Today's baby hawk watch in Tompkins Square Park

Checking in with Christo and Dora's latest red-tailed hawk offspring this afternoon...



To date, I've still only seen two of the three babies... will check in with Goggla for more about this.



Photos today by Bobby Williams

Report: Citi Bike mechanics question the integrity and safety of the new bikes

[Photo on 7th and A by Derek Berg]

The design of the newer-model Citi Bikes are being questioned — by Citi Bikes' own mechanics.

According to an email that the company's unionized mechanics sent to management, as reported by Gothamist:

"We tried to warn management many months ago about these safety issues with the new bikes but were completely ignored," wrote one mechanic and TWU representative in an e-mail to his coworkers last month (he asked that his name be withheld for fear of employer retaliation). "We do not want to be blamed for the catastrophic failure that is the Motivate bike."

In late March, Citi Bike pulled 1,000 bikes from its fleet for maintenance:

“We have determined that the forks in our new bike fleet — the part that holds the front wheel in place — have been wearing faster than expected,” Citi Bike said in its email.

But, according to the email from mechanics, this problem was just the beginning, as the Daily News first reported:

“It's not from high usage,” a Citi Bike staffer with knowledge of its fleet told the Daily News. “To a lot of the mechanics, it means that the company is interested in replenishing the system with bikes of lower quality.”

Parts that hold the rear wheel in place on the new bikes were becoming “skewed and uneven” to the point that it could result in “catastrophic axle breaks and premature hub/wheel failure,” according to the email.

A Citi Bike spokesperson issued this statement to Gothamist yesterday: "The new line of Citi Bikes are very popular with riders with a sleeker, more comfortable design. Like with any innovation we've learned lessons and are making improvements to durability, but all Citi Bikes on the road are extremely safe — with nearly 28 million rides and no fatalities."

RIP Lorraine Levine

Don't freak out, but I died on Sunday. You can now reach me via the Ouija board. Will do hauntings for a buck. ❤️u pic.twitter.com/4x01HWTYGT

— Lorraine Levine (@ask_lorraine) May 23, 2016

Lorraine Levine, an East Village resident who received attention in recent years for her frank, expletive-filled advice videos, died on Sunday. She was 87. (Previous features on Levine listed her age as 89.)

"She was hilarious and full of life," said Maristella Innocenti, a friend of Levine's. "She never gave up on life, even at her age. She always talked about the future. For me it was an honor to have met her and to have had a chance to be part of her life."

Her neighbor, filmmaker Robert La Force, launched a video series in early 2015 titled "Ask My Neighbor Lorraine," in which she answered questions about how to meet men and offered hangover cures.

She also tried her hand at social media.

First tweet and I already fucking hate Twitter!

— Lorraine Levine (@ask_lorraine) April 30, 2015

A video sampling ... (a little NSFW) ...



The Brooklyn native was married five times, according to an interview with her last year at MTV.com. She was a former antiques dealer.

From an interview last August with DNAinfo: "The accidental comedienne, who grew up in Brighton Beach in a Russian Jewish family of entertainers, thinks of herself as, above all, a 'very cultured, sophisticated lady ... who says fuck often.'"

There is a memorial for Levine Wednesday morning at 11 at Thomas C. Montera, Inc. Funeral Home on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx.

At a later date, Innocenti said that friends and family will get together at Levine's East Fifth Street apartment, where she lived since 1978. "We will have a party in her backyard. That's what she would've loved."

Icon Realty hires a chief safety officer

[445 E. 9th St.]

On May 9, tenants from 445 E. Ninth St. and 57 Second Ave. joined up with community organizations and local elected officials to speak out against landlord Icon Realty.

In a statement, the Cooper Square Committee called for an end to Icon's "alleged campaign of construction-as-harassment against tenants and to meet the tenants’ demands."

Per the statement:

If Icon refuses to do so, the tenants – represented by the Urban Justice Center and Manhattan Legal Services – will file lawsuits against the landlord.

For years now, Icon Realty has been aggressively displacing rent-regulated tenants to make room for ultra-high rent paying tenants. Like other bad-acting landlords, Icon Realty has exposed tenants to hazardous health and safety threats, brought dozens of lawsuits against tenants, and continue to deny tenants their right to live in these buildings without fear of extreme tactics to remove them.

Icon tenants in gut-renovation hell aren't limited to these two addresses. For example, in March 2015, the tenants association at 128 Second Ave. filed an HP Action for Repairs and Services against Icon Realty in NYC Housing Court.

Yesterday, Icon principals Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen announced that their company has hired a chief safety officer to oversee the construction and renovation work in Icon buildings.

According to a news release, the chief safety officer "will have a daily presence in Icon buildings during any construction/renovation phase to make certain that all applicable protocols are observed."

Here's more from the statement:

“After hearing from several tenant leaders in the last few weeks, Icon has added a new position of Building Safety Manager, to serve as an internal safety coordinator and tenant safety advocate. Icon has hired Felipe Olmeta to serve in that role. He started on Monday, May 16th. Felipe has a breadth of experience in the field of construction and construction protocols. Felipe will report directly to both of us and have vast discretion for tenant safey and as an advocate for tenants. Felipe will focus on 445 east 9th and 57 2nd Avenue at first, before expanding his role to other buildings.”

And:

Icon Realty Management is committed to building safety for its tenants and workers. As Icon works on repairs and renovations in several of its buildings, we have taken tenants concerns seriously and want to ensure that safety is the top priority.

Icon spokesperson Chris Coffey told us that all construction work in the two buildings has ceased for now. "We are looking at the tenants' concerns ... and work has been stopped while we evaluate those questions," he said.

New floors on the way up at 222 E. 7th St.

222 E. Seventh St. is starting to grow. After gutting the building between Avenue B and Avenue C, workers are now adding two new floors to the former 4-story residence...


[The view from 6th Street]

As previously noted, the new building will house eight condos.


[Photo via Dave on 7th]

We haven't seen any details about pricing or amenities for the new homes just yet.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Villa Capri condos coming to Seventh Street

[Updated] Work underway on the new residential conversion on East 7th Street

Bringing down 222 E. 7th St. brick by brick

[The old-looking No. 222]

East Village is No. 1 in Lower Manhattan for garbage, noise and rodent complaints, study finds

[EVG file photo of 6th Street]

DNAInfo has the results of a RentHop study tracking 311 complaints in six Lower Manhattan neighborhoods.

Here's how this neighborhood stacks up vs. No. 2 Chinatown:

East Village: 680.3 garbage complaints and 572.9 rodent complaints per square mile, 75.5 noise complaints per 1,000 residents

Chinatown: 486.5 garbage complaints and 344.2 rodent complaints per square mile, 47.8 noise complaints per 1,000 residents

You can find an interactive map and more results from the survey here.

Vandalized MCA mural blacked out

As previously reported, someone destroyed the MCA tribute mural on East Seventh Street near First Avenue on Saturday night.

@cramcept, who created the previous two MCA murals, painted over this yesterday. He says that he will eventually create something new featuring MCA here.

The mural arrived last May 4, on the third anniversary of Adam Yauch's death. Yauch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys, died of cancer on May 4 2012.

Previously on EV Grieve:
There's a new MCA in town

Someone vandalized the MCA mural on 7th Street

Pommes Frites opens today in new home on MacDougal Street

[Image via Twitter]

Former East Village mainstay Pommes Frites, destroyed in the deadly Second Avenue gas explosion in March 2015, reopened today in its new MacDougal Street location.

The New York Times spoke with tearful co-owner Suzanne Levinson:

“Reopening is extremely poignant for me,” Ms. Levinson said. “But it doesn’t change what happened. The day that the building collapsed, I did not mourn the loss of my business. I haven’t mourned the loss of my business for one day. It’s just a business.” She added: “When I think about what happened to us, I don’t think about us, I think about what happened to the young men.”

She bowed her head and her shoulders heaved with sobs. The two young men, Mr. Locón and Mr. Figueroa, she said, are constantly on her mind.

“I don’t want it to be an opening with fireworks and fanfare,” she continued after a pause. “We are insignificant compared to the impact this had, compared to what happened to the families and loved ones. We’re French fries.”

They will be running with limited staff and hours for the next two weeks, per the Pommes Frites Facebook page.

The new location is at 128 MacDougal St. between Bleecker and West Third Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
With space too expensive in the East Village, Pommes Frites will reopen on MacDougal Street

After 98 years in business, Surma Books & Music is closing

Jeremiah Moss first heard the rumor on Friday ... and DNAinfo confirmed the news later: Surma Books & Music will close some time next month at 11 E. Seventh St. after 98 years in business. The Ukrainian speciality shop's third-generation owner, Markian Surmach, declined to comment further.


[Photo from 2013 by James Maher]

We featured Surmach in an Out and About in the East Village in May 2013. Here's an excerpt of that interview:

This store was founded in 1918 by my grandfather, who came through Ellis Island in 1910. The neighborhood was very different. It was very Eastern European and more solidly Ukrainian than it is now.

I was born in this neighborhood and lived here until I was 6, when we moved up to Rockland Country. And I moved back here when I was 18 for college and such. But because of the shop here and being a child in this family you were recruited to work every free moment that you had. Me and my sister spent almost every weekend in the shop growing up. So I was always in and out of the city most of the time.

I moved to Colorado for 15 years and lived a very different life. The objective of some people who live here is how to get out, so I moved and then I was brought back in again. My dad passed away [in 2003] and I got the call, “Okay, what are we gonna do now,” so I came back. I live a couple blocks away now. Moving back has been an adjustment but I love New York and I love the shop.

In the beginning the store catered to those who didn’t speak a lick of English, to help them assimilate into New York life. My grandfather was catering to people who needed virtually everything. It was like a PC Richards, in a way. The old Gramophone that’s up in the corner of the shop was cutting-edge technology at the time. That’s what he was selling. He even sold washing machines. You name it and he was selling it — everything that people needed to live in New York.

The Surmach family owns the building here near Cooper Square. It is rumored to be in the process of being sold.

Previously

103 St. Mark's Place sells for $11.5 million

The 6-story building between Avenue A and First Avenue has a new owner.

An EVG reader who lives in the building learned of the transaction via a note under the door on Friday.

The Commercial Observer noted the deal Friday afternoon ... reporting that Allied XVII LLC (with a Great Neck, N.Y., address) paid Adria Realty Investment Association $11.5 million.

Per the Observer:

The building ... has 21 apartments and two retail spaces, both occupied by a dentist’s office, with a lease expiring next year. Only six of the residential units are free-market and the rest are rent-stablized with average monthly rents of approximately $1,500.

“The seller is a local businessman who has owned the building since the early 1980s,” said Lev Mavashev of Alpha Realty, who represented the buyer in the deal. “He is planning for retirement and decided to capitalize in this market. The buyer is a local private investor with numerous holdings in the area. When I called the buyer on this deal, he immediately recognized the opportunity to purchase a building with plenty of unrealized potential and jumped on it, especially in this location.”

Mr. Mavashev said the buyer wanted to “add to his holdings in the area.”

The dental office had been on the rental market. The photo here is from March...


[Photo by Steven]

The dentist, Elan Kauffman, had been accused of alleged insurance fraud in this Fox 5 report from 2011.

The other retail tenant is Take Care, a natural healing center and spa with locations in Malibu and Montauk (per their website).

Meanwhile, per the EVG reader on the new owner: "I haven't heard or read anything either positive or negative about them, so I'm not sure if need to be in a state of super alarm (you know, start getting money orders for my rent checks and having them sent certified to the LLC's address — a P.O. Box! — etc.)"

Sixth Street Community Center CSA launches for the summer/fall

Here are more details via the Center's website:

The Sixth Street CSA has been in existence since 1996, and our members consistently have access to some of the freshest and best quality produce available. From June to November, our partner farms, Hepworth Farms in Ulster County, New York, and Catalpa Ridge Farm in Sussex County, New Jersey, provide over 200 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

At Sixth Street, we believe that all neighborhood residents should have access to fresh, organic, local produce, regardless of their level of income. Our CSA operates on a sliding scale model, and member fees are determined based on the income level of your household. This sliding scale model is made possible in part thanks to a generous grant from Wholesome Wave.

CSA pick-ups are every Tuesday from 5pm-9pm at Sixth Street Community Center, located at 638 E Sixth Street between Avenue B and C.

Learn more about how to take part by visiting the Center's website or calling (212) 677-1863.

The retail space at 20 Avenue A no longer looks like a bank branch

The Chase branch at 20 Avenue A closed last Nov. 12.

Workers have now gutted the ground-floor interior at the corner of East Second Street... showing the space's potential for a new tenant...



As we noted a few weeks ago, there's a new broker for the space. (The third by our count since last June.)

According to the listing at Winick Realty Group, all uses will be considered. The rent is available upon request. Anyway, it's a big space — 4,300 square feet on the ground floor. (There's also a basement.)

Back in February, the listing via Town featured renderings showing two wine bars in this location.

The 62-unit apartment building here exchanged hands in the summer of 2014 for $26.2 million.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The retail-wine bar possibilities for the former Chase space on Avenue A and East 2nd Street