Plan B for the former Graceland space

Yesterday, we looked at the status of 34 Avenue A ... today. let's check in on 24 Avenue A, where Graceland closed in April 2010.

Since then, not much has happened. Well, aside from Frank Prisinzano, who owns EV Italian empire Frank, Lil' Frankie's and Supper, wanting to open a fast-food Italian joint here. CB3 never approved the application. (Read that drama here.)

Meanwhile, RyanAvenueA tells us that the storefront has been been chopped into two pieces this week. (Signs went up in November showing how the space could be hacked into three spaces.)

For rent signs remain over the two spaces. And that new, smaller space makes us nervous — looks exactly the right size for, say, a Subway (sandwich shop) or Papa John's. Or Dunkin' Donuts.

Wouldn't you rather have had Raguboy?

Previously on EV Grieve:
"All uses considered" at former Graceland

More here.

The Chillmaster

[Photo taken Wednesday by Bobby Williams]

For further reading: Marty After Dark

City gets results from digging through the trash

Two weeks ago, we noted watching a sanitation department official sort through discarded mail in the trash can on the corner of Avenue C and 11th Street.

So, yeah the city can and will fine you $100 for throwing trash from your apartment into city-owned trash cans on the street.

EV Grieve reader thisboyshouts passed along this yesterday: "Someone in my building, a couple of doors down from that corner, got a ticket this morning for doing exactly that from the sanitation dept. It was tacked on to the front door of the building for all to see. The SD has the address, you think they could at least mail it..."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The city is working hard to fine you for throwing away household trash

'Rent is too Damn High' guy facing eviction because his 'Rent is too Damn Low'

That's the story the Post has today. In which former gubernatorial candidate Jimmy "The Rent is too Damn High" McMillan says he is being booted from his rent-controlled ground-floor apartment on St. Marks Place, where he pays $872.96. He has had the place since the late 1970s.

Meanwhile! The building's owner, Lisco Holdings, claims that McMillan has violated his lease because he doesn't really live here — he actually lives in Brooklyn. McMillan says this is his office and party HQ.

To be continued. Expect more drama and bad puns.

Read the whole article here.

Looking at the incoming Agave Azul on First Avenue

Several people have asked us what's going on with the former David's Bagels space at 228 E. First Ave. near 14th Street... workers began renovating the space back in April 2010.

Soon enough, this will be home to an "authentic home-style Mexican" restaurant called Agave Azul. CB3 OK'd a liquor license for them this past April.

And how's how things look inside Agave Azul yesterday, via a photo from blue glass...

... and Crazy Eddie sent along this shot a little earlier...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Will 228 First Avenue become part of Taco Town?

Welcome

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Outside St. Brigid School on Avenue B yesterday ... FYI — I have dibs on it today from 1-1:16 to watch 8 Minute Abs With 8 Minute Buns.

Exit 9 on schedule to open new Avenue A store next month

After 16 years at 64 Avenue A, Exit 9 packed up and moved away in late June ... but, as Jen Doll reported at Runnin' Scared, they were only moving across the street to the former Urban Roots space.

So, work continues in their new home.

Per the store's Twitter feed:

Previously on EV Grieve:
Exit 9 exiting from Avenue A

Smiles, everyone, smiles! The Google Street View car is in the East Village!

Bob Arihood caught the car in action yesterday. (Neither More Nor Less)

Report: Man in van allegedly selling narcotics leads police on 10-block chase

From the NYPD Daily Blotter today in the Post:

An ex-con drug dealer on parole fled from cops in a stolen minivan after allegedly being spotted peddling narcotics near Tompkins Square Park, authorities said.

At 7 a.m. on July 27, officers approached a 2008 Chevrolet Uplander on St. Mark's Place near Avenue A and asked the man behind the wheel, Robert Ball, to step out, court papers state.
But Ball, 37, hit the gas and almost clipped a sergeant, cops said.

With police in pursuit, he sped for almost 10 blocks, blowing red lights, before getting caught in traffic, cops said. He was cuffed, and a license-plate check revealed the minivan had been stolen that day, court papers add.

Former Sin Sin space back on the market

Earlier today, a tipster noted that the city slapped a stop-work order on the under-renovation space on Second Avenue at Fifth Street that once housed Sin Sin.

Apparently the bakery-cafe-bar concept is dead. The space is now on the Tower Brokerage site ... currently asking $15,000 per month.

This weekend in Tompkins Square Park — 'Riot reunion'

Brought to you by The SHADOW, Wombat in Combat and ... Those Fucking Anarchists...

A stop-work order for the former Sin Sin space

A tipster notes the stop-work order here on Second Avenue at Fifth Street. Per the DOB: "BORO COMMISSIONER HAS ORDERED ALL WORK STOPPED IMMEDIATELY DUE TO PERMIT HOLDER WITHDRAWL UNDER PERMIT #120552286-01-EW-OT"

Yes, of course!

As DNAinfo first reported, a cafe-bakery-bar called Sweet Boutique is in the works for this space. Sweet Boutique withdrew its application for the July CB3/SLA meeting.

Legacy Russell's East Village Open Ceremony project

It's likely that, in the last few weeks, you've seen Legacy Russell sitting with her typewriter in Tompkins Square Park or outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.

[Photo by Digital Man]

The artist has been transcribing people's memories of the East Village and Lower East Side as part of her Trust Art project, Open Ceremony.

Per the news release, the project is broken up into four "rites," each aiming to experiment with a different facet of public worship and remembrance as inspired by those rapidly changing neighborhoods.

The first of the four, Rite of Remembrance: Memory Transcription, brought Russell to Tompkins Square Park, Sarah Roosevelt Park, and St. Mark's Church with a table, two chairs and a typewriter, asking residents both old and new: "What memories do you have of living in this neighborhood?" (Sample response! "I remember paying 80 dollars a month in rent. Now THAT is rent control.")

Russell will be out today in Tompkins Square Park from 3-7 p.m.

I asked her what inspired her to do this.

"I am born and raised in the neighborhood and as an artist so much of my own history and so much of what I am today is in many thanks to the creative climate of the East Village," she said. "Living in the Lower East Side now, I am curious to come to a better understanding of what the current climate is in the area — who my neighbors are, how people are processing these changes (mourning the losses, feeling a sense of anticipation about what's to come, etc.), how folks arrived at this site, why people choose to leave, why people choose to stay or move here, and so forth."

And how does she think the first phase of the project has gone so far?

"The project thus far has surpassed my wildest expectations in its reception — people have been lining up to share their stories, have emailed me, have reached out with a real readiness to discuss how they feel about the East Village and Lower East Side as two sites undergoing major shifts," she said. "Acting as a 'native stenographer,' I want to be sure to reach as many people as possible, in the interest of making sure that as many of these personal narratives and histories are chronicled."

She posts some of the memories @OpenCeremony. And on Facebook. For more on the project, go here.