EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Tompkins Square Park along Seventh Street by Bobby Williams]

An update on Cornell Edwards Way for East 13th Street (The Villager)

Bloomberg LP doesn't report on how much Mayor Bloomberg is worth. Per Ryan Chittum at The Columbia Journalism Review: "Is it just me, or is there something vaguely North Korean about this?"

Take part in the Curbed/Eater/Racked Bodega Week extravaganza (Curbed)

Looking at the recently restored Keith Haring mural "Once Upon a Time" (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Margaret Chin's thoughts on landmarking, preservation (BoweryBoogie)

LES gallery owner chases down, captures art thief (The Lo-Down)

Cops seize thousands of books during raids on Sixth Avenue sidewalk vendors (DNAinfo)

News release talk!: Lion Capital LLP to Acquire Majority Ownership Interest in John Varvatos Enterprises, Inc. (MarketWatch)

Here's New York magazine's Best-of issue (New York)

An Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue now and then (Flaming Pablum)

NYC history; The Peters of Peter's Field on Second Avenue (Ephemeral New York)

And from Tompkins Square Park yesterday...

Photos by Bobby Williams.

More details on Cabrini's closing announcement

[Photo via GammaBlog]

Here's some follow-up on our story yesterday about the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on East Fifth Street at Avenue B closing in the next four-five months.

First, here's a copy of the letter that circulated to dozens of local elected officials and friends of Cabrini yesterday about the closure...

[Click to enlarge]

A few excerpts...

In order to give families enough time to transition and keep patient care at the highest level, we expect to continue the closure process as long as is necessary, likely until July. We are working collaboratively with the owner, Ben Shaoul of Magnum Real Estate, to ensure that our respective goals are achieved during this time.

The closure process will cost $7 million dollars, which represents expenses including unemployment insurance, pension funding and severance pay for the employees, whose devotion to Lower East Side families has truly made Cabrini a place worth fighting to maintain. To help cover these significant costs, we have requested a $7 million HEAL grant from the DOH. We ask your help in advocating for the Department of Health to grant Cabrini’s worthy request for HEAL funds. If we do not receive these closing funds, Cabrini will be forced into bankruptcy.

We take these obligations very seriously, and are currently in the process of negotiating the sale of 117 beds (the maximum number allowed by DOH, based on borough need), to a private nursing home operator in Borough Park. The transaction, which must be approved by the state, will offset closure costs by approximately $2.5 million and, most importantly, allow some Cabrini residents and employees the option of moving collectively to Brooklyn.

Local officials responded by issuing the following statement:

STATEMENT FROM LOWER EAST SIDE ELECTEDS ON CABRINI CENTER FOR NURSING & REHABILITATION

NEW YORK — Today, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, State Senator Tom Duane, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, Borough President Scott Stringer, Councilmember Rosie Mendez, and Councilmember Margaret Chin released the following statement:

We are deeply disappointed that Cabrini will be shutting its doors after two decades of service to its patients and the Lower East Side community.

We collectively and aggressively worked to encourage the parties to reach a better conclusion, and believe they should have reached an agreement to keep Cabrini open in its current location until a new site became available.

This is a terrible loss for the Lower East Side, and for the greater New York City community. We're committed to working with Cabrini and the community to ensure a smooth and dignified transition for patients, their families, and Cabrini employees.

In addition, we heard late yesterday afternoon from Kenneth Fisher, the attorney representing developer Ben Shaoul, who purchased the building last fall. Fisher wanted to clarify a point in our post:

Your statement that we would not grant an extension so that Cabrini could build a new facility on land provided by the Archdiocese isn't quite correct. We were willing to consider something, but Cabrini turned out not to be able to move forward with it. We also at their request attempted to sell the building to a for profit operator at their request who turned out not to be able to perform. It was only after those alternatives failed that we advised Cabrini that no extension would be granted. Please bear in mind that this situation was created when the previous seller decided to sell ad set a price that Cabrini couldn't meet. We attempted to work with them in good faith.

Read the full story here.

Billy's big-top tent comes down this weekend; here's a last look inside

By now you probably know that Billy's Antiques on Houston at the Bowery has closed to make way for a two-story brick building... (Billy says that he will return!)

The iconic tent is coming down this weekend... Here's a last look inside the tent ...

Actually, you'll be able to take a look inside yourself starting tomorrow night at 7...

From the news release that is making the rounds...

After nearly three decades in business the infamous Tent housing Billy's Antiques and Props on Bowery and Houston will be taken down forever. Shop owner Billy Leroy, Proprietor Tony Goldman of Goldman Properties and the filmmakers behind "Dirty Old Town" a feature narrative that prefigured this moment, have come together to host a final farewell celebration. The evening will be hosted by renown New York writer and personality Anthony Haden Guest, featuring a line-up of eulogists and performers...

On the next day, Saturday, March 10th at 3pm, the tent will begin itʼs first phase of demolition. The tarps and fabric, enduring over 30 years of New York weather, both cultural and environmental, will be taken down forever. In a gothic burial ceremony, the “Flesh” of the tent will be peeled from the skeletal “Bones” of the structure and placed in a coffin. The coffin will be paraded around the block by pallbearers, while a funeral march is strummed by guitarist and tent-matriarch Lorraine Leckie. The coffin will be chained to the inside fence, and the remaining hollow structure will be painted fire-engine red in the days to follow. This theatrical end was the brain-child of landlord Tony Goldman, Leroy and filmmaker Jenner Furst...

Going out in style...

Meanwhile, you can catch Billy on the Travel Channel starting April 11...

Happy Holidays from all of us here at EV Grieve!

TWO readers have now asked why we haven't mentioned that the holiday tree is still illuminated in Tompkins Square Park. Given that we discussed this in recent years, why have we been silent? ... Well, this is the latest that the lights have stayed on since we've been doing this site. (For instance, in 2009, someone turned off the lights on Feb. 6.)

Anyway, we didn't want to say anything in hopes that they stayed on until July 4. (Shhh... will be our secret.)

Previously on EV Grieve:
On St. Patrick's Day, a Christmas miracle in Tompkins Square Park

City workers remove holiday lights before Easter comes calling

The campaign against Bar Veloce continues with new flyer campaign

Back in January, we pointed out the flyers along Second Avenue accusing the Bar Veloce owners of allegedly underpaying workers and taking money from the tip pool.

In April 2011, several Bar Veloce workers reportedly sued the owners of the restaurant group for wage and labor violations.

Then, as Eater reported on Feb. 21, the owners were counter-suing the workers for a smear campaign that they believe is tarnishing the Veloce name.

According to the new suit: "customers have been driven away, potential investors lost, and employees unnecessarily upset and confused."

Per Grub Street on the lawsuit, "A note to disgruntled restaurant employees: Taking out a telephone-pole flyer smear campaign may not be such a hot idea."

In any event, we spotted new flyers up and down First Avenue yesterday afternoon... involving a few more parties to the smear campaign — Porsena, Porchetta and Ugly Kitchen ...

We asked chef Sara Jenkins of Porsena and Porchetta if she had seen the flyers. Jenkins said that she had, though she declined to comment on them.

Approaching record highs today, and it's not the weather

According to a report at The Real Deal today... "Manhattan rents continue to approach record highs."

From information via Citi Habitats, vacancy rates sat at just 0.42 percent for Soho/Tribeca, 0.84 percent for the West Village and 1.15 percent for the East Village and Lower East Side.

Avenue C sinkhole update

Here at 13th Street yesterday afternoon... not so sinky looking any longer... ConEd has been working on it the last few days...

Photo by Bobby Williams.

City removes homeless man's makeshift shelter from Bowery sidewalk

We noticed the hovel here against the Liz Christy Garden fence on the Bowery at East Houston back in the middle of December...

[Bobby Williams]

Eventually, the makeshift shelter of umbrellas and trash bags and old office chairs grew...

In fact, yesterday, we saw that the man now had a lime couch under part of his home... a Liz Christy volunteer said that the homeless man in his mid to late 50s was originally from Cuba...

We were always surprised that the shelter had lasted this long ...

However, this evening, just after 5, various city employees, including from the NYPD and the Department of Sanitation, dismantled and discarded the shelter and, seemingly, all his possessions...

We didn't see the man around... the police were keeping a close, watchful eye on the proceedings...

They weren't in the mood for questions, such as what happened to the man.

[UPDATED] Source: Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation will close in 4-5 months; condos on the way

Ongoing negotiations to preserve the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on East Fifth Street at Avenue B have been unsuccessful. According to an anonymous source, Cabrini has run out of options and will close its doors in four to five months. During this time, Cabrini officials will find new homes for its residents as well as placement for current day-care clients.

Cabrini officials informed their employees of the impending closure today. Cabrini will work to help place the nearly 300 employees elsewhere.

In November, we reported that developer Ben Shaoul was the mystery buyer of Cabrini. The building's previous owner was an unnamed family trust who, according to the Lo-Down, sold Cabrini for $25.5 million.

According to several sources, Shaoul discussed flipping the building, and at least one interested party was seeking to purchase the property (one estimate put the price in the $36 million neighborhood) and continue operating the site as a for-profit nursing facility. However, those negotiations have ended.

Shaoul's attorney, Kenneth Fisher, had said at the end of 2011 that if Cabrini and the potential new operator failed to reach agreement, then eviction proceedings would commence. "My client purchased the property in good faith, with the intention of upgrading it for an as-of-right use. Their financing is in place and architectural design in under way,” Fisher wrote in a letter published by the Lo-Down on Dec. 30,

The nonprofit, 240-bed nursing home — sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — provides health care for low-income elderly residents in the East Village. The location at Fifth Street and Avenue B opened in 1993. This location serves 240 patients and employs nearly 300 people.

Cabrini officials had been planning to relocate to an unspecified site owned by the Archdiocese of New York in the next five years. However, without a lease extension on East Fifth Street and ample opportunity to find a new home, the facility would lose its state-issued operating license.

The anonymous source believes that the Cabrini building will be converted into condominiums.

UPDATED 5:30 p.m.

A clarification from Kenneth Fisher:

Your statement that we would not grant an extension so that Cabrini could build a new facility on land provided by the Archdiocese isn't quite correct. We were willing to consider something, but Cabrini turned out not to be able to move forward with it. We also at their request attempted to sell the building to a for profit operator at their request who turned out not to be able to perform. It was only after those alternatives failed that we advised Cabrini that no extension would be granted. Please bear in mind that this situation was created when the previous seller decided to sell ad set a price that Cabrini couldn't meet. We attempted to work with them in good faith.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Ben Shaoul is the new owner of Cabrini nursing home, will convert to condos

Report: Local politicians reach out to Ben Shaoul as re-sale of the Cabrini Nursing Center seems likely

Mary Pupillo - 'A true relic of the East Village'

Mary Pupillo was a seamstress who worked for many years with Gino DiGirolamo at the Royal Tailor Shop when it was on Avenue A and 12th Street. She lived directly above the shop.

Mary died on Feb. 23. She was 95.

Her friend of 30 years Cynthia Chaffee called Mary "a true relic of the East Village." Cynthia shared some background about Mary:

-----

"Mary was the real thing. She lived her entire life on the same corner at 12th Street and Avenue A at 441 E. 12th St. and across the street when she was a child. She would look out her window and always see where she grew up and where her sister died at 19 years old."

[Mary on the bottom left with her family]

-----

"As a child she played in Tompkins Square Park. She remembers the sound of the horses on the cobblestone streets and selling fruit and vegetables and saying 'ice man.'"

[Mary is in the hat]

-----

"To the day Mary entered the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on East Fifth Street at Avenue B two years ago, she continued to use the old-fashioned washing board to hand wash her clothes, and the hand-held iron — that you heat on the stove top flame to press her clothes. In the winter, she piled several bricks on her stove top and turned the gas burner on to heat up her apartment. (It worked great.) She sewed all her own clothes, including her hats. Mary was a character, both feisty and fiery."

-----

"She had deformed feet that prevented her from walking any distance... Later on in her life she had to drag a bag tied to a string around with her on the streets because she was in pain and unable to carry any weight.

"Mary took care of both of her parent's until they died, so she never married. She said that guys didn't ask her out because she had trouble walking and never could go to dances because of her feet."

-----

"Mary went to Mary Help of Christians as a child and later attended Washington Irving High School on Irving Place and graduated. She was fluent in both French and Sicilian Italian. She loved opera and classical music, and could sing and act out word for word whole scenes from different operas. Her family was from Gange in Palermo, Sicily. She was full of the stories of the Italian neighborhood history."

-----

"Many East Villagers will remember Mary. She was a fixture in the neighborhood."

-----

Her funeral mass will be at the Immaculate Conception Church, 414 E. 14th St. near First Avenue tomorrow morning at 10 followed by a private burial.

[Thanks to Cynthia for the photos.]

Reminders: Cash mob tonight at Odessa

As you may have read at Jeremiah's on Monday... there's a cash mob starting at 6 tonight at the Odessa Restaurant at 119 Avenue A... dinner first, then to the Odessa Cafe Bar next door for drinks afterwards... so even if you're not around right at 6, you can come by later. (And bring cash, which is the whole idea of a cash mob... as Jeremiah described it, they're "like flash mobs, but their purpose is to infuse a local business with cash.")

Thanks to Goggla for coordinating the event with Odessa ... perhaps this will be the first of many cash mobs to help other struggling businesses around the neighborhood...

And as we recently mentioned, the old Odessa space is quite a nice spot for drinks... (you can order food there too...)

[Michael Sean Edwards]

P.S.

We like the grilled cheese on Challah from Odessa ...

Today's sign of the apocalypse: A real for sure cupcake ATM in action

So you probably heard that story about Beverly Hills-based cupcakery Sprinkles launching 24-hour cupcake ATMs ... a Sprinkles took over the Gino space on the Upper East Side... and we heard that the Lower East Side will likely get one of these cupcake ATM thingys ... (According to the Daily News, the city will soon have three of them.)

Anyway, we spotted this at Eater National (via Eater NY) ... Do with this information as you please...

Noted

A reader shared this from a Seventh Street apartment building.

Proto's Pizza coming to Second Avenue

As you can see, coming soon to where Enzo's was between Third Street and Second Street... Enzo's closed last May... dunno much about Proto's... (found a Proto's in Boulder, Colo.)

Today in East River Park

Photos by peter radley.

Noted

A random find on East 13th Street near Avenue A. Photo shared by @bonatron9000

Report: 'World's most wanted hacker' lived on Avenue D

There are reports today that the suspected ringleader of the Anonymous offshoot group LulzSec had been living a rather under-the-radar life at 90 Avenue D in the the Jacob Riis Houses.

According to the FBI, 28-year-old Hector Xavier Monsegur, an unemployed computer programmer and father of two children, is Sabu, "the head of LulzSec, and the de facto King of Anonymous — easily the most notorious and influential hacker alive today," as Fox News put it.

Earlier today, the feds announced charges against the last members of the now-defunct LulzSec, accusing them of orchestrating an online assault against corporations, defense contractors, security firms and government sites, including the CIA.

As multiple outlets have reported, Monsegur had been working as a government informant since the FBI charged him with various hacking crimes last August.

Gizmodo has a lot more here .... and here... Gawker's coverage is here.

More later...

David Schwimmer vs. The Coen Brothers on East Sixth Street

Been a busy few days on East Sixth Street between Second Avenue and First Avenue... The Coen Brothers are back filming "Inside Llewyn Davis." The trucks and all that are parked along East Sixth Street. (The crew seems to be filming inside 110 Second Ave.)

[Yesterday, by Bobby Williams]

Meanwhile, construction continues at Chez Schwimm... where the pallets of cinder blocks await ....

[Early this morning, via EVG]

After the various work crews arrived today for their respective jobs, a resident along here noted, "The street is practically nonexistent as the Haddad's vans (where is Justin Timberlake?) are taking over from the Schwimmer cranes, making it impossible for [the construction workers] to close the street at will, as they often do – for deliveries, etc."

The Coen Brothers crew will also be filming tomorrow, then the street can be returned to the Schwimmers.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[East Second Street yesterday via Bobby Williams]

Phillip Retzky on the life and death of Little Rickie, the East Village (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Remembering Janet Freeman (Save the Lower East Side!)

Brooklyn foodies threaten mom-and-pop shops on Eastern Delancey (BoweryBoogie)

The Tenement Museum hosting an opening reception for Rebecca Lepkoff's "Life on the Lower East Side" (The Lo-Down)

Expect to see the East Village slide condo on reality TV soon (Curbed)

An appreciation of th East 11th Street Baths (Off the Grid)

And starting tonight at the Dorian Grey Gallery on East Ninth Street...

About Bikinis (sandwiches!) slated for Avenue C

In looking over the March CB3/SLA docket, one item jumped out at us: Something called Bikinis slated for 56 Avenue C. What the bartenders will be wearing on duty?

Heh. Nope! CB3 has now posted more information about the applicants. We reached out to Petrit Pula, one of the principals for the new establishment.

He provided some background.

"Bikinis is not the attire of choice — not at all," he said via email. "Bikinis is a style of sandwich from coastal Spain. It's similar to a grilled cheese sandwich, but we are expanding that concept. We will be creating a Barcelona-style eatery with a vintage American diner feel. It will serve Bikinis (sandwiches), soups, salads, coffee, fresh juices and a few dishes."

Pula has been involved with Nublu Records the past six years, most recently as president/A&R. The space for Bikinis at 56 Avenue C is the former Nublu Records office. He is on the recording side, and not with the Nublu music club.

"I saw an online petition against our request for beer and wine license, and that petition has connected us to Nublu," he said. "This automatically makes people think loud music, late night, etc. We are not doing any of that. We are a restaurant with a full menu, background music and regular restaurant hours."

According to the application (PDF) on file with CB3, the hours are 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursdays; to 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturday.

He is opening Bikinis with his fiancé, Karina Correa, who is the main principal in the restaurant.

Said Pula, "Once the neighbors find out what it actually is, I think they will be at ease."

[Pula and Correa have launched an online petition for signatures in support of their restaurant. You can access that here.]