Looking for a shred of truth on Ninth Street

My Coney sends along this shot from Ninth Street at First Avenue.

I dunno... Leftover from the Conflux festival? A belated statement about Enron? UFOs? Random act of shredding violence against VW Rabbits? Need some answers here, people!

No Five Guys for 171 Avenue A, but the fishmonger is back — and with a Plan B

So, there won't be a Five Guys coming to 171 Avenue A. (However, we're certain to see them pop up somewhere else in the East Village.) After that post, a tipster said that the fishmonger was coming back...

Indeed, Keith Masco confirms that he is moving forward with his plans for Sea on A in this space despite his last go-around with CB3.

A quick recap!

At the April CB3/SLA meeting, the committee approved a full-liquor license (within a resolution area) for Masco's seafood market/restaurant/high-end cocktail bar at 171 Avenue A.

Masco will sell fresh fish in the front of the space during the day ... with room for 48 diners in the back along with a bar selling specialty cocktails.

However, the full CB3 rejected the plans. So it was back to the CB3/SLA in June ... and they denied his applications.

Via e-mail, I asked Masco if he was amending his original plan that the CB3 denied.

"We are going ahead exactly as planned. I see no reason to bow to the communists at the community board. My business plan is perfect, it is exactly what the vast majority of residents here want and need."

And if CB3 says no?

"If the SLA doesn't see it the same way, I will be locked into a ten-year lease anyway. So if that be the case, I will give the under-represented and underage residents something they don't have — an all ages 24-7 diner/arcade. Having raised two children here, I know there is absolutely nothing for these kids to do, and by kids I mean even 18-20 year olds, whom despite having thier own apts, can't even hang in the park after midnite. We would have an entire dessert bar and juice bar as well. It will also be a great place for all those AA people who can now hang in an alcohol-free bar."

9th Precinct community topics: Diablo Royale, bike lanes

I commend anyone who takes the time to attend the various community meetings... and Jill did so last night at the 9th Precinct's Monthly confab....

A few highlights via Blah Blog Blah:

• "There was a complaint about Diablo Royale, the crowds, noise and violations of their agreement to not use the backyard after 11pm."

• "There was discussion about the bike lanes on 1st and 2nd Avenues. The police explained that they are distributing pamphlets and issuing summons to everybody who isn't following the rules".

Lordy, we may have to issue rewards to anyone who receives one of these pamphlets... In fact, I may set my bike on fire while riding on the sidewalk up and down Fifth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue just to get one...

We're still in a recession

This and the dumplings special at Vanessa's confirms it.

Oh, and $2,100 for a one bedroom apartment? Hate to see it we weren't in a recession...



At 10th Street and Avenue A.

Proof that Gary Busey is still alive, we think

As you likely read yesterday on Gothamist and Runnin' Scared and elsewhere ... Busey and some other entertainer types were at airport-pizza-specialists Famiglia on Eighth Street and Broadway yesterday as a fundraiser for Donald Trump. (Or maybe a charity.) This shot, in which the Busenator is starting a Spectoresque-trial-poof, is from the NYU Local.

Anyway, I kind of like Gary Busey in the movies... back in the day. Like 1988's "Bulletproof," in which he'd taunt the bad guys by calling them "butthorn."

Noted

I still say there's never a good way of writing these kinds of Urban Etiquette Signs.

Noted

Night falls on Con Ed

The Sin Sin-Leopard Lounge website has expired

Last week, we heard that the embattled Sin Sin-Leopard Lounge on Second Avenue at Fifth Street was closing at the end of the month...

And now the bar's website is no longer active...the domain name expired last Tuesday....Or they added an outdoor pool and hotel when we weren't looking...



Grub Street noted that Sin Sin "has decided to close, re-open and go a different route." Either way, it appears Sin Sin is done.

Meanwhile, we're thankful that we saved this Sin Sin website souvenir screenshot...

NYU has annoyed neighbors for a long time, apparently

Well, this is almost too good to be true...It's from a New York Times article from January 1914, back when NYU was (mostly) in the Bronx. You can read a PDF of the article here.

Members "sing and tango." Heh. Nellie Vought, early NIMBY?

The photography of Cary Conover

I've always liked the photography of East Village resident Cary Conover, a freelancer whose work has appeared in the Voice and the Times ... and starting tonight, you can catch his work at Lunasa, 126 First Avenue (between Seventh Street and St. Marks Place).



The exhibition is the latest in the Lunasa Photo Series, which is a curated program of photography exhibitions. This show features one print from each of the last 10 years that Cary has lived here. The opening is from 6-9 p.m., and the exhibit will remain up indefinitely.

Cary, an avid pool player, also has a billiards-dedicated site called Bank the Nine. Here's a nifty piece he assembled titled, A Night at Sophie's, Part III, where he captures some the the bar's pool-playing characters:

A Night of Pool at Sophie's, Part III from Cary Conover on Vimeo.

Next month, Cary and his family are moving to Kansas where he will teach photojournalism at a Wichita High School. (Here's a Q-and-A with Cary from yesterday in Street Reverb Magazine).

Cary fielded a question from me yesterday on his way to Lunansa:

How has New York City as a photographer's canvas evolved since you've been shooting here?

It's noticeably more touristy and people are more tech-savvy. I remember when the red double decker tourist buses showed up, I feel like it was 2002 or so. I always felt odd being watched as one would pass by. Technology has made a mark, too. The digitization of everything, brightly lit cell phone screens, video advertisements on top of taxis, the ubiquitous white earphone cords. Don't even get me started on the last one...I used to scoff (and this dates me), "What, you can't leave your home without your Norah Jones?" Same is true of coffee shops, it's a room full of people on laptops, all plugged into the same power outlet strip. I think of Bowery and Houston a lot, it's really changed in 10 years. There was always the mystique of that building north of Houston on Bowery, McGurk's Suicide Hall. You used to walk by a building and it would make you think about the past. I don't feel like that happens so much anymore.

Cause and effect at the Blarney Cove

A backed-up sink in the men's room.



Unkind words on the men's room wall.

And no explosives

Given all the drama at the other Marble Cemetery early last week...Here at the New York Marble Cemetery on Second Avenue... a new "no trespassing" sign went up the other day...



...perhaps to ward off anyone thinking of dumping an old bag of explosives inside the gates or something...

"You're Indian"

Per Craigslist today:

sat night L train, you're indian - w4m (East Village)
you got on the L train at bedford, and I got off at 1st avenue. I was with a guy who seemed like my boyfriend, but he was just a friend. And you and I kept making eye contact, and I didn't know what to do. If you read this, let's chat! I thought you were hot!

That Missed Connections headline could be a band name: Saturday night L train, you're indian

Hi, we're Saturday night L train, you're indian and we have T-shirts for sale in the back...

RUMORS: Five Guys looking at Avenue A

171 Avenue A has been vacant for several years now... The space almost became home to a fishmonger and a bagel shop this year...



Anyway, the place seems to have been spruced up a little of late...



And one persistent rumor: This space may become home to a Five Guys Burgers, the Virginia-based chain with a handful of locations in Manhattan.



Never had one myself, but people I know love these guys....

At Friday's bike lane protest

Well, after all that ... Due to work commitments, I couldn't make it to the bike lane protest on Friday afternoon.

However, I'm thankful for the readers who sent along quick reports and photos...





Per one reader: "it was very dull.there were more hyperlocal reporters than protesters and most people were pro-bike lane. the reporters shown here are from the NYU LEV."




Another reader noted, "There were lots of people with bikes, and many with signs like the one in the photo. It seems to have been taken over by pro-bike lane people."

In an e-mail to me, Leslie Sicklick, who planned the protest, said that she will likely hold another one in the future, though at a different time and place.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Protest planned for reconfigured Avenues (153 comments)

Papa John's is such a tease

Still no official word yet on Opening Day here on First Avenue between 12th Street and 13th Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Papa John's shows off its big, green awning; plus, reader reaction!

Make yourself at home on a First Avenue Refuge Island

First Avenue and 12th Street the other evening. This photo is courtesy of @marakaufman, who notes, "I'm excited the refuge islands are getting a home-y touch." Ha! Agreed!

All you need is cash on East Sixth Street

At $269,000, this two-room studio on East Sixth Street is one of the least-expensive homes on the market. (And the seller reduced the price by 10 percent last week...)





Here's the listing ... do those last three words give you pause?

East Village charmer! This lovely two-room studio has been recently renovated and boasts a modern kitchenette with a Gaggenau range, and cheerful custom bath with yellow and white penny tile. Classic prewar details include original pressed-tin ceilings, exposed brick and exposed beams. The layout of this studio is very functional, with sliding doors separating the sleeping quaters from the front of the apartment. Great light and open city views make this well-worth the walk up to the fifth floor! CASH BUYERS ONLY

East Village eatery odds-and-ends: Porsena progress on Seventh; new cafe for Avenue C?

Just noting the progress of Porchetta chef Sara Jenkins' new eatery on Seventh Street... will be called Porsena.



Looks as if a new coffee shop/pressed-sandwich-kinda-cafe is opening on Avenue C at the former Rico hookah joint next to C-squat.





East Village Feed brings word of a new tea shop opening on 10th Street near First Avenue... at the site of the former Vinyl Market... this brings the number of places for tea in the East Village to 3,459.