Eighth Subway sandwich shop opens in the East Village

In case that you couldn't smell tell ... the Subway opened here at 108 First Ave. today ...

This makes No. 8 here.

$500,000 cars aren't immune from parking tickets on Avenue A

And we're back with our Maybach 62S here on Avenue A ... now with a ticket.

Matt LES_Miserable, who took this photo, also spoke with the owner... and said that he was actually a very nice guy.

Headline of the day (so far)

Via DNAinfo:

Two People Overcome by Mysterious Smell in East Village Staples

No explanations just yet about what happened here on Broadway and East Ninth Street this morning. Do you have any theories?

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Flowers for Peter Cooper, photo by Dave on 7th]

City to unveil Delancey Street safety plan tonight (DNAinfo)

Best player on the Knicks sleeps in his brother's LES living room (The New York Times)

New York becoming less affordable, duh (Runnin' Scared)

Sale of Bialystoker Nursing Home coming soon? (The Lo-Down)

A look inside the new Empellon Cocina on First Avenue (Eater)

Remembering WQEW (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Olek returning to the Lower East Side (BoweryBoogie)

Inside the Amtrak Tunnels on the West Side (Gothamist)

Red Lobster opening up next to the Apollo in Harlem (New York Post)

And Matt LES_Miserable notes the asbestos rat outside the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary on 14th Street and Second Avenue this morning...

When Rocky's phone service went out

Here's a newish neighborhood blog to tell you about — Occupy East Fourth Street. Here's their tagline: "We are 2 Tenant Associations, joined together to defend ourselves against a Corporate Real Estate Investment Hydra, that seeks to expell us from our homes in order to maximize their profits."

So it's very specific to a certain corridor of the neighborhood... but it provides a snapshot of what's going on in the East Village at large.

Here's a post from Monday ... the kind of story that needs to be told...

The Death Letter
Rocky is a retired senior citizen who lives in 120 East 4th Street. He is a very pleasant, kind, salt-of-the-earth type of a man, and a wonderful neighbor. On December 9, 2011, an apartment on the ground floor of 120 East 4th Street was being gutted. Rocky, who has a land-line phone and no cell phone or computer, lost his phone service, along with a few other tenants in the building ...

The risers to his part of the building were cut and removed without explanation. The risers are the metal protective cases that house and protect the phone lines throughout the building. There was a question as to whether it was a Federal offense of just a stupid mistake. Verizon, when contacted, said it was the responsibility of the owner to maintain the risers. It's unclear whether Verizon, or Magnum Real Estate Group took responsibility. It was not until January 5, 2012, that Verizon installed a wire from the roof to the basement to restore service. ...

Five days after it was installed, Rocky received a letter in the mail from a nursing [home] in one of the outer boroughs where his beloved sister Esme resided. Rocky called Esme frequently and visited often. The letter stated that Esme suddenly became very ill and passed away on January 1st. The nursing home had tried repeatedly to call Rocky without success. They resorted to sending him a letter.

In addition to not receiving the news of his sister's illness and death when he should have, Rocky had to make all the wake and funeral arrangements from a pay phone on the corner. The phone service to his apartment was not restored until January 25, 2012.

Find, and bookmark, the site here.

That's it for East Village Farms

The folks at East Village Farms on Avenue A stayed open two days past their original Feb. 5 closing date... and by last night, the store was fairly miserable... workers had pulled most everything off the shelves...

They were just selling off the rest of the beer and soda, really... and anything else that you might want to buy — those lousy deli umbrellas, some dinted cans of Libby's products... the fellow working said they were closing after last night... (though I wouldn't be surprised to find them open today...)

Meanwhile, evilsugar25 passed along this photo of Jimmy from behind the deli counter on his last day on Sunday...

He wasn't sure what he was going to do for work. Take a few days off then start looking for another job...

Finally, the flowers will be on sale outside through Feb. 14...

Previously on EV Grieve:
A little bit of Hollywood on Avenue A

East Village Farms is closing; renovations coming to 100 Avenue A

Inside the abandoned theater at East Village Farms on Avenue A

Reader reports: Village Farms closing Jan. 31; building will be demolished

How long before this pigeon decomposes?

And here we have a dead pigeon lying on an air conditioner behind a building somewhere on East Sixth Street.

Suz on Sixth, who took the photo, notes the pigeon has been there for months. There have been those across-the-air-shaft conversations with the tenant about disposing the bird. But, it remains.

"On our end, we're just curious how long it'll take to fully decompose; an urban memento mori, if you will," Suz on Sixth said. "It's only yet down to about a third of its original size."

Not just the Holiday: Pirate Brands founder bought all of 75 St. Mark's Place

Last Wednesday, we first reported that Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge space. (We're still waiting to hear back from him.) He will go before the CB3/SLA committee on Monday.

Yesterday, the Observer noted that Ehrlich bought the whole building at 75 St. Mark's Place where the Holiday lived.

Per the Observer:

According to Corcoran broker Dan Brady, who held the listing with his colleague Nick Arnold, Mr. Ehrlich will not be moving in. Instead, he plans to keep the space as is: four floor-through apartments with a commercial unit on the ground floor. Will there be a Pirate Shop occupying the hallowed, beer-baptized grounds of the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge? A Pirate Bar? A bar with pirate booty snacks? Whatever it is, it probably won’t hold a candle to the timeless bacchanal that was the Holiday Cocktail Lounge.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

CB3 aims to make daytime drinking more sociable, sort of

On Monday night, CB3's SLA Policy Taskforce met... and they came out of the meeting with a plan to consider easing up on restricting new liquor licenses ...

But with a catch. Bars-cafes-restaurants that only served beer-wine and closed by midnight would have a better chance of gaining approval under the proposed plan.

The new policy would be more welcoming of daytime establishments — those closing by about midnight and serving only beer and wine — in keeping with CB3's efforts to increase foot traffic during the day and avoid new late-night establishments.

This report comes via Julie Shapiro at DNAinfo.

Nothing's definite, of course. Next steps. A meeting! March 28 at 6:30 p.m. at a to-be-determined location. CB3 members are encouraging public participation. CB3 won't vote on the proposed policy change until after the public hearing in March, Shapiro reported. (Read the whole article here.)

Any early thoughts on the potential policy?

Present your vision about bicycling in the East Village

This is what 533 E. 12th St. looked like on Jan. 29, 2012

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

Going southbound

For no reason, really ... just a late-afternoon look down Suffolk from Houston... by Bobby Williams.