More Citi Bike docking stations for East 10th Street

This afternoon, crews are adding more docking stations to the existing Citi Bikes hub on East 10th Street along Tompkins Square Park, EVG reader John reports... He figures there will be 16-20 more bikes now.... which, among other things, will allow more opportunities to do the stationary workout along here.

Fares from the past: Take a cab up 1st Avenue in the East Village of 1971

We posted this archival video titled "NYC Taxi Ride up 1st Ave circa 1971" back in February 2011. Dirty Old 1970's New York City posted it on Facebook this morning... so we thought we'd revisit it as well... the ride starts just past East Houston Street north to East 14th Street. What do you recognize?

Noted

East 11th Street and Avenue A at the week-old 7-Eleven. A more direct message than the last one.

[Photo via VH McKenzie]

Serendipity to remain in Tompkins Square Park through April

[EV Grieve]

Back in June, we saw the arrival of "Serendipity," the life-sized sculpture of Christopher Gamble's silhouette in Tompkins Square Park. The silhouette is in honor of Gamble, who was homeless for nearly 28 years. Fanny Allié's creation was expected to be in the Park through this month.

However! Fanny let us know that the work will remain in the Park until April 25.

Soooo... given its stay through winter, it's likely good that someone saw fit to put a hat on the sculpture...


[Bobby Williams]

...which actually matches the leisure suit that someone put on it late last month...


[BW]

Gamble now lives in an apartment run by the Bowery Residents' Committee.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The street-smart style of Serendipity in Tompkins Square Park

Welcome to the East Village (waves middle finger)

On Tuesday, Jim Power unveiled his latest mosaic... on the southwest corner of St. Mark's Place and Avenue A. The folks at Crif Dogs put up $600 for Jim to repair the hole that was in the sidewalk ... and to prevent anyone from being injured.

We asked Jim about the mosaic's middle finger.

"[It's] a message to old Mayor Bucko and the new one, Mayor De Bozo," he said via email. "They are spending $16 million to block the neighborhood's entrance at Astor Place while our streets and sidewalks are in dangerous disrepair."

Meanwhile, find out more about how you can help Jim restore his Mosaic Trail on his blog.

A look at the 'Hip young crowd planting roots at Bloom 62'

[EVG file photo]

Real Estate Weekly files a puff piece on Bloom 62, Ben Shaoul's newish luxury rentals on Avenue B and East Fifth Street. According to REW, the 81-unit building is 82 percent leased some six months after making its debut.

To the article, titled "Hip young crowd planting roots at Bloom 62":

On a recent Friday, a group of young tenants was lounging on the terrace’s garden chairs, enjoying one of the last warm days of the year.

The smell of barbecue coming from the built-in outdoor grills and the blooming hydrangea summed up the building’s message: Just because you’re in Manhattan, doesn’t mean you can’t live as if you’re out in the country.

And what's the point of living in Manha... aw, forget it!

And!

The building’s brand new, polished exterior provides a stark contrast to its run-down East Village surroundings. Neighboring buildings are showing their age and sport the occasional graffiti over rusty fire escapes, leftovers of a time when the area was known more for its punks and basement clubs than for its fine dining.

But times have changed: “East Village” and “luxury rental” can now be said in the same sentence with a straight face. Coffee shops and restaurants are in abundance, and the Lower East Side, with its numerous clubs and bars, is just blocks away.

Oh boy.

The building's previous tenant was the 240-bed Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which provided health care for low-income elderly residents in the East Village. The center opened in 1993 and served 240 patients and employed nearly 300 employees. Cabrini closed for good on June 30, 2012.

Now excuse us while we throw ourselves on the built-in outdoor grills.

Updated 10:22

Here Curbed's headline on this REW piece:

Ben Shaoul's Bloom 62 Dances on the East Village's Grave

Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Ben Shaoul is the new owner of Cabrini nursing home, will convert to condos

Report: Local politicians reach out to Ben Shaoul as re-sale of the Cabrini Nursing Center seems likely

More details on Cabrini's closing announcement

Q-and-A with Patricia Krasnausky, president and CEO of Cabrini Eldercare

Today in posts about turkey-stuffed donuts

From the EVG inbox...

NEW YORK, Nov. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Zucker Bakery in the East Village (433 E. 9th St.) today unveiled a limited series of gourmet turkey-stuffed donuts to celebrate Thanksgivukkah – the convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, happening for the first time in over 100 years this November. The donuts will come in four flavors, ranging from savory to sweet:

• Spiced pumpkin donut with TURKEY and GRAVY filling ($5)
• Spiced pumpkin donut with TURKEY and CRANBERRY filling ($5)
• Spiced pumpkin donut with CRANBERRY SAUCE filling ($3.50)
• Sweet potato donut with TOASTED MARSHMALLOW cream filling ($4)

Now on sale through the end of the year...

Nicknamed "stuff-ganiyot" — a play on the Hebrew word for donuts, suffganiyot (suf-gan-ee-oat) — the donuts are the brainchild of Zucker Bakery founder Yaniv Zohar and friend Gil Levy of ECommerce Partners, the web firm that designed and launched the bakery's e-commerce website.

Get free samples of these Thanksgivukkah-inspired donuts on Friday, November 8 between 4-6 PM at Zucker Bakery.

Single-level garage/workshop asks for $5.4 million on East 6th Street

[Via Google]

One-story structures seem to be a rarity/luxury in the East Village these days. Build! Build! On that blanket statement, the single-level building at 619 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A B and Avenue B C is now on the market.

There's not a whole lot of info on the listing at Citi Habitats:

Currently set up as one story garage/workshop. Tenant will vacate with 90 days notice. Lot size 25.67x90.83 Max FAR 4 FAR as is .95. As of now Max buildable sf 9,464.

So you have some air rights there.

A neighbor here says that the space is home to a Japanese furniture designer. Public records show that the property went for $135,000 in 1993. Current asking price: $5.4 million.

I'll be back? Never too early to prep for 2016!

[Photo by VH McKenzie]

There's a new mural over on the wall on East Houston at Avenue B... courtesy of @ArtByJW.

So is he an Arnold fan? No! A bit of a goof, the mural is. "The best part was making people believe he really is [running]," @ArtByJW said via Twitter.

Crows and leaves

Two images today via Bobby Williams...

[Updated] Tompkins Square Park loses its great gnarly squirrel tree, here before the Civil War

[Photo via @NCintheNYC]

On Oct. 12, the great old gnarled Black Locust on the East Seventh Street side of Tompkins Square Park caught fire (rather suspiciously, too) ...

There was hope that the remaining part of the tree could stick, so to speak, around.

GammaBlog points out that this was one of the few trees left in the Park that pre-dates the Civil War:

I knew it would at least have to be trimmed to avoid branches falling on people, but hoped they would leave the main body of the tree as a habitat for the squirrels and as a historical relic.

Nope.

This morning, crews arrived, as GammaBlog reports.



All that's left is a fucking stump.


[Bobby Williams]

For further reading:
RIP Gnarly Squirrel Tree (GammaBlog)

A memorial for Lou Reed at Tompkins Square Park

A memorial for the late Lou Reed arrived this morning last night outside Tompkins Square Park at St. Mark's Place, as these photos by ace East Village photographer Michael Paul show...



Meanwhile, Laurie Anderson reflects on her 21 years with Reed in an essay published at Rolling Stone:

I have never seen an expression as full of wonder as Lou's as he died. His hands were doing the water-flowing 21-form of tai chi. His eyes were wide open. I was holding in my arms the person I loved the most in the world, and talking to him as he died. His heart stopped. He wasn't afraid. I had gotten to walk with him to the end of the world. Life – so beautiful, painful and dazzling – does not get better than that. And death? I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love.