Somewhere along the High Line

Photo today by Bobby Williams.

Week in Grieview

[East 10th Street and Fourth Avenue]

Starbucks confirmed for 219 First Ave. (Tuesday)

Mysterious plywood arrives at the Mystery Lot (Friday)

Yogurt Crazy is coming (Monday)

The big dig starts at 74-84 Third Ave. (Monday)

One of the nicer homes in the East Village finally sold after four years (Tuesday)

Live in Bret Easton Ellis' old place (Thursday)

Nice Guy Edie's closes today (Thursday)

And our post Wednesday about moving away from the East Village yielded 71 comments... including this one:

Anonymous said...
"There's a happy medium. Don't let the new crowd force legitimate concerns and lamentations to an absurd extreme."

There was a happy medium, it happened in the early 90s. If I could pick a point of reference I would point to the time when Wigstock came to Tompkins Square Park and was held there for a few years after. I think the first time was around 1993, but I could be wrong. Speaking for myself, I would agree that yeah, nobody wants to go around taking their life in their hands and watching their back every moment in a bombed out crime ridden neighborhood.

But there was a time in the EV when there was a nice mix of grit, and the people were generally geared more toward (for lack of a better way of putting it)a DIY anti-materialistic, anti-mainstream mentality and they could pursue that lifestyle without paying an astronomical rent. It wasn't cheap either, but it wasn't entirely out of reach. This is not revisionist history, this is real because I lived in this time and in this place and I saw it with my own eyes. The reason why there is so much reaction to what's happening right now is BECAUSE this doesn't necessarily exist any longer.

The neighborhood may have changed alot over the decades, but let's face it people, this is a really BIG change because it is so unlike anything that's happened before. It's not like previous eras when when white, non-ethnic people came down to plant their flag of art and creativity in the EV soil. This is about a faceless, generic white-washing that could care less about the traditions of the neighborhood. It's about a wave of people that heard it was a fun, sort of free-for-all, piss all over the place area.

The difference between then and now is that regardless of who came to the East Village in the past, what their socio-economic backgrounds were, that they were maybe bad-asses willing to hunker down in squats and live a real urban guerrilla lifestyle, or just regular people that wanted to be in a creative environment, the focus was more or less the same: art and music, and living as far away from the mainstream as possible. The reason for the change now is because for whatever reason, the young people who are attracted to city living, lived their lives up to this point with different values. Values that by all appearances seem extremely shallow and filled with entitlement. Why this happened to kids born in the 80s and early 90s is a question for the sociologists.

Personally I can say that when I was in my 20s and even now, I was interested in OLD things. I didn't dismiss them because they weren't new. The East Village and NYC used to be a place that made you feel very connected to the past and that is now vanishing. All I can say is too bad for the frat people. If they see the light later on in life they'll realized that they wasted the best years of their lives.

JUNE 13, 2012 12:59 PM

Billie Joe has a boner

Also today today in important news items... it was inevitable that someone would deface the John Varvatos/Green Day ad on the old CBGB Gallery space ...

And, sure enough, a Penistrator imitator doodled on Billie Joe Armstrong...

Father Knows Best

Spotted outside the Blarney Cove on East 14th Street this weekend... And happy Father's Day...

East River Bandshell and the NYC Pride Rally

A few photos from Crazy Eddie... who went down to the East River Bandshell for the beginning of the NYC Pride Rally...

Today in photos of a plush horse rocking chair curbside

Late yesterday afternoon along St. Mark's Place. Photo via Bobby Williams.

End of the evening shift at the Stage

Love this photo of the Stage on Second Avenue near St. Mark's Place at closing time ... Found the shot via Twitter by @SetoPhotos ... photo by freelance photographer Michael Seto.

Previously on EV Grieve:
An appreciation: Breakfast at Stage

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Today, the festival is on Third Avenue, from 14th Street to St. Mark's Place...



There is nothing else left to say.

In a lonely place

NY-based A Place To Bury Strangers with "You Are The One" off their forthcoming album, "Worship," out June 26.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

A guide to NYC Pride Week (NYC Pride)

CB3 OKs co-naming part of Delancey after Dashane Santana (BoweryBoogie)

More details about the Paulaner Brauhaus opening on the Bowery (The Lo-Down)

Tom Duane's retirement shakes up downtown political world (East Villager)

Archival photos of NYC swimming pools from the 1930s (Curbed)

The art of Alex Harsley (The New York Times)

Excellent guide to free summer events in Coney Island (Amusing the Zillion)

... and via Shawn Chittle ... a reminder that Alphabet Scoop is open for the season on East 11th Street ... During the summer, the Father’s Heart Ministries runs the shop that employs at-risk youth in the neighborhood. (You can read an article about it at The Villager here.)





... Shawn said that he spotted new East 11th Street resident Justin Long in the shop the other day...

Hours (subject to change):
Sun 2pm-10pm
Mon-Fri 5pm-9pm
Sat 11am-11pm
543 East 11th Street

Final preparations at Nicoletta, opening tonight at 5

At Nicoletta, the new pizza place on Second Avenue and East 10th Street... workers are scrambling to have the place up and ready ....



...for the grand opening tonight...



For sneak previews, check out Eater and Grub Street and Serious Eats ...

(A few Eater commenters noted that the interior looks like a T.G.I. Friday's...)

If you go, then let us know how it is... because, to be honest, we'll likely never step foot in the place...

Live in this historic East Village synagogue (with hot tub) for $25K

Step right up here on East Eighth Street between Avenue B and C... and behold this "spectacular fourplex" ...



The Town listing is ...

One of the city's last tenement Shuls, now a chic landmarked building, this former synagogue was brilliantly transformed into a magnificent home in 2005 by world-famous designers from the Ian Shrager Hotels – earning recognition in Architectural Record for its extraordinary transformation, and attracting the likes of press, politicians and entertainment figures. Yours to rent is the exquisite result of their top-of-the-line gut renovation...

Other distinctive features that make this sun-drenched residence such a unique work of art are its custom-made windows that are exact replicas of when the building was a synagogue (including the Star of David!), and luxurious touches that include Brazilian hardwood cherry floors, hand-poured Brazililan glass mosaic tiles by Vidrotil, beautiful Wenge wood paneling, radiant floor heating, floor-to-ceiling steel cased windows and doors (the list goes on).

I'll say!





A three-six month lease available starting July 1. And as the headline says, it's $25,000 per month.