About the Earth School's Fall Fair on Nov. 4

Updated 10/20 to reflect the rain date — Nov. 4!

The Earth School (PS 364) is hosting its annual fall fair on Nov. 4 from 12:30-4:30 p.m. 

You can find all the activities in the schoolyard on Fourth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

Per the EVG inbox... 

Open to all families! Come join our community and enjoy: 

• A bouncy house
• Music with a live D.J.
• Arts & crafts, including slime making, beading... 
• Affordable food, homemade and from local restaurants
• Games — mini-golf, bean bag toss, basketball and more 
• Rummage sale (child & adult clothing) 
• And more family fun! 

Admission is free; tickets are $1 each and most activities and food cost 2-3 tickets. All proceeds from the Fall Fair are used to fund enrichment classes, supplies, and more for the students of the Earth School. 

Thank you to the following for the generous donations: Bibi's, Gemma, Iggy's Pizza, Peter Pan Doughnuts, Veniero's, Trader Joe’s, Key Food, Guitar Center...  

On Union Square, Target debuts ahead of its announced opening day

Photos by Steven

 

The Target at 10 Union Square East opened its doors on Tuesday night... five days before its announced Oct. 22 debut (and 15 hours before the Wegmans grand opening on Astor Place).

Oh, and the mayor was in on the scoop...

Union Square is getting a Target!

This unveiling symbolizes a key trend in our city’s economy. We're not coming back — we ARE back. This convenient location is going to bring jobs, foot traffic, and revenue to one of New York City’s most iconic areas. pic.twitter.com/f58f1eForI

— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) October 17, 2023

Target did the same opening-before-the-expected date back in July 2018 on Avenue A and 14th Street. 

The 33,000-square-foot store (the EV location is 27,000 square feet, FYI) includes a CVS pharmacy and all the other stuff you'd expect to find at Target. Hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. 

Anyway! To recap the Union Square story...This outpost in the base of the Zeckendorf Towers has been in the making for nearly four years.

In February 2020, news broke (via the Post) that Target had signed a lease for space that the Food Emporium had... the grocer shut down in May 2021. 

As previously noted, the space that was once pub-crawl hotspot SideBar on the SW corner of 15th Street and Irving Place is now part of the retailer's footprint. 

This opening comes several days before the East Harlem location closes because of reports of thefts and organized retail crime threatening the safety of employees and customers. 

The Dash Snow tribute has been painted over on the Lower East Side

Top photo by Gabriel Sommer 

After 14-plus years on a north-facing wall of 205 Allen St. at Houston, someone has painted over the tribute to artist Dash Snow. 

The portrait arrived about a month after Snow was found dead in July 2009 at the Lafayette House on Fourth Street. He was 27. 

Graffiti writer SEEDR was credited with the work, one of many that popped up around downtown at the time. 

As far as we know, this was the last of the portraits still in existence...

Above photo from August 2009 by Salim

What's happening at the former Trader Joe's Wine Shop on 14th Street?

Multiple EVG tipsters have pointed out the arrival of some (somewhat generic) Trader Joe's signage outside the former Trader Joe's Wine Shop at 138 E. 14th St. near Irving Place. 

One EVG commenter said the Wine Shop is reopening... the signage could also be to spruce up the bare storefront. Anyway, we haven't gotten anyone to confirm what's happening here. The signage simply lists the Trader Joe's website. We contacted the TJ's home office for comment about the space. So, chalk this up to a RUMOR at the moment.

The shop, representing the brand's only liquor license in New York State, abruptly closed on Aug. 11, 2022, after 15-plus years in business. Workers here reportedly planned to unionize when the company announced the closure.

Since the shop closed, Trader Joe's had held onto the space for storage here in the base of NYU's Palladium Hall. At the time, the company announced that the "space currently used for the wine shop will be used to improve the overall operations of store 540, our grocery store in Union Square." 

In a statement to Gothamist, a company spokesperson said that its decision to close the store had nothing to do with the unionizing efforts ... calling the outpost an "underperforming wine shop." To which anyone who saw the lines out the door disagreed with.

This past April, Trader Joe's workers at Essex Crossing narrowly voted not to join Trader Joe's United... this followed a vote against unionizing by workers at a store in Brooklyn in October 2022.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Here's the midnight email that employees of the Trader Joe's Wine Shop received about the closing on Union Square (Aug. 12, 2022)

Wednesday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

A scene from the opening day at Wegmans on Astor Place... the grocer's first Manhattan outpost. (More background here and here.) 

The store opened at 9 a.m. Per EVG reader Jeanne Krier: "The line, at 8:30, snaked up the block, around the corner and halfway down 9th. There was cheering, applause, selfies, videos, smiles all around."

Last nights (for now) for Robert Leslie in Tompkins Square Park

Photo from Sunday in Tompkins with Robert Leslie in the background 

by Derek Berg 

EVG reader cs on b shares this info... Robert Leslie, a local busker who's been playing around these parts for the last 10 years before moving to Seattle this past summer, is back in town for the week... and is playing tonight and tomorrow night in Tompkins Square Park, his favorite spot to play, for the last time for the foreseeable future. 

He's usually by the Temperance Fountain. You can catch him before the sun goes down, 5:30 tonight and around 5 tomorrow until around 7-7:30. He'll be back in town every now and again, but now's a good time to see him!

 

An overhead view of Tompkins Square Park when the lights are off

Multiple residents have pointed out that the lights in Tompkins Square Park have been off for several nights.

An EVG reader shared these photos Monday night from the Christodora House on Avenue B, which overlooks Tompkins.... providing an aerial view of the darkness ...

This happened in the summer, too... with the lights staying off for multiple nights. According to Parks employees at the time, the timer on the lights was set incorrectly. They were supposed to come on at 7 p.m.; instead, they switched on at 7 a.m. and off at 7 p.m.

No word on what the problem is this time. Several residents said they contacted 311.

Per one reader: "So ridiculously unsafe."

Last night, a reader reported that the lights were working along the east side of the Park... but remained off around the main lawn and in the areas under construction...

Tuesday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

Midtown views from the East Village today...

RIP Maryanne Byington

Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) shared the following information about longtime East Village resident Maryanne Byington... 

Maryanne left us Friday, Oct. 13, after a long battle with a pulmonary illness. 

Maryanne was a resident of East Eighth Street since 1982 and an integral part of Green Oasis and Gilbert's Sculpture Garden. She was one of the founders of LUNGS and served as Vice President from 2011 to 2020. 

Maryanne was a trophy-winning professional ballroom dancer. She was Emeritus Dean of High Heels at Miss Vera's Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls, where she offered students expert instruction in the arts of dressing up, making up, going out, and acting like a lady. Maryanne said, " Do you enjoy wearing high heels? Sometimes, the technique of rumba will create just the right walk for the right situation." 

Maryanne loved to dance and dress in Oscar de la Renta's most colorful Latin-influenced festive party gowns. She also loved to sit in her garden, watch children carve pumpkins, and listen to the birds sing. She was partial to shrimp cocktails, grilled cheese sandwiches and chilled Negronis served in a pretty cocktail glass. 

Maryanne's graciousness, sense of humor and beautiful smile are already greatly missed.

The milling of the multipurpose courts in Tompkins Square Park is underway

Photos by Steven 

Workers arrived this morning around 8 and began milling the multipurpose courts in Tompkins Square Park...

As we've been reporting for the past 13 months, the Parks Department will reconstruct these multipurpose courts along 10th Street and Avenue A, adding various amenities, including a two-lane seal-coated walking loop and new asphalt.

According to a landscape architect with the Parks Department (from a presentation in February), there's a lot of "asphalt structural damage," and it "needs to be replaced and repaired. And the only way to do that is to take all the asphalt down to the sub base and put new asphalt down." 

Posted signage states the work will occur between Oct. 16 and Dec. 1.

This spot (aka TF) is considered hallowed ground for skaters, where generations have used this space since the 1980s. (It has been called "the last great meet-up spot for skateboarders and their friends in New York.") 

Skaters are worried the new asphalt will be either too soft or hard for skating, turning this into a useless spot.

This is the second significant reconstruction currently underway in Tompkins Square Park. Work on renovating the field house began in May... with a September 2024 completion date.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Big changes are coming to the iconic skate spot in Tompkins Square Park