Longtime East Village activist/photojournalist John Penley passed along more details about a Halloween evening protest in Tompkins Square Park:
On Halloween there will be a Protest/Fiesta in Tompkins Square Park to make some noise and ask the question, Whose Fukin Park? Unelected Real Estate/Yuppie/NYU Student lovin members of Community Board 3 have decided they want cops with sound meters and much fewer music and cultural events in the Park next year.
It will take place roughly 7 p.m. to midnight... and at that hour: "At Midnight we will go to the Apt. of the person behind this."
It's a massive space — 5,000 square feet...and the number on the "for rent" sign is for "A Consolidated Auctioneers & Liquidators Incorporated," listed at 240 Bowery, home of the other Bari stores across the way...
And so the old Bowery remains on the clock. But how much time has the Bowery of Olde have left? And what will go into this big space? The Marc Jacobs Bowery Flagship?
The Theater For The New City Building went up in 2001 at 10th Street and First Avenue... well, no reason to get into all that ... On Tuesday, a new two-bedroom home hit the market:
2 bedrooms 2 bathrooms GEM! Tucked away ,you'll find a meticulously design home in one of the most unique boutique condos in the East Village. This expansive and flexible floor plan allows you to live an open-loft lifestyle with all the comforts of a traditional apartment. The sponsor has upgraded the unit with raydoor wall dividers, new hardware and a granite fireplace to sweeten the deal. Both Master and 2nd bedroom are of extremely generous size with and cavernous closets allow for plenty of storage throughout the apartment. Your balcony faces north right of the living room with a quaint and classic East Village view.
Etc., etc., etc.
And it's going for $1.599 million.
I looked at the sales history of this unit on Streeteasy...
2/11/2003 — Previous Sale recorded for $677,500.
02/15/2008 — Previous Sale recorded for $995,000.
10/19/2010 — Listed by Corcoran at $1,599,000.
If my math is correct, which isn't usually the case, then the place has gone up in price 136 percent in seven years...Even with some new "raydoor wall dividers" and stuff... that's quite a jump....
That's the word from EV Grieve reader tintin2000, who was walking by and asked a worker on the scene.
Per tintin2000: "I thought it was going to be a bar cause it had a big bar in the space, but they said it is going to be a Mexican Restaurant. I asked if it will be overpriced ... and they said no — authentic Mexican and cheap."
A lot of work is going into the former Raven space here... Also, In May, the CB3/SLA committee denied their application for a liquor license for a Mexican eatery doing business as El Camion III Inc.
Only 26 percent of New York City voters want Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president in 2012, according to a poll released Wednesday. The Marist College poll found that nearly two-thirds of people in the Big Apple -- 64 percent -- want him to stay on the sidelines.
Your friend was passed out - you wanted the ride - m4w - 30 (East Village)
Date: 2010-10-20, 12:43PM EDT
Saturday 1am, you were 3 girls, 1 of which wasn't feeling well. I'm one of the 3 guys that were waiting for you to get in the car to take you home, but your friend started throwing up. I'd love to get to know you.
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!
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...
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.
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."
• "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...
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."
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...
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?
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:
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.
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...
