Saturday's parting shot

The Christmas lights went up today outside 7B/Vazac's/Horseshoe Bar on Seventh Street and Avenue B (will check back for this view later) ... thanks to EVG reader Emily Reese for the photo!

6 posts from November

[A recent fall day in Tompkins Square Park]

A mini month in review...

• A visit to Turntable Lab on 10th Street (Nov. 26)

• Details on the guilty verdicts in the 2nd Avenue gas explosion case (Nov. 18)

• A visit to the new Tompkins Square Playground featuring equipment for kids with special needs (Nov. 14)

• A look at Book Club, the new bookstore-cafe on 3rd Street (Nov. 8)

• After 20-plus years in the East Village, Obscura Antiques and Oddities is closing (Nov. 7)

• Enz's Boutique has closed on 2nd Avenue (Nov. 4)

Your guide to getting Local today and every day of the week

Info from the East Village Community Coalition via the EVG inbox...

Help keep your local storefronts bustling on Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and every day with EVCC's new online Get Local Guide.

Our new Guide is updated in real time. So it's the best place to find up-to-date information on the go.

Don't worry, we're still printing those cute little books! Our 2020 Get Local Guide arrives next week.

'Hide' and Seek

Some new shoegaze courtesy of Deserta, the latest project from Matthew Doty. The debut release from Deserta is out in early 2020. The audio track here for "Hide" came out last week.

About the Messages to Go shopping bags that support small businesses in the East Village

[Rossy's Bakery & Cafe owner Rossy Caba, right]

The East Village Independent Merchants Association (EVIMA) and FABnyc have joined forces to bring greater awareness and appreciation to small- and immigrant-owned businesses in the East Village.

Beginning Small Business Saturday (tomorrow, Nov. 29!), customers can stop by any of the participating businesses and pick up their free Messages to Go shopping bags:

● Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, 28 E. Second St. (between Second Avenue and the Bowery)
● Downtown Yarn, 45 Avenue A (between Third Street and Fourth Street)
● Dual Specialty Shop, 91 First Ave. (between Fifth Street and Sixth Street)
● Exit9 Gift Emporium, 51 Avenue A (between Third Street and Fourth Street)
● East Village Vintage Collective, 545 E. 12th. St. (between Avenue A and Avenue B)
● Lancelotti Housewares, 66 Avenue A (between Fourth Street and Fifth Street)
● La Sirena Mexican Folk Art, 27 E. Third St. (between Second Avenue and the Bowery)
● Pageant Print Shop, 69 E. Fourth St. (between Second Avenue and the Bowery)
● Pink Olive Card Shop, 439 E. Ninth St. (between Avenue A and First Avenue)
● Random Accessories, 77 E. Fourth St. (between Second Avenue and the Bowery)
● Rossy's Bakery & Café, 242 E. Third St. (between Avenue B and Avenue C)

Messages to Go is an art project by Hatuey Ramos-Fermín that creates and distributes a series of reusable shopping bags based on conversations with local business owners and advocates to draw attention to small business displacement in the Lower East Side.

EVG contributor Stacie joy shared these photos of the bag featured at Rossy's Bakery & Cafe ...

Coat drive at an.mé on 9th Street

Now through Dec. 6, an.mé, the boutique for kids and families on Ninth Street, is holding a coat drive for WIN (Women in Need), a social-services agency that helps women and children with housing and other critical needs.

Via the EVG inbox:

This year they are asking for preloved or new coats for kids ages 3-16 and winter accessories, same age range.

We have a collection box in the store and are offering anyone who brings in coats 15 percent off their purchase from us that day. They can even purchase items from us to donate and receive the 15 percent off that purchase.

The shop is at 328 E. Ninth St between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

An empty storefront now at 350 E. 9th St.

[Photo yesterday by Steven]

The beQu Juice (or Bqjuice) at 350 E. Ninth St. is now closed... as we noted, Wednesday was expected to be the last day in business here just west of First Avenue.

On Thanksgiving day, someone (the landlord? a juice-shop employee?) covered the front window with flattened cardboard boxes.

Bq — short for Beyond Quality — opened in January 2014 at the former home of the 9th Street Bakery, which closed in 2012 following a rent increase.

At the time, bakery owners Oleg and Tetyana Kucherenko said that they couldn't afford the 38 percent rent hike that the landlord was requesting with a new lease. They were on a month-to-month rent arrangement until the landlord found a new tenant.

Oleg told Gothamist in 2012 how much their demographic had changed.

"[It's got] nothing to do about rent, it's about business. It can't be generalized because the neighborhood in this spot really changed. Changed so much. I have maybe 5 percent of my customers left. I was fighting until the end, but it was already bad a year ago."

Until 2012, a bakery had been in this storefront for 87 years.

Interesting new business opens on 1st Avenue and 14th Street

That AT&T store is now open for business on the southwest corner of First Avenue and 14th Street. (Photo from EVG AT&T Authorized Retailer correspondent Pinch.)

This zone is now a hotspot for wireless services, with AT&T joining the MetroPCS next door and the T-Mobile on the southeast corner of 14th and First.

The previous tenant here, the Vitamin Shoppe, closed in November 2018 after nine years in business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Signage for interesting new business arrives on 1st Avenue and 14th Street

Dark Bird

Dark Bird

unexpected i could not unsee

this dark bird appearing before me

i stood still among the walking

as not to alarm this visiting

foraging fellow below the tree

food there finding i could not see

am i the only one noticing

so much beauty hops along

unexpected with a flap of wings

lands closer upon the fence

regarding me with a curious eye

my mind racing our relevance

before more than a breath a sigh

another flap of wings up and away

through the portal in the sky

alas too brief this silent stay

•

peter radley

Tree Riders NYC will soon be selling trees on 2nd Avenue

EVG correspondent Steven reports that the Tree Riders NYC have started setting up their tree shop today outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street...





The Christmas trees will arrive here on Friday... this is arguably the most popular and cheerful of the tree stands in the neighborhood... since 2011.

Soon...


[2018]

The Tompkins Square Park holiday tree lighting is Dec. 8!

[Photo by Steven]

Well, while you're waiting for one holiday to begin... here's some save-the-date info — the 28th edition of the Tompkins Square Park tree lighting happens on Dec. 8 from 4-5 p.m.

Expect caroling, refreshments, etc.! Always a good time. More details next week!

Meanwhile, in a bit of good news, that mysterious hole that arrived near the tree last Christmas Eve eve was filled in on Nov. 6 after nearly 11 months ...


[Photo from Nov. 6 by Steven]

(Of course there are those smaller mysterious holes now...)

A quick look at the under-renovation Joseph C. Sauer Park

Renovation work started the week of Oct. 21 here at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

The Parks website lists construction as 2 percent complete... here's a look at 2 percent in the books...







The upgrades include new equipment, seating areas and plantings. The $4-million renovations — part of Mayor de Blasio’s Community Parks Initiative — have a completion date of October 2020, per the Park's website.

The schematic on the Parks website still shows a 4-foot fence along 12th Street...



On Oct. 18, following a petition drive and community concern over safety issues, local Assemblymember Harvey Epstein and City Councilmember Carlina Rivera announced a deal with the city that would keep the fence outside the Park at 8 feet once it reopens.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A petition to keep the 8-foot fence at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street

Year-long renovations expected soon at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street; locals want fence to remain at 8 feet

Pols: Fence at Joseph C. Sauer Park on 12th Street will remain at 8 feet