The M9's route to Battery City Park this past week

Since the fire destoyed a section of East Broadway in Chinatown last Thursday night, bus lines from the neighborhood heading downtown — the M9, M15 and M22 — have been slightly rerouted to avoid the blocked-off destruction zone around East Broadway and Allen. Though the MTA isn't really communicating this.



I can't speak much on this topic, but the M9 Riding Friend of EV Grieve (M9RFOEVG) said there's little or no communication from the drivers headed downtown. In the five business days since the fire, the M9 has traveled three different routes. One morning, the M9 took a left on East Broadway, then a right on Montgomery, then a left on to Madison. "The [bus driver] seemed like he had no idea where he was going. Then he'd stop at an M22 stop on Montgomery and answer a bunch of questions from M22 riders. Like why in the hell is there an M9 here and where are you going?" M9RFOEVG claimed the alternative routes added an additional 20 minutes to the trip.

This morning, though, M9RFOEVG reported that the M9 route was nearly back to normal. The bus just does a quick hitch around the destroyed buildings on East Broadway. And hence, it provides an opportunity for blurry photos:







Check out BoweryBoogie for the latest on the Chinatown fire.

Metal plates on Houston and Pitt driving some people crazy

These fliers were spotted on Second Street between Avenue B and Avenue C -- on the buildings that face Houston. The plates in question do make an awful ka-chunk! when a car/truck drives over them. Which is about every four seconds. It's annoying... On the bright side, you likely won't be able to hear the plates, at least during the day, once the Eastern stretch of Houston gets ripped up...

And what's happening at Pitt and Houston?

Bar threatens to call cops on a Thursday afternoon because some girls were standing in line to get free prom dresses next door

Wow. A doozy in The Villager this week. I'll link to it soon as it's online. Quickly, though! Last Thursday afternoon from 4-6, the good people at the Lower Eastside Girls Club were holding their annual free prom gown giveway at their HQ on First Street. As Lincoln Anderson reports, "hundreds of excited teenage girls lined up...in the process, blocking the way into The Elephant," the French/Thai bar/restaurant that doesn't exactly pack 'em in on a late Thursday afternoon. There were some words exchanged. And an Elephant manager threatened to call the cops. Lyn Pentecost, the executive director of the Girls Club, called the threat mindboggling. She lives on the block, and called the Elephant "a yuppie bar" and said that it "keeps the street awake all night every night." She claimed the manager got verbally abusive with the girls who were waiting for one of the 500 free prom dresses. The Elephant's GM, Eduardo Sontan, who was not in the restaurant at the time of the incident, told Anderson that they apologized to the the girls, but stressed the girls were blocking the entrance and the manager was worried someone might get injured by falling through the restaurant's sidewalk vault doors. He also said "I'm not against girls" and mentioned that Vice President Biden and Chelsea Clinton have recently dined there.

Is the wrecking ball in store for the Cooper Union Engineering Building?

In this week's issue of The Villager (not yet online), Scoopy addresses the hot neighborhood rumor: Will the Cooper Union Engineering Building on Astor Place be demolished, like, really soon? The Starbucks there is gone, of course. Continental owner Trigger told Scoopy that he heard the building was coming down next month. (By the way, Trigger said that he favors a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's coming to the space...Not sure if he was serious.) Edward J. Minskoff Equities has the long-term lease on the building. Minskoff CFO Ben McGrath told Scoopy: "We are not commencing demolition next month -- that's a certainty. Cooper Union is still in the building. ... Obviously, the economy has an impact on the decision, but we're still wrestling what to do and when to do it."

Scoopy also mentions that the school will have moved into Cooper Union's new academic building at 41 Cooper Square by the summer. The ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new building is Sept. 15."

Important news: New York City is the sixth-best place in the country for "good hair days" (Yeah, suck it L.A.!)

Interpret this survey as you please. And how did we finish behind Anchorage? Don't they have to wear hats year-round?

Peek-a-boo I see 2 (Cooper Square)

I swear I walked by the behind-schedule 15-story rental-retail combo at 2 Cooper Union just two days ago and saw nothing (the hole in the ground)... and now? Someone's working OT....

93rd Duane Reade in Lower Manhattan nearly complete

We're almost ready for more Duane Reade action ... at the former Staples store on Fulton and Water Streets in the Financial District.

"Sesame Street" characters seen doing whippets in Tompkins Square Park after filming yesterday

KIDDING! I took the above photos the other weekend. Some young adults were just making whipped cream for dessert, that's all.

Oh, but I did find a box of rotting bananas on Ninth Street and Avenue B right near where "Sesame Street" was filming.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Bob Arihood has the latest on the Avenue A groper (Neither More Nor Less)

Hmmm, Peter Pan Donut Shop (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Bea Arthur tag painted over on Third Street (Flaming Pablum)

The Record and Tape Center is closing in Park Slope (Lost City)

NYC's first gourmet cupcake truck (Grub Street)

Broadway ready for pedestrians (Curbed)

Is the pee phone doomed? (Slum Goddess)

First look at Washington Square Park (Washington Square Park)

A hellhole no more: Orchard Street pothole paved over (BoweryBoogie)

Iggy and the Stooges to play "Raw Power" — first time in 36 years (Stupefaction)

Wish you were here: Old postcards to home from NYC (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

About Iggy's career as an insurance spokesperson (Hunter-Gatherer)

Laura Kennedy of the Bush Tetras has a birthday today. Wish her the best (Laura Kennedy Liver Fund)

First photos from the "Sesame Street" shoot today at Tompkins Square Park: How soon before the paparazzi and groupies (and drugs, natch) arrive?

On Avenue B. I'm going to heckle Fozzie Bear. (Uh, is he still on the show...?)

Magazine that I already thought folded folds

RIP Trump magazine. Another nail in the coffin of wretched excess?

Busy week for filming on Avenue B: Tompkins Square Park safe for "Sesame Street"

First, today, prepare yourself for the mindless bloodletting of "Hyperactive" shooting on Avenue B along Tompkins Square Park....




"Hyperactive." Certainly sounds like some drug-addled splatterfest, right? "It's 'Sesame Street.' It's for the kids," a crew member told me. Oh.

But Thursday! "Step Up 3-D," the long-awaited sequel to "Step Up 2: The Street," which -- duh! -- followed "Step Up," the winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2006.



Be ready to "Step Up," people.

Wyndham Garden Hotel starting to sprout on the Bowery

When we last looked at the coming-soon high-rise at the corner of Hester and the Bowery last October...there wasn't much progress to report...



...and the 108-room Wyndham Garden Hotel, expected to open in 2010 (according to a Wyndham press release), didn't seem popular with everyone...



In any event, the site is showing signs of life...





For further reading:
LES hotel saturation: A map (BoweryBoogie)

Coming to Union Square: Chipotle Mexican Grill

Lois Weiss reports today that Chipotle Mexican Grill will open in the Zeckendorf Towers on the northwest corner of Irving Place and 14th Street. It's at the former site of Rhyme & Reason, the card shop, which closed last September. As I noted then: "What's to come? I have no idea! But it's a prime spot in NYUville. Also! There's a Duane Reade a block away on 14th and Third...and a Walgreens across the street. So this seems like a good spot for a drug store. Rite Aid?"

Anyway! Jeffrey Roseman of Newmark Knight Frank represented Chipotle. He told the Post: "Union Square is still buzzing and is a hot market." It will open at the end of the summer.

Band looking for someone to experience cliches with

Hmm... the photo is a little blurry... It reads: "3 cowboys blasting full speed into the black hole of BIG, ORCHESTRAL ROCK need both a new DRUMMER and a KEYBOARDIST/ORGANIST/SYNTH WIZARD OF THE COSMOS for kamikaze commitment...cause once we go in, we 'ain't coming back."

Spotted on Avenue A. Over a Wilco live poster.

Kid A

I enjoyed watching the additions to this ad on the side of East Village Farms on Avenue A near Seventh Street....




Sadly! The kid was papered over with an ad for flavored vodka.

Just the blues then

"[F]or the first time in 37 years, there will be no major summer jazz festival in New York." (The New York Times)

Goodbye yellow brick ad...

After nearly a month, the handpainted Target ad on St. Mark's Place at Avenue A...



is gone...



Meanwhile!
The Target ad was also painted over on Hicks Street in Carroll Gardens (Lost City)

Noted

A reader sent me this link from the Pissed Off Teacher blog...of a photo taken on East Broadway:

Everyone seems to be latching on to this "violent crimes are up" story

CBS-2 has coverage here.... And ABC-7 here....Full-on hysteria!

Post: Assaults on the rise in East Village, Lower East Side

According to the Post today:

Downtown Manhattan, the city's party mecca, has been hit by an alarming spike in vicious street violence.

Assaults in Greenwich Village lead the frightening upturn, with a whopping 43 percent increase so far this year compared with the same period in 2008. Other hot Manhattan neighborhoods tainted by the crime wave include TriBeCa, with a nearly 17 percent jump, and Gramercy, which has seen a 24 percent increase in assaults.

The danger zones also include the East Village from East 14th Street to Houston Street and the East River to Broadway, which has seen a 27.7 percent rise, from 47 to 60 assaults. The Lower East Side has experienced a whopping 30 percent hike in assaults.

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne attributed the crime jump largely to the neighborhoods' huge restaurant and bar scenes, which attract large numbers of late-night revelers.

The accompanying chart in the Post is incorrect: The number for the East Village is 27.7 percents, not 42.9 percent.

Updated: Runnin' Scared notes that the Post is seeing a bigger crime increase than the NYPD. As Roy Edroso writes: "The Post is apparently using something other than CompStat figures, though: the latest for the East Village's 9th Precinct shows crime reports only up 4.44 percent year-to-date, and murders at zero. Reported rapes are up from three to five, robberies from 63 to 66, and felony assaults from 47 to 60."

Ramenification of Love Saves the Day continues

Yesterday morning, we noted the new plywood surrounding the former Love Saves the Day store on Second Avenue at Seventh Street... Now one of the last remaining bits of the former shop was removed -- the tiled Love Saves the Day sign above the storefront...



Here's how it looks now...




Also, as the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFOEVG) noted, the plywood covered two tags by longtime NYC graffiti artists, SEN4 and KAY2... their fate will soon be sealed under several coats of paint along with the rest of the colorful LSD façade...



[LSD tile photo via Racked]

One year ago today: The Tower of Toys begins to vanish

Was one year ago today that the iconic Tower of Toys officially came down in the community garden at Sixth Street and Avenue B.

Jeremiah broke the story about the Tower's demise.

One last reminder of the Tower remains today: a sticker honoring its creator, the late Eddie Boros.



For further reading.

A few new things on Avenue C

This two-story building at 151 Ave. C -- two doors south of C-Squat between Ninth Street and 10th Street -- is now on the market. There was no information about this property listed on the My Broker Web site. (And is Speakeasy still around on the second floor? I thought it closed...)



And between 10th Street and 11th Street -- a dry cleaner is opening...



And there's a new cafe called Bread & Butta opening between 11th Street and 12th Street...in a space that has been empty for a few years, as I recall...