An open letter to landlord Raphael Toledano from the Toledano Tenants Coalition

[EVG file photo of 233-235 E. 5th St.]

Members of the Toledano Tenants Coalition are distributing the following letter to media outlets and local elected officials about the ongoing situation at buildings purchased last fall by Raphael Toledano. Some of the following was also covered in a recent article published in The Villager. The Toledano Tenants Coalition shared a copy with us before its circulation elsewhere...

Dear Mr. Toledano,

Prior to and since your purchase of the Tabak real estate portfolio in Fall 2015, tenants have experienced an alarming amount of alleged harassment. You have articulated your goal to many of us: you wish to remove rent-regulated residents from their homes. Given your intention to remove units from rent-regulation, the publicity surrounding 444 East 13th Street, and other legal matters, tenants of 17 buildings in your portfolio have formed a coalition.

Since June 2015, this coalition has recorded numerous instances of such alleged harassment perpetrated by you, Isaac Toledano, and agents of Brookhill Properties. You and your property managers have allegedly engaged in activities such as:

1. Serving tenants with frivolous notices to vacate and holdover lawsuits;

2. Threatening to shut off basic services such as heat and hot water;

3. Refusing to renew rent-stabilized leases based on meritless allegations;

4. Threatening that impending construction will be an extreme nuisance and will render apartments uninhabitable in your buildings;

5. Following tenants in and around their buildings, after hours, on the street, and close to where they live;

6. Calling tenants to discuss buyout offers, even after tenants have firmly expressed that they are not interested;

7. Pressuring tenants to quickly accept buyout offers.

We would like our interactions with you to reflect the civility and respect that we believe we deserve. We further ask that you examine your methods of operation, and comply with all laws, including the Tenant Protection Act of 2008, and the newly enacted buyout protection. We would ask that you treat your role as a landlord with the gravity it deserves, and that you respect both the letter and the spirit of the law.

Sincerely,

The Toledano Tenants Coalition

Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened 'to drop dynamite on the building'

Report: State investigating East Village landlord Raphael Toledano

Report: Uncle suing nephew broker Raphael Toledano over $100 million East Village deal

Report: Raphael Toledano completes purchase of 16-building East Village portfolio

More about alleged harassment and landlord visits via Brook Hill Properties

Brook Hill Properties launches chocolate offensive

In op-ed, Raphael Toledano says that he wants 'to make the East Village a better place'

Report: East Village landlord Raphael Toledano allegedly misrepresented himself as a lawyer

Royale looking forward to the next 10 years on Avenue C

As we've been reporting, the owners of The Wayland on Avenue C are planning on opening a new neighborhood bar called The Drift ... first at 129 Avenue C, then when those plans didn't work out, at 157 Avenue C, the current home of Royale. In fact, co-owners Robert Ceraso and Jason Mendenhall were on this month's CB3/SLA agenda for a new liquor license for the space.

Apparently, this is no longer in the making at the Royale space. We heard from Royale's management yesterday, and they assured us that they aren't going anywhere ... Royale even renegotiated a new 10-year lease at No. 157 between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.

Here's a statement that Royale management shared with us:

As we go into our 10th year of business, we would like to thank all of our loyal customers for their dedicated patronage. We are unendingly grateful to all of our wonderful neighbors, who together have helped to weave the complex and rewarding fabric of this exceptional community.

After being welcomed so many years ago, we have always attempted to return the favor the only way we know how: with a smile, a burger, and a place you can hopefully call your home away from home.

Even when tragedy struck in the form of Hurricane Sandy leaving us as well as our neighbors struggling, it was your continued love and support that allowed us to grow and move forward.

Most of all, though, we just feel really damn lucky to be part of your lives.

All of us at Royale are looking forward to serving our beloved community for the next 10 years and we hope that you will join us.

Happy 2016,
Royale

We asked Ceraso for comment on this development.

"The Wayland supports the Royale team's decision to continue at their location on Avenue C. They have always been good neighbors and we are glad that they will continue to be for years to come," he said via email.

And as we noted yesterday, Ceraso is hosting a neighborhood meeting tonight at the Wayland, 700 E. Ninth St. at Avenue C. This meeting is still a go, though the agenda is slightly different with the Royale space off the agenda.

"We still extend our invitation to our neighbors to come and have a sit down with us at the Wayland to discuss anything and everything anyone has on their minds and to try to start a healthy dialogue between neighbors and bar owners that we hope can benefit all of us," Ceraso said. "We’ll serve some food and some drinks and hopefully make some new friends."



Previously on EV Grieve:
Wayland owners catching a Drift on Avenue C

Wayland owners now eyeing Royale space for The Drift on Avenue C

Wayland owners hosting a neighborhood Q-and-A tomorrow night about new venture at 157 Avenue C

Report: Owners of Phebe's and Penny Farthing are reopening the Rodeo Bar on 3rd Avenue

[EVG photo from July]

After sitting vacant for nearly 18 months on Third Avenue and East 27th Street, the space housing the former Rodeo Bar is coming back to life as — the Rodeo Bar.

Kips Bay Corner had the scoop yesterday that the owners of East Village bars Phebe's on the Bowery and Penny Farthing on Third Avenue will be reopening the space as the Rodeo Bar. There's no other information available at the moment.

As we first reported in July 2014, the bar — billed as "NYC’s longest running honky-tonk" — closed for good after 27 years in business. In a message on Facebook, the owners said that recent rent increases, "combined with a changing landscape, have made it impossible for us continue."

The storefront at 375 Third Ave. had a $58,333 monthly rent ask.

Will this ice cream give you Satisfaction?

As always pretty much ... I like Andre Trenier's 1980s(usually!)-inspired murals on the roll-down gate at Mikey Likes It, 199 Avenue A near East 12th Street.

For January, it's Mick Jagger...



And the flavor of the month — "Satisfaction," a Snickers ice cream with a caramel swirl and roasted peanuts. Might go well with a cold Italian pizza.

Small electrical fire reported on East 11th Street this afternoon

EVG regular peter radley shared these photos of the FDNY responding to what was believed to be an electrical fire on East 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue... between Webster Hall and the post office...



There wasn't any word of injuries or extensive damage at the scene...

Adam Purple's legacy

[Photo via BoweryBoogie]

There were three articles published during the last week of 2015 related to Adam Purple's legacy, including the new bar operated by the Gerber Group that bears his name at the Hotel Indigo on Ludlow Street.

Purple, aka David Wilkie, was an environmentalist and activist known for his elaborate Garden of Eden on the Lower East Side. He died on Sept. 15 at age 84.

---

1) On Dec. 26, The New York Times published an article titled "Meant as Homage, Bar’s Naming for Downtown Squatter Is Perceived as a Slight."

Per the article:

By nearly any measure, Mr. Purple — a dedicated ascetic who lived in an abandoned tenement, got water from a hydrant, read by candlelight and kept warm with a wood-burning stove — is an odd symbol for a 24-story hotel with “spalike bathrooms” and a terrace swimming pool.

“The gentrification, the consumerism, it’s the opposite of everything he stood for,” said the photographer Harvey Wang, who began documenting Mr. Purple, whose birth name was David Wilkie, in 1977. “It’s just appalling.”

---

2) On Dec. 28, BoweryBoogie posted an op-ed written by Purple's grandson, Steve Mason.

Per the post:

“Mr. Purple” is not an honorable tribute. Believe me, I would love for David’s legacy to be memorialized, and I’m happy that he achieved notoriety enough to be considered for exploitation by a midtown corporate property development committee. However, a fancy hotel bar is not the right vehicle. At best, it’s tone deaf.

In an email to us on Dec. 28, Mason wrote, "I only found out about this travesty [on Dec. 27]. He and I were not close, but this is horrifying and I've been sick to my stomach for the last 24 hours over it."

---

3) There's a lengthy investigation in the current issue of The Villager dated Dec. 31 titled "The dark side of Purple." Editor Lincoln Anderson puts together the activist's past through a series of phone conversations and an exchange of documents and letters with Purple's two daughters, step-sisters Jenean and Lenore, who say that their father sexually abused them while growing up in Australia in the 1960s.

Per the article:

Asked what specifically Purple did to them or had them do, [Jenean] said, “Oh, everything — that’s what we were about — our purpose. He trained us, with pornography magazines, films, comics. I read ‘The Kinsey Report’ when I was age 10.”

According to Australian court documents obtained by The Villager, Purple served a two-year prison sentence for the molestation charges at Long Bay Penitentiary in Sydney. (In a letter dated from March 1967, Purple proclaimed his innocence to the children’s maternal grandparents, "asserting that his second wife was not a fit guardian for his daughters.")

One of the daughters, Jenean, told The Villager that Purple himself was sexually abused by his mother as a child ... and that his mother was also a victim of "generational sexual abuse."

As The Villager concludes:

Hopefully, the two narratives can somehow coexist and inform: on the one hand, the story of a family that finally healed from domestic sexual abuse, and, on the other, a man who built a new life for himself — and a glorious garden — on the Lower East Side and left a lasting legacy of environmental consciousness.

You can read the full article here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] The upscale hotel bar with a pool named for the late environmentalist Adam Purple (44 comments)

[Updated] The Gerber Group responds to criticism over Mr. Purple (23 comments)

As the Hotel Indigo and Mr. Purple continue efforts to be part of the LES neighborhood (25 comments)

Sushi in the works for Avenue C and East 8th Street

The restaurant space on the northwest corner of Avenue C and Eighth Street has seen a variety of concepts come and go in recent years.

Lumé, the "Epicurean drinkery," was the last venture to try this corner… which took over for the short-lived Life - Kitchen and Bar … which had taken over for Verso. Other restaurants here in the past seven years include Caffe Pepe Rosso and Caffe Cotto.

Now a group has plans to open a sushi restaurant in the space. Not much is known about the applicants, who will appear before CB3's SLA committee meeting on Jan. 11 for a new liquor license.

The questionnaire (PDF!) on file at the CB3 website ahead of the meeting shows a chef's table seating from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with outdoor seating available every day from noon to midnight. In addition, the proprietors have bar seating hours listed on Monday-Wednesday 4 p.m. to midnight, and noon to 4 a.m. Thursday through Sunday.

Here is a diagram of the still-unnamed restaurant that's with the application online...


[Click to go big]

The SLA meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the CB3 office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East 8th Street and Avenue C, home to 5 restaurants in recent years, is now on the market

Wayland owners hosting a neighborhood Q-and-A tomorrow night about new venture at 157 Avenue C

[Image via Instagram]

Last week, we reported that Robert Ceraso and Jason Mendenhall, who own The Wayland at 700 E. Ninth St. at Avenue C (as well as Good Night Sonny on St. Mark's Place and First Avenue), have plans to open a new bar called The Drift in the current Royale space at 157 Avenue C between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.

Next Monday, Ceraso and Mendenhall will appear before CB3's SLA committee to apply for a new liquor license for No. 157. (The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. in the CB3 office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.)

Ahead of that, Ceraso promised to hold a Q-and-A with neighbors who may have any questions about the new venture... or anything else related to his bars. Below, Ceraso provides details about the meeting... as well as responds to some of the comments in the previous post accusing him of running a loud bar, etc.

My bars follow all the rules. Close our doors on time. Always monitor our noise levels. Serve food all hours. Have responsible security staff and managers/owners on site every day. Always do what we say we are going to do at CB3 SLA meetings.

We have no tvs, we never participate in bar crawls or Santacon, don’t offer boozy brunches and The Wayland keeps live music alive in a neighborhood that has lost most of it’s music venues, 4 nights a week as a labor of love. We have strong relationships with our neighbors at 700 E. Ninth St. and we have gardens on both sides of our bar with no direct neighbors across either street.

So I ask myself, who could I be offending with my bluegrass and dixieland live music and mostly rock 'n' roll soundtrack for the rest of the evenings?

I was going to do a Q-and-A for 157 Avenue C anyway, why not start a monthly meeting where our neighbors can not only talk to me but also maybe down the road we can get some other business owners involved as well?

This Tuesday Jan. 5 from 5 to 7 p.m., I’m hosting a meeting at The Wayland for anyone who has questions or concerns about anything we are doing, including The Wayland, Good Night Sonny and 157 Avenue C. Refreshments will be served.

Hopefully we can have some good discussions about living together and maybe some of your more adamant commenters will show up and meet us face to face.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Wayland owners now eyeing Royale space for The Drift on Avenue C

Temporary IDNYC center opens today on Avenue D

[Oops, sorry, wrong ID]



A temporary IDNYC enrollment site opens today at the Henry Street Settlement/Jobs Plus Site at 24 Avenue D near East Third Street ... and will remain open through Jan. 15.

Per Councilmember Rosie Mendez's website:

The IDNYC program launched in 2015 providing New York City residents with the opportunity to get a free identification card. IDNYC provides access to City services and cultural institutions, numerous discounts, and gives the peace of mind that comes from having recognized identification.

You will be able to use your IDNYC card at any public library in New York... as well as discounts on movie tickets, Broadway shows, sporting events, theme parks, and NYC landmarks and attractions. (Find the list of discounts here.)

By the way, the IDs won't get you into a bar. Also, several big banks, including Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase and Capital One, refuse to accept the card as a primary form of identification, per The New York Times in an editorial the other day.

The site is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every weekday except Tuesday, when the hours are from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can make an appointment by visiting www.nyc.gov/idnyc or calling 311.

...and the pop-up launch is this afternoon at 1...

A Choice new space for cleaners on Avenue B

A storefront shuffle to note on Avenue B between East Second Street and East Third Street ... where Choice Cleaners is moving two storefronts to the north, to where the former pet supply shop was until a few weeks ago...



The new space will be larger for the owner, who plans on expanding her alteration services, per EVG contributor Stacie Joy.

And at the former deli next to Cornerstone ... the landlord is taking a new approach with the for rent sign...


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

Week in Grieview

[New Year's Day on Avenue A via Derek Berg]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Gone but not forgotten (Friday)

Winter coat drive underway at Maryhouse on East Third Street (Wednesday)

The latest PS 64 debacle: Investors sue Gregg Singer (Thursday)

The Lazy Llama Coffee Bar is open in the former Bluebird space on East First Street (Tuesday)

Wayland owners now eyeing Royale space for The Drift on Avenue C (Tuesday)

Sweethaus Cupcake Cafe opening an outpost on St. Mark's Place (Monday)

Developer Douglas Steiner lands $130 million loan for condo construction at former Mary Help of Christians space (Tuesday)

Mamoun's Falafel is moving on St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)

99¢ Pizza now serving 99¢ pizza on Avenue A (Thursday)

The city's first free wi-fi kiosk is now outside Starbucks on Third Avenue and East 15th Street (Monday)

Future tenant in the works for the former Nevada Smiths space (Monday)

Bluestone Lane Coffee signage arrives at 51 Astor Place (Thursday)

The MáLà Project now open on First Avenue (Wednesday)

City mentions the "S" word! (Monday)

Columbia Care brands its marijuana dispensary on East 14th Street (Tuesday)

A dry cleaner-laundromat combo for the former Little Pakistan Deli space on Second Avenue (Monday)

397-401 E. Eighth St. now with mini balconies, AC units (Thursday)

The "Star Wars" stunt burger (Tuesday)

There won't be any skating on Extell Lake this winter (Wednesday)

Tricked-out barber pole arrives on East Sixth Street (Wednesday)

Soothsayer is hiring on Avenue A (Monday)

The Red-Tailed Hawks of Tompkins Square Park Calendar 2016

January's Model: Christo

Photo today via Bobby Williams

2015 Citi Bike recap: 10 million-plus trips

[Photo from Dec. 15 on 7th and A by Derek Berg]

On Thursday afternoon, the 10 millionth trip was taken on a Citi Bike.

On this occasion, Mayor de Blasio and Citi Bike released a statement:

Ridership increased 24 percent in 2015 – including seven days in which ridership exceeded 50,000 trips, twice during the Papal visit in September.

Citi Bike has far and away the highest ridership volume of any bike share system in the nation, and is on par with the largest bike share systems in the Western hemisphere. There have been nearly 9 million trips taken on Mexico City’s similarly sized EcoBici bike share in 2015, and London’s larger Santander Cycle Hire was on pace for 9,943,074 trips in 2015.

As for the 10 millionth trip taker, he or she is receiving a free year of membership, plus three gift memberships to share with family and friends, per the statement.

Happy New Year's Ray

A late-night/early-morning scene at Ray's Candy Store at 113 Avenue A...



And Ray turns 83 this month...

Photos by Peter Brownscombe