Busy Bee Bike shop busted on East Sixth Street

We don't know all the details just yet, but Busy Bee Bikes on Sixth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A was shut down by the cops Friday...



EV Grieve reader Creature, who lives on the block, sent along the photo below...



As he noted: "The restraining order mentions criminal possession of stolen property. Innocent until proven guilty, and all that, but it's a shame nonetheless. They have quickly become a Sixth Street staple and added to the overall neighborhood feeling the East Village is known for."

Emey Hoffmann, who owned a number of bike shops through the years, including this one, died of a heart attack on Jan. 7, 2009. He was 63.

Here's a photo of the store on better days... from Ichance on Flickr (via BikeBlogNYC)

Horse sense

Every so often I'll treat myself to a Daily Racing Form at Aqueduct or Belmont... The newspaper, whose offices are downtown, has been around since 1894, and is one of the enduring image of racetracks for me... So I read with great interest a feature on Steven Crist, the paper's publisher and chairman, in Harvard Magazine. (He is a Harvard alum.)

An excerpt:

Gambling on Wall Street, or at games of pure chance like roulette, holds no interest for Crist. People sometimes remark that the one thing he hasn’t done in the sport is own a racehorse, but “I own the horse I’m betting on for one minute and 12 seconds, and that’s good enough for me,” he says. “There is a strong feeling of success for your ego when you make a winning bet. When their horse crosses the finish line in front, horseplayers never say, ‘What a good horse!’ They go, ‘That was me—me, me, me!’ That’s part of the pleasure of horse racing, and why it’s so much more fun to pick your own horses than to bet somebody else’s picks. With a Wall Street stock, I can’t imagine the same feeling of satisfaction.”

And Crist blogs here.

Noted

The Daily News asked Bryan Greenberg, cast member of HBO's "How to Make It in America," for "pointers on making it in New York City." Tip No. 5: Find a roommate:

After NYU, I had loans to pay off and rent to pay. It was all about raising funds, getting a roommate, and then getting your girlfriend to move in. It was three people in a small, converted two-bedroom in the East Village, but that's what we could afford.

In case you're home and hungry for Ray's tonight...

The delivery service is working...718-473-9636




Previously on EV Grieve:
Ray's new Saturday evening delivery service starts tomorrow

Dead drunk in the middle of Lafayette Street (and where's his accordion?)

mbrosen shares this story over at Neighborhoodr... Just after midnight in Astor Place, a guy two steps ahead of him passes out in the middle of Lafayette Street, in oncoming traffic. Dead drunk, apparently. So mb gets him out of the street... and we'll let him pick up the story:

We called 911 and summoned an ambulance. While waiting, we and several others that had gathered tried to piece together what happened.

“Do you know where you are?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you then?”
“Brooklyn.”

Then...

He asked several times for his bag…

What was in it, you ask?

His accordion.

“Oh, so you just came from a gig?”
“No, my parents’ place.”

[Photo via]

The Bowery/Third Avenue, 9:16 a.m., 9:23 a.m., Feb. 20

Sorry, wrong number

The Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFOEVG) inexplicably passed along photos from Lady GaGa's new video. And I inexplicably posted one.

Well New York City really has it all (Oh yeah, oh yeah)

In the Sunday Times, Ben Ratliff reviews a book of great interest to me -- "All Hopped Up and Ready to Go," by UK music writer Tony Fletcher. As Ratliff notes, the book "aims to be something that the field of New York City pop-music studies really needs: a casebook of meaningful contact among its populations. The books intention ... is to show how New York’s cultural mix — primarily the black, Latino and Jewish parts of it — enabled its greatest music across a particularly fertile 50-year period, from 1927 to 1977."

An excerpt from the review:

Fletcher finds his groove in the '60s and '70s, with rock and disco, when the narrative bubbles along on outrageous anecdotes, aesthetic movements get charted with full prehistories, and minor players make basic and fascinating assertions. One comes to understand something about the way gay dancers at the Limelight gravitated toward melody over rhythm; and the lucky proximity, during New York’s bombed-out mid-'70s, of CBGB to dope dealers and Gem Spa. (You could show your face at the club, go fix up with heroin and egg cream, and return in time for the headlining band.)

Superdive is open tonight

Previously.

Who's upstairs?

Trouble in pizzadise! Someone dares say that Motorino isn't the GREATEST PIZZA KNOWN TO MANKIND!!!

Well, the nerve! So our new friends over at Launch Stalker decided to check out the much-hyped Motorino after reading the rave reviews in The New York Times. The paper's reviewer stated: "It serves the city’s best pizza." There are locations in Williamsburg and on 12th Street near First Avenue hereabouts.'

An excerpt from Stephen Kosloff's take at Launch Stalker:

The verdict: Motorino is good pizza, but it’s not the best pizza in the city.

Last night I ordered the broccoli and sausage pizza, and it was really salty. I know pizza is inherently salty, but this was an exceptionally salty pizza.

Then there is the crust, which had the exact texture and taste of Indian naan. It tasted fine, but for me the ideal crust is crispy.

Then there is the definition of “pizza,” which for me, because I come from a long line of trash-haulers and fish-mongers, means “slice.”

Sorry to all my haute pizza peeps, but if I’m at a table using a fork and knife, I’d rather be eating steak au poivre. Especially if my entree is over $12.

Gasp! Somewhere, Rachael Ray just spit out her Dunkin' Donut.

Anyway, I've never been to Motorino ... should I bother?

Is the keg party over? Superdive closed last night; plus, have they even really been trying?

Superdive was closed last night. A look inside found the place awfully empty looking. A few bar stools, but not much else near the front.



Sure, they may have just been closed for the night, but why not post a note on the door if everything is OK? A Superdiver has left notes before for bargoers when the joint was closed for "renovations."

I called the bar -- (646) 448-4854 -- and got a recorded message saying that their mailbox is full.

Anyway!



Let's see... Holiday decorations still up. Six weeks later, the front door window is still smashed, held together with some tape. Only open three nights a week...

Plus...the bar was hit with a violation for working on the place without a permit and reportedly allowing people to gather in the basement (Mad Dog Room!) without a certificate of occupancy.

And, of course, four months after opening, the owners put the bar up for sale...

One Superdive watcher has always been curious why they only accept cash... particularly when some kegs are upwards of $400... And why did an official at the last CB3/SLA seem surprised when he or she heard that the bar was still open...?

Meanwhile, it looked as if someone was working on the basement one day last week...




Previously on EV Grieve:
CB3 didn't approve a liquor license for Superdive; "a nice neighborhood Internet café-bookstore" becomes a bar with keg service at tables

20 years of selling vintage clothes in the East Village

On March 1, 1990, Richard Colligan opened Metropolis Vintage Apparel at 96 Avenue B between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. In 1995, he moved to 43 Third Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street. Starting tomorrow, the store is celebrating its 20th anniversary, a long time for any type of independent business hereabouts... On the eve of the anniversary, Colligan, a Rockaway Beach native, answered a few questions via e-mail for EV Grieve ....

On Jan. 3, the Post reported: "The East Village's vintage-clothing shops are about to go the way of leisure suits and flapper dresses, as a wave of closures hits home." What was your reaction to the story, which didn't take into account the many stores that remain open and are doing well...?

My reaction to that story, which surprised me, was that so many stores said they're not doing well. The East Village over the last few years has seen a lot of growth of people who have money to spend and, if you don't cater to them, you fall victim of being out of touch. Look, vintage is fashion and fashion changes, if you want to stick to your guns and keep selling what you sold 10 years ago, well go ahead, but be prepared to watch your sales go down as your customers get older and move out of the area. The EV has always been — and I think always will be — a place for young people, as the beatniks, the hippies, the Punks (as myself) the hair metal rockers, the grunge rockers or THE HIPSTERS and young college students of today prove. Today I feature late 80's early 90's in my store. Well, some people say that's not vintage and I say, "What sells is vintage," 1990 was 20 years a go, get used to it. Thirty-year-old eyeballs don't see what a 20-year-old eyeballs see what will be attractive.

Biggest change — for better or worse — that you've seen in the EV/LES in these 20 years?

Crime has been reduced a lot. But never would I have thought that the reduction of crime brought such a bigger increase of prices in RENT. The rent at Avenue B was $1,000 a month, now I pay $10,000 on 3rd Ave. Do I want it to go back to "the good old days?" NO, I will take the rent over the crime. If one day I can't afford the rent, then it's my time to move on.

Many stores have come and gone in the EV through the years... what do you think has made your store successful?

I think I have been able to tap in to what the younger customer wants in vintage. Pushing forward is my motive. I can write a novel of what sold well over the years, but if you get stuck in a rut you rust. The EV is for young people who are finding out about themselves. I just try and help them on that journey.

And Colligan sent along two photos from 1994 of the store when it was on Avenue B....




And tomorrow...

More on the new Museum of the American Gangster

Lorcan Otway, the proprietor of Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place, passed along more information regarding the new Museum of the American Gangster.... (In the comments in yesterday's post, Jeremiah and I wondered if they'd be showing classic mobster films...)

Yes, we are going to show some of the old mobster classics. The museum will be in the unit above the box office, once lived in by Leon Trotsky. There will be tours of the basement and parts of the theater which date back to the speakeasy days. But, the museum will not conflict with the theater, which will continue to present plays, opera, ballet, film, and more. As far as neighborhood folks. Eric and I are attempting to give a feel to the place, that we both remember when gangsters where still a part of life in the neighborhood. We are not putting a heroic blush on the times, but rather, showing that this is a nation born out of bootlegging and human trafficking, that there is a constant tension between the freedom from and the liberty to... the dynamic between those who seek a nation with no moral ambiguity and those who wish to be left alone to enjoy themselves. The museum will be a place where oral histories will put the story back in history.

Previously on EV Grieve:
On the up and up: The Museum of the American Gangster opening on St. Mark's Place

Your chance to live in a historic Synagogue on Seventh Street

This lovely home went on the market on Wednesday... it's at 242 Seventh St. between Avenue C and Avenue D... In March 2008, this address, the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Anshe Ungarn, a Beaux Arts synagogue built in 1908 for a congregation of Hungarian Jews, was designated a historic landmark... There are fives residences here, and the Times featured the penthouse dwellers last April in an article titled "Once Sacred, Now Their Showcase."

In any event, let's take a look at what you get for the $1,295 million asking price for this second-floor unit...





According to the listing at Core:

This home is situated in a historic building, once a Synagogue that was restored and redeveloped into a 5 intimate residences. Located on one of the most prominent blocks in the East Village, this home offers a generous 1500 square foot loft with a vast living room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a home office, and den. The upper level is comprised of the master suite overlooking the living area which boasts 16 foot ceilings in this multilevel apartment. Features of this residence include an open kitchen, washer and dryer, and plenty of storage space. This unique residence would truly make for a gracious home.

As Streeteasy noted, the home was listed by Corcoran at $996,000 in 2006. Is this address still considered sacred?

Update: Good point made in the comments... this address has been residential since the 1980s... Didn't mean to give the impression that this space was only recently converted to housing.... I did make this clear in my previous post on the building.

A night at the Cooper Square Hotel makes writer long for a Motel 6

There's a funny piece in The Washington Post in which staff writer Joel Achenbach recalls his experience at "a striking place, very modern, a steel-and-glass tower rising above the Lower East Side." He never mentions the place by name. But I'm assuming it's the ol' Cooper Square Hotel... (He mentions grabbing a slice at Ray's... and a room at the Coop does go for $270 ...) Anyway, I think I'd feel exactly the same way as Joel here ...

Walking in, there's no sign of a lobby per se. No Registration Desk. A snappy dresser tells me to follow him. Suddenly I'm introduced to a sharp-looking woman who is, apparently -- maybe -- a concierge of sorts, and is somehow associated with the task of giving me a room. It's like we're going to have a conversation first.

I'm a little thrown off by the whole thing. I need a room, a phone, electricity. I want a KEY. But perhaps that's me being really old-fashioned.

In the absence of a Registration Desk, the concierge-type person operates out of what appears to be a small conference room, as if I'm going to sign refinancing papers. Alas, there is no room yet available, it being merely 1 in the afternoon. You know that even at $270 a night you can't expect a hotel to have a room ready this early in the day.

And it only gets better!

So I wait for 90 minutes -- stylishly, hanging out amid the groovy furniture, ducking out briefly for a slice of pizza at Ray's.

They're all very nice. They offer me a drink! But no: At this point I am starting to crave a Motel 6.

Finally get the room. It's about the size of a large bed. Everything is so gleaming that I worry I'm going to leave fingerprints everywhere.

Heh.

It's hard on a middle-age man's ego to realize that he's being totally outcooled by everyone on the hotel staff. The guy fetching the taxi probably pities me. Because he knows he still has a future. He says to himself: Thank God I'm not him. How does he face the morning???

So Bono, Michael Stipe, Natalie Portman, Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Spike Jonze and the Olsen twins walk into a bar on Avenue A...

Over at Guest of a Guest, Billy Gray has a report on Black Market, punk veteran Jesse Malin's new nighspot at the former Pizza Shop. All those celebrity types showed up for some party. As Gray notes, "The wingding was in honor of fancy pants clothing line Rodarte and during Fashion Week, which inflated the guest list. But it bodes well for the Avenue A newcomer (and poorly for local peasants hoping to check it out for themselves). It also confirms that Malin has stealthily joined the roster of NYC nightlife heavyweights." Later in the post, Gray wonders:

What's a veteran East Village punk doing hosting a party for Rodarte? As another Fashion Week bites the dust and thankfully takes some star wattage with it, Black Market will hopefully relax into a solid, rock-tinged neighborhood joint. The sweaty, puke-stained ghost of CBGB would not abide another velvet rope.

The Post discovers that the area around Bowery and Bond is pretty nice these days — and getting nicer!

The cover story of the Post's real-estate section this week features the area around Bond and Bowery, which, from here on out, we'll refer to as BowBo to see if it foolishly catches on...
Give me a B!.... Gimme an O....



Seriously, though, we first meet Adam Gordon, who says, “As a developer, I really have a passion for reclaiming historic properties."



Anyway, let's just keep on reading!

“This corridor [of Bowery] has the most excitement in all of Manhattan — if you’re talking about the space between the New Museum and Cooper Square,” says Gordon.
“I think the Bowery — more than any neighborhood in Manhattan over the last five years — has become the most evolved,” says Core CEO Shaun Osher. “It’s become one of the trendiest neighborhoods in the city, but what’s really great about the Bowery is it’s multi-dimensional in its evolution.”
The term “multi-dimensional” makes sense not just in terms of the architecture, but also in terms of everything else that’s come to the neighborhood.
“I used to have a restaurant around here 10 years ago,” says celebrity chef Scott Conant, referring to City Eatery, his Italian spot on Bleecker and Bowery. “I was a little spooked by the neighborhood . . . I was never going to do another restaurant around here.”

The features includes the handiest of handy-dandy maps...



How soon before this how map is just a cluster of red circles with numbers?

Will Ray's become a noodle shop? (Plus, another Ray's benefit set for March 8)

Well, all sorts of Ray-related news to pass along. First, a bombshell from Scoopy's column this week in The Villager:

An associate of Barbara Chupa, the property’s managing agent, told him they want to replace his historic candy store with — get this! — a "noodle shop." "They told me they have a Chinese guy who can pay more money, and he will hire me as the night manager and keep me working here," Ray revealed. Asked if he would even consider the "offer," he said he's not falling for it: "No! They would get rid of me right away."

Second, as we wrote last Friday, some volunteers from the neighborhood were starting a Saturday night delivery service. I was one of the homebound Ray's fans eager for a delivery. Unfortunately, there were some snafus with their phone service. They're try again this Saturday. Bob Arihood has more on this story here.

Third, on the Save Ray's page on Facebook, Haley Moss Dillon reported that a single person made a $300 donation on the Save Ray's PayPal account, which is still active: saverayscandystore@gmail.com


[Photo of Ray's by Joann Jovinelly via her Flickr account]

Fourth, Francisco Valera, who has lived upstairs from Ray's for 17 years, is helping organize a benfit for Ray at the Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., on Monday, March 8. As Valera wrote on Facebook:

"Some incredible local artists have volunteered to perform, among them Reverend Billy and the Live After Shopping Gospel Choir, East River String Band, Didi from Brazilian Girls will be our DJ and will play live music ... we are still reaching out to more artists ... Ray himself will be with us ... and some local activists and loyal members of our, in extinction, beloved East Village neighborhood.

On the up and up: The Museum of the American Gangster opening on St. Mark's Place

To the news release from Eric Ferrara

I am proud to announce the opening of the Museum of the American Gangster at 80 St. Marks Place (between 1st and 2nd Avenue), inside the historic Theater 80 building.

The Museum will be open daily for previews beginning Sunday, March 7, 2010. The official launch will be Spring 2010, date TBA.

The Museum of the American Gangster (MAOG) presents an opportunity to gain insight into the hidden, inside world of the American gangster through artifacts and stories told by those involved. We are working with a team of criminal authors, historians and related institutions, as well as family members and estates of pivotal crime figures, to create a museum that both casual fans and invested scholars could enjoy and benefit from. Beyond exhibits and artifacts, MOAG will offer dedicated research facilities, access to original source documents and articles, oral histories, workshops, walking tours, live performances, historic reenactments, lectures, movies and presentations.



MOAG's goal is to objectively and authentically present the role that crime has played in shaping the politics, culture, myth and lore of New York City. Criminals will not be glorified or sensationalized, nor will they be vilified -- rather, this institution intends to allow visitors insight into how and why criminals (on both sides of the law) chose the life they did. Where did they come from? What were their options? What was their relationship to the community? This is a chance to dig deep into the lives and minds of some of the country's most successful crime figures.

Here's that Gangster site.

For further reading on EV Grieve:
Raising awareness of the East Village/Lower East Side