Blue Bottle Coffee Company coming to Astor Place

A Blue Bottle Coffee Company outpost is opening at 2 Astor Place at Broadway.

As you can see, the BBCC branding is up in the space that previously housed Middle Eastern chain Semson.

No word on an opening date. BBCC currently has 14 locations in NYC, including on University Place.

Noted

Someone along 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue left a note — FYI! — on this body-shaped item left on the curb for sanitation — "Not a body."



Thanks to @thepunkguy for the photo!

EVG Etc.: Fishing in the East River; Celebrating the Acker Awards

[Moishe's Bake Shop this a.m. — coming back this spring?]

The Bowery Film Festival kicks off its second year (Official site)

How to get involved with Ecological City, a cultural and climate action project on the LES (Official site)

Justin Davison on Essex Crossing: "In a development largely without Instagrammable architecture, it’s the unlikely Rubik’s cube of uses that gives cause for thanks. Instead of treating the area as a blank slate for a developer’s dream, planners stitched together institutions, homes, entertainment, offices, non-deluxe shopping, cheap food, sidewalks, wide avenues, and narrow streets." (New York)

Mixed emotions in leaving the Essex Market (The Lo-Down)

The fish you'll find in the East River (Gothamist)

Bathing with Amelia! (Laura Goggin Photography)

Exploring the Tibetan speciality shop DöKham on First Avenue (Off the Grid ... previously)

Celebrating the Acker Awards (The Villager)

Remembering former Parks commish Henry Stern (City & State)

City Acupuncture East Village is opening a new outpost at 52 E. Seventh St. There's an open house/grand opening party today (April 4) from 5 - 9 p.m. (Facebook)

MORE BUBBLE TEA: Modern Taiwanese chain the Alley coming to Astor Place (Eater)

The city missed a federal deadline to appoint a permanent chair to oversee the NYCHA, but was given 45 days to fill the position (CBS New York)

One view on what New Yorkers think of congestion pricing (Daily News ... more on congestion pricing at Streetsblog ... )

More on the the MetroCard replacement plan (amNY ... previously)

Keep on truckin' — a series featuring 18-wheelers on film, including "Duel," "White Line Fever" and "Convoy" (Anthology Film Archives)

A look at the city's new “progressive mansion tax” (Bloomberg)

A mystery mosaic on University Place (Ephemeral New York)

ICYMI: You have until April 14 to watch images of Earth from Ludlow Street (Untapped Cities)

This figurine of Iggy Pop (Dangerous Minds)

... speaking of rock star poses... a squirrel in Tompkins Square Park strikes one...


[Photo by Steven]

RIP Leslie Sternbergh Alexander

[Leslie Sternbergh Alexander and Adam Alexander]

Leslie Sternbergh Alexander, a longtime East Village resident and respected underground cartoonist and illustrator, died on March 27. Alexander, who was 58, died from multiple systems atrophy, according to a friend.

In a tribute yesterday, Bleeding Cool News noted the many publications where Alexander's detailed work had been published through the years.

[H]er work appeared over three decades in the likes of Twisted Sisters, Real Stuff, The Comics Journal, Cherry Poptart, Juxtapoz, Weirdo, Dori Stories, Wimmen’s Comix, Tits & Clits but also Mad Magazine, Vogue, "DC’s Big Book of Urban Legends," "Big Book Of Thugs" and "Big Book of Little Criminals" and unusually inking a story in a Wonder Woman Annual and contributing to "The History of the Marvel Universe." She even appeared in the "Crumb" movie as one of Robert Crumb’s human chairs, as well as appearing in – and creating comic book illustrations for – the 1989 movie "Alien Space Avenger."

She came to comic books after reading old Mad Magazine paperbacks and collections of Playboy’s Little Annie Fannie when younger, before coming to comics from DC, Warren and the underground scene, learning skills from anatomy classes given by Sal Montano at the New York Academy of Art, including both life drawing from dead bodies.

In 2014, she and her husband, Adam Alexander, who died in late 2017, started an Emergency Rent Party 2014 (aka "Save the Hippies!").

The campaign overview provides more background on both Leslie and Adam, and their relationship...

They're enduring a housing court case after income challenges following Leslie's bout with cancer — successfully cured with surgery — and their adopted store cat Zoubi's end of life expenses. Zoubi succumbed to cancer last year at age 21.

Adam's lived in his apartment for 44 years. Leslie's lived there with Adam since 1985, as Mrs. Alexander since 1986. They'd like to continue to dwell there on an ongoing basis and are amidst various arrangements to ensure that it can happen.

Adam, a bohemian mathematician, is the inventor of Ideal Toys' official sequel to Rubik's Cube, Alexander's Star.

Leslie's drawn comix and written about art and in recent years made wearable art and far as anyone knows she was the first woman to receive a call-back to do a second comic art job for Mad Magazine, nearly 20 years ago now (took 'em long enough!)

They're artists with big hearts and comedic intellects ...

You can find a sampling of her work here and here.

In a tweet, cartoonist and illustrator Colleen Doran wrote: "She was a brilliant underground cartoonist. artist model, and a stupendously funny and beautiful person."

Alexander's friend, illustrator Danny Hellman, left this tribute to her last week on Facebook: "Brilliant. Witty. Talented. Feisty. Eccentric. Unforgettable."

---

Felton Davis shared this photo of Leslie and Adam stopping by to gaze at the stars a few years back ...

Prepping for the Spring Awakening in the neighborhood's community gardens

On April 14, Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) is once again hosting a Spring Awakening in honor of the neighborhood's community gardens.

Per the LUNGS website:

This is LUNGS 6th Spring Awakening. It is a neighborhood celebration of the season and the opening of the community gardens. It is all FREE. There will music, a greening theme, kids’ activities, art as well as community-based programs and environmental and educational workshops. Please come and enjoy!

Ahead of that, there's a costume and poster-making workshop this Saturday at the Green Oasis Garden, 368 E. Eighth St. between Avenue C and Avenue D. The activities take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Per the flyer: "We've got the supplies, bring your imagination."

A future look at the former 650 E. 6th St.

Beyond the plywood here are the remains of 650 E. Sixth St., the former four-story building just west of Avenue C that workers demolished to make way for a 7-story building that will apparently house condos.



This comes nearly three years after the building's new owners filed plans for the project.

As New York Yimby noted in January 2016: "The 8,491-square-foot project will include 7,761 square feet of residential space, which means units will average 1,552 square feet apiece, indicative of condominiums."

No sign of an official rendering just yet via RSVP Architecture Studio, whose other EV work includes the BP-replacing condoplex on Second Avenue and First Street.

This is this on the plywood...



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[EVG photo of No. 650 from February 2018]

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