EV resident looking to do something constructive about nightlife horror show

In response to our post on the Squadron Bill, an East Village resident recently left the following comment:

Three new bars in three blocks on Second Ave between 10th and 12th Streets in the past year. They get drunk/clog the streets/scream/yell/throw litter all over the place. I have NEVER seen anything like this. The entire character of the neighorhood is completely changed. Once a place known for good restaurants and "quaint" shops — it's now THE place to come and get drunk and act up. How does the right of a few bar owners trump the rights of all the rest of us to live in peace in a very lively but nice neighborhood? How did this happen and what can we do about this. The new law will do nothing to help unless we all work together. Help! — contact me directly at abonus2001@yahoo.com — and let's see if we can do something constructive about it.

I followed up with the reader and asked for her permission to make her comment a separate post. ... An East Village resident since the late 1960s, the reader is looking to take action with some like-minded people who are also tired of what has become of the nightlife scene.

[Image via]

Ray to appear on CNNmoney.com

Thanks to Bob Arihood for the photo and tip here...

Ray spoke to a CNNmoney.com reporter last night offering his expert advice on money matters and good business practices in today's financially troubled New York City economy. The reporter noted that the interview will appear on the CNNmoney.com site sometime between tonight and Friday.

Could this former East Village 'hipster' owe the IRS $172 million?

The Post today picks up on The Smoking Gun's scoop from yesterday...

Here's the Post:

Meet the scofflaw (above) who allegedly owes more than $172 million to the IRS — a broke, former Alphabet City hipster who has had to borrow money from relatives to make ends meet.

Garage-band guitarist Marcos Esparza Bofill quit his floundering job as a day trader in the city after less than a year — and left the tiny tenement apartment that he shared with roommates on East Sixth Street to move back to his native Barcelona, Spain, in hopes of having better luck with music career there, friends said.

"The first thing he said to me [yesterday after learning of the tax bill] was, 'What's the IRS?' " one pal told The Post. "He was shocked. He's trying to figure out what's going on.

"It's something that can easily be cleared up," the friend added. "It's crazy. He's a very chilled, relaxed guy. I think he's making music right now. He plays guitar and I think is doing some deejay stuff."

[Photo via The Smoking Gun]

From Sing Sing to... Sing Sing?

From today's NYPD Daily Blotter in the Post:

Two knife-wielding thugs were arrested for stabbing a foe at an East Village karaoke bar, police sources said yesterday.
Fahimul Kahn, 22, and Maeto Tashman, 18, attacked the 25-year-old victim at Sing Sing Karaoke on St. Marks Place near Third Avenue at 5 a.m. Sunday, the sources said.
As the victim was leaving the bar with a cousin, he exchanged angry words with the assailants, and Kahn stabbed him in the chest and leg with a folding knife, authorities said.
Tashman was charged with attempted assault while Kahn was hit with an attempted-murder rap, said a spokesman for DA Cyrus Vance.

Crime Stoppers poster up now on Fifth Street and Second Avenue

At the scene of the shooting early Sunday morning, as I first reported....



The number: 1-800-577-TIPS

And now, video of the "underground" grilled cheese peddler of the East Village

After my previous post on the "underground" grilled cheese guy.... a reader sent along a video showing the grilled cheeser at work....

For a cheesy time call....

This arrived in the inbox a little earlier... clearly meant for someone else, like the "underground" grilled-cheese guy ....

I am here at work with my friends and i heard about you and your fabulous grilled cheeses! How do I go about gettting my hands on one? I am now craving your services for lunch. Please get back to me as I would love to have you come by and have a cheesy good time.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Say cheese

Third Avenue Corridor Rezoning hearing could help bring an end to mega-dorms

From The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation...

Tomorrow, the City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed rezoning of the 3rd and 4th Avenue corridors, between 13th and 9th Streets. The rezoning proposal comes after years of efforts by GVSHP, neighbors, Community Board 3, and Councilmember Rosie Mendez to change the outdated and inadequate zoning for the area which encourages enormously out-of-scale hotel and dorm development, such as NYU’s 26-story dorm on East 12th Street. After the city refused to include a change in the zoning for these blocks in the 2008 East Village rezoning, late last year they relented and agreed to include this area in a separate zoning action, which will be heard tomorrow.

Though the proposed rezoning does not go as far as GVSHP and neighbors had urged, it is an improvement. While the current zoning has no height limits, the new zoning would impose an absolute height cap of 120 feet (less than half the height of the NYU dorm). The current zoning strongly encourages dorm and hotel development, while the new zoning will encourage residential development. The current zoning encourages tall, setback towers behind dead plazas, while the new zoning will not allow plazas and will instead require new construction to follow neighborhood context and come out to the streetwall. The new zoning also provides incentives for the retention and creation of affordable housing.

If the City Planning Commission approves the rezoning following tomorrow’s hearing, it then goes to the City Council. If approved there, the rezoning takes immediate effect, and more 26-story dorms would never again be allowed as-of-right. Given that the NYU 2031 expansion plan calls for the university to add up to 1.5 million square feet of space OUTSIDE of the Washington Square Park area in the East Village, Village, and Union Square, it is more important than ever that stricter zoning be put in place in areas such as this where we have seen so much overdevelopment by NYU and other universities in recent years.

HOW TO HELP:

• Send a letter to City Planning Chair Amanda Burden RIGHT AWAY urging passage of the proposed rezoning > >
• Testify in favor of the rezoning at tomorrow's hearing — Come to the City Planning Commission at 22 Reade Street (btw. Centre & B'way), Spector Hall (ground floor) at 10:30 am. Bring 12 copies of your testimony (no more than 3 minutes) and photo ID to enter the building. If planning to attend, please respond to this e-mail for additional details.

Starting The Copper Age

Walking by the Copper Building on Avenue B at 13th Street at night... you'd get the idea that people have moved into the luxury condos...





Indeed, one reader has reported that he or she has seen moving trucks out front. And a Streeteasy commenter said: "I was told the first tenant will be moving in on August 4th."

Speaking of Streeteasy, just five of the 17 units remain on the market. Of those left to sell, three of the units are the super-swanky penthouses... including the pièce de résistance (which is French for expensive condo) — the four-bedroom, four-bathroom home with "sweeping" views of downtown Manhattan. Last fall, the price of this 4x4 was bumped up by $250,000 to $3.85 million, where it remains today....

From the Copper to the Cooper

Speaking of people moving into pricy new East Village developments ... NYC the Blog first reported that people are now living inside 2 Cooper Square.

Meanwhile! The 2 Cooper website has added new visuals.... some handsome black-and-white photos (in stop-motion!) depicting a scene on the Bowery that is really open to interpretation...






I think they just gave Sak's a free Fall Coat Preview ad. (And that guy looks nothing like Javier Bardem!) Whatever! You have to admit it's better than 2 Cooper's early visuals.



So, as the 2 Cooper site shows, there are 12 units available... ranging from $3,150 for a studio to a two-bedroomer for $14,500. Here's the two bedroomer...



There's also one unit with a eastward-facing terrace for $6,050... Luckily, the new residents will not be looking down at the B Bar at "some random drunken girl puking her guts out." No matter — you'll forget all this after time in the soft-tissue therapy room inside 2 Cooper.

Previously on EV Grieve:
2 Cooper Square looking for some "masculine, attractive, intelligent" Clive Owens types with kids — but, lordy, not kids who actually live with them!

There goes the neighborhood for real: 2 Cooper Square will open with the highest rents ever in the East Village

Going Your Way

[John F. Conn]

2 4 Flinching recently compiled a slew of NYC subway photos from the late 1970s and early 1980s.... including....


[Bruce Davidson]


[John F. Conn]

[Via BoingBoing ... thanks to Mick for the link!]

New Bowery diner insensitive to people with sunburns

As Grub Street reported on Friday, Peels is the name of the new diner from the Freemans gang coming to Bowery and Second Street...



As someone who has been sunburnt, I find this name offensive. Days after the sun exposure, my skin has peeled, and seemingly no amount of aloe and lotion has... Ha... but seriously, according to Grub Street:

Co-owner Taavo Somer affixed a short, blank-slate name to a modern, utilitarian design: a to-go counter situated to expedite takeout orders, communal seating for quick lunches, and an upstairs dining room equipped with booths of all sizes. The all-day menu offers egg dishes like the Yosemite (poached, with succotash), a “build-a-biscuit” program, and blueberry-and-corn shortcake, plus soda-fountain drinks and Stumptown coffee. Dinner ... to come

Meanwhile! Yesterday, as Eater noted, the plywood covering the windows came down...



The sign on the door reads "opening soon."