Ralph Feldman's East 8th Street

Ralph Feldman, a former FDNY fire marshal, died on Feb. 5. He was 79.

Here are some of the photos that he shared with us last fall from the block he lived on since 1969... few photos included building addresses or dates... though all were on East Eight between B and C, where he said there could be up to five fires a week in the abandoned buildings during this time period.

As he wrote for the Local in January 2012, "At the same time when the Bronx was burning, the East Village was burning. All of Brooklyn was burning. In the ’70s and ’80s, big portions of the city burnt down."




[1970]


[1982]





















The Villager has more on Feldman this week here.

Valuable lots to be sold in the neighborhood — in 1836

[Click on image for more details]

Something from the Museum of the City of New York.

Here's the description:

Valuable Lots to be Sold by Jas. Bleecker & Sons on Thursday 19th of May 1836

Map of area from 6th to 8th Streets betwen 1st and 4th Avenue.

Missing from the description: There goes the neighborhood!

Check out more from the Museum's collection right here ... and all available for purchase.

Reader report: A mixed reception for a potential new East 7th Street resident

A dispatch from EVG reader Leslie yesterday...

Like many in today's real-estate market, everyone's willing to look even further east.

Today, a familiar face was checking out homes on 7th between C and D and received a mixed reception. Some longtime neighborhood residents exhibited marked hostility; others had fingers crossed that this newcomer would choose to stay.

The well-wishers fantasized a new laser focus on reduction of the blocks rodent population.

But the haters, per eyewitness accounts, made their hostility known.

Multiple members of a local blue-jay clique jeered sharp jaay-jaays and repeatedly dive bombed youngblood hawk.

The clannish residents entered attack mode, pecking at his noggin as he sat placidly upon a branch pondering the new location.

Fans tried but failed to capture documentation of the skirmish (see photo below). Nest shopping stopped when a kit of pigeons circled 6th Street, ending the outing to the east.

At the Tompkins Square Greenmarket today

Just two vendors — Meredith's Bread and Pura Vida Fish — are braving the wind chills today. Also, from the Greenmarket folks: "Sangmin from the compost team will be here til 1 to collect your food scraps, but there is NO textile recycling today."

How windy will it get today?

[Photo on East 13th Street near First Avenue by paddy523]

From the weather people…

Winter Weather Advisory, Wind Chill Advisory
Statement as of 3:59 AM EST on February 15, 2015

...Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until 1 PM EST this
afternoon...
...Wind Chill Advisory remains in effect from 6 PM this evening
to 9 am EST Monday...

• locations...New York City...Metro New Jersey...Long Island and coastal Connecticut.

• Hazard types...periods of snow...blowing snow and high winds into early this afternoon. Hazardous wind chills after midnight through Monday morning.

• Accumulations...snow accumulation of 1 to 5 inches.

• Winds...northwest 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph.

• Temperatures...3 below to 20 above zero.

• Wind chill...as low as 22 below due to temperatures 3 below to
16 above zero...and winds northwest 20 to 30 mph with gusts up
to 45 mph.

• Timing...the strongest winds will occur through early this afternoon. The lowest wind chills will occur after midnight through Monday morning.

And not the first time that we have used the Wind of the Century tag.

Love in the overnight

St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Avenue A. (People drew other things on cars as well, as usual.)

Photo by Michael Sean Edwards

Ray's now has onion rings

Last night, Ray introduced fried onion rings to his menu, per EVG regular Peter Brownscombe.

They are freshly cut and fried, not frozen...



113 Avenue A near East Seventh Street

Dallas BBQ is for lovers

The scene on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place via Derek Berg...

Are the red-tailed hawks building a nest on the Tompkins Square Library?

[Photo from the other day in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams]

As we noted earlier this week, red-tailed hawk parents Christo and Dora likely won't be able to build their nest on the Christodora House on Avenue B and East Ninth Street this year. So, they will need a new home for a nest.

To the EVG inbox this morning…

Sadly I don't have a photo, but I spotted a hawk, hopefully Christo or Dora, flying out of Tompkins with nesting materials in his talons. He was headed toward the library on East 10th between A and B and appeared to land in that general area. Maybe a new nest location on a building in the vicinity??

I guess we'll see!

Yes!

Saint's Alp Teahouse returns after renovation

Saint's Alp Teahouse, 39 Third Ave. between East 9th Street and East 10th Street, reopened yesterday after a nearly month-long closure for renovations…

Workers have upgraded the space…


[Image via Facebook

One regular told us that they added a few new menu items as well…

The art of noise

The fourth release from A Place to Bury Strangers is out on Tuesday. Here's a single from Transfixiation called "And I'm Up."

Raymond

A familiar presence selling flowers outside Key Food on Avenue A and East Fourth Street...

Photo by Stacie Joy

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

A look at Ash Thayer's book "Kill City: Lower East Side Squatters 1992-2000" (The Link)

Bowery Mission names new president and CEO (The Lo-Down)

Woman punched at Katz's for standing too close in line (DNAinfo)

Manny Cantor Center hosting a Survey of Working Artists on the Lower East Side (BoweryBoogie)

Art and ephemera connected to No Wave Film, 1976-1985 (98 Bowery)

Police looking for suspect in mugging on Essex and Hester (PIX 11)

An oral history of CBGB (Medium/Cuepoint)

A winter view of the Depression-era East River (Ephemeral New York)

"When you look at all the reasons why New York City has left such an indelible mark on the world, it ultimately has precious fuck-all to do with having been born here." (Flaming Pablum)

Q-and-A with John Waste of Urban Waste (Noisey/Vice)

Red Velvet Oreo Ice Cream coming to Davey's on First Avenue this weekend (Grub Street)

Update on residential conversion of 41 Great Jones (Curbed)

In case you wanted Andy Warhol-inspired Chuck Taylors (Tasting Table)

A surprising trip to Foley's on West 33rd Street (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Cops keeping surveillance on Washington Square Park visitors in real time (Washington Square Park Blog)

For your Valentine's Day: EVG's favorite love songs, sort of (Stupefaction)

... and "Law and Order: SVU" was back in the neighborhood filming this week, including at First Houses on East Third Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...


[Photo by Yenta Laureate]

More about Taste Wine, coming soon to 50 Third Ave.

Back in December we noted that a new wine shop was in the works for 50 Third Ave. near East 10th Street.

Gary Landsman, the proprietor of the incoming Taste Wine, shared more information with us about the shop that he hopes to have up and running this spring.

About Taste Wine:

"The store will have a relatively small selection of wines. We don't think it makes sense to overwhelm people with choice — choosing which wine to buy can be difficult enough. We also intend to have a pretty comprehensive tasting program so people can try their wines much like we try on clothing. And we will have a wine tasting room in the back of the space where we will hold nightly and maybe even twice-per-night wine education/appreciation sessions."

About his background:

"From about 1999-2002, I was a part-time NYU business school student. I was trading stocks, and felt pretty empty inside. I got out and spent some time in the restaurant world where I fell in love with wine. Finally, in 2006, I sublet my apartment and went to Israel where I worked a harvest season at a small boutique winery in the Judean Hills. After the harvest, I went to Napa where I worked at a larger 'custom crush' facility through the winter.

I came back to NYC in 2007 and … I ended up getting a job in sales with a wine distributor … then after selling wine for a couple of years I was recruited by some new wine industry friends to help out with marketing for a wine importer/distributor.

But opening a place where consumers could comfortably find wine that suits them has been my dream for several years now. So I left my job at the end of 2013 and have been working on this project ever since."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Biomed Drugs & Surgical Supply Co. closing on 3rd Avenue

Report: Deal finalized to create public-private partnership for 6 public housing developments

[File photo of Campos Plaza]

The New York City Housing Authority reportedly finalized a deal earlier this week to sell a 50-percent stake in six Section 8-subsidized developments to L+M Development Partners and BFC Partners for $360 million, plus another $100 million in additional renovation investments.

The sale comprises 10 buildings and 874 units, including Campos Plaza on Avenue C and East 12th Street and East 4th Street Rehab between Avenue B and Avenue C in the East Village.

The Observer has more on the deal, made final on Tuesday:

The sale, which places the properties in the hands of the newly-formed Triborough Preservation Partners, a public-private partnership ... was carried out as a means of opening a variety of funding streams to address the Section 8 facilities’ decrepit condition — they are estimated to require some $113 million in maintenance and repair over the next 15 years — in the absence of federal dollars, which mostly dried up in the 1990s.

And!

Without the establishment of a public-private partnership, the new funding sources, which will supply financing for construction, operations and maintenance of reserves, would not have been available to NYCHA, which as a public entity is ineligible for the loans, tax credits and other financial instruments responsible for the fresh funds.

Shola Olatoye, the chair and CEO of NYCHA, said that her organization will retain approval and oversight rights with respect to all major decisions.

You can find more background on the story at Curbed. And The Wall Street Journal.

The Adele has a shuttle van

[Via Streeteasy]

The Adele is the new luxury 12-story residential building on East Houston and Avenue D (technically 310 E. Second St.).

Living this far east … well, you have some bus options (M9, M22 and the M14D) … or else face a short walk to the F … or maybe the 6 at Bleecker/Lafayette.

The distance from a subway line might be a deterrent for a potential tenant. Which is why, perhaps, there have been multiple sightings of an alleged Adele shuttle van in recent weeks.

Said one EVG reader, who has been keeping tabs: "I just saw the Adele subway shuttle again. Pretty sure that's what it is. The van was filled with seats but no people driving east on Bleecker. After a drop off at Broadway-Lafayette I presume. Oy vey. That's so Trump Plaza of them."

And finally Dave on 7th recently caught the Adele van in action...



A shuttle service isn't listed under the Adele's amenities on its website… and the van doesn't offer any further explanation about the Adele's puzzling marketing slogan: "In a city where everyone is always going somewhere, YOU'LL ALREADY BE HERE."

About that Bill de Blasio-tagged van on East 6th Street

The other evening we noticed this van with the Bill de Blasio tag on it parked on East Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Turns out the van belongs to Vit Horejs, artistic director of the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre. He owns several vans, all named Molly, to transport theatrical equipment.

According to Bonnie Sue Stein, Vit's friend and director of the nonprofit organization 7 Loaves Inc/GOH Productions, the de Blasio tag arrived about two weeks ago.

"The van was not tagged for weeks when we got it, but as soon as one person started, it hasn't stopped," said Stein, a community organizer in the East Village for more than 30 years. "It's frustrating. Vit says he wishes they did a better job. It's not very well-executed. It's a mess. People have been laughing about the de Blasio tag. And one woman who saw it said we should sell the van to a museum because of the de Blasio tag."

New works from East Village artist Anton van Dalen go on display tonight in Chelsea

[Stromboli Pizzaman 2011-2012, oil on canvas, by Anton van Dalen]

Longtime East Village artist Anton van Dalen begins a month-long exhibition of new work tonight at the P.P.O.W. Gallery, 535 W. 22nd St. between 10th Avenue and 11th Avenue in Chelsea. (The P.P.O.W. Gallery started its life in the East Village in 1983.)

The opening is tonight from 6-8. The work will be up through March 14. Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

And an Anton van Dalen sneak preview via his website…

Waiting for dinner at the Odessa

[Click on image to enlarge]

EVG contributor Michael Sean Edwards dines at the Odessa lunch counter…

Brooklyn will now host the Mr. Lower East Side Pageant

[Photo last year by Walter Wlodarczyk]

Funny thing happened on the way to the 16th annual Mr. Lower East Side Pageant — it's moving to the Lucky 13 Saloon in Gowanus.

Here's more from the Pageant's creator, Rev. Jen, on Facebook:

Sadly, the infamous Mr. Lower East Side Pageant, which was originally scheduled for January 31st at Cake Shop was cancelled at the last minute due to the "fun police" and fear of penile exposure. So in a bizarre turn of events it's moving to Brooklyn! This is OK, given the Lower East Side is a state of mind and frankly, the Lower East Side can suck it, as all creative activity has been exiled from the neighborhood due to greedy landlords. (Landlords recently almost exiled me from the LES in housing court!) I'm pretty sure that someday, the Mr. Lower East Side Pageant will be held in New Jersey.

You can find more details and the rest of Rev. Jen's announcement on the Facebook event page.

H/T The Lo-Down!

37 St. Mark's Place finally lands another tenant

[Yes, it's an older photo]

DF Mavens has a new upstairs neighbor on the northwest corner of St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue...

Please say hello to Taiji's Body Work... the fifth Taiji location in the city...


[Yes, there's a typo]

Per the pamphlets (which also are marked Peng's Body Work), they offer Tui-na, Swedish, Deep Tissue, Reflexology and Hot Stone... among other specialties... (60 minutes = $45.)



The most recent upstairs tenant, 8-Bit and Up, the retro video shop, moved to East Third Street in the fall of 2013.

Hey, the Funkiberry space is for lease on 3rd Avenue

[From June 2014]

The colorful FroYo joint opened for business last June.

And while Funkiberry continues to dispense the FroYo and breakfast items like waffles, the corner space here at 88 Third Ave. and East 12th Street is for lease.

Per a listing at Loop Net:

Corner space with brand new build out. Previously was vented for cooking
Approximately 800 RSF with an approximately 800 SF basement
Lease until November 2023
Rent: $21,321.00 per month

We rarely see anyone inside Funkiberry, who close each day at 1 p.m.

In any event, the FroYo Death march continues.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Stuff that you can't make up: More FroYo for the East Village

Ghost signage uncovered on Third Avenue and East 12th Street

DOUBLE ghost signage discovered at 88 3rd Ave.

Hey, the Funkiberry sign is up on 3rd Avenue

Hey, Funkiberry is now open on 3rd Avenue

Morning rush: Stand Coffee now serving in the back of Baohaus on East 14th Street

[Image via]

This past Saturday, Stand Coffee made its debut in the back of Baohaus, Eddie Huang's quick-serve Taiwanese restaurant at 238 E. 14th St. just west of Second Avenue.

"We were thinking there was some value in the times before restaurants and bars open in neighborhoods where the rent is too high or the demand too low for modest specialty coffee," Stand proprietor Bryan Hasho explained in an email.

So every day from 7-11:30 a.m., before Baohaus opens for the day, the Stand serves coffee from Greenpoint's Cafe Grumpy.

"We just carry our whole rig out the front door into our van when the Baohaus folks are ready to serve," said Hasho, who previously worked for Blue Bottle Coffee.

So far, he said that the reaction to the coffee has been excellent, albeit sparse. If the idea works here, then Stand Coffee will look to explore other spaces to serve from in the morning hours.

"[Baohaus] is our first so we're committing all our resources to making this one perfect," Hasho said, "but one of the really great things about the model is we can experiment with different shops and spaces and see what works."

Retail condo space that houses the New York City Pharmacy on 1st Avenue is for sale

There's a new listng for 206 First Ave. between East 12th Street and East 13th Street ... currently home to the the New York City Pharmacy.

Here are the details via Warburg Realty:

This property is a fully occupied retail space encompassing the ground and cellar floors totaling approx. 2,365 square foot. The asset offers over 15' of frontage on First Avenue providing significant visibility along one of the busiest streets in New York City. The space measures approximately 1315 sq. ft. on the ground floor with another 1,050 sq. ft. of basement storage and features 10' ceilings.

And!

This retail condominium represents an excellent opportunity for end-users and purchasers seeking a retail investment opportunity. Will be delivered vacant.

So say goodbye to the New York City Pharmacy.

And what are retail condominium spaces going for around here these days? Both the Warburg site and Streeteasy list the same price...



$8.5 million???? That's good for $3,594 a square foot.

Updated: See the comments. The pharmacy owner says that they have a lease and are safe for now…

S & P Liquor & Wine now open on 2nd Avenue

S & P Liquor & Wine, which had to close for parts of last year during renovations to its building at 300 E. Fifth St., is now open in its new home at 89 Second Ave. ... near East Fifth Street ... inside the former home of the 2nd Ave. Smoke Shop & News, which moved down Second Avenue ...



Thanks to Vinny & O for the photos!

Body of missing Stuy Town resident found in the East River

Andreas Robbins, a 25-year-old resident of Stuyvesant Town, was last seen on Dec. 1 leaving his apartment at 521 E. 14th St.

According to published reports, police found his body in the East River near South Street between FDR and Broad Street earlier today.

His father, Columbia University Professor Bruce Robbins, said in December that his son was suicidal. Andreas had reportedly left a suicide note behind in his apartment on Dec. 1.

It's rabbit cleaning season at the Death Star

The 14-foot-tall, 6,600-pound red rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons is getting some TLC tonight at 51 Astor Place... photo via EVG reader 8E.

Discarded carpet of the day, probably

If that is actually carpet ditched here on East Fourth Street at the Bowery...



Photo via Derek Berg

Free Rat Academy tomorrow

535 E. Fifth St. is between Avenue A and Avenue B...

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: Eileen Johnson
Occupation: Director, Little Missionary’s Day Nursery
Location: 93 St. Marks Place
Time: 1:45 pm on Feb. 4

I’m from Dublin. I came in 1980. Part of it was to get away. I was teaching over there but I was frustrated with living at home with my parents. I had also been here in 1970 as a student. I never forgot it. I really was in love with New York and I always felt like I would come back.

When I moved here I lived in a women's hotel on Lexington and 57th Street in the beginning. Oh my goodness. It was one tiny little room and the bathroom was in the hallway. It was kind of sad. Some of these ladies were kind of old and had nowhere else to go.

Then I started subletting around the city. I ended up subletting in the East Village and I loved it. I remember back in 1980, people used to be out in the street with the big barrel on fire, singing and playing guitars and everything. I don’t know what it was but there was something. Maybe it was because it was like Dublin, because the buildings were old and because of this type of building. I liked the feeling — I can’t even explain it.

I moved here for good in 1982. My husband was living in an apartment on Avenue C. We had people pulling swords and everything on the street. Swords. So then he moved in with me and then when we had kids we moved to Stuyvesant Town.

I’ve always been a teacher. In Ireland, I taught in high school and then 6th grade, but when I came here I was illegal [at first] so I did coat checking. It was easy to be illegal then ... I then got into teaching this age group and it’s very creative. [Getting a job for Little Missionary] was just luck. I stayed home with my kids when they were little and then I started looking around for work. I got another job and somebody said, ‘Oh you should go look at that Little Missionary, but it’s probably falling apart. They probably won’t survive. Things are bad over there.’ So I opened the door and I walked in ... I could see that it was a treasure. I just wanted to be part of it. When I started here as a teacher in 2001 we only used one floor. There were only eight kids left when I started. Now we have 80.

The building itself has been here since the mid 1800s, I think. It was somebody’s home and then it was a boarding house and then it went into foreclosure. Then they donated the building to Sara Curry, who was an incredible person. I was so impressed with her and her kindness and her goodness. She was born in Long Island to a big family. They were orphaned when the parents died. She and her brother went to Utica and she became an activist at the factories there. She started organizing women and taking care of the women’s children. Then she came to the city. She started out on Avenue C in a little apartment and she saw the way that kids were left on their own on the street.

She used to feed the neighborhood. She would have huge Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and it was said that she would give her own shoes away. I don’t know how she hooked up with these wealthy people but she got this house in 1901. There were 200 kids a day here.

We actually expanded this year. Tenants had to leave, so we renovated the upper floors. [The school's] board is amazing. The board is made up of local people and parents, which we could use more of. They let me bring my own philosophy in here, and that is about listening to children and letting them have their feelings. I didn’t grow up that way so I really feel that’s important for kids. You can stop everything that you’re doing and listen to what they’re saying and what they’re feeling. It’s very fulfilling. You go home at the end of the day feeling that you did something good.

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

[Updated] 1 reason why someone may not want the red-tailed hawks to nest on the Christodora House

[Image via Wikipedia Commons]

As we wrote about yesterday, someone in the Christodora House on Avenue B and East Ninth Street has twice removed the in-progress nest that red-tailed hawk parents Christo and Dora were building on a 7th floor AC unit. (Someone also installed bird spikes and tried to construct some kind of slanted cover for the top of the Act to prevent the hawks from landing.)

The hawks nested in the same place last year ... which netted three offspring.

Legalities aside, here's one solid explanation behind someone's actions. A tipster tells us that the Christodora is about to undergo a two-year renovation project that will cover the entire building in scaffolding and construction netting.

According to the DOB, the city OK'd a permit for exterior repairs last Wednesday. The estimated total cost of the project is nearly $2.5 million, per DOB records. Douglas J. Lister, Architect, is listed as the architect of record. (The firm's specialties include exterior renovations and window replacements.)

As the tipster said, by preventing them from nesting now, they are actually being more humane than letting them build a nest and then destroying it with scaffolding. The hawks will need to find a new nest location.

Updated 3:33 p.m.

DNAinfo filed a story this afternoon with more details.

Property manager Debora Angelico said the nests were removed so that the air conditioning unit could be repaired. The owner of the seventh-floor condo ordered the repair, she said, but only after months of research, which included outreach to the Audubon Society, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the condominium board, she said.

Although some the birders expressed concern that nest removal was illegal under federal laws protecting birds, Angelico said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the owner he was allowed to remove the nest from September through April because the raptors do not mate at that time.

Angelico said that the two-year renovation will commence in April.

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!)

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

Red-tailed hawk parents Christo and Dora are building another nest on the Christodora House

Someone keeps destroying the nest that the red-tailed hawks are building on the Christodora House

Nike's Zoom City SNKRS Station ready to sell sneakers on the Bowery

[Last Wednesday via an EVG reader]

Workers arrived last Wednesday to erect a pop-up shop/stage on the Bowery at Great Jones… we took a few more photos in subsequent days…






[Photo by Derek Berg]

It's all for Nike … a Zoom City SNKRS Station — one of eight Nike shops erected around the city as part of the NBA All-Star game weekend in NYC.

Here's a description of the Station via the Zoom City website:

The ultimate destination to pick up the latest in Nike sneakers. Performance and style take over at the Zoom City SNKRS Station.

Located at 348 Bowery (at Great Jones Street), the Zoom City SNKRS Station will feature exclusive Nike footwear, apparel and accessories.

The Zoom City SNKRS Station will be open tomorrow through Sunday.

Oh, and you just can't walk up here and shop — you need to make a reservation via the Zoom City website.

And maybe this is what the box will ultimately look like? (One of the 50 workers standing around said that it will be a Nike shoebox shape…)

High heat. One spot. RSVP now for your spot at #zoomcity SNKRS Station 2.12 and 2.13. http://t.co/rBO6XEJBvz pic.twitter.com/NIhBpVOzJ4
— Nike NYC (@NikeNYC) February 10, 2015

Regardless, it's quite a production…





This corner space previously housed the Deth Killers of Bushwick pop-up shop. Before its life as a pop-up space, the corner was home of the Downtown Auto & Tire until April 2012.

If you're in the anti-Valentine's Day mood

Ciao For Now, 523 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, is hosting its second-annual Anti-Valentine's celebration. This Saturday's dinner celebrates "a masquerade of heartbroken lovers from throughout history," per a Ciao For Now rep.

There are details on the flyer above... and on the Ciao For Now Facebook page...

Here's the Feb. 14 menu...