The last remnant of the Mars Bar on East First Street

The sidewalk art of Mars Bar owner Hank Penza is fading away from the wear and tear of the demolition of 11-17 Second Ave. ...

As seen last July ...

[Photo by Goggla]

Sidewalk shed checks out of the Hyatt Union Square

Progress to note here at the incoming Hyatt Union Square on Fourth Avenue at 13th Street...

Still a lot of work to do. Anyway. Wouldn't it be kinda nice it that was the final look up there?

Meanwhile, still waiting for the hydroponic bamboo garden and halo ...

[Image from Archpaper via Curbed]

The Standard East Village now has an address for its fence

Oh, we just keep noticing the slightest changes/additions at the former Cooper Square Hotel since it became the Standard East Village... look, the hotel address is now on the fence too!

Your chance to own Billy Leroy's desk — for free!

Earlier today, we pointed out some of the free stuff to be had outside Billy's Antiques on Houston... Proprietor Billy Leroy just provided us with an update — there's even more stuff for free...

...including Billy's own personal desk with sticker celebrating his MTA Sign Fiasco. Real Bowery History!

[Updated] Reader report: FDNY responds to smoke scare at BAD Burger

Shawn Chittle and Dave on 7th pass along word that the FDNY has responded to a report of smoke at BAD Burger on Avenue A near 11th Street... the FDNY is on the scene now...

Dave on 7th, who took these shots, reports: "No sign of fire. But BAD Burger employee reports that the kitchen and dining room filled up with smoke. Probably from the furnace. Nothing actually appears to be happening, which is a good thing."

Updated 1/17:
Owner Keith Masco provides an update in the comments.

Memorial for Dashane Santana on Avenue D

Outside the Rite Aid near Seventh Street. The 12-year-old died after being hit by a van while she crossed Delancey Street last Friday.

Hearing tomorrow for the East 10th Street Historic District

From the EV Grieve inbox...via the East Village Community Coalition

Six months after Community Board 3 unanimously supported it, the City's Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has scheduled a hearing for the East 10th Street Historic District. The proposed district runs along the north side of Tompkins Square Park between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Unfortunately, the LPC has yet to schedule a hearing date for the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District. As the LPC waits, we risk losing more historic buildings in our community.

Please join us Tuesday, January 17th to testify in support of this district and urge LPC to move forward with the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District:


1:30 PM
LPC Public Hearing Room 1
One Centre Street (at Chambers)
9th Floor
-Please bring photo ID to enter the building

If you cannot attend the hearing, please email testimony to: comments@lpc.nyc.gov and copy EVCC at director.evccnyc@gmail.com or mail/fax to:

NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
One Centre Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10007
(f) 212-669-7960

Previously on EV Grieve:
A bid to protect the integrity of 315 E. 10th St.

Landmarks Preservation Commission expedites hearing on East 10th Street Historic District

Free stuff outside Billy's Antiques

The gang at Billy's Antiques on Houston near the Bowery are putting out some freebies today. Billy's is now closed for the next year or so to make way for a two-story structure here. (Billy says that he will return.)

Noted

[via EV Grieve reader AC]

Seventh Street and Avenue A.

East 10th Street, 9:37 a.m., Jan. 16

Flyer campaign against Bar Veloce

evflip spotted these flyers along Second Avenue... from someone making allegations against the Bar Veloce management...

We sent an email to the "boycottveloce" account to learn more about this...

Does this mean more condos then? Your chance to claim a vault

Bobby Williams spotted this outside the New York Marble Cemetery on Second Avenue near Second Street yesterday...

Dining on Avenue A late this afternoon

Late this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park along Avenue A... a red-tailed hawk sighting... photos by Bobby Williams...

...then a quick late lunch...

Week in Grieview

[14th Street near Second Avenue]

RIP Andrew Kowalczyk: The last East Village landlord of his kind? (Monday)

East Third Street lots hits the market for $6 million (Tuesday)

Duke's closed on Avenue C (Wednesday)

We counted the number of Subway sandwich shops in the neighborhood (Thursday)

CB3/SLA votes down a beer-wine license for BAD Burger (Monday)

A look at the abandoned theater inside the doomed East Village Farms (Friday)

A walk up First Avenue in 1997 (Thursday)

More development for East Houston (Friday)

Three-plus years later, 120 St. Mark's Place still doesn't have a Certificate of Occupancy (Monday)

Your chance to own the King's gyro rotators, gas griddle

King Gyro recently closed on First Avenue between Third Street and Fourth Street ... the owners are now going for that Pudgie's-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's combo.

Anyway, today at noon, they are unloading the stuff that they don't need for the new eatery...

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

East Village residents apparently really like having macaroni and cheese delivered

[EVG file photo]

Delivery.com has named S'MAC, the mac-and-cheese empire on East 12th Street, the city's busiest delivery service in the city. (This only takes in account deliveries made via Delivery.com from 2011; S'MAC took in more orders than any other restaurant that delivers, the Post reported.)

Co-owner Sarita Ekya told the Post that they make upwards of 50 deliveries an hour on Saturdays.

And as the Post points out, S'MAC (short for Sarita's Macaroni & Cheese) "the restaurant's name is a play on words that harks back to the bad old days when junkies lined up on East Village streets looking for a different kind of fix."

"East Villagers get it," said Ekya, a Nova Scotia native. "Other people will think it's just an abbreviated form of the whole name."

Gold rush on Second Avenue

This afternoon on Second Avenue near 14th Street outside Finnerty's, the home to Bay Area sports... the San Francisco 49ers played the New Orleans Saints today...

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Five Tacos now open on St. Mark's Place

Several readers have told us that Five Tacos is now open at 119 St. Mark's Place just west of Avenue A... One reader said that last night was the grand opening.

Wasn't open when we walked by this morning... So, a rather off-kilter shot then of the menu...

CB3 approved a beer-wine license for them. It's run by the owners of Ten Degrees Bar a few doors down...

Panuozzo sandwiches coming to St. Mark's Place

Speaking of St. Mark's Place... Grub Street had the scoop yesterday about a branch of the Upper East Side-based San Matteo Pizza and Espresso Bar opening on St. Mark's Place ... (we're assuming it will be in the space left vacant by Motek, the crepe place... it's the only vacant storefront along here...)

A panuozzo is apparently some kind of pizza-panino hybrid that looks like this...

[Via Grub Street]

Other details from Grub Street:

• They will stay open till 2 a.m. "for hungry bargoers."
• "We want to introduce the panuozzo to young crowds," the owner said.
• A beer-and-wine license is in the works (of course!)

This is what 1 WTC looked like on Jan. 13, 2012

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

Today's sign of the apocalypse

Spotted on East Houston near Chrystie Street. New reality show called "Jersey Couture." Filmed around here on the weekends?

There's no stopping the Subway invasion

On Thursday, we counted up the number of Subway (sandwich shops) in the East Village ... (find the answer here...)

Last night, EV Grieve reader Chis F. passed along this shot of yet another Subway setting up shop that we hadn't noticed ... A little out of bounds, but close enough at Essex and Stanton...

When suddenly we remembered that it was actually winter

Avenue B near Sixth Street.

Late afternoon on East 10th Street

Looking east. By Bobby Williams.

Strike force

By Bobby Williams.

[Updated] Reports: 12-year-old girl struck and killed walking across Delancey

The tragedy happened this afternoon around 2:30 while the girl, who attended Castle Middle School on Henry Street, crossed Delancey Street from the south side at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge, according to multiple reports.

A friend of the 12-year-old girl told Gothamist: "We were crossing the street and the light changed real quick. She started going, and then she stopped, but she tripped. The van hit her twice. The first time it hit her, then when it stopped and realized that it hit her, it hit her again."

The driver of the van has not been charged. As DNAinfo put it, "no criminality" is suspected.

Updated 6:19 p.m.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer just released a statement:

Tonight, New York City mourns the senseless death of a sixth grade girl who lost her life while crossing Delancey Street today. This devastating loss is only the latest in a string of tragic accidents that have occurred on Delancey - numbering into the hundreds over the past decade. In both May and August of last year, New Yorkers lost their life navigating this intersection. Between 2008 and 2010, 523 motor vehicle accidents occurred at Delancey and Essex.

The City must act now and not wait a second longer. We can no longer go about its daily business with the knowledge that one of our central intersections is irrefutably perilous.

Updated 1/14:

The dailies provide more details on the tragedy. The victim is 12-year-old Dashane Santana who lived in the Jacob Riis Houses. The girl's mother told the Post that her daughter dropped a bookbag while crossing Delancey Street. When she turned to pick it up, the minivan hit her. She was with friends on her way to Dunkin' Donuts.

The Post also reported that Dashane had just applied to Juilliard.

Earlier reports:
Gothamist

DNAinfo

The Lo-Down

BoweryBoogie

[Image: Christopher Robbins/Gothamist]

Yello again

Yello from 1985 with "Vicious Games."

An L-Shaped footprint ready to make its impression on East Houston Street

In late November, the Mystery Lot of East Houston Street (the empty parcel on the south side of the street between Attorney and Ridge) hit the market, per The Lo-Down. The lot is going for $9.5 million.

Now, it appears more development is in the works for this stretch of Houston... The long-empty adjacent space is now for sale — at $4.6 million.

Here's the listing via Massey Knakal:

The subject property consists of 331 E Houston Street and 161 Ridge Street. 331 E Houston Street is a single story commercial building and 161 Ridge Street is a vacant parking lot. Together, the properties create an L-Shaped footprint with 25’ of frontage on E Houston Street and 20’ of frontage on Ridge Street. The lots have a combined footprint of 3,000 square feet and are located in the newly designated East Village/Lower East Side zoning district which is zoned R8A*. This zone provides an FAR of 5.4 for Residential use, 7.2 with inclusionary housing and 6.5 for Community Facility use which translate to a maximum buildable square footage of 16,200 BSF, 21,600 BSF, 19,500 BSF, respectively. Furthermore, the two lots are adjacent to two 25’ vacant lots on E Houston Street.

So. Combine all this and what do you get?

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[A look down Broadway the other day, by Bobby Williams]

About Patti Smith and the "die in" (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Why does it seem as if Patti Smith is in bed with the developers? (Gothamist)

The history of 101 Avenue A (BoweryBoogie)

Drinking at Lucy's (Eater)

Chiyono on East Sixth Street closes (Grub Street)

Darren Aronofsky now owns the entire townhouse on East 11th Street (Curbed)

LES store owner killed in "FDR Drive death run" (The Daily News)

And for your lunchtime entertainment, the recently released new video from African-fusion band Timbila ... and a summer of 2011 East Village time capsule...

Pocket the Cha Cha by Timbila from Karen Kirsch Page on Vimeo.