The elusive Tompkins Square Park white rat becoming less elusive

Yesterday, Bob Arihood had night-time photos of the elusive Tompkins Square Park white rat ... Apparently, the fame is going to the white rat's head, as he or she decided to frolic in the daytime yesterday near the playground at Ninth Street and Avenue A... as these photos by EV Grieve reader Judy show...

Someone get this thing a Twitter account already!

Tompkins Square Park, now with 'feed a pigeon, breed a rat' signs

Back on Friday, we mentioned the "feed a pigeon, breed a rat" signs that some other city parks have ... seeing as we have the likes of The Pigeon Lady hereabouts, we thought similar signs might be nice in Tompkins Square Park too...

Well! Look what workers out up in the last day or so ...

So when can we get the T-shirts, hats, buttons and iPhone cases?

Meanwhile, a few of the old trashcans have returned in the Park...

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Noted

On East Sixth Street. The sign is a little confusing. Can you only use one of these items at a time? Or two of three?

And now, a closeup photo of the Subway BBQ pulled pork sandwich ad

With apologies in advance... I just gag every time I walk by a Subway with these signs... like this one on Second Avenue near Ninth Street...

Singaporean restaurant coming soon to East 13th Street

Several readers have asked about what's coming to the space east of Key Bar on East 13th Street... As Grub Street reported last week, it will be a Singaporean restaurant called Masak. Chef Larry Reutens told Grub Street that the food will involve his favorite dishes from around Singapore, "including some that reflect the city-state's Malay influence and others that harken to his mother's Cantonese heritage." No opening date just yet.

Today in Tompkins Square Park

Snow day on Great Jones Street

Our friend BaHa sent these photos along from some kind of ad shoot (Danier's 2012 line) this afternoon on Great Jones at Broadway...

Anyway! Woo! Snow! Woo! A model! Woo!

And the summer continues to slip away...

Aug. 14

In the midst of a driving rainstorm on Sunday, EV Grieve reader Chris stopped to document this find on Rivington at Ridge... where someone had bagged up a Christmas tree nearly, uh, eight months after Jesus' birthday...

Gruber MacDougal, spokesperson for the International Coalition of Tree Tossing in the Spring and Summer (ICTTSS), has been alerted of this discovery. However, he is currently attending an urban think tank at the St. Regis Bora Bora Resort.

Flea Market Cafe reopening later today

[Melanie Neichin]

Melanie at East Village Corner brings us the news that the Flea Market Cafe will reopen a little later today (this per an employee there) on Avenue A. She took the above photo there this afternoon. Looks like workers were able to clean up the place nicely. Meanwhile, sources say that yesterday's fire remains under investigation.

Flashback August 1996: A two-week tribute for Merlin

We posted the following item on Aug. 18, 2010 ... Every year since Merlin died in 1996, someone creates a memorial for him on Avenue A at Sixth Street where he lived for eight years on the sidewalk. Bob Arihood has a photo of this year's memorial here.

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I wanted to follow-up on the Merlin's Memorial post from yesterday...



Bob Arihood, who took the shot above, documented the scene on Avenue A and Sixth Street on Neither More Nor Less after Merlin passed away on Aug. 16, 1996...



As Bob wrote:

A wake and vigil of considerable moment, lasting for the better part of 2 weeks , was held in the neighborhood at Merlin's corner . Some nights the sidewalk and street around the memorial were so densely packed with people that it seemed that everyone in the neighborhood and the surrounding communities was attending , crowded together ,all kinds of folks , from all professions and callings , from high and low paying their respects to Merlin .

Here's Merlin on his corner as many people here remember him...



Per the Times from July 1996:

There are few certainties in this changeable city. But on Avenue A and Sixth Street, a place that has been convulsed by change in recent years, one thing has remained constant through the riots and real-estate booms: Merlin, a 41-year-old homeless man who uses only one name, has made the intersection's southeast corner his residence for eight years. Neither blizzards nor blistering heat have routed him from atop a set of wooden pallets in front of a Con Edison substation.

"People move in and out of the neighborhood, but I never budge," he said last week, lounging beneath a pair of tattered umbrellas, his only guard against the sting of the sun. A stroke has left him partly paralyzed, and frostbite cost him several toes three winters ago.

To strangers, he is but another intrusion on the East Village's gritty streetscape, a reason to avert their eyes. But to many local residents, he is a cherished asset: a timekeeper, a message center, a town crier and a source of good, solid conversation. "Merlin is a social hub," said Tatiana Bliss, 25, a local artist. "If you're looking for someone, Merlin probably knows where they are. If you want to leave something for a friend, he'll make sure they get it. He makes this crazy city feel like a small town."

Jeremiah also writes about Merlin today, asking the following: "Could such a memorial happen for a homeless man in the East Village today?"

Was the fire at Flea Market yesterday suspicious?

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

That's the gossip anyway surrounding yesterday afternoon's fire at Flea Market Cafe on Avenue A. A few readers noted that there were a lot of FDNY brass on the scene for a blaze that firefighters extinguished in 25 minutes or so. Bob Arihood notes that the NYPD Crime Scene unit stayed around until midnight or so. (Bob's first post on the fire is here.)

No word just yet when the restaurant will reopen.

51 Astor Place now with fewer trees

As we noted yesterday afternoon, workers removed six or so trees from 51 Astor Place in preparation for the building's demolition....

Anyway, the ugly building is pretty well prepped now for the end... The demolition truck staging will take place on Third Avenue at Astor... where that arrow is pointing...

As reps for the developers told residents back in June, there will be roughly 40 days of abatement, to rid the place of fun things like vermin and asbestos. (That started on July 1.)

Then. A round of inspections before workers will commence with a 50-day-long "surgical demolition." So the actual demolition portion should commence sometime soon. As we reported, workers will encase the site, and use small machines to methodically remove floor by floor...

Previously.

P.S.

Here are three of the trees that came down yesterday...

How you can help save the historic 135 Bowery

From the EV Grieve inbox ...

Dear Friends of the Historic Bowery,

The historic buildings on the Bowery are under extreme threat. In May, New York lost the 1835 townhouse at 35 Cooper Square to a proposed tower development. The Bowery Alliance of Neighbors and others have urged the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to act swiftly to save the remaining historic buildings on the Bowery and the LPC listened.

In June, the LPC voted to designate the circa 1818 Federal-style house at 135 Bowery as an individual landmark — but the future is still uncertain! Its landmark designation still awaits ratification in City Council where the bank that owns it will be applying tremendous pressure opposing the designation.

Please add your name to the petition to demonstrate broad public support for saving this rare surviving and intact townhouse from the Federal era. Sign the petition to tell Councilmember Margaret Chin and City Council that we do not want to lose this Bowery landmark.

Find the petition here.

Thank you for your support.

Jean Standish, Vice Chair
Mitchell Grubler, Chair, Landmarks Committee
Bowery Alliance of Neighbors

Catching up with the developers who turned the Christodora House into luxury housing

On Sunday, we reposted that New York magazine article titled "The Lower East Side: There Goes the Neighborhood." A reader provided an update about two of the people featured.

Real estate investors Harry Skydell and Samuel Glasser bought the abandoned Christodora House on Avenue Bin the early 1980s and turned the building into luxury condos in 1986.

As The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported back in June 24, Glaser "was sentenced to time served and 100 hours of community service for a kickback scheme that cost a bank $133,000."

To the article:

Glasser, 65, owner of Samuel & Co. LLC, pleaded guilty in federal court in St. Louis Feb. 25 to a bank fraud charge and admitted he'd inflated invoices for asbestos removal, lead abatement and the interior demolition of the Ford Building at 1405 Pine Street in St. Louis.

The building's owner, Matthew Burghoff, passed those invoices on to Montgomery Bank to document expenditures from a loan. Glasser kicked back $133,332 of the inflated amount to Burghoff in 2007.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Glasser faced 15 to 21 months in prison. Lawyer Scott Rosenblum argued for Glasser to be sentenced to the day in jail he'd already served, citing the fact that Glasser did not personally benefit from the scheme, his community service and his cooperation with the government, among other factors.

Glasser thanked court officials, his lawyer and the prosecutor for their professionalism and then apologized to his family for bringing shame on them. He also said that he was unemployed and no longer in business. "I couldn't get a loan to buy a head of lettuce," he said.

The reader noted that Skydell, a lawyer, resigned from the bar for disciplinary reasons in 1997.

Interestingly enough, someone claiming to be Sam Glasser commented on the post the first time we ran it. Per his comment:

Yes, I paid $3M for the Christodora House and I borrowed $2M of that at 24% interest. What a great building! What fun it was to renovate. The Black Panthers had been the last occupants. It was TRASHED. While my flooring subcontractors were installing the last of the oak flooring in the building, someone stole the engine and back seat out of their car which they had parked across the street from the building. The neighborhood was off the charts. I loved it. Sam Glasser December 9, 2009 1:41 AM

Previously on EV Grieve:
A voice from the Christodora's past

[Image via Streeteasy]

Disturbing trends: Truck nuts in the East Village

EV Grieve reader Atron passes along this photo from Sixth Street at Avenue B ... Despite being around for years now, this is the first time that we can recall seeing truck nuts, or, bumper balls, on a vehicle parked in the neighborhood. Maybe we just haven't been looking hard enough.

The abandoned bike as an urban garden (or vice versa)

The urban garden as an abandoned bike?

Anyway, we've always appreciated the abandoned bicycle as some kind of street art. (Oh, the one below... we're charging $50,000 for it!)

Last week, when there was sun, blue glass noted this installation/takeoever in progress on Second Avenue near 10th Street...

Or as Jeremiah put it yesterday: "The fate of bicycles in hot and jungly post-Apocalyptic New York."

The Banjo Jim's sign is gone

Banjo Jim's was able to stay open nearly two weeks longer than expected ... last night, though, the live music spot on Avenue C and Ninth Street had the final of its farewell shows... Earlier in the day, we noticed that someone had already removed the Banjo Jim's sign...

And last night...

A rainbow for your commute

Our friend BaHa sends along these shots from a little bit ago...

[Updated] Report: Fire at Flea Market Cafe on Avenue A this afternoon

That's the word from Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo, who reports that a small fire started inside the cafe near St. Mark's Place this afternoon. The fire broke out while the restaurant was closed. The FDNY had the blaze under control in less than 25 minutes. Paramedics treated one firefighter at the scene for minor injuries, according to DNAinfo.

Photos by Bobby Williams

Workers chopping down the trees at 51 Astor Place

You know all those nice trees out front of 51 Astor Place?

Workers are on the scene chopping them down right now...

...to make way for the ugly new office building here.

Previously.