These 2 adjacent community gardens have merged on Avenue B

You may have noticed that Vamos a Sembrar, the small community garden on the west side of Avenue B near 12th Street, has been emptied out... ditto for the Avenue B Community Garden on the north side of the plot...



EVG regular Gojira, who shared these photos, was alarmed by the site of the empty lot. "As you can see, it has been leveled — all the greenery has been ripped out, the casita torn down."





I asked Bill LoSasso, director of the NYC Parks GreenThumb, who oversees the city's community gardens, for an explanation.

"The two groups that have stewarded the adjacent community gardens at this site are working together to merge and become one group stewarding one larger community garden. This is an exciting project," he said in an email. "GreenThumb worked with the group over the winter to complete a participatory visioning and design process, and we are beginning the physical implementation of their design. We’ll be supporting them with site improvements and plantings."

The garden will debut a little later this year.

"The community gardeners are excited to see their design realized," said LoSasso, who noted that anyone who's interested in getting involved with the group here can reach out to GreenThumb at this email.

The abandoned bus shelters of Avenue A

The M14 SBS routes launched yesterday... and, as noted, several stops were eliminated ... with the remaining spaced out along Avenue A. MTA officials made sure passengers were aware of which shelters were no longer in use with some art-installation quality tape work...






[Photo by Steven]


[Photo by Steven]

These will likely be removed ... though it's not immediately known if new shelters will be erected at the new stops.

A-Rod owns part of this building on Avenue D

[133 Avenue D via Streeteasy]

In early June, the Post reported that former Yankee Alex Rodriguez teamed up with real-estate veteran Barbara Corcoran to buy "a 21-unit rental tower" in the East Village. However, the two declined to divulge the address.

In a follow-up piece, the Post discloses that the property is 133 Avenue D, a building between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

That address made headlines last August when Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, sold his stake in the building. According to The Real Deal, Cohen — now serving a three-year sentence at Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York — sold four stakes to Vintage Group, his joint venture partner in the ownership of 133 Avenue D, for $4 million.

As for A-Rod, 133 Avenue D is his first foray into New York City real estate. However, his Monument Capital Management company owns about 15,000 apartments in 13 states. He plans on buying up more NYC properties. Per the Post:

A-Rod Corp. has teamed up with real estate investor and operator Ofer Yardeni of Stonehenge NYC and brokerage guru Adam Modlin of the Modlin Group in what they say is an exclusive as-yet-to-be-named venture to root out and purchase all sizes of apartment buildings and bulk condominium units in the Big Apple.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Michael Cohen sells stake in Avenue D building

Monday's parting shot

Aka today in found ATM receipts along Seventh Street... photo by Derek Berg.

Someone has renounced the throne on 3rd Street

EVG regular Salim shared this photo from Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... the sign on the discarded chair reads: "Treat yourself like the royalty you are with this FREE throne."

M14 SBS routes debut today; 14th Street busway now on hold

Starting today, the MTA is instituting Select Bus Service along the notoriously sluggish M14A and M14D lines, as we've been reporting.

So moving forward, passengers can enjoy all-door boarding and off-board fare payments. You've likely seen the new self-serve ticket kiosks along the route. The kiosks also provide handy beverage holders...



To also help speed up travel times, the MTA eliminated 16 stops (down from a proposed 22) along the M14A and M14D routes. You can visit this MTA site for the new route map and info on how to pay the fare on SBS routes.

Several stops along the route were also moved as a result of the cuts. For instance, the southbound M14A stop on the lower part of Avenue A is now directly in front of Boulton & Watt (the taxi relief stand relocated around the corner)...



And we've already heard from a few readers who pointed out that this stop might be a tight fit for passengers entering and exiting buses, having to navigate space with pedestrians as well Boulton & Watt sidewalk cafe patrons...



A little further north on Avenue A, the stop on the west side between Fifth Street and Sixth Street...



... is now between Fifth Street and Fourth Street...


[Photo from Saturday]

There wasn't any mention of this posted, and the city promptly ticketed all the vehicles parked here...



Meanwhile, the car-free busway set to debut today on 14th Street between Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue is now on hold.

Per Gothamist:

In a temporary restraining order issued on Friday, New York Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower ruled that the Department of Transportation had failed to provide sufficient evidence that the new street design did not warrant an environmental review.

The 18-month pilot program, which had broad support from transit advocates, would have restricted private through traffic in both directions between 3rd and 9th Avenues, with the goal of speeding up the notoriously slow 14th Street buses. Paired with the long-awaited arrival of Select Bus Service in the area, the city estimated that bus speeds would improve by as much as 30 percent for 27,000 daily riders.

Last week, the West Village and Chelsea block associations filed a lawsuit claiming that the vehicle restrictions would cause a nightmare of spillover traffic on side streets.

Arthur Schwartz, a frequent opponent of bus and bike lanes who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the community groups, told Gothamist on Friday that he was "feeling happy for my kids who aren't going to have traffic jams outside their windows every day, and for me. I guess my lungs matter too."

As the Post noted, transit advocates ridiculed Schwartz as an out-of-touch "wealthy property owner" who doesn't "understand the needs of the 27,000-plus people who take 14th Street buses each day."

“This sort of small-minded and self-interested behavior has degraded the public transit system to the sorry state it is in today,” said Transportation Alternatives Advocacy Director Tom Devito.

At long last a taxi relief stand for East Houston and 1st Street outside Punjabi Grocery & Deli

With the arrival of the new M14 SBS route today comes another important change: The arrival at long last of a taxi relief stand on Houston Street as well as on First Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...



For a little history... the never-ending East Houston Reconstruction Project finally wrapped up at the end of 2018 — just six years behind schedule.

For nearly nine years, the construction zone eliminated parking spaces for cab drivers, who are a sizable share of Punjabi Grocery & Deli's business here at 114 E. First St., rendering it nearly impossible for them to stop in for a meal or break. Those who did stop faced getting a ticket.


[EVG photo from 2015]

Community members came together in 2014 ... and later in 2015 to petition Community Board 3 and the city for an interim taxi relief stand. (The taxi relief stand was inexplicably some hot-potato issue among various city agencies at the time.)

The temporary taxi relief stand finally arrived on Avenue A between Second Street and Houston in June 2015. That spot on First Avenue outside the Library and Boulton & Watt is, as of today, now an M14A stop.

Now, hopefully, the First Street taxi relief stand will be here to stay — at least until construction picks up next door at 118 First Ave., where a 9-story residential building (with ground-floor retail) is in the works.

Previously on EV Grieve:
How you can help Punjabi Grocery & Deli stay in business

Never-ending construction continues to hurt Punjabi Grocery & Deli

Taxi Relief Stand arrives on Avenue A; Punjabi Grocery & Deli relieved

Concern again for Punjabi Grocery & Deli on 1st Street

Comptroller's office: Park bathrooms in the East Village and LES are the worst in the city

[Photo from 2012 in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams]

A report issued by NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer's office late last week found that the city's 1,428 park bathrooms are — paraphrasing — pretty shitty for a variety of reasons, especially apparent if you've ever been inside the ones in Tompkins Square Park.

Anyway, let's get right to that report:

[M]any NYC Parks comfort stations have fallen into disrepair, subject to poor maintenance and hazardous conditions. Among the 1,428 NYC Parks bathrooms, nearly 400 sinks, toilets, walls, ceilings, changing tables, and other features were damaged or missing during their latest inspection. Over 50 “hazards” were identified that presented the chance of moderate to debilitating injury. And, in nine Community Districts, more than a quarter of NYC Parks bathrooms were deemed “unacceptable.”

And...

[F]ar too many NYC Parks bathrooms remain in unseemly condition; repelling children, families, seniors, and everyday New Yorkers, rather than providing relief. In total, 100 bathrooms across the City were found to be in “unacceptable” condition during their most recent inspection. This included 15 percent of NYC Parks bathrooms in Manhattan and 12 percent in Brooklyn ...

The report breaks down the city into community districts, and leading the pack with the largest share of “unacceptable” park bathrooms is District 3 — Chinatown/the Lower East Side (including the East Village), where 40 percent of the facilities were found to be unacceptable...



... due to a) multiple features being unsatisfactory, b) one feature having a serious safety hazard, or c) the playground having a failed cleanliness rating.

Stringer's report offers recommendations for fixing these park restrooms.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Parks Department disputed Stringer's findings. Gothamist has the story:

"This administration has invested in the construction and reconstruction of more than 15% of our park comfort stations—27 have been completed, and 76 are active capital projects. Since 2015, we have worked to standardize their design and each facility includes changing tables — in the men’s and women’s restrooms.

"Through our robust PIP inspection program, and park management and staff oversight, we closely monitor the conditions of each of our 690 comfort stations. Our reporting shows that they are open on average 94% of the time (FY16, FY17 and FY18) during the season."

ICP now closed on the Bowery ahead of move to Essex Crossing

The International Center of Photography (ICP) has ended its three-year tenure at 250 Bowery.

A sign on the door points patrons to its new home on Broome Street in the Essex Crossing complex — opening in January 2020...



ICP announced the move to Broome Street in the fall of 2017. The new venue — encompassing a full city block between Ludlow and Essex — will have space to house both the ICP Museum and the ICP School.

ICP paid $29 million for the Essex Crossing properties. In turn, the Essex Crossing developers bought ICP’s 250 Bowery space for $25 million, in a deal reported in May.

No word on what is coming next to 250 Bowery near Stanton Street.

As you can see, ICP's new home will not include this stack of tables that are up for grabs on the sidewalk out front...

A new home for Three Kings Tattoo

The East Village location of Three Kings Tattoo has moved into a larger, higher-profile new home at 343 E. 10th St. just west of Avenue B — between Ninth Street Espresso and Maiden Lane.

The shop had been around the corner on Avenue B between 11th Street and 12th Street (and adjacent to a building about to be demolished).

No. 343 has been vacant for years. (Ninth Street Espresso explored expanding here back in 2012, though those plans never materialized.) This space is part of the former Life Cafe, which closed in September 2011.

Avenue C Restaurant coming soon to Avenue C

Signage is up now for Avenue C Restaurant, the name of the new establishment that's taking over the former Edi & the Wolf space at 102 Avenue C between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. (Thanks to Vinny & O for the photo from Saturday.)

We don't know much about this venture. In January, an applicant — listed as Rosey Kalayjian — appeared before CB3's SLA committee for a new liquor license for the space in what was described as a sale of assets. The CB3 materials cited the proposal as "an American restaurant" with hours of 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Kalayjian has previously managed restaurants in Westchester and NYC.

As for an opening date, someone wrote "coming soon" on the front window.

Edi & the Wolf — named for its executive chefs, Eduard "Edi" Frauneder and Wolfgang "the Wolf" Ban — closed in April after nine years in service due to "increasing operating costs," Eater reported.

Schmackary's debuts today on Cooper Square

The second NYC outpost of Schmackary's opens today on 35 Cooper Square at Sixth Street...



The bakery offers 75-plus varieties of cookies ... plus brownie's, krispie treats and Schmackaroons (their take on a macaroon, obviously). They also sell coffee drinks, tea and milk.

The last tenant here, Pourt, the cafe-work space combo, closed after 11 months in December 2017 here in the retail base of the Marymount Manhattan College dormitory.

Previously