At the 29th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade

The 29th annual edition of the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade returned to the East River Park Amphitheater yesterday.

Despite the rain, there was a big crowd, who brought umbrellas...



Heart of Chelsea Veterinary Group served as the sponsor (part of the $17,500 sponsorship goes to the year-round maintenance of the Tompkins Square Dog Run) ... while 1010 WINS Midday Anchor Susan Richard served as the emcee.



EVG correspondent Stacie Joy was there to snap photos of the canine competitors, dressed as everything from ramen noodles to a box of White Claw Hard Seltzer. Movies were again a prime source of costume inspiration. Films spotted included "Midsommar," "The Wizard of Oz," "The Exorcist," "Alien" and "Star Wars."
























[Global Warning, a runner-up]




















[Midsommar, a runner up]




[NOT A DOG!]




[Trump Unraveling, an honorable mention]

And the best in show — Lincoln the Yorkshire Terrier as “Snoopy & the Red Baron” ...

After 10 years, Luke's Lobster is closing its East Village outpost on Oct. 31

After 10 years of operating in the East Village, Luke’s Lobster is closing their original operation at 93 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue at the end of this month.

While business is strong for the ever-expanding brand, the small space on Seventh Street no longer fits the company's vision for a Luke's dining experience.

Founders Luke Holden and Ben Conniff discuss the impending closure and share the story of their origins here via a blog post at the Luke's Lobster website.

It's hard to believe it's been over 10 years since we first walked into the space formerly known as "Sousa's Closet," a recently closed consignment shop at 93 E. 7th Street. It wasn't exactly what we would have envisioned for a lobster shack — just 225 square feet in one little room, with a tiny bathroom in the back corner that also served as an office. The walls and ceiling were painted an inexplicable combination of dark brown and light blue.

The space was cooled by an old window AC unit, and there was about enough electricity to power that and the overhead lights, and that's about it. But with the shoestring budget we had, this little shoebox was the biggest and best space we could find to launch Luke's Lobster.

In just 30 days, we and our friends and family did the best we could to turn that closet into an approximation of a lobster shack. We painted the walls a (slightly) better yellow, decorated with Luke's actual lobster buoys and traps from his time on the water, and added the basic mechanics: a dish sink, some electrical power, fridges, and a toaster. On day one we were slammed, and the seed for a growing business was planted.

It's been amazing and humbling to celebrate our 10th Anniversary this month. But there is one accompanying bit of sad news that we have yet to share, and that is the closing of our original location at 93 E. 7th Street at the end of this month.

Our 10 year lease is up, and we have had to think carefully about the space's future. As we've grown in New York, we've focused on building unique shacks that truly evoke the feeling of Maine, and with each one we've made changes that make our guests happier, including more space to sit and enjoy your meal. And over time, our guests have increasingly chosen those other Luke's locations to share their everyday celebrations with family and friends.

It would have been easy to just sign a lease renewal and keep our pocket of nostalgia going on 7th Street. But our responsibility to provide the best possible experience for all our guests and make the right decision on behalf of those 600 teammates and lobstermen partners outweighs that nostalgia (rest assured the whole 7th Street team has jobs at our other locations).

We hope that all our friends in the neighborhood will continue to visit us just a short walk away at our Union Square location [University Place between 13th Street and 14th Street] after we close on Oct. 31. We'll never lose the memories that our 7th Street location afforded us over the last 10 years, but we're lucky to still have the core of that day one team working with us toward the same mission today, and to have lasting friendships with those who have moved on. It's time for 93 E. 7th Street to help launch someone else's dream, and we can't wait to visit and support it.

Today, Luke’s Lobster has more than 30 locations across nine U.S. cities and internationally in Japan and Taiwan.

Here's a look back at our first EVG post on Luke's when the homemade coming-soon signage arrived in August 2009...

Pols: Fence at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street will remain at 8 feet

[Photo by Steven]

When renovations are complete at the Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street later next year, the fence outside the property will remain the same height.

As previously reported, while the $4 million redesign of the Park was welcome, local residents were unhappy with the Parks Department's plan to install a 4-foot fence here between Avenue A and Avenue B. According to a petition that was in circulation, the shorter fence would "make the park less secure and an unsafe place for children to use."

However, on Friday, local Assemblymember Harvey Epstein and City Councilmember Carlina Rivera announced a deal with the city that would keep the fence at 8 feet.

In a joint statement, they said:

"We are proud to stand with the community and parks advocates who persisted in asking that the Parks Department recognize the safety needs at Joseph Sauer Playground. We are excited to announce that because of this collective effort, the Parks Department has agreed to keep the playground’s fencing at its current 8-foot height as part of the upcoming renovation. The voices of New Yorkers who use local parks every day must be heard when we decide how our capital dollars are spent, and we want to thank Commissioner Mitchell Silver and the Parks team for listening and addressing those concerns in this instance."

The renovations — part of Mayor de Blasio’s Community Parks Initiative — are expected to start this month, with a completion date in October 2020.

Here's a look the renovations to come...



Previously on EV Grieve:
A petition to keep the 8-foot fence at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street

Year-long renovations expected soon at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street; locals want fence to remain at 8 feet

The Wild Son shapes up on 1st Avenue and St. Mark's Place

You may have noticed the fresh coat of paint and storefront renovations happening over at the southeast corner of First Avenue and St. Mark's Place ...



As we reported back on March 18, Robert Ceraso and Jason Mendenhall are opening an outpost of their Chelsea cafe the Wild Son here at 132 First Ave.

The EV Wild Son will be open all day for breakfast and lunch, with dinner-drinks in the evening.

No word on an opening date.

Ceraso and Mendenhall's other local establishments include the Wayland (Avenue C), Good Night Sonny (across St. Mark's Place) and the Lost Lady (Avenue C). They also have designs on the former Mr. White's space on St. Mark's Place.

At No. 132, the Rolling Stones-themed Waiting on a Friend briefly took a turn here last fall after taking over the space from Colibri and VBar, whose original 10-year lease had expired.

Previously on Ev Grieve:
Team behind the Wayland and the Wild Son eye St. Mark's Place for 2 restaurants

Newsstand arrives on 4th Street and the Bowery

[Photo Thursday by Derek Berg]

The familiar steel structure of a Cemusa newsstand complete with ads via JCDecaux arrived on Fourth Street just west of the Bowery this past Thursday.

We first heard about this proposed stand back in February 2018.


[Photo from February 2018 by Sheila Meyer]

The next closest newsstand is on the east side of the Bowery at Second Street. And then there's Jerry's Newsstand on Astor Place.

In any event, it seems like an odd place for a newsstand. (There are likely metrics showing an influential demographic using this corridor that makes it appealing to advertisers. And there is the new development likely on the way across the street.)

The New Yorker looked at the possible newsstand of the future (the New Stand on the Bowery) in a piece from June ...

Some background: newsstands — traditionally, ramshackle steel structures — have been a long-standing feature of New York’s sidewalks. (There were 1,525 newsstands at their peak, in the nineteen-fifties, selling morning and evening editions.) In 1911, when the city tried to purge them in a cleanup effort, William Merican, the president of the Newsdealers’ Association, told a reporter, “Why, there are some men who cannot eat their breakfast without a newspaper.”

He added that women buy the papers to make them “forget their misery. If the public cannot get their newspapers on the street, they will find the inconvenience intolerable.”

And...

In 2007 — with Facebook and Google gobbling up newspapers’ ad revenue — the Bloomberg administration attempted to “rationalize” the city’s beleaguered newsstands (the mayor’s word), replacing the old, jerry-rigged stalls with slick, corporate-looking edifices from a marketing company, which uses their exteriors to sell programmatic ads. Today, the city has a little more than three hundred newsstands. They are required by law to sell printed material.

But Max Bookman, a lawyer who represents the New York City Newsstand Operators Association, told me, “I talk to newsstand operators who feel lucky if they sell fifty newspapers a day.” For the most part, they eke out a living on convenience items: snacks, bottled water, e-cigarettes, lottery tickets, and umbrellas when it’s raining.

Report: Alleged host of 7th Street sex parties arrested for a probation violation

The sex-house saga on Seventh Street has taken another strange twist.

The Post has been all over the story of Avraham Adler, who allegedly hosted advertised sex parties at the tony townhouse he's renting at 189 E. Seventh St. between Avenue B and Avenue C.

Next came the revelation from the tabloid that Adler "is leading a 'double or triple life' as an ultra-Orthodox Jew with a pregnant wife and three kids in suburban New Jersey."

And now from the Post: On Friday, U.S. Marshals and N.J. Regional Fugitive Task Force members arrested Adler, saying they were executing a Pennsylvania warrant for a probation violation stemming from a fraud conviction.

Bucks County Deputy District Attorney Marc Furber said Adler was convicted in 2017 of misdemeanor theft and receiving stolen property in the theft of numerous items from a company called Genesis Diagnostics, and received five years’ probation. This year he was convicted of access device fraud, a felony, for allegedly using the Genesis Diagnostics name “to obtain credit and make substantial purchases.” He was given another five years’ probation to run consecutively to the 2017 sentence.

In a previous Manhattan Supreme Court filing, Wonwoo Chang, the owner of 189 E. Seventh St., claimed that Adler, who signed a two-year lease here on April 1, has hosted "lewd" parties where "on premises sex took place." (Adler also hosted at least one high-brow art party — despite a court order barring further events at the residence.)

Aside from throwing what neighbors said were disruptive parties, he was known to park his fleet of luxury cars in front of a fire hydrant on the block.

The circa-1860 townhouse underwent a gut rehab in recent years, emerging in early 2017 with an ask of $6.25 million.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Landlord alleges tenant using 7th Street townhouse for sex parties

Week in Grieview

[The gentle waters of the Avenue A reflection pond]

Posts from this past week included...

Reader report: New playground equipment already falling apart in Tompkins Square Park (Tuesday) ... New playground repairs happening now in Tompkins Square Park (Thursday)

Butch Judy's pops up behind Performance Space 122 on 1st Avenue (Friday)

Police looking for suspect who spraypainted swastikas on Astor Place (Tuesday)

Another look at the corner of 4th Street and the Bowery (Monday)

Rusty Bell went missing... and was found (Wednesday)

Three Seat Espresso will close by the end of 2019 on Avenue A (Friday)

RIP John Giorno (Sunday)

Caswell-Massey popping up on the Bowery (Wednesday)

Fowl play: An outpost for Portuguese grilled chicken on Avenue B (Tuesday)

Red Gate Bakery setting up shop at 68 E. 1st St. (Monday)

Christmas comes early on Avenue A with filming for the new Netflix series "Dash & Lily" (Tuesday)

These 3 East Village restaurants make list of new Bib Gourmands (Tuesday)

Doctor's orders: Halloween night at Exit9 on Avenue A (Thursday)

A lawsuit dismissal and 2-year anniversary at the former P.S. 64 (Monday)

5 Napkin Burger unveils 5 Napkin Burger Express next door on 14th Street (Friday)

A proposal for a loading zone outside the incoming Trader Joe's on 14th Street at Avenue A (Monday)

Pigeon-proofing the Con Ed substation on Avenue A and 5th Street (Tuesday)

102 E. 7th St. is now for rent (Wednesday)

Impeach! on Avenue B (Tuesday)

Dog-gone: Kimomi Pet opening on St. Mark's Place (Friday)

Marriott buys the W Union Square (Friday)

Brasserie Saint Marc debuts on 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)

... and thanks to EVG reader Sylvia G. for sharing this East Village-style side-view mirror ... spotted on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C...



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[Updated] Bertie is missing after early morning fire on St. Marks Place

The FDNY responded to a major fire at 53 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue early Saturday morning.

There weren't any reported injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Author Ada Calhoun's parents, longtime residents here, were among those displaced by the fire on the upper floors. In the race to leave their home at 2 a.m., they were able to save one of their cats, Theo. However, Bertie, their other cat, got away in the chaos.

Ada thinks that it's likely Bertie is still on the block. "He's good at hiding but he's sure to get hungry and come out at some point," she told me in an email.

The flyer above has a photo of Bertie as well as contact information should you happen to find him.

Updated 10/29

Woot! Bertie turned up in a neighbor's closet downstairs today.

"Apparently, he had been hiding expertly in the building and living on toilet water and mice," Ada wrote in an email. "He is skinny, but otherwise healthy and in good spirits."

A full day of activities in East River Park today

[East River Park earlier this week]

Aside from the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade today (Oct. 20) ... there are many activities taking place in East River Park.

This map via East River Action has details (as does this post)...



Among today's highlights: A DRAWathon from 2 to 4 with Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping...

Per the invite: "There will be supplies, and you can bring some. Draw trees and do some ACTION outreach."



The city's current stormproofing plan for East River Park includes chopping down nearly 1,000 trees.

As Nathan Kensinger's must-read essay on the Park for Curbed points out...:

The environmental impact of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project would be enormous. In the ESCR’s Final Environmental Impact Statement, which was released in September, the city estimated that their preferred plan would result in the removal of 991 trees, of which 819 are located in East River Park. Many have been growing here since the park opened in 1939, and have root systems too large and complicated to be dug up and relocated. Instead, these trees would be chopped down and replaced with a forest of new saplings planted on top of the landfill. The report estimates that this would eventually result in a gain of 745 trees, but it would take decades for the current tree canopy to fully regrow.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• More details on the city's new plan to keep East River park partially open during flood protection construction (Oct. 3)

• At the march and rally to save East River Park (Sept. 21)

• An annual reunion in East River Park (Aug. 4)

• A visit to East River Park (July 10)

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.

Reminders: the 29th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade is tomorrow (Sunday!)

[Cleaning up the ERP amphitheater via Dave on 7th]

Tomorrow (Sunday) marks the 29th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade, which, for the second year, is scheduled for the East River Park Amphitheater.


[Photo by Steven]

A few details:

Time: Noon to 3 p.m.

Admission for spectators: It's free!

Dog entry: There is no need to pre-register your pet. Simply arrive between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., per the website

Emcee: 1010 WINS Midday Anchor Susan Richard

Sponsor: The Heart of Chelsea Veterinary Group

Previously on EV Grieve:
The 29th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade is scheduled for Oct. 20 in East River Park

A bars at dawn slideshow tomorrow night

[Sophie's at dawn via Daniel Root]

Earlier this year, we highlighted an ongoing project of East Village-based photographer Daniel Root.

While out on morning walks, he began taking pictures through the windows or doors of empty neighborhood bars at daybreak. The shots became part of an ongoing #nybarsatdawn project on Instagram.

Tomorrow (Oct. 20) evening at 6:30 at the Sam & Sadie Koenig Garden on Seventh Street, Root will be sharing a sideshow from this project — which tallied 974 bars! — as well as offering commentary about the ongoing changes in downtown NYC....



The Sam & Sadie Koenig Garden is on Seventh Street (north side) between Avenue C and Avenue D...



Previously on EV Grieve:
After the last call: East Village photographer captures bars at dawn

Head to a local cemetery this weekend (for a visit)!

You're in luck if you've ever wanted to visit one of the neighborhood's circa-1830 Marble Cemeteries: It's a Fall Open Weekend.

Over at the New York City Marble Cemetery on Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue the gates will be open each day (Saturday and Sunday!) from noon to 5 p.m. They'll be historical displays available to learn more about the cemetery. You can also read this.

Meanwhile, the New York Marble Cemetery at 41 1/2 Second Ave. between Second Street and Third Street is open this weekend from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.



Both photos are from summer visits.

Back in 'Blackout'

The Damned released Final Damnation in 1989 ... an album that included "Wait for the Blackout." The video here is from a live show in 2017 in the UK.

And The Damned is the opening act tomorrow at the Garden (!!!) for the Misfits.

Marc H. Miller on 20 years atop 98 Bowery

Artist and curator Marc H. Miller, who we've featured on EVG through the years (see links below!), will be at Howl! Happening tomorrow (Saturday) night discussing his life downtown ... particularly the years he lived in a loft at 98 Bowery as an observer and participant in the changes taking place in art and music.

A quick overview of what to expect:

Drawing from the site’s archive of photos and video clips, Miller recounts stories about Harry’s Bar and CBGB; the seminal 1978 Punk Art show; collaborative work with Bettie Ringma, Curt Hoppe, Alan Moore, and Paul Tschinkel — all residents at 98 Bowery; his year in Amsterdam; and the varied roles he played in the East Village art scene and in the rise of hip-hop culture in the 1980s.

Miller is the curator of the Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk exhibition at the Queens Museum (2016), and for his video interview with Jean-Michel Basquiat in Paul Tschinkel’s Art/new york series. His online store Gallery 98 has reanimated vintage art ephemera.

Miller will also be unveiling an an updated version of his website 98 Bowery: 1969-89.

The presentation begin tomorrow (Oct. 19) at 7 p.m. at Howl! Happening, 6 E. First St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

You can also read a Q&A between Miller and Eric Davidson at Please Kill Me right here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Life at 98 Bowery: 1969-1989 (Q&A with Miller)

Revisiting Punk Art

On the Bowery: CBGB and its impact on the visual arts and downtown nightlife

The Earth School's annual Fall Fair is tomorrow in Tompkins Square Park

Here are the details about the annual Fall Fair via The Earth School tomorrow... via the EVG inbox...

WHERE: Tompkins Square Park at 10th Street and Avenue A
WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 19 from Noon to 5 p.m.

Come join our community and enjoy:
• Arts & Crafts
• The Photo Booth with a selection of crazy costumes to choose from for a wacky portrait
• International foods — both homemade and from East Village restaurants
• Games — mini-golf, bean bag toss, basketball and more
• Face painting
• Rummage Sale

The proceeds help support enrichment programming at the school on Sixth Street and Avenue B.