Renderings reveal the MTA's plans for the Avenue A L station; why does everyone look so happy?

You may have noticed the MTA signage that arrived last week along 14th Street at Avenue A...



...announcing [the obvious] that preliminary work is underway for building new entrances at Avenue A and a new power station at Avenue B for the L train.

The renderings provide a sneak preview of what's in store here...







... and a closer look at the rendering scalies... a happy-looking lot who must not think that they'll be experiencing delays due to, say, signal and switch problems or track fires...









And on 14th Street at Avenue B... presumably the new power station for the L will be going in along here somewhere...





As you likely know, this work is starting ahead of the L train shutdown between Bedford Avenue and Eighth Avenue to repair the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel. The shutdown of the L is expected to last 15 months with a start date of April 2019.



Previously

More legal drama with Raphael Toledano and 97 2nd Ave.

The 6-story building at 97 Second Ave. between Sixth Street and Fifth Street was one of the first East Village properties purchased by Raphael Toledano, who would later buy several portfolios of buildings.

Now the building, which has a complicated recent history (there was a lawsuit in 2014 involving Toledano and another broker), is involved in more legal drama.

The Commercial Observer breaks it down:

Landlord Raphael Toledano is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for an East Village walk-up building, which he says Delshah Capital’s Michael Shah has “commandeered,” according to a filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York...

And...

On July 21, Delshah Capital announced the “acquisition of a defaulted note encumbering the property” at 97 Second Avenue. Delshah said in a news release that day, “Shortly after acquiring the defaulted senior note, Delshah worked directly with the building’s now former owner to enable them to recoup their capital and to take possession of the property at 30 percent below market value.”

Public records show that Toledano paid $4.95 million for it in April 2014. Toledano said in the bankruptcy protection filing that the property is valued at $15.1 million, per the Commercial Observer.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Raphael Toledano-owned 97 2nd Ave. is on the auction block

Webster Hall ending its current run with Action Bronson on Thursday night

[Image via Facebook]

Webster Hall this morning announced the headliner for its last night in business on Thursday — the Queens-based rapper Action Bronson...

We are pleased to announce that @ActionBronson is playing our End of an Era show presented by @themeadowsnyc on 8/10

— Webster Hall (@WebsterHall) August 7, 2017

As previously reported, Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, along with AEG-backed The Bowery Presents, teamed up to buy the building for $35 million.

After Thursday night, the landmarked building on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue will be closed for an undisclosed period of time (likely between 18 to 24 months) for renovations and conversion to a music-only venue. (There will no longer be any club nights here, per various reports.)

In closing out the current iteration of Webster Hall, management booked surprise shows with Nine Inch Nails on July 31 and, for the last club night this past Saturday, Skrillex...

We can't even put a caption to the legendary nature of this photo @Skrillex - 📸 @dailyeyes pic.twitter.com/LymAHyTXxR

— Webster Hall (@WebsterHall) August 6, 2017

The Ballinger family has owned and operated Webster Hall since 1989.

The building first opened in 1886.

Shake Shack announces itself at the Death Star

As previously reported, Danny Meyer’s fast-growing burger chain is opening a 3,000-square-foot outpost in/at 51 Astor Place/IBM Watson Building/the Death Star.

On Friday, the Shake branding arrived here at Third Avenue at Ninth Street... (this location will also serve beer and wine...)



... and they are ready to Shake, rattle... and hire...

The 14th Street Shoe Repair Shop has closed

The 14th Street Shoe Repair Shop, 428 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue, has closed.

An EVG reader said that Saturday was the last day for business. We were told that the cobbler could not remain open following a rent increase.

A vendor named Ba had also been selling items such as socks, gloves and phone chargers in front the past three years. (He was at the East Side 99¢ space before this.) EVG reader Michael Paul believes that Ba may move to another storefront on the block.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The shoe repair post that you've been waiting for

New York Health Choice (aka Eastside Market) has gone dark for now on Avenue C

Earlier last week the lights went out inside New York Health Choice (aka Eastside Market) on Avenue C at 11th Street.

EVG reader Cheyennne, who shared the top photo, said the the store's shelves were looking bare in recent weeks. An employee said that she was unsure if they would reopen.

This wouldn't be the first time that the market, which opened on Dec. 20, 2012, temporarily closed. The space, operated by the owners of Yankee Deli across 11th Street, closed for renovations starting in December 2015 ... returning to business in May 2016.

The storefront has also been on the retail market since May, with an asking rent of $10,500.

Horus Kabab House airs out their sidewalk cafe on 6th Street

[Photo Friday via @RatedRuwan]

Back on Friday, workers demolished the enclosed sidewalk cafe at Horus Kabab House on Avenue B at Sixth Street... to then unveil a new unenclosed sidewalk cafe...



Both Horus locations (10th and Avenue A being the other) have had noise and various law-enforcement issues in the past. According to the May 2008 CB3 minutes (PDF here), the Avenue B location "has had numerous noise complaints and received numerous summonses for being occupied over capacity and putting too many tables on the sidewalk and whose sidewalk café permit has recently been denied renewal."

Despite the discreditable past, CB3 approved the move from enclosed to unenclosed sidewalk cafe this past April. Per the minutes (PDF here) from that meeting:

WHEREAS, given the history of complaints in operating its previously permitted unenclosed sidewalk café, its violations in operating its premises, its 311 call history despite its now enclosed sidewalk café and the residential character of East 6th Street, Community Board 3 cannot approve a sidewalk café permit greater than eight (8) tables and sixteen (16) seats with limitations on its hours of operation;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Community Board 3 moves to approve the application for a sidewalk café permit for El Sayed 1 Corp., doing business as Horus Kabab House, for the premise located at 93 Avenue B, on the corner of Eats 6th Street and Avenue B, because the applicant has signed a change agreement which will become part of its DCA license that
1) its café will consist of eight (8) tables and sixteen (16) seats located flush against the façade of the
premises on East 6th Street, and
2) its hours of operation will be 12:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. all days

Turntable 5060 has been closed today for awhile

Turntable 5060 has been closed of late here on Avenue B at Fourth Street.

Two signs on the door note that they are "under renovation." There aren't any new work permits on file at the DOB to note any work in the space.

And there is a handwritten sign on the door that reads...

Hey guys!

We are sad to say that we are closed today for repairs!

If you're craving friend chicken, just come to our K-town location! 20 W33rdSt.

There isn't any notice about a temporary closure on their website or social media properties.

The restaurant serving Korean-style fried chicken and craft beers opened in July 2015. The 33rd Street location mentioned on the note just opened last month.

Sunday's parting shot

Featuring Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street on Long Island Sound... per her owners: "She can report that rumors of this being one of the 10 best days of the year weather-wise are true!"

Week in Grieview

[Photo last Sunday on 2nd Avenue by Derek Berg]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

About Jake, who roamed the East Village these past 11 years (Thursday)

Golden Food Market closes on 1st Avenue and 7th Street (Tuesday)

5 years of Out and About in the East Village (Wednesday)

Here's the sidewalk bridge-free corner of 9th Street and 1st Avenue — and the 122 Community Center (Wednesday)

SobaKoh has closed on 5th Street (Monday)


[Photo Wednesday on 2nd Avenue by Derek Berg]

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant (Friday)

Sunny's Florist off until after Labor Day (Thursday)

The former Shoolbred's space is for rent on 2nd Avenue (Thursday)

Eastern Bloc closes Sunday; Club Cumming coming soon (Friday)

The stately 153 Avenue B has a new owner (Thursday)

Tompkins Square Park sinkhole no longer sinking (Wednesday)

The Great Jones Cafe reopens (Wednesday)

DBGB is closing on the Bowery (Monday)


[Photo Thursday on 2nd Avenue by EVG]

244-46 E. 7th St. has a new owner (Tuesday)

Express Thali has not been open lately on 2nd Avenue (Tuesday)

Signage arrives for Ahimsa on 10th Street (Monday)

Baron's Dim Sum gives way to Tasty Garden on 6th Street (Thursday)

Sales underway for Rite Aid-adjacent condoplex on 1st Avenue (Wednesday)

Former Avenue A dental center is "great location for restaurant" (Thursday)

...and Key Food recently put up some new East Village-branded signage on Avenue A at Fourth Street...



Key is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year...



---

Follow EVG on Instragram and/or Twitter for more updates

An appeal to landmark these buildings on Broadway

Three buildings at 827-831 Broadway (pictured above) and 47 E. 12th St. may be demolished to make way for a 14-floor office building.

As previously reported, Quality Capital and Caerus Group bought the parcel between 12th Street and 13th Street last summer for $60 million. The deal reportedly included 30,000 square feet of air rights.

In the late 1950s, Willem de Kooning had a studio in No. 827, one piece of the history of these buildings uncovered by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP).

GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman co-authored an op-ed at the Times this past week, providing more history of the addresses and making the case for why they should be landmarked:

Despite protests by preservationists, elected officials and neighbors, two developers, Quality Capital and the Caerus Group, intend to demolish it and build a 14-story tower. (Caerus is the Greek god of opportunity and luck who seizes favorable moments.)

In August 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected an application to protect 831 Broadway and its next-door twin, 827. According to its director of research at the time, the commission decided that New York already had enough buildings with “earlier cast-iron facades” and that “there are buildings on Broadway of a similar date, type and style” to represent this era of development in New York.

Fortunately, the commission has recently agreed to reconsider that decision, and the developers have agreed to withdraw their application for a demolition permit pending the reconsideration. Now the commissioners must decide whether to take the first formal step toward considering the buildings for landmark status and vote to “calendar” them — put them on the docket for active consideration for designation — which would be followed by a public hearing and a vote.

You can read more about these buildings at the GVSHP website here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 14-story building planned for 827 Broadway

Reader report: major damage avoided when tree falls behind 1st Avenue buildings

An EVG reader shared these photos... Around 3 a.m., about half of a large tree fell and came to rest on part of two buildings behind First Avenue between Second Street and Third Street...





The reader said that no one was injured ... the tree narrowly missed the enclosed canopy behind d.b.a.

Apparently there was a crack in the tree, and a neighbor warned that this might happen.

Summer of Love Redux

[Photo by Goggla]

An early evening concert atop a bus on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place... more details TK...


[Photo by Dave by 7th]

... and a few more photos via Steven...





... and via Cheyenne...







Updated:

Thanks to a reader for this...

Here's more via the Facebook invite...

We are a roving music jam hitting parks across NYC! Incredible musicians led by drummer Ethan Kogan with Laura Newman on vocals will make spontaneous magic beginning in Union Sq Park at 5pm. Then we hop on Tycho Dan's Blue Bird Bus and head to Thompkins Sq Park for sunset and finally MacCarren Park for a nighttime DJ set with Penny Lane.

Come dance! Bring your bike and follow the parade spreading splendid spontanious music to all!

5pm Union Sq Park
7pm Tompkins Sq Park
9pm McCarren Park Williamsburg

Summer Streets

Second Avenue at Fourth Street...

Details on the $10-a-week CSA in these East Village community gardens

Via the EVG inbox...

LUNGS Fresh Food Bag CSA
Get a bag full of fresh & healthy produce straight from the farmer to you for only $10 a week — and only the weeks you want — along with volunteer help from you and the gardens of our New York City Community Garden District. The program is managed by LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens).

HOW IT WORKS:
This CSA is unique — you pay in advance but only for the weeks you want. SIGN-UP & PICK-UP is Sunday from 1 pm to 3 pm. When you pick up on Sunday you will pre-order and pay for the following week, or the week after.

See you this Sunday, August 6th, between 1 pm and 3 pm at Green Oasis on 8th Street between Avenues C&D to sign up!

It’s run entirely by volunteers, so all the money goes to the farmer. The family farm we work with uses organic methods but is not certified organic. The CSA typically begins in mid-June and—as we have for the past four years — runs every Sunday until Thanksgiving.

Pick up your produce between 1 and 3 pm on Sunday. If you cannot make the pickup time you need to arrange for someone else to pick it up for you. After 3 pm we are not responsible for your order. So if there are bags not picked up at the end of the day we will sell them to cover any losses that are inevitable in a volunteer-run program.

Bring tote bags! The first week you order please bring two tote bags for the season. Please bring good sturdy bags that can carry 10 pounds of produce. When you pick up the following week, bring back your bag!

Please remember that ALL the money that goes through this program goes to the farmer. This is a strictly volunteer program bringing fresh healthy food to your table. Please respect the time and energy that goes into setting this up and putting it together week to week.

Schedule of Loisaida community gardens hosting the LUNGS CSA:
August — Green Oasis, 8th Street between Aves C&D
September — La Plaza, 9th Street & Ave C
October — De Colores, 8th Street between Aves B&C
November — TBD
(and thanks to Campos, 12th Street near Ave C, for hosting us in July!)

CONTACT info@lungsnyc.org with CSA in the subject line if you would like to join.

Friday's parting shot

[Click to go big]

Storm exiting the neighborhood this morning... photo by EVG reader EJ...

Shredding the Needle

Three of Brian Eno's studio albums from 1974-1977 have been reissued... including 1974's Here Come the Warm Jets, which includes the great track here — "Needles in the Camel’s Eye."

Branch down in Tompkins Square Park

[Photos by Steven]

The storm this morning brought down a branch from one of the elm trees (in Elm Island) in Tompkins Square Park near the Eighth Street and Avenue B sinkhole/entrance ...

EV Grieve Etc.: Local venues parting ways with Bowery Presents; streaming films via the NYPL

[PDA outside BBQ via Derek Berg]

Bowery Ballroom and Mercury Lounge part ways with Bowery Presents; Live Nation rumored to be next in line to book shows (Variety)

The music program for senior citizens at the Third Street Music School (Daily News)

Here are the candidates competing for Rosie Mendez's Council seat (DNAinfo)

Patti Smith remembers Sam Shepard (The New Yorker)

A 16-film retrospective of UK filmmaker Alan Clarke starts tonight; 14 of the screenings are free (Film Anthology Archives)

A raid at Boss Tweed's (DNAinfo ... previously)

Praise for Yuan Noodle on Second Avenue (Eater ... previously)

Limited to One, specializing in rare and collectible contemporary vinyl, is now open at 221 E. 10th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue... Q-&-A with the owners (Brooklyn Vegan) ... a visit on opening day (B+B)

Bikram Yoga raising funds to stay on the LES (BoweryBoogie)

Cleaning Basquiat’s headstone at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn (The New York Times)

If you have a library card, then you can now stream thousands of feature films, including the Criterion Collection (Gothamist)

Flatbush, the rescued red-tailed juvenile, is really branching out (Laura Goggin Photography)

The East River bike lane sinkhole has finally been repaired (Town & Village)

A late-1970s look at Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place (Flaming Pablum)

Check out Cindy Sherman's Instagram account (artNet)

Demolition at Silver Monuments on Stanton Street (The Lo-Down)

End of the line for the Riviera Cafe in Greenwich Village? (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

In honor of Jeanne Moreau's death, the Film Forum has a return engagement of the great "Elevator to the Gallows" starting a week-long run today (Film Forum)

... and the Gelarto (GelARTo) signage arrived on Wednesday here on Avenue A and Ninth Street...


[Photo by @jimnobu]


[Photo by Steven]

Scenes from the morning downpour

Photos by Peter Brownscombe...

Noted

[Photo this morning by Lola Sáenz]

Someone decided to spraypaint "Shame on you for selling veal" on the sidewalk outside John's of 12th Street, the 109-year-old Italian restaurant near Second Avenue.

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.



Tenant: Daryl, since 1992.

Daryl lives in one of three remaining rent-stabilized apartments in her building. There were a total of nine apartments. The other six have been under renovation for the past year.

The building was bought from the owner, Arthur R. by Icon Realty. Daryl was living in another apartment in the East Village when Arthur R. (she had lived in the building before) called her and told her about an apartment that was available here.

"Everything was always done by hand," Daryl said of her previous landlord. For instance, when she would need to renew her lease, she would meet with Arthur in person to sign it.

Their super has worked in the building for the past 40 years. He is Arthur's nephew.

Daryl showed me the Bible that is on her fireplace. It has been there since she moved in. It belonged to the previous tenant. Daryl opened the Bible, where the name of the previous tenant is written in pencil on the inside cover.











If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.