Report: Mayor unleashes the 'Green Wave Bicycle Plan' to address increase in cycling fatalities, make streets safer

To address the rising death toll of cyclists on city streets this year (17 so far vs. 10 all of last year), Mayor de Blasio yesterday released details on a five-year, $58.4 million plan that aims to combine design, enforcement, legislation, policy and education to make the city safer for all street users.

Here's Gothamist with the key details:

Dubbed the "Green Wave Bicycle Plan," the 24-page blueprint calls for the addition of 30 miles of new protected bike lanes each year, up from the current rate of about 20. The Department of Transportation will also begin implementing traffic calming treatments at 50 of the city's most dangerous intersections, while the NYPD's three-week campaign targeting dangerous drivers will be extended indefinitely.

Vision Zero never started with the idea that we'd save only a few lives — it's about saving EVERY life. And a citywide network of protected bike lanes will bring us closer to that goal. pic.twitter.com/UtLuYE99RK

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) July 25, 2019

The plan includes expanded NYPD enforcement:

• Under the plan, the NYPD will ramp up enforcement at the 100 most crash-prone intersections and target enforcement on highest risk activities: speeding, failing to yield, blocking bike lanes, oversized trucks/trucks off route.
• Maintain continuous citywide implementation of “Operation Bicycle Safe Passage” initiative – extending elevated enforcement of blocked bike lanes and hazardous driving violations. Since implementation of Operation Bicycle Safe Passage, NYPD has doubled enforcement of cars parked in bicycle lanes and issued more than 8,600 summons in the first three weeks of July.
• Specialized units and precincts will increase enforcement against oversized and off-route trucks.
• The NYPD also announced that supervisors would respond to collision sites to determine if the right-of-way laws should be applied — and that it would also discontinue its practice of ticketing cyclists at the site of fatal cyclist crashes.
• NYPD supports new and emerging technology for automated enforcement.

The plan doesn't mention if they'll be an educational component to curb the NYPD's tradition of blaming the victim for his or her own death on the streets, as we saw in the case of Kelly Hurley on First Avenue at Ninth Street in 2017. A detective came to the conclusion that she didn't stop in time and "slipped" under a truck — a truck failing to yield and making an illegal left turn across four lanes of traffic.

You can find plenty more reaction and analysis of "Green Wave" over at Streetsblog — here and here, for starters.

The new fence at La Plaza is officially complete

It's official: The new fence is complete at La Plaza Cultural on Avenue C and Ninth Street...





The community garden/green space has been closed to the public since the spring for the fence work.

An official grand reopening will be announced soon.

The previous chain-link fence was sagging in spots and in need of repair. Winter Flowers, handmade sculptures from discarded materials that Rolando Politi started creating in 2000, lined the top of the fence. The collection had grown to nearly 250. Not sure if any of those might return.


[Photo from September 2018]

Meanwhile, La Plaza volunteers will be holding onsite member registration, orientation and dues payment from 1-4 on Saturday and Sunday if you're interested in being part of the garden.

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

Soft opening for Craft+Carry on St. Mark's Place

[Photos by Steven]

The East Village outpost of Craft+Carry will have a soft opening today at 116 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue...



Craft+Carry, which also has locations in the DeKalb Market (since June 2017) and on Third Avenue (September 2017) in Gramercy Park, sells several hundred varieties of craft bottles and cans to take home... there's also a small bar with a rotating batch of taps and free Skee-Ball. (Among the other amenities: the Crowler machine, which employees can draft beer for customers at the bar, and homebrew equipment and recipe kits.)

The recently renovated storefront previously belonged to a Ukrainian religious organization.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Craft+Carry outpost slated for 116 St. Mark's Place

Transaction wire: 182-184 Avenue A; 743 E. 6th St.

[File photo of 182-184 Avenue A]

From the transaction wire via The Real Deal: 182-184 Avenue A between 11th Street and 12th Street has changed hands for $11.5 million.

Per TRD:

The four-story-tall walk-up sits on two tax lots between East 11th and East 12th Streets. The seller was an entity linked to Granite International Management and the buyer was another limited liability company linked to Great Neck-based landlord Bahram Hakakian.

Hakakian was once on City Councilmember Bill de Blasio's "Slumlord Watch List," according to the Daily News in 2009.

In 2011, The Real Deal's analysis of city records found that "there were 3,020 housing code violations on the 334 units" in the 17 buildings that Hakakian reportedly owned. (He had just sold many of the properties.) That figure came out to about nine violations per unit.

---


[743 E. 6th St.]

Meanwhile, 743 E. Sixth St., a three-story building between Avenue C and Avenue D, just sold for $3.2 million.

According to the listing, the property was vacant ... and features a garage-studio on the ground level (the former Manny's Auto Repair) ... and a single-family residence on the second and third floors.

Traded: New York reported the buyer as David Mashaal.

The property will reportedly be leased as a rental in the short term with long-term development plans. There were 4,430 square feet of air rights available to the buyer.

A photographic memoir at the Tompkins Square Library branch

The photography of longtime LES resident Paul Adrian Davies is currently on display at the Tompkins Square Library branch on 10th Street.

Saturday (July 27) afternoon at 3, Davies is giving a talk followed by slide presentation about previously unseen work from his extensive archive of photographs of the neighborhood, which stretches back to 1985.

His work will be up at the branch, 331 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, until Aug. 24.

Grant Shaffer's NY See

Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood.

Report: Bartender files federal complaint against Bar None for harassment

Bartender Kaitlin Day filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint last week alleging that Bar None, 98 Third Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street, promoted a culture of sexual harassment and assault, according to published reports.

Per the Daily News:

The complaint alleges that owner Frank Steo let his friends use the basement as a crack den, the rain poured into the bar when the weather was bad and she had to put up with gross ogling from the toxic boss’s buddies.

And:

The last straw came on June 18, when a man Day believes is Steo’s cousin allegedly went behind the bar to serve himself. When she complained, the man, Kurtis Burns, put his hands on her breasts, squeezed her butt and tried to put his finger inside her vagina, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

A warrant has been issued for his arrest. Burns was previously charged with multiple counts of harassment and assault stemming from a fight near the bar on June 2. The News reported that Burns failed to show up for previous court dates.

Day's attorney says that they plan to file a lawsuit after the EEOC makes its determination. Steo did not return calls for comment to the News.

Citi Bike of the day

Derek Berg spotted the one at an impromptu docking station on Seventh Street near First Avenue.

About the Heap of Ruins Garden Party tomorrow night on 6th Street and Avenue C

There's a garden party of sorts tomorrow (July 26) night on the northeast corner of Avenue C and Sixth Street — that long-empty lot dubbed Lot6C...



The poster out front offers details on what to expect from 6-9 p.m. via Monty Cantsin (aka Istvan Kantor) along with X Pitts, who has been curating this experimental trash-art garden ...



Via Cantsin's Instagram...

We have to meet and talk and make shit happen. This is the only place left, the remaining hideout, the urban guerrilla site where spirits rise high and revolutionary creativity rules, thanks to X Pitts, the poet, who successfully kept this lot alive... come and bring us some hope for the future, join the party, read your poetry! Neoism Now and Then!

View this post on Instagram

Monty Cantsin Speaks! X Pitts Reads! Friday, July 26, 2019, 6pm - 9pm at LOT6C LOT6C, located at the NorthEast corner of 6th Street and Ave C, is a unique experimental trash-art garden, a socio-archeological site managed by X Pitts, poet, archivist, community activist, a long time LES/East Village resident. This event is a collaboration between X Pitts and Monty Cantsin Amen, Neoist performance artist, Rivington School spokesman, well known for his revolutionary art interventions in NYC and throughout the world. For ten years X Pitts was a member of the homeless community at the Tompkins Square Garden. He is best known for reading/improvising revolutionary poetry and conducting discussions about survival strategy. Monty Cantsin aka Istvan Kantor is infamous for defacing museum walls around the world with his own blood. At LOT6C Kantor/Cantsin will give a speech, sing his Neoist anthems, set props on fire and pose the way only a heroic heretic would in front of a firing squad, blindfolded, embellished by detritus and holding in his last breath. LOT6C is located at the NorthEast corner of 6th Street and Ave C, in Lower Manhattan. Admission is free but donations are welcome. #xpitts #neoism #rivingtonschool #loisaida #nyc

A post shared by Monty Cantsin (@neoism.news) on Jul 17, 2019 at 2:57pm PDT

It appears this might be the last hurrah for the lot, a former gas station, which has been empty since the early 1980s. There have been efforts to build on the corner dating to 2003.

According to DOB records, there are now approved plans to construct a 6-floor residential building with space for an unspecified community facility. The city approved the plans in May. The specs were pre-filed in 2012.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Hole watch 2017: Long-empty lot on 6th and C now waiting for 5-story building

Old Fashioned Pizza coming to 13th Street

EVG reader Jimmy shares this photo from 244 E. 13th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, where Old Fashioned Pizza is in the works for the former Thaimee Box space.

We don't know too much about this operation at the moment or what constitutes old-fashioned pizza.

And to recap a busy pizza week: Bruno Pizza announced that it will not reopen down the block after a fire closed it last November... Pizza Rollio is also officially gone from Ninth Street... while Nolita Pizza has debuted on Second Avenue.

Sorbet Cray Cray debuts today on A

The owners of the the Chikalicious dessert shop on 10th Street have revamped their Churro Cone space at 131 Avenue A between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street.

After a few weeks in soft opening mode, Sorbet Cray Cray (!!!!) opens this afternoon. Florence Fabricant at the Times wrote about it earlier this month:

They use their homemade yogurt as the base, and add a made-to-order sorbet whizzed on the spot in a high-speed Pacojet blender. July’s flavors are rosemary, basil and watermelon. Next month, you’ll find lemongrass and honey-thyme. It will be open until late fall when they will open a more permanent outlet for the dessert nearby.

You can hit up the Cray Cray Instagram account here for more views of their "best-in-show, first-rate, silky smooth sorbets in proprietary sauce."

H/T EVG reader Annabelle!

Wednesday's parting shot

Discarded art featuring lyrics from "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails.

Photo on Seventh Street today via Derek Berg...

What would Freud say?

Discarded items on Seventh Street near Avenue A include boxing gloves, a basketball and a copy of Freud's "On Dreams."

Photo today by Derek Berg...

You may now book a room for October at the Moxy East Village

Reservations are now being accepted for dates this fall at the Moxy East Village, the 13-story, 286-room hotel from the Marriott brand here on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue...



Oct. 6 is the first day for any availabilities ...



Here's hotel info from a recent news release:

Conceived by Rockwell Group as a vertical timeline, each floor of the hotel draws inspiration from a different era in East Village history, from the earliest settlers to the punk era to today. Moxy East Village offers 286 design-driven bedrooms, co-working spaces, tech-savvy amenities, and cultural programming that reflects the richly diverse fabric of the neighborhood.

The various rooms include walk-in rain showers, "retro" telephones and "personal screen casting technology" (aka Netflix, Pandora, etc.).

As for drinking and dining, as previously reported, Tao Group is the food and beverage operator and the Lightstone Group's partner at the Moxy East Village. Plans include a lobby bar and café, a 2,600-square-foot rooftop bar and a French-Mediterranean restaurant from chef Jason Hall.

... and here's the most recent hotel rendering...



...and what it replaced...


[Photo from May 2016]

The foundation work got underway here in August 2017. Workers demolished the five residential buildings that stood here in the fall of 2016.

Previously on EV Grieve:
At the rally outside 112-120 E. 11th St.

6-building complex on East 10th Street and East 11th Street sells for $127 million

Preservationists say city ignored pitch to designate part of 11th Street as a historic district

Permits filed to demolish 5 buildings on 11th Street to make way for new hotel

New building permits filed for 13-story Moxy Hotel on East 11th Street across from Webster Hall

Curiosity about the anonymous buyer behind the sale of the Boys' Club Harriman Clubhouse

Last Wednesday, news arrived that "a wealthy, anonymous individual" had purchased the the Boys' Club Harriman Clubhouse on Avenue A and 10th Street.

We had heard rumors in previous weeks of such a transaction; and that the Boys' Club would continue to lease space here for another year.

As for the buyer, per Crain's:

Paul Wolf, a real estate broker and adviser who specializes in working with nonprofits and who represented the foundation, said the buyer wanted to remain anonymous. Wolf said the buyer was planning to sell the property, potentially at a substantial loss, to a nonprofit that would maintain its civic use.

"The goal is to keep this as a community facility," said Wolf, who is co-president of the firm Denham Wolf. "The intent is to sell it to a nonprofit at a lower price than the purchase price."

As the Daily News noted, "The buyer, who bought the land as a foundation, wants to remain anonymous, according to the sources, one of whom said he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement as part of the deal."

The deal here has residents recalling the anonymous donor who came to the rescue of St. Brigid’s on Avenue B and Eighth Street in 2008, sparing the circa-1848 building from demolition and making it possible for the structure to be reopened as a parish church.

Per the Times in May 2008:

The Archdiocese of New York announced on Wednesday that a donor had come forward with an “unexpected but very welcome gift” of $20 million after a private meeting with Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the archbishop of New York.

The gift includes $10 million to restore the building, at 119 Avenue B; $2 million to establish an endowment for the parish “so that it might best meet the religious and spiritual needs of the people living in the community”; and $8 million to support St. Brigid’s School [ed note: closed now as of June 2019] and other Catholic schools in need.

We never heard definitively, but — via the rumor mill — the leading candidates behind saving the church were Irish-American philanthropist Chuck Feeney, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Donald Trump and Mel Gibson. (And Matt Dillon!)

Now various residents and readers are searching for clues behind the identity of the person who bought the Boys' Club building, which opened in 1901.

Public records show that the 7-story building was sold to 287 East 10th Street LLC c/o Denham Wolf Real Estate Services for $31.725 million, as per the "Details" document and page 12 of the deed accessed here.

According to public records, Boys' Club Executive Director Stephen Tosh represented the Boys Club in the sale. Carey Thope (or Thorpe) represented 287 East 10th Street LLC. It's unclear at the moment who Thope/Thorpe is. Interestingly enough, 287 East 10th Street LLC is not listed in the Division of Corporations - New York State Department of State database.



So the searching and guessing will continue.

Meanwhile, Sen. Brad Hoylman shared his thoughts on the developments here. He spoke out against a potential sale last fall with several other local elected officials who had concerns about the loss of the services the Boys' Club provides to the neighborhood:

"Whoever this angel investor is, I want to thank them on behalf of our community. They are saving a century-old community facility from being converted into luxury condos or a high-priced hotel, which sadly has been the real estate narrative for the East Village.

While I wish the Boys’ Club had never put the Harriman Clubhouse on the open market in the first place, I’m grateful to them for finding this angel investor that will allow young people and families in our community to continue to benefit from this splendid facility.

I’m hopeful that the unnamed foundation will work with Community Board 3, elected officials, and other local stakeholders to ensure that community organizations have a place in the new building and that the Boys’ Club, which is reportedly taking space in the building, will decide to stay in this location and continue to provide the essential services it offers to boys and young men."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Conspiracy theories: Who was the anonymous donor behind St. Brigid's $20 million donation?

More speculation on the 'saint' who saved St. Brigid's

Local elected officials urge Boys' Club officials to postpone sale of the Harriman Clubhouse

Boys' Club of New York selling East Village building; will remain open through June 2019

During noon rally today, local elected officials will seek postponement of Boys' Club building sale

[Updated] Exclusive: The Boys' Club of New York puts the Harriman Clubhouse on the sales market for $32 million

Boys' Club fast tracks sale of East Village clubhouse as final bids are due Oct. 30

RUMOR: The Boys' Club building on 10th and A has a new owner; will remain in use as a nonprofit

The Village East screening Quentin Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood' in 70mm

When Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood" opens tomorrow (July 25) at City Cinemas Village East, it will be just one of five theaters in the country to show the film in 70mm.

Tarantino's well-reviewed ode to 1960s Los Angeles and the movie industry stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Al Pacino, among others... and it continues the filmmaker's commitment to celluloid. (Here's a 70mm explainer.)

His last film, "The Hateful Eight," also played here in 70mm in the Village East's Jaffe Art Theatre. ("The Master," Dunkirk" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" are other films to screen here in recent years in 70mm.)

You can find ticket info for the theater, Second Avenue at 12th Street, at this link.

Tuesday's parting shot

A sunset shot from Avenue B this evening courtesy of @cecilscheib ...

Meanwhile, on Avenue B...

Report: the M14A tops the slow-bus charts

The M14A, a familiar route for East Village residents that connects the LES to the West Village, was cited as having the slowest bus service in the city.

As amNY reports, the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and TransitCenter announced today that the M14A is the recipient of the 2019 Pokey and Schleppie Awards, which highlight the slowest and least reliable bus service in the city.

Per amNY: "With an average speed of 4.3 miles per hour, the M14A moves slower than a manatee, which can glide through water at a crisp pace of 5 mph."

It's possible that those M14A times will speed up with the July 1 introduction of Select Bus Service along this route.

Mount Sinai Beth Israel offers more details on new East Village hospital, plans for the former Rivington House

[Where the new 7-floor hospital will rise on 13th Street]

Mount Sinai Beth Israel officials yesterday released more details on their "$1 billion downtown transformation."

For starters, they have submitted an application to the state Department of Health to close and relocate Mount Sinai Beth Israel from its current location on First Avenue and 16th Street to Second Avenue and 13th Street.

As previously reported in the fall of 2016, the Mount Sinai Health System is in the midst of its years-long project to rebuild Mount Sinai Beth Israel, transitioning to a network of smaller facilities throughout lower Manhattan.

The plans include an expanded facility on 14th Street and Second Avenue, which includes a new 7-story hospital on 13th Street on the lot where a now-demolished 14-floor building that housed training physicians and staff once stood.

Per the Mount Sinai Beth Israel news release yesterday:

Demolition for the planned site of the new Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital was completed earlier this year and, pending approvals, Mount Sinai anticipates breaking ground in early 2020.

Expected to open in 2023, the new hospital will feature all private inpatient beds, cutting edge cardiac and neurologic interventional services, an operative platform, and a state-of-the-art emergency department. It will be integrated with the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, allowing for enhanced Ophthalmologic and ENT clinical services, including a 24/7 eye trauma emergency department, and access to state-of-the-art imaging, pharmacy, and laboratory services. In the meantime, the current MSBI hospital and emergency department will remain fully open and accessible until the opening of the new hospital.

And a new rendering of this facility — this is the view of Second Avenue from 13th Street... showing existing structures as well as the revamped current facilities and new hospital...



Also announced yesterday, more details about use of the former Rivington House:

Included in the $1 billion Downtown plan is a $140 million commitment to create a comprehensive, community-oriented behavioral health center: The Mount Sinai Comprehensive Behavioral Health Center.

The new facility, located at the site of the current Rivington House, will offer downtown residents a holistic approach to mental health and become a one-stop location for psychiatric, addiction, physical health, and social service needs. ... The site will not include methadone treatment services.

The sale of the Rivington House, a six-story, 119-year-old building at 45 Rivington St., "represents one of Mayor Bill de Blasio's biggest black eyes," as Gothamist once put it.

In February 2015, the Allure Group paid $28 million for the property, promising that 45 Rivington — the former Rivington Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation — would remain a health facility. In November 2015, a city agency lifted the the deed in exchange for the Allure Group's $16 million payment to the city. Allure then reportedly sold the property for $116 million to a development group with designs on a condoplex for the property that overlooks Sara S. Roosevelt Park, unleashing an outpouring of outrage.

The condo plans never moved forward. Crain's first reported on Mount Sinai's plan to lease the space last December. (The move caught Rivington House advocates by surprise.)

In reporting on yesterday's expansion news, Crain's noted that since acquiring Beth Israel Medical Center in a deal with Continuum Health Partners in 2013, "Mount Sinai has lost a significant amount of money on the medical center's East Village and Brooklyn campuses." How much? "Those campuses lost $104.6 million last year on $904.9 million in operating revenue. That was an improvement from a $124.2 million loss in 2017."

Find more info on the Mount Sinai Beth Israel restructuring at their FAQ page.

Previously on EV Grieve:
An empty lot awaits the future home of the new Mt. Sinai Beth Israel Hospital on 13th Street

Permits filed to demolish Mount Sinai's 13th Street residential building

Mount Sinai Beth Israel files plan for 7-story hospital on 13th Street