From earlier today... when a mockingbird was hassling Christo, the adult male red-tailed hawk of Tompkins Square Park ...
Thanks to Steven for the photos!
Monday, June 24, 2019
Christo looks as if he wants to kill a mockingbird
From earlier today... when a mockingbird was hassling Christo, the adult male red-tailed hawk of Tompkins Square Park ...
Thanks to Steven for the photos!
This mural on Avenue A is a passage from 'Call Me By Your Name' — in Braille
Here's a look at the mural that Jaye Moon, a Brooklyn-based Lego artist, created outside 50 Avenue A (the former Citi branch!) between Third Street and Fourth Street.
Per the sign, the piece, made partly with Legos, is an excerpt of the script — in Braille — from "Call Me By Your Name," the Oscar-Nominated film from 2017 ...
This piece is part of the WorldPride Mural Project initiative, a collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project. Per Instagram: "Both local and international artists, 50 in total, were selected to create murals within the five boroughs of New York that reflect and honor the beauty, struggle, and strides of the LGBTQIA+ community."
The work, mounted in plywood, is temporarily covering the cowboy art here.
Permanent vacation now for the St. Brigid School
Classes ended for the summer last week at the St. Brigid School on Avenue B and Seventh Street.
As we first reported in early February, the Archdiocese of New York announced that St. Brigid School would cease operations at the end of the current academic year, a move that blindsided students, parents and faculty alike. According to one parent: "Kids sent home crying with a letter to their parent/guardian. School being closed by the Archdiocese without warning."
Founded in 1856, the Saint Brigid School was one of seven city Catholic schools marked for closure by the Archdiocese.
Despite the Archdiocese’s best efforts to maintain the operational and financial viability of the school, continuing to educate students in a building that is underutilized and in need significant improvements has proven unfeasible.
St. Brigid School students will have the opportunity to continue their Catholic education at another nearby Catholic School...
Stunned parents took action, launching a Twitter account and a Facebook group and petition ... as well as organizing a town hall to ask for more transparency about this decision.
Joseph Zwilling, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese, told the Post in an article on Feb. 9 that the school did have money left in its endowment fund — about $1.5 million. He also said the school was losing $850,000 a year. "It is a sad reality that it is nearly impossible to run a school with only 119 students in Grades K-8," he said.
We haven't heard anything else about the school's closure since late February. There aren't any updated messages (other than the initial announcement from February) on the school's website about the permanent closure ... and the social media accounts launched after news of the closing broke have been dormant since late February.
For now, no word on what the Archdiocese has planned for this prime corner real estate that overlooks Tompkins Square Park...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: What happened to the donated money earmarked for St. Brigid School?
Honoring the past with a theater performance at Mark Rothko's former studio on the Bowery
Starting on Thursday night (June 27), the Peculiar Works Project is presenting "Afterparty: The Rothko Studio," a theatrical performance in and around the former studio of painter Mark Rothko at the landmarked 222 Bowery.
First, here's more about No. 222 and "Afterparty" via the EVG inbox...
Built in 1884 for the YMCA as the Young Men’s Institute, 222 Bowery is renowned for the many now-famous artists who lived, worked and played in this landmarked gem. "Afterparty" will explore downtown artists, peeling back their stories to reveal multiple layers of NYC history before the former studio is converted into commercial space later this summer.
Lured by cheap rents and vast lofts, artists began populating the Bowery in the late 1950s. By 1965, there were over 100 painters living along the Bowery, among them Cy Twombly, Robert Indiana, Al Loving and Elizabeth Murray.
The building’s former gymnasium is significant for having been Rothko’s studio, where he painted the infamous Seagram Murals commissioned by The Four Seasons Restaurant in 1957.
Peculiar Works Project’s creative team is designing an intimate, promenade journey through the historic architecture and artistic legacy of the building. Along the way, multi-disciplinary performances will reinterpret the legendary art parties attended by art-world luminaries — Jasper Johns, John Giorno, William S. Burroughs, Eve Hesse, Jonas Mekas, Roy Lichtenstein, LeRoi Jones, Diane DiPrima, Sol LeWitt, Andy Warhol and more — against the backdrop of Rothko’s struggle between achieving success and selling out.
Audiences and performers will sit around a table together in the paint-splattered space and experience a theatrical conjuring of artistic ghosts whose impact echoes till this day.
[Cast members from "Afterparty"]
Architectural Digest recently wrote about Rothko's studio (take a tour of it online here), which is reportedly in jeopardy.
The current owners of the space are seeking to rent it to anyone willing for the tune of $15,000 per month (for either residential or commercial use). The sum is shockingly substantial, particularly since the building does not have an elevator, while the roughly 800-square-foot studio has no kitchen, nor an updated shower or bathroom. But it does still have Rothko’s paint flung about the wooden floorboards (after the artist left, American-born Abstract Expressionist painter Michael Goldberg moved in to the space and applied coats of primer to the floor so that Rothko’s mark would always remain).
"Afterparty"'s director, Ralph Lewis, lives in the East Village. I asked him for his thoughts on putting together a production in this studio.
"Creating site-specific performances often feels like a game of chance. Really incredible spaces come along, and if you don't grab them, the wheel keeps spinning. You never get another chance," Lewis said. "Well, two months ago, we were offered the extraordinary opportunity to create a brand new performance [here]."
So just two months to put together "Afterparty"?
"We've never created an entire show, A-Z, in this short amount of time, but we couldn't pass it up," he said. "There are now over 30 artists and performers working on the very peculiar project: actors, dancers, singers, designers, projectionists, text adapters, caterers and more — all creating a 70-minute, historical fiction based on the legendary art parties that took place in the building back in 1958. Honoring the now-famous artists and writers who have lived and worked in 222 Bowery building has been too inspiring for words."
There are two shows nightly — 7 and 8:30 — Thursday through Saturday, with performances on Sunday (June 30) at 5 and 6:30. (Due to limited seating, advanced tickets are required.)
"If nothing else, it's a rare opportunity, and minimal gamble, to see where an important artist — the floor still splattered with his paint — once created important art before it becomes a high-end commercial space," Lewsis said.
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Performances take place at 222 Bowery between Prince and Spring. Find ticket info here.
14th Street busway markings arrive; so does a lawsuit to try to stop it
The bus/truck markings have arrived on 14th Street ... where the busway launches on July 1...
A quickie recap of this "experimental new transit improvement" ... to help move people during the L-train slowdown, private through-traffic will be banned between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on 14th Street between Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue. Buses, trucks and emergency vehicles will be given priority in the center lanes between Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue. Cars will be allowed to make pickups and drop-offs as well as access local garages.
The busway also harkens the arrival of the new M14 Select Bus Service, which features off-board fare payments and all-door boarding, starting on July 1. To also help speed up travel times, the MTA is eliminating 16 stops (down from a proposed 22) along the M14A and M14D routes.
As you may have read back on Friday (Streetsblog had it first), a coalition of Manhattan landowners is using state environmental law is trying to stop the busway plans from moving forward with a lawsuit:
The 14th Street Coalition — which comprises property-owner groups in Tony Chelsea, the West Village and the Flatiron District — says that the Department of Transportation’s proposed “busway” violates state environmental law because the agency didn’t conduct a serious assessment of the impact that banning cars from 14th Street would have on neighboring residential streets.
“Closing 14th Street to vehicular traffic would not only cause horrific traffic jams on 12th Street, 13th Street, 15th Street, 16th Street, 17th Street, 18th Street (a street with an MTA bus depot at the corner of Sixth Avenue), 19th Street, and 20th Street, it would also cause traffic on north-south avenues including Eighth, Seventh, Sixth, Fifth, Fourth, and Third Avenue, and Broadway, and Park Avenue,” the suit, filed by lawyer Arthur Schwartz. “The traffic will bring with it air pollution and noise pollution.”
A spokesperson with the city's law department said that the claims don't have any merit.
"I think it’s pretty clear that this is bluster," Ben Fried with TransitCenter told Curbed. "It’s absurd to file a lawsuit on environmental grounds for a project that’s going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make transit more efficient."
Read the full story at Streetsblog here.
The Villager has a recap of the lawsuit too.
Here's the martial arts studio signage on 11th and C
Some closure on those previous posts about what's coming to the vacant storefront on the southwest corner of Avenue C and 11th Street... signage is now up for Champions Martial Arts, which has multiple locations in Brooklyn and Queens. (Little Tigers is a program for kids, in case you were wondering about that part of the signage.)
The space has been empty since August 2017, when the New York Health Choice (aka Eastside Market) closed after nearly five years in business.
The disappearing former P.C. Richard on 14th Street
Pinch and Steven have been keeping tabs on the demolition progress at the former P.C. Richard and Son complex on 14th Street at Irving Place...
Pinch was going to sift through the rubble to find a VCR or Commodore 128.
Anyway, as you likely know, workers are clearing the site for the eventual construction of the 22-story Union Square Tech Training Center (aka tech hub). Read all about that here and here. And here too.
Checking in on the BP-replacing condoplex of 2nd Avenue
Friday's post on how quickly the condoplex is going up at 32 E. Seventh St. (aka 119-121 Second Ave.) prompted a few readers to ask about 24 Second Ave. (aka 32 E. First St.) six blocks to the south.
There's slowish but steady progress on this 10-story condoplex on the site of the former BP station, the second-to-last-one in the neighborhood. We noted that the building reached the third floor in April 2017.
The top photo is from Saturday.
As previously reported, the building will house 30 condos, with homes ranging from $1.125 million to $10.5 million along with ground-floor retail. The building's website — "meticulous meets magnificence" — lists that seven units remain for purchase.
Previously on EV Grieve:
The 2nd Avenue BP station has closed
Permits filed to demolish former 2nd Avenue BP station
More about the 10-story building taking the place of the former BP station at 24 2nd Ave.
Check out the new 10-story building for the former 2nd Avenue BP station
A ballerina for 2nd Avenue
2nd Avenue residential complex now complete with renderings on the plywood
Sunday, June 23, 2019
WIP: A new sign for Ray's Candy Store
[Photo by John Cline]
Work started today on a new sign for Ray's Candy Story over at 113 Avenue A near Seventh Street...
[Photo by Steven]
Peach and Will expect to have the sign finished tomorrow...
[Photo by Steven]
This version — with a small 's on Ray — replaces the well-weathered facade that Chico created in July 2016. Chico's previous sign here was in part a tribute to neighborhood photographer Bob Arihood, who died in September 2011.
[Photo by Eden]
Week in Grieview
[Sign painting at Van Leeuwen on 7th Street via Derek Berg]
• Garbage truck parking situation on 10th Street still stinks, residents say (Thursday)
• RIP Joe Overstreet (Tuesday)
• Photo exclusive: Take a look inside the former Hells Angels clubhouse on 3rd Street (Monday)
• A visit to St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (Wednesday)
• Explosion-site condoplex reaches the top (Friday)
• The Gem Spa Zoltar is alive and well and telling fortunes an L-train ride away in Bushwick (Wednesday) "Gem Spa is open" (Tuesday)
• Raphael Toledano to pay $3 million, faces possible lifetime real-estate ban, for harassing EV tenants (Friday)
• Report: 18 years to life for man who murdered Elizabeth Lee on Cooper Square (Friday)
• What happened to the DeRobertis neon sign on 1st Avenue? (Monday)
• Grant Shaffer's NY See (Thursday)
[The 6 & B Community Garden via riachung00]
• The Richard Morrison and Bill Rice exhibit at SHFAP (Monday)
• East Village merchant pride (Monday)
• Report: LPC approves transfer of air rights across St. Mark's Place (Thursday)
• St. Mark's Vegan Food Court debuts at 12 St. Mark's Place (Monday)
• The MTA wonders if you'll shop at this CVS machine in Union Square (Friday)
• The 411 on the 101 Condominium (Wednesday)
• So long to 238 E. 3rd St. (Tuesday)
• 2 storefronts shaping up on 2nd Avenue for Calexico and Brasserie Saint Marc (Wednesday)
• Report: Ricky's will be down to 2 NYC locations (Wednesday)
• Anything to lose sleep over? That empty Raymour & Flanigan space on 14th Street (Monday)
• A reminder that First Lamb Shabu is coming soon to 14th Street (Monday)
... and it will feel more like summer when workers put away the snowblower in Tompkins Square Park...
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At the Queer Faith celebration at Middle Collegiate Church
All photos by Angie Dykshorn
Here's a quick recap from the Queer Faith event this past Wednesday at Middle Collegiate Church, 122 Second Ave. ... where the church celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and Juneteenth, the anniversary of when the news that slavery had been abolished reached Texas in 1865.
The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, senior minster of Middle Collegiate Church, honored civil rights icon Ruby Sales and the late Gary Ranker, a longtime East Village resident who marched with Harvey Milk.
At the event, Lewis announced the Ruby Sales/Gary Ranker Fund for Racial and LGBTQIA+ Fund at Middle Church for justice initiatives that speak to the legacy of their activism.
[Ruby Sales with a photo of Gary Ranker]
[Jacqui Lewis with members of the Ranker family]
The evening included the opening of the Queer Faith art exhibit ...
... as well as musical guests BETTY, Alex Bertrand and Madge Dietrich ...
[Alex Bertrand]
[BETTY]
Now on lower 2nd Avenue: The Lower 2nd Avenue Summer Festival
The Lower Second Avenue Summer Festival is underway... until 6 p.m. on Second Avenue between 14th Street and Ninth Street.
EVG Lower Second Avenue Summer Festival correspondent Steven notes a fairly generic assemblage of street festival vendors and food...
Not to mention the Jerk Off the Grill station...
A Summer Solstice celebration at the Green Oasis Community Garden
Today (Sunday, June 23) is the annual Green Oasis Garden Solstice Celebration from 1-5 p.m.
Per the invite: 'We'll be doing tie-dye t-shirts, twig totems and a potluck grill."
The Green Oasis Community Garden is on Eighth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D.
Saturday, June 22, 2019
A talk about Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers tonight at MoRUS
A last-minute listing via the EVG inbox today...
Ben Morea is going to be onhand tonight at 7 at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) for a discussion and screening of "Armed Love," Sean Stewart's short documentary profile of his time in the Lower East Side in the late 1960s.
In the film, Morea charts the evolution of Up Against the Wall/Motherfucker — the network of action-oriented radicals, freaks and street fighters who emerged out of the group surrounding the journal Black Mask during the late 1960s in New York City.
Find more details at this link.
MoRUS is located at 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
Friday, June 21, 2019
Debt sounds
The Gotobeds released their third LP, Debt Begins at 30 (via Sub Pop), back on May 31. The video here is for "Twin Cities."
Look for the Pittsburgh-based quartet will be out at Union Pool on July 17.
Explosion-site condoplex reaches the top
Workers have hoisted the American flag atop 119-121 Second Ave. (aka 45 E. Seventh St.), marking that they have officially topped off the Morris Adjmi-designed building that will feature 21 condo units and ground-floor retail.
As we've been noting, work is moving at a brisk pace here at Seventh Street. The plywood only arrived in late January ... with the excavation starting several weeks later.
[Rendering via Morris Adjmi]
Shaky Cohen's Nexus Building Development Group, Inc., paid $9.15 million in June 2017 for the lots at 119 and 121 Second Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.
We haven't spotted a website yet with any details about the residences, which will range from one to three bedrooms. The Tavivian Team from Douglas Elliman is doing the sales and marketing.
This corner was the site of the deadly gas explosion on March 26, 2015 that leveled three buildings, 119, 121 and 123 Second Ave.
The new building will include a commemorative plaque that honors the two men who died that day — Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón.
The previous owner of 119 and 121 Second Ave., Maria Hrynenko, and two other defendants, are due back in New York County Criminal Court today. To date, the outcome of the previous 25-plus appearances has been the same since the first appearance in February 2016 — "adjourned/bail continued."
The defendants were part of a scheme that saw an illegally tampered gas line at 121 Second Ave., according to the Manhattan District Attorney.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Remembering Nicholas and Moises: the Figueroa family marks the 4-year anniversary of the 2nd Avenue gas explosion
LPC OKs condoplex for gas explosion site on 2nd Avenue and 7th Street
Raphael Toledano to pay $3 million, faces possible lifetime real-estate ban, for harassing EV tenants
Let's go right to the news release via the AG's office...
Under the terms of the Consent Order (stipulation and judgement) being submitted to the Court, Toledano’s real estate business will be supervised by an Independent Monitor, who will ensure that Toledano ceases to engage in fraud and tenant harassment. Toledano will not be allowed to have any direct contact with tenants, and will be required to hire an independent management company for any of his properties.
In addition, Toledano has agreed to pay $3 million in damages and penalties. If Toledano violates the terms of his agreement, then Attorney General James will seek a lifetime bar against any further participation in the real estate industry, as well as a suspended judgment of $10 million.
Attorney General James and Governor Cuomo’s Tenant Protection Unit (TPU) within New York State Homes and Community Renewal began investigating Toledano after receiving complaints from tenants and community advocates about his use of harassment, unsafe construction, and other illegal conduct to push tenants out of their rent-stabilized homes.
As set forth in the Complaint filed in New York Supreme Court, Attorney General James’ investigation established that Toledano engaged in a pattern of fraudulent and illegal conduct throughout his work as a landlord and real-estate developer.
He harassed tenants through coercive buyouts, illegal construction practices and failed to provide his rent-regulated tenants with utilities, repairs, and other necessary services. Toledano also engaged in deceptive business practices in his real-estate transactions, including repeatedly and persistently misrepresenting himself as a lawyer and advertising apartments with 3 or 4 bedrooms, when legally the apartment could only have 1 or 2 bedrooms.
It's not immediately clear how many properties Toledano still owns. (His Brookhill Properties website is no longer active.) Toledano, who bought up dozens of East Village properties only to foreclose on many of them later, is still the owner — via an LLC — of 444 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.
In March, he reportedly filed for bankruptcy on the building, and was attempting to reject the rent-stabilized leases for a number of residents in the building, per NBC 4. However, AG James and several housing officials from the city and state intervened to help the tenants.
In previous years, Toledano purchased 28 buildings in two separate portfolios from the Tabak family for a total of $140 million. Experienced real-estate players raised red flags about Toledano's heavy reliance on debt.
In an interview with The Real Deal in June 2016, Toledano, then 26, made "frat-tastic boasts about his wealth," including: "I’m worth a fuckload of money, bro."
Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened 'to drop dynamite on the building'
Cleaning up 444 E. 13th St.
Report: State investigating East Village landlord Raphael Toledano
Health Department to inspect Raphael Toledano's East Village properties for toxic levels of lead dust
Report: 18 years to life for man who murdered Elizabeth Lee on Cooper Square
[Photo from March 2018]
Vincent Verdi, a former federal intelligence officer, received a sentence of 18 years to life yesterday after pleading guilty to gunning down Elizabeth Lee on Cooper Square as she arrived for work on Nov. 1, 2017.
As the Daily News reported, Verdi, 63, "offered a self-pitying apology that drew jeers and groans from his victim’s loved ones" at a hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday.
“I can only hope one day the New York State criminal justice system will allow me to rejoin my family,” Verdi said.
“Never!” one critic said behind him.
“You’re the devil!” another chimed in.
Lee, who was 56 and a mother of two grown children, lived on the Upper East Side. She had just docked a Citi Bike when Verdi approached her and shot her twice. He then shot himself in the head.
According to previous reports in the Daily News, Verdi spent four months stalking and harassing Lee. Police had arrested him previously for stalking. She had an order of protection barring him from contacting her, which was in place the morning he killed her.
The DA's office originally charged him with murder, weapons possession, aggravated criminal contempt and stalking.
Lee was a longtime administrator at the nearby Grace Church School. She was remembered as a devoted mother and a friend to many.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Memorial for Elizabeth Lee on Cooper Square
Let's Make Some Music New York!
This link has a rundown on every free (Make Music New York-related) performance around the city.
In the East Village, here are details of just one of the free shows... info via the EVG inbox...
Join us at Albert’s Garden to celebrate the Summer Solstice!
We welcome back Just (Jazz) Friends with Sarie Teichman, a New York City-based ensemble playing vocal and instrumental jazz standards focused on the American Songbook, with occasional forays into Pop/R&B classics from the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Date: Friday, June 21
Time: 6 to 8 p.m.
Location: 16 E. Second St., between the Bowery and Second Avenue.
The MTA wonders if you'll shop at this CVS machine in Union Square
EVG regular Pinch shares this photo from the Union Square subway entrance at the Food Emporium.
This CVS vending machine arrived yesterday in this location. It's part of an MTA experiment to offer commuters stuff that you may find at — a CVS!
NY1 has more in this report:
The MTA says it will seek more vending machines from other companies, during this pilot. The transit agency gets a percentage of every purchase, but declined to say how much.
The boxy machines offer a variety of products for New Yorkers on the go. Some of them, like ibuprofen and ear plugs, are especially suited for subway travel.
The MTA is testing the machines as a response to a reduction in subway newsstands, the result in part of declining magazine and newspaper sales. A third of the 248 retail spaces in the subway system are shuttered — most of those closed outposts are newsstands.
The MTA will test the vending machines for two years. In some cases, the locations competing with subway storefronts like one at Union Square, are just beyond the turnstile.
Meanwhile, the MTA is reportedly looking for real-live vendors to take over vacant spots at busy transits hubs such as the 42nd Street-Port Authority Bus Terminal and 47-50th Streets–Rockefeller Center.
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Grant Shaffer's NY See
Here's the latest NY See, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood.
As previously mentioned, Grant was switching up this format: He's now creating a single panel each week so he can focus on his new project: short stories for a graphic novel.
EVG Etc.: LGBTQ landmarks in the East Village; affordable housing lottery at Essex Crossing
[TBT to Sunday in Tompkins via Derek Berg]
• Exploring 23 LGBTQ landmarks in the East Village and Noho (6sqft)
• Pride and Stonewall through the lens of Fred W. McDarrah (The New Yorker)
• Affordable housing lottery for seniors underway in Essex Crossing (The Lo-Down)
• E-bikes and e-scooters are now legal in New York (CBS 2)
• Prosecutor: Dealer sold deadly fentanyl out of Union Square restaurants (Daily News)
• Opinion piece on how the NYPD ignores reckless drivers who injure cyclists (Streetsblog) Hunter College survey finds that nearly one-third of Manhattan cyclists are distracted by electronics while riding. Also in the survey: Only 2 percent of pedestrian injuries are caused by people on bikes, according to NYPD data. (The Post)
• Pete Wells finds menu items with "nuance" in one-star review of Vietnamese newcomer Van Da on Fourth Street near Avenue B (The New York Times)
• Best bagels in NYC — mapped (Eater)
• This series, starting tonight, showcases works representing "different aesthetic and critical relationships to the prison institution: from provocative, activist documentaries to inmate-made films, from commercial exploitation cinema to classic escape dramas, and more" (Anthology Film Archives)
• An illustrative look at the harsh summer life in LES tenements during the 1890s (Ephemeral New York)
• In the West Village, Three Lives & Company bookstore is back in action after a DOB-mandated building closure (JVNY)
• Ugh from 58th Street: "The Paris Theater, the last great single-screen prestige picture palace in New York, is expected to shutter in late August" (Deadline)
• "Jaws" and "Eraserhead" play (in separate theaters!) this weekend at midnight (IFC Center)
Garbage truck parking situation on 10th Street still stinks, residents say
With the arrival of a new season, residents who live on 10th Street west of First Avenue are anticipating a long, hot summer with garbage trucks continuing to park on their block.
A resident from 240 E. 10th St. shared this from a recent warm weather day:
Due to the three enormous sanitation trucks parked directly in front of our building ... there were dozens of flies in my apartment. You could see them on and around the trucks and flying up to people’s apartments. I have a new-born daughter in the apartment and there were flies on her pacifier, flies in my apartment and flies in her room. This is unacceptable.
As first reported last Sept. 18, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is now using this section of 10th Street to park up to seven garbage trucks or other vehicles. The DSNY no longer has use of their garage on 30th Street, and their solution for the foreseeable future has been to relocate their fleet elsewhere, including overnight on residential blocks.
And why park here? The Theater for the New City complex at 155 First Ave. near 10th Street was previously used by DSNY for storage, and they still maintain space in the facility for crews.
Meanwhile, residents say they continue to have quality-of-life and safety concerns — as expressed in previous posts — over the row of trucks parked on this block.
Last September, shortly after the trucks arrived, Mayor de Blasio promised to "relieve the immediate pressure" on 10th Street. "Do we want garbage trucks parking on residential streets? Of course not," said de Blasio, as CBS 2 reported on Sept. 26. "What we’re trying to do every day is figure out the kind of facilities that will help avoid that in the future."
Nine months later residents here are still waiting.
"Making phone calls and writing letters doesn’t seem to be doing anything," resident Michelle Lang said. "While Mayor de Blasio promised to relieve the residents of 10th Street from this undue burden back in September, nothing has been done."
Apparently there isn't any quick solution to the parking situation. DSNY included in their capital plan funding to start designing Manhattan Garage 6 (now temporarily on Montgomery and Jefferson streets) in 2022 with an anticipated completion date in 2028.
Local Councilmember Carlina Rivera has advocated for City Council to call to move the sanitation vehicles from residential neighborhoods in its 2020 Preliminary Budget Response.
Here's part of a missive from City Council:
The Council calls upon the Administration to relocate DSNY operational vehicles that are currently parked in residential neighborhoods to new, centralized locations within their respective sanitation districts. By centrally locating personnel and vehicle fleet, specifically in areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn, DSNY would improve efficiencies and reduce safety/air quality risks to local residents and small businesses.
Updated 8 p.m.
I asked Avi Burn, an owner of Pinks, whose bar-restaurant looks out at the parked garbage trucks, for his thoughts.
"Obviously businesses and neighbors are quite worried as the trucks are still parked on the block and the summer is the most perilous time for us as the stench is magnified, consumer foot traffic is heavier (will avoid smelly truck lined blocks) and there is more potentially hazardous street behavior late at night."
Previously on EV Grieve:
Questions and concerns as the sanitation department begins using 10th Street to park garbage trucks
More trash talk about those garbage trucks parked on 10th Street
Local elected officials continue to press city for alternatives to parking garbage trucks on 10th Street; muggings now a concern
A waste of space: 10th Street still waiting for the garbage trucks to move on
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