New closing and reopening dates set for St. Mark's Bookshop

[Photo of new storefront from Sunday]

St. Mark's Bookshop was originally set to close on Monday ahead of their move to 136 E. Third St.

However, workers were still finishing up the new storefront just west of Avenue A. So yesterday store officials released new dates for everything to happen...

Confirmed: We are moving to 136 East 3rd Street on July 1 and will remain open at 31 Third Ave through Sunday, June 29.

— St. Mark's Bookshop (@stmarksbookshop) June 25, 2014

The bookshop has been at 31 Third Ave. and Stuyvesant Street since 1992, and in the neighborhood a total of 37 years.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: St. Mark's Bookshop prepping fundraiser ahead of possible move to Avenue A.

Is this the new home for the St. Mark's Bookshop?

Report: St. Mark's Bookshop signs lease for East 3rd Street space

Renovations at the future St. Mark's Bookshop on East 3rd Street

Report: Hearth hit with a 65% rent increase; plus, sidewalk cafe in the works

Meant to note this the other day... when the Times reported that Danny Meyer's 30-year-old Union Square Cafe will be looking for a new home next year after a rent increase.

The article noted a recent spate of high-profile closings and a continuing rise in rents downtown. Among the restaurants facing a huge rent hike: the well-regarded Hearth on East 12th Street at First Avenue. They were just hit with a 65 percent increase, according to the Times.

There aren't any plans to close the place, but ...

[T]he chef and owner, Marco Canora, said his entire business model may have to change.

“I’m trying to be a smart businessman,” Mr. Canora said. “But I can’t do that at the cost of turning my back on my entire belief system and serving commodity pork and Perdue chicken.”

Meanwhile, here's one way to help increase revenue: Hearth has applied for a sidewalk cafe. They are on the docket for the CB3/SLA committee meeting on July 14.

Peeling off the layers through the years of the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall

Over at the NYPL Labs blog, Brian Roos had some fun playing around with the Google Street View archive.

Roos, a New York Public Library developer, used the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall to experiment with ... gathering all of the murals that Google captured to 2007, then filling in any of the missing artwork. He created a brush tool that allowed him to "erase" each layer to reveal the one previous to it ... and in the above image, he cut holes on each layer of the murals for a rather disorienting effect.

For a better explanation of all this, head over to the NYPL Labs for more... and see what other ideas Roos has for the layering tool.

Thanks to @seancarlson for the tip.

Hey, that East Houston CVS opens on July 5

Yeah, the one coming to 42-56 E. Houston St. between Mott and Mulberry... signs on the door note a star-spangled bannerish July 5 opening date...



The space previously housed a Subway, a dry cleaners and Soho Billiards.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Retail space that included Soho Billiards is up for grabs on East Houston Street

The Doors return to 2nd Avenue

[Photo by William Klayer]

The scene on Second Avenue and East Seventh Street this morning ... workers were moving them into the building receiving the gut renovation next door...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

Speaking of the Doors (blame Derek Berg for that headline!) ... the band played the Fillmore East one block to the south on March 22-23, 1968 ...



See more photos from the shows at Off the Grid...

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: Kate
Occupation: Arts Administrator
Location: Tompkins Square Park
Date: 4 p.m. on June 18.

I was born and raised in Chicago but I came here when I was 20, and I’ve been here ever since. Chicago is a beautiful city but it just was provincial, so it was either here or LA. I had also passed through here before. I was here for a week and I stayed at the YWCA on 38th Street and met a Broadway actor. I just had a wonderful time.

I was an arts administrator and I worked in the visual and performing arts. I started out in the public school system. There was a federal program called CETA, because of high unemployment, to provide work for artists. I got that for two years working for something called Womens Inter Arts Center. From there I did film production, then went back to video, and then for 21 years I worked for an organization that brought the arts to people with disabilities. I did film and video for social change for the most part but then sometimes I’d be involved with video artists.

In the 1960s, I lived on the Upper East Side, and in the 1970s I lived on the Upper West Side. I had a three-bedroom rent-controlled apartment on Riverside Drive. But with the lifting of rent control, even though my apartment was still rent controlled, the neighborhood changed. The neighborhood used to be in some way like this — a neighborhood. Big apartments, people stayed forever, raised families. That’s exactly why I moved here.

I moved to this neighborhood in 1979. The Upper West Side had changed. I also had a boyfriend living with me, and the landlord told me I had to pay for a roommate. I said I don’t even want to live here anymore. So I got a lawyer and the landlord bought me out. He made it back in about 2 months, you know. It was an ugly apartment. He said you’ve got nine months to find a place.

I was spending all my life downtown and on the subway. My friends were living her. I worked in the West Village, and this is where everything was happening. So I just got up early every morning, since I didn’t have to be at work until 11, and I just walked these streets, talked to supers, rang doorbells. I started in January and I think I found my apartment in March.

I live next store to the library, top floor, rent stabilized since 1979. When I moved in we had a wonderful landlord. He was in an insurance brokerage and he just wanted to get out of the business, so he offered the building for $40,000 to the tenants. No one had a pot to piss in, so no one could even contemplate purchasing it. He sold it to the highest bidder.

After that we didn't have a super and no one tending the boiler. The boiler used to break down all the time, so we didn’t have heat and hot water. The super that we did have was simply a junkie, selling drugs. I came home twice to see someone being carried out dead from an overdose. This was around 1980 or 1981.

I’d come home and in the vestibule, because the lock was never fixed, there would be junkies with the needles still in their arms nodding out. Twice I couldn’t get out of my apartment because drunks had just fallen asleep on my door. I had to call someone to come and wake them up.

The first year I moved in I was broken into. I think within two years I was broken into four times. The third time I walked in on them. I knew they were kids even though I couldn’t see them. They threw me down on the floor. I said, ‘None of us want to do this, one of you go out the roof and one of you go out the front door and I won’t call the cops.’ And they did.

What kept me here ... was that I’m so stubborn. I loved the apartment and I was not going to move out. I never even thought about the neighborhood changing or getting better. It never occurred to me because it seemed so bad. For awhile there was one storefront in the building next door that had a bunch of light bulbs and detergent in the window and a guy sitting on a box in front with a machete in his lap. What do you think they’re selling there? I’d see people using on my block, but it wasn’t really dealing except for that bodega.

I knew all my neighbors and then [the landlords] did a gut renovation on most of the apartments, and charged $3,500 a month for a small two bedrooms. I’m not complaining. I’ve got very nice landlords — the people who eventually bought the building in the 1990s.

This is what happens. I don’t need to tell you this but I will anyway. With the removal of rent control — forget stabilization, but that’s a good model — the minute the tenant moves out it becomes market value. You don’t even need to do any renovations. Then there’s no point in keeping an apartment. You move and there’s no commitment to a neighborhood. That’s why I don’t know my neighbors. They’re only signing 1-year leases. Sometimes they pay a little bit more and stay a second year, but why should they stay?

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

About Overthrow Boxing Club, the gym coming to the former home of the Yippies at 9 Bleecker St.

[No. 9 this past Saturday]

Here's more information about the three-level boxing gym opening at 9 Bleecker, the former home of the Yippies.

The gym will be called Overthrow Boxing Club, named for Overthrow, one of the countercultural newspapers that the Yippies published here.

In a video posted on June 15, Throwback partner Joey Goodwin, aka "the Soho Kid," a Golden Gloves contender and creative director at men's clothing label Unruly Heir, provides a quick overview of the space.

"We're going to turn this into a great spot, and a great business and make some good things happen," he says. "It's going to be boxing meets punk rock ... we're going to keep the history, keep the heritage, and go from there."

And now the video...



As the Times reported in June 2013, Steven L. Einig, a lawyer for Centech, which holds the building's mortgage, "stated that Yippie Holdings, which bought Number 9 along with a nonprofit called the National AIDS Brigade, had failed for more than five years to make payments on the $1.4 million mortgage."

For their part, a lawyer for Yippie Holdings, said that the group was "compelled into foreclosure with payments being rejected" by Centech as part of a scheme or plan to take over the building.

The Yippies had to vacate their home of 41 years this past Jan. 17 while litigation continued. The space here near the Bowery had been on the market for $22,500 in monthly rent.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Yippie Museum Cafe is in financial trouble

The Yippie Museum Cafe will reopen next Wednesday

A bad sign at the Yippie Museum

Last day for the Yippies at No. 9 — for now

Fights of a different kind coming to 9 Bleecker St., longtime home of the Yippies

Root and Bone opens Monday on East 3rd Street

There's an opening date now for Root & Bone, the Southern-themed restaurant from former "Top Chef" contestant Jeff McInnis and season 11 contestant Janine Booth at 200 E. Third St. at Avenue B.

The sidewalk chalkboard is announcing the opening date for Monday at 11:30 a.m. ...



The restaurant's website describes the place this way:

What we're all about:
Soul nurturing, conscientiously sourced, farm-fresh ingredients.

A craftsman's ethic coupled with artistic culinary thought.

A tribute to the timeless recipes and traditions of a rural America and the warm embrace of its hospitality.

This location was previously home to Mama's Food Shop, which closed in July 2012 after 15 years. Then Heart 'n Soul for a few moments.

Like Mama's, Root & Bone will offer takeaway.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Mama's Food Shop closes after 15 years; 'the community nature of the neighborhood has all but vanished'

Rumors: 'Top Chef' alum Jeff McInnis will help revamp former Mama's Food Shop space

Root & Bone announces itself on E. 3rd St.

The former JoeDough space is now for rent on 1st Avenue

The quick-serve JoeDough sandwich shop closed in February after two-plus years at 135 First Ave.

At the time, Fork in the Road reported that proprietors Joe and Jill Dobias were keeping the space between St. Mark's Place and East Ninth Street "to focus on catering under the moniker JoeDough Catering & Events."

Now, though, there is a new for rent sign up in the front window.

Here are the details via Halstead:

Ground Floor Retail: 300sf + 200sf basement
Sublease: 3 years + 5 year option
Rent: $4,900 per month
Description: Turn Key Takeout restaurant. Fully vented to roof
Key money: Upon request

Compare this to 149 First Ave. up the block ... where the former This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef space is asking $9,500 a month for 500 square feet on the ground floor (and another 500 square feet in the basement).

Continuum Cycles going for another spin on Avenue B

[EVG file photo from last November]

Continuum Cycles and Continuum Coffee closed on Avenue B near East 12th Street last November. At the time, Continuum owner Jeff Underwood said that he planned to regroup in the months ahead, with the expectation of reopening a shop somewhere in the neighborhood.

Looks as if he found his space.

In recent weeks, Underwood has been preparing to open his bike shop in the former Saloon 13 space at 212 Avenue B (the entrance is actually on East 13th Street).





Photos via EVG reader Gamelan

Please do not loiter in front of the former 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place

[EVG file photo from March 2013]

When the 7-Eleven was still open on St. Mark's Place, it was an attractive spot for camping out.

Now that it is closed, the vacant storefront at the corner of Second Avenue remains an attractive spot for camping out.

Which might be why there are now some homemade "no loitering" signs taped along the empty property...





The space remains for rent.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Reader report: The 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place has closed (48 comments)

[Updated] Gigi Li elected to 3rd term as Community Board 3 chair

[At tonight's CB3 meeting]

Gigi Li will serve as chair of Community Board 3 for a third term after defeating challenger Chad Marlow in a vote this evening.

CB3 members voted during the monthly meeting 31-15 in favor of Li, who has served two one-year terms as chair. Marlow is a current CB3 member.

In an unprecedented move, The Villager published an endorsement of Marlow last week, an unusual editorial decision given that only CB3 members vote for the chair.

According to the paper:

CB3 is clearly in disarray, and there is a growing sense of disconnect with the community that it is supposed to serve.

There is a strong sentiment for change, both within the community and on CB3.

Apparently CB3 members don't agree.

Updated 5:32 a.m.

BoweryBoogie attended the meeting and filed a report here.

Per BoweryBoogie on the outcome:

So, now it’s another year of potential botched decisions and hyperlocal scandals. And through it all, the community suffers.

Updated 11:10 a.m.

The Lo-Down has meeting coverage here, including remarks from Li and Marlow.

Said Li:

This past year has been really challenging for us and, moving forward, I am committed to structural and leadership changes that I believe are the core issues. Time and time again over the past few years I have seen how this board and this community are better, stronger and more resilient when we fight the fight together and not apart.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Villager calls for change atop Community Board 3 (31 comments)

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[2nd Avenue today via Derek Berg]

The history of 101 Avenue A (Off the Grid)

No more Móle on Allen Street (BoweryBoogie)

Basque country: Sietsema reviews Donostia on Avenue B and Huertas on First Avenue (Eater)

NYPD looking for 4 teens who assaulted a man on Stanton Street (The Lo-Down)

Charles Mingus goes to Bellevue (Dangerous Minds)

Retail makeover headed Canal Street's way (The Real Deal)

Alan's Alley video closes July 7 in Chelsea (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Excellent tar beach photo from 1983 (Ephemeral New York)

Italo-Crime film series of the 1960s and 1970s continues (Anthology Film Archives)

... and the neighborhood is down one pothole now ... as crews tend to one on East Sixth Street near Second Avenue today...


[Photo via EVG reader Vinny]

Meanwhile in Rome...

Because this is a popular topic around here...

While municipal bike-sharing has thrived from Paris to São Paulo, Rome’s Roma’n’bike has been hobbled by crooks, politics, and geography — the city sits on its famous seven hills — combined with residents’ reluctance to abandon cars and scooters. “Romans don’t like to show up anywhere sweaty from a bike ride,” says Federico Niglia, a history professor at Luiss University who owns a bike but rarely pedals. “You have theft, bureaucracy, political wrangling. The same problems that plague the country are dooming bike-sharing.” — Bloomberg BusinessWeek

(Read "Rome's Bike-Sharing Program Is a Bust" here)

Baby hawk down

Picking up from last night's post… the first of the young hawks living on an AC unit at the Christodora House on Avenue B and East Ninth Street took flight yesterday morning.

According to Goggla, who has been documenting the parents, Christo and Dora, and their three offspring, the hawk fledged at 10:49 a.m. He glided across East Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C … and that's when he went missing.

A search commenced. Around 6 p.m., a group of residents, including Walt Fitzpatrick, Karen Martinez, Cliff Maloney, Father Pat Maloney, as well as bird watchers Dennis Edge and Francois Portmann, eventually found the fledgling … and someone called Rob Mastrianni, an urban park ranger (he recently rescued a fledgling in Washington Square Park), who arrived to lead the rescue efforts…







Ranger Rob deemed that the fledgling was uninjured … and placed him in a tree in Tompkins Square Park.





As Goggla noted, we hope that "the remaining two siblings watched and learned something today." Goggla has more about the rescue and a lot more photos here.


[Photo yesterday by EVG reader Bryan]

Photos by Bobby Williams

Celebrating the life of Hayne Suthon tonight

[Image via Facebook]

Hayne Suthon's friends and loved ones are gathering tonight to celebrate the life of the owner and operator of restaurant/drag club Lucky Cheng's.

Suthon died on June 9 after a battle with breast cancer. The New Orleans native would have turned 58 today.

The gathering, "Hayne's Birthday, Life Celebration & Finale BBQ EXTRAVAGANZA," starts at 6 in Metzler Park, on East First Street between First Avenue and Avenue A. Later, the group will migrate to Lucky Cheng's on West 52nd Street.

Visit the Facebook event page for more details.

Suthon opened the Roman-themed Cave Canem at 24 First Ave. in 1987. The space became Lucky Cheng's in 1993.

You can read more about her here in an obituary published in The New Orleans Advocate.

Adinah's Farm has closed on Avenue C

[Photo by EVG reader Brian]

Early last week the for rent signs appeared at Adinah's Farm on Avenue C and East Second Street.

It was a quick goodbye for the corner market: They closed for good Sunday night.

We haven't heard any official reason for the closure. Of course, a rent increase is always a likely suspect. (And as we understand it, Adinah's Farm was operated by the folks behind Gracefully On Avenue A.)

According to the listing, the asking rent is $17,500.

[Updated] People apparently really want to live in The Robyn

Back in late May, we received a news release announcing that Miron Properties was hired to lease The Robyn, the incoming 33-unit rental at 316 E. Third St. between Avenue C and Avenue D.

We received a follow-up announcement from Miron reps stating that they have rented 29 of the 33 apartments ... with move ins starting July 1, pending the city issuing the Temporary Certificate of Occupancy.

Not bad on all the rentals considering the building isn't even finished ... so these leases are being signed without people seeing the actual apartments.

Apartments at the Karl Fischer-designed building range in price from $2,100 for studios, $2,495 and up for one bedrooms and $3,375 and up for the duplex penthouses.

The elevator building features a roof deck, storage units, bike storage and a pet spa, among other amenities.

And what's up with that name, The Robyn?

Turns out that the building is named after the wife of Jona Rechnitz, founder and president of JSR Capital, the real-estate development and management company that bought the property several years ago.

Updated 6/25
The folks from Miron provided incorrect information about the name. It is just a generic name the developers came up with for the building.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Another parcel of East Village land ready for development

33-unit, Karl Fischer-designed building rising at former home of Community Board 3 member

Landmarks Preservation Commission rejects hearing for 316 E. Third St., paving way for 7-floor condo

Lovely townhouse with bucolic gardens on East Third Street ready for "creative expansion"

316 E. Third St. has been demolished

This Robyn laid some luxury apartments on East 3rd Street; pet spa included

No bars or restaurants wanted for the former Heathers space on East 13th Street

There's a for rent sign on the space that previously housed the bar Heathers. (Not sure how long the sign has been up here between Avenue A and Avenue B. This is the first that we noticed it.)

As you can see, the landlord doesn't want a bar or restaurant here...



Not surprising, considering that Heathers had a history of complaints and controversy.

Heather Millstone opened Heathers in 2005, and the bar quickly became a lightning rod for noise complaints. (The Times had a lengthy article in January 2007 about the ongoing noise issues between the bar and neighbors.)

New owners took over the bar during the summer of 2012. The bar abruptly closed for good last October.

We didn't spot a listing online. Looks like you'll have to send an email to the landlord if you have an interest in the space.

Papaya King going mobile starting tomorrow

From the EVG inbox yesterday...

Papaya King is bringing its all beef frankfurters with all the toppings, tasty tropical drinks and fried treats to the streets of New York on their first ever food truck. With two restaurants in Manhattan located at 86th St. and St. Mark's Place, going mobile is the next step in the Papaya King expansion.

Wayne Rosenbaum has run Papaya King since his team bought the restaurant chain 5 years ago. Since the purchase, they have opened a second location, on St. Mark's Place and remodeled the 86th St. location. “We were trying to find a way to have a great location without paying sky-rocket rents,” Rosenbaum stated about why The King has decided on launching a food truck now.

The truck will be parked in Midtown, equidistant to each restaurant during the week and in Flatiron, Soho, and Union Square on the weekends. To find out the exact location, you can find them on Twitter at @PapayaKingTruck or go to their website.

The truck officially debuts tomorrow at 52nd Street and Sixth Avenue. If you are there between 2-3 p.m., then you can get a plain frank with sauerkraut for $1.