdoor dining, takeout and delivery. "You're going to see a bad December, a bad January. How bad is the question," Cuomo said at today's press briefing. You can read more about the new shutdown and its impact on the local restaurant industry at Eater. 

Some local restaurants preemptively closed for the time being ... while others today announced they are shutting down after this weekend until the spring, including Van Da on Fourth Street, whose last day in business for now is tomorrow. 

A new survey that the New York State Restaurant Association conducted revealed that 54 percent of NYC restauranteurs say it is likely that they will close in the next six months if another federal relief package does not come through.

Meanwhile, gyms and salons will be allowed to continue operating in orange zones with lowered capacity from 33 percent to 25 percent. Find more details at Gothamist. 

Cuomo said officials are especially concerned about "living room spread." The state's contact tracing data shows nearly 74 percent of new COVID-19 cases are coming from households and social gatherings, Cuomo said. Restaurants and bars accounted for 1.43 percent of new cases while gyms caused less than 1 percent, he said.

See more on this chart via the state...

Inside the long history of two East Village neighbors — Veselka and Dinosaur Hill

Back on Oct. 8, we had the scoop that Pamela Pier was retiring after 37 years of running the toy store Dinosaur Hill on Ninth Street just east of Second Avenue... and that neighbor Veselka would be taking over the lease for the storefront... all this came courtesy of East Village-based freelance writer Linda Dyett, who contributed the byline to us. 

Linda explored the long history between Dinosaur Hill and Veselka for a detail-rich article that is now online at The New York Times. (Find it here. It will be in Sunday's print edition.) 

Here's more about what to expect once Veselka expands into the former Dinosaur Hill:

[T]here will be more indoor seating, more wall space for the murals by the house artist Arnie Charnick, a larger kitchen and a sushi bar-style showcase for the team of women who make its pierogi by hand. 

Standing in another section of Veselka’s new space will be a gift from its soon-to-be former next-door neighbor: a rocket-ship gumball machine. The area will be called Dinosaur Dining.

Noted

As seen in Tompkins Square Park this morning by Derek Berg. It had a head yesterday. Why do people keep stealing heads?

Bike lane detour confusion as construction starts along the East River Greenway

On Monday, the city will begin flood-wall construction at the Solar One facility in Stuyvesant Cove as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project.

This is considered Project Area 2, which encompasses work between 15th Street and 25th Street including Asser Levy Playground, Stuyvesant Cove Park, Murphy Brothers Playground as well as local streets around the Con Edison facility. 

Given the work start, the bike lane along this stretch of the East River Greenway — between 20th and 23rd — will close. Despite promises of a two-week notice ahead of any closure, there's no word of a detour route for cyclists, according to residents and community groups.

In addition, there's some confusion about these mystery signs that have appeared in and around different streets with bike lanes ... and the partially covered signs we spotted earlier on 10th Street at Avenue A have disappeared ... while other ones have arrived, such as on First Avenue by Fourth Street (h/t Choresh Wald) ...

... and Second Avenue at 10th Street...

The hotly contested flood-protection plan that will bury/elevate East River Park by eight feet as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project is expected to start in the spring. (This is Project Area 1 between Montgomery Street and 15th Street.)

That work is expected to bring a permanent protected bike lane to East Houston and Avenue C. 

On Nov. 24, Community Board 3 endorsed the plan — specifically a 20-block protected bike lane along Avenue C and a protected bike lane on Houston Street from Second Avenue to the East River Greenway.

Here's a look at the current Avenue  C bike lane configuration at East Houston...

Per Transportation Alternatives: "These bike lanes are essential for New Yorkers getting around the Lower East Side, and these projects are especially critical in light of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project that begins in the spring and will shut down the East River Park for at least five years."

First night of Hanukkah in the East Village

EVG contributor Stacie Joy shares these photos from around the neighborhood... 

... and in order of appearance (from the top): 

-Duane Reade on Avenue B 

-Lancelotti

-Exit9 Gift Emporium 

-Russ & Daughters 

-The Sock Man 

-Holyland Market 

-99 Center Store on First Avenue and 5th Street

-Bluestockings 

-Jane’s Exchange 

-B&H Dairy 

-Key Food

2nd Avenue reopens to traffic; workers remove more of fire-ravaged 48 E. 7th St.

Second Avenue is open again to through traffic below St. Mark's Place... after the fire on Saturday morning, southbound traffic was rerouted across St. Mark's Place to Avenue A. 

For now, one lane ... as well as the floating parking lane and bike lane, are closed off for the work crews to use for access between Sixth Street and St. Mark's Place...

As for the southeast corner at Seventh Street...

Workers have mostly cleared out the rest of what was 48 E. Seventh St., where the six-alarm fire started ...

Looking north from Sixth Street, you almost can't even tell that Middle Collegiate Church suffered such massive damage...

There hasn't been any official word on the cause of the fire... or the fate of the remaining structure at the church.

Derek Berg got this dramatic shot yesterday of two fire marshals outside the church's north-facing wall...

Grant Shaffer's NY See

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...