New Steve Croman warning flyer makes the scene

Last week, an EVG reader noted a lone flyer on East 11th Street at Avenue B warning potential residents of living in a property owned by Steve Croman, aka 9300 Realty, named one of the top-10 worst landlords in NYC last year by The Village Voice.

This past weekend another flyer arrived … affixed to a city trash can on Second Avenue and East Fifth Street…



In this flyer, Croman is pictured with his wife Harriet … and the flyer's creator points out that Croman "is now the subject of an investigation into potentially illegal tactics used to force rent-stabilized tenants out of their apartments, the Daily News has learned."

That Daily News piece is from last July.

Photos by Derek Berg

May 31

EVG reader Riian Kant-McCormick sends along the photo with the following:

How can it be? I have no proof of date beyond the rain, but behold a very merry smelling tree at 13th and Avenue A.

And to all a good night.

Perhaps the storm below it here from January?

Shelter from the storm

Second Avenue and East Fourth Street via Derek Berg...

Meanwhile, here's a photo of a unicorn playing an accordian on Rivington Street this evening

Photo by @WaggytailRescue via Slum Goddess…

Tree down on 1st Avenue

The first storm casualty? … on First Avenue at St. Mark's Place…





Images via Sam Teichman photo & video…

Updated 7:47 p.m.

EVG reader Daniel sends along a few more shots…

Week in Grieview

[Photo on East 6th Street yesterday by Derek Berg]

Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened "to drop dynamite on the building" (Thursday)

Rumor: East Village Cheese Shop relocating to East Seventh Street (Wednesday)

More about the new Café Pick Me Up-Gnocco combo on East 10th Street (Friday)

Out and About with Alicia Mercado (Wednesday)

A bitcoins ATM (Wednesday)

Rent hike KOs Delicacity (RIP Robin Raj) on Third Avenue (Thursday)

The Second Avenue Spice is closing (Tuesday)

Mono + Mono hoping for a mid-summer return on East Fourth Street (Thursday)

Icon Realty bringing Sexyflow to Avenue A (Tuesday)

Reader report: Please don't destroy the trees (Monday)

Selling off the former Hop Devil Grill (Tuesday)

Fancy Juice for First Avenue (Tuesday)

East 14th Street building returns to the market for a few million dollars more (Wednesday)

Elusive night heron becoming less elusive (Tuesday)

Warning flyers posted about renting from Steve Croman's 9300 Realty (Wednesday)

Making the Tompkins Square lawn more seedy (Thursday)

Spicy House is now Young Chow III on Third Avenue (Tuesday)

… and keep an eye out for the hawklets on the Ageloff Towers on Avenue A…


[Photo from Thursday by Bobby Williams]

Manhattanhenge no-show

Clouds took care of any chance of a truly Instagramable Manhattanhenge for a second sunset in a row…



Not sure about crowds elsewhere in wait… but there were a few dozen people at the end of East 14th Street at Avenue C hoping for a show…



The next opportunity will arrive in July…

Half Sun on the Grid
Monday, July 13 8:21 P.M. EDT

Full Sun on the Grid
Sunday, July 12 8:20 P.M. EDT

Thanks to EVG reader Peter Brownscombe for the photos

Aloha from Tompkins Square Park

[Click on image for more detail]

Park photo by Derek Berg…

20 years ago on East 13th Street

[Photo by John Penley via the Tamiment Library]

By Felton Davis of the Catholic Worker

All night long, we kept vigil, while the huge quasi-military force gathered to clear the squats on East 13th Street.

At about midnight on May 29th, people brought in an over-turned car and filled it with gasoline. One match, or even a careless person with a cigarette, could light this up and create a fire that could spread to the buildings, and trap those who were barricaded inside, burning them to death. How would that help the cause of squatting? How would that help communicate to the public the enormous work that was done to fix up these buildings? Or was it just a desperate gesture, to let the clearing turn into "another Waco," after the fatal confrontation in Texas two years earlier?

The debate will still going on the next morning, when the police brought in a re-furbished military tank, even after most of the gasoline was drained out of the car. The driver sitting on top of the tank motioned the riot officers to get out of the way, because he did not want to stop for those in front of it.

I'm alive today because the officers blocked the tank and dragged us out of the way. The debate over this extreme confrontation, and the extreme tactics brought to bear, continued in Central Booking that night, and it continued in the court where Stanley Cohen represented us, and it continued in the street, as people tried to re-take those buildings, and the Giuliani administration flexed its muscle, and more squatted buildings were seized or bull-dozed by the city.

Thanks for those who kept their sanity during this frightening time, and did not condemn us to death by fire and conflagration. Thanks for the memories.

For further reading:

• The Squatters of East 13th Street

• Battle Over 13th Street

• Tank KO's the Squatters
Daily News, May 31, 1995

• Riot Police Remove 31 Squatters From Two East Village Buildings
The New York Times, May 31, 1995

• Squatters of 13th Street Vs. Power of City Hall; More Than a Symbolic Battle for Control
The New York Times, July 12, 1995

Tompkins Square Park basketball courts closed for renovations; YouTube-backed hoops on the way

Workers yesterday began ripping up the basketball courts in Tompkins Square Park…





The city made the announcement about the court renovations on May 4 with the help of YouTube stars Dude Perfect, who were on-hand to do some trick shots and give out prizes, etc.

@dudeperfect takeover of #TompkinsSquarePark is happening now!!! #DudePerfectCourt

A photo posted by Chris Plehal (@plehal) on May 4, 2015 at 11:16am PDT

Apparently the New York City Parks Department teamed up with YouTube for the renovations, which include an entire resurfacing of the courts with new cement and paint, and installing new basketball hoops. Parks officials said that work will be completed by the time the city schools let out for the summer on June 26. YouTube is funding the renovations, which are estimated at $300,000.

The courts are locked up for now… and apparently the gym equipment is off limits for the next month too… (Updated: EVG regular Jose Garcia says in the comments that people were using the gym equipment this afternoon.)



There aren't any signs posted about the closure … either at the courts or Park office.

Here's NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver via a news release: "Tompkins Square Park is one of New York’s best-loved green spaces, and the basketball have played host to generation of players. NYC Parks is grateful to Dude Perfect and YouTube for their generous effort to give the East Village a refurbished place to shoot hoops this summer."

Your new YouTube courts will look like this, via a rendering from YouTube…



H/T TubeFilter

Why Helen Mirren loves the East Village

Helen Mirren sightings are common around the neighborhood. She and her husband Taylor Hackford have had a place on St. Mark's Place for 14 years. Mirren, who won an Oscar for "The Queen," was a regular at the Stage. She was also the first customer at Enz's when the store reopened a few weeks ago.

There's a Q-and-A in the Post today with Mirren, who's up for a Tony for "The Audience."

The East Village seems a bit funky for Dame Helen Mirren.

I’ve always loved funky and young areas in any city. I prefer the small boutiques to the designer palaces. Other neighborhoods, like the West Village, are a bit chichi. We really love the East Village. It’s noisy with foot traffic, not noisy with car traffic. I can get a taxi day or night.

And?

[W]e are spoiled for choice when it comes to incredible restaurants. I love the holes in the walls, the small restaurants. Sadly, some of our favorites are closed because of that terrible gas explosion [in March]. We loved the Stage and the B&H, and the Pommes Frites. [That] was completely destroyed.

Helen Mirren photos from May 11 by Derek Berg

At the Clemente Soto Velez Open Studios 2015

It's Open Studio weekend at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center at 107 Suffolk St. (at Rivington), where participating artists invite you into their workspaces… EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by for last night for a visit. The hours today are noon to 6 p.m.


[Raphael Tufino and Ana Trelles]


[Jenny Krasner]


[Kylie Heidenheimer with her husband]


[Amy Hill]


[Linda Griggs]


[Ignited New York]


[Tine Kindermann]