Wednesday, January 11, 2023

The area behind the fieldhouse in Tompkins Square Park is now open for 5 hours a day

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

The area of Tompkins Square Park behind the fieldhouse/office is once again open to the public — for a limited time each day.
Starting last week, Parkgoers can access this space — dubbed the Slocum area as it includes the Slocum Memorial Fountain — from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.
As we've been reporting, the locks arrived here on Nov. 8There wasn't any signage to explain why this part of the public park was closed to the public.

Parks officials later told us in later November that a malfunctioning boiler and a broken pipe in the basement of the fieldhouse are to blame. 

Meanwhile, the area reopened for a day or two in early December before the locks returned.

We're told that Parks employees have submitted requests to have the broken pipe and boiler repaired. This is impacting Park employees, who are working in a building without heat and water, and for Parkgoers, as the public restrooms remain out of service.
A Park regular has been keeping tabs on the lack of activity here, as seen in the note (since removed) earlier this month...   
Perhaps the Parks Department is just waiting ... as they are expected to rebuild the fieldhouse. According to the Parks Department website, the city has been awarded the contract to a contractor ... and is awaiting registration via the Comptroller's Office. 

Once construction starts, work is expected to take 12-18 months, per the Parks Department.

Meanwhile, tomorrow (Jan. 12) night, Community Board 3's Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee will hear an item of interest (fifth on the agenda): "Clarification of Tompkins Square Park closing time." Find the registration link for the Zoom meeting here

Also on the agenda (2nd item): A Parks Manager Update.

A gut renovation at 12th and C, and the loss of the Gil Scott-Heron tribute mural

Photos by Stacie Joy

We've been keeping tabs on 195 Avenue C (aka 656 E. 12th St), a 5-floor residential building on the SW corner of 12th Street that has been undergoing a gut renovation... the scaffolding, construction netting and sidewalk bridge came down in late November...
In 2021, the Restored Homes Housing Development Fund Corporation bought the building from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development for an undisclosed sum. 

For several years, the walls here housed the 12C Outdoor Art Gallery, which featured a rotating batch of murals curated by resident Robert Galinsky.

One constant through the years: the Gil Scott-Heron tribute that Chico created after the jazz poet, musician and author died in 2011.

Several readers/residents were hoping that this mural — with "the Revolution Will Not Be Televised" line — would remain in place. 
And it looked as if the mural just might make it through the renovations...
Unfortunately, the mural has now all but wiped out ... 

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Clearing out 'Stomp'

Photos by Steven 

Workers were spotted clearing out the Orpheum Theatre today... two days after "Stomp" ended its 29-year run here on Second Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place...
Some items were going into waiting trucks... while other props were put on the curb. One of the workers said people could help themselves to the stuff...
... for your own homemade "Stomp" production...

Noted

Photo by Goggla 

A friendly reminder that if you're going to bring your Christmas tree to Tompkins Square Park (even though MulchFest is officially over), please remember to remove any pianos that might be attached...

A look back at the devastating fire that destroyed Essex Card Shop 1 year ago today

One year ago today, a fire destroyed Essex Card Shop on Avenue A between Third Street and Fourth Street. 

Thankfully, there weren't any injuries, and the fire was contained to the shop located in the retail space of the Ageloff Towers.

However dire it looked while assessing the damage inside the storefront, owner Muhammad Aslam and his family vowed to return, and with the help of generous residents, were able to reopen on Sept. 6

Here, Aslam, and his daughter, Mehnaz Noreen, the retail sales manager, on reopening day...
On this anniversary day, the family expressed their thanks to the neighborhood for being able to return via a tweet from Muhammad's daughter Saba ...
EVG was the only media outlet to document the rebuild and return of Essex Card Shop. You can find the archive of the rebuild, as reported by EVG contributor Stacie Joy in 2022, right here.

A look inside the under-renovation Poetica Coffee on 2nd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

We've been noting the changes of happening on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place with the departure of the long-running "Stomp" and the closure of the decades-spanning survivor Dallas BBQ

Meanwhile, work continues on the SW corner ... where an outpost of Brooklyn-based Poetica Coffee is opening in the first quarter of 2023. 

Owner Parviz Mukhamadkulov invited EVG contributor Stacie Joy in for a look at the in-progress conversion of the space...
... including a tour of the under-renovation lower level ...
... where Mukhamadkulov plans to have a barista training area as well as an employee lounge and the restrooms...
The café will serve housemade pastries, including croissants and several varieties of baked pierogies, which are more popular in central Asia as opposed to boiled or fried dumplings... and with coffee beans from a roaster in Brooklyn. 

Mukhamadkulov has said he'd like to honor the longtime former tenant, Gem Spa... so perhaps they'll be an egg cream on the menu too.

Signage alert: Burgers on B

Photo by Stacie Joy 

Signage went up over the weekend for Burgers on B, a new hamburger joint opening in the weeks ahead at 168 Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street. 

EVG contributor Stacie Joy has been in touch with the owners, and we hope to have an update soon. 

The space was last Barnyard Cheese Shop, which closed in October 2021 ... before a brief encore presentation as Barnyard Express.

Coffee shop slated for this retail space in NYU's Third North dorm

A cafe-coffee shop is in the works for 83 Third Ave. at 12th St. in the base of NYU's Third North dorm.
The sign lists the business as Sammy L Coffee, though we've also seen it as Sammylin Coffee in latte art clips on TikTok

For now, the shop is in the hiring stages.

Shiina, a women's boutique selling clothing, accessories and makeup, was the last business in this storefront, closing in the spring of 2019

Until Shiina arrived in 2017, the space had been empty for nearly two years after Pushcart Coffee vacated the space. The address was previously home to Just Sweet, which sold bubble tea and desserts.

Monday, January 9, 2023

Monday's parting shot

Little Man Parking on Ninth Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue will need to update its sign now that "Stomp" and Dallas BBQ are gone...
Long live Webster Hall!

EVG Etc.: Harvey Fierstein supports La MaMa; Pinky's Space sues NYC

Sophie's on Fifth Street the other evening

• Chef King Phojanakong of Kuma Inn on Ludlow Street dies at 54 (Eater

• City officials show indifference over Josefa Bonet, a resident of the Riis Houses, who had four times the normal level of arsenic in her system when she died (The City

• Harvey Fierstein donates a $250,000 matching grant to La MaMa (Playbill

• Pinky's Space sues NYC for $615,000 for tearing down outdoor dining shed (NY Post ... previously on EVG

• Bad Habit and Caleta debut at 133 Avenue A (Eater ... previously on EVG)

• What to do if you don't have heat in your apartment (The City

• Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village tenants secure rent-regulated status (Gothamist

• Cage the Elephant lead singer busted for gun possession at the Bowery Hotel (The Daily Mail

• NYPD makes arrest after robbery at the Metro PCS store on 14th Street and First Avenue last week (NY Post

• Is New York City facing a "doom loop" scenario? (Gothamist

• Gotham Burger Social Club coming to Essex and Rivington (Forbes

• Catch the original "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" on the big screen down at Metrograph this weekend (Offical site

• At Anna Delvey's NYE party (artnet)

After 29 years playing in the East Village, I finally decided to see 'Stomp' before it closed

The 29-year reign of "Stomp" concluded yesterday evening at the Orpheum Theatre on Second Avenue. 

Per NPR on Saturday: 
"Twenty-nine years is a long time to sustain a run," "Stomp" co-producer and general manager Richard Frankel said. "Foreign tourists became a major part of our audience and they really have not returned to New York since COVID. It's been tough. We just aren't selling enough tickets."
The energetic percussion-based show opened here on Feb. 27, 1994, for an initial four-month run. Since then, I've walked by the theater between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place thousands of times and never had any interest in seeing the production. 

I'm not the biggest theater person, spending more time taking in live music, movies or art exhibits. Aside from seeing the marquee on a near-daily basis, "Stomp" didn't immediately register with me. At some point, I realized that "Stomp" had been playing here forever. I think it was 1997. 

As the production continued to catch on and become a tourist destination, the desire to never see it only intensified. 

I recall sitting with friends at the Grassroots on St. Mark's Place. Someone knew a cast member and went to see the show. Their reaction: "It was better than I expected." I heard that similar refrain from other people who had dreaded seeing it, mostly locals who brought relatives or other out-of-towners to the theater per their wishes. 

Unlike "Rent," which had local roots, "Stomp" came out of the 1980s United Kingdom street performance scene. I never saw a connection between the show and the neighborhood, other than where the venue was located. Still, Frankel, the producer, told NPR that "Stomp" "really captured the sensibility of the East Village in the 1990s." 

In any event, as it was ending after nearly 11,500 shows, I decided to buy a ticket for an evening performance last week... and found myself in a short line like I had passed so many times in the past 29 years.
I admit to being curious about what the interior looked like... (there's a strict no-photo policy in the auditorium) ... 
Here's an official description of the plot via a press release about the closing: 
It is a journey through sound, a celebration of the every day and a comic interplay of characters wordlessly communicating through dance and drum. Synchronized stiff-bristle brooms become a sweeping orchestra, eight Zippo lighters flip open and closed to create a fiery fugue; wooden poles thump and clack in a rhythmic explosion. "Stomp" uses everything but conventional percussion instruments — dustbins, shopping carts, radiator hoses, boots, hub caps — to fill the stage with a compelling and unique act that is often imitated but never duplicated. 
On the night of the show, I found myself sitting next to, and in front of, several parents and their children — roughly 7 to 12 in age. The kids patiently waited for the show to begin (the 8 p.m. start was actually 8:15 p.m.) by playing games or watching videos on various handheld devices. 
The show started, and the attendees — a sold-out theater of 300-plus — seemed to appreciate the talented performers and theatrics, laughing and clapping along during the audience-participation moments. The kids around me especially enjoyed the more sophomoric elements of the show (the radiator hose/penis gag). Set pieces came and went, and we all saw countless inventive ways to make rhythms from everyday household items. 

I was pleased we had breezed through the show, as the early 20th-century seats without much legroom were taking their toll on my legs and lower back. At one point, I figured I had about 15 minutes left of the 105-minute show (with no intermission). I glanced at my phone; I had been there for 35 minutes — 70 to go! 

With the continued banging of trash can lids and swishing of brooms, I wondered who the characters were supposed to be: Co-workers not really working? (A thunderous display of quiet quitting?) Roommates in an industrial space? (I would hate to live below them with all this racket!)

In the end, I'm glad I saw it. I appreciated the creativity or, as Village Preservation put it, "the joyful John Cage-ian insight that any object can be an instrument and any noise can be a song." 

And there weren't any "why didn't I see this 26-27-28-29 years ago!" pangs of regret.

The show has won several awards, including the Olivier for best choreography, an OBIE and a Drama Desk award. Its North American and European tours will continue. (It has played in 45 countries.) So this isn't the end of "Stomp."

As for the future of the theater, I hope it remains an off-Broadway destination. In the 1980s, the Orpheum was well-known for Off-Broadway productions such as "Little Shop of Horrors" in 1982, Sandra Bernhard's "Without You I'm Nothing" in 1988, Eric Bogosian's "Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll" in 1990, John Leguizamo's "Mambo Mouth" in 1991, and David Mamet's "Oleanna" in 1992.

No word on what might be next for the Orpheum, reportedly owned by Liberty Theatres, a subsidiary of Reading International, which also owns Minetta Lane Theatre. Some people have worried that this prime space will become the Orpheum Condoplex or something. That would be a familiar East Village story for the 2020s.

Could work at 75 1st Ave. finally be over?

Over the weekend, workers dismantled the construction storage pen that had been sitting in the bike lane outside 75 First Ave. between Fourth Street and Fifth Street ... putting the contents into a dumpster... (thanks Elissa for the tip!)
Once again, it appear that work might be complete here at the 8-floor condoplex that has been a long time in the making.

As previously noted, the groundbreaking here took place in September 2016. (The build included nearly 14 months of inactivity.) Sales commenced in August 2017, with City Realty reporting that 50% of the units sold in the first six weeks.

The venture was slowed down following a series of lawsuits between the construction manager, Pizzarotti, and the developer, the Colonnade Group, as The Real Deal reported in 2019.

The address even made our 2020 development watch... still on the list three years later.

2023 preview: Panda Express

Nearly a year has passed since we first reported on Panda Express coming to the corner space on the SW side of 14th Street and First Avenue. 

The signage arrived in May. (All these photos are from late last week.)
PE workers told us in July that they'd be open very soon

By late August/early September, there were issues with permits — as in waiting for the city, Con Ed, etc., to approve them. A PE rep then told The Village Sun then that this outpost wouldn't open until the first quarter of 2023. (One tipster told us that management here was very late in turning in the necessary paperwork for the various licenses, etc.)

In any event, the PE still looks ready for action, ... though this location still hasn't appeared on the PE website ... and we still receive a lot of queries about the status of the space...
As for this storefront, aAT&T store was here for a few months... taking over for the Vitamin Shoppe.

Panda Express launched in California in 1983 ... with more than 2,000 locations today ... with a handful around NYC.  

Sunday, January 8, 2023

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a Second Avenue mannequin photo by Derek Berg) ... 

 • 4 East Village development sites to watch in 2023 (Wednesday

• NYPD looking for 3 suspects in New Year's Eve stabbing on Avenue A (Wednesday

• Parting thoughts on being a small-business owner as Love Thy Beast departs the East Village (Thursday)

• The last days of Timbuktu (Friday

• A happy birthday mural for Ray on Avenue A (Monday

• A celebration of Three Kings Day (Saturday)

• The future of the unlicensed weed vendors (Tuesday)

• Hearth is starting its 20th anniversary year with a renovation (Wednesday

• Preview 2023: Target Union Square (Thursday

• Health scare: IG-Fit closes on 14th Street (Tuesday

• Bagel Market replacing Bagel Boss on 14th Street (Friday

• From Mikey's to Smileys on Avenue A (Tuesday

• A report of a small fire at Dua Kafe on 14th Street (Friday

• What's happening at the ConEd substation? (Friday

• On Astor Place, a yearn to spin again (Monday

• Spring cleaning this winter at B-Side (Friday

• Signage alert: Ankara #3 (Wednesday

• Belse has closed on the Bowery (Thursday) ... Blue & Cream has left the Bowery for Bleecker Street (Tuesday

• Signage alert: Wild Rabbit Coffee on 7th Street (Thursday

• The 13th Step is now going as Downtown Social (Wednesday

... and a parting shot of Chesney after the Gifts of the Magi" performance Friday at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (photo by Derek Berg)
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The Duck With the Pearl Earring

New work, as of yesterday, by Jim Tozzi (seen below) outside the Second Avenue F stop...
Thanks to Steven for the photo!

Saturday, January 7, 2023

Saturday's parting shot

A moment today on Astor Place via Derek Berg...

MulchFest 2023 now with TOTE BAGS

Photos by Steven 

Day one of the chipping weekend for MulchFest 2023 is in the books. 

There's now a fresh mound of mulch for the taking in the middle of Tompkins Square Park...
The Parks Department is making it easier this year for residents to take some home for use in sidewalk tree beds, gardens, etc., with MULCHFEST TOTE BAGS... the IT accessory for the chipping season...
Back at it tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.