Spring in Tompkins Square Park

Feb. 23, and we're in bloom ... Photo by Bobby Williams.

A nice day for a sack lunch in the cemetery

At the New York City Marble Cemetery on East Second Street today.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

So how many new 7-Eleven stores does this mean for the East Village?

You may have seen this in Crain's yesterday ... Basically, 7-Eleven is taking over the place. There will be 14 new 7-Elevens in the city this year. Then!

Beginning next year, 7-Eleven plans to ramp things up, adding 20 locations —ranging in size from 1,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet — every year until 2017.

They aren't ramped up already?

One more thing!

The company, which boasts 7,200 locations across the U.S. and a whopping 44,000 worldwide, is working toward converting many of its corporate-owned outposts to franchised outlets. In New York that also means working with existing bodega owners to persuade them to transform their businesses into 7-Elevens. Three such conversions will open here this year, Mr. Porter said. Typically it costs between $200,000 and $1 million to open a 7-Eleven franchise.

No! Don't fall for the 7-Eleven Mind Warp!

So... we have the new one on the Bowery... then, as we first reported, there's the one coming to St. Mark's Place near Second Avenue.

Given the number of new locations spawning ... expect more hereabouts. We're still speculating that one will open in the Red Square strip mall... And how about at a newly renovated 100 Avenue A?

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Outside Cooper Union this morning]

RIP Barney Rosset, the owner of Grove Press (The New York Times)

An interview with Rosset in his East Village home (The Paris Review)

Richard Edson revisits the East Village (The Villager)

Remembering Ira Cohen (BoweryBoogie)

The "red-soled, toddling vampires" continue to take over the Far West Village (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Celebrating local bookstores (Off the Grid)

For everyone who got shut out of buying Kraftwerk tickets at MoMa (Stupefaction)

Savoy reopening at Back Forty West (Grub Street)

First public meeting on Pier 42's future (The Lo-Down)

And Bobby Williams notes that Jim Power continues to work on a new mosaic outside the Bean on Second Avenue...

RIP Markand Thakar

[Photo by Thomas D. Ward]

The folks at Sophie's and Mona's passed along the sad news that Markand Thakar, a longtime regular at the bars, died this week. He was 82. We don't have a lot of details at the moment about a service or any possible celebrations of his life.

His artwork adorns the walls at both bars. He was a regular at the popular Tuesday night jazz sessions at Mona's. You've probably seen him there. And you'd remember having a conversation with him.

You can read about his life and work and view his art at his website, The Skunk Museum & Library. (We particularly like his oil paintings of bar scenes from the 1970s and 1980s.)

Part of his life, in his own words:

I've been asked, on numerous occasions, to explain the origins of my name and of my antecedents - and, just how did my parents, being of such different backgrounds, manage to meet? It has become obvious, that in this day of the American hyphenate, merely stating that I was born in New York City, on the 4th of July, in the fateful year, 1929 — and being the sixth child of a father born in India, and a mother born in Belgium, makes for an insufficient life history...

-------

After the drafting, during WWII, of my three older brothers, I began working as a gofer at a haberdashery that furnished the uniforms for Columbia's Navy ninety-day-wonders, then worked as a soda jerk — during which time I dropped out of High School. On July 18, 1946, shortly after I turned seventeen, I enlisted in the Regular Army and served for about a year in the post-WWII occupation of Japan. As a result, I joined my three older brothers as WWII veterans (all of us having served during WWII's emergency years).

-------

After my discharge, and over the years, I used up my GI Bill schooling allowance — during which time I worked at numerous jobs: soda jerk, bank page, RR dock worker, apprentice machinist, model maker — all the while, and from then on, I was more or less involved in the making of art. Then, from late 1953, before selling my business in 1974, I supported my wife, Betty Huber (a German Baptist, born in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1926, who was in the process of obtaining a Ph.D.) and our three children as a licensed customhouse broker and registered foreign freight forwarder. My wife of over half a century (now deceased), after obtaining her PhD. carried much of the burden of supporting the family — from 1974 on.

-------

We featured Thakar in a post this past Dec. 22.

[Photo by Thomas D. Ward]

Report: 9th Precinct adding more cops to crack down on nightlife-related problems

Capt. John Cappelmann, the 9th precinct's new commanding officer, told residents that eight to 10 officers would join his ranks next month to help crack down on nightlife-related problems, DNAinfo reported.

During a Community Council meeting Tuesday night, "Cappelmann said he was responding to concerns he has heard from East Village residents since taking over the command about a month ago. Many residents turned out for Tuesday night's meeting to complain about noise and unruly crowds emanating from the neighborhood's densely packed bars."

He said that he'd assign the extra officers to the midnight conditions and midnight anticrime teams. (And how about a Sunday Brunch conditions team?)

Blockbuster closes on March 18

On Jan. 29, we noted that the Blockbuster on East Houston in the Red Square strip was going out of business ... At the time, a Blockbuster employee said that they'd close on Feb. 29.

However, we just heard that the Blockbusterers pushed the date back to March 18 (confirmed by a Blockbuster employee) ... so in case that you are in the market for any previously viewed DVDs or DVD display cases...

Now.

Two questions.

1) Has anyone checked out the sale items? Worth a look? We've never had a Blockbuster membership. Do you need to be a member to buy any of the crap?

2) The store has been on the block for a year now ... looks as if Sleepy's is part of the deal too ... the listing has it going for $75 a square foot... What would you like to see in the space? (Shoe store! Egg shop! Zine store! Heh.) What do you think will end up in the space? (And please be more specific than, say, "something shitty.")

Sorry — that was four questions.

Take a bath, get transported to Italy

Oh, just pointing out a listing for a two-bedroom home at 119 E. 10th Street — "central village" as the listings always list ... Nice place. Which is what you'd expect for $6,000 in rent per month.

Per the listing:

With two wood burning fireplaces, North and South views and a bathroom which transports you to Italy, this home will not disappoint!

Hey look — new street signs!

Last Friday morning, we watched DOT employees start to put up new street signs on First Avenue...

So, before, the intersections looked like this via Google Maps with Street View...

[Whistling...not commenting]

Now, the city has placed the street names in a much more prominent position over the Avenues, as these photos by EV Grieve regular peter radley show...

Not sure how much difference they make to pedestrians ... but, if you're driving, you'll likely have an easier time finding, say, McSorley's ... And are these part of that federal mandate for all street signs to use a lowercase font called Clearview? I'm just not a font person.

Tonight: Fighting the NYU expansion plan

Find more details here.

Life Cafe listing now online

Earlier today, we pointed out that a for lease sign has appeared in the window of the Life Cafe space on 10th Street and Avenue B.

NYREX has now posted the listing, though there isn't much information, such as the monthly rent for this prime space.

Owner Kathy Kirkpatrick closed the 30-year-old cafe last September ... while the two landlords completed long overdue repairs. Life "spans a space belonging to two different buildings with two different landlords whose dispute over the price of the work contract has prevented construction from starting," as The Villager reported last fall.

There goes the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Workers are cleaning out the space at 75 St. Mark's Place this afternoon, as this photo by EV Grieve reader David shows...

The bar closed back on Jan. 29. Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, and Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa next door, are teaming up to open a tavern-restaurant that serves staples such as fish-n-chips.

Sibley told Grub Street that they were "going to try to preserve as much of the history as possible."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

A video tour of Anthony Pisano's Seventh Street apartment (Gothamist)

City may eliminate half the pre-K classes at two East Village schools (DNAinfo)

Andy Warhol's New York — 25 years later (The Village Voice)

Inside the last Times Square flophouse — the Elk Hotel (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

A new record from Joey Ramone 11 years after his death (Rolling Stone)

Why underage drinking in New York is on the rise (The Daily News)

FDNY on the scene at 20 Avenue A

RyanAvenueA notes that firefighters were on the scene this morning at 20 Avenue A at Second Street. Residents said that they smelled smoke. One firefighter on the scene said that everything was OK, though he didn't provide any further details.

A major roof fire broke out next door at 240 Houston back in July 2010.