Week in Grieview

[East 3rd Street]

Local politicians ask Santaconners to "adopt good neighbor principles" (Tuesday)

Is this the new home for St. Mark's Bookshop? (Monday)

Building plans filed for part of the former Children's Magical Garden (Monday)

There goes 100 Avenue A (Monday)

Former Bleecker Bob's space back on the market (Wednesday)

RIP Saul Leiter (Friday)

Renovations ahead of New York Sports Club's arrival on Avenue A (Wednesday)

Out and About with Jenny Adams (Wednesday)

Richard Hell narrates this new video on the NYC music scene (Tuesday)

RIP East Village Shoe Repair (Tuesday)

Casa Gusto space for rent on Avenue A (Monday)

The former Max space is for rent on Avenue B (Monday)

Shop local (Tuesday)

Holiday trees! (Thursday)

[Updated] Reader report: The 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place has closed

A St. Mark's Place resident passes along word that the 7-Eleven here near Second Avenue has closed. Workers are currently removing various machines from inside the store this morning.


[Via EVG reader Robert]

There are three trucks lined up along St. Mark's Place. The reader says there isn't much, if any, merchandise left on the shelves.

No official confirmation from any 7-Eleven reps. (Updated: Workers on the scene confirmed this afternoon that the store has closed.) Perhaps that closed sign yesterday was more permanent that originally expected. Or maybe they are just renovating the place. Or there are some other issues that would cause workers to temporarily empty the store of every machine and food product.

This location opened in April 2012.

Looking at Centre-fuge Cycle 11

Just taking a look at the recently completed Centre-fuge Cycle 11 ... the rotating outdoor gallery on the construction trailer here along East First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...











Writer-blogger Jenny Adams (featured in this week's Out and About in the East Village) has more on one of this cycle's artists, Nicole Salgar, right here.

And as BoweryBoogie first reported, the Centre-fuge initiative has been renewed through 2014.

Find more info on the Centre-fuge Tumblr here.

Today's hawk; slightly stunned, but makes a recovery

Well, several people noted that this hawk had, earlier in the day, flown into the bus shelter on Avenue A between St. Mark's Place and East Ninth Street… it looked pretty bad for a moment. The bird was lying on the sidewalk, apparently stunned, according to onlookers. But! The hawk recovered … and was spotted "eating a small rodent whole" in Tompkins Square Park a little later.

Photo via Bobby Williams

Reader report: Last day for Lucky's Dry Cleaner and Laundry

EV Grieve reader Brian Katz shares the following:

Lucky's Dry Cleaner and Laundry on 11th St. (520 East 11th St.), between Avenues A and B, owned and operated by Linda, one of the kindest people and representative of all that is wonderful about our village, will be closing today at 6 p.m. She has been run out due to a variety of circumstances (chiefly, a landlord who wants to break her lease and raise her rent while she returns to China to care for a family member) and must shutter her little shop, for good, today.

Not only has she offered her obvious business services to our immediate neighborhood, but she accepted mail deliveries for ALL her neighbors and never, ever expected anything in return.

Updated: Per the comments.. she will remain open through tomorrow now.

Guess who's back in town?!

Yes! Finally! The iconic Trailer Park Santa is back on his familiar RV on East 14th Street and First Avenue… much to the delight of area children (and maybe one website blog person)…



Let the photos begin!



And what do you think he does in the off-season?

PS
The trees have arrived outside the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery as well…

Yesterday's hawk — today

Photo from Tompkins Square Park yesterday by Bobby Williams

Noted

A reader noted that the 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place was closed this morning… There was black plastic covering the windows… and a handwritten "closed" sign on the door offering no explanation… The reader said that it didn't appear to be anything noticeably, like broken, like a front window.

Striking a 'Nerve'

The Lines with "Nerve Pylon" from 1980.

Lights, action

Hanging holiday lights this afternoon outside Saifee Hardware on First Avenue and East Seventh Street...

Trees arrive ahead of Trailer Park Santa on East 14th Street

The trees have arrived at the stand on East 14th Street at First Avenue. But no sign yet of the familiar inflatable Santa, dubbed by no one in particular, Trailer Park Santa.

2012 flashback!

Meanwhile! As for other holiday tree options... you can actually find trees that will fit inside a normal apartment here at East Village Farm & Grocery on Second Avenue at East Fourth Street...



And expect trees soon on East Houston at Essex...



...and First Avenue and East 13th Street...



And the tree stand will arrive next week at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery.

Previously on EV Grieve:
In case you are looking to buy the ol' [insert your name here!] family holiday tree on Thanksgiving

RIP Saul Leiter

Longtime neighborhood resident Saul Leiter, "one of the first professionals to photograph New York City regularly in color," died on Tuesday. He was 89.

To the Times:

Where other New York photographers of the period were apt to document the city’s elements discretely — streets, people, buildings — Mr. Leiter captured the almost indefinable spaces where all three intersect, many of them within a two-block radius of the East Village apartment in which he had lived since the early 1950s.

Unplanned and unstaged, Mr. Leiter’s photographs are slices fleetingly glimpsed by a walker in the city. People are often in soft focus, shown only in part or absent altogether, though their presence is keenly implied. Sensitive to the city’s found geometry, he shot by design around the edges of things: vistas are often seen through rain, snow or misted windows.

There's a documentary about his life and work, "In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life With Saul Leiter," now on the film-festival circuit. (A DVD is forthcoming.) Meanwhile, check out the trailer here…

[Top image by Saul Leiter, via; H/T EVG reader Muzz]