Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo yesterday from Tompkins Square Park by Stacie Joy)...

• East Village Loves NYC seeks a new commercial kitchen to help feed NYC’s food insecure (Tuesday) 

• Amid an influx of asylum seekers in the East Village, elected officials urge the city to open more reticketing centers (Monday) 

• Report explores the impact of Mount Sinai Beth Israel's potential closure on the local community (Wednesday) 

• On the Job: Talking with playwright Max Wolf Friedlich at the Connelly Theater (Thursday) 

• Ongoing building issues force Caffe Corretto to close after only 2 months in service on 12th Street (Tuesday)

• Happy 25th anniversary to Lavagna! (Thursday) 

• Everytable has closed its Avenue B outpost (and every other NYC location) (Wednesday) 

• Music venue wanted for former Rockwood Music Hall 2 space on the Lower East Side (Friday) 

• That penthouse with a cottage atop 1st Street and 1st Avenue is ... back... on... the... market! (Wednesday) 

• The piebald squirrel of Tompkins Square Park (Sunday) 

• Report: Kushner Cos. continues East Village exit plan (Friday) 

• More about the new taqueria opening in the former Chicken & the Egg space (Monday) 

• Today in vibrating severed hands (Sunday) 

• Dunkin' shutters on Cooper Square (Monday) 

• Looking at the Astor Place CVS renovation plans (Friday) 

• Yuca Bar remains closed for renovations (Monday)

... and keep your eyes open...    

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These East Village tenants held a dance party to call out their landlord's sewage treatment

This past Tuesday, East Village residents and their supporters gathered outside 256 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue to call on their landlord for safe building conditions. 

The newly formed EV Scharfman Coalition, along with the Cooper Square Committee, was behind this "Scharfman, Cut The Sh*t!" Dance Party. NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and Assembly Member Harvey Epstein also spoke on behalf of the tenants.

Some background, per Cooper Square officials: 

Tenants of landlord Mark Scharfman are calling on their landlord to meet with them as they've requested, stop taking tenants to court for legally withholding rent during sewage flooding, treat them respectfully, and provide safe, sanitary living conditions. 

After three rounds of sewage flooding in one East Village building and similar issues in another building, several responses from the fire department, and requests for repairs and maintenance unanswered or seriously delayed, tenants have banded together to bring attention to the terrible conditions they've lived through as well as their experiences with their landlord and management company as some now face housing court because they legally withheld rent for unlivable conditions. 

Mark Scharfman, the owner of the buildings and a landlord associated with close to 150 buildings in NYC, many of which are managed under his Beach Lane Property Management Company, has been accused of tax fraud by multiple organizations, serious maltreatment of tenants, and more for years. In addition, Scharfman has been on the Public Advocate's Worst Landlord List, coming in at number 44 in 2021 and number 28 in 2020.

"The conditions that these tenants have suffered through, including fecal matter entering into their apartments, is beyond the pale," said Cooper Square Committee organizer Illapa Sairitupac. "Scharfman has an obligation to listen to his tenants and keep his buildings in good repair at the very minimum. We demand he take them seriously."

 

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A post shared by Cooper Square Committee (@coopersquare)

Saturday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

Zines for sale outside Tompkins Square Park today by Jasper Krents... find 'em online here.

EVG Etc.: Remembering Wayne Kramer; celebrating Black History Month

Early evening view from 2nd Avenue

• RIP Wayne Kramer of the MC5 (Pitchfork ... The Associated Press... Detroit Free Press) 

• New York eyes rule changes to hire thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers who have legal work status in the U.S. (Bloomberg ... Gothamist) 

• Police seek four men who robbed the market on Eighth Street at Avenue D (CBS 2 ... The Post)

WANTED ROBBERY: 1/31/24 @NYPD9pct @ 8:00 AM inside 403 E 8 St four unidentified individuals approached a store employee. One of the individuals displayed a firearm & the others proceeded to remove currency & tobacco products from the deli. Any info call us at 800-577-TIPS pic.twitter.com/cj8PBdb5u7

— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) February 1, 2024

• Gov. Hochul called the rollout of New York's cannabis program a "disaster" (The City) 

• Celebrating Black History Month at the Abrons Art Center on the Lower East Side (Official site) ... take a guided tour of African American history in the East Village (Village Preservation)

• Inside the new exhibit, called "A Union of Hope," at the Tenement Museum (PIX11 ... official site) 

• Veselka has closed its outpost in the Market Line food hall on the LES after five years (Eater) 

• Inside the home of a yoga instructor on St. Mark's Place (Curbed)

• East Village students call for a ban on horse carriages in the city (The Village Sun)

• Sietsema praises the Thai dishes at the newish Rynn, 105 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue  (Eater) 

• A quickie review of Potenza Centrale on Avenue B (The Infatuation ... previously on EVG) 

• A tiny Orthodox synagogue, a relic of the old Jewish Lower East Side, struggles to survive (NY Jewish Week) 

• Yu and Me Books reopens on Mulberry Street after fire (NY1 ... NBC 4) 

• Check out NYC's new garbage truck (Gothamist)

• Next up in the 35mm series at the Village East by Angelika on Second Avenue and 12th Street — "Casablanca" on Feb. 12 (Official site) 

• Vaya con Dios! It's the North American premiere of a new 4K restoration of... of "Point Break"! (Metrograph) Too cerebral? You could also see "Alphaville."

 

Saturday's opening shot

Catching the sunrise from Tompkins Square Park this morning... the EVGcast (aka the Weather Channel app) shows that we're in for sunny skies with temps in the 40s through Thursday at least...

Catch the Drift

 

London-based trio Night Tapes has released several singles of late... the video here is for a track from December titled "Drifting," which the band describes as an "existentialist pop song."

Music venue wanted for former Rockwood Music Hall 2 space on the Lower East Side

A recent arrival on the rental market: 192 Allen St. between Houston and Stanton, the former home of the Rockwood Music Hall 2 space. 

The listing (PDF here) via Gavios Realty Group shows an interest in keeping the space as a music venue...

The listing also notes that the 1,500-square-foot space includes high-end sound equipment, a stage and professional lighting. No word on the asking rent. 

Rockwood Music Hall, facing financial challenges, announced in November that the venue was "getting back to basics" and closing its Stage 2 space. Stage 1 remains in use for live music as it has for nearly 20 years. 

Stage 2 opened in 2010 and was the larger space with a 175-person capacity. (Stage 1 holds 50 people.)

Report: Kushner Cos. continues East Village exit plan

EVG file photo of 170-174 E. 2nd St. 

After sucking the life out of its East Village portfolio, the Kushner Cos. continues selling off its East Village properties. 

According to The Real Deal, the company has just sold five apartment buildings to Penn South Capital for $41 million: two buildings at 170-174 E. Second St., 325 E. 10th St., 23 Avenue A, and 49 ½ First Ave. 

Per TRD: 

The multifamily sale is Kushner's third in the neighborhood in as many months. The firm unloaded six East Village properties to David Gleitman's Targo Capital Partners for about $58 million in late December. In November, Kushner sold 504-508 E. 12th St. to Sabet Group for nearly $20 million. Kushner’s East Village exit was over a year in the making. 

The firm started shopping 18 buildings in the Manhattan neighborhood in late 2022. Since 2018, it has turned its focus to building a suburban apartment portfolio that spans Maryland, Virginia, and the firm’s home state of New Jersey.

At one point, Kushner Cos. was the second-largest owner of East Village residential buildings, trailing only Steve Croman. 

Previously on EV Grieve:
• More about Jared Kushner's East Village buying spree

• Tenants claim: Kushner and Westminster want to destroy this building's beautiful garden

• Reports outline how Kushner Companies is aggressively trying to empty 170-174 E. 2nd St.

• Local politicos join residents of 2 Jared Kushner-owned buildings to speak out about poor living conditions, alleged harassment 

Looking at the Astor Place CVS renovation plans

Over at the CVS on Astor Place, renovations, including aisle rearrangement and new self-checkouts (now in place), continue. 

EVG reader Jacob Ford found the plans for the reno on display ... (they're upside down, so you may need to tilt your computer/phone upside down, too, for a more accurate look)...

The new self-checkouts come out at a time when other chains are doing away with them. As Boing Boing called them, "the shopping equivalent of an automated phone menu." 

CNN reported on Jan. 23: 

A newly-released study by researchers at Drexel University published in the Journal of Business Research found that "regular checkout" – the kind featuring a human cashier – makes customers more loyal to a store and more likely to revisit in the future than self-checkout. The study comes as some companies remove self-checkout machines and others adjust their self-checkout operations. 

Jacob shared this with us: 

What CVS (and Wawa) hilariously do is make the robot ask you more questions than even the humans at Kmart used to. Or, in CVS’s case, ask you to ask an employee to type a code so that you can type in your own birthdate to buy Tylenol.

The CVS, the first retail tenant for 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/the Death Star, opened in late 2015. 

Thursday's parting shots

And several readers have noted this — basically like why — on Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place...

On the Job: Talking with playwright Max Wolf Friedlich at the Connelly Theater

Photos and text by Stacie Joy

Updated 2/28: The play has been extended through March 23.

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The doors at the Connelly Theater, 220 E. Fourth St.,  are locked when I arrive to meet playwright Max Wolf Friedlich.

After a "Hey, I'm here!" text, he pops out of the venue with a smile, clutching a can of grapefruit Spindrift.

We take a brief tour of the site here between Avenue A and Avenue B before the scheduled 2 p.m. matinee of his well-reviewed play "Job," a psychological thriller about an employee at an unnamed big tech company who has been placed on leave after becoming the subject of a viral video. 

The play, starring Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon, enjoyed a buzzy five-week engagement last fall at the Soho Playhouse. Positive word-of-mouth —and reviews — have followed the production here for this six-plus week run. (When I leave at 1:30 p.m., there is already a sizable line on this rainy afternoon.)

We leave details of the play and its plot aside and talk about keeping theater affordable and accessible (there is a weekend matinee with gentler pricing) and the neighborhood and his connection to it. 

"I grew up doing theater in the East Village — at the Kraine, NY Theater Workshop, Bowery Poetry Club, Under St. Marks," he says. "I went to high school in the East Village, and many of my best friends lived here. It's my favorite neighborhood in New York. Somehow, despite all the changing demographics, it still feels like a real neighborhood — a real community."

He continues: "Being able to eat Casa Adela or Katz's on show days? Doesn't get much better. The Connelly is gorgeous, and Josh [Luxenberg, director and general manager] and his team have been so accommodating and attentive. Our whole team truly loves being on East Fourth."

"Job" is scheduled through March 3; tickets can be purchased here. 

Happy 25th anniversary to Lavagna!

Lavagna, the unassuming and quintessential East Village restaurant, is celebrating 25 years in business this week at 545 E. Fifth St., just west of Avenue B. 

The restaurant, which serves traditional Italian trattoria fare, opened on Feb. 1, 1999. 

Congrats to Yorgos, Rob and everyone in the front and back of the house at Lavagna. 

Open daily from 5-10 p.m., with a 1 p.m. start on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Image via Instagram

1 St. Mark's Place enters its blue phase

Whenever we post something about the 22-story building at 360 Bowery, people inevitably ask about the other new office project four blocks to the north. 

So here's a look at the 9-story office building on the NE corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place (we've seen alternative addresses for 1 St. Mark's Place and 3 St. Mark's Place). 

Currently, the east-facing wall is covered in some sort of blue construction materials...

... the color reminded us a bit of a former heralded (and long-gutted) building at 19-23 St. Mark's Place...

Per its rendering, 1 St. Mark's Place has a July 2024 completion date. 

More back story here.

6 posts from January

A mini month in review... (with a photo at Gizmo by Stacie Joy) 

• Reports: Man slashed after asking man to stop urinating on car along 14th Street at 1st Avenue (Jan. 23) 

• Why we may have seen the last of longtime East Village bar Lucy's (Jan. 22)

• The Veselka documentary, narrated by David Duchovny, opens at the Village East on Feb. 23 (Jan. 19) 

• Observations on the growing humanitarian crisis with asylum seekers in the East Village (Jan. 16) 

• Documenting the demolition of Middle Collegiate Church (Jan. 8) 

• Longtime East Village sewing shop Gizmo will be relocating in early 2024 (Jan. 3)