In Tompkins Square Park this afternoon

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Forecast for evening commute: Rain Drizzle

This afternoon in Tompkins Square Park. Photo by Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Photo on Second Avenue near Ninth Street taken yesterday by Blue Glass.]

"The miserable scene that welcomes you today" at Coney Island (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A long article on Mayor Bloomberg's future (Fast Company)

What Steve Buscemi would look like with Michele Bachmann eyes (Runnin' Scared)

Bowery lighting district fading out (BoweryBoogie)

Juicy Lucy tops list of city's best juice bars (PopSugar NYC)

What's up with 298 and 300 Grand Street? (Lost City)

Rent an Upper East Side mansion for just $165,000 per month (Curbed)

Looking at The Brokers With Hands on Their Faces Blog (DealBook)

"Labels will go under" — bad news for indie labels after a riot-related fire wipes out a warehouse in London (NME)

Crusty slumber party

Earlier this morning on East 11th Street. Would like to know what that CNBC van is doing in the background... Photo by native New Yorker and East Village resident Anthony Torre.

Historic East Fourth Street townhouses now just brick and bones

Every few months we'll check in on the formerly historic townhouses at 326-328 E. Fourth St. ... and every time we look, there's less and less of the original buildings remaining...

The houses are now essentially just the brick and some bones.

Soon, though, the building will rise again as something completely different, and with two new floors courtesy of developer Terrence Lowenberg and Ramy Issac, the sausage penthouse king of the East Village.

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

Sky East suspiciously receives a lot of institutional-looking beds and furniture

EV Grieve reader thisboyshouts noted the following arrival yesterday at 636 E. 11th St. between Avenue B and Avenue C: About 20 institution-style beds, chairs, dressers, desks and other furniture.

This is Sky East, run by Magnum Management, which is owned and operated by Benjamin "Sledgehammer" Shaoul.

Thisboyshouts wonders what could possible be coming here: Dorm? Hotel? Sanitarium? (The rumor is that part of the space will be used for NYU housing.)

Possibly related! Thisboyshouts also notes that he had to go over to Sky East Friday night around 10:30 because they had workers inside buffing the floors with the windows wide open ... which you could hear clear up and down the block.

After complaining to the Sky East doorman on duty, the workers shut the windows but kept working through the night, which must have been a pleasure for the people living in the building.

[Updated] A recap of Saturday night's protest at the BMW/Guggenheim Lab

[Photo by Steven Hirsch]

On Saturday night, I posted some photos by Bobby Williams of the "Let Them Eat Cake/Eat the Rich/No Comfort Zone street party." (The comments section is still smoldering.)

In any event, here are some links that offer more of a narrative of what happened that evening. Bob Arihood has posts from the three stops on the tour: the Economakis Dream Mansion ... the BMW Guggenheim Lab ... and Mars Bar.

Goggla has a nice summary here. Including video.

Marty After Dark was around for the Mars Bar portion here.

Gothamist had a summary post here.

From a distance anyway, the most interesting part of the evening came when the group — 25 strong or so — arrived at the BMW/Guggenheim Lab near closing time. I've heard several variations of what happened. This isn't everything that happened, just a brief summation.

Several people spoke out about the history of class warfare in the East Village and why the BMW/Guggenheim Lab is a self-congratulatory project for a few and doesn't address the needs/talents of the community at all, as Goggla put it. A sober LES Jewels read a poem. Unfortunately, at this time, there wasn't much of an audience, save a few Lab administrators and curators.

[Photo by Gil Robichaud]

Rob Hollander, who arrived just after the demonstrators entered the space, described the reaction this way: "I would not call it 'friendly,' but maybe 'acquiescent.'" Those in attendance said that the Lab curators stuck close by to prevent the Guggenheim from inciting an incident that might have brought them ugly press.

According to witnesses, the only time things got heated occured when John Penley lit a cigarette. One administrator reportedly yelled at Penley to put out the cigarette; that the Lab is on Parks Department land and smoking is illegal in city parks. Several other people in the group also lit cigarettes. One of the curators was said to whisper something in the administrator's ear. She then left the immediate area.

And, thanks to Goggla, we have some video. (She has more here.)



I asked Penley on Sunday for his thoughts on his reception to the Lab/Community Center.

"The management was angry and and didn't listen to what we said. They were typical of people in authority who, when confronted, ignore you but look pissed off since they couldn't call the cops, which I asked them to do because the publicity would be bad for them. They let it go. The workers loved it."

As Rachel Pincus reported for Gothamist:

"The Lab itself greeted the protest with a mixture of appreciation and utter annoyance, sympathizing with its cause but finding its aggressive tone objectionable. 'This space is meant for dialogue,' said Lab team host Kristian Koreman, who has roots as a squatter in Rotterdam. 'If they had acted in a way where they wanted an answer to their questions, we would have answered.'"

I followed up with the press contact that I had for the Lab. "As quoted in Gothamist, the Lab is about dialogue – of all kinds," said Eleanor R. Goldhar, deputy director and chief of global communications. "The protesters have a point of view to express which we respect. We also appreciate the courtesy they showed while engaging with staff and visitors at the Lab."

The former Café Charbon will now be known as Hair of the Dog — or The Dog

I was at the CB3/SLA meeting in January where the committee gave the OK for the transfer of Epicerie Café Charbon on the corner of Orchard and Stanton Streets to the team behind The Stumble Inn, Off the Wagon, Gin Mill, Down the Hatch, The 13th Step, etc.

The rep from the bar made a low-key yet professional presentation, and the transfer sailed right through without any objections.

In June, Michael Asch, one of the two senior co-owners of the 13th Step and its sibling bars, told me that the new space would be "a sports bar, pub and grill, serving burgers, salads, sandwiches, etc., with an emphasis on value — both on the food as well as liquor."

Café Charbon closed in June, as BoweryBoogie first reported.

Yesterday, BoweryBoogie did some nice detective work, reporting that the new space could be a second location of the Upper West Side-based Gin Mill.

Asch sent me an email yesterday saying that the Café Charbon space will actually be renamed Hair of the Dog, "and probably quickly to be referred to as 'The Dog.'" Projected opening: Dec. 1. (For the record, Grub Street had this news from Asch first late yesterday afternoon.)

[Photo by Shanna Ravindra for New York magazine]

Previously on EV Grieve:
13th Step owner discusses frat rap, telephone booths and bar names

LES nightlife game-changer: Team behind 13th Step, Down the Hatch OK'd to take over Café Charbon space

Filipino pop-up restaurant Maharlika now open on First Avenue

As of last Friday, Filipino pop-up restaurant Maharlika is now in "soft open" mode here at 111 First Ave. near Seventh Street...

Grub Street first brought news of this arrival back on July 22 ... Co-founder Nicole Ponseca previously oversaw a Maharlika brunch pop-up inside of Resto Leon on East 12th Street...

Anyway! Here's a look at part of the menu...

And, to fit into the current East Village climate, there's a happy hour....

This is the second Filipino restaurant to debut on First Avenue this year ... Sa Aming Nayon opened in the former Wai? Cafe space in June.

And this is the third or so eatery to take this space in the last few years... there was Absinthe, Lautrec Bistro and Lingua ...

Veselka Bowery now has... tables!

Last week, we pointed out that Veselka Bowery had chairs... and now! Tables...

Tomorrow? Linens! (If you're lucky...)

Photo by Bobby Williams

Depending on your news source, Gavin DeGraw was either injured or brutally beaten on First Avenue

The world is waking up to or, perhaps, going to bed to, the news that a group of men attacked pop singer Gavin DeGraw early Monday morning.

According to a lot of news articles, DeGraw had been out drinking with friends when he was beaten up on First Avenue between Fifth and Sixth Streets around 4 a.m. Monday. Then! According to reports, he walked (or stumbled or staggered, according to your news source) up to Third Avenue and 19th Street where he was hit by a cab about 30 minutes later.

He is in Bellevue with a broken nose and other lacerations. Police said that it was not clear what led to the attack or how many individuals were involved in the assault. He and his brother own the National Underground on East Houston Street.

Prime time

A reader sent along the above photo tonight with a note: "The old dinosaur was booted out off of 9th and C only to be replaced by this young, skinny and NAKED mannequin! Oh so telling..."

True!

Worse, I'm suddenly reminded of The Alan Parsons Project.

The sun is still shining

Looking southwest from 10th Street... Photo by Bobby Williams.

Wall Street, 4:30 p.m., Aug. 8

Yesterday in Tompkins Square Park

Thanks to Steven Hirsch for sharing these photos from yesterday in Tompkins Square Park, Day 2 of the Riot Reunion shows...

Find more of Hirsch's work here.

Report: Kenneth Moreno sentenced to 1 year in jail

Kenneth Moreno, one of the two ex-cops acquitted of raping an East Village woman, was sentenced to a year in jail this morning for official misconduct. (Daily News)

Checking in on the TSP Ratstravaganza

Been a few weeks since that rat-fueled media frenzy in Tompkins Square Park ... As we've noted, the Park is well-managed by some devoted workers.

Among other things, workers installed lids on the trash cans to prevent the rats (and other various critters) to get inside... A good idea in theory... However, people don't seem to have the grasp of the concept, as these photos from Saturday morning show...

Several of the trash cans were actually empty. Just people couldn't be bothered to push the trash through the lids.

Also, people (or at least The Pigeon Lady) continue to dump like 50 pounds of stale bread exactly in the location where the rats have been seen swarming near the playground off Avenue off Ninth Street... Saturday morning...

...and Saturday night, this photo by Sean Kennedy shows 18 rats on the prowl... (rats are highlighted for your viewing ease)

Previously.

Meanwhile, we have a much bigger problem in another East Village Community Garden

GIANT CHIPMUNKS!

In Gilbert's Garden on East Eighth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D. Whatever you do — don't talk to it! That squeaky voice!

City discovers bicycle graveyard on East First Street

Several readers have pointed out the pile of dead bikes on East First Street, along the construction-choked corridor between Avenue A and First Avenue ...

Now the city has posted these rather unintentionally funny signs on the bikes.

Wonder how city workers deduced that these are, in fact, abandoned? Anyway, if one of these bikes belongs to you... the city will remove it after today.

Also, does anyone know how all these bikes got here?

A bad sign at Billy's Antiques?

Billy Leroy passes along word that a gust of wind during the weekend took down the skull above his sign on East Houston...

The ghosts from the Bowery? Or the beginning of the end here?

Photos by Tim Dark.