1st Avenue seagull makes it seem all the more summery

Enjoying a quiet morning on First Avenue at East Ninth Street...



Photos via William Klayer

Christodora House residents remain without gas for cooking and hot water for the time being

[EVG file photo]

A tipster passes along word that Christodora House residents have been without gas for cooking and hot water these past two weeks... and, according to a memo — titled Important Notice #3 — dated June 19 from the management company, there won't be any in the weeks ahead either here in the residential building on Avenue B at East Ninth Street...



The memo notes that "the plumbing company has successfully obtained the required Buildings Department permit and are in the process of replacing defective lines in the basement where the initial leak originated."

And what's next? Back to the memo...

"Once all the gas lines hold the required pressure, the plumbers will contact Con Edison to schedule their building inspection. Please note the pressure tests and the Con Edison inspection is expected to be a lengthy process over several weeks, if not longer. It is hard to determine a time frame at this point."

The 2015 New York City Drag March is tonight

The annual march departs Tompkins Square Park at St. Mark's Place around 8 p.m. ... heading west to new New York City landmark the Stonewall Inn.

And revisit some photos here from Tompkins Square Park last year via EVG contributor editrrix...

Construction watch: 319 Bowery

Landlord Steve Croman received DOB approval last September to convert the former Amato Opera house at 319 Bowery into a commercial and residential building.

Documents show that there will be one residence on each floor above the retail space here between East Second Street and East First Street.

Workers have been on site since the fall… and the other day, EVG reader Roger took a look inside the open door ...



… to see what was going on with the interior. Per Roger: "The photos don't show much but I thought it was interesting that the place is getting completely gutted."





We're unsure about the incoming retail space here. We'd seen several listing for it. One at Croman's 9300 site says that the storefront — with the rent listed at $34,995 — is rented.

Amato Opera ended its long run on May 31, 2009.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Life after the Amato Opera

Costume drama on the Bowery as the Amato Opera empties out

Ruin of the Bowery nearly complete: Last season for the Amato Opera

Amato Opera looks to be getting an encore as city OKs residential use

Work permits arrive at the former Amato Opera on the Bowery

Reminders tonight: Films on the Green in Tompkins Square Park

Tonight is the second of the two screenings in Tompkins Square Park in the Films on the Green series ... the free outdoor French film festival in NYC parks... Here's what's playing tonight at 8:30ish...

"Zarafa" from 2012:

The plot of the film has a grandfather telling his grand kids the story of Maki, a young boy who escapes from slave traders, befriends a giraffe (the title character), cross the desert, meet a pirate, and a few other things on a trip that takes him from Africa to Paris.

It is a kids movie, though unnamed sources tell us that adults might enjoy it as well. (Plus, you can hide the alcohol in the kids' belongings.)

Find more about the Films on the Green series here. They'll be more free screenings in other city parks throughout the summer.

Reader mailbag: How many wall renovations does one school need?

From the EVG mailbag…

Can anyone explain what these workers have been doing outside East Side Community School on East 12th Street for the past month or more, besides spending millions of tax dollars? This is the second time in five years they've reconstructed this wall. Cheaper to tear down the existing structure and replace it with a state of the art school, no?

The school had to be evacuated on September 2012 when the wall was found to be separating from the rest of the structure. The emergency renovations displaced the students for four months.

[Updated] Belgian fries coming to St. Mark's Place

EVG correspondent Steven notes that the sign's up for the new food place at 36 St. Mark's Place ... and as you can see, Belgian fries will be the speciality of the house here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

Perhaps this will make up for the loss of Pommes Frites, whose home of 18 years was destroyed in the deadly Second Avenue gas explosion this past March 26. (The Pommes Frites owners will reopen near Washington Square Park after finding a bigger space with lower rents on MacDougal Street.)

The previous tenant here, Fasta ("Pasta Your Way"), lasted less than six weeks in business.

The previous tenant, the $1.50 branch of 2 Bros. Pizza, closed in February. As we understand it, the owners of 2 Bros. still hold the lease on this space.

And h/t EVG reader Russell!

Updated 2 p.m.

Word is they will open in the next day or two... and a reader shared the Friterie website.

Here are the sauces...



Updated 6:03 p.m.

A reader tells us that they are opening tonight. Right now!



Previously on EV Grieve:
With space too expensive in the East Village, Pommes Frites will reopen on MacDougal Street

Pasta in the works for St. Mark's Place

Pet store signage unleashed on Second Avenue

EVG reader Christina passes along photos of the new signage that has arrived at 31-33 Second Ave., aka The Luxe East, Ben Shaoul's new retail-residential complex here between East Second Street and East First Street...

As you can see the storefront will be an Unleashed (by Petco) outlet...



What is Unleashed?

As pet stores go, we’re anything but ordinary. Unleashed by Petco hit the pet scene in 2009, with our first store in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood. Our concept is simple – provide the same knowledge and know-how offered by Petco in a unique, smaller package.

Anyway, perhaps the storefront will help residents determine whether they are looking at the front or the back of the building.

BoweryBoogie first reported that a Petco-branded store was set for the retail space.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Ben Shaoul planning a 3-story addition at 31-33 Second Ave.

Bracing for 3 new floors at 31-33 Second Ave.

Checking in on the work in progress at 31-33 2nd Ave., where Ben Shaoul is adding 3 new floors

Ben Shaoul's bland new 2nd Avenue building is called The East Luxe

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space announces 3rd annual film fest for Aug. 1-8

Via the EVG inbox...

Building on the popular appeal of its two previous summer outdoor film festivals, The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS), an East Village history museum with a mission to archive the social activism of the neighborhood, will partner with local activist and grassroots organizations to present its Third Annual Film Fest — I ❤NRCHY: Advocacy & Anarchy Shaping a City.

This series of shorts, documentaries and features will focus on New York City and each night feature a different theme, current and historical, to explore movements on such issues as Reviewing Renewal (hosted by 596 Acres); Sustainability (hosted by 350NYC); Bio-Terror, Manufactured Fear, and State Repression (hosted by ABC No Rio); Work & Rebellion (hosted by the Tenement Museum); Community and the Arts as Resistance (hosted by Interference Archive); Bicycle Activism (hosted by Times Up!) and more to be announced.

The festival will run Aug. 1-8 with screening times at 8 p.m. in various outdoor garden locations in the East Village. A limited supply of all-inclusive passes for $20 will be on sale here or by visiting MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets during hours of operation. Admission to each individual screening will otherwise require a suggested donation of $5.

Bikes, By George! space is for rent

As we noted earlier last week, a rent hike is forcing George Philbert to close his bike shop at 193 E. Fourth St. at the end of the month.

Several readers have noted that the for rent sign has arrived in the storefront just east of Avenue A.

The listing at Bond, which appears to show a different business in the space, notes that a restaurant is OK for the space. The asking rent is $3,750 for 340 square feet.

After working in bike shops for 10 years, George finally opened his own place in 1980 on East 12th Street. A rent hike saw him move to his current location at 193 E. Fourth St. just east of Avenue A in 2008.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rent hike will force Bikes, By George! to close on East 4th Street

Last day for Excel Art and Framing Store ahead of move up the block

Today is the last day in business for the 21-year-old Excel Art and Framing Store, which lost its lease at 38 Third Ave. between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street. However, as we've been noting, Excel was able to secure a new storefront a short distance away on Third Avenue between East 11th Street and East 12th Street…



According to various tipsters, the Duane Reade on the southwest corner of 10th Street is planning on expanding into the adjacent storefronts, taking up the space housing Excel and East Village Cheese in the process. (East Village Cheese is moving to East Seventh Street later this summer.)

The new Excel storefront should be open in mid-July, per the signs at the new space. Visit their website for updates.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumors: Duane Reade expansion will take over adjacent storefronts, including East Village Cheese (74 comments)

East Village Cheese makes move to 7th Street official

Excel Art and Framing Store relocating nearby on 3rd Avenue

[Updated] Veggie burgers confirmed for former Dirt Candy space on East 9th Street

An EVG reader has noted a steady stream of people coming in and out of the former Dirt Candy space on East Ninth Street this week. Paper still covers the windows on the storefront between Avenue A and First Avenue.

As we first reported on April 28, a menu for a jokey place called Chickens arrived in the window (Chicken Dip with Chicken Chips!)...


[Photo from April]

... later we heard that this will be a quick-serve restaurant serving vegetarian sandwiches. Eater confirmed yesterday that Del Posto pastry chef Brooks Headley is opening Superiority Burger, specializing in veggie burgers and other vegetarian fare.

Headley's creations have been attracting lines wherever he has sold them, including Christmas Day from the Dirt Candy location.

The space is expected to open to the public very soon. As soon as today maybe.

Dirt Candy closed here at the end of last August to move to a larger space on Allen Street.

Updated 6-25

The space is now open as of tonight.

Previously on EV Grieve:
What the cluck? Chickens in the works for former vegetarian hotspot Dirt Candy on East 9th Street

Rumor: Vegetarian sandwich shop in the works for former Dirt Candy space

Large limb down on Avenue B

[Photo via EVG reader JL]

Several EVG readers noted that a tree branch from Tompkins Square Park came crashing down onto the sidewalk on Avenue B at East Ninth Street this afternoon...

Crews arrived on the scene to survey the damage and remove the fallen limb...


[Photo by EVG reader Lola Sáenz]


[LS]

We're not sure at this moment if workers will need to remove the whole tree or just the branch.

[Updated] Cupid is missing

Last seen last night on East Third Street near Second Avenue...

H/T EVG reader Creature

Updated 6/28

A reader says that Cupid was found safe...

Updated 6/29

Here's a flyer with a new thank you note...


[Photo via Marjorie Ingall]

Report: Northeast corner of St. Mark's Place and 3rd Ave. fetching $50 million for development site

[EVG photo from early 2014]

A prime corner of the East Village is in contract for roughly $50 million.

According to The Real Deal, real-estate investor Arthur Shapolsky intends to buy three properties at the corner of Third Avenue and St. Marks Place: 23 Third Ave., 27 Third Ave. and 3 St. Mark's Place. Basically everything from McDonald's to the corner.

The sellers are members of the Gabay family, whose patriarch opened a discount fashion outlet at the corner property in 1990. Both parties confirmed the agreement, though Shapolsky declined to comment on his plans for the site, which could accommodate a 41,500-square-foot commercial building or a residential one of roughly half the size.

The Real Deal cites the proximity of this corner to Edward Minskoff's 51 Astor Place aka The IBM Watson Building aka the Death Star directly across Third Avenue.

The eastern corners of St Mark's Place and Third Avenue promise to look a whole lot different.

Late last year, the Pappas family, owners of the St. Marks Hotel, filed plans to build a 10-story mixed-use building on the hotel's lot at 2 St. Mark’s Place and Third Avenue.


[2 St. Mark's Place rendering via NY Yimby]

Report: Unidentified homeless man stops sexual assault on 7th Street, chases down assailant

A 32-year-old homeless man reportedly grabbed a 26-year-old woman around midnight Sunday outside 24 E. Seventh St. between Cooper Square and Second Avenue. According to the Post:

At that point the good-Samaritan vagrant, who is believed to sleep in nearby Cooper Square, came by and scared off the ­attacker, sources said. He then ran after the man, pursuing him for several blocks down Second Avenue to East Third Street, where police made the ­arrest.

The Post reports that the suspect, Casey Holloway, who is also homeless, was charged with sexual abuse and forcible touching. He has nearly two dozen prior ­arrests.

The identity of the man who broke up the attack was unknown.

Image via Streeteasy

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: Glenora Blackshire
Occupation: Filmmaker
Location: Houston Street and 1st Ave
Time: 4:45 on Monday, June 22

I’ve been in the neighborhood for 21 years. I came from Chicago to go to graduate school. I spent two weeks on a couch in the kitchen on the Upper East Side and hated it. Came downtown and saw a neighborhood that was exactly like the one I left in Chicago.

I moved to 1st and 1st. I don’t know, the neighborhood still felt like it had a lot of life to it. You could live here and hope to do things with your life. Rent was still cheap. It was right before the landlords went crazy. I was there for four years, then I moved across the street, and then I moved to 5th and B.

I’m a filmmaker. I came here to get an MFA in directing. I got that from the Actor’s Studio program at the New School. I was in the first class that graduated there. It was theatre direction but my background was journalism and I had a couple of kids that knocked the directing out for awhile.

When I finally came back to it I put together my journalism background and I had a bit of a filmmaking background. I started making little documentaries. I ended up making movies for liquor companies. Oddly enough, my first break in being a filmmaker and being able to make money at it was because I had been a bartender, as opposed to my background at all. I worked as a cocktail waitress at CBGB when I got out of graduate school. I worked at the Bowery Ballroom. I ended up being the editor for Richard Kern.

I was a bartender at the Bowery Ballroom and from that Diageo picked me up. They had me start making movies about Smirnoff and Guinness and stuff like that. Now I shoot a television show that’s on CBS called Toni On! New York; I’m the camera girl. We eat and drink our way across New York.

The thing that still makes it amazing here is that I walk out the door and I know tons of people in the street. It’s almost like living in a small town and yet you’re in the middle of the big city. Sometimes I look at other neighborhoods… like the West Village. I like the West Village, only because perhaps it imparts more of the feeling of being a successful artist, whereas I think the East Village somehow clings to the idea of the outsider, rebel artists, which you know, is a fun idea, but after while you gotta make some money, especially in this town. You know, maybe I wish for that sometimes.

I think it becomes less and less of a community as these giant ugly glass buildings get put in and as the stores turn into another Duane Reade or something like that. But I think that somehow there has been a group that has managed to just hang on and this is what I love about living here.

The ones of us who are still around, we’ve all known each other for so long now. I’ve seen people’s children grow up, people have seen my kids grow up, they give me reports on what my kids are doing. That’s wonderful, just to know that maybe somebody’s watching out.

But then there’s also this thing that I think all of us who are here or have been here for awhile — there’s something we all understand about this place and why it’s so special. And maybe it’s even hard to put your finger on it, but we just know what it is and that’s why we love it so much.

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

The retail space at 20 Avenue A is on the market

[Image via LoopNet]

A tipster passed along a retail listing for 20 Avenue A, a space that currently houses Chase.

From the looks of the listing at LoopNet, the bank branch will be vacating the corner space at East Second Street in early 2016.

There isn't a whole lot of information about the property:

Current Tenant: Chase Bank
Possession: January 2016
Approximate Size: Ground 4,400sf corner ( will divide) Lower Level: 4,400sf
Frontage: 133' (56' along Avenue A and 77' along East 2nd Street)
Neighbors: Union Market, Boulton & Watt, NY Sports Club, Double Down Salon, Mercury Lounge, Two Boots Pizza,
Comments: Space can be divided; all uses accepted
Asking Rent: upon request

The 62-unit apartment building here exchanged hands last summer for $26.2 million. Longtime residents at No. 20 have noted that "the nonstop renovation has plagued the building." And there was also that Rogue Halal Cart business.

Ciao for Now closing West Village location

[Image of East 12th Street location via Facebook]

Amy Miceli, who has operated Ciao for Now in the East Village the past 14 years with her husband Kevin and three kids, passed along news that they are closing their West Village branch tomorrow.

The cafe at 523 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B will continue on, she said.

"It is brutal running a business in the city," she said. "I love it and hate it every day."

Here's part of the closure notice for the space on West 10th Street between Sixth Avenue and Greenwich Avenue:

We would like to say thank you to all of the wonderful customers we have had over the past seven years. We have enjoyed serving you.

Kevin and I would like to let everyone know that we are NOT closing due to a huge rent increase from a greedy landlord. We are closing so that we can focus our energy on our family and our main location at 523 East 12th Street. In fact we have had a very reasonable landlord that has treated us with respect and patience throughout our seven years and many challenges.

Ciao moved into this beautiful spot in June of 2008. We managed to survive a Con Edison explosion that closed us down for three months in 2009, Hurricane Sandy that closed us down for a week, but destroyed our entire inventory at our main location in 2011. Those were some really tough times that took a lot of our resources and patience.

It has been the water main repair of 2014/2015 that has really put a strain on our business and ultimately caused us to say no more. We wish this was not the case. We love our west location and will miss it very much.

Fledge frenzy; plus hawks immortalized in yarn

[Photo Monday by Bobby Williams]

All three of Christo and Dora's offspring have fledged this past week... leaving the nest on the Ageloff Towers on Avenue A and East Third Street and seeing what this neighborhood has to offer, like large church clocks...


[BW]

Check out Gog in NYC and TwoHawksNYC for some comprehensive coverage.

In the meantime on Avenue A below, local businesses are getting into the red-tailed hawk spirit... with Exit9 and Downtown Yarns showing their hawk pride...









Thanks to Goggla for the yarn photos!