It's that time of year again, at least at Kmart on Astor Place... (hopefully the Halloween stuff is still out) ... thanks to @supagirl13 for the photo...
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Dreaming of a Bluelight Christmas
It's that time of year again, at least at Kmart on Astor Place... (hopefully the Halloween stuff is still out) ... thanks to @supagirl13 for the photo...
About Bodega, a start-up that aspires to be the new neighborhood market
[At the former Golden Food Market on 7th and 1st]
A story today at Fast Company that may be of interest... From the article, titled Two Ex-Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete:"
Paul McDonald, who spent 13 years as a product manager at Google, wants to make this corner store a thing of the past. Today, he is launching a new concept called Bodega with his cofounder Ashwath Rajan, another Google veteran. Bodega sets up five-foot-wide pantry boxes filled with non-perishable items you might pick up at a convenience store. An app will allow you to unlock the box and cameras powered with computer vision will register what you’ve picked up, automatically charging your credit card. The entire process happens without a person actually manning the “store.”
Bodega’s logo is a cat, a nod to the popular bodega cat meme on social media – although if the duo gets their way, real felines won’t have brick-and-mortar shops to saunter around and take naps in much longer. “The vision here is much bigger than the box itself,” McDonald says. “Eventually, centralized shopping locations won’t be necessary, because there will be 100,000 Bodegas spread out, with one always 100 feet away from you.”
And...
I asked McDonald point-blank about whether he’s worried that the name Bodega might come off as culturally insensitive. Not really. “I’m not particularly concerned about it,” he says. “We did surveys in the Latin American community to understand if they felt the name was a misappropriation of that term or had negative connotations, and 97% said ‘no’. It’s a simple name and I think it works.”
But some members of the Hispanic community don’t feel the same way. Take Frank Garcia, the chairman of the New York State Coalition of Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who represents thousands of bodega owners. Garcia’s grandfather was the head of the Latin Grocery Association in the 1960s and was part of the original community of immigrants who helped settle on the term “bodega” for the corner store. “To me, it is offensive for people who are not Hispanic to use the name ‘bodega,’ to make a quick buck,'”Garcia says. “It’s disrespecting all the mom-and-pop bodega owners that started these businesses in the ’60s and ’70s.”
Bodega began trending on Twitter this morning...
Trying to destroy bodegas with a startup called “Bodega” that has a bodega cat logo is… just awful. https://t.co/1W4pSnXoXn
— hello i am anil (@anildash) September 13, 2017
my bodega owners are yemeni immigrants and the bodega not only affords them a life in new york but also allows them to send money back home
— Jessica Roy (@JessicaKRoy) September 13, 2017
Weird that they're calling this heinous vending machine "Bodega" and not "Gentrification Box" https://t.co/xPCozclRRD
— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) September 13, 2017
If Bodega were called Nile or Mississippi, would reaction have been the same? FreshDirect, Amazon are active in NYC & not great for bodegas.
— Anjali Khosla (@hellomountfuji) September 13, 2017
I see the Bodega backlash backlash has begun.
— Ian Bogost (@ibogost) September 13, 2017
*rubs hands together* Just as the machine learning predicted.
Updated
NcDonald addressed the backlash and offered an apology in a follow-up post on Medium.
Primary victory for Carlina Rivera in District 2 City Council race
In yesterday's Democratic Primary, Carlina Rivera handily won the District 2 race to succeed City Council member Rosie Mendez.
Rivera, a former Mendez staff member who grew up on the Lower East Side, received nearly 61 percent of the vote, according to election information published by NY1.
The seemingly runaway race wasn't without its last-minute drama. In a rare political turn, former New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter reportedly threw his weight behind Ronnie Cho with an endorsement released Monday night.
Turns out that while Jeter may have nice things to say about Cho, he wasn't endorsing him. As the Post followed up: "There was a communications mix-up and a draft release was sent out prematurely."
In addition, supporters of Rivera's opponents on Monday were also peddling since-deleted Facebook photos of her husband, CB3 chair Jamie Rogers, sailing on his father's yacht during races in recent years. Other critics questioned why/how they were living in Section 8 housing. The Villager explores that angle here. Rivera and Rogers both said that "it’s perfectly legal for them to live in the apartment and that their incomes were fully vetted under the requirements of the Section 8 program."
Finally, as The Lo-Down reported, developer Gregg Singer, who owns the former P.S 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center on East Ninth Street, began campaigning against the District 2 candidates, including Rivera, who might try to force his hand at returning the property for community use.
In other election news, Mayor de Blasio won big.
The Villager has other local election results here. According to the Daily News, there was "terrible voter turnout" yesterday.
Try a 'Taste of East Village' this Saturday
The second annual "Taste of East Village" is this Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. on Seventh Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square.
Here are some details via the EVG inbox...
Twenty local restaurants and bars will participate, including Luke’s Lobster, Porsena, Veselka, Porchetta, Brick Lane Curry House and Le Petit Parisien. The $25 ticket gives attendees a chance to try 4 small plates from participating restaurants – additional tastings are available for purchase at the event.
You can buy tickets here. (They are $30 the day of the event.)
The festival benefits the Cooper Square Committee's affordable housing preservation and organizing work, including the soon-to-open Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth on 13th Street.
Mr. Bing will sell traditional Northern Chinese street crepes on St. Mark's Place
[Reader-submitted photo]
Yesterday morning, workers put up the signage for Mr. Bing at 115 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue.
Mr. Bing has been a regular on NYC's food market and festival scene the past two years, selling jianbing, "scallion- and sesame seed-studded crepes stuffed with eggs and other fillings that are artfully composed on a flat-top grill," as Eater describes the popular street food in Northern China.
[Photo by Steven]
Here's more on Mr. Bing's founder, Brian Goldberg via a piece in the Times back in January:
Mr. Goldberg, a Chinese scholar who grew up in Spring Valley, N.Y., in Rockland County, became a professional luge racer and worked in finance before running a couple of places in Hong Kong. He decided a few years ago to do something, he said, “that would be interesting and make people happy.” He’d like to do his part to make jianbing as mainstream as ramen.
Aside from various pop-up locations, Mr. Bing currently has a presence in the UrbanSpace Vanderbilt food hall ... this appears to be the first traditional storefront for the operation.
Mr. Bing is also on this month's CB3-SLA committee docket for a beer-wine license. (This item will not be heard before the committee.)
The previous tenant at 115 St. Mark's Place, Water Witch Mercantile, closed at the end of 2016 after just two months in business.
[Photo by Steven]
Club Cumming debuts tonight on 6th Street
As previously noted, actor-author (and East Village resident) Alan Cumming was teaming up with the Eastern Bloc owners to turn the bar on Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B into Club Cumming.
And tonight marks the opening night... there are a variety of events happening in the space, as you can see from their schedule (find more details via Instagram)... there are jazz nights, book readings, duets with Michael Musto, a Crisco Disco night, and so on...
Cumming described the Club on his Instagram account as "a home for everyone of all ages, all genders, all sexualities, who all enjoy letting go and making some mischief. No judgments, no attitude, no rules, except kindness, acceptance and fun."
Here's a mini preview via the Times the other day.
The East Village storefront, previously home to the popular gay haunt Eastern Bloc, is being transformed into a Weimar-inspired cabaret bar ... The modest space will have illustrated murals of New York night life personalities including Joey Arias, mismatched chandeliers and a small curtained stage with a piano.
Beyond debauchery, events will include book releases, “stitch and bitch” knitting classes and tantric sex workshops. “To have a local bar that is home for artists and those who love them, that’s important to me,” Mr. Cumming said. “I’ve always wanted to make people talk to each other instead of looking at their phones.”
Schmaltz on full display in new-look exterior at Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse
[Photo from 2010 by James and Karla Murray]
There's a new look outside down at the Chrystie Street mainstay... EVG reader Mike House shared these photos... first, of the usual entrance (which transformed back in the spring)...
A new addition is on the kitchen side of the operation just to the south ... the windows had previously been covered ... now there are giants pitchers of schmaltz, not quite to scale of the ones found on the tables inside...
I'm not sure if the work is complete out front. Perhaps more Sammy's signage will return. (The interior remains the same.)
This northwest corner of Chrystie and Delancey was under cover of a sidewalk bridge and scaffolding for some six years, finally coming down at the start of 2016.
The Urban Vision of Elaine Norman, an exhibit opening tonight on 1st Street
Tonight is the opening reception of a photo exhibit at City Lore on First Street titled "Apple of My Eye: The Urban Vision of Elaine Norman."
Per the City Lore website:
City Lore is pleased to present Elaine Norman’s vision of the city as the first exhibit in our Deep New York series.
“Simply strolling down any New York street can be a visual adventure and an endless opportunity for discovery,” she writes. “The City has an extraordinary capacity to blend past and present, high-brow and low, traditional and modern.”
This vibrant, eclectic and constantly evolving architectural and cultural kaleidoscope has always been Elaine Norman’s passion and source of inspiration.
The reception is 6-9 tonight. The exhibit, which spans 35 years of NYC life, is up through Oct. 15. The gallery, 56 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, has hours of 2-6 p.m. on Friday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
'Deception' at Astor Place; dead body takes a break
Crews were out this afternoon filming a scene for the new ABC crime drama "Deception" on Astor Place.
Then everyone took a break...
Photos by Derek Berg
Ramones Ramp mural damaged in Queens
[Ori Carino with Mickey Leigh in June 2016]
On June 5, 2016, East Village-based artist Ori Carino unveiled a new mural at the Thorneycroft Ramp in Forest Hills, Queens. The ceremony was part of a day of events organized by the Queens Museum, which was showing "Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk" at the time.
Carino painted the image of the four Ramones at the ramp based on a 1975 photograph by photographer Bob Gruen.
Marc H. Miller, the curator of that Ramones show, wrote in to report that the mural has been damaged...
Michael Perlman, a historian who lives in Queens, believes that maintenance workers at the Thorneycroft Ramp at Fanwood Estates painted around artist the mural, possibly before it rained ... sending red, vertical streaks down the mural...
"Everyone loves the mural out there in Forest Hills," Miller told me. "I’m optimistic that the real-estate company that owns the ramp will get it restored. It's just a question of allocating some money for Ori to fix it."
Bali Kitchen will start serving Indonesian cuisine tonight on 4th Street
Bali Kitchen opens this evening at 5 here at 128 E. Fourth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
The small restaurant is owned by Jazz Pasay, a fashion designer in Indonesia who also loves to cook. He has worked at Indonesian and Japanese restaurants in the past. This is his first restaurant in NYC, according to a Bali Kitchen rep, who added "we are delighted to be part of the East Village."
Bali Kitchen is open daily from 5-10:30 p.m. You can find the menu via the Bali website here.
---
Per Bali Kitchen: "We would like to invite the East Village community to celebrate our opening by giving a 15% discount when your readers mention 'EV Grieve' to our cashiers. This promotion is good until the end of September 2017."
48 Clinton St. for sale as development site
[48 Clinton St.]
Yesterday I noted that 238-240 E. Third St. between Avenue B and Avenue C is available as either a development site or as its most recent use — a theater space.
This is one of two properties that founders of the Blue Man Group sold this past summer for $18.5 million.
The other site is 48 Clinton St. between Stanton and Rivington on the Lower East Side. That rather mysterious building (pictured top) is also for sale.
According to the listing at RKF:
The property can be redeveloped up to 10,000 SF for a mixed-use development as per R7A zoning.
New residential projects include the adjacent 50 Clinton and The Ludlow, which have introduced 280 high-end residential apartments, bringing many young, affluent New Yorkers to the neighborhood.
A PDF of the property — billed as a "redevelopment opportunity" — notes that the four-level space has served as a recording studio.
No. 48 was once home to LoHo Studios, which an array of artists such Joey Ramone, Willie Nelson, Phish, Patti Smith and Joan Jett have used.
There isn't a price listed for No. 48.
Public records show that an LLC affiliated with Blue Man Productions bought the building in 2008 for $5 million.
Ummburger makes it official on 1st Avenue
The coming soon signage arrived over the weekend for Ummburger, a self-described burger bar here at 99 First Avenue and Sixth Street.
Work on the murals began over the Labor Day Weekend...and appear to be finished now...
In materials submitted to CB3 this past spring, the applicants described Ummburger as a "fast casual" concept serving a variety of burgers, including a vegetarian option. There are other sandwiches too, such as a fried chicken sandwich called the Southern Ummfort.
The previous tenant at this address, Mancora, moved across Sixth Street earlier in the summer.
H/T to EVG readers Bruce and Vinny & O for noting the progress!
Previously on EV Grieve:
Ummburger vying for the Mancora space on 1st Avenue
Dueling notes at the Miracle Garden on 3rd Street
An EVG reader shares these photos ... the above "Dear Garden Ladies" sign arrived at the Miracle Garden on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B ... stating:
We love this garden.
Please open it up for us. Its [sic] unfair to tease your neighbors by locking this special sanctuary.
Love your neighbors.
Someone from the garden (presumably) responded with the following letter...
...stating that "unfortunately not everyone had the respect we assume you have for the Garden & there has been severe damage (furniture broken, furniture stolen, plants trampled, plants pulled up & thrown everywhere .. etc. etc.) so for protection, we need a member around to make sure this doesn't continue."
Anyway, the letter goes on, ending with "We would love for the neighborhood to actively become involved and help."
Their monthly meeting is tonight at 7.
Just For Fen opens on 1st Avenue
Monday, September 11, 2017
[Video] Nighttime along Avenue A on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12, 2001
Harold Kramer shared this video that he filmed on the evening of Sept. 11, 2001. Kramer, who owned the Raven Cafe on Avenue A and 12th Street, starts the clip by talking about the events of the day.
At around the 1:45 mark, he shows the Twin Towers mural that Chico quickly put up on the southwest corner of 14th Street at Avenue A. Kramer spent the bulk of the video with people at the mural the following evening.
As one New York Times reader said of the work: "It filled me with hope and sadness and some kind of love for all of the other New Yorkers living through the hours and days yet to come."
The landlord of the building eventually covered the mural with ads. The mural briefly reappeared in November 2013.
[EVG reader-submitted photos from 2013]
Noted
An EVG reader shared this note to fellow residents from a building on Avenue A near 11th Street...
"If your apt is vibrating + noisy, please call the landlord."
So many possibilities...
EVG Etc.: Creating the 9/11 Tribute in Light; Reading up on the candidates
[Morning view from Astor Place]
How the 9/11 Tribute in Light comes together (Curbed)
A local Voter Guide ahead of Tuesday's Primary Day (The Lo-Down)
How the City Council candidates view the future of the former P.S 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center on East Ninth Street (Crain's ... previously)
A feature on the married chefs who run Fat Cat Kitchen on 14th Street (Town & Village)
A years-in-the-making restoration of "Soul City" via East Village filmmaker-artist M. Henry Jones on Thursday night (Anthology Film Archives)
Spike Jonze brings a new dance-based project to La MaMa (The New York Times)
More talks on the future of Sara D. Roosevelt Park's Stanton Street Storehouse (DNAInfo)
Senior housing for the fire-damaged Beth Hamedrash Hagadol on the LES? (BoweryBoogie)
Bird migration in Tompkins Square Park (Laura Goggin Photography)
Alex shares some photos from the summer of 2017 (Flaming Pablum)
Diversions: Sammy Hagar's influence on the early Clash (Dangerous Minds)
... and the NYPD released info on an assault that took place last month on First Avenue between First Street and Second Street.
The #NYPD is seeking assistance in identifying the person ⬇️in regards to an assault that took place on 8/12/17 at 25 1 Ave ☎️ #800577TIPS pic.twitter.com/XaZd7hg7rb
— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) September 8, 2017
3rd Street development site on the market for $12 million
238-240 E. Third St. between Avenue B and Avenue C is now on the market. The two-story building is next door to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which will be undergoing a gut renovation.
Here are the details about No. 238-240 via the listing at Cushman & Wakefield:
The lot is approximately 50’ x 106’ with a lot coverage of 5,253 SF. The building houses offices, a meeting area, and a large theatrical studio with 20’ ceiling heights. Furthermore, it was most recently used by a local entertainment company in which theatrical acts and stunts were arranged. The fire alarm, sprinkler and electrical systems have been upgraded recently. The CO allows for a maximum occupancy of 76 on the ground floor, and 12 on the mezzanine.
The building has approximately 4,500 SF on the ground floor, 850 SF on the mezzanine level and 800 SF in the basement. It is in the R8B zone, which has a 4.00 FAR for residential or community facility uses. The total buildable square footage is approximately 21,000. Note: There is an outdoor walkway alley on the westerly side of the property (the majority of the building is 43 feet wide).
This is an excellent opportunity for a developer to acquire a 50’ wide development site in the East Village. In addition, considering how unique the building is, the offering presents an incredibly rare opportunity in which the current building and configuration could be maintained for a user.
So, the options are build up for some housing... or maintain as a property for theater. Either way, the asking price is $12 million.
In a previous life the building served as a movie theater. Public records from July list two of the founders of the Blue Man Group — Chris Wink and Philip Stanton — as the previous owners, who received $18.6 million for this and another LES property.
In a deal announced in early July, Cirque du Soleil acquired Blue Man Productions. Specific terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but it is believed to be worth in the tens of millions, according to published reports.
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