Noted

Derek Berg shares this Urban Dog Etiquette Sign from Seventh Street: "Stop putting your dog shit on our garbage cans!!!!!"

There's a Rent Laws Town Hall this Saturday

Via the EVG inbox...

New York's rent laws are set to expire this June, giving tenants a unique a chance to push for comprehensive legislation to protect and expand rent stabilization across the state — but we won't win without a fight!

Join the Cooper Square Committee, the Metropolitan Council on Housing and University Settlement, along with a number of local elected officials to learn more about the Housing Justice for All coalition's bold policy platform and to find out how you and your neighbors can get involved in the fight to defend the rights of tenants in New York!

The Town Hall is Saturday (April 6) from 2-4 p.m. at Speyer Hall, 184 Eldridge St. at Rivington Street.

You can read more background on this Gothamist post from March 21 titled "Push For Stronger NY Rent Laws Goes Up Against Powerful Landlord Lobby."

A spirited sendoff for Hattie Hathaway

On Monday night, friends of Hattie Hathaway, aka Brian Butterick, gathered in Tompkins Square Park for a festive sendoff for the gay cultural icon who died on Jan. 30 from lung cancer at age 62.

From the Park, the group — stretching nearly a block long — marched through the East Village to La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theater on Fourth Street for a "night of memories, performance, dancing and celebration."

Organizer Chi Chi Valenti, who worked in collaboration with Howl! Happening, Jackie Factory and DJ Johnny Dynell, explained how the evening came together:

"When [Howl! Director] Jane Friedman approached us about helping to stage a big public funeral for this figurative and literal giant, we knew in Hattie's spirit it had to include the East Village community. We organizers were inspired by the Drag March every year from Tompkins Square during Pride weekend, and decided to add such a procession. We did part of the planning from our second home in New Orleans, so naturally the Second Line tradition was also an inspiration as were the LUNGS community garden parades in the East Village that Hattie so loved."

EVG contributor Stacie Joy tagged along with the group, and shared these photos starting in Tompkins Square Park...









Accompanied by a brass band, the group headed out of the Park and onto Avenue A...





The group stopped outside the Pyramid Club on Avenue A, where Hathaway served as creative director...









... and then to LaMama on Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery...









At LaMama, the full house enjoyed a three-part program with a variety of poems, tributes as well as spoken word and musical performances.



As one participant said, "It was a sendoff fit for a queen."

[Updated] The building housing the former Sidewalk sells on Avenue A

[EVG file photo]

We've heard rumors in the past week that 94-96 Avenue A, the building that housed the Sidewalk Bar & Restaurant for nearly 34 years, had a new owner. (The asking price had been $11.9 million.)

On Monday, the paperwork (dated March 14) for the sale was filed in public records. The documents show that the sale price was $9.6 million. The (so far) mystery buyer is listed as PSC Avenue A LLC. The address on the paperwork corresponds to a law firm (Robinson Brog Leinwand Greene Genovese & Gluck) in Midtown.

Not sure what might be next for the building — or its current tenants. According to the listing, the floor area ratio (FAR) allows for one more floor to be added to the building. And per the listing: "The legendary location has seen many walks of life and now it can be yours. The building is a goldmine in the waiting."

As you likely know, new owners have taken over the former Sidewalk, which closed after service on Feb. 23. So far not many details about what's to come here have been made public. There have been rumors that the new establishment will retain the Sidewalk name... and at least one of the open-mic nights.

Don't look for the new place to be open anything soon. Just last week the city issued a permit for renovation work in the bar-restaurant space.

Updated 4/4

Penn South Capital is the owner, Patch reports. Parag Sawhney, founder of Penn South, had this to say:

"We have a new restaurant tenant that will keep the open mic tradition alive," he said by email. "We love the East Village and believe in preserving what make its so special. We had a very peaceful transition from the previous landlord who also owned and managed Sidewalk. That owner has now retired from business and had no interest in staying on as our tenant."

Previously on EV Grieve:
New owners set to take over the 33-year-old Sidewalk Bar & Restaurant on Avenue A

Sunshine Cinema-replacing office building moving forward; demolition watch back on

[EVG file photo]

An item from Crain's to note... especially if you've been wondering about the status of the Sunshine Cinema's corpse on Houston.

The business journal reported yesterday that demolition will soon commence now that the developers have nabbed some loans.

Developers East End Capital and K Property Group just secured a $67 million construction loan from CapitalSource and $19 million of mezzanine financing from Canyon Partners to fund the roughly $90 million project at 141 E. Houston St.

The builders will now break ground on the planned nine-story, 68,000-square-foot office property, which will seek rents above $100 per square foot. The project, catering to deep-pocketed tenants in search of luxury boutique offices, is expected to be completed in about two years.

In an interview with the Commercial Observer in late March 2018, Gregory Kraut, a managing partner at K Property Group, originally said that the demolition of the former theater that dates to 1898 would begin that spring.

East End Capital and K Property Group, who bought the building for $31.5 million in the spring of 2017, have a website marketing the spaces.

Here's the building's "redefined vision" ...

From acclaimed architect Roger Ferris, the only new development of its type on the Lower East Side, 141 East Houston is a new frame for viewing the neighborhood. Column-free and unbounded by walls, it reinterprets the area through a bold geometric perimeter of cladding and glass. State-of-the-art workspaces and private terraces reframe expectations, while a well-connected location recasts perspectives.

With its glass frame and dynamic courtyard running the length of its eastern side, doubling as a second facade, 141 East Houston challenges the distinction between indoors and out.

The ground-floor space along Houston Street will include outdoor seating in "Houston Alley" ...



The five-screen Landmark Sunshine Theater closed Jan. 21, 2018, after a 17-year run.

As Curbed noted in January 2018: "Rising rents put the theater into financial duress; it was served a death blow in 2012 when the Lower East Side community board rejected Landmark’s proposal to offer food and beverage service at the theater."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Discarded theater seats and goodbyes at the Sunshine Cinema

The 9-story boutique office building coming to the former Sunshine Cinema space

A celebratory ad on the purchase of 139 E. Houston St., current home of the Sunshine Cinema

The boutique office building replacing the Sunshine Cinema will be 'unbounded by walls' with an outdoor space called Houston Alley


[Photo outside the Sunshine on Jan. 22, 2018, by EVG reader Karen]

One Manhattan Square moves to the north

You've certainly seen the towering presence of the 72-floor One Manhattan Square off in the distance from Avenue B... Extell's tower is down at 250 South St. near the Manhattan Bridge.

EVG reader Paul Gale shared this photo yesterday ... part of an Extell mailer that unwittingly shows just how imposing this building is on the LES skyline...



Apparently this is what the intersection of "grit and glamour" looks like — somewhere right at Houston and B.

Report: Irving Plaza closing for 8-month renovation

[That time I saw the Damned last October]

Just as Webster Hall is returning to concert action, another area music venue is closing for renovations.

Irving Plaza on Irving Place and 15th Street will close this summer for an 8-month rehab.

Billboard has the story:

[T]he renovations at Irving Plaza will be overseen by Live Nation clubs and theaters division and include revamps of the lobby area and the music hall, new bars on all levels, the addition of a downstairs VIP lounge and remodeling of the mezzanine including a new box-seating section configuration.

Shows are booked through June 30. Live Nation officials say the venue will reopen in 2020 after eight months of work.

The 1,200-capacity venue has been in use for concerts the past 41 years. The Polish Army Veterans of America have owned the building since 1948.

Here's more history via the Irving Plaza website:

Originally, the building was four separate brownstones, which were eventually combined into a hotel in the 1870s. In 1927, the building was gutted and turned into a ballroom-style theater and christened Irving Plaza.

Over the next few decades Irving Plaza would serve as a union meeting house, a performance space for folk dance troupes, and a Polish Army Veteran community center, as well as a venue for the Peoples Songs Hootenannies with Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.

In 1978, Irving Plaza was converted into a rock music venue ...

I've always liked the Irving Plaza, though not everyone shares that sentiment.

'Lucky 20' opens today at the Theater for the New City Art Gallery

EVG regular Lola Sáenz is curating a group show titled "Lucky 20" that opens today at the Theater for the New City Art Gallery, 155 First Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

The exhibit features works — paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media — by artists who live or have worked in the East Village/Lower East Side.

"Lucky 20" features art from the following: Blanka Amezkua, Marcus Carter, Kathy Creutzburg, Selear Duke, Klay-James Enos, Kris Enos, JT Gray, Blake Greene, James Maher, Alisa Muir, Kanako Nagayama, Rochelle Pashkin, Carolyn Ratcliffe, Irene Rodriguez, Daniel Root, Bonnie Rosenstock and Sáenz.

The opening reception is April 10 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. And the gallery is open for viewing daily from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

The Hells Angels have left the East Village

[Photo yesterday via EVG reader Erin S.]

The last of the members of the Hells Angels who lived in their clubhouse at 77 E. Third St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue have moved out.

By yesterday, the Hells Angels logos had been removed from the building's exterior ... and the front door — featuring flaming skulls and a pitchfork-wielding, helmeted-winged demon — had been painted over.

Also gone: The plaque in memory of Big Vinny inscribed "When in doubt knock 'em out." (In 1978, according to published reports, Hells Angel Vincent "Big Vinny" Girolamo was arrested after throwing his girlfriend, Mary Ann Campbell, from the roof of No. 77 to her death. He reportedly died as the result of a knife fight the following year.)


[Image via Wikipedia Commons]

As first reported here in February, there's a Memorandum of Contract (the form preceding a contract of sale) dated this past Dec. 21 between Church of the Angels, Inc. (aka — The Church of Angels) and 77 East 3rd LLC ...



The document was signed by Bartley J. Dowling, president of the NYC Hells Angels chapter, and the purchaser, Nathan Blatter of Whitestone Realty Group.

In a cover story published Sunday at the Post, Blatter said that a deal hasn't been finalized yet. The units in the building are expected to hit the market as rentals.

The Hells Angels have had a presence in 77 E. Third St. since 1969. They eventually bought the six-floor building, which included their clubhouse and member residences (Realtor.com lists 14 units), from Birdie Ruderman in the Bronx for a reported $1,900. The deed on file with the city from November 1977 shows the then-dilapidated building changed hands for $10...



In 1983, chapter president Sandy Alexander took over ownership of the building. The deed from that time states that Alexander, his wife Collette and their family could live on the premises rent free. In addition, in the event that the building was sold, she would stand to receive half of the proceeds.

This agreement was later the basis for a legal tussle in 2013 between the clubhouse and Alexander's family. (Sandy Alexander, who spent six years in prison for dealing cocaine, died in 2007.) That deed was eventually reversed in April 2018, per public documents.



So why now for the Angels to move away? A member named Tony told the Post: "We're being harassed by the yuppies down here [who are] sitting on our bikes and pissing on the sidewalk."

And: "When the neighborhood was s–t, nobody minded us because we kept the place clean. It comes a point where it’s useless to be down here because of the harassment. [We want to] go somewhere we can live comfortably."

The yuppies have apparently been a problem dating to 1987, as this People magazine article from that year shows...



Some excerpts from the article, dated Sept. 7, 1987:

Across the street from the Angels’ clubhouse a banner touting co-ops for sale flaps in the fetid breeze. A partial rehab, featuring a fresh coat of tan paint over a soot-blackened facade, has transformed a sagging old apartment building into trendy housing for the affluent young. You might think that a beer can’s throw away from the lair of a notorious band of bikers would be a less-than-desirable homesite — and you would be right. That’s why a dark, airless, 400-square-foot, one-room apartment there can be had for only $68,000 (plus $388 a month maintenance), about half the going rate in the city’s tonier precincts.

The Angels ... view the neighborhood’s sudden ascension with mixed feelings. "We’ve moved up in social class without leaving the block," jokes chapter president Brendan Manning. But his smile can’t hide that tinge of resentment common to an area’s old families when the nouveaux riches arrive. As his biker buddy Butch Garcia notes, "We always kept this block clean when it was a ghetto, a slum. Now the rich people moved in and everybody’s trying to keep it clean."

Manning, 31, who lives in an apartment above the clubhouse, as do a number of Angels and their families, anticipates no trouble with the new upscale neighbors. "If they don’t bother us, we can deal with them," he says. "As long as they don’t complain and don’t call the cops and" — his barbarically handsome face grows stern — "don’t hit our motorcycles." He vows with a resolve as ineradicable as his tattoos that, even if the clubhouse becomes an island of sweaty denim in a sea of pin-striped wool, there will always be the Angels: "We were here first. We’re not gonna change. We don’t change for nobody. If they can’t handle it, they can move."

In 2009, the Angels started having issues with hostel guests from next door sitting on their bench. You may recall that episode here.

In recent years, there were other territorial issues involving parking spaces and their orange cones. In 2016, there was a reported shooting over a parking spot outside the clubhouse. And in late December, a deliveryman was allegedly sucker punched by a member when he parked his car in front of motorcycles outside the clubhouse.

No word yet on where the members may relocate. According to the Sunday Post: "The gang hopes to relocate to a neighborhood where they won’t be bothered by Starbucks traffic, pushy tourists and nosy cops." As Giovanni noted in the comments on Sunday: "I sincerely hope they enjoy their new home in Wyoming."

CineKink returns to the Anthology Film Archives

[2018 photo by Stacie Joy]

CineKink NYC returns for its 16th annual engagement starting tomorrow (Wednesday) through Sunday ... and the Anthology Film Archives on Second Street at Second Avenue will be the main venue again for the curated program of films and videos that celebrate and explore a wide diversity of sexuality.

A few details via the EVG inbox...

Billing itself as "the kinky film festival," the event is presented by CineKink, an organization dedicated to the recognition and encouragement of sex-positive and kink-friendly depictions in film and television. Works featured at CineKink NYC will range from documentary to drama, comedy to experimental, mildly spicy to quite explicit — and everything in between.

The CineKink NYC festivities commence tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8 p.m. with a fundraising kick-off extravaganza to be held at M1-5 Lounge (52 Walker St.)

The festival then moves to Anthology Film Archives from Thursday through Saturday with several different film programs scheduled for each day.

The festivities conclude Sunday with an afternoon workshop titled "From Fantasy to Film: Design Your Own Porn Film."

One item of local interest to mention: Saturday's slate of shorts includes "The Baroness," who "navigates the ever-growing world of latex fashion." The Baroness has her shop over on 13th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Find all the detail about CineKink 2019 at this link.

And here are a few photos from last year's CineKink via EVG contributor Stacie Joy...

Fare deal: The MTA's new digital payment system arrives at Astor Place

Vinny & O yesterday spotted the MTA's new fare payment system (not in working order yet) at the downtown 6 at Astor Place...



We first heard about this in October 2017, when the MTA board voted to approve a contract to phase in this new digital system.

Per the MTA press release at the time:

The moves help officially mark the formal transition away from the MetroCard, which was first introduced in 1994. ...

Rather than swiping a MetroCard, MTA users will instead be able to use a mobile wallet like Apple Pay or tap a contactless bank card at turnstiles and on buses across the city. The new system will test payment options for all-door boarding on SBS buses, a critical measure for reducing the time it takes for customers to board and travel.

The system was reportedly set to launch this May along a stretch of the 4, 5 and 6 trains and across all bus routes on Staten Island, per amNY.

And a few more details about the tap-and-go system via amNY from June 2018:

In addition to MetroCards, which won’t be completely phased out until 2023, commuters will only be able to use specific, contactless credit or debit cards or mobile wallets from Apple, Google and Samsung to pay for fares during this initial launch.

The MTA won’t unveil its new smart card until February 2021, when it will be available to purchase like any gift card at drugstores and other convenience stores. Vending machines within stations will follow in 2022.

Updated 4/4

Jiang Diner now in soft-open mode on 5th Street

Here's a little more information about Jiang Diner, which is now in a soft opening here at 309 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

According to their website: "Jiang Diner was founded with a mission to introduce authentic Xinjiang-styled Northwestern Chinese food and culture to New York City."

You can find their menu online here.



For now, Jiang's hours are 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, with a 3 p.m. opening on Saturday and Sunday.