Hell yeah, it's HoJo's

Thanks to reader/frequent commenter Mick for passing along the url to HoJoLand, a comprehensive Web site devoted to the history of Howard Johnson's. The last HoJo's closed on Times Square on July 9, 2005 (first photo below). As HoJoLand points out, there were 10 HoJo's in Manhattan at one point...



...like this one on 53rd and Lexington...



...uh, somewhere on Broadway...



and at 1551 Broadway...



Meanwhile...you'll find the world's largest repository on the last HoJo's in the city on the site...

A quick look inside DBGB

Sometime this spring, DaBo's brasserie/diner place -- DBGB (ugh, sorry) -- will open at 299 Bowery between Houston and First Street. (Latest projection has it opening in May.)



The doors to the location, a block south of you-know-what, were open last night... the fans were blowing out toward the Bowery to provide ventilation for the paint job that was happening inside. I went to step inside for a better look when Mr. Unamused Supervisor did one of those, Halt!-who-goes-there moves. Anyway, opening in May? Maybe late May!

The NYC housing slump is now A1 New York Times serious

A few excerpts from the Page 1 article today in the Times:

In this year’s first quarter, sales of co-ops and condominiums in Manhattan plunged nearly 60 percent from the first quarter of 2008. Average co-op prices fell as much as 24 percent in the same period, according to various market reports released last week.

And...

The stress is most severe at the high end of the market. There are 350 apartments and town houses for sale in Manhattan with asking prices of more than $10 million, and inventory has been growing. It would take about six years at the current sales rate to absorb all those listings.

And...

Jonathan J. Miller, an appraiser who prepares quarterly reports on Manhattan, said the market could continue to fall through this year and next, especially if credit remained tight for most buyers. After that, he said, it could take several more years to work through the excess inventory.

And...

Mr. Miller said that during the last big real estate downtown, when studio apartments were so cheap that he considered buying one on a credit card, people thought the luxury market would never come back. “Conspicuous consumption was out of vogue in 1991,” he said. “The market was back by 1997 or 1998.”

And finally...

In the newest issue of Us Weekly, Lindsay Lohan opens up about her heartbreaking split from Samantha Ronson, the "humiliating" weekend showdown with Ronson's family, and says that friends' fears she is suicidal are unfounded.

Oh, sorry. That's not from the article.

Avenue B is no longer a dead end

A few weeks back we mentioned how someone placed a "dead end" sign for those driving south down Avenue B to see...



The sign came down this past week...Order has been restored!

No-frills copy shop opens in the Financial District

Spotted near Williams Street.

Just in time for Easter...

The Christmas decorations are still up outside Villaggio on Avenue C. near 11th Street.

What's left of Lou

A few of the Lou Reed/Supreme ads are left hanging around...Such as this one on East Seventh Street near First Avenue...



...and this one on East Third Street near Avenue C.



Previously on EV Grieve:
Top that, Kermit

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

ATM card skimmers found in the East Village (Gizmodo)

Biker Bill is on the mend (Slum Goddess)

CBGB in the funny pages (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

Ruby's lives for another season (Kinetic Carnival)

Jeremiah continues his Crown Heights tour (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

One day it will please us to remember even this: The New York Dolls will play at John Varvatos (Flaming Pablum)

Beer bargains at Key (Hunter-Gatherer)

Tap city (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

Stephen Merritt hitting Off-Broadway (Pitchfork)

A coffee shop closes, and the owner offers an honest reason why

Klatch, an artsy little coffee shop at 9 Maiden Lane just east of Broadway, is now closed....and the owner, Pam Chmiel, a former film editor, is open about what happened...

Lower rents mean more NYU students will soon be your neighbors

As the Washington Square News reports, "The cost to live in many NYU dorms will increase next year — and at the same time, rental prices around the city are dropping rapidly."

The article goes on to discuss the Real Estate Group’s Manhattan Rental Market Report. And what does all this mean...? Simple. Let's go back to the article.

Because of lowered prices, more students have begun to use the Off-Campus Housing Office’s housing registry to look for apartments or a roommate.

“Many students are doing more comparative shopping and are evaluating the benefits of off-campus housing versus on-campus housing,” said Jennifer Brown, assistant vice president of Housing and Strategic Planning. “Most notable in the outside market is the increase in availability of the smaller types of accommodations such as studios and one-bedroom apartments.”

Despite fees such as security deposits and utilities, many students still find it beneficial to move off campus.

“I’m going abroad, but when I get back, I’m moving off-campus, hopefully the East Village, because you can find comparable prices to NYU,” CAS junior Joe Haldeman said. “If you can get the same price for something you would have to share at NYU, why not?”

Why not? Hmm. We must start a list...

What's new around the Cooper Square Hotel: Sidewalk, lack of trees

After looking at E2E4 the other day, I swung by to check in on the progress of the Cooper Square Hotel. (I usually only go by for free ice.) Well! For starters, the sidewalk alongside the hotel's coming-soon garden (outdoor bar?) space on East Fifth Street is done....




...but not at the cost of a few trees.



And what is going on with this one?



Meanwhile, it's looking really glassy....





...and close to the neighbors.





Curbed had an update yesterday on the hotel and the ominous Wolverine claw....




P.S.
The hotel's VIP entrance still needs a little work...

LIRR discontinues service to Belmont Park

Going to the Belmont Park race track during the summer is one of my favorite things to do in the city. It's so simple. Just jump on the LIRR -- the Belmont Special or, as some people I know call it, the Pony Express -- at Penn Station for the 30-minute ride to the park in Elmont. It feels as if you're hundreds of miles from the city. It's a classic, old-school track. The track opened in 1905.

I can go on, but.... Acccording to the AP, as part of the state's budget cuts, the LIRR will discontinue service to the track at the end of this month, when racing resumes. However, the train will run on June 6 for the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown. The one day you don't won't to get stuck on a train (or anywhere) with 75,000 yahoos.

While cuts are necessary, it seems odd to target this route -- especially when the state is counting on more revenue from the park for its budget.

In any event, there are other public transporation options...

Q110 (MTA Bus):
Service provided every 20 minutes to and from Belmont during racing days. Buses are available at Parsons Blvd. and Hillside Avenue and from Parsons Blvd. & Archer Ave., and various locations eastbound on Jamaica Avenue and Hempstead Avenue in Queens. These buses pick up and discharge directly outside the admission booths at the west end of the track. Connections: Transfer from F Train at Parsons & Hillside; Transfer from E Train at Parsons & Archer.

Q2 (MTA Bus):
Originates at the Jamaica Bus Terminal (165th Street & 89th Ave.) and runs along Hillside Ave. to 187th Place to Hollis Ave. and ends at Hempstead Ave. and 225th Street adjacent to Belmont Park. Connections: Transfer from F Train at 169th Street or 179th Street stations.

Here's in part what the New York Racing Association had to say about the (at the time, proposed) cut in service:

While the New York Racing Association (NYRA) recognizes that the MTA needs to balance its budget, no other proposed service cut so directly affects one business, one employer, one industry as does the proposal to eliminate LIRR service to Belmont Park (except for Belmont Stakes day).

For more than a century, the railroad has brought fans to Belmont Park, a 445-acre landmark on the Queens-Nassau County line, bringing patrons from the most mass-transit dependent population in the nation to one of the best known sporting venues in the world.

And here are the old tokens the LIRR used for service to Belmont (circa 1972):



[Belmont Park photo via WallyG's Flickr account]

Unusual suspects

"The Unusuals" is one of the many TV shows to be filmed around the neighborhood in recent months. It debuts tonight on ABC in the former "Life on Marzzzzz" slot.



Looks interesting. Maybe. Here's Variety's take:

The quirkiness surrounding police work is hardly new, but that's the shaky foundation for "The Unusuals" -- a puzzling ABC series seemingly predicated on the notion that New York detectives are every bit as eccentric as the perps they take off the streets. The premiere represents an uneven introduction to the denizens of the second precinct, with -- to hark back to the "Blues," as in "Hill Street" and "NYPD" -- an ensemble heavily tilted toward Belkers and Medavoys. So while the show does qualify as slightly unusual, its ability to be consistently interesting is another matter.

Paint it black: Sympathy for the Kettle closes

The Sympathy for the Kettle tea salon at 109 St. Mark's Place, which, I admit, never visited, is now boarded up...and their phone has been disconnected. Another merchant on the street told me the shop closed last week.



A Yelp commenter said the owner was planning on opening another store in a new location.

Meanwhile, another cute shop looks to move

The Knit New York Shop on 14th Street at Second Avenue, another place I have never visited, is moving. No word yet on a new location.

The footage that GM and Segway doesn't want you to see

The story made the rounds today about General Motors teaming with Segway to build a new type of two-wheeled vehicle designed to move easily through congested urban streets and help Mother Earth, which we're all for. As Gothamist noted, the P.U.M.A. -- Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility -- was tested yesterday on the streets of New York. "Miraculously, no cabs or Hummers plowed into the thing, though the drivers presumably sustained some damage to their dignity."

However, what happened on the test drive later is being kept from the media. Apparently the P.U.M.A. was not well-received.

Here's the footage of the test drive that GM and Segway doesn't want you to see.*



* Reenactment.

Last time I stayed in a place where everyone could watch me go to the bathroom, I was in jail

"From the chic boutiques of London and Los Angeles to hot new hotels in more exotic locales like India and China, exposed bathrooms are a growing trend — whether in the form of transparent glass walls and shower stalls or bathtubs set in the middle of the bedroom like free-standing sculptures." (The New York Times)

[Photo of NYC's Standard hotel: Matthew Weinstein for The New York Times]

And why aren't there laws protecting innocent citizens from these types of quality-of-life violations?

Tap dancing to Maroon 5 covers in Union Square.



[Via Poppy Cedes]

Taking a look at 52E4, and where the Moby mobile may park

I've been trying to avoid the construction hell on the Bowery between Third Street and Fourth Street, the stretch that will soon be home to the new 52 East 4th Street -- feel free to refer to it as 52E4 here on out!




Now that the construction has quieted down a bit, it's time to revisit the spot and enjoy exactly what's going up in this luxurious 15-story condo. The promo photos, previously available on the 52E4 Web site, are up for the unwashed masses to see. Let's take a look!



You have your roof deck and pool and, as various commenters have pointed out, no Cooper Square Hotel blocking your Midtown views...



And whatever this is.



And this is the best: The parking spot, where soon-to-be-tenant Moby will keep it real and park his Moby mobile.



Not sure exactly where the parking spaces will be kept. I'm assuming on East Fourth Street then...?





Anyway, the 59R2ERW site has more details. And images.



For further reading:
Another Bowery tower (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Brick by brick

Every time I walk by the former Love Saves the Day store, something is different. Yesterday, the windows were inexplicably bricked up.




Oh, and while I was standing there, a cabbie got a ticket.