[Updated] Report of a fire at 80 E. 3rd St.

FDNYalerts MAN 2-ALARM 80 E 3 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE IN THE SHAFT BETWEEN BUILDINGS,

— FDNYalerts (@FDNYAlerts) December 16, 2017

The address is between First Avenue and Second Avenue...

Fire in East Village pic.twitter.com/bkPOcgIKBF

— Nick Shippers (@nickshippers) December 16, 2017

Updated 12/16
NY1 reports one person was injured. (The report described it as non-life threatening.)

FDNY officials said the fire started in a shaft on the third floor of the five-story building. No word on a cause yet.

Updated 9 a.m.

A look at the building now...





Updated 10:45

An EVG reader who lives in the building shared these photos of the apartment where the fire started...



The resident of this unit has apparently lived in the building for a very long time...



The reader lives in the back of the building ... and that apartment only suffered minor water damage. People living in the front needed to leave. Those apartments have extensive water damage.

Much ado about 'Nothing'

"Nothing Feels Natural," the debut record from Washington, D.C.'s Priests, made a few top-10 lists this year... the above video features live versions of "JJ" and "Nothing Feels Natural."

Noted

10th Street and Avenue B this afternoon...

EV Grieve Etc.: Lead-dust nightmare on 12th Street; more vendors for the new Essex Market

[A view on Avenue A yesterday by Grant Shaffer]

An ongoing lead-dust nightmare in this 12th Street building currently owned by Madison Realty Capital (The Villager)

City Council passes bill to increase transparency for urban renewal areas (The Lo-Down)

Thoughts on "What About Me," Rachel Amodeo's drama shot in the East Village in the early 1990s, playing Dec. 27 and Jan. 1 as part of MoMa's "New York Film and Video: No Wave–Transgressive" series (The New Yorker)

Critic Robert Sietsema likes Gino Sorbillo Pizzeria, recently opened on the Bowery (Eater ... previously)

Incoming vendors at the New Essex Market include a new concept from Radouane Eljaouhari, who ran Zerza (and briefly, the dubious 'Merica) on Sixth Street (The Lo-Down)

A cinematic celebration for Jonas Mekas’s 95th birthday (Anthology Film Archives)

A feature on the mother-son who run Au Za’atar on Avenue A at 12th Street (The Daily Meal)

Some photos from the East Village Arts Festival at the Tompkins Square Library (Slum Goddess ... previously)

Essex Crossing rental will be named for Sonny Rollins (Curbed)

The Luke’s Lobster’s "Star Wars" giveaway (The Voice)

From the Gilded Age, Christmas in the tenements (Ephemeral New York)

And several EVG readers have shared crowdfunding campaigns currently underway for two East Village residents... Barbara Caporale, a longtime community gardener and activist who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, is in danger of losing her home. You can read about the campaign here. There's also a campaign for Jimmy Carbone, owner of the currently closed Jimmy's No. 43 on Seventh Street. The campaign is to help him cover medical treatment and other debts. Read about that here.

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.



Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: Johnny Rozsa, since 1999

When I moved here in 1999 I [started] living on Avenue A. I sublet from a friend of mine and I had that place on Avenue A for two years. It was a railroad apartment and it was really nice. I didn’t need an AC because there was a magical through breeze. When I moved out I found my present flat accidentally.

This apartment and the apartment next door were both available. The apartment next door had a basement. Mine has a sunroom, so I went for the greenhouse. That’s been there for like 30 or 40 years. I brought all of my stuff over, I just walked it all over from the other apartment.



What do you love about your apartment?

Even though it is tiny, it is warm and cozy in the winter. It’s got 12-foot ceilings ... so it doesn’t feel cramped. And it’s only me. I don’t need to be in LA in a 12-room mansion — I don’t need that. I’ve had that and it’s OK that I don’t have that now. I also had a little cabin in the woods in the middle of Beverly Hills. It was sort of like this.

What I love about this is I have the backyard and I have the Park in the front. Look at how quiet it is. I don’t hear sirens, I don’t hear anything. It’s quiet. It is dead quiet. I’ve got so many pluses. I don’t feel like I’m in New York City — I feel like I’m upstate somewhere.

It’s nice to have the greenhouse so the lemon tree will survive the winter. I love the mourning doves, hundreds of them, every day. It’s just like living in the country.

















If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.

Thursday's parting shot

Happy holidays from Seventh Street ... photo today by Derek Berg

Citi Bike of the day

Spotted on Allen and Stanton on the LES... at least you wouldn't have to adjust the seat. Or worry about the tire pressure.

Last SantaCon reveler ready to call it a week?

Kidding! This looks like a real Santa.

Photo from Ninth Street and Avenue A this morning via @xtea ...

A morning scene from Tompkins Square Park

Photo today via Peter Brownscombe ...

The lion in winter*

Outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery this morning via Lola Sáenz...

* OK, technically still fall for another week

Bea Arthur Residence nearly ready to accept first tenants on 13th Street

[Photo from Sunday]

The Ali Forney Center recently celebrated a major milestone — the naming ceremony of the now-completed Bea Arthur Residence at 222 E. 13th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

As previously reported, the 18-bed facility will house participants in the center's two-year transitional living program designed to prepare homeless LGBTQ young people for successfully living alone.

From a Facebook post on Dec. 1 via the Ali Forney Center, an organization supporting homeless LGBT youth...

This building ... was made possible by the love and generosity of the icon Bea Arthur. We are proud to dedicate this residence in her honor, and humbled to celebrate this momentous occasion alongside Bea Arthur's son and grandson.

The Bea Arthur Residence marks an important shift in the way that we are able to house and care for young people who have been discarded by their families simply because of who they are. Pending city approvals, we hope to begin housing young people here within the next few weeks.

To the countless staff, donors, city and state officials, architects, and friends of the Ali Forney Center who have breathed life into this remarkable project, we extend our sincerest gratitude and love, and look forward to moving our young people in to begin their journey to a bright future.

Arthur, who died in April 2009, left $300,000 to the Center in her will. In 2012, City Council as well as then-Borough President Scott Stringer awarded the Center and the Cooper Square Committee $3.3 million for the residence.


[Image via the Ali Forney Center]

Plans for this long-abandoned building were first announced in 2012. (The property had been owned by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.) The groundbreaking took place in July 2015.


[EVG photo from 2012]

Previously on EV Grieve:
A haunted house on 13th Street?

Abandoned 13th Street building becoming the Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth

Here's what the Bea Arthur Residence will look like on East 13th Street

Groundbreaking today on East 13th Street for the Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth

MTA, DOT outline plans for life without the L train

[Image Monday via @katebirmingham2]

During the upcoming L train shutdown, parts of 14th Street will become car free while 13th Street will get the city's first two-way protected crosstown bike lane, officials announced yesterday.

The MTA and the city’s Department of Transportation unveiled the long-awaited plans on how to accommodate the estimated 225,000 people who use the L on a daily basis.

Major changes include:
🚌 exclusive 14th St #busway with rush hour restriction from 3rd-9th Aves
🚲 new 13th St 2-way protected #bikenyc lane
🚗🚚 #WilliamsburgBridge HOV3 restrictions & bus-only lanes from Grand BK to Delancey MN
🚶🚌🚲safety improvements along Grand St BK pic.twitter.com/ypM3SwshEV

— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) December 13, 2017

Here's more from NBC 4:

• 14th Street closing to cars from Third Avenue to Ninth Avenue eastbound, and Third Avenue to Eighth Avenue westbound, to become a "busway" with rushphour restriction. Bus lanes and Select Bus Service will be added to that core of 14th Street in the next year, which will bring sidewalk expansion and tens of thousands of square feet in new pedestrian space.

"No street will be more affected by the L train disruption than 14th Street, and changes expanding access to pedestrians, bus riders, and cyclists will play a major role in moving L train riders quickly and efficiently," the DOT says.

• A bikeway running along 13th Street to keep cyclists out of the buses' way. Daily cycling volume is expected to double when the L train closes in Manhattan, so the DOT will add Manhattan's first two-way protected crosstown bike lane to 13th Street.

The DOT will also create brand new pedestrian space on Union Square West from 14th Street to 15th Street and 16th Street to 17th Street and a pedestrianized street that features a new bike parking hub on University Place from 13th Street to 14th Streets.

The shutdown of the L — between Bedford Avenue and Eighth Avenue to repair the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel — is expected to last 15 months with a start date of April 2019.

Previously

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More sources: NBC 4 ... the Post ... Curbed ... 2nd Ave. Sagas... MTA website...

$1 coffee talk

[EVG photo from May 2016]

In her Metro Money column yesterday at The Wall Street Journal, Anne Kadet tackled a popular topic — the price of coffee at NYC delis/cafes/coffee shops.

She mentions a deli in Brooklyn Heights that sells a small coffee for $1. The owner reportedly loses money on that deal. The piece, available to subscribers only, goes on to outline why inexpensive deli coffee is unrealistic — especially with NYC rents.

Mike Kruszewski, founder of Pourt, which recently closed on Cooper Square, crunched some coffee numbers for her:

The ingredients in a small cup of high-end, direct-trade, “sustainable” coffee costs 62 cents, he says. That includes 43 cents for the beans, 14 cents for the cup, sleeve, lid, and stirrer, and 5 cents for milk and sugar.

But a cafe owner also has to pay rent on a New York City storefront, not to mention wages, insurance, supplies, utilities, trash service, software and payment processing. All told, says Mr. Kruszewski, expenses easily reach $600 a day.

If a cafe only sold $1 coffee, he says, it would have to sell 2,150 cups a day to just break even. That’s 3.5 cups a minute. The barista would have to serve faster than humanly possible.

At $2 a cup, the cafe would have to sell 500 cups a day, or one cup a minute—still too much volume for a small business.

“At $3.50,” says Mr. Kruszewski, “we get to a doable 250 cups a day.”

Some exceptions to this are street carts, which don't pay rent, and chains such as McDonald’s and 7-Eleven "that enjoy massive economies of scale."

The owner of that Brooklyn Heights deli said that he hoped the $1 coffee deal would attract new customers.

It hasn't.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The 75-cent coffee at Subway

Happy holidays

From our muni-meter to yours... Photo on Fourth Street today by Derek Berg...

Another case of stolen packages from an East Village lobby

An EVG reader reports another package theft (see previous posts here) ... this time from a lobby on Eighth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D.

The building's surveillance video (below) shows the suspect entering the building. He put a scarf over his head and left with a bagful of boxes — a number believed to be seven or eight.

According to the reader, he slipped in when someone making a food delivery left the building.





Per the reader: "I hope he enjoys my infant swim diapers."

Sidewalk bridge finally hauled away from the Verizon building on 2nd Avenue

Late last week, workers began removing the sidewalk bridge around the Verizon building on Second Avenue at 13th Street...


[Top 2 photos from Sunday]

And it was all gone by the end of the day Monday...



As we reported on Nov. 28, several residents pointed out that a growing number of travelers/crusties had been living under the sidewalk bridge for the past few months. A small fire on Nov. 26 temporarily brought an end to the encampment, as city workers tossed the mattresses and other found items.

One reader said of the pre-fire conditions:

They live and sleep there. They openly shoot up, get drunk, fight, party all night and block the sidewalk with mattresses, chairs — even tables.

The situation has become a total nightmare now.

According to nearby residents, it didn't appear that any construction work was even taking place in the building, that the sidewalk bridge was seemingly forgotten. (Verizon blamed the Department of Buildings for delayed inspections, per PIX 11.)

In any event, now that the sidewalk bridge is gone, will we see a return to the brown paint wars?



Previously on EV Grieve:
Fire under sidewalk bridge on 13th Street temporarily brings an end to homeless encampment

243 and 245 E. 2nd St. asking nearly $18 million

243 and 245 E. Second St. are now on the market ... each of the walkups between Avenue B and Avenue C have 10 units. The slightly larger No. 243 is asking $10.5 million while No. 245 is $7.25 million, per the listings (here and here).

Public records show that Triost Properties bought the buildings in 2011 — $800,000 for No. 245 and $1.4 million for No. 243. (The seller was the estate of Bertha Zawin.)

The buildings went under extensive gut renovations several years ago. Average rentals now at No. 243 are roughly $4,600, per Streeteasy. Rentals at No. 245 ranged from $3,200 to $4,800.

As I understand it, a number of rent-stabilized units remain in No. 245.

Artists Peter Cramer, Carl George, Kembra Pfahler and Jack Waters, longtime residents at No. 245, shared their story in this post from 2014.

Previously on EV Grieve:
On Second Street, the 'Milky Way Dragon' disappears

Renovations, penthouse in the works for 243 E. Second St.

Continued development concerns at 243-245 E. Second St.

A look at the transformation of 243-245 E. 2nd St.

Chat 'N Chew looks closer to reopening on Union Square

EVG reader Harry Weiner shared this photo from Monday... showing Chat 'N Chew looking as if it never closed three-plus years ago on 16th Street just west of Union Square.

Per Harry: "If you peer inside, it looks eerily the same as the old one."

The homespun restaurant has a new Instagram account (as of Sept. 30) with one post...

Coming Soon

A post shared by Chat 'N Chew (@chatnchewny) on Sep 30, 2017 at 4:10am PDT

On their landing page: "NEW ACCOUNT! A Union Square staple is coming back! Check back for updates on an opening date! Looking forward to see old friends & making new ones!"

Apparently they have been teasing a return in their front window dating back to the summer. Now it looks as if they're ready to open complete with holiday decorations.

Anyway, the comfort-food diner first opened in 1994 before quietly closing in July 2014, as Jeremiah Moss first reported. The owners were to revamp the space that fall as a pop-up concept Little Sal's Italiano.

The operating owner, Andrew Silverman, was also behind a variety of concept-y places, such as Steak Frites and News Bar.

Construction watch: 606 Broadway and 300 Lafayette

[606 Broadway from Monday]

In case you haven't been over on East Houston between Lafayette and Broadway lately...


[300 Lafayette from Monday]

Construction is booming at two nearly side-by-side sites.

• 606 Broadway

A 6-story mixed-use building is going up on that sliver of space between Broadway and Crosby. Once completed, the building will have about 11,500 square feet of retail space on the first and second floors with 22,751 square feet of office space on floors three to six.

Until late 2014, the space at Broadway housed the Honest Boy fruit stand for years.


[606 Broadway rendering via]

• 300 Lafayette

A 7-story boutique office building with luxury retail is going in on the former site of a BP station and the Irish pub Puck Fair. (If you're keeping track, the building will include 30,000 square feet of retail and 53,000 square feet of office space.)


[Rendering via]

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Previously ... 606 Broadway...


[Photo from April 2014 via Vanishing New York]

300 Lafayette...


[EVG photo from 2016]

Reminders: The East Village Arts Festival is tomorrow at the Tompkins Square Library

I first posted this back on Nov. 21 ... as a reminder...

The Tompkins Square Library branch on 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B is hosting an all-day Arts Festival on Dec. 13.

The day includes a variety of performances, workshops, films and displays by local artists from 11 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. You can find the full rundown here.