At the Weeping Willow Wake

[Photo by Steven]

This afternoon, residents and members of La Plaza Cultural gathered on Ninth Street and Avenue C to bid farewell to the last two willow trees in the community garden.

As previously reported, an inspection showed that the willow nicknamed Cher, located in the corner of the garden by Avenue C, is rotting, and will need to be removed. (The second willow, Krusty, located near the gazebo, is also in poor shape and will likely need to come down as well.)

Rev. Billy, along with members of his choir, presided over the event, titled the Weeping Willow Wake...


[Photo by Steven]


[Photo via @evan_kapitansky]

Reverend Billy and the church of stop shopping at the weeping willow #tree memorial in la Plaza. #weepingwillow #reverendbilly #nyc #park #garden

A post shared by Eden Bee (@edenbrower) on Jul 9, 2017 at 1:39pm PDT

In a statement earlier, La Plaza officials said:

The Parks Department has made a descion that they must come down and will take them down when they have the time. La Plaza Community Garden is saddened by the loss of our great willow trees and is reaching out to the community seeking people's opinion as to where we should go from here.

Here's one opinion...


[Photo by Steven]

The Parks Department has yet to schedule a date for removing the willows, believed to be 41 years old.

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Updated 8 p.m.

Here are a few more photos via EVG regular Peter Brownscombe...

Today in apologies

Spotted on Avenue A.

Water Problems
So sorry all, but someone (me) drilled through the cold water pipe that goes to the kitchens!
I will get a plumber in here ASAP, but it will probably not be before Monday.
Kitchen hot water works
All water works in bathrooms

Week in Grieview

[Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

The former Church of the Nativity one step closer to hitting the sales market on 2nd Avenue (Wednesday)

A renewed effort to restore and preserve the Yiddish Theatre Walk of Fame on 2nd Avenue (Thursday)

Cab strikes and kills 87-year-old man on Cooper Square (Monday)

A wake for the last willow trees at La Plaza Cultural (Friday)

The plan to document the last month of Webster Hall's existence (Friday)

S'MAC is open in new home on 1st Avenue and 12th Street (Wednesday)

The East Village artists behind the Danceteria time capsule from 1984 that prompted a bomb scare in 2017 (Friday)

Remembering Louise Nevelson at the Nevelson House on 7th Street (Wednesday)

Owners of Babu Ji settle 2nd wage lawsuit (Friday)

Paloma Rocket looking to land in the East Village (Wednesday)

Report: Steve Croman sued to stop his father from managing 3rd Avenue properties (Wednesday)

A few dining details about Joe and Pat's, the Staten Island pizzeria opening on 1st Avenue (Thursday)


[Photo on 10th Street by Derek Berg]

Christo needs a larger bird bath (Tuesday)

Body found in the East River north of the Williamsburg Bridge (Tuesday)

Details on the "New York in the 70s" series starting this week at the Film Forum (Monday)

Reader report: Rooftop fire on 12th Street (Monday)

Why it would be a bad idea to take this discarded carpet on Second Avenue (Sunday)

A look the incoming Starbucks on St. Mark's and Avenue A, site of a rally on July 13 (Wednesday)

Cholo Noir opens on 6th Street (Friday)

The new view of 10th Street from 11th Street (Thursday)

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Today in Tompkins Square Park

Photo via Bobby Williams...

Band that played Tompkins Square Park on June 25 looking for some help with park permits

[Image via Facebook]

On June 25, Tycoon Dog, a jam/rock band, played a free show in Tompkins Square Park. The band, which formed in 1996, plays in various parks — Including Tompkins Square in the past — throughout the city during the warmer weather months.

The band's founder, Scott Bailey, sent this email out... so perhaps if you were at that show...

We are asking for your help.

The NYC Parks Dep't has revoked all our 2017 permits. They say that at our June 25 show in Tompkins Square Park, police issued two summonses to us, and that we failed to turn down the band's volume when the police asked us to.

These things didn't happen at the 6/25 Tycoon Dog show in TSP - there were no issues or problems of any kind at that show. We think they may have happened at a big punk show there the previous day, and that there has been some kind of mix-up. However, as of now our permits are revoked and we need your help to try and get them back.

If you were at the 6/25 Tompkins show, especially if you saw the whole show, could you please email me? I am hoping some ... of you can give us a statement saying you were there and that the volume was fine and there were no problems.

Here's Scott's email.

Repairs underway on (in?) Tompkins Square Park sinkhole

Workers are at the Eighth Street/Avenue B entrance to Tompkins Square Park ... starting repairs on the sinkhole that has closed this corridor the past three-four weeks...



A worker told EVG correspondent Steven, who took these photos, that he's clearing out the sinkhole for the plumbers to fix the pipe that broke... and some photos of that broken pipe...



No word on when the plumbers might be here.

Meanwhile, at the Bowery Mural Wall...

Seems to be a daily ritual here on East Houston at the Bowery... someone tags the wall, then Goldman Properties has someone paint over it... repeat!

David Choe's mural here was painted over in June as the controversy over his past comments about an alleged sexual assault resurfaced... his work was scheduled to be up through October.



There has't been any word of a replacement.

The sounds of the 1970s this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park

This afternoon in Tompkins Square Park... via the Facebook event page: "Mike SOS and Super Morgan spin the 70s jams from 2pm until 6pm! ALL AGES and FREE!"

This event comes courtesy of FBOMB NYC, who hosts a rock-n-roll showcase at Arlene's Grocery the last Saturday of the month.

Friday's parting shot

First Avenue at Sixth Street tonight... before it rained (again)...

'Melt' down

Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1983 with "Melt!" (and with Robert Smith). Always seemed like a good summer song...

Report: Owners of Babu Ji settle 2nd wage lawsuit

News broke back in March about a second wage-theft and overtime lawsuit against Babu Ji owners Jessi and Jennifer Singh. Around that same time, their popular Indian restaurant on Avenue B at 11th Street went dark ... and never reopened in this location.

Eater reports today that Babu Ji has settled the second lawsuit.

Last fall, three employees of the restaurant’s now-shuttered East Village location accused Jessi and Jennifer Singh of withholding tips and failing to pay overtime. The same lawsuit claimed that Jessi Singh threatened servers and their families.

Settlement papers filed to public record earlier this week show that each of the three former employees will receive under $28,500 as part of the agreement, while attorney (and notorious restaurant thorn) Maimon Kirschenbaum’s firm will receive more than $44,000. The Singhs did not admit to wrongdoing as part of the deal.

Babu Ji, which opened on Avenue B in June 2015, is now at 22 E. 13th St. between Fifth Avenue and University Place.

The former Babu Ji space on B and 11th will be an Indian restaurant from the founder of Curry in a Hurry, Akbar Dawat and Café Spice, among others.

Photo from March

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Babu Ji on Avenue B hit with another wage lawsuit

With court date looming, Babu Ji 'is taking a break' on Avenue B

A wake for the last willow trees at La Plaza Cultural

The last two willow trees in La Plaza Cultural on the southwest corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street will have to be removed.

A recent inspection by Manhattan Forestry confirmed what some members of the community garden had feared: the trees are rotting.

The willow (nicknamed Cher) in the corner of La Plaza by Avenue C looks especially bad ...



The other willow (aka Krusty) is located near the garden's gazebo.



Here's part of a missive that La Plaza shared:

Our weeping willow trees are around 41 years old. They were first planted in La Plaza thanks to a grant from Plant-A-Lot, and there were originally three willows and three linden trees all planted at the same time. One willow and one linen were toppled by Hurricane Irene. And another linden had to come down after Hurricane Sandy. And recently the Parks Department has determined that the willows are rotting from the inside and are in danger of falling. One even has visible fungus. The Parks Department has made a descion that they must come down and will take them down when they have the time. La Plaza Community Garden is saddened by the loss of our great willow trees and is reaching out to the community seeking people's opinion as to where we should go from here.

On Sunday afternoon, Rev. Billy and members of his choir will lead a weeping willow wake...



Per La Plaza executive director Ross Martin: "We have no idea when the city will come to perform this unthinkable yet necessary act, but it will be soon, so please join us one last time in the green shade."


[Underneath the green shade of Cher the willow tree]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Willow tree down in La Plaza Cultural

Tree muggers at the La Plaza Cultural

The plan to document the last month of Webster Hall's existence

[Photo from June]

As previously reported, the recently sold Webster Hall is expected to close in early August ... so that new owners Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment along with AEG-backed The Bowery Presents can begin renovations at the landmarked music venue on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

Now, a group of filmmakers are hoping to make a documentary on the club's final month.

Here's their pitch via Kickstarter:

Since 1886 Webster Hall has stood as a gathering place ... cultivating a welcoming environment that included anyone from the mainstream, fringe, underground, or anywhere in between to congregate in the same place at the same time.

On August 9th, 2017 Webster will be closing its doors for renovations. In 2018 it will reopen under corporate management. The Producers of this short wish to make a feature-length film documenting the last month of Webster’s current incarnation in an attempt to preserve its vibe.

You can read more about the project and it goals as well as watch a short at Kickstarter.

The filmmakers have been working at Webster Hall as stage hands since early last year.

"When we discovered that one of the city's last original music venues would be shutting its doors for a corporate clean-up, we were shocked to learn how uninformed both the Webster Hall staff and its neighbors were about the transition," Sanford Jackson, one of the documentarians, said via an email. "After speaking intimately with the staff about the upcoming changeover, we felt it necessary to utilize our talents as filmmakers to document a piece that will genuinely capture what Webster Hall represents within the East Village community and the city's rich nightlife history entirely."

And what have they learned so far during filming?

"One of the more universal themes we've found when talking to staff at Webster Hall is its sheer diversity in both clientele and its staff. On a single night you might expect a children's story book play in the basement, a death metal band in the studio, and an LGBT club night in the ballroom. Thousands of people under the same roof at the same time for remarkably different reasons," said Jackson. "That said, the stories we've heard were really just snippets of a larger tale — a simple introduction to the menagerie of bacchanalia teeming in the memory banks of it's diverse neighborhood and it's employees. We're hoping to capture as much of that as possible with this doc."

The East Village artists behind the Danceteria time capsule from 1984 that prompted a bomb scare in 2017

It's never good if they have to call the #NYPD when your time capsule is discovered. The capsule was deemed safe by ESU & the Bomb squad. pic.twitter.com/6cZxYRfahj

— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) July 6, 2017

On Wednesday, an unexploded, World War 2-era bomb briefly shut down 21st Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.

As you may have read, the suspicious-looking device turned out to be a bomb-shaped time capsule that belonged to the now-shuttered Danceteria.

In various published reports, John Argento, who owned the club until it closed in 1986, said that the capsule was an "empty practice bomb" that was buried in 1984 in an alley adjacent to the club ... to be unearthed again in 5,000 years. (Construction at the site ruined things for partygoers in 6984.)

Via The Beat, we learned that East Village-based artists James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook were instrumental in creating and then burying the time capsule back in 1984 as part of a party to say hello to the year 6984.

As Van Cook wrote on Facebook:

We buried the time capsule which had one of Diana Ross’ fake eyelashes and Chi Chi Valenti g string among thousands of messages to the future. All the messages read ”fuck you” which seemed to be the only sentiment that people came up with. We had the ceremony in the adjacent alley to Danceteria ... I broke a bottle on the bomb casing! Wow!

[Image via the Beat]

And this may have a happy ending of sorts. Per CBS New York:

It isn’t exactly police protocol to give someone their old bomb shell back, but police say in a few days once it’s thoroughly searched, Argento can likely pick up whatever was inside.

The CBC has more on the story here.

Previously