Higher learning

Earlier in the week, the "NYC not NYU" message arrived outside the Dunkin' Donuts on First Avenue and Sixth Street.

And by yesterday...


[Photo by @edenbrower]

Updated!

SMU is getting into the act, too, per Goggla...

A chance to bless your pets

This just in this evening...

The annual Blessing of Animals will take place on Saturday September 30th at 1 p.m. in front of Immaculate Conception Church, 414 E. 14th Street near First Avenue. All are welcome!

Per the flyer, the pets do not have to be Catholic to be blessed...

You were Alvvays on my mind

Alvvays sound as if they'd be on a bill at the Roadhouse in the "Twin Peaks" return.

The Canadian pop band released its second album, Antisocialites, on Sept. 8. The video here is for "In Undertow."

P.S. The band is playing out at Brooklyn Steel on Thursday.

Noted

A reader spotted this on Fourth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C... there's probably a good backstory here...

EV Grieve Etc.: Transparency for LLCs; Cinematic tribute to Harry Dean Stanton

[Photo on 2nd Avenue Tuesday by Derek Berg]

Sen. Hoylman wants to make it illegal for powerful interests to hide behind LLCs (Town & Village)

Activists celebrate passage of tenant protection legislation (The Lo-Down)

God's Love We Deliver serves its 20 millionth meal; East Village resident is the recipient of milestone meal (ABC 7)

DOT apparently not feeling a transit-only 14th Street during the L train shutter (Streetsblog)

Hells Angel accused of shooting man for moving parking cone died last month of a brain aneurysm (New York Post ... previously on EVG)

A visit to Spark Pretty on Ninth Street (Gothamist ... previously on EVG)


[Photo on 3rd Avenue Wednesday by Derek Berg]

Some history outside the Mud Cafe storefront (Off the Grid)

Debbie Harry's early East Village apartment (Time Out)

At the screening for "Hunting Pignut" at MoRUS last week (Slum Goddess)

Little Tong Noodle Shop on First Avenue at 11th Street is now open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday (Instagram)

The latest mural on the Bowery Wall promotes Instagram’s #KindComments campaign (BoweryBoogie)

A long read on Gino Sorbillo, "Italy’s most famous pizzamaker," who’s coming to 334 Bowery (Eater ... previously on EVG)

The Harry Dean Stanton retrospective continues (Quad Cinema)

First renderings revealed for Essex Crossing's second phase (Curbed)

"Big Trouble in Little China" and "Chinatown" among this weekend's highlights at the Metrograph (Official site)

When Velvet Underground’s "Venus in Furs" was used in a commercial for car tires (Dangerous Minds)

...and we heard from a few people who were curious about the mystery East Village restaurant that serves as the setting for the mostly unreadable Kate McKinnon cover story in the new Vanity Fair:

Kate and I are meeting for lunch, naturally, and she’s suggested a place in the East Village. I can’t say the name because I promised Kate I wouldn’t. (It’s a best-kept secret, only it wouldn’t be if I blabbed, is the idea.) Technically it’s a restaurant, though “restaurant” seems like too highfalutin a term to convey its essence. “Hole-in-the-wall” might be nearer the mark, “dump” nearer still: linoleum floor, laminated menus, Asian-y pop music on the speakers (“Asian-y” is as close as I’ll get to giving away its identity—see, Kate, I didn’t break my word), ceiling fan moving the thick, soupy air around some without cooling it any. Yet the food is as good as the ambience is bad, as I will soon discover when a guy, a waiter I assume though he’s in street clothes, flings on the table first Kate’s dish and then, following a discreet dick adjustment, mine.

H/T Brian Van!

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: Ralph

Ralph came to the East Village in 1985 from Sylhet, Bangladesh.

A friend and neighbor introduced Ralph to the landlord of his current apartment, where he has lived since 1992. Until this point, he had been sharing an apartment with friends from Sylhet.

Upon moving into the apartment photographed here, he was joined by his wife Lipi and 3-year-old daughter Lisa, who remained in Bangladesh until he had his own place. He and Lipi had another daughter in 1999.

Ralph worked for years at a now-closed East Village restaurant. Today, he is retired. His daughter Lisa is married, and she has a son and daughter.

The family has many friends, and this apartment sees many visitors. It is a home as a place for enjoying family, sharing food and celebrating life.

















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

CB3 calls on the MTA to address poor frequency and reliability of the M14A bus

[EVG file photo]

Back in July, CB3's Transportation, Public Safety & Environment Committee asked for input from residents about the frequency and reliability of the M14A bus.

Sen. Daniel Squadron's office had also made requests for improved M14A service — specifically the frequency of the buses.

On Tuesday night, the full Community Board adopted a resolution documenting the M14A's dismal service and called on the MTA to take "swift remedial action."

Here's part of the media advisory via the EVG inbox...

The CB3 resolution builds on more than a decade of community demands for improved M14A bus service.

“In response to past calls for better M14A bus service, the MTA has regularly taken the position that the M14A route is operating just fine. Our community knows full well that is not the case,” said Chad Marlow, chair of CB3’s Transportation, Public Safety & Environment Committee.

Marlow added, “the goal of our resolution is to document the shortcomings of the M14A bus service in extensive detail and to request corrective measures be swiftly taken. It is time to stop engaging in a false debate over whether problems on the line exist. Our resolution will hopefully and at long last put that debate to rest so we can get down to fixing the problems.”

The CB3 resolution points out that many of the MTA’s assumptions about the M14A’s adequacy are based on faulty data. For example, because young students do not swipe MetroCards when boarding busses, they are not counted by the MTA as passengers.

Likewise, when M14A passengers give up waiting for a bus and take the M14D bus instead, as they frequently do despite the long walks that await them at their destinations, they are counted as M14D passengers. CB3’s resolution points out that the M14A’s poor service has the greatest impact on local school children, elderly residents, and persons trying to get to and from work.

In addition to requesting services changes to improve the frequency and reliability of buses on the M14A route, CB3 also requested the MTA appear before its Transportation, Public Safety & Environment Committee to discuss why disparities exist between the community’s and MTA’s analysis of the route.

You can find the full resolution (PDF) at the CB3 website here. (It starts on the second page.)

Christo and Dora look to be building another nest; boredom a possibility too

In the past week or so, Hawk Watchers in Tompkins Square Park have spotted resident red-tailed hawks Christo and Dora start work on a new love nest in the ginkgo tree that they used in 2016.

As you can see in these photos by Steven, Christo has some nest supplies in his right talon...



Kinda difficult to see, so...



Anyway, this seems a little early for the hawks to be in nest-making mode. (And how many more kids are they going to have????)

Goggla has more here:

[F]or the last two years, they have begun the task in October, so maybe they like to get ahead. Christo and Dora are a well-bonded pair, and projects like this serve to reinforce their partnership.

Sounds good!

Or, maybe they're just bored!

In any event, the ginkgo tree is considered a good spot for a nest. Back to Goggla:

The tree itself is strong and can be easily defended from squirrels. The cross at St Brigid's church is a perfect perch for the hawks, giving them a good view of the nest and surrounding area. We won't know what their real plans are until January or February, but based on their past behavior, these hawks look pretty serious about this location.

To date, there aren't any work permits on file with the city for this ginkgo tree. Expect to see a Stop Work Order soon enough.

Head over to Goggla's site here for more thoughts and lots of great photos.

Paloma Rocket looks to land on 2nd Avenue

As we first reported back in July, Paloma Rocket, the self-serve craft beer bar at 7 Clinton St., was looking for a new home in the East Village.

Paloma Rocket closed at the end of August here in the storefront near East Houston... signage on the door points to a move this fall...



According to the CB3-SLA agenda released yesterday for October, it appears that Paloma Rocket has found a possible new home on Second Avenue.

The proposed location on the meeting notice is 77 Second Ave. between Fourth Street and Fifth Street. That lines up with the empty space that last housed Heart of India, which closed in late July.

The CB3-SLA meeting is scheduled for Oct. 16 at the Public Hotel, 17th Floor, Sophia Room, 215 Chrystie St. between Houston and Stanton. The action starts at 6:30 p.m. We'll take a look at some of the other proposed items in the days/weeks ahead.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Paloma Rocket looking to land in the East Village

Stop ‘N’ Swap tomorrow (Saturday!) on 3rd Street

Here are the details via the EVG inbox...

WHAT: Free Stop ‘N’ Swap Community Reuse Event

WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 30, Noon-3pm

WHERE: Downtown Art (Rear Yard), 19 E 3rd St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery

The public is invited to bring clean, portable, reusable items to share with those who can use them. No one is required to bring something to take something — you can simply show up with a bag and see what’s free for the taking. Books, toys, fashionable clothing, housewares and electronics are just some of the offerings.

Anything leftover at the end of the day is donated or recycled. Furniture and other large items are not accepted at the swap.

Find more info here.

Hear the latest work from the author of 'Legends of the Chelsea Hotel' tomorrow night

Author Ed Hamilton, whose work includes "Legends of the Chelsea Hotel," has a new novel coming out titled "Lords of the Schoolyard."

The book is described as "an unflinching depiction of bullying in Suburban America as seen through the eyes of the bullies themselves."

He'll be reading from it (and signing copies afterwards) tomorrow night at 7 at Bluestockings, 172 Allen St. near Stanton Street on the Lower East Side.

Icon Realty fined $500,000 in tenant harassment probe

Well-known East Village property owners Icon Realty, led by Todd Cohen and Terrence Lowenberg, will have to pay $500,000 and address several building violations as part of a settlement over alleged harassment of tenants, it was announced yesterday.

Here's the official statement about the tenant harassment probe:

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced a first of its kind settlement between the Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force (Task Force) and ICON Realty Management (ICON). This settlement provides tenants broad relief, requiring the landlord to end harassment and hazardous living conditions for the hundreds of tenants in buildings owned and managed by ICON.

Tenants in several ICON-owned rent-regulated buildings in the East Village, the Lower East Side and Brooklyn were forced to live in adverse conditions, enduring excessive dust and debris from construction in the building common areas and apartments, inconsistent and irregular heat and hot water, and lack of cooking gas and elevator service for extended periods.

The Task Force investigation found that, on multiple occasions, ICON failed to obtain Department of Buildings work permits, performed construction outside the scope of permits issued, and failed to appropriately clean or maintain the construction work areas.

The Task Force investigation also found that ICON ignored tenants’ requests for repairs, failed to timely correct housing and building code violations, and subjected tenants to long-lasting interruptions of heat, hot water, and cooking gas services.

The Assurance of Discontinuance executed today by the Attorney General’s office requires ICON to adopt policies and procedures to prevent future violations and safety risks; corrects all outstanding housing, maintenance, and building code violations; establishes safe construction practices; provides rent abatements to tenants during disruptions of essential services; appoints a tenant liaison to immediately address tenant concerns; and establishes an independent monitor to ensure ICON’s compliance with the agreement.

The settlement also requires ICON to pay $300,000 to the State of New York (on behalf of the Task Force) and over $200,000 in penalties, fees, and costs to New York City’s Housing Preservation & Development and Department of Buildings.

In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, Icon attorney Ken Fisher said:

"Icon never, ever intended to harass tenants and the task force made no finding of harassment because none occurred. There were some construction issues in a handful of buildings which Icon addressed over a year ago, giving affected tenants rent abatements, and changing their procedures to prevent reoccurrence."

As The Real Deal reported, Fisher described the task force's press release as "completely overblown and misleading," and said the "company is reviewing its legal actions."

This past summer, Icon made the list of Stabilizing NYC's "10 worst predatory equity landlords" in NYC.