LGBT craft sale this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park

[Photo by Steven]

These homemade signs arrived in the Park this morning... the sale is from 3:30 to 4:40 outside the Dog Run...

Report: Mount Sinai Beth Israel is closing in 4 years; smaller facility planned for 14th and 2nd

The rumors turned out to be true: Mount Sinai Beth Israel is closing its facility on First Avenue at East 16th Street.

Here's NY1 with the scoop:

"What we are dealing with is an infrastructure that is old, a facility that isn't efficient and it lives in the most competitive environment on planet earth in health care," said Mount Sinai Beth Israel CEO Dr. Kenneth Davis.

The hospital essentially has been on life support for years, losing $250 million since 2012. Now its owner, Mount Sinai Health System, is pulling the plug and announcing plans to close it in four years.

Hospital officials say the closure of the facility is the only option financially. With how treatment is changing Mount Sinai Beth Israel is in an evolve or die situation.

Davis said that only 60 percent of the hospital's 856 beds are used on a daily basis.

Mount Sinai Health System reportedly plans to replace the existing facility by opening a smaller hospital on 14th Street and Second Avenue "with a full-service emergency department and 70 inpatient beds."

According to NY1, Mount Sinai will also expand its Ambulatory Care Center in Union Square.

Meanwhile, Crain's is reporting that hospital officials have placed Gilman Hall, an apartment building it uses to house medical residents, up for sale.

Per Crain's:

The 24-story property, at the corner of East 17th Street and First Avenue, could fetch as much as $80 million.

Citing several anonymous nurses, The Villager reported on May 13 that the hospital would be closing. A Mount Sinai spokesperson would neither confirm or deny the report at that time.

Updated 5 p.m.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the 16th Street facility/property could fetch up to $600 million.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Mount Sinai Beth Israel 'will cut its inpatient capacity' (33 comments)

Report: 300-room hotel planned for East 11th Street

Back in late April, when news broke that the 6-building portfolio of 85 E. 10th St. and 112-120 E. 11th St. had been sold, an EVG commenter with some inside information left the following:

Lightstone will be demolishing the properties on 11th street beginning this year, and plans to develop a hotel there on behalf/with one of its hotel partners— most likely Marriott— to build one of their low-budget "hip" hotels, branded as "Moxy". They will be doing minor refurbishing to 85 East 10th Street, and then will look to unload it. They only bought the property because Pan Am required purchase of 85 E10th as part of the 112-120 E11th deal.

Hope they have an incredible budget for sound-proofing on this new development because staying across from Webster Hall is not the most conducive to the whole "sleeping" experience! Haha.

Yesterday, The Real Deal reported that the East 11th Street buildings between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue will be demolished to make way for a ... 300-room hotel with Marriott International’s Moxy Hotels serving as the brand.

The Lightstone Group paid Pan Am Equities $127 million for the portfolio.

Per TRD:

85 East 10th Street — which represented $75.4 million of the total purchase price — is not going to be part of the project. In fact, Lightstone wants to sell it, and hired a team from Meridian Capital Group to bring the 121-unit, 69,100-square-foot rental building to market.

There are other Moxy properties in the works at 105 W. 28th St. in Chelsea and 485 Seventh Ave. south of Times Square.

Reps for Lightstone haven't filed any new permits yet for the East 11th Street buildings.

Previously on EV Grieve:
6-building complex on East 10th Street and East 11th Street sells for $127 million

Pop-up art show on 6th and A today

A photo posted by Peter Missing (@petermissing) on May 24, 2016 at 3:06pm PDT

Happening today starting at noon on Avenue A and Sixth Street ... at the site of the former Benny's Burritos... Previously

East 10th Street townhouse available as a rental for $50,000 a month

Last month we noted that this fine townhouse at 114 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue was back on the market ... with the owner — an LLC with a Pinecrest, Fla., address — asking $9.85 million.

Well, it turns out the place is also available as a rental. The blurbage via Douglas Elliman:

Exquisite, decorator, furnished 6 bedroom townhouse has been designed with the highest standard of excellence. This townhouse sparkles with vu's [views?] and sunlight from all windows. A separate garden level apartment is available for staff, friends or family. A beautiful landscaped garden plus an architecturally designed roof deck with sauna and shower are some of the many outstanding features of this house.

This is definitely the most expensive rental that we can recall in the neighborhood. But just find 99 friends and you'll only be paying $500 a month.

Images via Douglas Elliman

Unearthing retail history at 2A

[Photo by EVG reader Cate]

If you walked by 2A in recent days, then you may have noticed some ghost signage that has been unveiled ... for infants' wear and children's dresses...


[Photo by Spike]


[Photo by Spike]

Daytonian in Manhattan provides some fascinating history of the building on Avenue A and Second Street.

In 1868 the Teutonia Savings Bank was incorporated and its handsome bank building erected on the site of No. 25 Avenue A. The architect is unclear; however the structure bears striking similarities to the work of Nicholas Whyte who was working in the area. His Irwin Building, completed the same year, at the corner of Bowery and Bleecker Street includes several similar elements.

The four-story Italianate structure was faced in sandstone on the Avenue front and with red brick on the side elevation. The bank's architecture presented potential depositors with a sense of stability. Rusticated stone piers, handsome Corinthian pilasters between the upper openings on the Avenue side, and carved stone lintels with double keystones along 2nd Street spoke of the cost of the edifice. To the rear a stoop led to the arched doorway of the upper floors.

The offices on the upper floors were leased and the Teutonia Savings Bank operated from ground level. Things went smoothly for a decade before the bank collapsed under scandal and fraud.

In March 1878 a stranger who gave his name as H. G. Wagner attempted to open a bank account, using a draft for $2,750 drawn by the banking firm of Gossler & Co., in Boston. The check was accepted; but bank officials were suspicious and investigated the matter. It turned out to be a forgery and a detective was put on the case. He sat for days in the President’s office, where he could watch the bank patrons come and go through the glass door.

Wagner was too clever to personally return to withdraw funds; and he offered John Campbell 50 cents to cash a check for him. Campbell ended up being arrested and Wagner was never caught.

But that was the least of the problems for Teutonia Savings Bank. Four months later warrants were issued for the arrest of all 15 trustees of the bank. On July 15 the New-York Tribune ran the headline “Misuse of Bank Funds” and reported on the nearly $30,000 of assets the men had distributed among themselves.

The post doesn't have any mention of the retail space when it served in more recent times as a children's clothing store, as the signage shows (2A has been here since 1985)... and it's not clear if this will remain outside 2A or it's just a temporary reveal.


[Photo via JG]

Are these the 6 best East Village bars?

[Photo of Josie's via Facebook]

In recent weeks New York Magazine and Grub Street have been publishing a series of best-of listicles.

Yesterday afternoon, they published "the East Village’s most excellent drinking options" from 1 to 6:

1) The Wayland, 700 E. Ninth St. at Avenue C.

2) Lois, 98 Avenue C between Seventh Street and Sixth Street

3) Standings, 43 E. Seventh St. near Second Ave.

4) Jimmy's No. 43, 43 E. Seventh St. near Second Ave.

5) Josie's, 520 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B

6) Mother of Pearl, 95 Avenue A at Sixth Street

Grub Street notes that "the neighborhood’s zip code is home to 585 active liquor licenses," which means there will be plenty of room for debate about this list.

Today's baby hawk watch in Tompkins Square Park

Checking in with Christo and Dora's latest red-tailed hawk offspring this afternoon...



To date, I've still only seen two of the three babies... will check in with Goggla for more about this.



Photos today by Bobby Williams

Report: Citi Bike mechanics question the integrity and safety of the new bikes

[Photo on 7th and A by Derek Berg]

The design of the newer-model Citi Bikes are being questioned — by Citi Bikes' own mechanics.

According to an email that the company's unionized mechanics sent to management, as reported by Gothamist:

"We tried to warn management many months ago about these safety issues with the new bikes but were completely ignored," wrote one mechanic and TWU representative in an e-mail to his coworkers last month (he asked that his name be withheld for fear of employer retaliation). "We do not want to be blamed for the catastrophic failure that is the Motivate bike."

In late March, Citi Bike pulled 1,000 bikes from its fleet for maintenance:

“We have determined that the forks in our new bike fleet — the part that holds the front wheel in place — have been wearing faster than expected,” Citi Bike said in its email.

But, according to the email from mechanics, this problem was just the beginning, as the Daily News first reported:

“It's not from high usage,” a Citi Bike staffer with knowledge of its fleet told the Daily News. “To a lot of the mechanics, it means that the company is interested in replenishing the system with bikes of lower quality.”

Parts that hold the rear wheel in place on the new bikes were becoming “skewed and uneven” to the point that it could result in “catastrophic axle breaks and premature hub/wheel failure,” according to the email.

A Citi Bike spokesperson issued this statement to Gothamist yesterday: "The new line of Citi Bikes are very popular with riders with a sleeker, more comfortable design. Like with any innovation we've learned lessons and are making improvements to durability, but all Citi Bikes on the road are extremely safe — with nearly 28 million rides and no fatalities."

RIP Lorraine Levine

Don't freak out, but I died on Sunday. You can now reach me via the Ouija board. Will do hauntings for a buck. ❤️u pic.twitter.com/4x01HWTYGT

— Lorraine Levine (@ask_lorraine) May 23, 2016

Lorraine Levine, an East Village resident who received attention in recent years for her frank, expletive-filled advice videos, died on Sunday. She was 87. (Previous features on Levine listed her age as 89.)

"She was hilarious and full of life," said Maristella Innocenti, a friend of Levine's. "She never gave up on life, even at her age. She always talked about the future. For me it was an honor to have met her and to have had a chance to be part of her life."

Her neighbor, filmmaker Robert La Force, launched a video series in early 2015 titled "Ask My Neighbor Lorraine," in which she answered questions about how to meet men and offered hangover cures.

She also tried her hand at social media.

First tweet and I already fucking hate Twitter!

— Lorraine Levine (@ask_lorraine) April 30, 2015

A video sampling ... (a little NSFW) ...



The Brooklyn native was married five times, according to an interview with her last year at MTV.com. She was a former antiques dealer.

From an interview last August with DNAinfo: "The accidental comedienne, who grew up in Brighton Beach in a Russian Jewish family of entertainers, thinks of herself as, above all, a 'very cultured, sophisticated lady ... who says fuck often.'"

There is a memorial for Levine Wednesday morning at 11 at Thomas C. Montera, Inc. Funeral Home on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx.

At a later date, Innocenti said that friends and family will get together at Levine's East Fifth Street apartment, where she lived since 1978. "We will have a party in her backyard. That's what she would've loved."