EVG Etc.: Raising awareness against anti-Asian hate crimes; Putting Blondie in a graphic novel

• More about Chef Eric Sze, of 886 on St. Mark's Place, and his efforts to raise awareness against anti-Asian hate crimes (NY1) 

• Chi Sum Ngai and Kaleena Teoh, who own Coffee Project on Fifth Street (and in other neighborhoods), launch a scholarship program for Black baristas (Daily Coffee News) 

• How the pandemic has gutted the city's arts and entertainment business (Gothamist) 

• The Emergency Eviction Act pause ends today — now what? (The City) 

• What's happening with the NYPD's Collision Investigation Squad moving to the Department of Transportation? (Streetsblog) 

• An interview with Leo Fitzpatrick about his gallery Public Access on St. Mark's Place (B+B ... previously on EVG) 

• A look back at Jackie Curtis — "East Village Superstar" (Off the Grid) 

• Blondie to receive the graphic novel treatment (Rolling Stone) 

• Diversions: The "Avocado Guy" of NYC (Eater) 

... and questions to ponder...

Does anyone else wonder why the ice cream truck is driving around the East village at 10:45 on a 40 degree night? @evgrieve

— theenemieslist19 (@theenemieslist1) February 26, 2021

Community groups and small businesses rally for commercial rent relief

Photos by Stacie Joy

Local community groups gathered yesterday morning to call on state legislators to support commercial rent relief for small businesses. 

The event took place outside Michelle Dry Cleaners & Laundry, 169 Avenue C between 10th Street and 11th Street...  

Organizers, which included the Cooper Square Committee, East Village Community Coalition, Village Preservation and the East Village Independent Merchants Association, said that they have been hearing from many business owners who continue to struggle to pay rent during the pandemic ... all in the face of drastic declines in their revenues.

In addition, according to the organizers, immigrant and business owners of color say they have been disappointed by the lack of outreach and assistance in securing working capital to stay afloat.

In turn, several of the small businesses were placing "Permanently Closed" signs on their storefronts to visualize their struggle and what is at stake if the state does not take action. They are asking state legislators to support Senate Bill 3349/Assembly Bill 3190, which would help cover the cost of rent for businesses and nonprofits who lost income due to COVID-19. 

Under the bill, the commercial tenant, property owner and state government would share the burden of the rent shortfall. Certified COVID-19-affected commercial tenants would have to pay the lesser of 20 percent of their actual income or one-third of their rent, property owners would have to forgive 20 percent of the rent, and the state would pay the remainder. 

'FBI' alert for filming CBS series on Friday (tomorrow!)

The CBS crime drama "FBI" is the latest television program to film along Avenue A and other parts of the neighborhood. 

The posted notices highlight the crew's footprint tomorrow, with parts of Seventh Street, Second Street and Third Street seeing some "FBI" action. 

The fleet of fake NYPD cruisers is currently parked along Second Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...

"FBI" is the third TV show to film around here this year ... following "New Amsterdam" and "Pose" (and "Hawkeye" this past December).

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 ...  and in the case of today's panel, Upstate New York...

Report: Someone stole the entire $300,000 inventory from Taste Wine Co. on 3rd Avenue

Back on Jan. 19, we noted that Taste Wine at 50 Third Ave. between 10th Street and 11th Street looked closed (photo by Steven from Jan. 16). The windows were papered up and the inside appeared to be empty.

This apparent closure came just two months after the wine shop reopened under new ownership. By early February, the retail listing was online at RIPCO.

Now comes word, via the Post, that someone made off with the shop's entire inventory.

Per the story in the Post, which came from an anonymous police source, the owner was last inside the shop on Jan. 8, and he filed the police report this week.

The owner told police Tuesday night that when he was last at the Taste Wine Co. ...  on Jan. 8 all of the inventory was in place.

Prior to that date, the business had been closed for several months, he told authorities.

Stolen were 1,000 bottles of wine, 1,000 bottles of liquor and 125 wine dispensers, machines designed to serve and preserve wines at the right temperatures, the source said.

The total value was estimated at $300,000.

Last spring, previous owner Gary Landsman was hoping to sell the 5-year-old business as he continued to help raise awareness of Canavan, the fatal genetic disease that his two young sons have. 

He closed the shop in May ... he and his family were expected to travel to Dayton Children's Hospital in Ohio later in 2020. 

It is not immediately known who took over the business. 

Ralph's returns after a winter break

Perhaps as a sign of the approaching spring (wishful thinking!), the EV outpost of Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices and Ice Cream has reopened — as of yesterday — at 145 Avenue A at Ninth Street after a short winter break.

They'll be open daily for now from 2-10 p.m.

This location, the third in Manhattan, opened back in September.

As previously noted, the business dates to 1928 when Ralph Silvestro started selling Italian ice (or water ice) from his truck around Staten Island. The first retail store opened in 1949 on Port Richmond Avenue in Staten Island. 

In recent years the company has franchised out, expanding to other parts of NYC as well as Long Island, New Jersey and Westchester County.

Photo yesterday by Steven

Cycle of change on Astor Place with a new tenant for the Flywheel Sports studio

Flywheel Sports, which featured a stadium-seating studio with more than 70 bikes, will not be reopening at 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star.

The cycling-studio brand is going through bankruptcy right now. However, the space won't be void of sweat for too long: the like-minded CycleBar has signed a lease here. (First reported by New York Business Journal.)

Flywheel opened here in March 2016.

H/T Upper West Sider!

Wednesday's parting shot

From a spring-like day... photo on Second Avenue and Seventh Street by Derek Berg...

Like a fine wine, this corner gets better with filming

If you've been on Avenue A today, then you likely noticed that film crews are prepping for scenes for the excellent FX series "Pose."  

And as the top photo shows, it appears that Discount Fine Wine & Champagne’s (someone previously did make an effort to paint over the errant apostrophe) will be making another cameo on the southeast corner of Fourth Street... just like back in December when "Hawkeye" was in town...

"Hawkeye" pic by Stacie Joy!

Gallery Watch: Heart, Heart by Anke Weyer at Canada

 Text and photos by Clare Gemima 

Heart, Heart by Anke Weyer

Canada gallery, 60 Lispenard St.

Canada gallery presents new paintings by Anke Weyer in a sharp and beautiful exhibition, Heart, Heart. 

The crazed, large-scale paintings line the space of Canada on Lispenard, the best gallery on the street. The painting’s grand marks and dramatic compositions speak to the kinetic rhythm of the human organ in which the show is named. 

By letting shit hit the fan, Weyer’s gestural abstractions dominate the space and entirely devour members of its audience, chewing them with scribbles and squiggles, swallowing them through the artist’s plastering of exotic color.  

The show resonated with me in an almost exclusively corporeal sense. I was aware of how small I was within the grand scheme of the installation. As I moved from one painting to the next, Heart, Heart transformed into an orchestral arrangement playing different rhythms of our most integral organ. 

Several paintings looked and felt as though there was more pain and anguish than replenishment and joy, which offered a fresh insight into Weyer’s varied methodologies and larger studio practice. She eloquently responded to her chosen subject matter via nonsensical and heroically bold painted abstractions. 

Heart, Heart is showing at Canada gallery until Feb. 27.

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Clare Gemima is a visual artist from New Zealand. New-ish to the East Village, she spends her time as an artist assistant and gallery go-er, hungry to explore what's happening in her local art world. You can find her work here: claregemima.com