Monday, May 31, 2021
Monday's opening shot
Sunday, May 30, 2021
Week in Grieview
• Elected officials call for more rooftop oversight; details emerge about woman who fell from 202 Avenue A (Tuesday)
• Honoring the memories of Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón on 2nd Avenue (Thursday)
• Volunteer help wanted for the new Loisaida CommUnity Fridge and Pantry (Monday)
• Opinion: Against Upzoning (Wednesday)
• Report: One of Amelia and Christo's 2021 offspring has died (Thursday)
• Gas service is restored at Pangea after 7 months (Wednesday)
• The owner of alt.coffee and Cake Shop is looking to start a new cafe concept (Tuesday)
• A follow-up to the fire on Bleecker Street late Friday night (Monday)
• March gallery debuts on Avenue A (Friday)
• How expensive are the flowers here? (Friday)
• An organic grocery for the Bowery (Monday)
• Marufuku Ramen next up for 92 2nd Ave. (Tuesday)
• 7th Street Burger for 7th Street (Tuesday)
• Sidney's Five in soft-open mode on 1st Avenue (Monday)
... and in case the skies miraculously clear by this evening...
---Happy Manhattanhenge! It's TONIGHT- don't miss it!!#exit9 #exit9giftemporium #shoplocal #eastvillage #brooklyn #manhattanhenge pic.twitter.com/TbG05IuciY
— Exit9 Gift Emporium (@ShopExit9) May 30, 2021
Spring into Pride extended through June at 3rd & B’Zaar on 3rd Street
However! Based on the feedback this past month, the organizers have decided to extend Spring Into Pride through June (June 28 to be exact).
There will be a few new vendors joining the more than 30 local designers, vintage sellers and artists.
Spring into Pride is open from 1-6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
3rd & B’Zaar debuted late last year with a month-long Holiday Market ... followed by Sex, Love & Vintage in February.... with several art shows in between.
Today is the last day for Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen before summer break
The basement cafe, which generates income for the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church on Seventh Street, is open today from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for takeout.
Stock up your freezer!
Previously on EV Grieve:
A visit to the Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen on 7th Street
Top photo from 2018 by Stacie Joy!
Saturday, May 29, 2021
Today's concert at the East River Park Amphitheater has been postponed
Friday, May 28, 2021
'Crisis' communications
For the holiday weekend... Holiday Ghosts have a new record out (the UK-based band's third)... the video here is for "Total Crisis."
Flashback Friday
March gallery debuts on Avenue A
Photos by Stacie Joy
As previously reported, Phillip March Jones, an artist, writer and curator, leased this space.
The debut exhibit, titled Pre-Renovation Potluck, is an installation of self-portraits by 16 artists whom March has worked with in the past. You can read more details on the March website.
Until June 2020, this storefront was Alphabets ... owner Linda Heidinger moved the novelty-gift shop to Palm Springs, Calif.
And wait until you see how expensive their balloons are!
The sign originally said "Florist Flowers." The new signage — "Very Expensive Flowers" — is definitely more memorable.
Anyway, they are running a special — the dozen red roses, previously priced at $19.99, are available for $101.11, which includes the "no sense of humor fee."
Photo by Stacie Joy!
Can you Dig it? [Update: Postponed due to the rain]
Update 5/29: The organizers have postponed the show to a later date given today's wind and rain...
Dig Stop! will bring together more than a dozen local bands, DJs and speakers from 1 to 5 p.m.
You can also purchase Save East River Park T-shirts and totes ... and bid on a mystery bag raffle with items donated by Patagonia. Proceeds go to the East River Park Action legal fund.
East River Park Action has been asking for a "real environmental review" of the $1.45 billion plan to protect the Lower East Side and surrounding neighborhoods from a 100-year-flood event and sea-level rise.
Opponents of the city's current plan — where workers will raze the 57.5-acre plot of land, bulldozing 1,000 mature trees and rebuilding the park atop eight feet of landfill — say there are better ways to preserve the park and provide flood protection, such as the one mapped out in the years after Sandy.
In late 2018, the city surprised community stakeholders by announcing a complete overhaul of a plan, part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, discussed over four years of local meetings.
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Honoring the memories of Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón on 2nd Avenue
Family members of Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón came together outside 121-123 Second Ave. yesterday morning for the dedication of a memorial plaque in honor of the two men who died here during the gas explosion on March 26, 2015.
Retired (2017) FDNY battalion chief John Dunne joined the families ... Dunne, the third-highest-ranking member of the FDNY at the time, was part of the massive response to the explosion that leveled three buildings here at Seventh Street.
State Sen. Brad Hoylman, City Councilmember Carlina Rivera and her predecessor, Rosie Mendez, who was in office at the time of the tragedy, were also on hand to pay their respects to the family members.
The Village Preservation advocated for the inclusion of the plaque here on the new residential building at 45 E. Seventh St.
Thank you to Steven for the photos
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: One of Amelia and Christo's 2021 offspring has died
Local red-tailed hawk documentarian Goggla reported this yesterday:
Thanks to Goggla for the photos!
Unfortunately, we have no idea what happened, when exactly the chick passed away, or where the body is now. It's likely still up in the tree, but there is no way to check up there and, without a body, no way to know what caused the chick's death. Any stories floating around the park are pure speculation. The last time we observed the chick, it appeared fine, but they were all still too small to be able to get a really good look at them. Of course, we're watching the remaining two chicks closely.
As she points out, this is not the first time that the resident red-tailed hawks have suffered the loss of their fledglings. In 2018 and 2019, at least one of the chicks died from rodenticide poisoning.
In more positive news, the other two chicks appear to be doing well ... and they are briefly in that awkward 7th-grade phase as they mature into lean, rat-hunting machines.
The Lower East Side Festival of the Arts returns for in-person events this weekend
Expect to find a mix of theater, music, dance, comedy, poetry, film and fine arts indoors and out on Friday through Sunday.
You can check out the extensive offerings at the Theater's website.
The events are all free of charge. Theater officials have also noted the following about admission:
Thanks to Lola Sáenz for the photos. Lola also has a work on display in the art show.
[S]adly, we cannot be as uninhibited and laissez-faire with our audience as usual. So, we must let you know that you WILL BE ASKED TO SHOW US YOUR VACCINATION CARD or a NEGATIVE COVID TEST NO MORE THAN FIVE DAYS OLD, IN ORDER TO BE ADMITTED! There will be masking and social distancing, and we will adhere to the most recent rules promulgated by the CDC, State and New York City.In addition, TNC's Lobby Art Gallery is displaying the work of local artists...
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Wednesday's parting shots
Moon struck
Unveiling the plaque in honor of Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón on 2nd Avenue
Workers yesterday installed the memorial plaque on the new residential building at 45 E. Seventh St. that pays tribute to Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón, the two men who died here during the gas explosion on March 26, 2015. (Top photo by Steven; photo below by Drew Heffron.)
We're told there will be an official unveiling this morning at 11. The plaque is on the Second Avenue side of the Morris Adjmi-designed building, where the residences range between $1.35 and $8 million.
Figueroa, 23, who had recently graduated from SUNY Buffalo State, was at Sushi Park, 121 Second Ave. and the site of the fatal blast, dining with a co-worker. Locón, 27, worked at Sushi Park.
The explosion also injured more than 20 others and leveled 119, 121 and 123 Second Ave. (The new building sits on two of these three lots.)
In January 2020, landlord Maria Hrynenko, contractor Dilber Kukic and unlicensed plumber Jerry Ioannidis were found guilty of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and related offenses for their role in the explosion. They were each sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. Hrynenko is out on bail as she awaits an appeal of the case.
Prosecutors said that Hrynenko, driven by greed, and her cohorts rigged an illegal system to funnel gas from 119 Second Ave. to 121 Second Ave. to save money.
Prosecutors said that Hrynenko, driven by greed, and her cohorts rigged an illegal system to funnel gas from 119 Second Ave. to 121 Second Ave. to save money.
In October 2017, city officials unveiled new street blades that co-name this northwest corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street after Figueroa and Locón.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• RIP Nicholas Figueroa
• RIP Moises Locón
• RIP Nicholas Figueroa
• RIP Moises Locón
Opinion: Against Upzoning
Local Assemblymember Harvey Epstein wrote the following op-ed.
With the Soho/Noho Neighborhood Plan pushed by Mayor de Blasio stuck in legal limbo and mired by community opposition, it's time we reevaluate upzoning as a tool for creating affordable housing.
In 2019, the Democratically controlled legislature partnered with advocates to pass the statewide Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA), the strongest tenant protection in decades. The bill closed many of the loopholes that led to a loss of affordable housing over the years preceding, especially in "high opportunity" neighborhoods in Manhattan.
But now, the de Blasio approach of upzoning –– changing the existing zoning to allow for more height and density –– undermines the work we did to protect renters in the HSTPA by incentivizing the demolition of existing rent-regulated affordable housing, one of the few ways rent-regulated units can still be lost.
Upzonings imperil small older apartment buildings, which suddenly become vulnerable to demolition when an upzoning incentivizes their replacement with new buildings two or three times the size or more. Older, smaller, affordable buildings could be replaced with new buildings required by mandatory inclusionary housing to offer rents as high as 75 percent market rate. It's unlikely many current tenants could afford a unit in the buildings that would be allowed due to an upzoning.
Today, every day New Yorkers foot the bill for three units of luxury housing for every one unit of not very deeply affordable housing, often in wildly out-of-scale new buildings that may be replacing existing affordable housing and residents. It’s a bad deal for New Yorkers.
The need for a more affordable and equitable city is especially great right now, and every neighborhood needs to take part in that effort. We should eliminate as-of-right development and require all new residential developments to designate a greater than 25 percent share of units as affordable. Linking affordability and upzonings forces a false choice. Affordability shouldn't be dependent upon upzonings, which inherently endanger existing housing in neighborhoods, including affordable housing with longtime and often lower-income residents.
We should also be directly subsidizing and funding the construction of truly affordable housing in NYC that doesn't depend on the whims of the market and private for-profit developers all across the city, not just in less well-off neighborhoods.
With these policy changes, we can protect existing affordable housing, create new affordable housing, and do it in a way that’s compatible with neighborhood character and doesn't create a flood of new luxury housing that does more harm than good in terms of making our neighborhoods equitable, affordable, and diverse.
Assemblymember Harvey Epstein represents the 74th District, which includes parts of Manhattan's east side.
Gas service is restored at Pangea after 7 months
After seven months without gas for cooking — not to mention heat during the winter months — the service has been restored at Pangea, the restaurant-cabaret at 178 Second Ave. between 11th Street and 12th Street.
As previously reported, on Oct. 30, Pangea management entered the restaurant to discover that Con Ed had shut off their gas in the middle of the night. (A nearby resident was said to smell gas on the block. Although Con Ed didn't detect a leak, they went ahead and shut down the gas service to just the restaurant.)
In the ensuing months, Pangea's ownership was entangled in the time-consuming bureaucratic process that included scheduling inspections by the DOB, Con Ed and an assortment of plumbers. Local elected officials, including City Councilmember Carlina Rivera's office, had been helping navigate the red tape. However, complicating matters: an inspection showed that Pangea needed all new pipes before gas service could return.
In the interim, Pangea owners Stephen Shanaghan and Arnoldo Caballero took action and bought electric cooking equipment and created a menu to fit their circumstances with the help of a new chef.
In an update on their crowdfunding campaign earlier this year, Shanaghan noted:
Dealing with bureaucracy in normal times is a challenge. Being subjected to it during pandemic restrictions is immobilizing.
We quickly reinvented and began operations using all-electric equipment. The process has been unnecessarily drawn out, costly and back-breaking.
He went on to thank Pangea's loyal patrons:
The only reason our doors are not shuttered is due to the tremendous support we have received from our extended family of customers, friends and artists. We are fortunate to have so many who believe in what Pangea stands for. Over the years, Pangea has become a second home to all. In more recent years, it has become an incubator for artistic expression in our performance space. All genres of music, theater, satire and comedy have been presented.
Hopefully, things will continue to look up for Pangea. Aside from the restored gas service, they started to host limited-seating shows in the cabaret space... they are also hosting no-cover entertainment in the Piano Lounge in the front of the restaurant. (Check out their website for details on upcoming events.) And there's the recent return of Sunday brunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Pangea has a long history in the neighborhood. Read our interview with Shanaghan and Caballero here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)