Chico continues to keep busy ... working on the rolldown gate earlier today on Seventh Street and Avenue C... Photo by Bobby Williams.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Notes from Avenue C
Chico continues to keep busy ... working on the rolldown gate earlier today on Seventh Street and Avenue C... Photo by Bobby Williams.
The TSP Ratstravaganza receives first celebrity endorsement
What do you hate most about living in New York?
The rats in Tompkins Square Park. I’m constantly on the phone to 311.
Who is your mortal enemy?
The rats in Tompkins Square Park.
Then she definitely should not look at Bob Arihood's post today of rats eating a squirrel in the Park. (Now with correct link! Sorry!)
[Image via]
Envisioning the future beyond the BMW Guggenheim Lab; plus, rat cookies!
From the EV Grieve inbox ... slightly edited for length...
Meanwhile, there was a little behind-the-scenes dramaabout this event involving ... cookies. The organizers wanted some locally produced cookies; BMW bigs said no, that this was the domain of its sole food vendor, the Brooklyn-based Roberta's. Roberta's people dittoed that.
Anyway. It all worked out in the end... The Lower Eastside Girls Club will be serving free “rat” cookies and truffles to the first 500 community rodentologists who participate in the First Street Green envisioning “What’s Next” workshops.
Since 2008, First Street Green’s mission has been to transform the Parks Department–owned, vacant lot at 33 E. First Street from a rat-infested derelict space into a community culture park.
Our phase 1 goal to remove the rubble and create a simple-to-maintain plaza and cultural space has been achieved. First Street Green’s efforts with the Parks Department have led to the hosting of the BMW Guggenheim Lab at the lot this year. The Guggenheim has provided an at grade plaza that will remain after the Lab moves on. Now, we are working with the BMW Guggenheim Lab team to plan for the future of the lot.
As part of this effort, First Street Green will be hosting the Lab’s September 10, “What’s Next” workshop to get your ideas on what should happen in the future park. Please come and give us a piece of your mind.
10 a.m. — Meet and greet with volunteers and participants
11 a.m. – 1 p.m. — History of First Park and 33 E. 1st Street Site
2 - 5 p.m. — It’s My Park videos: producer, Adrian Sas Visioning Wall workshop: Modular inspiration/idea sculpture Community survey and balloon run: to canvas neighborhood, invite participation
5 -7 p.m. — Reception: presentation of completed visioning wall. Refreshments, music
7 – 9 p.m. — PUBLIC NOTICE: AN EXHAUSTED FILM + LIVE-CINEMA PERFORMANCE: Ofri Cnaani, Cheryl Kaplan and Kathryn Alexander
Meanwhile, there was a little behind-the-scenes dramaabout this event involving ... cookies. The organizers wanted some locally produced cookies; BMW bigs said no, that this was the domain of its sole food vendor, the Brooklyn-based Roberta's. Roberta's people dittoed that.
Anyway. It all worked out in the end... The Lower Eastside Girls Club will be serving free “rat” cookies and truffles to the first 500 community rodentologists who participate in the First Street Green envisioning “What’s Next” workshops.
How you can help save the St. Mark's Bookshop
From the EV Grieve inbox .... Background here
[JVNY]
Joyce Ravitz
Chairperson
Cooper Square Committee
The St Mark's Bookshop has a long tradition in the Lower East Side and serves an admirable and increasingly rare function. St Mark's is struggling to pay the market rent that Cooper Union is charging them at 31 3rd Ave. A significant rent concession by Cooper Union could save this irreplaceable neighborhood institution.
So I created a petition to Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science, which says:
"The St Mark's Bookshop, a vital Lower East Side cultural institution, needs a rent low enough to survive. Join the Cooper Square Committee petitioning Cooper Union, the bookstore's landlord, to give St Mark's Bookshop a lower rent."
Will you sign this petition? Click here
Joyce Ravitz
Chairperson
Cooper Square Committee
And now, posts that we never got around to posting this summer
Well, I have nearly 1,100 half-started, half-finished, half-assed posts in the EVG hopper. They just weren't working for some reason. Or pointless. (Or more pointless than usual.) So now, in all their glory, here are some of those posts... with, perhaps, an explanation why I never posted them.
Self-explanatory.
Ditto.
Well, as far as dog poop etiquette signs go, this was pretty blah.
Lordy. On what turned out to be my second-to-last time at the Mars Bar, a fellow was sitting by the door, dressed in a pink shirt, seemingly doing rather anything to draw attention to himself. We all figured he was a reporter trying to get some color for his article. He did get any. For more on Mars Bars and pink shirts, please revisit this post.
A shot of 115 St. Mark's Place enjoying its third gut renovation in as many years. I kinda forgot to ever post them.
Oh, a reader wanted to start a Tumblr with photos of people eating their food from Seventh Street restaurants on neighboring front stoops. I thought it was funny. But I never heard back from the person.
This was a pointless attempt at wondering out loud how Phebe's on the Bowery went from a hangout for William Burroughs and Terry Southern (circa 1978) ...
...to a place for duffers and Cincinnati Bengals fans.
EV Grieve Technologically Advanced Form of Extraterrestrial Life Correspondent Bobby Williams took these shots at Tokio 7 on Seventh Street. We were worried that the Predator would break free, and disguise himself in that dress...
But it hasn't happened. Yet.
Is this the worst ad ever featuring a New York Yankee?
Mattress delivery gone amuck.
This opened on Essex Street earlier in the summer. And I told someone that this was Beauty & Essex.
I never did write a review of the new Hamptons Market on First Avenue at 13th Street.
A reader asked: Are the swimsuits in Tompkins Square Park getting skimpier...?
Or are we just getting older? He asked that question after sitting in the Park one weekend. He thought, for a moment, that he was somewhere else. I couldn't make it work without seeming like a perv for posting gratuitous butt shots. I would never do that.
Bobby Williams sent me these photos... of a bridal party in Tompkins Square Park. They were looking for a place to have their pictures taken.
But we think the rats scared them off before they took any photos.
Oh, this was going to be some jokey line about how small sandwich bags are getting. Not funny.
And the rest... random photos...
And I have about 1,065 left...
Self-explanatory.
Ditto.
Well, as far as dog poop etiquette signs go, this was pretty blah.
Lordy. On what turned out to be my second-to-last time at the Mars Bar, a fellow was sitting by the door, dressed in a pink shirt, seemingly doing rather anything to draw attention to himself. We all figured he was a reporter trying to get some color for his article. He did get any. For more on Mars Bars and pink shirts, please revisit this post.
A shot of 115 St. Mark's Place enjoying its third gut renovation in as many years. I kinda forgot to ever post them.
Oh, a reader wanted to start a Tumblr with photos of people eating their food from Seventh Street restaurants on neighboring front stoops. I thought it was funny. But I never heard back from the person.
This was a pointless attempt at wondering out loud how Phebe's on the Bowery went from a hangout for William Burroughs and Terry Southern (circa 1978) ...
...to a place for duffers and Cincinnati Bengals fans.
EV Grieve Technologically Advanced Form of Extraterrestrial Life Correspondent Bobby Williams took these shots at Tokio 7 on Seventh Street. We were worried that the Predator would break free, and disguise himself in that dress...
But it hasn't happened. Yet.
Is this the worst ad ever featuring a New York Yankee?
Mattress delivery gone amuck.
This opened on Essex Street earlier in the summer. And I told someone that this was Beauty & Essex.
I never did write a review of the new Hamptons Market on First Avenue at 13th Street.
A reader asked: Are the swimsuits in Tompkins Square Park getting skimpier...?
Or are we just getting older? He asked that question after sitting in the Park one weekend. He thought, for a moment, that he was somewhere else. I couldn't make it work without seeming like a perv for posting gratuitous butt shots. I would never do that.
Bobby Williams sent me these photos... of a bridal party in Tompkins Square Park. They were looking for a place to have their pictures taken.
But we think the rats scared them off before they took any photos.
Oh, this was going to be some jokey line about how small sandwich bags are getting. Not funny.
And the rest... random photos...
And I have about 1,065 left...
Looking at Kmart's subtle new ad campaign
We nearly wandered into Second Avenue traffic to look at this new ad campaign from Kmart, featuring a site dubbed Show Us What You Got.
Apparently, Kmart's ad team nixed "Let's See That Vagina" and "Hey, This is My Dick."
Dov, it's your move.
Apparently, Kmart's ad team nixed "Let's See That Vagina" and "Hey, This is My Dick."
Dov, it's your move.
When Paul Richard curated an art exhibit in the Astor Place Kmart
This talk about Kmart reminded me of Kmart's history on Astor Place ... That and the fact that I brought up the now-defunct Kcafe in the comments last week... here's an article from the Times, dated July 8, 1999, titled: "Corn Dogs, White Sales and . . . Modern Art?; In East Village, Atypical Kmart Gives a Nod to Irony as Its Cafe Becomes a Gallery."
The story looks at an art show by Paul Richard inside the Kcafe.
To the story!
You can put a Kmart in the East Village, but you can't keep the East Village out of Kmart.
When the behemoth discount store arrived on Astor Place in 1996 — much to the chagrin of many neighborhood eccentrics — corporate officials knew they would have to adjust. They expected the people with green hair and nose rings who now stroll through the aisles of polyester pants and plastic kitchenware. They knew the handy spacemaker shelf organizers would sell better than the pitchforks in the garden center. They axed the auto department and stocked up on tacky glittery nail polish.
So maybe it should not be so surprising to find an art exhibit on the walls of the KCafe.
And later!
In some ways, having a Kmart in Astor Place at all is a kind of self-parody. The teen-agers with tattooed arms and the actresses with cellular telephones strapped to their ears look odd among the stacks of faux-wood furniture and knockoff Knicks T-shirts. But while officials refused to release sales figures, [Kmart executive Greg] Abraham said the store increased revenue 25 percent from 1997 to 1998 by tweaking its inventory: More clothing for juniors, less of lines like Jaclyn Smith's. Lots of makeup and exercise equipment, not so much fishing gear. Paint sells well, as does Martha Stewart's line of bed and bath items.
"Whether you're a hip person or not, there's a lot of basic essentials that people need," Mr. Abraham said. "We're just trying to tailor to those."
You can read the whole article here.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Workers remove Astor Place token booth
Or "customer assistance booth." Since tokens are long gone... They broke it down and took it away this morning, as these photos by Elizabeth Frayer show...
We're on our own down here now. Woo!
We're on our own down here now. Woo!
First day back to school Dumpster of the Day
P.S. 63 this morning on East Third Street. "Daddy, why is the teacher's desk in the trash?"
More photos from this morning's Second Avenue manhole fire
Our friend Elizabeth Frayer of New York Natives sent along photos from this morning's manhole fire on Second Avenue at Seventh Street.
As she notes, "Con Ed emergency trucks, Second Avenue closed off, firefighters blasting water at a smoking manhole..."
Readers reported smelling smoke up to 10 blocks away.
As she notes, "Con Ed emergency trucks, Second Avenue closed off, firefighters blasting water at a smoking manhole..."
Readers reported smelling smoke up to 10 blocks away.
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