Don't let this get your goat!

Don't be surprised by the sight of goats if you happen to be biking or jogging past Stuyvesant Cove Park in the days ahead.



Solar One, the environmental nonprofit that manages Stuyvesant Cove Park on the East River between 18th Street and 23rd Street, came up with a unique way to combat the overgrown weeds in the green space... 20 goats from Green Goats of Rhinebeck arrived today to eat all they want within a fenced-in area in the Park.

EVG readers Louise & Danny shared the photos in this post today.

Here's more via Solar One:

New York City's parks are proving to be yet another unwitting victim of the pandemic crisis. Short staffing, budget cuts, and reduced volunteer opportunities have left many of our green spaces to their own devices, and the weeds have been having a (literal) hay day.

Compounding the issue is the fact that as New York residents have needfully turned to parks as safe outlets for socialization and recreation, they have also, sadly, left excessive trash and trampled plantings in their wake.

"It’s just a lot for our two person team to handle," says Candace Thompson, the manager of Stuyvesant Cove Park. "Mother Nature really got the jump on us with the weeds this spring and I feel like we’ll never catch up on top of everything else."

Which is why that particular park has decided to hire some help of the non-human variety. ... During their tenure, the goats will be charged with a simple task: eat everything in sight.

Solar One ... hopes this will assist park staff in minimizing excessive plant biomass while also fertilizing the soil for next season, all in just a few short days. While goats may seem an unorthodox fix to a weed problem, foraging animals have long been used in sustainable agricultural practices to manage overabundant species, and Green Goats in particular have been lending their services to public spaces and institutions across the greater New York area for over 15 years.

One thing — beware of petting the goats...

Lui's Thai Food will not be reopening

As previously reported here, longtime East Village resident Pimnapa "Lek" Sunthatkolkarn, the chef/owner of Lui's Thai Food, was hospitalized in mid-August.

While Chef Lek was discharged from the hospital, she will continue to need medical treatment. And sadly, she has had to permanently close her restaurant at 128 E. Fourth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

She opened Lui's in 2013 after running Holy Basil on Second Avenue near Ninth Street.

Here's the walk-off line from EVG contributor Stacie Joy's interview with Lek in March 2019:

Lek has a cheerful disposition and laughs a lot. As I am leaving she tells me, "Eat, then dance. Have fun!"

Lek's friends and neighbors launched a crowdfunding campaign several weeks ago to help her and her family with expenses. You may find the GoFundMe link here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• Friends and neighbors come together to help Chef Lek at Lui's Thai Food

• A visit to Lui’s Thai Food on 4th Street

These 2 buildings on Avenue A are getting taller

The two-story extension has come into view in recent weeks here at 15 Avenue A between First Street and Second Street (if EV Arrow can help)...



As previously reported, there are approved plans on file with the city for a gut renovation and extension of the currently vacant building. No. 15 is receiving two new floors, moving from four to six... with five residential units (likely condos) in the making.

The new retail tenant was expected to be a wine bar from Bushwick-based pizzeria Roberta's. No word if that is still the case.

The retail space at 15 Avenue A was previously the Family Dental Center, which moved down to Essex Street in 2017. The retail listing at the time noted that this would be a "great location" for a restaurant.

... and up Avenue A at Sixth Street, work continues on adding a floor to No. 94-96...



As we reported in May 2019, the new owner of No. 94-96 filed plans with the city for a one-floor extension at the building that previously housed Sidewalk Bar and Restaurant.

And that floor is coming into view (depending on where you're standing...)



The retail tenant on the ground floor, the bar-restaurant August Laura, is open during non-construction hours.

Other recent Avenue A extensions include No. 202.

Closings: Broken Coconut, Snowdays, Blockheads, By Name

A roundup of some recent restaurant-cafe closings during the COVID-19 crisis...

• Broken Coconut, 15 E. Fourth St. between Lafayette and Broadway

For-rent signs are now in the window of the Instagram-friendly (#EatPretty) health-focused cafe that served items like quinoa parfaits and coconut chia. Broken Coconut opened in September 2017 in the storefront that was Other Music for 20 years.

Scott Sartiano, the nightlife impresario who founded 1Oak and Butter, is behind the venture. The BC outpost in Equinox Hudson Yards is open.


[Snowdays photos by Steven]

• Snowdays, 241 E. 10th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue

The dessert shop specializing in Asian-inspired shaved frozen cream (aka snow cream) has been cleared out...



The business, originally called Snowdays Shavery, opened here in August 2014. While there hasn't been any official notice of this closure, the storefront is on the rental market. (H/T Upper West Sider!)



• Blockheads, 60 Third Ave. between 10th Street and 11th Street.

That's all for the East Village location of the big burrito specialists from the folks who launched Benny's. As the above photo shows, someone has painted over the Blockheads signage on the now-empty storefront.

And as we've seen with other restaurants with multiple NYC locations (Mermaid Inn, 99 Favor Taste, Oddfellows, Ravagh Persian Grill), the East Village has been scratched in favor of outposts in other neighborhoods. Blockheads is running operations on the Upper West Side, Midtown East, Midtown West and in White Plains.

Blockheads opened on Third Avenue in July 2015. Blockheads did not respond to queries about this location.



• By Name, 324 Bowery near Bleecker Street

The "art-inspired cafe concept" sold a variety of fruit-milk teas and bento boxes, opening in the summer of 2019.

There wasn't any notice of the closure, with the By Name website going offline.

This space was once Agozar!, the Cuban bistro-bar that closed in November 2017. The other part of the former Agozar! is now Codex, which sells used and new books with a focus on literary fiction and art.

---

There are at least a dozen other spaces that are dormant... spaces that readers-residents wonder if they will reopen. Waiting for confirmation on these — from either ownership or in some cases a for-rent sign. Some places that were shutdown the past six months are returning. Ainsworth, the high-end sports bar on Third Avenue at 11th Street, looked permanently shuttered with St. Patrick's Day notices on the doors. However, they are reopening later this week.

Today in photos of a discarded meat slicer on 1st Avenue

EVG reader Noah Shannon shared these photos from First Avenue at Sixth Street...



The abandoned slicer looks too carefully placed to be randomly discarded. Perhaps the Cuomo Administration left this to remind bars and restaurants that they must offer "substantial" menu items with curbside service?

An end-of-summer appreciation: The grocery cart garden

We've enjoyed watching the flowers flourish inside the grocery cart garden on Fourth Street at the Bowery during these summer months...

A BLM tribute in Tompkins Square Park

Someone placed 10 tombstone-shaped signs in Tompkins Square Park paying tribute to the unarmed black men and women who died (or were injured) at the hands of police across the country in recent years.

Represented on the east side of the main lawn are Breonna Taylor, Daniel Prude, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Elijah McClain, Michael Brown and Jacob Blake, who is now paralyzed from the waist down after being shot seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis.



Photos by Steven

Uncle Leroy’s Sidewalk Sale coming to Tompkins Square Park today

[Photo from 9/7/19 by Stacie Joy]

One year ago today skateboarders celebrated the city's decision NOT to place artificial turf on the ballpark/TF in the northwest corner of Tompkins Square Park.

East Village resident Adam Zhu, who grew up skating here, launched a petition in late June 2019 to spare the asphalt from the fake turf ... and eventually gathered more than 32,000 signatures from people who wanted to preserve this important part of the skate community and youth culture. The outpouring of support was enough to change the minds of the Parks Department.

Today, skaters are celebrating this anniversary by bringing in Uncle Leroy’s Sidewalk Sale (background here via Vice about these sales that have been happening at McGolrick Park in Greenpoint this summer) to the space to raise money for at-risk local businesses and BLM causes.


[Invite via @z.h.u1]

The sale takes place from 1-6 p.m. today.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A visit to the TF in Tompkins Square Park

And via Quartersnacks...

At the start of the NYC Deep Playa Bike Ride

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

I'm trying to map out where to meet Gerhardt DeKunst, also known as G-man, an East Village-based costume designer, artist/activist, and martial arts instructor. I'm planning on documenting a colorful nighttime bike ride G-man is participating in late Saturday.

The ride covers a wide swath of lower Manhattan and we finally decide it might be best to connect at the starting point at the Washington Square Arch. The ride ends late, so we agree to catch up for some questions the following day.

How did this event come about?

The bike ride is titled: NYC Deep Playa Night Ride, referring to cycling around the vast “playa,” the dried-out lakebed where Burning Man is located. Saturday’s ride was the “Burning Man edition” because Burning Man was supposed to be this week and Saturday night is the climactic “burning of the man” event.

As it was not held this year, many groups were doing something as a stand-in for what they would have been doing if it was on, and for a feeling of continued engagement in the community.

Your ride is particularly tricked out. How do you find storage space for it in the East Village?

I built this bike specifically for riding at Burning Man and it has had a secondary life in NYC, participating in many parades and events like Mermaid Parade, Dance Parade and more. I am lucky to be one of the few in the city with storage room in the basement of my building. I built the bike to break down and compact for the purpose of shipping to Nevada.

What is the purpose of the group bike ride and how did you get involved?

The purpose of these rides is to generate and participate in a sense of community in this time of fractured society: to gather in a safe way — masks and social distancing required — and yet be able to convene and be part of something; to meet up with friends and the wider Burning Man community of NYC and once more feel like we are not isolated individuals oppressed by the pandemic and trying socio-political times, that we are more and can have and continue to have a sense of community.

And to be clear, this is not in the face of or in counterpoint to the protests: many of us are activists and deeply involved in the protests and support of fighting for justice and equity in society. This is in addition to that and a flexing of our creative and fun-loving sides that have been quashed in COVID-19 times.





















How did people react to seeing it?

People in general are very positive seeing us ride by, especially at restaurants seating people on the street. We get cheers and whistles and clapping as we go by, because I think it cheers people up, a moment of passing fun that materializes from the darkness and dissipates, an impromptu parade of pedal-powered light-up delight.

Week in Grieview

[As seen at Tompkins Square Bagels]

Posts this past week included...

• Sun's Laundry closes after more than 60 years on 14th Street (Monday)

• An end-of-summer appreciation: Pinc Louds (Friday)

• Support for Punjabi Grocery and Deli (Monday)

• Ki Smith Gallery coming to the Gusto House on 4th Street (Wednesday)

• MoRUS returns with its community garden film festival starting on Sept. 10 (Friday)

• A look at the new-look 57 St. Mark's Place (Monday)

• Wild Son-Good Night Sonny team bringing plant-based burgers to St. Mark's with Pop's Eat-Rite (Wednesday)

• The Keith Haring sculpture is currently MIA outside 51 Astor Place (Friday)

• This week's NY See panel (Thursday)


[As seen on 1st Street]

• Veeray Da Dhaba debuts on 1st Avenue (Monday)

• At the Renegade Mermaid Parade (Thursday)

• Another look at lower 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)

• Prim Thai debuts on 1st Street (Monday)

• Census working overtime (Wednesday)

• Ravagh Persian Grill closes 1st Avenue location (Thursday)

• Mermaid Inn has closed on 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)

• Printed Matter's lobby shop is open again on St. Mark's Place and 2nd Avenue (Thursday)

• "Red Alert" at the Bowery Ballroom (Wednesday)

• Baked Cravings opens on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday)

• Sao Mai back in action on 1st Avenue (Wednesday)

• Report: Parent company of New York Sports Clubs fit for Chapter 11 filing (Thursday)

• Struggling B&H Dairy now contending with a mountain of garbage next door (Wednesday)

• Mani in Pasta closes on 14th Street (Wednesday)

• A bad sign at 99 Favor Taste (Monday)

• The former Oddfellows space is for rent on 4th Street (Tuesday)

... and back on Thursday, @porknewyork added a message to the in-progress new mural at the Bowery Wall...



... and what remained as of this morning...



---

Follow EVG on Instragram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics.

On 5th Street, Ace Bar reopens, Tuome adds curbside seats

Ace Bar returned to service on Thursday here at 531 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. They're open for curbside seating from 3-11 p.m. daily with a food menu that includes hot dogs.

Ace Bar, which opened here in 1992, is owned by the same folks who ran Bleecker Bar for 30 years. That bar closed on Aug. 30. "All of our efforts to negotiate a reasonable lease extension with our landlord have failed," the owners stated. They did leave open the possibility of a return elsewhere.

Meanwhile on Fifth Street... Tuome at No. 536 has debuted outdoor seating...



The Michelin-starred restaurant reopened on Aug. 27 for takeout and delivery. Their hours: Tuesday-Saturday 5-9 p.m.

Ace Bar and Tuome join Lavagna and Minca Ramen Factory in dining offerings on this stretch of Fifth near B.

Now if Sophie's could reopen one of these days at the other end of the block...

74-year-old woman robbed and punched on 14th Street; MTA driver assaulted on Astor Place

The NYPD is searching for three teen suspects accused of robbing then punching a 74-year-old woman Thursday evening on 14th Street at First Avenue.

According to ABC 7, one of the teen suspects snatched the woman's purse. When she realized what happened, she tried to confront the teen and was sucker punched by one of his friends.

SHOCKING VIDEO: A 74-year-old woman was punched in the face when she confronted a group of teens for snatching her purse on a Manhattan street, police say

Full story: https://t.co/cpDRghFMDW pic.twitter.com/V25ZcJ5shb

— PIX11 News (@PIX11News) September 5, 2020

The victim, who reportedly refused treatment at the scene, has lived in NYC since 1963. She told ABC 7 that she wants to see this stretch of 14th Street "cleaned up."

------



Updated 9/12: Police have arrested the couple. Meanwhile, the NYPD is looking for a man and woman accused of assaulting an MTA bus driver on Astor Place this past Monday evening.

Per amNY, the 35-year-old bus driver was traveling on his M2 route when he witnessed the couple threatening another passenger. He reportedly ejected the pair on Lafayette at Eighth Street.

When the driver went on break a short distance away outside 51 Astor Place, the man and woman forcibly opened the door ... the man then told the woman beat up the driver. She then punched him in the face.

🚨WANTED🚨for an ASSAULT in front of 51 Astor place #manhattan @NYPD9Pct on 8/31/20 @ 10:50 PM 💰Reward up to $2500👓Seen them? Know who they are? ☎️Call 1-800-577-TIPS or DM us!📞Calls are CONFIDENTIAL! #YourCityYourCall @NYPDDetectives @NYPDShea @NYPDChiefPatrol pic.twitter.com/VGpRUFzbYi

— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) September 6, 2020

East River Park actions: A petition for Gov. Cuomo; a plan for an Art Attack

There's a petition in circulation now asking for an executive order from Gov. Cuomo "to stop the City from demolishing East River Park during the pandemic."

You can find the petition at this link.

Meanwhile, there's a crowdfunding campaign underway titled "East River Park Action Art Attack."

Here's the pitch:

We are raising money for paint and supplies for our Art Attack Project at the East River Park mid-September.

Our mission is to stop the destruction of our park by creating the biggest mural in NYC with the help of local artists, nonprofits, activists and local residents of the Lower East Side and East Village.

We plan to paint the entire promenade along the river from Montgomery to 12th Street — and the historic Amphitheater where Shakespeare in the Park began in the 1950s.

We are confident that with this Cultural Protest we plan to achieve the following:
- Buy more time for the city to to reevaluate the current plan.
- Do more intensive outreach with the community and the residents along the East River Park.

The link is here.

As previously reported: Last November, City Council signed off on the hotly contested flood-protection plan that will bury/elevate East River Park by eight feet as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. Construction is expected to start this fall.

You can read more about various community efforts at the East River Park ACTION website. You can find the city's East Side Coastal Resiliency Project website here.

Now open on A: 99-Cent Fresh Pizza & Hot Dog and nearly open: Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices

In 99-cent pizza news, the 99-Cent Fresh Pizza & Hot Dog shop is now open at 131 Avenue A between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street. Let us know if you try it. (For real.)

Meanwhile, that Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices on the next block at Ninth Street is looking very close to opening... with new signage up on the front windows (H/T Steven!) ...



and a Doughnado warning...

6BC Botanical Garden reopens today

The 6BC Botanical Garden reopens today here on Sixth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.

For now, the garden is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays...



Large groups are not permitted inside ... public events are not allowed either. The garden website has more details on restrictions.

And now lets enjoy an aerial view of this beautiful space...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 6BC Botanical Garden (@6bcgarden) on Sep 1, 2020 at 12:10pm PDT

Friday's parting shot

Couch getaway on 2nd Avenue today via Derek Berg...

The fall

Let's jump into fall with "Halloween" by Siouxsie & the Banshees ... circa 1981.

[Updated] The Keith Haring sculpture is currently MIA outside 51 Astor Place

The Keith Haring sculpture — "Self Portrait" from 1989 — is no longer on its perch outside the DeathStar, aka 51 Astor Place. It has been MIA all week. No word on whether this is a temporary or permanent departure.

We reached out to the Keith Haring Foundation (see below)... and we'll see if anyone at No. 51 has an answer.

The sculpture arrived in December 2014...



Updated 2 p.m.

Word is the sculpture is being repaired and will return this fall.

Updated 9 p.m.

"The sculpture has been removed for minor conservation work, and will be reinstalled after this work is complete," Annelise Ream, director of collections at the Keith Haring Foundation, told me in an email. "We do not yet have a confirmed date for the return of the sculpture, as there may be some delays in light of the ongoing pandemic."