A Black Friday improv gag on First Avenue

On Friday (Black Friday!), the folks at Improv Everywhere, a NYC-based "prank collective," had some 100 people camp out in front of the 99-cent store on First Avenue next to the Rite Aid.

The group even had someone pretend to be an NBC News reporter interviewing people waiting in line...

The store's proprietor arrived at 9 and figured the mob was for Rite Aid... then someone in line told him that it was for the 99-cent store...

When the store opened, the shopping began...

The participants did come in a few at a time and buy stuff... You can read the entire recap at the Improv Everywhere website.

Eventually the Improv leader told the store owner about the gag. "He was really excited about the whole thing and definitely appreciated the business, even if it didn’t make total sense to him why it had happened."

The Improv members also donated some of the purchases to an unnamed local charity.



[All photos via the Improv Everywhere website]

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Saturday afternoon outside McSorley's via Bobby Williams]

An East Village pizza tour with Josh Ozersky (YouTube ... via Eater)

More about C-Squat's work post-Sandy (The Villager)

Anthropologie progress report on the Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

Major fire at Sarge's Delicatessen on Third Avenue (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Norfolk Street penthouse sets post-recession price record on the Lower East Side (The Lo-Down)

Nom Wah Tea Parlor's expansion (Grub Street)

And Dave on 7th notes the arrival late last week of three new trees along a treeless stretch of East Seventh Street leading to Avenue B...

Why is 41 Cooper Square dented?

For some reason, I was standing around Cooper Union's 41 Cooper Square the other day. I was on the east side of the building that faces Shevchenko Place/Hall Place when I looked up and... well. Is that a dent?

There are perforated panels and there are dents. Can't say for sure how long that it has been this way. I couldn't find a good photo of this... here's a dent-free image via Google dated August 2011...

Anyway. Any ideas what may have caused this?

Updated 8:14

In an email, an EVG regular figures the building is being used for stealth intergalactic missions, and a piece of space junk dinged the building on a return trip. Seems plausible.

Where's the uproar over the construction noise at 185 Avenue B?

A few weeks ago, we pointed out the awful noise coming from the construction site at 185-193 Avenue B... where workers are putting in the foundation for the new apartment complex at East 12th Street.

And the assualt continues... per a resident adjacent to the space:

That construction at Ave B and 12th has become the bane of the neighborhood. The vibrations and shaking from it are endangering the old buildings nearby. The noise is unbearable. Why isn't there an uproar in protest from the local residents and merchants? Has the EV become a neighborhood of sheep?

Also per the resident..

I'm surprised the local owners aren't up in arms. The vibrations could wreck their buildings.

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

Stogo has closed

[Last night]

The New York Times had more on Stogo's closure... the vegan ice cream store closed for good last night after some four years in business.

Stogo, which is on Second Avenue, couldn’t pay October’s rent when it came due, but the month brought higher-than-expected sales. “We were starting to say, ‘O.K., we can probably pay this and that,’” [co-owner Junie] Ishimori said. “Then Sandy hit.”

Stogo lost power for days. Its ice cream spoiled, and even when power returned, it couldn’t reopen until it had replenished its stock. Ms. Ishimori estimated the store lost $6,000 in inventory and $6,000 in sales. “That’s a make-it-or-break-it number,” she said.

Stogo is now two months behind on rent. A spokeswoman for Beach Lane Management, which owns the building, declined to comment.

Ms. Ishimori had planned fund-raisers to finance a move to a cheaper location. But after the storm, she said, “it just felt frivolous asking people for money when people were homeless.”

DNAinfo's Serena Solomon first reported on the closure this past Wednesday. Our post to that link prompted 28 comments, among them:

Adam K. said...
@Price is no object: A prospective-tenant strike on pricey commercial rents wouldn't force down rent prices; it would create a lot of empty storefronts, which aren't good for anybody.

Not all new neighborhood businesses are started by suckers for suckers. And not all (though surely some) businesses that close are forced out by their landlords in bids to trade them for deeper-pocketed tenants. Most businesses, sadly, will peter out on their own eventually.

I have a 2+ year old retail business in the neighborhood, and yes, my business would be stronger if my rent were lower. All the more reason that I should feel bummed that some of my neighbors might be boycotting it for no better reason than the fact that another (completely different) business used to have the same address.

Want to hang on to dwindling retail diversity in the neighborhood? Sick of chain stores, strip mall eateries, and banks? Me too. So along with your favorite neighborhood standbys, try dropping in every now and then on some small new businesses that are trying to make it in a tougher environment than ever.

Previously.

2 East Village buildings part of $73 million deal

Catching up on this news release (PDF) via Massey Knakal from last week ... "11 prime multifamily walkup apartment buildings located on the Upper East Side and the East and West Village, with an additional 40-unit property located in downtown Brooklyn, was sold in an all-cash transaction valued at $73,000,000."

The two units here are 438-440 E. 13th St. ...

... and 104 E. Seventh St. at Avenue C (a building that workers have been cleaning up in recent months...)

The Real Deal had more details on the transaction... Stone Street Properties, headed by Jeffrey Kaye and Robert Morgenstern, reportedly bought the properties from "longtime Manhattan landlord Robert Koppelman."

Per The Real Deal: "Stone Street manages its properties in-house, aiming to add value by reconfiguring and renovating apartments." Massey Knakal's news release noted that "roughly 72 percent of the units are rent regulated with average monthly rents considerably below market."

Have any tips about the situation here in these two East Village buildings? Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email

East Village Thai back open today

East Village Thai — named one of the best Thai places in NYC by the Daily News in September — closed in late September because of a gas problem...

[Sept. 30]

Now, nearly two months of gas drama later ... East Village Thai here at 32 E. Seventh St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square is reopening today, per the sign on the gate.

Check out their menu here.

Week in Grieview

[Today in Tompkins Square Park... photo by Bobby Williams]

A new bike for Jacqueline (Tuesday)

A 'fearless' break-in attempt (Saturday)

A note about the 'college frat behavior' in an Avenue C apartment building (Tuesday, 55 comments)

Meet Cosmo Yannis (Wednesday)

East 11th Street lot will be home to the Mark Spink Apartments (Monday)

First Christmas tree for Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street (Friday)

Incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A not so popular (Friday)

Remembering the turkey of El Jardín del Paraíso (Thursday)

Rolf's annual holiday wonderland (Wednesday)

The bells of St. Brigid's (Monday ... Friday)

More Christmas tree stand choices for you

Just adding to Friday's post on the arrival of the East Village Christmas tree stands/holiday markets/whatever.

The stands are up and running on East Houston at Essex ...

...and outside Whole Foods Bowery...

So they join the stands on East 14th Street and First Avenue ... outside Rite Aid on First Avenue ... and outside St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue... Was thinking about doing a price comparison, but, you know, the trees aren't marked. And the sales often seem subjective... with plenty of bargaining.

In recent years, I bought trees at Stuyvesant Grocery and East Village Farms. And they're both closed. Maybe I'll wait for someone to throw his or her tree away...

Time Warner Cable out

Again. Guess I'll go hog a few tables somewhere for free WiFi for the afternoon. Hope that you don't mind!

So what's your Time Warner Internet alternative? Time to change.

Report: Two teens wanted in youth basketball scam

Cops are looking for two teen thieves they say are responsible for several East Village robberies, according to the NYPD Daily Blotter in the Post today.

The suspects, believed to be 14 years old, have been going into local businesses under the guise of raising money for a youth basketball team and then swiping phones and computers, police said.

One teen reportedly distracts the store owner while the other teen grabs the electronics. The two are reportedly responsible for five thefts dating back to July.

Noted

From the EVG Twitter account... pretty empty streets this morning ... this one was on First Avenue between St. Mark's and East Ninth Street... the other was on East Ninth Street just west of Second Avenue...

Saw the NYPD ticket 2 cyclists within minutes this a.m. Running a red light? twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) November 24, 2012