Spotted on the Vitamin Shoppe's front door on First Avenue and East 14th Street... can't recall seeing many "unapproved for menacing" signs before...
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Noted
Spotted on the Vitamin Shoppe's front door on First Avenue and East 14th Street... can't recall seeing many "unapproved for menacing" signs before...
Meanwhile, in Tompkins Square Park this morning...
A boy walks his goat. (It was all for some video shoot.)
Friday, October 11, 2013
Noted
A bikenapped Citi Bike on East 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B? Photo by EVG reader Philipp.
City approves Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone
[Click image to enlarge]
Back in April, CB3 member Chad Marlow, and the group that he founded in 2011, the Tompkins Square Park & Playground Parents’ Association (TSP3A), kicked off a neighborhood safety initiative.
The group applied to the Department of Transportation (DOT) to have them create what the group is calling the "Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone" (TSACSZ).
The TSACSZ, in short, is an effort to improve pedestrian safety for children and all others who live/work/play in the proposed 0.38 square-mile zone by reducing motor vehicle speeds. Per Marlow, the slow zone program takes a well-defined, relatively compact area, and reduces its speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour, with further reductions to 15 miles per hour near schools.
In an op-ed in The Villager last spring, Marlow also revealed a personal reason behind this proposal. In 1995, a drunken driver struck Marlow's father, an accident that left him with quadriplegia and a severe brain injury. His father died 13 years after the accident. (Read the entire op-ed here.)
We asked Marlow via email for his reaction to the DOT's decision:
"I am beyond grateful to the Department of Transportation for approving the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone. I am equally filled with gratitude for all of the community groups, elected officials and members of Community Board 3, whose support for the proposal was instrumental in making it a reality. Most of all, I find myself thinking of my father, Richard Marlow, and how something positive has finally come out of the years of terrible pain and suffering he endured after being hit by a speeding, drunk driver in 1995. I dedicate this effort to his memory."
Previously on EV Grieve:
Call for an East Village 'slow zone' (34 comments)
Why is Vella Market closed?
[Photo via @andrewketler]
Several readers have pointed put that Vella Market has been closed on Avenue B and East Fourth Street... There isn't a note on the gate about a temporary closure... and their phone just rings and rings... Anyone hear anything about Vella? We rather like/liked this place, which just opened in April.
The previous tenant, Kate's Joint, the 16-year-old vegetarian eatery, closed in April 2012.
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition
[Photo along Avenue A by Michael Sean Edwards]
Airbnb attacks "vague" New York hotel laws (Ars Technica)
Rebecca Flint Marx bids farewell (for now) to Russ & Daughters (Medium)
At the new home of the Lower Eastside Girls Club (The New York Times)
A lawsuit to stop the NYCHA land leasing plan (Curbed)
The Open Call deadline for Emerging Artists on the LES is Sunday (The Lo-Down)
Check out the Hua Mei Bird Garden in Sara D. Roosevelt Park (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
One year in the life of the East Village/LES Historic District (Off the Grid)
The Bowery can still attract kitchen supply stores (BoweryBoogie)
The markets along Hester Street in 1905 (Ephemeral New York)
A good find: Music video with The Senders on the LES in the late 1980s (Flaming Pablum)
A favorite lonely place (Gog in NYC)
Sarge's looks to have longer to go before opening (Eater)
Looking at Peter Semple’s "Dandy," featuring Nick Cave and Nina Hagen, from 1988 (Dangerous Minds)
...and Au Revoir Simone pays homage to Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" ...
51 Astor Place has its 1st tenant! 51 Astor Place has its 1st tenant! 51 Astor Place has its 1st tenant!
[EVG file photo]
You may have heard the news from Crain's yesterday afternoon: 51 Astor Place has its very first tenant!
1stdibs, an online auctioneer that specializes in the sale of high end vintage goods ranging from furniture to fine art, has agreed to a deal to take the 12-story building's entire third floor, a 42,232-square-foot space, for 15-years.
Woo!
And there may be more celebrating in the near future. Developer Edward Minskoff said, "We're very close to another deal. And we're in negotiations with six other tenants."
The 400,000-square-foot development opened in May without any signed tenants.
Meanwhile! The reaction from Twitter?
.@evgrieve With their first rent bill, of course!
— 51 Astor Place (@51deathstar) October 11, 2013
Previously on EV Grieve:
3 retail spaces available at 51 Astor Place
51 Astor Place demolition begins July 1; 17 months to build new black-glass tower
East Village — the new Midtown?
[Updated] Get dirty this weekend at La Plaza Cultural
From the EVG inbox...
La Plaza Cultural Community Garden & the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space Join Forces to Give Land a Fresh Start After Superstorm Sandy
Saturday, Oct. 12, Noon
Sunday, Oct. 13, Noon
What: “Day of the Dirt” Garden Restoration
Where: La Plaza Cultural Community Garden (Corner of 9th St and Avenue C
Why: La Plaza Cultural Community Garden will be receiving 50 yards of soil (1,350 square feet!) and compost to distribute around the garden to help recover from Sandy.
How: We will be moving the soil manually by wheelbarrow and spreading it with people power. If you want to volunteer, just show up! Gloves, rakes, other tools will be provided on site.
Who: We need volunteers of all ages to help by:
● hauling soil in shifts
● helping spread it with rakes and shovels
● planting grass seed in the freshly laid lawn area
● helping to transplant plants that we want to save
● removing items in the way of where we're laying the soil
● gathering stray bricks
We’re giving La Plaza a fresh start after Sandy, and we really need those who can make it to come out and help us restore this special place.
Updated 11:45 a.m.
The soil has arrived, as this photo via Shawn Chittle shows...
CB3 hearing on illegal rooftop additions at 515 E. 5th St. re-scheduled for another month
The Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) had previously ruled that landlord Ben Shaoul needs to remove the 6th and 7th floors. However, his attorneys are requesting that the city grant a zoning variance to "permit the constructed enlargement, minus the penthouse, to remain."
And how did this go? A tenant reported that "the landlord pulled out of the CB3 hearing at the last minute. They have re-scheduled it for next month."
In 2008, the BSA decreed that the additions were illegal and should be removed.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Never-ending battle wages on over additional floors at 515 E. Fifth St.
People miss the trees at the Astor Place subway plaza
As we noted the other day, workers, for whatever reasons, removed the trees from the Astor Place subway plaza ahead of the Astor Place-Cooper Square revamp... most readers here and on Facebook were pretty much WTF about it... EVG regular Terry Howell shared this shot of the trees as they looked in January 2011... Anyway, plans show about eight trees will be planted here in the revamp...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Revamped Astor Place subway plaza apparently won't need its existing trees
Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project
An updated look at the all-new Astor Place
Workers chopping down the trees at 51 Astor Place
Important questions of our time
When did Joey Pepperoni on First Avenue start serving breakfast? And tacos? And wings? (We hadn't noticed!)
Also, has anyone tried any of the non-$1 pizza items?
Anyway. Just the latest (or not) development in the grim First Avenue $1 pizza wars.
Previously on EV Grieve:
First Avenue $1 Pizza Wars — now with draft beer
Checking in on the $1 pizza war on First Avenue
Latest weapon in the First Avenue $1 slice wars: Dancing Pizza Menu Woman
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Hare Krishna cultural center introducing vegetarian buffet starting tonight
The Bhakti Center is launching the Bhakti Buffet starting tonight at the Hare Krishna cultural center at 26 First Ave.
Per the Center's website:
The Bhakti Buffet serves the guests of the Bhakti Center and is open to the public. The buffet is run by Chaitanya Kapadia, Krsangi Chander, and Mathura Rico, all of whom were born and raised in the bhakti tradition and see their service as a labor of love. Following the standards of bhakti-yoga, all preparations are pure vegetarian/vegan and are prepared following immaculate standards of cleanliness while bearing a bhava or mood of devotion. In other words, the food is cooked with love.
The menus include traditional Indian dishes as well as international favorites that are both delicious and healthy. The prices are affordable and the portions are hearty.
Generally the buffet will include…
1 special entree
2 vegetable dishes
1 or 2 rice dishes
1 soup
2 salads
1 drink
PRICING
$12 – the entire buffet
$8 – any three items
$6 – soup and salad
$3 – dollars any single item
"The concept is to provide healthy, fresh, wholesome vegetarian food at a very reasonable cost," the Center's program director David Ramella told Serena Solomon at DNAinfo, who first reported on the opening on Monday.
The Center ran a cafe here for two years, but closed it in 2011.
The cafe is open Thursday and Friday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Mudspot Café opening at the First Park kiosk next month
Back in July, S'MAC decided to discontinue its service at the First Avenue kiosk. At the time, Caesar Ekya, who owns and operates S'MAC with his wife Sarita, said that they were hoping to find another vendor to assign the lease to here off of East Houston and East First Street.
And they have: Mudspot Café will soon be operating from this location.
"Yes, it's happening," Mudspot General Manager Yasmina Palumbo confirmed to us via email. "[We're] hoping to open sometime in November."
Ekya said that sales at First Park were sluggish, and that they needed to focus on their original location on East 12th Street and new branch in Murray Hill. He had said finding another vendor for First Park was preferable to turning the lease back over to the city, which would then open up a potentially lengthy bidding process.
"It would have been in everyone's best interest if we assigned the lease instead of giving it back to the city," Ekya said."And Mud was the best fit for that location."
S'MAC opened the satellite location here in January 2012. Prior to this, Veselka had the space for five years until June 2011. Mudspot's original location on East Ninth Street will remain.
Previously on EV Grieve:
More about S'MAC's decision to leave First Park
What about 'Mildred Fierce'?
EVG contributor Joann Jovinelly saw a performance last weekend of Ryan Landry's play, "Mildred Fierce," a musical black comedic parody of the 1945 film classic, "Mildred Pierce," starring Joan Crawford. Joann shared a few photos as well as a quick review:
While there's plenty of room for campy humor, the zingers go beyond the obvious, making for a well-rounded and thoughtful production that is sophisticated and subtle as well as over-the-top absurd. Much attention was placed on the details as well as the polished dramatic performances and musical dance numbers featuring the Gold Dust Orphans. There was a good dose of creative puppetry, too, and a cache of clever surprises.
"Mildred Fierce" plays on Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 27 at Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased here.
Construction watch: 227 E. 7th St.
A quick look at 227 E. 7th St. near Avenue C, where a 6-floor building is growing upwards of 5 floors now ... As we previously reported, DOB permits show that each floor will contain one residential unit.
One day.
[Via BuzzBuzzHome]
A previous day.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Asbestos abatement on East Seventh Street, then a new 6-story building
New bike racks seemingly randomly arrive
These just arrived along Avenue B between East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street (maybe for the Gruppo delivery guys?) ... Dave on 7th, who took this photo, also noticed a new rack on Avenue A. Anyone else spot new bike racks around the neighborhood...?
Tales of Washington Square Park tonight at Bluestockings Books
Thursday, Oct. 10 @ 7 pm
Bluestockings Books, 172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington
Reading + Discussion: Cathryn Swan’s "Tales of Washington Square Park (and a few other places)"
The official release for "Tales of Washington Square Park (and a few other places)," a book/zine written by Cathryn Swan, the editor of the Washington Square Park Blog, featuring some of her favorite stories from the blog. The event will feature a reading by Swan, conversation about the famous Greenwich Village park and more, and discussion of New York City’s privatization of public space.
Swan is the founder of the Washington Square Park Blog, an independent website which began in 2008, just as the park’s controversial redesign construction began. She also writes articles at the Huffington Post and is writing a book "The B-girl Guide to Living Your Life in Earth, Animal & People-friendly ways."
Why was the fountain moved 23 feet east to line up with the Arch at Fifth Avenue after 137 years in its previous location?
Did cars really run through the Arch?
Why did Henry James hate the Arch?
Answers to these questions and more!
From Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Jacobs, Bob Dylan to today, the park remains the heart of Greenwich Village. It is a constant reminder of the magical commons in the midst of the privatized city.
Find the event page here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)