EV Grieve

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Tea Lounge opening on East Fourth Street

That long-vacant former Moroccan place on East Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B has a new tenant...

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Collin Schwartz for the photos of the coming-soon Tea Lounge...

Looking at Crustypunks

I've been spending a lot of time lately reading Crustypunks, a blog featuring photos and first-person accounts by the many men and woman traveling through Tompkins Square Park.

Here's a portion of Illy's story...

[Photo by Steven Hirsch via Crustypunks]

"I got a forty smashed over my face. Last night. Basically a chick started calling me out saying, I was some sort of dumb ass saying I'm full of shit. So I said something I should not have said and I deserved a forty but she had no reason to cut off my dreads. With scissors. I thought she was pulling my hair. I stood and took it like a homeboy. She kicked me in the face. Smashed a forty over my head. Gave me a few punches. You know I'm not gonna hit a homegirl."

The site is the work of Steven Hirsh, a noted photographer now teaching at Pratt.

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Cary Conover for telling me about the site.

No more skateboard park at Cooper Union, but WaterWorld is still active

On Tuesday, we linked to Quartersnack's post about the Cooper Union brass placing spiked bars on the skakeboarding ramp out front...

[Photo via Quartersnack]

Anyway, in the comments, our friend NYC Taxi Photo pointed out the following about the Cooper Union:

"[I]t's also a great piss spot on the back alley of the building. I went for a wiz there, and there was another guy with a drink in a paper bag that morning, commenting on my choice location who stepped right into that corner to do his number one right after i was done.

I have to give kudos to the cooper union for destroying the classic and putting up this new thing with so many great shady crevasses for the public to utilize best."

Hmm... and we know exactly the spot that he's talking about...

Should we expect outdoor urinal cakes next?

Meanwhile, speaking of bodily fluids, we have not heard from EV Heave in some time... I fear the worst...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cooper Union puts the brakes on its skateboarding bank

While we were discussing the First Avenue bike lanes yesterday ...

Workers were putting down the green paint ... Perhaps this will help ease some of the confusion for everyone along here...

And noted...

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday's post...jump on in...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Looking at the First Avenue's new bike lane and "floating lane"

Dear apartment hunters: Please do not bother Wiz Kid Management

Outside the Wiz Kid office on 10th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. And what if we are interested in getting a lock of Julian's hair?

A lot of house and yard for $1 million on East Ninth Street

I'm always on the lookout for interesting real-estate listings in the East Village... and this listing on Trulia for 735 E. Ninth St. fits the bill...

Obviously a mistake... unless someone leaked Bloomberg's vision for the area...

EV eatery etc.: Bounce Deuce's replacement; more dessert on Third Avenue

Well, the former Bounce Deuce (moment of silence -- no giggling!) on Second Avenue and Sixth Street is nearly transformed into...

Just what, I don't know. The signs last fall originally said a Pita Pan sports grill... I asked one of the workers here yesterday what kind of restaurant that we could expect... and he answered, "European." I said, "excuse me?" Then he said "German." Then he looked nervous and said that I needed to ask the owner.

Next!

And the new French creperie cafe on St. Mark's Place near Avenue A is now open...

And I no nothing about Hawkers, an eatery featuring, as the sign reads, "Southeast Asia street-style food," that recently opened on 14th Street near Third Avenue... (and only two Yelp reviews so far!)

EV Grieve reader T.E.V.B. reports that the new dessert place is now open at Third Avenue and NYU....the former site of Atlantic News...

"I picked up a menu, they serve bubble tea, shaved ice, crepes, other Asian-y snacks/desserts, etc. Similar to Saint's Alp Teahouse just up the block," T.E.V.B. reports...

And, oh, just for old time's sake!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

[Update] Looking for Sammy

By now, you've likely seen the "lost dog" flyers around the East Village... and other parts of the city that tell of Sammy's disappearance ...

Unfortunately, missing (or found) pet signs are fairly common. However, there's something different about these flyers ... they're everywhere, for starters... and new flyers seem to go up daily... Several readers have asked me if, maybe, Sammy, a Pomeranian, had been found...

Unfortunately, no... the latest flyers are now offering a reward...

I finally decided to call the number to find out more about Sammy... I spoke with Sammy's owner, who, along with her sister, has been working nonstop to bring home her beloved pet. She said that Sammy was definitely stolen... and that she has received several descriptions of a young male trying to sell a dog that looks like Sammy.

Sammy was last seen on June 29 on 21st Street and Second Avenue at 11:39 a.m.

As for the new flyers, she said there are three-four people putting up new notices every day in hopes that someone will make the connection. She has also posted signs in Chinese, such as this one on Houston at Avenue B ...

In the days and weeks after Sammy first went missing, she received a lot of leads -- many of them from the East Village ... of late, though, the calls are down to two-three a day. Many people think they've seen Sammy, but are a little vague on details...

Per the Help Find Sammy site:

--Sammy knows his name, and answers to it

--He is 3 years old

--He is cream/sandy colored

--He currently has a buzz cut

--He is an unaltered male

--He was last seen on 21st Street and 2nd Avenue at 11:39AM

--He has a GREEN Leash, and a BLUE Collar. His Dog tag is a Blue DOG-BONE
that says SAMMY and the owner's ADDRESS

--He weighs roughly 3 pounds

--He tends to bark at strangers, and is very picky about people picking him up

There is more information on the site, including flyers and photos...and a video.

"We won't stop until he comes home," she said.

Updated: 3:30 ... One of Sammy's owners checks in the comments section... she provides more background on how Sammy came up missing.... she says that he got loose, ran a block and was scooped up by a stranger... and that was the last they saw of him... "We are appreciative of those who have helped us thus far with our search. Any assistance is greatly appreciated, word of mouth or even a simple post of his flyer on your facebook or blog."

[Updated] Looking at the First Avenue's new bike lane and 'floating lane'

In recent weeks, I've had several conversations with readers about the ongoing renovations of First Avenue... in which a dedicated bike path and bus lane are going in (most people think the bike and bus lane additions are a good thing, especially among my cyclist friends, but...)

Anyway, work continued on the Avenue this past weekend...

Topic No.1

Have you looked at the parking instructions yet?

The floating lane? As EV Grieve reader Blue Glass said to me, "only an engineer could make street traffic so confusing."

Topic No. 2

The possible impact on local business. Foot traffic aside ... a lot of the stores here are the kind in which people are used to quickly parking and zipping in for the goods (especially during holidays, where cars are double-parked on 11th Street around to First Avenue for Veniero's) ... How will the stores accommodate customers who want to stop for a few minutes to make a purchase? Ditto for quick deliveries. The bus and bike lanes have removed some parking spots. Several shop owners are worried about the reduced parking options... look for a story on the topic soon from a local TV station...

Topic No. 3
Not everyone is really hip to the dedicated bike/bus lanes yet...

Here's an example of someone stopping for a quick pick up at Veniero's ... what you don't see here is the bicyclist nearly taking off the car door...

It will take some time here for everyone to learn to live with the changes... motorists...cyclists...pedestrians...merchants...cops...at least until the city paints in the green bike lane.

Updated: Noonish... As for the local news report I mentioned... NY1 has filed a report, East Village Businesses Find Fault With New Bus, Bike Lanes. To the story:

The new bus and bicycle lanes along First and Second Avenues are part of a major city traffic overhaul, but local business owners say the lanes are taking up parking spaces and creating obstacles for delivery trucks.

Business owners say the lanes, which stretch from Houston Street to 34th Street, force delivery men to walk into the bicycle lanes and forces them to run the risk of injury.

"My truck has to park away from the curb. Now my employees have to cross through an active bike lane and there's a possibility of being hit by a bicycle, and there's cyclists getting hurt. My driver's getting hurt," said hardware store owner Jim Doria.

"Should have the bike lane on the other side, the way it was before and parking would be on the same side," said business owner Jawad Rasul. "I think that would be a lot better for the bikers and for the store owners."

And the comments are getting going on this topic...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Hot tar for a hot night

The Second Avenue bike lanes: What do we think so far?

For further reading:
Matt Harvey had a piece in the Post Monday titled, Attack of the killer bikes!

Looking for where William Burroughs lived on the Bowery? There's an app for that now

West Village resident Christopher Otto has created a new app for iPhones that uses GPS to show nearby cultural locations in downtown Manhattan. It currently has almost 350 locations, with links to Wikipedia and YouTube to provide more extensive information than could be included in the app itself.

In some locations like "The Bunker" where Burroughs lived on Bowery, or Quentin Crisp's apartment, you can see the person themselves in the building talking about his or her life in archival video.

"I was inspired to make it after reading 'Low Life' by Luc Sante while staying in a historic building in the West Village and finding myself forgetting what NYC was like before places like Superdive came along," Otto said in an e-mail. "My hope is that someone shopping in SoHo might read about Gordon Matta-Clark, or discover La Monte Young, and be inspired to do something interesting."

The app is free, though it includes iAds and Otto gets a small percentage of the iTunes and Amazon sales.

The direct link to iTunes is here.

There's basic website up explaining the features.

ConEd kills a tree

Speaking of First Avenue... I honestly meant to post this about a month ago... So, there was that steam leak at the northeast corner of First Avenue and 11th Street... went on 24/7 for months...(ConEd told nervous residents that there was no asbestos here...)

In late June, ConEd finished up the job... leaving behind a dead tree where the steampipe was working...

[Above photos via EV Grieve reader Blue Glass]

Here's what the tree used to look like...

Theatre Condos getting a gaming store

Last November, I noted that the second-floor retail space was now available in the Theatre Condos on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place...

And, as the signage up there shows... we have a taker! (Hey, having four "for rent" signs must work!) Looks like this space will be home to "the best videogame store in New York" ...