EV Grieve

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Please no

Via. (Thanks to Lux Living)

Something IMPORTANT looking happening this evening in the Cooper Square Hotel's penthouse

Feel free to guess...because I have no idea.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Busy Bee manager speaks out on bust (StreetsBlog)

Jill stands up against rubber stamped liquor license transfers (Blah Blog Blah)

Somehow I missed Goggla's Chico mural collection (The Gog Log)

Luc Sante's "Folk Photography" (BoingBoing)

People behind Avenue A's Common Ground open new location on West Third St. (via press release)

Lady GaGa says she has a dick (Gawker)

An amazing home on Avenue A (The New York Times)

"The Vanishing City" trailer (Flaming Pablum)

The Pleasure Chest circa 1972 (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Life magazine looks at NYC's "doomed palaces of iron" circa 1970 (This Ain't the Summer of Love!)

A workshop on affordable housing (BoweryBoogie)

Noted

From Page Six today:

East Village institution Lit may be under fire from the city over smoking violations, but it didn't stop the hipster masses from swarming the club for its eighth anniversary party Monday night. "It was wall-to-wall packed," says one guest. "For some reason, [porn star] Ron Jeremy was there and the NYU girls were going nuts."

[Image via]

What $10,000 a month gets you in "East Greenwich Village," aka East Eighth Street near Avenue C

In which we continue our ~~obsessive~~ occassional look at really expensive homes in the East Village.

According to the listing (this, by the way, is NOT a new listing... this home has been on the market for about four months...):

331 East 8th Street (between Avenue B and Avenue C)
E. Greenwich Village
$10,000 / month

Welcome to the East Village's most cutting edge condo Penthouse residence. The keyed elevator opens directly into this spectacular home fully furnished with imported designer furniture including a 65-inch plasma TV in the living room. Blessed with over 3000sf of total space, this 3 bed 2 bath Penthouse has a Private Rooftop with Sun Shower and year long Heated Jacuzzi. Everything is state-of-the-art from the top-of-the-line designer kitchen with Sub-Zero refridgerator and 6 burner Viking stove, to the 4 1/4" wide plank white oak floors and solarium bay windows throughout this extraordinary masterpiece of a home. Aside from the functional private rooftop this Penthouse also has 3 huge terraces and is completely sun-drenched. Spectacular landmark views of the Empire State, Chrysler and MetLife buildings along with views of the blossoming willow trees, parks and East Village charm. All bedrooms easily fit king size beds and are loaded with closets plus walk-in closet in the 3rd bedroom and washer/dryer. Live/work approved and fun layout makes this home a unique living opportunity. Exclusive and private by Manhattan's best kept secret restaurants and happening spots with thrilling views and country peacefulness make this Penthouse home a delightful living experience.

Or if that dump on East Eighth Street is too fancy for you, then try this one...

This unit on Eighth Street and Avenue B is new to the market this week.... In fact, this is where Matt Dillon has been living of late. (OMG! Maybe this is Matt's old rental!)

Per the listing at Corcoran:

Only dream of finding a space and a location such as this!!! You can actually live in it and enjoy it! One-of-a-kind 2,000 square foot loft facing Tompkins Square Park on Charlie Parker Place (Ave. B) with 20' ceilings, 12' windows facing directly West on the Park and South on 8th Street. The unit has brand new kitchen and bathroom. The space could be divided to create a third bedroom or left open to enjoy its splendor. This landmarked building has been part of the history of the East Village and only gets better with time. Live "way outside the box" and be a part of NY history!

And I'm still wrapping my head around this line, "You can actually live in it and enjoy it!"

Anyway, 295 Avenue B was completed in 1887... It was known as Newsboys' and Bootblacks' Lodging House as well as Tompkins Square Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School, Children's Aid Society.

EV Grieve addresses the Coop barf backlash (and yes, the Serial Vomiter struck again)

Two weeks ago, EV Grieve posted a, um, post titled "Devomiting story: No one threw up on the Coop this past weekend, however..." Several e-mailers and commenters thought please, enough, take your obsession somewhere less visible. Said one commenter: "please, enough, take your obsession somewhere less visible."

So, EV Grieve listened. So now if, and only if, you are interested in following the Cooper barf story, then you may click here for the very best in hyperlocal vomiting reporting. Again, you go HERE for the new site. Otherwise, please continue reading the next post. Thank you.

East Fifth Street latest block to get an out-of-place metal-steel-glass box

Back in November 2008, we noted the destruction of the house at 532 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. Last summer, we learned that this lot would soon be home to a five-story, 10-unit apartment...

And now Curbed has the details on just what this complex will look like... prepare to burn your retinas...

According to Curbed:

The firm's web site also says the steel and concrete building (with metal balconies) is five stories, but our advanced math skills have us thinking it's more along the lines of six. After checking out the plans, our original tipster wrote back: "Six stories & ten units sounds reasonable, but that building is stylistically out of sync with the rest of the block. Reminds me more of the condos going up in Greenpoint."

Out of sync is right... this stretch of the East Village has always been one of my favorites...

Business opportunity of the day

A business opportunity via Craisgslist:

BDSM CLUB/AGENCY for SALE (Downtown)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BDSM Incall/Outcall agency.

LEGAL, profitable business looking to expand and/or move to a bigger facility.

Mistresses, switchers, submissive girls on staff. Profitable multi-year history.

Staff, dungeon, website (2.1 MILLION hits over two years), current advertisements, affiliate websites, all included.

Moving overseas. Now is your chance to OWN a FUN and Profitable business.

Serious offers only.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

More on the Busy Bee Bike bust

Jack Savage at StreetsBlog has a lot more details about the bust at Busy Bee Bike shop on Sixth Street this past Friday...

Busy Bee Bikes, a familiar destination for local cyclists, was forced to close its doors last Friday for criminal possession of stolen property, according to Lt. Patrick Ferguson of the Ninth Precinct.

One Busy Bee employee was arrested at the store that day after purchasing stolen property from an undercover officer, Ferguson said, adding that the owners of Busy Bee will appear in civil court on Wednesday.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Busy Bee Bike shop busted on East Sixth Street

Slacktivist leader to NYU: We have had enough

In response to some earlier NYU-related news today.... A message from Slacktivist leader John Penley:

Attention NYU students: Tell your University We have had enough! Can't take no more. I have decided to organize a protest against out of control NYU dorm expansion. No date set yet... Tell people who support this to friend me on Facebook. Slactivists are gonna be at Washington Square Park. Count on it !!!!!!

Penley's Facebook page is here.

Liquor license transfer in the works for Superdive

The Lo-Down has the early word on the CB3 March Liquor License Applications... and as they note:

Superdive on Avenue A (transfer of full liquor license – this will get the EV’ers going)

Indeed!

More on this later, of course!

Meanwhile, as Eater reported yesterday, Superdive's kegmaster has moved on...

Previously on EV Grieve:
CB3 didn't approve a liquor license for Superdive; "a nice neighborhood Internet café-bookstore" becomes a bar with keg service at tables

After helping ruin the East Village, NYU turns its attention to covering it

With the help of The New York Times, the East Village is officially now a hyperlocal journalism experiment at NYU. Not content to just gobble up real estate all over the neighborhood, decapitate churches and fill the streets with obnoxious students, NYU has now teamed up with The New York Times to gentrify the EV blogosphere. Here's the official release:

NYTimes.com announced today a collaboration with New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute to create a new Local community news and information Web site covering the East Village in New York City.

The Local East Village site will be developed by N.Y.U.'s journalism faculty and students and is scheduled to launch later this fall. Richard G. Jones, an award-winning veteran journalist and former New York Times reporter, will serve as the editor of the site. Mr. Jones will work with students, faculty and the East Village community to cover the news of everyday life in the neighborhood.

Together with N.Y.U. professors Yvonne Latty and Darragh Worland, Mr. Jones will also manage "The Hyperlocal Newsroom," a course that will allow students to engage in a variety of ways, including reporting and writing for the site. Summer courses will also be available for students of other journalism institutions.

Awesome that the Times thinks enough of the East Village to assign the beat to some NYU grad students who have lived here for a short time. (The Times has two other Local community news sites: one for Maplewood, Millwood and South Orange, N.J., the other in Ft. Greene and Clinton Hill.)

Per Choire Sicha at the Awl: "[M]y third and minor objection is that most of the reporters are going to be young people who actually don't know anything about the history of the area they're reporting on. But that's fine, if they are smart or have time to learn things or have a good editor."

Jay Rosen, who directs NYU's Studio 20 program, has a lengthy explanation of the project here. An excerpt:

Permit to say what I find so fascinating about this project. Man, it has everything in it — everything I’ve been studying since I gave my first talk to newspaper editors in Des Moines, Iowa in 1989. It’s neighborhood journalism; it’s cosmopolitan too. It’s about innovation; it’s about the classic virtues, like shoe leather reporting. It combines the discipline of pro journalism with the participatory spirit of citizen journalism. It’s an ideal way to study the craft, which is to say it’s an entirely practical project. It’s what J-school should be doing: collaborating with the industry on the best ways forward. It’s news, it’s commentary, it’s reviewing, it’s opinion, it’s the forum function, community connection, data provision, blogging — all at once. LEV I said is a start-up, but it’s starting with the strongest news franchise there is: the New York Times.

And!

[T]he thing I really love about it… NYU is a citizen of the East Village, a powerful institution (and huge land owner) within the frame. Our students are part of the community; they live there, or at least a lot of them do. Because we’re located there; we can’t really separate ourselves from our subject. Look, not everyone is going to be thrilled that NYU is doing this with the New York Times. We’ll have to take those problems on, not as classroom abstractions but civil transactions with the people who live and work here. You know what? It’s going to be messy and hard, which is to say real. But what better what is there to learn what journalists are yet good for in 2010?

I have a lot of mixed feelings about all this... too much to try to process at the moment... I wasn't thrilled with the earlier incarnation of this project. (And I'd still like to know what happened to the comments on this article. And how the reporter first heard about the incident.)

In any event, the editor at the NYU site who sent me the news release about the local East Village site? She lives in Brooklyn.

For further reading:
The 'Times' Comes for the East Village with Another Non-Paying Student Paper (The Awl)

How bad was the Bowery Wine Company?

"it was so bad I didn't even foursquare it"

-- Part of a paragraph-long e-mail from a reader who had to meet friends at the Bowery Wine Company. The ultimate insult for 2010?

Trying to guess what the Novogratzers put up on East Fourth Street

We've been keeping tabs on 238 E. Fourth St. near Avenue B, where the superduperfaboo Bob and Cortney Novogratz (BoCoNo) designed the $4 penthouse apartment...

Full-steam ahead still on the construction! And, recently, I saw a new addition to the exterior.... I'll admit I don't know much in the way of fancy exterior lights and awnings and what not... But what, exactly, are these...? At first glance I thought they were showerheads... And was BoCoNo responsible?

Previously.

Smokin' Joe

The Joe Strummer mural outside Niagra on Seventh Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Joe Strummer gets a splash of Niagra

Joe Strummer gets a new look, skyline

Thar she blows!

There's a dandy three-bedroom condo on the market on 13th Street at Avenue A...listed at $1,175 million, etc., etc. It's actually been on the market for some time... Perhaps potential owners have been scared off by that enormous fish in the aquarium as seen on the listings page...

Ohh, Barracuda, yeah....

Monday, February 22, 2010

Jeff Bridges at Sophie's

One day last month, American Songwriter Magazine did a photo shoot at Sophie's with Jeff Bridges for an upcoming feature... a photographer for The New York Times was also there for a feature titled "Nine days on the road with Jeff Bridges."

Bridges was in character as Bad Blake from his Oscar-nominated turn in "Crazy Heart." Here are two of the photos that Peter van Agtmael took for the Sunday Times magazine at Sophie's...

Superdive is now cheaper

Back in November, Eater reported that Superdive was on the market for $350,000 key money (the price you pay just for the space)...plus $10k a month in rent... Our friends over at East Village Feed have now noted that the price has dropped to $225,000. (Tower Brokerage listing half way down the page...)

Meanwhile, Superdive was open this past weekend... and apparently all is well... (via Twitter):

Previously on EV Grieve:
Is the keg party over? Superdive closed last night

A bad sign at the Mystery Lot?

For nearly three years, our favorite empty lot probably anywhere (dubbed the Mystery Lot by Curbed) on 13th and 14th Street off Third Avenue included an ad for EmigrantDirect.com. (Awesome one-off buy!)

Now, in recent weeks, we just noticed that the ad has been removed...

Does this finally mean a dreaded "for sale" sign will appear?

Please no!

Previously.

Coming soon to Seventh Street: Molten cheese and beef fondue

Reliable sources told us last week that a French restaurant is opening here at 127 E. Seventh St. near Avenue A...

The Feed had all the details...

The Feed has learned that La Sirène’s chef-owner, Didier Pawlicki, is readying a new 38-seat spot in the East Village called Taureau (French for bull) that will specialize in pots of the molten cheese, along with meat dishes (including beef fondue). Pawlicki’s cassoulet — which we recently included as one of our top winter meals — and other La Sirene favorites will not be on the new location’s menu, but it will be BYO, just like its Soho sister.

So much else on this block... Butter Lane... Porchetta... Perhaps someone should open a colonic center.

Previously on EV Grieve:
What happened to Boutiques on Bowery?

ATM manufacturers now making things easier for ATM thieves

Somewhere downtown.

Farewell teary temporarily closed signage!: Professor Thom's back open today

The folks at Professor Thom's on Second Avenue near 14th Street sent us a note saying they're reopening today after that paperwork snafu.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Professor Thom's teary temporarily closed signage has a sponsor