Sunday's slow melt

Here are two early morning scenes from Tompkins Square Park via Vinny & O...



And snow is on the way...

Winter storm watch: 4-6” expected for NYC. Snow starts after 3pm today. Heaviest 8pm to 3am. Snow ends by 8am Monday pic.twitter.com/4WykAINhIY

— NY1 Weather (@NY1weather) March 3, 2019

The additional snow might be good news to the developers behind this new venture — currently at a standstill — in Tompkins Square Park...

Saturday's parting shot

12th Street at Second Avenue...

Last weekend for Leekan Designs

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A post shared by Leekan Designs (@leekandesigns) on Feb 17, 2019 at 1:15pm PST

A heads up from an EVG reader that Leekan Designs closes tomorrow after 35-plus years in business... the shop, which specializes in antique and contemporary beads and jewelry and other accessories from China, Indonesia, India and Morocco, is at 4 Rivington St. just east of the Bowery.

💎Last 2 days of Closing Sale... ALL SILVER Jewelry and Beads 30%-50% OFF!!! Store Closes March 3rd!🎊 -#jewelry #silverjewelry #hilltribe #hilltribeaiover #karentribe #thailand… https://t.co/uoXfQZ4Hws

— LeekanDesigns (@LeekanDesigns) March 2, 2019

Owner Annie Lee recently told BoweryBoogie: "Time to close this chapter without sadness."

The business started in a SoHo loft, before relocating to the LES in 1999.

March 2!

Tompkins Square Park this morning...

Friday's parting shot

[Photo today by Derek Berg]

A scene from the first Kerwin Frost Film Festival today... over at 82 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery... and the lineup... all free, though you'll need to wait in line...

Step by step

The Devil You Know, the latest release by the Coathangers, is out next Friday on Suicide Squeeze. The video here, which debuted on Wednesday, is for "Step Back."

EVG Etc.: Looking for a purse-snatching suspect; remembering the anti-folk scene at the Sidewalk

[From 7th and A this a.m.]

In case you were wondering what all those helicopters were for last night: Manhunt continues for suspects who struck officer during chase on the FDR (CBS 2)

Police looking for a suspect who snatched two purses last Saturday night, first on Sixth Street then on 11th Street (ABC 7)

The Evelyn & Louis A. Green Residence, which provides senior housing at 200 E. Fifth St. and the Bowery, has obtained a $50 million refinancing (Commercial Observer)

Man posing as NYCHA employee robs resident in wheelchair on the LES (The Lo-Down)

An oral history of the anti-folk scene at the now-closed Sidewalk (Gothamist ... previously on EVG)

Mace, the cocktail bar on Ninth Street at Avenue C, closes after service tomorrow evening... ahead of a move to larger digs at 505 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B — the former Double Wide space. The Mace team will use the Ninth Street space then for some new bar concept (Eater ... previously on EVG)

We're behind on a Citi Bike update: Meanwhile: Citi Bike electric fleet will grow to 4,000 — with $2 fee (Streetsblog)

An interview with new Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (Gothamist)

The base MetroCard fare will remain at $2.75, but monthly and weekly rates are increasing (amNY)

Tix for all the shows at Webster Hall go on sale to the public today (Official site ... previously on EVG)

Happy 11th Blog Anniversary to our friend Cathryn at the Washington Square Blog! (Official site)

Winnie's is back with a new outpost on East Broadway (Eater)

The Friends of the Elizabeth Street Garden vow to sue to stop an affordable housing development from replacing the garden (Curbed)

EVG favorite "Cold War," a Best Foreign Language Film nominee, is still playing at City Cinemas on Second Avenue and 12th Street (Official site)

And turning to sports... now that Bryce Harper is a Phillie... the Blind Barber, the barber shop-cocktail lounge that first opened on 10th Street near Avenue B in 2010, is expanding to Philadelphia. Harper, who signed 13-year, $330 million deal to join Phillies yesterday, became a Blind Barber partner last year. (Philly.com)

... and several readers asked if THIS was still a thing... YES, YES IT IS...

Welcome to March!

Photo in Tompkins Square Park this March 1 via Vinny & O...

A last visit to Raul Candy Store

Photos by Stacie Joy

Friends and family gathered yesterday at Raul Candy Store, which wrapped up 43 years in business as I first reported.

Raul opened in 1976. The shop has been at No. 205 between 12th Street and 13th Street since 1981.

Owner Raul Santiago, 75, and his wife Petra Olivieri, 70, decided to retire.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by in the afternoon, where she notes there was a sad yet festive mood inside the shop. Raul and Petra's children came down from Massachusetts to help close up the shop. They gave away the last bags of free candy to a group of kids while Stacie was there taking pictures.





Several news outlets stopped by, including NY1 Noticias ...



...and some more scenes from the shop's last day...























Friends and neighbors had offered to raise money to cover rent for a year, but Raul and Petra declined, as they said "it's time to go."

City issues full vacate order on former P.S. 64

A tipster shares the news that the city issued a vacate order on the long-empty P.S. 64 at 605 E. Ninth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C.

The vacate order is dated Feb. 13. According to the DOB (in their ALL-CAP STYLE):

AT VARIOUS EXPOSURES OF EDUCATIONAL FACILITY, ORNAMENTAL FACADE ELEMENTS ARE IN A STATE OF DISREPAIR WITH VISIBLE CRACKS, GAPS, AND DETERIORATION. THESE ORNAMENTAL ELEMENTS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO FALL INTO THE STREET AND YARD. IN ADDITION, INTERIOR FIRE PROOFING ARE MISSING THEREBY EXPOSING STRUCTURAL STEEL MEMBERS. THESE CONDITIONS HAVE MADE THE ENTIRE BUILDING AND YARDS UNSAFE TO OCCUPY.

Developer Gregg Singer bought the property — the former P.S 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center — from the city during an auction in 1998. The building has been empty for years. However, as Allegra Hobbs wrote in an article for the Times last June, Singer has an office on the premises.

Mr. Singer visits P.S. 64 about once a week. The only part of the building not falling apart, abandoned, graffitied or coated with pigeon droppings seems to be his modest office on the first floor, decorated with pristine renderings of “University Square” — a “new college living experience,” as the brochures claim, where students would enjoy a theater, a game room, yoga studios and other amenities.

Presumably the vacate order prevents Singer from entering.

The vacate order also came one week after emergency crews examined a large crack in the building's east-facing wall on 10th Street.

City inspectors eventually determined that the building was safe, but did issue a violation to Singer for failure to maintain the exterior facade for cracks observed on the corner of the building at the third floor, as Curbed reported.

Singer later told Curbed: "It’s all political. This is part of a concerted effort to put pressure on us. I was just at the building. There's definitely cracks — that we were already aware of — that will be pointed and repaired, but there’s no immediate danger."

Singer has wanted to turn the landmarked property into a dorm called University Square, which continues in a holding pattern while the DOB maintains a Stop Work Order — dating to August 2015 — on the building.

On Feb. 7, local elected officials gathered outside the building and urged the city to reclaim the property for community use.