'We're still here' — charming video highlights the longtime relationship of Billy and Jane at Katinka

LimeLight is a new documentary series created by East Village-based photographer-filmmaker Josh Charow.

His first local pick is a classic: Katinka, the unique, closet-sized shop that opened in 1979 at 303 E. Ninth St. just east of Second Avenue. 

In the 4-plus minute video, proprietors Billy Lyles and Jane Williams discuss keeping their shop — full of handmade items from India — and their relationship going strong after all these years. (They've been together as a couple for 48 years.). 

Check it out below...

 

Construction watch: 650 E. 6th St.

Here's a progress report on the 6-story, 5-unit condoplex rising at 650 E. Sixth St. just west of Avenue C.

This project has been a long time in the making.

As New York Yimby noted in January 2016: "The 8,491-square-foot project will include 7,761 square feet of residential space, which means units will average 1,552 square feet apiece, indicative of condominiums."

The four-story apartment building that previously stood here was demolished in early 2018... two years after the condoplex plans were initially revealed. 

Combined Architecture has a rendering of the new building...

This will be the second new building in the corridor ... joining the one starting on the northeast corner of Sixth Street and Avenue C.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• Report: Plans in the works to convert 650 E. 6th St. to condos

A place to store your Stuf on 3rd Street

Stuf is a new-era self-service storage facility at 176 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

The company has locations in several cities with two outposts in NYC. The East Village location debuted this past weekend. Co-founder and CEO Katharine Lau (above left) and her husband gave EVG contributor Stacie Joy a quick tour of the space...

Lau secures unused spaces in residential buildings and strikes a revenue-sharing deal with the landlords. Stuf aims to be closer to residents who may want more frequent access to their stored items. And you can enter your unit via a mobile app. 

This TechCrunch piece from December has more about the Stuf business model. Find more info at the Stuf site here.

Appreciation post: The tree pit garden on 1st Avenue at 7th Street

On the NW corner... thanks to the resident gardeners who keep this flourishing...

Lotto love for the East Village in this TV spot

Back on July 21, crews were filming scenes for a New York Lottery commercial in Tompkins Square Park and on 10th Street at Avenue A. (Top photo by Derek Berg!)

That TV spot for Twice Daily Draw Games is now out in the wild... (Thanks, Upper West Sider, for letting us know!) You can check it out below...

 

'Blue's' explosion!

You've likely seen these posted film notices along Avenue A and some side streets for something titled "BC&Y," which is obviously more gratuitous mayhem about dope fiends and Nazi vampires corrupting our youth and/or society. [Shaking fist at sky] 

Anyway, "BC&Y," turns out, is short for "Blue's Clues & You!" — "a live-action/computer-animated interactive educational children's television series." It's a reboot of the 1996 Nickelodeon series. (Thanks to Vinny & O for the pic and show title!)

Still, what's up with the blue puppy?

Retail shuffle continues at 250 E. Houston St.; Subway and Dunkin' next to leave

The storefront shuffle continues along 250 E. Houston St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. 

We previously mentioned that the FedEx Office Print & Ship Center was moving into a newly renovated space a few doors away. 

Meanwhile, Kapri Cleaners is staying in this strip, as EVG contributor Stacie Joy reports...

They'll be moving at the end of the month...

The Subway (sandwich shop) doesn't have a sign up, though workers told Stacie that this is their last week. They do not know if a new location is in the cards.

The Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins combo is closing. Workers said they hope to move nearby but do not know where just yet.

Lastly, China Town has not been open ... there wasn't any signage about a move or closure for patrons...

The Mattress Mart previously shuttered along this corridor. 

So why all the movement? We've heard rumblings (via several EVG commenters) about a new residential building for this strip — perhaps something like EVGB that swallowed up the small businesses along 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B a few years back. 

However, this is speculation at this point: Nothing about a new building or demolition has shown up in DOB records.

The 13-floor residential building at 250 E. Houston St., the former Red Square, changed ownership in the fall of 2016 ... and underwent extensive renovations.

Apparently, not all of the retail space was part of the deal. You can tell by where the new paint stops — right at the former Mattress Mart, as seen in the top pic.

Thanks to Stacie Joy for the photos!

The 13th Street Blick is moving to a familiar art-supply spot on 4th Avenue

If you've been to the Blick Art Materials outpost on 13th Street between University and Fifth Avenue lately, then you've likely seen the moving notice on the storefront. (Thanks, Doug, for the pic!)

In the spring, the art-supply shop is moving to the currently vacant 111 Fourth Ave. between 11th Street and 12th Street...

Until early 2019, this storefront was home to Jerry's New York Central. 

If we have all this straight: This location was an offshoot of Jerry's Artarama, a 15-store chain headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. Jerry's opened on Fourth Avenue in late 2013, taking over the space from Utrecht Art Supplies (now Blick), who moved into the current space on 13th Street. 

Tuesday's parting shot

RIP Charlie Watts. The drummer for the Rolling Stones has died. He was 80. 

The above is a grainy screengrab from the “Waiting on a Friend” video ... when the Stones played inside what was the St. Mark’s Bar & Grill on the SE corner at First Avenue. 

Read more about the video shot on St. Mark's Place in July 1981 here.

The East Village Neighbors Community Fridge is up and running again after vandal strikes

The East Village Neighbors Community Fridge and Pantry outside S'MAC at the NW corner of 12th Street and First Avenue was briefly out of commission thanks to a vandal. (The top photo, by Lola Sáenz, is from Sunday.)

Over the weekend, someone tore off the plug to the refrigerator's power cable...

The vandal also used a weight to smash the adjacent pantry for canned goods and other nonperishables ...

Despite the vandalism, S'MAC's management was able to get the refrigerator repaired late yesterday. The pantry was expected to be back as soon as this morning. 

S'MAC co-owner Sarita Ekya told this to EVG contributor Stacie Joy yesterday:

[I]t is disheartening and shocking that someone would vandalize a community fridge. However, we will move forward ... Thanks to ALL for the support. We are in continual need of food/monetary donations to fill the fridge so we would rather the community focus on that. We got the equipment covered.

The fridge's motto is "take what you need, leave what you can," and is made possible by S'MAC, Change Food and East Village Neighbors. It first arrived here last fall. (This is also not the first time it was vandalized.) 

In an Instagram post yesterday, East Village Neighbors report that more than 2,000 people access the community refrigerator every week. "Some fridge guests say this is the only food they get."

They also launched a new fundraiser yesterday.

We've been absolutely floored by the neighborhood's generosity in donating money for food and also in stocking the fridge — but we're almost out of funds. We've been organizing large, weekly deliveries of fresh food in order to make sure residents have a selection of healthy food, but we'll have to stop them in a few weeks if we don't raise more money.

You can find the new fundraiser at this link.

Top photo by Lola Sáenz; the others by Steven

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• A Visit to the East Village Community Fridge and Food Pantry

March gallery expanding on Avenue A

March gallery opened in late May at 64 Avenue A (ex-Alphabets) between Fourth Street and Fifth Street. 

Now, gallery owner Phillip March Jones has a second space in the works right next door (formerly Mike's Cleaners)... EVG contributor Stacie Joy spotted him starting renovations last week...

These will be separate side-by-side gallery spaces.

The interiors of both storefronts are now under renovation, with an early fall debut expected. 

The inaugural show at No. 64 was titled Pre-Renovation Potluck, an installation of self-portraits by 16 artists whom March has worked with in the past.

You can keep tabs on their opening/reopening here. 

Neighborhood Loading Zones, bike lane outlines arrive along Avenue C

Neighborhood Loading Zones have arrived on Seventh Street and Eighth Street at Avenue C... Dave on 7th shared these photos from the rain yesterday...

The loading zones for commercial vehicles, residents and taxis and car services are part of the DOT's plan for the Avenue C bike lanes. (Other loading zones are expected on side streets along this corridor.)

Meanwhile, last week, the DOT continued marking the roadway with the new bike-lane designations...

Still a work in progress... as cars and commercial trucks continued to park in the freshly marked bike lanes...

... and dueling bike lanes were spotted north of 10th Street...

As reported last fall, the DOT is adding the protected north/south bike lanes on Avenue C and East Houston Street to help offset the upcoming closure of the East River Park greenway.

Planned improvements for cyclists, pedestrians and motorists along C include: 

• Curbside bike lanes between Houston and Fourth Street 

• Parking-protected, bollard-protected and curbside bike lanes between Fourth Street and 18th Street 

• Updated parking regulations to provide truck loading zones 

• Neighborhood loading zones on select side streets 

• Painted pedestrian islands between 11th Street and 15th Street 

• New left-turn bays at 10th Street and 14th Street

You can find many more details in the presentation that DOT officials made to CB3 back in April. (PDF here)

A striped awning for the Tile Bar

A new awning arrived at the Tile Bar (and sister site The Magician on Rivington) back on Thursday... a bit of a jolt for the low-key space that didn't have any visible signage previously on the northwest corner of First Avenue and Seventh Street...

I posted these pics in the EVG Instagram Stories and received more comments than any other in recent memory. A few regulars said — paraphrasing — that they don't care for the new look... two other commenters said that they didn't actually know this place was called Tile Bar...

Monday's parting shot

Thanks to Rainer Turim for this still life today in Tompkins Square Park... where the rain from Tropical Storm Henri flooded the area to the east of the main lawn. 

Click on the image for more detail!

More details on the East 7th Street fire victims seeking help from their former landlord

As previously reported a few weeks back, the longtime tenants of 48 E. Seventh St., destroyed in a six-alarm fire last December, are "seeking basic decency" from the building's landlord, acclaimed futurist Faith Popcorn. 

The Post has some new information on the story. 

[T]wo of Popcorn's tenants, mother and daughter Zwenyslawa and Chrysanna Woroch, are living in a former hotel turned homeless shelter, their lawyer, James Fishman, said.

"They had no place else to go," Fishman said.

The Worochs paid $617 a month for their rent-controlled apartment, which had been in the family since 1957.

The pair filed suit in April against Popcorn's LLC, which owned the property, seeking to have Popcorn, or a subsequent owner, "take any and all actions necessary" to restore their occupancy of the apartment and maintain their rent-regulated status.

Popcorn argued in legal papers that since there is no building, she had no obligation to do so. 

"If that were true, then any landlord that wanted to terminate rent-controlled or rent-stabilized tenancies could just simply allow the building to either be burned down or not repair it or whatever," Fishman said. "That can't be right."

The insurance company for four other tenants is also suing Popcorn's LLC for $186,301 in damages, the Post reported.

The misery for the tenants started in February 2020 when a fire displaced the building's residents. No. 48, which included retail tenants Via Della Pace and Cafe Mocha and eight apartments, was under renovation this past fall and was vacant at the time of the December fire, which also destroyed the Middle Collegiate Church next door.  

The FDNY previously said that faulty electrical wiring was to blame for both fires. Workers demolished the building on Dec. 7. 

According to legal documents cited by the Post, tenants were offered $200,000 each to give up their rights to their apartments in early December. 

Photo today by Steven

Duane Reade, fully visible again on Avenue B

After what seems like years, workers have finally removed the sidewalk bridge from outside the Duane Reade on Avenue B and Second Street... crews had been working on the apartment complex here called The Villager. (Onetime home The Gas Station, aka Art Gallery Space 2B!) 

Thanks to Stacie Joy for the pic!

Ray gets his day on Humans of New York

Photo from early 2020 by Peter Brownscombe

Brandon Stanton at Humans of New York has been featuring several East Village business owners of late (Mary O's ... Dress Shoppe II ... Mikey Likes It ... McSorley's).

And now ... one that doesn't need any introduction: Ray at Ray's Candy Store, 113 Avenue A...

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A post shared by Humans of New York (@humansofny)

[Updated] Flooding seen in Tompkins Square Park

The ongoing deluge from Tropical Storm Henri has flooded the east side of the main lawn of Tompkins Square Park ... Steven shared these photos from late this afternoon...

No sign of marine life just yet. Rain is expected to continue tonight. A flash-flood warning is in effect until 8:45 p.m. 

Updated 8/23

Via Steven, here's a Monday morning look at the water ... which still appears level to yesterday... 

The sun returns tomorrow for four straight 90-plus days... 

Week in Grieview

Posts from this past week included (with a photo from Tompkins Square Park by Steven) ... 

• ICYMI: Proof of vaccination now required for restaurants, bars, theaters and more (Wednesday) 

• Report: Madison Realty Capital moving to foreclose on leasehold for 3 St. Mark's Place (Tuesday) 

• The NYPD is collecting donations for earthquake victims in Haiti (Monday) 

• Good news-bad news about the water-main work on 7th Street and 1st Avenue (Monday) 

• Animal collective: Pillow-Cat Books coming to 9th Street (Monday) 

• Spellbound: Spooksvilla + Friends moving to 309 E. 9th St. (Thursday) 

• Kestrel maneuvers to rescue this fledging along Avenue B (Tuesday) 

• Report: Superiority Burger moving into the former Odessa space on Avenue A (Friday)

• Cure Thrift Shop opening later this month in new space on 3rd Avenue (Monday) 

• In the midnight hour, East Berlin will start a weekly film series (Tuesday) 

• Last weekend for Tea Drunk on 7th Street (Friday) 

• Express yourself: A look at the new FedEx space on Houston (Friday) 

• The expanding and shrinking pedestrian passage on St. Mark's Place at 3rd Avenue (Wednesday) 

• Stuyvesant Deli Grocery debuts on 14th and A (Wednesday) 

• Rakka Cafe has not been open lately (Wednesday) 

• Where are they now? Catching up with Gem Spa's former Zoltar in Bushwick (Thursday) 

• Like a diversion: Former local resident celebrates a birthday (Monday)

And we've seen signage on storefronts around the neighborhood as businesses take a late-summer break...

At East Village Buyers at 150 E. Third St., the temp closure note includes an apology, to which someone responded: "It's okay. We understand." (Thanks to Stacie Joy for the pics!)

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The Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket is CLOSED today

The arrival of Tropical Storm Henri has prompted the citywide cancellation of the Greenmarkets today... including at Tompkins Square Park. 

H/T Steven