East Village (early) morning

A look to the southeast earlier today... Photo by EVG Facebook friend Nick Solares. (Find more of his photos here.)

[Updated] Water main break on East 7th Street; no water between B and C today

Dave on 7th reports there is a water main break on East Seventh Street at Avenue C. Crews are on the scene now — since roughly 4 a.m. The water has been shut off here on East Seventh Street for the time being. DEP notices say that the water could be off for up to 16 hours ... one resident has already expressed his or her sentiments on this flyer ...


[Photo by Robert Miner]

Updated 8:19 a.m.
The scene now on East Seventh at Avenue C via EVG reader Steven Matthews...



Updated 5 p.m.
Dave on 7th says that water service has been restored.

Do you live near a business with a noisy ventilation system?

I've been talking with a longtime resident about an ongoing problem in her building... where the resident and other tenants are at odds with the newish commercial tenant on the ground-floor ... and an outlandishly loud ventilation system.

There are a lot of details. But quickly. The landlord won't do anything, saying that it's not his responsibility. Meanwhile, the business owner has been unresponsive, in part because he's been having an ongoing fight with the landlord about a leak.

"It's been a nightmare and I finally have the energy to take it to the next level to fight it. I want to join with others in the community if possible," the resident said.

The DEP has already issued five noise violations against the business owner, and the case has apparently been working its way through the courts/enforcement control board since last August.

"We have no way of checking on where this matter stands — no records anywhere. A phone no one ever answers. We feel helpless."

The resident is interested in hearing how other people how dealt with similar situations, which seemingly are becoming more commonplace as more franchises take over spaces previously held by mom-and-pop shops (i.e., Papa John's on First Avenue) ... or carve out space in buildings (i.e., IHOP, where neighbors suffered from bacon-related problems).

"This influx of chains to our neighborhood has meant that they have expectations of being able to do whatever they want regarding ventilation and A/C — they aren't always used to dealing with mixed-use buildings," said the resident.

Anyone had advice to leave in the comments? You can also send a note to the EV Grieve email ...

[RANDOM photo via]

An Avenue B and East 14th Street now and then

Ace photographer East Village Hawkeye shared these now-and-then photos with us... showing the southwest corner of 14th Street and Avenue B today...



...and in 1914...


[NYPL Digital Gallery]

What do you think? I like the looks of the 14th Street Cafe ... (Click on the image for a better look...) Maybe pick up a pack of Piedmonts and a copy of the New York Herald...

Papaya King coming to St. Mark's Place

[Last week]

We've been waiting to see what would emerge from behind the plywood at 3 St. Mark's Place just east of Third Avenue... where the gem-jewelry store moved next door...

Signs went up this week — Papaya King...



Per the Papaya King website:

Papaya King is the original. Accept no imitations. Since 1932, we have been serving our special recipe, one-of-a-kind franks and tropical drinks to New Yorkers and visitors of all ages and from all walks of life at our original 86th Street location. We have a passion for freshness, quality, flavor & fun. We cook your franks while facing you so that we can see each other’s smiles (and because it’s rude to have you stare at our backs).

Here's Ralph Gardner Jr. talking about them a few years back at The Wall Street Journal:

I almost feel foolish describing Papaya King and its franks, so familiar I assume it is to just about anybody who has landed in New York more than 15 minutes ago. But for the record, it serves an arguably unimprovable hot dog. Slightly spicy and garlicky, its casing explodes in your mouth to release its mouth-watering contents.

Jules celebrates 20 years on St. Mark's Place

EVG regular esquared™ passes along the above photo, noting that Jules Bistro on St. Mark's Place is celebrating its 20th anniversary starting Saturday...

And here are more details via the Bistro's website...

Zaragoza Mexican Deli & Grocery turned 13 yesterday

[via Facebook]

Several readers told us last night that one of our favorite places around, Zaragoza Mexican Deli & Grocery on Avenue A near East 14th Street, celebrated its 13th anniversary ...

Here's their message on Facebook yesterday:

It was 13 years ago today, when we first opened our doors in the East Village and shared our cooking with everybody. We want to say Thank You very much for all the support you have given use throughout all these years and look forward to many more.

Learning and talking about microbes tomorrow night at MoRUS

From the EV Grieve inbox...

As sustainable living practices move from the realm of alternative lifestyles into the mainstream, The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) will provide a platform to learn about the reported benefits of effective microorganisms for life and the environment. A workshop titled, Introduction to Effective Microorganisms and Pickling Food Waste, will take place on Friday at MoRUS, 155 Avenue C, between 9th and 10th Streets. There will be samplings of fermented food and drinks prepared with EM at the beginning of the workshop.

The workshop, which will be led by Susan Greenfield and Shig Matsukawa, both members of El Sol Brillante and Children's Garden, will demonstrate how microbes recycle food waste and improve soil, among other ecological uses. Attendees will also participate in such hands-on activities as recycling food waste at home and making the fermentation starter.

While awareness of EM technology in the United States has increased in recent years, the technology has been widely studied and employed in Japan, where it originated more than 30 year ago. Its uses have ranged from farming to composting and waste management.

Find more info here.

[Image via the MoRUS Facebook page]

Popeye ready to flex his muscles on the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall

As we noted yesterday, Crash was expected to start work on the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall... you can see above how it was looking by the end of the afternoon... You can make out the familiar form of Popeye taking shape...

BoweryBoogie has some photos from yesterday showing the work in progress... Animal NY has photos and coverage here ... Per Animal, Crash (aka John Matos) "is not only a pioneer of graffiti on subway trains, but also graffiti on canvasses. In 1980, he curated the first graffiti exhibit at Fashion Moda in the Bronx and has painted with the best of the best."

[Updated] 'On the Bowery' on TCM tonight

In case you have cable or something, Lionel Rogosin's great film "On the Bowery" will play on Turner Classic Movies at 2:45 a.m. ... it had a successful run at the Film Forum back in 2010...

[Updated: Well, I fucked that up... the film is on at 8 p.m. too. As well as 2:45 a.m. Sorry for the mistake]

Also, there's something called "This is the Bowery" airing tonight at 7:49 on TCM. Here's a description of the short:

This MGM short film, part of the John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series, looks at the Bowery district in New York City. The Bowery is full of bars, cheap restaurants and pawn shops. It's mid-1941 and the film follows a man who has just arrived in the area. Like many others in the Bowery he's unemployed and has no place to stay.

No word on that sequel — "This Was the Bowery."

h/t to EVG Facebook friend Steven for the heads up on TCM's schedule...

Richard Hell at East Village Radio

Richard Hell stopped by the East Village Radio storefront studio on First Avenue at noon today to talk with Delphine Blue about his new memoir, "I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp." (The show will be archived here later.)

Meanwhile, Richard Hell Week continues. Tomorrow night, he'll do a reading at the Barnes & Noble on Union Square. (Details here.) The book was released yesterday.

Previously.

[Richard Hell photo for EV Grieve by James Maher]

Breaking: Death Star getting some life

As this photo from ‏@Ewingweb shows... workers are putting in some shrubbery, trees, etc., this afternoon outside 51 Astor Place... hopefully there will be some sun left for the green things.

Is a Ramones movie in the works?

Linda Ramone, the widow of late Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone, told Rolling Stone yesterday that she has various offers to do a movie about the band.

Per the article:

Ramone is not sure yet about the basis for the film – whether it will be a full-band biopic celebrating the New York group's rise in the mid-Seventies or told from Johnny's perspective based on his autobiography, 'Commando,' which was published last year. The foundation for the movie will depend on whether the controlling sides of the band's music agree. "If we could get together with my other side, I have a partner, so we'll see," she said.

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: Annette “Mistress Evil” Moccaldi
Occupation: Dominatrix
Location: 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue
Time: 1:30 on Saturday, March 9

Oh boy, where should I start. I’m from Brooklyn. I was born in Park Slope but I was raised in Canarsie. When I was around 12 I started coming around here. I found Washington Square Park first, and that was crazy for me. It was great and so different.

And then, when I found the East Village, I was elated because I found utopia. I didn’t think it could get any better than that and it did. I was happy. Very happy. I couldn’t believe it because it was so bad where I grew up. I couldn’t wait to get away and see something different. And boy was it different. People liked each other here and it didn’t matter what race or what color you were. Everybody was different and everybody got along.

Like a lot of us, I was doing a lot of drugs. I was experimenting. I started young. When I was 12 I started drinking and smoking weed and stuff like that. Then I started smoking angel dust and eventually that turned into heroin. And then I started shooting dope and everything blew up.

When I started getting high, that was when I started living on the street. Doing the needle exchange. Things really got bad when I was in my late 20s and into my 30s. That’s when I started living in the squats or anywhere I could find. I went to Brooklyn a lot to squat. I did tent city. It was just a bunch of tents. I lived in the band shell in Tompkins Square Park. I lived anywhere I could find where people wouldn’t bother you. Everybody looked out for each other. There would always be people to look out for you. There were always predators around too but I knew enough people to kind of escape that kind of thing. It was kind of cool. It was bad but it was also great. I still have my friends from there to this day.

Then I went to Rikers Island and that was terrible. I went into rehab for a year and a half. I have nothing to hide. I’ve done it and I’ve been [off drugs] for maybe 14 years.

I still dominatrix. I retired briefly, but that didn’t last long because I needed the money. I started in the strip clubs and I didn’t like that because I felt like I was being objectified, so now I tell people what the fuck to do. That’s fun. I’m the boss. And I don’t do anything that I don’t want to do. I don’t do anything out of my boundaries.

I have to live in Harlem now. Everything is getting better for me except for the fact that our neighborhood has changed. My boyfriend and I are both really bummed about it because now we’ve got our shit together, we could do something about this, and this is what we’ve got to come back to in the East Village. It wretches my guts. Everyday I’m looking around on the train. Where are all these people coming from? This used to be the dump that nobody wanted to live in.

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

Longtime laundromat on East 10th Street closes on Friday

Back in January we heard that the laundromat on East 10th Street near Second Avenue that has served the neighborhood for so many years will be closing ... We heard that the landlord was asking for an "insane" rent hike.

A reader tells us that Friday is their last day in business. Mimi and her son are saying their goodbyes now to longtime customers.

"Such a nice family. It's really sad to see them go," said the reader.

As for this space, you can probably count on either more ramen... or an upscale eatery from a name chef. Right?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rent hike KOs East 10th Street laundromat

New gluten-free Italian cafe in the works for East Fifth Street

Back in January, the nearly four-month-old Ballaro Bakery closed on East Fifth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... Now, as EVG contributor peter radley notes, another cafe is set to give the space a go...



As the sign shows, it will be something Italian. (Sorry.) The website listed isn't up and running yet... Perhaps this is related to Risotteria, the gluten-free Italian cafe and bakery over on West Bleecker...



Porchetta.Hog and Ballaro Bakery barely lasted in this space. Perhaps this place will break the losing streak.

Report: Jennifer Esposito to star in reality pilot for E!

As you may know, actress Jennifer Esposito opened her gluten-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar-free, soy-free, peanut-free, allergy-friendly, organic bakery on East 10th Street on March 2.

Now, as Deadline Hollywood first reported late yesterday afternoon, the proprietor of Jennifer's Way Bakery will film a pilot for E!

Per Deadline: "[T]he pilot will chronicle Esposito’s duties running the place while juggling the other aspects of her life."

Esposito, who was diagnosed with Celiac disease five years ago, will also serve as the executive producer.

Also, per Deadline:

"The untitled project is a spinoff from the cable network’s upcoming docu-reality series 'Playing With Fire,' which premieres Sunday. Esposito is among those featured on the show, which follows the personal lives and careers of tastemakers and chefs inside New York’s culinary scene."

She would join the folks at Obscura Antiques & Oddities on Avenue A as East Village reality TV stars... (and, perhaps, Billy Leroy, now starring in "Baggage Battles.")

h/t EVG reader Gary

Previously on EV Grieve:
Actress Jennifer Esposito's Jennifer's Way Bakery opening soon on East 10th Street (46 comments)

[Photo via the Wikimedia Commons]

The highs and lows (ins and outs?) of parking a Smart car in the East Village

Photos by EVG regular Derek Berg

Crash expected at the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall

On Saturday, a handful of graffiti artists quickly put up a tribute to legendary street photography Martha Cooper in honor of her 70th birthday. Brooklyn Street Art said that the tribute would be up for "an incredibly short time, possibly only days" on the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall.

Very true. A tipster told us that Crash (aka John Matos), one of the artists who worked on the Marty tribute, starts a new mural here today.

Fog and steam

Photos today via Bobby Williams...


[East 11th Street near B]