Monday, March 27, 2023

The cheese slice is $1 at the just-opened 99¢ Pizza

Photos by EVG reader Tom 

99¢ Pizza debuted last week at 418 E. 14th St. just east of First Avenue. (First reported here.) 

Despite the name of the establishment, a cheese slice will cost a penny more — $1. And if you want to get fancy and add, say, pepperoni, then the price goes up to $2.50. 

Here's a look at some of their combo specials...
EVG reader Edmund John Dunn tried two slices: "Not bad, IMO, better than the average for a 99-cent [or a $1!] slice."

The opening comes as the 99¢ Pizza shop at 246 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue lowered the price of a slice from $1.50 to 99 cents as the cheap slice war heats up.

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Sunday's parting shot

Spring view from Ninth Street-Stuyvesant Street...

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo on First Avenue by Derek Berg) ... 

• Ben’s Deli moving on without Ben on Avenue B (Wednesday

• Time passages: Check out the interior of the long-empty Mom's Liquor Store on Avenue B (Tuesday

• Suspect arrested after firing gun on 4th Street between C and D (Thursday

• Reconstruction work on the Tompkins Square Park field house starts soon (Monday

• Report: Gregg Singer places the former P.S. 64/Charas into bankruptcy protection (Wednesday) ... At the long-vacant former P.S. 64/CHARAS, more "frivolous court actions to tie up the property" (Thursday

• Paying tribute to the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 (Friday

• These East Village tenants, fearing displacement, to rally against their new landlord (Saturday

• Experimental Intermedia brings the films of Bradley Eros to Whitebox gallery (Thursday)

• Anthology Film Archives hosting a long-overdue retrospective of East Village artist Abigail Child (Wednesday

• McSorley's "bringing all the energy back inside" (Monday

• Corteiz x Nike Air Max 95 collab drop draws crowds, NYPD on 4th and C (Tuesday)

• The $1 cheese slice at 2 Bros. on St. Mark's Place is now $1.50 (Monday) ... A cheese slice is 99 cents again at 99 Cent Pizza on 14th Street (Thursday

• Highlighting "Free The Nipple Day" on Avenue A (Thursday)

 ... and a moment on Third Avenue between 13th Street and 14th Street...
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Remembering Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the deadly Second Avenue gas explosion, which killed two men, injured two dozen people, and leveled three buildings (119, 121 and 123 Second Ave.).

There is a memorial plaque on site for the two men who died that day — Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón.

Officials dedicated this plaque in May 2021. The Village Preservation advocated for its placement here on the new residential building at 45 E. Seventh St. 

Previously on EV Grieve


At Cooper Union, a concert to celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility this Friday

You can commemorate "Transgender Day of Visibility" this coming Friday, March 31, at "Shine On," a special concert at the Cooper Union hosted by Murray Hill.

Per the press materials:
"Shine On" is both a celebration honoring transgender and non-binary people and a call to action to fight against hate. The event is part of The Gardiner Foundation Great Hall Forum series, which explores contemporary societal issues and connects history from The Cooper Union's Great Hall, dating back more than 160 years, to the present.
The concert event, which features performances by actress, singer and activist Peppermint and the New York City Gay Men's Chorus, starts at 7 p.m. at the Great Hall, 7 E. Seventh St.
 
You can RSVP to the free show here
The Third Avenue side of the Foundation building highlights members of the LGBTQ+ community as well as works by some of Cooper Union's transgender alums.

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Saturday's parting shots

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Frankfurters + ticket at Katz's ...

These East Village tenants, fearing displacement, to rally against their new landlord

Late last summer, news surfaced about the sale of 305 E. 11th St. and 310 E. 12th St. (above), adjacent multifamily residential buildings between First Avenue and Second Avenue. 

The deal for the 89-unit buildings, owned by the Chissick family since the late 1960s, was for $58 million. 

Since then, we've heard from residents about significant rent increases, evictions, and alleged apartment warehousing at the buildings. 

As a result, residents here have advanced their efforts in recent months by forming the GoldinFinch Tenant Association. They are hosting a rally tomorrow afternoon (March 26) with the help of the Cooper Square Committee. (NYC Comptroller Brad Lander is also expected to be in attendance.)
Per a media advisory: 
Tenants, advocates and elected officials will protest the actions of private equity firm Meadow Partners, which purchased two multifamily buildings in the East Village. Shortly after the purchase, Meadow Partners and their operating partner 60 Guilders/620 MGMT began aggressively displacing long-term tenants and hiking up rents. 

The rally will call for Albany to enact "Good Cause" legislation to prevent arbitrary evictions and unconscionable rent hikes, as well as city-level legislation to curb the apartment "warehousing" and "frankensteining" that Meadow and other landlords are practicing.

 Many tenants have lived in the neighborhood for decades and have strong ties to the community. The tenant association ("GoldinFinch Tenant Association") is named after housing advocate Frances Goldin [a longtime resident here] and art critic Charles Finch. Those residents, as well as other notable tenants who lived in the building, will also be honored at the rally. 
Finch jumped to his death from his apartment on the 12th Street side last Aug. 24. He was 69. As The New York Times reported
Debby Lee Cohen, a neighbor who said she had known Mr. Finch for 40 years, said that besides his health, he might have been anxious about the future of the building, which had just been sold. He was a longtime resident who had a rent-controlled apartment. 
The rally starts tomorrow outside 310 E. 12th St. at 1 p.m.

The tenant association also shared this building fact sheet (click on the image for a bigger view)...
 

EVG Etc.: the 9 Lives of a 7th Street townhouse; the 17 NYC arts institutions with free admission

Photo on 7th Street the other evening by Steven (and there wasn't a fire) 

• LES fashion designer's homicide linked to fatal drug-facilitated robberies (ABC News

• The history of 64 E. Seventh St. includes Lou Reed and Yoko Ono (The New York Times

• Christo and Amelia are in the brooding stage in Tompkins Square Park (Laura Goggin Photography

• "[A]n experiment in queering fine dining" at HAGS on First Avenue (The New Yorker... previously on EVG

• Checking out Wild Rabbit Coffee on Seventh Street (Time Out... previously on EVG

• Women rob East Village couple of $8k worth of property (amNY

• A mother-daughter conversation about their home in Stuy Town and putting down roots (dwell)

• Workers at the Trader Joe's at Essex Crossing file petition to unionize (NY1

• Next on Musical Mondays at Village East by Angelika — "Victor/Victoria" (Official site

• How to get an NYC street co-named (THE CITY

• A list of free museums for New Yorkers to visit (Hyperallergic)

Saturday's opening shot

A view of Tompkins Square Park this morning...

Friday, March 24, 2023

A 'Grave' situation

 

The underrated San Diego-based duo Crocodiles (Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell) are back with a new album, Upside Down In Heaven, due out on April 7.

The video here is for one of the singles, "Love Beyond the Grave."

They'll be at Mercury Lounge on May 4.

Paying tribute to the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911

Tomorrow marks the 112th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

As in past years, volunteers have been taking part in the chalking project (organized by Street Pictures), writing the names and ages of the victims in front of the buildings where they lived on the Lower East Side.

For example, Julia Oberstein lived at 53 Avenue A between Third Street and Fourth Street. (Top photo.) She was 19 years old. 

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the largest industrial disaster in U.S. history ... causing the death of 146 garment workers (mostly young women) who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths.

The Triangle Waist Company was located on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place just east of Washington Square Park, where the commemoration ceremonies take place today (3/24). Find more details at The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition website.
A memorial, expected to be unveiled at the site of the fire, is in the works. Read more about it here.

Thursday, March 23, 2023

[Updated] Suspect arrested after shooting at police on 4th Street between C and D

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Updated 3/25: ABC 7 has an update here on the suspect, 20-year-old Richard Mendez, who allegedly had threatened his brother with a gun.

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A 20-year-old man is in custody tonight after shooting at a police cruiser on Fourth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D, according to published reports

Per CBS 2, "officers in a marked police car spotted the suspect waving a firearm." He then allegedly fired at the vehicle, striking it several times. The officers also reportedly returned fire. 

NBC 4's account of the story said the suspect "was ... menacing people with a gun" before the encounter with the NYPD near 330 E. Fourth St.
There were originally reports on the Citizen app that the officers sustained unspecified injuries. CBS 2 reported that "the officers were taken to a local hospital to be treated for ringing in their ears." 


According to the Post, the man was menacing his brother with a gun. It wasn't immediately clear if the suspect shot at the officers during the confrontation. 

Per the paper: "The suspect's brother was also arrested for an alleged robbery from Wednesday, according to sources."