Wednesday's parting shot

Christo in Tompkins Square Park today. Photo by Bobby Williams.

Goggla said that Christo's been molting and looking pretty raggedy of late, but he should be back to his sleek self soon.

Dreaming of a Bluelight Christmas

It's that time of year again, at least at Kmart on Astor Place... (hopefully the Halloween stuff is still out) ... thanks to @supagirl13 for the photo...

About Bodega, a start-up that aspires to be the new neighborhood market

[At the former Golden Food Market on 7th and 1st]

A story today at Fast Company that may be of interest... From the article, titled Two Ex-Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete:"

Paul McDonald, who spent 13 years as a product manager at Google, wants to make this corner store a thing of the past. Today, he is launching a new concept called Bodega with his cofounder Ashwath Rajan, another Google veteran. Bodega sets up five-foot-wide pantry boxes filled with non-perishable items you might pick up at a convenience store. An app will allow you to unlock the box and cameras powered with computer vision will register what you’ve picked up, automatically charging your credit card. The entire process happens without a person actually manning the “store.”

Bodega’s logo is a cat, a nod to the popular bodega cat meme on social media – although if the duo gets their way, real felines won’t have brick-and-mortar shops to saunter around and take naps in much longer. “The vision here is much bigger than the box itself,” McDonald says. “Eventually, centralized shopping locations won’t be necessary, because there will be 100,000 Bodegas spread out, with one always 100 feet away from you.”

And...

I asked McDonald point-blank about whether he’s worried that the name Bodega might come off as culturally insensitive. Not really. “I’m not particularly concerned about it,” he says. “We did surveys in the Latin American community to understand if they felt the name was a misappropriation of that term or had negative connotations, and 97% said ‘no’. It’s a simple name and I think it works.”

But some members of the Hispanic community don’t feel the same way. Take Frank Garcia, the chairman of the New York State Coalition of Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who represents thousands of bodega owners. Garcia’s grandfather was the head of the Latin Grocery Association in the 1960s and was part of the original community of immigrants who helped settle on the term “bodega” for the corner store. “To me, it is offensive for people who are not Hispanic to use the name ‘bodega,’ to make a quick buck,'”Garcia says. “It’s disrespecting all the mom-and-pop bodega owners that started these businesses in the ’60s and ’70s.”

Bodega began trending on Twitter this morning...

Trying to destroy bodegas with a startup called “Bodega” that has a bodega cat logo is… just awful. https://t.co/1W4pSnXoXn

— hello i am anil (@anildash) September 13, 2017

my bodega owners are yemeni immigrants and the bodega not only affords them a life in new york but also allows them to send money back home

— Jessica Roy (@JessicaKRoy) September 13, 2017

Weird that they're calling this heinous vending machine "Bodega" and not "Gentrification Box" https://t.co/xPCozclRRD

— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) September 13, 2017

If Bodega were called Nile or Mississippi, would reaction have been the same? FreshDirect, Amazon are active in NYC & not great for bodegas.

— Anjali Khosla (@hellomountfuji) September 13, 2017

I see the Bodega backlash backlash has begun.

*rubs hands together* Just as the machine learning predicted.

— Ian Bogost (@ibogost) September 13, 2017

Updated

NcDonald addressed the backlash and offered an apology in a follow-up post on Medium.

Primary victory for Carlina Rivera in District 2 City Council race

In yesterday's Democratic Primary, Carlina Rivera handily won the District 2 race to succeed City Council member Rosie Mendez.

Rivera, a former Mendez staff member who grew up on the Lower East Side, received nearly 61 percent of the vote, according to election information published by NY1.



The seemingly runaway race wasn't without its last-minute drama. In a rare political turn, former New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter reportedly threw his weight behind Ronnie Cho with an endorsement released Monday night.

Turns out that while Jeter may have nice things to say about Cho, he wasn't endorsing him. As the Post followed up: "There was a communications mix-up and a draft release was sent out prematurely."

In addition, supporters of Rivera's opponents on Monday were also peddling since-deleted Facebook photos of her husband, CB3 chair Jamie Rogers, sailing on his father's yacht during races in recent years. Other critics questioned why/how they were living in Section 8 housing. The Villager explores that angle here. Rivera and Rogers both said that "it’s perfectly legal for them to live in the apartment and that their incomes were fully vetted under the requirements of the Section 8 program."

Finally, as The Lo-Down reported, developer Gregg Singer, who owns the former P.S 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center on East Ninth Street, began campaigning against the District 2 candidates, including Rivera, who might try to force his hand at returning the property for community use.

In other election news, Mayor de Blasio won big.



The Villager has other local election results here. According to the Daily News, there was "terrible voter turnout" yesterday.

Try a 'Taste of East Village' this Saturday

The second annual "Taste of East Village" is this Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. on Seventh Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square.

Here are some details via the EVG inbox...

Twenty local restaurants and bars will participate, including Luke’s Lobster, Porsena, Veselka, Porchetta, Brick Lane Curry House and Le Petit Parisien. The $25 ticket gives attendees a chance to try 4 small plates from participating restaurants – additional tastings are available for purchase at the event.

You can buy tickets here. (They are $30 the day of the event.)

The festival benefits the Cooper Square Committee's affordable housing preservation and organizing work, including the soon-to-open Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth on 13th Street.

Mr. Bing will sell traditional Northern Chinese street crepes on St. Mark's Place

[Reader-submitted photo]

Yesterday morning, workers put up the signage for Mr. Bing at 115 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Mr. Bing has been a regular on NYC's food market and festival scene the past two years, selling jianbing, "scallion- and sesame seed-studded crepes stuffed with eggs and other fillings that are artfully composed on a flat-top grill," as Eater describes the popular street food in Northern China.


[Photo by Steven]

Here's more on Mr. Bing's founder, Brian Goldberg via a piece in the Times back in January:

Mr. Goldberg, a Chinese scholar who grew up in Spring Valley, N.Y., in Rockland County, became a professional luge racer and worked in finance before running a couple of places in Hong Kong. He decided a few years ago to do something, he said, “that would be interesting and make people happy.” He’d like to do his part to make jianbing as mainstream as ramen.

Aside from various pop-up locations, Mr. Bing currently has a presence in the UrbanSpace Vanderbilt food hall ... this appears to be the first traditional storefront for the operation.

Mr. Bing is also on this month's CB3-SLA committee docket for a beer-wine license. (This item will not be heard before the committee.)

The previous tenant at 115 St. Mark's Place, Water Witch Mercantile, closed at the end of 2016 after just two months in business.


[Photo by Steven]

Club Cumming debuts tonight on 6th Street

As previously noted, actor-author (and East Village resident) Alan Cumming was teaming up with the Eastern Bloc owners to turn the bar on Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B into Club Cumming.

And tonight marks the opening night... there are a variety of events happening in the space, as you can see from their schedule (find more details via Instagram)... there are jazz nights, book readings, duets with Michael Musto, a Crisco Disco night, and so on...



Cumming described the Club on his Instagram account as "a home for everyone of all ages, all genders, all sexualities, who all enjoy letting go and making some mischief. No judgments, no attitude, no rules, except kindness, acceptance and fun."

Here's a mini preview via the Times the other day.

The East Village storefront, previously home to the popular gay haunt Eastern Bloc, is being transformed into a Weimar-inspired cabaret bar ... The modest space will have illustrated murals of New York night life personalities including Joey Arias, mismatched chandeliers and a small curtained stage with a piano.

Beyond debauchery, events will include book releases, “stitch and bitch” knitting classes and tantric sex workshops. “To have a local bar that is home for artists and those who love them, that’s important to me,” Mr. Cumming said. “I’ve always wanted to make people talk to each other instead of looking at their phones.”

Schmaltz on full display in new-look exterior at Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse

[Photo from 2010 by James and Karla Murray]

There's a new look outside down at the Chrystie Street mainstay... EVG reader Mike House shared these photos... first, of the usual entrance (which transformed back in the spring)...



A new addition is on the kitchen side of the operation just to the south ... the windows had previously been covered ... now there are giants pitchers of schmaltz, not quite to scale of the ones found on the tables inside...



I'm not sure if the work is complete out front. Perhaps more Sammy's signage will return. (The interior remains the same.)

This northwest corner of Chrystie and Delancey was under cover of a sidewalk bridge and scaffolding for some six years, finally coming down at the start of 2016.

The Urban Vision of Elaine Norman, an exhibit opening tonight on 1st Street

Tonight is the opening reception of a photo exhibit at City Lore on First Street titled "Apple of My Eye: The Urban Vision of Elaine Norman."

Per the City Lore website:

City Lore is pleased to present Elaine Norman’s vision of the city as the first exhibit in our Deep New York series.

“Simply strolling down any New York street can be a visual adventure and an endless opportunity for discovery,” she writes. “The City has an extraordinary capacity to blend past and present, high-brow and low, traditional and modern.”

This vibrant, eclectic and constantly evolving architectural and cultural kaleidoscope has always been Elaine Norman’s passion and source of inspiration.

The reception is 6-9 tonight. The exhibit, which spans 35 years of NYC life, is up through Oct. 15. The gallery, 56 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, has hours of 2-6 p.m. on Friday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

'Deception' at Astor Place; dead body takes a break

Crews were out this afternoon filming a scene for the new ABC crime drama "Deception" on Astor Place.

Then everyone took a break...



Photos by Derek Berg

Ramones Ramp mural damaged in Queens

[Ori Carino with Mickey Leigh in June 2016]

On June 5, 2016, East Village-based artist Ori Carino unveiled a new mural at the Thorneycroft Ramp in Forest Hills, Queens. The ceremony was part of a day of events organized by the Queens Museum, which was showing "Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk" at the time.

Carino painted the image of the four Ramones at the ramp based on a 1975 photograph by photographer Bob Gruen.

Marc H. Miller, the curator of that Ramones show, wrote in to report that the mural has been damaged...



Michael Perlman, a historian who lives in Queens, believes that maintenance workers at the Thorneycroft Ramp at Fanwood Estates painted around artist the mural, possibly before it rained ... sending red, vertical streaks down the mural...



"Everyone loves the mural out there in Forest Hills," Miller told me. "I’m optimistic that the real-estate company that owns the ramp will get it restored. It's just a question of allocating some money for Ori to fix it."

Bali Kitchen will start serving Indonesian cuisine tonight on 4th Street

Bali Kitchen opens this evening at 5 here at 128 E. Fourth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The small restaurant is owned by Jazz Pasay, a fashion designer in Indonesia who also loves to cook. He has worked at Indonesian and Japanese restaurants in the past. This is his first restaurant in NYC, according to a Bali Kitchen rep, who added "we are delighted to be part of the East Village."

Bali Kitchen is open daily from 5-10:30 p.m. You can find the menu via the Bali website here.

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Per Bali Kitchen: "We would like to invite the East Village community to celebrate our opening by giving a 15% discount when your readers mention 'EV Grieve' to our cashiers. This promotion is good until the end of September 2017."