Anytime that you've tried to cross East Houston from Avenue A west to the Bowery these past, oh, six years, you've probably wondered, When, dear [____], will this construction ever end?
To answer that very broadly — sometime this year. Probably!
The Department of Design and Construction is now in the final stretch of the years-long overhaul of the thoroughfare as workers prepare for the installation of a new water main near the Bowery intersection and the construction of a pedestrian island at Second Avenue, according to a DDC spokeswoman.
Officials initially anticipated a spring completion date for the work, but the department ran into delays due to interference with existing underground wiring while preparing to install the 20-inch water main west of Chrystie Street.
On the very street where Andy Warhol once lived and other artists like Basquiat and Haring exchanged ideas with musicians and writers, a new legacy is born.
The artist team are recognized for their ability to ignite relationships between art and social contexts — fusing classic ancient gods and contemporary urban art to create exciting new works. Painting will begin, weather permitting, Monday, January 23, and will continue throughout the week until approximately February 4. Titled “Urbanmythology” the mural will remain up until the end of May 2017.
According to the artists, “We are excited about the opportunity to bring our “Urbanmythology” to the Houston Bowery wall, where we’ll combine classics that coexist in the city. It is an honor and we are very excited to share our artistic concept with New York and the world in a year where we celebrate 10 years as PichiAvo, enjoying and working together as one.”
Name: Eric Rignall
Occupation: Owner, Inkstop Tattoo
Location: Avenue A, Between 12th and 13th
Time: Friday, Jan 13 at 5 p.m.
Originally I was born in Egypt to an American dad, and we traveled a lot. I lived in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia, Dominican Republic, New York and Philadelphia. I moved to New York in 1989 and I’ve been here since then. I started out in Staten Island — cheap rent there, and then I moved to Queens. I’ve been there for 25 years now.
I went to the Philadelphia College of Art for four years. When I moved to New York, I hoped to find something in that field but I ended up in screen printing, working in a factory, and then I opened up my own screen-printing business for a few years, but I got tired of it and wanted to do an apprenticeship to learn how to tattoo.
So I started doing that and I did it under the radar before it was legal. I had my screen printing studio on Sixth Avenue and 28th Street and was tattooing out of there for about a year. I was actually sitting in at City Hall in the hearings to see if they were going to make tattooing legal or not so I could be one of the first ones to jump on it and find a spot.
I opened up officially in this spot in February 1997. It was a little difficult at first because no one wanted to rent out to a tattoo shop. They figured that it was going to just be bikers, parties, and all sorts of craziness, but luckily I had someone who had a shop in Jersey to vouch for me and back it up.
The landlord asked for a big deposit to make sure, but once I got the spot it worked out very well. A lot of people thought I wouldn’t succeed here because they said there was a curse on this place. It was a funeral home and a driving school, but the funeral home got shut down by the marshals for smuggling drugs in the coffins. They figured there was a cloud over this place, but luckily I’m not superstitious.
The neighborhood was very different. The rents were very low obviously. I used to park my car across the street where that apartment building is — there was a little gravel lot there that charged 100 bucks a month for parking. The neighborhood was just starting to become better. At the time, Avenue B was still a little rougher and Avenue C you wouldn’t even go to. There were still a lot of bars, including my favorite across the street, Z Bar. There was a good underground music scene going on, more than there is now. Avenue A was definitely a little bit more raw, more gritty.
I got to know all the local people around here. Everyone knew everyone. Everyone was always outside — whole families out there. For example, the ladies with their chairs out of the sidewalk feeding their pigeons, and the guy selling the Piragua — the flavored ice. They were always outside and a lot of people were selling odd stuff. It was [accepted]. There was no problem.
I had a lot of local people coming in for years. Initially, it was just people in the neighborhood and then a few years went by and we got a much wider range of people from all walks of life coming through. I’ve had people around for 20 years, but as you tattoo someone for 20 years they run out of room, but we’re doing generations now. I’ve got someone on Monday who’s bringing in his son. I’ve been here long enough that I’m tattooing their kids. I had some friends who came in years ago when I first opened, their daughter was in a stroller, and now I’ve done three tattoos on her already — makes me old.
When we’re busy maybe each person will do three or four people a day. Generally speaking, three hours is a good appointment. Anytime longer than that and people start to get a little squirmy, but we break it down into sessions for larger work. They’ll come back in a couple weeks once its healed and do another round.
I like to do the real detailed larger pieces. I like to put everything into each piece. There was one that was a Mayan temple back piece. It had the same amount of steps as Tikal. I did the drawing from the photograph and did it exactly like the actual ruin, so I was cursing myself out for trying to be so accurate when I was drawing and tattooing it. My God, these are a lot of steps.
City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and other local officials wrote to Buildings Department Commissioner Rick Chandler in October, saying that the lease does not meet the "community use" requirement, because Adelphi would use only part of the building. The officials also objected to the university's position that dormitories count as an appropriate community use. In an October letter to Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, Fisher argued that a dormitory would meet the deed-restriction requirements.
The disagreement touches a political nerve partly because the city's recent removal of a deed restriction a few blocks away allowed Rivington House, a nonprofit nursing home, to become high-priced condos. Unlike in that case, P.S. 64's deed restriction was issued by the City Council, and only the council may lift it. Singer is not seeking the restriction's removal, but the sensitivity stemming from the Rivington controversy and local opposition has kicked a Buildings Department matter up to the mayor's office.
Wonderful ground floor retail space in well maintained building is available for the 1st time in 15 years! PERFECT FOR RESTAURANT OR BAR. ALL USES CONSIDERED. This spaces includes a full basement and the stunning backyard is an option to be included in the lease for this space.
Amazinglocation! Pure east village commercial space for rent. Located on high traffic destination... On the same block as major East Village retail & restaurant destinations such as Big Gay Ice Cream, Miss Lily's, Avant Garden, Pylos, Giano, Koan, Rose & Basil, Trash & Vaudeville, Luke's Lobster....etc....
We hope you had a nice holiday season. As we begin the New Year, the new owners wish to communicate their business plan and how it will affect you as current tenants with as much clarity and transparency as possible.
Ownership’s goal is to improve the building’s infrastructure common areas, basement, and to renovate each unit in the building.
Therefore we do not plan to renew or extend any leases at expiration.
Instead of a standard 30 day notice of non-renewal, ownership wants to provide as much time as possible for each tenant to seek new housing.
We are not terminating anyone’s lease. You are absolutely welcome to stay until the end of your current lease term (if you need information on when your lease expires please email or call the office). In order to expedite the construction process, ownership is offering incentives to anyone willing to move out on or around February 28th, 2017.
We are keenly aware that moving is not easy. We would be happy to have any qualifying tenants back in the building as soon as units are complete (generally 4 months after renovation begins). Ownership feels that providing open, honest communication is the appropriate way to handle our relationship.
There are 24 residential units, all of which are Free Market. Of the 24 apartments, 13 are month-to-month, 6 expire at the end of April, 3 are currently vacant and 2 expire between May and July. The rents are performing at less than 75% of market and considering the building is fully deregulated, an investor could quickly bring the units up to market rents as the leases expire. Therefore, a gross annual income of around $930,000 could be achieved in a relatively short period.
Our aim is to give our customers a natural, healthy and vibrant lifestyle ... we strive to build our small family owned business one SANDWICH(erie) at a time.
We are committed to serving you fresh and healthy meals, coupled with a pleasant shopping experience and premium service. Operated by a seasoned and very talented team that consistently puts out chef-inspired or made to order salads and sandwiches that are packed with great flavor. Eye popping New York breakfasts and lunches that include healthy quinoa and wild rice bowls, fresh-pressed juices and a large assortment of bakery and desserts.
As part of an ongoing commitment to safer cycling in New York, the Citi Bike program is installing an innovative new safety feature — the Blaze Laserlight on 250 bikes this winter, Citi Bike and Blaze leadership announced today.
This pilot program aims to make Citi Bike riders more visible to drivers and pedestrians, creating safer conditions on the road and providing greater peace of mind to all.
Extensive research on the Laserlight on London’s bike share fleet revealed that a cyclist with a Laserlight at night is even more visible than a cyclist in daytime.
The vast majority of London bus drivers surveyed said the light made it easier to notice and react to cyclists at night, while 75% of cyclists felt more confident cycling with a Laserlight.
“By incorporating Blaze’s lights into the bike, we aim to keep New Yorkers on foot, behind the wheel and riding a Citi Bike safer and to improve the rider experience overall so that people of all backgrounds are inspired to try New York City’s popular bike share program,” said Jay Walder, President & CEO of Motivate, operators of the Citi Bike program. “Bike share is an extremely safe way to get around, and we are proud to work with Blaze to welcome every rider to Citi Bike while helping our city get ever closer to our Vision Zero goals.”
Civil rights and social justice are prominent in our minds as we begin 2017. And few places in America have made more significant contributions to civil rights and social justice struggles for African-Americans, Women, Latinos, Immigrants, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people than the Village, East Village, and NoHo. Now more than ever, it’s important to remember and pay tribute to that history and to the lessons learned from it.
So GVSHP is kicking off 2017 by creating a new Civil Rights and Social Justice Map of the Village, East Village, and NoHo – view it here. You’ll find well-known landmarks like the Stonewall Inn and Judson Memorial Church, locations key to the founding of the ACLU and the Young Lords, and the places where Lorraine Hansberry wrote and Bella Abzug lived. Learn the former sites of some of our city’s first African-American and abolitionist churches, as well as where the NAACP’s iconic “A Man Was Lynched Yesterday” flag flew. Find out where Billie Holiday first sang the anti-lynching anthem ‘Strange Fruit,’ where birth control began, and the spots key to the abolitionist journeys of both Abraham Lincoln and John Brown, among many others.
With nearly a hundred locations, the map just skims the rich surface of civil rights and social justice history in our neighborhoods. Know another site that should be included? Just email it and all information, along with sources, to info@gvshp.org – the map will be updated regularly.
Join us for a celebratory dinner and conversation in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.
Spoken word artists D Cross and Bettina Gold, and poet Eric Waters are all intimately acquainted with the criminal justice system. Each artist’s performance will be followed by another course of great food and time for planning specific actions to increase awareness of racism and to reduce the harm of mass incarceration in the U.S.
Free will donations gratefully accepted.
Now, after several years of construction on the knot of streets and plazas, the fences have been peeled away like bandages, leaving a broad and orderly plain designed by the New York architecture firm WXY. New curbs confine traffic to sensible channels rather than let it slosh across a delta of conflicting lanes. Sidewalks have been broadened into pedestrian boulevards. Astor Place in 2017 feels like fresh turf waiting to receive its next deposit of history.
Even as recently as a couple of decades ago, this area formed a junction of classes and lifestyles. Ukrainians wandered in from the borscht and pierogi joints on Second Avenue, squatters and punks from Tompkins Square Park and Alphabet City; addicts and alcoholics drifted up from the Bowery. At Astor Place, they met clean-cut newcomers, NYU professors, and aging hippies, along with the new wave of West Village bankers on their weekend slumming excursions.
The triangle no longer has that souklike vibe, and no amount of street design can bring it back, but, with a combination of modesty and flair, WXY has literally paved the way for the next iteration.
@evgrieve how could I forget Plastic Bag Squirrel today at union square? @thevulgarera pic.twitter.com/mSMFO1kj3m
— EdenBrower (@edenbrower) January 14, 2017
