How you can help save 35 Cooper Square

Over the weekend, we posted the information on Friday's rally to help save 35 Cooper Square. (Find that info here.)

There's also an online petition you can sign. You can find that here.

The rally, which starts at 4:30, is sponsored by Bowery Alliance of Neighbors (BAN) — with participating organizations Historic Districts Council (HDC); Lower East Side Preservation Initiative (LESPI); and Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP).

Read more about the history of 35 Cooper Square here at Jeremiah's Vanishing NY.

[Images via Bowery Alliance of Neighbors]

Before the Cooper Square Hotel

Speaking of 35 Cooper Square... the building, on the far left in the photo below, is the sole survivor here between Fifth Street and Sixth Street... the photo by rollingrck (via Flickr) was taken on Dec. 12, 2004 ...

[Hat tip to Neighborhoodr for the Flickr link]

A vintage East Village Urban Etiquette Sign

On East First Street circa 1997. By rollingrck via Flickr.

Papa John's is back in the East Village!

Back in December, a tipster pointed out the location of the new Papa John's on First Avenue — Eastside Village!



And now .... a new mailer has arrived...

The Rusty Knot Party Bus returns to the East Village!

That's right! The bus is back! We got word last week that Knotgoers in Williamsburg and the East Village/Lower East Side would once again get a free alcohol-fueled ride to the nautica-themed faux dive on the West Side Highway. The bus makes pickups at Bedford Avenue and North 7th Street at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., and at First Street and First Avenue at 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. (I previously wrote about it here.)

I happened to be right here at First Street and First Avenue on my way to see the Icicle Audi when the bus promptly pulled in around 8:30ish... the bus idled here alongside Boca Chica for 15 minutes or so...

...before pulling away...

And I didn't see one person get on. (And I couldn't tell how many people were on the bus.) Just saw one fellow in a beard and cardigan exit the bus a few times and look up First Avenue to see if any Knotgoers were on the way... Perhaps there were more people for the 10:30 p.m. pickup...

Bonus Party Bus Excerpt from last February, when a Times reporter hopped aboard:

“This is raging!” said Ryan McGaffigan, a 32-year-old sales manager in a wool cap, plaid shirt and ’50s-style glasses. He had just polished off two Buds “shotgun” — puncturing the can and finishing it in one long swig.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rusty Knot Party Bus makes East Village debut

Beau replaces Paste at Barbao on St. Mark's Place

Before!



Now!

Tonight, in the studio and on the street

Previously.

9:01 p.m., First Avenue, Jan. 24

Goodbye to the coldest day of the year (so far!)

Photo of the ConEd plant off 14th Street taken this morning by EV Grieve contributor Shawn Chittle.

The Lo-Down has a great midday shot of the ConEd stacks here.

4:17 p.m., Second Avenue and 10th Street, Jan. 24

Under watchful eye of TV news crews, the Icicle Audi is freed

TV news crews are still on the scene of this afternoon's biggest story involving a frozen car... Anyway, the DEP is on East Second Street to repair the underground water break...

Meanwhile, crews moved the Icicle Audi a few hundred feet down Second Second... where several photographers were taking the car's picture...

Previously...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Why the East Village will be remembered for the Great Winter of 2010-2011

Meanwhile, on Seventh Street, the East Village's original frozen car asks, 'What about me?'

On Jan. 16, we posted these photos by EV Grieve contributor Bobby Williams on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...

Same situation has what happened on East Second Street yesterday... broken underground pipe results in frozen car.

But, outside this post, there was zero media coverage. And the Icicle Audi gets on the local TV news, the Post, Gothamist...

Reps for this car contacted us to see what we could do about getting it some love and attention. Anyone?

Ladder 9 on Great Jones Street closed today

We'll periodically have information on local fire companies that service, in part, the East Village ... including when they are closed for periods of time...

Ladder 9, located on Great Jones Street and covering the East Village, is CLOSED today for Annual Medical Exams.

The Post looks at the new Bowery hotel, forgets where CBGBs was

Back on Jan. 11, Lois Weiss at the Post was first to report on the new new hotel coming to the former Salvation Army building on the Bowery. Since then, Curbed and the Observer have unleashed renderings of the hotel...

The Post follows-up today, getting some feedback about the gaudy-looking hotel's arrival in an article titled "The Bowery's Skid Glow."

Let's take a look at the article!

Nobody's begging for change anymore in the Bowery.
The once-gritty neighborhood has already become the face of the city's ongoing gentrification, but a new 14-story boutique hotel — complete with balconies that light up in shimmery pastels and a massive Jumbotron screen — has locals wondering if they are living in the next Times Square.
The hotel will go up right across the street from the old CBGBs, but recently released renderings show the look is more Kylie Minogue than Debbie Harry.

Right across the street from the old CBGBs?

And...

The changes that the Bowery has undergone are astounding, said Suzanne Wasserman, director of the Gotham Center for New York City History at CUNY graduate center.
"When I moved to New York in 1980, it was Skid Row and bums [down there]," she said.
But Wasserman said there are only two constants in New York — change and people worrying about change.

Image created by Shawn Chittle.

Why the East Village will be remembered for the Great Winter of 2010-2011

Yesterday, courtesy of RyanAvenueA, we learned about a sinkhole and an Icicle Audi on Second Street...

Gothamist has more on the story ... As they note, the car has come to symbolize the Great Arctic Blast of Jan. 24, 2011©. Gothamist spotted three news vans parked on that block this morning.

Meanwhile, CBS 2 tracks down the car's owner, who has the right attitude about material possessions: “It could be worse like if that was me or a family member covered in ice that wouldn’t be good; so it’s all relative.” (A leaky pipe under the street caused this, per CBS 2.)

(Photo/Steve Sandberg)

The Icicle Audi is the latest East Village ride to become an Icon for the Great Winter of 2010-2011©. Our bike, which we never really named.

What a piece of Shepard Fairey's vandalized Deitch Wall mural is going for on eBay

As you'll recall, vandals took to the Shepard Fairey mural on Houston and the Bowery last summer... Now a tipster passes along an item up for grabs on eBay: A genuine piece of the wall... And $100 for the starting bid!

Wonder how much more of the wall will turn up now... there are plenty of pieces to sell...

A weekend for dicks

Well, I'm not sure how to explain this past weekend... cabin fever, perhaps, or Rush Week, but the neighborhood seemed to be full of more jackasses than usual... (We talked about it via Twitter)

In this environment, The Penistrator was free to flourish... There were sightings reported all over the neighborhood...

[Thanks to @patty_chung for this photo on East 10th Street]

[Slightly different angle via Leesy]

Meanwhile, sorta on the topic... Bob Arihood notes the results of a beer-swollen bladder on East Fourth Street this past weekend...

Previously.

Google Maps can't quite locate the East Village

Several readers have sent me e-mails about Google Maps...

So, go to Google Maps and type in the zip 10009.

Road trip!

(And it seems as if 10003 is more accurate.)

Anyway, last Wednesday night, I contacted Google CEO Eric Schmidt about this. I said he'd better fix this ... or they'd be a shakeup at the top!

Streetscenes: Fifth Street and Avenue B

Photographed one day last week. Probably safe to say Caffe Buon Gusto isn't opening here. Ever.