East River Park greenway now closing up to 10th Street

Starting today, the greenway that runs parallel to the FDR and along East River Park will shut down up to 10th Street Street, according to the weekly construction bulletin. 

Workers closed the greenway between Montgomery and Stanton streets starting on Dec. 6. The bulletin notes that workers will "finish protective fence installation" along this corridor. (Click on the image below for more detail) ...

Park entry will remain at Houston, Sixth Street and 10th Street. The city has said they will maintain public access to a minimum of 42 percent of the park throughout construction, expected to be complete by the end of 2026.

To date, work on the $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency project has focused on cutting down trees and demolishing all the amenities (for a while in defiance of a Temporary Restraining Order), including the amphitheater, below Stanton Street.

On Dec. 31, photo-journalist Nathan Kensinger filed a "Goodbye To East River Park" essay for Gothamist.

An excerpt from the article highlights the slapdash nature of the work to date:

The de Blasio administration has left behind a decidedly mixed climate change legacy, and one of its largest shortcomings has been falling behind on billions of dollars of coastal infrastructure projects initiated in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. This last-minute destruction of East River Park has proved to be disruptive and lacks the transparency and safety measures usually seen at city demolition and construction sites.

Visitors to the park, including bicyclists, joggers, skateboarders and wheelchair-bound retirees, were left befuddled by the sudden closure of its southern entrances and paths.

No official construction signs, project descriptions or permits were mounted at the demolition sites. Clouds of dust rose up from the removal of the amphitheater's aged concrete, behind a flimsy barrier of dilapidated fences and caution tape.

As one of the final acts of the de Blasio administration, the demolition of East River Park marks the last chapter in the mayor's climate change legacy, ending his term on a controversial note, and leaving his successor with a messy process that will take years to complete.

The current plans call for gutting East River Park — burying the existing 57.5-acre land under fill and elevating it by 8-to-10 feet above sea level while also cutting down 1,000 mature trees. The new park is expected to protect the Lower East Side from storm surges until at least 2050. 

However, as the Gothamist piece notes, "if sea levels rapidly rise, the park may need to be demolished and raised again."

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Concerned community members are gathering this morning at 8 at the Houston Street entrance. They are coming together "in protection of East River Park from this ecocide needlessly being carried out by the City with an extraordinary lack of safety measures in light of unprecedented conditions created by the COVID-19 surge and in the absence of any State, City or Federal Official or Agency willing to claim responsible environmental oversight."

An end of the ride: Busy Bee Bikes closes on 6th Street

Busy Bee Bikes has ended its long tenure at 437 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

A for rent sign hangs in the window of the yellow storefront with the handpainted signage, and the space was emptied out over the weekend. On Saturday evening, workers inside the storefront told an EVG reader that they were closed for good.

Several years after debuting, there were some claims that the shop pedaled hot property. And in early 2010, as The New York Times reported, Busy Bee was busted for buying stolen bikes at the time... reopening "after a $4,000 fine and under court-ordered stipulations that include random inspections and severe restrictions on purchasing used bikes."

An owner, the Times reported, was Joseph Malewich, a former NYPD detective. He opened the shop in 2004 with local bike legend Emey Hoffman, who died in 2009.

Busy Bee joins some other bike shops to close in the neighborhood in recent years... including Bikes, By George! ... Landmark Bicycles ... and Danny's Cycles.

As for other shops in business:

• Bfold Folding Bicycles, 224 E. 13th St.

• BikeFixNYC, 334 E. Sixth St.

• CC Cyclery & Co., 530 E. 13th St.

• NYC Velo, 66 Second Ave.

• Trek Bicycle Bowery, 303 Bowery

• Wing Bikes, 345 E. 12th St. (high-end ebikes)

The 'High Line East vibes' of 799 Broadway

Workers have removed the sidewalk bridge and remaining scaffolding from outside the all-new 799 Broadway, the 12-story zig-zagging office complex on the SW corner at 11th Street.

EVG reader Doug, who shared these photos, noted the building's "High Line East vibes" ...

According to published reports this past fall, the building with floor-to-ceiling glass and private terraces has its first two tenants: Newrez, a mortgage lending and service firm, and Bain Capital Ventures. 

No. 799 was the former home of the historic St. Denis building (not landmarked, unfortunately), which opened as a hotel in 1853. Normandy Real Estate Partners bought the property for somewhere in the $100 million ballpark back in 2016... and tore it down.

Our post on No. 799 from January 2020 has a little more background about the project and the concerns over this out-of-scale construction along this corridor.

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo from 2nd Avenue by Derek Berg)... 

• Corinne Neary checks out of the Tompkins Square Library branch (Thursday) 

• Catching up with Sabrina Fuentes of Pretty Sick (Thursday)

• A Visit to Made Up There Farms (Wednesday) 

• Workers have demolished the East River Park amphitheater (Thursday) 

• Cornerstone Cafe postscript (Monday) 

• Happy 10th anniversary to Tompkins Square Bagels (Wednesday) 

• Closing time: 1 month remains for Dress Shoppe II (Wednesday) 

• The new Urban Wine & Spirits is now open (Monday) 

• Virginia's is closing on 11th Street; owners will look for a new location (Thursday) 

• Citi Bike docking stations arrive on 5th Street, 7th Street (Wednesday) 

• City posts notice of a clean up in the abandoned curbside dining structure on 6th Street (Monday) 

• Brownout at the former St. Brigid School (Thursday) 

• Renovations underway at the long-vacant retail space at 123 Avenue A (Thursday) 

• Openings on 14th Street: Mad for Chicken, The Tree Shop NYC (Tuesday) 

• 'Very Expensive' Flordel Florist is leaving 3rd Street for new LES home (Tuesday)

• ICYMI: Zero Irving signs up first tenant (Tuesday)

... and on Third Street near Avenue B, Book Club has extended its hours starting today (thanks Stacie Joy for the pic!) ...

Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. to midnight; Saturday and Sunday: 9 a.m. to midnight.

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Follow EVG on Instagram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics. 

Street and sidewalk barriers removed from outside the fire-damaged Middle Collegiate Church on 2nd Avenue

An item from the past week that we didn't get to mention... the construction fencing and temporary sidewalk structure have been removed from Second Avenue between Seventh Street and Sixth Street.

Workers have also wrapped up the weather-proofing at the remains of the fire-damaged Middle Collegiate Church at 112 Second Ave. ...

The church marked the first anniversary of the fire on Dec. 5.

The fire spared the steeple and its historic contents — the New York Liberty Bell, which dates to the early 1700s. The bell is for now housed at the New York Historical Society. 

The FDNY previously said that faulty wiring at 48 E. Seventh St. was to blame for the fire. An FDNY spokesperson told 1010 WINS that the fire had been deemed "non-suspicious." No. 48 was demolished. (More background here.) 

Middle Collegiate Church currently holds services at the Calvary Episcopal Church at 21st Street and Park Avenue South. You can read about their plans to rebuild the sanctuary right here. 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• At fire-damaged Middle Collegiate Church, it's moving day for the historic New York Liberty Bell

About a heavy-hitting production coming to the Gene Frankel Theater

EVG contributor Clare Gemima pointed out this production of interest that premieres this coming week... "Sugar Ray" makes its theatrical debut on Thursday evening at the Gene Frankel Theater, 24 Bond St. between the Bowery and Lafayette.

Here's more about the production via the EVG inbox...

Sugar Ray Robinson was, pound for pound, the greatest boxer of all time. In his 25-year professional career, from 1940 to 1965, he was boxing history's first winner of five divisional championships (in the middleweight and welterweight divisions).  

This "King of Harlem" was renowned for his litheness, his power and his flamboyant lifestyle outside the ring. His career peaked between 1947 and 1950, before the era of TV boxing, so his style and legacy are less preserved today than those of other boxers, including his admirer, Muhammed Ali.  That's why "Sugar Ray" by playwright Laurence Holder is so significant. It recaptures Robinson's life and boxing legacy in a biographical solo show that is exciting to those who idolized him and illuminating to those who grew up after his era.

The play runs through Jan. 23. Find ticket info and COVID protocols here.

Saturday's parting shot

A moment of levity today at the MulchFest site in Tompkins Square Park... photo by Derek Berg... 

And MulchFest is Jan.8-9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Inside the rent dispute at Casa Adela

Photo by Stacie Joy 

Eric Lach, a staff writer at The New Yorker, takes a deep dive into the rent dispute that has unfolded at Casa Adela at 66 Avenue C.

As previously reported, the building’s landlord — a Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) — is looking to increase the rent on the 45-year-old LES institution. The rent hike, from $1,350 to, eventually, $6,750, is a number that the current owner Luis Rivera, son of the late founder Adela Fargas, has said is not feasible.

The piece quotes local activist Power Malu.

“Adela was like my mom,” he said. “This restaurant is like people’s second home.” But, Malu cautioned, the dispute between the restaurant and its landlord wasn’t the old story of a big, bad developer kicking out a neighborhood joint. “You can’t just say, ‘Oh, this is gentrification,’ ” he said. “It’s not.” 

The building, as much as the restaurant, was part of the Puerto Rican community’s legacy in the neighborhood. Malu gestured toward a blue-and-white tile mural above the building’s front door, which read “66 Ave C Homesteaders.” “These people, actually, with their own hands, helped to restore this building,” he said. “And that’s important for people to know.”

The New Yorker is the first media outlet to speak with the HDFC’s three board members.

Gladys Duran, the board president, was born and raised in Loisaida, while Eva Eumana was born in Mexico, and Maria Peralta in Nicaragua. All three had been in the building since the nineteen-nineties, when sweat equity was still expected of new residents. Eumana, who works as a housekeeper, did cleaning work at other HDFC buildings to contribute her share.

And some background on the building’s finances.

In 2018, the board members said, the prior board president met a real-estate broker named Aretha Busby at a seminar for small landlords held at City Hall. The building hired Busby to write a report about its two commercial spaces — the space not occupied by Casa Adela is currently a bodega — to get a sense of how much more money it could be charging.

The building then hired [real-estate lawyer Gregory] Byrnes, who took a look at its management and finances and was appalled by what he found. Byrnes was told that the building needed hundreds of thousands of dollars for capital repairs to address issues with the roof and the boilers, and, Byrnes said, to pay for a management company and a superintendent. The co-op was operating at a deficit each year, and its reserve fund was depleting. Byrnes had helped the residents reduce the size of the board, from every resident in the building to the current three members, to aid in decision-making, and was preparing to help them sell a couple of vacant apartments, which will be listed at only a “fraction” of the market rate, he said, in keeping with the building’s history. Raising the rent on the storefronts was needed to make up for the money the building wasn’t getting elsewhere. It had to come from somewhere.

According to the article, the two sides are scheduled to appear in court this month. You can read the whole piece via this link.

New Year's Eve, 2021

With outdoor COVID testing... photos by Stacie Joy...

'Love' crazy

 

• I've been listening to "We Love You" by the Rolling Stones because the song reminds me of a friend who died this year.
• Somehow, I'd never seen the promo video for the song from 1967 that (thank you, IMDB, cutting and pasting) included footage from recording sessions along with segments that re-enacted the 1895 trial of Oscar Wilde, with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Marianne Faithfull respectively portraying Wilde, a judge and Lord Alfred Douglas.
• The IMDB description helpfully notes the following: "Footage also appears of Brian Jones, apparently high on drugs with his eyes drooping and unfocused." (So 2021!) More facts about the song here.

6 posts from December

A mini month in review... (with a photo from Dec. 11 by Derek Berg)...

• Because you've always wanted to know what the inside of the long-empty 6 Avenue B looks like (Dec. 23) 

• The Community Holiday Feast fed more than 600 people in Tompkins Square Park yesterday (Dec. 20)

• Letter perfect: City makes the MPH right on 2nd attempt (Dec. 20) 

• Did SantaCon contribute to NYC's current COVID-19 surge? (Dec. 18) 

• Report of a fatal fire early at 118 Avenue D (Dec. 16) 

• At the rally for Casa Adela (Dec. 13) 

A year-end post because it's the end of the year

A post from Dec. 18, 2020, turned out to be the most-viewed EVG post from 2021. 

Early this year, a lot of people shared "A visit to Stoned Gourmet Cannabis Pizza," Stacie Joy's inside look at Chris "the Pizza Pusha" Barrett's (pictured above) sorta secret establishment ... this came after the pizzeria highlighted the post on social media. (As it turns out, there are many avid Stoned Pizza fans.)

Other most-read 2021 posts included more newsy items on the closure of some longtime local businesses ... the passing of two well-liked and well-known residents... and the always outrage-provoking SantaCon. And then there was one of the posts about the guy rolled up in the carpet on St. Mark's Place and Third Avenue.

Here's the rest of the EVG top-10:

• Exclusive: Iconic East Village venue The Pyramid Club will not be reopening after year-long PAUSE (April 1) 

• Attention Kmart shoppers: The Astor Place location is now closed after 25 years in business (July 12) 

• Woman dies after falling from Avenue A rooftop; Rivera demands review of building enforcement procedures (May 22) 

• About that rolled-up carpet in the crosswalk (Feb. 5) 

• SantaCon announces 2021 route; East Village in the crosshairs once again (Dec. 7) 

• A walk around inside the long-abandoned — and ghoulishly beautiful — P.S. 64 (March 25) 

• RIP Molly Fitch (Dec. 13) 

• RIP Hash Halper, aka New York Romantic (June 15) 

• You can own the shuttered Avenue A diner Odessa, now for sale on Craigslist (June 4)

Thank you for reading along this year... and sharing your thoughts — there were more than 10,000 comments left on our 1,856 posts in 2021. 

East Village Loves NYC offering free COVID-19 PCR testing on Sunday

East Village Loves NYC — the local volunteer group formed in the spring of 2020 to feed people in need during the pandemic — is collaborating with a mobile clinic to provide free COVID-19 PCR testing at the Sixth Street Community Center between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

The next testing comes this Sunday (Jan. 2) from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. You need to sign up in advance — no walk-ins. You can find the link here. The testing is open to the first 200 registrants.

The first testing took place here this past Sunday. Organizers invited EVG contributor Stacie Joy to stop by...

Results from Sunday were returned in less than 48 hours. Testing is done by Alaine Diagnostics in Saddlebrook, N.J. (This link lists the city's free testing sites via NYC Health + Hospitals.) In its first year, East Village Loves NYC — which has attracted some 400 volunteers — cooked more than 100,000 meals for New Yorkers during the pandemic ... not to mention donated 325,000-plus pounds of groceries and 7,000-plus pantry bags.

New Year's Eve eve parting shot

Lime Tree Market on First Avenue at Ninth Street is still fully stocked for your NYE party needs — hand sanitizer for 99-cents too!

Photo by Steven...

Catching up with Sabrina Fuentes of Pretty Sick

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

I’m following a byzantine series of steps and underground hallways to find Sabrina Fuentes, lead singer of indie rockers Pretty Sick at a sold-out Mercury Lounge.

It’s Halloween night so there are random spooky decorations up, and the band is hosting a costume party so concertgoers are feeling festive. I bump into local faves Hello Mary, who opened for Pretty Sick (sharing the bill with Harry Teardrop) before finding Sabrina a few minutes before she’s due on stage with her two bandmates, dressed for the night as Santa Clause and Travis Bickle.

I trail her up the stairs and onto the stage, where her fans react with predictable fervor. People scream out suggestions for songs they’d like to hear from the band’s EPs, including the June release Come Down (released via the label Dirty Hit, whose roster includes Wolf Alice and the 1975).

This is the band’s first NYC in two-plus years, so there’s a full house who sing along to every song.

In the weeks after the show, I follow up with Sabrina to talk about music, feminism, friends and collaborators. The band, which Sabrina founded in 2013 at age 13, has been rehearsing at Rivington Music Rehearsal Studios ahead of recording a new full-length album upstate.

I’ve read that you started writing music at a very young age. What initially inspired you to do so?

I’m not sure what inspired me originally. Sound has always been the sense/medium that appealed to me. I can’t imagine working with or on anything but sound/music. I’m a sonically inclined person, I guess. Rock is the genre I work with the most because it comes naturally to me and the message of rock and roll is the most freeing.

What’s your earliest memory of music?

Hard to say. Probably lullabies my parents and grandparents sang to me.

How do you feel like NYC has shaped you as a person, as an artist?

Growing up in NYC is so different than anywhere else in the world. You have access to so much more and it really is such a privilege creatively to have been able to see and hear the things around me from a young age. I feel like I was forced to grow up really fast for a number of reasons, and NYC definitely added to that.

As an artist, I feel like I got to be like a kid and experiment, explore and play around with music more than I would have if I were anywhere else.

You’re a native New Yorker and now going to school in London. What do you miss about the city? Does being away make you appreciate NYC even more?

I actually graduated from school in London already; I’m just living there now. I come back to the city for about half the year (on and off) and spend the time in between in London. I miss the energy of NYC and the way people interact in public. I think I see the flaws of the way this city is a bit more now that I’ve had a step back from it, but I think that happens whenever anyone leaves home.

I appreciate the sense of community and the great people who are here way more now. I’m much more comfortable here, but I like moving and traveling — it’s good to get out of your comfort zone.

Through the years, several articles about you refer to you as a “riot grrrl.” How do you feel in general about the term? Do you find it limiting at all?

I don’t mind it, but I don’t know how accurate it is — haha! Riot Grrrl refers pretty specifically to feminist rock music movement from the late ’80s and early ’90s, and while I’m a feminist, I don’t really consider my work to be particularly political or feminist-y. I’m just a woman writing rock music and people like to use buzzwords like “riot grrrl” or “feminist” to write an article ’cus it’s easier than having to think critically. It’s not a limiting label as much as it is kind of inaccurate and reductive, but I don’t really care what people call me; I’m just grateful they’re giving my music a chance.

You’re friends with Hello Mary, who opened for you on Halloween night at the Mercury Lounge. Do you see a more robust community now for young bands in NYC than when you started out?

Oh my god, yeah. There was like a four-year period where a lot of the DIY venues who booked local bands closed, and all of the slightly bigger NYC bands moved to LA ’cus there were just more opportunities.

After the pandemic, the band scene has been doing so much better, and people are more excited to go see music and wanna get involved in some way. A lot of people who move to NYC these days are yuppies and PR-girl types who don’t give a shit about going to see live music or listening to alternative music, so it’s great the youth are actually excited about it.

Speaking of that Halloween night show, how was it playing again in front of an audience?

It felt so good to be on stage again at home. That was our first show in NYC since August of 2019!

Another friend, Manon Macasaet, directed the “Allen Street” and “Bet My Blood” videos. What’s it like working and collaborating with friends?

It’s great. All of our videos were made by my friends who are NYC artists like Manon, Maggie Lee, Leander Capuozzo,Oliver Rivard, Jake Moore and Richard Kern.

All of the crew are artists and homies too. For example, sculptor Sofia Lelani and painter Karmel Spanier made the set and props for the “Bet My Blood” music video, and designer Sasha Melnychuk made the costumes.

Another example is all the cars in the “Allen Street” video were lent to us by a Red Hook-based drag-racing team called New Day, which is run by Louis Shannon, who operates Entrance Gallery in Chinatown. All of the actors and video vixens are artists, organizers, skaters, and oddballs from the Lower East Side. Community in NYC is really important to me and Pretty Sick as a whole, which wouldn’t exist without it. I love NYC and its people. Fanatically.

You can keep tabs on the band on Instagram.

Corinne Neary checks out of the Tompkins Square Library branch

Photo by Stacie Joy

After five-plus years as the manager of the Tompkins Square Library branch, Corinne Neary is moving on this holiday season.

Neary is heading to the Jefferson Market branch on Sixth Avenue when it reopens later this winter. (She worked there as a trainee and senior librarian before coming to Tompkins Square in November 2016.)

Patrons of this branch on 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B have said that they appreciated Neary's attention to the neighborhood's history ... especially its writers and artists — past and present — with events such as the East Village Arts Festival and various walking tours. Her programing was also top-notch... and she has excellent taste in classic films (a Myrna Loy triple feature!).

We talked with her during the EVG podcasting days for a session in early 2019. Find that conversation here.

A 15-year NYPL veteran, Will Hall, takes over for Neary at Tompkins Square.

Welcome, Will, and thank you, Corinne... 

Workers have demolished the East River Park amphitheater

Workers have finished demolishing the East River Park amphitheater. 

EVG regular Daniel Efram shared these photos yesterday... 

The city is to replace the existing structure, which dates to 1941, with a smaller one at the exact location. In June, the city came up with $4.83 million to include a roof over the new amphitheater. (Our last post has more details.)

Meanwhile, workers continue to cut down the trees in East River Park below Stanton Street as part of the $1.45-billion East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. Up to 1,000 mature trees are expected to come down in total.

The city has said that some 2,000 new trees will be planted in the reconstructed park, per a previously published statement.

Activists opposed to this version of the city's floodproofing plan continue to gather daily at 1 p.m. just south of the Houston Street entrance...

Virginia's is closing on 11th Street; owners will look for a new location

Virginia's, the bistro on 11th Street just west of Avenue C, is closing after service on New Year's Eve. 

Per an email to patrons (thanks to the EVG readers who shared this): 

We have battled through a pandemic and a fire, either of which would have been reason enough to give up. Instead, we persevered — mostly because of the support of our loyal guests and hardworking team. 

With our lease expiring, we have made the very difficult decision to leave our current location in the New Year. Hopefully, this is only goodbye for now as we search for a new home for Virginia's. 

Please stay tuned as we search for a larger location with a longer lease. Thank you all so much for all of your support. We hope to see you once more on New Year's Eve for an unforgettable farewell party!

The restaurant opened here in May 2015.

Image via Instagram

Renovations underway at the long-vacant retail space at 123 Avenue A

Work is underway inside the vacant storefront at 123 Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place...

A worker on the scene told EVG correspondent that the space would eventually house a deli. (There isn't any sign of work permits on file online with the DOB just yet.)

The storefront has been vacant since Tony (aka Abdul) died in the fall of 2018. Tony, who owned the building, ran the deli, which operated under various names in this spot for 25 years.

Meanwhile, a block or so to the south, another deli is in the works for another long-vacant spot on the corner of Sixth Street and Avenue A — the former Benny's Burritos.

Brownout at the former St. Brigid School

Work continues at the former St. Brigid School on the NE corner of Avenue B and Seventh Street.

EVG reader Robert Miner reports that workers painted the former school's green strip brown on Sunday.

And yesterday...

... workers removed the St. Brigid's banners from out front...

In February 2019, the Archdiocese of New York announced that St. Brigid School would cease operations at the end of that academic year, a move that blindsided students, parents and faculty alike. Founded in 1856, the Saint Brigid School was one of seven Catholic schools marked for closure by the Archdiocese in 2019. 

Given its A-plus EV location with Tompkins Square Park views, some residents have figured this property would end up a high-end condoplex much like the former Mary Help of Christians on Avenue A and 12th Street. 

However, as Dave on 7th pointed out, the work here suggests that the Archdiocese is prepping the two-level building for rental for another school (perhaps a charter school?). 

A corner to watch in 2022!