At the Lower East Side Sports Academy car wash on Avenue D

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

I’m meeting with Lower East Side Sports Academy founder Frankie Alameda on a very hot Thursday afternoon on upper Avenue D near 14th Street. We're in the shadow of the Con Edison substation and across the street from the Manhattan pump station (NYC Environmental Protection municipal water treatment building). His sports academy’s team is in action — washing cars as part of an ongoing fundraiser.

Frankie has set up a mobile car wash station to help provide summer jobs and activities for local kids and to provide a much-needed service for those who own or drive vehicles.



Frankie’s arriving with pizza for himself and the kids, and with bags of PPE to provide to community members who may be in need. Masks, hand sanitizer, gloves and wet wipes are all provided by the office of local Assemblymember Harvey Epstein.



Between overseeing the kids’ work on the line of waiting cars, distributing tips from satisfied customers, and greeting neighborhood regulars, Frankie answers my questions about the car wash.

How did the car wash idea get started, and how is it tied in to the Lower East Side Sports Academy?

The car wash concept started with the idea of raising some money for LES Sports RBI baseball team, for uniforms, equipment, healthy snacks and scholarships for the kids.

How can kids — and their families — get involved with the car wash and the LES Sports Academy?

LES Sports kids earn a stipend and get tips as well from our customers. We have created five jobs for the community. The parents come and help with posting on social media, bringing their cars, and helping with some food.



When is the car wash available and how long do you expect it to last?

The car wash is available every day from noon to 7 p.m. and we plan to stay until the end of the summer, adjusting the hours to accommodate play once that is allowed and it’s safe.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdown, what has been the best part of this experience, and what has been the worst? How are the kids coping?

The pandemic has given us time to focus on new ways to reinvent ourselves and the community. The worst part is not being able to have physical sports for our kids ... I believe most kids are coping with the pandemic, but some have very tough times being home in a small apartment with a large family. Cabin fever!

You mentioned that you hope eventually to buy a generator and a van. What are some of the needs you and the kids have going forward? How can the community support the effort?

Since we opened the car wash, we noticed we needed more things to make our work more efficient and make the cars nice and clean. We are hoping to get a mobile car wash van, with a power wash, and lastly, a generator to be complete.









What’s next for the car wash team?

Sharing our best practices with other youth sports organizations.

You can keep up with the Lower East Side Sports Academy and the car wash — as well as other activities for kids — here. They have a PayPal account at this link.

The East Village Eviction Free Zone

As seen on Avenue A (the flyers are posted elsewhere in the neighborhood). No other information was posted with the flyer, which reads:

Sisters and Brothers, East Village residents: Many of our friends and neighbors, as a consequence of the pandemic, have fallen into serious rent arrears and are in danger of losing their homes due to no fault of their own. Any of us could be facing the same fate. We must come together as one body and defend one another!

We are calling on all of you to help organize the East Village Eviction Free Zone in order to prevent the looming reality of mass evictions throughout our community.

We are calling on you to be part of an Eviction Watch Network that will spring into action the moment one of our neighbors is faced with being forced from their homes out into the street. The kind of action we are talking about is Direct Action to block the marshals from evicting our neighbors.

By coming together and defending one another we will force the banks and the politicians to enact policies that draw funds from the rich in order to bail out the owners and the tenants facing this housing crisis. The calamity of the virus should not be born by those least able to do so, while the immorality and injustice of evicting women, men and children from their homes amidst the pandemic, which threatens to reemerge, is self evidently obscene and must be opposed!

Build the East Village Eviction Free Zone!!

Stay tuned for more to come!

Noted

From the EVG tipline: Spotted on the fence along the New York City Marble Cemetery on Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...

PLEASE
RESPECT the
Neighborhood
You Doing
Your drugs!!
CLEAN UP!!!
RESPECT!!!

Grant Shaffer's NY See

Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood.

EVG Etc.: Nuyorican Poets Cafe keeping the beat; Metrograph launching digital programming

[Summertime rolls on St. Mark's Place]

• How the Nuyorican Poets Cafe on Third Street has adapted to COVID-19 (Time Out)

• NYC's public housing rules could force many released prisoners into homelessness (The Appeal)

• Coronavirus hammered the MTA's finances worse than originally expected at the height of the pandemic; service cuts and rate hikes in the works (NY1)

• Report: The Mayor's Open Streets plan falls short of what the city needs (Streetsblog ... Gothamist ... Transportation Alternatives ... previously on EVG)

• Tenement Museum lays off 76 workers, including all part-time educators (Hyperallergic)

• Metrograph on Ludlow Street launches Digital Membership Program (IndieWire ... official site)

• John Giorno's longtime home on the Bowery will become an archive and grant-giving hub (artNet)

• Ex-New York Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver sentenced to 6 1/2 years (NBC News)

• Financial fallout from COVID-19 causes Doughnut Plant to temporarily close all locations, including the original on the LES (Eater)

• Suggestions for picnic food to bring to Tompkins Square Park (Grub Street)

• Talking head: Breaking down Chris Frantz's new book, "Remain in Love" (Vulture)

• Finding some choice pieces for apartments via all the discarded furniture on the street (The Post)

• What happens if someone steals your CitiBike? (City Limits)

• Long reads: The Citizen app faces growing pains (Wired)

• Mickey Leigh discusses his new single, "Two Sides of the Law" (American Songwriter)

... and Wu-Tang 4ever on Fourth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...

One month on, a look at curbside dining in the East Village

[Gnocco, 10th Street]

We're one month into the city's Open Restaurants program — now in place through October — that allows for curbside dining.

Under an emergency program launched on June 22 as part of the Phase 2 reopening to aid the ailing restaurant industry, nearly 7,000 establishments citywide were authorized to serve food and drinks on sidewalks and curbside spaces.

It hasn't been easy. As previously reported, restaurateurs have had to scramble to stay ahead of the Department of Transportation's seemingly ever-changing guidelines for outdoor dining.

East Village spots such as Kindred, the Roost, Foxface and Il Posto Accanto were among the places that had to tear apart their previously OK'd curbside arrangements – within 24 hours and under the threat of losing their outdoor dining permit. (And we haven't even mentioned the fast-breaking thunderstorms and stifling heat that has added to the stress of the outdoor experience — for both staff and customers.)

Gov. Cuomo has also threatened to shut down bars and restaurants that allow patrons to congregate on sidewalks without social distancing and masks. "It's stupid what you're doing," he said on Monday.

As for the makeshift spaces, they are coming together, looking more comfortable by the day with the additions of paint, plants and patrons. Last week, freelance photographer Eric Leong documented the variety of outdoor dining structures in the East Village. "I enjoy seeing the creativity in designs," he said.

Here's a look at the spaces in action...


[Lavagna, 5th Street at B]


[Brazen Fox, 3rd Avenue at 12th Street]


[Maiden Lane, 10th and B]


[B-Side, Avenue B]


[9th Street at 3rd Avenue]


[Oh! Taisho, St. Mark's Place]


[St. Mark's Place]


[Kitchen Sink, 5th Street]


[Boilermaker, 4th Street]


[One and One, 1st Street at 1st Avenue]


[7B/Horseshoe Bar, 7th at B]


[Mary's O's, Avenue A]


[Amor y Amargo, 6th at A]


[TabeTomo, Avenue A]


[William Barnacle Tavern and Foxface, St. Mark's Place]


[Thursday Kitchen, 9th Street]


[Jeepney, 1st Avenue]


[3rd Avenue]


[Phebe's, the Bowery]

You can find more examples of outdoor dining at his website.

(Another) new owner for 243 E. 7th St.

The three-story, three-unit building at 243 E Seventh St. has sold for $4.35 million, according to public records... making this the third owner in 12 years.

Highpoint Property Group is listed as the buyer of the property here between Avenue C and Avenue D. The seller is Olivier Jaillon, per the records.

Jaillon bought No. 243 for $3.15 million in early 2013 — $200,000 off the price paid by the seller in 2008. The developer planned to gut the building, turning it into two multi-level residences that looked like...


[Rendering by Studio Razavi Architecture]

Those plans never materialized.

It's not known at the moment what Highpoint Property Group has planned. You can likely count on the new building to have a The in the name, though. The Group's other East Village properties include The Slater at 174-176 First Ave., The Topanga at 202 Avenue A and The Callahan at 100 Second Ave.

This tranquil block has seen its share of luxury development through the years, first with the Flowerbox Building. There are also new condos at 253 E. Seventh St. and 277 E. Seventh St. with a townhouse conversation underway at No. 264.

Sushi Kai opening soon on 9th Street

Look for Sushi Kai to be opening in the weeks ahead here at 332 E. Ninth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue... workers have been working in the space of late, and the signage went up yesterday...



We don't know much else at the moment about the new venture, which takes over the address from MAD Toast House, which closed in February after nearly eight months in business.

Thanks to Steven for the photos!

Wednesday's parting shot

Trying to make the temps feel cooler today by carrying a snowboard?

Photo on Second Avenue by Derek Berg...

A Blood Drive at the Clemente Center tomorrow

There's a blood drive tomorrow (Thursday!) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Clemente Center on Suffolk and Rivington sponsored by the New York Blood Center.

The nonprofit has put out another urgent call for blood donations. You need to make an appointment by calling 1-800-933-2566. You can also do so by email via this site.

RIP Frans Nieuwendam

In an ongoing feature titled "Those We Lost" at The New York Times, the paper is paying tribute to New Yorkers who died of COVID-19 this year.

On Sunday, the paper featured Francois "Frans" Nieuwendam, who died on May 3 at his East Village apartment. He was 60.

Aside from a career working the door at high-end clubs in the day, he was "a made-to-measure specialist helping men’s wear customers at Barneys and other retailers and as a consultant for, and producer of, fashion shows."

Here's more from an obituary at Legacy.com:

As a young man in London, Frans spent his meager allowance on King's Road emulating the looks of style icons the likes of David Bowie and Brian Ferry. He worked as a bespoke, made to measure consultant for Alfred Dunhill, Jil Sander, Barney's and Hickey Freeman. He often advised that "The suit is always the best garment to flatter a man."

According to his friend Sudha Chinniah: "Frans was absolutely the most stylish man in any room he entered, but dominated much more profoundly in his elegance of character and ability to connect with anyone he met."

Odessa is closed for now, but will it reopen?

[Photo yesterday by Stacie Joy]

As expected, Odessa Restaurant, 119 Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place, closed after service late Sunday night.

Three "Sorry We're Closed" signs arrived outside on Monday afternoon.


[Photo by Steven]

After hearing rumors on Facebook (one post was shared more than 1,100 times) the weekend of July 10 that Odessa was going to close, EVG correspondent Stacie Joy received in-person confirmation on July 12 from longtime manager Dennis Vassilatos, who shared that the diner was shutting down on July 19 after a prolonged slump in business due to COVID-19. He also said at the time that there wasn't any truth that the space was closing for renovations.

The news brought out some remembrances of a diner that has had a presence on the block since the mid-1960s.

By this past Friday afternoon, however, the story had changed. As Gothamist reported, co-owner Steve Helios stated that Odessa was only shutting down temporarily. "We'll be back," he said in the post, eyeing a return some time in 2021. The super for the building, owned by Odessa partner Mike Skulikidis, also confirmed the renovation to Gothamist.

This news took the staff by surprise. None of the employees on Friday evening were aware of these plans. In a conversation with Stacie, Vassilatos maintained that Odessa was closing, that he hadn't heard from ownership yet about any other arrangements.

Stacie asked if it was possible that she'd see him in the same spot this time next year and he said, "anything's possible in life, but don't count on it."

Since Sunday, we've heard from several longtime Odessa regulars about what is happening moving forward. Many of them are surprised and confused — and hopeful. On Sunday, one longtime customer who stopped by for a last meal to go was told by staff that Odessa might be back in five or six months, or else the owners might just rent out the prime space to another restaurant.

There are several theories that regulars are floating, including:

• The owners had been planning on a renovation and never told staff.
• The owners changed their minds after the uptick in business on what was to be their last week, opting to close for renovations to ride out the pandemic and reopen in 2021.
• The Odessa has closed for good, and the renovations narrative was simply to ease the pain of the closure.

So for now, Odessa is closed. There aren't any signs on the door stating a renovation. We didn't spot anyone inside the space either Monday or yesterday. And given that Odessa lacks a social media presence, there isn't any unified message about the future to customers.


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

Odessa Restaurant opened in this space in April 1995. The original Odessa closed next door in August 2013

Previously on EV Grieve:
• A Visit to Odessa Restaurant

• Last call for the Odessa Cafe and Bar tonight