"Whether or not the seedy Lower East Side will ever catch on as a trendy destination is open for debate"

Vice magazine celebrated its 15th anniversary this past weekend. To mark the occasion, the editors allegedly reissued their very first issue from 1994, which included this piece titled "Ludlow Street, Mon Amour."

The first paragraph:

The Lower East Side of Manhattan is not a fashionable destination. Populated primarily by dive bars, nodding junkies, and boarded-up storefronts, the thought of anything even remotely related to trendiness, fancy clothes, or art happening down here would be pretty hard to believe. In fact, the only reason anyone from another neighborhood would even set foot on the LES in 1994 would be if they were looking for illicit substances, of which there are plenty.

The last paragraph:

Whether or not the seedy Lower East Side will ever catch on as a trendy destination is open for debate. My guess is probably not. In fact, I hope not. Seeing Ludlow Street overrun with normal people looking for a “hip kick” would turn my stomach faster than a bad bag of dope. But last weekend, if only for one night, the Lower East Side was most certainly the place to be in New York.

I'm curious if anyone fell for this prank...

Related:
Hipster Media Magnate Picks $2M East Village Flower (Curbed)

Noted

From the Guardian UK's review of the new Julian Casablancas solo record:

[W]henever Casablancas strains for seriousness, the album loses focus. Ludlow Street is a schlep partly because the mock-country backing doesn't suit his voice, but mostly because a lecture on the yuppification of the Lower East Side is a bit hard to take from a bloke who has built a career selling a glossy version of late-70s CBGBs scuzz to a mass market.

For Mayor of New York City: Veronica Palmer Oliana

The real test of any mayor is how well the city works. During her campaign, Veronica Palmer Oliana has managed to make the unpredictable city of New York work astonishingly well.

The Democratic nominee, Comptroller William Thompson, is a worthy opponent. Mr. Thompson has been a competent comptroller in a turbulent period and is a quiet, conciliatory man. But he has spent too much of his campaign attacking Veronica Palmer Oliana rather than explaining how he would manage the city, and Veronica Palmer Oliana is simply the stronger candidate.

What makes Veronica Palmer Oliana stand out is not her political skill, although she has come a long way since her first clumsy days campaigning.

Her plans suit the times. With little city money to spend, Veronica Palmer Oliana wants to focus more on helping working-class and middle-class residents with cheap banking or aid in fighting foreclosures or finding jobs and housing. She wants to give a lift to small businesses.

Like Mr. Thompson, who has made the mayor’s wealth a major issue, most New Yorkers are concerned about Veronica Palmer Oliana spending 85 cents — so far — to win election.

We enthusiastically endorse Veronica Palmer Oliana for mayor.

OK, I saw these fliers on Second Avenue between Fourth Street and Houston a few weeks ago. I have no idea who she is, if this is serious ... or if this is a gag, cruel joke or viral marketing campaign for a new HBO series. In any event, I just went with it, lifting The Times endorsement of Bloomberg above. As the sign says, "Write her in, she will win!"

Perhaps he just saw Extra Place for the first time in 15 years or so?

Happened upon this scene Sunday morning on Extra Place just off the Bowery.





Oh, it was nothing serious. Just a 5-7 person film crew doing something involving a man and a van.

Chico's back; ditto for the Rat Pack

As you may know, Chico is back in town to do a few more murals in the neighborhood. Aside from his anti-violence mural on Houston and Avenue B, he created this tribute to Eric "Taz" Pagan on 13th Street and Avenue A.



He also did this Rat pack mural on the gate of Summit, the new bar that replaced Baraza on Avenue C near Ninth Street.


Saturday:



Sunday:



For further reading:
A well-preserved Chico mural (BoweryBoogie)

Chico, ‘The Messenger,’ spreads message of peace back on L.E.S. (The Villager)

52 pickup: Numbers up at E2E4

More progress at the E2E4 tower of condo on the Bowery...

Then!





The 52 --- for 52 E. Fourth St., of course -- is now in place on the gated driveway...

Now!




Previously on EV Grieve:
Scarano's gated community continues to get gated and secure on the Bowery

Election Day special

This mural was created during Art Around the Park in September. This past weekend, it appeared on the gate of a community garden on Eighth Street.



For further reading:
Just Say No (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Noted

There's probably a very good reason why these Burger King receipts were put up on 10th Street and Avenue A...

A tribute for Snoopy

Late yesterday afternoon, a woman stood on the southeast corner of First Avenue and Third Street with a makeshift memorial for her beloved dog Snoopy.



When I asked her what happened, she quickly said that she was not asking for money. She said that a man had come up to her a little earlier and started screaming at her for being on the corner.

She explained how on Thursday she was walking across First Avenue, slipped on a manhole cover and landed on her beloved pet. The dog died before she could get him medical attention.

Her tribute below tells more of the story. It is her aim to get more and better emergency medical treatment for pets in the city. She will be circulating a petition soon.






I asked if I could take her photo. She thanked me but declined. She did tell me to take pictures of the tribute and post them on YouTube.

Halloween weekend in review: cab crashes, high-end hotel graffiti, NYC marathon, Dakota Fanning's crotch and lots more!

We took some photos of the Halloween punk rock show in Tompkins Square Park.



We saw two cabs collide with a Sleepy's truck.



The Cooper Square Hotel wants graffiti on building "to fit in with the edgy local art scene."



We created an East Village of the Damned photo essay



We lived blogged the NYC marathon for three minutes.



And we saw Dakota Fanning's crotch courtesy of the Post.

Broadway cab crash leaves six injured

Just saw this on WCBS:

A pair of taxicabs collided in the East Village Sunday night, careening into a sidewalk scaffolding and leaving six people injured.

The two cabs crashed and, in the process, brought down the scaffolding, and were left under the mangled mess hours after the accident.

A witness tells CBS 2 that one of the cabs tried to overtake the other before the two collided and careened across Broadway at the corner of E. 8th Street, jumping the curb and coming to rest on the sidewalk under the scaffolding.

Gothamist has more photos. Looks like the Gap was taken out in the accident.

And this was the second crash involving cabs in the neighborhood yesterday.

Butcher Bay deep-sixed?

Yet another strange chapter in the short history of fish-shack eatery Butcher Bay, which opened back in February on Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... after the owners gutted the space from the short-lived Seymour Burton... there have been menu changes, new chefs and CB3 lawsuits...and now, the restaurant is closed...the windows are papered over...with the following note:



"...closed temporarily to write our memoirs..."

Village Green sheds the sidewalk shed

Some day soon, Village Green, the "eco-indulgent" new condo on 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, will look like this...



...where residents enjoy "serenity in the city" while cars roar up the street at 100 mph...



...and we've been eagerly awaiting what this will really look like...



And now, the sidewalk sheds have been removed...







Previously on EV Grieve:
Village Green opening its houses this weekend

Le Souk has really closed

On Friday, we heard that troubled hookah hotspot Le Souk had, indeed, closed after losing its liquor license.

I was curious if that was permanent. This sign now greets potential Le Soukers.



I asked Stacie, a resident who has lived nearby for a lot longer than the eight years that Le Souk has been around, for her take:

Yep -- it's closed. No dining, no drinking, no dancing, no parties. No bouncers, no crowds, no fights. No honking, no puking, no throbbing (music), no nothing.

With Le Souk's departure and the closure of Layaly, only one Hookah bar, the Horus Cafe, remains along the Avenue B corridor...

Habib's Place abruptly closes

Habib's Place on Avenue A near Sixth Street has abruptly closed. Really closed. (And you can now see the name of one of the former occupants...)



Thanks to EV Grieve reader Creature for the tip and photo. According to Creature: "I swear this was a fully functioning restaurant [Saturday]. I caught a look inside, before the gate was closed, and the place was gutted. Including the name blacked out."

This was Habib's third location in the East Village since 1992.

New Cooper Union building gets its first (temporary) storefront tenant

That retail space for rent in the new Cooper Union building is now occupied...





It's serving as the information center for Performa 09, which runs through Nov. 22

Absinthe absent on First Avenue (and Elvie's now for lease)

Jeremiah has written about the ongoing noise problems at Absinthe wine bar at 111 First Ave. near Seventh Street. It opened last December.

Anyway, I'm not certain when the place closed or changed concepts or names or whatever, but a new canopy is up at the address...



Meanwhile, up First Avenue near 12th Street...We noted a few weeks ago that Elvie's Turo-Turo, the Philippine eatery, was seized by the marshals...the "for lease" signs went up last week.

Squat the condos