Have you seen Gene?

Fliers are up along Avenue C...

A feel good story about Alternative Side Parking

A little something for car owners from the Streetwise: Parking in Manhattan blog:

[T]his week we are heading into a such a rare harmony of Alternate Side Parking Suspended days and other OFF days that, barring the usual unexpected street construction, movie truck monopoly, and last minute rescheduling of major religious holidays, we do not have to move the car from Monday March 29 to Thursday April 8! This is truly a great time to be alive. It is a wondrous miracle of Spring.

As the Streetwise proprietor Tom H. said, "This week we are heading into such a perfect storm of Alternate Side Parking Suspended days and other OFF days that we will not have to move the car for 10 straight days!"

Blogger is eating my photos

In case you're wondering where in the hell are all the photos here ... Blogger/Google is experiencing some difficulties per this:

Monday, March 29, 2010
Our image backend is experiencing problems which may affect the display and/or uploading of photos. We are working to resolve this and will update this post when we have more information.

Yet this photo is showing up.



[AP Photo/Evan Agostini via.]

About the building that inspired the novel "East Fifth Bliss"

Page Six had an item yesterday titled "Michael C. Hall's East Village movie searching for his character's apartment."

As the item notes:

"Fifth Street Bliss," with "Dexter" star Michael C. Hall, starts filming in the East Village next month. Director Michael Knowles, who adapted the novel of the same title by Douglas Light, has brokers looking for an apartment where Hall's unemployed character, 35-year-old Morris Bliss, lives with his widowed father. Brie Larson, 20, of "The United States of Tara," will play the sexually precocious 18-year-old daughter of a former classmate who ends Bliss' inertia. The movie also stars Lucy Liu and Michael Rapaport.

The brokers will not be able to use the building that inspired the book: 343 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Why? The building's remaining residents were allegedly booted last September for a fancy makeover...





Author Douglas Light lived in the East Village for nearly 15 years, including a long stint at 343 E. Fifth St.

In an e-mail, Douglas told me:

"My wife actually ran into an old tenant from there ... and he was telling her some wild stories about $250k buy-out offers (which he turned down, of course), arson by the building owner (to flush-out the remaining hold-outs), and the police cuffing and prep-walking the owner out of the building. As for the validity of the stories I can't say. This is the same guy who believed my wife was a spy that the owner planted in the building to keep tabs on everyone."

In the book, one of the longtime residents of the building, Sofar, never leaves his apartment.

From the book:

"Sofar is an anchorite, confined to the worn rooms of his small space. He lives on delivery, never leaves the building, paranoid that the moment he steps outside, he'll be booted from his rent-stabilized apartment.

His fears are well-founded.

The last time he stepped out, his place was broken into and Hambone was dognapped. Everything was left a mess.

It was Hatfield, the then-owner of the building, that broke in. He desperately wanted Sofar out, wanted his rent-stabilized apartment back."

In this case, fiction becomes reality, perhaps.

I talked with Douglas more about the book and the East Village. Look for that interview later this week.

And here's 343 E. Fifth St. today...work in progress...

Mini Thai Cafe and Avenue A Sushi to be combined into one new restaurant?

As we noted this past weekend, Mini Thai Cafe and Avenue A Sushi were closed on Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street...



An EV Grieve reader noted in an e-mail that he/she heard that the restaurants were closed, with one new eatery coming in the space.

Also, the ATM outside Mini Thai Cafe has been removed...



This sign is on the door of Avenue A Sushi...




...which has been here since 1983...

Game over for Kobe Bryant video game ad on Avenue A

So, you know, back in the fall, we devoted a few hundred several posts to Chico's "spay/neuter" mural on Avenue A near 12th Street that was painted over for a Kobe Bryant video game ad.



Anyway, last week, workers painted over the Kobe ad...




So what will we see next on the wall? I'm going with a Vans ad.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Kobe Bryant's slam chunk

Searching for the truth about the cats and dogs mural on Avenue A

New York Film Academy Cafe coming soon

As Eater first noted, the New York Film Academy is opening a cafe at the former (east) Astor Place Starbucks... Signs have gone up... Dunno if this will be open to the public or just Film Academy students...




And will they be offering rides?

Former O Mistress Mine space on the market

O Mistress Mine closed back in January, spurring fears of a vintage-store-barren neighborhood (not true to date). The store's space on 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue is on the market..



The rent is available upon request. Based on the image on the storefront and mention of "newly developed luxury residences" across the street (Village Green) in the listing, an upscale tenant will be preferred...

P.S.
O Mistress Mine relocated to Hoboken.

EV rent snapshot

Via BusinessInsider.

A little something for all you signage lovers in the house

The Brazo Pizza sign went up the other day in the Zeckendorf Towers on the northwest corner of Irving Place and 14th Street...

Abandoned or lost dog left outside Mars Bar needs a home

This was passed on to me by the good people at the Mars Bar...

A woman left a dog tied up outside Mars Bar on Wednesday night. She claimed that some kids gave her the dog over by the Allen Street Domino's Pizza. A Mars Bar patron currently has the dog, but can't keep it much longer. After this she will be dropped off and left at Animal Care and Control, who will destroy the dog if no one claims her within 72 hours. She's medium size, perhaps 45 pounds, black/dark brown with white. Looks to have had litters, sweet to people but not so great with other dogs. She was wearing a collar and a leash but doesn't have tags or a microchip.

Perhaps she's lost? Or was stolen? Or abandoned...

For more information or to rescue this dog... contact: amy.koteles@gmail.com

Noted

Window shopping at Alphabets on Avenue A.

Mini Thai Cafe and Avenue A Sushi still closed

Mini Thai Cafe and Avenue A Sushi are still closed on Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street...



...though there's a note on Avenue A Sushi...



Of course, this doesn't make it clear if the place is opening as something different.... or the same restaurant...

Post: More crime in 2010, and fewer cops

Early last Sunday morning, Bob Arihood captured a brutal brawl on Seventh Street and Avenue A that involved nearly 50 people. As noted at the time, one police car with two officers was available to respond to all this.

Today, the Post reports the following:

So far this calendar year, the number of New York City murders has jumped a scary 22 percent over the same period last year -- from 86 slayings up to 103 this year.

In addition to murders, the number of shootings has soared to 246 -- a 21.2 percent jump over the same period last year.

There are also more rapes, which are up 11.3 percent, and felony assaults, which have spiked nearly 6 percent. Burglaries have increased 3.6 percent.

Bloomberg noted that the total number of such crimes is "still very low" compared to the sky-high rates seen in years such as 1990, when murders hit an annual record of 2,245.

But he and others admit that the NYPD's shrinking manpower level -- from 41,000 cops in 2001 down to about 35,000 today -- could be playing a factor in the increased crime rates. The city expects to shed around 1,300 officers in the upcoming fiscal year through attrition, and also is threatening to lay off a whopping 3,150 cops if the state slashes related funding.

One top police official said, "There are just a lot less people out there . . .."