If you've recently lost a pet. Spotted on Second Avenue
Saturday, May 16, 2015
East Village Organic is now open on 1st Avenue
[Photo by EVG reader Steven]
The folks at East Village Organic let us know that the store opened yesterday at 124 First Ave. between East Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.
As we previously noted, the owner is Ali, who has run Golden Food Market on the northeast corner of First Avenue and Seventh Street the past 35 years
Among other items, we're told East Village Organic will feature:
• Organic Grown Produce
• Full Juice Bar and Cold Press Juice
• Bulk Grain Seed Nuts
• Full Macrobiotic Section
• Roots, Barks, Flowers (Herbalist Kim Turim, who has operated Penny's Herb Company on East Seventh Street since the late 1970s, works here)
• Full Assortment of Pure Essential Oils
• Seaweeds
• Full Dairy Section
• Nut and Seed Butters
• Wholegrain Baked Goods
• Dried Fruits
We'll check the store out later…
The storefront was previously home to Kim's Video and Music until last Aug. 25.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Organic food store taking over the former Kim's Video and Music space on 1st Avenue
A little more about East Village Organic, opening this spring on 1st Avenue
Reminders: The 9th annual Dance Parade and DanceFest is today
Several readers asked why there are police barricades along St. Mark's Place from Astor Place to Tompkins Square Park.
For example: "Why are there police barricades along St. Mark's Place from Astor Place to Tompkins Square Park?"
Today is the 9th annual Dance Parade and DanceFest … the parade starts at 21st and Broadway … and will eventually head across St. Mark's into the Park. where at 3 p.m. the DanceFest begins.
Find more info about the parade here.
Find the list for all the dancing activities in Park here.
Friday, May 15, 2015
EV Grieve Etc.: Crowdfunding for air quality testing; discussing NYC preservation
[The discarded couch police on East 7th Street via Derek Berg]
"The East Village, arguably more than other locales, has become the neighborhood of doom for one café and market after another. Why?" (New York Business Journal)
Tenant starts crowdfunding campaign for air quality testing in buildings adjacent to 119-123 Second Ave. (DNAinfo)
Rallying for affordable rent (Gothamist)
A visit to Raclette on Avenue A (The Wall Street Journal)
Preservation and pro-development in this Vanishing New York vs. New York YIMBY debate (New York magazine)
The East Village stars in the new video by the Young Things (YouTube)
Where to find Korean honey-butter chips in the East Village, in case you were looking for them (Grub Street)
Lower East Side History Month continues… find all the events here.
What retail tenants would you like to see in the Orchard Hell Building? (BoweryBoogie)
A new bike lane for Delancey (The Lo-Down)
In the footsteps of NYC's best chronicler, Joseph Mitchell (Curbed)
Remembering PIL's Ritz riot (Dangerous Minds)
Coney Island fireworks schedule for the summer (Amusing the Zillion)
… and yesterday, Stage watchers noticed that the roll down gate at the Stage was painted… wondering what, if anything, this meant for the diner that has been closed since March 30…
H/T EVG reader Steven
Q-and-A with Andrew Stasiw, chairman of the St. George Ukrainian Festival
The 39th annual St. George Ukrainian Festival, held on East Seventh Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square, starts this afternoon at 4.
In the aftermath of the deadly gas explosion on March 26 on Second Avenue at East Seventh Street, festival organizers decided to donate 10 percent of the profits to The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City (designated to the East Village building collapse fund). Organizers said that they will look to showcase the unity and the resilience of the East Village with the 2015 edition of the festival.
Here, Andrew Stasiw, chairman of St. George Ukrainian Festival, answered a few questions via email about this year's event.
Were there any conversations about canceling this year's festival?
Yes. Monday after the explosion, I met with key people on the festival committee. We were all horrified by the reality of the accident, and especially by the loss of life.
We determined to wait until I had a chance to reach out to OEM (NYC's Office of Emergency Management) and SAPPO (NYC's Street Activity Permit Office) to determine whether we would even be allowed to have a street closure so quickly. Both offices assured me that the street closure 1 1/2 months later would not be a problem.
Another consideration we discussed with the church committee was our "Grandfather Status" with the City of New York. Should we for moral reasons choose to not hold our festival, we would lose our status, and not be allowed to have a three-day closure again in the next year. The City no longer grants three-day closures, and has not for two decades.
Our festival has now been a 39-year tradition, and an integral part of our outreach to our surrounding community. Our community would be devastated if we lost our permit. Though we could have requested a reprieve from the city, we opted to move forward with the festival, and do something for our community as well.
Thus, the festival committee along with our pastor, Father Bernard Panczuk, agreed that we should proceed with the festival. We reached out to our performers and partners, and all agreed that we should do something to help our community. This is when we determined to utilize part of our net profit to donate to the East Village Relief Fund established by the City. This will benefit both merchants who lost their businesses trying to reboot, and tenants who lost their apartments.
To increase our revenues, all performers have agreed to perform for free in order to help our church, school and the East Village Relief Fund.
How will this year's festival showcase the unity and the resilience of the neighborhood?
There is a passion in the hearts of the people in our neighborhood that is now stronger then ever. We at St. George Church are so grateful, and proud of our neighbors who have reached out to us, offering support for our efforts.
More then ever, this year's festival feels more like a collaborative community event versus just a Ukrainian ethnic festival. The neighborhood is resilient because they are coming together to celebrate our Ukrainian heritage as well as to honor and assist those suffering because of the explosion.
What do you personally look forward to each year with the festival?
The kids! Yeah, we get amazing professional artists performing, but it is all about the children. Ukrainian dance schools exist all over the tri-state area, and this festival gives them and their families an opportunity to perform in the City. Through these schools, these children of Ukrainian descent get to learn about their heritage and then share it through song and dance with the people of New York.
As an educator, I see the value for children in these types of after-school activities — helping to build parametric connections in their brains through movement and counting, and also build friendships that last far into their adulthood.
For this year, we are very excited about our festival, but our hearts are broken for the loss of Moises Ismael Locón Yac and Nicholas Figueroa, two young men whose time was cut too short because of the explosion.
At St. George, we pray for them and pray that God comforts the weeping hearts of their families. Personally, I wish I could have done more during this tragic event. I witnessed [the explosion], and it was impossible to get back into the building and look for more potential victims. That day is still hard to talk about, but now we need to focus on what we can do to keep our community strong.
The festival hours are tonight, 4 to 9; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The 9th annual Dance Parade and DanceFest is tomorrow
The annual Dance Parade is tomorrow. Let's head to the news release via the EVG inbox…
Four Grand Marshals will cut the ribbon at 12:45 pm on Saturday, releasing 10,000 dancers down Broadway as part of New York City’s 9th Annual Dance Parade and Festival. The four Grand Marshals span the diversity of dance – they are the renowned 84year old contemporary theater artist, choreographer and dancer of stage and screen Carmen de Lavallade, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Robert Battle, Dancing Wheels founder Mary Verdi-Fletcher, and pioneer of Indian bhangra dance in North America, DJ Rekha.
While the parade celebrates more than 75 styles of dance, this year, we honor especially the genres of contemporary ballet, Physically Integrated Dance, and dance in the Indian bhangra dance music community.
This year’s Dance Parade New York will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the monumental civil rights legislation embodied in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Ms. Verdi-Fletcher, whose physically integrated troupe was the first professional company in the U.S. to bring the talents of dancers with and without disabilities to the stage, will lead the parade while dancing in her wheelchair.
Find more info about the parade here.
The parade route eventually finds its way to St. Mark's Place… where the parade ends in Tompkins Square Park for … DanceFest.
Find the list for all the dancing and other activities in Park right here.
And now please join me to pray to the Lord to guide them in their endeavors.
Ben Shaoul now has until the end of July to demolish his illegal penthouse on East 5th Street
[Photo of 515 E. Fifth St. from May 4]
Landlord-developer Ben Shaoul now has yet another deadline to remove the illegal penthouse at 515 E. Fifth St., according to the building's tenants association.
As we've been seemingly cutting and pasting for years, the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) ruled in 2008 that Shaoul needed to remove the 6th and 7th floors here between Avenue A and Avenue B. However, his attorneys had requested that the city grant a zoning variance to "permit the constructed enlargement, minus the penthouse, to remain" here.
On Tuesday, there was another hearing on the matter … and as a rep for the tenants association told us, the BSA is giving Shaoul until the end of July to provide proof that the penthouse has been demolished … then the BSA will reopen hearings on the variances that Shaoul and Co. are requesting.
Last September, the BSA gave Shaoul 60 days to complete demolition … but that never happened.
Anyway, there is some demolition-related progress. As we pointed out, workers assembled a sidewalk bridge outside 515 on May 4. In addition, the city approved a permit to remove the penthouse on May 6. (There is also an approved permit on file to remove the sixth floor.)
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] 5 years later, another BSA hearing on illegal rooftop addition at 515 E. Fifth St.
Protest at 515 E. Fifth St. this morning, site of Ben Shaoul's illegal addition
The disappearing illegal penthouse of 514-516 E. 6th St.
Never-ending battle wages on over additional floors at 515 E. Fifth St.
Never-ending battle over additional floors at 515 E. Fifth St. promises to keep being never-ending
CB3 not into Ben Shaoul's zoning variance for 515 E. 5th St.
Another BSA hearing on Ben Shaoul's illegal rooftop addition; plus, rent 1 of the contested units!
BSA tells Ben Shaoul to remove the illegal penthouse on East 5th Street within 60 days
Sidewalk bridge arrives at 515 E. 5th St., site of Ben Shaoul's illegal penthouse conversion
The Black Rose is now open on Avenue A
[Photo via EVG reader JG]
The Black Rose, the new bar at 117 Avenue A between East Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place, officially opened last night.
Several media outlets had previews yesterday, including Urban Daddy, which called Black Rose "an admirable mixture of a gritty Ave A bar of yore and a legit cocktail spot."
Bedford + Bowery had more details on the decor, noting that owners Joseph Daniele and Robert Payne redecorated the space with reclaimed objects, including recycled wood, metal and elements salvaged from film sets.
The photo gallery at Urban Daddy shows the bars rock roots, with framed photos of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, among other musicians/bands.
According to B + B, there will also be an occasional live act. "Musicians will stop by a couple times a month to play acoustic sets on nights with themes like disco, burlesque and LGBT."
The rock theme carries over to the cocktail menu, which includes drinks called "Light My Fire," Purple Haze" and "Personal Jesus."
Black Rose will eventually serve food, which DNAinfo reported on here.
The bar is open daily from 5 p.m. to 4 a.m.
The previous tenant here, The Odessa Cafe & Bar, closed Aug. 31, 2013. Several suitors made a run for the space, but nothing ever materialized until The Black Rose came along.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Building that houses Odessa Cafe and Bar for sale on Avenue A
Former GM from Tribeca's Tiny's & the Bar Upstairs part of team to buy the Odessa Cafe
Reader report: Odessa Cafe and Bar will remain open through Sept. 6
Former Odessa Cafe and Bar will serve comfort food specializing in Nashville Hot Chicken
Now what for the Odessa Cafe and Bar?
The Black Rose, 'a neighborhood rock and roll bar,' opening in the former Odessa Cafe and Bar space (71 comments)
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Brewer-Mendez tenant notification bill passes Council
[Oh, by the way, we're working on your bathroom ceiling today]
From the EVG inbox…
Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer and Council Member Rosie Mendez today celebrated the Council’s passage of Int. 222, legislation requiring landlords provide tenants with advance notice for non-emergency repair work that will result in disruptions to building services.
The bill establishes a general baseline of 72 hours’ advance notice for most work. For work affecting elevators, the bill requires 10 business days’ notice for major alteration work and 24 hours’ notice for any other work that will suspend all elevator service for more than two hours.
This legislation, sponsored jointly by Mendez and Brewer, closes a gaping hole in the city’s tenant-protection laws, which currently provide no such advance-notice requirements.
“Tenants deserve fair warning and an opportunity to plan around disruptive maintenance work,” said Brewer. “It’s also no secret that no-notice quality-of-life disruptions labeled as ‘maintenance work’ are a frequent harassment tactic to push tenants out of rent-stabilized apartments. Our notice requirement will be easy for honest, everyday landlords and building managers to respect, but it will take another harassment tool away from abusive landlords.”
“This legislation codifies common sense and common courtesy,” said Councilwoman Rosie Mendez. “No longer will tenants come home from a hard days work to find out that work in their building is interrupting some basic service and/or possibly obstructing access to their apartment. This law requires that landlords notify tenants when such work will affect services and for how long.”
Many landlords and management companies already provide advance notice of planned repairs to tenants – but many do not. The reasonable notice requirements established by Int. 222 would help tenants plan ahead to minimize the impacts of these service disruptions on their lives, and also help tenants distinguish between disruptions for planned work on the one hand, and emergent service failures or landlord harassment tactics on the other.
Juice Press on East 10th Street (the one near Avenue A) closes for good
[EVG photo from March 1]
Back in early March, the Juice Press on East 10th Street near Avenue A closed for renovations … an employee at the Juice Press on East 10th Street near Second Avenue told us that this location would definitely be reopening in a few months.
Apparently those plans changed. An EVG reader shared this photo from yesterday, when a store for rent sign arrived in the front window…
A recent article at well + Good noted that Juice Press "is expanding faster than your body can absorb green juice nutrients." This is the first time that we actually heard about a JP closing.
Steve Croman's 9300 Realty is the landlord.
This Juice Press location opened in June 2011.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Juice Press on East 10th Street (the one near Avenue A) closes for renovations
Fat Sal's has closed on Avenue A; new owners to open another pizzeria
That's it for Fat Sal's, the pizzeria at 201 Avenue A between East 12th Street and 13th Street. Paper is up in the windows.
The owner sold the shop, and the new proprietor will keep the space as a pizzeria.
Meanwhile, neighbors upstairs are curious what, if anything, might happen with the ventilation duct that workers installed before Sal's opened…
As we understand it, the previous owner tried to little avail to reduce the fan noise that residents say would rattle their windows.
Fat Sal's opened in May 2011, taking over the space from APizzA.
Reader-submitted photos
Earthquake-compliant townhouse for sale on East 7th Street
[Image via Cushman & Wakefield]
There's a new listing for 203 E. Seventh St. We'll head to Cushman & Wakefield for the listing:
The subject is a 5-story townhouse located on the north side of East 7th Street between Avenues B & C. Completed in 2001, 203 East 7th Street is approximately 6,920 SF and consists of 4 spacious apartments with high-end finishes.
Of the 4 apartments, 1 is duplexed on the ground floor, 2 are floor-through units on the 2nd and 3rd floors and the 4th and 5th floor penthouse is a duplex with private rooftop access. In addition to the penthouse, the 1st floor duplex and 2nd floor apartment benefit from private outdoor space at the rear of the property. 203 East 7th Street is the perfect townhouse for an individual or family looking to live in one of Manhattan's most exciting neighborhoods.
Due to the rise in residential condominium prices citywide, renovated townhouses have become incredibly challenging to find. Each unit is separately metered for heat (gas), cooking gas and electric. Therefore the building would also be ideal for an investor looking for a turnkey opportunity. The building is located just a half-block east from bustling Tompkins Square Park.
The building is steel and concrete in addition to being earthquake compliant and fire resistant.
Asking price: $7 million
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