What the devil? Vector Gallery closes on 3rd Street

That's it for the Vector Gallery, dubbed the Official Art Gallery of Satan by its founder, on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... workers cleared out the space yesterday...



And a for rent sign via Steve Croman's 9300 Realty is now at the small storefront.

In April, the city inspected the space over complaints that the gallery was "illegally used for religious assembly." Then in March, an event/performance described as "a Vectorian Mass dedicated to the 'Israeli-Palestinian Conflict'" drew a heavy FDNY response after a report of a small fire inside the space. (Any fire was related to the Mass.)

The Gallery didn't appear to be a hit with all neighbors, as someone scrawled "Yuppie scum paying $3,900 to create unoriginal shit" on the front window.

The gallery opened last August.

And this likely won't be the last time you'll see the Gallery, which has had stints on Clinton Street, East Broadway ... and in Los Angeles.

According to its website, "VECTOR Gallery seceded from the United States, making it the newest (and smallest) independent country in the world." Not sure what the asking rent will be for the smallest country in the world. But the 325-square-foot space (with basement) is on the market for $3,250 a month, per the listing.

Previously this space housed Snack Dragon, which closed in October 2014 after being Cromanated.

H/T EVG reader Jennifer!

Checking in on the Tompkins Square Park sinkhole

The one at the Eighth Street/Avenue B entrance... now in its third smash week...



We weren't able to measure the sinkhole's circumference to see if it is expanding, and if surrounding properties, such as St. Brigid's, are in danger of being swallowed...

Gigi leaves a request for Key Food; weekend ruined?

Gigi wants to know where the Yasso S’mores frozen Greek yogurt bars are... Key's frozen dessert section doesn't have them ... and she left some Post-it® Notes about it on the freezer doors here on Avenue A...

H/T Stacie Joy

'Cleveland' rocks

An audio-only clip of "Cleveland," a track from the new record that Algiers released last week.

The band will be at Baby's All Right on July 22.

Headline H/T

[Updated] The Black Rose looks to be moving into the former Benny's Burritos space on Avenue A

Updated: This item is no longer on the July SLA docket.

The Black Rose, the bar that recently lost its space at 117 Avenue A, is looking to move a block to the south and reopen in the former corner home of Benny's Burritos, according to paperwork filed ahead of next month's CB3-SLA committee meeting.



In late April, the Marshal took possession of the bar space between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place on behalf of landlord Steve Croman. There were accusation that Croman forced the bar out, even removing the boiler.

As for Benny's, the restaurant closed on Nov. 29, 2014. The corner space at Sixth Street has sat empty since then. The Benny's awning remains up...


[Photo from yesterday]

Benny's owner Mark Merker said that they were having trouble staying afloat, as costs and rents rose while competition increased from Chipotle and other restaurants that served burritos. Benny's limped along for a few months with a smaller, mostly to-go spot next door. They closed in February 2015. This space became a 99¢ pizza place called 99¢ Pizza, which seems to do brisk business.

There's not much more information about the new Black Rose at this month. The full questionnaire isn't online yet. (Updated: The PDF of the questionnaire is here.) And it will be somewhat new given that much of the bar's interior ended up on the corner of Avenue A and Seventh Street, where Jerry launched the short-lived Tompkins Square Park Art Bar.

The July CB3-SLA committee meeting is July 17 at 6:30 p.m. at a rather strange venue — Ian Schrager's luxury Public Hotel, 215 Chrystie St.

Mango Mango bringing more dessert to St. Mark's Place

Signage has arrived upstairs at 19-21 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue for Mango Mango, a dessert shop with multiple locations that launched in Chinatown in 2013.

Here's more about them via their website:

The aspect of our business is to serve traditional Hong Kong style sweet soup dessert to modern fusion sweets. We use the finest ingredients and a sophisticated method of cooking to create innovative handmade desserts to serve our customers. Most of our desserts are made with mango from the soup base to the pastries and drinks that we cater to our customers. Mangos are liked by all ages because of the sweetness that it brings and provides 100% of vitamin C.

The space adjacent to the Chipotle and above St. Mark's Market was previously home to Beyond Vape, which went up in smoke closed in January.

Wasan East Village has apparently closed on 4th Street

An EVG reader shares this photo, noting that Wasan East Village has closed on 4th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. Per the reader: "Restaurant's dark and the phone is out. Yelp and Open Table say permanently closed. Ugh."

The Japanese restaurant opened here in 2010. Wasan opened an outpost on Bergen Street at Fifth Avenue in Park Slope two years ago.

Bluemercury rising on 3rd Avenue

Bluemercury, the luxury beauty retailer and spa, is ready to open on the southwest corner of Third Avenue and 13th Street.

Workers yesterday were spotted hoisting the BM signage...



The company has 120-plus locations nationwide. Among other brands, BM sells Kiehl's products, which has its flagship location on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and 13th Street.

Gothic Cabinet Craft shop closed in January 2016 after 47 years in business at this spot.

H/T EVG reader Harry Weiner!

Previously on EV Grieve:
On 3rd and 13th, Bluemercury arriving; dinosaur mural not yet extinct

Economy Candy's 80th anniversary retro signage

Heading into the Lower East Side for a moment... where the third-generation owners of Economy Candy at 108 Rivington St. installed some retro signage modeled after the store's 1960s storefront. (See the Lo-Down for more.)

Here's their inspiration (when the store was a few doors away here between Orchard and Essex) ...


[Via @EconomyCandy]

Jerry's art on the corner

[Click to go big]

Some of Jerry's art that has been on Seventh Street and Avenue A outside Tompkins Square Park ... photos by Daniel...

Push-in robbery on Avenue B was actually a drug deal gone bad: NYPD

Push in robbery in #EastVillage leaves tenant with stab wounds Latest @firstatfour & #abc7ny pic.twitter.com/ysMnfZ6esd

— Tim Fleischer (@TimFleischer7) June 26, 2017

There were multiple media reports earlier this week about a push-in robbery on Avenue B at 13th Street. A man reportedly pushed his way inside an apartment, stabbed the female resident multiple times, and fled with $500.

However, according to the Police Blotter in this week's issue of The Villager, that's not actually what happened.

Police say that the resident, named as Cassidy Helmken, "had made an arrangement for a drug deal — she was apparently buying — but it turned violent."

“It was a drug transaction that went bad,” Captain Vincent Greany, commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct, told The Villager.

A search warrant subsequently turned up a quantity of alleged cocaine and drug paraphernalia at her apartment.

According to police, it was not a home invasion: Helmken apparently willingly opened the door for the suspect.

Police charged Helmken, who reportedly has three prior arrests, with multiple counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance and two counts of criminal use of drug paraphernalia.

The investigation is ongoing.

H/T Steven

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Avenue B resident stabbed during push-in robbery

Report: Driver charged in collision that killed cyclist Kelly Hurley on 1st Avenue & 9th Street

[Photo from April 11]

The driver of the box truck who fatally struck a cyclist in April on Ninth Street at First Avenue has been arrested, according to published reports.

Per DNAInfo, who first had the story:

Kyung H. Hyun, 59, was arrested at 1:57 p.m. and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian — the city's "right of way" law under the Mayor's Vision Zero initiative — failure to exercise due care, and making an improper left turn, according to authorities.

On April 5, Kelly Hurley was riding in the northbound bike lane on First Avenue around 7:20 a.m. She had the green light at Ninth Street when Hyun reportedly made a left turn from First Avenue's right-most lane.

Previous reports stated that he had come to a complete stop on First Avenue before making the abrupt left turn onto Ninth Street across four lanes of traffic. He struck Hurley, who had the right of way. She died the following week from her injuries. Hurley was 31.

Police gave Hyun a desk appearance ticket. He’s due in Manhattan criminal court on Aug. 29, the Daily News reported.

CB3's Transportation Committee recently recommended that the Department of Transportation consider more carefully separating bike and car traffic in the so-called "mixing zones" found at intersections like Ninth Street and First Avenue. Read more about that here.

As DNAinfo's Allegra Hobbs reported in April:

Captain Vincent Greany, the Ninth Precinct's commanding officer, has condemned the zones as problematic, noting at a community council meeting after Hurley's death that it is "almost impossible" to see a cyclist while merging into their lane "unless you physically turn your head and look back."

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Kelly Hurley

Reactions to Kelly Hurley's death

NYPD offers explanation into Kelly Hurley's death: 'she slipped'

More dessert choices for Avenue A as Eggloo opens this weekend

Eggloo, which specializes in Hong Kong egg waffles and ice cream sandwiches, is opening this weekend at 147 Avenue A between Ninth Street and 10th Street. (H/T B+B)

Mark your calendars for our Ave A Eggloo grand opening. Stop by 7/1-2 for our BOGO deal on all cones and NEW ice cream sandwiches! 🍨🍧🍧 TAG A FRIEND 👭

A post shared by Eggloo (@myeggloo) on Jun 23, 2017 at 3:48pm PDT

This will be Eggloo's second NYC location. They opened on Mulberry Street in February 2016. And as amNew York reported at the time: "Teenagers out of school for the holiday crowded the narrow entryway, blaring Taylor Swift, and eagerly ordered matcha waffles griddled to order, stuffed with a plush scoop of homemade strawberry ice cream, topped with mochi, colorful cereal and more."

Eggloo will be just one storefront away from another new dessert place — Gelarto.

Other nearby dessert places opening soon are Becky's Bites, the cream cheese shop on Seventh Street, and Stuffed Ice Cream on First Avenue. That Stuffed signage arrived on Monday...


[Photo by Steven]

As for 147 Avenue A, the storefront in prison-bound landlord Steve Croman's building has been vacant for the past two years. La Lucha closed here after six years in business, citing "the outrageous cost of operating in the village."

The Marshal seizes Mamani Pizza on Avenue A

The Marshal came calling at Mamani Pizza at 151 Avenue A on Tuesday... the landlord is now in possession of the 99-cent sliceria between Ninth Street and 10th Street...



As always in these cases, this doesn't necessarily mean the end for the business. (The space had been on the market several years ago.)

The Marshal seized Mamani's former next-door neighbor at No. 151 last summer — TakeMeHome Rotisserie Chicken. (Brown paper is up in the windows there now. Looks like a new tenant is on the way in. Dessert maybe?)

No. 151 is owned by Raj 151 Avenue A LL and managed by Marolda Properties, per public records.

City pools open today; and a reminder to have a swimsuit to enter the pool area (not my rules)

[Photo at Dry Dock from Sunday]

The Parks Department opens the city's 55 outdoor public pools for the summer today (Thursday!).

Around here, this means Hamilton Fish Pool on Pitt and East Houston ... the Dry Dock Pool on Avenue D and East 10th Street ... and the Tompkins Square Pool (mini pool for kids!) ...

Most pools are open from 11 a.m. through 7 p.m., with a break for pool cleaning between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

There are rules though to help govern our swimming season. Some helpful pointers via the Parks Department website (bolded a few things for you):

What to Wear
You’ll need to have a swimsuit to enter the pool area. We may choose to check men’s shorts for a lining if we can’t tell if they are wearing a bathing suit. Feel the need to cover up from the sun? Throw on a plain white shirt or white hat and you’re set. We don’t allow shirts with colors on them on the deck.

Information for Parents
Thinking of bringing floaties? It’s safer to leave them at home and just stay in the shallow end of the pool until everyone learns to swim. Want to venture deeper? Try some of our free swimming classes.

Babies or toddlers can put on swim diapers before they head into the water. While we may be able to find a place to park your stroller, we can’t keep an eye on it for you, so bring it at your own risk.

What to Bring
Make sure you have a sturdy lock when you head out to the pool. It will keep your valuables safe, and let you hit the water feeling more secure about your belongings. Locks are required to enter, and we will not accept luggage locks.

What Not to Bring
You’ll need to leave food, glass bottles, electronic devices, and newspapers at home. Unbound periodicals tend to blow around and create litter, food can be messy to clean up after, and there’s too much water around to make sure your electronics stay safe. Just to be on the safe side, we also recommend leaving valuables like jewelry and credit cards at home.

Again, these are not my rules. So don't take out your no-floatie frustrations here.

Finally, go here for info about the Hamilton Fish Pool Lap Swim program.

Updating: Report of a fire at 60 E. 9th St.

[Photo by Vinny & O]

There's a report of a fire at 60 E. Ninth St., a six-floor building called The Hamilton at Broadway (the 200-plus-unit co-op sits between Ninth Street and Eighth Street)...

FDNYalerts MAN 2-ALARM 60 E 9 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON ROOFTOP OF BUILDING,

— FDNYalerts (@FDNYAlerts) June 28, 2017

A look via ABC 7... (H/T Doug)



Updated 6:27

Via Grant Shaffer...





... and the view from Astor Place via an EVG reader...



Patch reports that 200 firefighters are on the scene.

... a view north from Astor Place on Broadway via EVG reader 8E...



... a view from Fourth Avenue and 10th Street via EVG reader Charlie Chen...



Updated 7:50 p.m.

Astor Place looking west by Grant Shaffer



The view west on Ninth Street from Tompkins Square Park... smoke visible in the distance... photo via Steven...



The FDNY reports that one firefighter has been injured ... still no word on cause or other injuries...

#FDNY members continue operating at 5-alarm fire, 60 East 9 Street MN. 1 minor injury to a Firefighter reported at this time pic.twitter.com/Xjc0YE45PQ

— FDNY (@FDNY) June 28, 2017

Updated 9 p.m.

Several witnesses said that the fire appeared to intensify as time went on... the FDNY elevated the status from two to five alarms during the early evening.

The Post reports that the building's residents "were forced to gathered outside the building and watch in horror as the fire intensified Wednesday evening."

“I work on Bleecker and by the time I got to Great Jones I looked up and saw it was my building that the smoke was coming [from], the first thing I thought about was my dogs were trapped in the building,” said James Abraham, owner of the nearby Bleecker Street Bar.

“As I was tying to cross 8th street, I was stopped by someone, and they said, ‘No one is getting in the building, if you try to get in I’ll have you arrested.’ So I walked around to 9th street and went in to get my dogs.”

Fearing for the pups’ lives, Abraham navigated his way through the thick black smoke and up to his sixth floor apartment — where he found his four-legged best friends frantically waiting.

“I was very concerned and very focused,” he said. “They were a little distressed. All the noise, smoke and commotion definitely agitated them.”

Updated 9:30 p.m.

The FDNY has issued an under control...

FDNYalerts MAN 5-ALARM 60 E 9 ST, MIXED OCCUPANCY UNDER CONTROL

— FDNYalerts (@FDNYAlerts) June 29, 2017

...and some play by play on how the FDNY brought it under control...

The members made a very aggressive interior attack to stop this fire - #FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro at 5-alarm fire in Manhattan pic.twitter.com/E5zMqJ0mjC

— FDNY (@FDNY) June 29, 2017

Updated 9:45 p.m.



Updated 6/29 7:30 a.m.
No one in the building was hurt, but 16 firefighters suffered minor injuries, according it NBC 4.

As for the residents:

The Red Cross responded to the scene and said more than 200 households were forced from their home. Only about half of them were allowed back inside, the other half of the building remains evacuated.

Investigators reportedly believe the fire started in the kitchen cooking area of a ground-floor deli on Eighth Street and then traveled undetected up a shaft to the roof.

Meanwhile, southbound N and R trains won't be stopping at Broadway/Eighth...

Details about the service change in effect on the N and R lines pic.twitter.com/ZTavPCWYkc

— NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) June 29, 2017

Updated 9:30 a.m.

Here's a look this morning... the damaged appears to be contained to the Eighth Street side... there's still a heavy FDNY presence on the scene... along with the Red Cross...

Report: Rent Guidelines Board approve increases between 1.25 and 2 percent

The Rent Guidelines Board approved rent increases last night for residents living in the city’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.

The approved increases are 1.25 percent on 1-year leases and 2 percent on two-year agreements ... this after ratifying rent freezes the previous two years.

Back in April, the RGB voted to recommend a 1 to 3 percent increase on 1-year leases, and a 2 to 4 percent increase on 2-year leases.

Per Curbed today:

The final vote erred on the more conservative side of those recommendations, but for both sides — tenants and landlords/owners — that may still be unsatisfactory. Tenants’ rights groups, who showed up to the meeting in droves, wanted a third consecutive freeze; landlords, meanwhile, wanted bigger hikes to offset the costs allegedly incurred as a result of the last two years of freezes.

According to the Post:

Tenants who packed a Baruch College auditorium for the board hearing Tuesday night delayed its 7 p.m. start for more than an hour, chanting “How low can you go?” and dancing the limbo in front of the stage.

The band is keeping us in good spirits as we ask Rent Guidelines Board "how low can you go?!" pic.twitter.com/ILBYimLSLP

— Carlina Rivera (@CarlinaRivera) June 27, 2017

Out and About in the East Village

In this ongoing feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village or Lower East Side.



By James Maher

Name: Sierra Gilboe Zamarripa (and Cecilia)
Occupation: Owner, Lovewild Design
Location: La Plaza Cultural, 9th Street and Avenue C
Time: Tuesday, June 13 at 4 p.m.

I’m from 10th and A. In high school my dad bought a house in the South Bronx, and we ended up leaving because when I was a baby we were stuck in a drive-by. So we moved to the East Village to be safe, and it was still scary then, but it was better than the South Bronx.

My parents had a store on 10th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A called Wandering Dragon — it was an antiques and oddities store. There was lots of taxidermy, two-headed calves, weird medical instruments, general antiques, wax heads — just every weird thing. The store was a constant array of characters wandering in and out, street people, artists, writers, occasional celebrities and celebrities to be. A lot of weirdos! Although rarely open, it was never dull. There was also a Times article that profiles our house and all the crazy taxidermy and stuff in it. The kids on the block called it the voodoo house and it wouldn’t get robbed because they were so scared of it — it looked insane.

After my father passed away last year, our friend David Wolen articulated our lives at the shop better than I ever could:

"The Wandering Dragon Trading Company was an amazingly strange and impossibly tiny store in the East Village. It was NEVER open but we would walk by all the time and stare in the windows at the weird antiques, taxidermy, wax mannequin heads, glass eyeballs, and skulls. One night we were coming home from a bar at 3 o’clock in the morning and the door was open and 1920s jazz was playing inside. We went in and entered the magical world of Adrian Gilboe."

This was when the neighborhood was a lot more colorful. As a kid, I would play junkie and try to gnaw off the neighbors’ kids ears. Now I look back and I’m like, ‘Oh my god.’ I had a lot of unconventional babysitters as a kid on the block. Jay Yuenger and the other guys of White Zombie were some. There were always amazing people around us — my baby photos were taken by Spencer Tunick.

On 10th between 1st and A was Chester — he had a string of storefronts, and he had like a smoothie bar but really he just sold pot, and I was probably the only kid that went in and ordered smoothies. It just seemed normal.

I met my husband Mike in the Tompkins dog run after each of us had just adopted dogs. My dog Lucy was adopted from the short-lived rescue on 10th Street, which coincidentally was one of the storefronts I grew up in. Our story makes for a good East Village meet-cute. He was a squatter and he’s also in a New York punk band from high school called Thusla Doom. He got the apartment because the city sold it to the people who were squatting in there for like $250 as long as we did all the work ourselves. There is some taxidermy in our apartment – there is a two-headed calf and then some birds, which were all inherited.

I opened a business on June 24 called Lovewild Design in South Williamsburg [at 348 S. 4th St.]. I started doing custom invitations and letterheads in May of 2014 and I made a little line of products for markets for Hester Street Fair and people actually liked the products that I made, so it just sort of snowballed. And now my mom works for me full time and Cecilia works with me all the time, which is really nice, sometimes. Cecilia will grow up in the shop like I did, but it won’t be at all the same.

We do custom graphic design, but we also have a line of stationery that is plantable, so it’ll grow flowers. We have a line of teas, various home goods, screen printed totes and towels, and then recently we came up with a line of active gifts, where a percentage goes to Planned Parenthood or the ACLU.

The store is in South Williamsburg, which is a lot like Avenue C and Avenue D like 5 to 10 years ago, with the Hispanics mixing with younger white kids. My dream would have definitely been to open my shop up over here but that wasn’t possible due to the rents. It just seemed like an inevitable path. I grew up as an entrepreneur, and my parents and my grandmother were entrepreneurs. I used to take things, just find random things outside or in the shop, and I would fix them up and sell them right outside the shop, and then I had a shoeshine business, and then I sold milkshakes, and this was all before the age of 6.

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

A new lease for Three of Cups

Three of Cups has been on the northwest corner of Fifth Street and First Avenue since 1992... and it appears they will be around for longer now. The owners of the Italian restaurant took to social media this past weekend to announce that they had secured a new lease...

Fledgling No. 1

Here's a quick update via Goggla on Christo and Dora's lone offspring (the couple's 10th overall) this year in Tompkins Square Park. (Hawk watchers apparently have multiple nicknames for the juvenile hawk, including Fledgling #1, Ten, Manhattan, BioTen.)

For starters, you can see how large she has gotten in just the past two weeks since fledging.

In the top photo from this past weekend, a blue jay is dive bombing No. 1. Per Goggla: "Although she hasn't done anything to deserve their bullying yet, they have been giving her a hard time."

And in this photo, she is eating on a fence in the Park. "This was a monumental moment as it was the first time she retrieved dropped food from the ground rather than begging Christo to go get it for her," Goggla said...



Find more red-tailed hawk updates from Goggla here.

Meanwhile, Bobby Williams took these photos of Fledgling No. 1 in the Park yesterday...