Reader mailbag: Syringe disposal in Tompkins Square Park

Via the EVG inbox... 

Today in Tompkins Square Park I noticed a bin labeled Syringe Disposal/Biohazard near Seventh Street. I couldn’t find any reference online to syringe disposal or needle exchange in the park and wondered if it's "official" or maybe just put there by someone wanting to help out. Do you know anything about it?

We do not know anything about it... does anyone else?  

A crowdfunding campaign for Andy Gil, killed by a hit-and-run driver on East Houston Street

The older brother of Andy Gil, the 21-year-old killed by a hit-and-run driver on East Houston Street last Thursday morning, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help his family pay for expenses. 

Andy lived with his parents and two siblings. 

Here's more from Jesus Gil: 

Andy was just beginning his adult life. At the young age of only 21 years old, Andy had multiple talents that nourished and grew within him daily. 

While working full-time at Casa Cipriani as a lobby door ambassador, Andy also focused on creating, producing and managing bold and understated photo shoots and fashion pieces such as clothing and handbags. His ambition and drive to become a successful and hard-working son to provide for our mother and family touched the lives of everyone around him. 

Andy, being the sweetest and most kind-hearted person he was, threw himself into all of these different projects as a way to provide for our mother. He believed in nothing more that he would one day buy a house for our mother and was even planning a trip to Mexico so that she could see her mom, whom she hasn't seen in decades. He was ultimately the kindest and most gentle family-oriented young man. 

Police say Gil was crossing Houston at Forsyth from south to north when he was struck and dragged by a sedan that continued westbound. The driver remains at large.

You can find the GoFundMe link here.

Openings: Dhom on 12th Street

Dhom recently (July 8) debuted at 505 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. (Thanks to Vinny & O for the photos!)

Soulayphet "Phet" Schwader and Nick Bradley, whose credits include Tribeca's Khe-Yo, are behind this Southeast Asian cafe and cocktail bar.

Hours: 

Monday-Wednesday — 11 a.m. to midnight 

Thursday-Saturday — 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. 

Sunday — 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. 

You can find the all-day cafe menu here. And some food pics on Instagram. 

Mace, the high-end cocktail bar, left the address in the summer of 2020.

Kura has apparently closed on St. Mark's Place

Photo by Steven

A large for-rent sign now hangs on the gate at 130 St. Mark's Place just west of Avenue A... apparently bringing an end to Kura.

There isn't any official notice of a closure, though the restaurant has been closed during listed business hours and Resy is no longer accepting reservations. (The phone goes unanswered as well.)

The upscale sushi spot opened in early 2013, and its omakase meals and presentation drew praise from The New York Times.

This space has the dubious distinction of housing Tre Scalini, an Italian restaurant that opened and closed in less in two weeks in July 2011.

The 9th Precinct will add bicycle patrols to the East Village

Due to popular demand and as we promised we’ve gotten some of our Officers to be bicycle trained. You will be seeing them patrolling the east village on bicycles. pic.twitter.com/4A065T2Usi

— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) July 16, 2022

The 9th Precinct recently announced that officers will soon be canvassing the East Village on bicycles.

There have been calls to get more officers to patrol their communities via bicycle, such as in this Streetsblog op-ed from last July. Per Jeremy Posner: "Just as NYPD officers are being asked to get out of their cars more often as part of community policing, they should experience cycling on the streets they police."

In the summer of 2020, Bike New York called on the NYPD to put more officers on bicycles to improve community policing, among other items. 

Tuesday's parting shot

Brooklyn's Pan Arcadia brought their guitars and horns to Tompkins Square Park this afternoon for a surprise show... (they played the Bowery Ballroom a few nights ago)... photo by Derek Berg

EVG Etc.: Remembering Hunter Reynolds & Claes Oldenburg; looking at de Blasio's campaign donors

Some links to other sources from the past week (with a photo from this morning on Houston and Ludlow) ... 

• Remembering Hunter Reynolds, East Village artist and AIDS activist (POZ) 

• RIP Claes Oldenburg (CNN ... more background on his LES history at Off the Grid)

• Family looking for answers after murder of Jesse Parrilla (PIX 11 ... previously on EVG) 

• Police seek man on e-bike accused of sexually assaulting 2 women in Manhattan early Saturday morning, including a 28 year old on Avenue A and Fourth Street (Westside Rag ... CBS 2 ... ABC 7 ...

• A $95 million lawsuit alleges sexual assault against famed East Village restaurateur Shuji Bon Yagi (The Post) 

• City under a heat advisory through tomorrow night (Gothamist ... find a cooling center via this city map) 

• De Blasio scores campaign cash for the Congressional District 10 race from subjects of his ethics probes (The City) UPDATE: The former mayor drops out of the race (Axios) 

• Displaced Lower East Side Ecology Center heading now to Canarsie (NY1 ... previously on EVG) 

• Jesse Malin pays tribute to his longtime friend Howie Pyro (The Village Voice) 

• The MTA has put up a want ad for companies seeking to install platform barriers at three stations in the subway system, including the L at Union Square (The City) 

• History of Mechanics Alley on the LES (Ephemeral New York) 

• More on the Acne Studios handbag ads with the butt shots (The Post ... previously on EVG)

Some 13th Street residents want the fried-chicken smell to stop

Some residents who live behind Wing Stop at 426 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue have been treated to the nonstop smell of fried chicken in recent months, they say. 

Wing Stop, a multinational chain of aviation-themed restaurants specializing in chicken wings, opened here in late April. 

A resident who lives behind the fast-food establishment in the A Building at 425 E. 13th St. shared this photo of the Wing Stop's industrial ventilation system, which "is blowing the smell of fried chicken into roughly 50 condominiums."

"We are getting blasted all day, every day," said the resident, who's doing outreach for the building's board. "I've lived here for 14 years — it's literally unbearable." 

The resident said the new management at 426 E. 14th St. has not been responsive. 

Condo reps have been in touch with the Wing Stop corporate office. (The company is publicly traded, and while many locations are franchises, this location is corporate-owned.) After multiple calls to the corporate office, the resident received an email from the company in late June: 

We appreciate you reaching out to us in regards to our restaurant NY New York — E. 14th Street. 

We discussed this with our VP of Construction and Operations and we are within our rights per the terms of our lease. 

We suggest that you reach out to your landlord to discuss your concerns. 

The resident and others facing Wing Stop, which has daily hours of 10:30 a.m. to midnight, say they are at a loss over what to do now. 

"Since Wing Stop opened, we are unable to use our balconies, open our windows or even use our AC systems because the ongoing smell of fried chicken and/or french fries is blasted directly into our homes," the resident said. "It comes so quickly without warning and continually throughout the day, so there is no way to mask the smell because you don't realize it until it hits you. Then you feel like you're wearing it — it's truly disgusting."

Construction watch: 204 Avenue A

Workers look to be up to the fifth floor on the new building here at 204 Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street.

As previously reported, this city-owned property, along with the one at 535 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, will make way for affordable housing.

The project is an income-restricted cooperative with units available to households earning no more than 80% AMI. When the new construction is complete, No. 204 will rise to seven stories, yielding 10 units (8-1BRs & 2-2BRs). There are 11 one-bedroom rental units planned for the 6-story No. 535.

No. 204 and 535, part of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development's Tenant Interim Lease Program, have been vacant since 2008. "Due to deteriorating structural conditions," tenants from both buildings were relocated then.

The former tenants of each building will be able to purchase the co-op units in the newly constructed building at No. 204, which will include ground-floor retail.

Here's the last rendering that we saw for No. 204 (before neighboring 202 Avenue A was demolished for the building called the Topanga) ...

Shakespeare Gordon Vlado Architects is the architect of record for the project ... with an estimated December 2022 completion date.

Kent's Dumpling House has apparently closed on 14th Street

Photos by Steven

That looks to be all for Kent's Dumpling House at 220 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. (H/T @AlexVadukul!) 

The quick-serve restaurant has been closed of late, stuck under not one but two sidewalk bridges (!?!?) ... Google lists Kent's as permanently closed...

Workers have started to take apart the interior of the bargain-eats fave...

Kent's opened in 2019, taking over from Vanessa's Dumpling House (most of the staff remained the same).

Monday's parting shot

Midtown views from the EV... and one of the 23 times* today we were in a thunderstorm warning... 

* or so it seemed

City officially unveils Manuel Plaza on 4th Street

Various city officials and local elected leaders christened Manuel Plaza this past Friday ... officially debuting the new open space here on Fourth Street between the Bowery and Lafayette...

The space — on a site used by the Department of Environmental Preservation — has been open to the public since late May (as we first reported). 

Friday's dedication also offered more details about the name of the space — Manuel Plaza. According to a city press release: 

Manuel Plaza ...  is named in acknowledgment of the first North American free Black settlement, known as the Land of the Blacks. The name honors Big Manuel, Clyn Manuel, Manuel Gerrit de Reus, Manuel Sanders, and Manuel Trumpeter, who were among 28 people of African descent who negotiated their freedom from the West India Dutch Company and over 100 acres in land grants in the mid-17th Century in New Netherland. 

As noted in previous posts, since the 1990s, the DEP has used this property to work on shafts connected to the underground network of tunnels that supply NYC's drinking water. 

Several years ago, there were public meetings to gather ideas for "passive recreation space" here. And this is the result of those.

As a few readers have noted, the design couldn't include large trees because the space is above the water-tunnel site ... and the roots would interfere. The plaza features permeable pavers, seating, native plants, drinking fountains and synthetic turf.

The $1.58 million Manuel Plaza project received mayoral funding from the DEP ($1.31 million), as well as City Council ($200,000) and Manhattan Borough President ($71,000) funding.

This is one of two DEP sites the city has turned into public spaces. Rapkin-Gayle Plaza has also debuted at Grand and Lafayette. 

The Mermaid Inn is moving closer to its East Village return

Photo by Carol from East 5th Street

Signage is up now about the reopening of the Mermaid Inn on Second Avenue. 

Aside from announcing the return, the signage serves as an employment ad for recruiting staff at this outpost between Fifth Street and Sixth Street.

No word on an opening date just yet. (Local 92 next door will then no longer be able to use the sidewalk space outside Mermaid Inn.)

Mermaid Inn closed here during the pandemic. Co-owner Daniel Abrams and partner Cindy Smith decided to shut down the seafood restaurant in the wake of failed attempts to reach a workable rent deal, Eater reported at the time. 

There were later issues with a stringent State Liquor Authority that was delaying the reopening.

The Mermaid Inn arrived in the East Village back in 2003. There are also locations in Greenwich Village, Chelsea and the Upper West Side... with Mermaid Mexicana opening in the spring on MacDougal Street. 

The former Baker's Pizza space is for rent on Avenue A

The storefront at 201 Avenue A is now for rent... officially bringing an end to Baker's Pizza here between 12th Street and 13th Street.

A "Permanently Closed RIP" message was posted atop the pizzeria's website in January. However, several weeks later, the pizzeria reopened (though not by original owner Jordan Baker). BPII didn't last, though, long as the gates came down and a DOH sticker arrived on the door dated March 31.

There was an unsuccessful DOH inspection that closed the place. Dec. 1 with 43 violation points, per public records. (According to multiple readers/Baker's Pizza fans, the shop never reopened after the December DOH visit.) We do not know who was running the place in parts of February and March (and without ever clearing up the DOH business).

In any event, Baker's arrived in February 2016 and quickly built a fervent fanbase.   

Little Kirin announces itself on St. Mark's Place

Photos by Steven 

Workers installed the signage for the new tenant at 81 St. Mark's Place just west of First Avenue yesterday.

Little Kirin will offer a variety of quick-serve sandwiches and snacks. Or has the shop's Instagram account put it: "Badass Asian Food x Culture x Happiness x Vibes."

The Little Kirin team operated at the Greenpoint Terminal Market last fall as they waited to open their first storefront. They hope to debut at No. 81 by the end of the month.

The previous business here, Cafe Rakka/Rakka Cafe, which dated to the late 1970s, quietly closed in the summer of 2021. 

Report: Rivera tops new 10th Congressional District poll; a talk about redistricting

The crowded race to represent New York’s new 10th Congressional District, comprising lower Manhattan (including the East Village), brownstone Brooklyn, Sunset Park and parts of Borough Park, continues.

City & State shared the findings from a new poll from progressive firm Data for Progress that shows:

... New York City Council Member Carlina Rivera leading the Democratic primary field with 17% of likely voters’ suppot. Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou was second with 14% and former House impeachment counsel Dan Goldman close behind with 12%, while former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was in seventh place, with 5%. Some 27% of those polled said they were not sure who they would vote for in the Aug. 23 primary.

Data for Progress polled 533 likely Democratic primary voters in the district between July 7-10. 

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UPDATED 7/19: de Blasio has dropped out of the race.

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City & State has a list of key endorsements to date for this race. 

Tomorrow (Tuesday) night, Cooper Union's Great Hall is the site of an "environmental candidate forum" among the candidates for this seat. Register to attend (6-8 p.m.) here.

Meanwhile, this Thursday, Village Preservation is hosting a webinar with the League of Women Voters of the City of New York to speak about the process of redistricting and how it has impacted Greenwich Village, the East Village and NoHo. The session starts at 6 p.m. Sign up for it here.

Raise your spirits: At WitchsFest 2022 on Astor Place

Images by Stacie Joy 

The annual WitchsFest 2022 took place yesterday IRL on Astor Place between Lafayette and Broadway (there were virtual events Friday and today).

The festival featured DJs, performances, Magickal Market Place vendors and workshops. (There was also "a Summer Blessing Ritual for all of New York City and extending out to the World.") 

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by to check in with WitchsFesters — vendors and attendees alike ...

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo on St. Mark's Place by Derek Berg) ...

• 21-year-old man dead in hit-and-run on East Houston (Thursday) 

• Police looking for suspect in attempted sexual assault in an apartment building on 11th Street and 3rd Avenue (Wednesday) 

• New bar-restaurant planned for 132 2nd Ave., the current home of Dallas BBQ (Monday)

• A very public eviction for Anwar Grocery on Avenue B (Wednesday) 

• A visit to Kembra Pfahler's new studio space on 6th Street (Thursday) 

• Opening-night crowd prompts the NYPD to shut down the art show at O'Flaherty's on Avenue C (Friday)

• A new East Village home for Virginia's (Wednesday) 

• Prepping Avenue A for a new dedicated bus lane (Thursday) 

• Openings! Desi Stop on 2nd Avenue (Thursday) 

• A longtime home of curiosities and misfits going retail on 7th Street (Tuesday) 

• Íxta announces itself on the Bowery (Monday)

• Don Ceviche opening an outpost on 1st Avenue (Wednesday) 

• Milk Burger in soft-open mode on East Houston (Friday) 

• Today in Manhattanhenge pics (Monday) 

• A bad sign at Akina Sushi (Tuesday) 

• La Mia Pizza remains closed for now (Monday) 

• Fast-food chain getting ready to Express itself on 1st Avenue and 14th Street (Monday) 

• Momofuku Noodle Bar reopening after a months-long renovation (Tuesday)

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A memorial for Andy Eduardo Gil

Updated: Thanks to the commenter: There is now a crowdfunding campaign for Gil's family.

There's a small memorial in the median at Forsyth and Houston for Andy Eduardo Gil, who police say a hit-and-run driver killed early Thursday morning. Gil was 21. (There are also some flowers and candles on the north curb at Houston.)

According to the Daily News, Gil worked at a hotel "while pursuing his aspirations of becoming a photographer and graphic designer." He was on his way to a photo shoot that morning. 

He lived with his parents and two siblings. 

The driver of the westbound vehicle remains at large.

Saturday's parting shot

Photo on First Avenue by Daniel Efram...