Sunday, August 7, 2016

Aug. 7



An EVG reader shared this photo from today on Seventh Street... the reader said that he woke up to "what sounds like someone struggling to pull a bag of trash down the stairs" in the apartment building. Turns out someone simply decided that it was time to discard the holiday tree...though falling short of the tree-tossing record by several weeks.

Week in Grieview


[Photo on East 3rd Street by David Fasano]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Exclusive: New owners of John's of 12th Street look to carry on the restaurant's tradition (Wednesday)

Lanza's remains closed (Wednesday)

September opening expected for the Second Avenue location of Tompkins Square Bagels (Tuesday)

Scott Stringer's audit blasts City Hall for inaction in Rivington House deed lift (Monday)

Target will pay $2.5 million annually in rent on 14th Street and Avenue A (Friday)

Report: Village View residents considering going private (Thursday, 56 comments)

Gotham Pizza opens on Third Avenue (Tuesday)

Espresso bar-barber shop in the works for 137 Avenue A (Tuesday)

Box Kite Coffee has closed on St. Mark's Place (Wednesday)

The Edge is closing this month on East Third Street after 29 years (Friday)

Workers remove American Elm in Tompkins Square Park (Thursday)

Esperanto Fonda opens on First Street (Friday)

With new building OK'd, corner of Fourth Avenue and 10th Street finally ready for razing (Monday)

Full reveal at 100 Avenue A (Wednesday)

The new Astor Place rolls out the tables, chairs and umbrellas (Thursday, 51 comments)

Mono + Mono coming soon — again! (Monday)

Drunken Dumpling coming soon to First Avenue (Monday)

Police searching for perpetrator who took this flower pot from St. Mark' s Place (Tuesday)

Secchu Yokota serving now omakase tempura on East Third Street (Thursday)

NY Grill & Deli coming to Avenue A and 12th Street (Monday)

Signage arrives for Greek restaurant opening in the former St. Mark's Ale House (Wednesday)

... and a look at the mural for August at Mikey Likes It ice cream, 199 Avenue A near East 12th Street, by Andre Trenier ... the Flavor of the Month is dedicated to Andre the Giant: "The 8th Wonder" with cinnamon toast crunch ice cream ...

Paving the way for smoother streets on 3rd Avenue



Crews started paving the roadway on Third Avenue/Cooper Square on Thursday... here's a look at the smoothness from Ninth Street to St. Mark's Place...break out the roller blades! Or roller skates! Or skateboards! Or illegal hoverboards!





There's still rough roadway south of Seventh Street ... this work is part of the ongoing Astor Place/Cooper Square Reconstruction Project.



The paving is expected to be complete in 2019.

Here's more on what's happening via the Reconstruction Newsletter (PDF!):

Anticipated Work Schedule:
July –September 2016
•Alamo Plaza: Re-install the “Alamo Cube” Sculpture.
Installing trees, shrubs, perennials and Furnishings.
•Subway Plaza: Planting/granite stone installation
•Lafayette, from Astor Pl. to E. 9th: Roadway reconstruction.
•Peter Cooper Park: Installing perennials/trash receptacles.
•Village Plaza: Installing additional skateboard deterrents,
new plants/perennials.
•Third Avenue, from E. 4th to E. 9th Streets: Roadway
reconstruction.
•Mosaic Poles: Installing decorative light poles along Astor
Place. (not powered)
•E. 4th from Bowery to Second Ave: Installing bump-outs.
•Milling and Paving operations throughout project.

Saturday, August 6, 2016

East Village Vintage Collective turns 1 today


[Photo from last August by Stacie Joy]

East Village Vintage Collective at 545 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B celebrates its 1st brithday today... they'll be having some special deals throughout the day ... leading up to a tiki-themed party tonight from 7-10. (The store opens today at 11 a.m.)


Previously on EV Grieve:
At the East Village Vintage Collective

Center lawn halved for the rest of the summer in Tompkins Square Park



Workers yesterday closed off the west half of the lawn in Tompkins Square Park for the rest of the summer, and through September...


[Photo by Steven]

Renovation signage points to "cleaning, seeding, composting."

Regardless of the closure, not everyone heeded the signage yesterday afternoon...


[Photo by Steven]

And this will likely mean that the last free screening (the Leo-Claire version of "Romeo and Juliet") of the summer on Thursday will be on the plaza area.

Checking in on Summer Streets



This was just before 9 a.m. on Fourth Avenue between 13th Street and 12th Street... not too crowded... more runners than cyclists at this moment...

Until 1 p.m. More details here.

Previously

Friday, August 5, 2016

A moment in Tompkins Square Park



Summer is here,
the sky is blue.
Whoa! the red-tailed hawks all sing as if they knew.
Today's the day, we'll say, "I do"

Photo this evening by Greg Masters

Summer of 69



Sham 69 from 1978 for no particular reason.

This weekend: Tompkins Square Park Riot Reunion shows



Here are the lineups:

Aug. 6: Saturday (2-7 pm)
> Simon Chardet
> The Coffin Daggers:
> ISM
> Iconicide
> Nihilistics

Aug. 7: Sunday (1-6 pm)
> Jennifer Blowdryer Punk Soul
> Rockaway Bitch
> Love Pirates
> Sewage
> Hammerbrain

Find more details here.

EV Grieve Etc.: An explanation for an increase in panhandling in Tompkins Square Park


[The usual badminton match outside Cooper Union via Derek Berg]

Claim: An increase in panhandling in Tompkins Square Park is a sign of success with curbing the city's street homelessness population (DNAinfo)

Top health union official played early role in Rivington House deed flip (Politico New York)

Jim Power continues work on mosaic poles that will return to Astor Place (B+B)

Opinion: "The L-train shutdown could be the crisis we've always needed to transform our transit system" (Crain's New York)

Fans wait hours in line for the Drake pop-up shop on the Bowery (DNAinfo)

20th anniversary for the New York International Fringe Festival, starting on Aug. 12 (The Lo-Down)

Hawk sibling steals prized pigeon from brother/sister (Laura Goggin Photography)

"The French Connection" plays at midnight this weekend at the Sunshine (Official website)



When a hotel collapsed on Broadway near Bond (Off the Grid)

Cop Shoot Cop at CBGB (Flaming Pablum)

Diamond Corner now a Bank of America on the Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

Diversions: Interview with former Cramps bassist Fur Dixon (Dangerous Minds)

... and here are a few photos via Derek Berg from Tuesday night's National Night Out Against Crime outside the 9th Precinct on Fifth Street... where officers showed off their basketball and dance skills... (and where was the officer on stilts?)







Target's rent is $2.5 million a year; plus new renderings for 500 E. 14th St.


[Conceptual rendering via RKF]

As you probably know, Target will be opening one of its CityTarget outposts at 14th Street and Avenue A — some day. (There's just one floor visible at the moment.)

The marketing copy via broker RKF says the retail space at 500 E. 14th St. totals 42,367 square feet, including 24,735 square feet on the street level with 17,632 square feet down below. It was believed that Target was taking all this space.

However, according to a report at the Commercial Observer, Target is leasing 27,306 square feet at Extell Development's development.

The lease — for 9,500 square feet at grade and 17,806 square feet below ground — is for 30 years, at which time Target could extend it for another 10 years, according to the source and the memorandum of lease. ... The asking rent was $2.5 million per year, the source told CO.

$2.5 million per year? Why that's only a little more $208,000 a month.

And based on this square footage, it appears that Extell will still have half the retail space at No. 500 to offer a retail tenant. A Trader Joe's perhaps? The two new Trader Joe's in Brooklyn are both 18,000 square feet, per The Real Deal. The new one on the Upper West Side will take 20,000 square feet of space. (I'm not advocating for a Trader Joe's: Extell floated that name earlier this year.)

The CityTarget opening in Tribeca is a reported 45,000 square feet. (And for more size perspective: The Kmart on Astor Place is 140,000 square feet.)

Meanwhile!

The image via RKF above is the conceptual rendering for the Extell project that has been in circulation the past two years.

A projects listing at the website of Leeding Builders Group (LBG), a New York-based construction manager specializing in commercial, residential and hospitality projects, features some different renderings. (There are two addresses — 500 E. 14th St. and 524 E. 14th St. Neither of these renderings are ID'd by address.)





Here's what the website says about this development:

The project’s design consists of three 7-story residential buildings that will complement the surrounding neighborhood. Combined, this new development will house 150 high end rental apartments ranging from studios to three bedrooms. The buildings will also include individual residential lobbies, large retail space, and indoor / outdoor amenity spaces.

Some of the indoor amenities include a pool, fitness center, bike storage facilities, resident’s lounge, and children’s playroom. An important aspect of the outdoor amenity area is the incorporation of green spaces. The second floor apartments in the main tenant area each include a private terrace that runs through the courtyard interior of the buildings. The rooftop of all three towers will be a green roof with mixed private and public spaces. Some features of the public space will include outdoor gardens, ornamental grasses, a full bocce court, pergola covered dining with an open air grill kitchen, and framed hedge walls. LBG Construction Management services included Estimating and Budgeting, Constructability Review, Scheduling Services, Logistical Planning, and Coordination with the design team.

Full bocce court!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Breaking (pretty much!): Target is coming to 14th Street and Avenue A (54 comments)

After 29 years, The Edge is closing on 3rd Street


[Image via Facebook]

The Edge celebrated its 29th year in business Wednesday night by telling patrons that the bar was closing for good at the end of the month.



The owners confirmed that the bar, at 95 E. Third St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, is closing.

We heard rumors earlier in the week about some landlord issues.

"We'll just say [the landlord] found an opportunity to sue us for a bunch of money that we can't pay," a bar rep told us via text. "It's really disappointing. The bar has been around 29 years as of [Wednesday]. We just celebrated with a Back to the 80s party. A lot of sad people that the bar will no longer be around. It's been a 'living room' for so many people for so many years."

There are no plans at the moment to find a new location.

Public records show that the landlord is Thermald Realty Associates.

Esperanto Fonda is open on 1st Street



Avenue C mainstay Esperanto has opened its satellite location at 58 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Esperanto Fonda, which has room for some 30 diners, also offers food to go. Per a recent preview at DNAinfo:

Esperanto Fonda will allow patrons to grab to-go-friendly items such as tacos, empanadas, burritos, and a Cubano sandwich with roasted pork loin, ham, melted Swiss cheese and mojo sauce.

The cocktail menu includes the Caipirinha, Mojitos and Brazilian Sangria. (Espernato Fonda's food or drink menus aren't online just yet.)

The previous tenant, BARA, a French/Japanese bar-restaurant, closed after service on June 11.

Summer Streets return tomorrow (Saturday!)



It's that time of year again. Here's the official About:

Summer Streets is an annual celebration of New York City’s most valuable public space — our streets. On three consecutive Saturdays in August, nearly seven miles of NYC's streets are opened for people to play, run, walk and bike. Summer Streets provides space for healthy recreation and encourages New Yorkers to use more sustainable forms of transportation. In 2015, nearly 300,000 people took advantage of the open streets.

Summer Streets is modeled on other events from around the world including Ciclovía in Bogotá, Colombia and the Paris Plage in France and has since inspired other such events around the world such as CicloRecreo Via and London's Regent Street Summer Streets.

Held between 7 am to 1 pm, Summer Streets extends from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, along Park Avenue and connecting streets, with easy access from all points in New York City, allowing participants to plan a trip as long or short as they wish. All activities at Summer Streets are free of charge, and designed for people of all ages and ability levels to share the streets respectfully.

For us living around Steiner East Village, the car-free, Street-Festival-Free zone includes Lafayette, Astor Place and Fourth Avenue.

As always, there are five different "Rest Stop" activity zones along the route. On Foley Square, a 300-foot, three-story Vita Coco™ Beachside Slide will offer Summer Streeters a chance to stand in line — but only if you pre-registered to stand in line.

Astor Place will host the "Paws and Play Dog Run." Other Astor Place programming tomorrow includes:

During week one, test your athletic prowess by running with Team Citi and the Mets. Summer Streets participants can virtually race a U.S. Olympian, meet three time U.S. National Champion and 2016 U.S. Paralympic Hopeful Scout Bassett, as well as Mrs. Met and pick up some Mets and Olympic swag from the social media vending machines.

And down on Bleecker and Lafayette, a rep from the Mayor's office will be on hand each week to lift a deed restriction on a building for one aspiring landlord.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Takin' it to the streets like the Doobie Brothers

Summer loving had me a blast, Summer loving happened so fast

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Workers remove American Elm in Tompkins Square Park



As we understand it, part of the tree broke off about 10 days ago... apparently the trunk was rotting, and workers had to take it down, per Park sources...

EVG correspondent Steven shared these photos...









For reference purposes, the tree was in the Sandra Turner Garden... between Temperance Fountain and the ping-pong table...

54 years on 7th Street

The Post today talks with a handful of New Yorkers who have spent more than 50 years in their homes.

On the list: East Village resident Christine Sachko, 54, who has lived her whole life in the same building near McSorley's on Seventh Street.

Sachko still has the original lease; her parents first paid $26.45. Her monthly bill is $1,500. The apartment next door, once a mirror image of her own, has been renovated to add a second bathroom and more bedrooms, and is currently on the market for $4,690.

Report: Village View residents considering going private



The residents/shareholders of Village View, the 1,200-plus-unit Mitchell-Lama co-op, "are now mulling whether to withdraw from the affordable housing program," according to an article in this week's issue of The Villager.

Per the article:

The decision to withdraw would allow residents to sell their units for a huge profit. But some worry it would be shortsighted to cash in on their below-market-rate homes — and that privatizing could further erode the neighborhood’s affordability.

And!

Withdrawing from the program would require a two-thirds vote by residents of at least 822 apartments. If the measure passes, shareholders could choose to deregulate their units and put them on the market. They could also relinquish their shares by leaving and having their equity returned, or stay on as tenants in rent-regulated apartments.

It sounds as if all this is still in the exploration-only stage. Village View's board of directors reportedly started holding informational meetings in June to discuss the possibility of converting to a private co-op.

According to The Villager: "The first step in the process would be to vote in favor of a feasibility study that would examine the consequences of leaving the program. At least 51 percent of shareholders from a minimum of 617 apartments would have to vote to support the study."

Village View, which opened in 1964, consists of seven buildings between First Avenue and Avenue A, from East Second Street to East Sixth Street.

The new Astor Place rolls out the tables, chairs and umbrellas



The tables, chairs and umbrellas arrived on Astor Place this week... as the reconstruction of the plaza inches closer to completion this fall.

More seating is on the way... as are some trees... and the Alamo...


Meanwhile, the Village Alliance Business Improvement District is presenting the "Astor Alive! Festival" Sept. 15-17 "to celebrate the upcoming reopening of the new Astor Place, which will be complete in the fall."

Here's more on that via the Facebook invite:

As a vibrant cultural district with over two dozen theater, dance, music, art, architecture and historic landmarks including Blue Man Group, Fourth Arts Block, Cooper Union, Joe’s Pub, St. Mark’s Church and the Public Theater, the festival will debut Astor Place’s four new public plazas, among other civic space transformations as part of its larger $16 million revitalization project. The vibrant downtown New York City neighborhood will celebrate the imminent reopening with entertainment, workshops, tours, a parade, local restaurant specials and more, which will be free and open to the public.

Astor Place Festival highlights will include:

• Performances & Stages – With four performance stages starting from 4th Street to 9th Street, there will be 20+ groups of diverse local theaters, performing arts companies and schools performing throughout all three days. They include La MaMa, Joe’s Pub, Bowery Poetry Club, The Public Theater, Theater for the New City, Hetrik-Martin Institute, The Standard Hotel’s Sounds, Rod Rodgers Dance Company, Peridance Capezio Center and Danspace Project. All performances will focus on five historical themes of Astor Place, including Theater for All, Alternative Cultures and Radical Politics, Thinkers and Writers, Immigrant Populations and Architectural Frontiers.

• Mosaic Light Pole Dedication (September 15) – Popular East Village Artist Jim Power will debut the restored mosaic light poles throughout Astor Place in honor of the festival.

William Kelley, executive director of the Village Alliance, recently told us that the Alamo would return to the plaza this month, and "it is exactly the same as it was before ... It received a thorough cleaning and coating to protect it from the weather and will return in good shape."

Kelley also said that there will be a single food concession in the north and south plaza spaces at Astor Place (not around Cooper Square or points south), per the license agreement with the DOT. He said that no other vending will be allowed on the plazas.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project

The all-new Astor Place is coming along (for real)

Free tonight in Tompkins Square Park: 'True Romance'



Tonight's free film in Tompkins Square Park is "True Romance," the hipsterized 1993 road-trip thriller/black comedy written by Quentin Tarantino...



There's pre-movie music via Revel in Dimes. The film starts at sundown.

Check the Films in Tompkins Facebook page for any updates on tonight's screening.

And upcoming:

8-11 — "Romeo + Juliet"

Secchu Yokota serving now omakase tempura on East 3rd Street


[Photo via]

Secchu Yokota has been in soft-open mode of late at 199 E. Third St. near Avenue B.

The small restaurant's website describes the place this way: Contemporary Japanese featuring omakase tempura. (Most of the site appears still to be under construction.)

The space was previously home to Meskel, the Ethiopian restaurant that quietly closed last August.