Sunday, March 20, 2011

[Updated] Moon shots

So last night's full moon was the largest and brightest seen in 19 years, appearing 14 percent bigger and shining 30 percent more brightly than usual, according to the article that I cut-n-paste that from.

How big was it? Here are a few photos ...

From EV Grieve reader Stephen Popkin ... taken on Third Avenue around 4 a.m...


From Bobby Williams...



From Shawn Chittle...


From EV Grieve...



OK, so I didn't get any good shots. Anyway, Gothamist has some more photos. Also, check out the photos that Bob Arihood took right here.

March 20


Eighth Street near Avenue C.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Table tennis now a permanent part of Tompkins Square Park

Earlier today, the city installed a new permanent ping-pong table in Tompkins Square Park, as DNAinfo has been reporting...



The table is dedicated to longtime Tompkins Square Park manager Harry Greenberg, who retired last fall....


...and if you want to play...



All photos by EV Grieve Ping-Pong Sideline Photographer Bobby Williams.

Warming up for the Supermoon

Last night...


And tonight!

Tonight's full moon will be the largest and brightest seen for 19 years, appearing 14 percent bigger and shining 30 percent more brightly than usual. (So that's 44 percent?) Here's more on Gothamist.

Missing dog alert

From our Friend Cat Sitter in the City:

There is a little brown dog running loose. He was last seen near Beth Israel Hospital ... He was either headed west or north. Please alert friends in the area so they can be on the lookout for him. Sorry I don't have more info. I just know he is a little brown dog.

Read the whole post here.

'All the Bowery is gold'


Some passages from the piece on the Bowery in the Times ... titled "The Skids? Hardly"

Gene Kaufman, whose architectural firm has been commissioned to design a hotel on the Bowery, said that the street had become “stuck in time.”

“And a city that does not change dies,” he said.

And!

Hamid Rashidzada bought a studio at 199 Bowery five years ago for $390,000, when prices had not yet begun to soar. Now, he needs something larger and is selling the apartment for $549,000, confident that at that price he will find a buyer, because it is tough to find an apartment anywhere on the Bowery for under $1 million.

And!

The new Bowery is defined by apartment prices approaching those in Manhattan’s most expensive neighborhoods. Just off the Bowery, at 48 Bond Street, a 5,000-square-foot penthouse with an additional 1,100 square feet of outdoor space is listed for $15.8 million. Last month, another penthouse on the strip sold for more than $13 million. There are now half a dozen condos on the Bowery on the market for over $3 million.

And!

Alan P. Miller, the senior director of the real estate investment firm Eastern Consolidated, who brokered the hotel deal, said that although parts of the market remained sluggish, investors were eager to get a piece of the Bowery.

“All of the Bowery is gold,” he said.

Today in 'the bad old days may be here again' articles


From the Post:

Hammered by budget cuts, the NYPD will field its smallest force by the middle of next year than at any time since 1992 — raising fears that, with fewer cops on the beat, a resurgence of crime could return to the city.

Read the article here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The "bad old days" are here again story of the day

Trend alert! The bad old days are here again!

Are the "bad old days" here again...again?

The "bad old days" are here again story of the day

Today in photos of very large cranes

You always take pictures of cranes. Like this one here on Second Avenue at Second Street...


And from EV Grieve reader Steven on Second Street near Avenue C...

Friday, March 18, 2011

Get the balance right

Late afternoon in Tompkins Square Park....





Photos by Bobby Williams.

This time he's gonna really tell the boss



Prompted by the Joe Strummer mural tagging this week.

Other East Village signs maybe someone can take issue with

This is just the beginning!



Cienfuegos adding a 'bitters tasting room'

Looks as if some new elements are being added to the Cienfuegos Cuban-eatery complex on Avenue A at Sixth Street... First, EV Grieve reader Creature notes that Carteles, the one-time sandwich shop here...


...will now be Amor Y Amargo — "a bitters tasting room" ... and a few other things...




Meanwhile, EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams noted some work being done on EL Cobre, the main restaurant yesterday ...



Later in the day, Bob Arihood took this photo... looks as if they'll be some open-air dining-drinking now on the corner...

[Via Nadie Se Conoce]

And, as a PS, El Cobre is named after the town where Cuba's patron saint is located... a duplicate statue is on display inside...

[Bobby Williams]

Previously

The invasion of the building snatchers

During this past year, I started taking photos of the old and new buildings brushing up against one another around here ... The new buildings seem like intruders — lurking, menacing in the background ... Like those unwanted interlopers who find your bar or move in upstairs with desires to take over ...

Here are a few of the shots... It's a work in progress... (a progress in work?)











For more along these lines, read Jeremiah's post from a few weeks ago titled "Schizo New York," in which he writes ... "There is a split in the city ... It's often expressed architecturally —the war between old and new, the radical shift, the loss of bricks to glass and sheen."

Checking in on the Mars Bar sidewalk beautification project

Maybe it's the first stage of the redevelopment here on First Street near Second Avenue?



If so, then it's perfect...

Your last chance to move into 2 Cooper Square, maybe

According to ads, there are only four units left for rent here at 2 Cooper Square...


And that doesn't include the empty bed that Joe Jonas left behind when he broke up with 2 Coop resident Ashley Green.

Previous stories that no one read on EV Grieve:
Who you'll find lounging at the 2 Cooper pool: A Jonas brother! That one woman from 'Twilight'!

The mattress mobile


Second Street and Second Avenue. Photo by Steven Hirsch.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Today

EV Grieve holiday correspondent Bobby Williams passed by a few local St. Patrick's Day hotspots earlier today...





Also today...


[Photo via Goggla]