A lot of things to do in community gardens this weekend

[EVG file photo of Orchard Alley on East 4th Street]

Via the EVG inbox...

Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) is hosting its 3rd annual Harvest Arts Festival this weekend — a celebration of the arts, community gardens and Loisaida.

On Saturday, 30-plus community gardens throughout the East Village and Lower East Side are hosting performances in music, dance, poetry, comedy, spoken word, the arts, environmental workshops and teach-ins, and more.

On Sunday, the Festival gets on its feet as gardeners march together in the People's Climate March en masse.

Find all the info right here.

Cafe Mogador: Still got it?

In the "Throwback Thursday" column at Fork in the Road this week, Kevin Kessler writes about the 31-year-old Cafe Mogador at 101 St. Mark's Place.

And?

Mogador is, arguably, the truest culinary expression of what was once called a modern East Village restaurant. It's hip, laid back, and older than it seems (it opened in 1983), but it's also vibrant.

The food still works too. "The café serves ultra-reliable Mediterranean fare from breakfast through dinner."

All of which reminds me that I haven't been here in a very long time.

GG's, bringing pizza from the backyard to your table on East 5th Street

[Photo from early September via EVG reader Sal]

GG's is now in soft-open mode at 511 E. Fifth St. Goat Town owner Nick Morgenstern revamped the space here between Avenue A and Avenue B officially opens this weekend.

Eater got a sneak preview.

The menu is more relaxed than Goat Town's, with a strong emphasis on pizza, and some ingredients still coming from the backyard. Pies include the "Ev Greenery", which is topped with greens, lamb chorizo, sauce vert, grano padano, cherry tomatoes and pickled red onion. There is also a clam pie with three varieties of bivalves on it and a pie topped with morcilla and ricotta. Slices of two pies are available daily for around $4 at lunch.

Head over to Eater for shots of the interior and the menus.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Goat Town is closing to make way for a pizzeria

The transformation of Goat Town to GG's on East 5th Street

GG's announces itself on East 5th Street

Close encounters

[Via Bill the Libertarian Anarchist]

So if you were around Avenue B (below, say, East Seventh Street) late this afternoon... then you likely heard the helicopter PRETTY MUCH LAND IN YOUR LIVING ROOM...


[Via @in_vino_nyc]


[Via EVG]

We've heard various sources for the noise ... including that a crew was filming a skateboard documentary (!?) ...

Updated 9-19

A reader sent along another photo…



… and a video…

An 'East Village Eye' mini-symposium, plus back issues and T-shirts

Ugh. Sorry for the short notice on this. My fault! This free event is tonight 6-8. Via the EVG inbox...

The East Village Eye Archive, in conjunction with Printed Matter, Inc., presents the First "Officially Sanctioned" Back Issue Selloff, in which selected copies of the East Village Eye magazine will be put on sale to the public ... as well as several fabulous t-shirt designs sporting historical East Village Eye covers.

East Village Eye was a monthly magazine that produced 72 issues from 1979 through 1987, focusing on the music, art, film, words, performance and social movements of the era, much of which was being made in the neighborhood it called home. The magazine is known today for its uncanny and prescient sense of culture´s evolution and direction, fluidly moving between the street, the avant-garde and the world at large.

To mark this big selloff event, we are presenting a mini-symposium entitled “How Hip Hop Came Downtown,” covering the process in which members of New York’s media and fine art communities brought rap music, graffiti art and breakdancing from the inner-city ghettos to a wider audience that has since spread across the world. Leading this discussion will be Eye publisher/editor Leonard Abrams, scholar Yazmin Ramirez, musician and multimedia artist Michael Holman, and Fab 5 Freddy.

Find more info here. Printed Matter is at 195 Tenth Ave. between West 21st Street and West 22nd Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Q-and-A with Leonard Abrams, publisher of the East Village Eye

Today in photos of a possibly abandoned stuffed lion on St. Mark's Place

Between First Avenue and Second Avenue... no word just yet what the lion used to be attached to... but we're on it, at least until lunch...





Photos via EVG reader John Coakley...

The International eyeing move next door to the former South Brooklyn Pizza space

There are plans to relocate neighborhood favorite the International one storefront away on First Avenue between East Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

International owner Molly Fitch, who along with Shawn Dahl, reopened the bar in June 2008, said that the opportunity to move so close is too good to pass up. However, it's not a done deal just yet.

If it works out, then Molly and the International crew will have more room to work with. South Brooklyn Pizza, which closed in April, was split into two sections, the space for to-go slices and a dining room.

Molly, who also owns the Coal Yard one block to the south on First Avenue, said that she would use the space on the right for an NYC-style to-go pizzeria. The left side of the storefront would house The International. (She'd retain the warm, comfortable vibe of the current bar.)



This would be the fourth iteration of The International, which was originally on St. Mark's Place before the owner moved it to its current location at 120 1/2 First Avenue. The International closed in 2002 after the death of the partner of the original owner's son. The space sat in limbo until Molly and Shawn reopened it in 2008.

The application for a new liquor license will likely be one of the items expected before the CB3/SLA subcommittee meeting next month.

Security guards and Stop Work Orders for Icon Realty-owned East 12th Street building

Icon Realty added to their East Village portfolio with the purchase of 222 E. 12th St. for $2.545 million in late 2012.

The city approved permits to renovate some of the units in May. At that time, a neighbor told us that the building between Second Avenue and Third Avenue was now tenant-free as the gut renovations began.

Apparently that was not the case, though.

A different neighbor told us about the recent arrival of security guards at 222's front door.

The neighbor relayed the following: "I live a few doors down and asked why there was a security guard, and a tenant said that the building owner was trying to force tenants out using the construction and that the tenant had succeeded in getting the Department of Buildings to halt work. I've never seen a security guard outside a building before for this reason."

The city issued two Stop Work Orders last week.

According to one complaint (in the DOB's ALL-CAP style):

THE OWNER OF THE BUILDING LIED TO THE CITY CLAIMING THE BUILDING WAS EMPTY IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A PERMIT TO DO CONSTRUCTION ILLEGALLY. THERE ARE 7 TENANTS STILL LIVING INSIDE THE BUILDING.

And the other complaint:

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ARE CONSTRUCTING LUXURY APTS INSTEAD OF NECESSARY REPARS., NO TENANT PROTECTION PLAN FOR ALT

Have other tips or photos about the situation here? Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email

Countdown to the People's Climate March

The People's Climate March is coming up on Sunday. (Details here, if you're interested.)

Ahead of that, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) is hosting a variety of events in the neighborhood, including:

Tonight, 4 – 8 pm: Banner and Puppet Making for People's Climate March
@ La Plaza Community Garden, (9th St & Ave C)

Bring paints, props, and food to share as we make ecological puppets and props in our green space for the upcoming People’s Climate March and Ride.

Friday, 4 – 8 pm: Sign and Patch Making for People’s Climate March
@ Loisaida Harvest Festival; La Plaza Community Garden

Join in the festivities of the Loisaida Harvest Festival and make signs and patches for the People’s Climate March and Ride.

Saturday, noon – 2 pm: FREE Lower East Side Sustainable Community & Garden Walking Tour
@ At MoRUS

The Lower East Side has the highest concentration of community gardens and squats of any neighborhood in the country. Come explore these sustainable buildings and spaces on this one-of-a-kind, full-access walking tour.

Saturday, 6:15 pm: Presentation on the History of Grassroots Environmental Activism in New York City
@ At MoRUS

Come learn how sustainable grassroots community projects have ignited social change and policy change in NYC. Hear about different sustainable subjects, like how community bicycle activism changed the whole city to a more safe and sustainable design with bike-lanes, auto-free plazas and greenways. Hosted by the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space featuring a conversation and video screening by Wendy Brawer of Green Maps and Bill DiPaola of Time’s Up Environmental Organization.

Visit the Museum's events page for more info. MoRUS is at 155 Avenue C between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.

Meanwhile, the Third Annual LUNGS Harvest Festival is happening this weekend... which also coincides with the march... Check out the LUNGS website here for details on events happening at various community gardens around the neighborhood. We'll have more on LUNGS later this week...

You can finally shop at 51 Astor Place!

The IBM Watson building finally has some (temporary) retail.

On Tuesday, hotelier-developer Ian Schrager unveiled the sales office and model apartment for his incoming hotel-condo tower at 215 Chrystie just below East Houston.

We haven't covered this at all so … we're looking at a 28-floor building due, maybe, winter 2016. There will be 11 residences sitting atop the 370-room hotel.



Per Curbed:

Prices start from more than $7 million for a two-bedroom, half-floor apartment, while the full-floor units on the 30th and 31st floors will be more expensive, naturally. The penthouse, which takes up the whole 32nd floor plus a roodtop deck, will be "in the twenties."

The Real Deal notes that the condo prices are poised to break a sales record for the neighborhood. No kidding.

Anyway, the sales office, on Third Avenue near East Ninth Street, has a model unit with a living room, dining room and kitchen, per Curbed. (Not sure about a bathroom. But ask anyway. Say you had a particularly bad $1 slice. It will be cool.)

Here's a rendering of one of the units…



Head over to Curbed for more details. Also, the Observer.

Please don't mind the new Avenue A pipeline

@evgrieve There's a tiny hole on Avenue A and 7th. pic.twitter.com/XAU2BlNSea

— Eden Brower (@edenbrower) September 17, 2014

Condos possibility for the coolest building on the Bowery

[Via Wikipedia Commons]

The former Amato Opera is not the only historic building on the Bowery to be heading to the condo after-life.

Those rumors from last month are true: 190 Bowery, the longtime home of photographer Jay Maisel, has been sold, the Times confirms today.

RFR Holdings bought the mysterious, 37,000-square-foot building on the corner of Bowery and Spring Street.

To the Times for quotes from RFR co-founder and principal Aby Rosen ...

“The building is in terrible shape. There’s no heat, Jay lives in just a small area of the building, another winter is coming, and it was time,” said Mr. Rosen, who spent six months cajoling Mr. Maisel into selling the home. “When you own a property for that long, and you are not a real estate professional, it takes a lot of convincing.”

Mr. Rosen, who has yet to close on the purchase and declined to reveal the price, said the building could be converted for retailing at the base with condominiums above, or possibly offices or even an art gallery.

Maisel bough the 1898 Germania Bank building in 1966 for $102,000. He and his family have lived there ever since. The price tag of the building was estimated to be at $50-plus million.