The overnight work on the East Houston Street sinkhole

Crews worked around the clock to repair the sinkhole that formed after a ruptured pipe flooded East Houston Street with mucky water yesterday morning.

EVG reader Connor Sheets took these photos between 1:30-2 a.m. …





East Houston Street was closed between Allen and Essex after the 20-inch water main dating to 1959 broke.

"When that type of water starts rushing out of a pipe, it's gonna take everything with it," Jim Roberts, the city Department of Environmental Protection's deputy commissioner of water and sewer operations, told the Daily News.

This stretch of East Houston has seemingly been under construction since 1959 … however the DEP claims that the break is an anomaly, according to NBC News.

The DEP said they shut off the water to five adjacent businesses and eight residential buildings. Katz's, who sustained heavy losses after its basement flooded, was able to remain open for business during all this — the deli is connected to an adjacent main. Unfortunately, its neighbor, the Lobster Joint, didn't fare so well.

"We're out of business," general manager Alex Linomontes told The Wall Street Journal. "We still have bills to pay, and there are hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage."

In the basement, workers in industrial rubber boots waded through stagnant brown water, salvaging what they could. Mr. Linomontes said he lost refrigerators, boilers, and other equipment to flooding — along with tens of thousands of dollars worth of seafood.

East Houston was expected to be open to motorists later this morning.

This photo (via BoweryBoogie) by @ja0095 is the best shot that we've seen of the damage…

Upscale rentals and a rooftop reflection pool at The Nathaniel on 3rd Avenue

[Photo from May 10]

As far as we knew, the Karl Fischer-designed 9-story retail-residential complex on Third Avenue and East 12th Street … was going as 74-84 Third Ave. …

[From November 2011]

Anyway! That was only temporary! Say hello to The Nathaniel at 138 E. 12th St. …



We learned about The Nathaniel (who or what is this named for anyway?) via an article in the Post yesterday about new luxury rentals.

Luxury indeed!

According to the Post (we didn't spot this part online), studios start at $3,470; one-bedrooms start at $4,600; two-bedrooms start at $6,650; and three bedrooms at — !!!! — $11,500.

Here's a description of the place via Luxury Rentals Manhattan:

[T]he apartments for rent at the Nathaniel boast generous layouts, custom high-gloss cabinetry, white oak flooring, and oversized closet space. The kitchens feature caesar stone white countertops and each residence is fitted with a washer and dryer for your convenience. Select residences at 138 East 12th Street also offer private terraces. Luxury amenities at the Nathaniel include a 24-hour attended lobby, private gym, bicycle storage, club room, and rooftop sun lounge with reflection pool.

As pricy as this seems (IS), The Nathaniel is still more affordable than the incoming Eleventh and Third across the Avenue.

The corner parcel on Third Avenue and East 12th Street where The Nathaniel sits was previously home to Nevada Smiths, Yummy House and a parking lot.

[EVG file photo from November 2011]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Those persistent rumors about 74-76 Third Avenue and the future of Nevada Smiths

The East Village will lose a parking lot and gain an apartment building

Former Nevada Smiths down to its last floor; city OKs work for new building

Bendy thing sighting as 84 Third Ave. eclipses the AMC Loews Village 7

Westside Market coming to the East Village

Let there be LED light in the Northwest East Village!

[Photo via EVG reader Katja]

Several readers have pointed out the lights adorning the Jefferson, the incoming condos at 211 E. 13th St. near Third Avenue … aka, the Northwest East Village …


[Photo via EVG reader Uncle Pete]

Maybe it's some sort of lighting to bring this back home to the former Mystery Lot, where the Jefferson stands now?

Previously on EV Grieve:
About the 'Northwest East Village'

Here is your new East 9th Street bike lane!

Well last week a reader pointed out that the bike lanes hadn't returned yet on East 10th Street and East 9th Street after the recent pave job… well, the bike lane is back on East Ninth Street as of Wednesday. Kind of!

Not sure what is going on here between First Avenue and Second Avenue … maybe this is just for unicycles? OK, probably not done. Or did the city make some kind of mistake?









Thanks to EVG reader dbs for all the photos.

By the way, the bike lane on East Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue appears to be the right size...

This weekend in Lower East Side History Month

There's a lot going on this weekend connected with the first Lower East Side History Month … from the Tenant Rights Walking Tour to the 27th Annual Loisaida Festival (now with three days of activities).

There are too many events to mention here.

So!

Head on over to the History Month event calendar for all the listings.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Yesterday morning from 1st Avenue]

East Village resident dies in motorcycle crash on the Williamsburg Bridge (DNAinfo)

A look at the site "Now It's a Fucking FroYo Place" (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Demolishing the LES Pathmark (The Lo-Down)

Surveying the messy Astor Place redesign (BoweryBoogie)

A "secret fitness spot" on the Bowery (New York Post)

A new chef at Northern Spy on East 12th Street (Grub Street)

... and tonight at Ella Lounge at 9 Avenue A... keeping some punk spirit alive with the East Village-based Jiggers Is King...

Updated: Part of East Houston is currently flooded, along with Katz's basement

Yikes! Part of East Houston near Ludlow is currently flooding (flooded?). Save the pastrami!

Not sure what is going on at the moment here ... crews have been working on the water mains as part of the never-ending East Houston reconstruction project now in its 457th year...

Updated 11:21: yep. Water main break per a reader at the scene.

Thanks to @maraaltman for the photo!

Houston floods. Luckily, looks like the water is going around the brisket. pic.twitter.com/N49wUlKvHQ

— Mara Altman (@maraaltman) May 22, 2014

Updated 12:02 p.m.

The basement at Katz's has reportedly flooded.



Updated 1:01 p.m.

Here's a shot of the damage on East Houston... a sinkhole has formed on the the eastbound lanes between Orchard and Ludlow...


[Photo via @luxtravelstyle]

Updated 1:27 p.m.

Katz's remains open!

Katz's is still open, despite the water main break. Just don't try to drive on Houston for a while... pic.twitter.com/BNc6c8TtfZ

— Katz's Delicatessen (@KatzsDeli) May 22, 2014

Updated 3:58 p.m.

According to published reports, 13 nearby buildings are now without water after the circa-1959 pipe broke under East Houston. In addition, Brooklyn Vegan notes that tonight's Stone Jack Jones and Ex-Cult shows at the Mercury Lounge have been cancelled tonight.

And there you have it...


[Photo via @hanakanna]

RUMOR: Gas station going, boutique hotel coming on Second Avenue?

IF the rumors are accurate, then the BP station and MRM Auto Repair at 24 Second Ave. at East First Street will close this summer to eventually make way for something the area doesn't seem to need — a boutique hotel.



Again, this is only a rumor… traced to workers at the station. There's nothing on file yet with the DOB for this address.

Of course, news of BP's closing wouldn't be so shocking, after all.

On Tuesday, WYNC featured a story titled "Say Goodbye to Manhattan's Gas Stations."

Per the article:

In 2004, the borough had more than 60 places to fill up, but now there are just 39. Fuel prices and consolidation are driving the nationwide trend, but in Manhattan, it's all about real estate.

"It's kind of like the gas station has a red flag on it that says: 'Call me. I'm the next site,'" said Adelaide Polsinelli, a broker with the real estate investment firm Eastern Consolidated.

Thanks to skyrocketing real estate prices, Manhattan gas stations are worth much more than the money the owner can make selling gas. Last year, a Getty near the High Line sold for $23.5 million. A few months later, another station in the borough went for $25 million.

And IF this is true, this means the East Village will no longer have any gas stations in another year or so. In March, Hakimian Property filed plans to erect a 9-story mixed-use building on the site of the Mobil station on East Houston and Avenue C. (The station was expected to be open until next year.) Meanwhile, the BP station on East Houston and Lafayette will be home to this one day.

Said Eastern Consolidated's Polsinelli to WNYC: "You see everything that was once industrial — auto body shops, garages, gas stations — and now they're all holes in the ground with cranes in them."

Previously on EV Grieve:
How much longer will the East Village have gas stations?

The East Village will soon be down to 1 gas station

The Mobil on Avenue C is still going strong — for now

You have a little longer to get gas on Avenue C

Plans filed for new 9-story building at site of Mobil station on East Houston and Avenue C

VIDEO: Watch the baby hawks of Tompkins Square Park dine on some rat

Here is the latest nest video from Francois Portmann on the Christodora House … showing Christo and Dora's three offspring dining on some delicious rat meat … while the parents take turns discarding the unwanted parts somewhere in Tompkins Square Park. (A quick note: Francois does not live in the Christodora. The owners of the apartment with the nest on the AC OK'd setting up the nestcam.)

Afterwards, you can check out Gog in NYC, where Goggla has many spectacular photos of the hawks at work and play. (But mostly work, to be honest.)

Find more hawk photos at Francois's photography site here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Red-tailed hawks nest on the Christodora House

The hawks of Tompkins Square Park have laid an egg at the Christodora House

More eggsciting hawk news from the Christodora House

Breaking (heh) news: The hawks of Tompkins Square Park are officially parents

OMG baby hawks! (UPDATED WITH VIDEO!)

Reader mailbag: What is going on with this construction in my building?

An EVG reader woke up the other morning to the sound of construction coming from inside this building on East 10th Street. There aren't any posted work permits ... and when asked, the workers shrugged and said that they didn't speak English.

So...

"I have emailed my apartment's management company asking what's going on with the building, and when we can expect it to be completed, but received no response ... based on experience, I will probably never receive a reply no matter how many times I follow up or call. Our super does not live in the building and I have never had any contact with him.

As of the end of the day, there are holes in the walls on every single floor in the building, as seen in the above picture. How do I find out if I am going to be woken up every morning by construction until the lease ends or not? Does anyone recognize, based on the picture, what this construction process could possibly be the start of? To my knowledge, the building doesn't have any structural or plumbing issues that need to be fixed."

Anyone have any ideas what these repairs might be related to?

-------------

We often get reader queries ... asking for help with, say, donating clothes or books ... or finding an East Village-based caterer... If you have a question for the masses, then try the EV Grieve email...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader mailbag: Places to eat that have that old East Village vibe (45 comments)

Reader mailbag: What do I do about my new neighbors who smoke pot all the time? (52 comments)

Reader mailbag: Where is a good place to get a cup of coffee in the East Village before 6 a.m.? (25 comments)

Reader mailbag: What has happened to the Cooper Station Post Office? (41 comments)

Reader mailbag: Can the landlord 'drill' the lock to gain access to my apartment for simple repairs? (15 comments)

Reader mailbag: Should we receive a rent abatement for having sporadic heat and hot water?

Mimi Cheng's Dumplings coming soon to the former Viva Herbal Pizzeria on 2nd Avenue

Viva Herbal Pizzeria, the gluten-free, vegan pizza joint at 179 Second Ave. near East 12th Street, closed at the beginning at the year.

These photos via Blue Glass show what's coming next: Mimi Cheng's dumplings …



Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Viva Herbal Pizzeria has closed on Second Avenue (22 comments)

Please mind the new tree on St. Mark's Place

[Photo from May 2013 by EVG reader Ann]

Just about one year ago, plenty of people were pissed after the city chopped down a seemingly healthy ornamental Callery pear tree on St Mark's Place … on the south side of the street near No. 12.

A resident let his/her feelings known — arborcide!


[Photo by Chloe Sweeney McGlade via Facebook]

In November, someone used discarded cooktops, and many other items, to decorate the tree well…


[EVG photo from November 2013]

On Monday, the city planted a new tree in the spot, as part of the MillionTreesNYC program…



And by yesterday, there was a friendly reminder on the tree…



Previously on EV Grieve:
'Arborcide' — People are pissed that this tree was chopped down on St. Mark's Place

[Updated] Behold the cooktop sidewalk garden on St. Mark's Place

Hang out this summer in a St. Mark's Place penthouse — hammocks included

In case that you are in the market for a "furnished summer penthouse rental" on St. Mark's Place. Then you're in luck! Here's a new listing via Streeteasy:

gorgeous loft in the heart of the east village ...massive open loft with windows on 4 sides, a gigantic fire place, hardwood floors and 14' ceilings. windowed kitchen and windowed bath, top floor of elevator building.

Hmm, no mention of those hammocks seen hanging in the pic above. Also, that fireplace might not be too useful if we are in for the oppressively hot summer that summer weather predictors are, um, predicting...



Anyway! The rent: $5,900. The penthouse is at 12 St. Mark's Place — in the former German-American Shooting Society Clubhouse. Back in the late 1880s, the building housed a saloon, bowling alley as well as a small shooting range in the basement.

Movie night in Tompkins Square Park

Earlier this evening… where the assembled were watching "Spider-Man" (unsure it it was the Maguire or Garfield version). The laptop is propped on a trash can, and one moviegoer is sitting on the trash can lid.

Photo by Zak Zavada

A boomtown rat

A TRN original at 190 Bowery. Photo via jdx

Thoughts on the 2014 version of the Tompkins Square Park riot of 1998

[Photo from May 1 by Michael Donovan]

Back on May 1, filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini recreated the Tompkins Square Park riots of 1988 for their low-budget adaption of the Eleanor Henderson novel "Ten Thousand Saints." (Read more about the film, due next year, right here.)

Ada Calhoun, who grew up on St. Mark's Place, was 13 in 1988 ... and she was one of the curious onlookers watching the reenactment on May 1. Today at The New Yorker, she shares some thoughts on the filming ... as well as of those who worked as extras on the set.

One man in the gaggle looked more convincing than the others. He was wearing a jacket with a logo for the eighties hardcore band Sheer Terror, and a backward black baseball cap. He had neck and face tattoos, including one that read “Queens” in elaborate script, and two teardrop tattoos under one eye. He identified himself as Danny Diablo, a hardcore musician and native New Yorker who lived near the park at the time of the riots.

“No way,” he said, when asked if he took part in the original riots. “I was a hardcore kid. I didn’t care about politics. My friends are drinking at a bar by here. I hope they don’t come and give me a hard time for doing this.” Asked what the sign he carried said, he appeared embarrassed. It compared Mayor Ed Koch to Hitler. “I actually love Ed Koch,” he said. Next to Diablo, a longhaired man wearing a heavy black leather jacket with fringe chimed in, “Why am I in this jacket? Isn’t it supposed to be August?” He shrugged. He’d answered a casting call. He was just going to go with it.

Read the whole article here (which includes an EVG shout-out).

Previously on EV Grieve:
Filmmakers will recreate the Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988 this Thursday night

Film crew recreates 'tent city' in Tompkins Square Park

Film crew uses 'D Squat' and phone booths to recreate an 1980s East Village on 6th Street

[Updated] First Avenue subbing for Avenue D today

Another 'riot' in Tompkins Square Park, this time for the cameras

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: Yehuda Emmanuel Safran
Occupation: Professor of Architecture at Columbia University
Location: 7th Street and Avenue B
Date: Thursday, May 15 at 4 p.m.

I was born in Palestine, but I’m officially French. I became French in 1989. I lived 20 years in London, a few years in Paris, and 18 years in New York, in Manhattan. I lived in the West Village, up in Columbia housing, and then seven years ago a colleague who was living on the corner of 7th and C invited me to stay for a month. That convinced me. The next thing I did, I found myself a place.

I’m a professor of architecture in Columbia’s School of Architecture. I also have a magazine called Potlatch. You know what potlatch means? It’s a word used by Indians from the northwest, near Seattle, to describe a very ancient ritual of giving presents. One tribe would give a great deal of presents to another tribe. My magazine is dedicated to the gift of art and architecture.

Seven years ago I established Alphabet City as a site for my project at Columbia. The project invites the students to write the program for some type of contribution to Alphabet City. There’s one library here ... there’s only one Turkish bath. There are no sports clubs. So we have been working for the last seven years, every autumn, doing different projects. We meet at Esperanto at the corner of 9th Street and Avenue C every Sunday evening at 8:30. The students decide. It’s difficult to say what the most interesting project was, because there are so many, from a boxing arena, to a kind of new type of housing, improving on the large housing down there on Avenue D, or a project to establish a swimming pool in the Park.

The East Village attracted me because it’s the least kind of consumer-oriented part of Manhattan and there are a lot of young people here and a lot of different people here. There’s a mixture. It’s more lively and more interesting, in my experience at least.

There are too many [new apartment buildings] and they are too ugly. I think the main problem is the ugliness and the inappropriate development. It’s troubling. Not enough attention is paid to the quality of the designs. It’s driven by real-estate consideration. Ultimately we cannot ignore it, but when it becomes a dominant feature, it doesn’t add anything to the quality of life here.

The problem here of course is the rent went up dramatically over these years. Landlords are very greedy and when they sniff out a chance to make more they jump at it. On the other hand, in 2008, the crisis was a good thing for Alphabet City and the East Village because until then there was a real threat of development, especially from NYU and private development. They were moving in very fast. The local people got threatened by it. They thought that the rent would become out of their reach, and they were right, except the economic crisis stopped this rush of development, which meant that I could even go to my landlady and negotiate the rent down. It came down for a couple of years, but then they picked up.

I think cheap housing is very important. It’s vital. That is a very lively problem in Alphabet City and the East Village in general, because there is a high average of low-income people. I think that is something to cultivate and not to stamp it out.

The East Village has a lot of the general kind of poverty, but poverty all the same. I feel more comfortable among poor people than among well-off people. I know many artists, writers, and so on. I live here because I’m attracted to the kind of ordinariness. This kind of ordinariness and low-key nature is very attractive to me.

There was a great man in France in the 19th century named Proudhon. He was a difficult man, so not completely great, and he wrote the book "The Philosophy of Poverty." Marx was so unkind that he immediately published a book called "The Poverty of Philosophy."

"The Philosophy of Poverty" was interesting because it argued in favor of being poor, in the sense that there’s nothing wrong with being poor. It’s just, society has to allow the poor to be poor, and not to make their lives unnecessarily difficult.

One of the worst things about our society is that it wants to punish you for being poor. It’s easy to understand why, because capitalism thrives on the relentless effort to become richer and richer, because being rich according to this kind of world ethic means that the gods are in your favor. So people are striving so hard that they neglect their life to the extent that they really make the lives of poor people unnecessarily worse, when in fact there are many virtues to being poor. A society that punishes people for being poor is much poorer for it. So that is what I have to say.

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

Rebranded 'Eleventh and Third' will have rentals upwards of $10k

[Friday!]

We've been watching the three-day effort to raise the sidewalk bridge on Third Avenue at East 11th Street …


[Monday!]


[Yesterday!]

All this is ahead of the big renovations at 55 Third Ave., which despite its drab appearance, is not an NYU dorm. The Benchmark Real Estate Group actually paid $57 million for the 12-floor building late last year.

The Real Deal had the scoop yesterday on what to expect in the currently-tenant-free building, now known as Eleventh and Third:

Rent for the units will range from $3,500 for a studio to $6,000 for a one-bedroom to as much as $10,000 for a two-bedroom, the spokesperson said. Some of the one- and two-bedroom apartments feature a private outdoor space.

Oft!

The building is getting a makeover to look less dormy.

As for the retail tenants that share the building … The Smith and M2M appear to be safe.

However, the owners of NY Copy & Printing had to vacate their home here after 22 years, as we first reported.



The owners told us the that the building's new landlord wouldn't continue their lease. Fortunately, NY Copy found a home on East Seventh Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Someone actually paid $57 million for this East Village building

Reimagining this 12-story East Village building, now on the market

NY Copy & Printing forced out of longtime E. 11th St. home, opening second location on E. 7th St.

City of Saints bringing coffee to East 10th Street

Signs are up at the former psychic storefront (oh, Jessica!) at 79 E. 10th Street near Fourth Avenue for City of Saints Coffee Roasters … coming soon here…



We don't know a thing about these Saints… they have an Instagram account … and a teaser website that notes "proudly roasted in Brooklyn, served up at 1320 Bloomfield St., Hoboken" … which appears to be an apartment building via Google Street view …

Thanks to EVG reader JBA for the tip.

Former Tu Casa Recording Studio space for lease on Avenue B

[EVG file photo from last June]

Last summer, Tu Casa left its longtime home of 40-plus years … the great mural that adorned the front of 95 Avenue B near East Sixth Street was also whited out …

The "for lease" sign arrived on Monday…



The rendering looks something Zzzzzzzz like…



There's not much info, such as asking rent, on the listing:

Description: Rare opportunity to lease legal commercial loft-like ground floor and second floor in pre-war building. Floors can be connected by tenant via internal stairway. Available for rent separately. High visibility on busy avenue block, in a great residential neighborhood. Space is currently raw and vacant. Approx. 11 ft. high ceilings, great light; basement space of approximately 650 sf. Building undergoing gut renovations.

Tu Casa had been around since 1972. A lengthy list of musicians have played here through the years, including Butch Morris, Black Flag, the Bush Tetras, Dee Dee Ramone and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, to randomly name a few. There was talk that the studio would relocate to Brooklyn, but we never heard anything else about that move.