AG Schneiderman introduces new bill — the Tenant Protection Act of 2017

Via the EVG inbox...

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today introduced the Tenant Protection Act of 2017, a new bill aimed at holding New York’s most unscrupulous landlords criminally accountable for tenant harassment.

Current state law requires that prosecutors reach an inexplicably high evidentiary bar in order to criminally convict a landlord of Harassment of a Rent Regulated Tenant — which is why, in the twenty years since its initial enactment by the NYS Legislature, not a single landlord has ever been convicted of that crime. The Attorney General’s Tenant Protection Act would change that, setting a more reasonable standard that eliminates the need to prove physical injury to a tenant, and opening the door to prosecutions arising out of more commonplace and insidious tactics — such as turning off heat and hot water, exposing tenants to hazardous materials, and making rent-stabilized buildings deliberately uninhabitable for current tenants and their families.

The Tenant Protection Act of 2017 was introduced today by Attorney General Schneiderman as a program bill, and will be sponsored by Senator Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Joseph Lentol.

“The laws should protect tenants, not greedy landlords who make their buildings uninhabitable in an effort to force families out of their homes,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “It’s clear that our existing criminal laws are simply inadequate when it comes to protecting tenants from these dangerous tactics by landlords. We must give prosecutors the tools necessary to protect tenants — and stem the rising tide of tenant harassment that is undermining affordability around New York.”

Read the full release on the bill here.

EV Grieve Etc.: Festival of the Arts this weekend; Porchetta pop up extended

[Photo at Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]

The potential impact of President Trump's budget proposal on the NYCHA (Daily News)

New Chinatown-themed hotel on the Bowery apologizes for its "opium den-themed" lounge (DNAinfo)

Details on the annual Festival of the Arts this weekend at the Theater for the New City (Patch)

Stuy Town resident petitions to get rid of playground (Town & Village)

Avenue C wine bar Lois now selling its snacks retail (The Daily Meal)

About Voided, an exhibit featuring Benjamin Armas and Ori Carino, up through Saturday at Howl! Happening (Forbes)

Resident of 344 E. 13th St. and family friend of the Dawsons has been living in an RV down the block (New York Post)

Porchetta pop up extended at Porsena (The Village Voice)

Some great pics from the Dance Parade (Laura Goggin Photography)

Williamsburg Bridge HOV lane proposed for the L train shutdown (Daily News)

More about the early Saturday morning attack on Forsyth and Stanton near Sara D. Roosevelt Park (The Lo-Down)

On the market: 12th Street duplex with "outdoor sanctuary" (Curbed)

Hedda Lettuce presents "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" Thursday night (Village East Cinema)

Remembering Mary Help of Christians on 12th Street and Avenue A (Off the Grid)

In honor of Sir Roger Moore's death, the FDR chase scene from "Live and Let Die" (BoweryBoogie)

Revisiting a gruesome murder from 1903; body found in barrel on Avenue D and 11th Street (Ephemeral New York)

Standard High Line for sale; Standard East Village not on the block (The Real Deal)

... and the Midnight Movies are set for the next few months at the Sunshine Cinema on East Houston... more details here...



...and several readers asked about the work on Astor Place...



I asked William Kelley, executive director of the Village Alliance, what the workers were doing. "They are trying to fix some plaza drainage issues. Should be just a few days depending on weather," he said via an email.

Updated 2:30

And the workers have made some progress...


[Photo by Vinny & O]

May 24

Hi, and welcome. Just wishing you all an early Merry Memorial Day Christmas.

Photo on Seventh Street at Cooper Square by EVG reader Meredith Rendall.

Out and About in the East Village

In this ongoing 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: Jerry Shea
Occupation: Photographer and Art Director
Location: 10th Street between 1st And A
Date: Tuesday, May 23 at 2:30 p.m.

My first visit to the neighborhood was in the late 1950s. I was living upstate, where I was raised, and it was my habit as a kid just to roam the streets of New York. I would come down here on the Third Avenue El, which was a real treat. That was a lucky day when I discovered the El.

And as soon as I was old enough, I got down here and settled in. I lived on 10th Street between Second Avenue and Third for a long time. The East Village and the West Village back then were the favorite places of mine. I liked being here because it was more relaxed. It wasn’t pretentious, and I loved the mix of people.

It drew me, and I kept coming back. And of course there were clubs that were fun. Then I had a girlfriend who lived here, and together we really explored the neighborhood, all parts about it, and we read about the history of it. When you read the history of a neighborhood, it gets you closer to the neighborhood — you care for it more. And especially the history here — it’s extraordinary.

Then in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was really kind of grim here. You could easily walk across the East Village and pick up a couple hundred vials that were used for crack ... but when it changed, that was the period of time where I was working and I was in Midtown and uptown, and it was only later that I came back down here. I’m retired, but I’m a photographer and art director. I was the art director for Sears, Roebuck & Company, and my photography today is street photography. And I got involved in the community. I was involved with the 9th Precinct Community Council for a lot of years, which meant a lot to me.

Veselka is definitely a favorite, favorite place. I’m there for breakfast and lunch just about every day. I just had lunch from there, and I shared notes with Tom, the owner. I was at Veselka before he was, back in the late 1950s.

I love the skyscrapers of New York, but I love the sky more, and being down here there is more sky. I love downtown. I love the Villages. What makes this place special was the mix of people. It was artists, writers, immigrants. It was so beautiful to walk on a warm Sunday morning across the East Village, and you would pick up three or four different strands of music coming from the buildings. I remember one of the mornings, I counted four or five, but you would certainly pick up Latin music, and there was a building over here I deliberately walked passed because there was always jazz on. It was really sweet.

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

[Updated] Morton Williams will take over the Associated space on 14th Street

[EVG file photo]

It appears that Blackstone, Stuy Town's new ownership, will keep an affordable grocery store on 14th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue — it just won't be an Associated, though.

Town & Village reports that a Morton Williams will be taking over the space.

While no one at Blackstone would confirm the news, employees at the Associated, which has been here the past 25 years, received letters informing them that Morton Williams is coming here later this year.

Per T&V:

According to one employee, the letter says workers, who are unionized, will get to keep their jobs for at least three months and at that point will be evaluated.

"They have a big company and room to grow," the worker said the letter from Morton Williams informed them.

The family-run Morton Williams, which started in 1946, has 15 locations in the city, including two not far from Stuy Town — one on Park Avenue South and 22nd Street and another on 23rd Street in the East Midtown Plaza.

This marks the third of four grocery stores that principal owner Joseph Falzon and his team will have had to vacate. The Associated at 255 W. 14th St. between Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue closed last May after landlord Pan Am Equities reportedly increased the rent by $168,000 — a month. Their Met Foods on Third Avenue between 16th Street and 17th Street closed in April 2015. They also run the Associated on Avenue C at Eighth Street, though Falzon said that store "is very low volume."

Falzon wanted a lease renewal on 14th Street in order to renovate the store. However, Stuy Town management wasn't offering a lease, which is up toward the end of 2017. Associated is currently paying $60,000 a month here, per T&V.

Said Falzon: "I'm very sorry we couldn’t reach a deal and we want to thank our customers for supporting us all these years. Everything’s coming to an end. Rents in New York right now are not very favorable to small business owners."

Updated 5/31

Morton Williams will reportedly not sign a lease now with the arrival of a Trader Joe's across the street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Associated owners not having any luck shopping for a lease renewal on East 14th Street (34 comments)

Petition drive underway to help save the Stuy Town Associated on East 14th Street

Report: New Stuy Town owner pledges to keep a grocery story on East 14th Street, but it may not be Associated

Commercial co-op on 10th Street, guarded by Rex, is for sale

An EVG reader shares this info about 432 E. 10th St. between Avenue C and Avenue D, where Chico's mural of Rex, the German Shepherd mix, guards the entry. The current tenant, Expert Finest Company, a carpentry shop, will be closing its doors.

Said the reader: "This ground-floor unit (which includes a basement and a spacious backyard) is uniquely suited for light manufacturing and it is now available. With small buildings constantly being demolished, it's a chance to anchor your business and to build equity instead of paying rent — doggone it."

Here's the listing at Rutenberg Realty NY:

This bi-level commercial co-op is approximately 3,000 square feet and has sprinklers throughout. The ground floor is steel reinforced and column-free. Also, includes private backyard of 500 SF. Currently home to a workshop, the space is ideal for office and all creative uses. No food or bar! Commercial parking is permitted in front of the building.

Price: $1.8 million. (And Rex was adopted by the owners of the space when they moved in during the 1970s.)

Home is where the art is: A discussion on 'Your House Is Mine' at MoRUS

Via the EVG inbox...this event is tomorrow (May 25) at 7 p.m.

Artist and Bullet Space co-founder Andrew Castrucci discusses the creation of the book "Your House Is Mine."

From the introduction: "This project is a collection of images and texts, defining and expressing the broad and essential issue of housing on the Lower East Side, and is a statement of the underlying force of 'art as a means of resistance.' It is both a documentation and expression of social/political issues in our neighborhood, and on a larger scale to symbolize similar conflicts in other parts of the world."

"Your House Is Mine" included work by Anton Van Dalen, Eric Drooker, Lee Quinones, David Wojnarowicz, Martin Wong ... and writing by Miguel Algarin, Chris Burden, Allen Ginsberg, Eduardo Galleano and Public Enemy, among others.

This event is part of the exhibition "Taking it to the Streets!" ABC No Rio in Exile at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS). Check out the recent review of the show from The New York Times here.

Find more details about Castrucci's talk at the Facebook events page here. The discussion starts tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

MoRUS is at 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

Baby on board

EVG contributor Steven shares these photos from this morning in Tompkins Square Park ... showing Christo and Dora's latest red-tailed offspring, roughly five weeks old and getting larger by the day...



...and still in the Benjamin Button phase...



As Goggla noted, this is Christo and Dora's only hawklette this time around... soon enough he/she will be ready to fledge...

Catch a wave on Astor Place

We noted the #rednose installation on Astor Place yesterday for the upcoming Red Nose Day.

You may have noticed two other installations on Astor Place... these arrived back on Friday, and are part of the NYC Wave Trail. These were designed and installed for the UN's World Oceans Day on June 8.

This one one the north plaza is titled "Rise" by Suki Waterhouse...



... and the one outside Cooper Union is "The Birth of Venus" by Margaret Zhang...



There are 54 sculptures total in the city.

New broker for former home of Lucky Cheng's and adjacent property

There's a new broker for the potential development sites at 24 First Ave. (the onetime home of Lucky Cheng's) and 99-101 E. Second St. The adjacent properties now feature the Eastern Consolidated broker signage...



Landlord Carmar Development, LLC, had put the two-buidling parcel up for sale back in February. (We wrote about that here.)

Here's the new listing (PDF is here) via Eastern Consolidated:

The Property consists of two existing mixed-use buildings with frontage on both First Avenue and E. 2nd Street in the extremely desirable East Village. Both buildings will be delivered vacant.

The offering presents multiple options going forward including becoming components of a larger assemblage for a new construction development project, with up to ±30,000 buildable SF, redeveloping the Property by renovating and enlarging the existing structures or repositioning for a national retailer or user purchaser seeking to control a location for ±10,000 SF of multi-level retail and a mix of other uses.

Pricing upon request. The L-shaped properties were seeking $26 million back in February. (The properties were also available for net lease. That deal is no longer apparently an option.)

The sales materials include a variety of diagrams showing the development potential here...



... and the aerial view...



Hayne Suthon, who owned and and operated Lucky Cheng's, the cross-dressing cabaret, also lived in the building. She died of cancer at age 57 in June 2014.

Suthon had owned the properties since 1986, paying $800,000, city documents show. According to public records, the address changed hands to Carmar Development in February 2015 for a little more than $9.6 million.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Myron Mixon's Pride & Joy BBQ now in the works for the former Lucky Cheng's space

Fire reported at incoming Pride and Joy BBQ on East Second Street

Myron Mixon lawsuit puts opening of Pride and Joy BBQ in question at former Lucky Cheng's space

More alterations for the Pride and Joy space

Report: Pride and Joy BBQ partners suing landlord Hayne Suthon for $22 million

Onetime home of Lucky Cheng's and adjacent property on the development market for $26 million