Houston and Norfolk this morning... several hours after Daylight Saving Time went into effect...
Sunday, March 8, 2020
Saturday, March 7, 2020
Half Gallery debuts on 4th and B
The inaugural exhibit features the work of Tanya Merrill, which will be on display through March 28.
The gallery hours: Tuesday - Friday, noon to to 6 p.m.; until 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
In mid-December, the gallery announced it was relocating from the Upper East Side to 235 E. Fourth St.
The gallery started on the Lower East Side in 2008 before heading north. Here's more via ARTnews:
Bill Powers, who founded Half Gallery, said that many of the artists the gallery has worked with “have a real connection to [the East Village] and that art scene,” adding that the move is “a little bit of a homecoming.”
With the Swiss Institute, the Brant Foundation, and other art institutions opening in the East Village recently, the neighborhood remains a hotspot for art, Powers said, adding, “We used to get a bigger crowd for openings when we were downtown because I think the gravity of the art world, spiritually, is downtown or in the outer boroughs.”
The gallery takes the space of Tapanju Turntable (and Kate's Joint until 2012!).
Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's a look at the new Half Gallery exterior on Avenue B and 4th Street
Officially on egg watch now in Tompkins Square Park
[Photos by Steven]
The egg watch clock (don't forget to set it ahead one hour tonight) is on in Tompkins Square Park for the resident red-tailed hawks, Amelia and Christo.
Goggla has been keeping tabs on the two. From a post earlier this week:
I wasn't positive of the situation until I returned to the park at sunrise this morning and found Christo laying down in the nest and Amelia perched nearby. He came out for a few minutes and they mated, then returned to the nest with tree bark. At that point, Amelia laid back down in the nest and remained there for most of the day. I saw them trade places twice, which is classic brooding behavior.
Hawks usually lay 1-3 eggs over the span of a few days. After the first egg is laid, they will continue to leave the nest to mate, but Amelia will stay in the nest through the night. Last year, Amelia appeared to lay her first egg March 13, so they are early this year. However, I'm not really surprised as they completed their nest in January and have been mating regularly over the last few weeks. Incubation will take about six weeks, so a hatch time would be mid to late April.
Meanwhile, here's a bonus shot from Steven of Christo gathering materials to fortify the nest...
Not sure of the enhancements in store for the nest — we didn't spot any posted work permits ...
Friday, March 6, 2020
'Onely' you
The Brooklyn-based Lightning Bug (aka Audrey Kang) have released a new song called "The Onely Ones," as seen in the above video.
In other Lightning Bug news, the band's second record will get a vinyl release next month via Fat Possum.
A new East Village walk of fame?
Workers yesterday were putting in a new sidewalk around the recently renovated storefront on the southwest corner of First Avenue and St. Mark's Place... and they left it unattended overnight.
And so this morning...
And obviously...
Anyway, workers have divided this former single-occupant storefront into three spaces. Eiyo Bowl, a vegan quick-serve restaurant specializing in acai and rice bowls, will be the first tenant here at 131 First Ave. (now going by 82 St. Mark's Place), as previously reported.
The previous tenant, Foot Gear Plus, closed in July 2018 after nearly 40 years in business.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• After nearly 40 years, Foot Gear Plus is closing on 1st Avenue and St. Mark's Place
• What's next for 131 1st Ave., the former Foot Gear Plus space?
• A look at 131 1st Ave., currently being divided into 3 retail spaces
Coffee time: New counter space coming to Gem Spa
Work started yesterday on new counter space inside Gem Spa, the corner shop on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place (thanks to Steven for the photos!) ...
With the incoming granite counter and retro stools, Parul Patel, who recently took over running the shop from her father Ray, is expanding Gem Spa's coffee and tea service and offering companion items like pastries, bagels and knishes. (FYI: the coffee will be from Porto Rico Importing Co.) You can also get one of their signature egg creams.
In addition to the counter service, Gem Spa continues to expand the merch line with some limited editions...
Previously on EV Grieve:
• At the Gem Spa Cash Mob (Sept. 16)
• Get your Gem Spa t-shirts or photos of Madonna — at Gem Spa! (Aug. 16)
• Will you buy a Gem Spa T-shirt? (June 28)
• "Gem Spa is open!" (June 18)
• What is happening at Gem Spa? (June 11)
• A visit to Gem Spa (May 10)
Why the playground at P.S. 19 has been closed for community use
We've heard from several readers in recent weeks who've tried to use the playground behind P.S. 19 on First Avenue between 11th Street and 12th Street after school hours. In one case, a custodian told a resident that the space was closed to the public "until further notice."
This playground, featuring a synthetic turf field and painted track, debuted in June 2018 ... and was open to the community after school and on weekends and holidays — just not when in use by P.S. 19 or any of their after-school programs.
Turns out that the school is no longer receiving funds from the Department of Education to cover the costs of staff opening and maintaining the playground during non-school hours and weekends. (Despite the mysterious lack of funding, we're told that custodians were continuing to open the playground in response to "to the community’s love of this space.")
You can learn more about the situation here today from 10 a.m. to noon at the Sirovich Center, 331 E. 12th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, where reps for the Trust for Public Land will be on hand. They're collecting signatures in support of funding to keep the playground open for community use.
We'll have more about the situation in another post... along with ways that you can possibly help and have your voice heard about the funding.
Since 1996, the Trust for Public Land has helped revamp 200 playgrounds at New York City public schools through a public-private partnership. Aside from P.S. 19, they've worked on playgrounds in the East Village at P.S. 15 The Roberto Clemente School and the Children’s Workshop School/East Village Community School.
H/T Choresh Wald!
Queens of the Street group art show opens tonight on 11th Street
Starting tonight, Come Back Daily, the CBD shop on 11th Street, is playing host to Queens of the Street, an all-female group street-art show curated by Iheartgraffiti.
Per the invite: "From local muralists and wheatpaste artists to typographic and mixed media designers, Queens of the Street will bring together 12 women to showcase their groundbreaking work."
The roster of artists (with links to their work):
• My Life in Yellow
• Stephibones
• Hissxx
• Keli Lucas
• Marzipan Physics
• Stephanie Grajales
• WORM
• Chi Chi Paintz
• Glxy Gal
• Sara Lynne Leo
• Soulthundre
The show kicks off with an opening reception from 6-8 tonight ... followed by a panel discussion with the artists this coming Wednesday from 6:30-8 p.m.
You can see the work on view through March 20. The hours are noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; until 6 p.m. on Sundays.
Come Back Daily is at 516 E. 11th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.
'The Icon variable'
Been meaning to note this long read from Curbed titled "The story of a store."
The piece explores the city's retail vacancy or the "luxury blight" crisis ... with a focus 0n 441-445 E. Ninth St. (aka 145 Avenue A), the six-story building that Icon Realty bought in 2014 for $10.1 million.
As we documented at the time, the existing retail tenants that made up the charming row of storefronts on the Ninth Street side were either not offered lease renewals or given massive rent hikes.
Meanwhile, all but one of the new tenants (four of five) who rented the Icon-renovated retail spaces were gone within a year. The casualties included BeetleBug, the floral design shop, Mahalo New York Bakery and Gelarto.
Writer Neil deMause talked with one of those tenants, Isiah Michael, who opened the Classic Man Barber Lounge in 2018. Per the article:
An investment banker who’d gone to barbering school, Michael thought he could make a go of it in the paired storefronts, even if the rent was a bit higher than he’d anticipated.
"What we didn’t expect was the Icon variable," he says. A series of mishaps — malfunctioning air conditioning, a continually flooding basement, and an unannounced electrical upgrade that Michael claims cost him and his partner $30,000 in lost equipment and inventory — led to legal battles with his landlord, and ultimately an eviction notice last February.
When Michael offered to bring over a lease payment he had been withholding in a dispute over repair costs, he says, Icon “responded saying they were terminating the lease.”
You can read the post at this link.
As for this building, there are three new tenants on the way in: Ralph's Famous Italian Ices & Ice Cream ... Village Crêperie ... and Social Tees.
Hopefully they won't suffer from the "Icon variable."
Previously on EV Grieve:
• On East 9th Street Dusty Buttons is closing after 125% rent hike: 'Saying goodbye will hurt like hell'
• The Upper Rust is moving away from East 9th Street and the East Village
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Spring break
The cherry blossoms are in bloom along the Seventh Street side of Tompkins Square Park... thanks to Goggla for the photo!
Carlina Rivera states her opposition over plan to transfer air rights for new St. Mark's Place office building
[A rendering of 3 St. Mark's Place]
Local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera yesterday joined the chorus of opposition to the air-rights transfer for the new office building planned for the northeast corner of St. Mark's Place and Third Avenue.
To date, Rivera, who holds the key vote when the proposal comes before City Council, had previously expressed concerns about the project, but hadn't gone as far as officially opposing it.
During yesterday's City Planning Commission hearing, Rivera submitted joint testimony with Assemblymember Deborah Glick and State Sen. Brad Hoylman, which read in part:
"This development would clearly be out of context with the landmarked 4 St. Mark’s Place, as well as the surrounding street scape and character. It's clear that the developers, in the wake of numerous concerns raised by neighborhood groups, Community Board 3, several members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and elected officials, have not proposed or addressed any serious 'appropriate conditions and safeguards' that the 74-79 permit states should be considered in order to 'minimize adverse effects on the character of the surrounding area."
St. Mark's Place is the gateway to the East Village - a globally recognized center of music, art and culture. This project fell short of the community's expectations and the neighborhood it leads to.
— Carlina Rivera 利華娜 (@CarlinaRivera) March 4, 2020
That’s why I urged the City Planning Commission to reject it. https://t.co/iZjps2UZ5Z
The City Planning Commission will cast their vote at a later date as part of the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. They are expected to approve the plan to transfer air rights from 4 St. Mark's Place to the new development across the street at 3 St. Mark's Place. In issues such as this, City Council usually follows the lead of the local Councilmember.
Andrew Berman, executive director of the Village Preservation, has long been opposed to this plan. He said that he was pleased by Rivera's decision.
"We are hopeful that her statement ... will be followed by a no vote in the Council and a call to her colleagues to do the same," Berman said in an email. "We have said from the beginning that this proposal to increase the size of the planned tech office tower at the 'gateway to the East Village' is wrong, and would only serve to accelerate the spread of Midtown South and Silicon Alley to this neighborhood."
The Village Preservation and more than a dozen residents also spoke out against the plan yesterday.
[Photo yesterday via Village Preservation]
With the air-rights transfer, developer Real Estate Equities Corporation (REEC) would be allowed to build 8,386 square feet larger than the current zoning allows.
Regardless of an extra 8,000 square feet, the project will continue. Per Gothamist:
At Wednesday's public hearing, the project's architect Morris Adjmi emphasized a building of a similar height size could be built as-of-right, saying, "one could build this building without a special permit, without transferring any air rights, and it is 22 feet taller at the street wall and also more or less the same height overall."
A rep for the developers, Adam Taubman of the law firm Kramer Levin, also said at the hearing the currently vacant lot would see construction whether or not the permit is approved.
REEC picked up the 99-year leasehold for the properties here for nearly $150 million in November 2017. The corner assemblage is owned by the Gabay family.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Demolition permits filed for northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place
• End is nearing for the businesses on the northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place
• New building plans revealed for 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place
• Concern over potential air-rights transfer for new office building on St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue
Time for the Life Time signage on Cooper Square
You may have noticed activity in the now-former New York Health & Racquet Club on Cooper Square... that gym closed on Dec. 1 ahead of renovations for a rebranding to Life Time. That signage is now up in the storefront windows in the circa-1926 Carl Fisher building.
Here's more via a message from NYHRC: "Life Time is investing in excess of $25 million dollars, renovating this location ... to the highest standards, and will begin operating this location upon the completion of the renovations."
Here's some vague description of this new Life Time (good names also for magazines!):
"Soon to arrive in Cooper Square in the vibrant NoHo neighborhood, this renovated club will feature boutique fitness programs, industry-leading amenities and equipment, and an updated fitness floor and dedicated studios."
The
Breaking the internet 1995 style at the Anthology Film Archives
A weeklong series titled "1995: The Year the Internet Broke" starts tonight at the Anthology Film Archives.
Per the description:
The groundwork for interconnected global computer networks was laid in the 1960s, but it didn’t capture the public imagination until the mid-1990s, at which time a confluence of factors including the release of Netscape Navigator, the Windows 95 operating system, high-profile hacking arrests, and aggressive direct marketing campaigns by commercial service providers AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy fast-tracked the information superhighway for mainstream traffic. Once the domain of scientists, hobbyists, hackers, and role-playing gamers, the internet had irreversibly broken into the public imagination.
And!
1995 opened the floodgates to a torrent of internet-themed films. Suddenly, the paying public was confronted with the radical new idea of Sandra Bullock ordering delivery by logging on to Pizza.net. Much as Hollywood valorized the Wild West, it was now pursuing a new kind of Manifest Destiny across the information superhighway at breakneck speed. Instead of their parents’ “Hi-yo, Silver!”, the young generation of keyboard cowboys had a new rallying cry: “HACK THE PLANET.”
Featured titles include "Hackers," "The Net" and the so-bad-it's-bad-AND-good "Johnny Mnemonic."
And why not...
Find all the screening times and titles at this link.
The Anthology Film Archives is on Second Avenue at Second Street.
Any questions? You can email me at 76839937373662222.998844774999@compuserve.com.
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Time for the monthly East Village Photo Club meeting
The next monthly meeting of the newly formed East Village Photo Club is Saturday (March 7) morning at 11 at the Tompkins Square Library, 331 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.
As previously noted, East Village resident Susan Schiffman launched the photo club for interested residents last month.
Schiffman, who has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the neighborhood for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant, shared this overview:
I want to invite people who love to take photos to come together to meet, to share and to talk about photos they have taken or seen or projects they are thinking about starting. Maybe we can put a show together.
We have a space to meet once a month at the Tompkins Square Library. It would be great if you could stop by and join the conversation about photography.
Please let me know if you are interested or have any questions. You may email me here.
We will meet the first Saturday of the month from 11 a.m. to noon. If you would like to share your photos, then please bring prints or photos on a usb drive.
You may revisit Susan's posts for EVG here ... or her feature in The New Yorker last summer.
A moment with Wayne Diamond as he checks out 'The Wayne Diamond' at Russo's
Text and photos by Stacie Joy
I’m interviewing and photographing Russo’s Mozzarella and Pasta owner Jack Cangemi at the classic shop when, fortuitously and with great fanfare, the fast-talking, perpetually tan actor Wayne Diamond drops by from the Upper East Side to supervise the creation of a sandwich made in his honor. (If you've seen the critically acclaimed "Uncut Gems," then you'll recognize Diamond for his pivotal role in the casino scene with Julia Fox.)
[Cangemi and Diamond]
As for the sandwich, The Wayne Diamond is mozzarella, roasted peppers, pesto and mortadella on a ciabatta roll. Diamond, who was said to make a fortune working for decades in the Garment District, is accompanied by his friend (and PR agent) Elissa Buchter. He takes a moment to give a Wayne Diamond-esque endorsement of Russo's...
The sandwich, priced at $8.95, is available should you too want to experience The Wayne Diamond at Russo's, 344 E. 11th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
Meanwhile, look for our A Visit to Russo's post soon!
SMØR now open for dinner on 12th Street
[Photos by Steven]
After serving "reinvented Nordic classics" for breakfast and lunch these past 12-plus months, SMØR is launching a dinner service this evening.
Owners Sebastian Perez and Sebastian Bangsgaard also have a new beer-wine license to accompany their menu here at this warm, low-key spot on 12th Street.
[From the left: Perez and Bangsgaard]
The two have been previewing new dinner items via Instagram this past week. For example...
For now, their hours are:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10 a.m. to midnight
You can find SMØR at 441 E. 12th St. just west of Avenue A.
City Planning Commission holding public hearing today on air-rights transfer for 3 St. Mark's Place
[EVG file photo]
--
Updated 5 p.m.
Local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera came out against the transfer today.
--
The City Planning Commission is holding a public hearing today on the application to transfer air rights to allow the pending office building at the northeast corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place to grow 20 percent larger than the current zoning allows.
As you likely know, a 10-floor office building is in the works for 3 St. Mark's Place. The total size of this new building has yet to be officially determined. Real Estate Equities Corporation (REEC) wants to transfer the air rights from the landmarked Hamilton-Holly House at 4 St. Mark's Place to add more square footage.
This marks the second stage for the application. In round one, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to support the plan this past June, and issued a report to the City Planning Commission to allow the proposal under a specific zoning resolution. The opposition to the application included Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, as well as Community Board 3 and other community groups, including Village Preservation. (Read about their efforts here.)
Stage two's route as part of the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure will ultimately end up before City Council, who will have the final vote at a future date.
REEC picked up the 99-year leasehold for the properties here for nearly $150 million in November 2017. Their development plans call for a 68,224-square-foot building with eight floors of office space, a fitness center, roof deck and retail.
[A rendering of 3 St. Mark's Place]
REEC is reportedly eyeing rents in the area of a Midtown-esque $150 per square foot.
Today's hearing is in the basement concourse of 120 Broadway between Cedar and Pine. The festivities start at 10, though this is the last item on the agenda. No word yet on an exact time.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Demolition permits filed for northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place
• End is nearing for the businesses on the northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place
• New building plans revealed for 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place
• Concern over potential air-rights transfer for new office building on St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue
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