The disappearing illegal penthouse of 514-516 E. 6th St.

[June 11]

On June 11, scaffolding and a sidewalk bridge arrived outside 514-516 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B... In 2010, the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) told landlord Ben Shaoul that he needed to remove the recently added (and illegal) seventh-floor penthouse. (The BSA said that the sixth-floor addition could stay.)

There was the usual legal wrangling for a few years before the crew arrived... which made some residents suspicious back in June... but as these photos from a tipster show, workers have been removing the penthouse (by hand) in recent months ... As The Villager reported in June, the rooftop addition here was never actually fully completed because the DOB hit Shaoul with a stop-work order.


[June 27]


[July 21]


[Tuesday]


[Tuesday]

Meanwhile, the nearly five-year-old battle over the one-story addition to the Ben Shaoul-owned 515 E. Fifth St. carries on... we hope to have an update on that one shortly...

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] 5 years later, another BSA hearing on illegal rooftop addition at 515 E. Fifth St.

Is Ben Shaoul finally removing the illegal penthouse addition on East 6th Street?

A WHOOSHING AC unit update: 'We are roundly being ignored by 7-Eleven and Westminster NYC'

On Sept. 9, we reported that workers installed three AC units adjacent to the incoming 7-Eleven at 500 E. 11th St. ... placed inches away from the bedroom windows of tenants.

One neighbor told the No 7-Eleven blog:

The units make a loud “WHOOSHING” noise every 15 minutes and since all the bedrooms are located off the alley, there has not been much sleeping going on in either building.

The city investigated complaints from neighbors and issued a Partial Stop Work Order.

Any progress to note since then?

"We are roundly being ignored by 7-Eleven and Westminster NYC [the management company]," said resident Brian Katz. "Westminster is unapproachable — guarded, cold, borderline obnoxious. The [construction] workers are diligently going about their jobs... still, both inside and outside. So, the order doesn't mean much — surprise, surprise!"

As for those three AC units, Katz says they are too loud, too close to the windows, structurally unsound (due to vibrations), and they are obstructing escape routes. See for yourself.



Previously on EV Grieve:
3 new AC units at incoming 7-Eleven prompts Partial Stop Work Order

There is a now a mural of LES Jewels in Venice Beach, Calif.

Jules Muck, a longtime friend of the late LES Jewels, created this mural on Main Street in Venice Beach, Calif., this week.

"I could tell stories bout him for days," she said via Facebook.

Nearly 10 years earlier, she did this mural on St. Mark's Place in his honor ...



Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP LES Jewels (74 comments)

Photos via Facebook courtesy of Jules Muck.

Have you seen the plans for SPURA?

In case you didn't see all the hoopla announcements yesterday about "Essex Crossing," the $1.1 billion plan for that decades-long vacant lot along Essex and Delancey (The Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, aka SPURA).

And if it all happens, the area might look like this one day ...



According to the news release from the Mayor's Office:

[T]he project ... includes a 15,000-square-foot open space, a new and expanded Essex Street Market, a dual-generation school operated by the Educational Alliance, a community center run by Grand Street Settlement, a rooftop urban farm, the Andy Warhol Museum, 250,000 square feet of office space and a diverse mix of retail space. Seward Park will also become a hub of small-business incubation, with micro-retail spaces and creative and tech co-working and incubator space.

Not to mention a bowling alley.



As for the housing, of the 1,000 apartments, half will be permanently affordable to low- and middle-income families and individuals.

There are many outlets that have been covering this. Such as!

• BoweryBoogie

• The Lo-Down

• Curbed

• Gothamist

• The New York Times

And the timelines for all this? From Gothamist:

Groundbreaking on the project is expected to begin in the spring of 2015, with five buildings slated to come up by the summer of 2018, the remaining housing units finished by 2021. The entire project will be finished by 2024 — that is, unless a different mayor steps in.

Put 5 pounds and 125 years of Katz's on your coffee table

As you might know, there's a new coffee-table book out now titled "Katz's: Autobiography of a Delicatessen," released to coincide with the deli's 125th anniversary.

There was a big book launch (it is a big book — weighing 5 pounds with 384 pages) last night at Katz's (we were invited but declined)... Here's a little more about the book via the official news release:

This special edition features over 600 striking color photographs by Baldomero Fernandez, which provide indelible images of the storied pastrami stations, distinctive signage, well-loved dining room, and kitchen, as well as the people on both sides of the counter — cutters, servers, kitchen workers, and customers — while part-owner Jake Dell’s text reveals the deli’s rich and compelling 125-year history, including the characteristics of the traditional Jewish foods that are at the core of Katz’s culinary legend, such as the difference between pastrami and corned beef, the deli’s own unique pickling process, and more.

Boot party

Out with the Scofflaw Patrol ... Making a stop on Avenue B and East Fifth Street last night...



Photos via Robert Miner.

From ConEd to the Moon

Over at the ConEd plant on Avenue C ... Photo this evening via Shawn Chittle.

Anton's pigeons out for a stroll above Avenue A

This afternoon via Michael Sean Edwards ... who captured a familiar and welcome sight along here near East 10th Street — Anton van Dalen's birds...

[Updated] Park officials request removal of the LES Jewels memorial on Avenue A

[This morning]

Well, we were wondering how long the memorial for LES Jewels would stay up on Avenue A and East Ninth Street... His friends began to erect it on Saturday night... and it continued to grow the last few days.

In any event, EVG reader C. Ryan passes along this photo... noting that workers from the Parks Department asked Jewels' friends to dismantle the memorial... which they apparently did...





Updated 6 p.m.

In the comments, Chris Flash reports that the memorial has been moved to in front of MoRUS at 155 Avenue C between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street...

Report: (Alleged) fake federal agent robs couple on East 2nd St and Avenue A

A man who identified himself as an officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives robbed a couple on East Second Street and Avenue A at 1 a.m. last month, according to published reports.

Per Serena Solomon at DNAinfo:

The suspect ... asked for the victim's wallet and cellphone so he could write a ticket for public intoxication, cops said.

He told them he would be right back, but never returned, police said.

DNAinfo and NY1 both have video of the suspect.

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: Christopher Tanner
Occupation: Artist, Playwright, Actor
Location: La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, 4th between 2nd and Bowery
Time: 3:30 on Monday, Sept 16

I’ve lived here for 33 or so years. I came here in ‘79. I’m from California, from a little horrible place called Duarte. A hideous place. You know, I didn’t fit in. I’m just like every other New Yorker who moved to get away.

I moved to 30 East 3rd Street, right next to the men’s shelter and lived there for 20 years. And then I’ve been on 11th between A and B for 13 years. Since my place on 3rd Street was next to the men’s shelter, you’d hear things like, ‘Oh Jesus Christ, you just stomped on my face!’ Or you’d walk over dead bodies. One time I was going to my apartment and in between the doors were two naked black lesbians having sex and both were pregnant, and smoking crack.

I moved to the neighborhood because I worked at a couple theaters in the neighborhood and I was also being shown in a gallery here. I’m an artist, a painter and a sculptor, and an actor.

A lot of my work is all big huge sequin paintings, 10 feet tall. They’re 3 dimensional and they have human hair embroideries, glitter, found objects, crystal encrusted stuff, and beautiful things. I’m sort of a magpie. But what I’m doing at my studio are these Japanese silver leaf paintings. The silver is all made with pigments of color, so it’s bright pink silver or bright orange. It’s just beautiful. You can’t imagine that it’s silver, but it has that luminous quality that silver has.

I lost my art studio on 10th Street between B and C in Hurricane Sandy. It all turned out okay because I got grants, but it was a huge cleanout of my art supplies and my life. I’m a collage artist so I collected a lot of stuff. It was pretty heavy to be lost. The worst part was throwing away all the art and all my dead lover's books and his poetry. That was hard. But then I got a better studio, an incredible studio at La MaMa. It all worked out.

I did my first play here at La MaMa in ’79. I was doing other people’s plays at first and I started creating my own around ’85. I’ve done so many plays here. La MaMa is my home for theater. Cyndi Lauper once came over to one of my musicals, "Under the Kerosene Moon," based on The Honeymoon Killers, and she asked me to get all of my friends together and do a drag version of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun." And we all met at my house in drag and had a big fabulous party, right next to the men’s shelter, and all the bums were waving at us.

I just did my last show, which was stories from my life with songs called "Football Head: Tales of Shame and Humiliation." That’s going to be shown in June at La MaMa, but my last play was huge. It was called "The Etiquette of Death." That was also in the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa, last season. It was a big collage of 20 actors, 10 writers, five composers, and a 10-piece band.

I asked all these different writers to write a scene on their take on etiquette of death, whatever it may be. I made this whole collage out of that, but it was also based upon my aunt who was a big Avon lady. Her name was Joan Gurtler. She was a huge boss and used to fire Avon ladies on the phone. She was fabulous. And so it’s her sort of giving death a makeover. Death was played by Everett Quinton, who’s a great star. It’s all about my aunt the makeup lady, played by me, giving death a makeover, so he’ll be easy on her son, because her son is dying of AIDS, but also Joan’s dying of brain tumors. It’s a comedy.

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

Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project

You've likely sign on the signs of pending reconstruction around Cooper Square and Astor Place...



...where the long-discussed two-year (right!) project is set to start...





Among other things, workers have cleared the bike racks from the area around the Alamo ...



... and moved the Citi Bikes docking station from outside Cooper Union to...



...East Seventh Street and Taras Shevchenko Place ...



We heard about the plan back in 2008... By now, we completely forget what is actually happening here (well, the sign above lays it out...)...So we'll go to Curbed, who reported on this Monday, for details:

The four-part plan will enlarge and revamp the plazas around the Alamo and the uptown 6 subway stop, as well as widen the sidewalks near Cooper Square and freshen up Cooper Park. The biggest change will ease the jumbled intersection of Cooper Square, Fourth Avenue, the Bowery, and 5th Street with creation of the 8,000-square-foot Village Plaza. Every section will see new trees and more plantings, new seating, and new lighting, and construction will last for two years.

And here is the official PDF with the plans and stuff.



Any thoughts on what is about to happen here...?

[H/T EVG reader Wally J.]