A new mural for Houston and Avenue B

Yesterday, I noted that Chico and Tats Cru were working on a mural on the northwest corner of Houston and Avenue B.... Here's the final product:

At 2 Gold Street: They're just not that into poo

Are residents of 2 Gold Street forgetting to clean up after their dogs? Officials at the Sovereign Bank branch, which has a ground-floor location at the FiDi residence on Gold Street and Maiden Lane in the Financial District, decided that several "curb your dogs" signs were necessary for their front windows...




Of course, the signs aren't always effective.

Goldfish in the Flowerbox

The Times has a Home & Garden feature on a young family's home in the Flowerbox building on East Seventh Street between Avenue C and Avenue D.

The feature is titled "A modernist temple."

The photo below includes the caption: "The couple were drawn to the condo's indoor-outdoor feel. A wall of ivy was planted along the interior balcony that overlooks the living area. Directly below the garden is a shallow, 12-foot-long reflecting pool, where goldfish dart just below the surface."



Speaking of this building...in 2007, the triplex penthouse apartment here at 259 E. Seventh St. sold for about $10 million — a neighborhood record.

As the New York Sun reported at the time:

The luxury building, around the corner from Avenue D, is attracting big dollars to a street that most New Yorkers a decade ago would not have considered even for a stroll.

"This is Perry Street, this is 77th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus," the lead broker for Flowerbox, Larry Carty of Warburg Marketing, said. Eight loft units in his building, which started at $1.495 million, sold out in three months. The gigantic Lillian Wald and Jacob Riis housing projects down the block are hardly a liability, according to the broker. "So what? You pay 800 bucks a night at the Maritime Hotel, and you're looking out your window at projects," he said.

"Buyers weren't worried about Avenue D," Mr. Carty said. "If anything, they were saying, ‘Where exactly is that?'"

[Photo: Elizabeth Felicella for The New York Times]

An anniversary and a four corners update

Blogger and faithful EV Grieve reader/commenter Jill celebrated her three-year-and-one-day anniversary over at Blah Blog Blah this week. Here's to another three years and one day! On this occassion, we all chipped in to get her a gift certificate to Kool Blue! Meanwhile, she has an update on the four corners at 12th Street and Avenue A -- specifically, the southwest corner where a diner-y looking place called Table 12 has revealed its signage.

Noted

Per The Wall Street Journal: Eliot Spitzer is returning to Washington, D.C., but this time as an investor in the commercial real-estate market.

Worried about image of city, Mayor Bloomberg announces $50 million plan to make four-day-old snow look nicer

Sorry. Shouldn't give him any ideas...

The Villager: No steeples for renovated St. Brigid's

Lincoln Anderson at The Villager has the details on the plans for the $10 million renovation of St. Brigid's at Avenue B and Eighth Street. The headline: "St. Brigid’s will have elevator and new A/C, but no steeples."

Chico's last LES hurrah

Before heading to Florida, Chico apparently has one mural left to do. As a reader pointed out last night, there was an open space marked "Reserved for Tats Cru/Chico" on the northwest corner of Houston and Avenue B.

This afternoon, Chico and company were at work...

Looking at the LES: "Those bridge-and-tunnel places are what made this area better"

A few passages from the real-estate section in the Post today, specifically the cover story titled "More or LES."

The neighborhood, one of the city's largest — spanning from the Bowery east, from Houston to Canal streets — offers Manhattan's least expensive two- and three-bedroom rentals, averaging $3,023 and $4,095 a month, respectively, according to Citi Habitats' January data. (Compare that to $4,311 and $5,450 in Chelsea, and $5,086 and $7,169 in SoHo/TriBeCa.)

What about that kinda weird-looking Blue condo thing?

[T]he glass 16-story, 32-unit Blue condo, out of place among its five- and six-story neighbors, is a different story. It averaged $1,140 per square foot when it sold out, says Corcoran Group broker Barrie Mandel.

"The people who bought [at Blue] were people who 10 years ago would have bought in the Village and five years ago would have bought in SoHo and two years ago would have bought in NoLIta," Mandel says. "The majority of people have traditional work that they do all day long, they dress in a suit and tie, a dress and proper heels and come home at night and lead a different life, go to the clubs or the lounges."

What other changes have there been on the LES?

Since Anne Hugard moved to the Lower East Side in 2001, she has seen a dramatic transformation.

"There were no stores, and it was Chinatown to the south and very Puerto Rican to the east; that's what we liked about it," she says. "It got gentrified, which is good and bad. We enjoy the convenience of stores, but the drawback is that the population gets to be all the same."

Hmm, still. Is it safe?

"I've watched this area go from street fights to kids puking in the streets," says Chris Scott, co-owner of Fat Hippo, a newish restaurant on Clinton Street. "Those bridge-and-tunnel places are what made this area better."

Wal-Mart passes on Virgin Megastore space at Union Square, though are "still interested" in cracking the Big Apple

From the Post today:

Manhattan's retail rent rollback is causing Wal-Mart to give the city another look.

The giant discount chain has shopped for space in Union Square and among the big-box stores along Sixth Avenue in Chelsea, The Post has learned.

Wal-Mart recently passed on a proposal by Related Companies for a two-level store of about 57,000 feet in Union Square where Virgin Megastores and Circuit City are closing, sources said.

The company's real-estate scouts have also been roaming the area around 620 Sixth Ave., said the sources.

Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo said the Union Square sites "were never under consideration." But he said the company is "still interested" in opening stores in New York, despite strong political and union opposition.

Revisiting Fulton Street...and say hello to Fultonhaus!

Fulton Street, down in the Financial District, is as dreary as ever. The street is still torn up. And there's that large, unnecessary money pit in the Earth on Fulton and Broadway where the Fulton Street Transit Center will open in 4783. (At the east end of the street at Water and the South Street Seaport, the storefront that housed the Staples remains vacant.) Still, though, despite all this...the street is functional enough for the working folks in the neighborhood. You have your Radio Shack, your Subway, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, CVS, etc. Your basic chain hell with a few mom-and-pop shops in the mix. (With some affordable work space on the upper levels.)



Despite the economy, more change is inevitable along this corridor. For instance, on the north side of the street, between Nassau and Williams Street, there are four properties for rent. (Here's info on 119 Fulton St.)






As humdrum as the street level looks, big things have happened up above...check out the upper left-hand side of this photo...



That's the 14-story loft residence (a SHVO exclusive!) known as Fultonhaus at 199 Fulton St., just a few doors east of the Crisis Intervention Program at the Coalition for the Homeless. Dunno what the occupancy rate is at Fultonhaus. For what it's worth, there is some furniture out on a few of the terraces, though not too many brave souls are taking advantage of the Fultonhaus rooftop right now. [Update: Thanks to the commenter for setting me straight: The roof deck is part of District next door to Fultonhaus.]



Oh, one thing worth mentioning on the Fultonhaus site...the "nightlife" section...not exactly an area renowned for it. Anyway, the wonderfully seedy Pussycat Lounge gets namechecked!


No love, though, for the Blarney Stone? Which is right next to the Fultonhaus. And they're having a nice sandwich/side order combo deal. Just don't ask for separate containers, OK?

Looking at the Royal Building entrance

Just a little east of the Fultonhaus is the Royal Building on 95 Fulton St. I love the entrance, with the two barber poles and old-school IRT sign.




And yes -- this building once housed the Strand Annex. That space is still empty.

NOTED

From a tipster...because I really don't read Allure:

Talk about your leggy blondes: Kiehl's has thought of a creative way to hype their relaunch of Close-Shaverettes Simply Mahvelous Legs Shave Cream, ($15.50). They've enlisted the help of vertically-gifted Svetlana Pankratova, the woman who holds the record for having the longest legs in the world. (They're a whopping 4'4" — that's her legs alone. Keep in mind that the average woman is only about 5'3" from head to toe!) If you're in the New York area tomorrow, you can see those gams for yourself at Kiehl's East Village flagship store, where Pankratova will be on hand from 12 PM to 5PM to demonstrate the product and donate $44 per razor stroke to the Lower Eastside Girls Club.

For a good cause, of course. Anyway...here she is...

It's official, it's over: St. Brigid's won't be torn down

Well, this was really just a technicality...The Archdiocese had filed a motion to to render the court case moot. And moot it is. The Committee to Save St. Brigid's received their letter of withdrawal from the Court of Appeals. "It is officially over," Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid’s Church, wrote on Monday. Now if the church, at Eighth Street and Avenue B, can just get the power restored....

More on Chico's farewell to the LES

As you know, Chico is leaving NYC after 30 years of creating his spray-painted murals around the LES. Over at 12ozProphet, Martha Cooper was at his going-away party last week at China 1 on Avenue B. According to Cooper, the New York City Housing Authority presented him with a plaque that read “In recognition of dedicated and inspired service to the community in which he has lived and worked for more than 30 years this plaque is presented to Antonio “Chico” Garcia, Graffiti Artist Extraordinaire, with extreme gratitude and appreciation for decades of impressionistic and powerful messages, murals and paintings you have contributed to on Manhattan’s Lower East Side at the New York City Housing Authority. Job Well Done! 2009” As Cooper wrote: "That must be the first time a city agency has celebrated a graffiti artist!"

Cooper also has several early photos of Chico's work from 1982:

What you might expect possibly coming to the soon-to-be-former Virgin Megastore space at Union Square

A CVS for starters. (New York Post)

No record store for 66 Avenue A

Karate Boogaloo passes along the news that DJ Brion's efforts to take over the former Etherea Space at 66 Avenue A have fallen through. KB writes, "There will no longer be a record store in the storefront of 66 Avenue A. As for what will replace Etherea...only the landlord may know but somehow I doubt that. More will be revealed." Sounds ominous!

City fire boxes now more conducive to Baby Dino graffiti, Tall Black Girls fliers

Before the Storm of the Millennium, city workers slapped a fresh coat of red paint on fire boxes in the neighborhood...





Taking great care many times to actually getting some paint on the fire boxes.

New New York bands get glitzy package in the glossies

Picked up the most recent issues of Spin and Rolling Stone to help pass the time on a recent trip.

First, there was Spin, a magazine I've always liked...though I haven't looked at one in some time...There was the feature titled "The New New York Cool," which offered mini-profiles on Lissy Trullie, Crystal Stilts and School of Seven Bells.



Fine. I always prefered the old New York cool. But I'm willing to learn!
Next! Rolling Stone. Another publication I haven't looked at in eons. Hmm, forgot just why... Taylor Swift is on the cover? Oh, right. Now I remember!



Then there's this...the most important thing being, PHOTOS BY THEO WENNER. Ah, a hard-working young man finally gets a big break! Anyway! "The East Village rock scene gets a sleek makeover." The hottest 2009 looks! Which are? No shirt! White shirt! Black shirt! Red pants! Black pants!

Rock band looking for singer who is able to sing

Dunno how well you can read this blurry thing...Click on the image to enlarge...A few details: Must be 28 years old or younger (call HR! That's ageism!) and not prone to dramatics...Good luck.

At East Seventh Street and Cooper Square.