Pearl Diner still closed, but there's a good sign

Late December, we noticed that the classic 50-year-old (plus) Pearl Diner on the fringes of the Financial District was closed. No sign... or sign of life. A casualty of Sandy.

However, on Monday, a reader noted that a "coming soon" was up now in the front window. We took a look...

Centre-fuge Public Art Project returns for second year; Cycle 7 debuts next month

From the EV Grieve inbox...

[March 2012]

Centre-fuge Public Art Project is proud to announce the continuation of murals on the trailer at First Street and First Avenue. Cycle 7 is the first installation of art in the new year.

In mid-2011 a drab, gray trailer, serving as a temporary office for workers on the 2nd Avenue subway line, popped up on the South side of First Street. For two years now Centre-fuge Public Art Project transforms the DOT trailer into a rotating street gallery. Artists create work on all visible sides of the structure with the art changing every other month. Anyone can propose an idea for work on the trailer.

The goal of Centre-fuge is not only to re-beautify an incredible block, but also to encourage the community to express itself in a public forum. With the closure of half of Houston Street, making underground way for the 2nd Avenue Subway line, the ever-growing presence of construction makes the area feel less like a neighborhood full of individuals and more like a work site full of barricades and jackhammers. Centre-fuge attempts to combat this effect. The project is dedicated in memory of friend, creator and Lower East Side neighbor, Mike Hamm.

Artists represented in Centre-fuge, Cycle 7 are Hellbent, Joe Iurato, Joseph Meloy, Matthew Denton Burrows, Nicholai Khan and Yuki. For more information on each artist, go to centre-fuge.tumblr.com/artist-bios. The recreation of Mike Hamm’s work is permanently installed on the eastern face of the trailer. A new Mike Hamm piece will be installed on the eastern face in April.

The seventh installation at Centre-fuge will be on view from February 10th until April 11th, 2013.

For more details, visit the Centre-fuge Tumblr. Previously.

Night hawk

Early evening in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams.

[Updated] 7A will reopen Friday; management promises no painted fingers on the back wall

7A on East Seventh Street and Avenue A is closed this week for renovations — back open Friday at 6 p.m. ... the chalkboard out front notes that workers are installing a new sprinkler system, etc.

The sign also points out, "Don't worry we will not be painting fingers on the back walls again."

7A closed for renovations back in January 2011 ... and afterwards debuted the jungle motif...

Updated:

The work has proven to be more extensive and time-consuming than originally thought ... so the new re-opening date is Friday, Feb. 8.

[Updated] DOH temporarily closes Kelly's Sports Bar on Avenue A

EVG reader AC notes that Kelly's on Avenue A is closed this evening, and there's the telltale yellow DOH sticker on the front door. The inspection must have happened this afternoon — no record of it yet on the Health Department website. Perhaps they'll be back up and running by Thursday evening's Sabres-Bruins game.

Updated 1-30
The inspection report is now online. An inspector found 38 violation points in total for the following:

1) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.
2) Sewage disposal system improper or unapproved.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Stealing Claire Forlani on Avenue C]

Jerry Stahl and Lydia Lunch at St. Mark's Bookshop (Slum Goddess)

Million-dollar development deal to maintain East 6th Street synagogue (DNAinfo)

Up close with the hawk of Tompkins Square Park (The Gog Log)

Video interview with Aron "The Pieman" Kay (Animal)

"The cool thing is, Avenue C is still kind of a 'secret' area of New York City, just starting to be discovered" (Fork in the Road)

The Landmarks Preservation Commission schedules public hearing for the Bialystoker Nursing Home building (The Lo-Down)

About the "Retro Bar & Grill" slated for the Holiday Inn on Delancey (BoweryBoogie)

Jefferson Market Library's amazing NYC book collection (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

RIP Don't Honk signs (Gothamist)

Spending $47,000 at Nello (Eater)

And a second Strummerville show has been added tonight at the Bowery Electric... Details here.

Fed-up residents launch 'Solas Gone Wild'

Residents of East 9th Street have taken to Vimeo hoping to get the nightclub Solas to do something about the chaotic behavior routinely taking place outside of the establishment. The new “Solas Gone Wild” channel features three videos shot Sunday morning at 1:15AM of a Solas patron fighting in front of the club and storming up and down the block. At one point the police arrive, which does little to calm the situation.

Solas Fight - East Village, NYC Pt 3 from Solas Gone Wild on Vimeo.

“This kind of stuff happens every weekend and we're sick of it,” said one of the channel's creators. “It's guys fighting each other, people stumbling drunk into traffic. It's not noise from people having a good time, it's alcohol-induced violence and it needs to stop.”

Calls to 311 and to the nightclub itself have been made but so far the calls have done little to curb the late-night antics, the creators claim. — written by EVG contributor Atomic

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Woman on a stretcher outside Solas early Saturday morning

Reader report: Solas patrons turn sidewalk shed into after-hours hot spot

What color would you like to see the MTA adopt for their flashing lights on Select buses?

Last Tuesday, we had that post about the MTA discontinuing the flashing blue lights on the M15 Select buses on First and Second Avenues... apparently there were complaints because people thought the bus was an emergency vehicle.

We had a discussion about it in the comments.

Well, EVG regular Spike, who told us about all this in the first place, received an email from the MTA with some clarification:

New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law restricts the use of flashing blue lights to emergency-response vehicles only.

Per Spike: "Sounds better then 'stupid people couldn't tell the difference between a bus and an ambulance.'"

And now the MTA is testing new colors for the Select buses.

Spike is pulling for abalone shell or mother of pearl. And we're going with caput mortuum — Latin for "worthless remains," which captures how we feel riding the bus at times.

What color would you like to see the MTA adopt for their flashing lights on Select buses?

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP M15 Select bus flashing blue lights

Resident report: 1 month without gas for cooking at 22 St. Mark's Place

Back in late December, Mamoun's had to close for more than a week at 22 St. Mark's Place due to a problem with the building's gas line.

Per Mamoun's Facebook page: "Con Edison shut off our gas at the Saint Marks location because of a gas leak at the building. Our line was not affected but they shut it off anyway. We cannot get con edison to come back and turn it back on because of their huge bureaucracy!"

The gas returned Jan. 4. However, the rest of the tenants in the building haven't fared as well. A resident of 22 St. Marks Place, between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, said that tenants have been without cooking gas since the end of December (they do have hot water and heat).

Per the resident: "The building is doing very little to solve the problem ... and will not answer any real questions.

Yesterday, the landlord's reps apparently said that Con Ed would be by to "fix the problem." However, the residents were told that they needed to be at home during the day so Con Ed could access their apartments.

"People organized their schedules to work from home or took the day off."

No one from Con Ed ever arrived.

Meanwhile, according to the resident, the management company — NBKM Realty Management Corp. — is providing information contradictory to that of Con Ed. And the landlord is not offering any abatement for the lack of cooking gas for the past month.

On previous posts, readers offered advice on this all-too-common problem here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
How much of a rent discount for not having gas for cooking?

Residents of 97 E. Seventh St. haven't had gas for cooking since Feb. 19

Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez apparently leaving Avenue B

[Google]

EVG reader c ryan passes along this photo ... on the door of Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez's longtime office on the southeast corner of Avenue B and 11th Street...

We haven't heard just yet if she'll maintain an office on the Lower East Side... Her newly drawn Seventh Congressional District includes the Queens neighborhoods of Maspeth, Ridgewood and Woodside, the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick, Greenpoint, Red Hook, East New York, Brooklyn Heights, Sunset Park and Williamsburg and part of the Lower East Side and East Village.

Per the comments, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney now represents this area in the reconfigured 12th Congressional District...

Anyway, as for the space ... the Lower East Side People's Mutual Housing Association owns the building. And rumor is GOLES will expand into this space?

Report: Ethiopian restaurant in the works for Avenue B

Fu Sushi closed on Avenue B between East 11th Street and East 12th Street last August.

The Post reported yesterday that a new Ethiopian restaurant is set to take this space in the coming weeks. The place is called Haile Ethiopian Bistro, and owned by Menasie Haile and Gemada Hiwot.

The Post also noted that Prime & Beyond, the steakhouse at 90 E. 10th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue, is leaving to be closer to the Lincoln Tunnel and its New Jersey location. Prime opened in July 2011... The restaurant never seemed all that busy when we walked by... Did you ever try it?

[EVG file photo]

[Top photo via Yelp]

How much is the fee to use the ATM sign as an umbrella?

This morning in Tompkins Square Park via Derek Berg. (And we featured Derek in Out and About in the East Village last October.)