Hot wax

Some vinyl up for grabs in Tompkins Square Park... inside the entrance on Seventh Street and Avenue A.

Dibs on the Ray Price...



Thanks to Vinny & O for the photos.

Automatic for the people

The Los Angeles-based trio Automatic has a new record out in September. This audio clip is for the track "Too Much Money." Inspired by Suicide, Kleenex and Neu.

[Updated] The Starbucks on Astor Place is closed for the moment

[Photos by Steven]

Multiple readers have pointed out that the Starbucks outpost on Astor Place is currently closed...



Several workers were spotted inside... Per EVG correspondent Steven: "There is plastic over the coffee machines. They are moving inventory to the side."

Another reader said that there was some sort of leak.

In any event, the official "store closed" sign is a lot more boring than the ones used during the brief closure at the Avenue A/St. Mark's Place location.

Updated 7/28 — This location is back open.

The bus stopped here ...

Workers this morning demolished the bus stop on Avenue A between Third Street and Fourth Street (thanks to @MKNyland for the photo!) ... this stop for the (pokey) northbound M14A was eliminated ahead of the Select Bus Service that went into effect on July 1.

There are other abandoned bus shelters that will likely be removed soon. Perhaps this will create space for some LinkNYC kiosks? [Ducking]

Updated 1 p.m.

And the bus shelter on the west side of Avenue A between St. Mark's and Ninth Street is gone... thanks to Steven for the pic...



Previously on EV Grieve:
The abandoned bus shelters of Avenue A

Report: Mayor unleashes the 'Green Wave Bicycle Plan' to address increase in cycling fatalities, make streets safer

To address the rising death toll of cyclists on city streets this year (17 so far vs. 10 all of last year), Mayor de Blasio yesterday released details on a five-year, $58.4 million plan that aims to combine design, enforcement, legislation, policy and education to make the city safer for all street users.

Here's Gothamist with the key details:

Dubbed the "Green Wave Bicycle Plan," the 24-page blueprint calls for the addition of 30 miles of new protected bike lanes each year, up from the current rate of about 20. The Department of Transportation will also begin implementing traffic calming treatments at 50 of the city's most dangerous intersections, while the NYPD's three-week campaign targeting dangerous drivers will be extended indefinitely.

Vision Zero never started with the idea that we'd save only a few lives — it's about saving EVERY life. And a citywide network of protected bike lanes will bring us closer to that goal. pic.twitter.com/UtLuYE99RK

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) July 25, 2019

The plan includes expanded NYPD enforcement:

• Under the plan, the NYPD will ramp up enforcement at the 100 most crash-prone intersections and target enforcement on highest risk activities: speeding, failing to yield, blocking bike lanes, oversized trucks/trucks off route.
• Maintain continuous citywide implementation of “Operation Bicycle Safe Passage” initiative – extending elevated enforcement of blocked bike lanes and hazardous driving violations. Since implementation of Operation Bicycle Safe Passage, NYPD has doubled enforcement of cars parked in bicycle lanes and issued more than 8,600 summons in the first three weeks of July.
• Specialized units and precincts will increase enforcement against oversized and off-route trucks.
• The NYPD also announced that supervisors would respond to collision sites to determine if the right-of-way laws should be applied — and that it would also discontinue its practice of ticketing cyclists at the site of fatal cyclist crashes.
• NYPD supports new and emerging technology for automated enforcement.

The plan doesn't mention if they'll be an educational component to curb the NYPD's tradition of blaming the victim for his or her own death on the streets, as we saw in the case of Kelly Hurley on First Avenue at Ninth Street in 2017. A detective came to the conclusion that she didn't stop in time and "slipped" under a truck — a truck failing to yield and making an illegal left turn across four lanes of traffic.

You can find plenty more reaction and analysis of "Green Wave" over at Streetsblog — here and here, for starters.

The new fence at La Plaza is officially complete

It's official: The new fence is complete at La Plaza Cultural on Avenue C and Ninth Street...





The community garden/green space has been closed to the public since the spring for the fence work.

An official grand reopening will be announced soon.

The previous chain-link fence was sagging in spots and in need of repair. Winter Flowers, handmade sculptures from discarded materials that Rolando Politi started creating in 2000, lined the top of the fence. The collection had grown to nearly 250. Not sure if any of those might return.


[Photo from September 2018]

Meanwhile, La Plaza volunteers will be holding onsite member registration, orientation and dues payment from 1-4 on Saturday and Sunday if you're interested in being part of the garden.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A fall day to remove the Winter Flowers from La Plaza Cultural

A wake for the last willow trees at La Plaza Cultural

Soft opening for Craft+Carry on St. Mark's Place

[Photos by Steven]

The East Village outpost of Craft+Carry will have a soft opening today at 116 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue...



Craft+Carry, which also has locations in the DeKalb Market (since June 2017) and on Third Avenue (September 2017) in Gramercy Park, sells several hundred varieties of craft bottles and cans to take home... there's also a small bar with a rotating batch of taps and free Skee-Ball. (Among the other amenities: the Crowler machine, which employees can draft beer for customers at the bar, and homebrew equipment and recipe kits.)

The recently renovated storefront previously belonged to a Ukrainian religious organization.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Craft+Carry outpost slated for 116 St. Mark's Place

Transaction wire: 182-184 Avenue A; 743 E. 6th St.

[File photo of 182-184 Avenue A]

From the transaction wire via The Real Deal: 182-184 Avenue A between 11th Street and 12th Street has changed hands for $11.5 million.

Per TRD:

The four-story-tall walk-up sits on two tax lots between East 11th and East 12th Streets. The seller was an entity linked to Granite International Management and the buyer was another limited liability company linked to Great Neck-based landlord Bahram Hakakian.

Hakakian was once on City Councilmember Bill de Blasio's "Slumlord Watch List," according to the Daily News in 2009.

In 2011, The Real Deal's analysis of city records found that "there were 3,020 housing code violations on the 334 units" in the 17 buildings that Hakakian reportedly owned. (He had just sold many of the properties.) That figure came out to about nine violations per unit.

---


[743 E. 6th St.]

Meanwhile, 743 E. Sixth St., a three-story building between Avenue C and Avenue D, just sold for $3.2 million.

According to the listing, the property was vacant ... and features a garage-studio on the ground level (the former Manny's Auto Repair) ... and a single-family residence on the second and third floors.

Traded: New York reported the buyer as David Mashaal.

The property will reportedly be leased as a rental in the short term with long-term development plans. There were 4,430 square feet of air rights available to the buyer.

A photographic memoir at the Tompkins Square Library branch

The photography of longtime LES resident Paul Adrian Davies is currently on display at the Tompkins Square Library branch on 10th Street.

Saturday (July 27) afternoon at 3, Davies is giving a talk followed by slide presentation about previously unseen work from his extensive archive of photographs of the neighborhood, which stretches back to 1985.

His work will be up at the branch, 331 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, until Aug. 24.

Grant Shaffer's NY See

Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood.

Report: Bartender files federal complaint against Bar None for harassment

Bartender Kaitlin Day filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint last week alleging that Bar None, 98 Third Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street, promoted a culture of sexual harassment and assault, according to published reports.

Per the Daily News:

The complaint alleges that owner Frank Steo let his friends use the basement as a crack den, the rain poured into the bar when the weather was bad and she had to put up with gross ogling from the toxic boss’s buddies.

And:

The last straw came on June 18, when a man Day believes is Steo’s cousin allegedly went behind the bar to serve himself. When she complained, the man, Kurtis Burns, put his hands on her breasts, squeezed her butt and tried to put his finger inside her vagina, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

A warrant has been issued for his arrest. Burns was previously charged with multiple counts of harassment and assault stemming from a fight near the bar on June 2. The News reported that Burns failed to show up for previous court dates.

Day's attorney says that they plan to file a lawsuit after the EEOC makes its determination. Steo did not return calls for comment to the News.

Citi Bike of the day

Derek Berg spotted the one at an impromptu docking station on Seventh Street near First Avenue.