Pols: Fence at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street will remain at 8 feet

[Photo by Steven]

When renovations are complete at the Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street later next year, the fence outside the property will remain the same height.

As previously reported, while the $4 million redesign of the Park was welcome, local residents were unhappy with the Parks Department's plan to install a 4-foot fence here between Avenue A and Avenue B. According to a petition that was in circulation, the shorter fence would "make the park less secure and an unsafe place for children to use."

However, on Friday, local Assemblymember Harvey Epstein and City Councilmember Carlina Rivera announced a deal with the city that would keep the fence at 8 feet.

In a joint statement, they said:

"We are proud to stand with the community and parks advocates who persisted in asking that the Parks Department recognize the safety needs at Joseph Sauer Playground. We are excited to announce that because of this collective effort, the Parks Department has agreed to keep the playground’s fencing at its current 8-foot height as part of the upcoming renovation. The voices of New Yorkers who use local parks every day must be heard when we decide how our capital dollars are spent, and we want to thank Commissioner Mitchell Silver and the Parks team for listening and addressing those concerns in this instance."

The renovations — part of Mayor de Blasio’s Community Parks Initiative — are expected to start this month, with a completion date in October 2020.

Here's a look the renovations to come...



Previously on EV Grieve:
A petition to keep the 8-foot fence at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street

Year-long renovations expected soon at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street; locals want fence to remain at 8 feet

The Wild Son shapes up on 1st Avenue and St. Mark's Place

You may have noticed the fresh coat of paint and storefront renovations happening over at the southeast corner of First Avenue and St. Mark's Place ...



As we reported back on March 18, Robert Ceraso and Jason Mendenhall are opening an outpost of their Chelsea cafe the Wild Son here at 132 First Ave.

The EV Wild Son will be open all day for breakfast and lunch, with dinner-drinks in the evening.

No word on an opening date.

Ceraso and Mendenhall's other local establishments include the Wayland (Avenue C), Good Night Sonny (across St. Mark's Place) and the Lost Lady (Avenue C). They also have designs on the former Mr. White's space on St. Mark's Place.

At No. 132, the Rolling Stones-themed Waiting on a Friend briefly took a turn here last fall after taking over the space from Colibri and VBar, whose original 10-year lease had expired.

Previously on Ev Grieve:
Team behind the Wayland and the Wild Son eye St. Mark's Place for 2 restaurants

Newsstand arrives on 4th Street and the Bowery

[Photo Thursday by Derek Berg]

The familiar steel structure of a Cemusa newsstand complete with ads via JCDecaux arrived on Fourth Street just west of the Bowery this past Thursday.

We first heard about this proposed stand back in February 2018.


[Photo from February 2018 by Sheila Meyer]

The next closest newsstand is on the east side of the Bowery at Second Street. And then there's Jerry's Newsstand on Astor Place.

In any event, it seems like an odd place for a newsstand. (There are likely metrics showing an influential demographic using this corridor that makes it appealing to advertisers. And there is the new development likely on the way across the street.)

The New Yorker looked at the possible newsstand of the future (the New Stand on the Bowery) in a piece from June ...

Some background: newsstands — traditionally, ramshackle steel structures — have been a long-standing feature of New York’s sidewalks. (There were 1,525 newsstands at their peak, in the nineteen-fifties, selling morning and evening editions.) In 1911, when the city tried to purge them in a cleanup effort, William Merican, the president of the Newsdealers’ Association, told a reporter, “Why, there are some men who cannot eat their breakfast without a newspaper.”

He added that women buy the papers to make them “forget their misery. If the public cannot get their newspapers on the street, they will find the inconvenience intolerable.”

And...

In 2007 — with Facebook and Google gobbling up newspapers’ ad revenue — the Bloomberg administration attempted to “rationalize” the city’s beleaguered newsstands (the mayor’s word), replacing the old, jerry-rigged stalls with slick, corporate-looking edifices from a marketing company, which uses their exteriors to sell programmatic ads. Today, the city has a little more than three hundred newsstands. They are required by law to sell printed material.

But Max Bookman, a lawyer who represents the New York City Newsstand Operators Association, told me, “I talk to newsstand operators who feel lucky if they sell fifty newspapers a day.” For the most part, they eke out a living on convenience items: snacks, bottled water, e-cigarettes, lottery tickets, and umbrellas when it’s raining.

Report: Alleged host of 7th Street sex parties arrested for a probation violation

The sex-house saga on Seventh Street has taken another strange twist.

The Post has been all over the story of Avraham Adler, who allegedly hosted advertised sex parties at the tony townhouse he's renting at 189 E. Seventh St. between Avenue B and Avenue C.

Next came the revelation from the tabloid that Adler "is leading a 'double or triple life' as an ultra-Orthodox Jew with a pregnant wife and three kids in suburban New Jersey."

And now from the Post: On Friday, U.S. Marshals and N.J. Regional Fugitive Task Force members arrested Adler, saying they were executing a Pennsylvania warrant for a probation violation stemming from a fraud conviction.

Bucks County Deputy District Attorney Marc Furber said Adler was convicted in 2017 of misdemeanor theft and receiving stolen property in the theft of numerous items from a company called Genesis Diagnostics, and received five years’ probation. This year he was convicted of access device fraud, a felony, for allegedly using the Genesis Diagnostics name “to obtain credit and make substantial purchases.” He was given another five years’ probation to run consecutively to the 2017 sentence.

In a previous Manhattan Supreme Court filing, Wonwoo Chang, the owner of 189 E. Seventh St., claimed that Adler, who signed a two-year lease here on April 1, has hosted "lewd" parties where "on premises sex took place." (Adler also hosted at least one high-brow art party — despite a court order barring further events at the residence.)

Aside from throwing what neighbors said were disruptive parties, he was known to park his fleet of luxury cars in front of a fire hydrant on the block.

The circa-1860 townhouse underwent a gut rehab in recent years, emerging in early 2017 with an ask of $6.25 million.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Landlord alleges tenant using 7th Street townhouse for sex parties

Week in Grieview

[The gentle waters of the Avenue A reflection pond]

Posts from this past week included...

Reader report: New playground equipment already falling apart in Tompkins Square Park (Tuesday) ... New playground repairs happening now in Tompkins Square Park (Thursday)

Butch Judy's pops up behind Performance Space 122 on 1st Avenue (Friday)

Police looking for suspect who spraypainted swastikas on Astor Place (Tuesday)

Another look at the corner of 4th Street and the Bowery (Monday)

Rusty Bell went missing... and was found (Wednesday)

Three Seat Espresso will close by the end of 2019 on Avenue A (Friday)

RIP John Giorno (Sunday)

Caswell-Massey popping up on the Bowery (Wednesday)

Fowl play: An outpost for Portuguese grilled chicken on Avenue B (Tuesday)

Red Gate Bakery setting up shop at 68 E. 1st St. (Monday)

Christmas comes early on Avenue A with filming for the new Netflix series "Dash & Lily" (Tuesday)

These 3 East Village restaurants make list of new Bib Gourmands (Tuesday)

Doctor's orders: Halloween night at Exit9 on Avenue A (Thursday)

A lawsuit dismissal and 2-year anniversary at the former P.S. 64 (Monday)

5 Napkin Burger unveils 5 Napkin Burger Express next door on 14th Street (Friday)

A proposal for a loading zone outside the incoming Trader Joe's on 14th Street at Avenue A (Monday)

Pigeon-proofing the Con Ed substation on Avenue A and 5th Street (Tuesday)

102 E. 7th St. is now for rent (Wednesday)

Impeach! on Avenue B (Tuesday)

Dog-gone: Kimomi Pet opening on St. Mark's Place (Friday)

Marriott buys the W Union Square (Friday)

Brasserie Saint Marc debuts on 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)

... and thanks to EVG reader Sylvia G. for sharing this East Village-style side-view mirror ... spotted on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C...



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[Updated] Bertie is missing after early morning fire on St. Marks Place

The FDNY responded to a major fire at 53 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue early Saturday morning.

There weren't any reported injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Author Ada Calhoun's parents, longtime residents here, were among those displaced by the fire on the upper floors. In the race to leave their home at 2 a.m., they were able to save one of their cats, Theo. However, Bertie, their other cat, got away in the chaos.

Ada thinks that it's likely Bertie is still on the block. "He's good at hiding but he's sure to get hungry and come out at some point," she told me in an email.

The flyer above has a photo of Bertie as well as contact information should you happen to find him.

Updated 10/29

Woot! Bertie turned up in a neighbor's closet downstairs today.

"Apparently, he had been hiding expertly in the building and living on toilet water and mice," Ada wrote in an email. "He is skinny, but otherwise healthy and in good spirits."

A full day of activities in East River Park today

[East River Park earlier this week]

Aside from the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade today (Oct. 20) ... there are many activities taking place in East River Park.

This map via East River Action has details (as does this post)...



Among today's highlights: A DRAWathon from 2 to 4 with Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping...

Per the invite: "There will be supplies, and you can bring some. Draw trees and do some ACTION outreach."



The city's current stormproofing plan for East River Park includes chopping down nearly 1,000 trees.

As Nathan Kensinger's must-read essay on the Park for Curbed points out...:

The environmental impact of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project would be enormous. In the ESCR’s Final Environmental Impact Statement, which was released in September, the city estimated that their preferred plan would result in the removal of 991 trees, of which 819 are located in East River Park. Many have been growing here since the park opened in 1939, and have root systems too large and complicated to be dug up and relocated. Instead, these trees would be chopped down and replaced with a forest of new saplings planted on top of the landfill. The report estimates that this would eventually result in a gain of 745 trees, but it would take decades for the current tree canopy to fully regrow.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• More details on the city's new plan to keep East River park partially open during flood protection construction (Oct. 3)

• At the march and rally to save East River Park (Sept. 21)

• An annual reunion in East River Park (Aug. 4)

• A visit to East River Park (July 10)

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.

Reminders: the 29th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade is tomorrow (Sunday!)

[Cleaning up the ERP amphitheater via Dave on 7th]

Tomorrow (Sunday) marks the 29th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade, which, for the second year, is scheduled for the East River Park Amphitheater.


[Photo by Steven]

A few details:

Time: Noon to 3 p.m.

Admission for spectators: It's free!

Dog entry: There is no need to pre-register your pet. Simply arrive between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., per the website

Emcee: 1010 WINS Midday Anchor Susan Richard

Sponsor: The Heart of Chelsea Veterinary Group

Previously on EV Grieve:
The 29th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade is scheduled for Oct. 20 in East River Park

A bars at dawn slideshow tomorrow night

[Sophie's at dawn via Daniel Root]

Earlier this year, we highlighted an ongoing project of East Village-based photographer Daniel Root.

While out on morning walks, he began taking pictures through the windows or doors of empty neighborhood bars at daybreak. The shots became part of an ongoing #nybarsatdawn project on Instagram.

Tomorrow (Oct. 20) evening at 6:30 at the Sam & Sadie Koenig Garden on Seventh Street, Root will be sharing a sideshow from this project — which tallied 974 bars! — as well as offering commentary about the ongoing changes in downtown NYC....



The Sam & Sadie Koenig Garden is on Seventh Street (north side) between Avenue C and Avenue D...



Previously on EV Grieve:
After the last call: East Village photographer captures bars at dawn

Head to a local cemetery this weekend (for a visit)!

You're in luck if you've ever wanted to visit one of the neighborhood's circa-1830 Marble Cemeteries: It's a Fall Open Weekend.

Over at the New York City Marble Cemetery on Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue the gates will be open each day (Saturday and Sunday!) from noon to 5 p.m. They'll be historical displays available to learn more about the cemetery. You can also read this.

Meanwhile, the New York Marble Cemetery at 41 1/2 Second Ave. between Second Street and Third Street is open this weekend from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.



Both photos are from summer visits.

Back in 'Blackout'

The Damned released Final Damnation in 1989 ... an album that included "Wait for the Blackout." The video here is from a live show in 2017 in the UK.

And The Damned is the opening act tomorrow at the Garden (!!!) for the Misfits.