That's it for Bendy Tree

… a little later via EVG reader blm…



Previously on EV Grieve:
UGH: Bendy tree in Tompkins Square Park has been condemned

Bendy-lujah

NYPD arrests Rev. Billy for trying to stop Bendy Tree's removal

Rev. Billy arrived this morning at Tompkins Square Park, where workers are cutting down the leaning elm in the middle of the Park.

He stopped work when he climbed atop one of the trucks…



The NYPD was called to the scene… and they eventually arrested him … no word just yet what the charges are…






[Via EVG reader Russ]

… then work resumed on cutting down Bendy Tree…



As previously reported, an arborist hired by the Parks Department found the favorite tree structurally unsound and recommended that it be cut down.

Previously on EV Grieve:
UGH: Bendy tree in Tompkins Square Park has been condemned

Bendy-lujah

Bendy tree is coming down this morning

As of 8:16 a.m. We didn't stick around to watch... 

…and moments before the trucks arrived...



Previously on EV Grieve:
UGH: Bendy tree in Tompkins Square Park has been condemned

Noted

EVG Discarded Mattress Correspondent Derek Berg spotted this on East Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery early last evening… not quite sure what this electrical get-up is…



As with most things in life, there is likely a logical explanation.

'Head' games

Here is the L.A.-based Bleached with "Dead In Your Head" from last summer. And they just released a new 7-inch single this past week... which Other Music has...

98-100 Avenue A used to be here

Ben Shaoul's demo gang pretty much has the former 98-100 Avenue A wiped out now between East Seventh Street and East Sixth Street...



Coming one day: a 6-floor residential building with 29 apartments.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A little bit of Hollywood on Avenue A

Inside the abandoned theater at East Village Farms on Avenue A

Reader reports: Village Farms closing Jan. 31; building will be demolished

Asbestos abatement continues at 98 Avenue A, Ben Shaoul's latest East Village trophy

Meanwhile, 98-100 Avenue A is lying in ruins

Workers back demolishing what's left of 98-100 Avenue A

[Cinema Treasures]

Nino's is back open

The 27-year-old pizzeria on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place reopened today after two bouts with the health department in the past month.

Per a report by DNAinfo's Lisha Arino:

Owner Nino Camaj, however, denied most of the allegations. He said there were no mice in the restaurant and that the inspector overstated the number of flies observed.

“This place is the cleanest place in New York City. I tell the truth,” said Camaj, who has owned the pizzeria for 27 years.

Camaj said there were only two or three flies in the pizzeria when the inspector visited Monday and that they came from Tompkins Square Park across the street.

“Every time the door opens, you see a fly come in and out,” he said.

Anyway, we stopped by for a slice today … and found it to be as good as always…

Give ’Em Enough Paint

Yesterday afternoon, graffiti artist Dr. Revolt returned to touch up the vandalized Joe Strummer mural outside Niagara on East Seventh Street and Avenue A.

Someone scrawled on Strummer during the overnight hours on Sept. 11.

Revolt and Zephyr created the original mural back in 2003... after the Clash frontman's untimely death in December 2002.

Photo by gibedendo via Instagram

P.S.
OK, that headline is pretty bad, mostly.

[UPDATED] Report: Man struck by car on Cooper Square 'clinging to life'

The collison happened last night at 11:45 on East Fifth Street and Cooper Square, the Post reports.

There's not much information at the time. The victim is in critical condition at Bellevue. The Post notes that the driver remained at the scene, where "it was not immediately clear who had the right of way."

UPDATED

Nevermind. This story was from March. We didn't carefully look at the date after a reader sent the link to us today. Our apologies.

Does anyone happen to know whatever happened to the pedestrian?

At Fly Dove NYC

In August, longtime East Village resident Rachel Breitman opened Fly Dove NYC, a women's boutique in a basement space at 197 E. Seventh St. between Avenue B and Avenue C.



We asked Breitman, who moved to the neighborhood with her mother as a child in 1979, a few questions about her start. Stacie Joy stopped by for some photos.

How did the shop come about?

It was somewhat of an evolution of rethinking my life-long interest in fashion and exploring the idea of having my own business. I figured this would be the best time in my life to take the risk, although I still have my 9-5 while I get this off the ground.

I started two years ago with the idea to design some outerwear, then I realized that it was too expensive and competitive of a business. Along the way, I would do weekend markets in Nolita, Long Island City and the West Village. By doing that, I discovered that I enjoyed the retail aspect of it all and started to envision what my boutique would look like.

I always loved editing, styling, and the idea of being a buyer for a store always intrigued me. However, I did want to do something of my very own — create my own vision. It was a one-two year long process but eventually I started looking at spaces in Alphabet City last fall.



Was this something that you had always thought about doing?

I did not always think of doing something like this. In fact, I always saw myself having a nonprofit centered around the arts, education and economic/community development, etc. Working in the Loisaida community was my background before getting into finance.

East Seventh Street between Avenue B and Avenue C is one of my favorite blocks in the neighborhood. Was there something in particular about this block that made you want to open your business here?

It is a great block. A lot of trees and a nice mix of buildings — good foot traffic too.

I definitely wanted to be in Alphabet City and Seventh Street just felt right. Of course the affordability of the rent really was a factor too. When I started looking, I really was surprised how many commercial vacancies there were and how many businesses were closing.

However, landlords want to charge crazy rents that only a bar would be able to afford to pay and/or someone with a trust fund. [Laughs] But, they don't care — they will stay empty.

Once I get my business off the ground I definitely want to explore what can be done in terms of affordability of commercial space for small business startups or existing in this area. Perhaps get together with some of the other neighboring businesses.

It was also important to be in the vicinity east of Avenue A and between 14th Street and East Houston because there wasn't really any other option to find on-trend women's clothing within my price point. Pricing things affordably is very important to me.

What has been the response so far to your shop?

The response has been amazing! I get new faces coming in every day checking out the boutique. The place is still being discovered, especially since I am a basement location and nothing has been here for more than 20 years. So I plan to continue to market as much as possible, host events and get the word out!

Reader mailbag: Running out of hope in a moldy apartment

[Generic mold photo from the Internet]

From the EVG reader mailbag ... a rather complicated question:

I've been in my rent-stabilized apartment for about 15 years now. The first day of move-in I became immediately and seriously ill with flu-like symptoms. I was diagnosed with asthma, which I never had before.

In the first or second winter (I cannot remember) we realized that there was a serious roof leak that led directly to our bedroom ceiling. Anytime snow melted on the roof, we'd get the leak.

By 2005, it was sort of "fixed" but again, whenever the show or rains were serious, we'd get the leak.

A few years ago, while making the bed, I leaned my hand against the wall where the leak was. It collapsed into a hole about the size of a human head. I covered it immediately with duct tape, in several layers, because the smell of mold was so bad.

I've told my landlord about the problem in writing several times as well as over the phone. He refuses to fix it or even look at it. Neither he nor the super will help me.

Because I am constantly behind in rent (I've not been fully employed as an editor since 2010), I have not pursued the matter. While I'm currently making some strides in paying back rent thanks to eBay, I'm always in the hole for at least $2K...and I'm running out of stuff to sell.

I'm broke. I have no money or resources to move. I went through my 401(k) and savings paying for rent years ago. No health insurance now. No social services of any kind ... and no family to help.

What can someone like me do? I have no legal representation. I'm afraid that the expense of a gut renovation in this unit will force the rent beyond the current $1,630. I cannot afford a penny more. What I'd love would be to go to court and seek an abatement for the use of my bedroom for the past however many years and apply that money to the money owed as well as removal of the mold (or cleaning) and new sheetrock.

Currently, I'm thinking of moving the bedroom into the living room and closing off the bedroom and then calling the inspector. Is this the best solution to both solve the problem while keeping me in my home? I really have no other place to go.

So… what might be the most careful course of action to take if you need serious and potentially costly repairs (permanently fixed leak, mold removal and cleaning, new sheet rock) in a rent-stabilzed place where the leaseholder account is in arrears and you fear being evicted?

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

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?

Reader mailbag: How often does your mail get delivered?

Reader mailbag: Where can I get my Mac fixed now?

A lot of things to do in community gardens this weekend

[EVG file photo of Orchard Alley on East 4th Street]

Via the EVG inbox...

Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) is hosting its 3rd annual Harvest Arts Festival this weekend — a celebration of the arts, community gardens and Loisaida.

On Saturday, 30-plus community gardens throughout the East Village and Lower East Side are hosting performances in music, dance, poetry, comedy, spoken word, the arts, environmental workshops and teach-ins, and more.

On Sunday, the Festival gets on its feet as gardeners march together in the People's Climate March en masse.

Find all the info right here.

Cafe Mogador: Still got it?

In the "Throwback Thursday" column at Fork in the Road this week, Kevin Kessler writes about the 31-year-old Cafe Mogador at 101 St. Mark's Place.

And?

Mogador is, arguably, the truest culinary expression of what was once called a modern East Village restaurant. It's hip, laid back, and older than it seems (it opened in 1983), but it's also vibrant.

The food still works too. "The café serves ultra-reliable Mediterranean fare from breakfast through dinner."

All of which reminds me that I haven't been here in a very long time.

GG's, bringing pizza from the backyard to your table on East 5th Street

[Photo from early September via EVG reader Sal]

GG's is now in soft-open mode at 511 E. Fifth St. Goat Town owner Nick Morgenstern revamped the space here between Avenue A and Avenue B officially opens this weekend.

Eater got a sneak preview.

The menu is more relaxed than Goat Town's, with a strong emphasis on pizza, and some ingredients still coming from the backyard. Pies include the "Ev Greenery", which is topped with greens, lamb chorizo, sauce vert, grano padano, cherry tomatoes and pickled red onion. There is also a clam pie with three varieties of bivalves on it and a pie topped with morcilla and ricotta. Slices of two pies are available daily for around $4 at lunch.

Head over to Eater for shots of the interior and the menus.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Goat Town is closing to make way for a pizzeria

The transformation of Goat Town to GG's on East 5th Street

GG's announces itself on East 5th Street

Close encounters

[Via Bill the Libertarian Anarchist]

So if you were around Avenue B (below, say, East Seventh Street) late this afternoon... then you likely heard the helicopter PRETTY MUCH LAND IN YOUR LIVING ROOM...


[Via @in_vino_nyc]


[Via EVG]

We've heard various sources for the noise ... including that a crew was filming a skateboard documentary (!?) ...

Updated 9-19

A reader sent along another photo…



… and a video…

An 'East Village Eye' mini-symposium, plus back issues and T-shirts

Ugh. Sorry for the short notice on this. My fault! This free event is tonight 6-8. Via the EVG inbox...

The East Village Eye Archive, in conjunction with Printed Matter, Inc., presents the First "Officially Sanctioned" Back Issue Selloff, in which selected copies of the East Village Eye magazine will be put on sale to the public ... as well as several fabulous t-shirt designs sporting historical East Village Eye covers.

East Village Eye was a monthly magazine that produced 72 issues from 1979 through 1987, focusing on the music, art, film, words, performance and social movements of the era, much of which was being made in the neighborhood it called home. The magazine is known today for its uncanny and prescient sense of culture´s evolution and direction, fluidly moving between the street, the avant-garde and the world at large.

To mark this big selloff event, we are presenting a mini-symposium entitled “How Hip Hop Came Downtown,” covering the process in which members of New York’s media and fine art communities brought rap music, graffiti art and breakdancing from the inner-city ghettos to a wider audience that has since spread across the world. Leading this discussion will be Eye publisher/editor Leonard Abrams, scholar Yazmin Ramirez, musician and multimedia artist Michael Holman, and Fab 5 Freddy.

Find more info here. Printed Matter is at 195 Tenth Ave. between West 21st Street and West 22nd Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Q-and-A with Leonard Abrams, publisher of the East Village Eye

Today in photos of a possibly abandoned stuffed lion on St. Mark's Place

Between First Avenue and Second Avenue... no word just yet what the lion used to be attached to... but we're on it, at least until lunch...





Photos via EVG reader John Coakley...

The International eyeing move next door to the former South Brooklyn Pizza space

There are plans to relocate neighborhood favorite the International one storefront away on First Avenue between East Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

International owner Molly Fitch, who along with Shawn Dahl, reopened the bar in June 2008, said that the opportunity to move so close is too good to pass up. However, it's not a done deal just yet.

If it works out, then Molly and the International crew will have more room to work with. South Brooklyn Pizza, which closed in April, was split into two sections, the space for to-go slices and a dining room.

Molly, who also owns the Coal Yard one block to the south on First Avenue, said that she would use the space on the right for an NYC-style to-go pizzeria. The left side of the storefront would house The International. (She'd retain the warm, comfortable vibe of the current bar.)



This would be the fourth iteration of The International, which was originally on St. Mark's Place before the owner moved it to its current location at 120 1/2 First Avenue. The International closed in 2002 after the death of the partner of the original owner's son. The space sat in limbo until Molly and Shawn reopened it in 2008.

The application for a new liquor license will likely be one of the items expected before the CB3/SLA subcommittee meeting next month.

Security guards and Stop Work Orders for Icon Realty-owned East 12th Street building

Icon Realty added to their East Village portfolio with the purchase of 222 E. 12th St. for $2.545 million in late 2012.

The city approved permits to renovate some of the units in May. At that time, a neighbor told us that the building between Second Avenue and Third Avenue was now tenant-free as the gut renovations began.

Apparently that was not the case, though.

A different neighbor told us about the recent arrival of security guards at 222's front door.

The neighbor relayed the following: "I live a few doors down and asked why there was a security guard, and a tenant said that the building owner was trying to force tenants out using the construction and that the tenant had succeeded in getting the Department of Buildings to halt work. I've never seen a security guard outside a building before for this reason."

The city issued two Stop Work Orders last week.

According to one complaint (in the DOB's ALL-CAP style):

THE OWNER OF THE BUILDING LIED TO THE CITY CLAIMING THE BUILDING WAS EMPTY IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A PERMIT TO DO CONSTRUCTION ILLEGALLY. THERE ARE 7 TENANTS STILL LIVING INSIDE THE BUILDING.

And the other complaint:

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ARE CONSTRUCTING LUXURY APTS INSTEAD OF NECESSARY REPARS., NO TENANT PROTECTION PLAN FOR ALT

Have other tips or photos about the situation here? Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email

Countdown to the People's Climate March

The People's Climate March is coming up on Sunday. (Details here, if you're interested.)

Ahead of that, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) is hosting a variety of events in the neighborhood, including:

Tonight, 4 – 8 pm: Banner and Puppet Making for People's Climate March
@ La Plaza Community Garden, (9th St & Ave C)

Bring paints, props, and food to share as we make ecological puppets and props in our green space for the upcoming People’s Climate March and Ride.

Friday, 4 – 8 pm: Sign and Patch Making for People’s Climate March
@ Loisaida Harvest Festival; La Plaza Community Garden

Join in the festivities of the Loisaida Harvest Festival and make signs and patches for the People’s Climate March and Ride.

Saturday, noon – 2 pm: FREE Lower East Side Sustainable Community & Garden Walking Tour
@ At MoRUS

The Lower East Side has the highest concentration of community gardens and squats of any neighborhood in the country. Come explore these sustainable buildings and spaces on this one-of-a-kind, full-access walking tour.

Saturday, 6:15 pm: Presentation on the History of Grassroots Environmental Activism in New York City
@ At MoRUS

Come learn how sustainable grassroots community projects have ignited social change and policy change in NYC. Hear about different sustainable subjects, like how community bicycle activism changed the whole city to a more safe and sustainable design with bike-lanes, auto-free plazas and greenways. Hosted by the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space featuring a conversation and video screening by Wendy Brawer of Green Maps and Bill DiPaola of Time’s Up Environmental Organization.

Visit the Museum's events page for more info. MoRUS is at 155 Avenue C between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.

Meanwhile, the Third Annual LUNGS Harvest Festival is happening this weekend... which also coincides with the march... Check out the LUNGS website here for details on events happening at various community gardens around the neighborhood. We'll have more on LUNGS later this week...

You can finally shop at 51 Astor Place!

The IBM Watson building finally has some (temporary) retail.

On Tuesday, hotelier-developer Ian Schrager unveiled the sales office and model apartment for his incoming hotel-condo tower at 215 Chrystie just below East Houston.

We haven't covered this at all so … we're looking at a 28-floor building due, maybe, winter 2016. There will be 11 residences sitting atop the 370-room hotel.



Per Curbed:

Prices start from more than $7 million for a two-bedroom, half-floor apartment, while the full-floor units on the 30th and 31st floors will be more expensive, naturally. The penthouse, which takes up the whole 32nd floor plus a roodtop deck, will be "in the twenties."

The Real Deal notes that the condo prices are poised to break a sales record for the neighborhood. No kidding.

Anyway, the sales office, on Third Avenue near East Ninth Street, has a model unit with a living room, dining room and kitchen, per Curbed. (Not sure about a bathroom. But ask anyway. Say you had a particularly bad $1 slice. It will be cool.)

Here's a rendering of one of the units…



Head over to Curbed for more details. Also, the Observer.

Please don't mind the new Avenue A pipeline

@evgrieve There's a tiny hole on Avenue A and 7th. pic.twitter.com/XAU2BlNSea

— Eden Brower (@edenbrower) September 17, 2014

Condos possibility for the coolest building on the Bowery

[Via Wikipedia Commons]

The former Amato Opera is not the only historic building on the Bowery to be heading to the condo after-life.

Those rumors from last month are true: 190 Bowery, the longtime home of photographer Jay Maisel, has been sold, the Times confirms today.

RFR Holdings bought the mysterious, 37,000-square-foot building on the corner of Bowery and Spring Street.

To the Times for quotes from RFR co-founder and principal Aby Rosen ...

“The building is in terrible shape. There’s no heat, Jay lives in just a small area of the building, another winter is coming, and it was time,” said Mr. Rosen, who spent six months cajoling Mr. Maisel into selling the home. “When you own a property for that long, and you are not a real estate professional, it takes a lot of convincing.”

Mr. Rosen, who has yet to close on the purchase and declined to reveal the price, said the building could be converted for retailing at the base with condominiums above, or possibly offices or even an art gallery.

Maisel bough the 1898 Germania Bank building in 1966 for $102,000. He and his family have lived there ever since. The price tag of the building was estimated to be at $50-plus million.

Today in 'Pardon our Appearance' signs

Outside the Standard East Village on Cooper Square ... "Pardon our appearance improvements underway" at the fire hydrant someone is painting...



Photos by EVG Fire Hydrant Correspondent Derek Berg...

Please do not cut down bendy tree just yet

That's the message on signs that appeared this morning around the doomed leaning elm (aka bendy tree) in Tompkins Square Park...



As previously reported, an arborist hired by the Parks Department found the favorite tree structurally unsound and recommended that it be cut down. However, there is a movement afoot to, at the very least, get a second opinion on the tree's health and involve the Community Board in the decision before the Park loses another tree.

Photos via Church of Stop Shopping

Previously on EV Grieve:
UGH: Bendy tree in Tompkins Square Park has been condemned

Bendy-lujah