Outside the Mystery Lot today

Who's going to the bike lane protest?

The bike lane/etc protest is at 5 today at 14th Street and First Avenue.... Looks like EV Grieve will be stuck at work... so if anyone happens to be there and wants to file a brief report... we'd very much appreciate that....grieve98@gmail.com

Tearful anniversaries: A look back at the EV Lambo

First, press play. (Or not.)



Was just about this time last week in which the world was introduced to the EV Lambo...


[EV Grieve reader Joe]

It brought immediate media attention. (Daily Intel ... Runnin' Scared) ...

And we saw the birth of @EVLambo.

We fought. We flirted. We fell in love.

And now. Nothing. Like A-ha, we've hunted high and low for the EV Lambo.... nothing.

We've had our hopes crushed. We saw a flash of orange by the Mars Bar... and we ran! Ran until our legs were bloody stumps a few feet away... Crushed, like an orange. A different orange sporty car!



Oh, just that other orange sporty car.


[ Via Flickr]

EV Lambo, where are you?

And one day it suddenly seems like fall

Timi's Gelateria Classica™ opening in former Andy's Chee-Pees space on St. Mark's Place

After a little speculation this week, we have confirmation what's coming to the former Andy's Chee-Pee's space on St. Mark's near Second Avenue: Timi's Gelateria Classica™ — "a gelato franchise for the 21st century, with true Italian artisanal gelato made fresh daily."




This is the first U.S. location... per the website:

A unique blend of Italian recipes from Veneto's renowned gelato experts and local, farm-fresh ingredients, Timi's Gelateria Classica™ is a zero-mile concept that brings a high-tech gelato experience from Italy to NYC for the first time. More than your typical gelateria, it will highlight the sweet and savory sides of Italian dairies with the unique combination of a mozzarella bar, a café proudly serving Lavazza, Italy's favorite coffee, and frullati bar for all-season, daylong options. Timi's Gelateria Classica™ Italiana NYC will be the flagship location for the Italian mini-chain, which has successfully launched its stores throughout the world in countries such as China, Mexico, Romania, and of course, Italy.

The upstairs will feature an Internet cafe. Look for it to open next week.

Meanwhile! On the corner! Roastown has a new sign...

First Avenue, 11:46 a.m., Oct. 15

Rumors: John Varvatos is reportedly looking for a buyer

Thanks to a reader for passing along this item from The Wall Street Journal's Bankruptcy Beat blog titled Kristal Estate Open to Selling CBGB Name. The last two paragraphs are particularly interesting:

Meanwhile, there’s buzz surrounding the club’s old digs at 315 Bowery in Manhattan’s East Village, which wasn’t among the assets sold to CBGB Holdings. Men’s fashion designer John Varvatos set up shop there in 2008.

The New York Post reported this week that Varvatos, whose rock ‘n’ roll-worthy designs have been worn by Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper, is seeking a buyer to help him get out from under a heavy debt burden. The designer’s current owner, VF Corp., (which owns Lee, Wrangler, Nautica and The North Face) declined to comment on “rumors and speculation.”

[Photo via]

Bike lane extravaganza

First!
A reminder that tonight is the bike lane/pedestrian island, etc. protest on 14th Street at First Avenue...



We all had a few things to say about this here. (147 comments!)

Second!

Last Friday, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer held a press conference on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place to reveal results of an “unprecedented survey of bike lane safety.”

Stringer and company compiled during data during morning and evening rush hours between Oct. 5 and Oct. 7 And he found down here:

• Dooring (car doors opening as a cyclist approaches) – 19 infractions at St. Marks Place & Second Avenue; 77 total infractions

The Lo-Down was at the news conference and has a full report here.

Columnist Michael Goodwin didn't think much of Stringer's plan at the Post:

Cycle of stupidity

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer sent his staff out to stare at dopey bike lanes popping up all over town. They saw all kinds of what he called safety violations, ranging from taxis and pedestrians using the lanes to cyclists going the wrong way and running red lights.

His answer: a bigger bureaucracy and higher costs. Stringer wants better signs, a public-awareness campaign and strict enforcement by cops.

No thanks. The NYPD is cutting back on anti-terror teams because it doesn't have the cash. Further diluting the force by having cops patrol bike lanes makes about as much sense as the lanes themselves, which is zero.

Third!

How about using these experimental bike lane spotters like the one here on Fifth Street and First Avenue to crack down on law-breaking cyclists, motorists, pedestrians, skateboarders and Rite Aid shoppers...





Fourth!

There are signs up now offering some directions...




Lastly!

When are we getting lanes for unicyclists! These guys are psychos!

Show your love for C-4 this weekend!

In honor of this week's second-most explosive story, show your C-4 pride this weekend with what will, no doubt, be the hottest East Village accessory since Old Navy debuted the Bowery Bombers line!




And, given the barfy ways of some bargoers these days.... just in case!



...and for the little ones...



OK, OK... I just randomly found these on Cafe Press.... they have nothing to do with the other C-4...

Why the titans of Wall Street may know about Mars Bar after today

The Mars Bar is featured today in The Wall Street Journal:

That Mars Bar continues to operate at all on a corner that bears witness to East Village development at its most rampant is nearly a political statement in itself. The bulk of the rest of the block between Second Avenue and Bowery is occupied by the Avalon at Bowery Place apartment complex. In 2005, the Avalon supplanted two parking lots, as well as the Church of All Nations (which used to look out over pre-Whole Foods Houston Street) and a tenement building that was the former site of McGurk's Suicide Hall, perhaps the most infamous dive bar in Bowery history.

"You look at it now, and it's just amazing that it's even hanging on," said David Allen, a downtown resident since the mid 80's. Mr. Allen, an influential illustrator with several paradigmatic punk album covers to his credit, will participate in this month's Mars Bar show. He noted that a tiny and scrappy corner bar dwarfed by luxury housing is itself a combination of poetic irony and economic reality. "It does, I suppose, speak to the kind of twilight period that the economy's in right now," he said.

Cooper Union is green

Crain's has the good news about Cooper Union's achievement:

The East Village-based school's new building at 41 Cooper Square has become the city's first academic structure to earn the U.S. Green Building Council's highest honor: LEED Platinum certification.

Meanwhile, here to dampen our spirits per usual, EV Heave thinks they celebrated with some Pavement Pizza.

[Updated] Car smashes into Pastel's front window on Second Avenue

A reader has noted a smashed window at the spa Pastel on Second Avenue and 12th Street... Don't have any idea what happened, but it looks like more than a mani/pedi gone bad....

UPDATED:

Well, we have our answer....



Thanks to EV Grieve reader xpressbus for sending along this photo via Flickr. Don't know if anyone was injured... or what, exactly, happened...

Explaining yesterday's UFO sighting

By now you've likely read about the possible UFO (balloons) sighting near, uh, over, Chelsea.

Here's one explanation, courtesy of The News of Today:

Where things get even weirder is that author Stanley A. Fulman, a retired NORAD Officer, who in his book Challenges of Change, claims he has been in contact with 43,000 “old souls,” who have told him that on October 13th, there will be aliens visiting the earth, hovering their UFO’s over several large cities for several minutes. Yesterday happened to be the 13th of October, and the Objects did hover for several minutes over at least one major City of the world, New York City. With 2012 approaching, could this be the end of the world as we know it, or is this a mere coincidence?

Thoughts?

Will Bloomberg need to install UFO lanes too? Or will it not really matter?

Demolition Smurf, apparently

EV Grieve readers are helping to crack this case: who is responsible for leaving the C-4 here? And everyone here seems to be taking this rather seriously:

East Village Eats said...
Insurgent (by which I mean B&T) dead drop from one of those pesky helicopters that were around all summer.

LiberationNYC said...
Hipsters. They were half way through building their bombs and suddenly lost interest. They were all like, whatevs, shrugged their shoulders, and walked away.

dmh said...
Zombies!

EV Grieve said...
Hipster zombies!

glamma said...
i thnk it was those crazy teabaggers.

Lori E. Seid said...
I think Angelina Jolie stashed them after filming Salt!

pinhead said...
Demolition Smurf.

Anonymous said...
Leftover from when cheap shots made truck bombs.

Marty Wombacher said...
I think it was EV Lambo. Dumped the junk from her trunk and vroom, off she sailed. Notice how she's been keeping a low profile lately?

Anonymous said...
benign nothingness madeover into newzzzzzz

Anonymous said...
Sarah Connor left it there in hopes that her son, John, could use it to fight the machines in the future.

There were also some actual plausible explanations there too.

NY1 looks at a 'landmark dispute' on East Fourth Street

NY1 ran a piece last night titled "Plan To Redevelop East Village Row Houses Draws Fire."

A landmark dispute on Manhattan's Lower East Side is pitting some longtime residents against one another as a developer sets his sights on the neighborhood. NY1's Rebecca Spitz filed the following report.

They may not look like much, but to some, a cluster of 1830s row houses located at 326 and 328 East 4th Street mean a lot. The buildings currently house an arts collective, but they're moving out and a new developer is coming in — and that has some people worried.

"We're just concerned about inappropriate alterations to the building, or actual demolition itself because these are the only buildings that have ever been on these sites and it's so rare that a 170-year-old building is still around in the East Village," said Kurt Cavanaugh of the East Village Community Coalition.

A developer, who would not talk with NY1, has already signed an agreement to buy the buildings. He has also filed an application to build two new stories on top of the existing structures.

"To destroy them with a high rise or something crazy would be nuts," said one East Village resident

.

You can watch the video here.



It's a good piece, — I'm glad that word of this potential development is getting out there .... Here's a little more background on the two townhouses between Avenue C and Avenue D that hit the market back in March for $4.6 million. As the Times reported last month, this was home to "an artists’ collective and burial society called the Uranian Phalanstery and First New York Gnostic Lyceum Temple, was started in the East Village in the late 1950s by the artists Richard Oviet Tyler and Dorothea Tyler." Per Colin Moynihan's article, the group is faced with tax liens, and sold the building they have owned since 1974.

Meanwhile, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) and the East Village Community Coalition are working to to get landmark status here.

In any event, the historic townhouses are now in contract. The Corcoran listing shows they went for $3.95 million. The Times story last month noted that the developer is Terrence Lowenberg, who's also behind the work at Ninth Street and First Avenue. Curbed pointed out that the two-story rooftop additions are designed by architect Ramy Issac, "the neighborhood's most controversial tenement topper."



Previously on EV Grieve:
Historic East Fourth Street artists' collective soon to be condos

Two side-by-side townhouses on East Fourth Street await your renovation

Life at Dwell 95: Chace Crawford is a great neighbor, but those toilets!

Back in September 2008, I was walking by Wall and Water Streets ... and walked right into the opening night party for the Philippe Starck-designed luxury rental conversion at 95 Wall St. Festive despite a 500-point drop on the NYSE that day — the beginning of the meltdown! A tux-clad musician with an electronic fiddle was on the red carpet delighting all who walked by, mostly confused tourists at the onset.



You can read the whole post here.

The other day, a Dwell resident left a comment on the post.... which seemed too good not to share... So, excuse me while we venture away from the East Village for a moment...

Here's the comment:

i've been living here for a yr. def not gonna renew my lease. ok here we go: 1. every floor smells like pot. not exaggerating!!! 2. [the manager] is unprofessional and needs a better attitude. every complaint goes in one ear and out the other. she ignores everyone! 3. electricity — they say they save u money on electricity bec they buy it buy the bulk. but they overcharge by almost double!! and they put it under building services not electricity. my electric bill came out double what i have paid in any previous luxury building. 4. windows — all the apt windows are not fully sealed so tons of cold air comes in the winter and visa versa in the summer. management answers put the heater or ac on!. yea as if they are paying my bill. 5. complaints concerning the apt take forever to take care of. 6. breakfast always runs out — obviously bec most of the apt have like 5 people in a 2 bedroom just to save money. 7. their was no ac in the gym the entire summer. 8. the workout classes they give in the morning SUCK. the little red head has no experience at all and is very annoying. most of her classes have 1 or 2 people. usually she ends up stretching on her own or doesnt show. 9. the washer and dryer in the apt are really small, just enough for underwear and 3 small towels. 10. the toilets flush really bad bec there's not enough water pressure...there will always be leftovers (beware). 11. hot water takes about 4 min in the morning for the showers. about the same for the sink in the kitchen. 12. the stove is big enough to cook a baby chicken, not much more. i bought a grill to compensate. 13. the stove top clicks when there is too much humidity in the room. 14. the light in the fridge turn on on holidays only. just joking but they rarely work. ... and yes Chace is a really great neighbor, he complains too, but nothing helps lol .

Plus sur l'histoire la plus importante jamais - le café de trottoir de DBGB

Selon EV affligez-vous, qui perd clairement son esprit, le café de trottoir de DBGB était en service la nuit passée.

Noted

13th Street near Third Avenue

Crain's poll: 'Should we pull the plug on Manhattan bike lanes?'

Crain's is asking, not me.... You can read what they have to say here.

Here are the questions to study beforehand:

Yes. The only thing all these bike lanes have accomplished is the near impossible feat of making traffic in Manhattan even worse. If people want to ride a bike, let them go to Central Park.

No. Dedicated bike lanes are essential to making cycling in the city a safe, viable, totally green way to get around town.

A quick look inside the latest dessertery on St. Mark's Place

The EV Grieve reader who sent us the details on the new dessert place at the former Andy's Chee-Pees returns with a quick look inside....



Everything looks to be first class inside...