[Updated] MCA immortalized on East Seventh Street

Tribute to the late Adam Yauch here just west of First Avenue. Artwork by Cram Concepts.

Photo by Zachary McCue via.

Updated: Another take this morning via @dens ...

Big gulping on St. Mark's Place

[7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place one recent day. The ambulance was only parked outside.]

New York magazine checks in with a feature on 7-Eleven(s), which features the scary headline: "The Big Gulp: How 7-Eleven plans to put the bodega out of business."

Gulp.

You know, 7-Eleven has this Business Conversion Program, "whose stated goal is to entice mom-and-pop shops into becoming 7-Elevens. Will bodegas be able to compete when they rarely even use scanners to keep track of inventory? When they hire extra labor just to sell sandwiches for a pittance? When they stock outdated and unpopular items like canned clam sauce and mackerels?"

And, later.

Given this Business Conversion Program, "7-Eleven could plausibly claim to simply be giving moms and pops the means to take their entrepreneurialism to new heights: The 7-Eleven takeover may merely involve the same people we already buy Doritos from selling us bags of Doritos from a different supply chain. In that case, all that will really be lost are some cats and the possibility of occasionally persuading a clerk to sell a single cigarette rather than a whole pack — that, and another set of idiosyncratic storefronts, to be replaced, à la banks and pharmacies, by the nationally uniform palettes of corporate chains."

There's a lot more to read in Willy Staley's article here.

Meanwhile, we've been keeping tabs on the 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place and the nearby Gem Spa. We worry that Gem Spa's business will be hurt by the recent arrival of the franchise across the way.

[EVG file photo]

One morning, we watched a touristy couple in their 50s walk east along St. Mark's Place. They get to the side of Gem Spa and size up the various hats, sunglasses and what not that are for sale in the kiosks outside the store. They seem confused. As if they're looking for something that they can't find. The woman looks around and spots the 7-Eleven. They walk across the street and enter the 7-Eleven.

Another time. Two young men. 19? 20? 21? Figured one of the guys lived here; the other one was visiting. They stopped in front of the 7-Eleven. The visitor starts to move toward the door. His friend tugs at the other's sleeve and says — we swear! — you can never go in there. They continue walking and eventually head into Gem Spa.

What does this mean? Absolutely nothing at the moment. But we enjoyed the stakeout.

Previously on EV Grieve:
This is one reason why I hate 7-Eleven opening on St. Mark's Place

Purple Ginger now open on East Sixth Street

Purple Ginger, a Thai and noodle restaurant, opened here on East Sixth Street just east of Avenue A on Sunday. They're not doing deliveries just yet (so, no to-go menus to browse...).

This space had previously been home to Sixth Street Kitchen, which never reopened after being destroyed by a fire in January 2011.

Meanwhile, let us know if you try this place ...

Rally this evening at 50-58 E. Third St.

As we've been reporting, Abart Holdings LLC has sold (or is selling) the buildings at 50, 54 and 58 E. Third St. on between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Seventeen residents of the building with market-rate apartments received letters that stated, in part: "It has been agreed with the impending new owners that your lease will not be renewed and that you will be expected to vacate at the expiration of your lease."

This evening, the residents held a rally outside the apartment buildings... City Council member Rosie Mendez was among the speakers...

... Unfortunately, we couldn't make the rally... Bobby Williams sent along these photos, noting that 40-plus people turned out...

Yesterday, resident Sue Palchak-Essenpreis told us: "All we are asking is to be treated fairly. We have a voice, and at the very least, it deserves to be heard. While currently the NYC law may state that any new owner may evict current market rate tenants at will, just because it's legal, doesn't make it right. These are our homes, and we won't leave without a fight."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Three apartment buildings sold on East Third Street

Know your rights: Help with understanding NYC rent laws

More about the lease renewals at 50, 54 and 58 E. Third St.

Tenants at 50, 54 and 58 E. Third St. banding to together in face of building sale

And now, Florence of Florence + the Machine walking out of the Bowery Hotel

This afternoon on TMZ Grieve, Bobby Williams happened by the Bowery Hotel on the Bowery and saw the paparazzi waiting out front... for!

Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine... the band is playing at Radio City tomorrow night.

... and one fan is quite please by this sighting...

Next, those photos of Joe Jonas outside Peels...

Reminders tonight: Rally for East Third Street residents facing eviction

Yesterday, we asked resident Sue Palchak-Essenpreis what the group hopes to achieve with the rally.

"We're hoping to show that the real-estate market in NYC is about more than units, square footage and market rates. It's about people, families and homes. Neighborhoods are about more than "hipness and hot spots." All we are asking is to be treated fairly. We have a voice, and at the very least, it deserves to be heard. While currently the NYC law may state that any new owner may evict current market rate tenants at will, just because it's legal, doesn't make it right. These are our homes, and we won't leave without a fight."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Three apartment buildings sold on East Third Street

Know your rights: Help with understanding NYC rent laws

More about the lease renewals at 50, 54 and 58 E. Third St.

Tenants at 50, 54 and 58 E. Third St. banding to together in face of building sale

[Updated] Here is the city's new Citi Bike

From the EV Grieve inbox...

NYC DOT and NYC Bicycle Share are happy to announce that Citi is the official sponsor of the NYC Bike Share system. Private sponsorship, combined with user fees, means that no taxpayer dollars will be used to operate the system in NYC.

Citi Bike is a revolutionary new way for you to get around New York City, scheduled to launch summer 2012. Bike sharing expands your transportation options; it empowers you to go your own way.

Citi Bike is a self-service system that provides members with easy access to a network of thousands of bicycles. Pick up a bike close to home or work, ride, then return it to any of the hundreds of stations to be located throughout the city.

Citi Bike will consist of 600 stations, 10,000 bikes in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Visit CitiBike to learn more about system pricing, membership, upcoming events and system launch.

Here’s one of the first shots of the bikes. We can’t wait to see them action on New York’s streets!

Hmm.

No word yet on where some of the 600 share locations will be ... there will, of course, be several bike stations around the East Village...

Last October, we got a sneak preview when the Great New York City Bike Share Tour made a stop on Avenue A along Tompkins Square Park...

[Photos by Bobby Williams]

I liked the idea a little more when the bikes didn't look like an ATM on wheels. Will you take a CitiBank bike for a cruise? Oh, and here's the price list...

[Updated] Another record store leaving the East Village

[EVG file photo]

Over at Flaming Pablum, Alex brings news that Norman's Sound & Vision on Cooper Square is leaving for Williamsburg in August.

Ugh. I enjoy rooting through the piles of CDs and what not at Norman's. Always found some kind of bargain.

As I've written ... as much as I hate to see record stores close, we are fortunate to have several good choices left in the neighborhood, such as...Kim's ... Good Records NYC ... Turntable Lab ... A-1 Records ... Other Music ... Academy Records ... Gimme Gimme ... Big City Records ... Rainbow Music...

Updated 2:21 p.m.:

A reader tells us that the Norman's has already opened in Brooklyn at 555 Metropolitan Ave. Sure enough, here's a photo from the Norman's Facebook page...

Previously on EV Grieve:
There is now only one record store left on St. Mark's Place

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[On Great Jones yesterday. Photo by Bobby Williams]

Bowery Poetry Club kicks off Crowdfunding campaign for new restaurant (BoweryBoogie)

Thurston Moore and John Zorn at the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (The Village Voice)

Ed Sanders, the only beatnik who can yodel (NPR)

New building permits up 169 percent this year (The Wall Street Journal)

Meet the 4th generation owner of Russ & Daughters (The Lo-Down)

New home for 76-year-old Blaustein Hardware on Greenwich Avenue (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

The old and the new clash on Union Square in 1936 (Ephemeral New York)

Cannabis Peace March in Union Square (Slum Goddess ... and the Gog Log)

More MCA (Flaming Pablum)

...and via ‏@cbgbomfug ...

Another high rise rising on 14th Street and Third Avenue

Back in November 2008, workers demolished the addendum to Jam Envelope & Paper on Third Avenue just a few steps north of East 14th Street, as Jeremiah's Vanishing New York reported.

As he noted at the time, "You can bet some clever architect is somewhere licking his chops, delighting in a scheme to slip a sliver of glass into this narrow cleft of sky."

Indeed, the time has come for that...

[Via Google]

We just noticed that work has started on the sliver...

The city previously approved plans for a "new mixed use 16-story building."

According to the DOB, they'll be commercial space on the ground floor ... and one unit on each of the subsequent floors — 15 "residential apartments" in total.

We didn't come across any renderings just yet. Regardless, the plans will be tall and skinny looking. Meanwhile, the construction has pushed the M103 stop to the south side of East 14th Street.

Stuyvesant Grocery returning to East 14th Street

EV Grieve reader LvV brings good news for fans of Stuyvesant Grocery, the deli on East 14th Street and Avenue A that a fire destroyed in May 2010. Per LvV: "Stuyvesant Grovery is back, albeit in smaller form, but it is back. The guys are working on the old locksmith place on the southside of 14th between 1st and A, right next to Petopia."

Now if we can just get a new location nearby for Pete's-a-Pizza... And anyone know what happened to the locksmith-hardware place?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Conspiracies: What next for 14th Street and Avenue A?

Renovations in order for Stuyvesant Grocery and Pete's-A-Place?

Lakeside's photobooth has a new home

The Lakeside Lounge closed after last Monday night... Meanwhile, Trixie, the owner of the venue's vintage photobooth, was looking for a new home for the machine... and she has found one...

The booth arrived at HiFi on Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street on Friday... And here's how it's looking inside HiFi...

We like point No. 3. And No. 4. Have a drink.

[HiFi photos by Shawn Chittle]