[Updated] Max Fish is apparently moving to Brooklyn; eyeing August close date

Well, the EVG inbox is filling up with news that Max Fish will be moving from its Ludlow Street home to... Metropolitan Avenue, according to this online petition, first noted this evening by The Lo-Down.

Per the petition:

‘We’ll Take the Spirit and Everything Else With Us’ -Ulli
The Lower East Side institution and cultural icon Max Fish will be moving. We are seeking a 2pm - 4am liquor license for the following address:

132 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211

If you've enjoyed time at The Fish please sign and share this petition. And if you live or know anyone that lives within 500 Feet of either 132 Metropolitan Ave or 99 North 1st St in Brooklyn, please contact me directly at: tmq777@gmail.com.

Several people have been sharing the petition on Facebook. No other info is immediately available, such as when Max Fish would close up on Ludlow Street... where it opened in 1989.

In December 2010, reports surfaced that the demand of rising rent costs might lead to Max Fish's closure. However, by January 2011, owner Ulli Rimkus had received a lease extension.

Updated:

The petition is also posted on the Max Fish Facebook page... word we received from the Max Fish camp is that they're eyeing an August closing date on Ludlow Street ...

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

Because every New York mayor needs an anthem

You may have seen this video making the rounds earlier today (Gawker, Politico) ... St. Mark's Place resident Jimmy McMillan who's running for mayor representing the "Rent is Too Damn High" party ... it comes courtesy of Animal New York...

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: Bryan Alejandro Scott
Occupation: Speech Pathologist, Dancer / Dance Teacher
Location: Matilda, 11th Street between Ave B and C
Time: 5 on Wednesday, April 17

I’ve been in the neighborhood for 29 years. I’ve lived in the same place on 12th and C the whole time. I’m a creature of habit. I was born in London and I used to live in Queens, where I went to high school. Part of my life was in London and part of it was in Queens.

We got to the city and I felt that this was one of the greatest neighborhoods. It was slightly unexplored. Most people didn’t even know that anything existed past 3rd Avenue, but we did. Plus it was affordable for us. I feel like some people made it out to be like it was so bad and dangerous, Alphabet City, but I don’t think it was unlike any other community. If you were looking for trouble you could easily find it, but if you were careful about what you did you were safe. There was a lot of respect for neighbors. People worked; people had families; people did their thing. There wasn’t a lot of activity on Avenue C. It was very quiet.

I feel like I’ve always been a jack of many trades. I’ve worked all kinds of jobs. I went to school for speech and language pathology and communication disorders and when I got out of college I worked for the International Paper Company in business as a marketing sales rep.

Now they were very conservative and I think you can tell from the Liberace vest that I’m not. I did the best I could. I was an in-style conservative, but selling paper, for me, I’m not putting it down, but I couldn’t see myself doing it for 20 or 30 years. I also worked in Paris for a year as a makeup artist, I worked for the city as a health coordinator, and eventually I got back into school at NYU and got my masters in speech pathology.

I started late with dancing. I was a gymnast when I was young but it got expensive. I was in high school and I was doing fairly well and I went to gymnastic camps where everybody was into it. But then my coach thought I might benefit if I took ballet class. So I did and from there I developed a love of dance. So I pursued it.

I did some auditions for some plays and through a play I got involved in a workshop for dance and that’s really how I became a Dunham technique, which is a type of modern technique from Katherine Dunham, and eventually got into a Dunham based dance company and performed in Theatre Row from around the 90s through around 2002. I stopped, not because I got too old, but because the director died.

The Dunham technique is a combination of ballet, African and Caribbean movement. It’s a modern technique usually done to drums. Katherine Dunham was the first black female to have a dance company in the United States and she was a person that led the way for many others. People like Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and Eartha Kitt took classes at the Dunham School.

I’ve parlayed my career from being a dancer to a more of a choreographer and mentor. I started teaching dance out of the lobby of my building. Those kids are probably 25 years old now. I started teaching straight out of college and I progressed to the school system. I now work at the Children’s Workshop School on East 12th street as a speech and language therapist during the day and one day I went to the principal and I said, “Hey I have this idea, I would like to start a dance company.”

It started as a small experiment, working with special-ed kids. I thought that the kids who had emotional or behavioral problems, if they learned dance and found something that they liked, then their academics would approve. And it did. I do think the arts needs to be back in the schools. I think it will help many children embrace the educational process.

Now we’ve got an after-school program and we meet once a week for two and a half hours and we are ready. The kids are ages 7 to 11. I teach them the Dunham technique, jazz, and other modern techniques. They have to do reports on different people. I want them to know a little bit of everything. We’re called the Experimental Dance Group, EDG.

This year, I’m doing my first fundraiser, which is going to be [tonight, April 24] here at Matilda. It’s a really good family restaurant and the owner’s daughter is actually part of my dance company. This affair is to raise money for costumes and the cost that’s involved with doing what I do because I’m not funded by the school. And it’s a way of giving young people something positive to feel about themselves.

The fundraiser is a disco theme. I love disco; disco was a great time. People don’t realize that disco brought a lot of people together. All races, sexuality, all levels of income. It was a fun, fun period. I don’t know why people got into hating disco. That’s not for this interview, but if you ever want to go into that with me, I can talk to you about that.

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

Note: Matilda Restaurant hosts Disco With EDG, a disco-themed fundraiser for the Experimental Dance Group tonight at 5. Matilda is located at 647 E. 11th Street at Avenue C. With a $20 donation, guests will receive two drinks and samples of the restaurant's Tuscan-Mexican menu.

Proposed dorm for former 35 Cooper Square looks to be 4 floors taller

[December 2012]

Nearly two years ago, the historic, circa-1825 building at 35 Cooper Square was quickly demolished.

As we first reported last Aug. 21, developer Arun Bhatia filed paperwork for a 9-story dorm for an unspecified school in this space.

The proposed plans called for a 9-story dormitory with 43 rooms ... plus retail on the ground floor. In total, the building would be nearly 35,000 square feet (at a height of 117 feet).

And that was that. The plans continued to be "pending" with the DOB.

Until this week, when subsequent paperwork filed with the DOB yesterday show a 13-story dorm in this space instead...



Perhaps if they wait a little longer they can get it up to 18 floors.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Here's what's coming to 35 Cooper Square: 9-story dormitory

Straight to hell: Keeping a watchful eye on the Joe Strummer mural

Workers continued putting up the scaffolding and construction netting at 112 Avenue A and East Seventh Street yesterday ...


[Bobby Williams]

DOB permits point to "facade repair" on the building.

As long as that doesn't turn into "oh, we accidentally painted over the Joe Strummer mural."



And we're off to a fine start... Per Dave on 7th, the workers "ran the conduit for the scaffold lights uncaringly across Joe's face. Prophetic?"

Previously on EV Grieve:
Joe Strummer gets a splash of Niagara

Joe Strummer gets a new look, skyline

[Updated] Joe Strummer would have been 60 today

There's a 'No 7-Eleven' planning meeting tonight

[Bobby Williams]

From the EV Grieve inbox...

NO 7-Eleven, a grassroots movement resisting the spread of chains and franchises, is holding a neighborhood-wide meeting tonight. Their goal is to require that all corporate clone stores, including banks, be required to obtain approval before opening a new location so the community can have a say in the number and location of corporate chains and franchises. Details below. Please spread the word.

Limit corporate clone stores before they limit our food, our commerce, our labor, our streets and our New York City character

7-Eleven is opening a new location on the corner of 11th Street and Ave. A in June.

7-Eleven already opened 32 locations in Manhattan and has an additional 100 stores on the way!

Their plan is to over saturate the neighborhood with locations and remove any and all competition.

If you are as concerned about protecting the East Village and future of the city, please attend:

Next 'No 7-Eleven' Meeting
6:30-8:00pm
93 St. Marks Place
Between First Avenue and Avenue A

More details:

The No 7-Eleven blog ... Facebook ... Twitter...

Other news items from the No 7-Eleven group include:
1. 'NO 7-Eleven' just won a grant from Citizens Committee. "One important concern for them is the low quality of food offered to low-income neighborhoods. We share that concern and hope we can make a difference with our effort to have all corporate 'formula' stores (including banks, btw) throughout our fair city go to the local community board for approval before opening."

2. 7-Eleven Corp. has delayed its opening on 11th Street and Avenue A by a month, from May 13 to June 13. And it still has no franchisee.

3. NO 7-Eleven will be featured at the New Museum's Ideas City Festival, May 4 on the Bowery. "We'll have our Community Wheel of Fortune and our NO 7-Eleven Players there to perform."

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] More from the anti-7-Eleven front on Avenue A and East 11th Street

Avenue A's anti-7-Eleven campaign now includes arsenal of 20,000 stickers

'No 7-Eleven' movement goes global with BBC report

Meanwhile in Paris, Vélib’ — a large-scale public bicycle sharing system

Given all the discussion about Citi Bikes coming here soon, Dave on 7th shared a few photos on Monday of the Barclays Cycle Hire from a recent trip to London.

And now! Another reader passes along some photos, this time from a trip to Paris... Here's Vélib’ — the city's large-scale public bicycle sharing system that launched in July 2007. The system encompasses around 18,000 bicycles and 1,200 bicycle stations, as I lazily borrowed from Wikipedia.









More from Wikipedia: "Vélib’ is operated as a concession by the French advertising corporation JCDecaux. As of 2012, Vélib' is the world's second-largest bikesharing program, after the 61,000-bicycle system in Hangzhou, China."

Here, the bike-share program will feature, at the outset in a few weeks, 6,000 bikes at 330 stations. (Go here for the East Village docking stations.)

As for Paris, the EVG reader helpfully noted that the bikes are very popular and that "French women look sexy on them." There you have it.

Revisiting the Electric Circus, thanks to 'Mad Men'

I don't watch the TV program "Mad Men." However, I read that the show's characters have been visiting the 1967-68 East Village in various plotlines. (The Times wrote about this a few weeks ago.)

The latest episode apparently included a trip to the Electric Circus on St. Mark's Place... @ShaneEvanDavis reminded me of this EVG post on the Electric Circus from April 15, 2011 titled If the Electric Circus were to open today ... cut-and-paste here again below... Repost! Repost!

------

At first, this was meant as nothing more than an appreciation of some photos (via Getty Images) of the Electric Circus from 1968 ... with the original photo captions on the first three...

"Patrons at Electric Circus, 23 St. Marks Place, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, New York City. stops for check. Girls not wearing bras are admitted free on Sundays."

"UNITED STATES - JUNE 27: Transparent plastic bra strap, virtually invisible around back, gives a topless look to formal mini at the Electric Circus at 23 St. Marks Place, New York City. (Photo by William Quinn/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)"

"Fashionable crowd mill about outside the Electric Circus 23 St. Marks Place, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, New York City."

Then I started thinking about the reaction if this very same venue would open here today... A hot club promoter (in this case, Jerry Brandt) ... celebrities... crowds from everywhere showing up on St. Mark's Place... how would the community respond? No bra night?! Sounds like some stunt Superdive would have pulled. And look at that mob on the sidewalk! Call 311! (And what would those local bloggers write!) Has the influx of bars and jackasses and woo-wooing in recent years made us intolerant of any nightlife? Or maybe just some nightlife? Or a certain type of nightlife? (I can keep going with the vague rhetorical questions!) Regardless, I would have liked to seen this concept go before today's CB3/SLA committee...

Anyway, here are several more photos from the Getty archives... the Electric Circus closed in 1971... the address now houses a Supercuts and Chipotle ... as well as $17,000 apartments...

By the way, this wasn't meant as a history of the space... plenty has been written about it, including, but not limited to:

Jack Newfield Catches the Electric Circus Opening on St. Marks (The Village Voice)

FRIDAY NIGHT FEVER: The Electric Circus (The Bowery Boys)

Streetscapes / 19-25 St. Marks Place; The Eclectic Life of a Row of East Village Houses (The Times)

Live on St. Mark's Place for only $17,000 per month! (EV Grieve)

Cooper Union students protest school's decision to start charging tuition

Earlier today, Cooper Union officials announced that, for the first time, the school would start charging tuition, effective the fall of 2014.

As a result, several hundred students and faculty members staged a walk-out this afternoon.

Per The Nation:

Using similar theatrical tools that activists have employed in previous demonstrations, Cooper art and architecture students ran around the building hugging the walls in a human chain while chanting “Free as air and water...Save Cooper Union.”

The students also held an “Irish wake,” setting a hat ablaze on the pavement and singing satirically in front of the same building students occupied some months ago. While some students seem disillusioned by the school’s decision, many more are angered that the Board of Trustees met secretly in the morning while students were in class to avoid any disruption of their meeting.

Large numbers of the NYPD were also on-hand...





Photos by Bobby Williams.

Citi Bikes docking station arrives at Astor Place

On the west side of the Death Star... photo from Twitter via @buttermilk1

Cooper Union will start charging undergraduate tuition in the fall of 2014

Facing a strained economic future, Cooper Union officials announced today that it will charge undergraduates to attend classes starting in the fall of 2014.

Here are details via a statement that the school just released:

The following statement from the Board of Trustees of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art was presented by Chairman of the Board Mark Epstein to the student body, faculty and staff of the institution at a meeting today in the Cooper Union Great Hall.

“After eighteen months of intense analysis and vigorous debate about the future of Cooper Union, the time has come for us to set our institution on a path that will enable it to survive and thrive well into the future. Consequently, the Board of Trustees voted last week to reduce the full-tuition scholarship to 50% for all undergraduates admitted to The Cooper Union beginning with the class entering in the fall of 2014.

“Under the new policy, The Cooper Union will continue to adhere to the vision of Peter Cooper, who founded the institution specifically to provide a quality education to those who might otherwise not be able to afford it. Consequently, we will provide additional scholarship funding for those with need, including full-tuition scholarships to all Pell Grant-eligible students. We intend to keep admissions need-blind. Current undergraduates, as well as those undergraduates entering in the fall of 2013 will continue to receive the full-tuition scholarship for the duration of their undergraduate education.

“Our priorities have been and will continue to be quality and access, so that we will remain a true meritocracy of outstanding students from all socio-economic backgrounds.

Read the full statement here.

Read more on this story at The New York Times here.

Previously.

Citi Bikes docking stations arrive at NYU

Via EVG reader Jeffrey Borenstein...

Petition campaign asks: 'Return PS 64 to the Community'

From the EV Grieve inbox... via the East Village Community Coalition...

COMMUNITY USE - NOT DORMITORY

Respect our community. Respect this community treasure: Old P.S. 64 located at 605 East 9th Street.

Old P.S. 64, a designated New York City landmark, has a long and valued history serving our community. This building could easily serve our community again. Dormitory use of this building does not serve our community. Cooper Union should not house students in old P.S. 64.

We ask that old P.S. 64 be returned to use for our community.

Find the petition here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Will old PS 64 get a theater for nonprofit groups?

Rebranded P.S. 64 up for grabs: Please welcome University House at Tompkins Square Park to the neighborhood

Deed for 'community facility use only' at the former P.S. 64 now on the market

Report: Former PS 64 one step closer to becoming a 500-bed dorm for multiple NYC colleges

Through art, East Side High students and faculty show the importance of community

From the EV Grieve inbox...

After being displaced from their building for 4 months, the students, staff and parents of East Side Community High School have come together in a show of strength to create and exhibit almost 1,000 pieces of art celebrating the importance of community.

East Side Community High School was evacuated in September after structural damage was found in the building. The 4 month-long evacuation created chaos and frustration, with hundreds of students and staff split up and relocated to other school sites in the city.

Upon returning to the school building in February, art teachers Leigh Klonsky and Desiree Borrero facilitated a massive school-wide art project around the themes of "home" and "community." Over the course of three weeks, students, parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, administration, and non-teaching staff participated in a series of art making workshops. Through writing and discussion, participants reflected on their individual experiences and relationship to the community. Their reflections inspired the creation of small mixed media artworks, using watercolor, colored pencil, marker and collage.

The artwork will be on display from April 24 – May 10 in the school's art gallery, the Loisaida Art Gallery, on East 11th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A. The opening reception is on Wednesday April 24 from 3:30 - 6:30 and is open to the public.

A selection from the exhibition will also be available online here.

-----

As a follow-up, we asked Leigh Klonsky a few questions about the exhibit.

What were you and Desiree hoping to accomplish with this project?

We had two major goals. One was to create an opportunity for everyone who was impacted by the evacuation to be able to reflect on their experience through visual art. Different classes and advisories did activities that helped us all reflect and share our experiences, but expressing yourself through visual art allows for other things to come up, things that might be hard to articulate in words. We wanted to provide an opportunity for people to visualize their experiences.

Another goal was to affirm the importance of every member of our community. By participating in one of the workshops, contributing a piece of art, or coming to the reception, you are affirming your place within our community. Although we are a small school, staff, students and families don't always interact or meet. It was a really special moment, for example, when our school psychologist, a parent and our custodian made art next to each other, after sharing their thoughts about community.

"Home" and "community" mean different things to different people. Did you see any common themes emerge from the artwork?

The workshops were structured to ask 6 questions:

• How does our East Side community represent home to you?
• What did you learn from being away from East Side?
• What does home, our community, the neighborhood, the Lower East Side look like to you?
• What did you miss about our East Side community when we were relocated?
• Is there a specific person or place in our East Side community that makes it home for you?
• What is your ideal vision of a school community?

Common responses discussed the loss of space, middle school students and high school students missing seeing each other, the cultural differences at the relocation sites (metal detectors, different commute, different neighborhood, lack of windows), but the most common response was how East Siders were able to create community wherever they were.

From the students you've talked with, what are some of the things that they took away from the experience of being displaced from their home school?

"Not taking things for granted" was a repeated phrase.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Schools making it work while repairs continue at 420 E. 12th St.

Wall progress at East Side Community School

The Jefferson reveals what '21st Century living in the heart of Olde New York' costs

And yesterday, The Jefferson — the luxury condos that rose up from the former Mystery Lot on East 13th Street — unveiled its pricing and floor plans, as BuzzBuzz Home first noted. (We spotted the listings at Curbed.)

The Jefferson's marketing campaign asks, "Can you afford not to buy?" Unfortunately, the units turn out to be more than $300. The listings include a 536-square-foot studio for $850,000 up to a two-bedroom penthouse with a rooftop terrace for $2.49 million. In between, one-bedrooms range from $1.11 and $1.54 million.

Anyway, go look at the units... come back and comment... Or just comment.

And the view from East 13th Street...



...and the roof...



Previously on EV Grieve:
City approves new building for Mystery Lot

The last days of the Mystery Lot

Before it was the Mystery Lot

The Mystery Lot developers using famous dead comedians to sell condos at The Jefferson

Reader mailbag: Can you help ID that high-pitched screeching noise?

From the EV Grieve Reader Mailbag®:

Wondering if you can help identify the source of a high-pitched screeching noise coming from somewhere between East 10th and East 9th Street (back of the buildings) and First Avenue and Avenue A (seems closer to A).

A fan? An exhaust of some kind? Suri Cruise's tea kettle (is she even in the EV anymore)? [Editor's note: No]

It sounds like 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'

It's on for like 1 or 2 days a week for many hours at a time.

I'm trying to pinpoint the source to report the issue to 311, contact the source (or consider an unconventional approach if that becomes necessary).

Anyone? Anyone with a serious response/solution?

The enthusiasm for gluten-free bakeries in the neighborhood may be waning somewhat

Spotted at the Tuck Shop yesterday on St. Mark's Place. Headline and photo by Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C.

Johnny Thunders died on this date in 1991

John Anthony Genzale, Jr
Born July 15, 1952 Queens, New York City
Died April 23, 1991 (age 38) New Orleans, Louisiana

Doll... Heartbreaker.

Previously on EV Grieve:
On the phone with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls

A few nibbles for Something Sweet

Just checking in with the owners of Something Sweet, who are looking for help to revive the longtime bakery on First Avenue and East 11th Street. After our last post, the owners said that they did receive some interest, including pro-bono help from an attorney.

Per Something Sweet: "Out of all the responses there are a few possibilities."

Sidenote: The owners even reached out to David Schwimmer's agent. They figured he would be living here soon... why not at least ask? Oh, and how did that go with the agent?

"[They] denied at first even representing him, then said that they can get in touch with him by fax. But they were not interested in what I had to say."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something Sweet still looking for help to revive its beloved business

Welcome back my friend to the show that never ends...

In case that you did already know... Back. In. Action. Thanks to juan TRED for the shot...