A letter from W.H. Auden to St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

From the EV Grieve inbox... poet W.H. Auden's response to a new liturgy at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. Opens with "Have you gone stark raving mad?" and concludes with,"I implore you by the bowels of Christ." (Checking on the date of the letter.)

[Click to enlarge]

St. Mark's posted the letter as part of its social media outreach for the Partners in Preservation contest. The church has applied for a restoration grant for its historic cast-iron portico. In total, there are 40 New York landmarks competing. Grants will be awarded based in part on the number of online votes each organization can gather. Supporters can vote for St. Mark's at the Partners in Preservation website.

The Duo Multicultural Arts Center on East Fourth Street was the other East Village "historic place" selected to compete in the program. DMAC hopes to restore six murals and its decorative tin ceiling. Details here.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[East 10th Street and Avenue B yesterday]

CB3 panel votes on SPURA (The Lo-Down)

Cro-Mags founder Harley Flanagan on hardcore and growing up in the LES (NY Natives)

More about the new McHale's (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

All things Joey Ramone (Tripping With Marty)

Used condom on display on a downtown F (Gothamist)

Cha Cha lives at Coney Island (Amusing the Zillion)

Remembering old Penn Station (Ephemeral New York)

And not sure when Ramen Kuidouraku closed at 141 First Ave. near East Ninth Street...but the space is now for lease...

Petition to have north side of Delancey Street co-named for Deshane Santana

[Photo by Shawn Chittle]

On Jan. 13, Dashane Santana was walking with friends after classes for the day at CASTLE Middle School. According to published reports, she dropped a bookbag, and went back to retrieve it. In the intersection at Clinton Street, a minivan struck and killed the 12 year old who lived in the Jacob Riis II Houses.

Now her grandmother, Teresa Pedroza, is hoping to have the north side of Delancey at Clinton co-named for Deshane — both as a way to recognize the girl and promote safety along the notoriously dangerous street.

Last week, Pedroza made her case in front of CB3's transportation committee. As DNAinfo reported, some committee members felt as if too many streets were being co-named. (One committee member suggested naming the incoming pedestrian plaza along the south side of Delancey Street between Norfolk and Clinton after Dashane instead of the intersection.)

Per BoweryBoogie: "What seemed like a no-brainer move met some opposition and red tape, as certain guidelines are not met. Such co-namings require the remembered to have served the community in some capacity for at least 15 years. Obviously, Dashane Santana is an exception (an unforeseen event) to these rules."

The committee tabled the issue, in part, because Pedroza didn't have enough signatures from residents in the immediate area.

On Tuesday night, Shawn Chittle spotted Pedroza (pictured above) collecting signatures on Delancey. There's also an online petition that people can sign here.

Rebirth at St. Brigid's

Seeing the photos of the freshly unveiled St. Brigid's exterior yesterday reminded me of a photo that I took a few weeks ago.... when I was walking around the church property on East Eighth Street at Avenue B...

Rebirth is a new salon that recently opened in a storefront behind the church. Seemed sort of fitting.

Enter the boom-boom room?

There's a newish listing for a penthouse apartment at the Petersfield on Fourth Avenue near East 12th Street... and it's as nice as you might expect from a place that's $7,750 a month.

I think.

You see, I haven't made it past this bedroom.

Triangular mirror facing bed. Candles. Brown furry throw blanket. Bear skin rug. It's as if the realtors asked a, say, 24-year-old shipping heir to stage the photos for the listing.

Anyway, you can see the apartment for yourself during an open house Friday evening and late Sunday afternoon.

This is what a window display looked like on the Bowery on May 10, 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...

Remember those bees the NYPD found on the Bowery earlier today?

The ones that Gawker reported on...?

Well, the NYPD and some bee types just released bees into Tompkins Square Park... Police on the scene said that these were, in fact, the Bowery Bees.

Photos via EVG reader psm ...

Here is St. Brigid's!

It has been two-plus years since we're seen the front of the under-renovation St. Brigid's on Avenue B at East Eighth Street...

This afternoon, workers began removing the construction tarp and scaffolding. Bobby Williams is on the scene.

Behold the new St. Brigid's...

Bees on the Bowery!

Word is coming in that a swarm of killer bees has invaded the Bowery the NYPD found a large beehive colony of bees in a tree on the Bowery near East First Street.

Gawker was first to report on this.

There is video. Exclusive video!



Updated
Photo from inside the Bowery Hotel. Oops. No. It's just Olivia de Havilland in "The Swarm." Our photo department's fault.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Photo by Dave on 7th]

A look at old-timer Faerman Cash Register Co. on the Bowery (WNYC)

Streaming the new Joey Ramone record (Rolling Stone)

A case for not tearing down the existing Essex Street Market (The Lo-Down)

Looking at the Portico of St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery (Off the Grid)

The future of Bond and Lafayette (Curbed)

NY Senate honors MCA (Gothamist)

A Sugar and Plumm Purveyors of Yumm store by Murray's Cheese Shop? (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Hotel at 151 Houston wants to be bigger (BoweryBoogie)

Breaking: Car fire on East Ninth Street

Just east of Second Avenue... Photo and tip via EVG reader Kristen, who notes, as of 7:32, emergency responders were on the scene...

And a little later ... after the FDNY put out the engine fire ... via @JacobDAnderson

And from EV Grieve reader Terry Howell...

... and this afternoon.... via EVG reader William Klayer...

Does a quiet block even exist in the East Village?

A reader is looking to move apartments later this year, and is starting to do some research for an ideal block. Despite being in a so-called Resolution Zone, the Community Board continues to OK liquor licenses, and the block the resident lives on has "disintegrated into a chaotic nightly mess."

The reader loves the East Village (in general!) ... but was thinking — is there such a thing as a quiet residential block here?

The reader grew up here and is "well aware silence does not exist in this city, but there has to be a strip that's known to be more civil and residential and less likely to draw those bar crawlers who come from I don't know where."

Finally.

"While the neighborhood has certainly changed, I want to still believe there is hope."

I made a few suggestions, including:

• 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. (Yes, a major thoroughfare to and from Avenue A, but only one liquor license — the Brindle Room.)
• 11th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.
• 13th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
• Seventh Street between Avenue C and Avenue D.
• Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

I made more suggestions... but that's enough for now.

There are many fine blocks, though I may not want to live on them. What do you think — is there a quiet block? (And would you tell us if there is?) What about the above picks?

[File photo outside Superdive back in the day]