Good sights: Lucy's back open last night

Lucy's has been closed of late (without a note, per usual) ... Didn't get the chance to stop, though, to see what was happening ... a reader had said that she was off on her annual visit to Poland....

[Updated, sort of] The dream is apparently over: De La Vega Museum closes on St. Mark's

Per an alert reader... The De La Vega Museum, run by artist James De La Vega, appears to be closed... the store is all but empty.... (which may explain why he was giving away art recently....) We'll have more on this later...

Friday morning:

Swung by the shop/museum last evening and this morning... all closed up... Considering his penchant for signs in the window...



....I'm surprised there isn't one letting people know what happened...



Meanwhile, near the shop, an unattended mattress sits without a "become your dream" slogan.



Previously on EV Grieve:
De La Vega calling for a boycott on Cafe Mogador, for some reason

Noted

From the Post today:

For a group of NYU students this fall, the only room will be at the inn.

About 50 to 60 students returning to the Greenwich Village campus will be forced to check into a Manhattan hotel because the university has run out of dorm space.

But the young scholars can forget about raiding the minibar or dialing up room service. NYU officials say they'll limit the amenities to phone, cable and Internet service -- but, unlike the dorms, their rooms will get twice-a-week housekeeping.

The photography of Flo Fox

A friend recently introduced me to the work of acclaimed photographer Flo Fox... I asked her via Facebook if I could post a few of her photos from the 1970s and early 1980s in NYC... she agreed... and here's a sampling...








All this is even more remarkable given her background... Fox, who grew up in Woodside, Queens, was born blind in one eye.

Here's an excerpt on her from a profile in Alternative Photography:

According to her, she was an automatic photographer because she never needed to close an eye to take a picture. She lost the vision in her other eye in 1975 and was declared legally blind just at the time that she photographed herself nude for Playboy and Penthouse. It was at this time that one of Flo’s sisters was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Soon thereafter Flo began experiencing numbness in one of her hands and legs and had herself tested for MS. The results were positive. She has remained determined to not let this news change anything in her career as a fine arts photographer. This has not been easy with her direction in the medium which is predominately street imagery of people and places predominately set in New York City.

When asked how her disabilities have affected her work, Fox said that she started seeing interfering patterns in 1975 and soon thereafter could no longer focus on an image because of dead nerve endings. As her MS progressed, Flo’s muscle tone deteriorated and she went from using a cane to a motorized scooter.

Check out this interview on Tom Snyder...



You can watch part 2 here.

There are more photos on her website here. Or maybe you could friend her on Facebook.

Cat Days of August

Spotted this kitty out in Red Hook.

Standing outside the Copper Building (waiting on a friend)

Oh, nothing really to note here at the Copper Building at 13th Street and Avenue B... just seeing how easy it will be to look into someone's apartment from street level...






Thought maybe we'd get a response out of EV Grieve reader Despiser of the Copper Crapper too...

The Wall Street Journal on Avenue C

As The Wall Street Journal notes today:

[W]hile the night life has turned Avenue C into a top party destination for young professions and college students, the added noise and traffic is causing increased friction between residents and revelers.

Older residents who moved to the neighborhood in the '60s are now trying to keep out new bars. They have taken their complaints to the Community Board 3, which is restricting the number of new establishments that can sell alcoholic beverages.

According to the community board's website, Avenue C between Houston and 14th streets, an area with 23 liquor licenses, is deemed to have "greatly diminished the quality of life" for residents.

Some say the night life helps the area. "I understand sometimes there is too much noise," said Benjamin Alter, owner of Arcane, "but to me, the more business you have in the neighborhood, the better it makes the economy for the neighborhood."

Yes! Woo!



Anyway, let's flashback via the Times to 2005:

"C will keep its edginess for five more years," predicted Melvina Goren, a partner at Porch, 115 Avenue C (Seventh and Eighth), a candlelit bar known for its large backyard. "And then the scene will move on to Avenue D."

Well, any thoughts on that prediction?

Cafe Hanover back in business on St. Mark's

The marshals paid a visit to the new Cafe Hanover in the old Mondo Kim's space back on July 20.... and, as several readers have noted, they have reopened ...



[Thanks to MT for the photo!]

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

NYC murder rate up 17% so far in 2010 (Runnin' Scared)

Is this finally the economic collapse? (Fortune)

Hmm.. not so cheery with the headlines so far... We need a cheery song!



Update on saving the community gardens (The Gog Log)

Watering on East Houston (BoweryBoogie)

Arby's quickly shutters in landmarked building (Eater)

The Grumbler questions the no-shoes rule (The Grumbler)

Resident discards mattress WITHOUT bedbugs (NYC the Blog)

Sleeping on the sidewalk to beat the heat in 1910 (Ephemeral NY)

New Belgian place that isn't German on Second Avenue gets more Belgianie (DNAinfo)

East Village Radio livestreaming tonight's White Rabbits show from East River Park (The Lo-Down)

And the man surrounding by police officers on First Avenue near 10th Street in the photo below? He allegedly stole a bike.



This happened last Thursday... via justindisgustin's Flickr page ...where there are more details (and photos!) about the incident.

DBGB, Pulino's and Gemma helping peddle Sala on the Bowery

A few weeks ago, we made note of the "restaurant available" sign on the Bowery and Great Jones...right there on Sala's wall...



For unknown reasons, we never actually explored that listing... until now...and tapas specialist Sala is on the market...



As you can see, lots of big-time eateries nearby...it's almost as if all those places are part of the deal. No, you'll just have to make do with the two liquor licenses that Sala has...

East Fifth Street co-op with Japanese maples out back reduced now by 40 percent

Here's a lovely little one-bedroom at 513 E. Fifth St. ... with a private backyard... You could roll out of bed and practically be in Sophie's... or maybe hop the fence and be in Joe's...






I suppose there are other amenities too.
Per Corcoran:

Investor Friendly Coop with private back yard! Great Investment Opportunity, rent out right away! No board approval, all cash required. Prime East Village renovated one bedroom with a huge sun flooded private garden, totaling over 1100 sqft. This newly renovated one bed/one bath coop offers a tranquil indoor space with plenty of pre-war details, including exposed brick, hardwood floors and high ceilings. Recently renovated kitchen and bath create a nice relationship of pre-war detail with modern amenities, such as Bosch dishwasher, washer and dryer and well appointed closets with storage space. Move from the beautiful indoor space directly into your outdoor oasis, which has been designed by a landscape architect and features wood decking, a separate fieldstone patio, and Japanese maples among other year round and seasonal plantings.

This coop is located around the corner from Tompkins Square Park as well as several other East Village gardens, restaurants, and shopping. There is no board approval and flexible purchasing is allowed, purchasing for someone else, investment, guarantors and pied-a-terres are all fine. This building is pet friendly.

And the price continues to fall...since February, the price has come down some 40 percent, according to Streeteasy...

02/17/2010 -- Listed by Corcoran at $650,000.
03/24/2010 -- Price decreased by 8% to $599,000.
06/10/2010 -- Price decreased by 17% to $499,000.
08/05/2010 -- Price decreased by 15% to $425,000.

No takers yet for this oasis? Maybe it's the neighbors?

Don't give anyone any ideas

Along the ConEd substation on Avenue A. I'm sure some developer would love this corner to, uh, develop.

Here comes the fear again: 505 E. 12th St. back on the market

A reader noted that a For Sale sign went up 505 E. 12th St. (the former Mundial and Totem space) ... which, perhaps, means the new bar on May's CB3/SLA meeting is no longer a go... the "corp to be formed" here was not approved by the CB3/SLA committee...

Now someone else can take a shot here... According to the listing:

BEAUTIFUL EAST VILLAGE LOUNGE WITH KITCHEN
Approx. 1400 sq ft plus 500 sq ftS back yard, 30 foot store front, and full basement

Price: $140,000
Rent: $7,500
10-year lease

As a reader/nearby resident has said about this space: "Another bar opening up in the Mundial space is my worst nightmare."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Another nightmare bar for 505 E. 12th St.?

Last night's CB3 recap: Residents 1, Bar Owners 0

12th and A gets the brown paper treatment

Meanwhile, on the corner of 12th Street and Avenue A, paper has gone up in the windows of the long-dormant space that once housed the Raven...




Unfortunately, we don't have any more details on what's going in here... However, the folks behind the proposed Mexican cantina (El Camion) here have moved on, sources tell us. As you may recall, the El Camion brass gave very little notice about an open house on a Friday night at 5 back in May. The CB3/SLA committee later denied their request for a liquor license transfer.

Abandoned eatery served eviction papers

Saw these papers up at Matsukado on Second Avenue near Sixth Street... the eviction notice is dated last week, though the short-lived Japanese restaurant closed in May. Maybe the owners kept the keys...

Today's sign of the apocalypse

"Introducing The Hopsicle Experience, a frozen can of beer, sliced in half and served like a Push Pop for big kids," now at Diablo Royale Este on Avenue A near 10th Street. (Source — who else? UrbanDaddy!)

First Avenue continues to entertain

After workers repaved First Avenue... adding bike and bus lanes and what not, we thought that the work had been completed along this corridor

...not so...EV Grieve reader Blue Glass noted some of the work in these photos last evening around 6 when the cone squad arrived at 11th Street....there was a lot of slow-motion back and forth, taking a few men nearly 30 minutes to put out eight cones. And some work commenced ...








And why are they cutting First Avenue after just repaving it? As Blue Glass suggests, at this rate, the city will be done with the First Avenue renovations sometime around 3020.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Looking at the First Avenue's new bike lane and "floating lane"

From a reader: 'A TON of blood' on Seventh Street

A rather alarming e-mail from a reader:

"Biking down 7th btw C and D this morning, saw a TON of blood on the street. Starts right in front of the Flowerbox building and then goes about midway down the block, probably dragged by car tires. Could have been roadkill, but didn't see a squirrel or rat...Hear anything?"

Yikes! No.... anyone?

2 Cooper Square residents have that "random drunken girl puking her guts out" at B Bar to look forward to

[Photo by Patrick Hedlund via DNAinfo]

On Monday, Curbed noted that the DOB slapped early Bowery ruiners the B Bar with a stop-work order...the offense: the addition to the eatery's wall around the outdoor dining space.

Per Curbed:

The high-priced 2 Cooper Square tower across East 4th Street, a luxury rental rising 15 stories with a pool on top, is about to open with views directly down into the restaurant's prized courtyard.

And!

Earlier this summer more rows of cinder blocks facing East 4th Street went up in an attempt to keep prying eyes off the drinkers and diners partying under the downtown sky, even though we thought the Bowery was all about seeing and being seen these days.

Patrick Hedlund followed up on the item for DNAinfo, speaking to B Bar manager Melissa Beck. The wall, she said, is to help muffle any sound coming from the eatery's outdoor space.

She added that the owners previously removed speakers from the garden space to keep the volume down, and that the wall extension acts as a way to contain the noise with so many new families moving into the neighborhood.

"After 11 p.m., it turns more club-ish," she noted of the garden.

According to Department of Buildings records, the stop-work order remains in place due to the construction being done without a permit.

The DOB did not immediately respond request for comment about the whether the addition will have to come down.

And the B Bar manager was dismissive of Curbed's prying eyes theory from the incoming 2 Cooper residents.

"What are they going to look at?" she said. "People eating dinner, or the random drunk girl that's puking her guts out? It's not like we have a strip-tease section."

Noted!

Enjoying some 2 Cooper Square ephemeral

Speaking of 2 Cooper Square... we just came across the old launch party invite and early promo piece for the nearly complete residences at East Fourth Street...

Ah, the early slogan... "Be a part of New York's next Meatpacking District!" (Not to mention "Square was never so cool.")



And the party was at the B Bar... very neighborly!



Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out the symbolism of the accompanying artwork...Hmm, a form-fitting dress, a come-hither look. Hey, is she trying to seduce potential renters?!

But seriously, at first glance, I thought she might be holding a 2 Cooper Square cake...