Friday, June 17, 2016

1 a.m., Astor Place, June 17



Good mackerel sky from early this morning. Photo courtesy of D. Meretzky.

It might get Loud



The Ramones with "Loudmouth." (H/T Alex.)

Meanwhile, the "Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk" exhibit is at the Queens Museum through July 31.

Sunday afternoon at the Museum, co-curator Marc H. Miller moderates two conversations around the theme, "Pop to Punk: Ramones and Visual Art." Guests include Chris Stein of Blondie and John Holmstrom, co-founder of PUNK magazine. Details here.

And on June 25, the Museum is hosting Ramones Mania, which will include book signings, film screenings, a flea market, live music and more. Details here.

Also this next Friday at noon...

American Deli & Grocery coming to 1st Avenue


[Photo by William Klayer]

Renovations have been ongoing at 139 First Ave. ... and today workers hung the signage for the new business — American Deli & Grocery, which is promising "delivery in minutes!"

The space here between St. Mark's and Ninth Street was previously home to Scarab Lounge, a hookah joint.

EV Grieve Etc.: East Village retail district options; Mermaid Parade rundown


[Discarded $100 mattress on 7th Street by Derek Berg]

Community group and CB3 exploring possibilities of a special retail district (DNAinfo)

A feature on Ravi DeRossi, who owns multiple bars and restaurants in the neighborhood (The New York Times)

Fledgling photos from Tompkins Square Park (Laura Goggin Photography)

Details on the Mermaid Parade tomorrow in Coney Island (Sheepshead Bites)

Things looking up for the Essex Street Market? (BoweryBoogie)

"Heavy Metal Parking Lot" turns 30 (Anthology Film Archives)

The best independent bookstores in NYC (Gothamist)

Business at the great bookshop Three Lives & Company is booming. However, the owners may need to find a new storefront after its home on West 10th Street is up for sale (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Ramones-spotting (Flaming Pablum)

Design contest winners proposed some L train alternatives (Curbed)

A look at ABC No Rio's last show (Slum Goddess ... previously)

Remembering the General Slocum tragedy (Off the Grid)

A new generation returning to revitalize Chinatown (The Lo-Down)

...and tomorrow at the Sixth Street Community Center between Avenue B and Avenue C...



Lastly, will someone please check the contents of this trash bag for us? On Ninth Street between A and First Avenue... Thanks!


[Photo via William Klayer]

Abraço looking to move into a larger space across 7th Street


[Abraço before opening the other day]

The owners of Abraço, the popular coffee shop/cafe, have plans to move into a larger space across from their current Seventh Street home.

EVG correspondent Steven says that Jamie McCormick, who runs the shop along with his wife Elizabeth Quijada, had been searching for new space ... and decided to stay right on the block between First Avenue and Second Avenue when the former Krystal's Cafe 81 became available.


[Photo yesterday by Steven]

Krystal's Cafe 81 closed earlier this year. (Until Jan. 1, 2005, the address was home to Verchovyna Tavern aka George's Bar aka Bar 81.)



With the larger space, Abraço will also expand their menu offerings ... they are also seeking a liquor license, and will appear before CB3's SLA committee on Monday night.

According to the questionnaire (PDF here) posted on the CB3 website, the proposed hours are daily from 8 a.m. to midnight.

The questionnaire also includes a menu...



Abraço opened at 86 E. Seventh St. in October 2007.

The CB3 SLA committee meeting is Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the Thelma Burdick Community Room, 10 Stanton St. (corner of the Bowery).

Cholo Noir wants to bring Mexican BBQ and art to East 6th Street



Plans are in the works for a restaurant serving "Mexican-style BBQ" with a gallery space at 503 E. Sixth St. near Avenue A.

The proprietors, Lennard Camarillo and Arlene Lozano, will appear before CB3's SLA committee on Monday for a new liquor license for the space.

According to the questionnaire (PDF) posted at the CB3 website, the proposed hours for Cholo Noir are 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday-Friday with a noon-time opening on Saturday and Sunday. The questionnaire shows a configuration with 15 tables accommodating 45 diners as well as a 12-seat bar.

In 2014, Camarillo and Lozano won the New York Public Library's annual business plan competition, scoring the top prize of $15,000.

No. 503 was home for five weeks to Long Bay, a Vietnamese restaurant, last spring. Several years earlier the space housed Gladiators Gym.

The CB3 SLA committee meeting is Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the Thelma Burdick Community Room, 10 Stanton St. (corner of the Bowery).

[Updated] Report: CB3 wants alternatives for a larger 438 E. 14th St.


[EVG file photo]

As we first reported on May 31, reps for the new development at 438 E. 14h St. are lobbying to receive a zoning variance for a 12-story building — four more than the area's zoning allows.

In an analysis of the plot, the developers said that they found "unusually elevated groundwater levels and exceedingly soft and unstable soil (owing to the presence of an underground stream) ... result in extraordinary construction costs." (Apparently those soil samples from September 2014 didn't reveal this.)

On Wednesday night, the reps made their case with Community Board 3's Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee. It did not go all that well, per DNAinfo's Allegra Hobbs:

“If you guys didn’t do your homework, I’m not sure why the community has to suffer for your error,” said Alexis Adler of the East 12th Street Block Association. “It is going to change the total character of our neighborhood….We’re losing affordable housing and people are being pushed out so you can put up taller buildings.”

Preservationists, residents and block association reps gathered at Community Board 3’s Land Use Subcommittee meeting on Wednesday to rail against the plan, arguing that the added height would alter the neighborhood’s character, while the added market-rate units would only threaten to displace longtime locals.

In the end, the committee reportedly tabled the vote and asked the reps to return after "exploring alternatives to increasing building height and requesting a greater percentage of 'affordable' units.'"

The property here near Avenue A in Stuyraq was home for years to the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office and long lines.

Updated 11:30 a.m.

On Monday, Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and CB3 are hosting a public meeting with reps for the developer. The meeting is solely to discuss the impact of the construction on immediate neighbors. There will not be any further discussion about variance plans, etc. ... the meeting is at 5:30 p.m. June 20 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on 14th Street and First Avenue.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office slated to be demolished

The former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office will yield to an 8-story residential building

New residential building at former 14th Street PO will feature a quiet lounge, private dining room

A look at the new building coming to the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office property

Celebrating 40 years of La Plaza Cultural


[Photo of La Plaza from March]

La Plaza Cultural, the community garden on the southwest corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street, is celebrating 40 years tomorrow night with performances by Lydia Lunch, James Chance and the Missing Foundation, among many others.

Here's more information about the event:

Join us for a party for the 40th anniversary of one of NYC’s most forward-thinking venues, a storied legacy of the 1970’s downtown art scene: La Plaza Cultural, a green, multi-use, civic, performance space, spread over a third of a city block on east 9th street at avenue C. The evening will celebrate downtown NYC's legacy of visionary, outsider music and art, social activism, community, and sustainable design.

La Plaza was the brainchild of guerrilla activists, including the Latino group CHARAS, who seedbombed the trash-filled vacant lot in 1976. La Plaza's founders and early supporters included era-defining artists such as Buckminster Fuller, who built one of his geodesic domes onsite, the anti-architect Gordon Matta-Clark and legendary street artist Keith Haring. Its 40th anniversary party will feature performances by legendary artists of the period and emerging artists alike.

Live Music:

Lydia Lunch
James Chance
Missing Foundation
SenseNet
Collin Crowe

DJ set:
Sal P (of Liquid Liquid)
Etienne Pierre Duguay

Performance:
"Birth" by FOLD

You can find more about the evening at the Facebook event page here. The event is from 5-9:30 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday).

Here's more on La Plaza's history and how community gardeners came together to rebuild after Sandy...

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Spotting some 'Deuce' coupes on 2nd Avenue



EVG contributor Derek Berg spotted some of the vintage cars used for filming "The Deuce," HBO's upcoming drama series starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, in parts of the neighborhood today (like on Seventh Street)...







Here's more on the series via Deadline:

Written by "The Wire" creator David Simon and longtime collaborator George Pelecanos and directed by Michelle MacLaren, The Deuce follows the HBO blue logostory of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world that existed there until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic, and the renewed real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence.

And are some props from Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ...



Reader report: Workers dig up streetcar tracks on 3rd Avenue



An EVG reader/tipster shared these images from last evening... where workers have been putting in a new roadway on Third Avenue between Astor Place and Ninth Street/Stuyvesant Street as part of the Astor Place Reconstruction project ...

The reader thinks that workers have unearthed the former streetcar tracks along here...

"In digging out the roadbed for Third Avenue near Stuyvesant crews uncovered what I believe to be crossovers for the Third Avenue and crosstown streetcars. It may be difficult to see in the photos but one axis runs east/west (Stuyvesant) and the other runs parallel to Third Avenue."

When the Stuyvesant and Ninth Street mini-parks were built I remember Stuyvesant Street tracks being dug out."



These crossovers are still so well anchored that workers couldn't pull them out. Per the reader: "The crew has been cutting them into small pieces. They are at it again today."



No word on how this might delay the project...

According to the Village Crosstown Trolley Coalition: "The 8th St. line ran its last streetcar on March 3, 1936, clearing the way for the crosstown bus and ever-increasing swarms of automobiles and trucks."

Off the Grid has some nice trolley history here.

A Hollywood print shop for 7th Street



An EVG reader noted the arrival today of signage for a new business coming to Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue — a print shop... don't know anything else about the place at this time, such as if it is a new business or one that relocated.

The previous tenant at No. 76 was the Jasna Hair Studio.

Updated 1:53

Never mind! This is just a set dressing for the new David Simon series filming on the block today...

Defunking defunct Funkiberry



Yesterday afternoon, workers removed the iconic Funkiberry signage from its former home of nine months at Third Avenue and 12th Street.

As previously noted, workers are renovating the corner space to make way for a pizzeria.

Thanks to Harry Weiner for the photo and headline!