A look at NASA's Minotaur Rocket streaking across the East Village sky

Last evening, the U.S. Air Force launched an Orbital Sciences Minotaur 1 rocket into orbit from a (really?) Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va. Per HuffPo:

The nighttime launch could light up the sky for millions of observers along a wide swath of the Eastern Seaboard, and could be visible from just northeastern Canada and Maine to Florida, and from as far inland as Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky, depending on local weather conditions, according to NASA and Orbital Sciences visibility maps.

The rocket launched into space at 8:15 p.m. And acclaimed photographers James and Karla Murray got this shot ... as the thing traveled some 11,700 mph (per those nerds at space.com)... over our airspace...




Space, the final frontier for more luxury housing...

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: Manuel
Occupation: Contractor
Location: Monday, Nov. 18 at 2 pm
Time: 4th Street between A and B

I’ve lived here my whole life. I’m from the projects. I grew up right here on 4th Street, between C and D. We came from Puerto Rico. My grandparents came from Puerto Rico and mom came when she was a little girl. My step-dad was a permanent fixture on Avenue C and 4th street, where they played dominoes in that little secret garden. They named it after my dad, Ariel Place. He was a very simple man. Ever since he landed on 4th street and Avenue C he never left. He’d stand there right on the corner. Every day he walked the dog, played dominoes, would go upstairs for lunch, come back down, then go back up and he was done for the day. He was a man of routine — and before that he was a man of gambling. He used to gamble a lot. His funeral was just last weekend. A lot of people from the neighborhood came, left him a bunch of stuff, Dominoes, cigarettes, liquor. His coffin was filled with stuff.

Back then the area was congested — it was really crowded. The Jewish people had moved out and the Spanish, the ghetto people moved in. From ‘75 to like ’85 was the big transition — it happened within 10 years. I remember the parties that we used to have, with DJs in the parks and on the FDR Drive. They would light up everything up in the nighttime and you’d see all these people from different parts of the Lower East Side and from the city. It was good in that sense.

It was also good that my mom could walk down the block. She was a small little lady, about 70 pounds, and she could come home at 2 in the morning and nobody would bother her. And there would be junkies all around the place, but these junkies wouldn’t bother her. They had morals.

This neighborhood here was really good, it was family oriented, and a lot of people were connected. All the parties, the New Year's parties, were all so good. Everything was so good. But drugs and credit messed everything up. As soon as they started giving credit out here and stuff like that, that made everybody fall off into their own depression, because now they owed money. They had exceeded their means of living. Once they put that out there it really put everybody in hardship.

But also back in the day you could make so much money, $200 just to walk out the door. You could make $200 spotting, standing at the corner, saying ‘Bajando’ [Down] or ‘Maria.’ You couldn’t even walk down the street without avoiding drugs. People were yelling like, ‘Executive,’ ‘Dom Perignon,’ ‘Black Magic,’ everybody was just yelling things out.

And the police would come by, look at it and just keep going. I think the agenda was to leave the people who did drugs alone. There was work available in the sense of selling drugs. There was a lot of money out here. This area was like a filter. Everybody had to come through here before they could get anywhere else. Now Jersey is where the drugs are and not here.

Back then the owners were burning down the buildings to get their money to go off somewhere else. There were burned-down buildings every other day. Then, what happened was the neighborhood got an opportunity from Koch — get a building for a dollar and fix it up. That was a great thing that a lot of people did. Now a lot of these buildings are owned by the people. We would rehabilitate these buildings, clean them out and gut them because people were using them for shooting galleries. We would break them all up and just leave the skeleton. We would start with the beams, the reinforcement beams, then from there we would put planks and plumbing in. I was only 13 when I started doing that.

Through that I became a plumber and later on in life I became a contractor. My highest point in life, I had 18 guys, and we volunteered to help out in Ground Zero. It was like the end of the world, armageddon. We were camping out in my utility trucks

I haven’t done anything for the past 5 years. I’ve just been in a slump. I broke up with my girl and I went into this slump using drugs, so that’s stagnated me. But I’m about to jump out of it. Right now, I live in the shelter on 3rd street. They have places like Workforce [Development Center] but they don’t really work. What they give you, everybody has. The people on welfare get the same printouts with the job listings. You go there and there are like a thousand people for one job. You think you have the upper hand by having these people help you, but they are just getting you the same thing that you can get yourself.

This is Madonna’s old stoop, 234. We used to hang out here. This is not the original door. The old one used to be covered in graffiti. She loved Spanish men. She was a real freak. She used to hang out here, she used to go to the World, the Palladium. She was really open with everybody. She’d smoke weed with us and everything. She wasn’t closed off, she was open minded and daring — and aggressive. If she liked you she’d tell you.

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

Beyoncé probably shot a video on St. Mark's Place last night; remember when Billy Joel did?

Word is/was that Beyoncé was filming a secret-y video (save for the million cops) last night on St. Mark's Place or something. We haven't really looked into this one or tried to find photographic evidence.

But! This news did, rather unfortunately, perhaps, remind us of Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust" video shot on St. Mark's circa 1986. (We wrote about this back in August 2008. Same counsel as then, per Alex at Flaming Pablum: "Best to turn the sound down…" Though it is your morning.)



Any way that Beyoncé can top this extravaganza?

On First Avenue and East 2nd Street, deli out, American-Middle Eastern restaurant in

The Bistro Cafe & Grill on the corner of First Avenue and East Second Street has vacated the premises after 18 months … in its place will be Spiegel, an American-Middle Eastern restaurant with hours from 8 a.m. to midnight.



Here's the menu that the Spiegel folks submitted with their CB3 liquor license application last month… (CB3 approved the beer-wine license.)



Meanwhile, the Cafe & Grill relocated a few storefronts away to the First & First Finest Deli.

Thanks to EVG regular Salim for the tip and photos.

A history of art and activism at Le Petit Versailles

From the EVG inbox... via the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space

Please join us for an evening with East Village artists Jack Waters and Peter Cramer. In 1996 they started Le Petit Versailles, a New York City LGBTQ community garden located at 346 East Houston St. Petit Versailles is internationally known as an art space of cultural significance that presents year round public events including exhibitions, music, film/video, performance, theater, workshops and community projects.


(From left, Jack Waters, Peter Cramer)

Cramer and Waters will talk about their lives and history as green gardeners, AIDS/ queer activists, and artists. In addition to a slideshow on queer downtown, they will show clips from LPVTV, a 13 part Manhattan Neighborhood Network public access cable series documenting Le Petit Versailles events and history.

Find the Facebook event page here with more info.

The event is tomorrow night from 7:35-9. MoRUS is located at 155 Avenue C between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.

[Images via MoRUS]

More about Big Dirt Candy

As we noted yesterday, Chef Amanda Cohen got preliminary approval for a liquor license for a new Dirt Candy space at 86 Allen St.

As for the current Dirt Candy home on East Ninth Street, Cohen told us: "We aren't sure what we are going to do with the old space. We are definitely going to keep it, but for now all we know is that it won't be a full-service restaurant."

Later yesterday, Cohen had more to say about all this at the Dirt Candy website:

What will happen at Big Dirt Candy? It’ll be Dirt Candy, only bigger! There will be a bar where you can wait for your table! There will be ice! No more two month wait for tables! There will be more than one non-alcoholic drink on the menu! The chairs will have four legs! Most importantly, everything I’m doing, from the design, to the menu, to the kitchen layout, is being built to preserve the best things about Little Dirt Candy.

Sure, this restaurant is tiny, but there’s a fun atmosphere here where the line between the kitchen and the dining room is gone and where you don’t feel like a bunch of isolated tables scattered across the floor of an eat-a-torium where no one cares about you, but where, on its best nights, it feels like you’re all guests in my house having a party. That’s what makes Dirt Candy special, and that’s what’s it’s still going to be, whether it’s Little or Big.

Cohen is looking at a Fall 2014 opening for the Allen Street locale.

And now, reaction to Twitter arriving in the East Village

Crain's broke the news yesterday that Twitter was negotiating to lease a big hunk of 51 Astor Place…

We sought some reaction from Twitter...

@evgrieve I got so excited when I heard that I sprinkled myself! I'm gonna be The Twit Building!

— 51 Astor Place (@51deathstar) November 19, 2013

An afternoon scene from Tompkins Square Park

Word out of Tompkins Square Park this afternoon was that the NYPD was searching for a piece of stolen jewelry … and there was also a rumor of an arrest in the matter…



Photos by Bobby Williams

Watch the NYPD arrest a man for being too loud on a bicycle

During the last monthly Critical Mass ride, the NYPD scooter patrol arrested cyclist Mellow Yellow on East 14th Street at Union Square... he spent the next 24 hours in jail. The NYPD apparently asked him to turn down the music on his bike... and you can watch what transpires in this video that just arrived on YouTube...



This comes at a time when activists have been calling for safer streets throughout the city ... to date this year, eight children under 8 years old have been killed by automobiles in New York City. (Watch a video about this here.)

Report: Twitter showing some tweet, tweet love toward 51 Astor Place

Big story this afternoon via Crain's: Twitter is in talks to take a big (more than 140 characters!) chunk of 51 Astor Place.

The company is in talks to take as much as 100,000 square feet at 51 Astor Place, an office building that was begun in 2011 on a bet that the city's tech boom would produce deep-pocketed tenants willing and able to pay the building's high-priced rents despite its off-beat location on the edge of the East Village. That gamble by the building's developer, Edward Minskoff, now appears to be paying off.

Last month, 1stdibs, an online auctioneer that specializes in the sale of high-end vintage goods, a showcase for a large (1,800) group of antique and design and art dealers, agreed to a deal to take the 12-story building's entire third floor.

Worth noting, maybe: Facebook is moving into space across the street at 770 Broadway. Rumble on Astor Place!

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?

Facebook is moving into the neighborhood; Midtown South expands its boundaries, apparently

Today's sunrise in review

On St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue. We'll see what people say about it on Yelp.

Dirt Candy will be moving to Allen Street; will hold on to E. 9th St. space

Last night, CB3's SLA subcommittee OK'd a liquor license application for a Dirt Candy outpost at 86 Allen St. (BoweryBoogie has more on the meeting here.)

Chef Amanda Cohen has also signed the lease for No. 86, which will provide her team with much more space for their well-regarded vegetarian fare. We asked Cohen for a few details on what's next.

"We are hoping to open late next fall. We are planning on serving the same food that we served at the 9th Street location — it will be a vegetable restaurant," she said via email.

And what will become of the East Ninth Street location?

"We aren't sure what we are going to do with the old space. We are definitely going to keep it, but for now all we know is that it won't be a full-service restaurant."

Meanwhile, brokers for the nearby 119 Orchard St. were apparently quite excited about the new Dirty Candy. We spotted this listing back on Oct. 22 that names Dirt Candy as a (coming soon) neighbor even though Cohen hadn't signed at lease yet at Allen Street or secured liquor-license approval...

Chico's 9/11 tribute mural reappears on Avenue A

[Image via Google Street View]

We can't really recall the last time that we saw Chico's 9/11 mural on Avenue A at East 14th Street … it has been covered with ads for years now. (The above screen grab via Google Street View is from the summer of 2011.)

However, the billboard was recently removed, bringing what's left of the tribute back into view, as these photos from an East Village resident and EVG reader show…




The proprietor of Dion Cleaners on the corner was unaware of what the building's landlord has in store for the wall.

Here's a video via Michael Paul showing a new billboard going up on Feb. 17, 2012...



Chico created this mural on the night of Sept. 11, 2001. As one Times reader said of the work: "It filled me with hope and sadness and some kind of love for all of the other New Yorkers living through the hours and days yet to come."

And this was the second 9/11 mural to disappear in place of revenue-generating ads in the East Village. Back in 2003, Cooper Union had the "Forever Tall" mural painted over at 35 Cooper Square to make way for ads. (The whole building was eventually demolished anyway.)

More alterations for the Pride and Joy space

We've been watching work continue at the once-dormant Pride and Joy BBQ on First Avenue… workers filled up the dumpster Saturday from the East Second Street entrance.



As you may know, celebrity BBQ chef Myron Mixon was going to open a restaurant/saloon in the former Lucky Cheng's space. (Read that post here.) But a subsequent lawsuit between Mixon and his partners threw the opening in doubt.

Turns out that his remaining partners are moving forward with a 220-seat "draft house" and "honky tonk" featuring three bars and about 20 TV screens, as DNAinfo reported. (Last month, the SLA approved a liquor license for the space with a 4 a.m. closing time.)

Meanwhile, the city OK'd a permit on Nov. 1 for "structural alteration work," which "includes new openings through masonry walls and floors for existing eating and drinking establishment." The work permit shows an estimated total cost of $82,000. What we saw through the open door looked to be on the gutted side.

The space was seemingly ready for BBQ action, after crews previously gut-renovated away the former Bento Burger and Lucky Cheng's. There was even a preview event here with Mixon back in May… which prompted the one Yelp review, a four-star affair in which the author stated: "The pork belly mac and cheese was equally exquisite. I can imaging filling a large, clean tub with this delightful concoction and then diving in and eating my way out."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Myron Mixon's Pride & Joy BBQ now in the works for the former Lucky Cheng's space

Fire reported at incoming Pride and Joy BBQ on East Second Street

Myron Mixon lawsuit puts opening of Pride and Joy BBQ in question at former Lucky Cheng's space

Free screening of 'American Meat' tonight at the 6th Street Community Center

From the EVG inbox...



Here's a little more about the documentary via the film's website:

American Meat is a pro-farmer look at chicken, hog and cattle production in America.

Beginning with a history of our current industrial system, the feedlots and confinement operations are unveiled, not through hidden cameras, but through the eyes of the farmers who live and work there. From there, the story shifts to Polyface Farms, where the Salatin family has developed an alternative agricultural model based on rotational grazing and local distribution. Nationwide, a local-food movement of farmers, chefs, and everyday people has taken root... But could it ever feed us all?

The 6th Street Community Center is between Avenue B and Avenue C.

Signs of the upcoming holiday at the end of December, Part 19

At Veselka.

And here's one food blogger's description of the soup:

Impossibly clear, the deepest ruby red, redolent of spices and earthy mushrooms, Veselka’s Christmas Borscht appears for maybe 45 days a year sometime around Thanksgiving and disappears with the New Year. Born out of the meatless Christmas eve dinner customary in Eastern European countries, the broth is made of beets, laced with vinegar and savory spices and is served with a few tiny mushroom pierogis and a delicate dusting of dill. I could eat this soup every day for the rest of my life and when it’s around I do my best.

(And don't worry if you missed the first 18 parts of this series. They're available on demand.)

Empire Biscuit is now open around the clock on Avenue A

Hey everyone....we're 24 hours today! #lardlove

— Empire Biscuit (@empirebiscuit) November 18, 2013

No way to treat a Lady (Gaga)

Avenue B and East 12th Street.

[Updated] Behold the cooktop sidewalk garden on St. Mark's Place

The other day, we noticed some discarded cooktops lying on the sidewalk along St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue... and this morning, we noticed that someone (that one guy who you always see on the block) used them to help created a little sidewalk garden where this tree once lived ...



Updated 11-19

The garden didn't fare so well overnight...



Updated 11-20





Updated 11/21





Updated 11/22



Updated 11/23

Your opinion wanted about the current state of chain stores in the East Village

From the EVG inbox… via the East Village Community Coalition (EVCC)...

Formula Retail Community Workshop
The Neighborhood Preservation Center
Tuesday, November 19, 6-8pm
232 East 11th Street
Limited space, rsvp required to melanie@evccnyc.org or 212.979.2344

And more details via the EVCC website:

EVCC is working to protect independent, small businesses within the neighborhood in order to maintain the diverse, unique community that has existed for so long. Over the past four years, increases in chain businesses can be see in both 10009 and 10003 zip codes that make up the East Village.

Currently there are roughly 115 chain stores located within the square half mile the makes up the neighborhood. Several New York city and regional plans site unique neighborhoods and independent stores as extremely important for New York’s future. Yet, according to the Center for Urban Future, 2012 marked the fifth consecutive year there was a net increase in national chain stores throughout the five boroughs.

Other places have already started taking action in defense of their communities. Examples of formula retail regulation can be seen in both New York City’s own Upper West Side and the city of San Francisco. In 2012, after having issues with store frontages being largely occupied by banks and apartment lobbies three corridors on the NYC’s Upper West Side were rezoned as “Special Districts”.

The new zoning limits the store frontage sizes and certain store conversions or changes in use. San Francisco is the largest urban area in the US to have strict formula retail business restrictions. The city zoning only allows formula retail in certain neighborhoods, requires neighborhood notifications before any chain retail is allowed to be built, and can limit the size and type of formula retail allowed in a given area.