6 posts from August

[Photo from Avenue D]

A mini month in review...

• Chelsea Thai debuts on 1st Avenue (Aug. 6)

• LPC OKs condoplex for gas explosion site on 2nd Avenue and 7th Street (Aug. 8)

• This is what's happening with the former Grassroots Tavern space on St. Mark's Place (Aug. 9)

• City Council unanimously approves tech hub; some disappointment in lack of zoning protections (Aug. 9)

• B&H Dairy celebrates its 80th anniversary (Aug. 22)

• Marshalls opening next month in Ben Shaoul's luxury condoplex on East Houston Street Aug. 24)

Reader report: Body found in car on 12th Street near Avenue B

A man's body was found inside a car on the south side 12th Street just west of Avenue B early this evening.

EVG reader Blair Hopkins shared this photo.

The word here is that the man was unknown to anyone who lived on the block, and that he was likely there for three to four days. The car has Florida license plates.

Will update if/when more information becomes available.

Updated 8:22 p.m.

According to an EVG reader who lives on the block, there were pill bottles laid out on the hood of the car.

The police are apparently looking at security camera footage from the building across the street from the car.

'Divine' madness

The Breeders released Last Splash 25 years ago today. This is the second single, "Divine Hammer."

RIP Village Voice

[EVG photo from October]

Per Gothamist:

Three years after buying The Village Voice, and a year after the paper shut down its print edition, owner Peter Barbey told the remaining staff today that the publication will no longer be posting any new stories.

"Today is kind of a sucky day," Barbey told the staff...

Barbey said that half of the staff, which is around 15 to 20 people, will remain on to "wind things down," and work on a project to archive the Voice's material online.

A few reactions...

Good thing not to say when you fire a bunch of people and shut down an iconic publication:

"Today is kind of a sucky day" https://t.co/SJXbFtXJnz

— Katie Drummond (@katiedrumm) August 31, 2018

Fuck. https://t.co/W0UitLkeQT

— Tyler Coates (@tylercoates) August 31, 2018

It’s hard to even imagine New York without the Village Voice

— Sam Adams (@SamuelAAdams) August 31, 2018

The worst thing about this whole thing is that Barbey, being a billionaire with delusions of grandeur, will never feel any real pain over this. https://t.co/cprFjxHvPD

— Zoë Beery (@noyinzoe) August 31, 2018

Unfortunately for us all, well-intentioned but staggeringly ignorant and egotistical rich idiots are not journalism's salvation. RIP for now VVhttps://t.co/vHbZZTe0Ss

— Hamilton Nolan (@hamiltonnolan) August 31, 2018

With The Village Voice shutting down, who is covering repertory cinema anymore? The LAT does it once in awhile for high profile restorations, but I honestly can't think of any outlet that regularly covers rep film like they did. This is such a loss for film culture and criticism

— Michelle Buchman (@michelledeidre) August 31, 2018

The loss of the @VillageVoice is bad news for all New Yorkers. We should all be concerned about the increasing loss of voices in our city's media landscape. The public and private sectors need to come together to address the crisis facing our #freepress. https://t.co/AO8bMZ0o0F

— Eric Adams (@BPEricAdams) August 31, 2018

Long live the Village Voice: the newspaper that gave New York its cool, birthed generations of some of the best writers this city has ever known, and taught me everything I know about being a journalist here. You will be dearly missed. https://t.co/yi9FGbkQZ7

— John Surico (@JohnSurico) August 31, 2018

I went to college in NYC, spent a couple of years afterwards just screwing around. We waited eagerly for the Voice every week to check for which band was playing where. (Also did boozy dramatic readings of adult ads). This is sad. https://t.co/tciPmJh0rJ

— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) August 31, 2018

When I was still a sheltered yeshiva girl, I'd go to the Village with my friend to go to thrift stores. We'd pick up free copies of the Village Voice and read them in cafes, feeling much cooler than we actually were.

This is some sad news.https://t.co/nJYuf4IPdZ

— Dvora Meyers (@DvoraMeyers) August 31, 2018

i miss 20 minutes ago, when the Village Voice still existed and Bradley Cooper wasn’t America's next great auteur.

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) August 31, 2018

Baking news: Westville Bakery coming to 9th Street

Signs for Westville Bakery just went up on Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue ... where this storefront will be selling the cakes, pies, cookies and seasonal desserts offered at the six Westville locations, including on Avenue A and 11th Street. (The baking is done in Chelsea.)

Jay Strauss, Westville's founder, told EVG correspondent Steven they hope to be open in six weeks.

This space was Zucker Bakery for the past seven years. Zucker's owner decided to retire from the business on July 1.

Westville, the vegetable-centric restaurant, first opened here in 2003.

Updated 9/5

Eater has more details:

Westville’s longtime pastry chef Meital Cohen will be in charge of the food, focusing on sweets such as carrot cake, apple and blueberry pies, assorted cookies, and seasonal specials like a dragon fruit smoothie bowl with berries, almond butter, and granola. But there will also be a savory menu featuring sandwiches, tartines, quiches, and salads. Specific tartines include ones with smoked trout, crème fraîche, and chives or marinated fennel and chickpea salad with whipped feta, while quiches may have roasted vegetables and herb goat cheese or grilled onions and mixed mushrooms. Expect vegan and gluten-free options too.

The EVG podcast: More hawk talk with Laura Goggin

[The Tompkins Square fledgling by Goggla]

I invited East Village-based photographer Laura Goggin (aka Goggla!) back to the East Village Radio storefront studio on First Avenue for another EVG podcast. (Listen to our first session from June here.)

We talked about what has happened this summer with the red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park, including:

• The joy of the young red-tailed fledgling
• The death of the older fledgling
• The hawks loving the concerts in the Park
• The parenting skills of Christo and Amelia
• The latest on Dora, Christo's ex-mate now in wing rehab (The Post might be interested in her status!)

Anyway, we had a lot of fun recording this...



This link will take you to Goggla's site for more photos and red-tailed hawk narratives. And stay tuned for more EVG podcasts — I'll be posting another one next week.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The EVG podcast: Red-tailed hawk talk with Laura Goggin

The EVG podcast: Mike Katz and Crispin Kott on the "Rock and Roll Explorer Guide to New York City."

The EVG podcast: A 'Vanishing New York' conversation with Jeremiah Moss

EVG Etc.: Christening the new LES ferry stop; defending the Smith

[A little help? Avenue A at 4th Street]

A guide to next month's NY primaries (Curbed)

The actual number of NYCHA kids who tested positive for lead (The Post)

Displaced tenants from 85 Bowery return home after 7 months (amNY)

Spend your weekend looking at the city's new NYC Street Map, with an interactive tool that lets you view alterations made to the city map dating to 1938 (Off the Grid)

Reading David Wojnarowicz at the Whitney next Friday, Sept. 7 (Official site)

The history of 307 E. 12th St., the onetime Elizabeth Home for Girls in the 1890s (Ephemeral New York)

Christening the new LES ferry stop (The Lo-Down ... amNY... but are ferries really a good solution to transit problems?)

New film series highlights Westerns "that focus on a female protagonist, foregrounding the importance of women both to the Western genre and to the history of the American West" (Anthology Film Archives)

At home with Kiki Smith (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Life in Hell Square (Marketplace)

Check out the Hot Spot Popshop (Art on A Gallery)

In defense of The Smith, the brasserie whose first outpost opened on Third Avenue and 11th Street (Eater)

Michael Cohen, President Trump's former attorney, cleared about $7 million in sale of two properties, including 133 Avenue D (Bloomberg... earlier)

NYC map hit with anti-Semitic vandalism yesterday (The Verge)

We're getting a "London Calling" postage stamp (Flaming Pablum)

Jeremiah Moss on the no-cash-allowed Morgenstern's taking over the former Silver Spurs space on La Guardia (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

... and photographer Kevin Shea Adams is selling prints of photos taken inside the former Hollywood Theatre at 100 Avenue A (demolished to make way for Ben Shaoul's condoplex) ... find his site here.

... and in photos from the mounds of discarded contents from apartments, a Hollywood Legends Last Supper with Marilyn Monroe in the Jesus seat ... spotted on St. Mark's Place...

On this date in 1928

From the NYPL Digital Collections...

P. L. Sperr took this photo, dated Aug. 31, 1928, from Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B ... looking toward the north at the back of the tenements of Fifth Street.

Per the description: "Buildings shown across the horizon, are the Consolidated Gas Co., the Metropolitan Life Insurance and the N.Y. Life Insurance Co."

Renovations for rooftop cottage on 1st and 1st

The Cape Cod-style cottage on the roof at 72 E. First St. at First Avenue is now undergoing renovations... you can see from the street that part of the structure is now covered...


The cottage is part of the penthouse unit, which sold for $3.5 million last September after about six weeks on the market.

The work permits don't offer any specifics on the scope of work taking place.

Here's more on the space, per the original Compass listing:

The crown jewel of this offering is a loft penthouse built on the roof in design of a Nantucket cottage with weathered shingles, cupola and wraparound terrace. New Marvin true divided light windows and a glass block wall highlight extraordinary open views through three exposures. Direct access to the private roof terrace from double french doors create a charming retreat and a rare offering in all of Manhattan. The cottage includes a full bathroom and kitchenette.

As the Post reported last summer, Gale Barrett Shrady was the owner. The cottage addition was the handiwork of her late husband, artist Henry Merwin Shrady III.

She called the charming cottage a "magical little spot" that served as her son's bedroom through college.


[Image via Compass]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Penthouse with rooftop cottage sells on 1st Avenue

That penthouse with a cottage atop 1st Street and 1st Avenue is for sale

Thursday's parting shot

Ready for winter all summer long at East Village Wines on First Avenue between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street...