Photo on Seventh Street today by Derek Berg...
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Documentary filmmaker looking for archival photos-footage of Ray's Candy Store
A local filmmaker is working on a documentary about Ray and Ray's Candy Store. He’s looking for older photos or footage of Ray and the store on Avenue A near Seventh Street ... like the one above from the late 1970s by Michael Sean Edwards.
Here's the contact info: ray@rayscandystore.com
Someone vandalized the entrance to the Chinese Hawaiian Kenpo Academy on 2nd Avenue
[Photo by Ryan John Lee]
Last night around 8:30, someone vandalized the front of the Chinese Hawaiian Kenpo Academy (CHKA) on Second Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.
A CHKA spokesperson said that they were giving their free women’s self-defense class when one of the building's residents notified them that someone had tossed a can of paint at the entrance.
"We did not see who did it," the spokesperson said. "We called 911 and the police came right away, spoke to the landlord on the phone and made a report."
Several witnesses as well as the CHKA spokesperson said that a group of travelers/crusties were congregating earlier under the scaffolding outside the building. (The landlord is putting in new storefront windows.)
Here's an account from CHKA:
At around 6 p.m., as our children were attempting to leave the building with their parents after class, a group of 10 or so people with off-leash dogs and open containers were camped out at the entrance under the construction scaffolding. When asked politely to move, they became hostile and violent, screaming and threatening our instructors who asked them to move. The children and families were forced to wait in the building until it was safe to leave.
At one point, one of the dogs lunged at people passing by. We called 911 and the officers who came told the group that they were violating regulations regarding leaning on or being under the construction scaffolding. They finally moved along at about 7:30 p.m. and then the vandalism occurred about an hour later.
[Photo from this morning]
This past summer, a group of travelers/crusties reportedly vandalized the First Ukrainian Assembly of God on Cooper Square at Seventh Street after church officials sprinkled bleach powder on the sidewalk to prevent camp outs.
CHKA, a 20-plus-year-old martial arts school offering classes in Kenpo karate and kickboxing for children and adults, moved here from Avenue A in June.
Out and About in the East Village
In this ongoing feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village or Lower East Side.
By James Maher
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
By James Maher
Name: Margie Segal
Occupation: Teacher, Retired
Location: 4th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue
Date: Monday, Nov. 6
I’m a retired New York City school teacher. I came to college here from New Jersey many, many years ago. I came in the late 1960s. I was in NYU. That wasn’t this neighborhood then, now it is.
As a college kid it was fabulous — fun things happening all around, but the city itself was in pretty bad shape. It was crime ridden over here. But when you’re that age it doesn’t seem to bother you. There were neighborhoods you just didn’t want to go into and this was one of them. I stayed out of Tompkins Square Park. I didn’t really have any trouble, but as a woman I was on guard a lot, especially going near the park, the subways — just being out at night alone was not something you wanted to do, not that I didn’t do it.
My best and favorite memories are going to the Fillmore East every weekend and seeing all those bands — the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, Jefferson Airplane. That was always a fun time. It was a lot of fun staying up and listening to music all night long. It was very cheap. The club scene wasn’t for me. We were just more out and about ... being out and being with friends. Basically it was just being out of the streets.
This neighborhood to me represents everything that New York was and should be. The diversity, and a place for people of all incomes and all walks of life. I hate to see that disappear. I do see that it’s changing. My friends and neighbors are affected by it and that bothers me. I like to live by all kinds of people.
Back then there was just a feeling of freedom and possibility. That’s what this was all about. Maybe if you talk to 18 year olds now they might feel the same way I felt then. You know, it was a horrible world. The Vietnam War was going on, we were protesting, but there was always a feeling of hope that we were going to change things and it would be a better place. We always just felt very free. We had nothing, like Janis Joplin said, ‘Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.’ We had nothing to lose, so we felt free.
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
Report: Judge dismisses Raphael Toledano suit over 97 2nd Ave.
Both landlords were claiming ownership of the 11-unit building between Fifth Street and Sixth Street. It's a little complicated. Read the Real Deal piece here for the full blow by blow.
According to the documents filed by Shah, Toledano allegedly told him, "I will bury you, literally. I will bury this building and make sure of it."
The 6-story building was one of the first East Village properties purchased by Toledano. Public records show that Toledano paid $4.95 million for it in April 2014.
Toledano reportedly lost control of the property when he defaulted on a $2 million loan.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened 'to drop dynamite on the building'
Report: Threats made in ongoing battle over 97 2nd Ave.
There's a proposed addition for the recently landmarked 827-831 Broadway
[EVG photo from August]
Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approved a proposal to landmark the circa-1866 cast-iron buildings at 827-831 Broadway between 12th Street and 13th Street.
This decision spared the buildings from demolition. As previously reported, Quality Capital and Caerus Group bought the parcel between 12th Street and 13th Street last summer for $60 million. The deal reportedly included 30,000 square feet of air rights, which would be put to use for a 14-floor office building.
Back to the developer's plans in a minute.
The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) campaigned the past 18 months to help preserve these buildings where artists Willem and Elaine de Kooning and Paul Jenkins, among others, lived and worked.
Per Curbed:
The [LPC] vote represents an unusual kind of designation for the commission that takes into special account the cultural history of the site. (Similar designations include the Stonewall Inn and Tammany Hall.) "The building itself, regardless of the destination, is worthy of designation," said Commissioner Frederick Bland. "What happened in it, regardless of the building, is worthy of designation."
According to the GVSHP, the developers said that if the buildings were landmarked, they would return with a claim of "hardship" to get out of landmarking or a proposal for an addition.
On Monday night, Community Board 2's Landmarks Committee will hear the developer's new proposal (find it here) "to construct a multiple story setback addition on the roof."
And the rendering:
The addition, at first glance, looks as if it blew in from the set of "Geostorm." However, the reflective façade is meant to represent Willem de Kooning's rural and pastoral landscape phase as well as his urban landscapes.
In an email, the GVSHP stated: "[T]his proposed 4-story addition is overwhelming in comparison to the building, and would nearly double its height."
The CB2 meeting is Monday at 6:30 p.m., NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Place, Room 207. The meeting is open to the public, who can ask questions and provide feedback on the proposal. CB2 will issue an advisory opinion and then the proposal will be scheduled for a hearing and vote with the LPC at a later date. Find more info here.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 14-story building planned for 827 Broadway
An appeal to landmark these buildings on Broadway
Report: PS 122 returns to the East Village in January
Performance Space 122 will return to its newly renovated home on First Avenue and Ninth Street in January.
As Playbill noted, PS 122 will inaugurate the refurbished space with the 13th Coil Festival from Jan. 10 to Feb. 4.
And the Times has a rundown on other 2018 highlights, including the debut of a semiannual themed series of performances:
It begins with an exhibition, marathon reading and more events inspired by the neighborhood’s punk culture of the 1970s and ’80s and in tribute to the postmodern punk writer Kathy Acker, who died in 1997. The space has also commissioned new works from the choreographers Sarah Michelson and Yve Laris Cohen, who will create a site-specific piece for the organization’s new theater.
Other performances include a revival of “Them,” which had its brazen debut at Performance Space 122 in 1986 in response to the AIDS crisis, featuring the choreographer Ishmael Houston-Jones, the guitarist Chris Cochrane and the writer Dennis Cooper.
PS 122, which opened in the former school in 1980, has been presenting performances from other venues since gut renovations — including the addition of an elevator, new stairwells and full ADA compliance — started in February 2013 at the 122 Community Center. New amenities for PS 122 include two state-of-the-art theaters. They also have a new executive artistic director in Jenny Schlenzka.
The building will also house the Alliance for Positive Change, Mabou Mines, Painting Space 122, and a fifth tenant to be announced.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's the sidewalk bridge-free corner of 9th Street and 1st Avenue — and the 122 Community Center
Come along on a tour of the under-renovation 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
The Peter Stuyvesant-PO-replacing residential building tops out on 14th Street
Workers have apparently reached the top at 432 E. 14th St., planting the flag at the retail-residential building at the site of the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office between Avenue A and First Avenue.
Here's a comparison with the rendering in circulation...
To recap, the entrance to the nearly 23,000-square-foot Trader Joe's will be on the 14th Street side of the building while residents will access their rentals from the 13th Street side. The plans show 114 residential units with 20 percent designated as affordable housing.
And another recap: Reps for Benenson Capital Partners and Mack Real Estate previously sought a variance to build four more floors (to 12 from 8) than the zoning would allow to make up for the "extraordinary construction costs" from poor ground conditions here. They withdrew this request in March.
No word yet on when rentals may start here or if the building will have a name that pays homage to the previous tenant, the Post Office, maybe something like Next Window Please, Marked As Delivered But We Didn't Actually Deliver It or You Can Come Back Tomorrow If You Want.
You can find coverage about the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office here.
Liberty Toye now lighting up Avenue B
As previously mentioned, Liberty Toye is the name of Ben Shaoul's condoplex taking over his nursing-home replacing rentals at 62 Avenue B.
And now, the sales office at 44 Avenue B between Third Street and Fourth Street sports neon signage ...
There's still just a teaser site up to request info about the condos on Avenue B and Fifth Street, where yesterday workers removed the Bloom 62 banner on the north-facing wall...
Bloom 62 started renting in May 2013. Prices topped out at $7,600 for a four-bedroom apartment.
Shaoul recently announced that he will accept Bitcoin for Liberty Toye, where units will run between $700,000 and $1.5 million.
Previously on EV Grieve:
More details on Cabrini's closing announcement
A look at the 'Hip young crowd planting roots at Bloom 62'
1st signs of Ben Shaoul's Bloom 62 going condo on Avenue B?
More details on Ben Shaoul's condo conversion Liberty Toye, where you can buy with bitcoins
[Photo from 2012]
The Continental says it will close late next summer
[Photo from Friday]
As first reported yesterday, Papaya King has closed its location at 3 St. Mark's Place.
Last week, Real Estate Equities Corporation made public (via The Real Deal) its plans to demolish the existing low-rise buildings at 3 St. Mark’s Place, 23 and 25-27 Third Ave. to make way for a 7-story office building.
There wasn't any mention of a timeline for the existing businesses to depart ahead of the demolition of this northeast corner. Given Papaya King's quick departure, it seemed as if the development would take hold sooner rather than later.
Yesterday, however, The Continental, one of the remaining businesses, addressed the situation on its website. Here's part of the message via owner Trigger Smith:
It is with heavy heart that I have to inform everyone that Continental has less than a year left. Some time after the end of August 2018, this corner will be knocked down and developed. It's truly heartbreaking that we and so many Old Skool places are falling by the wayside but unless you own your building that's how it goes.
For going on 27 years this Bar has been my life. First as a Rock Club and then as a Dive Bar and I've loved every minute of it (mostly speaking). Don't hate my landlords. They're older now, got a great deal and I can't blame them and I want to thank them; Eddie, Ruth and Jack (RIP) for treating me like Family and always giving me an affordable rent and I also want to thank Jeff Bezos for not selling Beer. Special Thanks to my Staff — especially Noel and Bingo, the Bands, the Regulars and the rest of you lunatics for coming to my bar all these years! I'm grateful and honored that we're part of NYC Rock History and I'm also very proud of this incarnation, what I call a Classy, Dive Bar. When I was bartending my way through college — this was my Dream and it happened! I will always be so deeply grateful for this experience...Trigger
[EVG photo from May]
The Continental was a live music venue from its inception in 1991 through the fall of 2006, becoming home then of the five-shots-of-anything-for-$10 promotion before that changed to five-shots-of-anything-for-$12 in the spring.
Trigger signed off with the P.S.: "[I]f we're very, very busy for the remainder, it's possible that we'll have the funds to relocate!!!"
As Crain's previously reported, the bar has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice.
City Kids bringing the East Village Playhouse to long-empty storefront on 6th Street
The signage is up now at 340 E. Sixth St. for the East Village Playhouse, a small classroom and performance space via the City Kids Foundation. (Keith Haring designed the City Kids logo.)
Here's more about them:
Founded by Laurie Meadoff in 1985, The CityKids Foundation has established and maintained cutting edge youth development programs, training tens of thousands of diverse young people, by providing opportunities for personal growth, leadership, and artistic expression.
Their programs include the CityKids Repertory Company, "an intensive audition-based performance program that combines training in performing arts disciplines with a unique leadership development model."
Not sure at the moment what programming will take place in the Sixth Street space.
This marks the first tenant in the storefront here between First Avenue and Second Avenue in more than nine years. Tribal Soundz, the world music shop, closed here in the fall of 2008. (Jeremiah Moss wrote about Tribal Soundz here.)
H/T Michael Hirsch!
Previously on EV Grieve:
The sound of storage on East Sixth Street
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