Well, yeah... it hasn't looked open lately... The phone is temporarily disconnected... and there are piles of trash bags inside the restaurant, as you might be able to see from this photo...
The other day I noticed that someone added a heart and sign on the corner of Second Avenue and East 7th Street, where the three buildings came down following the March 26 gas explosion.
But it's actually for the former business at 119 Second Ave. — Love Saves the Day...
...someone misses the store...
Updated 2/15
EVG reader Daniel shared these photos he took earlier in the month ... when Nicholas Figueroa's father Nixon and brother Neal placed Valentine's Day messages on the fence...
On Dec. 2, Jeremiah was first to report that Loves Saves the Day will shutter its iconic corner store on Seventh Street and Second Avenue. A sign on their storefront confirms the store's last day.
Meanwhile, what will become of the pay phones on the south side of the store? No way will Duane Reade keep them once they open their newest location here...(And yes -- I will burn in Hell for writing that...)
You may now buy your Halloween costume this August (Monday)
... and there's a free screening tomorrow at 1 p.m. of "Desperately Seeking Susan" at the Tompkins Square Library branch on 10th Street... On Thursday, the day that Aretha Franklin died, our friend Alex pointed out this scene from the film ... featuring Madonna (who happened to turn 60 on Thursday) at Love Saves the Day (one of the buildings destroyed in the deadly March 2015 gas explosion on Second Avenue) ... and a soundtrack courtesy of Aretha ...
In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.
Name:Diane McLean Occupation: Child Psychiatrist at Lincoln Medical Center Location: East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue Time: 10 am on Friday, April 10
I’m from New York, born on the Upper West Side. My father was from Baton Rouge, La., and my mother grew up on a farm in Canada and became a nurse. They met in Montreal and had never lived in New York, but they came, got married and loved the city. My brother and I were born here, grew up here. After college my father became ill and my mother ended up leaving the city.
I wanted to come back after college and build a home here because the city was my home. I had $300 in my pocket. I lived in the living room of my college roommate's apartment with her friends. I got a job. I was able to sublet and share an apartment. That was in January 1979 and by August two friends and I found an apartment. It didn’t have any ceilings. It didn’t have a bathroom. It didn’t have a fridge. It didn’t have a stove — anything. It only had two outlets in the whole apartment. But it had light, windows and high ceilings.
We wrote a contract with the landlord and we committed to building a home. It was my first adult, actually my only adult home. This has been it. We renovated it and created the apartment. The landlord then sold the building to the Hrynenkos. We ended up being in landlord tenant court for nine months because they decided not to put in a stove, fridge, bathroom or wire it for lights. So eventually they had to do that.
I took over the lease in the early 1980s. Love Saves the Day was in the retail space of my building [at 119 Second Avenue at East Seventh Street]. The people who owned it were friends. Tom Birchard and Sally Haddock, who owned Veselka, lived in my building.
When we were working on that apartment, I locked myself out and my two roommates were working late. I couldn’t get in, so I went to Veselka, but I had no money because I was a graduate student. I could only buy coffee and I sat at a table and the hours started to go by. The waitress came by and said, ‘Oh aren’t you going to get anything else’ and she kept coming back and finally I said, ‘You know, I don’t really have money and I’m just waiting for my friends.’ And then she came over and brought a huge plate of food, enough to feed three people and she said, ‘Eat, eat, you have to eat. You’re young, you need strength, you need meat on your bones.’ She fed me. And that for me was our neighborhood. People helped each other out in the East Village.
---
Affordability and light and air brought me to the neighborhood. Light and air were a priority for me, so it didn’t matter that the apartment had nothing. There was nothing I could afford anywhere else, and also, everything was open at night. I started a masters in public health at Columbia a month after we started that apartment. I was given the gift of my parents believing in education. I was fortunate to go to an amazing university, Harvard, and then to Columbia, and I always felt I could put that back into use. You use your skills to give people the best and I could do that.
I’ve always done public service. As a New Yorker, I felt I could put my education to use. I was first an epidemiologist. I have a Ph.D. in epidemiology from Columbia and a Masters of Public Health. Epidemiology is a science to understand the causes of disease in people. Why do people get sick and what can we do to prevent it. I committed to trying to understand this.
In 1990, two surgeons at Harlem hospital published a paper saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute, people in our community of central Harlem are dying at earlier ages than men and women in Bangladesh, which has fewer resources. Why in the greatest city on Earth, are people dying from preventable illness before they’re 65 in central Harlem? So the CDC funded a network of research centers to understand that. In 1991, I became the first director of research of epidemiology at that center, based in Harlem Hospital, connected to Columbia. We were committed to doing participatory research, involving the community, in figuring out what was happening in the community. People were really dying of preventable illnesses.
At that time, I met doctors at Harlem Hospital who were amazing. They could have worked anywhere and they were committed to doing just that. Not just the research, but providing the best care to people in the community. I got inspired to go back to school and become a doctor. I went back to school at night. I took physics, biology, organic chemistry at night as a second job in addition to this. And I applied to medical school. I was incredibly fortunate that Cornell accepted me. I was their oldest student at 42. It’s a progressive medical school. It’s one of the most diverse in the country across social class, background and education.
Right now, I am incredibly fortunate to be a child psychiatrist, working in the Child Outpatient Clinic of Lincoln Hospital. We serve the South Bronx community, one of the most underserved in the country. We serve children and families. I have great colleagues and we’re a wonderful clinic. We do everything we can.
---
I’m a single mother with an 8 year old and two 5 year olds. I’m an alternative family. I’m an older mother, and I’m a single mother by choice. This is a diverse neighborhood, and that’s what I want my kids to know — that you can have every kind of family. Every kind of person lives in our neighborhood. That’s what I want them to in a sense take in by breathing by walking around. Our neighborhood is a little microcosm of New York.
[After the deadly explosion and fire of March 26], my challenge that keeps me from not sleeping is that my family has to find a home. We don’t have a home. Cooper Square Committee is inviting me for an interview, which I am so grateful for. They are the only ones to do that. They might possibly have a studio. I would be grateful for a roof over our head but four people in 375 square feet is very tough. People are looking but there’s nothing out there. So that’s our challenge — to somehow, somewhere find affordable housing where we can commute to the Children’s Workshop School.
I’m absolutely trying to take a positive attitude. I believe in the future and I’m a positive person. But that does not mean that we’re OK. People gave me everything I’m wearing besides my shoes and my jacket — the shirt, the pants, the socks. But I feel good about that. I’m walking around and I can say, ‘Oh yeah, Lori and Rachel gave me that,’ and my kids can get up in the morning and say, ‘I’m putting on Ella’s clothes, I’m putting on Zachary’s clothes.’ We’re wearing people’s care and that’s practically helpful, but now we have to get to the next step. I’m really overwhelmed on how we’re going to get there, and that’s what I don’t know.
I’m hoping we can find that and I’m hoping all of my neighbors can, especially my other neighbors who were rent-stabilized and rent-controlled. Every person was displaced. Every person lost their homes and every person lost everything. But we lost the ability to pay for housing. We lost the ability to create new housing. That is so far not what the city can offer. They can offer us shelter but they’re not offering anything else. And probably they have goodwill and maybe they can’t. You want to think the best.
We’re going back, definitely, for real. I know that corner from every possible angle, in every weather, in every season. I know everything about it. I can walk through every inch of that apartment in my memory; I can walk through every life stage of that apartment. I made it a home for my kids. It was my only home.
--
You may find more information on Diane's GoFundMe page here.
--
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
Destroyed deli cancels online fundraiser. "I feel guilty getting someone else's money," said Roop Bring, who opened Sam's Deli at 123 Second Ave. in 1997. (DNAinfo)
Alleged gas siphoning only further fuels turmoil at another EV building (The Villager)
The "Love Saves the East Village" is an all-day benefit concert tomorrow at La Palapa on St. Mark's Place (EVG, Facebook)
"Eastville Loves the East Village: A Benefit for the Victims of the East Village Fire" on May 19 (Facebook)
... and Enz's, the longtime rockabilly boutique in one of the retail spaces at 125 Second Ave., has a new pop-up shop ... opening today at 90 Stanton St. between Ludlow and Allen...
Last June, we reported on the passing of Arthur Enrique Guerra, the founder of Guerra Paint & Pigment on 13th Street. The post included a photo of Guerra's mural on St. Mark's Place of John Spacely, aka Gringo, from 1983. Peter Bennett took that iconic photo of the Gingo mural.
Bennett, a native New Yorker who now resides in Los Angeles, recently shared more photos from the era. He grew up in Greenwich Village and lived in the East Village from 1979 to 1988. (You can read more about him here.) He gave us permission to post these EV street scenes from the 1980s. (Top photo is outside the former Love Saves the Day on the NW corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street.)
Here are a few more shots from his archives (click on the image to go big) ...
St. Mark's Place...
Second Avenue at Seventh Street...
Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place (NW corner) ...
Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place (SW corner) ...
Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...
• Last looks at today's 'Law & Order' shoot (Wednesday) ... 'Law & Order' creates a new tent city for Tompkins Square Park (Monday) ... Real-life 'Law & Order' in Tompkins Square Park (Thursday)
• For rent signs for the empty storefronts on the SW corner of 14th and 3rd (Monday)
• Eileen Fisher has apparently closed on 9th Street (Monday)
• A message for the camper on 10th Street (Friday)
• A look at '340 E. 9th Street' on 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)
• Steak out: Man reportedly walks out of Trader Joe's with 10 packs of meat (Wednesday, 52 comments)
The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer is hosting a free Valentine's Day concert... it starts at 7:30 p.m. at 173 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B... read more about the concert here.
---
Follow EVG on Instagram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics.
I was looking for something in the East Village on Google Maps. Never realized Google's EV street views are a little dated... How dated? Well, I took a trip over to the Loews Village VII to see what was playing...
Given the films on the marquee ("Rush Hour 3!" "Mr Bean's Holiday!") this has to be late August or early September 2007. You know, it's not really all that long ago...but if you start to take a tour of the neighborhood, you see how much has changed... Momofuku didn't rule First Avenue... the former CBGB space is still for rent...there were more record stores than froyo joints on St. Mark's Place...several glassy towers were holes in the ground or just on the way up... Here are a few highlights via screenshots of the street views...:
The Toll Brothers tower at 110 Third Ave. ...
Five Roses Pizza on First Avenue...
The Kurowycky butcher shop is still in business; the International has yet to reopen on First Avenue...
Fontana shoe repair is still open on 10th Street...
I stood outside one of the windows on the East Seventh Street side of the former Love Saves the Day store. I wish I could describe the noise coming from the inside.
It was like hundreds of tiles were being smashed...it almost sounded frenzied, as if someone handed rowdy teens a few cases of Sparks and some sledgehammers and said, "you won't get into trouble."
Skeletons! Including a dancing one at Mars Bar! (The Gog Log)
The way it was: "The Punk Rock Movie" (Stupefaction)
And First Avenue Correspondent Blue Glass notes that ConEd continues work on First Avenue at Ninth Street after the underground fire/explosion the other day...
