[Updated] All the President's motorcades

A few moments ago on East 12th Street... as President Obama zipped through town ...

Via @PatriciaSexton ...

... and a little video shot by @AndrewGothelf ...



...EV Grieve reader Robbie sent along these shots... the endless motorcade heading west...

... and an officer telling residents that they need to still inside their apartment building...

Previously.

A few minutes on ago on East 12th Street

Lockdown! (Pretty much.) Between First Avenue and Avenue A (all of East 12th Street actually)... waiting for the President's motorcade to pass... Here's why.

Here's another shot via @pinsuda ...

[Updated] East 12th Street prepped for Obama visit

As you likely know by now, President Obama is in town this evening... Among other things, he'll be holding a dinner fund-raiser thing at the Gotham Bar & Grill (we hear that the roasted cauliflower risotto is good!) on East 12th Street between University Place and Fifth Avenue...

Here are Officers Weber and Sanchez...

Meanwhile, multiple readers have noted an incredible NYPD presence in the area ... and there are reports of the NYPD randomly towing cars all along 12th Street — down to Avenue C. And a reader notes that parts of Avenue C are shut down. There's even a rumor that the fund-raiser tonight at a private residence is in the East Village (note to self: pick up some hummus).

[Thanks to Christina Holmes for the photos ... and Shawn Chittle for the tips]

Updated: A few photos from Bobby Williams...

Handsome Dick Manitoba has been polyresinated

From the EV Grieve inbox...

Handsome Dick Manitoba ... leader of The Dictators and owner of Manitoba's on Avenue B ... has been promoted to throbblehead status...

Per the news release: "This figure capturing Richard's signature modern day look is limited to 1,000 numbered units, stands at 7 inches tall, and is made of super strong polyresin. Manitoba is the 12th person to be polyresinated by Aggronautix. In May of 2009, the company launched with a highly popular G.G. Allin '1991' figure, which was limited to 2,000 numbered units. Pre-orders open now, shipping February 2012. Link is here."

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Dog eyes squirrel in Tompkins Square Park, by Bobby Williams]

Looking at "An Exhibition for Free Education" at Cooper Union (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Looking at the "Legends of the Lower East Side" coloring book (BoweryBook)

Please don't ask Alistair Economakis about the garage (Scoopy's Notebook, 2nd item)

Pat Place of the Bush Tetras among those exhibiting at Keyes Art Projects (Stupefaction)

Chillmaster Dance Party VI (The Gog Log, Marty After Dark)

President Obama eating at Gotham Bar & Grill on East 12th Street tonight (Grub Street and Eater)

Thank you to NYC Menu Girl for the kind post today! (NYC Menu Girl)

Prohibition-era Bill's Gay Nineties files for bankruptcy (Crain's via Eater)

The 'peaceful vibes' of Avenue C and East 12th Street

A reader notes some new art (as of about Nov. 19 or so) on the corner of Avenue C and East 12th Street...

The Terra Fossil Dinosaurs were created by graffiti artist Zimad ...

... and the French graffiti crew Le Moche (pictured) did the LES piece mural...

Per the reader: "The corner sends peaceful vibes to the East Village with the ThreeDotDash.org morse code peace sign, traditional peace sign (posted days after 9/11) and a memorial to Gil Scott Heron by Chico."

Behold the future of 74-84 Third Ave.

As we first reported, the stretch of 74-84 Third Ave. has been cleared out, with Nevada Smith's moving on after Sunday.

Our sources said that a large apartment building would go on this site. According to Nevada Smith's goodbye-for-now message: "Our old home's almost done now with developers poised to demolish most of the block and replace our place, and yours, with a new luxury apartment block."

We're waiting for renderings of this new monstrosity ... Meanwhile, RFK (via PDF) is peddling the retail space. Here's what we're looking at...

That's likely a generic rendering. (Where's the theater? Unless that will eventually be a goner too.) Regardless, it's a large retail space — more than 13,000 square feet. This space anchors what RKF describes as a 126,000 square-foot building featuring studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom residences.

Hope that the apartments have good soundproofing!

Compare this with how this stretch of Third Avenue looked in the late 1970s at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Those persistent rumors about 74-76 Third Avenue and the future of Nevada Smith's

The East Village will lose a parking lot and gain an apartment building

Do you want to see photos of the Mars Bar being demolished?

After our post Monday showing the workers putting up scaffolding over a three-day period outside the Mars Bar ... a reader sent along an email, basically asking if we could cool it on the demo shots. The reader compared it to seeing photos of a loved at the end of a life, and that the photos on various blogs and news site had become a macabre sporting event.

Hmm. We explained that we weren't doing this with any woo-woo. Just a matter of following the story.

Let us know if you have an opinion on the matter.

Because the netting is in place. The chutes are ready. There are porta poopers. There's even a construction shed now on East First Street. As these photos from Bobby Williams yesterday show...

And now for something that isn't being torn down in the East Village

Just the opposite. At St. Brigid's on Avenue B yesterday. Bobby Williams took a quick look inside.

Previously.

Former CBGB Gallery space still on the market

While trolling around the RKF site, we came across a listing (PDF) for 313 Bowery, once home to the CBGB Gallery at 313 Bowery.

The Morrison Hotel Gallery checked out of 313 Bowery at the end of September. Recently, the space became home to Riff, which sells the rock-and-boa inspired clothing line called Andrew Charles, created in part by Steven Tyler.

Apparently, though, that store is only here on a temporary basis.

Here's the listing... Ohh! And already name-checking André Balazs...

The lower level can be leased separately, where that secret club was for a bit.

Your Japadog exterior, interior update of the day

[Bobby Williams]

Yesterday at 30 St. Mark's Place. The Japadog folks haven't committed yet on an opening date — just December. Some time.

And this is what the interior will look like, via the Japadog New York site...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cue the long lines: Japadog opening first New York City location on St. Mark's Place

The Banjo Jim's makeover continues

[Bobby Williams]

In recent days some workers have been painting the exterior of the former Banjo Jim's, the live music spot that closed up in August on Avenue C at Ninth Street. As we reported, a bar called the Wayland will open here in the coming months...

Previously.

On a cloudy night, you can see...

EV Grieve reader 8E sends these along from last evening atop the Cooper Square Hotel The Standard East Village...

7-story building in the works to replace former countercultural theater/church on Avenue B

We've been keeping an eye on the long-empty 185-193 Avenue B for the past few years. The address was a movie theater for many years, first the Bijou in 1926, then the Charles. (The theater closed in 1975, and a church took over the space.) A fire nearly destroyed the building in October 2006.

There had been talk of fixing up the place for the tenant — the Elim Pentecostal Church. But those plans never panned out. In June 2010, we toured the space between 11th Street and 12th Street with the Rev. Carlos Torres. (See that post here.)

And to rehash from a previous post: He had plans to sell the space to a developer. The ground-floor would house the church and a community center. The upper levels of the new building would be designated for some combination of housing. Torres didn't have a timeline for any of this; and there seemed to be a lot of red tape involved in any plans. However, what was clear from the conversation: The building was beyond repair and needed to come down.

Yesterday, a few workers continued to haul out some debris from inside the building ...

There is a demolition application on file already with the city (dated Sept. 20). And, according to the DOB, plans for a mixed-use seven-story building with 44 units were "disapproved" last Monday.

The DOB lists Conrad Roncati, CEO and principal of Architectura in Edgewater, N.J., as the architect. That firm's portfolio includes numerous mixed-use, commercial, residential and religious buildings. The Architectura site didn't include any renderings for this project.

We're waiting to hear what they next steps are here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Revival planned for church and theater on Avenue B

Inside the Charles

Former landmark countercultural theater now for rent on Avenue B

The rare backhouses of East 12th Street

So back in July we reported that the long-dormant pit also-known-as 427. E. 12th St. is primed for a six-story, 11-unit residence courtesy of Montreal-based architect Karl Fischer ...

Until that soulless glass coffin goes up, you have the chance to enjoy not one but two backhouses. In a post yesterday, Off The Grid — the blog of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation — wrote about the history of backhouses ... namely "residential structures which are separate from and located behind other buildings (usually, but not always, residential buildings) which face the street."

Here's a look at them via Google...

Let's go back to Off the Grid for more.

"The newly- (and temporarily-) revealed backhouses at 425 and 429 East 12th Street, between First Avenue and Avenue A, present a variation on these backhouse scenarios, one which we believe may be somewhat rare. The four-story front-buildings at 425 and 429 were both built in 1852, and appear to be very early, purpose-built tenements (i.e. they were built as tenements, not structures built as single-family homes which were converted to multi-family housing).

Off the Grid has more photos, history... as well as a street map from 1853. Find all that here.

Lucy's returns on Dec. 12 (frown)

Lucy's is on another break... as always, we look forward to her return...

And where's the smiley face sign?

New Vietnamese sandwich shop in the works for St. Mark's Place

Here at 96 St. Mark's Place just east of First Avenue... most recently the home of a massage place... Workers put up the signs yesterday... interior still has a way to go...

Habibi Lounge hasn't been open lately

Neighbors of this hookah bar on Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street haven't seen the place open in several weeks...

...and trash is collecting inside the entryway...

They still have an outgoing message on their answering machine... nothing to show that they have closed appears on the Habibi website...

Today in photos of bassoon players performing outside ice cream shops on Seventh Street

At the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop. Per their Twitter account: "I'm not sure why, but we've got two of NYC's best bassoonists (McCracken and Timmerman) playing outside the shop!"

And from Bride of 7th...

Nevada Smith's is closed, and here's what's next

Here's what we know.

• Nevada Smith's closed up last night at its current location at 74 Third Avenue.

• The soccer/football bar will eventually reopen at 100 Third Ave.

• Nevada Smith's goes before the CB3/SLA committee next month for a license at 100 Third Ave.

• The buildings at 74-76 Third Ave. will be demolished. The city has OK'd the permit for 76, the former home of Yummy House.

• The Manhattan Parking Group shut down its lot at 78-84 Third Ave. at 12th Street at the end of August ... a temporary lot is in its place.

• A mystery apartment building will take over this space. Per the announcement at Nevada Smith's website: "Our old home's almost done now with developers poised to demolish most of the block and replace our place, and yours, with a new luxury apartment block."

• NYU has NOTHING to do with the new development. James Devitt, deputy director for media relations at NYU, said the rumors of the school buying the space were "completely false" back in August.