Week in Grieview

[Entrance to the 14th Street flea market via Bruce Beschner‎]

• Carlina Rivera states her opposition over plan to transfer air rights for new St. Mark's Place office building (Thursday)

• Officially on egg watch now in Tompkins Square Park (Saturday)

• Coffee time: New counter space coming to Gem Spa (Friday)

• A moment with Wayne Diamond as he checks out "The Wayne Diamond" at Russo's (Wednesday)

• Ralph's Famous Italian Ices & Ice Cream coming to Avenue A (Tuesday)


[Photo on 2nd Avenue by Derek Berg]

• SMØR now open for dinner on 12th Street (Wednesday)

• Why the playground at P.S. 19 has been closed for community use (Friday)

• Another fire at 204 E. 13th St. (Monday)

• The state's plastic bag ban is NOW in effect (Sunday)

• Suki is moving to a larger space around the corner (Monday)

• Half Gallery debuts on 4th and B (Saturday)

• More of the explosion site condoplex comes into view at 45 E. 7th St. (Monday)

• Former PS 64 not subject to the city’s new crackdown on deteriorating buildings (Tuesday)

• Heavy lifting at the future tech hub (Monday)

• Breaking the internet 1995 style at the Anthology Film Archives (Thursday)

• "The Icon variable" (Friday)

• Queens of the Street group art show opens on 11th Street (Friday)

• Prince Tea House announces its arrival on 10th Street (Tuesday)

• Time for the Life Time signage on Cooper Square (Thursday)

• The Marshal seizes the former Hot Kitchen space (Monday)

• That Duane Reade by Walgreens closed on 10th and 3rd (Monday)


[Everyone's favorite Almodovar film]

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Time check

Houston and Norfolk this morning... several hours after Daylight Saving Time went into effect...

Saturday's parting shot

St. Mark's Place and Third Avenue tonight...

Half Gallery debuts on 4th and B

Half Gallery is now open on the northwest corner of Avenue B and Fourth Street.

The inaugural exhibit features the work of Tanya Merrill, which will be on display through March 28.

The gallery hours: Tuesday - Friday, noon to to 6 p.m.; until 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

In mid-December, the gallery announced it was relocating from the Upper East Side to 235 E. Fourth St.

The gallery started on the Lower East Side in 2008 before heading north. Here's more via ARTnews:

Bill Powers, who founded Half Gallery, said that many of the artists the gallery has worked with “have a real connection to [the East Village] and that art scene,” adding that the move is “a little bit of a homecoming.”

With the Swiss Institute, the Brant Foundation, and other art institutions opening in the East Village recently, the neighborhood remains a hotspot for art, Powers said, adding, “We used to get a bigger crowd for openings when we were downtown because I think the gravity of the art world, spiritually, is downtown or in the outer boroughs.”

The gallery takes the space of Tapanju Turntable (and Kate's Joint until 2012!).

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's a look at the new Half Gallery exterior on Avenue B and 4th Street

Officially on egg watch now in Tompkins Square Park

[Photos by Steven]

The egg watch clock (don't forget to set it ahead one hour tonight) is on in Tompkins Square Park for the resident red-tailed hawks, Amelia and Christo.

Goggla has been keeping tabs on the two. From a post earlier this week:

I wasn't positive of the situation until I returned to the park at sunrise this morning and found Christo laying down in the nest and Amelia perched nearby. He came out for a few minutes and they mated, then returned to the nest with tree bark. At that point, Amelia laid back down in the nest and remained there for most of the day. I saw them trade places twice, which is classic brooding behavior.

Hawks usually lay 1-3 eggs over the span of a few days. After the first egg is laid, they will continue to leave the nest to mate, but Amelia will stay in the nest through the night. Last year, Amelia appeared to lay her first egg March 13, so they are early this year. However, I'm not really surprised as they completed their nest in January and have been mating regularly over the last few weeks. Incubation will take about six weeks, so a hatch time would be mid to late April.

Meanwhile, here's a bonus shot from Steven of Christo gathering materials to fortify the nest...



Not sure of the enhancements in store for the nest — we didn't spot any posted work permits ...

'Onely' you

The Brooklyn-based Lightning Bug (aka Audrey Kang) have released a new song called "The Onely Ones," as seen in the above video.

In other Lightning Bug news, the band's second record will get a vinyl release next month via Fat Possum.

A new East Village walk of fame?

Workers yesterday were putting in a new sidewalk around the recently renovated storefront on the southwest corner of First Avenue and St. Mark's Place... and they left it unattended overnight.

And so this morning...





And obviously...



Anyway, workers have divided this former single-occupant storefront into three spaces. Eiyo Bowl, a vegan quick-serve restaurant specializing in acai and rice bowls, will be the first tenant here at 131 First Ave. (now going by 82 St. Mark's Place), as previously reported.

The previous tenant, Foot Gear Plus, closed in July 2018 after nearly 40 years in business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• After nearly 40 years, Foot Gear Plus is closing on 1st Avenue and St. Mark's Place

• What's next for 131 1st Ave., the former Foot Gear Plus space?

• A look at 131 1st Ave., currently being divided into 3 retail spaces

Mid-morning cloud break

A cloudy moment this morning ... view from Second Avenue via Goggla...

Coffee time: New counter space coming to Gem Spa

Work started yesterday on new counter space inside Gem Spa, the corner shop on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place (thanks to Steven for the photos!) ...



With the incoming granite counter and retro stools, Parul Patel, who recently took over running the shop from her father Ray, is expanding Gem Spa's coffee and tea service and offering companion items like pastries, bagels and knishes. (FYI: the coffee will be from Porto Rico Importing Co.) You can also get one of their signature egg creams.

In addition to the counter service, Gem Spa continues to expand the merch line with some limited editions...

View this post on Instagram

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BODEGA 🥤💎 @StudmuffinNYC x @besteggcream is live at St. Marks and 2nd Avenue’s #GemSpa Bodega 💎 Shop Small- Support A Local Business- Buy Merch, Buy a Vegan Egg Cream and help keep Old School New York alive ☠️ or else you’ll end up with another #SchitiBank 💩💩 Send DM to order. #EastVillageStreetwear #EastVillage #NYC #streetwear #NYCstreetwear #eggcream #LES #EVNYC #EV #BodegaBoys

A post shared by Kyle Brincefield (@kylebrincefield) on Mar 2, 2020 at 3:05pm PST

Previously on EV Grieve:
• At the Gem Spa Cash Mob (Sept. 16)

• Get your Gem Spa t-shirts or photos of Madonna — at Gem Spa! (Aug. 16)

• Will you buy a Gem Spa T-shirt? (June 28)

• "Gem Spa is open!" (June 18)

• What is happening at Gem Spa? (June 11)

• A visit to Gem Spa (May 10)

Why the playground at P.S. 19 has been closed for community use

We've heard from several readers in recent weeks who've tried to use the playground behind P.S. 19 on First Avenue between 11th Street and 12th Street after school hours. In one case, a custodian told a resident that the space was closed to the public "until further notice."

This playground, featuring a synthetic turf field and painted track, debuted in June 2018 ... and was open to the community after school and on weekends and holidays — just not when in use by P.S. 19 or any of their after-school programs.

Turns out that the school is no longer receiving funds from the Department of Education to cover the costs of staff opening and maintaining the playground during non-school hours and weekends. (Despite the mysterious lack of funding, we're told that custodians were continuing to open the playground in response to "to the community’s love of this space.")

You can learn more about the situation here today from 10 a.m. to noon at the Sirovich Center, 331 E. 12th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, where reps for the Trust for Public Land will be on hand. They're collecting signatures in support of funding to keep the playground open for community use.

We'll have more about the situation in another post... along with ways that you can possibly help and have your voice heard about the funding.

Since 1996, the Trust for Public Land has helped revamp 200 playgrounds at New York City public schools through a public-private partnership. Aside from P.S. 19, they've worked on playgrounds in the East Village at P.S. 15 The Roberto Clemente School and the Children’s Workshop School/East Village Community School.

H/T Choresh Wald!

Queens of the Street group art show opens tonight on 11th Street

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A post shared by we are all weird (@iheartgraffiti) on Mar 2, 2020 at 10:32pm PST

Starting tonight, Come Back Daily, the CBD shop on 11th Street, is playing host to Queens of the Street, an all-female group street-art show curated by Iheartgraffiti.

Per the invite: "From local muralists and wheatpaste artists to typographic and mixed media designers, Queens of the Street will bring together 12 women to showcase their groundbreaking work."

The roster of artists (with links to their work):
• My Life in Yellow
• Stephibones
• Hissxx
• Keli Lucas
• Marzipan Physics
• Stephanie Grajales
• WORM
• Chi Chi Paintz
• Glxy Gal
• Sara Lynne Leo
• Soulthundre

The show kicks off with an opening reception from 6-8 tonight ... followed by a panel discussion with the artists this coming Wednesday from 6:30-8 p.m.

You can see the work on view through March 20. The hours are noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; until 6 p.m. on Sundays.

Come Back Daily is at 516 E. 11th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

'The Icon variable'

Been meaning to note this long read from Curbed titled "The story of a store."

The piece explores the city's retail vacancy or the "luxury blight" crisis ... with a focus 0n 441-445 E. Ninth St. (aka 145 Avenue A), the six-story building that Icon Realty bought in 2014 for $10.1 million.

As we documented at the time, the existing retail tenants that made up the charming row of storefronts on the Ninth Street side were either not offered lease renewals or given massive rent hikes.

Meanwhile, all but one of the new tenants (four of five) who rented the Icon-renovated retail spaces were gone within a year. The casualties included BeetleBug, the floral design shop, Mahalo New York Bakery and Gelarto.

Writer Neil deMause talked with one of those tenants, Isiah Michael, who opened the Classic Man Barber Lounge in 2018. Per the article:

An investment banker who’d gone to barbering school, Michael thought he could make a go of it in the paired storefronts, even if the rent was a bit higher than he’d anticipated.

"What we didn’t expect was the Icon variable," he says. A series of mishaps — malfunctioning air conditioning, a continually flooding basement, and an unannounced electrical upgrade that Michael claims cost him and his partner $30,000 in lost equipment and inventory — led to legal battles with his landlord, and ultimately an eviction notice last February.

When Michael offered to bring over a lease payment he had been withholding in a dispute over repair costs, he says, Icon “responded saying they were terminating the lease.”

You can read the post at this link.

As for this building, there are three new tenants on the way in: Ralph's Famous Italian Ices & Ice Cream ... Village Crêperie ... and Social Tees.

Hopefully they won't suffer from the "Icon variable."

Previously on EV Grieve:
• On East 9th Street Dusty Buttons is closing after 125% rent hike: 'Saying goodbye will hurt like hell'

• The Upper Rust is moving away from East 9th Street and the East Village

Thursday's parting shot

Photo on Fourth Street today by Derek Berg...

Spring break

The cherry blossoms are in bloom along the Seventh Street side of Tompkins Square Park... thanks to Goggla for the photo!