Lovewild Design debuts on Avenue C

East Village native and current resident Sierra Zamarripa has realized a longtime dream — opening her own shop in the neighborhood. 

Yesterday, Sierra debuted Lovewild Design at 136 Avenue C between Eighth Street and Ninth Street. 

The sustainable gift shop first opened in South Williamsburg in June 2017. However, her heart was always here. The Brooklyn outpost will close after Dec. 24. 

In the early 1990s, her parents ran Wandering Dragon Trading Co., the antiques and oddities store on 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue ... it was an offbeat shop where some of the neighborhood's more eccentric characters could be found. 

In the (now-retired) EVG feature Out and About in the East Village in June 2017, Sierra talked about the influence of the shop on her life ... and her aspirations for running her own business here:

My dream would have definitely been to open my shop up over here but that wasn't possible due to the rents. It just seemed like an inevitable path. I grew up as an entrepreneur, and my parents and my grandmother were entrepreneurs. I used to take things, just find random things outside or in the shop, and I would fix them up and sell them right outside the shop, and then I had a shoeshine business, and then I sold milkshakes, and this was all before the age of 6.

Lovewild Design is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.-ish every day. Follow the shop on Instagram for updates.

Image via Instagram

A new look (and name!) for the East Village Neighbors Fridge

As we've been reporting, the volunteer group East Village Neighbors teamed up with S'MAC owners Sarita and Cesar Ekya to stock a community fridge and food pantry outside the restaurant at the corner of 12th Street and First Avenue.

There's a new name for the endeavor — East Village Neighbors Fridge ... as well as a new logo, with colors selected to match those at S'MAC.

The fridge's motto is "take what you need, leave what you can," and is made possible by S’MAC, Change Food and East Village Neighbors. 

 

The fridge and food pantry for dry goods is open 24 hours a day for anyone who needs a meal ... it is restocked as needed, which is often. Local businesses and residents continue to make donations...

 

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A post shared by East Village Neighbors (@eastvillageneighbors)

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A post shared by East Village Neighbors (@eastvillageneighbors)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by East Village Neighbors (@eastvillageneighbors)

If you’d like to donate homemade food, they ask that it be clearly labeled, dated, and individually wrapped. East Village Neighbors are also accepting donations via this link.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• A Visit to the East Village Community Fridge and Food Pantry

A holiday market this weekend at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space on Avenue C

The second annual MoRUS holiday market takes place tomorrow (Saturday!) and Sunday from 1-6 p.m. ... featuring zines, postcards, prints, patches, jewelry, hand-knitted hats, books and more by artist-activists Fly Orr, Carla Cubit and Seth Tobocman. 

Stacie Joy took these photos during a trip to MoRUS this past weekend...

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space is at 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

Thursday's parting shots

EVG reader Danny shared these photos from today... East Village-style sledding on the small slope of the lawn in Tompkins Square Park ...

Sanitation worker spares snowman's life on 7th Street!

As noted earlier today, Seventh Street has been closed to through traffic between First Avenue and Second Avenue... allowing for residents to use the open space for some post-Winter Storm Gail fun, such as building various snowmen/people. 

This afternoon, Goggla spotted a city snow plow making its way along the block:

I watched the snow plow head down the block and fully expected it to wipe out the snowman and was prepared to witness its death. To my surprise, the plow swerved out of the way and you can hear the sanitation worker shout, "Gotta save the snowman, y'know!"

Watch for yourself...  

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 and NYC...

2 scenes from Winter Storm Gail in black and white

And a few more photos from Winter Storm Gail... these are courtesy of EVG reader Stephen Kent Jusick...  

The top photo is looking south on Broadway at 14th Street, 2:24 a.m. Long exposure, low angle, shot from the street. 

And below, the Alamo at Astor Place, 2:36 a.m. ... (click on the images to go big!)...

The snowpeople of 7th Street

Some scenes from Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. The block is still closed to through traffic because of the post-fire work at Middle Collegiate Church... so the street provided extra space to do things, like, build a snowman to resemble a remote worker in 2020...

... and this...

🤔

A post-storm look at East Village curbside dining

Based on an early-morning walk on several side streets and avenues... it appears that the curbside dining structures (streetearies!) passed their first major winter test during the nor'easter...

The City suspended curbside dining as of 2 p.m. yesterday when the Department of Sanitation's snow alert took effect. Per Eater:

In a snow alert situation, restaurants are required to secure their furniture, remove electric heaters from the road, and remove overhead coverings, if possible. Restaurants don’t, however, need to remove any structures or barriers this time around.

It's possible that restaurants will be able to resume roadside dining this evening at the earliest. 

The city recently imposed more guidelines on restaurants, such as requiring that streetside barriers being filled with 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of sand or soil.

And the structures, many of them quite elaborate, looked to have made it through Winter Storm Gale...

... and even some of the less-sturdy-looking structures along St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue seemed to fare OK...

The next question is whether NYC bars-restaurants will be able to survive winter with a ban on indoor dining, reluctance on behalf of patrons to eat outside in cold weather and other ever-changing restrictions that will make staying open extremely difficult, owners and operators have said. 

Restaurant industry officials point to the state's own data showing that restaurants and bars made up 1.4 percent of COVID-19 cases in the last three months, compared to private gatherings, which constituted nearly 74 percent.

11 p.m. in the East Village, and scenes from Winter Storm Gail

As of this posting (5:42 a.m. — good morning!), a snow-sleet combo continues to lash the city as the nor'easter — Winter Storm Gail — slowly moves on.

Forecasts for final snow totals range from 8-12 inches to a Jake Gyllenhaal/"The Day After Tomorrow"-type event ... we'll have more on the particulars in one of the 78 upcoming snow posts this morning.

Meanwhile, EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared these photos from a stroll around the neighborhood last night at 11...

... and in Tompkins Square Park...

Report of a small fire inside the empty P.S. 64 building on 9th Street

The FDNY responded to a report of a presumed trash can fire inside the empty building — the former P.S. 64 — at 605 E. Ninth St. last night around 8 ...

The Citizen app reported that firefighters quickly extinguished the small blaze. Witnesses reported that the FDNY cut a padlock and broke through the plywood surrounding the school between Avenue B and Avenue C to get inside the property. 

The fire was said to be contained to the southeast wing. No word on the cause, such as if a squatter was inside the former school. 

EVG reader Alta Tseng shared the top photo and this video clip...

   

Developer Gregg Singer, who bought the property from the city during an auction in 1998, has wanted to turn the building into a dorm called University Square. The DOB continues to maintain a Stop Work Order — dating to August 2015 — on the property. 

In years past several local elected officials, community activists and residents have asked for the return of the building for community use. The building became the Charas/El Bohio Community Center after the school left in 1977. The group was eventually evicted when Singer took over as the landlord. It has sat empty these past 20-plus years, causing locals to be concerned about its crumbling façade. 

H/T Eden and Steven!

Updated: It's still snowing

Gail says hi from First Avenue and Seventh Street...