Uh-oh — FDNY discovers the Citi Bikes docking stations

This afternoon at the new Citi Bikes docking station on St. Mark's Place just west of First Avenue... Per Jose Garcia: "The fire department just discovered that the new Citi Bikes are smack dab in the middle of the firelane. They seemed very unhappy."

[Updated] Someone is unloading a shitload of (mostly) free records now on East 2nd Street

On East Second Street just east of Second Avenue near Anthology Film Archives, per EVG reader Stephanie.

An EVG Facebook friend has more: "The workers are trying to make some cash by charging a buck for the good stuff but most of it all is free. Boxes and boxes of Stones, Beatles, Beach Boys, Hendrix, Badfinger etc etc. I got a fancy gatefold EP by the Dentists."

Anyone know more about who these belonged too?

Updated:

Dang. Nice to see this... Oh, if you see a copy of "Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow," please put it aside for me.



Via Todd Norlander on Facebook...

Updated 3:20

A new photo from Stephanie... still lots of vinyl left...

Free chairs (and history!) on Second Avenue

This was the scene a little earlier outside 110 Second Ave. near East Seventh street... a lot of free chairs. (Have no idea if they are still there.) Photos by Derek Berg.





Anyway! Lots of history at this address — the Isaac T. Hopper Home, a circa 1839 Greek Revival townhouse that serves as a halfway house for female prisoners.

The Times had a feature on the home a few years back:

In 1846, The Evening Post said that there were “two great avenues for elegant residences”: Fifth and Second Avenues. Construction on Second had already produced chaste Greek Revival houses like No. 110, built in 1838 and soon occupied by Ralph Mead, a merchant on Coenties Slip. The simple red-brick front is relieved only by a projecting portico with brownstone Ionic columns — the Greek was a movement of buttoned-up reserve.

By that time Isaac T. Hopper was famous in New York as an uncompromising reformer and abolitionist. On his death in 1852, The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper, said that “the fugitive slave, the unfortunate criminal, the children of poverty, all commanded his warmest sympathy.” From his work evolved the Isaac T. Hopper Home, devoted to helping women who had been released from prison.

Read the whole article here.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Outside Grace Church on Broadway and East 10th Street. Photo by Evan OHara]

Six miracles of East Village Ungentrification (Fork in the Road)

Video: John Penley is an Anarcho Yippie (Vimeo)

The tragedy of Cooper Union (Felix Salmon/Reuters)

Did 7-Eleven kill this Chelsea deli? (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Proposed Soho House on Ludlow to show Taylor Mead films next week (The Lo-Down)

West Village co-op sues over Citi Bikes docking stations (DNAinfo)

Emerald Inn is closing. But moving! (West Side Rag)

Where you can find a SF Burrito Mojado in the East Village (Fork in the Road)

Clemente Soto Velez Center wins Landmarks Conservancy Award (BoweryBoogie)

FlipKey looking to turn Stuy Town into hotels for tourists (New York Post)

Selling the CBGB movie overseas (Deadline.com)

Alleged costumers customers of notorious LES drug ring included bartender at the Bowery Hotel (New York Post)

Springtime summer in the city (Slum Goddess)

Revisiting some lost storefronts (Flaming Pablum)

East River Park in 1902 (Ephemeral New York)

Soon, you might be able to do your post office business at a former Duane Reade

We're due for an update on the the proposed relocation of the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office on East 14th Street... there was a town hall meeting on the subject last Monday... Jefferson Siegel has a nice recap of the contentious meeting in the current issue of The Villager.

There's a lot to cover.

Briefly.

1) People are generally pissed off by this possible closure.

2) The plan would work something like this: The carriers who sort and deliver mail to homes and businesses in the area would be shipped off to the Madison Square Station on East 23rd Street near Third Avenue while large parcel services would operate out of the F.D.R. Station at 54th Street and Third Avenue. (Handy!)

The USPS would lease the former Duane Reade on East 14th Street near First Avenue for retail services, such as stamp sales and P.O. boxes. (At least the space wouldn't become another bank branch, as rumored.)



3) Residents have until next Tuesday (May 7) to submit their comments to USPS. From the article:

Comments, which must include the name Peter Stuyvesant Post Office, can be sent to: Joseph J. Mulvey, Facilities Implementation, U.S. Postal Service, 2 Congress St., Room 8, Milford, MA 01757-9998.

(Be sure to use the correct postage.)

Despite being pressed on the topic, the USPS rep at the meeting wouldn't divulge the building's landlord. The landlord reportedly told the USPS that he/she has other plans for the building, which was erected in 1951.

Right the whole Villager article here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
UPDATED: Did you hear the rumor about the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office branch closing?

Posters urge residents to 'voice your opinion' about the former PS 64

These posters arrived last night around the neighborhood...


[Photo via MoRUS]

...urging residents to speak out against the plan to turn the former PS 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center into a 500-bed dorm on East Ninth Street just east of Avenue B.

The building is a topic of discussion at two upcoming CB3 committee meetings... as well as at a Landmarks Preservation public hearing... (we'll have more information on that meeting later).



Meanwhile, there is a petition campaign in circulation that reads:

COMMUNITY USE - NOT DORMITORY

Respect our community. Respect this community treasure: Old P.S. 64 located at 605 East 9th Street.

Old P.S. 64, a designated New York City landmark, has a long and valued history serving our community. This building could easily serve our community again. Dormitory use of this building does not serve our community. Cooper Union should not house students in old P.S. 64.

We ask that old P.S. 64 be returned to use for our community.

Find the petition here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Will old PS 64 get a theater for nonprofit groups?

Rebranded P.S. 64 up for grabs: Please welcome University House at Tompkins Square Park to the neighborhood

Deed for 'community facility use only' at the former P.S. 64 now on the market

Report: Former PS 64 one step closer to becoming a 500-bed dorm for multiple NYC colleges

Petition campaign asks: 'Return PS 64 to the Community'

Motor City Bar to remain open through June

Back in February, we first heard that Motor City Bar would be closing on Ludlow.

At the time, we heard they'd close sometime between March and June.

Here's an update from the Motor City folks: They plan to be open through June. And there's a Grand Finale Party planned for June 23 featuring The Swingin' Neckbreakers. Stay tuned for more details.

The landlord chose not to renew the bar's lease... Motor City opened at 127 Ludlow in 1996.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Motor City Bar is closing on Ludlow Street

Iconic Hand Rolls has apparently closed

Bill the Libertarian Anarchist noted that workers were clearing out Iconic Hand Rolls last night on First Avenue near St. Mark's Place... the temaki shop opened last June here ... and this morning, the space is completely empty. Perhaps they're just remodeling.



No mention of a closure or renovation on the Iconic website or on their usually active Facebook or Twitter accounts. The phone number is not in service at this time.

The restaurant recently launched a campaign in which 50 Iconic logo stickers were placed within a five-block radius of the store. Per Washington Square News: "Clues on the whereabouts of the stickers will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Those who find the stickers can use them to redeem a free temaki roll, a cone-shaped and hand-rolled sushi, from the store."

And there were these new ads, like this one on St. Mark's Place...



Iconic Hand Rolls had some tough luck at the outset — their AC conked out and they had to remain closed during their first weekend in business. And there was that plywood mischief too.

Longtime parishioners hope to be able to salvage items from the doomed Mary Help of Christians

As you likely know, permits were filed last Thursday to demolish the now-vacant parcel of Mary Help of Christians that includes the church, school and rectory, according to DOB records.

Developer Douglas Steiner has plans for a residential development on this prime East Village space on Avenue A and East 11th Street and East 12th Street.

We heard from a longtime parishioner, who said that she is "hurt and confused beyond words" about the impending demolition.

Some of us have been speaking about trying to secure a few items from the church that are of great historical significance, most specifically the church bells and the cement statue of Mary Help of Christians outside located on 11th Street on the upper floors of the school ... in order to gift them over to the Salesian order. There also some liturgical books that the Salesians have inquired about. The pipe organ unfortunately is beyond our capabilities.

The former parishioners are hoping to be able to contact Steiner and see if these items can be salvaged.

Image via Curbed.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Permits filed to demolish Mary Help of Christians church, school and rectory

Baiting Mary Help of Christians

Mary Pupillo - 'A true relic of the East Village'

The Schumacher announces itself on Bleecker Street

Just noting the recent arrival of branding for The Schumacher on Bleecker at Mott... the building was once the Schumacher & Ettlinger printing company, which began in the 1860s. They were one of the many German lithographic companies that created advertisement art for the cigar industry.

Curbed has been reporting on this project. Among the details:

The building will contain 20 two- to four-bedroom apartments priced from about $3 million to $25 million.

And it will look like this...



Read more at Curbed here.

Citi Share docking stations arrive on St. Mark's Place at 1 a.m., quickly tagged

EVG regular Stephen Popkin notes that the Citi Bikes docking stations arrived on the north side of St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue (in front of the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge) ... around 1 a.m. (Per Stephen's estimation, the installers were working quietly...)



Plans called for 31 docks here in a no-parking area of the street.

Updated:

Well, later, someone felt compelled to write RAMEN on the docking station...



...and another angle via Shawn Chittle...



Meanwhile! On East Fifth Street at Avenue C... EVG reader Mish noted that workers installed the docking station here around 11 p.m.



Per Mish: "We're already taxed as it is parking wise, and the street is a dead end. Really failing to see the logic in this choice of location. I'm not sure they realize how much of an adverse effect this is going to have on commuters in the neighborhood."

6 months after Sandy

I don't have anything really to add to the numerous "6 months after Sandy" stories (like this one) that were in the media today... However, I did notice that a temporary boiler is still needed at the NYCHA houses on East Sixth Street at Avenue C... it's the last one that I'm aware of in the neighborhood.

Today outside 100 Avenue A

Still waiting for something to happen with the building. Photo by Bobby Williams.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A little bit of Hollywood on Avenue A

East Village Farms is closing; renovations coming to 100 Avenue A

Inside the abandoned theater at East Village Farms on Avenue A

Breaking: Citi Bikes docking station arrives on East Ninth Street and Avenue C

They ... are... everywhere... now... can't keep ... up.. with ... all ... the ... docking.. stations... arriving...

Thanks to to EVG reader Greg for this shot.

Updated:

Ah! Per @TYJK, the docking station is now parked on the north side of East Ninth Street... across from 9th Street Espresso...



And whatever happened to the bike guy here...? Also! Probably would have still been room for the Mystery Camper...

Updated:



Another shot of the final product via Bobby Williams...