How you can help save the St. Mark's Bookshop

From the EV Grieve inbox .... Background here

[JVNY]

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...

Cookie dough and anarchy, together again!

East 10th Street yesterday via a Very Special Tipster©

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.

When Paul Richard curated an art exhibit in the Astor Place Kmart

[Image via PaulRichard.net]

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.

Tonight

[Dave on 7th]




[8E]



[Bobby Williams]

[roger_paw]

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!

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.

[Updated] Breaking: Fire on Second Avenue at Seventh Street

Via @arielkaye

Waiting for more details... we heard four trucks were on the scene.

Updated: 9:32

Looks like a manhole fire... via @dens

DOH temporarily closes Via Della Pace

Multiple tipster report that the DOH paid a visit to Via Della Pace — Danilo Gallinari's favorite restaurant! — last night here on Seventh Street near Second Avenue. The inspection report isn't online yet.

Is David Schwimmer the 'Friends' star who now owns the demolished 331 E. Sixth St. townhouse?

Yesterday, we posted that comment from a reader who believed a cast member from "Friends" was the owner of 331 E. Sixth St., the now-demolished circa-1852 townhouse.

As the day progressed, a few commenters left hints pointing to David Schwimmer — you know, Ross.

And now, an anonymous commenter left us this juicy piece of detective work on the "Friends" post:

Gary Kress is the manager of 331 East 6th St Townhouse, LLC. That LLC is the current owner of this property. Gary Kress is also a name partner of Murphy & Kress, an accounting firm in Santa Monica that has numerous Hollywood types among its clientele. He has a relationship with Schwimmer through Dark House, a production company whose president Schwimmer is.

Indeed.

Well, as Muckety pointed out a few years back, Murphy & Kress is "an accounting firm that takes care of a clientele so exclusive that it refuses to confirm its clients. FEC filings indicate that Murphy & Kress handles financial affairs for Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Denzel Washington ... among other prominent figures in the film industry."

According to CorporationWiki, "Dark Harbor Stories, Inc. has a location in Santa Monica, CA. Active officers include David Schwimmer and Gary J Kress. Gary J Kress serves as the registered agent for this organization."

If all this does come back to Schwimmer... well, then he's your new neighbor!

Let's assume that this is his new home... We're wondering why:
• With all the available upscale townhouses on the market in the city, why did he buy this historic building only to tear it down?
• Didn't his people think tearing down this historic townhouse would raise the ire — and suspicion — of neighbors?
• What was so special about this particular location? Proximity to Indian food?
• How often will a busy person like Schwimmer actually even stay here?
• What does he have in store for the place? Indoor pool? Theater? Bowling alley?

What else do you want to ask?