EV Grieve

Monday, December 5, 2011

More on the new home for Billy's Antiques

We heard the news this morning via The New York Times that Billy's Antiques will be losing its tent as the site will become home to a new two-story building. So we asked Billy Leroy about his future place of business there on Houston and the Bowery.

"I've seen the plans. It's going to be old brick imported from an old factory in Massachusetts. The will be four arched, giant doorways of metal and glass," Billy said via email. "Tony Goldman my landlord has really good taste and he is doing it right or I would not be taking a spot in the new building."

As for the space for the mural at Houston and the Bowery: It will remain, Billy said.

Plan to sterilize the Bowery nearly complete: RIP Billy's tent

We wrote this back in May:

We can't help but be nervous when we see things like surveyors at work outside Billy's Antiques on Houston... What are they surveying? What godawful thing is coming/happening next to this region near the Bowery?

Now we know: After 25 years, the tent is coming down at Billy's Antiques to make way for a two-story brick building, The New York Times reported.

Proprietor Billy Leroy confirmed that his store will reopen in the new building. But, you know. Per the Times:

[W]ith the disappearance of the tent, Mr. Leroy and his employees said, another vestige of the neighborhood’s history will vanish. It is a prospect that some of them anticipate with gloom.

“It’ll be part of that final transition to a landscape of Pottery Barns and Starbucks,” said Jesse Sommer, a member of Mr. Leroy’s staff.

Should have known when the skull blew down in August.

[Photo circa 1991 by Clayton Patterson, courtesy of Billy Leroy]

Coming soon to Seventh Street: Tink's Cafe; plus, remembering Body Worship

We don't know anything about this just yet... Dave on 7th spotted the coming soon sign here at 102 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue on Saturday ...

Dave and I reminisced for a moment about a previous tenant — Body Worship, which featured a stainless-steel penis as a door handle.

In the summer of 1994, some parishioners at St. Stanislaus across the street took offense at the store's window display, featuring, as the Times described it — "two mannequins striking sexually revealing master/slave poses prepared to engage in explicit sadomasochistic activities." The owner said it was a safe-sex message.

Bonus
The lead to the Times article, dated July 10, 1994:

In the heart of the raucous and rowdy East Village, St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Church has hung onto its aging Polish congregation even as teen-agers with nipple rings, lime green hair, tattoos and combat boots have swarmed over the neighborhood.

How would you describe this "swarm" today?

Another Urban Etiquette Sign for UCBeast

On Avenue A at East Third Street.

Previously.

Candles for Joe on East Sixth Street

During the weekend, someone placed candles outside Joe's Bar in honor of Joe the owner, who died on Thanksgiving. The longtime favorite on East Sixth Street remains closed; the bar's future uncertain.

Thanks to EV Grieve reader ~Joan for the photo.

On East Seventh Street, Sniff Aromatherapy loses its lease

A reader points out that Sniff Aromatherapy, which sells custom-mixed bath oils and other smelly stuff, is being forced from its home on 21 East Seventh St. ...

The cozy fragrance shop has been here for nearly 25 years...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Facing eviction, Village Scandal holding sale to pay for legal fees

Social Tees is on the move

Social Tees Animal Rescue is closing up its storefront on East Fourth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...

On Friday, workers began the move to Social Tees' new home... Bobby Williams was along for a few photos...

On Second Street just east off Avenue A...

Tonight: Free Cooper Union! A Community Summit

From the EV Grieve inbox...

[Image via]

Here is the official notification and invite of the long awaited COOPER COMMUNITY SUMMIT.

MONDAY DECEMBER 5TH
THE GREAT HALL, THE COOPER UNION FOUNDATION BUILDING
6:30-9:30 PM

It is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to have your presence and spirit at this event, which is going to be open to both the entire Cooper Union Community and the public. Please join us in the fight to preserve our mission to continue to provide the best undergraduate education "AS FREE AS AIR AND WATER" in art, architecture, and engineering.

Please find full event details and information below. Feel free to circulate, join on Facebook and INVITE EVERYONE.

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Join your fellow alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends for a series of alumni-led presentations on the current circumstances of The Cooper Union, followed by breakout discussions on keeping Cooper wild, healthy, brilliant – and “free as air and water.”

“I trust that all the youth of our city and country, through all coming time, will realise that this Institution has been organised for their special use and improvement; and I trust that they will rally around and protect it, and make it like a city set on a hill, that cannot be hid.” —Peter Cooper, November 2, 1859.

WHO: Free to Cooper students, alumni, staff, faculty, and our friends in the general public! Bring your Cooper ID or an Alumni Association Card, if you have one. Please RSVP in advance to freecooperunionforum@gmail.com as a courtesy.

Find all the details here.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

At the Farmers March today in the East Village

The Occupy Wall Street Farmers March started at the La Plaza Cultural community garden this afternoon at Ninth Street and Avenue C ... the group — some 250 strong — planned to march through part of the neighborhood to Zuccotti Park ... Bobby Williams was there for the first leg of the march....

Week in Grieview

[Gum busting on East 14th Street]

The owner of Joe's Bar dies (Friday)

The President ~~sped~~ drove through the East Village (Wednesday)

Nevada Smith's closed (Monday)

What 74-84 Third Avenue will look like soon (Wednesday)

7-story housing coming to Avenue B (Tuesday)

Backhouses! (Tuesday)

Rent the former CBGB Gallery (Wednesday)

A concert in Tompkins Square Park circa August 1981 (Friday)

Your Japadog progress report (Wednesday)

Why Handsome Dick Manitoba has been polyresinated (Wednesday)

Where's that new ugly hotel on the Bowery? (Thursday)

Why Vazac's was called The Bushwhack (Thursday)

Santa meets the naughty

Yesterday, we noted this welcoming Santa outside The Boys' Club on East 10th Street at Avenue A...

...and this morning... dunno who to blame for this Kringle crushing. Bored kids? Holiday haters? Some of the collective group of morons barhopping last night?

Hope that he at least made his list and checked it twice.

The Penistrator can't wait for the snow

Outside the Vitamin Shoppe on First Avenue at 14th Street...

Today in La Plaza Cultural community garden: Wall Street Farmers March

From the EV Grieve inbox ...

To participate in the Occupy Wall Street Farmers March join us at the below events:

THE FARMERS MARCH

A gathering of farmers, community gardeners, food workers and activists for dialogue, solidarity and solutions to corporate control of our food system.

2 p.m. — Public gathering and panel discussion at La Plaza Cultural Community Garden, East Ninth Street at Avenue C. Speakers include:

• Karen Washington — Founder of City Farms Market and board member at NYC-based organization Just Food.
• Jim Gerritsen — a Maine organic farmer and lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Monsanto and was named one of 25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World by Utne Reader in 2011.
• Severine von Tscharner Flemming — Food advocate and producer of the film “Green Horns”, profiling young farmer entrepreneurs.
• Jalal Sabur — Founding member of the Freedom Food Alliance, an alliance of black urban communities with black rural farmers.
• Mike Callicrate — Colorado rancher, entrepreneur and rural political activist, was a lead plaintiff in the 1990s against the world's largest beef packer, IBP, now owned by Tyson Foods.
• Andrew Faust — World-renowned permaculture expert and educator.

4 p.m. — March toward Zuccotti Park