Sunday, July 24, 2022

Today in posts about things people are stealing

The 9th Precinct tweeted this out the other day... an uptick in catalytic converter theft!

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), catalytic converter theft has spiked dramatically due to three precious metals found inside them: palladium, rhodium, and platinum. How precious are we talking about here? At the time of this writing, an ounce of rhodium costs about $15,000.

Sunday sunrise

EVG regular Jeanne Krier shares this early morning photo...

Saturday, July 23, 2022

Saturday's parting shot

Discarded fridge art on Seventh Street via Derek Berg...

July 23

Carol from East 5th Street shares this photo... as seen this morning in the East Fifth Street pathway through Village View... a grab-and-go Christmas tree ready to make someone's home a winter wonderland on this hot Saturday in July...

Puke Island returns to Tompkins Square Park

The 10th edition of Puke Island takes place tomorrow afternoon (Sunday, July 24) in Tompkins Square Park (and, as it happens, a day after Punk Island).

Scheduled to play: 
  • 2 — The List 
  • 2:45 — Prostitution 
  • 3:30 — Skappository 
  • 4:15 — Iconicide 
  • 5 — Hell's Teeth 
Per the invite: "NONE of the bands performing at this event have ANYTHING to do with one another, other than two simple words: GOOD MUSIC." 

You can read more about the history of Puke Island here.

Bey watch

Second Avenue at Seventh Street...

Friday, July 22, 2022

'Face' time

 

Because Grace Jones was trending on Twitter today (collaboration with Beyoncé) ... here's the video for her 1981 track, "I've Seen That Face Before"...

This part of Avenue A is now officially a dedicated bus lane

DOT crews today put down the bus-lane stencils on the southbound side of Avenue A between Fifth Street and Houston.

As previously noted, parking is no longer allowed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. seven days a week in select corridors on Avenue A and Avenue D in an effort to speed up bus times for the M14.

This is one of the transit improvements the city announced as part of the "Better Buses Restart" campaign in May 2021.

Posted signage along Avenue A lists other additions to bus lanes on the Lower East Side...
Previously

Today in grand openings

An EVG reader shared this photo today... outside 44 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue where the Exotic Green House smoke shop has opened... (and one day we may actually list every new smoke shop that has opened in the East Village the past 3-4 months).

Thursday, July 21, 2022

Thursday's parting shot

A moment with Romey Petite today in Tompkins Square Park... photo by Derek Berg...

Noted

Eden shares some new healthy habits-handwashing messaging from the Tompkins Square Park women's restroom... likely NOT created by the Parks Department...

Seth Tobocman on the story behind a long-covered mural on 9th Street

Interview and images by Stacie Joy 

For 22 years, from 1979 to 2001, 605 E. Ninth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C served as the home to the Charas/El Bohio Community & Cultural Center.

At its peak, it was used by thousands each year, and hosted a wide array of activity: community meetings, children’s programming, art exhibits, music concerts, film screenings, plays, dance recitals, bicycle recycling, construction training, a substance abuse treatment, and political organizing. 
Unfortunately, the abandoned building, the onetime P.S. 64, has sat in disrepair for more than 20 years. (See the end of the post for more background.)

Workers recently removed the plywood from the Ninth Street side, revealing artwork from the days leading up to Charas’ eviction in 2001, including a drawing by longtime East Village-based artist-illustrator Seth Tobocman (above)

The art reads:
A 7-year-old drew this picture at a class here at Charas. The boy was upset because he and his family had found the body of a woman who had been decapitated on their doorstep. That was in the 1980s when they called the Lower East Side the warzone. Now all of N.Y.C. is a warzone. The world is a bad neighborhood. We need cultural centers like Charas more than ever to keep our sanity.
We reached out to Tobocman to learn more about the piece and the story he referenced in the painting. 

How did it feel to see your recently uncovered work in front of Charas? When we first sent you the image, you expressed surprise at seeing it — it had been under plywood for 20-plus years.

When EV Grieve first contacted me, asking me whether I had a mural at Charas, I said “no” because I had completely forgotten about this project. But when I saw the photograph, I immediately remembered it. 

It is strange that this artwork was covered over with plywood to emerge almost intact 20-plus years later like some kind of time capsule, and it makes the past seem close and far away at the same time.

Can you tell us how that work came to be? Why did Charas invite you and other artists to paint the walls outside the building? 

We painted these murals — with Charas’ permission — because the building was facing eviction, and this was a form of protest. Our group, World War 3 Arts In Action, was an artist collective formed to provide signs and banners for the protests against the invasion of Iraq. It included Christopher Cardinales, Sharron Kwik, Samantha Wilson, Carlo Quispe, Diane Jarvis, and others. 

We volunteered to paint these murals ... We started in the afternoon and continued into the evening. Eventually, the police stopped us saying, “No graffiti!” out of a loudspeaker. We did not consider this to be graffiti because we had Charas’ permission. We complied with the police order to avoid creating an incident that might reflect negatively on Charas.
Can you walk us through the story of the child’s drawing referenced in the work? You’ve held on to that piece since the early 1980s. How has it informed the art you created at that time? 

In 1983, an older community organizer, Fred Siedan, started the art classes at Charas with Lupe Garnica’s nonprofit, Chicana Raza Group of the Performing Arts, acting as an umbrella organization and occasionally providing a very small amount of funding. 

A number of artists were concerned about the role of art galleries in gentrifying the Lower East Side. We wanted to find positive ways for artists to work with the community. Eric Drooker and Paula Hewitt Amram had organized a tenant union called Angry NOHO Tenants or ANT. 

I was involved in a rent strike in my building. Sabrina Jones was working with a feminist art group called Carnival Knowledge that had studio space in Charas. We all worked on the magazine World War 3 Illustrated and did political postering and stencil graffiti in the neighborhood. 

Seidan invited us to teach classes. He said the real purpose of these art classes was to keep the kids away from the drug operation, which dominated the blocks around Charas. Parents would bring us all their kids, from toddlers to teenagers. 

Classes were very orderly because the older kids kept their younger siblings in line. Kids liked the classes so much that sometimes I would be walking through the neighborhood, and a group of children would stop me and ask, “When are we gonna have art class again?” 

One day I walked into class and saw this group of very small children sitting in one corner talking quietly to one another. Now that’s unusual, small kids talking quietly. So I listened in. The kids had found the body of a woman who had been decapitated. They were telling each other about this. Trying to describe it. Trying to figure out what it meant. 

I was fascinated by their plain but forceful language, without adjectives, value judgments or cliches. One of the kids eventually painted this wild picture of a screamy-faced woman. At the time, I was trying to do political art, but my real influences were comic books and science fiction illustrations. I really had not found my voice as a writer. 

After hearing the kids, I resolved to learn to write the way they talked and to draw the way they drew. The result was an account of my own witness to violence on the streets of New York called “I Saw A Man Bleed To Death,” which was the beginning of the art and writing style most people associate with my work. I owe a lot to those kids.
When was the last time you were inside Charas and what do you hope becomes of the building? 

The last time I was in Charas was as part of a protest against the murder of Brad Will. A crowd broke in and held the building for about an hour. 

Charas was where the East Village art scene met the Nuyorican art scene, but always on terms set by Puerto Rican community organizers. New York still needs a place like that.
As previously reported, ownership of the property is in transition. In January, Supreme Court Justice Melissa Crane ruled that Madison Realty Capital could move forward with a foreclosure against building landlord Gregg Singer after years of delay. 

Madison Realty Capital reportedly provided Singer with a $44 million loan on the property in 2016. Court records show that he failed to repay the balance by its maturity date in April 2016, and by that September, the lender filed to foreclose, as reported by The Real Deal.

Singer bought the property during a city auction in 1998 for $3.15 million. He has wanted to turn the building into a dorm, though those plans never materialized. There has been a call to return the building for community use in years past. 

The building became the Charas/El Bohio Community Center after the school left in 1977. The group was evicted in December 2001 when Singer took over as the landlord. 

The new East Village location of the Brindle Room set to open next week on 11th Street

The familiar Brindle Room signage went up yesterday at the restaurant's new home, 647 E. 11th St., just west of Avenue C. 

Owner Jeremy Spector tells us that they will debut on Wednesday, July 27, with an abbreviated preview menu through Labor Day. 

For the first few weeks, he said they'll be open Wednesday through Saturday from 5-11 p.m. ... with expanded hours, days and brunch to come soon.

The Brindle Room, known for its burgers, spent 11 years at 277 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. The restaurant was doing takeout during the early days of the pandemic but stayed shut after the spring of 2020.

"The place has really cool ceilings, and it's bigger and nicer than my old spot. But most important to me is that it's in the same neighborhood. I'm pretty fired up — it's been two long years." 
The previous tenant here, Virginia's, will reopen this fall in the old Root & Bone space on Third Street. 

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Wednesday's parting shot

As seen on the NE corner of Second Avenue and Sixth Street today — "Turn trash into beautiful art for everyone to see" ... photo by Derek Berg

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

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, July 19, 2022

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