Saturn Night outside the former Mars Bar tonight

[Photo from April via EVG reader Spike]

Local astronomy buff Felton Davis passed along the following …

If it stays clear I will set up on the southwest corner of Second Avenue and East First Street tonight at 8:30, and try to focus in on the rings of Saturn.

Saturn

1) Saturn is the sixth planet out from the Sun, after Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter.

2) Saturn is the second largest planet, after Jupiter.

3) Saturn is 75,000 miles in diameter, with its rings bringing the total diameter to at least 150,000 miles.

4) Saturn is approximately 890 million miles from the Sun, about nine times as far from the Sun as Earth.

5) Saturn emits no light of its own. We're able to see it because sunlight bounces off it and is reflected back to Earth, taking about 45 minutes to reach us at the speed of light.

6) Saturn takes almost 30 Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun, and therefore will be looping back and forth in the constellations Libra, Scorpius, Ophiuchus, Sagittarius and Capricornus during the next 10 years. It will not be high in the night sky like Jupiter until the late 2020s.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Searching for Comet ISON with East Village resident Felton Davis

Comet spotting with East Village resident Felton Davis

Report: 'Sharknado' sequel promo shows NYC's 1st Citi Bike fatality

Earlier in the week, we looked at some statistics from Citi Bike showing that, thankfully, there haven't been any Citi Bike-related fatalities in the first year of the program's existence.

That is about to change, at least in the world of the SyFy channel. Gothamist notes this morning that SyFy has released a quick promo for "Sharknado Part Duh" (or whatever it is called) set to debut July 30.

If you watch the NYC-based sequel's promo closely, then you will spot a Citi Bike rider (on a sidewalk) get, um, Sharknadoed.

We've reached out to Citi Bike officials to see if members will incur overtime fees for being swallowed by a waterspout-propelled land shark.

Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer...

Plans filed for new 8-story hotel next to the historic Merchant's House Museum on East 4th Street

[EVG file photo from March]

On April 8, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approved plans for an 8-floor hotel to rise next door to the landmarked Merchant's House Museum at 27 E. Fourth St. (Read Curbed for all the background here.)

And yesterday, the developers officially filed those plans with the DOB. The proposal shows a 17,141 square-foot building (13,755 residential; 3,386 commercial) with 28 "dwelling units" or hotel rooms here between the Bowery and Lafayette.

The April 8 decision came nearly 18 months after the developers first brought the proposal before the LPC. "Yeah, the building is boring, but it's appropriate," Commissioner Michael Goldblum said of the latest hotel renderings, as Curbed reported.

During this process, preservationists and museum advocates discussed how the construction could possibly damage the circa-1832 Merchant's House. Of particular concern: the 182-year-old building's original plasterwork, "which is considered by some experts to be among the finest in the nation," according to The Villager.

Demolition to the east of the Merchant’s House in 1988 caused nearly $1 million worth of structural damage and forced the museum to close for two years, but it spared the plaster. Now, the advocates believe jackhammering and bulldozing on the western lot will leave the museum in danger of losing the plaster forever — or, at the very least, require highly expensive preparations just to minimize that damage.

27 E. Fourth St. currently houses Al-Amin Food Inc., which stores food carts. Look for demolition permits for this one-level structure next.


[Via Google]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Landmarks Preservation Commission OKs plans for hotel next door to the Merchant's House

Reader mailbag: How often does your mail get delivered?

From the EVG reader mailbag:

I know everyone agrees that the Cooper Station Post Office has sadly gone downhill.

I'm also wondering if other people in the neighborhood are having problems with their home mail delivery? As in sometimes it doesn't even get delivered?! About half the apartments in my building turn over very quickly, with college or just post-college students staying for a year and then leaving.

This results is a lot of mail for people who no longer live here. The mail delivery people lately just leave it on the floor or on the radiator and it gets strewn about the entry area. This is annoying in itself, but also sometimes I find my own mail on the floor, or mail for other people who are definitely residents. (If I know they live here, then I rescue it and slip the mail under their doors). This makes it really obvious when the mail has been delivered that day.

The second issue is that sometimes it seems like mail isn't delivered at all. In addition to there not being new mail on the floor/radiator, the mailboxes have little slots, so you can see when they're all empty. Recently this has happened more and more often -— twice a week or so. This is a lot, especially when one is waiting for a check to arrive! What the Hell?

Well, we would have posted this sooner, but the P.O. just delivered the EVG reader mailbag to us yesterday. (It was postmarked Feb. 6!)

But seriously. What the Hell? At the apartment home of EVG, someone shows up to deliver the mail maybe four times a week. You?

-------------

We often get reader queries ... asking for help with, say, donating clothes or books ... or finding an East Village-based caterer... If you have a question for the masses, then try the EV Grieve email...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader mailbag: Places to eat that have that old East Village vibe (45 comments)

Reader mailbag: What do I do about my new neighbors who smoke pot all the time? (52 comments)

Reader mailbag: Where is a good place to get a cup of coffee in the East Village before 6 a.m.? (25 comments)

Reader mailbag: What has happened to the Cooper Station Post Office? (41 comments)

Reader mailbag: Can the landlord 'drill' the lock to gain access to my apartment for simple repairs? (15 comments)

Reader mailbag: Should we receive a rent abatement for having sporadic heat and hot water?

So you want to rent the former This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef space

This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef, the four-plus-year-old restaurant known for mixing beef and Cheese Whiz at 149 First Ave., closed for good this past March.

The listing arrived for the storefront between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street back in April.

An East Village resident with an interesting in leasing the address looked into what it would take to open a business here. The reader shared that information with us to illustrate what it takes to pay for a small retail space around here these days.

The asking is $9,500 rent per month, with another $50 per month in real-estate taxes. So that would be $9,550 per month.

$9,500/4 = $2,375 per week in rent

$9,500.00/30 = $316.66 dollars a day in rent

The store is 10 feet wide by 50 feet deep without a garden. (The broker said that it was 500 square feet on the top floor and 500 square feet in the basement. They are counting the basement as a rentable floor.)

The landlord wants six months up front plus the first month's rent. So just to lease that space ($9,550 x 7) you'd need $66,850. For the year: $9,550.00 x 12 = $ 114,600

Aside from rent, there are the renovation costs … and then the ConEd bill, insurance, trash pickup, phone/Internet, credit card processing fees and various taxes, and so on. Not to mention payroll. And something for the owner.

Per the resident: "What can you sell legally in a 10-foot-wide space to generate all that income? I'd like to know."



Find a PDF of the retail listing here.

The buzz about Alpha Bee City tomorrow night at MoRUS

[Via the King RoyalBee Instagram account]

Via the EVG inbox …

Climate change, pesticides and the loss of native plant habitats are among the factors putting the honeybee population at risk of extinction. With one-third of the U.S. diet derived from insect-pollinated plants, the bee community is essential to the survival of humanity.

In allegiance with the community gardens of the East Village, which has the largest concentration of community gardens in the country, The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) will host a special event devoted to raising awareness about the significance of bees.

Offering scientific, artistic, practical and nutritional information about bees and honey, “Alpha Bee City” will take place at MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets tomorrow night at 7 (rescheduled from April 28).

With a mix of slide presentations, discussion and demonstration, contributors to “Alpha Bee City” include:

• Dr. Amy Berkov, community gardener and tropical ecologist, The City College of New York Biology Department, associate at The American Museum of Natural History and The New York Botanical Garden

• Royal KingBee, graffiti artist whose iconic “Bee” signature character is used to raise awareness worldwide about the declining bee population

• Jacqueline Pacheco, fitness, nutrition and honey enthusiast

• Jan Werner, beekeeper from Green Oasis Garden, 8th Street between Avenues C and D.

Admission is free and open to the public. A suggested donation of $5 is always appreciated and bee-themed attire is encouraged.

Unidentified Flying Chickens is officially coming soon

Just noting that the sign is up at 60 Third Ave. for the incoming Unidentified Flying Chickens outpost. The Jackson Heights-based Korean fried chicken restaurant is taking over for the failed 3-week-old Apiary revamp.

Paper first reported on UFC's arrival last Friday. The restaurant will reportedly be "a more casual spot with 18-20 craft beers on tap."

NYPD searching for this East Village rape suspect

Police are searching for a suspect who attempted to rape a woman after she entered her East Village apartment building Monday night.

According to WNBC New York:

The 23-year-old woman was walking into her home near 2nd Avenue just before midnight when the man allegedly followed her, lifted her dress and tried to assault her, police say.

The victim screamed, prompting the suspect to run away.

The suspect is described as male, white, between 20-25 years old, around 6-1 and 170 pounds. He was last seen wearing khaki pants, a dark zip-up sweater and a baseball cap.

As Gothamist reported, the NYPD has not released the location of the attack, only that it happened within the territory of the 9th Precinct.

The NYPD also released this surveillance footage of the suspect lingering outside the victim's apartment building.



Anyone with information about this case can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[St. Mark's Place rooftop photo by Ricky Knapp]

The hawk nest is getting crowded on the Christodora House (Gog in NYC)

Details on the Lower East Side Film Festival (The Lo-Down)

A gym for the former Plantworks space on East Fourth Street? (BoweryBoogie)

Remembering when Andy Warhol was shot (Off the Grid)

A look inside The Black Ant, now open on Second Avenue (Gothamist)

Where you can get the mozzarella from Joe's Dairy as a retail customer (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Manhattan's first ambulance (Ephemeral New York)

The Astroland Rocket is back at Coney Island! (Amusing the Zillion)

Patti Smith on Tom Snyder's classic "Tomorrow Show" (Dangerous Minds)

Chinatown at night (Animal NY)

... and tomorrow evening, via the EVG inbox...



Underground Soho presents "People of New York: 1990-1991" These 8 ft. pencil drawings by Michal Sedaka Perry are not to be missed. Michal moved to New York from Israel in 1989 and took pictures of people she found interesting in the street. This series originally showed at the Klarfeld Perry Gallery on Broome Street in 1991. Underground Soho is located at 83 Mercer St. (between Spring and Broome).

The giant rat is back outside Ben Shaoul-owned building on East 5th Street

The inflatable union rat was back out this morning at 515 E. Fifth St., where landlord/developer Ben Shaoul continues to fight for a zoning variance that would make legal the illegal addition that he added in 2006.

An EVG reader sent along these photos ... and the flyer explains the presence of the rat ...





As for No. 515 here between Avenue A and Avenue B, they'll be another Board of Standards and Appeals hearing about the illegal addition on July 15.

Out and About in the East Village, Part 2

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: Christopher Reisman
Occupation: Police Officer, retired
Location: 9th Precinct, 5th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue
Time: 11 a.m. on Monday, May 5

Read Part 1 here.

In 1975, my partner, Andrew Glover and my boss, Sgt. Fred Reddy were murdered. It was a stupid killing. It was on 5th Street, between Avenue A and B. They were just getting into the car … it was a replacement, because the regular car they had was in the shop. The replacement cars were almost always clunkers. They worked just well enough to roll. So they’re getting into the car and my partner sees a car double parked behind him and a guy is behind the wheel.

There was always pressure to write summons and he was driving the boss, so he said, ‘I’m gonna go back and check this guy’s license.’ To make a long story short, he asks the guy for his driver’s license, and the guy reaches for his driver’s license and shoots my partner in the chest. Then he runs up to the police car. The sergeant was sitting in the passenger seat, but the door was so stiff that you couldn’t open it. You had to turn and kick the door open with both feet. By the time he got the door open the guy was on him and shot him and then he went back and shot my partner.

-----

The Hells Angels chapter was founded here after I came. There had been a small gang run by a fellow named Sandy Alexander. I think the Angels today are much more circumspect than they were then. There was a fellow they use to call Big Vinny. Vinny was large ... he never wore a shirt. All he wore was the patch with the colors and that was it. Vinny was arrested for allegedly throwing a girl off the roof at a party in 1977.

The District Attorney’s office, in their infinite wisdom, allowed him out on bail, which meant that all the witnesses to this disappeared. But Vinny died about that time anyway from a burst pancreas.

Anyway, most of the people who were victims of the Hells Angels kind of provided themselves. These were exotic characters; they were bikers, outlaws. The clueless would gravitate to them. They would like to hang out with them not realizing that the Angels were a closed group. They were kind of hermetically sealed within themselves. If I was a Hells Angel and I considered you a good friend and another Hells Angel was mad at you and hit you, then I’d hit you too. As far as they were concerned, anybody outside of the club was a civilian.

It was kind of a blue-collar fraternity in a sense, and that’s not being fair to blue-collar people or fraternity people. Quite often drugs were involved. For the most part, they made an effort to avoid us largely because of the organizational structure. It was kind of a standoff. It was considered bad form to get locked up. You were bringing ill repute on the club and they didn’t want further examination.

-----

Drugs became worse in the 1980s and, not surprisingly, it was when many more white kids came to the neighborhood. The kids from the outer boroughs came in here, often because of music, drugs or a combination of such. The kids were street savvy in the sense that a blue-collar kid knows a lot more than a white collar kid, but they weren’t that down and mean.

Then you had the whole punk rock era, which was great. This was always a very creative area. There were a lot of poets. There were a lot of well-known artists, not necessarily famous, but well-known within their own artistic community. Even if kids were screwed up on drugs, they would get these tremendous creative influxes, but they wouldn’t last long. You would find an abandoned apartment and there would be half a project, and you’d go into another and there would be another half a project, whether they were building something with wood or painting, then for whatever reason they would move on.

The drug organizations became bigger and they got meaner. They became more organized. The neighborhood had already started to be crushed. The housing was diminished by fire and neglect. So we had the guy who might have been selling small bundles of heroin out of his apartment and now he’s moved to Brooklyn and he’s connected with another guy, so instead of selling a small bundle of dope, now he’s got a kilo of dope. He’s got an organization, and the moment you’ve got an organization and the moment you’ve got a lot more money, you in turn are much more vulnerable.

It’s true of all crime. The thing that the criminal needs more than anything else is a police department. This is what the Mafia does. There’s no such thing as a sit down where they plot bank robberies. There’s a guy who controls the area and it’s understood that if you ply your trade in his area you have to pay tribute, and if you pay tribute then nobody else can rob you.

It was the same with narcotics. The very fact that it became a much bigger business and there was much more money at stake, encouraged more sophisticated firearms. I have no way of proving this, but I often wonder if reduced homicides were just due to the drug business becoming more efficient. There is always a certain number of homicides that will never go down. Husbands will always stab wives and vice versus, somebody will just be stupid, and lots will happen in a neighborhood, but homicide is bad for the drug business.

-----

Two things changed the police department — the video camera and the machine gun. All of a sudden the bad guys had much better weapons than the police department and anything you did on the street was very likely to be recorded. Mostly the weapons were a function of protecting the drug situations, but if you were facing life in prison you would take a chance on killing a cop.

Here’s where I’m going to sound very pompous. If police work were simply a matter of apprehending criminals and throwing brush-back pitches at them — I think there are as many as 29,000 sworn officers in the city — you might need a thousand. The other 28,000 exist to protect me and you and our individual inner jerk. It’s the same as a stoplight. The police exist to stop me from that momentary lapse in judgment. It’s 3 in the morning and nobody is around and I’ll run this light or something. It’s to stop somebody from doing something stupid.

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

Previously on EV Grieve:
Out and About in the East Village, Part 1

Construction watch: 535-537 E. 11th St.

The scaffolding and construction gear recently came down at 535-537 E. 11th St. near Avenue B.

Subsidized by HPD's Supportive Housing Loan Program, the 8-floor Mary Spink Apartments will feature 46 units of affordable housing for formerly homeless and mentally disabled East Village residents. The studio apartments "will allow the residents to learn to live independently in a nurturing environment," according to a description of the building at the website of Edelman Sultan Knox Wood Architects.

Per the site:

In a response to the needs of the community, a connection between E. 11th Street and Joseph Sauer Park, located on E. 12th Street and abutting the rear yard, has been incorporated into the design. During the day, the public can access the park from 11th Street via a passageway running along the east side of the building. Additionally, a public toilet has been located at the rear of the first floor and can be accessed by both the building residents and community members visiting the adjacent park.

Spink, a respected community activist, CB3 member and executive director of Lower East Side People's Mutual Housing Association, died in January 2012 at age 64.


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Previously on EV Grieve:
East 11th Street lot prepped for the Mary Spink Apartments

Empty East 11th Street lot will yield to 8 stories of affordable housing (49 comments)

Big crane work at the incoming Mary Spink Apartments on East 11th Street

Your guide to construction hell on East 11th Street

'Beautiful Nightmares' and good Mexican food today at La Lucha on Avenue A

Via the EVG inbox from the folks at Little Missionary's Day Nursery, 93 St. Mark's Place …

We're pleased to announce a special art show and fundraiser today at Mexican taqueria La Lucha, 147 Avenue A between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.

The exhibit, "Beautiful Nightmares," showcases a unique and charming display of paintings and drawings from our school's 2- to 4-year-old artists portraying their innermost thoughts, fears and nightmares. The art will be available for purchase, with proceeds to benefit our ongoing efforts to grow its school to serve more working class East Village families.

La Lucha will donate 100% of its receipts to benefit our school.

Should you be worried about sidewalk sheds?

[Photo Sunday by Pinhead]

On Sunday, the just-installed sidewalk shed collapsed outside the Salvation Army's former East Village Residence on the Bowery at East Third Street. No one was injured.

The incident prompted a discussion about the safety of sidewalk bridges among a few EVG friends and readers. One EVG reader pointed us to a article from Friday in The New York World, which the Columbia Journalism School publishes, titled "Shoddy sidewalk sheds pose risk amid faltering city enforcement efforts."

According to the paper's investigation:

● A special Scaffold Safety Team, created in late 2007 by the Bloomberg administration to monitor construction scaffolds and sidewalks sheds, has seen its staff reduced from 14 field inspectors in 2008 to 9 in 2013.
● The number of violations issued for faulty sheds has plummeted, from 855 in 2009 to 337 in 2013.
● At least 39 pedestrians and construction workers have been injured since January 2011 in accidents involving sidewalk sheds

You can find stats and the city's response in the article here.

Meanwhile, here's Richard Miller, a structural engineer and owner of MRES Engineering PC, a private consulting firm: "I always cross the street to avoid walking under sheds. And I recommend others do the same."

Big Pink eyeing the Company Bar and Grill space on East 10th Street

Back in February we reported that the Company Bar and Grill was for sale at 242 E. 10th St. at First Avenue. The owner said that he was moving and needed to sell the bar that he took over in the fall of 2011.

According to paperwork (PDF!) on file ahead of this month's CB3/SLA meeting, an applicant (listed as Byron Burnbaum) is looking to take over the now-closed bar with a venture named Big Pink.

The paperwork shows proposed hours of noon-4 a.m. seven days a week with a menu featuring "new American cuisine."

There are also plans for live music — "acoustic performance only" without any cover charge.

Finally, the paperwork includes an extensive "good neighbor plan" to show how Big Pink will work to keep things quiet outside the establishment:





Hard to say if such extensive plans are supposed to make residents feel better … or worse.

The CB3/SLA meeting is June 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Board 3 Office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

And now, rainbows galore!

[Photo by Rob and Mike]

Actually it's the same rainbow … just from different angles, thanks to several EVG readers…


[Photo by Robert Miner]


[Photo by @kilmer]


[Photo by @speakman]


[Photo by @jimverdi]


[Photo by Michael Sean Edwards]


[Photo by EVG]

1 year of Citi Bikes: 8.75 million trips, 100 accidents, 0 fatalities

[Photo today on East 4th Street by Derek Berg]

Turns out that the Citi Bike program hasn't been the death trap that some pundits predicted, according to Citi Bike.

The other day at Slate, Will Oremus took a one-year anniversary look at the program, with some number crunching provided by Citi Bike.

“Out of 8.75 million trips, we’ve had about 100 crash reports, of which about 25 warranted a trip to the ER,” Citi Bike spokeswoman Dani Simon told me. “To my knowledge there have been zero fatalities to date. I am keeping up my daily prayers that this trend continues.”

Meanwhile, the program has had its financial challenges. For instance, The Real Deal reported that Citi Bike owes NYC $1 million in parking revenue.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Full week one observations: No, really — how is the Citi Bike bike share doing?

And we're off: 1st Citi Bikes spotted in the wild; world doesn't end

[Updated] Inflatable rat pays visit to controversial Ben Shaoul building on East 5th Street

The inflatable union rat is out this morning at 515 E. Fifth St., where notorious landlord/developer Ben Shaoul has been fighting for a zoning variance that would make legal the illegal addition that his crew added back in 2006.

There's another hearing on the matter on July 15. (We'll have more about this later.) Meanwhile, we're not sure why the rat is here today, though, with Ben Shaoul involved, anything is possible.

Updated 10:30 a.m.

A tipster says that the rat in front of the building is actually part of a protest over non-union workers at 140 West St., where Shaoul is converting the top floors of the Verizon Building into condos. The rat will apparently be making the rounds of Shaoul-owned properties today.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] 5 years later, another BSA hearing on illegal rooftop addition at 515 E. Fifth St.

Protest at 515 E. Fifth St. this morning, site of Ben Shaoul's illegal addition

The disappearing illegal penthouse of 514-516 E. 6th St.

Never-ending battle wages on over additional floors at 515 E. Fifth St.

Construction watch: 185-193 Avenue B

Time to check in again on 185-193 Avenue B, where a 7-story mixed-used residential building with 41 "dwelling units" is in the works for the corner here at East 12th Street. The building will include the new home of the Elim Pentecostal Church.



Workers have been pouring the foundation of late …





As we've pointed out in previous posts on this seemingly never-ending project, it hasn't always been easy. Nearby residents endured months of relentless pile driving and other building-rattling noise. There were complaints about cracks next door at No. 183.



Meanwhile, we finally got a glimpse of the boxy rendering. It remains in the construction office next door. (The renderings can usually be found on the plywood along the actual construction site.)



The rendering notes a completion date of October 2014.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Inside the Charles

Former landmark countercultural theater now for rent on Avenue B

7-story building in the works to replace former countercultural theater/church on Avenue B

Construction site at 185 Avenue B remains shut down for now

[Updated] The 'insane' noise and pounding are back at 185 Avenue B

Plantworks has closed, but its garden center remains open for the rest of June

The 40-year-old Plantworks at 28. E. Fourth St. between the Bowery and Lafayette closed for business late last week, as Jeremiah Moss first reported.

The store, named the city's best plant shop by the Voice in 2009, was rent hiked out out here, with an increase that went from $15k to $34k a month.

A call to Plantworks confirmed that the outdoor Garden Center adjacent to the storefront will remain open this month Tuesdays through Saturdays.



Previously on EV Grieve:
Plantworks 'probably closing and not moving'