Saturday, June 28, 2014

The Houston/Bowery Mural Wall has been boarded up



Workers yesterday erected a sidewalk bridge along the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall, mostly blocking the work of the current artist in the rotation — veteran Bronx graffiti artist Cope2.

The bridge joins the section that went up on Elizabeth Street at East Houston late last month at the former site of Billy's Antiques.

As BoweryBoogie first reported in April, there are approved plans for a two-story structure to rise from this empty lot.

Goldman Properties owns 76 E. Houston St. and the adjacent graffiti wall.





BoweryBoogie uncovered a feasibility study performed by Gary H. Silver Architects showing one possibility for this corner where the mural currently stands — a 12-story building. (This rendering is no longer on the Silver website.)


[Rendering by Gary H. Silver Architects via BoweryBoogie]

There's nothing on file with the DOB to suggest any new building of this size here.



So it's unclear at this point what the future holds for the wall. In the short term, it doesn't look so good.

Keith Haring put up the first mural here 30-plus years ago. Read this post at Complex for more history of the wall here at East Houston and the Bowery.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Deal off to bring Crif Dogs to the former Billy's Antiques space

Headless Duane Reade shopper slowly but surely getting a head


Last weekend at the Duane Reade on East Second Street and Avenue B!


Today!



Eventually!

[EVG file photo]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Headless Duane Reade shopper giving East 2nd Street the creeps

'Crane operation' to close off part of St. Mark's Place this weekend



As the signs show, St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue will be closed off for part of the weekend … "due to a crane operation at 119 St. Mark's Place."



I didn't even know that 119 St. Mark's place was a crane hospital! (Boooooooo.)

Updated 2:06 p.m.


[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Anyone happen to know what the workers are dropping off on the roof?



Friday, June 27, 2014

Get on it



Been revisiting Dinosaur Jr. since learning they're headlining the 4Knots Music Festival at the South Street Seaport on July 12…

Here is "The Wagon" from 1991.

The Halal Guys finally opening their East Village restaurant tomorrow



We walked by the incoming Halal Guys space last evening on East 14th Street just east of Second Avenue ... and spotted about 10 workers inside stocking the refrigerated units with drinks, etc. When asked, one of the workers said they'd be open "soon."

Soon turns out to be tomorrow, as the Daily News reports that the first restaurant from the popular food-cart vendors opens at 7 a.m. 5 p.m.

And what can you expect?

In addition to the standard gyros and platters sold at the carts, the restaurant will boast new offerings, including a juice and smoothie bar, hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, Mediterranean salads and yogurt. And the falafels will be made fresh, instead of merely reheated at the carts.

While a rice-and-meat platter is $6 at Halal Guys’ carts, the East Village restaurant will offer two sizes: a regular for $6 and a large for $7.

Meanwhile, the owners are planning to go national (and eventually global) by working with Fransmart — the franchise company behind the rapidly expanding Five Guys Burgers brand — to open restaurants in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Houston.

So does this mean that we can't like them anymore?

We were first to report on the East Village expansion last Sept. 28.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Halal Guys are now open on East 14th Street and 2nd Avenue

The Halal Guys are apparently opening their first restaurant in the East Village

Summer in the city



East Village rooftops (and at least one hammock) via James and Karla Murray.

1 business left on this stretch of Avenue C



Adinah's Farm on Avenue C and East Second Street closed on Sunday night.

With the market's closure, there is one remaining business on the east side of Avenue C between East Second Street and East Third Street — the liquor store...



The storefronts to the north remain boarded up.


[EVG file photo]

As we've noted, there has been a full vacate order on 32 Avenue C at East Third Street since August 2012 ... the building is in disrepair, and will eventually be demolished ... along with everything to (and including) 26 Avenue C (the former Impulse Footwear).

Plans were filed with the city in July 2005 for a new 6-floor residential building here. The city disapproved the plans in May 2006, and nothing more happened with the project.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Concern for 32 Avenue C

Free tonight in Tompkins Square Park: the 'tough beauty' of 'La Haine'



Tonight at 8:30ish … it's another in the Films on the Green series with the 1995 release "La Haine."

Here's Criterion describing the film:

Mathieu Kassovitz took the film world by storm with La haine, a gritty, unsettling, and visually explosive look at the racial and cultural volatility in modern-day France, specifically the low-income banlieue districts on Paris’s outskirts. Aimlessly passing their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Koundé), and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) — a Jew, an African, and an Arab — give human faces to France’s immigrant populations, their bristling resentment at their marginalization slowly simmering until it reaches a climactic boiling point. A work of tough beauty, La haine is a landmark of contemporary French cinema and a gripping reflection of its country’s ongoing identity crisis.

Vacation time for Stage Restaurant


[Photo by Sean Ganann via nycgo.com]

The Stage closes for a summer break after service tomorrow ... and Roman and company will be back on July 9.

Just noting this because they don't always put up a sign on the gate at vacation time here at 128 Second Ave. near St. Mark's Place.

Didn't want to cause any panic in case you saw them closed during usual business hours ... especially given some of the troubling talk here of late. While the building was sold, the Stage has five-plus years left on their lease.

Wet hot NYC summer: City pools open today


[Hamilton Fish Pool via www.nycgovparks.org]

That means Hamilton Fish Pool on Pitt and East Houston ... the Dry Dock Pool on Avenue D and East 10th Street ... and the Tompkins Square Pool (mini pool for kids!) are opening ...


[Tompkins Square Pool yesterday via EVG]

The early and late lap swims (8-9 a.m. and 7-8 p.m.) at Hamilton Fish Pool will begin in a few weeks, the Lo-Down noted yesterday.

And no word just yet when you can swim in a floating pool in the East River.

The 2014 New York City Drag March is tonight



Leaves Tompkins Square Park at St. Mark's Place at 8ish.

Check out some photos from last year's march here.

[Updated] Olympic Restaurant closes on Monday


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

The Lo-Down has a thorough report on the longtime Lower East Side businesses that will be closing in the days ahead to make way for the new mega Essex Crossing development.

Of particular interest to us: The Olympic Restaurant at Delancey and Essex. The Lo-Down was told that the diner will close for good after service on Monday. (EVG contributor Stacie Joy previously reported on June 19 that the closing date was still up in the air.)

Perhaps we will run into you there this weekend.

Updated 11:51 a.m.

Lisha Arino at DNAinfo reports that Olympic owner Spiros Nakos "is offering everything on the menu for half price on" Monday.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Olympic Restaurant may close for good as soon as tomorrow

BoweryBoogie and and Jeremiah Moss have also made recent visits. Read BB's take here … and JM's here.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Last in the fledge class


[Photo today by Bobby Williams]

Just one of the (baby?!?!) hawks remains in the nest on the Christodora House ... his/her fledgling siblings have already taken off.

After a little drama Monday night, Shaft has seemingly found his, uh, wings. The second fledgling left Tuesday. He/she has been mostly hanging around East Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. Goggla has an update on the fledglings here.

Hawk watchers figure hawk No. 3 will leave the nest tomorrow.

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

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

OMG baby hawks! (UPDATED WITH VIDEO!)

The baby hawks of Tompkins Square Park are ready to leave home (also, fledge party alert!)

Brooklyn shows off its mountains



Or so it looked like late this afternoon from East Seventh Street near Second Avenue...

Funky Town now has the brightest awning on St. Mark's Place



The new signage went up this afternoon...

Another sign that it may possibly be a long, hot summer



Spotted on St. Mark's Place by @SuriR

Previously on EV Grieve:
A brief history of humiliating Teddy bears in the East Village

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition


[Photo on East 4th Street by Jonathan Crane]

Fledgling update (Gog in NYC)

6 ways to celebrate Pride Week (DNAinfo)

About Green Fingers, a new garden shop on East First Street (A Continuous Lean)

Linda Simpson's photos of the NYC drag scene from 1987-1996 (The Cut/New York)

Clinton Street Baking Company looking to expand into the former Min's Market space (BoweryBoogie)

Manhattan renters still want to live in the EV, at least last week (The Real Deal)

About The Save LES Streets site (The Lo-Down)

The Bicycle Film Festival at the Anthology this weekend (Anthology Film Archives)

The Mysterious Time Machine has left 14th Street (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Photo: Brazilian models watch the World Cup at Miss Lily's 7A Cafe (Page Six)

NYC ranked as most "Stressed Out" city in America (CNN)

What the regional office of White Castle looks like in Queens (Scouting New York)

Bloomy's soda ban is officially dead, wrapped in plastic (Eater)

… and via The Laughing Squid, film enthusiast Tony Zhou examines Martin Scorsese's use of silence in movies ...

Slate of Thursday night films will return to Tompkins Square Park this summer



We originally heard that the Films in Tompkins series was not going to happen this summer in the Park.

However, we've just learned that there will be a slightly abbreviated series starting on July 10, and playing on consecutive Thursday nights until August. (A few August dates are expected as well.)

Only one film has been revealed so far: "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," which will include a Rocky Horror performance/costume contest. More info on the films as it becomes available.

Meanwhile, the Films on the Green series continues in Tompkins Square Park tomorrow night with a screening of "La Haine."

New closing and reopening dates set for St. Mark's Bookshop


[Photo of new storefront from Sunday]

St. Mark's Bookshop was originally set to close on Monday ahead of their move to 136 E. Third St.

However, workers were still finishing up the new storefront just west of Avenue A. So yesterday store officials released new dates for everything to happen...



The bookshop has been at 31 Third Ave. and Stuyvesant Street since 1992, and in the neighborhood a total of 37 years.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: St. Mark's Bookshop prepping fundraiser ahead of possible move to Avenue A.

Is this the new home for the St. Mark's Bookshop?

Report: St. Mark's Bookshop signs lease for East 3rd Street space

Renovations at the future St. Mark's Bookshop on East 3rd Street

Report: Hearth hit with a 65% rent increase; plus, sidewalk cafe in the works

Meant to note this the other day... when the Times reported that Danny Meyer's 30-year-old Union Square Cafe will be looking for a new home next year after a rent increase.

The article noted a recent spate of high-profile closings and a continuing rise in rents downtown. Among the restaurants facing a huge rent hike: the well-regarded Hearth on East 12th Street at First Avenue. They were just hit with a 65 percent increase, according to the Times.

There aren't any plans to close the place, but ...

[T]he chef and owner, Marco Canora, said his entire business model may have to change.

“I’m trying to be a smart businessman,” Mr. Canora said. “But I can’t do that at the cost of turning my back on my entire belief system and serving commodity pork and Perdue chicken.”

Meanwhile, here's one way to help increase revenue: Hearth has applied for a sidewalk cafe. They are on the docket for the CB3/SLA committee meeting on July 14.

Peeling off the layers through the years of the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall



Over at the NYPL Labs blog, Brian Roos had some fun playing around with the Google Street View archive.

Roos, a New York Public Library developer, used the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall to experiment with ... gathering all of the murals that Google captured to 2007, then filling in any of the missing artwork. He created a brush tool that allowed him to "erase" each layer to reveal the one previous to it ... and in the above image, he cut holes on each layer of the murals for a rather disorienting effect.

For a better explanation of all this, head over to the NYPL Labs for more... and see what other ideas Roos has for the layering tool.

Thanks to @seancarlson for the tip.

Hey, that East Houston CVS opens on July 5



Yeah, the one coming to 42-56 E. Houston St. between Mott and Mulberry... signs on the door note a star-spangled bannerish July 5 opening date...



The space previously housed a Subway, a dry cleaners and Soho Billiards.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Retail space that included Soho Billiards is up for grabs on East Houston Street

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Doors return to 2nd Avenue


[Photo by William Klayer]

The scene on Second Avenue and East Seventh Street this morning ... workers were moving them into the building receiving the gut renovation next door...


[Photo by Derek Berg]

Speaking of the Doors (blame Derek Berg for that headline!) ... the band played the Fillmore East one block to the south on March 22-23, 1968 ...



See more photos from the shows at Off the Grid...

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: Kate
Occupation: Arts Administrator
Location: Tompkins Square Park
Date: 4 p.m. on June 18.

I was born and raised in Chicago but I came here when I was 20, and I’ve been here ever since. Chicago is a beautiful city but it just was provincial, so it was either here or LA. I had also passed through here before. I was here for a week and I stayed at the YWCA on 38th Street and met a Broadway actor. I just had a wonderful time.

I was an arts administrator and I worked in the visual and performing arts. I started out in the public school system. There was a federal program called CETA, because of high unemployment, to provide work for artists. I got that for two years working for something called Womens Inter Arts Center. From there I did film production, then went back to video, and then for 21 years I worked for an organization that brought the arts to people with disabilities. I did film and video for social change for the most part but then sometimes I’d be involved with video artists.

In the 1960s, I lived on the Upper East Side, and in the 1970s I lived on the Upper West Side. I had a three-bedroom rent-controlled apartment on Riverside Drive. But with the lifting of rent control, even though my apartment was still rent controlled, the neighborhood changed. The neighborhood used to be in some way like this — a neighborhood. Big apartments, people stayed forever, raised families. That’s exactly why I moved here.

I moved to this neighborhood in 1979. The Upper West Side had changed. I also had a boyfriend living with me, and the landlord told me I had to pay for a roommate. I said I don’t even want to live here anymore. So I got a lawyer and the landlord bought me out. He made it back in about 2 months, you know. It was an ugly apartment. He said you’ve got nine months to find a place.

I was spending all my life downtown and on the subway. My friends were living her. I worked in the West Village, and this is where everything was happening. So I just got up early every morning, since I didn’t have to be at work until 11, and I just walked these streets, talked to supers, rang doorbells. I started in January and I think I found my apartment in March.

I live next store to the library, top floor, rent stabilized since 1979. When I moved in we had a wonderful landlord. He was in an insurance brokerage and he just wanted to get out of the business, so he offered the building for $40,000 to the tenants. No one had a pot to piss in, so no one could even contemplate purchasing it. He sold it to the highest bidder.

After that we didn't have a super and no one tending the boiler. The boiler used to break down all the time, so we didn’t have heat and hot water. The super that we did have was simply a junkie, selling drugs. I came home twice to see someone being carried out dead from an overdose. This was around 1980 or 1981.

I’d come home and in the vestibule, because the lock was never fixed, there would be junkies with the needles still in their arms nodding out. Twice I couldn’t get out of my apartment because drunks had just fallen asleep on my door. I had to call someone to come and wake them up.

The first year I moved in I was broken into. I think within two years I was broken into four times. The third time I walked in on them. I knew they were kids even though I couldn’t see them. They threw me down on the floor. I said, ‘None of us want to do this, one of you go out the roof and one of you go out the front door and I won’t call the cops.’ And they did.

What kept me here ... was that I’m so stubborn. I loved the apartment and I was not going to move out. I never even thought about the neighborhood changing or getting better. It never occurred to me because it seemed so bad. For awhile there was one storefront in the building next door that had a bunch of light bulbs and detergent in the window and a guy sitting on a box in front with a machete in his lap. What do you think they’re selling there? I’d see people using on my block, but it wasn’t really dealing except for that bodega.

I knew all my neighbors and then [the landlords] did a gut renovation on most of the apartments, and charged $3,500 a month for a small two bedrooms. I’m not complaining. I’ve got very nice landlords — the people who eventually bought the building in the 1990s.

This is what happens. I don’t need to tell you this but I will anyway. With the removal of rent control — forget stabilization, but that’s a good model — the minute the tenant moves out it becomes market value. You don’t even need to do any renovations. Then there’s no point in keeping an apartment. You move and there’s no commitment to a neighborhood. That’s why I don’t know my neighbors. They’re only signing 1-year leases. Sometimes they pay a little bit more and stay a second year, but why should they stay?

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

About Overthrow Boxing Club, the gym coming to the former home of the Yippies at 9 Bleecker St.


[No. 9 this past Saturday]

Here's more information about the three-level boxing gym opening at 9 Bleecker, the former home of the Yippies.

The gym will be called Overthrow Boxing Club, named for Overthrow, one of the countercultural newspapers that the Yippies published here.

In a video posted on June 15, Throwback partner Joey Goodwin, aka "the Soho Kid," a Golden Gloves contender and creative director at men's clothing label Unruly Heir, provides a quick overview of the space.

"We're going to turn this into a great spot, and a great business and make some good things happen," he says. "It's going to be boxing meets punk rock ... we're going to keep the history, keep the heritage, and go from there."

And now the video...



As the Times reported in June 2013, Steven L. Einig, a lawyer for Centech, which holds the building's mortgage, "stated that Yippie Holdings, which bought Number 9 along with a nonprofit called the National AIDS Brigade, had failed for more than five years to make payments on the $1.4 million mortgage."

For their part, a lawyer for Yippie Holdings, said that the group was "compelled into foreclosure with payments being rejected" by Centech as part of a scheme or plan to take over the building.

The Yippies had to vacate their home of 41 years this past Jan. 17 while litigation continued. The space here near the Bowery had been on the market for $22,500 in monthly rent.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Yippie Museum Cafe is in financial trouble

The Yippie Museum Cafe will reopen next Wednesday

A bad sign at the Yippie Museum

Last day for the Yippies at No. 9 — for now

Fights of a different kind coming to 9 Bleecker St., longtime home of the Yippies

Root and Bone opens Monday on East 3rd Street



There's an opening date now for Root & Bone, the Southern-themed restaurant from former "Top Chef" contestant Jeff McInnis and season 11 contestant Janine Booth at 200 E. Third St. at Avenue B.

The sidewalk chalkboard is announcing the opening date for Monday at 11:30 a.m. ...



The restaurant's website describes the place this way:

What we're all about:
Soul nurturing, conscientiously sourced, farm-fresh ingredients.

A craftsman's ethic coupled with artistic culinary thought.

A tribute to the timeless recipes and traditions of a rural America and the warm embrace of its hospitality.

This location was previously home to Mama's Food Shop, which closed in July 2012 after 15 years. Then Heart 'n Soul for a few moments.

Like Mama's, Root & Bone will offer takeaway.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Mama's Food Shop closes after 15 years; 'the community nature of the neighborhood has all but vanished'

Rumors: 'Top Chef' alum Jeff McInnis will help revamp former Mama's Food Shop space

Root & Bone announces itself on E. 3rd St.

The former JoeDough space is now for rent on 1st Avenue



The quick-serve JoeDough sandwich shop closed in February after two-plus years at 135 First Ave.

At the time, Fork in the Road reported that proprietors Joe and Jill Dobias were keeping the space between St. Mark's Place and East Ninth Street "to focus on catering under the moniker JoeDough Catering & Events."

Now, though, there is a new for rent sign up in the front window.

Here are the details via Halstead:

Ground Floor Retail: 300sf + 200sf basement
Sublease: 3 years + 5 year option
Rent: $4,900 per month
Description: Turn Key Takeout restaurant. Fully vented to roof
Key money: Upon request

Compare this to 149 First Ave. up the block ... where the former This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef space is asking $9,500 a month for 500 square feet on the ground floor (and another 500 square feet in the basement).

Continuum Cycles going for another spin on Avenue B


[EVG file photo from last November]

Continuum Cycles and Continuum Coffee closed on Avenue B near East 12th Street last November. At the time, Continuum owner Jeff Underwood said that he planned to regroup in the months ahead, with the expectation of reopening a shop somewhere in the neighborhood.

Looks as if he found his space.

In recent weeks, Underwood has been preparing to open his bike shop in the former Saloon 13 space at 212 Avenue B (the entrance is actually on East 13th Street).





Photos via EVG reader Gamelan

Please do not loiter in front of the former 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place


[EVG file photo from March 2013]

When the 7-Eleven was still open on St. Mark's Place, it was an attractive spot for camping out.

Now that it is closed, the vacant storefront at the corner of Second Avenue remains an attractive spot for camping out.

Which might be why there are now some homemade "no loitering" signs taped along the empty property...





The space remains for rent.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Reader report: The 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place has closed (48 comments)

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

[Updated] Gigi Li elected to 3rd term as Community Board 3 chair


[At tonight's CB3 meeting]

Gigi Li will serve as chair of Community Board 3 for a third term after defeating challenger Chad Marlow in a vote this evening.

CB3 members voted during the monthly meeting 31-15 in favor of Li, who has served two one-year terms as chair. Marlow is a current CB3 member.

In an unprecedented move, The Villager published an endorsement of Marlow last week, an unusual editorial decision given that only CB3 members vote for the chair.

According to the paper:

CB3 is clearly in disarray, and there is a growing sense of disconnect with the community that it is supposed to serve.

There is a strong sentiment for change, both within the community and on CB3.

Apparently CB3 members don't agree.

Updated 5:32 a.m.

BoweryBoogie attended the meeting and filed a report here.

Per BoweryBoogie on the outcome:

So, now it’s another year of potential botched decisions and hyperlocal scandals. And through it all, the community suffers.

Updated 11:10 a.m.

The Lo-Down has meeting coverage here, including remarks from Li and Marlow.

Said Li:

This past year has been really challenging for us and, moving forward, I am committed to structural and leadership changes that I believe are the core issues. Time and time again over the past few years I have seen how this board and this community are better, stronger and more resilient when we fight the fight together and not apart.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Villager calls for change atop Community Board 3 (31 comments)

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition


[2nd Avenue today via Derek Berg]

The history of 101 Avenue A (Off the Grid)

No more Móle on Allen Street (BoweryBoogie)

Basque country: Sietsema reviews Donostia on Avenue B and Huertas on First Avenue (Eater)

NYPD looking for 4 teens who assaulted a man on Stanton Street (The Lo-Down)

Charles Mingus goes to Bellevue (Dangerous Minds)

Retail makeover headed Canal Street's way (The Real Deal)

Alan's Alley video closes July 7 in Chelsea (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Excellent tar beach photo from 1983 (Ephemeral New York)

Italo-Crime film series of the 1960s and 1970s continues (Anthology Film Archives)

... and the neighborhood is down one pothole now ... as crews tend to one on East Sixth Street near Second Avenue today...


[Photo via EVG reader Vinny]