A summer scene

The Dry Dock Playground on East 10th Street and Avenue D today. Photo by Bobby Williams.

Speaker of the Park

Apparently left behind after Saturday's concert in Tompkins Square Park. Not sure if it will fit in my Citi Bike basket.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

[Updated] About last night's CB3 Citi Bikes public meeting

As noted earlier, Community Board 3's Transportation Committee met last night to hear concerns about the Citi Bike program. We haven't heard about the meeting... or seen any write-ups about what might have transpired... Here's a tweet from Stephen Miller, a reporter from StreetsBlog...

CB 3 committee booked IS 131 auditorium to handle the big crowd for the #CitiBike gripe session. 25 people showed up. pic.twitter.com/feIYrhrAKU

— Stephen Miller (@miller_stephen) July 16, 2013

... and later...

All of the speakers so far have been very supportive of bike-share. One wanted to ensure station moved for construction is put back after.

— Stephen Miller (@miller_stephen) July 16, 2013

He tweeted that he didn't stay the whole time... so maybe the full-blown outrage came later...

Updated 3:40

Ah, The Lo-Down has just filed a report on the meeting... A passage:

Linda Martella said she, too “likes the idea” of the program– just not in front of her store. Martella, owner of Veniero’s Pastry on East 11th Street, said the street is already narrow, and the Citi Bikes across the street took over seven parking spaces and impedes the flow of traffic, especially when there are delivery trucks on the commercial street.

“We are especially concerned with the holiday time when [customers] come to pick up their orders,” Martella said. “We now have lost these parking spaces, making it difficult for the customers to carry these orders out.”

Read the post here.

BoweryBoogie also has a recap of the meeting here.

St. John's coming to 51 Astor Place?

St. John’s University is looking to lease space at 51 Astor Place, Lois Weiss at the Post reports today. As she notes, the building needs to rent about 50,000 square feet to a school to fulfill zoning requirements.

Not a done deal, though.

But sources said the cost for the Fumihiko Maki-designed space is roughly $90 a square foot, and is not sitting well with some of the school insiders, who have been mortified by financial scandals that rocked the school over the last year and feel the high tab is not in keeping with its Catholic roots.

The school is selling its campus location in Tribeca, Weiss reported.

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Michael Duggan
Occupation: Antique Dealer, Archangel Antiques (334 East 9th).
Location: 4th Street Between 2nd and Bowery
Time: 7 pm on Saturday, July 13th

I’m from Allentown, Pennsylvania. I moved here because I was engaged at the time and the woman I was engaged to had gone to FIT and was a converter for Harvey Bernard, which was sort of a high-end woman’s line. She did all of the development for manufacturing and coincidentally that’s what my current partner does now.

I came straight to the East Village. This was the only place that made sense to me. Most of my friends lived on the Upper East Side at the time — that was where the younger middle class white people would move. It was the safe comfortable place, while this place was edgier. Our first apartment was on Rivington and Pitt Street.

I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 35 years now. When we moved here it was all empty lots. People had goats and chickens. People were camping in empty lots. It was a time when people didn’t want this real estate. I’ve lived above Raul’s Candy Store on Avenue B for 25 years now and we have such a great relationship with them.

This was also the area where you went out and everything crazy was going on. This was the place for people to come and misbehave. I was in fashion sales when I first moved here. I worked in fashion and furniture for the first 15 years I was here for Norma Kamali and then for Versace. I remember one night being out at Cave Canem, which later turned into Lucky Cheng’s, and I went in there and I’m dressed in a Zebra Versace suit since I was working for them. And someone said to me, “You know your friend is downstairs and you have to go and get her.” So I go downstairs and this woman is wearing the identical suit that I have on. They were like, “You have to take care of her, she’s a little toasted.” Here it turns out that it’s Princess Gloria. She was sort of the equivalent of Kim Kardashian of her time. Now she’s best friends with the Pope and her daughter is the editor at large for Vogue.

I work at the button shop on 9th street [Archangel Antiques]. The owners asked me to help them for a few days and I stayed for 20 years. We sell vintage buttons and antiques. We have 2.5 million vintage buttons from the 1830s through the 1950s. Gail, the woman I work for, had started buying maybe 30 years ago and now we predominantly sell our buttons for prototypes to design houses, like Ralph Lauren, J Crew, Anthropology, but also I sell to Boardwalk Empire and Mad Men since they need vintage buttons to go along with the vintage clothing. Everything is evocative of an era.

We’re going to be closing at some point next year. We actually have two storefronts and so there’s a lot of merchandise. The people I work with are in their 70s so it’s just, enough is enough.

Also, the generations have changed. Very few people are looking to buy for their homes anymore because no one has a substantial home life. Having been in and out of home furnishings, and also being a decorator, my house is filled to the brink. Everyone always asks me, “Do you live with your grandparents?” And I say, “No, I like living like this.” Cause for me, I’m kind of the person in the morning, I pull out my 19th-century silver tray and put out all my glassware and silver and have a normal breakfast and people don’t live like that anymore.

And I want to maintain my life. You want to take care of the things you have, those special things. But that also, I think, is a past lifestyle.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Alphabetical order on Avenue D and East Houston

In recent weeks, EVG reader Ray has shared some backside photos of the progress at the incoming Alphabet Plaza, the 12-story mixed-used apartment building at East Houston and East Second Street/Avenue D.

From a different angle on the corner, you can see just how massive the thing is ... with 4-5 floors to go...





This is the corner in July 2008 ...


And eventually...


[Via The Real Deal]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 12th-story 'Alphabet Plaza' in the works for Second Street and Avenue D

Alphabet Plaza ready to rise on Avenue D

Alphabet Plaza is rising on East Houston and Avenue D

Easy as...: Alphabet Plaza makes first appearance above ground

Alphabet Plaza starts to apply sun block

Stopped by Houston and Avenue D to pay my final respects

[Updated] As the Rite Aid turns (colors)

[July 7]

The Rite Aid on First Avenue at East Fifth Street continues to delight and amaze, though not really. First came the interior makeover, then the Rite Aiders turned their attention to the exterior, where workers painted it blue... before adding a garden theme.

And now!

EVG Senior First Avenue Rite Aid Correspondent Goggla reports that the East Fifth Street side is getting a design as well... too early to tell exactly what this design will be...





Any guesses before we see the final version?

Updated 7-17

A better view this morning via Goggla...

Tonight: Union Square's first nighttime farmers market

From the EVG inbox...

Union Square Night Market and Birthday Party!
Union Square Greenmarket — 17th Street & Union Square West
Tonight, 4-8

Join us for this very special one-time event!

On Wednesday, July 17th, the Union Square Greenmarket turns 37 years old, and to celebrate we will have farmers selling their farm fresh produce, meats, and cheeses, while sharing a space with a curated roster of restaurants serving prepared foods.

Along with all of the delicious food served that evening, there will be programming for families, live music by The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn and Jude Roberts, as well as a Brooklyn Beer Bar Featuring Brooklyn Greenmarket Wheat served in the pavilion.

All of your favorite Wednesday Greenmarket farmers will be in attendance, along with these restaurants selling individual dishes, desserts and beverages:

Back Forty/Back Forty West
Brooklyn Brewery serving Greenmarket Wheat Beer
Chop't Salad
Craft/Craftbar
Hearth/Terroir
Monument Lane
P&H Soda
Rouge Tomate
Telepan
The Fourth
Tocqueville Restaurant
Union Square Cafe
'Wichcraft

And you can go here to register for a pass where you get $1 off each dish or something.

On a sunny day

Tompkins Square Park today. Photo by Bobby Williams.

Your chance to bitch about Citi Bikes tonight

Back in May, before the launch of the Citi Bikes program, Community Board 3 announced that it would be holding a public meeting in July to hear any concerns ... Anyway, that meeting is tonight.

Here is the original message that we posted on May 10:

Bike Share will launch May 27. Issues that must be dealt with immediately, such as a blocked driveway or loading zone, should be emailed to the community board office (info@cb3manhattan.org) and we will work with DOT to have these sites inspected immediately.

There are other concerns regarding placement of installations or size of installations, or the number of installations in close proximity to each other. We are asking people to wait until bike share is in operation for a month to see what works and what doesn’t. What installations are not being used to capacity? What installations do not accommodate the number of bikes needed?

The Community Board 3 Transportation Committee will meet on Tuesday, July 16 to hear concerns. DOT will attend the meeting to note these concerns and address or inspect and follow up.

The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at I.S. 131, 100 Hester St.

And sorry about the short notice on the reminder... we just remembered ourselves via The Lo-Down's reminder this morning ...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Enjoying a cheese sandwich on 10th and C, photo by Bobby Williams]

Former Ms. Wheelchair America can't access the many East Village shops and restaurants that have a single step or two at the entrance (DNAinfo)

Q-and-A with Mitch Broder, who covers the "classic old haunts" of Manhattan (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Russian Orthodox Cathedral's road to landmark designation on East Second Street (Off the Grid)

A few highlights from last night's CB3/SLA committee meeting (BoweryBoogie)

East Village resident selected as the starting pitcher for the National League in tonight's All-Star game (USA Today)

What Manhattan would look like inside the Grand Canyon (Gothamist)

Eating at the great Joe Jr. on Third Avenue and East 16th (Eater)

City taking possession of former firehouse near SPURA (The Lo-Down)

Vintage Rolling Stones jigsaw puzzle confuses (Dangerous Minds)

Poll: What is the Best Ramones Song? (Rolling Stone)

More about S'MAC's decision to leave First Park

[January 2012]

News came down last week that S'MAC had closed its satellite operation at First Park after nearly 18 months at the location off of East Houston and East First Street. S'MAC took over for Veselka at the kiosk in January 2012.

We reached out to Caesar Ekya, who owns and operates S'MAC with his wife Sarita, for more details about the decision and the future at First Park.

On running the kiosk:

"We had high hopes for it. It is such a lovely park and neighborhood, and we felt that it would be great to be part of it and help develop it into something better.

But the sales didn't materialize and we ended up losing money there every week that we were open. We tried different formats, timings, product mix, even started delivering, but were not able to raise sales to a break-even number.

We still have more ideas for it and more things on our list to try but then, in the past few months, two things happened that made us decide to give it up. One was the opening of the Murray Hill location and the other was the Health Department mandated closure of the East Village original.

With those two events we realized that we needed to bring our focus back to the two locations that we know work and are profitable, and so the decision to close became inevitable."

On the future at First Park:

"We still feel very sad having to close the kiosk. We feel it has a lot of potential for the right vendor and are working with the Parks Department to find someone who can turn into the neighbor it can be.

If we terminate our lease and walk away, then it will go back to a bidding process and will remain closed for the next 6-9 months. So our preference is to try and find someone to assign the lease to. We have talked to a lot of the neighborhood businesses already, especially coffee shops, and there are some potentials in the pipeline. Hopefully, we will know for sure in the next 2-3 weeks."

The S'MAC locations on East 12th Street and in Murray Hill remain open.