Tonight's sunset

Photo by Bobby Williams

If life gives you limes... oh, forget it...

East 11th Street and Avenue B late this afternoon. Photo by Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C.

Going... going...

Oh! That Cadillac that we've admired through the years on East Second Street is for sale, EVG contributor Derek Berg notes... Better hurry...

Friends and family remember teen shot and killed on Avenue D

Serena Solomon at DNAinfo has a feature today on Deontay Moore, the 18-year-old lifelong resident of the Jacob Riis Houses who was shot and killed Friday night.

"He was always happy and even if he was sad, you would never tell," said Moore's sister Janet Mejia, 22, who lives in Harlem.

"He was a great uncle and he loved his nephew," Mejia said. "He was love wherever he walked."

Mejia joked that Moore had been a "pain in the ass, like any little brother" who always had a practical joke up his sleeve to lighten the mood.

Moore was standing with friends on Avenue D near East Eighth Street Friday night around 10:45. The NYPD have said that gunmen on bicycles fired into the group, with one bullet striking Moore in the head.

[Photo by Serena Solomon via DNAinfo]

Big crane work at the incoming Mary Spink Apartments on East 11th Street

EVG reader Ron Z. shares photos from this morning... A crane has arrived for the second installment of pre-cast concrete floor planks for the incoming Mary Spink Apartments on East 11th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...



He notes that the planks are hoisted over 539-541 E. 11th St. and lowered onto the steel superstructure that workers have put into place.

"All residents on the 4th and 5th floors have to vacate their apartments until later this afternoon — in case a plank decides to land on top of the building," Ron says.







There were three trucks with planks waiting along Avenue A...





The Mary Spink Apartments will one day be home to eight stories — 46 units — of affordable housing for formerly homeless and mentally disabled East Villager residents.

Spink, a respected community activist, CB3 member and executive director of Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association, died in January 2012 at age 64.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East 11th Street lot prepped for the Mary Spink Apartments

Empty East 11th Street lot will yield to 8 stories of affordable housing (49 comments)

Today's Rite Aid update

More progress here on First Avenue and East Fifth Street...

EVG Senior First Avenue Rite Aid Correspondent Goggla notes that the mural is courtesy of The Royal Kingbee UW, a Bronx-born graffiti artist. Kingbee and Vase1, who specialize in urban and rural landscapes, will also be painting the exterior at the Avenue D Rite Aid...

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] As the Rite Aid turns (colors)

Rite Aid's enchanted forest

An East Village without rent regulations

[File photo via Bobby Williams]

The Times will have a piece in the magazine on Sunday on rent regulations... a version is now online titled "The Perverse Effects of Rent Regulation."

The East Village plays a starring role as writer Adam Davidson, co-founder of NPR's Planet Money, presents some what ifs about the elimination of rent regulations and other forms of housing subsidies. He goes over the two rental markets in the city: "Roughly half the apartments are under rent regulation, public housing or some other government program. That leaves everyone else to compete for the half with rents determined by the market."

One East Village realtor estimated that there are between 20-30 available apartments for rent in a given month.

He goes on to point out how "an East Village where nobody makes less than $90,000 a year might actually damage the city's long-term prospects" ... because the neighborhood has always "served as an initial toehold into this chaotic mess" of Manhattan.

Christopher Mayer, a housing economist at Columbia Business School, contends that these programs actually make the city much less affordable ... he lays out one scenario:

Eliminating rent regulation would be such a huge windfall for landlords, Mayer says, that he could imagine a sort of grand bargain. The programs go away, but landlords have to pay higher property taxes. The extra city revenue could go to a fund to help poor people afford market-rate apartments. In theory, this could be designed to make the shift win-win-win. The city could stay socioeconomically diverse without any six-bedroom apartments renting for $225.

Otherwise?

Writes Davidson: "What happens if all the rich people are on one island and the poor but creative are somewhere else? "

Anyway, there's a lot to take in with the article... too much to quickly recap in a post. Go read the article here.

An 'especially dramatic' retail opportunity for Fourth Avenue

Last month, plans emerged about developing the long empty space on East 10th Street and Fourth Avenue. The Massey Knakal listing notes that "plans exist for a nine story mixed-use building with 8 floor through apartments and a bi-level retail space with double height ceilings."

And now the retail portion of the potential development is on the books. Per the Massey Knakal listing:

This prominient corner retail space will be located on the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and East 10th Street. Currently, the site is under construction, and the anticipated possession date will be one and a half to two years from now. The site also provides an exceptional opportunity, which could accommodate a variety of uses. The space will house over 2,600 square feet of column-free space on the ground floor and over 3,500 square feet on the lower level. The lower level will also feature partial double-height ceilings, making the space especially dramatic.

No word on the asking rent for the retail space. But! The price for the lot is $24 million.

Sembrado’s Tacos al Pastor opening Thursday on East 13th Street

[Image via @SembradoNYC]

Sembrado’s Tacos al Pastor, the new Mexican restaurant from Danny Mena, the chef and co-founder of Hecho en Dumbo, is apparently opening on Thursday. (This info comes via a news release published in The Epoch Times.)

Sembrado’s, opening July 25, will be one of the first in New York to use the classical Mexican technique of slowly cooking marinated pork on a vertical rotisserie — called the trompo.

Grilled meat tacos, made with hand pressed corn tortillas, will be a staple on the menu.

The pastry chef is Fany Gerson, who used to work for Eleven Madison and Rosa Mexicano.

Sembrado offers a “Make-Your-Own Mexican Sundae” dessert menu.

Sundae options will include rotating ice cream flavors such as Mexican Vanilla, Strawberries and Sour Cream, and Horchata.

Each is coated with a choice of sweet tomatillo sauce, Mexican hot fudge, and goat’s milk caramel.

The Sembrado website is live... and includes the menus...


[Click image to enlarge]

The space at 432 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue was previously home to Masak.

Meanwhile, at the Jefferson...

At the site of the former Mystery Lot. Where million condos are at the ready.



Previously on EV Grieve:
City approves new building for Mystery Lot

The last days of the Mystery Lot

Before it was the Mystery Lot

The Mystery Lot developers using famous dead comedians to sell condos at The Jefferson

The Jefferson reveals what '21st Century living in the heart of Olde New York' costs

The Jefferson loses its netting, gains its glass

Speaking of The Jefferson... EVG regular Katja notes that the construction netting is off the East 13th Street side...



... and the glass is going in...



The listings include a 536-square-foot studio for $850,000 up to a two-bedroom penthouse with a rooftop terrace for $2.49 million. In between, one-bedrooms range from $1.11 and $1.54 million.

According to Streeteasy, six of the units are in contract...



Previously.

Tree pleads: 'I am alive'

Urban Tree Etiquette Sign on East 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...



Not to mention Doritos.