EV Grieve

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Con Ed's statement on today's explosion on 2nd Avenue

[Photo by Peter Brownscombe]

Con Edison is working with fire officials and other agencies at the scene of today’s explosion and building collapse on 2nd Avenue near 7th Street in the East Village. Earlier today, Con Edison personnel were at the location to evaluate work the building plumber was doing inside 121 2nd Ave. in connection with a gas service upgrade. The work failed our inspection for several reasons, including insufficient spacing for the installation of the meter in the basement.

We had no reports of gas odors in the area prior to the fire and explosion. A survey conducted yesterday of the gas mains on the block found no leaks. We continue to work with all agencies on the investigation into the cause, and we are praying for the recovery of all the injured.

via the Con Ed website

Previously

On the scene: 121 and 123 2nd Ave. earlier today

We'll update the situation with today's explosion and fire at 121 and 123 Second Ave. as soon as more information is available… here are a few scenes of the FDNY, a group numbering more than 200 firefighters and 45 units earlier today...

Photos via EVG contributor Stacie Joy

7:15 p.m.

Via an EVG reader… looking south on Second Avenue this evening…

Previously

'A very long night'

[Photo this afternoon by James & Karla Murray]

Coverage from Gothamist:

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the call about the explosion came in at 3:17 p.m., and the FDNY had a three minute response time. "They were not expecting this scene," he said. "The first 15 minutes [firefighters] made extremely dangerous searches of these buildings." He said that 119 is a fully-involved fire, and still in danger of possible collapse.

"We will be here for a very long night," Nigro added.

#FDNY units arrived on-scene in East Village less than 3 minutes after receiving the call. pic.twitter.com/VCWHUuYq8s
— FDNY (@FDNY) March 26, 2015

A statement about air quality

#FDNY members operating in the East Village. Read about air quality @nycHealthy http://t.co/jMiEAqgBGA pic.twitter.com/TmZOdNnwul
— FDNY (@FDNY) March 26, 2015

Find the statement here

'Today our community's heart is breaking'

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Statement from City Councilmember Rosie Mendez on today's explosion on Second Avenue:

"Today our community's heart is breaking. My thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this tragedy. I am working closely with emergency services, my colleagues in government and with community leaders to respond to this horrible event. I thank the people of New York for the outpouring of concern and support. We pray for the victims and their families."

[Updating] Explosion on 2nd Avenue and East 7th Street

Crazy explosion on 7 and 2nd east village #fire #explosion pic.twitter.com/U3Z4mx3Wut
— J K (@Jamie_S_Kennedy) March 26, 2015

Just heard an explosion and my entire building shook!! #explosion #manhattan #eastvillage
— Tosha Ryan (@Tosha_Ryan) March 26, 2015

There was just an explosion on 2nd avenue and 7th street east village pic.twitter.com/jvSbfdCSSe
— Jonathan (@jmeyers44) March 26, 2015

[Photo by Jonathan Jones]

3:29 p.m. FDNY says a building collapse at 125 Second Ave. (Officially it's 121 and 123 Second Ave.)

MAN 3-ALARM 125 2 AVE, MIXED OCCUPANCY MAJOR BUILDING COLLAPSE,
— FDNY (@FDNY) March 26, 2015

3:31 p.m. The scene from East Sixth Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square

@evgrieve Building exploded. pic.twitter.com/ChTrXe2bRJ
— Liberation Iannillo (@liberationnyc) March 26, 2015

123 Second Ave explosion. FDNY here. pic.twitter.com/fvpeeu6fhp
— Scott Westerfeld (@ScottWesterfeld) March 26, 2015

Second Ave is closed to traffic from 9th Street all the way to Houston. Crowd control underway. No pedestrians allowed from 9th to 7th.
— Scott Westerfeld (@ScottWesterfeld) March 26, 2015

3:47 p.m.

U/D Manhattan: 125 2 Ave FDNY reporting 3 FireFighters missing. Search on the way 10-66 Transmitted. #FDNY #BREAKING pic.twitter.com/AftWTCRNCg
— NYC Scanner (@NYScanner) March 26, 2015

125 2 Ave FDNY reporting 3 FireFighters missing. Search on the way 10-66 Transmitted. #FDNY #BREAKING pic.twitter.com/OjmROq5CXk @evgrieve
— urban myths, legends (@urbanmyths) March 26, 2015

Building partially collapsed on 7th St and 2nd av #eastvillage @evgrieve pic.twitter.com/ogvrXa20hl
— Hansley Yunez (@hyunez) March 26, 2015

3:54 p.m.

Unreal! Those poor people. @tinman_131: 123 2nd ave Fire @evgrieve #eastvillage #fire #FDNY #NYC pic.twitter.com/tzn5jezwMr
— Liberation Iannillo (@liberationnyc) March 26, 2015

3:56 p.m. The Post reports that up to 30 people are injured. The FDNY is trying to contain the fires from spreading to more buildings on the west side of Second Avenue between East Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place...

4:04 p.m.

[Image via @brittanyTvisser]

4:13 p.m. Coverage from WABC-7...

The FDNY arrived on the scene to find a sushi restaurant on the lower level collapsed and smoke pluming throughout the building. Then flames began shooting through the roof and quickly spread to a neighboring building.

Firefighters were pouring water onto the flames, but they had to pull back due to the intensity, and fire officials expected one or both of the buildings would eventually fall.

[Photo via @mesh_mellow]

4:20 p.m. The scene now looking north on Second Avenue by peter radley...

The scene from East Fifth Street and Second Avenue...

4:22 p.m. The scene from East Seventh Street and First Avenue via John Iz...

4:33 p.m. The scene from East Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue via John Iz...

4:43 p.m.

In East Village, firefighters draw water from a block away. pic.twitter.com/InD683Exhh
— Stephen Nessen (@s_nessen) March 26, 2015

LOOK: Aerial view of East Village explosion via @NYPDSpecialops; more coverage on @CBSNLive http://t.co/FRGD8IS3m1 pic.twitter.com/YtHXmSAEdx
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 26, 2015

#BREAKING: Aerial view of building collapse @NYPD9Pct. Numerous rescue units on scene #SOD #ESU #K9 #Aviation #FD pic.twitter.com/d9iX4GOBUd
— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) March 26, 2015

Looks like No. 12 St. Mark's Place has a suitor

Last month, we spotted the above signs at 12 St. Mark's Place to entice any potential restaurateurs to give this space a try.

And it looks as if it worked: An applicant called Williamsburg Vegan Corp. is on the April CB3/SLA committee agenda for a full liquor license. At this point we don't know anything about the applicant (CB3 hasn't filed the questionnaire with more background just yet.)

Williamsburg Vegan Corp. was on the CB1 docket out in Brooklyn earlier this year for a space at 280 Bedford. (We'll see if any of our Brooklyn friends know more about this.)

Hanjoo, which opened here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue in October 2012, closed last month. Han Joo's owners have designs on a new space on East Sixth Street.

No. 12 has also been home to a number of bars-restaurants in recent years, including Hirai Mong, Gama, San Marcos, Siren and @Cafe.

Report: New York Attorney General now probing Cooper Union's finances

[EVG file photo]

In case you missed this from The Wall Street Journal yesterday ... New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating the financial decisions that led Cooper Union officials to charge undergraduate tuition for the first time in its history.

To the article:

The probe includes a look at several decisions by Cooper Union’s past and present trustees, according to people familiar with the investigation. Among them: a $175 million loan, using the Chrysler building as collateral, to help finance more than $100 million in new Greenwich Village facilities, the people said.

Mr. Schneiderman’s office is also reviewing the terms of the school’s lease agreement at the Midtown skyscraper with real-estate company Tishman Speyer, a bonus that the board approved for former President George Campbell Jr. and potential inaccuracies about the board’s financial decisions on the school’s official website, the people said.

A Cooper Union spokesperson told the Journal that school officials are fully cooperating with Schneiderman's office.

In May 2013, a group of Cooper Union students occupied President Jamshed Bharucha's office for 65 days to protest the decision to start charging tuition.

Lan Cafe is closing at the end of April

You have until the end of next month to visit Lan Cafe, the cozy Vietnamese vegan restaurant at 342 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

An EVG reader and Lan regular first told us about the coming closure at the end of April. A Nguyen family member confirmed it for us. The lease is up, and well — you know the rest. (Also, despite the posted 2 p.m. time during the week, Lan doesn't open until 5 p.m.)

And the list of recent East Village restaurant closings continue… as Lan joins Mitali East … Ginger … Pukk … Puebla Mexican Food … Benny's to go … Mercadito…

A storefront arrives on East 13th Street

[EVG photo from February]

As we pointed out earlier last month, there are approved plans on file to carve out a storefront at 444 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue…

EVG reader Gamelan let us know that the carving is underway…

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

And this will be one of the more minor changes coming to this block in the months/years ahead.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tracking the coming changes to East 13th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue

A view to the new floors on East 9th Street

[EVG photo from February]

We've been watching the north side of Ninth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, where four of the buildings on this block (329-335) are receiving one-floor extensions.

A reader shared a photo from across the street showing how the work is progressing...

Local elected officials and preservationists spoke out against these additions... fearful of how the extra floor will change the character of the buildings.

The buildings were previously owned by Icon Realty, who sold them to Jared Kushner's Kushner Companies in the spring of 2013. The push, and subsequent approval, for the extra floor came about during Icon's ownership.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East 9th Street buildings will soon be taller thanks to the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals

East 9th Street buildings starting to grow taller

The art of noise on East 7th Street ahead of tomorrow night's event at the Brant Foundation

[Wednesday night on 6th Street via @hanyakrill]

The other day we noted that there is a big event taking place at the incoming exhibition space for the Brant Foundation on East Sixth Street.

Crews have been busy coming and going from the building's back entrance on East Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue, where two high-powered CAT generators have been stationed since March 19. According to a security guard, the event is for Dom Pérignon tomorrow night.

All told, the party-related activities at the Brant building, which has been cast in a pinkish glow inside the last few nights, will last 11 days, per the signs posted on the building at 421 E. Sixth St.

Several neighbors have grumbled about all this, from 11 days of reserved parking on the street to the often-noisy generators.

A few commenters to our post on Monday thought we should all just mind our own business.

He's probably having some kind of celebration / party in his new space. People need to get lives and mind their business. Now the guy is getting written up on blogs?

And!

Peter Brant is bringing much-needed class and sophistication to this neighborhood. If you want your squats back move to Detroit. Echoing the previous commenter: get lives just because you can't afford champagne!

Some of these comments prompted a resident on East Seventh Street "to demonstrate what a racket they're making."

To the reader: "I'm excited Brant has taken over the space and I'm sure he'll do lovely things for the community, but those babies are loud! I live right in front of where [the generators are] parked and it's very loud up here on the uppers floors. I'm attaching a video of the noise the trucks make — this might set straight some of the commenters who think this is an overreaction!"

Previously on EV Grieve:
Neighbors curious about the 11 days of activity at Peter Brant's exhibition space on East 6th Street

Figaro Cafe Bistro Bar & Grill is now La Esquina (not that one) Bar & Grill

We just noticed the other day that the Figaro Cafe Bistro Bar & Grill on First Avenue and East Sixth Street… is now going by La Esquina Bar & Grill…

… with a new taco-and-burrito-friendly menu…

One EVG reader suggested that this might be an offshoot of the Kenmare Street hotspots — La Esquina Taqueria and Cafe/La Esquina Brasserie & Tequila Bar.

So we called La Esquina. No, they have not (quietly) expanded to the East Village. Apparently the Figaro owners are just chaining up the concept.

Figaro opened in January 2014, taking over the space from Banjara. In November, Figaro split up the space, with Apna Masala opening on the East Sixth Street side.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Trophy trash

One day you are on top of the world, conjoined atop a trophy for like ballroom dancing or something… then 15 years pass, and you're in the trash near Veniero's on East 11th Street…

Thanks to Robert F. for the photo…

Remembering the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire 104 years later

[Photo today by Derek Berg]

Today is the official commemoration of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which claimed the lives of 146 workers, most of whom were young women from the Lower East Side.

Once again, volunteers wrote the names of the victims in front of places they lived.

The Triangle Waist Company was located on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place just east of Washington Square Park.

You can visit the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition website here for more information.

Did someone steal this police car's lights?

Well, OK. Can't recall seeing an NYPD slicktop Ford Taurus Police Interceptor before... (Maybe we haven't really looked?)

Spotted on Second Avenue and East Fifth Street near the 9th Precinct today via Derek Berg.

Questions and concern continue about the Church of the Nativity's future on 2nd Avenue

[EVG file photo]

The Church of the Nativity on Second Avenue between East Second Street and East Third Street is on Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan's closure list as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York undergoes a massive reorganization.

Under the plan, the church, founded in 1832, would merge with Most Holy Redeemer on East Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Nativity parishioners continue their efforts to save the church from a sale and subsequent demolition...

There's a meeting tonight with a representative from the Archdiocese... via the EVG inbox...

This will be the FIRST "official" parish meeting regarding the merger since the announcement was made on November 2, 2014.

Every meeting and discussion we (the parishioners) have had so far has taken place outside of the church and in the social hall because we weren't allowed to have an open discussion inside our church.

This is an opportunity to ask important questions and let them know why our church should remain open. It’s imperative that we all attend so that we may be taken seriously.

Church of the Nativity. 44 Second Ave. between East Second Street and East Third Street

Wednesday, March 25, 7 p.m.

The parishioners have created a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a blog and a YouTube channel. And you can sign a petition here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Parishioners fight to save the Church of the Nativity on 2nd Avenue

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: Regina Bartkoff and Charles Schick
Occupation: Artists, Performers
Location: 292 E. 3rd Street between Avenue C and D
Time: 7 pm on Thursday, March 12

Picking up from part 1 last week, where Regina was talking about her job working with horses at the Aqueduct Racetrack in her native Queens...

Regina: I didn’t want to be at the track forever and I didn’t know what I was doing, so I left and took the A train to Manhattan and got a job at WABC Radio. I don’t know why I did that. The whole thing started again. I had no friends and they thought I was weird and I was so depressed. I missed being outside. I felt my soul shrinking.

And then one day this temp came in and she had this black hair and cowboy boots and I remember just looking at her. And at 3 she just put her feet up on the desk and said, ‘No human being can work past 3.’ I said, ‘Yeah but they’re paying us till 5.’ And she said, ‘I’m a director and I have acting classes.’ She asked me to join them. The class just blew my mind because everything she talked about method acting was just incredible to me. I just fell in love with it. I just stuck with it. I met a boyfriend in the class and life was starting to come together.

I did a play down here and I came down to the Lower East Side and the first thing I fell in love with was Leshko’s and Odessa. My friends at the time said, ‘Why do you like this? It’s dangerous.’ Tompkins Square Park at the time was called ‘dog shit park.’ There would be like a million dogs running around the park and you would not walk through it at night. My friend Al said, ‘I’m going to try it.’

He got held up about six times walking through the park. I came down here walking around Avenue D. It looked like there were a thousand people on the street. I said, ‘What are these people doing? They said, ‘Hey little girl get out of here if you don’t know what they’re doing.’ This whole drug sale was going on. I don’t know why, but nothing flipped me out. I didn’t care if it was dangerous — there was life here.

I had a job at Phebe’s and then at an all-night restaurant, where I met Charlie. I didn’t like him at first. I though he was real arrogant. By then I was not the same shy person anymore. I was just on the Lower East Side, this little punk girl, in love with art. It was like the Leonard Cohen song, there was music on Clinton Street all through the evening. I loved it even more.

I remember when Charlie took me down to see his apartment on the Lower East Side. We all went there and he didn’t have money for canvas and so he just used his walls — all totally painted, the ceilings too. I thought it was magic and I said, ‘I want to do that.’ And he said, ‘yeah just get some canvases, some paint, some brushes. You don’t have to go to school for it, take it from me.' And I did, I was in a little apartment on East Fourth Street and I went there and I started to paint. That was it.

Charlie: We really haven’t progressed since then. It’s sort of like, do your own thing and you’ll be king. We’ve had odd jobs, worked in restaurants. I work right now as a tour guide on top of the buses.

Regina: Then we moved in together. We just ran around New York. We loved the Lower East Side, we loved Coney Island and in 1984 we had a kid together, Hannah, and then it was the three of us. It was really hard. We were broke.

Charlie: When she was coming we had to borrow money for a cab. We were kind of unprepared. It worked out though. Our life with Hannah was the best thing that ever happened to us. She’s getting married on April 4. We couldn’t be more proud!

Regina: Hannah was about 4 years old and I needed a job. So I got a job at El Sombrero on Stanton and Ludlow. They almost went down for good two years ago and then this relative took it over and I got hired back, and I’m there again.

At that time, you could work one day, maybe two days a week and be OK. And that was great about being an artist too because I thought, ‘I’ll take that deal. I’ll take five days off from work.’ Some people would have their feelings hurt about being a waitress. I was like, ‘Are you kidding, my mind is free even when I’m there.’ It’s easy and it was good money; pockets full of money and then you’d have five days off.

I missed the horses daily. And by luck — or so I thought — I got a job grooming horses at one of the biggest Carriage Houses. I lasted only a few months. Conditions were terrible for the horses and it was hard to take. That's another long story and why I'm against them today.

Acting and the sheer raw stark beauty of the Lower East Side had taken over from the horses and won my heart. It was a sweet life and you could live simply. The neighborhood was wide open then ... and you just breathed in freedom. Tompkins Park was open 24/7, a little more safe and it was great to have when you're broke with a kid. After the Tompkins Square Park riots they smashed the bandshell, the heart, that took a piece out of me too and it closes now at midnight.

Charlie: Not to romanticize starving artists, but you had to be willing to do this. God knows what’s going to happen. It was a different time and a different mindset. But the main thing for us is that doing it is the great reward.

Recently we've been doing Tennessee William's later plays. "In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel" and last year's "The Two-Character Play." It was a play we had been obsessed with for quite some time. We transform the entire space [at at 292 Gallery, 292 E. Third St.] every time we do a play. In our tiny 20-seat house it's intimate and electric, you can feel the energy exchange from the audience right close up in your face.

Regina: Now we go between painting and theatre. We have to find plays that we can do together. So far the track record has been a play, painting show, a play, a painting show. Also because we’re performers, when we paint it’s almost a performance. I have to be really awake and in the moment. I started doing pastels because oil paints are a living thing to us. It’s very fluid. Charlie’s got about 50,000 images behind that [painting]. But with the chalk you can only go so far before the paper rips.

Charlie: The change is difficult for us because it felt like home in the early days. You’d walk down the street and know everybody. It had a soulfulness to it. Not to romanticize violence and other aspects that you had to put up with if you were willing to live here. There was something to the people, faces, characters, and energy, and every street felt different. I felt there was so much interesting stuff to see. You didn’t have to look very hard. It was alive and surprising. Some days you just get a glimpse of the old. Just on some fluke you’re riding the subway home, and it just brings it all back. It’s a different world, I guess everywhere, but one that we don’t quite fit in.

Regina: What made me not feel like I fit into suburban New York? I don’t know. It wasn’t like I was a punk when I was a kid. What was it that that I just didn’t like and what made me come down here and feel immediately accepted?

Read part 1 here.

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

-----

The exhibit Inner Cities continues through Saturday at 292 Gallery ... the exhibit features photos by Romy Ashby, drawings by Regina Bartkoff and paintings by Charles Schick. The gallery is at 292 E. Third St. between Avenue C and Avenue D. Gallery hours are 2-5 p.m. on Saturday and by appointment.

About Puebla Mexican Food's abrupt closure, and future at the Essex Street Market

[Photo via Edward Rivera]

By Stacie Joy

I planned to visit Puebla Mexican Food one last time to pick up a meal, take a few photos for posterity, give owner Irma Marin a hug and say thanks for the many years of good food that I’ve had at her restaurant at 47 First Ave.

However, when I arrived outside Puebla last week, I was sad to find that the place had already been shuttered days ahead of its scheduled March 23 closure. I contacted my neighbor, artist Edward Rivera, who is friendly with the Marin/Marmolejo family to ask about what happened. He was kind enough to set up a phone interview with Marin and her son Ricardo “Ricky” Marmolejo, who helped me translate back and forth from English to Spanish.

Why the early closure? They explained that they were in litigation with the landlord. The family had a landlord agreement regarding rent but they were in dispute about a water bill and other additional storefront charges. In court on March 17, the judge sided with the landlord and indicated that the marshal would be coming to evict them.

Marin decided that she did not want her customers to feel uncomfortable, so she closed up immediately. Marin's sister and brother-in-law launched the restaurant near East Third Street in 1990, with Marin taking over in 2000. (Marin's sister and brother-in-law now run Downtown Bakery II at 69 First Ave.)

While Ricky explained that his mother first decided to just close and retire, the family was touched and excited by the enormous community outreach.

Now there are plans in the works for a Puebla Mexican Food stall at the Essex Street Market.

Ricky said that his mother had appointments with community leaders to help with the paperwork.

Marin and her family have long frequented the market, so the idea, when recommended to her, made sense. And, as Marin and her family live nearby on East Second Street, the location will keep them in the area, close to their friends.

I asked Ricky to help translate his mother's words of gratitude to the neighborhood. As Ricky said, she wanted "to thank everyone, all the customers who supported her and loved her food. She wants to reopen to serve the people, and feed them. And that she looks forward to seeing everybody again."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Puebla Mexican Food is closing after 25 years on 1st Avenue

You'll now have until March 23 to visit Puebla Mexican Food on 1st Avenue

Puebla Mexican Food closes on 1st Avenue; Villacemita opens on Avenue A