Images 2016

January

RIP David Bowie...


[First Park]

The great Blizzard of Jan. 23...


[East 10th Street via Peter Brownscombe]

... and the day after...


[East 1st Street near 1st Avenue]

The great snow, oh you know...


[Photo via ‏@sandispino]

DOUBLE RAINBOW...


[Photo by Caz Lulu via Facebook]

Panhandling evolution...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

February

Losing the war against the rats...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

St. Mark's Bookshop closes...



Another cold, cold night...


[Photo by @georgygirlnyc]

March

One year later...


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

A new era begins...


[Photo by Steven]

April

Here's Johnny...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

You will be missed...



May

So long Yaffa Cafe mural...


[Photo by Allen Semanco]

Saving Air Shaft Rabbit...



At least Chris Christie isn't actually going to be Secretary of the Interior...


[Photo by Karts]

June

Tompkins Square Park's Prince-inspired piano...


[Photo by Steven]

At the annual Drag March...


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

ABC No Rio closes for now...


[Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk]

July

The kids learn to fly...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

A Sunday morning walk on St. Mark's Place...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

Campaigning in Tompkins Square Park...


[Photo by Steven]

Bagging a Rattata ...


[Reader-submitted photo]

August

A hotel in the works for 11th Street...


[Photo by Grant Shaffer]

A sign of progress in the ongoing Astor Place/Cooper Square Reconstruction project...


[Photo by Vinny & O]

September

A new space on Seventh Street for Abraço...


[Photo by Steven]

111 years later...



A fire at Caracas Arepa Bar...


[Photo by EVG reader Joaquin]

A new home for Comrade Lenin...


[Photo by Peter Marciano]

October

Fall in Tompkins Square Park...



A crowd in Tompkins Square Park for Choking Victim ...


[Photo by Goggla]

November

The cube returns to Astor Place at long last...


[Photo by @unitof]

A vote for the neighbor's best restaurant ...


[Photo by Peter Brownscombe]

Another March Against Trump...


[Photo by Steven]

After a brief closure at McSorley's...


[Photo by Steven]

December

The NYPD vs the Hells Angels...


[Photo by Event Photos NYC]

SantaConned again...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

At the 25th annual Tompkins Square Park tree lighting...


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

A look at the future?...


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

"Lives" live at 98 Bowery

Marc H. Miller sends along word about the latest addition to the 98 Bowery site...

Lives: exhibition and catalogue organized by Jeffrey Deitch
The Fine Arts Building, 105 Hudson St., NYC
November 29 - December 20, 1975

Here's a little bit more about it....:

The "Lives" exhibition by Jeffrey Deitch that opened in November 1975 at the Fine Arts Building featured the experimental artists that I had admired and identified with in the early 1970s. The exhibition also marked the start of a brief period when the Fine Arts Building, a large, eleven-floor office building at 105 Hudson Street, was the center of an energetic art scene that helped rejuvenate the deserted neighborhood just south of Soho -- the now fashionable Tribeca. With its abundance of cheap live-in studios, offices and exhibition spaces, the building fostered the camaraderie and networking that helped nourish radical new directions in the 1980s. For those who were there it was a stimulating time that ended abruptly when the building went co-op in the late 1970s. The young artists and fledgling galleries that helped develop the building and neighborhood were priced out and had to seek new quarters. Most migrated to the East Village and the Lower East Side where a new phase in the evolution of the art of the period began.

[Flyer from 1978, via 98 Bowery]

Today, 105 Hudson is home to, among other things, Nobu....

For further reading on EV Grieve:
Life at 98 Bowery: 1969-1989

Revisiting Punk Art

Q-and-A with Curt Hoppe: Living on the Bowery, finding inspiration and shooting Mr. Softee

Voices from 98 Bowery's past

At 2 x 4: Another bar, another awning?

The Evolution is not dead after all!



According to the door, the bar is being renovated...



As a commenter noted last time:

My roommate and I have been going to 2 by 4 for years now, so when I saw that it shut down, we had to find out what was up. We swung by there last night and saw Eric and Heather inside, so my roommate banged on the door and they opened up. The whole place was gutted and they're doing massive renovations, but they're reopening in mid-July.

It won't be 2 by 4 anymore, but the ownership is staying the same.

Hmm, perhaps the owners needs some suggestions on a theme for the new bar? I'm sure all of you have some good ideas to share. I've always wanted to open a Patrick Swayze Theme Bar — The Swayyyyyyyyyze. Made in his likeness. With drinks like "Next of Kin" and "Red Dawn." But it seems insensitive given his health.

More about Pink Pony and Motor City Bar closing on Ludlow Street

As we first reported on Monday afternoon, the 18-year-old Motor City Bar on Ludlow Street would be closing this spring. Their current lease expires at the end of the month. It was all but a done deal, a tipster told us.

Co-owner Francesca Romeo confirmed this to The Lo-Down yesterday, noting that the bar's landlord "did not give the option of renewal."

Also on Monday, BoweryBoogie had the scoop that the Pink Pony on Ludlow had also closed for good. In a follow-up piece, Cara Buckley at The New York Times reported that the cafe closed, in part, because the landlord increased the rent from $14,000 to $20,000 a month.

The owner, Lucien Bahaj, who also runs Lucien on First Avenue, said that the landlord "had been reasonable and patient, and was merely asking for market rent." Plus: "[H]is cafe had come to seem out of step in a neighborhood sprouting condominium towers, boutique hotels, mixologists and sports bars."

Here's more from Buckley's piece:

The bar captured a fast retreating moment in the evolution – some may say devolution – of the Lower East Side, a time when patrons read those books and flocked for documentary screenings and poetry nights.

Bahaj said this to the Daily News yesterday:

"It's not a tragedy. It belonged to an era and the era changed and I changed with it. All my customers have left or changed. The neighborhood used to be full of creative types — painters, writers, filmmakers. We don’t have that anymore."

Who do we have?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Motor City Bar is closing on Ludlow Street

[Image via Tripping With Marty]

The Times reveals the Streit's-replacing condos; Ben Shaoul wordsmiths gentrification

[Streit's factory photo via BoweryBoogie]

We've been talking about "Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream" this past week.

The documentary by East Village-based filmmaker Michael Levine started its week-long run Wednesday at the Film Forum. (There's also a Streit's-related exhibit happening at Art on A Gallery, 24 Avenue A between East Second Street and East Third Street.)

The last family-owned matzo bakery in America closed its four-building factory on Rivington Street last year after 90 years in that location. As you likely know, the developers who bought the property have condos planned for the site.

Today, The New York Times published the first rendering of the new residential complex (the article was online on Thursday, which is why you may have seen this already elsewhere) ...


[Volley Studios via the Times]

Per the Times, 150 Rivington will be a 7-story glass condo "that will house 45 one- and two-bedroom apartments. Sales begin in May, with one-bedrooms starting at around $975,000."

Developers said that they plan to decorate the lobby with memorabilia from the original building.

BoweryBoogie also has part of an interview with Streit's co-owner Aron Yagoda, who tells of Mayor de Blasio snubbing his offer of a tour of the factory.

Streit's now operates out of more modern facilities in Rockland County.

-----

The piece in the Times focused on small businesses on the Lower East Side that are disappearing... and how Katz's was able to continue moving into the future by selling their air rights for $17 million... so that developer Ben Shaoul could then tear down the rest of the block
for an 11-(or 12!) story condoplex with an Equinox Fitness in the retail space on East Houston between Ludlow and Orchard.

Ray's Pizza, Bereket and Lobster Joint, among others — closed or moved in the process.

"I’m sorry they went out of business, but it’s part of evolution," Shaoul told the Times. "You call it gentrification, I call it 'cleaning it up.'"

[Updated] Max Fish is apparently moving to Brooklyn; eyeing August close date

Well, the EVG inbox is filling up with news that Max Fish will be moving from its Ludlow Street home to... Metropolitan Avenue, according to this online petition, first noted this evening by The Lo-Down.

Per the petition:

‘We’ll Take the Spirit and Everything Else With Us’ -Ulli
The Lower East Side institution and cultural icon Max Fish will be moving. We are seeking a 2pm - 4am liquor license for the following address:

132 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211

If you've enjoyed time at The Fish please sign and share this petition. And if you live or know anyone that lives within 500 Feet of either 132 Metropolitan Ave or 99 North 1st St in Brooklyn, please contact me directly at: tmq777@gmail.com.

Several people have been sharing the petition on Facebook. No other info is immediately available, such as when Max Fish would close up on Ludlow Street... where it opened in 1989.

In December 2010, reports surfaced that the demand of rising rent costs might lead to Max Fish's closure. However, by January 2011, owner Ulli Rimkus had received a lease extension.

Updated:

The petition is also posted on the Max Fish Facebook page... word we received from the Max Fish camp is that they're eyeing an August closing date on Ludlow Street ...

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

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.

The new East Village Trader Joe's opens on Monday

The Trader Joe's opens Monday morning at 8 here at 436 E. 14th St. just west of Avenue A... EVG regular Greg Masters snapped these shots yesterday (thanks also to Gojira for a heads up) ...



An EVG tipster told us in early November that Jan. 6 was to be the opening day.

EVG reader Mr. Baggs also shared photos... new employees are on the scene...



Industry pub Grocery Dive had a few more details about this TJ's:

It features local artwork and is headed by a "store captain" with 14 years of experience with the company. This will be Trader Joe's ninth location in New York City and its second in the East Village neighborhood.

This TJ's boasts 8,531 square feet of ground-floor space with 14,170 square feet on a lower level.

This is the final step in the long evolution (first reported in May 2017!) of the new EV TJ's, just a few blocks from the Union Square outpost that opened in 2006.

The location is in the retail space of the newish 8-story luxury rental called EVE. This development is on the site of the onetime Peter Stuyvesant Post Office (1951-2014).

P.S.

According to Grocery Dive, Trader Joe's has not indicated any plans to reinstate the home-delivery service that it discontinued last March.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• Trader Joe's finally confirms that a Trader Joe's is opening on 14th Street at Avenue A

• All about EVE, the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office-replacing rentals on 14th Street

• Claim: A Trader Joe's won't be coming to new development at 14th and A after all

• Trader Joe's: No current plans for grocery at 432-438 E. 14th St.

• Looks like there's a Trader Joe's coming to 432-438 E. 14th St. after all