Thursday, June 30, 2011

Is your landlord harassing you, being a general pain in the ass?

[Photo by Dave on 7th]

GOLES is holding a workshop tonight on how to deal with harassment from landlords, presented by tenant attorney John Gorman.

Details from GOLES:
Town Hall Meeting
Tonight at 7
PERSEVERANCE HOUSE
535 EAST 5TH STREET (BTW AVE. A & AVE. B)
• Do you have repairs that the landlord refuses to do?
• Is your landlord treating you with no respect and dignity?
• Are you being taken to court without a justifiable reason?
• Are you receiving inaccurate rent statements?

IF YOU ANSWER YES TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS, THEN YOU ARE A VICTIM OF LANDLORD HARASSMENT.
COME TO A COMMUNITY FORUM: FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN STOP YOUR LANDLORD FROM HARASSING YOU!

Tonight in Tompkins Square Park: 'Raging Bull' (and Don King?)

Tonight marks the first of the free music-movie nights in Tompkins Square Park. This evening's film entertainment: "Raging Bull." (Bring the kids!) And we're told that Don King is introducing the movie. Seriously.

The details:
Featured Music: Raging Bluegrass, with Odetta & Gryphon
Gates open at 6:00 pm. Movie starts at sundown

(Gates?)

Here's the trailer...



Oops. I think we made a mistake.

Anyway! And the rest of the schedule...

July 7 — Coming to America
July 14 — The Warriors
July 21 — Star Trek
July 28 — Arthur
Aug. 4, — Pope of Greenwich Village
Aug. 11 — Kickass
Aug. 18 — Rosemary’s Baby
Aug. 25 — The Godfather
Sept. 1 — Stake Land

Here's the official website for the summer movies.

On the CB3/SLA July docket: the bakery bar; other stuff!


Oh my! We're still sorting through this month's CB3/SLA madness... and along comes the docket for July! Drowning... in... liquor ... licenses...

Kidding! ... So the fun continues on Monday, July 18 at 6:30 pm — JASA/Green Residence, 200 E. Fifth St. at the Bowery.

Here are a few of the items on the agenda...

Renewal with Complaint History
• 1011, 171 Ave C (op)

Complaints? Teneleven? This is a fine neighborhood bar.

Applications within Resolution Areas
• Tozzer Ltd, 112 Ave A (alt/op)

Hmm... 112 Avenue A is the Niagara's address...

• Solo Pizza (Solo Pizza Inc), 27 Ave B (wb)

• Duke's (Lime 673 Inc), 129 Ave C (op)

• The Cardinal Restaurant #1 Inc, 234 E 4th St (wb)

• U2 (Joy Café Inc), 6 St Marks Pl (3rd & 4th Floors) (wb)

U2 (or 2U) karaoke is looking to make a comeback here at the former Mondo Kim's.

• TDD & G LLC, 126 St Marks Pl (op)

The former Why? Curry space which is now called what?

Alterations/Upgrades
• The Toucan & The Lion (Type A Goods LLC), 342 E 6th St (alt/up/op)

The former Mara's Homemade.

• Bowery Tech Restaurant LLC, 327 Bowery (alt/up/op)

An alteration of some sort for the Bowery Electric...

• Pangea (Judex Enterprises Inc), 178 2nd Ave (alt/op/sidewalk café)

• Vandaag (Better Living Food Corp), 103 2nd Ave (alt/op)

New Liquor License Applications
• Asian Chef Express Inc, 96 3rd Ave (wb)

• Shima Japanese Restaurant (H&T Restaurant LLC), 188 2nd Ave (wb)

• Phoenix (Hughes Murray Walsh Corp), 447 E 13th St (op)

• Sweet Boutique (Sweet Boutique NY Ltd), 85 2nd Ave (wb)

Ah! The bakery bar moving into the former Sin Sin space...

• Company, 242 E 10th St (op)

• To Be Determined, 700 E 9th St (op)

Hmm, this is the address of Banjo Jim's ...

• To Be Determined, 308 E 6th St (op)

This is Zerza, the Moroccan place...

• To Be Determined, 81 E 7th St (op)

This is Krystal's Cafe 81, with the shamwow sign.

School official: Open Road Park closure is temporary

As we first reported, officials from the East Side Community High School on East 12th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue closed Open Road Park last week.

School officials held a meeting to discuss the Open Road Park's future yesterday afternoon at 4. EV Grieve reader dwg was there, and filed this report:

Mark Federman, the principal of the school, spoke to a handful residents and a group of skaters. A woman from Open Road was there, the guy who runs skateboard classes, assistant principal, custodian and a rep from Rosie Mendez's office.

Basically the park was closed because of increasing incidents of trash and debris, smoking cigarettes, marijuana — some selling of marijuana ... and skaters and others in the park before or after hours and trouble with people not respecting set school or other programmed activities.

Federman said the closing is temporary ... to revaluate the hours and increase supervision and come up with defined hours and rules for the park. He said things got a little lax and they need to improve on that.

Open Roads is going to post new signs soon with park hours, rules and regulations ... and then the park will open again. No date was given but sounded like a week or so.

Everyone got a chance to speak and voice concerns. Federman is concerned and aware and wants to keep it open, but run a little tighter program.

The Local East Village has a meeting recap here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Open Road Park closed now on 12th Street

Why the Open Road Park is closed

At Mona's, all that jazz, some nights

In case you missed it (like us!), The Wall Street Journal checked in with a piece on Mona's the other day ... with a diary-type entry about the bar's emerging musical showcase... Per the article:

The grapevine has it that Mona's, a plain-looking bar on Avenue B off 14th Street, is ground zero for an emerging late-night scene of young swing and traditional jazz players.

And, during non-band hours, the jukebox is quite good...

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Your guess is as good as mine



Third Street and the Bowery today. Photos by Bobby Williams.

Today in photos of hot dogs


Somewhere along Avenue A. Photo by Bobby Williams.

New York City history through the lens of Ai Weiwei

[Outside Tompkins Square Park, 1986 — Ai Weiwei]

From the EV Grieve inbox ...

Asia Society Museum presents an exhibition of 227 photographs taken by famed Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, capturing the history, culture, and atmosphere of 1980s New York from his unique perspective.

The exhibit opens today, and closes on Aug. 14.

Asia Society Museum
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street)
Details here.

Ray at the start of the day


Ray this morning. Photo by Dave on 7th.

Part of JR's artwork from the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall already for sale on eBay


Less than a week since JR hung his "Lakota, North Dakota" mural, a piece of the artwork has showed up on eBay.

Own a piece of Street Art History!
Auction is for 2 sheets (approx. size 24"x"36") of excess paper used on the actual wall installation process located on Houston Street and Bowery in New York City.

And you can buy it now for $125. Of course, this isn't the first time a piece of this wall has shown up on eBay.

Previously on EV Grieve:
What a piece of Shepard Fairey's vandalized Deitch Wall mural is going for on eBay

eBay seller dares people to bid on piece of Shepard Fairey's mural

Community Board 3 rejects proposal for restaurant-bar-performance space at 34 Avenue A; here comes Subway?


By a vote of 27-5, according to Shawn Chittle who was at the meeting. (Another reader said it was 25-7.) In any event, the State Liquor Authority requires Community Board approval for liquor license transfers. This was for a new license within a resolution area. We'll have more on last night's debate and vote later.

Meanwhile, what's next for the former Mo Pitkin's space? The CB3/SLA committee voted down a similar proposal from Todd Patrick and company in March.

There is always that rumored (and effective scare tactic) fast-food joint. And fast food has been mentioned coming here if operators couldn't secure a liquor license. The building is for sale. (A commenter claims there is a draft lease on the table for a Subway here. )

Last June, EV Italian eatery guru Frank Prisinzano said that the landlord of the former Graceland space on Avenue A and Second Street had four prospective tenants: Frank's fast-food Italian joint, a bank, a 7-Eleven and a bank.

CB3 rejected his plans for Raguboy last June. The space at Avenue A and Second Street remains vacant.

Is it better vacant than a restaurant or bar?



Previously on EV Grieve:
Phil Hartman bringing a 'performance venue' back to former Mo Pitkin's space

[Updated] Bringing 'the tradition of the old Knitting Factory and Tonic' to 34 Avenue A

Because you want to know more about the plans for 34 Avenue A

An update on the plan to save UNDER St. Marks

As we reported back in March, 94 St. Mark's Place is for sale... the building houses UNDER St. Marks, which is operated by Horse Trade Theater Group.

Here's an update on what has been happening... and what the plans are for UNDER St. Marks via the Horse Trade website:

Since we learned that our building was up for sale, we have had good meetings with our landlord, and he has promised to work with us to buy the space. There have been no other offers on the building.

We are developing plans to convert the building into artist housing, expand the seating capacity of the theater, and create a coffee shop/wine bar/lobby entrance to the theater. We are investigating multiple ways to make the space self-sustained and green, including creating a green rooftop, using the artist housing as a B&B when empty and working out the plans for the lobby space.

We have an architect, lawyer, and realtor who will donate their time to create the plans and package needed to go after larger funders. We have put together a fundraising committee and we are recruiting new boardmembers.

We have ongoing fundraising events planned in the space for the coming months. We have raised 20% of our funding goal with only 10 percent of our friends contributing. We are asking 1,000 of our friends to help us by giving $50 by July 4. Click on the link to our indiegogo page here and learn more about the project and about our well-loved and well-used theater space.

This video provides more details...



Find them on Facebook at Save UNDER St. Marks And for a list of upcoming shows, please go here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
94 St. Mark's Place on the market, and what will it mean for Under St. Marks?