Friday, May 27, 2016

Claim: This truck hit a bike this morning on the Lower East Side



Via the EVG inbox...

On my commute this morning I watched this truck crush a bicycle going north on Allen at Houston. The young woman riding it jumped clear & looked ok. The truck didn't stop. I chased it down & got the plate. I think the truck said EAN Holdings. Surely someone on here knows the lady who was riding that bike.

The greatest Escape of them all



Director John Carpenter, who also composed the scores for most of his movies ("Halloween" and "They Live," etc.), is revisiting some of his theme songs for a release next month.

Among the themes — "Escape From New York" from 1981. In the above video, Carpenter is joined by his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies.

Now we want to watch the movie. Again...

Lonely cone will work OT this holiday weekend protecting St. Mark's Place from growing sinkhole



Hopefully the M8 drivers will see this...



Photos by Steven

Updated 5-30

The cone has company for Memorial Day...



EV Grieve Etc.: Love for Casa Adela; protected bike lane for Chrystie Street


[Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]

Love for Casa Adela on Avenue C (Off the Grid)

The three candidates vying to lead CB3 (The Lo-Down)

Chrystie Street protected bike lane scheduled for Fall (Streetsblog)

Councilwoman Margaret Chin introduces new legislation that would reform the city's practices concerning deed restrictions (BoweryBoogie)

Survey: Majority of NYC voters think de Blasio does favors for his donors (Politico)

Ben Shaoul applies for a special permit via the Board of Standards and Appeals to build an Equinox at 196 Orchard St. (DNAinfo ... previously)

A look at interior designer Rhea Breck's for-sale 12th-floor co-op at 170 Second Ave. (New York Post)

Keeping cool with Christo (Laura Goggin Photography)

NYC area beach guide (Gothamist)

Remembering the Bleecker Street Cinema, now a Duane Reade (Ephemeral New York)

"The Godfather" plays this weekend at the IFC Center (Official website)

Revisiting Richard Kern's "The Right Side of My Brain," featuring Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins (Dangerous Minds)

... and remember — the fleet's in town...


[Photo on Astor Place by Derek Berg]

[Updated] Air Shaft Rabbit — saved!


[The other day]

As mentioned the other day, some residents spotted a rabbit loose in the air shaft behind some buildings on East First Street and East Second Street.

Anyway! Good news: Some residents were able to rescue the rabbit ...



... but the rabbit needs a permanent home...



Any takers? Suggestions? Let us know via the EV Grieve email... Naming rights are also available.

Thank you to everyone who offered to take in the bunny, who now has a new home and friend...

The annual Loisaida Festival happens this Sunday on Avenue C


[Poster by Adrian Viajero Roman]

Via the EVG inbox...

This year, the Loisaida Festival returns with a lineup that pays homage to the organization’s original Puerto Rican roots.

The mainstage lineup reflects those roots, bringing together a mix of legendary and rising Puerto Rican stars. These include hip-hop singer DayLuv, songstress Maxine Ashley, Lower East Salsa, and Johnny Colón. Macha Colón y Los Okapi will be joining the stage courtesy of La Marqueta Retoña. The carnival procession and Theater Lab return, providing entertainment for children and their families. Puerto Rican icon and international entertainment phenomenon, Iris Chacon, will host the festivities alongside Marine-combat-vet-turned actor, singer/activist J.W. Cortes (from FOX's "Gotham”).

The Loisaida Festival 2016’s expanded offerings preview a new stage in Loisaida, Inc.’s plans to combine STEAM programming with social services that meet the needs of the local community. Some of the new offerings include a Grassroots Innovation Fair, discussions on how art and digital technologies intersect, an expanded Healthy Living Zone, with free dental screenings for children, and a new Sustainable Innovation Zone, which will include a Bio Bus.

You can find the main stage schedule here.

The Festival hours on Sunday are 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Avenue C, from Sixth Street to 12th Street.

There are more events on Saturday, including an exhibition of original artwork from Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez's best-selling debut comic book "Guardians of the Lower East Side." Find more details here.

This marks the festival's 29th year.

The 75-cent coffee at Subway

The other day, while walking by the Subway (sandwich shop) on First Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street, I noticed their homemade sign for 75-cent coffee...



I'm not sure how new the sign is. But it was new to me. At 75 cents, the coffee was as inexpensive as I've seen it around here. (Ray's sells his for $1; Ink on A offers it for $1.25. I'm sure there are other low prices, but they're not on my radar.)

And does this Subway really serve 75-cent coffee in heart-shaped mugs like on a sign? What does 75-cent coffee at a Subway taste like?

I went inside to find out. I was a little surprised to find five people in line. (It wasn't even prime power lunch time.) Had I noticed the line, I would have left to return another time. However, I was already inside the door. And the smell of the bread had already permeated every fiber of my clothing.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to line up along the counter where the Subwayer was making sandwiches. So I just stood at the register. The worker glanced in my direction every so often, perhaps as a way to say that I was breaking Subway line protocol. And he was busy melting cheese on a Meatball Marinara 12 inch in the toaster.

Anyway, he eventually took my order. I asked for the coffee. He handed me an empty 12-ounce Subway cup for the coffee station ... as well as a container of half-and-half creamers. (Why not keep these by the coffee station? Theft problem?) He seemed a little harried and humorless to quiz about the lack of a heart-shaped mug like on the sign on the window.


[You owe me .75 cents]

As for the coffee, it was lukewarm and tasted stale.

The 2016 Lower East Side Festival of the Arts is this weekend



Now in its 21st year... and, as always, the events take place at the Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.

Head over to the Theater's website for a look at the numerous offerings tonight through Sunday.

And here's a highlights reel from last year's festival...



H/T Lola Sáenz

Another luxury building poised for East Houston-Broadway corridor



As you probably know, crews are demolishing the former BP station and adjacent one-level building that housed Puck Fair on East Houston and Lafayette.

Coming to that space one of these days: A building that will encompass 80,000 square feet of "flagship retail and boutique office" ...


[Rendering by Cookfox]

This building at 300 Lafayette will be getting some company.

As The Wall Street Journal noted yesterday, a joint venture of Madison Capital and Vornado Realty Trust have plans for a 6-story mixed-use building on that sliver of space between Broadway and Crosby...



Here's a rendering of the project looking toward the east on Houston near Broadway... (the Landmarks Commission signed off on this design back in 2013)...


Per the Journal:

The glass building will have about 11,500 square feet of retail space on the first and second floors with 22,751 square feet of high-end office space on floors three to six. In addition, the building will have an outdoor terrace. The developers hope to complete the building by mid-2018.

While this project had been in the works for years, Madison and Vornado just closed on the $25.8 million purchase of the site from the New York City Economic Development Corp. last Friday. Part of the space had used by the the MTA to park emergency vehicles.

Until late 2014, the space at Broadway housed the Honest Boy fruit stand for years. A mysterious fire took care of what was left of the stand last summer.


[Photo from April 2014 via Vanishing New York]

Noted


[Photo by Shawn Chittle]

Last night on Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Getting the Memorial Day Weekend started?

Imagining an Uber and Airbnb merger?

Either way, the police were apparently not too amused, according to Shawn Chittle who took the photo.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Beware of the budding sinkhole that nearly swallowed an M8 on St. Mark's Place


This happened at Avenue A.

The bus is gone now, @edenbrower reports... but the potential for sinking remains...

[Updated] 1 dead, 3 injured following shooting at the Irving Plaza


According to various published reports, one man died and three others were wounded in a shooting at Irving Plaza where rapper T.I. was headlining last night.

A 33-year-old man who was shot in the stomach died at Beth Israel, police sources told NBC 4.

Details from the Daily News:

With the headliner T.I. set to appear, the chaos erupted backstage shortly after 10 p.m., with a fight in a green room above the stage of the Union Square venue, NYPD officials and witnesses told the Daily News.

Hip hop artists Maino and Uncle Murda were performing when the sudden sound of gun shots sent hundreds into a frenzy.

An employee told The News that the carnage started as a beef between two rival crews associated with Maino and rapper Troy Ave. The gunman and the victims were all credentialed guests with access to the VIP area, a source said.

There's one report confirming that Crown Heights-based Troy Ave was shot in the leg. There are unconfirmed reports that the man who died was Troy Ave's manager.

Police say they're investigating how the gun(s) got into the venue on Irving Place at East 15th Street with the metal detectors set up.

Updated noon:

DNAinfo has more here... along with this Bratton quote: "The investigation is moving forward very rapidly and we expect to close it quickly," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Thursday during a radio interview on 710 WOR.

Updated 7 p.m.

Police have arrested Troy Ave in the shooting, via Gothamist. His friend and bodyguard, Ronald "Banga" McPhatter, was also confirmed as the fatality in the shooting.

The NYPD also released this surveillance video... showing a man who police ID'd as Troy Ave firing a gun ...



Updated 5/27

Billboard takes a look at the shooting from an insurance/risk-management perspective. A few excerpts:

"The fact of the matter is that [the] shooting took place in a location where a man had a beef and a gun," says Steve Adelman, VP of the Event Safety Alliance and head of Adelman Law Group. "That's obviously not specific to a genre of music, location of the club or much of anything else. It could have happened anywhere where those two criteria exist, including an elementary school, a movie theater or a military base."

And:

Historically, violence at rap shows often occurs in areas where artists and their entourages enter discreetly, such as backstage, VIP areas, green rooms or at off-site afterparties; this may have been the case at Irving Plaza on Wednesday, since talent and crew frequently use the building's smaller entrance on East 15th Street rather than its front doors. Given these areas are relatively exclusive, security is tight as far as access (one must have the proper laminate or sticker), but lax on metal detectors and pat-downs. From the smallest club to the highest-capacity stadiums and festivals, too often "whatever wants to walk in through the back door walks in through the back door," observes Peter Tempkins, managing director, entertainment, for HUB International, a leading insurance brokerage firm covering the live business.

About that for rent sign outside Cucina di Pesce on East 4th Street


[Photo from last week by Derek Berg]

One day last week, EVG contributor Derek Berg noticed that workers had boarded up part of the sidewalk cafe at Cucina di Pesce at 87 E. Fourth St. near Second Avenue.

Then on Tuesday, a for rent sign arrived at that section of the Italian restaurant. An ominous sign perhaps?



Owner Mehenni Zebentout offered an explanation.

"We just gave up the room next door as it belongs to a different landlord — the 89 E. Fourth St. part," he said via email.

The landlord for the space wanted $8,000 a month for what Zebentout said is a tiny room.

"So we decided to do without it," said Zebentout, who also owns the equally low-key Nomad around the corner on Second Avenue. "We have enough room to accommodate about 74 guests."

As for Cucina di Pesce, who will be opening their garden soon, here's what New York had to say about the restaurant:

Cucina di Pesce is the type of unpretentious, comfortably lived-in Italian restaurant that ruled New York before Mario Batali and his ilk turned the town upside-down. But if Cucina's ambience feels a bit dated, its flavors are absolutely contemporary. This is one of the best places in the city to get good Italian food on a budget.

7th Street building residents leaving flyers noting how long they've been without gas for cooking


[Photo Sunday by Steven]

Some residents at 95 E. Seventh St. have been posting flyers noting how long it has been since they've had gas for cooking in this building between Avenue A and First Avenue... (today marks Day 193)...


[Photo Sunday by Steven]

According to public records, the building sold last September for a little more than $6 million. It had been one of the numerous East Village properties owned by Morton Tabak and Co. (This is one of the 16 East Village buildings that Raphael Toledano purchased last fall.)

A resident told us that Brooklyn-based Halt Management is in charge of the building now.

Per the resident: "Our beautiful, late 19th-century tenement has been abused and destroyed during the seven months of construction with the goal of creating 'luxury units' out of the few vacant spaces." (They've also been without a super, per the resident.) There are several complaints on file with the DOB in recent days, including one from last Thursday noting "the walls are cracking and tenants are fearful for their safety."

The resident says that the management company has provided them with hot plates, and that, in total, they've received $150 in rent abatements.


[Reader submitted photo]

Updated noon

An EVG reader shared this photo... festive balloons with the No Gas message...