Today in the Tompkins Square Park playground

Via EVG reader Terry Towery...

Week in Grieview

[East 10th Street and Avenue C yesterday. By Shawn Chittle]

The East Village is getting popular (Friday)

The East Village has a lot of bars (Thursday)

Graffiti is expanding on East 10th Street (Tuesday)

New York Observer publisher buys 5 East Village walk-ups (Wednesday)

Looking at the new home for the Avenue A flea market (Tuesday)

Standing in line for $1 FroYo (Thursday)

Porchetta.Hog closed for now on East Fifth Street (Thursday)

Chubby Mary's opening on East 14th Street (Monday)

"Pudgy purse snatcher" alert (Wednesday)

Baoguette Cafe closes on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday)

Arabella 101 50% leased on Avenue D (Thursday)

A chase after after a stolen iPhone (Thursday)

Workers have gutted the former Cabrini Center on East Fifth and Avenue B (Thursday)

Pop art on East 10th Street (Monday)

'We would love the community to join us as we say goodbye'

Last weekend, a neighbor of Mary Help of Christians on East 12th Street said that the church was having its final mass last Sunday. That was incorrect information. Parishioner Josephine left us a message saying that the last mass will be celebrated there today at 11:30.

Per Josephine: "We would love the community to join us as we say goodbye."

The church will be making way for some sort of yet-specified new development.

Previously.

On Avenue A last night

Photos by Shawn Chittle.

And leftover from Friday night via EVG reader Duke...

World Famous Pee Phone now getting in on the farm-to-table craze

Broccoli? That's so 2007. Where's the kale? Seventh Street and Avenue A.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Today in photos of angry looking storm clouds

As I first reported, it rained today.

And our brave correspondents, uh, braved the rain for these photos...

Via Matt LES_Miserable...

And from Greg Masters...

...from EVG...

...and Shawn Chittle...

Bomb Pop opens tonight at Bullet Space

New exhibit at Bullet Space opens tonight at 6... (the exhibit is up through Oct. 27).

At 292 E. Third St. between Avenue C and Avenue D.

Death Star crane construction KOs half of Third Avenue today

Crews here from the Galactic Empire to install the superlaser weapon to work on 51 Astor Place.

Previously.

Oh, you just HAD to know what was in the box

Spotted at East 10th Street near Fourth Avenue. And is this some new Marc Jacobs line for Fashion Week?

Free concert tomorrow in Tompkins Square Park

Via the EV Grieve inbox...

[David Peel from July 2011]

Tomorrow in Tompkins Square Park:

The Comrades 2 - 2:20
Mans Gin 2 - 2:55
Alienz 3 - 3:25
Jennifer Blowdryer 3:35 - 4:00
David Peel 4:10 - 4:40
A Truth 4:50 - 5:20
The Non-Prophets 5:30-6:00

This show commemorates the events of September 11, 2001 and embraces new activist energy while celebrating the vitality of the counter cultural scene that has survived on the Lower East Side, despite the rampant gentrification, soaring rents and lost venues that have contributed to the cultural genocide sweeping New York City.

Brought to you by The SHADOW, Wombat in Combat and......Those Fucking Anarchists...

[Thanks to John Marshall Mantel for the photo]

[Updated] East 10th Street Block Fair today

[Bobby Williams]

A much better street fair.

Updated:

A few photos from the Block Fair via Bobby Williams...

Morning on First Avenue

Live on the sunset strip

Photo by Bobby Williams.

No tech bubbles

The bubble fellow is back... Photos this evening in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams.

All together now...

Patti Smith from 1988 with "People Have the Power."

So, how about that 'nightlife district' in the East Village?

Well, it doesn't seem as if that idea for an East Village "nightlife district" is off to a rousing start. On Wednesday night, CB3's Economic Development Committee met to hold preliminary conversations about zoning changes that would place restrictions on the location of clubs and large bars.

As Grub Street reported today, committee co-chair Richard Ropiak said while the idea might have worked 20 years ago in the East Village, "it ain't going to happen now."

Paul Seres of New York City Hospitality Alliance told Grub Street that the city "probably isn't ready for a dedicated club district, but that it might be able to create one 'post-Bloomberg.'"

Bloomberg only has one or two more terms, right?

[Image via]

Today on First Avenue

... between East 13th and East 14th Streets...

Is that a yarn hammock?

Looks comfortable.

Photos by Dave on 7th.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Spotted on First Avenue near East First Street]

A talk with the author of "Buried on Avenue B" (The New York Times)

The Slipper Room returns (Musto)

Fashionable mob trashes Audi at Broadway and Bleecker (Gothamist)

[Video] A slice of Third Avenue life circa 1980 (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Somehow the LES to fit in yet another hotel (BoweryBoogie)

Sietsema gives a nice plug to the always-reliable John's of 12th Street (Fork in the Road)

A feature on Grey Era Vintage on East 9th Street (DNAinfo)

Bowery subway attacker gets 13 years (The Lo-Down)

9/11 memoirals in the City (Ephemeral New York)

... and tonight... if you haven't seen "The Vanishing City" yet...

Village Zendo
588 Broadway just below Houston
East side of Broadway
11th Floor, Suite 1108
7:30
$10

[Updated] Mysterious (for now!) balloons arrive on East 14th Street

EVG reader Aaron sends along these shots this morning... someone (a protester?) put up signs from ballons at the intersections of 14th Street and Third Avenue and 14th Street and Irving Place.

Aaron couldn't make out the signs. Anyone else see them?

Updated:

See the comments for more info. And @robbyohara notes that DOT workers have removed the balloons and signs....

The Big Dig begins at The Mystery Lot

Construction equipment arrived at the Mystery Lot back on July 23... and crews this morning are now digging in, as you can see from this photo via EVG reader Katja...

Next stop, the Lowline!

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Mystery Lot likely facing a luxurious end

The last days of the Mystery Lot

'Desperate Endeavors' leads to the Essex Card Shop on Avenue A

Essex Card Shop on Avenue A is arguably the best mom-and-pop shop in the neighborhood. And today, its owner, Jayant Patel, celebrates the theatrical release of a movie based on his life. Patel serves as the executive producer of "Desperate Endeavors," which is playing at the Quad Cinema on East 13th Street.

The movie is adapted from Patel's 1991 book, "Seeking Home: An Immigrant's Realization." A little about the plot:

Derived from a true story, the film "Desperate Endeavors" revolves around the misadventures of newly arrived immigrant Ram Patel to NYC in 1973. Attempting to extricate himself from a self-dug hole, 'Ram' encounters more obstacles than he can count, and ultimately finds a remedy to his numerous problems by encountering a spiritual adviser, legendary 'Dada Bhagwan' played by Bollywood star Gulshan Grover. Also stars Michael Madsen, Robert Clohessy, Ismail Bashey & Samrat Chakrabarti.

If you've been in the store at any time in recent weeks, then you likely received a flyer for the movie. Several readers told me about the movie... apparently this word-of-mouth is how the book ever got into the hands of a filmmaker — through a customer in the film business who heard about the book and passed it along...

I look forward to seeing the film... even though I may know how it ends...

The ABCs of Alphabet City today

[Play-fighting in Tompkins Square the other day, by Bobby Williams]

East Village Week continues at The Wall Street Journal ... On Wednesday, there was the piece on the growing number of bars and all that. Today, there's a piece titled "Contrasts Grow as Alphabet City Evolves," focusing on Avenues A-D.

To the article!

Alphabet City has capitalized. Recently, it has become the go-to neighborhood for franchise extensions from fancier parts of town — the West Village's Westville, Park Slope's Fonda and Chelsea's Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre — rendering it a kind of Epcot version of the city's coolness.

And!

Perhaps the most telltale sign of the brighter days for Alphabet City came last year, when Tompkins Square Park, which for decades was a seedy, drug-addled tent city for the homeless, installed permanent ping-pong tables, a nod to the changing demographics swinging toward both affluent hipsters and young families.

And the quote of the day goes to!

"We're seeing a lot more young women come to the neighborhood, I'd say a 70/30 split," said Arik Lipshitz, president of DSA Realty, a local firm started by his father in 1986. New residents work in fashion, tech and media. "Not so much finance," he said. But also not just waiters and bartenders and that kind of thing. These are proper professionals now."

Looking for the plane truth

EVG reader M shares this photo that he took last night around 7 in the sky over the East Village...

It's a little grainy... but you can clearly make out two planes... M first asked if we had heard anything about two planes. We had not. "I guess it was nothing...or at least nothing we'll ever hear about."

True.

Here's a narrative from M: "They were both flying in the same western direction, with the trailing plane gaining on the front plane. When I lost sight of them they couldn't have been more than a football field apart. And both were at roughly the same altitude from what I could see I'd guess 10,000 feet, so not a photo op type flight."

Any non-Lady Gaga-related theories? Like, fighter jets?

100 Avenue A, the spot

Photo and text by East Village resident Edward Arrocha via Facebook

Sunday morning... he sleeps it off... a black eye, who knows, perhaps a fight. 100 avenue A... it has become the spot... he has a water bottle next to him... ah another day in the avenue...

Hyatt Union Square entrance looking underwhelming (for now!)

At long last workers have removed the plywood from the front entrance at the incoming Hyatt Union Square on Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street... And! Five years in the making...

Well, OK. Obviously there's work to do. Unless this is supposed to look like a hotel you'd find outside a regional airport.

No, splendor and glory are on the way!

[Image from Archpaper via Curbed]

Not to mention the hydroponic bamboo garden and halo!

Previously.

This is what 638 E. 12th St. looked like on Aug. 25, 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...

Reminders: Tompkins Square Iron Chef is Sunday

[Bobby Williams]

Previously posted on Aug. 23...

Greenmarket proudly presents Tompkins Square Greenmarket Iron Chef: Veselka Bowery versus Hearth Restaurant/Terroir Wine Bar.

Come see two culinary cornerstones of the East Village in the hot seat as Veselka Bowery and Hearth Restaurant/Terroir Wine Bar face off to claim the title of Tompkins Square Iron Chef.

Each chef has just an hour to transform a "mystery basket" of market ingredients into a delicious dish. Traven Rice of The Lo-Down and our esteemed panel of judges will crown a winner, and limited samples will be available to the public.

Sunday, Sept 9
1-4pm
Tompkins Square Greenmarket
7th St by Avenue A

Meanwhile, at 16 Handles

[Via @samlevysam]

A reader said that there is a $1 for allyoucaneatFroYodeal at 16 Handles on Second Avenue... and that the line stretches around the corner.

You could wait in line. Or just go get the Bacon Milkshake at Mark Burger on St. Mark's Place...

From the EV Grieve lost and found

Bobby Williams spotted this lost (or abandoned!) karaoke machine in Tompkins Square Park late this afternoon. You can have it back as soon as we're done singing "Sweet Caroline."

From the inbox: Arabella 101 50 percent leased on Avenue D

From the EV Grieve inbox about Arabella 101, the rental building that sits atop the new Lower Eastside Girls Club on Avenue D between Seventh Street and Eighth Street.

[EVG file photo]

In less than two months since The Dermot Company announced the launch of leasing at Arabella 101, the 12-story building is 50% leased. The Alphabet City residence has also introduced its landscaped roof deck complete with a working grill, plentiful seating and year-round plantings. Designed by Cutsogeourge Tooman & Allen Architects, Arabella 101 is on track to receive LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's Arabella 101 on Avenue D

Why there's an Airstream trailer inside the new Lower Eastside Girls Club home

Here is the new home for the Lower Eastside Girls Club