[Updated] Breaking in the public plaza at 51 Astor Place

The 24-hour public plaza outside 51 Astor Place was unveiled back on June 21... and people have been using and enjoying the space, as far as we can tell...

... and it's starting to have that lived-in East Village look, complete with litter, tags and overflowing trash cans... as seen this weekend...







Updated 5:15

EVG reader John passes along this photo... showing a spotlessly clean plaza... the tags are gone. Ditto for the heading piles of trash...

For Whom the PBR Tolls

Just noting a little memorial that appeared in the past few days at the Blarney Cove, which closed for good last Tuesday on East 14th Street.

Swissted's posters for CBGB shows at Avalon Bowery Place

The art wall over at Avalon Bowery Place along East First Street is now featuring the work of Swissted's Mike Joyce ... it's part of a project that the NYC-based graphic designer launched in January 2012...

The Village Voice explained the concept this way last year:

Joyce combs through flyers of old-school punk, hardcore, and indie rock shows, retains the vital info, and uses that text to create Swiss Modernist-style posters that often incorporate geometric patterns. His work favors minimalism, and his only font is Berthold Akzidenz-Grotesk Medium (lowercase, natch).

This collection features shows from CBGB...

7 random East Village photos from the weekend with zero context

This will do

Anything to cool off... East Ninth Street at Avenue C...

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Week in Grieview

The Yippie Museum Cafe is closing (Friday)

Tacos Morelos coming to East 9th Street (Monday)

Update on crowdsourcing campaign for injured East Village Farm and Grocery worker (Friday)

The glassy future of East 10th Street and Fourth Avenue (Tuesday)

Former funeral home becomes Townhouse 49 on East 7th Street (Monday)

The polite tip jar thief (Thursday)

A case against using the term 'crusty' (Friday, 86 comments)

More about Davey's Ice Cream, opening this summer on First Avenue (Tuesday)

The Blarney Cove closed (Tuesday)

New security cameras for Campos Plaza (Tuesday)

Driver crashes into gate at Tompkins Square Park (Thursday)

Phillip Giambri's East Village (Wednesday)

Rite Aid's new look on First Avenue (Tuesday)

Illegal penthouse coming down on East Sixth Street? (Friday)

Retail for 51 Astor Place (Tuesday)

Name change at Billy Hurricane's (Tuesday)

Last call for the Motor City Bar today

The Motor City Bar closes for good after tonight. The landlord chose not to renew the bar's lease... Motor City opened at 127 Ludlow in 1996.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Motor City Bar is closing on Ludlow Street

In time for a Star Spangled 4th of July Christmas!

Well! A tipster passes along this well-maintained Christmas-holiday tree spotted yesterday on Second Avenue and East Sixth Street... with some smartphone proof for Authentication purposes...



... and via OlympiasEpiriot ... the beauty made it through the night...



Looks like this is all legit in our estimation, though it's not ultimately up to us. Gruber MacDougal, spokesperson for the International Coalition of Tree Tossing in the Spring and Summer (ICTTSS), is currently in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport for unknown reasons.

And thanks to EVG reader Steve for this shot too...



How soon before it rolls into the bus lane?

Pride

Outside Nowhere on East 14th Street...



And visit the NYC pride website for a list of today's Pride-related activities...

Cutting back a damaged tree in Tompkins Square Park

A crew arrived early yesterday morning to attend to a tree in Tompkins Square Park ... a limb came crashing down the other day...

Here's what the tree, in the southern section near East Seventh Street, looked like later in the day ... via these photos by EVG contributor peter radley...

City unveils new light poles

We'll be here all weekend, unfortunately.

A private party in a public Tompkins Square Park

Several residents have told us that part of Tompkins Square Park was closed off this afternoon for a private party of some kind... in an area between East Eighth Street and East Ninth Street along Avenue B... the residents said that they were unaware that a section of a public park could be shut down for some private gathering... the partygoers were flashing permits to people who were put out by what was transpiring ... even the men who are part of the drum circle along here were told that they needed to vacate the area. And, from what we were told, they were quite unhappy about it...

Updated:
One reader said that this event was a birthday party for a chihuahua.

Updated:
Here is information from the Parks & Recreation website with information on requesting a special event permit.

"From the smallest birthday party to the largest concert, special events take place every day in New York City parks. If you want to have any activity in a City park with more than 20 people, or where you would like to reserve a specific area within a park, you need to apply for a special event permit."

At Drag March Madness

The annual Drag March took last evening... and the marchers gathered at Tompkins Square Park for the trek over to the Stonewall Inn... and our friend editrrix shared some of her fantastic photos from the Park...

















Find her full set of photos (51!) from last night here.

And be sure to check out Goggla's photos from last night here.

Noted

Spotted this morning on Second Avenue... in front of the Starbucks at East Ninth Street... Someone wrote "Kill him" in chalk with an arrow pointing toward the sidewalk space outside the 13th Step...



Anyone know what this is about?

I can't really think of a headline for this

EVG reader John came across this mini photo shoot this morning on East Sixth Street at Avenue B...

Now I wanna sniff some glue

Chico is working on a new mural at the newly reopened Croxley Ales on Avenue B ...

... and a better shot via @salim ...

Tompkins Square Park, 8:07 a.m., June 29

Meanwhile, on the Bowery...

Photos by Bobby Williams

Start to move

Wire with "Ahead" from 1987...

Downed limb in Tompkins Square Park

A few readers sent along photos from Tompkins Square Park this morning... noting a downed limb in the southeast corner of the Park... we didn't see it ourselves, so we're not sure how extensive the damage is...