EV Grieve Etc.: Preserving 190 Bowery; demolishing 136-140 Bowery

[Photo on East 4th Street by Derek Berg]

Mayor de Blasio’s plan for more affordable housing (The New York Times)

The Landmarks Preservation Commission likes the graffiti at 190 Bowery (Curbed)

Demo permits filed for 136-140 Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

East Village explosion victims eligible for low-interest loans (NY1)

More hawklet action (Gog in NYC)

No one apparently wants to rent the LES apartment with the shower in the kitchen (The New Yorker)

Fewer rats in NYC possible? (Runnin' Scared)

Q-&-A with Lydia Lunch (HuffPost), the subject of a new exhibit on East First Street (Howl! Happening)

More thoughts on "Tompkins Square Park" — the song (Flaming Pablum, previously)

144-150 Ludlow St. owners double their money in two years (The Lo-Down)

Is this is the best punk band in the United States? (Dangerous Minds)

Lower East Side History Month continues… find all the events here.

...and the 21st Annual Children's Workshop School Arts and Science Fair is tomorrow at the school on East 12th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C ...there will be glop...



... and there's an interesting series at the Anthology Film Archives on Second Avenue and East Second Street this weekend titled Rain the Color of Blue With a Little Red in It, which includes screenings of "The Harder They Come," two Jean Rouch films, "Moi, Un Noir" and "Jaguar," and "Purple Rain" ...



Find screening times here.

… and click on the image below from Michael Sean Edwards for some Tompkins Square Park cycling action…

RIP Patrick Salt Ryan

[Photo via Facebook]

We were very sorry to hear that East Village resident Patrick Salt Ryan died suddenly on April 22. He was 45.

Ryan, a singer-songwriter, also tended bar at Fontana's down on Eldridge Street. He and his wife, Jessica Perez-Ryan, lived on Avenue A and East Ninth Street.

In September 2013, word circulated in Tompkins Square Park that someone had apparently stolen Giuseppi Logan's saxophone. Upon hearing this, Ryan gave Giuseppi a tenor sax that someone had left behind at the bar several years earlier.

There's a Patrick Salt Ryan Memorial Show next Friday at Hank's Saloon in Brooklyn… all proceeds at the door will go to help out Jessica.

A visit to St. Mark's Comics

Text and photos by EVG contributor Stacie Joy

St. Mark’s Comics has been in its current building, 11 St. Mark’s Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, for more than 30 years. For the first few years, it was up a small flight of stairs, later on and in its current spot, on the ground floor, down a few steps.

The shop is a go-to location for old and new comics from small and large (as well as self) publishers. Owner Mitch Cutler says the shop carries a full breadth of products, not just comics. You can find all kinds of things at the shop, and indeed, as I walked deeper into the narrow space I found rooms upon rooms of toys, collectibles, tees, cards, comics, books, graphic novels, and comic-related merchandise.











Floor to ceiling, the shop is crammed with nifty stuff. During the time I visited, Louis, a second-generation St. Mark's Comics shopper (with intentions of creating a third!), was particularly enthused to find the new Harley Quinn. Shaun dropped by for a Jack Burton vinyl action figure.

As I was leaving, Cutler said that he was humbled by the fact that people continue to support the store, a long-standing small business in a place where small-business owners are getting priced out.

Omakase-style restaurant in the works for former Lan Cafe on East 6th Street

The Lan Cafe space apparently won't be sitting vacant for too long.

The Vietnamese vegan restaurant at 342 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue closed for good after service on April 29. The family who ran the place these past nine years said that high rents were to blame for the closure.

According to materials on file (PDF!) at the CB3 website ahead of this month's SLA committee meeting, an omakase-style restaurant is in the works from one of the owners of Kura, the upscale sushi bar at 130 St. Mark's Place.

The configuration for the new space shows 9 tables seating 18 people, plus eight counter stools. The proposed hours are noon to midnight, Sunday-Thursday; until 2 a.m. on Friday-Saturday. The applicants are seeking a full liquor license. (Lan Cafe did not have a liquor license.)

The SLA committee meeting is May 18 at the CB3 office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Noted

[Photo by @edenbrower]

Somewhere on East Fifth Street…

@evgrieve How can I go indoors when there is a fucking turtle outside my window.

— EdenBrower (@edenbrower) May 7, 2015

About last night

A reader-submitted Urban Etiquette Sign spotted along Avenue A...

A 4-building parcel on East 6th Street has been sold

[320-326 E. 6th St.]

An EVG reader who lives in one of the four buildings that make up 320-326 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue shared the following with us…

I arrived home from work to find the attached letter stuffed into my apartment door.... my building plus three others have been sold to 320-326 Ro Village Realty. Our buildings were previously owned by AAG Mgmt. This Ro Village Realty LLC is brand new as of January and I can't find any more details about them or about how much the buildings went for or what they plan to do with it.

Considering what is going on in the neighborhood with companies like Icon, this makes me incredibly nervous.

The sale hasn't hit public records yet… and we're not familiar with 320-326 Ro Village Realty either… and their offices at 209 E. 14th St. don't match up to any of the usual suspects…

Modern American in the works for former Back Forty space on Avenue B

[EVG file photo]

A few more details have emerged about what's next for the former Back Forty space on Avenue B near East 12th Street.

According to materials on file (PDF!) at the CB3 website ahead of this month's SLA committee meeting, the address will house a still-unnamed restaurant serving "modern American" cuisine.

One of the applicants is Roxanne Spruance, who is also planning a new restaurant in Nolita called Kingsley. (According to her bio, she won "Chopped" on the Food Network in February 2013.)

The application shows 16-20 tables seating 48-52 people. The proposed hours are 11 a.m. to midnight Monday-Thursday; until 2 a.m. Friday-Saturday; and midnight on Sunday.

There are also plans to use the small garden area for dining similar to Back Forty.

Back Forty closed for good after service this past Dec. 21.

The SLA committee meeting is May 18 at the CB3 office (BYOB), 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Out with the former Yaffa backyard dining area, in with a new garden

Workers yesterday began demolishing the backyard dining area that previously belonged to Yaffa Cafe at 97 St. Mark's Place.

The owners of St. Dymphna's down the block are opening a Portuguese restaurant called Taberna here between Avenue A and First Avenue.

As previously reported, the new owners will be turning the back space into a garden…





Co-owner Eric Baker told DNAinfo in March that "windows will be built into the back of the restaurant so customers can look at the landscaped area."

Last fall, the DOB issued a partial vacate order on the backyard space because it didn't have the proper fire exits and because it was zoned for residential use … Yaffa Cafe later decided to close for good after 32 years in the location.

Thanks to the EVG reader for the photos!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Yaffa Cafe is officially gone; back garden dismantled

More about Yaffa Cafe closing

St. Dymphna's owners look to take over the former Yaffa Cafe space on St. Mark's Place

More about Taberna, the Portuguese restaurant opening in the former Yaffa Cafe space

Ben Shaoul's East Luxe is all sold out

[EVG file photo of the FRONT of the building]

A news release about Ben Shaoul's new 20-unit rental building at 31-33 Second Ave. between East First Street and East Second Street via the EVG inbox…

Platinum Properties, a New York-based full-service brokerage firm has announced today that it has now rented 100% of The East Luxe, a 20-unit East Village boutique rental building at 31-33 Second Avenue, in just 16 weeks on the market.

To note: Platinum Properties rented 11 of the 17 originally available units directly and six via co-broking with outside agents. It took approximately three months—most of which were rented during the winter, a traditionally slow time — to completely rent out the two and three-bedroom units and one month to rent out the four bedroom apartments.

“In the East Village/Bowery area there is a lack of new construction or rehab projects of this nature. Just having an elevator building with extremely highend finishes in such a central location has made the building a stand out,” says Khashy Eyn, CEO, Platinum Properties.

As previously noted, a Petco is taking the building's retail space.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Ben Shaoul planning a 3-story addition at 31-33 Second Ave.

Bracing for 3 new floors at 31-33 Second Ave.

Checking in on the work in progress at 31-33 2nd Ave., where Ben Shaoul is adding 3 new floors

Ben Shaoul's bland new 2nd Avenue building is called The East Luxe

More about The East Luxe, Ben Shaoul's new 20-unit rental on 2nd Avenue

The night heron apparently comes out at night in Tompkins Square Park

[Photo last night by Guillermo Zubillaga]

For at least the past year there have been occasional sightings of a rather odd-looking bird (so to speak) lurking about the Park in the evening hours… now we've had two reader sightings these past few nights…

Any bird lovers experts in the house know what we're looking at here in the photos? Some kind of night heron????


[Photo from Monday night by Bayou]

Word is the bird stays in the abandoned Christodora House pool during the day.

Updated 5/7

EVG regular Grant Shaffer also spotted this elusive nighttime, uh, night bird last summer...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Rare bird

Reader report: Gunshots on Avenue D late last night; NYPD patrol tower today

[Photo via an EVG reader]

Several readers reported hearing gunshots last night …

Said one this morning: "Woke up to 5 loud gun shots last night outside my apartment on Ave D and 8th Street. Then a police siren about 5 minutes later."

Per another resident later today:

"Altercation around midnight on D between 8th Street and 9th Street among young males escalated and one party came back and fired shots. No one hit. Car on D took some shots and [the former] Joselito's took one in the window. Multiple 911 calls placed last night and half a dozen detectives plus a new surveillance tower van out there now."