East Village artist hmac at Orchard Paint Supply

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

You have a few days left to check out the collab between East Village-based artist hmac and Orchard Paint Supply. 

A variety of colorful art — including prints, shirts, and hats — is available from the artist at the shop located at 148 Orchard St., between Stanton and Rivington. 

Below is hmac with store/gallery manager Zach Denerstein...

The show ends Monday... with daily hours noon to 10 p.m.

Previously

This weekend in free Halloween shows in Tompkins Square Park

The Halloween weekend shows return to Tompkins Square Park today and tomorrow from 2-6 p.m. 

Here's the rundown: 

 

Saturday, Oct. 25 

The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black 

Tear Drop 

Memphis Morticians 

Robby Bloodshed 

Jess-O-Lantern 

Sunday, Oct. 26

Non Residents

Precious Blood 

Oedipus 

Triple Rex

Brain Candy

Skitzopolous

Kyler Sane

Expect some ghoulish fun in the heart of the East Village...

Saturday's opening shot

A reader-submitted photo from 10th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. 

And the pre-Halloween weekend weather: 60 and mostly sunny today AND tomorrow for the many seasonal activities going on around here...

Friday's parting shot

Second Avenue at Sixth Street today (SW corner)...

Night moves

 

The above video for "Ascension" is from the recently released debut album by the Manchester, UK, duo Nightbus — an eclectic mix of moody nocturnal pop and post-punk.

Where to carve and paint pumpkins tomorrow

There will be pumpkin painting tomorrow (Saturday!) from 1-4 p.m. in the Green Oasis Community Garden, Eighth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D. 

It's BYOP. All art supplies are provided by the garden.

Meanwhile...

... between 3-5 p.m., there's pumpkin carving at the 6&B Garden on the SW corner of Avenue B and Sixth Street. 

Per organizers: "Children will be first on pumpkin distribution. Carving tools supplied!"

A voting FYI

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Find more info, including what's on the ballot, at NYCvotes.

Saturday brings fall fairs to 3 East Village schools

Several East Village schools are hosting their annual fall/harvest fairs tomorrow (Saturday!) ahead of Halloween... a parent created the flyer above with times and locations for all three. 

FYI — The Fall Ball at PS 19 on First Avenue between 11th Street and 12th Street includes an under-the-sea haunted house. (Beware the krakens 🦑.)

Friday's opening shot

Bleecker near the Bowery... and cue the Oingo Boingo.

All the vendors have left The Bowery Market; future new development in the works?

The Bowery Market at 348 Bowery is closed now on the NW corner at Great Jones. 

Twig'm, which served Korean street food, was the final vendor to shutter, closing on Oct. 12. Sept. 30 was the last day for the other vendors, including The 88 Coffee Company, which said in an Instagram post that "the Bowery Market is also closing to evolve and change for the better."

In announcing its closure, Kettl Tea owner Zach Mangan wrote on Substack on Sept. 29: "This week marks the end of a chapter for Kettl as we serve our final guests at our Bowery outpost. The owner of the market has decided to sell the space to a developer and pursue a new direction." 

The small garage on the property also appears to be closed now. 

In April, PincusCo reported that Lonicera Partners was assembling a potential development site at this northwest corner. Lonicera signed a contract to purchase 348 Bowery and took a minority stake in 350 and 352 Bowery, the adjacent properties to the north.

As of now, there are no new work permits on file for the addresses. 

Development along this corridor is nothing new — just look across the street (below).

Most recently, a few storefronts to the north, the former single-level B Bar & Grill space is now home to a 22-story office building for Chobani.

Real estate developer Scott Marano opened the year-round outdoor food market in July 2016, with spaces for up to five new or established food businesses. 

In an email to EVG in May 2019, Marano shared his vision for the space, a former auto-body shop: 

Creating The Bowery Market was a very important, long-held goal of mine. I have been part of the neighborhood since I was a child and I have seen how it has changed. There are a lot of great restaurants in our neighborhood, but there are not many places that serve really good food in a very casual environment or on the go. 

I wanted to create a place that people could come to several times a week at different times of the day to satisfy them and their guests. I also know the real estate market and how expensive and risky it is for a food producer and operator to open a brick-and-mortar.

Free compost giveaway in Tompkins Square Park this Sunday

The LES Ecology Center is celebrating Tompkins Square Park with a free compost giveaway on Sunday. 

Per the invite: Stop by to bag your own finished compost and learn how it's used to help steward the park. 

The Center will provide the compost, shovels and wheelbarrows (sounds like the start of a horror film) ... just bring your own containers or a cart to take home as much as you'd like. 

Enter the park through the Seventh Street entrance between Avenue A and Avenue B and follow the signs to the compost pile. 

Registration is recommended here. The event runs until 1 p.m. — or until the compost pile is gone.

A Brussels-based nut-butter coffee bar is opening on the Bowery

Buddy Buddy, taking claim to being the world's first nut butter coffee bar, is making its foray into the U.S. with an outpost on the Bowery. 

Signage arrived yesterday for Buddy Buddy at 340 Bowery between Great Jones and Bond. (News of the lease came in January via TradedNY.)

Two life partners started the brand in Brussels in 2020 and expanded three years later with a café in Paris.

Per their website: "Today, our nut butters are available in over 500 retail locations across 10 countries — including Harrods in London and Erewhon in the U.S. — and our global community continues to grow." 

This is the storefront adjacent to Now Now NoHo, a micro-boutique hotel for solo travelers that opened this past spring. A cafe concept was expected in the retail space. 

No. 340 was The Whitehouse, a single-room hotel/flophouse for decades. This post has more about the new hotel and some history of the address.

Meow Mix returns (for a few nights) to the Lower East Side

The Meow Mix reunion gets underway tomorrow evening at the Parkside Lounge... the start of a four-day celebration of the classic Lower East Side venue. 

Meow Mix opened on the SE corner of Houston and Suffolk (now the Mayfly) in 1996 (RIP 2004)... billed as a sex-positive lesbian club known for its live music (and appearance in Kevin Smith's 1997 film "Chasing Amy").

 

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And here's the rundown of the next four nights... check out the Parkside's site for info on the ticketed events.

The Parkside is at 317 Houston at Attorney, two short blocks from the former Meow Mix. There's a Meow Mix Reunion Instagram account, too. 

Top photo via Yelp.

Giving thanks: A final word on the stranded East River Park squirrels

On Sept. 22, we wrote about several dozen squirrels stranded in the East River Park construction zone. (Read the original post here.) 

Here, Anthony Donovan, the East Village resident who first alerted us to the situation, shares an update on what happened and offers thanks for the small victories and lessons we must carry forward. All photos courtesy of Donovan.

-----

Thank you so much to EV Grieve and to everyone in this community who responded. You were largely responsible for saving what appears to be a significant number of our fellow park inhabitants. Saving even one would have been a reason to be grateful, but together, we did more than that.

From the beginning, this effort wasn't about stopping construction or opposing flood protection; it was about compassion and accountability. We simply asked for a moment of care amid the chaos: to work around the remaining trees long enough to rescue the animals still living there. 

Unfortunately, that small ask met with bureaucracy, denial and dismissal. 

The city's agencies and construction managers were polite but firm in their priorities — costs, schedules and deliverables. Wildlife didn't appear to be part of the plan. Until concerned citizens got involved, the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project and the Department of Design and Construction had failed to recognize and address the very real suffering of the squirrels trapped in the demolition zone. 

As the heavy machinery advanced north, the noise and destruction rolled over what had been a thriving habitat. The last tree, the final refuge, fell on Oct. 2. We don't know how many squirrels died in those weeks, but we know it was too many. 

Requests to city agencies went unanswered or were quickly closed. Parks officials assured us that "squirrels are resilient" and would find their way out. In this case, they could not.

Still, the story didn't end there. Behind the scenes, a few individuals on the construction site quietly took it upon themselves to help. With no official directive and no fanfare, they began trapping and relocating squirrels to Corlears Hook Park, where they could at least escape the machines. 

Between Sept. 8 and Sept. 29, 29 gray squirrels were caught and released. Later, after citizen pressure and intervention from wildlife advocates, another 21 squirrels were rescued and sent to the Wildlife Freedom Foundation for rehabilitation. 

From what I could discern, this removal wasn't done by official wildlife experts, and the process wasn't perfect. But it meant that dozens of animals were spared. For that, I'll always be grateful. 

To those workers who risked reprimand to act with compassion — watching the traps, offering food and water, driving the animals to safety — thank you. You proved that even in a system focused on deadlines and dollars, kindness can still find a way. 

Determination through unity

This effort also showed the power of persistence and community. Michelle Ashkin of Voices for Urban Wildlife never stopped pushing, writing letters, and contacting officials. Arina Hinzen, director of the Urban Wildlife Alliance, brought professional expertise and insisted the city follow legal requirements for humane relocation. The Wildlife Freedom Foundation offered crucial guidance and, in the end, took in the rescued squirrels for care. 

Another thanks goes to reporter Nicole Rosenthal and the New York Post for covering the story when other outlets — aside from EVG — would not. The paper's reporting also helped shine a light on what was happening behind the construction fences. 

To the 311 operators who took the time to listen and record formal complaints, to now-former Council Member Carlina Rivera's office for helping open communication with site management, to the Mayor's Office of Animal Welfare for arranging an on-site meeting, and to everyone of you who called, wrote or showed up — you helped make this happen. 

And to the one squirrel who first stopped me, who stayed by my side, as if asking for help, you changed everything. I don't know if you survived, but that moment sparked this entire effort. Because of that encounter, dozens of people came together. Professionals, neighbors, animal advocates, and even construction workers united in compassion for a few small lives most people would have overlooked.

This was never an organized campaign. There was no name, no funding, no official leadership. It started with one frightened squirrel and a few people who refused to look away and grew into a quiet movement. 

As the construction moves onward and the park's landscape changes beyond recognition, I hope those leading the city's future projects remember this story.

Flood protection matters, but so does the life that fills our parks — the squirrels, birds and people who call these places home. The lesson is simple: progress without compassion is not why we are on this planet together. We can, we must do better.

Great Jones Street co-named in honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Photos by Stacie Joy

Local elected officials, members of the Basquiat family, and community representatives gathered yesterday afternoon to unveil "Jean-Michel Basquiat Way" on the stretch of Great Jones Street between the Bowery and Lafayette. 

The ceremony took place on the steps of 57 Great Jones St., where the artist lived and worked from 1983 until his death in 1988 at age 27. 

The artist's sisters, Jeanine Heriveaux (above and below on the left) and Lisane Basquiat, were present at the ceremony and stood alongside Council Member Erik Bottcher, chair of the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Libraries.

"To have New York honor Jean-Michel in this way is deeply meaningful to our family," the siblings said in a statement. "Jean-Michel's is a New York Story. We are thrilled to witness this epic moment of acknowledgment and honor from the city that helped shape him."

Also in attendance, Assembly Member Deborah Glick ...

... and former City Council District 2 member Carlina Rivera, who championed the co-naming while she was in office...

And now just a block to the north of Joey Ramone Place...

No. 57 is currently home to Atelier Jolie, where the exterior continues to attract all kinds of street art...

Housing lottery underway at 644 E. 14th St.

Photos from Saturday 

A housing lottery is now open for 60 mixed-income apartments at The East (aka "The Beast of the East"), the 24-story residential building at 644 E. 14th St. and Avenue C. 

The building offers 197 studio to two-bedroom units and amenities like a roof deck, co-working space, and fitness center. 

Eligible New Yorkers earning 70% to 130% of the area median income can apply for the affordable units, with rents starting at $1,777 per month for studios and up to $4,315 for two-bedroom apartments. Find the details here. Qualifying New Yorkers can apply for the apartments until Dec. 16.  

The East, developed by Madison Realty Capital, was constructed through the 421-a Tax Incentive Program of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Preference for 25% of the units is given to NYCHA residents. 

Madison Square Realty is the third owner of the previously long-empty lot since 2009. Madison Realty Capital paid Opal Holdings $31.3 million for the property in May 2020. Opal Holdings bought the parcel in June 2016 from Brooklyn's Rabsky Group for $23 million. 

Plans for a 15-floor mixed-use building had already been approved, though no affordable units were attached to that version. As revealed in the spring of 2021, several developers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying the city for NYCHA air rights to make this a larger structure with more housing. Plans for the larger development were first unveiled in June 2022. 

No updates on the neighbor west of The East

Meanwhile, the full demolition order for the building next door, 642 E. 14th St., remains on hold, dated from July 18, 2024, as per DOB records. 

The lawyers for 642's landlord, reportedly Second Avenue Deli owner Jeremy Lebewohl, told the Times last November that the costs to make necessary repairs exceed the building's value. 

For their part, 644's developer, MRC, cast blame next door, telling the Times that "the landlord had neglected the property and did not support Madison's efforts to make the building structurally sound." 

As for the tenants at 642 who had rent-stabilized apartments, the Cooper Square Committee worked with MRC to find units in its portfolio of East Village properties. 

One of the former 642 tenants told EVG earlier this year that they were initially given temporary lease agreements for four months, commencing at the end of February 2024, with the actual leaseholds set to begin on July 1, 2024. 

As far as the 642 tenant knew, none of the former residents had been offered any of 644's 197 units. 

As we reported here, Madison Realty Capital is now in foreclosure on Raphael Toledano's one-time 17-building portfolio.

The single-level R&S Strauss auto parts store closed on this lot in 2009. 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Displaced 14th Street tenants seek support after city orders them to vacate their building

Japan’s Taishoken Ramen opening 1st NYC location at 92 2nd Ave.

The storefront at 92 Second Ave. isn't staying vacant for long. 

Marufuku Ramen shuttered earlier this month inside the space. Now sigange is up for Taishoken Ramen, coming soon. 

Their story: 

In 1951 Masayasu Sakaguchi moved to Nakano, Tokyo at age 27 to start the first Taishoken. At that time, the restaurant was a barrack made from plywood. Masayasu invited his relative, Kazuo Yamagishi, to help open and manage the restaurant. 

Years later, Yamagishi opened Taishoken in Higashi-Ikebukuro. In the following years, Yamagishi took on many apprentices and has made a notable mark on ramen in Japanese culture. Tsukemen, a dipping noodle loved by many, was invented in Nakano Taishoken. On hot summer days, the staff would eat the cold leftover noodles by dipping it into a hot soup. Curious customers began requesting this dish, and it was soon put on the restaurant menu. 

Sixty years later, the dish is now one of the national foods of ramen culture in Japan.

This is the first NYC outpost for the brand, which opened several restaurants in 2019 and beyond in California.

Looking for what's next at the former Rite Aid on 1st Avenue

There has been activity at the former Rite Aid on the SW corner of First Avenue and Fifth Street.

First, workers gutted the space last month... removing the bankrupt drug store's remains.

On Saturday, a row of cement trucks lined First Avenue as workers were putting in a new floor...

Here's a look inside a few weeks back (via Stacie Joy)...

... and yesterday...

The East Village outpost closed on Aug. 24 after five weeks of going-out-of-biz sales. The 63-year-old pharmacy chain filed for bankruptcy twice in two years before shutting down entirely earlier this month.

As of now, we do NOT know what is next for the single-level storefront. There have been unconfirmed rumors of a grocery, which makes sense given the space. (There aren't any new work permits on file with the city, so no clues there.) 

The EV Rite Aid was reportedly leasing the space for upwards of $50,000 per month. 

Here's more on the single-level building's ownership: 

The 1920s-era East Village building has been owned by the New Tandem Equities since 2007, city property records reveal, when it was sold to them for $4.2 million by an LLC under developer Anthony Marano's control. Marano, in turn, had bought the building from grocery store mogul (Gristedes and D'Agostino's) and radio station owner (WABC 770 AM) John Catsimatidis in 2005. 

Again, the auction was for the business lease, not the property. 

The EV lease for the 8,500 square feet is set to expire in January 2032.

Monday's parting shot

Photo by Moxie 

An early evening view toward downtown...

'Samo Lives' in Tompkins today

Photo by Derek Berg 

"Samo Lives" returned to Tompkins Square Park today... with Kelvin Harrison Jr. in the lead role as Jean-Michel Basquiat and an unidentified actor playing Andy Warhol. 

Read our previous post for more on this project.