Corteiz x Nike Air Max 95 collab drop draws crowds, NYPD on 4th and C

Photos by Stacie Joy 

The collectible sneaker crowd turned out in droves this afternoon for an opportunity to pick up a pair of the Corteiz x Nike Air Max 95 collab (the pink iteration) on Fourth Street and Avenue C, where the corner deli was rebranded as the Corteiz Mart & Deli. 

Also turning out in droves: an assortment of law enforcement from various sectors of the NYPD...

See comments — this was always the location. We're told that the sale was initially set for 34th Street and Seventh Avenue, but the location was reportedly switched to the East Village at the last minute (or with enough time to get the signage up).

Shoppers need to pre-register for a wristband for the opportunity to buy a pair of the London-based streetwear brand Corteiz's collaboration with Nike. Sneakers are $399, but $200 in-store today.

There were reports of some pushing and shoving, which likely prompted the NYPD response. (The Citizen app initially labeled this as a "protest.") 

And an EVG reader shared an aerial view...

Time passages: Check out the interior of the long-empty Mom's Liquor Store on Avenue B

Photos by Stacie Joy

Last month, we had the scoop about the new owner of 6 Avenue B, the long empty/abandoned building on the NW corner of Houston. The owner is an LLC linked to Penn Capital South, whose portfolio includes multiple EV properties. 

A gut renovation is in the works — as is asbestos abatement. There has been some mystery and intrigue about the whole building, especially the storefront that housed the liquor store — aka Mom's. 

The retail space has been closed since the owner passed away in the fall of 2009 at age 89. (Chico created the tribute to her on the gate in February 2010.)

How have nearly 14 years of vacancy treated the space? What does the interior event look like these days?

EVG contributor Stacie Joy found out the other day... with a look inside Mom's, a frozen-in-time space where bottles of Riunite still go for $5.25. The bullet-proof register area remains intact as well.

Come, let's look inside...

Also discovered... this EVG post about the store's owner from 2010:

I enjoy watching her reaction to some fancypants asking her if they have any, say, really buttery California chardonnays whose grapes were harvested on hillsides composed of Kimmeridgian marl, limestone and chalk. Her reaction is usually either, "WHAT?" or "WHY WOULD WE HAVE THAT."

Previously on EVG:

• Because you've always wanted to know what the inside of the long-empty 6 Avenue B looks like

• Let's take another look at the eerie remains of the long-abandoned 6 Avenue B 

Artists feel inspired to create murals for the former Charas/El Bohio Community Center

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

A group of local artists continues to paint a series of murals on the Ninth Street side of the former Charas/El Bohio Community Center here between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

The artists include (above) Seth Tobocman ... Sabrina Jones...

...Jenny Gonzalez-Blitz...

... and Ariel Kleinberg ...

The work, which started on March 5, comes before the landmarked building heads to a foreclosure auction tomorrow, Wednesday, March 22, at the Hilton New York Midtown Fifth Avenue. (There is a Facebook invite to "Stop the Auction.")

Meanwhile, there's a petition in circulation titled, "Save Charas Community Center! Stop the Private Auction!" Per the petition, which states, "Demand Mayor Adams use eminent domain to return the center to the people!" You can find the petition here.

"We are operating on the assumption that we will get the community center back, and we are using permanent material that will last," Tobocman said. 

He was quick to note that the participating artists are not involved with the various political groups and their plans for tomorrow's auction. 

"We are just artists inspired to paint, inspired by the art that was painted on the other [10th Street] side," Tobocman said. "Sabrina Jones had a studio in the building before it was evicted. Some of us taught art classes to kids there back in the 80s. We have a Wednesday deadline due to the auction."

The property that developer Gregg Singer purchased during a city auction in 1998 for $3.15 million fell into foreclosure last year. Through the years, Singer wanted to turn the one-time P.S. 64 into a dorm (more here), though those plans never materialized. Some residents want to see the space used again as a community center, as it was during its time as Charas/El Bohio Community Center. Singer evicted the group on Dec. 27, 2001.  

Monday's parting shot

A little spring from 10th and A today... happy spring equinox.

Late-afternoon bendy thing moment on the Bowery

On the SW corner of the Bowery at Fourth Street... read all about it here.

Reconstruction work on the Tompkins Square Park field house starts soon

Photo by Stacie Joy

Updated 3/21: The work is now set to start on April 3, according to Community Board 3.

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The Tompkins Square Park field house reconstruction could begin as soon as today.

This past Thursday evening, Community Board 3's Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee received a "Parks Manager Update." 

According to the unnamed manager who was not on camera during the virtual meeting, the work is expected to start today — tentatively, anyway. As the manager said: "We're not sure exactly, but that is the date given to us by Capital [Projects]." 

According to the manager, the field house and the space behind it — dubbed the Slocum area as it includes the Slocum Memorial Fountain — will be closed during this time, roughly 18 months. In addition, the Tompkins Square mini pool will be out of commission for two consecutive summers, he said. 

The Parks Department website lists a September 2024 competition date for the $5.6-million project (PDF here), which will:

• Upgrade existing restrooms to code

• Upgrade Parks and maintenance and operations space

• Add first aid and lifeguard locker room spaces in the building

• Reconstruct interiors

• Clean and partially repoint exterior brick

NOT mentioned during this briefing: temporary restrooms. Parks officials previously said that porta potties were not part of the contract "and cannot be supplied during construction." The city's relief solution was for parkgoers to walk five minutes (one way) to use the restrooms at the McKinley Playground on Fourth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue adjacent to P.S. 63/the Neighborhood School. 

However, in an email on Friday, CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer told us there would be porta potties after all during the reconstruction, though they still needed a delivery date.

During Thursday evening's committee meeting, the manager also said they've added a second shift of four staff members and one supervisor to the district to hit "hot spots" from 1-9:30 p.m. That work will include extra garbage collection in the area that features Tompkins Square Park, Seward Park and Sara D. Roosevelt Park.

You can watch a playback of the meeting on YouTube. The Tompkins update starts at the 4:40 mark and lasts roughly four minutes.

One last item from this report: the pavement reconstruction of the multipurpose courts (seen below) along Avenue A and 10th Street will likely start in June (and not September, as the website states). 

The Parks Department will reconstruct the multipurpose courts, adding various amenities, including a two-lane seal-coated walking loop and new asphalt. Other additions: new benches, a kickball court, a high-low fountain that kids and adults can use simultaneously, and three new basketball backstops at the eastern end.

There are concerns — as covered here — among the skate faithful that the work will render the area useless for skateboarders.

McSorley's 'bringing all the energy back inside'

Photos by Steven

The COVID curbside-dining era in McSorley's long history has ended. 

Yesterday, workers removed the outdoor structures at the 169-year-old NYC institution, 15 E. Seventh St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square. 

"They served their purpose. Now, back to normal and to bringing all the energy back inside the Old Ale House where it belongs and existed peacefully for ages," Gregory de la Haba, the co-owner and operator of McSorley's, told us via an Instagram message. "We're grateful to all our neighbors who tolerated the outdoor seating during COVID's mandates and restrictions." 

The saloon had two equal-sized structures where patrons could sit and drink mugs of light and dark ale or order a burger and fries or the cheese and raw onion plate.

The $1 cheese slice at 2 Bros. on St. Mark's Place is now $1.50

Early $1 slice joint Two Bros. Pizza has bumped the price to $1.50 at 32 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, its first NYC outpost.

The new signage went up on Friday, per EVG reader Tom. 

Toward the end of 2021, with prices surging on everything from flour to paper plates, many 99-cent/dollar slicerias citywide started increasing the cost by 50 cents ... 2 Bros. went to $1.50 at the Chelsea outpost, as the Post reported. Per the Times, 2 Bros. was still charging $1 at six of its nine locations.

Now, on St. Mark's, you can get two cheese slices and a can of soda for $3.99, up a buck from before. 

While most budget EV slice shops are charging $1.50 now, there is an outlier with the pending arrival of a new 99-cent joint on 14th Street.

For a time, 2 Bros. had two slice outposts on the block. The location with the upscale $1.50 SUPREME slice closed at 36 St. Mark's Place in 2015. 

Weekend's parting shot

Photo by Rainer Turim 

As seen yesterday along 10th Street and Tompkins Square Park... owner said that he'd been driving this for 30-plus years...

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo — "make your best offer" — from 14th Street by Daniel Efram) ... 

• A new home and name for Café Cortadito (Monday)

• 3rd & B'zaar's new market will feature the work of women-owned businesses (Wednesday) 

• May the farce be with you: 'The Empire Strips Back' is next up at the Orpheum Theatre (Thursday) 

• A new era for the old Bad Pussies wall on 3rd Street and Avenue B (Tuesday) 

• Fire jumping returns (Saturday) 

• Revisiting a transformative Sunday on Avenue A (Friday) 

• What's happening on this block of 5th Street? (Tuesday)

• CM Rivera addresses 'operations improvements' for Tompkins Square Park (Wednesday) 

• Openings: The York on Avenue B (Tuesday) 

• Corner spaces for lease along Houston at Elizabeth and the Bowery (Tuesday)

• Report: The Astor Place cube will be ready for a spin once more this summer (Friday) 

• Corner development battle: 360 Bowery takes commanding lead over 1 St. Mark's Place (Monday) 

• Ghost signage on 7th Street (Wednesday) 

• On the rental market: 118 St. Mark's Place (Wednesday) 

• March madness! Key Food continues to up its St. Patrick's Day game (Monday) 

• First sign of Raising Cane's on Astor Place (Thursday) 

• Gelato 1st and 10th (Monday) 

• Report: Angel's Share has a new home (and what of its old home?) (Monday) 

... and on First Avenue between Ninth Street and 10th Street, the short-lived Healthily Deli is now going as Top1 Convenience (thanks to Steven for the photo)...

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Follow EVG on Instagram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics.

The eyes have it

Photos by Stacie Joy 

We spotted Jappy Agoncillo working on this new mural yesterday outside the Ridge Hotel on Houston at Eldridge...

... featuring Best Actress Michelle Yeoh in "Everything Everywhere All at Once." 

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's absurd multiverse comedy, which is still playing in several EV theaters, won seven Oscars. Kwan and Scheinert won the directing category and best original screenplay. 

By the way... Kwan's mother, June Kwan, is an owner of Spicy Moon, the vegan Szechuan restaurant at 328 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue (read more in this article at Vulture).

Saturday's parting shot

A reader shared this from Second Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... unfortunately, the toilet here is currently out of service...

Noted

From the Citizen app: "Report of Suspicious Box Spilling Pink Sand" on First Avenue and Fourth Street. 

A Citizen commenter suggested that this is simply fairy dust.

Fire, jump with me

Photos by Stacie Joy

Thursday evening saw the return of a fire-jumping event in an East Village community garden, the first since 2019. 

This year's edition, produced by More Gardens, took place at El Jardin del Paraiso on Fifth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D.

Here's some background:

More Gardens' Chaharshanbeh Suri NYC is a festival rooted in community, sharing, equity, and reverence for the earth through ritual fire jumping, art, music, food, and culture that began in the lands of West and Central Asia.

This fire celebration nourishes our spirits, strengthens our connection to each other, and affirms our belonging by embracing our diverse nationalities, languages, faiths, class, genders, races, and sexual identities. We make gathering joyful through art, music, food, culture, and intergenerational sharing. We hold each other to tend the flames of love, justice, solidarity, and goodness across the planet and right here in the community green spaces of NYC.

The fire team included Joules Magus ... with representatives from the FDNY present for safety. 

An estimated 200 people took part in the jumping ceremony. EVG contributor Stacie Joy was on hand for part of the festivities ...