EV Grieve

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Sunday's parting shot

Photo by Cecil Scheib

View of the sunset, Tompkins Square Park and the refurbished basketball courts...

6 posts from June

A mini month in review (with a photo from Houston and Avenue A)

• The Rite Aid on 1st Avenue doesn't look like a store that will be in business much longer (June 26)

• Reports of multiple people stabbed on 14th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue; 1 fatality (June 23)

• Father Seán is leaving the East Village (June 17)

• Take a look at the all-new Delancey Street Pedestrian Bridge (June 12)

• After 25 Years on Avenue A, Juicy Lucy will move following vandal attack (June 6)

• The former St. Emeric property could yield a 570-unit affordable housing complex on Avenue D (June 5)

At the start of the 2024 Drag March in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Stacie Joy

The 30th edition of the Drag March got Pride Weekend underway... with the annual walk-march-protest to the Stonewall Inn. (Earlier in the day, President Biden and Elton John attended the opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center adjacent to the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street.)

As always, participants prepped and gathered in Tompkins Square Park before departing from Avenue A and Ninth Street.

Here are a few scenes from this festive past Friday evening... which included a tribute to transgender pioneer and activist Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992)...

Week in Grieview

Posts that past week included (with a photo from 7th and A)...

• Reports of multiple people stabbed on 14th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue; 1 fatality (Sunday) ... A look at 14th Street after the triple stabbing and homicide on Sunday (Monday) ... NYPD light tower arrives on a cleaned-up SE corner of 14th Street and 1st Avenue (Thursday) ... This morning on 14th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue (Saturday)

• Emma Rogue is opening an events space on Houston Street (Saturday)

• At the Harold Hunter Skate Jam in Tompkins Square Park (Friday)

• At an East Village benefit for Washington Square Park Mutual Aid (Wednesday)

• East Village singer-songwriter Jesse Malin will return to the stage this Dec. 1 and 2 (Wednesday)

• A plaque dedicated to a former longtime Parks employee is missing from Tompkins Square Park (Tuesday)

• Now people are stealing Invader's mosaics in the East Village and elsewhere (Wednesday)

• The Rite Aid on 1st Avenue doesn't look like a store that will be in business much longer (Wednesday)

• Check out an aerial view of the refurbished Tompkins Square Park basketball courts (Wednesday)

• Opening weekend for Carnitas Ramírez (Monday) • City pools are open (Thursday)

• High winds bring down a branch in Tompkins Square Park (Monday)

• A tribute to Patti Astor at First Street Green Art Park (Sunday)

• This smoke shop won't be reopening after an assault and robbery (Tuesday)

• Openings: Pasta de Pasta on 1st Avenue (Thursday)

• 3 new bakeries-cafes have opened in the East Village (Tuesday)

• A permanent closure for Dhom on 12th Street (Thursday) ... M & J Asian Cuisine on 14th and B (Thursday) ... and Joey Bats Café on Avenue B (Wednesday)

• The NW corner of 1st Avenue and 2nd Street awaits its new development (Monday) • The all-new Boiler Room announces itself on 2nd Avenue (Monday)

• Lamia’s Fish Market is 'temporarily closed for maintenance' (Wednesday)

• From the EVG archives: Q-&-A with Susan Seidelman, director of 'Smithereens' and 'Desperately Seeking Susan' (Friday)

• Today in parallel parking (Monday)

... and some of the recent chairs of Avenue A...

Gustaf headlines a free show in Tompkins Square Park TODAY

Show Brain presents a solid lineup of bands this afternoon (1:45- 6 p.m.) in Tompkins Square Park ... featuring the art-punk swagger of Brooklyn's Gustaf to end the afternoon.

Here's the lineup (Skorts are taking over for Teenage Halloween):

• Gustaf • Shred Flintstone • Miranda and the Beat ~~• Teenage Halloween~~ • Skorts • Abby Jeanne + the Shadowband

And hopefully, the thunderstorms expected later today will hold off until late this evening...

Young red-tailed hawks continue to entertain in Tompkins Square Park

Photo by Steven

It may be entertaining to us, but we feel for parents Christo and Amelia as they deal with this martial arts phase of their 2024 offspring.

Goggla has some great shots of the young hawks at play here.

Saturday, June 29, 2024

This is not a drill! Why you need to see this new mural on 12th and C at night

NYC-based artist Tom Bob is known for incorporating urban objects into his murals.

For the newest work at the 12C Outdoor Gallery on the SW corner of 12th Street and Avenue C, Tom Bob used a light fixture on the building in a piece titled "Jack Hammer Head Lamp."

"His creations expand our imaginations and inspire us to view public spaces with a refreshed perspective and joy,” 12C curator Robert Galinsky told us.

Heads up about this tent in a tree on 9th Street

Thanks to EVJackie for sharing this photo from Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. For some reason, there is a tent in a tree on the south street.

We have no idea how long this has been stuck up there... but given the high winds today and expected again tomorrow, it may not be there for much longer.

This morning on 14th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue

We walked on 14th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue this morning around 7:30, when people typically start selling random items — including dented canned goods, rusted tools, soiled clothing and forgotten DVD titles — from sheets and blankets on the sidewalk.

Depending on the weather, up to a dozen people can be selling items.

The block was empty this morning except for the longtime fruit vendor who set up near Trader Joe's.

At Immaculate Conception Church, the weekly Saturday flea market was getting underway inside the grounds. (Local elected officials have asked the Archdiocese and the church to end the flea market, though to date, they have not heeded the requests.)

We saw two NYPD officers on foot patrol. As previously mentioned, there are also the two NYPD light towers on the south side of the street.

These developments unfolded this past week after a deadly triple stabbing last Sunday just before 6 p.m. along this busy commercial corridor and across the street from Stuy Town.

Police arrested a suspect, 30-year-old Alejandro Piedra, who was later charged with murder with depraved indifference and attempted murder with depraved indifference, according to the NYPD and media accounts. Police said Piedra allegedly killed 38-year-old Clemson Cockfield and injured his wife, 52-year-old Jennifer Cockfield, as well as another man, 32-year-old Jonathan Lopez.

During a police briefing on Tuesday, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said all three victims sell second-hand items along this block.

The sidewalk sales are just one of the activities that residents have cited through the years along this problematic block, quality-of-life issues that include drug trafficking, early morning prostitution, and a growing unhoused population in need of city services.

Residents here are hopeful the changes that have occurred in the past week will become permanent.

Meanwhile, someone launched a website titled Carlina From the Block, documenting what has happened since the deadly fight last Sunday ... and calling out the District 2 City Councilmember for not taking more action on 14th Street over the past seven years.

Previously on EV Grieve:

• NYPD light tower arrives on a cleaned-up SE corner of 14th Street and 1st Avenue

• Why 787 Coffee decided to close its 14th Street outpost (June 2023)

• Residents voice concerns about quality-of-life issues on 14th Street and 1st Avenue (February 2018)

Emma Rogue is opening an events space on Houston Street starting this weekend

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

Vintage clothing entrepreneur Emma Rogue is expanding her Lower East Side presence with an events space at 313 E. Houston St., between Clinton and Attorney.

This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, 1-7 p.m.), the storefront debuts hosting a collection by Italian designer Son Ludo. (Details on Instagram here.)

Rogue started selling clothes from her childhood bedroom on Depop and opened her first shop stocked with Y2K and 90s vintage and secondhand at 53 Stanton St. in June 2021. She recently relocated to a larger space nearby at 154 Allen St., where she also showcases other up-and-coming designers. (You can read more about her in this Teen Vogue feature.)

At 313 Houston St., she plans to have an e-commerce area and a space to host events and pop-ups. (Perhaps she'll do another collaboration with her friend and fellow East Village store owner, Bella McFadden's iGirl.)

Rogue says she's happy in the new storefront and looks forward to meeting her neighbors.

Rogue says they'll return with more events after this opening collaboration. You can follow the shops via @roguegarms.

Friday, June 28, 2024

Practical magic

"Streetwise," the new six-track EP from Pretty Sick (aka Sabrina Fuentes) dropped this week. As Alternative Press noted, "The result is wholly different than anything she’s released, riding glitchy textures and a thwacking beat while laying down mercilessly cool lines about running around NYC ('Everyone's a gossip, everyone's trash/But I don't mind the company when I'm just blowing cash')."

The above video is for "Violet."