Fun in the snow with the adorable Tompkins Square Park wildlife

Awww, that's so sweet the way the rats and squirrels play together…



Photo this morning by Derek Berg

A look at Little Tokyo in the East Village

Over at Eater, Robert Sietsema has filed a comprehensive look at the neighborhood's Little Tokyo, highlighting some of the specialty shops and restaurants by category. Find the article here.

Sunrise Mart photo via Foursquare

Tompkins Square Park's February Wonderland

Photo yesterday by Fenton Lawless

The East River's ice age (circa 2015)

An EVG reader checked in on the East River earlier this morning… we no longer have the Freezepocalyptic conditions that we saw from Monday, but ice floes remain…



… and a panoramic shot…


[Click on image to enlarge]

Meanwhile, if you were planning on using the ferry service today… no luck…

Due to ice conditions in the East River, service is currently suspended until further notice. To sign up for text alerts, text ERF to 57682.

— East River Ferry (@eastriverferry) February 21, 2015

Window shopping for the next holiday!

Looking at Ricky's on Third Avenue near East 14th Street.

This looks like a promising item to help class up the day!

#Woo

Something other than a bar or restaurant is opening on the Lower East Side

The New York Times reports that Richard F. Taittinger — a great-grandson of the founder of the Taittinger Champagne empire — is opening a 5,000-square-foot art gallery at 154 Ludlow St., where a rent hike forced The Living Room to decamp to Williamsburg.

Here's more from the Times about the gallery:

It will show the work of a roster of internationally established, midcareer contemporary artists who are underrepresented in the American market, Mr. Taittinger, 34, said.

And!

He said he had chosen the Lower East Side over Chelsea as a location for the gallery because of the neighborhood’s potential.

“It is better to be a big fish in a small pond,” he said.

Work on the space got underway last month. The gallery is expected to open on March 3.

Previously, Lucky Cheng's was hoping to open a new LES outpost at No. 154 between Stanton and Rivington. However, the landlord reportedly pulled out of the deal.

Wind chill? What wind chill?

Christo in Tompkins Square Park today… apparently he was seen checking out even more new real estate in the area for nesting…

Photo by Bobby Williams

Blow Out

Here is Made Violent with "Two Tone Hair," a track from their new EP that is out on Tuesday. And the Buffalo-based band plays an early set tomorrow night at the Mercury Lounge.

How Zoltar passes his down time?

By reading Time Out?

Wait.

OK.



Or maybe this a paid product placement? Or just highjinks? After all, poor Zoltar had to endure another fallen piece of plexiglass on this frigid day ...



Photos by Derek Berg

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[2nd Avenue this morning via Derek Berg]

Sheldon Silver's indictment (DNAinfo)

Trying the Sri Lankan vegetarian fare at Sigiri on First Avenue (Fork in the Road)

Adding art to the construction containers and cement blocks along East Houston (BoweryBoogie)

A look at Marco Canora's new Fifty Paces on East 12th Street (Gothamist)

Kim Gordon discusses her new memoir (The New York Times)

Bring on the hipsters: Gentrification is good for the poor (The Economist)

Check out "The Dryline," a flood barrier for the East River (The Lo-Down)

Oh, and a photo of an icy East River this morning (East River Ferry Instagram)

No one apparently recognized "Fifty Shades of Grey" star Dakota Johnson dining at Avenue A's Black Market (Page Six)

Third Street Music School Settlement will undergo a $5.3 million construction project (Bedford + Bowery)

Chuck Connelly: The Spirit of Vision continues on East Ninth Street (Dorian Grey Gallery)

Heh: A workout video for fans of the Talking Heads (Dangerous Minds)

Broome Street Bar isn't closing after all (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Revisiting Chantal Ackerman’s "News From Home" (Flaming Pablum)

Cool photos of a band that we like: A Place To Bury Strangers, "Transfixiation" record release show at Music Hall of Williamsburg (Walter Wlodarczyk)

Montauk in the winter (Gog in NYC)

Getting 'Physical' again on St. Mark's Place

EVG reader Allen Semanco came across this scene this morning at 96-98 St. Mark's Place, the buildings between Avenue A and First Avenue that served as a backdrop for Led Zeppelin's 1975 studio album "Physical Graffiti."

A photographer said she was setting up this shot as part of next week's release of a 40th anniversary remastered/expanded super-duper-deluxe version of the album.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tenements of the holy: 'Physical Graffiti' 40 years later

RIP Joy Ryder

Penny Arcade shared the following with us…

The iconic rhythm-and-blues singer Joy Ryder passed away a few minutes after midnight on Valentine's Day, in keeping with the hours she kept for the past 4 decades since her early days at CBGB at the beginning of the punk era, losing her battle with liver cancer caused by Hepatitis C.

Joy Ryder embodied the best of all possible styles ... Although Ryder has been called a blues singer, she was a jack of all trades: jazz stylist, punk diva, and rock 'n' roll rabble rouser and deeply and widely loved by the whole of NY's musical community who are the poorer for her loss.

Brooklyn-born Ryder (nee Denise Whelan) was the daughter of jazz singer and bassist Phil Whelan, who had a hit with the song "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" with his band The Five Encores. Her childhood was filled with her father's rehearsals and her own piano lessons from the age of four.

I met Joy when she was 16 and I had just turned 17 on St Mark's Place and Second Avenue in front of Gem Spa in the fall of 1967. We both worked with Wavy Gravy and The Hog Farm performing at the Electric Circus, attended peace demonstrations, volunteered with The Yippies, UATWMF, and The Diggers.

Joy also worked with Kusama, the famed avant-garde painter in her large-scale happenings. In 1968, after the summer of love, when the East Village was awash with pedophiles lured by the massive population of homeless teenagers and the flower power vibe changed to hard drugs and violence ushered by not only the murder of Linda and Groovy who we both knew and the brutal murder of another friend, a boy named Sunshine, who was beaten and burned alive, Joy decided to leave NY to study at the University of Hawaii.

She started singing in bands that played local Army bases and then changed her name to Joy Ryder. She dropped out of the University of Hawaii, returning to NY and looked for singing work. She studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute, then at an audition, she met guitar player, Avis Davis and they started a band, The Davis/Ryder Band, and toured the underground rock circuit, opening for acts like the Ramones, John Cale and Iggy Pop.

After recording their rock anthem "No More Nukes," they performed for a quarter of a million people at Battery Park City in 1979 with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and others.

In 1980, Joy moved to Berlin to work with underground theatre director Tony Ingrassia, where she appeared in films, plays and had several mainstream recording contracts with RCA, Polydor, CBS and Mercury Records. Since the late 1980s Joy made her home on Staten Island and was a much beloved figure in the NY music scene known for her generosity, kindness and sweetness.

She is survived by her son Jessie Franklin of Staten Island. Joy's funeral is tomorrow (Saturday, Feb. 21) at 11 a.m. at All Angels' Church at Broadway and West 80th Street, where Joy sang in the gospel choir. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Joy's fund for medical and funeral expenses.

Plywood arrives ahead of demolition at 14th and C; 15-story retail-residential building on the way

Workers yesterday erected a plywood fence around 644 E. 14th St. at Avenue C, site of the former R&S Strauss auto parts store.

All the paperwork is in place to demolish the one-level structure … and build a 15-story mixed-use retail-residential complex here on the southwest corner.

Per our last post on this: The Karl Fischer-designed building will total 61,789 square feet. DOB permits show 8,578 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor. The remainder of the first five stories will host a community facility, which will span 18,937 square feet, and 50 apartments will sit above, some even with views of the Con Ed power plant.

Thanks to ‏@KellerPeacenow9 for the photo!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Development back in play for East 14th Street and Avenue C

More details on the sale of 644 E. 14th St.

Here comes a 15-story retail-residential complex for East 14th Street and Avenue C

Prepping the former R&S Strauss auto parts store for demolition on East 14th Street and Avenue C

City OKs 15-story mixed-use retail-residential building on 14th and C

2 storefronts for rent at 42 Avenue B

Just noting that both retail spaces are for rent at 42 Avenue B between East Third Street and East Fourth.

The storefront on the left has been vacant since Coyi Cafe quietly closed here in January 2014. The storefront has a new broker now... Per the Sinvin listing, the asking rent is $6,995 a month for the 650-square-foot space (there is also a shared basement).

The north space became available when the former tenant, Shampoo Avenue B, moved down the block to 14 Avenue B last month ... and it has the same space and asking rent as next door.

You may not get Nimble on St. Mark's Place

There was a Grand Opening Party (were chin-ups and dips served?) last evening at Nimble Fitness, the new gym on the second level of 6 St. Mark's Place…

DNAinfo recently had more on this small-group training facility:

Like its original Union Square location, the East Village gym will focus on individualized programs and “holistic lifestyle coaching” to encourage long-term physical and mental health benefits, he said.

The East Village branch, however, contains the “Octagon,” a steel fitness rig that allows up to 12 people to perform several different exercises — like deadlifts, chin-ups and dips — at the same time.

Annnnd, as we've cut-n-pasted before, before the quick succession of ground-floor restaurants, No. 6 was home to Mondo Kim's ... and going back ... No. 6 was first, starting in 1913, home to the Saint Marks Russian and Turkish Baths ... which, in 1979, became the New Saint Marks Baths, the gay bathhouse (purportedly the largest one in the world) that the city eventually closed in 1985 during the AIDS epidemic.

Also, because someone will ask, the new New York Sports Club at 28 Avenue A will open on March 2.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Gym taking over part of the former Mondo Kim's space on St. Mark's

Here's what the inside of the luxury condos at 50 Clinton St. will look like

An EVG reader sent us this photo last Thursday showing the newly arrived sidewalk bridge along the soon-to-be-demolished 50-62 Clinton St. between Stanton and Rivington.

As previously reported, 7 stories featuring 37 luxury residences will rise from the single-floor row of storefronts that once included noted chef Wylie Dufresne's WD-50.

Now today, Curbed got the first look at the new teaser site for the condos. Take a gander at what awaits, including soft-looking towels in the bathroom ...





Per the 50 Clinton St. site, one-bedroom units will start at $975,000, two-bedroom homes are priced at $1.75 million and "penthouses in glass and with amazing city views at $3M." There will also be a doorman, gym and "lush gardens and rooftops terraces."

And last we saw... here's the final Ramy Isaac rendering ...



Head over to BoweryBoogie for more on all the comings and goings at this address.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] The future of 50-62 Clinton St will look something like this

Report: New Clinton Street condos start at $1 million

Meet The Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force

"The city and state are rolling out a new task force to take on landlords who are trying to harass tenants into giving up their apartments. The task force will be empowered to sue landlords or even pursue criminal charges against them." (DNAinfo)

Tracking the coming changes to East 13th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue

For starters, workers have prepped the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office for demolition, as we've been reporting.


[EVG file photo]

As previously noted, an 8-story retail-residential building will eventually rise here. The residential entrance will be on the East 13th Street side. The project is awaiting city approval.

-----

Across the street at 444 E. 13th St., the ground-floor space where that brick wall currently resides ...



is being marketed for use as retail or a restaurant…



According to the listing, the "Landlord will present as a restaurant ready space." The asking rent is $10,000 a month.

The city approved the work on the new storefront space on Tuesday, per DOB records.

-----

And then we have the garages on the block. As The Commercial Observer reported last month, developers Amirian Group and Bridgeton Holdings bought both properties — No. 436 and 442 — for $9.5 million…


[436 E. 13th St.]


[442 E. 13th St.]

Coming soon: Two 6-story luxury condos (one residence on each floor). Each building will include garages, balconies, roof decks and fitness centers. (Bedford + Bowery, who first reported on these developments, has more details here.)

Perhaps the influx of new residences will put an end to revolving door of restaurants, at least at 432 E. 13th St.

Manitoba's crowdfunding campaign a success; bar will remain open

The Manitoba's crowdfunding campaign came to an end at midnight.

Proprietor Handsome Dick Manitoba took to Facebook last night for an update.

There have been hundreds and hundreds of individuals from dozens of countries who have contributed to "SAVE MANITOBA'S"

Well, the good news is, MANITOBA'S has ...BEEN SAVED!

According to my calculations, we have money to pay the man demanding money, fix the bar to the standards required, buy, package and mail many hundreds of perks, throw my lawyers, who have thus far worked for NOTHING, and asked for nothing, SOMETHING!

In total, 688 people contributed at the Indiegogo page to help raise more than $31,000. (The goal had been $25,000.)

The campaign was reportedly a result of "a settlement with a man who has sued dozens of businesses under the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to court filings," as DNAinfo put it. The man, a former East Village resident identified as Luigi Girotto, 50, has reportedly sued at least 27 other businesses for failing to provide accessibility, according to court papers that DNAinfo obtained.

The bar at 99 Avenue B between East Seventh Street and East Sixth Street opened in January 1999.

Back to Facebook:

The combination of creating something that physically and vibe wise preserves our great culture has obviously touched a nerve....A heart.

We hope to continue to be a fun place for people in the neighborhood, and Rock and Roll fans from everywhere. We so greatly appreciate your love and support.

137 Avenue C getting its extra floor

We've been meaning to check in on the building-wide gut renovation underway at 137 Avenue C near East Ninth Street. Workers pretty much gutted the place, leaving, as far as we can tell, just the north wall and some joists from the old place.

Anyway, the city-approved extra floor is well on its way...



Probably eventually the address will look like the rendering via architect Ramy Isaac …



Approved DOB permits show one residential unit (condo?) on each floor… with a ground-floor retail tenant.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Renovations in store for 137 Avenue C, home to the Sunburnt Cow

The Sunburnt Cow closes for good at the end of this month

137 Avenue C, hollow on the inside