Hyatt Union Square entrance looking underwhelming (for now!)

At long last workers have removed the plywood from the front entrance at the incoming Hyatt Union Square on Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street... And! Five years in the making...

Well, OK. Obviously there's work to do. Unless this is supposed to look like a hotel you'd find outside a regional airport.

No, splendor and glory are on the way!

[Image from Archpaper via Curbed]

Not to mention the hydroponic bamboo garden and halo!

Previously.

This is what 638 E. 12th St. looked like on Aug. 25, 2012

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

Reminders: Tompkins Square Iron Chef is Sunday

[Bobby Williams]

Previously posted on Aug. 23...

Greenmarket proudly presents Tompkins Square Greenmarket Iron Chef: Veselka Bowery versus Hearth Restaurant/Terroir Wine Bar.

Come see two culinary cornerstones of the East Village in the hot seat as Veselka Bowery and Hearth Restaurant/Terroir Wine Bar face off to claim the title of Tompkins Square Iron Chef.

Each chef has just an hour to transform a "mystery basket" of market ingredients into a delicious dish. Traven Rice of The Lo-Down and our esteemed panel of judges will crown a winner, and limited samples will be available to the public.

Sunday, Sept 9
1-4pm
Tompkins Square Greenmarket
7th St by Avenue A

Meanwhile, at 16 Handles

[Via @samlevysam]

A reader said that there is a $1 for allyoucaneatFroYodeal at 16 Handles on Second Avenue... and that the line stretches around the corner.

You could wait in line. Or just go get the Bacon Milkshake at Mark Burger on St. Mark's Place...

From the EV Grieve lost and found

Bobby Williams spotted this lost (or abandoned!) karaoke machine in Tompkins Square Park late this afternoon. You can have it back as soon as we're done singing "Sweet Caroline."

From the inbox: Arabella 101 50 percent leased on Avenue D

From the EV Grieve inbox about Arabella 101, the rental building that sits atop the new Lower Eastside Girls Club on Avenue D between Seventh Street and Eighth Street.

[EVG file photo]

In less than two months since The Dermot Company announced the launch of leasing at Arabella 101, the 12-story building is 50% leased. The Alphabet City residence has also introduced its landscaped roof deck complete with a working grill, plentiful seating and year-round plantings. Designed by Cutsogeourge Tooman & Allen Architects, Arabella 101 is on track to receive LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's Arabella 101 on Avenue D

Why there's an Airstream trailer inside the new Lower Eastside Girls Club home

Here is the new home for the Lower Eastside Girls Club

Reader report: Large FDNY presence at the Standard East Village

We've heard from several readers about a large FDNY presence (10-12 fire trucks) outside the Standard East Village on Cooper Square this afternoon...

These photos are via EVG reader William Klayer...

Word on the scene — a freon leak in the hotel basement ... no official word just yet.

A stolen phone and chase on East 10th Street this morning

EVG Facebook friend Wendy Slater posted this photo this morning... Here's an account of what happened... the woman in the white tank top (to the right in the photo) was walking on East 10th Street at Fourth Avenue... a man allegedly grabbed the woman's phone and ran west toward Broadway. The woman screamed and chased him. Several passersby saw what had happened, and followed in pursuit. At Broadway, several men took down the alleged phone thief. (A cyclist involved in the chase flipped over his handlebars during all this.)

In the end, the woman got her phone back ... however, it broke when the suspect hit the pavement.

A look inside the under-renovation former Cabrini Center on East Fifth Street

Here's a look inside the main entrance of the former Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, which closed at the end of June.

Workers are converting the space here on East Fifth Street at Avenue B to residential use. And, as you can see, workers have removed just about everything.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cabrini Center patients out by the end of today; closes for good June 30

More details on Cabrini's closing announcement

Q-and-A with Patricia Krasnausky, president and CEO of Cabrini Eldercare

Cafe Mogador closed until Sept. 14 for renovations

And only yesterday did I learn that Cafe Mogador on St.. Mark's Place closed Monday for renovations...

Per the sign... they reopen Sept. 14...

And workers are actually renovating the space... this isn't a case where "closed for renovations" is code for "we're really closed, but don't want to tell anyone yet... so that maybe we can get a head start out of here." Or something like that.

[Originally noted via the EVG Twitter account, where all the action is!]

Porchetta.Hog temporarily closed on East Fifth Street

Porchetta.Hog quietly opened on East Fifth Street just east of Second Avenue back in May... seemed to take some people by surprise...

On Tuesday, Slum Goddess noted that the place is now "temporarily closed" ...

We called, though no one picked up the phone... and there wasn't any outgoing message... anyway, as you may know, this space is not affiliated with Porchetta on East Seventh Street co-owned by Sara Jenkins.

Back to school

Today is the first day of class for all NYC public schools... leading up to today, I was going to photograph every school in the neighborhood... sitting empty, waiting...

I did one.

P.S. 34 Franklin D. Roosevelt at 730 E. 12th St. near Avenue D.

Glad that I'm not getting graded on this project.

Today in posts about string cheese

A reader passes along this Public Service Announcement from the Associated on Avenue C at East Eighth Street... be mindful if you're buying any Polly-O string mozzarella cheese...

We want to avoid a string cheese incident.

Noted

Somewhere along East Third Street.

Have you seen this 'pudgy purse snatcher'?

Oh, lordy... the Post has a report this evening that the NYPD is looking for the above woman, who they describe as a "a pudgy purse-snatcher in a white frock" as well as a "long-haired looter."

The woman allegedly took two bags and a cell phone, a wallet, cash and credit cards from Arlene's Grocery on Stanton Street back on Aug. 7.

"Police are asking for the public’s help identifying the 25-year-old suspect."

I do hope that you will take this seriously and not make jokes.

How does the 9th Precinct fare in handing out quality-of-life summonses?

You may have seen this earlier today over at Gothamist... Last year, the NYPD issued 348,851 "pink slip" summons for a variety of quality-of-life infractions, including open container, public urination and riding a bike on a sidewalk. (And maybe all three at once!)

Now, students at the Columbia School of Journalism complied all these offenses by precinct/neighborhood... you can find the results in The New York World, including a cool interactive map.

How did we fare at the 9th Precinct? The neighborhood didn't even rate in the top of any category. For instance, the 90th Precinct (Williamsburg) issued the most summonses for open container last year with 6,192. The 9th Precinct had 1,626 ... How about public urination? Top: 115th Precinct in Queens with 1,808; 9th Precinct, 224.

Wonder how the 9th Precinct would have faired with summonses for woo?

[The New York World]

Report: New York Observer publisher buys 5 East Village walk-ups

New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner, also the principal owner of Kushner Properties, has purchased a $53 million portfolio of walk-ups in the city, including five in the East Village.

According to Lois Weiss at the Post, this properties are:

• 267 E. 10th St.
• 435 E. 9th St.
• 311 E. 11th St. (Huh? This is the nice new Village Green Building)
• 311 E. 6th St.

Another building in the portfolio — at 99 E. 7th St. — will close next month, Weiss reported.

On Aug. 22, The New York Times reported that demand for and sales of walk-up buildings have "reached new highs recently." Per the article:

With rents rising, the fact that many Manhattan walk-up buildings have tenants with rent-regulated apartments offers landlords the possibility of a very large increase in profits when these units are deregulated and shift to market rates. There is also upside potential to raise rents in the market rate units if landlords renovate a walk-up building, many of which have not been modernized in decades.

[Image via Wikipedia]

First Avenue Pierogi & Deli closed for now, reopening in 2 weeks

EVG favorite First Avenue Pierogi & Deli (near St. Mark's) has been closed of late...

[December 2011]

I assumed that they were on holiday — the owners usually take off this time of year. However, several readers said that it looked like a carpenter was inside working on the store... Sure enough, as this photo via EVG reader John G. shows... vacation aside, it appears that the space is getting scrubbed up a bit... maybe a new floor and wall tiles...

...a man working on the space told me on Friday that they'd reopen within two weeks. All fine, as long as they don't re-do those signs in the display case...

[Via Flickr]

Here's Eric Asimov writing about their pierogis for the Times back in January 1999:

They are marvelously delicate and savory, nothing like the sturdy, gummy dumplings that are more common. And the bigos is fabulous, fragrant with spices and full of smoky sweet-and-sour flavor.

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.

By James Maher

Name: Anthony Pepe
Occupation: Nurse, Waiter, Retired
Location: 2nd Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues
Time: 2:30 on Thursday, Aug. 30

"I’ve lived in this building since 1971. I’m retired. Half the time here I was a waiter and then I went to school and I became a nurse at a hospital in Brooklyn. I came here at the time because it was cheap… then.

This block, up until the middle of Koch’s administration, was a very bad block — mostly drug addicts and welfare recipients. It was not a safe block. I didn’t really feel like I had to watch out myself because I was young and young people don’t care, but it was bad for women sometimes.

At one time the cemetery across the street was a forest. It was so unkempt. You couldn’t see inside. People used to throw garbage in there. Why, I don’t know, and it used to have a lot of cats. No more. Also, a man once was burglarizing the top floor of this building and he fell off and another time a drug addict was injecting himself up on the roof and badaboom. Both dead.

It started to get better in the early '80s, although whether it’s better at worse I don’t know. It was an improvement, but it has become too expensive. We still have reasonable rents but the stores are just so expensive now. Key Food was once so cheap. Cheap. Now you can’t go in there; they think they’re Whole Foods.

I miss the old timers; I hardly know anyone in my building. All the landlords are turning their apartments into little hotels, which is illegal, or they only rent to NYU students. They get a big turnover that way. There are a lot of tourists that stay here. The landlords make money and I guess it’s cheaper for the tourists."

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Flyer campaign targets CB3 district manager 'for assault on our civil liberties'

You may have seen these flyers around the neighborhood the past day or two... @bacondevil spotted this one on Second Avenue at East Fifth Street...

There was also one spotted on East 14th Street at Second Avenue... Per the flyer, someone is accusing Community Board 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer as being an "assassin of New York's creativity" who is "wanted for assault on our civil liberties."

The Lo-Down, who first reported on the flyers yesterday, spoke with Stetzer. She said that she doesn't know why anyone why would have done this ... "but she believes they could be related to liquor license applications."

Speaking as a resident during a CB3/SLA meeting last summer, Stetzer did publicly oppose the restaurant-bar-music venue project in the works for 34 Avenue A. CB3 ultimately rejected all the proposals for the former Aces & Eights space, and it will soon be home to Ruff Club, "a social club for dogs."

Last December, Stetzer was one of the many city officials tweaked in the annual holiday invite from activist Allen Roskoff. According to Scoopy's Notebook, Stetzer was depicted "as a sexy pole dancer because ... she's a foe of bars and clubs."

(Some residents also criticized Stetzer in the fall of 2010 for her role to possibly limit the number of concerts in Tompkins Square Park. You can read that background here.)

As far as these types of flyers go, this one seems rather mild by comparison. Back in the spring, a few flyers appeared around the neighborhood about developer Ben Shaoul. As reported by The New York Times in July, they read, in part: "I pledge to rape the East Village of every last vestige of creativity," and concluded: "You gotta problem wit dat?"