Today in worrying about 35 Cooper Square

I swear those windows on the second floor weren't boarded up the other day...

And weren't people still living in apartments above the bar?

Previously.

The Mosaic Man has a home in the Lee

The Lee, the low-income housing development and training center on East Houston and Pitt Street, is nearly ready for occupancy. A spokesperson told me last fall that Lee developer Common Ground will reserve 104 units for formerly homeless individuals, 105 units for low-income workers, and 54 units for young adults at risk for homelessness.

Among the new residents: Jim Power, The Mosaic Man (along with Jesse Jane). Scoopy has an item on his new home this week in The Villager. You can read that here.

While this is all good news, Power is worried about the fate of his Mosaics — they'll likely be in the way of the Astor Place redesign. “I’m asking that Community Board 2 resign,” he declared, “because they thought that was a very good design — that’s ridiculous! This is still our neighborhood!”

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Lee expects full occupancy by March 31

Outside Lil' Frankie's, carrot toppled

On First Avenue near First Street last night. Photos courtesy of EV Grieve reader Anna. And we have no idea what was going on here... which makes it all the more entertaining...

[Publisher's note: We are limiting commenter Marty Wombacher to five bad carrot puns.]

Neon still burns brightly at the Blarney Stone

The Blarney Stone, an EV Grieve favorite down on Fulton Street, closed nearly one year ago... And the neon still has it going back on the former bar's Ann Street entrance...

"For lease" signs still adorn the front gate.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A fond farewell to the Blarney Stone

Guiding light

A little bit ago ... Courtesy of EV Grieve Contributor Bobby Williams

Noted

Second Avenue and Fourth Street.

Union Market makes their East Village move official with an Official News Release!

Thanks to a blogging friend for the following release...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Union Market to Open First Manhattan Location at 240 East Houston Street

BROOKLYN, Feb 10th, 2011 –-Brooklyn’s Union Market is set to open a new store location at 240 East Houston Street at Avenue A, bringing their experience-centered brand of grocery stores to it’s new Manhattan customers. The location is at the intersection of the East Village, and the Lower East Side.

Opening next fall, the store will bring Union Market’s unique approach and first-rate selection of goods to the borough of Manhattan for the first time since the store was founded in 2004. With its personal, convenient, and locally focused shopping experience, Union Market at Houston Street will offer all the high quality service and products that Manhattanites expect, with the personal touch of a neighborhood grocery store.

The new store at Houston Street will build upon sustainable business practices established at the LEED registered Court Street store. Union Market stocks organic, local and all-natural products, and will continue the stores’ established reputation as a customer first grocery store that offers superior goods at competitive prices.

Previously on EV Grieve:
About Union Market coming to Avenue A and Houston

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Is the Bowery Ballroom getting an Irish bar next door? (The Lo-Down)

Some people in NYC have leprosy (Runnin' Scared)

LG Optimus Black receives Keith Haring graffiti makeover (Shiny Shiny)

Comparing and contrasting "Mean Streets" and the Feast battle today (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Sunday evening at the Mars Bar (The Gog Log)

Ugly new Delancey building getting a — faint! — kitchen supply store on the ground level (BoweryBoogie)

Remembering the Cedar Tavern on such a winter's day (Flaming Pablum)

Why some Stuy Town residents may smell, be constipated (Lux Living)

More on annoying foodie types (Grub Street)

A link between diet soda consumption and an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks (Gothamist)

More news from the latest CB2/SLA meeting (Eater)

And we have another exclusive new track from the forthcoming Strokes record:

229 E. Second St. is sold out, and look at the roof deck!

Lordy it has been 13 months since we last looked at 229 E. Second St. between Avenue B and Avenue C...

You remember that it went from this...



to this...



At last look, the building's prices had been reduced anywhere from 10 to 20 percent. Well, that worked. According to Streeteasy, all the units have been sold. But! Don't despair... there is one unit available as a rental: A two-bedroom, floor-through loft with a soaking tub and "and floor-to-ceiling closets that will hold the largest of wardrobes!" Priced to rent at $6,800.

Meanwhile, the roof deck was one of the things about 229 that intrigued us. We just saw glimpses of it from the street.



But we found a few photos at various sites...

Complete with priceless renderings...

Hot tubbing!

Finally, according to the DOB, the ground floor will be used for a community facility. Will they have hot tub access?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Million dollar condos hit the market on East Second Street

229 E. Second St. sprouts a roof deck

Cutting condo prices by 20 percent on East Second Street

Back at the Marble Cemetery

Our Bobby Williams happened by the New York City Marble Cemetery again yesterday on East Second Street ... This time, a lone worker was shoveling the lawn... Bobby says he yelled twice to the worker, but the man did not look up... We're just a little curious to learn more what was happening here.

Gothamist got the scoop yesterday. (By calling? Who knew they had a phone at the cemetery...) Cemetery officials say there will soon be a burial there, and crews are preparing the lawn for the ceremony.

I'm fascinated by the history here at this rather crumbling green oasis. (Read more about it here.) You may also search interments listed by vault here.

The future and past of 264 Bowery

Back in July, I sat through a CB2 meeting ... where 264 Bowery was on the agenda that night... a group of slicksters were hoping to turn the vacant space into a club tapas bar that would serve food until 3:30 a.m. The working name: Bowery Row.

The committee rejected that one. (Read more on it here.)

I was reminded of this yesterday while reading Eater's coverage of Tuesday's CB2 meeting. Another proposal was on the docket for 264 Bowery: Two fellows hoping to open English Road, a bourbon bar with southern food. They stated upfront that "we are not a club, just a bar" without any TVs. They'd be open until 4 a.m., have DJs ... and the lawyer mentioned how good the soundproofing was. As Eater noted, the info packet for English Road mentioned their security plan was "Chuck Norris approved."

The neighbors loved this! And CB2 denied the English Road request.

(BoweryBoogie has more on the history of 264 Bowery.)

Now I drift off again into lala land ... I wonder if 264 Bowery would/could ever be turned back into what it was in the 1930s.... a barber shop that didn't serve drinks or double as a clothing store...

Tri-boro Barber School photographed on Oct. 24, 1935. [Via the NYPL]

The Bowery is the fourth most dangerous street in Manhattan

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign released a report on "the most dangerous roads for pedestrians" in the area yesterday. According to the report (via the Times), 109 pedestrians were killed on Manhattan streets from 2007-2009. In total, there were seven fatalities on the Bowery — putting it at fourth place in the city...

The report includes a map showing each roadway death... here's a shot of the LES...

You can find the whole report here.

Haters call Shep Fairey a 'buttmunch' on the Bowery

Make that a "commie buttmunch." The worst kind of buttmunch?

At Fourth Street.

At the star-studded secret Strokes show?

Twitter is alive with reports of the new Strokes single. This isn't it. Something about the clothes and hair though... I think the Strokes owe it all to Leif Garrett.

Ham radio operator irking neighbors with 30-foot antenna on East 11th Street

We've heard people complain about everything from bar noise to messy willow trees... so here's a first: Some neighbors on East 11th Street are upset over a resident's giant rooftop antenna. As Patrick Hedlund reports at DNAinfo, a group of residents are hoping the city will force the ham radio operator to have the antenna removed.

To an upset neighbor!

"Whenever we have guests over, they take one look at it and say, 'Oh my God, what is that?'" said Greg Ramsey, who's lived at 235 East 11th St. since 1988 and whose outdoor terraces sits about 12 feet away from the antenna. "It's like a military installation or something. It just seems extremely selfish to have this huge tower for one man to be running his ham radio from. It's obtrusive and inappropriate."

The tenant, who grew up in the building between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, told Hedlund that the antenna allows him to communicate with radio operators worldwide. "It was put up professionally and it's been approved," he said. "I didn't do anything in a precarious manner."

Read the whole article here.

[Photo by Patrick Hedlund/DNAinfo]

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Former staffers at a Mars Bar farewell party Monday night (Nadie Se Conoce ... See also: Vivienne Gucwa's MB photo essay)

Case sheds light into Bloomy's last re-election campaign. Which doesn't make the Mayor too happy (City Room)

How the city makes money off your frozen cars (Runnin' Scared)

From Tribeca to the East Village in 2:11 minutes (NYC Taxi Photo — now with video!)

More on the LCD Soundsystem line — with video! (BoweryBoogie)

More on Friday Night Throwdown in the LES (The Lo-Down)

Looking at 'The Penguin Pool Murder' (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

CB2 weighs in on some bars sort of near you (Eater)

Doughnut Plant opening in the Chelsea Hotel (Diner's Journal)

The return of East River Pipe (Village Voice)

About all those people bundled up in line now on Houston and Ludlow

The phone lines are going batty with calls about that long line stretching from in front of the Mercury Lounge around the corner and down Ludlow.

Well!

These folks are waiting in line for the last LCD Soundsystem show ever ... on April 2 at Madison Square Garden. The Mercury Lounge box office opens at 10 for general admission tickets.

And The Village Voice's @VoiceStreet is among those brave, yet frozen souls in line. Despite numb, frozen fingers, they are doing their best at live tweeting. And they sent these photos...

And EV Grieve reader Michael sent along this photo..

Reminds me of the time I waited in line to see Frampton at the Garden in '79.

Well, not really...

Anyway, it's getting ugly...

About the hole in ground at the Marble Cemetery

Here we are at the Marble Cemetery on East Second Street...EV Grieve contributor Bobby Williams took these shots yesterday ... he noted the activity, though no one was around to ask things like What in God's name is going on here!

Regardless, please don't let your overactive, sensationalist minds think this is something about, say, grave robbing or zombies or explosives ... We're certain there's a logical explanation for this... Like!

a) Routine cemetery maintenance
b) A new theme bar called Lucky Stiffs
c) Hyperlocal blogger misunderstands the expression "digging for a story"
d) Death + Company is moving
e) Longtime tenants forced out by rent hike
f) Shake Shack

Or maybe you have a better idea...

[Updated: Thanks to Gothamist for the link... and some answers!]

East Fourth Street's new luxury row

We've been focusing our attention of late on the preservation efforts at 35 Cooper Square... Meanwhile, we haven't checked in at the scene of another battle — 326-328 E. Fourth St. — in several weeks.

Despite a lot of outreach and awareness by a variety of local politicians and preservations groups, the historic townhouses here between Avenue C and Avenue D continue their journey toward the luxury condo apartment afterlife with the addition of two new floors.

Since we last looked, workers erected the sidewalk sheds...

And you can see right through now... not much is left inside. Workers have removed the guts.

However, the work on this block isn't limited to 326-328. There's also a sidewalk shed in front of 322.

According to a newly renewed work permit:

Interior renovation of existing apartments, including addition of one floor and penthouse; including structural, plumbing and mechanical work.

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

City doesn't give a shit about these historic East Village townhouses

Looking at the sidewalk shed and dumpster at 35 Cooper Square

Speaking of sidewalk sheds... Jeremiah first reported last Friday that work was starting at 35 Cooper Square...

So I took a few photos for my files...

Roland Li at Real Estate Weekly got a quote from a spokesperson for the building's developer: "They are removing asbestos in the roof...and they took down the awning."

The DOB permits point to "minor facade work."

Which may or may not explain the presence of an empty dumpster sitting in the sinkhole adjacent to 35 Cooper Square last evening ...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Doom and doomer: More of Cooper Square primed for development

Cooper 35 Asian Pub part of development deal on Cooper Square