While we're waiting for the full reveal at 14 2nd Ave.

Workers have dropped some of the construction netting from atop the new 10-story condoplex nearing completion on Second Avenue at Houston (adjacent to First Street Green Art Park).

There's now a teaser site for the building (which had been going by Treetops). Depending on your budget, there are two- and three-bedroom full-floor residences here at 14 Second Ave.

And the pitch:

14 Second Avenue is in the energetic heart of lower Manhattan and is moments to NYC’s best restaurants, shops and entertainment. Full-floor residences feature abundant light, rising above the surrounding green space and parks with unobstructed views of the city.

The site also has the first rendering that we've seen out in the wild...

As we've been reporting, preliminary work on the luxury building started in January 2019... with availability starting in spring 2023, per the 14 Second Ave. site.

This site had been vacant for years, last housing Irreplaceable Artifacts until its demolition by the city in July 2000. There's a lot of backstory, which the links below cover...

Previously on EV Grieve:
• Workers remove artifacts from the vacant 14 2nd Ave., fueling speculation of new development

• Development watch: 14 2nd Ave.

• Vacant lot at 14 2nd Ave. sells for $7 million; will yield to 10-floor condoplex 

• More about Treetops, the name of the condoplex coming to 14 2nd Ave.

Heathily Deli has not been open lately

It appears that we have the first victim from the Great EV Delification of 2021-22.

Heathily Deli, which debuted in the spring. has not been open for 3-4 weeks here at 158 First Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

The rather generic spot offered similar items to other like-minded businesses that have arrived recently in the neighborhood, such as the delis that have opened along Avenue A and at First Avenue and Ninth Street. And First Avenue and Seventh Street. 

Thanks to Steven for the photo! 

Hey, what might be opening in this empty 1st Avenue storefront?

Coming soon signage is up for a SMOKE SHOP at 213 First Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street. (Thanks to Pinch for the pic!) 

OK, what else is there to say? 

The smoke shop is taking over the storefront from Coddiwomple, the sandwich shop that opened and closed after a few weeks in business earlier this year.

Sunday's parting shot

An EVG reader shared this from around 11th Street and Avenue C... "I took this from the rooftop and thought it was pretty."

Noted

Photos by Steven 

A moment by the Tompkins Square Park Dog Run today...

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a Midtown view the other day) ... 

• Report: Police arrest suspect in the murder of Jaden Stokes at Campos Plaza (Monday) 

• Basquiat's former loft space on Great Jones is available for lease (Monday) 

• A GoFundMe campaign launched ahead of Ray's 90th birthday at Ray's Candy Store (Wednesday) 

• Olde Good Things is closing its Bowery outpost (Tuesday) 

• A march to 'give us back our community center' (Thursday)

• Wegmans watch on Astor Place (Monday) 

• Sidewalk bridge removal on 3rd Avenue and 9th Street reveals some EV archaeological history (Tuesday)

• Motorino closed for renovations; return set for Nov. 18 (Monday)

• Pinky's Space is closed for now 2 weeks after the city removes its curbside structure on 1st Street (Wednesday) 

• Down & Out NYC looking closer to opening on 6th Street (Thursday)

• Compilation Coffee has closed for now on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday)

• Reader report: No motor vehicles in the bike lane (Friday)

• Openings: Wild Mirrors on 2nd Avenue (Wednesday) 

• Eros remains closed on 2nd Avenue (Wednesday) 

• Bagels for Broadway (Thursday)

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

Good days for Ray's!

On Wednesday, we noted that Ray's Candy Store was hosting a GoFundMe for owner Ray Alvarez ... and his shop at 113 Avenue A "to help ensure he can keep his bills paid and his doors open for as long as he wants!" 

And there was a big outpouring for Ray, who turns 90 in January... the fund just past $40,000 this morning...

WOW!!! THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR THE OUTPOURING OF SUPPORT!!! JUST UNBELIEVABLE. SO HUMBLED. ON CLOUD NINE! PLEASE COME VISIT AND SAY HI ANYTIME. AND HELP SPREAD THE WORD.

SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO @EVGRIEVE AND @NEWYORKNICO! 🙏https://t.co/94vhtfXXtA#fundrayscandystore pic.twitter.com/GzsMpljgkp

— Ray's Candy Store (@RaysCandyStore) November 11, 2022

Top photo by Stacie Joy

Taking in this newly freed sidewalk along 3rd Avenue

Have you been enjoying the unobstructed sidewalk on the west side of Third Avenue between Ninth Street and 10th Street?

Back on Tuesday, workers started taking down the sidewalk bridge from the building — the St. Mark at 115 E. Ninth St. It had been up for seven years. (And there was actually work going on during this time.) 

A lot of businesses came and went in these storefronts during that time, including Duane Reade and East Village Cheese. And we welcomed new businesses such as USA Super Stores (just one!) on the NW corner at 10th Street...

... with an endless supply of McKenzie & Lloyds Danish Style Butter Cookie tins...

... and a bonus nighttime shot... with that iconic ghost Organic Avenue signage...

A 'Decision' to go see this movie

Park Chan-wook's well-regarded South Korean crime drama "Decision To Leave" continues its theatrical release (it opened on Oct. 14 at the Angelika, where it remains). 

The film arrived yesterday for a run at Metrograph down on Ludlow. (All the screenings look to be sold out.) It's also playing at Essex Crossing on Delancey and the Alamo Drafthouse in the Financial District. 

Chan-wook, whose work includes "Oldboy" and "The Handmaiden," was the winner of best director at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival 

Highly recommended, if this looks like your thing...

 

'Teen' beat

 

The Haunted Youth are a Belgian-based band putting out some damn good dream pop, at least based on their debut release Dawn of the Freak. 

The video is for "Teen Rebel"

The (fake) saw-whet owl of 1st Avenue

Photos by Steven 

If you're passing the SE corner of First Avenue and Seventh Street near Saifee Hardware, you may notice something perched above the walk sign. It's a saw-whet owl...

... and it's not real. (It fooled at least one reader who shared photos asking what kind of bird it is.)

As you know, artificial saw-whet owls are perfect for commercial displays, fall decor ... and provide a symbolic meaning of being protective and insightful.

Reader report: No motor vehicles in the bike lane

EVG reader Garrett Rosso shared this photo yesterday from First Avenue near 13th Street, where someone mounted a "No Motor Vehicles" sign facing this northbound bike lane.

Per Garrett: "Citizenry resort to posting their own signs since electeds leave transportation alternatives largely lawless & unregulated." 

We spotted another sign on First Avenue just past First Street. There are likely more. (Let us know if you spot any elsewhere.) 

There is confusion between legal e-bikes (electrified devices with pedals) and mopeds, many of which are illegal and need to be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles and issued license plates. 

The NYPD also doesn't seem to know the difference, seemingly demonizing, as Streetsblog put it, all electric, two-wheeled devices (save for Citi Bikes). The NYPD later started cracking down on illegal sales before the actual sale.

Streetsblog put out a handy field guide last year (which you can find here). 

As they put it:

"Certainly, New Yorkers are confused about all the new motorized devices that are filling our roadways (and, infuriatingly, our bike lanes), which have become a Wild West of chaotic interactions."

And...

All the two-wheeled motorized devices on the market today are potentially far safer to vulnerable road users than the four-wheeled, 3,000- to 5,000-pound conveyances they seek to supplant. But it doesn't feel that way right now because users of illegal mopeds are often speeding through bike lanes, surprising pedestrians with their speed. Of course moped riders are choosing the bike lane — it’s the only place where they feel safe from the true behemoth on the roads: cars and trucks.

E-scooters — defined by the city as having handlebars and a floorboard or seat, and powered by electric and/or a person — are allowed in NYC. 

Per the Department of Transporation:

• You must not operate an e-scooter in excess of 15 MPH. 

• E-scooters may be ridden in bike lanes and on streets with speed limits no greater than 30 MPH. 

• Do not ride e-scooters on sidewalks.

Back to the signage... yes — the mopeds and various motorcycles need to get out of the bike lanes.

Noted

twitter currently feeling like the delancey street mcdonalds

— Desus Nice (@desusnice) November 10, 2022

If you haven't been following Elon Musk's chaotic takeover of Twitter, this Associated Press article provides some background. 

H/T taylorlorenz3.0

Thursday's parting shot

A new sidewalk bridge for 93 First Ave. near Sixth Street... which doesn't diminish the twinkling lights of Panna II. (The Milon sign remains, though they closed at the end of 2020, as we first reported. Panna II is serving in both spaces.)

I believe the children are our future — oh, forget it ...

Photo by Derek Berg 

Inspirational signage — "The Future of the World Is in This School" — was spotted by the dumpster this morning on Second Avenue ...

Headline H/T

A march to 'give us back our community center'

This coming Monday (Nov. 14), a group of activists is planning a march on the Midtown offices of Madison Realty Capital to demand the return of the former P.S. 64 to the community.

The long-empty building at 605 E. Ninth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C fell into foreclosure earlier this year and is reportedly in the hands of lender Madison Realty Capital.

The five-floor building is being offered for use as medical space or educational-related purposes. Meanwhile, some residents want to see the space used as a community center, as it was during its time as CHARAS/El Bohio Community Center.

Here's more about Monday's noon-time action via the Facebook invite:

Hey Billionaires! Give Us Back Our Community Center! 

Recently the former P.S. 64 ... fell into foreclosure. It is now in the hands of the Madison Realty group, "a vertically integrated real estate private-equity firm that manages approximately $9.5 billion in total assets on behalf of an institutional global investor base."

These are the folks that currently hold sway regarding the future of our beloved community center. 

We need to let them know that: We Demand that the former P.S. 64 be returned to our Lower East Side community for use by our community. Protest at Madison Realty Capital offices: 520 Madison Ave. (between 53rd and 54th Streets).

Gregg Singer bought the property from the city during an auction in 1998 for $3.15 million. He later evicted CHARAS in 2001, and the building has sat empty ever since.

There's now an updated action on Monday afternoon directed toward then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Per the invite:

At 1:30 p.m., we’ll send "A Message to You, Rudy." We'll march to protest Rudy Giuliani's underhanded sale of the property by picketing the RUDY SHOW at WABC Radio, 800 Third Ave. (between 49th and 50th Streets).

You can find the Facebook invite here.

As previously reported, ownership of the property had been in transition. In January, Supreme Court Justice Melissa Crane ruled that Madison Realty Capital could move forward with a foreclosure against Singer after years of delay. 

Madison Realty Capital reportedly provided Singer with a $44 million loan on the property in 2016. Court records show that he failed to repay the balance by its maturity date in April 2016, and by that September, the lender filed to foreclose, as reported by The Real Deal.

Singer wanted to turn the building into a dorm (more here), though those plans never materialized.

The address has multiple open fines and violations with the Department of Buildings, which still has a Stop Work Order (dating to August 2015) and a Full Vacate Order (from February 2019).

Photo by Kenny Toglia 

Down & Out NYC looking closer to opening on 6th Street

Signage is up for Down & Out NYC outside 503 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B ...

If the name sounds familiar to you... the place has been in the works for several years. We first mentioned it in October 2019 when the ownership team, including Joshua Richholt who was behind the now-closed Bushwick venues The Well and The Wick, appeared before CB3.

The bar's Instagram account describes the place as a "cocktail and oyster bar" with a menu featuring other fresh seafood. No word yet on an opening date.

The address was previously Cholo Noir, the Chicano-inspired bar-restaurant that closed in August 2018 after 13 months. No. 503 was also home for five weeks to Long Bay, a Vietnamese restaurant that closed in the spring of 2015. Several years earlier the space housed Gladiators Gym.

Bagels for Broadway

The Grabstein's Bagels outpost opened yesterday at 651 Broadway between Bleecker Bond. 

This is the third outpost (joining the UES and Prospect Heights) for the brand, whose owners, we're told, are also behind Pick A Bagel on the UES and in Midtown West.

Noted

EVG reader Sonya shared this photo from Avenue B and 14th Street... where there's a chair with the message: "I blame MTV." 

As of our press time, it was not immediately clear for what. (If this was, say, 1986, we could go with explicit imagery of Satanism and the minds of our youth!)

A GoFundMe campaign launched ahead of Ray's 90th birthday at Ray's Candy Store

Photos by Stacie Joy 

In January, Ray Alvarez, who's still working the late-night shift at Ray's Candy Store, turns 90. 

Ahead of that, the shop, which opened in 1974 here at 113 Avenue A just north of Seventh Street, is now hosting a GoFundMe "to help ensure he can keep his bills paid and his doors open for as long as he wants!" 

Per the campaign: 

With your support, we want to help Ray stay in business for as long as he wants until he decides to hang up his apron on his terms. Any additional funds raised will go directly to Ray to help keep his doors open and his bills paid! Running a small business in New York City, and all across America, for that matter, has become a herculean task. 

The pandemic and its economic pain brought many restaurants and other small businesses to their knees. Ray's food costs have soared. His energy bills have doubled. And Ray refuses to double his prices to make up for it because he would never do that to his loyal customers. That's just who he is. Many businesses were unable to survive. We refuse to let that happen to Ray's! 

Ray's Candy Store is the heart of the East Village. If Ray goes, a part of the neighborhood, and a part of New York City, goes with it. Together, with your help, we can ensure that Ray's awning stays lit up, the soft serve machines stay humming, and the deep-fried Oreos keep coming! (And, of course, that you can count on hearing Ray shout I LOVE YOUUUUU!!! from his window as you pass by!) 

You can find the link here.