Petal power

A flower shower this afternoon here at the Seventh Street entrance to Tompkins Park between Avenue A and Avenue B...





... courtesy of the Kwanzan Cherry tree ...

Video: Man chases after Citi Bikers on 2nd Avenue for not wearing masks

There has been a lot of debate over wearing masks in public.

Gov. Cuomo issued an executive order, which went into effect at 8 p.m. on April 17, stating that every New Yorker must "wear a mask or a face covering when out in public and in situations where social distancing cannot be maintained, such as on public transportation."

Not everyone is adhering to this, of course (Gothamist has more about it in this post) ... which has prompted COVID-19 Urban Etiquette Signs like this one. We've heard about some public shaming incidents in which mask-wearing residents will scold people without masks.

Meanwhile, one man took the mask policing to a rather dangerous level on Saturday afternoon on Second Avenue. In the short clip below posted to Twitter via @fashionweak, the man can be heard yelling "Where is your mask?" as he lunges at Citi Bikers riding outside the bike lane between Ninth Street and 10th Street. The bikers swerve and speed up to avoid the man. (Thankfully there wasn't any vehicular traffic at this time.) He appears to be filming these encounters as well ...

Anyone else catch this man yelling at bikers today? pic.twitter.com/WO50ZDaMV5

— steph castro (@fashionweak) April 26, 2020

According to @fashionweak, the man was stationed on Second Avenue for nearly five minutes yelling at various bikers who weren't wearing masks. He moved on after an argument with a passerby, who apparently called the NYPD.

Amelia and Christo's 2020 chicks make first appearance

As Goggla has been reporting, it appears that red-tailed hawks Amelia and Christo in Tompkins Square Park have several hatchlings in their nest.

On Saturday, Steven got a few photos showing one of the chicks...



... with the sighting of a second a little later...



...right there...



Perhaps there might even be a third chick?

We need some positive hawklet news this spring and summer. In the past two years, Amelia and Christo have lost three of their four offspring.

A good sign at Veselka, which hopes to reopen for takeout and delivery soon

Several readers noted the new "reopening soon" sign up at Veselka on Ninth Street at Second Avenue.

Here's part of the Ukrainian diner's Instagram post from yesterday:

Stay tuned while we work out logistics because we’re ramping up for a VERY SAFE re-launch of takeout and delivery. We hope to be brewing the borscht by the end of this week...

The classic corner spot closed on March 18.

Thanks to Alexander De Luca for the photo!

Go visit the Merchant's House Museum — online

The Merchant's House on Fourth Street is currently closed to the public. However, you can stay pay a visit: The museum is now up and running virtually. Exhibitions, tours, talks, videos and programs are available online, including:

Virtual Tour: Matriarch of the family, Eliza Tredwell (as presented by Museum Historian Ann Haddad), is leading a room-by-room virtual tour of her home on social media each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

And!

Check out lectures and illustrated presentations on 19th century New York, as well as TV shows and specials starring the Merchant's House, including the popular episode of "Blueprint NYC" featured on PBS.

Find all the online content at this link.

The Merchant’s House, between the Bowery and Lafayette, is the only 19-century family home in New York City preserved intact on the inside and out.

More history: "Built in 1832 and home to a prosperous merchant family, the Tredwells, and their Irish servants for almost 100 years, it remains complete with the family’s original furnishings, household objects, clothing, and personal memorabilia."

Ding-A-Ling coming soon to Avenue C

And from the coming soon department, which we've been meaning to note this spring ... signage has been up dating to mid-March here at 116 Avenue C between Seventh Street and Eighth Street for a new venture called Ding-A-Ling...



A job posting for the space describes it this way: "Ding-A-Ling Cocktail Lounge will be a casual, music-driven neighborhood bar serving simple tasty cocktails and vegan junk food."

The owners are also behind Kind Regards NYC (rip Cake Shop), via brothers Nick and Andy Bodor.

The Third Man closed here earlier this year after seven-plus years of cocktail service.

Thanks to EVG readers Annabelle, Dave on 7th and Vinny & O for sharing tips/photos about this space.

World's greatest chair discarded

Tragically spotted on the sidewalk on 12th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue late today ... and in the rain...



Thanks to Christine Champagne for the photos!

Countdown to MulchFest 2021!

[Photo by Steven]

This weekend, someone dropped off a small Christmas tree at the site of the annual MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park.

Perhaps the resident wanted to make space in the apartment for the Halloween decorations.

By the way, NYC Parks recycled a record 48,230 trees during Mulchfest 2020. The previous record was 30,226 trees in 2014, per this news release. Well, here's one for 2021.

Week in Grieview

[Tompkins Square Park yesterday via Walter Wlodarczyk]

Posts from the past week included...

• RIP Giuseppi Logan (Monday)

• Updating: Here's a map of what's open in the East Village (Tuesday)

• Anton van Dalen, drawing in isolation (Friday)

• RIP Shirley Campbell (Thursday)

• Report: Housing facility for seniors on 12th Street is 'a ticking coronavirus time bomb' (Monday)

• Need something to read? Book Club now making local deliveries via bike messenger (Wednesday)

• Where residents can get a free meal during the week (Wednesday)

• Here's how to check out a new group show this weekend (Saturday)

• There are now plans for an 8-story residential building on this long-empty 10th Street lot (Thursday)

• A COVID-19 Urban Etiquette Sign (Saturday)

• This week's NY See (Thursday)

• There's now a Twitter account that will let you know about the lines outside Trader Joe's and Target on 14th Street (Thursday)

• The last night, for now, at Ben's Deli (Tuesday)

• New sculpture for the COVID-19 memorial on 10th Street and Avenue A (Monday)

• A hopeful sign of things to come at Lucy's (Monday)

• Despite what Google says, Tompkins Square Park is open (Thursday)

• Loews Village 7 appears safe for now (Wednesday)

• Travels of a cello (Tuesday)

• It might get loud: the 7 p.m. cheer as heard on Seventh Street (Monday)

And several restaurants-cafes reopened this past week...

• Café Social 68 now serving from their all-new to-go door (Saturday)

• Downtown Bakery returns (Friday)

• Elsewhere Espresso is back in action (Friday)

• Caracas Arepa Bar returns for takeout and delivery on 7th Street (Thursday)

• Two Boots Pizza returns today after a 17-day break (Wednesday)

• SMØR returns to service (Wednesday)

• Dual Specialty Store is back open (Wednesday)

... and Chipper Girl the cockatoo was making new friends in Tompkins Square Park yesterday ...




[Photos by Steven]

---

Follow EVG on Instragram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics.

An appreciation: Gabrielle Hamilton's essay on Prune in The New York Times Magazine

There has been a lot of talk about Prune chef-owner Gabrielle Hamilton's compelling essay in The New York Times Magazine today (online earlier) titled "My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore?"

Not even sure where to start with excerpts on her honest assessment of reopening the First Street mainstay in a post-COVID-19 world.

She talks about the neighborhood... where even a seemingly successful restaurant struggles to stay in business...

The concerns before coronavirus are still universal: The restaurant as we know it is no longer viable on its own. You can’t have tipped employees making $45 an hour while line cooks make $15. You can’t buy a $3 can of cheap beer at a dive bar in the East Village if the “dive bar” is actually paying $18,000 a month in rent, $30,000 a month in payroll; it would have to cost $10. I can’t keep hosing down the sauté corner myself just to have enough money to repair the ripped awning.

Prune is in the East Village because I’ve lived in the East Village for more than 30 years. I moved here because it was where you could get an apartment for $450 a month. In 1999, when I opened Prune, I still woke each morning to roosters crowing from the rooftop of the tenement building down the block, which is now a steel-and-glass tower. A less-than-500-square-foot studio apartment rents for $3,810 a month...

Her honesty about the brunch mob was particularly interesting ...

And God, the brunch, the brunch. The phone hauled out for every single pancake and every single Bloody Mary to be photographed and Instagrammed. That guy who strolls in and won’t remove his sunglasses as he holds up two fingers at my hostess without saying a word: He wants a table for two. The purebred lap dogs now passed off as service animals to calm the anxieties that might arise from eating eggs Benedict on a Sunday afternoon. I want the girl who called the first day of our mandated shut down to call back, in however many months when restaurants are allowed to reopen, so I can tell her with delight and sincerity: No. We are not open for brunch. There is no more brunch.

Anyway, you can read it for yourself here.

Also, someone left a compliment about the article on Prune's gate yesterday...

Noted

As seen on 13th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...

Village Farm Grocery returns for limited daytime hours

Village Farm Grocery is back open now on the northeast corner of Second Avenue and Ninth Street with limited hours...



As the sign shows, they are open from noon to 6 p.m. A few people, wearing masks and gloves, can be inside the market at a time. And be "polite and courteous." (They're still offering deliveries too.)

Village Farm Grocery closed back on April 3, the first time that regulars could remember the shop ever shutting down — even after the blackout and Superstorm Sandy.

Thanks to Steven for the photos!