How does the 9th Precinct fare in handing out quality-of-life summonses?

You may have seen this earlier today over at Gothamist... Last year, the NYPD issued 348,851 "pink slip" summons for a variety of quality-of-life infractions, including open container, public urination and riding a bike on a sidewalk. (And maybe all three at once!)

Now, students at the Columbia School of Journalism complied all these offenses by precinct/neighborhood... you can find the results in The New York World, including a cool interactive map.

How did we fare at the 9th Precinct? The neighborhood didn't even rate in the top of any category. For instance, the 90th Precinct (Williamsburg) issued the most summonses for open container last year with 6,192. The 9th Precinct had 1,626 ... How about public urination? Top: 115th Precinct in Queens with 1,808; 9th Precinct, 224.

Wonder how the 9th Precinct would have faired with summonses for woo?

[The New York World]

Report: New York Observer publisher buys 5 East Village walk-ups

New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner, also the principal owner of Kushner Properties, has purchased a $53 million portfolio of walk-ups in the city, including five in the East Village.

According to Lois Weiss at the Post, this properties are:

• 267 E. 10th St.
• 435 E. 9th St.
• 311 E. 11th St. (Huh? This is the nice new Village Green Building)
• 311 E. 6th St.

Another building in the portfolio — at 99 E. 7th St. — will close next month, Weiss reported.

On Aug. 22, The New York Times reported that demand for and sales of walk-up buildings have "reached new highs recently." Per the article:

With rents rising, the fact that many Manhattan walk-up buildings have tenants with rent-regulated apartments offers landlords the possibility of a very large increase in profits when these units are deregulated and shift to market rates. There is also upside potential to raise rents in the market rate units if landlords renovate a walk-up building, many of which have not been modernized in decades.

[Image via Wikipedia]

First Avenue Pierogi & Deli closed for now, reopening in 2 weeks

EVG favorite First Avenue Pierogi & Deli (near St. Mark's) has been closed of late...

[December 2011]

I assumed that they were on holiday — the owners usually take off this time of year. However, several readers said that it looked like a carpenter was inside working on the store... Sure enough, as this photo via EVG reader John G. shows... vacation aside, it appears that the space is getting scrubbed up a bit... maybe a new floor and wall tiles...

...a man working on the space told me on Friday that they'd reopen within two weeks. All fine, as long as they don't re-do those signs in the display case...

[Via Flickr]

Here's Eric Asimov writing about their pierogis for the Times back in January 1999:

They are marvelously delicate and savory, nothing like the sturdy, gummy dumplings that are more common. And the bigos is fabulous, fragrant with spices and full of smoky sweet-and-sour flavor.

Out and About in the East Village

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.

By James Maher

Name: Anthony Pepe
Occupation: Nurse, Waiter, Retired
Location: 2nd Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues
Time: 2:30 on Thursday, Aug. 30

"I’ve lived in this building since 1971. I’m retired. Half the time here I was a waiter and then I went to school and I became a nurse at a hospital in Brooklyn. I came here at the time because it was cheap… then.

This block, up until the middle of Koch’s administration, was a very bad block — mostly drug addicts and welfare recipients. It was not a safe block. I didn’t really feel like I had to watch out myself because I was young and young people don’t care, but it was bad for women sometimes.

At one time the cemetery across the street was a forest. It was so unkempt. You couldn’t see inside. People used to throw garbage in there. Why, I don’t know, and it used to have a lot of cats. No more. Also, a man once was burglarizing the top floor of this building and he fell off and another time a drug addict was injecting himself up on the roof and badaboom. Both dead.

It started to get better in the early '80s, although whether it’s better at worse I don’t know. It was an improvement, but it has become too expensive. We still have reasonable rents but the stores are just so expensive now. Key Food was once so cheap. Cheap. Now you can’t go in there; they think they’re Whole Foods.

I miss the old timers; I hardly know anyone in my building. All the landlords are turning their apartments into little hotels, which is illegal, or they only rent to NYU students. They get a big turnover that way. There are a lot of tourists that stay here. The landlords make money and I guess it’s cheaper for the tourists."

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Flyer campaign targets CB3 district manager 'for assault on our civil liberties'

You may have seen these flyers around the neighborhood the past day or two... @bacondevil spotted this one on Second Avenue at East Fifth Street...

There was also one spotted on East 14th Street at Second Avenue... Per the flyer, someone is accusing Community Board 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer as being an "assassin of New York's creativity" who is "wanted for assault on our civil liberties."

The Lo-Down, who first reported on the flyers yesterday, spoke with Stetzer. She said that she doesn't know why anyone why would have done this ... "but she believes they could be related to liquor license applications."

Speaking as a resident during a CB3/SLA meeting last summer, Stetzer did publicly oppose the restaurant-bar-music venue project in the works for 34 Avenue A. CB3 ultimately rejected all the proposals for the former Aces & Eights space, and it will soon be home to Ruff Club, "a social club for dogs."

Last December, Stetzer was one of the many city officials tweaked in the annual holiday invite from activist Allen Roskoff. According to Scoopy's Notebook, Stetzer was depicted "as a sexy pole dancer because ... she's a foe of bars and clubs."

(Some residents also criticized Stetzer in the fall of 2010 for her role to possibly limit the number of concerts in Tompkins Square Park. You can read that background here.)

As far as these types of flyers go, this one seems rather mild by comparison. Back in the spring, a few flyers appeared around the neighborhood about developer Ben Shaoul. As reported by The New York Times in July, they read, in part: "I pledge to rape the East Village of every last vestige of creativity," and concluded: "You gotta problem wit dat?"

The politics of stickers

Spotted on East Seventh Street at Cooper Square...

...and in Tompkins Square Park...

[Bobby Williams]

I previously posted both of these on the EV Grieve Facebook page, where you can find other non-blog photos and links and crap.

260 Bowery soon to be set free

Last Wednesday, we looked at the groan-worthy new rendering for the currently vacant Amato Opera building ...

There's also a newish rendering for 260 Bowery ... currently the Standard Sheetmetal Fabrication Corp., which we discussed back in May.

Before!

Now!

You have been liberated!

Noted

A reader notes that the Starbucks is now open on First Avenue at East 13th Street ... "and it was pretty full."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Today in rumors of another Starbucks opening in the East Village

219 First Avenue ready for a chain store, probably

Starbucks confirmed for 219 First Ave., former home to Allen Ginsberg's favorite Chinese restaurant

What it costs to live in newly renovated apartments above a Starbucks in the East Village

Web of trouble? Here lies Spidey's rickshaw

Bobby Williams spotted Spidey's rickshaw here on East 10th Street near Stuyvesant Street... Perhaps operator Shaun Emerson is nearby? Or is there something far more sinister happening here...?

His rickshaw was stolen once before... BoweryBoogie caught up with Rickshaw Spidey recently on Ludlow Street ...

Anyway, we have a call out to Aunt May.

Graffiti looking to expand on East 10th Street

[Google]

Atelier Muse, a bridal boutique at 224 E. 10th St., closed earlier in the summer... and it looks as if the store's next-door neighborhood, Graffiti, the acclaimed small-plates place from chef Jehangir Mehta, has designs on expanding.

An unnamed applicant for 224 E. 10th St. is on this month's CB3/SLA docket. According to documents on file at CB3 (PDF), Mehta would expand from his current small space, adding four tables (20 seats total) and a stand-up bar with five seats.

Looks as if they'd expand their hours too, from 10:30 p.m. currently on Sunday-Thursday to midnight, and from 11:45 p.m. on Friday-Saturday to 2 a.m.

The SLA & DCA Licensing Committee meets on Monday at 6:30 p.m., at the JASA/Green Residence, 200 East 5th Street at Bowery.

Chris Frantz hosting 'Downtown Rockers' this afternoon on East Village Radio

From the EV Grieve inbox ...

Listen live to EVR.com today at 4 pm ET as Tom Tom Club's Chris Frantz hosts a very special show, honoring NYC's proverbial downtown music scene. ... A former guest of the EVR studio, Chris will host Downtown Rockers, a special show by the EP's name this afternoon at 4pm ET.

The 2-hour special will be highlighted with Frantz's inimitable knowledge of the neighborhood scene from "back in the day", as well as featuring music from the band's new release and commentary from friends of Frantz, including The Dead Boys' Cheetah Chrome, Blondie's Debbie Harry, Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers' Jerry Harrison and Television's Billy Ficca. Frantz's wife and Tom Tom Club bandmate Tina Weymouth will also be contributing to the special.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[On East Third Street]

Fifty-seven-year old Lord John's Bootery becomes a 16 Handles on Third Avenue (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Red Mango opens Friday in Stuy Town (pcvstBee)

Formerly historic 135 Bowery now for sale (BoweryBoogie)

Video interview with the Union Square bully (Gothamist)

Get ready for the Big Gay Ice Cream cookbook (Grub Street)

Protesting a proposed bus stop on Essex Street (The Lo-Down)

Ack: "Guy Fieri's 500 seat restaurant is opening on Thursday and there's nothing you can do about it" (Eater)

And Melanie at East Village Corner shares a photo... crews for "Blue Blood" are back on parts of Avenue A and elsewhere...

...and an EVG reader shared this photo of a van for Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten ... one of his reps was shopping at the St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery Greenmarket this morning... buying a lot of peaches while trying to prevent receiving a parking ticket from the NYPD...

Looking at the Immaculate Conception Church

The flea market at the Mary Help of Christians' lot ended its run Sunday on Avenue A at East 11th Street. The flea market will be moving over to the Immaculate Conception Church on East 14th Street and First Avenue in October, first noted by The Villager.

The church was renovated a few years back ...

We figure that vendors/shoppers will enter the church's courtyard via this entrance on East 14th Street...

Have you ever been back in here? It's a lovely spot... quite peaceful, really, considering what a horror show the intersection of East 14th Street and First Avenue can be.

We're assuming the vendors will be in this space...

Bonus photo of the exterior of everyone's favorite East Village helical-slide-showcasing duplex penthouse next door...

Anyway, it's a smaller space than Mary Help of Christians... not sure how it can handle the usual sprawl. They'll likely be fewer vendors. Not sure if it will – or can — have the same vibe... We'll see.

A few people shared thoughts on all this the other day on our post... Early sentiment seems to be: Better than nothing. What do you think about the new location for the flea market?

Moving day(s)

As you probably noticed, the entire neighborhood a lot of people moved these past few days... Maybe you did too? I know of three people who moved to Brooklyn.

The first tenants moved into 315 E. 10th St. on Friday ... also, someone apparently outgrew his or her "Star Wars" phase...

I saw a sanitation official writing a ticket for an apartment building on East 13th Street where someone left huge piles of crap out front... which is why some people chucked their stuff away from buildings...

... and people left two-part notes on this throwaway couch on Second Avenue and East Fifth Street ... via @Ewingweb ...

Here's what's left of 185-193 Avenue B

Nothing.

Don't expect to see any construction just yet here on Avenue B at East 12th Street for the 7-story apartment building — the city hasn't approved the plans.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Inside the Charles

Former landmark countercultural theater now for rent on Avenue B

7-story building in the works to replace former countercultural theater/church on Avenue B

Led Zeppole apparently becoming Chubby Mary's on East 14th Street

As you can see, Led Zeppole, the fried-dessert homage to Coney Island on East 14th Street, has apparently given way to something called Chubby Mary's ... also from the Artichoke Pizza team...

Zumiez opening first Manhattan outpost on Broadway and East 13th Street

The Seattle-based skate/snowboard shop is opening its first Manhattan outpost on Broadway and East 13th Street... the coming soon signs are up now in the space that was last home to Forbidden Planet, which moved a few storefronts to the south earlier in the summer ...

Per the Zumiez website:

We made our debut in the Seattle area in 1978, with a single store location at Northgate Mall. Now we have grown, and currently have over 400 retail stores that reach across the United States. We do what others have only dreamed of! We provide you with cutting edge clothing, footwear, accessories, DVDs, hard goods for skate and snow for active lifestyles. Everything we do revolves around the customer—you are the heart of our company.

Zumiez has a store in Queens and Staten Island, but not in Manhattan...

[Updated] Baoguette Cafe still looks rather closed

On Sunday, we noted that Michael "Bao" Huynh's Baoguette Cafe on St. Mark's Place near Second Avenue looked rather closed... and in some disarray. A sign out front said that they'd be closed for a couple of hours... They are still closed.

Huynh seems to go through quite a few concepts, such as DOB 111 and Barbao on St. Mark's Place... which came and went... and BaoBQ on First Avenue, which closed last month.

Updated 9-4 12:15 — Eater gets confirmation that Huynh has closed this location.

DANGER at the former kind of weird sushi place on the Bowery

Here at EVG favorite That kind of weird sushi place on the Bowery ... which has been closed since December... a new sign has appeared...

DANGER!

[Bobby Williams]

Anyway, we kind of lost track what was coming in here... An entity titled Wisemen (355 WM Restaurant Inc) went before the CB3/SLA back in January to open a full‐service restaurant serving meat‐focused small plates ... as far as we know, that was all OK'd. Hope that they mind the Hazardous Gas Cylinders.

Soft opening set for new Lucky Chengs's, where Leonardo DiCaprio has already seen some breasts

According to the Lucky Cheng's Facebook page, the drag cabaret will likely have a soft opening at their new 52nd Street location on Sept. 26 (subject to change, of course...)

Also, the hiring process continues:

UPDATE ON Lucky Chengs INTERVIEW AND AUDITIONS:

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH at 240 W 52nd St.

12pm for interviews as a boy. Bring a resume and a picture of you as a girl.

5pm for auditions as a girl. Bring a number no longer than 2 minutes.

***Everyone must audition regardless of applying for host, bar, or server.***

***This process will be filmed by Peacock Productions for potential inclusion in a reality television show project. You DO NOT have to be filmed in order to be considered for employment.****

Last note about the new Lucky Cheng's ... Martin Scorsese has made use of the new space. According to Page Six, his crew "decked out the soon-to-be-open drag bar ... to look like a strip joint" for a scene in his upcoming "The Wolf of Wall Street," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey.

Per Page Six last Friday: "The girls were rubbing their breasts in Leo’s face," says a source. "There were five or six of them, but he seemed very professional and looked great in an ’80s-style suit."

Not sure what the "five or six of them" refers to...Uh, meanwhile, no official word yet on a new tenant for the current space on First Avenue...

Previously.