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...
Friday, April 13, 2012
This is what a plumbing supply store on Second Avenue and East First Street looked like on April 7, 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...
Thursday, April 12, 2012
EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition
Rat poison killing hawks in NYC parks (Gothamist)
About the East Fourth Street Cultural District (Off the Grid)
The Post discovers that Bowery south of Houston is getting more popular with developers (New York Post) ... and BoweryBoogie's reaction (BoweryBoogie)
Here's how the new New School building is looking at 14th Street and Fifth Avenue (A Fine Blog ... via Curbed)
An Ace Hardware opens in Stuy Town (pcvstBee)
Ray has an iPhone now (Scoopy's Notebook, 3rd item)
Photos from Times Square circa 1950s (Ephemeral New York)
The secrets to the Henry Street Settlement's success (The Wall Street)
And just a little bit ago on Avenue A and East Third Street...
The Beats will live again at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge (for one day, anyway)
So you know that the Holiday Cocktail Lounge closed on St. Mark's Place back on Jan. 29. Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, and Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa next door, will open a tavern-restaurant that serves staples such as fish-n-chips.
Allen Ginsberg, among many other literary luminaries, frequented the Holiday back in the day ... so it may not be so strange then that crews will film scenes for "Kill Your Darlings" at the Holiday on Monday.
IMDB simply puts the plot this way: "A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs." The crew has been shooting scenes around the city, including at Columbia, the last several weeks. (The Times has a lot of the backstory about the murder here; that the version of the story for this film can be found in "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks," the 1945 novel by Kerouac and Burroughs.)
Sibley told us that crew members will arrive today to transform the interior to look like the 1940s, which, given the bar's timeless look, likely won't take too much.
In the drama, Daniel Radcliffe plays a collegiate-age Ginsberg just as he's meeting Kerouac (Jack Huston) and Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan). Elizabeth Olsen is Kerouac's first wife, Edie Parker, and Ben Foster portrays William Burroughs. Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Cross and Kyra Sedgwick round out the cast.
As for the rest of the renovations, Sibley says they are coming along slowly. There's major work ahead, including with the sewer line.
Big changes in the works for the Standard East Village lobby, outdoor space; Café on the Bowery anyone?
The Standard East Village is on Monday night's CB3/SLA agenda... and, based on the documents on file at the CB3 website (PDF), some major alterations are in store for the hotel's public spaces on Cooper Square and East Fifth Street...
The documents clearly spell out the plans (click on the images to enlarge)...
A few highlights if you don't feeling like looking at the documents:
• The Hotel plans to close the second-floor bar/terrace to convert it to a guest room (with terrace). (If approved, then the change should eliminate this from happening.)
• The Hotel plans to expand the lobby and take over half of the current garden space that lines East Fifth Street. (They are requesting a service bar in this space.) There will also be a lobby garden (with soundproofing).
• The Hotel plans to introduce Café on the Bowery outside the front entrance. This space will run from Hettie Jones' home (the tenement the former Cooper Square incorporated into the hotel) to the northern property line. They'd like a liquor license for this outdoor space (transferring the one from the to-be-shuttered second-floor lounge).
• The Hotel would like to extend the hours of the current restaurant garden space from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. In exchange, the Hotel will add a "retractable soundproofed temporary enclosure" to use during those hours.
How will the neighbors respond? The meeting is Monday at 6:30 at the JASA/Green Residence, 200 East Fifth Street — right across the street from the hotel...
Jonas Mekas on the Mars Bar
Mekas, who is 90, talked about the film and Mars Bar in The Wall Street Journal today. Here's an excerpt from the Q-and-A (I believe it is subscription only to access the piece):
Every city needs some messy, dirty place where you can go and lose yourself and leave some of your dirt there. Paris has. Hamburg has. New York does not have it anymore. This area had Mars Bar. Now it's gone. Now New York is cleaner but not for the better.
And the best thing about the Mars Bar?
You felt very free. The drinks were cheap in price and very often cheap in quality. But you didn't care. It was very open. You always saw the same people, very devoted to the place. From South America, there was this guy Hamlet, who was always there. It made you feel a little bit like home. There was something like a family feeling.
City removes rammed tree alongside Tompkins Square Park
Last Friday, we noted that someone or something rammed this tree on Avenue B along Tompkins Square Park...
Apparently the damage was bad enough that the city needed to remove the tree...
Apparently the damage was bad enough that the city needed to remove the tree...
Coming soon to First Avenue and Second Street: Bistro Cafe & Grill
Over on the southeast corner of First Avenue and East Second Street... workers put up the food court-y sign yesterday for the new Bistro Cafe & Grill... the awning tells you just about everything the place will serve... wraps, burgers, salads, gyros, etc.
Renovations began in February at the former Cafe Rama. Last fall, the Bean had plans to take over this space, though they ultimately decided to focus instead on the new locations on Second Avenue/Third Street and First Avenue/Ninth Street.
You know, Corner Bistro would be a nice name for this location. But that's taken. And we've had enough lawsuits around here...
[Thanks to @ThePeterHa for the heads up on the sign's arrival.]
Previously on EV Grieve:
The Bean is not taking over the former Rama Cafe on First Avenue
Renovations begin at 26 First Ave.
Renovations began in February at the former Cafe Rama. Last fall, the Bean had plans to take over this space, though they ultimately decided to focus instead on the new locations on Second Avenue/Third Street and First Avenue/Ninth Street.
You know, Corner Bistro would be a nice name for this location. But that's taken. And we've had enough lawsuits around here...
[Thanks to @ThePeterHa for the heads up on the sign's arrival.]
Previously on EV Grieve:
The Bean is not taking over the former Rama Cafe on First Avenue
Renovations begin at 26 First Ave.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
New Jersey fire leaving ash in the East Village
Apparently New Jersey is on fire... as this photo via ANIMAL New York shows... (photo taken on the West Side...)
Anyway, multiple readers have noted ash falling from the blaze near East Rutherford falling around here...
Anyway, multiple readers have noted ash falling from the blaze near East Rutherford falling around here...
EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition
How about bus-top gardens for the city? (Fast Company)
Thoughts on the Mars Bar photo exhibit at Blue & Cream (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
The sandhogs of Second Avenue (Runnin' Scared)
'Snackman' who stopped a subway fight on 6 train works on the LES (DNAinfo)
A tiny door on Elizabeth Street (The Gog Log)
LPC hears plans for Hotel Chelsea rooftop additions (Curbed)
EV Grieve reader Steph notes the renovations under way at the former Cotan on First Avenue near St. Mark's Place... Something called Iconic Hand Rolls is taking over the space...
...and a reader notes that the gates to the Tompkins Square Park entrance on Eighth Street and Avenue B remained locked the past few mornings around 8... the other entrances were open...
Stringer issues conditional approval for NYU's 2031 expansion plans
April 11, 2012, New York, NY – Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer today issued conditional approval for New York University’s (NYU) 2031 core campus expansion plan. In developing his Charter-mandated Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) recommendation, Stringer secured major commitments to and mitigations for the project, which include a significant overall density reduction; designation and preservation of public-strips as parkland; elimination of a temporary gymnasium on the site of two community playgrounds; elimination of proposed dormitories on the Bleecker Building; and an affirmation of NYU’s commitment to provide space for a K-8 school.
“Today I am proud to announce my conditional approval of one of the most significant university expansion plans in our City’s recent history,” Borough President Stringer said. “This blueprint is the culmination of an unprecedented, five-year planning process launched by my office—a model for future growth that strikes a balance between a great university’s need to grow and the importance of preserving Greenwich Village’s distinctive, historic character. There was nothing easy about this: Everyone had to give up something. No one got everything they wanted. But at the end of the day, I am pleased that we came to a resolution in the best interests of the City, Greenwich Village and the University.”
"This is a good and important step, and a recognition that universities need to grow to maintain excellence and that strong universities are important to keeping our city strong," said NYU President John Sexton. “The agreement we have reached, which comes after five years of deep involvement with the Borough President and committed efforts by him, will enable NYU to meet the long-term academic space needs of its faculty and students while being sensitive to the concerns of our surrounding community. We understand that the public review process involves many stakeholders, and we look forward to working with the City Planning Commission and the City Council to secure their support in the coming months."
There's more. Oh God, so much more. You can go here for the whole release/statement.
Reaction from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (via The Real Deal):
"This is really just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," said GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman. "A slight decrease in the size of a few buildings does not change the fact that this massive plan is fundamentally wrong for the Village, wrong for New York City, and wrong for NYU, as evidenced by the growing chorus of resolutions from NYU faculty departments opposing the plan."
Breaking international news: 7-Eleven sign arrives on St. Mark's Place
Thanks to Charlie on 7th for the photos.
And this sign is going right here...
Previously on EV Grieve:
7-Eleven continues to feast on the East Village; next up, St. Mark's Place
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