CoCo Fresh Tea and Juice shutters on St. Mark's

The CoCo Fresh Tea and Juice branch at 33 St. Mark's Place has closed.

This wasn't really a surprise given the recent arrival of for-rent signs outside the cafe here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

No word on why this location of the Taiwan-based chain shut down...



Increased rent? Five hundred other places around selling the same things?

CoCo debuted here in September 2013, taking over the space from the short-lived (ONE MONTH) Iris Cafe.

Before that we had Rockit Scientist Records here.

The spot won't be vacant long: The broker posted on Instagram that she had leased this to an unnamed new tenant.

Previously on EV Grieve:
CoCo Fresh Juice & Tea now open on St. Mark's Place; also, mascot alert

Rockit Scientist Records to become a bubble tea shop on St. Mark's Place

Week in Grieview

[Tompkins Square Park on Saturday]

Posts from this past week included...

Say hi to Sam, your new Ottendorfer librarian (Wednesday)

Resurfaced roadways on 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue to have offset crossings (Tuesday)

A visit to City Fun on 1st Avenue (Thursday)

Report: One of the red-tailed hawk chicks dies (Saturday)

[Updated] Reader report: Police SUV strikes cyclist on 1st Avenue and St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)

Metropolis Vintage has left 3rd Avenue; new Broadway space opens (Tuesday)

Photos: At the 32nd annual Loisaida Festival (Sunday)

Cemetery wall knocked down during post-fire work behind 1st Avenue (Tuesday)

The Donut Pub outpost on Astor Place debuts (Wednesday)

Il Mattone's East Houston outpost is now open (Tuesday)

Final demolition phase for 1 St. Mark's Place; more questions about lobbyists attached to project (Wednesday)

I don't see you over there — yes, you!: Zoltar is MIA outside Gem Spa (Friday)

Noting the arrival of the Poppy Seed Bagel Sparrow's Nest in Tompkins Square Park (Sunday)

Happy returns: Anna's new East Village storefront debuts (Friday)

Nobletree Coffee abruptly shuts down on 2nd Avenue and St. Mark's Place (Friday)

An update on the former Moishe's Bake Shop (Thursday)

Films on the Green coming to Tompkins Square Park for two Friday nights this July (Friday)

Rafael's Barber Shop on the move around the corner (Thursday)

Joe’s Steam Rice Roll puts up the signage on St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)

MAD Toast House bringing bubble tea and toast to 9th Street (Friday)

7th Street townhouse with rooftop pizza oven and basketball hoop sells for $15.75 million (Tuesday)

Demolition watch: 99-101 E. 2nd St. (Stop Work Order edition) (Friday)

Piccolo Cafe closes on 3rd Avenue (Tuesday)

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Follow EVG on Instragram or Twitter, where you'll find tweets like this...

Saturday night live on 2nd Avenue pic.twitter.com/je9J47BzSx

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) June 2, 2019

Spencer Tunick brings #WeTheNipple to Astor Place in message to Facebook and Instagram

Spencer Tunick has orchestrated another mass photo shoot, this time on Astor Place early today.

Tunick has joined forces with the National Coalition Against Censorship for a project called #WeTheNipple. As artnet noted last month, "the effort is a direct challenge to Facebook and Instagram’s community guidelines, which prohibit nudity, regardless of artistic merit."

Tunick, who has organized and photographed more than 120 large groups of nude people around the world, has been at odds with the two social media platforms in recent years.

As he told Esquire in April:

"I get it. I don’t want my daughters on an Instagram full of pornography. But there has to be a way artists can have a voice to show their works. There has to be some formula, whether it’s the YouTube way where you’re reviewed and there’s an 18-or-older button that’s pressed. Or, for starters, equalize the male and female nipple and not deem the female nipple as violent."

And this morning on Astor Place, Tunick and between 100 to 200 nude models gathered to send a message to Facebook, who has offices at 770 Broadway (somewhere above the Kmart!).

Per the Instagram post on the action:

"These are all male nipple stickers covering female presenting nipples and male nipple cards covering all the participant’s genitalia. There is no reason for Facebook or Instagram to censor this video or block from hashtags."

View this post on Instagram

#WeTheNipple Art Action in front of @Facebook and @Instagram offices this Morning. #StopCensorship These are all male nipple stickers covering female presenting nipples and male nipple cards covering all the participant’s genitalia. There is no reason for Facebook or Instagram to censor this video or block from hashtags. @NCACensorship @chadsmithofficial @bravoandy @pagmi #AndresSerrano @theadamgoldberg @RonKuby #FuckCensorship Link in Bio.

A post shared by Spencer Tunick (@spencertunick) on Jun 2, 2019 at 4:18am PDT

H/T Carol from East 5th Street!

Updated 4:30 p.m.

Here's some more coverage of the action (thanks Daniel!)...

• The Daily Mail

• CNN


[Image by Fay Fox via]

Noting the arrival of the Poppy Seed Bagel Sparrow's Nest in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Bobby Williams...

Saturday's parting shot

The scene at 9 this morning outside the Grafton on First Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place... where the faithful were on-hand six hours before the Champions League final pitting Liverpool vs. Tottenham (and three hours before the pub opened).

The Reds were rewarded in the end, as Liverpool, with its attacking trio of Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, prevailed 2-0. (I actually cut-n-paste that from somewhere else.)

Photo by Derek Berg.

Noted

Derek Berg spotted an Apple Maps car out on Seventh Street at Second Avenue.

Derek and I recall seeing Google Street View cars around the neighborhood... but this is our first Apple Maps car sighing.

Not sure if the driver was on duty or, say, looking for a place to park to hit the street fair ... or maybe just passing through.

This past week, Apple announced that it was driving across Canada throughout the summer to capture road details, signage and landmarks for "an improved Apple Maps experience."

From an April 25 post at MacRumors:

Apple Maps vehicles have been collecting mapping data in the United States since 2015, with over 45 states at least partially surveyed to date. Apple will begin surveying Alaska, South Carolina, and Tennessee between March and July, according to an update to its recently revamped Apple Maps image collection website.

Didn't spot anything about surveying NYC.

A street festival for your Saturday

[Photo by Vinny & O]

Vendors and other volunteers are prepping for the Cooper Square Committee's annual Third Avenue Festival, which takes place today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

As noted in previous years, this is one of the better street fairs.



Aside from some of the usual stuff (see photo below), the festival features a variety of live performances from a stage at St. Mark's Place at Third Avenue. The acts include Kate Brunotts, Chanese Elifé, the Rod Rodgers Dance Company, Bill Popp and the Tapes and Cherry Sol.



With all this, Third Avenue is closed from Sixth Street to 14th Street.

Report: One of the red-tailed hawk chicks dies

[Photo from May 20 by Steven]

Sad news from Tompkins Square Park. Goggla is reporting that one of Christo and Amelia's two chicks has died.

A cause of death is not known at this time.

This marks the third consecutive year that a red-tailed hawk offspring has been lost.

Per Goggla:

We lost a fledgling last year to a combination of rodenticide and West Nile virus. The year before that, another fledgling died and tested positive for West Nile. It's not possible at this time to say what killed this chick, but the same dangers still exist in our environment. The Parks Department does not use rodenticide in Tompkins Square, but it is used all over the neighborhood on private property and in some community gardens. West Nile virus is spread by mosquitoes, so any standing water is a breeding ground for them.

This year's chicks hatched around April 20.

Previously on EV Grieve:
1 of the 2 red-tailed hawk fledglings in Tompkins Square Park dies from secondary poisoning

6 posts from May

[Fleet Week on 1st Avenue at St. Mark's Place by Derek Berg]

A mini month in review...

• Say hi to Sam, your new Ottendorfer librarian (May 29)

• [Photos] Dancers in the Park: DanceFest 2019 (May 18)

• Trader Joe's finally confirms that a Trader Joe's is opening on 14th Street at Avenue A (May 15)

• Sidewalk bridge collapses at explosion site on 2nd Avenue; box truck culprit, witnesses say (May 10)

• A visit to Gem Spa (May 10)

• RIP Felicia Mahmood (May 3)

It is alive

Run Around The Sun, the new LP by the Glasgow-based duo Sacred Paws, is out today on Merge Records. The video here is for "Almost It."

EVG Etc.: Construction zone protections for cyclists; 'Punk Lust' at the Anthology

[The Miracle Garden on 3rd Street]

• LES/East Village takeaways from the NYU Furman Center's annual report, The State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods (The Lo-Down)

• AG's office announces the second round of restitution funds for current and former tenants of landlord and convicted felon Steve Croman (Patch ... previously on EVG)

• Thanks to a bill via local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera, construction firms must now create a safe, alternative route for cyclists if they block a bike lane — or have their permit revoked (amNY ... Streetsblog)

• Pride Guide for June (Grub Street)

• The city will create a permanent Greenwich Village monument to honor LGBTQ activists and Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries (STAR) founders Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera (Curbed)

• The casting director for "Russian Doll" explains how she put together the ensemble for the Netflix series set in the East Village (Backstage)

• Some history of 4 St. Mark's Place (Flaming Pablum ... previously on EVG)

• Starting today at noon, the MTA says OMNY readers will go live at 16 stations along the 4, 5 and 6 lines, starting the long goodbye of the MetroCard (Gothamist ... previously on EVG)

• Remembering the Eighth Street Bookshop (Ephemeral New York)

• The 1954 version of "A Star Is Born" with Judy Garland plays Monday (June 3) at the City Cinemas Village East on Second Avenue and 12th Street (Official site)

• This series starts tonight ... cutting and pasting: "In conjunction with the Museum of Sex’s exhibition “Punk Lust: Raw Provocation, 1971-1985,” the Anthology hosts a related film program that expands on the exhibition by surveying how Punk culture used the language of sexuality – both visually and lyrically – to transgress and defy, whether in the service of political provocation, raw desire, or simply to break through the stifling gender norms and social expectations of its time." (Anthology Film Archives)

• Beach Boy/noted asshole Mike Love releases a cover of "Rockaway Beach" (Billboard)

And via the EVG inbox...



Neville Dance Theatre in the premiere of "53 Movements"
Saturday, June 1 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie St.
Tickets: $30; $18 for students
Reservations here.

Neville Dance Theatre will premiere director/choreographer Brenda Neville's 53 Movements, set to composer Terry Riley's musical masterpiece "In C," June 1. Often referred to as the founding composer of music minimalism, Terry Riley's pioneering 1963 work "In C," consists of 53 short, set musical phrases played by the musicians with improvisational choices.

I don't see you over there — yes, you!: Zoltar is MIA outside Gem Spa

A shocking sight is in store for visitors to Gem Spa on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place.

ZOLTAR IS MISSING.


[Photo yesterday by Steven]

So are the newspapers.

We reached out to ownership to learn why Zoltar is not at his post, where he has told fortunes and offered wisdom on this corner starting on Sept. 23, 2012, not that we've been keeping track.

An employee told EVG Animatronic Fortune Telling Machine correspondent Steven that the 'tar — as no one calls him, tbh — will be back in a few days. We'll believe that when we see him again and insert our $2 to learn who he likes in the Belmont Stakes.

Meanwhile. Enjoy this EVG video flashback to September 2012...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Zoltar arrives on St. Mark's Place, sees 'a great deal of happiness' in return for $2

Zoltar is the greatest thing to happen to St. Mark's Place since ______________?

Zoltar awaits a service call; fortunes, wisdom on hold