Target is hiring on 14th Street and Avenue A

Over at 14th Street and Avenue A, Target is now hiring for its new small-format store set to open later this summer here in EVGB (East Village's Greatest Building, duh)...



The wall has all the hiring details...

1st Avenue back to being 1st Avenue-y

All lanes of traffic are back open today on First Avenue at Seventh Street ... this after five days of repairs for the sinkhole/swallow hole/collapse due to a broken pipe... which backed up traffic all the way south to ____ during that time...



... there appeared to be a sinkhole setback last evening, as this photo via EVG regular Raquel Shapira showed...



Anyway, all good now.

Week in Grieview

[Photo from Astor Place via @AlexInNewYorkCity]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Demolition permits filed for northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place (Thursday)

Ciao for Now starting a Tuesday evening soup service (Tuesday)

The latest installment of I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant (Friday)

Maguey y La Tuna closes on East Houston (Monday)

Upcoming restaurant openings: French for 7th Street; Italian for 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)

Scenes from National School Walkout (Wednesday)

Banksy's message to 'Free Zehra Doğan' at the Bowery Mural Wall (Thursday) Banksy mural tagged (Saturday)

Get well soon, Gino! (Friday)

A memorial for Elizabeth Lee on Cooper Square (Thursday)

NYPD looking for suspect who robbed 87-year-old man on 1st Avenue (Friday)

World's tallest rhino sculpture arrives on Astor Place (Monday ... Wednesday ... Thursday)

Construction watch: 127 Avenue D (Wednesday)

Call of the wild: Seems like old times for Christo and Dora in Tompkins Square Park (Wednesday)

Not a lot of information about what's next for the Grassroots and The International (Friday)

Report: Cooper Union moves to reinstate free tuition (Friday)

This really nice townhouse is for sale on 7th Street (Thursday)

Robataya to become Sakagura on 9th Street (Thursday)

Todd Hase Furniture closes on 7th Street (Monday)

Thoughts on Raphael Toledano: 'The dude was imploding' (Thursday)

217 E. 3rd St. sells for $5.1 million (Monday)

About the Juice Generation opening soon on Astor Place (Thursday)

Former Out East space for lease on 6th Street (Wednesday)

Fired up to start a new year at La Plaza (Wednesday)

East Village Cheese lives on in Season 2 of 'Jessica Jones' (Wednesday)

Sticky's bringing the chicken fingers to Union Square (Thursday)

Former Red Square lobby gets the plywood treatment on East Houston (Monday)

For a limited time only, catch the J/Z on 9th and C (Monday)

Construction (and gold-dusted brick) watch: 196 Orchard St. (Tuesday)

Zen Yai Pho Shop coming to 6th Street (Monday)

Taco Bell nearly ready for Taco Belling on 1st Avenue (Monday)

... and the post St. Patrick's Day hose down at the Grayson on 1st Avenue...



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Report: 7th Street resident dies in early-morning apartment fire

FDNYalerts MAN ALL HANDS 244 E 7 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON FIRST FLR,

— FDNYalerts (@FDNYAlerts) March 18, 2018

An early-morning fire at 244 E. Seventh St. between Avenue C and Avenue D reportedly left one man dead and three other people injured.

According to the Daily News, the fire started on the first floor of the six-story walk up around 6:10 a.m.

Per the News:

The fire was confined to the rear apartment, where the victim was found dead in a cluttered rear bedroom...

Fire Marshals are investigating the cause of the deadly blaze.

Updated 12:25 p.m.

amNew York reports that the victim was 71 years old.

Updated 3/19

NY1 reported that the victim was Barry Allen. There wasn't a smoke alarm in the apartment where the fire started, and the alarm in the hallway was not working, the FDNY said.

A look at the restored St. Stanislaus

Workers removed the sidewalk bridge, scaffolding and construction netting this past week that had been up since late last spring... bringing into to view the restored facade at St. Stanislaus Bishop & Martyr Church on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...



The church was completed in 1901...

Saturday's parting shot

Kilts and CitiBikes... thanks to Janice Ellsworth for this photo outside Stillwater on Fourth Street near Second Avenue today...

Today in posts about Girl Scout Cookies

Troop #3225 is selling them today at the Associated on 14th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A in Stuy Town...



From 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. — or until the Girl Scouts run out of cookies here, per the signage.

Noted

Someone tagged Banksy's two-day-old work on the Bowery Mural Wall overnight...



A worker scrubbing the graffiti off the #KindComments mural back in January said that the wall was getting tagged on a daily basis.

March 17 and McSorley's

[Click on image to go big]

EVG reader Allen Semanco shared the above photo... showing the 7 a.m. St. Patrick's Day (Happy St. Patrick's Day BTW!) line for McSorley's Old Ale House on Seventh Street... (I think they opened today at 8?????)

Meanwhile!

Gregory and Teresa from McSorley's commissioned East Village-based Billy the Artist to create a poster for St. Patrick's Day...



And here's Billy at this favorite bar (McSorley's, if that wasn't clear)...


[Image via Facebook]

Find out more about the poster here.

Friday's parting shot

Photo on St. Mark's Place today by Derek Berg...

NYPD looking for suspect who robbed 87-year-old man on 1st Avenue

The #NYPD is looking to identify this #wanted man for a Robbery that occurred on March 9 at 7:15PM.
He forcibly removed 💰from an 87 year old victim as he was returning home near 1 Ave & E6St. #NYC #EastVillage If you have any info we ask you to 📞 #800577TIPS pic.twitter.com/GaSoM7qd74

— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) March 15, 2018

Patch had a few more details:

Police say the man followed the 87-year-old into his apartment building, located near East Sixth Street and First Avenue, on Friday at about 7:15 p.m. As the 87-year-old entered the building, the robber grabbed him from behind and remove his wallet before throwing him to the ground, according to the NYPD.

The robber took $230 in cash from the man before running from the area, police said.

The 87-year-old man was not seriously injured during the attack.

Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You may also submit tips online.

Go Forth

The above video is for "Nevermine," a track off the upcoming Sub Pop release by the Forth Wanderers... the leaders are two college students now by way of Montclair, N.J.

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: Yvonne, since 1990

Why did you move to the East Village?

‪I moved to Brooklyn in 1985 with a woman I knew from Northampton. We lived in what was then called Prospect Heights Vicinity — Saint Mark's between Vanderbilt and Underhill. It was Crack Central. The train stopped at Atlantic after midnight and we had to walk from Atlantic up — it was pretty scary.

A few years later, another friend moved from Northampton to the Chelsea Hotel. Her roommate lasted one day so she asked me and I moved in. Later we moved to a two-story place on 13th Street. We lived on 9th Street between B and C during the Tompkins Square Riots. I used to cut through the Park to get to the subway to get to work. And then I had to walk all the way around and there were all these "undercover" cops hassling everyone who lived in the neighborhood.

I loved the East Village though. I guess I never really thought about living other places. I worked in the music industry and was also in the music scene so it was the best place to live.

‪How did you find your apartment?

‪The roommate I had been living with was moving in with her boyfriend. They were moving to 5th Street above where Three of Cups is now — it used to be an Indian restaurant. So I had to get my own place.

There was a broker — I forgot her name but they called her the "rock-n-roll" broker. She had this weird storefront on 13th Street. It was an apartment that wasn't really an apartment. It was just a card table and I thought "this is a scam." But it wasn't. She didn't really seem to care that I had a good job. She helped out all of the people who were either musicians or worked in the music industry. None of us had good credit.

She showed me this place and it was so far up, the fifth floor. The things that she pointed out that were good were that "you’re on the top floor, it’s the roof, so nobody lives above you." That's great now, when I first moved in it wasn't. The door to the roof wasn't alarmed and at 4 in the morning people would come running across the roof and the cops would chase them and yell, “stay in your apartment!” That doesn't happen any more.

Part of the reason I took this apartment was because it was close to my old roommate and everyone I knew lived in this area. Also it was 500 bucks a month. I did have to pay a broker’s fee, though.

Also for my job, I had to go to rock shows at CBGB and what is now Webster Hall. I really liked that I could come home after work, go to sleep and then wake up at 11 and go to the show. It was convenient. And that's still what I really love — that it's super convenient.

I had surgery last year and couldn’t get around very well. Which is a drag, but it was helpful that I was so central and friends could come by easily. If I lived out in Queens it would have been impossible.

I have lived here for so long. I'm really used to not having a car, not taking the subway. I walk to and from work. I really get annoyed with people who say, “oh, the East Village is dead.” I still know a lot of my neighbors. A lot of people have stayed in this building. And yeah there are twentysomethings but think about what we were doing when we were in our 20s.

About five years ago I had one of those pedestrian accidents. I got hit. But it was the first time a lot of my friends had come to my apartment, because it‘s on the 5th floor. It’s a commitment. I’ve had bands stay here. I had a single bed here and a bookcase. The room that's the bedroom now was pretty much empty because the guy who lived on the other side of that wall made so much noise that I couldn’t sleep in that room but the bands could sleep there.





‪What do you love about your apartment?

‪I watch the tiny house shows. I am so amazed at what people expect from their space. You want a dishwasher? Are you insane? I am a dishwasher. My friend and I went to Cape May this past weekend and I was so excited that not only was there major counter space where I could cook but there was also a washer and dryer right in the kitchen. I did an entire load of laundry while I was there. It was so great. It really shifts you away from that idea of what is necessary in a home. A lot of Americans have these grandiose ideas of how much space you need.

One of the things that I love about my apartment is that living in a place this small changes your awareness to space and what is needed and what is necessary. I have a storage space that I’ve had for decades. I have tons and tons of books. I’ve been in graduate school forever and I’m a reader and a reviewer. I sacrificed two of my bookcases to be my kitchen when I became a grown up and had to have dishes and spices and things.

One bookcase is all pasta and tea and it used to be just books. Some things have changed for the better — I like that the neighborhood is quieter now. They fixed the roof — it used to leak a lot. This apartment is really quiet, because it faces the courtyard, there’s no street noise. It’s very cozy.

I also like how easy it is to clean — cleaning a space like this, you can never really get it clean, but I have two trashcans for the whole place, and they’re small. I do my dishes all the time because I have nowhere to put them. I don’t have cabinets. Stuff is stored in bins so it’s not that easy to get to. I use a lot of plastic bins and I don’t love them but I don’t have cupboards. Living in a place like this makes you prioritize your stuff and it is so much easier to clean.













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

At Banksy's Bowery Mural Wall this morning

A NY1 crew was on East Houston and the Bowery early this morning for a segment on Banksy's new mural, a protest over the incarceration of Turkish-Kurdish painter and journalist Zehra Doğan. The black hash marks on the wall apparently represent the number of days that Doğan has spent in prison...



Meanwhile, someone added his or her own message... about the March for Our Lives rally on March 24 ...



The person who added this message sent an email, saying there are issues closer to home that need attention. "I did it because it's such a big wall, and there's room for an American statement."

[Updated] Get well soon, Gino!

[Photo by Steven]

Updated 4/2

Gino died on March 30. He was 82.

--

An EVG reader shared this from yesterday about the Royal Tailor Shop, owned by Gino DiGirolamo, on 11th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...

I stopped by Gino’s on East 11th and there was a big sign on the door that the shop was closed due to illness. I stopped next door at the Ipswich Watch & Clock Shop to learn that Gino suffered a heart attack about two weeks ago and has been in critical care ever since.

People with clothes in the shop should leave their name and phone number at Ipswich so that Gino's son can contact them.

[Photo by Steven]

We haven't heard any updates about Gino's condition.

Gino has been working as a tailor the past 50-plus years in several locations. It looked like a rent hike at his previous space on 14th Street would force him into retirement. Thankfully, with some help, he was able to secure the 11th Street shop in 2014.


[Photo of Gino in 2014 by Michael Paul]

Previously on EV Grieve:
After 50 years in business, Gino DiGirolamo is closing the Royal Tailor shop

Report: Rent hike forced Gino to retire and close his Royal Tailor shop

Gino's short-lived retirement

Report: Cooper Union moves to reinstate free tuition

[EVG file photo from 2013]

Here's The New York Times:

Under a plan approved by the board of trustees late Wednesday, Cooper Union would begin increasing tuition scholarships in two years, and aim to provide full tuition in 10. The additional outlay would be offset by unspecified cuts in expenses, more fund-raising and “other revenue increases necessary,” the college said in a statement.

“If we exceed the financial targets in any given year, we may be able to accelerate the plan; if we don’t meet the targets for any number of reasons, such as an economic downturn, we have built-in guardrails that allow us to slow the plan if necessary,” said Laura Sparks, Cooper Union’s president, who took office in January 2017.

Cooper Union started to charge students tuition in 2014 — for the first time in its 150-year-history.

This piece at Hyperallergic outlines the subsequent drama surrounding that decision.

Previously on EV Grieve:
What went wrong at Cooper Union

Report: Cooper Union Board says no to proposal that would keep the school tuition-free

Free Cooper Union presents #TwoWeeksOfLeaks

After 65 days, Cooper Union students end occupation of president's office

Here's video of Cooper Union students entering the president's office this morning

Not a lot of information about what's next for these 2 former East Village bars

This past weekend someone removed the handpainted Grassroots Tavern sign from here at 20 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...



Kind of surprised no one tried to take it earlier (it was bolted into the wall pretty well). The bar closed after 42 years on New Year's Eve.

As previously reported, the new owner of the bar is Richard Precious, who operates the mini chain of Irish-style pubs called The Ginger Man (including the one on 36th Street).

To date, not much has been made public about his plans for the space. In addition, not much has happened inside the space (aside from some minor clean up and keg removal). An EVG tipster recently found the door open, and ventured inside.

I went over and spoke to one of the guys inside. I asked him when are they going to open. He said kind of laughing "April or May. You know how it is." I then asked are they going to use the name Ginger Man or Grassroots. He said no to Ginger Man and possibly for Grassroots. I have no idea what is the guy’s position in the organization, so you never know what’s really going to happen. To be continued.

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And over at 120 1/2 First Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place... the for rent sign has been removed from the former International Bar (the asking rent is $9,955) ...



According to one former employee, a bubble tea shop is moving in. Now this has not been confirmed ... and could merely be a sarcastic (yet seemingly probable) response ...



The latest iteration of the International Bar closed this past Thanksgiving. (Non-renewal of lease, via landlord Steve Croman.) The bar merged with its sister saloon, the Coal Yard, one block to the south between Seventh Street and Sixth Street.

H/T Steven!

'The Last Three' unveiled on Astor Place; Saltz — 'It’s like a Vegas acrobatic act'

[Photos via @AstorPlaceNYC]

Australian artists Gillie and Marc Schattner officially unveiled their 17-foot bronze sculpture "The Last Three" this morning on Astor Place...



The Schattners recreated the last three Northern White Rhinos – Sudan, Najin, and Fatu – "to inspire, educate and mobilize the global community to raise their voices and affect real change against illegal rhino poaching trade."

Visitors to the sculpture are encouraged to leave a goodbye message ... with the artists hoping to collect 1 million messages worldwide to "put them toward a petition for approaching governments about eliminating the demand for rhino horns through education."

And as Patch noted in its coverage:

The artists partnered with app developers at INDE to create an informative, augmented reality experience to accompany the statue. The app allows smartphone users to see a life-size, augmented reality version of one of the three last white rhinos. Using the app, you can watch a rhino walk around and meander among the tourists and pedestrians on Astor Place.

The sculpture will remain here through at least May. You can read more about the project here.

Meanwhile, at New York magazine, Jerry Saltz weighed in with some thoughts on "The Last Three" ...

It is an ugly, bathos-filled folly that proves my adage that 95 percent of all public sculpture is crap. Thank goodness this crap is only temporary.

This surreal-ish kitsch monstrosity is a stack of the last three northern white rhinos on Earth. The bottom one is standing with the next one resting on it, back to back — why? — facing up, and then supports the third one on its feet. It’s like a Vegas acrobatic act.

And!

We must accept that hating this work is not dissing the cause. Not liking the sculpture is to show the cause the deep respect it deserves and not selling it out to gaudy artsy spectacle. As an art critic, I also feel compelled to add that if you like the sculpture, I’m afraid it means that you have pretty bad taste.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A sneak preview of the world's largest rhino sculpture, coming to Astor Place early next year

World's tallest rhino sculpture arrives on Astor Place this week

The rhinos have arrived on Astor Place

Banksy's message to 'Free Zehra Doğan' at the Bowery Mural Wall

As mentioned yesterday, the Bowery Mural Wall had been painted over in preparation for the next installation here at East Houston ... that apparently happened late last night and early this morning (top photo from around 7:15) ... and later... EVG regular Lola Sāenz shared these photos...





The message via Banksy reads "Free Zehra Doğan" ...





Here's artnet News with more about Doğan:

The Turkish-Kurdish painter and journalist Zehra Doğan has been sentenced to two years, nine months, and 22 days in prison for creating a painting which depicted the destruction caused by Turkish security forces in the Nusaybin district of Mardin province, a Kurdish region in Turkey.

Banksy also added a rat to the clock of a former bank of 14th Street and Sixth Avenue.

Demolition permits filed for northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

[EVG file photo]

Permits were filed today to demolish the existing low-rise buildings at 3 St. Mark’s Place, 23 and 25-27 Third Avenue presumably to make way for the seven-story, 66,000-square-foot office building with ground-floor retail slated for this corner.

As reported back in November, plans are in the works to redevelop this three-building assemblage ... from the former McDonald's to the corner.



REEC picked up the 99-year leasehold for the addresses for a little more than $150 million, per The Real Deal.

McDonald's and Papaya King have already closed. The Continental said in January that their last day is July 1. There haven't been any closing dates announced yet for Korilla BBQ, E Smoke Shop and the smaller shops that line St. Mark's Place.

So far there aren't any new building permits filed for the property, owned by the Gabay family.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Shake Shack effect? McDonald's on 3rd Avenue at St. Mark's Place has closed after 20 years

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

Report: NE corner of St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue will yield to a 7-story office building