EV Grieve

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

This is what a pawn shop on East 10th Street looked like on June 15, 2012

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

The Last Hurrah: Teneleven is closing after this Saturday night

As we first reported on June 5, Teneleven, a favorite neighborhood bar on Avenue C, is closing Saturday.

And here are the plans for the final night, via Teneleven's Facebook page:

Come celebrate the final night at Teneleven Bar! Let's drink and reminisce about all the good times, debaucherous nights, amazing bands, nasty performances and crazy parties! Come celebrate all the great memories that has created our Teneleven family over the years.

A new venture called Evelyn's Drinkery will be taking over the space in August.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Have you seen this bird?

A reader spotted a couple looking for the bird tonight along Avenue B... sign spotted here at East 10th Street.

Noted

Not sure where the driver is... late this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park. By Bobby Williams.

New 7-Eleven signage almost makes IHOP less noticeable on East 14th Street

Hey now. Workers put up the 7-Eleven signs today on East 14th Street.... How do you think it all looks together now?

Previously.

Another way to help the St. Mark's Bookshop — with a $250,000 grant

An email via the Cooper Square Committee...

Last fall you rallied and signed the petition to save St. Mark's Bookshop. Now we're asking for your support once more, by casting your vote to help us qualify for a $250,000 small business grant from Chase and Living Social. Just visit the Mission: Small Business website and click "Log In & Support" where you can access the site using your Facebook account. Enter "St. Mark's Bookshop" in the business search box and cast your vote. If you wish, you'll be able to share your vote and help spread the word. A few clicks can make all the difference. Thank you again for your loyalty to St. Mark's Bookshop — long live writers and readers!

[h/t Shawn Chittle]

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Plywood on Avenue C by Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C]

Looking at the new ABC No Rio (Curbed)

A new CBGB in the works (WCBS)

A 'no restaurant' policy on Avenue A (DNAinfo)

Watching the stars (in the sky) on Second Avenue Saturday night (BoweryBoogie)

Making cycling safer (Felix Salmon, Reuters)

Department of Transportation responds to bike-share criticism (Runnin' Scared)

Documentary captures spirit of Caffe Capri, a longtime coffee shop in Williamsburg (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

And there's a documentary capturing the remaining few leather merchants on Orchard Street (The Lo-Down)

Motorcycle crackdown in Stuy Town (DNAinfo)

Famed mural damaged in Waverly Inn blaze (Eater)

East Village landmarking hearing set for this afternoon

This afternoon is the long-awaited public hearing with the Landmarks Preservation Commission on the proposed East Village/Lower East Side Historic District.

You can find the background information here via the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, who along with other organizations, have been working to document the neighborhood's historical significance.

Per the GVSHP website, "The proposed district is far and away the largest expansion of landmark protections ever considered in the East Village." The GVSHP also has photos here of some of the significant buildings in the proposed historic district.

Meanwhile, for an opposing view, Rob at Save the Lower East Side! doesn't support the landmarking. He lays out his four reasons in a post from earlier this month ... You can read his arguments here.

He also talks about how the housing market is forcing out "anyone who is devoted to the life of the mind or the creation of cultural products." And an excerpt:

Who remains? Increasingly the wealthy devoted to the life of consumption. The city is gradually becoming a monoculture of nightlife augmented by tourism, a huge nightclub for the rich and their gawkers and their servants. There is nothing in that economy that guarantees a place for the arts or intellectualism beyond the elite artists and elite intellectuals. We've seen it already in the East Village.

Info: The Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing room, One Centre Street (at Chambers Street), 9th floor

Report: Crusty trouble at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

Catching up to an article in the current issue of The Villager by Lincoln Anderson titled "Crusties cross line, graffiti obscenities on East Village church."

You may have already read it. (Read the whole article here.)

Quickly... a group of crusties/travelers have been hanging out at the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery ... "Things came to a head [June 15] around 3 p.m. when three of the crusty punks graffitied over the church’s front with white latex paint. Using a paintbrush, in large block letters, they scrawled obscenity-laden messages on the portico’s bluestone slate floor, on walls and on statues and also on a small lion statue in Abe Lebewohl Park outside the church grounds."

Church officials called the NYPD ... and the trio hasn't been seen there since...

Winnie Varghese, the church’s rector, said that the crusties hanging out in the Park "are fewer in number, but more aggressive and troubled, in her view, than before." Because of drug use, the church has closed its public restrooms (only opening them for intermission during plays and Poetry Project performances).

However, one crusty isn’t deterred when he finds the bathroom locked. “I don’t know how to say this, he — takes a dump outside the theater,” the reverend said.

P.S.
Probably unrelated... but I did notice this recently...

East Village Social is now open on St. Mark's Place

We've been meaning to stop by East Village Social, the new bar-saloon that opened last week at 126 St. Mark's Place near Avenue A. (In the space previously occupied by Lychee and Why Curry?)

Anyway, looks like a good, low-key neighborhood bar.

We tracked down proprietor Dee Dee Patton on Facebook. She has been bartending in the City for 12 years now, the last four split between Niagara and the Bowery Electric. This is her first place.

"I really want East Village Social to be a locals spot that I want to hang out in," she said.

There are 10 beers on tap as well as seasonal sangrias. They also serve "comfort food with a southern spin," such as pulled pork on a biscuit with applesauce.

And they have a cool ceiling.

[Via Facebook]

Avenue B is for Bistro Avenue?

There's a new listing for a three-bedroom rental at 212 Avenue B at 13th Street (above the B Cup Cafe) ... blah, blah, the usual... and usual price ($3,500).

One line jumped out at me in the listing:

Located In The Heart Of The East Village In A Condominium Building With Brand New Gut Renovated Granite Hallways On Bistro Avenue

Bistro Avenue? Anyone ever hear this one before...? Anyone ever want to hear it again? Brokers for the building used the "Bistro" line back in April 2010. So it doesn't seem to have caught on...

FINALLY, your chance to share a studio with 5 guys in the East Village

A rental opportunity via Craigslist (apologies in advance for the ALL CAPS ... that's how Craigslist ran the ad...):

SHARE STUDIO APT WITH 5 OTHER GUYS WHO AREN'T IN THE APT MUCH FOR JUST $475 A MONTH PLUS A $475 REFUNDABLE DEPOSIT. I'LL PAY ALL UTILITY BILLS. THAT AMOUNTS TO SPENDING LESS THAN $16 A DAY TO LIVE IN MANHATTAN!

THIS IS A 1 ROOM UNPARTITIONED STUDIO APT THAT IS SORT OF SET UP DORMITORY STYLE WITH LOFT BEDS AND CURTAIN DIVIDERS.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE WHO WON'T BE SPENDING A LOT OF TIME IN THE APT AND WON'T BE BRINGING IN MUCH STUFF.

...

NO SMOKERS PLEASE AND YOU MUST BE A CAT LOVER BECAUSE I OWN A VERY AFFECTIONATE CAT.

...

AVAILABLE JULY 1ST.
SAINT MARKS PLACE at 2ND AVENUE

h/t @serenaspeaks