This mural, titled "unalienable," went up over the holiday weekend alongside the 1st Ave. Laundry Center on Second Street at First Avenue. The work — freehand spray — is by BKFoxx.
Monday, July 6, 2020
On 2nd Street: Life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
This mural, titled "unalienable," went up over the holiday weekend alongside the 1st Ave. Laundry Center on Second Street at First Avenue. The work — freehand spray — is by BKFoxx.
[Updated] Phase 3 begins today
[The TSP dog run in April via Stacie Joy]
Gov. Cuomo cleared NYC to enter Phase 3 of the state's four-phase reopening plan today.
Under this phase, personal care services — including nail and tanning salons, spas, massage parlors and tattoo shops — can open with COVID-19 safeguards in place. (Note: State regulations prohibit any service that requires a customer to remove a face mask, so no tongue piercings or facials.)
In addition, the Tompkins Square Park dog run is expected to reopen today after nearly three months ... and the hoops are said to be returning to the basketball courts — here and elsewhere in the city. However, any kind of organized team sports and group play are off-limits, as they remain high-risk activities.
NOT part of Phase 3: Indoor dining, which has been postponed indefinitely given the rise in COVID-19 cases in other states. This story was well-covered last week at Eater ... Gothamist and Grub Street.
Updated 9 a.m.
The Tompkins Square Park dog run is confirmed open... (thanks Steven!)
John's of 12th Street remains closed due to mechanical issues
John's of 12th Street has been closed since mid-May due to a plumbing issue in the building that's unrelated to the classic Italian restaurant here between First Avenue and Second Avenue...
Unfortunately, it looks as if the necessary repairs and subsequent inspections are moving at a glacial pace. From the restaurant's most-recent Instagram post — five weeks ago:
Con Ed and building still resolving the plumbing issue. Hopefully the city will be able to move very quickly to get whatever inspections and such needs to be done so we can resume making the best Italian food for the world’s best customers.
John's, which opened in 1908, had been offering takeout and delivery this spring.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Exclusive: New owners of John's of 12th Street look to carry on the restaurant's tradition
Illumina East closes on Avenue B
Illumina East, the second-floor yoga studio at 96 Avenue B between Sixth Street and Seventh Street, is now closed.
Owner Rian Bodner officially announced the closure last week in a Facebook post:
This space did more than I expected, lasted longer, frankly, than I expected. Brought in all the right people, all the right challenges. It's hard to ask myself if I would have done it all if I knew I would have to hand the keys back today. Yes. I might even have been easier on myself. More patient. More willing to trust. I know we will continue on somehow but at this moment I think I finally feel sad about it. Thank you everyone who poured a piece of their magic into Illumina East. I don't know what's next, but it's an opportunity to dream bigger.
Small yoga and pilates studios in the neighborhood have had to pivot to offering classes online. Gyms and small studios were supposed to resume operations in the state's Phase Four reopening plan.
However, last week, Gov. Cuomo blindsided owners by taking them out of the mix. As NY1 reported, gym owners wonder when they may open if there isn't a Phase 5.
More than 3,000 people in the NY fitness industry formed a coalition to file a lawsuit against Gov. Cuomo. Per NY1: "Owners of the gym say they should be considered essential businesses because they help people get or stay healthy."
There are several online petitions in circulation calling for smaller studies to be able to open in Phase 3. (Here and here.)
You can revisit our post on at-home fitness options at this link.
ICYMI: 6 E. 2nd St., home of Ramones history, is for sale
As Jennifer Gould recently reported at the Post, 6 E. Second St. is now on the market for $7.25 million.
A loft in the four-level building just east of the Bowery — at Joey Ramone Place — was the longtime home of Arturo Vega, the artistic director for the Ramones who created the band's iconic logo.
The listing via B6 Real Estate Advisors is now online:
The four (4) story property consists of one (1) retail store, along with three (3) residential units. The current residential units consist of three (3) full floor loft apartments. All three (3) of the loft apartments are fair market.
The property has 26 feet of frontage on East 2nd Street and has a depth of 63 feet. Additionally, the property is comprised of approximately 6,408 square feet broken down as follows: 4,806 SF residential and 1,602 SF retail.
The retail tenant, the John Derian Company, apparently also owns the building.
There isn't any mention of Vega or the Ramones in the listing. Other onetime residents here include Fayette Hauser, John Flowers and Pam Tent of the Cockettes.
As for the Ramones, plenty has been written about their relationship with the space (Joey and Dee Dee lived here early on, the band signed their first contract on Vega's coffee table, etc.)... and here's footage of the band playing in the loft in February 1975...
Vega died in June 2013 at age 65.
[Above the front door at No. 6]
Sunday, July 5, 2020
An Avenue A curtain call for Alphabets
A Week in Review-type item... as reported this past Monday, Alphabets has closed. Owner Linda Heidinger is moving the novelty-gift shop to Palm Springs, Calif. after a 35-year presence on Avenue A ... and Alphabets shared this parting shot from Avenue A via Instagram on Friday...
Week in Grieview
[Photo on 10th Street by Ed Yoo]
Posts from this past week included...
• Here is an updated map of what's open in the East Village right now (Friday)
• Alphabets has left the East Village (Monday)
• RIP Margaret Morton (Saturday)
• RIP Holly Lane (Thursday)
• Completion date for new office building at 3 St. Mark's Place is February 2022 (Monday)
• This week's NY See panel (Thursday)
• At B&H Dairy: "A Home for Everyone" (Wednesday)
• Essex Card Shop is now open in its new Avenue A home (Monday)
• Green Garden Buffet debuts on 9th Street (Friday)
• East Village Vintage Collective has reopened its doors; ditto for 9th St. Vintage and Spark Pretty (Wednesday)
• Lease termination notice at Third Rail Coffee; Future You Cafe has closed (Thursday)
• These 3 dry cleaners have closed (Wednesday)
• Reader report: East Village street-cleaning tickets back in full effect (Thursday)
• Nolita Pizza leaves 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)
• Another crazy stormy, then another double rainbow (Monday)
• A new surface for Extra Place (Monday)
• Former Haveli Banjara space is being converted into an apartment on 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)
• 2nd Street post the big sinkhole swallow (Wednesday)
• The PokéSpot has closed (Wednesday)
• GNC closing its remaining East Village outpost (Monday)
... and thanks to Laura Sewell for sharing this photo from First Avenue the other evening... the sprit in the sky...
... and a reader passed along this seasonal shot from last night along 10th Street ...
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Follow EVG on Instragram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics.
Noted
From the EVG inbox ... Someone re-purposed one of the broken police barricades along Avenue B's Open Streets into this "Police Brutality" skateboard sign and attached it to a No Parking Anytime pole on 10th Street along Tompkins Square Park...
This has ben up for several weeks now.
Saturday, July 4, 2020
RIP Margaret Morton
[Photo via In Memory of Margaret Morton]
East Village resident Margaret Morton, a professor at Cooper Union and photographer who documented the city's homeless, died on June 27 in her apartment on East 10th Street. Her sister told The New York Times that Morton was being treated for a form of leukemia.
Through a series of books, including "Transitory Gardens, Uprooted Lives" (1993), "The Tunnel: The Underground Homeless of New York City" (1995) and "Glass House" (2004), Morton humanely captured the everyday lives of her subjects.
An excerpt from the Times:
From her apartment on East 10th Street ... Morton had a front row view of the homeless encampments that engulfed Tompkins Square Park in the late 1980s. As she walked to work at Cooper Union, where she was a professor, she began to photograph these improvised structures, showing the ways people were moved to make themselves at home even when they had so little.
When the city bulldozed the park in late 1989, scattering those who lived there, Ms. Morton followed them and spent the next 10 years documenting their world and that of others on the margins, not only telling their stories but also advocating for their welfare. The author Philip Lopate, who described her as "our modern-day Jacob Riis," said recently that "she pulled off a rare combination of socially engaged photography that was also formally exquisite."
"Glass House" documented the teen squatters living in an abandoned manufacturing plant on 10th Street and Avenue D.
She wrote this in 2004 — 10 years after the NYPD evicted the teens:
"Gentrification has transformed the East Village, erasing nearly every memory of its history as a refuge for ethnic groups and the radical fringe. Although I did not realize it at the time, the story of 'Glass House' marks the end of an era."
Friends and former students created a Facebook group in her honor. You can read tributes to her here.
You can find her website with samples of her work at this link.
The return of B-Side
B-Side, the neighborhood bar on Avenue B, closed back in March after 17 years here between 12th Street and 13th Street.
At the time, we were told that new owners were taking over the space.
However, those plans never further materialized and B-Side's ownership has announced that the bar reopens today with curbside seating. (They also unveiled B-Side t-shirts for sale.) Hours: 2-10 p.m.
In other reopening news nearby, 11th Street Bar between Avenue A and Avenue B returned yesterday, pouring its first pint of Guinness in 109 days. The bar is open from 2-10 p.m. for limited curbside seating and take-home drinks.
Updated:
A look at their curbside space...
Friday, July 3, 2020
Happy Fourth of July weekend!
But before we get to July 4, wishing all of you a Merry July Christmas ... Carol from East 5th Street spotted this pine-fresh beauty today on Fifth Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square... something to pair with your Hallmark Channel Christmas in July celebration.
Instant Cults classic
The local pop duo Cults have a new single out ... check out the video here for "Spit You Out," a nod to the mukbangers of YouTube.
Book Swap Saturday happening again tomorrow (Saturday!) on 10th Street
Book Swap Saturday is happening again tomorrow (Saturday!) outside the Tompkins Square Library branch on 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.
This will be the third Saturday for the free book swap, which is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (To be clear, the library isn't involved in this swap.)
Per the organizers: "Let's share our used books to help us get through this pandemic together. Leave some and take others."
And they'd like to see it expand to other NYPL branches until the libraries can safely reopen.
Thanks to Stacie Joy for the photos from last Saturday!
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