Friday, October 29, 2010

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition



Police arrest suspect in Tuesday night's Stanton Street shooting (The Lo-Down)

The Best of Manhattan (and Beyond) issue from NYPress (NYPress)

What's replacing the "Hell" marquee at the New Museum (Curbed)

Where you can still shop at Love Saves the Day (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

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...


Holy f@cking sh#t! The EV Lambo is dead!?



NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Thanks to Chris O'Leary for the tip. Photo first posted on Trottoria.

Previously.

Updated now to include a waste of 48 seconds of your life:

5C Cultural Center & Cafe continues eviction battle



The owners of 5C Cultural Center & Cafe, which opened in 1995 at Avenue C and Fifth Street, continue to battle being evicted by their landlord... As Time Out put it earlier this month: "Sadly, it’s an all-too-familiar story: Another cherished downtown cultural hub is in danger of disappearing."

Here's more from the piece and co-owner Bruce Morris: “'The basic claim is that we violated the terms of the lease,'” explains Morris, noting that he feels 'the landlord’s thought is, How can we harass them enough to get them out?' Based on the landlord’s claims — that they changed the facade, altered a window and didn’t soundproof the space, all of which Morris denies."

You can read the rest of the TONY article here. And Morris wrote about their ongoing landlord troubles in The Shadow here.

Meanwhile, there's a fundraiser tomorrow night at 6 featuring Shoshke-Rayzl on guitar and co-owner Trudy Silver on piano...it's also the birthday of one of their founding directors, Silvia Ravelo.

Via e-mail, Silver told me: "We're back in court on November 10th, ... last court date many students, parents, seniors, musicians and educators showed up in support."

Passion and progress at the new home of the Lower Eastside Girls Club

Big day today for the Lower Eastside Girls Club... they'll be holding a press ceremony for their official groundbreaking for their new home on Avenue D between Seventh Street and Eighth Street .... aside from some local politicians, Rosario Dawson will be on hand...

And there is significant progress here to note....




Meanwhile, Girls Club Executive Director Lyn Pentecost told me about the five murals on their construction fence along Avenue D ... painted by some of the leading women in the graffiti movement: TooFly, Lenora Jayne, Marthalicia and CeCe. (You can read more about it on Lenora Jayne's blog here.)







All very good news...

Jumpin' at the Coal Yard

As we reported back in the summer, the painfully generic Lilly Coogan's shuttered on First Avenue near Sixth Street... And, Molly and Shawn from the International the next block north, have taken over this space....

And the bar is now open... and, we're not ones to fuss, but....



By far the best new bar to open in the East Village of late... simple...inexpensive... full of locals (at least earlier in the business day) ... and no TV (thank you!)...

Video of the attempted child abduction on Sixth Street and Avenue B



Via a report on ABC 7 ...

Meanwhile, on the Second Avenue bike lane...

Two nights ago...on Second Avenue and Seventh Street...



Last evening...on the other side of the Avenue, where this sign was...

Wig stock




Caring for the wigs on St. Mark's Place near Third Avenue.

7B adds a little Megadeath on the jukebox


Thursday, October 28, 2010

A memorial on Seventh Street




In front of 272 E. Seventh St., where 21-year-old Christopher Jusko was stabbed to death early Monday morning.

Police still searching for man who tried to abduct 4 year old



The latest from NY1:

According to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, the man in the above surveillance video put his arms around the boy, saying something like “you’re coming with me kid." It happened shortly after the boy, his twin sister, and their nanny exited a taxi cab at Avenue B and 6th Street in the East Village at around 11 a.m. yesterday.


The suspect is described as a black man, 45 to 55 years old, with a slim build, about 5'6" to 5'8" tall, and was wearing a brown hooded sweatshirt with writing on the front and faded black jeans.

Anyone with information in regards to this attempted abduction is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.

You can also submit your tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website or texting your tips to 274637(CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.

Reader looking for an East Village charity to make clothing donation


From the EV Grieve inbox...

"Do you know any East Village charities, for seniors preferably, who are in need of good-quality clothing donations? I have bags of stuff I've never had on my back that need to be liberated from my closet: I thought I would try to donate outside the usual places I give to, like Housing Works and Salvation Army...and especially in the neighborhood."


Any (serious) suggestions?

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition



CB3 continues debate on liquor license approval (The Lo-Down)

The Grumbler examines the awesome They Live (The Grumbler)

Razing 119 Orchard (BoweryBoogie)

Was that Rihanna and Dr. Dre shooting a video last night on Seventh Street and First Avenue? (Neighborhoodr)

Not much left of the beloved Fedora (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Memories of Pete Townshend at the Fillmore East (Huffington Post)

And I'm still making my way through this letter from Louis that I found on St. Mark's Place...




And that PSA featuring a younger Lady Gaga (at the 40-second mark) that's making the Internet rounds...

Sane 'exhibitionist' looking for two female roommates for fun — not to mention clean, safe sex


No lease, though! As always, Craigslist! (Shockers! It has already been removed!)

$200 Exhibitionist guy wants 2 female roommates (East Village)
Date: 2010-10-26, 5:42PM EDT

I am a young single guy looking for a 2 female roommates. I am an exhibitionist... Its artistic and not in dirty way. I am also looking for clean and safe sex. I am clean, sane, friendly and respectful and fun to be with. So, if you are female and open minded, please drop me a note and we can be roommates. Ideal for female college students and artists. No lease, month to month. Send email with your picture.


[Hat tip to the EV Grieve reader who sent this along...]

Inside Otto's Shrunken Head after the fire

As you know, an early-morning fire broke out at Otto's Shrunken Head on Sunday... Everyone I've talked with has said the same thing: It could have been a lot worse...

Still, it's pretty bad... Thanks to DJ Xerox, who plays at Otto's and lives in the same building on 14th Street, for passing along these photos of the damage. Co-owner Nell Mellon told me Sunday night via e-mail that the showroom was the hardest hit in the bar.












There is good news to report: If all goes as expected, the front room at Otto's will reopen tomorrow night. (Check their Twitter feed to make sure they are open.) No timetable just yet for the back room.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Assessing the damage at Otto's Shrunken Head

Breaking: Early-morning fire at Otto's Shrunken Head

Pipe dreams on 14th Street

EV Grieve reader Joe, who captured the World Famous EVLambo©, passes along these shots of a rather tight turn here on 14th Street and Second Avenue last night around 10:30 ...




And your guess is as good as mine...

Three-building parcel on Avenue B now on market for $21 million



Massey Knakal has listed the three buildings making up 40-44 Avenue B.

Here's the description:

Three adjacent 24’ wide buildings combine for 72’ of frontage along Avenue B in the heart of the East Village. The properties are five-story plus basement walk-up mixed-use apartment buildings. The buildings combine for approximately 23,697 total above grade square feet. There are 4 stores and 33 apartments of which 1 is rent stabilized, 2 are rent controlled and the remaining 33 units are all free market. The buildings consist of 25 one-bedroom apartments and 11 two-bedroom units. The rent regulated units have average rents of $652 per month versus the average rent of a free market (renovated) one-bedroom apartment of $2,430 per month. The average rent of the two-bedroom units is $3,316 per month. In addition there are four retail stores that have leases expiring between February 2103 and June 2022. The average rent for the four stores is $62/SF, nearly 50% of what market rents are for retail along the Avenue B corridor. All of the free market units have been renovated to include new hardwood floors, marble tiles in the bathrooms, granite countertops and new appliances including dishwashers in the kitchens and washer/dryer in the units. ... Expenses are extremely low as the tenants in 40-42 have their own individual boilers and pay for their own heat and hot water. Vacancies at these buildings are few and far between.


No mention in the description that these buildings were heavily damaged during a four-alarm fire back in 2004.

[Fill in the blank]



Looking north on Seventh Street and Second Avenue last evening....alongside the southbound bike lane...

No sign of development sign on empty Cooper Square lot

Back in August, the development sign went up on the empty lot at Sixth Street and Cooper Square.... Never did see a listing for it at the Massey Knakal site.



Anyway, as of this week, the sign is gone...



Perhaps the lot has already been sold (doubtful) ... or maybe a new, bigger sign is going up? Regardless, we're curious about this sign development....

Today in new signage




St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue. Previously.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Police looking for man who tried to abduct 4 year old on Sixth Street



Per ABC 7:

Police in the East Village are looking for a man who they say attempted to abduct a 4-year-old boy.

The little boy was walking with his nanny west bound on 6th Street between Avenues A and B around 11 a.m., when the suspect picked up the boy and tried to walk away with him.

The nanny started to scream and grabbed the child away from the suspect.

The suspect is described as a black man, 45 to 55 years old, with a slim build, about 5'6" to 5'8" tall, and was wearing a brown hooded sweatshirt with writing on the front and faded black jeans.

Anyone with information in regards to this attempted abduction is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.

You can also submit your tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website or texting your tips to 274637(CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.

More double rainbows!



The above shot is from Paul Dougherty outside his window this evening at 5:35. He quickly quickly collaged it together ... "the most perfect rainbow I've seen, going from 14th & 1st Ave to the waterside towers in Williamsburg."

...and a shot a reader sent along from Midtown...



Earlier!

Somewhere over the double rainbow on 14th Street



Cool shot from earlier this evening via @pauljonwallace.

Triple bonus points for the double rainbow shot from this vantage....

City Council approves the East Village Rezoning this afternoon


From the inbox via the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation...

The East Village Rezoning (also known as the Third and Fourth Avenue Corridors Rezoning) covers eight blocks between Third and Fourth Avenues, 9th and 13th Streets. The new zoning will for the first time impose height caps of approximately 12 stories and eliminate the current zoning bonus for dorms and hotels in the predominantly residential area, thus prohibiting the construction in the area of more of the types of mega-dorms we have seen from NYU in recent years.

You can learn more about GVSHP’s efforts to preserve the East Village through landmark designation at our program “Landmarking the East Village” tonight from 5:30 to 7pm at the Tompkins Square Library, 331 East 10th Street (btw. Avenues A and B), which will begin with a brief account and summary of today’s critical rezoning victory. RSVP by calling (212) 475-9585 ext. 35.

For your East Village bike lane travels: The invisible airbag bicycle helmet



This item is getting passed around the Internet... a reader just sent it to my attention... with all the bike talk here, thought it might make good fodder for a post....

Via Core 77:

Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin's Hövding bicycle helmet blew our minds — it works like an airbag, inflating immediately before impact from a shawl-like collar worn around the neck


Here's how it works...



Don't know if they're planning a line for pedestrians too.