[Updated] The Alamo returns to Astor Place on Wednesday (unless it rains)

[Image via the Village Alliance]

After being in safekeeping the past 19 months, Astor Place's centerpiece — the Alamo — will return for re-installation on Wednesday.

This welcome news comes courtesy of the weekly Astor Place Construction bulletin (PDF) issued on Friday...



Note that the rain date is June 29. (The forecast does NOT call for any rain at the moment.)

Officials had been vague about an exact return date (June/early summer) until now.

Leading up to its return, the Village Alliance is holding a Creativity Cubed event at Astor Place through Tuesday.

Per the event notice:

Alamo Cube fans, young and old, will have the opportunity to craft and design their very own mini spinning Alamo Cube, and create new memories and stories for the future.

Visit Creativity Cubed today, Astor Place. Make your own spinning Alamo Cube & see the Strangers Project. FREE event pic.twitter.com/GjlPUwW0wl

— Astor Place NYC (@AstorPlaceNYC) June 19, 2016

The return might come as a relief to some (parody accounts)...

First person to make a life size reproduction wins and it will go on permanent display as I lost the original. https://t.co/j9IQYp6tT6

— Amanda Burden-Christ (@A_Burden_Christ) June 18, 2016

As you know, the area around the cube has been undergoing a reconstruction these past few years. No word on when it will all be officially complete.

And the Alamo won't be the only familiar installation to return. BoweryBoogie reported on June 13 that part of Jim Power’s “Mosaic Trail” will also return to Astor Place later this summer.

Workers packed up and carted off the Alamo for safekeeping for the duration of the reconstruction back on Nov. 25, 2014. The cube was installed here in 1967.

Updated 6/21

The Parks Department is now saying that the Alamo won't return until August. Per amNY:

Although there were fliers posted in the Village that gave a June 22 date for the art piece’s re-installation, the agency said it is being inspected by a conservator for final preparation.

“NYC Parks has historically contributed its expertise to the upkeep of the Cube,” Parks spokeswoman Maeri Ferguson said in a statement.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Alamo returns to Astor Place this Halloween

Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project

This is what it might be like living inside the Alamo on Astor Place

RIP Tony Rosenthal, the sculptor who created the Astor Place cube

Reminders: Meeting tomorrow to discuss construction timeline at 432 E. 14th St.

We mentioned this in the post on Friday about the retail-residential building for 432-438 E. 14th St. at the former Peter Stuyvesant Post office...

Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and CB3 are hosting a public meeting with reps for the developer. The meeting is solely to discuss the impact of the construction on immediate neighbors. We're told that there will not be any further discussion about variance plans (from 8 to 12 floors), at this time ... the meeting is at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow (June 20) at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on 14th Street and First Avenue.

Flyers are up around the new development just west of Avenue A...

Cooper Square street renovations claim 1st exhaust system

(That we know about...)

Photo by Derek Berg

Last weekend for Barbara Feinman Millinery before storefront move on 7th Street

Tomorrow is the last day for the hat shop (and other accessories) at its current address, 76 E. Seventh St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The shop, which was established in 1998, has new space a few storefronts away at No. 80.

Apparently there's lots of stuff on sale...


[Image via Facebook]

Feinman retired ... the new store is now know as East Village Hats, and run by Julia Emily Knox.

Murder trial starts for high driver who crashed into East Village Farm and Grocery

[Photo from June 19, 2013, via @Xeus]

The murder trial started yesterday for Queens resident Shaun Martin, who prosecutors say was drunk and high on PCP when he plowed his car into East Village Farm and Grocery on Second Avenue on June 19, 2013, which led to the death of florist Mohammed Akkas Ali.

"He wasn't just speeding, he was accelerating," Assistant District Attorney Constantine Coritsidis argued in his opening statement in Manhattan Supreme Court, as the Daily News reported.

Martin was reportedly driving 80 mph in a rented white Nissan Altima when hit a fire hydrant, a muni meter and a 25-foot tree, then jumped a curb and smashed into East Village Farm and Grocery at the corner of East Fourth Street. This happened just before 7 a.m., as Ali was finishing his shift. Four other people sustained injuries in the collision.

Ali suffered serious brain trauma and died on Jan. 1, 2014, due to complications from his injuries. He was 63.

Per the Daily News:

The accused killer ... shied away from looking at the harrowing footage of the moment he barreled into Ali.

He buried his face in his hands as the video, a main piece of evidence in the prosecution's case, was played in open court.

Martin, 35, faces up to life in prison for charges that include second-degree murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and first-degree assault.

Martin's attorney, who declined to give an opening statement, also opted for a bench trial. Justice Melissa Jackson will decide Martin's fate.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Car smashes into East Village Farm & Grocery on Second Avenue; 6 reported injured

Crowdsourcing campaign for injured East Village Farm and Grocery worker raises nearly $19,000

Report: Injured East Village Farm and Grocery florist has lost his memory, use of his voice

[Updated] RIP Akkas Ali

The East Village Folk Festival is tomorrow night at Theatre 80

This info just arrived in the EVG inbox...

Assembling for a grand one-time historical performance, Malcolm Holcombe, Greg Trooper, Diana Jones, David Massengill, Paul Sachs, Amy Allison, Sandy Bell and Alan Kaufman will take the stage on June 19 at Theatre 80 St. Marks ...

Head over to the Theatre 80 website here for more details on the festival and tickets. The show starts at 7 p.m.

Theatre 80 is at 80 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

1 a.m., Astor Place, June 17

Good mackerel sky from early this morning. Photo courtesy of D. Meretzky.

It might get Loud

The Ramones with "Loudmouth." (H/T Alex.)

Meanwhile, the "Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk" exhibit is at the Queens Museum through July 31.

Sunday afternoon at the Museum, co-curator Marc H. Miller moderates two conversations around the theme, "Pop to Punk: Ramones and Visual Art." Guests include Chris Stein of Blondie and John Holmstrom, co-founder of PUNK magazine. Details here.

And on June 25, the Museum is hosting Ramones Mania, which will include book signings, film screenings, a flea market, live music and more. Details here.

Also this next Friday at noon...

SPECIAL: Friday (6/24) @evgrieve hosts w/guest 'punk curator' Marc H. Miller, 12p-2pm ET | 9a-11am PT, live on East Village Radio. #ramones

— East Village Radio (@EVRadio) June 17, 2016

American Deli & Grocery coming to 1st Avenue

[Photo by William Klayer]

Renovations have been ongoing at 139 First Ave. ... and today workers hung the signage for the new business — American Deli & Grocery, which is promising "delivery in minutes!"

The space here between St. Mark's and Ninth Street was previously home to Scarab Lounge, a hookah joint.

EV Grieve Etc.: East Village retail district options; Mermaid Parade rundown

[Discarded $100 mattress on 7th Street by Derek Berg]

Community group and CB3 exploring possibilities of a special retail district (DNAinfo)

A feature on Ravi DeRossi, who owns multiple bars and restaurants in the neighborhood (The New York Times)

Fledgling photos from Tompkins Square Park (Laura Goggin Photography)

Details on the Mermaid Parade tomorrow in Coney Island (Sheepshead Bites)

Things looking up for the Essex Street Market? (BoweryBoogie)

"Heavy Metal Parking Lot" turns 30 (Anthology Film Archives)

The best independent bookstores in NYC (Gothamist)

Business at the great bookshop Three Lives & Company is booming. However, the owners may need to find a new storefront after its home on West 10th Street is up for sale (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Ramones-spotting (Flaming Pablum)

Design contest winners proposed some L train alternatives (Curbed)

A look at ABC No Rio's last show (Slum Goddess ... previously)

Remembering the General Slocum tragedy (Off the Grid)

A new generation returning to revitalize Chinatown (The Lo-Down)

...and tomorrow at the Sixth Street Community Center between Avenue B and Avenue C...



Lastly, will someone please check the contents of this trash bag for us? On Ninth Street between A and First Avenue... Thanks!


[Photo via William Klayer]

Abraço looking to move into a larger space across 7th Street

[Abraço before opening the other day]

The owners of Abraço, the popular coffee shop/cafe, have plans to move into a larger space across from their current Seventh Street home.

EVG correspondent Steven says that Jamie McCormick, who runs the shop along with his wife Elizabeth Quijada, had been searching for new space ... and decided to stay right on the block between First Avenue and Second Avenue when the former Krystal's Cafe 81 became available.


[Photo yesterday by Steven]

Krystal's Cafe 81 closed earlier this year. (Until Jan. 1, 2005, the address was home to Verchovyna Tavern aka George's Bar aka Bar 81.)



With the larger space, Abraço will also expand their menu offerings ... they are also seeking a liquor license, and will appear before CB3's SLA committee on Monday night.

According to the questionnaire (PDF here) posted on the CB3 website, the proposed hours are daily from 8 a.m. to midnight.

The questionnaire also includes a menu...



Abraço opened at 86 E. Seventh St. in October 2007.

The CB3 SLA committee meeting is Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the Thelma Burdick Community Room, 10 Stanton St. (corner of the Bowery).

Cholo Noir wants to bring Mexican BBQ and art to East 6th Street

Plans are in the works for a restaurant serving "Mexican-style BBQ" with a gallery space at 503 E. Sixth St. near Avenue A.

The proprietors, Lennard Camarillo and Arlene Lozano, will appear before CB3's SLA committee on Monday for a new liquor license for the space.

According to the questionnaire (PDF) posted at the CB3 website, the proposed hours for Cholo Noir are 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday-Friday with a noon-time opening on Saturday and Sunday. The questionnaire shows a configuration with 15 tables accommodating 45 diners as well as a 12-seat bar.

In 2014, Camarillo and Lozano won the New York Public Library's annual business plan competition, scoring the top prize of $15,000.

No. 503 was home for five weeks to Long Bay, a Vietnamese restaurant, last spring. Several years earlier the space housed Gladiators Gym.

The CB3 SLA committee meeting is Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the Thelma Burdick Community Room, 10 Stanton St. (corner of the Bowery).

[Updated] Report: CB3 wants alternatives for a larger 438 E. 14th St.

[EVG file photo]

As we first reported on May 31, reps for the new development at 438 E. 14h St. are lobbying to receive a zoning variance for a 12-story building — four more than the area's zoning allows.

In an analysis of the plot, the developers said that they found "unusually elevated groundwater levels and exceedingly soft and unstable soil (owing to the presence of an underground stream) ... result in extraordinary construction costs." (Apparently those soil samples from September 2014 didn't reveal this.)

On Wednesday night, the reps made their case with Community Board 3's Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee. It did not go all that well, per DNAinfo's Allegra Hobbs:

“If you guys didn’t do your homework, I’m not sure why the community has to suffer for your error,” said Alexis Adler of the East 12th Street Block Association. “It is going to change the total character of our neighborhood….We’re losing affordable housing and people are being pushed out so you can put up taller buildings.”

Preservationists, residents and block association reps gathered at Community Board 3’s Land Use Subcommittee meeting on Wednesday to rail against the plan, arguing that the added height would alter the neighborhood’s character, while the added market-rate units would only threaten to displace longtime locals.

In the end, the committee reportedly tabled the vote and asked the reps to return after "exploring alternatives to increasing building height and requesting a greater percentage of 'affordable' units.'"

The property here near Avenue A in Stuyraq was home for years to the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office and long lines.

Updated 11:30 a.m.

On Monday, Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and CB3 are hosting a public meeting with reps for the developer. The meeting is solely to discuss the impact of the construction on immediate neighbors. There will not be any further discussion about variance plans, etc. ... the meeting is at 5:30 p.m. June 20 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on 14th Street and First Avenue.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office slated to be demolished

The former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office will yield to an 8-story residential building

New residential building at former 14th Street PO will feature a quiet lounge, private dining room

A look at the new building coming to the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office property

Celebrating 40 years of La Plaza Cultural

[Photo of La Plaza from March]

La Plaza Cultural, the community garden on the southwest corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street, is celebrating 40 years tomorrow night with performances by Lydia Lunch, James Chance and the Missing Foundation, among many others.

Here's more information about the event:

Join us for a party for the 40th anniversary of one of NYC’s most forward-thinking venues, a storied legacy of the 1970’s downtown art scene: La Plaza Cultural, a green, multi-use, civic, performance space, spread over a third of a city block on east 9th street at avenue C. The evening will celebrate downtown NYC's legacy of visionary, outsider music and art, social activism, community, and sustainable design.

La Plaza was the brainchild of guerrilla activists, including the Latino group CHARAS, who seedbombed the trash-filled vacant lot in 1976. La Plaza's founders and early supporters included era-defining artists such as Buckminster Fuller, who built one of his geodesic domes onsite, the anti-architect Gordon Matta-Clark and legendary street artist Keith Haring. Its 40th anniversary party will feature performances by legendary artists of the period and emerging artists alike.

Live Music:

Lydia Lunch
James Chance
Missing Foundation
SenseNet
Collin Crowe

DJ set:
Sal P (of Liquid Liquid)
Etienne Pierre Duguay

Performance:
"Birth" by FOLD

You can find more about the evening at the Facebook event page here. The event is from 5-9:30 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday).

Here's more on La Plaza's history and how community gardeners came together to rebuild after Sandy...

Spotting some 'Deuce' coupes on 2nd Avenue

EVG contributor Derek Berg spotted some of the vintage cars used for filming "The Deuce," HBO's upcoming drama series starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, in parts of the neighborhood today (like on Seventh Street)...







Here's more on the series via Deadline:

Written by "The Wire" creator David Simon and longtime collaborator George Pelecanos and directed by Michelle MacLaren, The Deuce follows the HBO blue logostory of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world that existed there until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic, and the renewed real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence.

And are some props from Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ...

Reader report: Workers dig up streetcar tracks on 3rd Avenue

An EVG reader/tipster shared these images from last evening... where workers have been putting in a new roadway on Third Avenue between Astor Place and Ninth Street/Stuyvesant Street as part of the Astor Place Reconstruction project ...

The reader thinks that workers have unearthed the former streetcar tracks along here...

"In digging out the roadbed for Third Avenue near Stuyvesant crews uncovered what I believe to be crossovers for the Third Avenue and crosstown streetcars. It may be difficult to see in the photos but one axis runs east/west (Stuyvesant) and the other runs parallel to Third Avenue."

When the Stuyvesant and Ninth Street mini-parks were built I remember Stuyvesant Street tracks being dug out."

These crossovers are still so well anchored that workers couldn't pull them out. Per the reader: "The crew has been cutting them into small pieces. They are at it again today."



No word on how this might delay the project...

According to the Village Crosstown Trolley Coalition: "The 8th St. line ran its last streetcar on March 3, 1936, clearing the way for the crosstown bus and ever-increasing swarms of automobiles and trucks."

Off the Grid has some nice trolley history here.

A Hollywood print shop for 7th Street

An EVG reader noted the arrival today of signage for a new business coming to Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue — a print shop... don't know anything else about the place at this time, such as if it is a new business or one that relocated.

The previous tenant at No. 76 was the Jasna Hair Studio.

Updated 1:53

Never mind! This is just a set dressing for the new David Simon series filming on the block today...

Defunking defunct Funkiberry

Yesterday afternoon, workers removed the iconic Funkiberry signage from its former home of nine months at Third Avenue and 12th Street.

As previously noted, workers are renovating the corner space to make way for a pizzeria.

Thanks to Harry Weiner for the photo and headline!

Enjoy 'A Summer in Paris' next month in Tompkins Square Park

The Films on the Green series — the free outdoor French film festival produced since 2008 — is underway again this summer (OK, late spring) in city parks.

With the theme "A summer in Paris", Films on the Green 2016 will offer a striking portrait of the City of Lights, its urban landscape, and cultural diversity. A selection of classic, New Wave, and contemporary films will showcase the city’s aesthetic, cultural, and cinematic history from a dramatically unconventional angle through stories of love, romance, adolescence, female identity, and urban life in Parisian and its surrounding suburbs.

Tompkins Square Park will host two excellent movies next month by Agnès Varda and Eric Rohmer ...

Friday, July 22, 8:30 pm
Cleo From 5 To 7
By Agnès Varda, 1962, 1h30
________________________________________

Friday, July 29, 8:30 pm
Boyfriends and Girlfriends
By Eric Rohmer, 1987, PG, 1h42

People's Pops not returning to the East Village

Back in July 2011, the team behind Brooklyn Flea and Chelsea Market regular People's Pops opened a, uh, pop-up stand on Seventh Street near First Avenue...

To date, the People's Pops pop-up stand has been quiet so far this season. Word is People's Pop will not be returning to this location. (We reached out to PP for comment.)

There are still numerous locations for PP's locally sourced fruit pops and shaved ice, such as in Park Slope or on the High Line.

And no word on what might become of the PP structure alongside Golden Food Market here.

Thanks to EVJackie for the tip!