Tenants at 128 2nd Ave. file suit against Icon Realty in housing court

[EVG file photo]

A representative from the tenants association at 128 Second Ave. passed along word that the group filed an HP Action for Repairs and Services against landlord Icon Realty yesterday in NYC Housing Court.

The laundry list of issues from the remaining tenants include:

• inconsistent heat
• no fire alarms
• broken fire escape
• broken front door
• excessive dust
• broken stairs
• hanging wires


[A hallway scene at 128 2nd Ave.]

The tenants association have a court date set for April 14 at 9:30 a.m.

Back in the fall of 2013, the ownership of 128 Second Ave. changed hands for $7.5 million… The listed buyers for the building between between St. Mark's Place and East Seventh Street are LLCs... with addresses that matched up to Icon Realty Management, who has been busy in the neighborhood (go here … here … and here for examples).

One of the gut-renovated apartments at 128 Second Ave. is now on the market for $4,300. The two-bedroom unit includes a washer-dryer.

As we understand it, only eight or nine of the building's pre-Icon residents have been able to stick it out through renovations, evictions, buy-out offers, etc.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Happy holidays from 128 Second Ave.

128 Second Ave. has been sold

'Demolitions and renovations' starting today at 128 Second Avenue

Man sues city over false Banksy arrest in the East Village

Last summer, police arrested Brooklyn resident Robert Pfeiffer as he stood outside Third Rail Coffee on East 10th Street near Stuyvesant Street admiring a piece of street art that may have been a Banksy.

Cops reportedly thought Pfeiffer was responsible for the smiley face and made the arrest.

Now, as the Daily News reports, he is suing the city and six police officers for wrongful arrest.

Ilissa Brownstein, Pfieffer's lawyer, said her client is a trained artist “who is interested in many forms of art including street art,” and he’d recognized the smiley face on the left side of the storefront as an iconic Banksy.

Pfieffer, 33, is a self-employed packing engineer for the advertising world who got his bachelor degree from the School for Color and Design in Munich.

“He said 'If I just did this, it would smudge, but it doesn't,'” she said. The officers arrested him anyway, keeping him in custody overnight. After two trips back to court, prosecutors dropped the charges in October.

According to the suit, Pfeiffer says he lost seven days of work at $45 an hour and has to take Ambien and Trazodone to sleep. He's suing for unspecified damages, per the Post.

A spokesperson told reporters that the city is reviewing the case.

Image via Google Streetview

Reciprocal Skateboards has closed on East 11th Street

That's it for Reciprocal Skateboards, the spirited shop/hangout at 402 E. 11th St. near First Avenue.

Owner Jon Eastman, who has run the place the past five-plus years, explains in a Facebook post:

[I]t comes with great sadness and difficulty that I'm forced to announce that as of this past weekend, Reciprocal has closed its doors for good. We are unfortunately completely out of resources to continue operating any further. And by resources, I mean money.

Over the last year or so I've scraped and clawed desperately from my own personal finances to get just enough money together, so that we can stay open and keep this beautiful thing alive. And that worked for a year or so. However, regardless of how hard I try, the margins in the skate industry, particularly for a mom and pop skate shop are just not there. The prices of skateboards today are barely more expensive than they were 20 years ago. Even cheaper if you factor in inflation. Yet our costs to purchase these products have gone up consistently.

Sure, we can charge more, but we have to compete with CCS, and Zumies down the street who buy in volume and charge next to nothing for cheaply produced decks with clever marketing campaigns. We're already more expensive than those companies, and the numbers still don't add up for us. This coupled with our increased rent, made the decision a clear one.

We'll particularly miss playing the shop's pinball machines, curated by Eastman, whose grandfather ran an arcade on Coney Island.



Images via Facebook

Hawk (and egg) watch continues on Avenue A, now with the help of a live webcam

[Ageloff photo from last week by Bobby Williams]

Been a few weeks since we've checked in on red-tailed hawk parents Christo and Dora, who have been busy building a nest (or two!) on the top floor of the Ageloff Towers on Avenue A between East Third Street and East Fourth Street.

As always, Goggla has been keeping tabs on the developments over at Gog in NYC.

In addition, someone has set up a live webcam on the Ageloff hawk nest. Access that here.


[Photo yesterday by Bobby Williams]

There's also a new Tumblr, Two NYC Hawks and other things I LOVE, featuring some upclose hawk pics and video. Like this one, showing a rough landing by Christo (Dora not amused)…



And last week, The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation's blog Off the Grid had a post on the history of the Ageloff Towers as well as the Christodora House, site of last year's hawk nest.

Tomorrow night, the Society is hosting a program titled The Red-Tail Hawks of Greenwich Village and the East Village — a lecture and slideshow with Gabriel Willow, a naturalist, guide and educator with New York City Audubon

Wednesday, March 25
6:30 – 8 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Washington Square Institute, 51 E. 11th St., between Broadway and University Place

Go here for more details and how to RSVP

Finally, as a bonus, a meal photo for you from Tompkins Square Park the other day...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Sen Ya bringing Japanese dining to the former Ginger space on 1st Avenue

Ginger, the unique sushi restaurant at 109 First Ave. near East Seventh Street, closed earlier this month, as we first reported.

As a Ginger regular told us, the owners decided to sell the business for family reasons. (In other words, a rent hike wasn't the culprit here.)

The new venture is called Sen Ya. There's now a note on the rolldown gate pointing to a mid- or late-April opening...



There isn't much information just yet on the Sen Ya Facebook page:

Sen Ya is committed to provide the highest standards of Japanese Food Dining. We prepare our meals freshly and with the finest ingredients of the season.

Proto's Pizza coming soon to Proto's Pizza space on 2nd Avenue

[Photo from March 3]

The pizzeria at 50 Second Ave. between East Second Street and East Third Street closed at the end of February … and for rent signs soon went up in the window.

Last night, though, an EVG reader noticed a new sign in the window … noting that Proto's is returning under new ownership…

Creator of the foie gras Fluffernutter opening Lord Hamm's on East 3rd Street

A takeout sandwich shop is expected to open this spring at 226 E. Third St., between Avenue B and Avenue C.

According to New York magazine, who first reported on this opening, proprietor Corey Cova "is an undersung sandwich genius, having served as the opening chef at Earl’s Beer & Cheese, where his brainstorms included Hudson Valley foie gras on Eggo waffles, and mozzarella with dill pickles, miso mayo, and potato chips on Thomas' English muffins."

New York also notes that he "brought the world the scallion-pancake pork taco and the foie gras Fluffernutter."

While the place doesn't have a website yet, there is a Lord Hamm's Twitter account.

No. 226 was previously home to a dry cleaners.

Tonight's moon

Photo by Grant Shaffer

Gale Brewer's plan to help save small NYC businesses

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer released a report today titled "Small Business, Big Impact: Expanding Opportunity For Manhattan Storefronts." (Find a PDF here.)

Per the Daily News:

Brewer is proposing legislation to give small businesses a one-year break before they get booted from their spaces. Under the plan, the city would create a mediation program that would kick in when a store nears the end of its lease.

If the landlord and tenant don’t reach a deal with the help of a mediator, the landlord would be required to offer a one-year lease extension with a rent hike of no more than 15%.

“The city can — and must — do more to help small businesses survive,” Brewer said.

Other ideas from Brewer include ... via Gothamist:

Finding a way to "condo-ize" more storefronts (basically allowing tenants to buy space, as there are federal funds for small businesses to do this); create "low-intensity" commercial districts in areas that have skyrocketing rents (this would be allowing some commercial businesses to open on quieter streets); and helping small business owners navigate the thicket of various city agencies.

At the memorial service for Donna Harris

[A makeshift memorial for Donna Harris on Avenue A earlier this month]

Village Voice reporter Emily Mathis attended the memorial for Donna Harris Saturday night at Maryhouse on East Third Street.

Harris, a homeless resident of Avenue A/Tompkins Square Park these past five years, died on March 2. She was 52. The Voice reported that Harris, an addict who was mentally unstable, died in Harlem as-of-yet-unknown causes.

In total, some 50 people stopped by the Maryhouse to pay their respects, including family members.

Her daughter, Grace Harris, said her mother's drugs of choice were Oxycontin and, she suspects in later years, heroin. The younger Harris had been estranged from her mother for about a year.

Also from the article

[H]er death has clearly hit a nerve, symbolizing not just the plight of the city's homeless population, but also the real estate restructuring — and consequential class restructuring — of the East Village. "You have these buildings where families used to pay $500, now single people are paying $5,000," [Maryhouse worker Felton] Davis said.

"There have been a few cynical comments, people who were like, 'please, what is this,'" he continues. "I think that people that are moving into this neighborhood, and paying top dollar — it irks them that there are people leftover from when this was working class families and poor people. And they have to walk by them in the park. And people are dirty, and they're coming here to eat. There's a class of the super-rich that are bothered by that. They think that anything that isn't spiffy is affecting property values."

Read the whole article here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Donna Harris

About the memorial for Donna Harris Saturday at Maryhouse

[Updated] Ess-A-Bagel has closed for now on 1st Avenue

Yesterday was last call for the nearly 40-year-old bagel shop on First Avenue at East 21st Street…

Here's a video that someone from the #SaveNYC group made from inside the shop after the doors closed...



To recap the recap on the situation here:

As the Town & Village Blog first reported on Jan. 16, Ess-a-Bagel was being forced out of its longtime home. However, according to a statement that the landlord's reps sent us, Ess-A-Bagel’s owners "repeatedly refused to meet us between their below-market rent and current market value."

However, they will be reopening nearby one of these days...

Ess-a-Bagel downtown will be opening again soon at a location nearby! Watch this space for details. #essabagel

— Ess-A-Bagel, Inc. (@EssABagel) March 17, 2015

As to where… owner David Wilpon told Town & Village "that there were a couple of possibilities, but declined to elaborate, citing confidentiality agreements." Last Monday, an Ess-A-Bagel worker "said even he didn’t know where the business was moving or when it would reopen."

According to Town & Village, Ess-A-Bagel has expressed interest in the now-closed laundromat space the next block up…



As for the now-closed Ess-A space at 359 First Ave. ... a Bank of America branch is in the works.

Meanwhile, because this always comes up on any First Avenue bagel posts… here are two other bagel shops on the west side of First Avenue between 14th Street and 21st …





For further reading: Jeremiah Moss stops by for a last bagel at this location.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Report: Landlord forcing Ess-a-Bagel from its longtime home (46 comments)

1 week left for Ess-A-Bagel at its current 1st Avenue location

Neighbors curious about the 11 days of activity at Peter Brant's exhibition space on East 6th Street

[East 7th Street]

Some neighbors don't think that the people behind the incoming exhibition space for the Brant Foundation are being ... very good neighbors.

Last Wednesday, workers began loading equipment into the back of 421 E. Sixth St., the under-renovation exhibition space expected to be used by the billionaire art collector Peter Brant's Brant Foundation between Avenue A and First Avenue. This included the arrival of several high-powered CAT generators parked on East Seventh Street, outside the driveway/back entrance to the East Sixth Street property.

In the past several days, a handful of parking spaces (with generic No Parking Police Department signs) have been blocked off on East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street ...


[East 6th Street]


[East 6th Street]

There are also security guards posted on both streets... none of the guards have been very forthcoming with details. A reader finally found one to divulge more than a no comment/I don't really know ... according to one of the hired hands, the space is hosting an event for Dom Pérignon on Friday.

In total, the activity surrounding this event will last 11 days, per the signs posted on 421 E. Sixth St.



If you have any questions or concerns about this, then you can call the caterer, as the sign suggests.

One neighbor who emailed us about the situation hopes that this won't be the upscale party norm for the building now that Brant and his organization is the owner.

Artist Walter De Maria, who died in July 2013 at age 77, bought the former Con Ed substation in 1980 to use as a home and studio.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Confirmed: Peter M. Brant buys Walter De Maria's amazing East 6th Street home and studio

1st permits filed for renovation of Walter De Maria's former home-studio on East 6th Street

More about the 1st show at Walter De Maria's former home-studio on East 6th Street

Here's what Peter Brant wants to do with his new exhibition space on East 6th Street


[EVG file photo]