Irving Plaza is now closed for renovations

[Photo by @thegrrlmorgan via @IrvingPlaza]

Irving Plaza is now officially closed for an eight-month rehab. The 1,200-capacity music venue on Irving Place and 15th Street closed after a show Sunday night featuring headliner Anberlin.

As for the renovations, here's Billboard with the story from this past April:

[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.

Live Nation officials have said the venue will reopen in the first quarter of 2020.

There was an Irving Place Appreciation Night on July 1, a free show featuring Robert Gordon as well as local bands ElectraJets, The Trash Bags, Beechwood and The Advertisers.


[The Trash Bags]


[Beechwood]


[The Advertisers — the first band on the bill]

The 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 ...

As for more recent history, here are some bands that I've seen at the Irving Plaza in recent years... courtesy of the framed posters at the venue...

Closings: Pie by the Pound wraps up 17 years on 4th Avenue

[Image via Facebook]

After 17 years of selling pizza by its weight, the appropriately named Pie by the Pound has closed on Fourth Avenue between 12th Street and 13th Street.

June 30 was the shop's last day.

Here's part of the message from owner Jeffrey Reiss on Facebook:

It is time to say goodbye😭🙁😢. I want to thank the local community and beyond for supporting us and who have been our fans until the end. I will deeply miss the vegetarian, vegan and especially the Gluten Free Communities. Such beautiful memories of all the families and kids and my staff....that will last a lifetime. I will miss this place. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.

Love,
Jeffrey

A regular told us that the lease was up, and Reiss wanted to pursue other opportunities.

H/T Kat!

Kikoo Sushi's second 1st Avenue outpost is now open

As noted back in the spring, Kikoo Sushi, the all-you-can-eat specialist currently at 141 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street, was opening a second outpost at No. 210 between 12th Street and 13th Street.

Anyway, that second location is up and running now.

The new restaurant also marks the Great First Avenue Sushi Merger of 2019 as Kumo Sushi is also part of this operation... which means the former Kumo space on the southeast corner of First Avenue at 13th Street is now vacant...





A reliable source told us that Kumo's lease was up ... and that for now, Kikoo will continue on at 141 First Ave.

As for No. 210, that retail space was home to a Papa John's (2010-2018) before the sushi rolled in.

H/T Steven!

Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea coming to former CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice space on St. Mark's Place

Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea is the next tenant for 33 St. Mark's Place. Signage is up now at the storefront between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

The chainlet, with an outpost in Flushing, takes over the space from CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice, the Taiwan-based chain that closed in late May after nearly five and a half years.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rockit Scientist Records to become a bubble tea shop on St. Mark's Place

Wednesday's parting shot

This hot and humid weather brings out the best! Photo on Fourth Street today by Derek Berg.

Noted, You Pigs Edition

EVG reader Boxysean shares this photo of a bag of bags on the fence along Tompkins Square Park at Seventh and B... and the bag has a message written on it:

Here's some bags to pick up after your dogs you pigs

EVG Etc.: Cyclists rally for safer streets; Martin Rev talks about his life and work

[The U.S. Women's Soccer team mural created last month in First Park by Lexi Bella]

Cyclists stage Die-In in Washington Square Park to advocate for safer streets (Gothamist ... Curbed ... amNY)

After Avenue A Citi Bike collision, top cop says officers can use deadly force against cyclists (Streetsblog ... first on EVG)

MTA says halting car ban on 14th Street is causing "public confusion" (The Post)

GOLES is hosting a free workshop tomorrow night (July 11) on the new NY Rent Laws (Official site)

Suicide's Martin Rev — an EV resident — discusses his life and work and the making of one of music's greatest albums (Dangerous Minds)

More on the Gem Spa's fight for survival (Off the Grid ... previously on EVG)

Speaking of Gem Spa, they now serve a vegan egg cream...

View this post on Instagram

Introducing Vegan Eggcreams! Exclusively at the one & only Gem Spa (widely known to make NYC’s best eggcream)! Be sure to share this post and tell your friends to follow us at @besteggcream!🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤#gemspa #vegan #eggcream #veganfood #vegans #veganfoodspot #veganfoodshare #veganlife #veganfoodshares #veganfoodlovers #vegancommunity #vegantreats #vegansofig #vegansnack #veganism #veganfoodie #veganfit #veganeats #veganproducts #veganfoodporn #veganlifestyle #vegantravel #vegannyc #nycvegan #nycveganeats #nycvegans #veganinnyc #nycveganfood #veganeatsnyc #nyceats

A post shared by Gem Spa (@besteggcream) on Jul 8, 2019 at 4:04pm PDT

This morning in photos of a Lamborghini parked in front of a fire hydrant on 7th Street

Thanks to EVG reader Jill for this photo on Seventh Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.

Perhaps the tradition will continue...

RUMOR: The Boys' Club building on 10th and A has a new owner; will remain in use as a nonprofit

[EVG photo from last fall]

In recent weeks, several residents — and credible sources — have shared tips about the Boys' Club of New York's East Village clubhouse on 10th Street and Avenue A.

As I first reported in June 2018, Executive Director Stephen Tosh told alumni about the BCNY's plan to sell its Harriman Clubhouse, which opened in 1901. The BCNY would continue to use the space through June 2019. A listing for the 7-story building arrived on the Cushman & Wakefield website last October with a $32 million asking price.

According to several tipsters who have provided reliable information in the past, sources at the Boys' Club have said that the building was sold to a "nonprofit arts organization and will be a theater and house various arts-related entities." In addition, the Boys' Club would rent part of the space for one more year while searching for a new space in the area.

Neighbors have also noted a surprising lack of activity at the building this summer — at odds with an organization supposedly on the move.

However, to date, there isn't any public record about a sale of the Harriman Clubhouse at 287 E. 10th St.

In addition, Boys' Club officials squashed the sales rumor.

"The building has not been sold. The process is continuing," Shonda Smith, the BCNY's director of communications, said in an email. "When we have something to share, we will let you know."

The listing for the building last fall pitched the property as either "an ideal conversion opportunity or continued educational/recreational use by an end user." The 50,000-square foot building includes classrooms, a gymnasium, an auditorium, music studios, recreational and pool space.

The accompanying sales materials highlighted the recent luxury condo developments that have cropped up nearby, including Steiner East Village and Ben Shaoul's 100 Avenue A.

Last fall, local elected officials — including Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Sen. Brad Hoylman, Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, and City Councilmember Carlina Rivera — urged the BCNY board to postpone the sale until they consult with the community in "good faith." However, the BCNY declined to meet with the elected leaders.

Tosh said last year that the sale of the East Village building would allow BCNY the opportunity to start new programs in a neighborhood such as Brownsville or East New York.

For their part, community activists and parents have said that a compelling need remains in the East Village and Lower East Side for the kind of activities that the Boys' Club offers.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Local elected officials urge Boys' Club officials to postpone sale of the Harriman Clubhouse

Boys' Club of New York selling East Village building; will remain open through June 2019

During noon rally today, local elected officials will seek postponement of Boys' Club building sale

[Updated] Exclusive: The Boys' Club of New York puts the Harriman Clubhouse on the sales market for $32 million

Boys' Club fast tracks sale of East Village clubhouse as final bids are due Oct. 30

A visit to East River Park

Photos by Stacie Joy

This past July 4, EVG contributor Stacie Joy visited East River Park, documenting the visitors who were out enjoying the holiday and ideal summer weather.

If all goes according to the city's updated plans, then this marked the last July 4 along this stretch of the Park for the next four years. As previously reported, city officials, starting next spring, will close East River Park, burying it with 8- to 10-feet of soil to help protect the east side from future storms as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency project.

The controversial plan is currently winding through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. Community Board 3 recently signed off on the project, though with a list of conditions. (On Monday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer asked city officials for a 60-day delay for the City Planning Commission hearing to address unanswered questions about the project.)

Stacie noted there was some misinformation about the city's plan from a few of the people she talked with in East River Park, including the length of the closure (one person said 10 to 15 years, which, well...). Another person thought that East River Park was closing for good. Overall, though, Stacie reported that there was a positive, low-key vibe along the waterfront on this July 4 holiday.

Prepping 183 Avenue B for demolition

Prepwork is underway to demolish 183 Avenue B, the four-story building between 11th Street and 12th Street.

The sidewalk bridge recently arrived ... as well as the warning notices about baiting for rats...



As we reported on June 13, reps for the owner of No. 183 have filed plans for a new 8-floor residential building here.

According to the permit filed with the city, the building will have 12 residential units with ground-floor retail. (The demo permits were filed with the city in April.)

In January 2017, Corcoran listed the property with a $4.75 million ask. The building — with air rights intact — sold for that exact amount in April 2017, per public records. The DOB permit lists Richard Pino via the Tompkins 183 LLC as the owner.

Another reminder that a Calexico outpost is opening on 2nd Avenue

The Calexico outpost coming to 99 Second Ave. is moving closer toward an opening... EVG correspondent Steven spotted these open-call signs outside the restaurant yesterday here between Fifth Street and Sixth Street... not sure if they'll be looking to continue hiring today...



The owners — brothers Brian, Dave, and Jesse Vendley — received the OK from CB3 last August for a liquor license for this space, which was previously home to Brick Lane Curry House. (Brick Lane moved one block to the south.)

The Cal-Mex burrito-beer chainlet currently has a handful of NYC locations (Upper East Side, Greenpoint, Park Slope, Red Hook, among them) as well as in Detroit — and Bahrain.

Previously

Noted

The 10 NYC Commandments, as written on a discarded mattress on Second Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...

1. There is only 1 God (Money)
2. Honor thy lease
3. Don't covet thy neighbor
4. Don't worship false presidents
5. Do not lie (except on dates)
6. Do not steal (except from work)
7. I am a fucking jealous God
8. Do not forsake NY
9. Sunday is a day of brunch
10. Do not kill your dream


Courtesy of Adrian Wilson ...

RIP Steve Cannon

[Image via Facebook]

Update: A gathering to remember Steve Cannon and collectively mourn his loss is set for Sunday, July 14 at the Bowery Poetry Club from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Steve Cannon, a local cultural icon who founded the East Village-based A Gathering of the Tribes, died this past weekend. He was 84. A cause of death was not immediately known.

Cannon, who was born in New Orleans in 1935, had been recovering at the VillageCare Rehabilitation and Nursing Center on West Houston Street for a broken hip, according to The Villager.

In 1991, Cannon founded A Gathering Of The Tribes as an arts and cultural organization "dedicated to excellence in the arts from a diverse perspective." It started as a print magazine at the time that he lost his eyesight to glaucoma. Through the years, A Gathering of the Tribes evolved into a salon of sorts in Cannon's East Third Street apartment for artists to meet and exchange ideas.

As The New York Times Style Magazine described it in a February 2018 feature: "It was a living monument to Lower Manhattan’s lineage of multicultural artists and thinkers — people who often get overlooked in favor of narratives of and by successive generations of self-destructing, gentrifying white bohemians — but it was also an all-hours open house, where all were welcome (even the gentrifying white bohemians) and an essential site of Lower Manhattan’s last gasp as the center of the avant-garde."

Here's more on Cannon from that Times piece:

Cannon ... came to New York in 1962, and even before he founded Tribes, he played such a role in New York’s counterculture that he has become a kind of oracular figure to those who have encountered him. In the early ’60s, he convened informal discussions about music and literature with writers like [writer David] Henderson and [his friend Ishmael] Reed and other members of Umbra.

In the 1970s, Cannon ran a publishing house with Reed and the poet Joe Johnson that was one of the first independent presses to focus on multicultural literature. The painter Gerald Jackson once saved him from drowning in the Hudson River. Sun Ra used to seek him out to tell stories about flying around in space. (“If he says he flew into space, then I guess he flew into space,” Cannon says.) He helped integrate the public university school system in New York by becoming an early faculty member at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, where he taught humanities. The composer Butch Morris refined his ideas of improvised music in his living room.

After a lengthy legal battle with his landlord, Cannon moved out of his longtime Third Street home in 2014, relocating to East Sixth Street.

Cannon's friends and followers have been leaving tributes these past 48 hours...

View this post on Instagram

Steve Cannon R.I.P😎🙏🏽🕊 I remember him always sitting at the corner of the bar at the NuyoricanPoets Cafe smoking a cigarette, long ash refusing to drop. A young poet prepares to take the stage to read/slam/spit his/her poem...but first begins to explain what the poem is about. Steve, the blind ogre with a heart of gold yells out from his sacred corner of the bar "Read the goddamn poem!" He seemed mean but he made us (me) better, made us (me) sharper less afraid to take the stage and just "read the goddamn poem" without apology or explanation. He loved us poets. He toughened us. He is gone. There are more stories more memories... more than more, much more. This is just one of the so many more that popped in my mind. For you Steve I will READ THE GODDAMN POEM #stevecannon #nuyoricalpoetscafe #tribes #blackpoet #apoetsangel #readthedamnpoem

A post shared by Liza Jessie Peterson (@lizajessiepeterson) on Jul 7, 2019 at 9:14am PDT

View this post on Instagram

we love you madly Steve Cannon. Poet. Professor. cultural leader. Gatherer of souls. you did everything imaginable for artists and for our city. you showed us that Magic was still here, despite the new york changes, showing us what yesterday was Like and what today could be. your Space fostered countless new relationships, visions, creations. I found my way to the Tribes doorstep as a wandering 18 year old artist looking for something real.. it changed and illuminated everything. we Honor you by the continuation of generations that Thrived because of your selfless work and your love. we love you madly madly madly. (photographs © No Land, one by @chavisawoods and one by Gaia squarci) @a_gathering_of_the_tribes @bobholman @illybeats #stevecannon #gatheringofthetribes #tribesgallery #umbrapoets #lowereastsidenyc

A post shared by No Land (@nolandtapes) on Jul 7, 2019 at 9:44am PDT

We'll update the post when more details are available, including news of a memorial.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Musical interludes: Steve Cannon plays piano at Tribes Gallery

A Gathering of Tribes faces an uncertain future on East Third Street

P.C. Richard is gone on 14th Street; preservationists want answers about tech-hub commitments

The former P.C. Richard and Son complex on 14th Street at Irving Place has been KO'd ...



Workers have mostly cleared the site for the eventual construction of the 22-story Union Square Tech Training Center (aka tech hub). Foundation work is expected soon.

While there's noticeable progress on this new-building front, the Village Preservation is left wondering what happened to the commitments that were made last summer as part of the tech hub approval "that have been broken or not been met."

The group recently sent a letter (copy here) to Mayor de Blasio and local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera.

Per that letter: "It is deeply disturbing to see that a full year after the approval, while the developer has moved full steam ahead with their project, there has been no movement whatsoever on any of these incredibly modest protections which were promised."

Here's more via the Village Preservation website:

On the occasion of a year having passed since the City Planning Commission approved the upzoning for the 14th Street Tech Hub, we pointed out that the sole zoning protection for the impacted neighborhood promised by Councilmember Rivera and the City – the imposition of a requirement of a special permit for new hotels in the 3rd and 4th Avenue corridors — has not been implemented or even drafted, nor had a promised “tenant protection campaign” for area residents which was to include “community-wide forums” and “door-knocking campaigns.”

The group also took issue with the blocking of pedestrian and vehicular traffic outside the site.

We further pointed out that the developer explicitly committed that all demolition and construction work would be done within the bounds of the property and that neither the sidewalk on 14th Street nor the roadbed would be encroached upon.

Instead, with City permission, the developer has encroached upon the sidewalk and two of three lanes of eastbound traffic, forcing pedestrians waiting for the bus to stand in the street, and completely blocking the single remaining lane of eastbound traffic when MTA buses stop to pick up and let off passengers in front of the tech hub site (where a bus stop is located).

Curbed has more on the story here, including comments from Rivera's office and the Department of City Planning, who says "it is working to address neighborhood concerns raised by the Council member and is combing through what a special hotel permit would entail for the area."

A spokesperson for de Blasio told Gothamist last week that the administration was "actively working to address the concerns respect to future development as well as preservation of existing housing in the Union Square South area."

The project is being developed jointly by the city’s Economic Development Corp. and RAL. The Union Square Tech Training Center includes Civic Hall, which will offer digital skills for low-income residents, as well as market-rate retail, office space and a food hall.

The hub, championed by Mayor de Blasio and initially announced in early 2017, passed through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process earlier in 2018, capped off by a unanimous City Council vote in August. A rezoning was required to build the the structure, which is larger than what current commercial zoning allows.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Behold Civic Hall, the high-tech future of Union Square — and NYC

Speaking out against a 'Silicon Alley' in this neighborhood

P.C. Richard puts up the moving signs on 14th Street; more Tech Hub debate to come

Preservationists: City schedules next public hearing on tech hub without any public notice

City Council's lone public hearing on the 14th Street tech hub is tomorrow

City Council unanimously approves tech hub; some disappointment in lack of zoning protections

The conversation continues on the now-approved tech hub for 14th Street

Report: Preservationists want probe of the tech hub deal on 14th Street

A rendering and vintage erotic playing cards (NSFW) at the under-renovation (and mysterious!) 84 2nd Ave.

There's now a rendering on the plywood offering a look at what the under-renovation 84 Second Ave. will look like when work is complete here between Fourth Street and Fifth Street...



We noted a few weeks ago that work is underway on the five-floor building, including "a horizontal enlargement at the rear." (Read the previous post for all the details on the renovations.)

Also as noted though the years, the building had a dark, mysterious air ... there was the now-removed plastic-covered dinner jacket in the second-story window with the neon sign that read "DRESS SUITS TO HIRE."


[Photo by Jeremiah Moss]

In 1974, Helen Sopolsky, proprietor of the family's tailor shop, was found bludgeoned to death, according to published reports at the time. The case was never solved ... and the storefront remained empty — save for that dinner jacket — in the years following her death.

Her sister, Betty Sopolsky, remained a tenant of the building, which she sold in 2016. It was not known who else may have lived at No. 84.

Another curiosity about the address was discovered last week. (NSFW below!) A worker with the crew renovating the space showed EVG correspondent Derek Berg these vintage erotic playing cards that were found inside a wall in one of the rooms...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Plywood and a petition at 84 2nd Ave.

Workers clearing out the mysterious 84 2nd Ave. storefront

Renovations proposed for mysterious 84 2nd Ave.

Mysterious 84 2nd Ave. sells again, this time for $7.8 million

There are new plans to expand the mysterious 84 2nd Ave.