[UPDATED] Centre-fuge Public Art Project kicks off this weekend on East First Street

From the EV Grieve inbox...cut-n-paste journalism — woo!

Centre-fuge Public Art Project, Opens for the Year

Pebbles Russell and Jonathan Neville are proud to present the Centre-fuge Public Art Project, a rotating outdoor gallery with work by multimedia artists. The project is dedicated in memory of friend, creator and Lower East Side neighbor, Mike Hamm.

In mid-2011 a drab, gray trailer popped up on the South side of First Street. The trailer functions as a temporary office for workers on the 2nd Avenue subway line. Centre-fuge Public Art Project will transform the trailer for one year into a rotating street gallery. Between 2 to 7 artists at a time will create work on all visible sides of the structure. The art will change over once every two months on a pre-set weekend. Artists must submit proposals in order for their work to be deemed appropriate for the broader community. The artists will supply their own materials.

The goal of Centre-fuge is not only to re-beautify this incredible block, but also to encourage the community to express itself in a public forum. With the closure of half of Houston Street, making underground way for the 2nd Avenue Subway line, the ever-growing presence of construction makes the block feel less like a neighborhood, full of individuals and more like a work site full of barricades and jackhammers.

You may read the whole release here... You can stop by this Saturday and Sunday from 10 am - 5 pm to see all this get started... Mike Hamm worked at Lancelotti Housewares and Alphabets on Avenue A. He died on Jan. 7. We'll have more about him in a post next week.

UPDATED: Given the crap weather expected tomorrow, the organizers have decided to postpone the start of the work until next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Even air pumps are getting fancier, more expensive in the East Village

At the Gulf Station on Second Avenue at First Street...

Before! A beat-up machine that only took quarters...

Now!

The fancy digital one that costs $1.50...

[Photo yesterday by Bobby Williams]

P.S.

Have you tried the bagels at Gulf? They don't look or taste as good as advertised...

Oh: S'MAC now open at First Park

Last June, news broke, via DNAinfo, that S'MAC was taking over for Veselka at the First Avenue/Houston kiosk.

In July, we asked Sarita Ekya, who runs the popular East 12th Street macaroniship with her husband Caesar, when they might open. At the time they were aiming for a fall opening...

Hey, anyway. Only yesterday did we notice that they are up and running here... The S'MAC Facebook page notes that they opened on Dec. 20. Currently just serving the cheese from noon to five, but extended hours are coming soon...

Last night on Avenue A

Shawn Chittle agrees that Leonard "T-Berry" White can make this claim.

Hawkarazzi out in Tompkins Square Park today

Another Chloe Sevigny photo shoot?

Oh!

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Cops looking for fake cops who tried to rob the Waterfront Spa, which actually isn't on a waterfront

This story is making the rounds today. We spotted it first earlier over at Runnin' Scared. The NYPD are looking for two men they say posed as cops at two spa kinda places, including at the oddly named Waterfront Spa on First Avenue at Second Street. (I mean, the Waterfront Spa technically isn't on any waterfront. No?)

Here's the scheme: On Dec. 1, the men entered the business and allegedly flashed badges while asking to review the spa's license. They also asked to see the spa's money.

The spa worker refused. The two reportedly grabbed her arm and fled. (It wasn't clear from the NYPD if the men kept her arm.) They tried this stunt again on Dec. 12 at a spa on St. Nicholas Avenue.

Police say the suspects are 6-foot black males in their 30s. One of the suspects was caught on video wearing a Yankees baseball cap with a light blue jacket and blue jeans. The other had on a light blue hat with a dark jacket and dark pants.

If you have any information about this, then please Tweet about it. Or write a jokey blog post about it. Then call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

There's also surveillance video via the Daily News ...

A flower for Markey

Dave on 7th notes one of the pavers around Temperance Fountain in Tompkins Square Park today... someone has left a flower for Markey Hayden Bena, who who died in July 2010. He was 54.

His body was found on Seventh Street near Avenue C. As The Villager reported in December 2010, an autopsy showed Bena died from "complications of blunt impact injury of head." However, the manner of death was still "undetermined."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Markey Hayden Bena, 1956-2010

Is an 11-story residential building coming to Avenue D and East Eighth Street?

Back in July, we pointed out that the empty lot aka 401 E. Eighth St. at Avenue D was on the market for $5.2 million.

According to the Home section in the Post today, the long-stalled site is about to close ... "22,000 square feet of buildable space could accommodate an 11-story residential building."

Eleven stories?

The DOB OK'd permits for a six-story building in 2006. But those plans never materialized.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Meanwhile, before we christen Avenue D the next Greenpoint...

Stalled development site on Eighth Street and Avenue D asking $5.2 million

Dear East 12th Street: Please do not disturb the air sampling

A reader notes the following: There's an air sampling in progress on East 12th Street... As the sign warns, please do not disturb.

And here we thought Booker & Dax was handing out samples of their cocktails...

We'll let you know how the air is.

[Updated] This feature should get a 'Rise' out of you

We interrupt our regular programming to bring you highlights from today's cover story in the Post's Home section titled "Rise in the East" (heh)

... and they have details on some of these stalled developments, empty parcels and mystery lots that we've been watching though the years ...

Should we start with the bad news or the worse news?

Basically, there's a lot of building here on the horizon. Like!

• The Mystery Lot on 13th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.
This space will become an 82-unit, eight-story development, which should break ground this summer for a late 2013 opening. "Prices are still to be determined for the project’s studio and one-, two- and three-bedroom units," according to the Post.

[Pause]

The article also mentions the developments coming to 74-84 Third Ave. (part of which once belonged to Nevada Smith's) and 316-318 E. Third St., which is awaiting demolition to become an eight story, 33-unit apartment building. Developer David Amirian told the Post that he will offer only studios and one bedroom units.

"The market right now is to build rental. You want to build affordable housing for young people," he said.

Here are photos of the two from the Post.

Hmm, 74-84 Third Ave. looks particularly... ENORMOUS. (I will miss the sun while walking by here.)

A few other passages:

• "[The East Village is] young and up-and-coming, and there are a lot of young professionals who live there and a lot of students and a lot of grad students," Amirian says. "We are definitely looking for other parcels in the neighborhood."

Up-and-coming? Don't you think those days have up and came? Or something.

• Of course, some of the East Village’s rental buildings could eventually go condo. The idea of $2,000-per-square-foot penthouses has to have developers considering the possibility.

Of course!

More on some of the other news items here later when I regain consciousness.

As the Observer put it in their coverage of the Post feature:

In short, the former bastions of East Village grit are giving way to rental buildings where parents will pay for their NYU student to live comfortably and drink heavily.

This is what 154 E. Second St. looked like on Jan. 13, 2012

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

Cafetasia is now the Lantern; fate of 100-ounce beer tubes unknown

Several readers have pointed out that Cafetasia on Avenue A near Sixth Street is under new ownership, and now part of the Lantern family. (There's another Lantern on Second Avenue at 18th Street.) Still serving Thai food.

No word yet if the Lantern will serve 100-ounce beer tubes like Cafetasia...

As Eater reported, Cafetasia went before the CB3/SLA committee in November for a full-liquor license. CB3 denied their request.

Workers quickly start dismantling roof of historic 315 E. 10th St.

So, as you probably know... yesterday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) unanimously voted to create the East 10th Street Historic District.

Preservation groups had urged the LPC to move quickly after learning that developer Ben Shaoul of Magnum Management was planning a rooftop addition to 315 E. 10th St., which would change the aesthetic of the street.

Anyway, as it turned out, the DOB OK'd the necessary permits for Shaoul hours before the LPC hearing.

Per Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, in a statement: "It's truly a shame that these city agencies could not coordinate their effort to prevent this from happening."

As the Post noted today:

EV Grieve reader Jose Garcia just passed along this photo showing workers dismantling the chimney...

As Jose said in a comment this morning:

They've certainly not wasted any time getting started. their crew was up there at 8:30 this morning demolishing the chimneys. a very nice wakeup call.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A bid to protect the integrity of 315 E. 10th St.

Landmarks Preservation Commission expedites hearing on East 10th Street Historic District

Watch a bike disappear a little every day during 2011

From the EV Grieve inbox...via a company called Red Peak...

Last year, we conducted a unique urban experiment for Hudson Urban Bicycles. On January 1, 2011 we chained a fully loaded bike — bells, basket, lights and more — to a post along a busy Soho street. We took a picture of the bike everyday for 365 days, watching it slowly vanish before our eyes. The photos we took were then turned into a daily calendar. We call this project LIFECYCLE: 365 days in the life of a bike in NYC.

We call it 51 seconds of fine lunchtime entertainment.