Today's transit of Mercury from 2nd Avenue

Exciting day for fans of the planet Mercury, which passed directly between Earth and the Sun in an event that won’t happen again until 2032.

As this photo by Derek Berg shows, Felton Davis of the Second Avenue Star Watchers was set up near the F stop... from here, you could spot the small silhouette of Mercury moving across the Sun. (A very thick black filter blocked out 99 percent of the Sun's light, and made it safe to view.)

Here's a photo that I took with my iPhone via NASA today ...

When the 'Fifth Street Boys' came home

In honor of Veterans Day today... here's part of an EVG post from Nov. 10, 2010. EVG contributor James Maher shared these photos. His grandparents and mother were born and raised on Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Here's a celebration of the "Fifth Street Boys" returning home from World War II.

Per James on the photos below: "I spoke with my Aunt who tells me that the photo was taken around 1945 to celebrate the end of the war. I don't know exactly which building, but apparently my grandma and relatives had three apartments in the same building on 5th Street between Avenue A and B, which is where this photo was taken from. My grandmother and all of her sisters are most of the girls that are looking up at the camera in the second photo."

The MTA closes the 2 Brooklyn-bound L-train entrances for upgrades on 14th Street at 1st Avenue

[Photo via the MTA]

The two new L-train entrances on 14th Street at Avenue A — for Brooklyn-bound commuters — debuted last Monday. (First reported here.)

Starting today (Nov. 11), the MTA is closing the two Brooklyn-bound entrances on 14th Street at First Avenue. The MTA is replacing all of the structural beams and redoing the walls and tile — with a scheduled April 2020 completion date.



Workers have board up the entrances on the south side of 14th Street (h/t Pinch!)...



So here's what that means, via the L Project Newsletter:

• On weekdays between 5 a.m. and 9:45 p.m., use the new Avenue A south entrance for Brooklyn-bound service.
• On nights/weekends, use the First Avenue north for service in both directions.

Here are more details from the newsletter:

1) Other parts of the First Avenue Station improvements are also ahead of schedule, including the elevators.
The two new elevators, one on either side of 14th Street near Avenue A, were originally supposed to open in November 2020. Now, we're estimating a June 2020 completion.

2) The new Avenue A north (Manhattan-bound) entrance will open later, sometime in 2020. The First Avenue north side will close then, just like the south side entrances. We're phasing the entrance work so we can always have two entrances open at all times, one on either side of the tracks.

3) Street restoration is ahead of schedule, too. Originally, the street restoration wasn't supposed to be completed until May 2020. Now, most of it will be done by January. We'll be pouring new sidewalks and getting rid of or shrinking our worksites. Reduced barricaded areas will stay around the two elevators and on the north side of 14th Street by the Avenue B substation. All work will be underground except for the elevators and reconstructed entrances.

Preliminary work on the Avenue A entrances in July 2017.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Nightmare scenario for residents who learn that 14th Street and Avenue A will be the main staging area for the L-train reconstruction

Behold your new Avenue A L-train entrances!

Odd Eye closing 5th Street shop; going online

After nearly three years at 524 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, Odd Eye NYC is closing up shop.

The owners of the design store are moving their business online...



In an upbeat closing notice on Instagram, the owners note:

What a ride but guess what?
It’s time to adapt. We’re going 100% digital! 🤳🏼

Everything is on sale! Come make an offer/score a deal!

Been a lot of fun and a lot of hard work! Excited to see what ODDEYE has in store for you in the future but until then come buy some shit! 🤗

And thx for the awesome opportunity and the best landlord anyone could ask for! C U on the internet!

Odd Eye will be open through this month. You can find their website here.

A look at the northwest corner of 14th Street and 1st Avenue

The Duane Reade on First Avenue just north of 14th Street closed last Wednesday, one of many DRs around the city to do so.

This (mostly) single-level strip of commercial buildings on the northwest corner has long drawn reader interest ... mostly because someone hasn't gobbled up these properties for new development.

All of the four-story 239 First Ave., where the shuttered Salt & Pepper sold Indian and Chinese cuisine from the storefront, is apparently vacant ...



Anyway, there's nothing in public records to suggest anything is afoot here. And a new Japanese restaurant is coming to the former Kambi Ramen House space there next door to O'Hanlon's...



For now it's on the Future Development Site watch. And enjoy Papaya Dog.

11 Avenue C now with bricks and glass

The 10-story 11 Avenue C (aka 350 E. Houston St.) has entered the next phase in its construction — bricks and glass...



After a sloooooow start (foundation work began in December 2016 on this triangular lot that housed the neighborhood's last gas station), there has been noticeable progress in recent months. The residential building with 46 units will include ground-floor retail.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Workers officially reach the top at 11 Avenue C, where a 10-floor building sits on the neighborhood's last gas station

Week in Grieview

[Friday morning in Tompkins Square Park via Derek Berg]

Posts this last week included...

Exclusive: After 20-plus years in the East Village, Obscura Antiques and Oddities is closing (Thursday)

A look at Book Club, the new bookstore-cafe on 3rd Street (Friday)

Enz's Boutique has closed on 2nd Avenue (Monday)

This book was due on Dec. 10, 1958. Someone just returned it to the Cooper Union Library. (Tuesday)

State pols introduce legislation to ban garbage trucks from parking overnight on city streets, like on 10th Street (Wednesday)

The incoming Trader Joe's on 14th Street at Avenue A is now hiring (Monday) ... Will the new East Village Trader Joe's open on this date in 2020? (Tuesday)

2 neighborhood Duane Reade locations closed this week (Wednesday)

Behold your new Avenue A L-train entrances! (Tuesday)

Acclaimed pastrami purveyors Harry & Ida's will close this month on Avenue A (Friday)

Haveli-Banjara has not been open lately on 2nd Avenue (Monday)

This week's NY See (Thursday)

About face: The Cupcake Market has a new name on 7th Street (Wednesday)

Coming to select M14 A/D SBS stops along 14th Street: bus boarding platforms (Thursday)

Sorbet Cray Cray goes bye bye from Avenue A (Friday)

Mi Casa Latina closes after 10 months on 14th (Monday)

What's going on at Joe's Steam Rice Roll? (Tuesday)

First sign of Mokyo, a new Korean restaurant coming to St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)

Openings: 5 Napkin Burger Express rolls out its counter service (Monday)

... and a fallscape on 10th and B via Vinny & O...



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This unique bird made a migration pit stop on 7th Street the other day

This American Bittern made a migratory pit stop behind a building on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue ... which is where Elizabeth Cunningham spotted the brown heron hanging out in the nasturtiums ...







The bird arrived on Friday morning around 11 and left by 8 a.m. yesterday. During the bird's nearly 24 hours here, she spoke with the Wild Bird Fund, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and two wildlife rehabilitators in the city.

Here's her report:

Although rarely spotted — especially around here — I was informed it's common for them to make 24-hour stops along their way south. He didn't appear injured and the ornithology personnel told me he'd be fine overnight despite the cold snap. He settled into a bush for the night and is now presumably back on track toward warmer climes.

Former Benny's Burritos week in review

Back on Monday, we had a full reveal of the long-vacant storefront that housed Benny's Burritos (RIP November 2014) for 27 years on Avenue A and Sixth Street.

There seemed to be a lot of interest on the empty-for-five-years-now space among readers.

Con Ed did some work out front on Wednesday...



Not much happened inside, though.



There's a new roll-down gate on the Avenue A side, and someone removed the Benny's sign from the space... though part of the Benny's awning remains on the Sixth Street side...



Oh, and someone quickly tagged those new roll-down gates...



In any event, the for rent sign remains up out front... with no word of a possible new tenant. There aren't any new work permits on file for the address either.

Early Saturday morning street scene

Looking south from 7th and B early today... courtesy of Dave on 7th...

UPDATED 9:46 a.m.

Too bad Dave just missed this...

Beatles on 7th Street!
cc: @evgrieve Photo by Dave on 7th pic.twitter.com/9YwiMwpBOz

— pinhead (@evpinhead) November 9, 2019

Meet your 'Match'

The new EP via Squid — a UK-based five piece — is due next Friday (it has been out via digital platforms for the past two months). The audio track here is for "Match Bet."

EVG Etc.: Co-op accusations on 7th Street; Noah Baumbach at the Metrograph

[Sky scene from 4th and A]

• A profile of Shuho Yagi, who has been running a number of Japanese restaurants in the East Village since 1984 (City Limits)

• On Seventh Street, a co-op owner "is being accused by neighbors of having guests who shoot heroin between their toes in the lobby, have sex in the corridors — and occasionally jump out the windows." (The Post)

• Man stabbed following dispute near the 7th and A entrance to Tompkins Square Park (PIX 11)

• Citi Biker, the victim of road rage, is nearly run down on the LES; cops blame the cyclist (Streetsblog)

• Apartment dwellers, know your heat and hot water rights (Curbed)

• Five weeks til SantaCon! (Gothamist)

• As The Lo-Down noted, architecture critic Michael Kimmelman praises Essex Crossing "in a piece that makes some good points, but is also loaded with factual errors and mischaracterizations of the Lower East Side mega-project" (The New York Times)

• Builders respond to the vote that gives community boards more time to review ULURP applications (The Real Deal)

• An end to the food hall craze? (Commercial Observer)

• A Noah Baumbach residency (Metrograph)

• A retrospective surveys the career of Holly Fisher (Anthology Film Archives)

• Cornell prof finds rough versions of 12 previously unreleased songs by Lou Reed (Variety)

• A look at some early 1990s NYC music venues, including Mission on Fifth between A and B (Ephemeral New York)

... and over at the Black Emperor, 197 Second Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street, The Truffleist is now working the kitchen, taking over for Jae Lee's six-month burger residency. (Lee is prepping to open his first restaurant, Nowon on Sixth Street) ...

View this post on Instagram

BIG NEWS! 🔊 We’re opening TODAY in @blackemperorbar NYC! We’ll be serving up our delicious Cheesesteaks every day! 🤤 Tag a friend who needs to know! Starting hours are below: 👉🏼 Mon to Wed 4pm - 12am 👉🏼 Thurs to Sat: 4pm- 1am 👉🏼 Sun: 4pm - 10pm ‼️ See you today at 4pm ‼️

A post shared by The Truffleist (@thetruffleist) on Nov 7, 2019 at 6:54am PST