Grant Shaffer's NY See

Here's the new NY See, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's comic series — an observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood — and NYC.

Wax on: Stranded Records debuts on 5th Street

[Image via @StrandedRecords]

Stranded Records opened back on Saturday here at 218 E. Fifth St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square.

This marks the third outpost for the new-and-used vinyl retailer, which started in Oakland in 2012 and expanded to San Francisco several years later.

The shop shares ownership with archival label Superior Viaduct.

Here's more about them via an article at KQED:

Superior Viaduct started in 2011 with a focus on San Francisco punk, but it’s since branched into jazz, reggae, experimental and 20th century classical music plus contemporary titles through sub-label W.25th.

Label artists include Glenn Branca, Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, DNA, the Fall, the Gun Club, Charles Mingus, the Residents and Suicide, to name a few. (Expect to find all these reissues in the shop.)

As previously reported, Stranded Records takes over the space from Good Records, which bowed out on March 24 after 14 years in the East Village.

Here's more via KQED:

Stranded co-owner Steve Viaduct said they're acquiring Good's record selection and retaining several of its longtime employees.

Viaduct said Stranded’s expansion is partly about increasing the associated label's presence in New York, and partly to accommodate with its swelling used catalog. "The Bay Area stores have been doing so well," he said. "We have two modestly sized shops, but the need for a third became apparent when we couldn’t sell inventory fast enough."

Viaduct said the Good Records deal includes several thousand records, to which Stranded will add several thousand more before reopening, but the shop will look similar: "It's got hardwood floors, tin ceiling — when we were imagining a store to open in New York, this was our mental example."

Stranded Records is open daily from noon to 8 p.m.

La Plaza Cultural closed until the summer for fence replacement; RIP Krusty

La Plaza Cultural, the community garden/green space on the southwest corner of Ninth Street and Avenue C, is now closed for a new-fence installation. (Pushed back from earlier this year.)

Back on Friday, workers removed Krusty, La Plaza's last remaining full-grown willow tree ...



Krusty had rotted and needed to come down (Cher, another majestic willow, was removed in July 2017) ...



Krusty's mulch remains will be used for the garden beds ...



According to the La Plaza Instagram account, the fence work will likely keep the space closed through June. "We hope to have an official reopening at the summer solstice."

Local residents and activists founded La Plaza in 1976. It was renamed in honor of Armando Perez, a community activist who was murdered in 1999, in 2003.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A fall day to remove the Winter Flowers from La Plaza Cultural

A wake for the last willow trees at La Plaza Cultural

At the Weeping Willow Wake

Beijing Express went quickly

Several readers (and H/T Nick Solares!) have noted that Beijing Express has not been open lately during announced business hours at 92 Third Ave.

The quick-serve restaurant between 12th Street and 13th Street just debuted in January, taking the place of Gala BBQ, which opened and closed within three months.

New storefront reveal at 300 E. 5th St.

[Photo by Derek Berg]

Workers have removed the plywood from the under-renovation storefront on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Fifth Street (officially 300 E. Fifth St.).

No word yet who the new tenant is. (Anyone happen to know what's coming here?) The work permits on file with the city note "interior renovation of existing store into eating & drinking establishment."

The storefront now looks similar to the other gut-renovated businesses on the Fifth Street side, which were billed as the Shops on East Fifth Street by the broker leasing the spaces in the summer of 2016.

This corner was Mary Ann's for years before the Mexican restaurant morphed into Dahlia's, which was later busted for reportedly serving a lot of minors in early 2016. The corner has sat empty since 100% Healthy Blend (or maybe just Healthy Blend) closed after three months in November 2016.

Reminders: This MTA Select Bus Service Open House is tonight

There's an MTA Select Bus Service Open House tonight (April 8) from 6-8 at the 14th St. Y, 344 E. 14th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The background: With a new planned SBS route to go into effect ahead of the partial shutdown of the L train later this month, the MTA may eliminate several M14A and M14D stops throughout the East Village and Lower East Side in an effort to speed up service along the bus lines.

Hit this link for more on the MTA's plan.



As the flyer atop this post shows, there's opposition to the plan ... including an online petition with more than 1,000 signatures here.

The meeting tonight is to hear more about the plans and raise any concerns or voice your approval, etc.

Previously

Audrey Hepburn canvas still needs a home

[Jan. 29, 2018, via Steven]

We thought we might have seen the last of the Audrey Hepburn/"Breakfast at Tiffany's"/Holly Golightly canvas that made the rounds early last year, first on St. Mark's Place then later on the Bowery...


[Feb. 23, 2018, via Lola Sāenz]

It popped up again today on First Avenue between 11th Street and 12th Street, as EVG regular Lola Sāenz noted...



OK, it may not be the same one (they are apparently available at IKEA after all) ... Anyway, as Holly Golightly said, "I don’t want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together."

Week in Grieview

[The photogenic 4th and B — back story here]

Posts on EVG this past week included...

RIP Leslie Sternbergh Alexander (Thursday)

The Hells Angels have left the East Village (Tuesday)

1 month in: Basquiat at the Brant Foundation (Friday)

A spirited sendoff for Hattie Hathaway (Wednesday)

Prepping for the Spring Awakening in the neighborhood's community gardens (Thursday)

Q&A with Jake Dobkin, co-founder of Gothamist and author of 'Ask a Native New Yorker' (Friday)

Longtime EV/LES residents Raken Leaves and Julius Klein are marking their almost "40-year interaction" with a two-person exhibition of their art work (Friday)

The building housing the former Sidewalk sells on Avenue A (Wednesday)

Sunshine Cinema-replacing office building moving forward; demolition watch back on (Wednesday)

A future look at the former 650 E. 6th St. (Thursday)

Ride on, Cowboys: Stillwater Bar & Grill closes after 15 years on 4th Street (Monday)

'Lucky 20' opens at the Theater for the New City Art Gallery (Tuesday)

This week's NY See (Monday)

CB3 wants you to attend the MTA Select Bus Service Open House (Friday)

Happy No. 18 Academy Records (Monday)

Last weekend for Jerry's New York Central on 4th Avenue (Saturday)

A reminder that H Mart is coming to 3rd Avenue (Monday)

Report: Irving Plaza closing for 8-month renovation (Wednesday)

Fare deal: The MTA's new digital payment system arrives at Astor Place (Tuesday)

Sage Kitchen opens on the Bowery (Monday)

One Manhattan Square moves to the north (Wednesday)

Blue Bottle Coffee Company coming to Astor Place (Friday)

Jiang Diner now in soft-open mode on 5th Street (Tuesday)

299 Bowery arrives on the rental market 20 months after DBGB closed (Monday)

A quick look at Webster Hall a month before it reopens (Monday)

... and here's an updated look at Webster Hall, now with the Webster Hall on the marquee...



---

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Regal Essex Crossing is now open

The 14-screen theater at Regal Essex Crossing — the first mainstream-movie multiplex on the Lower East Side — opened yesterday at 125 Delancey St. at Essex.

Here you can see films like "Us" or "Shazam!" or "Pet Sematary" in 2D, 3D or "RPX Regal Premium Experience," which is described on the Regal website like this:

RPX presents movies the way filmmakers intended with powerful, uncompressed surround sound and bright eye-popping images in 2D and RealD 3D. Guests will enjoy the custom-built premium environment creating the perfect moviegoing experience. A giant immersive screen is illuminated by high-quality digital projectors and completed with a state-of-the-art sound system.

The theater, with reclining seats and snack trays, will eventually offer a more extensive food menu as well as a full liquor license. (Community Board 3 didn't approve a full liquor license in December 2012 for the now-closed Sunshine Cinema on East Houston.)

You can find movie times at the Regal site here. They also have pre-sale tickets for the 182-minute "Avengers: Endgame," opening April 25.

The theater is located inside the Essex, the tallest building in the mega-Essex Crossing project at 26 stories. This building is also home to the new Essex Street Market.

Saturday's parting shot

A moment on Ludlow Street this afternoon...

Last weekend for Jerry's New York Central on 4th Avenue

Jerry's New York Central is closing after the business day tomorrow (Sunday). Store signage here on Fourth Avenue between 11th Street and 12th Street notes up to 70 percent off on items...



No one from Jerry's responded to our queries about the reasons behind the closure.

As previously noted, this location is an offshoot of Jerry's Artarama, a 15-store art-supply chain headquartered in Raleigh, N.C.

Jerry's opened on Fourth Avenue in late 2013, taking over the space from Utrecht Art Supplies (now Blick), who moved into a new store on 13th Street between University and Fifth Avenue. (As reported in October 2013, Jerry's signed a 10-year lease for 4,452 square feet of ground floor space. Asking rent for the deal was $125 per square foot, per a release announcing the deal.)

As New York Central Art Supply was preparing to close at 62 Third Ave. in 2016 after nearly 111 years of business, Doug Steinberg worked with David and Ira Goldstein, who own Jerry's, to acquire the remaining paper inventory of the store.

With Jerry's closing, the Blick outposts at 1-5 Bond St. and 21 E. 13th St. will be the remaining art-supplies stores in the immediate area.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Jerry's New York Central is closing on 4th Avenue

The other Bowery Wall

On the southwest corner of the Bowery and Houston (outside the former Cherche Midi) ... on the other side of the street from this.

From the left: Fumeroism ...Mad Vaillan ... and A Lucky Rabbit ... all via East Village Walls.

'Take' it to the limit

"Take What You Can Get" is a new single from the third solo record (officially out today) by former Pipette Rose Elinor Dougal. (The Quietus sure liked the record.)

40 years of 'Recollections'

Longtime EV/LES residents Raken Leaves and Julius Klein are marking their almost "40-year interaction" with a two-person exhibition of their art work.

The show, titled "Recollections," opens tomorrow (Saturday) at 222 Bowery between Prince and Spring. The opening reception tomorrow is 5-9 p.m. in the building that housed the studios of Mark Rothko and William S. Burroughs, among others.

The gallery hours are Wednesday though Sunday from 3 to 7 p.m. "Recollections" will be here through April 21.

1 month in: Basquiat at the Brant Foundation

[Photo by James Maher]

The Basquiat exhibit officially opened to the ticket-holding public back on March 6 at the Brant Foundation, 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

The exhibit, featuring some 70 works collectively valued at $1 billion, is up through May 15. There is a waitlist (link here) for admittance.

Multiple EVG contributors/readers have shared photos from inside the four-level space owned by Peter M. Brant this past month. Overall the comments about the exhibit, the inaugural one inside this renovated building, have been overwhelmingly positive. People have appreciated how uncrowded the floors feel ... as well as the East Village views the space provides.

The following shots are by old EVG friend James Maher...





























... and Carol from East Fifth Street shared these... (she called the exhibit "extraordinary — I was truly overwhelmed.")













Previously on EV Grieve:
A Basquiat-at-the-Brant Foundation reader

April 5

An EVG reader shares this festive holiday discovery on Fourth Street at Avenue B.

It's not known at the moment if the person (or people!) who discarded the tree also tossed the broken Portable Tailgating Table.

Q&A with Jake Dobkin, co-founder of Gothamist and author of 'Ask a Native New Yorker'

After helping launch Gothamist in 2003, co-founder and native New Yorker Jake Dobkin enjoyed answering questions and offering advice (often unsolicited!) about NYC to staffers who recently arrived here.

Eventually, Editor-in-Chief John Del Signore suggested that Dobkin, a third-generation New Yorker who grew up in Park Slope, share his humorous and opinionated perspective to readers who may have questions about adjusting to the NYC way of life or to longtime residents looking for a unique point of view.

And so, in the summer of 2013, Dobkin wrote his first "Ask a Native New Yorker" for the news site, tackling a topic that people may wonder about but couldn't find an answer to: "Is It Normal For Roaches To Crawl Through My Hair At Night?"

Now, after 150 columns — addressing questions ranging from "Should I Wash My Hands After Taking The Subway?" to "When Should I Call The Cops On My New Neighbors?" — the series has been turned into a book. I recently asked Dobkin a few questions about "Ask a Native New Yorker."

You've written some 150 "Ask a Native New Yorker" posts for Gothamist. However, the book isn't a repackaging of those. What can readers expect to find in this volume?

I wanted to start from scratch here and really create a volume of advice that could guide a New Yorker from birth until death. I thought a lot of the original columns on the web were pretty good, but they were written under the usual blogging time constraints.

For the book. I had a lot more time and so I think the answers are a lot more thoughtful, and hopefully more amusing. Turns out banging out eight blog posts a day ain't the best way to create quality writing!

In the book, you write that to be considered a native New Yorker, you must have, for starters, been born in one of the five boroughs. What are your feelings about people who say they are a native New Yorker — they just grew up a quick LIRR ride away in, oh, Valley Stream?

I feel bad for these people, because the truth always comes out, and then they look like real chumps. Listen, I grew up in Park Slope — it's not exactly the most hardcore neighborhood in New York, and so I understand why someone might want to shade the truth on their origin story. In college I used to tell people I grew up in South Brooklyn or something.

But ultimately to achieve wisdom you must be honest with the world and yourself about who you are and where you come from, and anyway, it could be worse — you could be from Jersey!

Do you allow for any wiggle room for iconic figures from the city's past or present — people who made an impression on NYC's culture and history though they weren't born here and hence not native New Yorkers? People such as Mickey Mantle, Andy Warhol, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Patrick Ewing, Debbie Harry and Patti Smith to randomly name six...

Newcomers, immigrants and refugees from the suburbs all contribute to the wonderful tossed-salad that is NYC culture — I'd never denigrate anyone who took the extreme act of courage it takes to move here. That said, I think it's fair to say that natives have a different, and valuable point of view, that is too often overlooked, and which I hope the book shines a light on.

You went to school at Columbia. At the time while making your collegiate choice, did it occur to you that attending, say, Brown or Dartmouth, would have watered down your native New Yorker status by being away for four years?

I was raised by hippie radical communists in Park Slope, whose style of parenting was to avoid parenting as much as possible. So when it came to applying to college I was pretty much on my own.

Stuyvesant High School in those days had about one college counselor for every 950 kids, so there wasn't much advice there either — it was pretty much "don't forget to apply to college!" So I was actually totally unaware Columbia existed until after I graduated from high school — basically everything above 14th Street was like one of those old maps where the far north is labelled "there be dragons."

So I didn't apply there, and actually got rejected by every school except Dartmouth and Binghamton. Now, I knew I couldn't go to Dartmouth, because I had a feeling my whole sarcastic Jew schtick wouldn't play well in New Hampshire. So I ended up going to SUNY Binghamton for 12 weeks, and then dropping out, and at that point, finally, someone suggested I check out Columbia, and I did. It was like I discovered El Dorado — an amazing lost city of gold.

So I wish I could say my college choice was the product of my New York Native realness, but it was actually just a kind of ridiculous stumbling ass-backwards into a situation that worked for me. The moral of the story is I'm not letting my kids apply to any school you can't get to on NYC public transit. Maybe I'd make an exception for Rutgers or something.

The book provides a lot of helpful tips for people new to the city. Do you have any specific advice for residents who are new to the East Village?

I remember when I first got to Stuy, back in 1990 — I was 13, and in those days it was on 15th and 1st, just outside the East Village. Everything south was this giant mystery which took me years to unravel. I actually think the first time I walked down St. Mark's I was 20 years old! But since then I've developed tons of favorite spots, none particularly original — Veselka, Sobaya, 7B, etc.

One of the best secret spots in all of NYC — the New York Marble Cemetery off Second Avenue — I love going in there whenever the gate is open.

Do you still believe — as you write — that New York is the greatest city in the world? You finished this book before Hudson Yards opened.

New York is the greatest city the world has ever seen, and probably will ever see, since between climate change and our current politics, the human race doesn't seem like it has so much time left.

You can't let things like Hudson Yards bother you too much — New York has always changed at a blistering pace, and somehow we always turn out OK. I was up there [the other day] shooting the Shed, and I saw like four hot-dog carts already colonizing the edges of the site. I have no doubt in 10 or 20 years the place will be totally over-run with real New York chaos.

---

"Ask a Native New Yorker: Hard-Earned Advice on Surviving and Thriving in the Big City" (Abrams Image) is now available wherever books are sold.

CB3 wants you to attend the MTA Select Bus Service Open House this Monday night

[EVG file photo]

The MTA and DOT are currently gathering community feedback on the proposed changes to the M14A and M14D bus routes.

As previously reported, with a new planned SBS route to go into effect ahead of the partial shutdown of the L train later this month, the MTA may eliminate several M14A and M14D stops throughout the East Village and Lower East Side in an effort to speed up service along the bus lines. (Hit this link for more on the MTA's plan.)

However, local elected officials have opposed the proposed plan ... and now Community Board 3 is encouraging residents to attend an MTA Select Bus Service Open House on Monday night (details below) to voice their opposition to any plans that eliminate local stops along the M14A/D routes.

Last month, CB3 passed a resolution stating just that. The resolution reads, in part:

CB3 is underserved by public transportation, though fewer than 9% of workers in the district use a car to commute to work. Despite CB3 being the third most densely populated community district in New York City, many residents are poorly served by the subway system and 11% live more than a half-mile from the nearest subway stop.

Therefore:

• There is a need for more east/west busservice south of 8th Street. The ease of East/West travel has been diminished by the elimination of the Grand Street Bus in the early 1980s and by the limited number of M14A buses.

• The City should take strong, creative measures in CB3 to reduce traffic congestion, which contributes to a vicious cycle of reduced ridership and reduced service. The MTA/NYCT will reduce service after ridership on a bus route drops below a certain threshold. Service cuts have a severely negative impact on vulnerable populations, including the elderly and disabled, who rely on public transportation ...

According to CB3, the following M14 stops would be removed under the MTA's proposal:

Avenue A/Essex:
• Ninth Street
• Third Street
• Rivington
• Grand/Abraham Kazan
• Cherry/Jackson

Avenue D:
• 11th Street
• 9th Street
• 8th Street
• Columbia/Rivington

Per a flyer about Monday's meeting via CB3: "We need you to attend the following meeting and say 'NO, we need our local stops.'"

For their part, local elected officials held a rally on Avenue A and Fourth Street on March 22. Per a statement from City Councilmember Carlina Rivera's office afterwards:

A real M14 SBS with supplemental, local service, would service vulnerable populations while improving on the proposed SBS plan and providing real “express” travel times that other routes have. In fact, there is already a successful model for this kind of plan just a few avenues away, where the M15 SBS runs parallel to an M15 local route. The MTA must pursue a similar strategy for the M14 route.

This opposition isn't sitting well with NYC Transit President Andy Byford. As the Daily News reported yesterday, Byford "wants the city’s community boards to get out of his way."

Per the article:

With the passage of congestion pricing in Albany over the weekend, the self-described railwayman now has a dedicated pot of money to pay for his $40 billion "Fast Forward" plan, which aims to transform New York’s subway and bus networks over the next decade.

But in order to get the job done, Byford said he needs the nitpickers and naysayers to keep their typical "not in my backyard" attitude to themselves.

"Fast Forward is dead in the water if we have just absolute NIMBYism across the city," Byford said Wednesday at a panel discussion hosted by the U.K. government. "We absolutely have to embrace that if we all want better transit as a system, then we’ve got to think the big picture."

Byford took a not-so-subtle shot at community groups and elected officials who are opposed to the MTA’s plan to cut stops on the sluggish lower Manhattan M14 bus route in order to replace it with select bus service.

"If every single thing we want to do, like speed up buses by taking out just a few stops, gets 'nope, you’re not doing it' (then) I'm wasting my time," he said.

Ben Fried of TransitCenter told this to Curbed in a post from March 25:

"New York City’s bus stops are spaced too close together, which is a big drag on bus riders' time. Some of the current bus stops on the M14 are spaced just one block apart. The MTA's bus stop consolidation plan for the M14 will improve transit access in the East Village by speeding up buses, and stops would still be no more than two and a half blocks apart."

The MTA Select Bus Service Open House is Monday (April 8) from 6-8 p.m. at the 14th St. Y, 344 E. 14th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Blue Bottle Coffee Company coming to Astor Place

A Blue Bottle Coffee Company outpost is opening at 2 Astor Place at Broadway.

As you can see, the BBCC branding is up in the space that previously housed Middle Eastern chain Semson.

No word on an opening date. BBCC currently has 14 locations in NYC, including on University Place.

Noted

Someone along 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue left a note — FYI! — on this body-shaped item left on the curb for sanitation — "Not a body."



Thanks to @thepunkguy for the photo!