Report: A roadblock for the relocation of New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and sale of its land

Mount Sinai Beth Israel's plan to merge New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (NYEEI) within its system and then sell the prime real-estate facilities in the East Village has hit a "snag," the Post reports. 

A New York State Department of Health committee declined the hospital system's merger proposal.

The DOH panel, known as the New York Public Health and Health Planning Council, voted 11-6 to approve the merger, but it was three votes short of the number needed under the panel's rules. Those who voted no said that, among other issues, Mount Sinai had kept the community in the dark about its plans and dodged questions from the DOH itself. 

The committee's vote is not the final word, as it must be affirmed by DOH Acting Commissioner James V. McDonald, who was named to the post on Jan. 1. A source said it was "rare" for a commissioner to overrule the planning council. 

The Infirmary owns two buildings here — 14th Street and Second Avenue and 13th Street and Second Avenue — and the vacant lot on 13th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. 

Sources told the Post that the parcel "could fetch up to $70 million if sold for apartment-building construction."

Dr. Howard Berliner, a DOH panel member who voted against the merger ... alluded at the hearing to concerns that Mount Sinai aimed to dismantle NYEEI so that it could cash in on a property sale. 

"If I was a real estate developer, I would be drooling at the prospect of getting the [NYEEI] site in the East Village, probably one of the hottest markets in New York City," Berliner said.

Earlier this month, local elected officials wrote to Mount Sinai CEO Kenneth Davis and urged him to pause its proposal.

Last spring, Village Preservation made an appeal to have 218 Second Ave. at 13th Street landmarked.

Previously

The renovations happening inside the all-new Bleecker Street Bar on Broadway

It doesn't appear that much is happening behind the blank storefront at 648 Broadway between Bleecker and Bond. 

However, behind the closed doors and papered windows... the new home of the Bleecker Street Bar is coming together. 

Management has been sharing updates on the bar's Instagram account... recent additions include a pool table... high-top tables ... and dart boards ... all elements of the previous incarnation... 

The bar's Instagram account lists an early 2023 opening date.

As previously reported, the neighborhood bar's 30-year tenure on the corner of Bleecker and Crosby ended in August 2020. Per the owners at the time: "All of our efforts to negotiate a reasonable lease extension with our landlord have failed." (The storefront is now home to the New York flagship store for Sabah, which offers high-end leather Turkish slippers and other accessories.) 

BSB fans were pleased that management could line up this new space just around the corner on Broadway. 

Wednesday's parting shot

Photo by Daniel Efram 

The late Tom Verlaine's solo debut album from 1979 as seen in the window of Academy Records on 12th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...

Tompkins Square Post Office leaving us hanging!

Photo by Stacie Joy 

As seen on the door at the Tompkins Square Post Office on Third Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.

Sorry we do not supply tape at the.

Building out O'Flaherty's

Photos by Stacie Joy 

As we've been reporting (here and here), O'Flaherty's is opening its new art gallery here on 44 Avenue A at Third Street. 

The space debuts tomorrow evening (Feb. 16) with a performance series titled "O’Flaherty's gelitin O'Flattering," which will also include the U.S. premiere of "Stinking Dawn," a full-length feature film by Liam Gillick and gelitin. (Find more details and the schedule here.)

EVG contributor Stacie Joy was with artist-curator Jamian Juliano-Villani when she first received the keys to the space on Jan. 2... and began renovations.

This space has been empty since Upright Citizens Brigade Theater closed UCBeast amid financial challenges in February 2019. The comedy venue opened in September 2011, and UCB took over part of the expanded Two Boots empire — the video store on Avenue A and the Pioneer Theater around the corner on Third Street.

O'Flaherty's did keep the small theater for screenings...

Stacie stopped by again on Jan. 18 for a progress check ...

Juliano-Villani's friend and business associate Ruby Zarsky (one-half of Sateen) was also on hand... 

The awning arrived on Jan. 27...

Juliano-Villani moved her gallery into this space after a year at 55 Avenue C at Fourth Street (we covered the opening here, culminating with a barn burner of a show late this past summer).

You can read more about the gallery here. And follow them on Instagram for updates and creative uses of EVG comments.

Just 17 floors to go at the all-new 360 Bowery

Work has really picked up since our last look at the SW corner of Fourth Street and the Bowery — aka 360 Bowery. 

Work on the 21-story, 110,000-square-foot office building is up to the fourth level, and it already looks quite large with 17 floors left to go... (and how much longer before the billboard is obscured?)...

Eric Goode's new development replaces his B Bar & Grill (1994-2020) on property that was previously a gas station.

Find more details in our previous post.

The vacant storefront on this corner of 10th and 1st will be...

Photo by Dan Scheffey

In recent weeks, workers have been gut-renovating the vacant storefront on the SE corner of First Avenue and 10th Street.

And now, as if anyone will be surprised, it turns out that the new business will be a cannabis/CBD shop, another in the many that have popped up in the past year... and that is not legal.

Last week, Mayor Adams and DA Bragg started cracking down on illegal storefront operations by targeting the landlords. 

The city's third legal cannabis shop — aka Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary — opened on Monday at 62 E. 13th St. just west of Broadway. 

The previous tenant on this corner, the E. 10th St. Finest Deli, closed in December 2020. 

H/T Steven and Steven Walker, who also shared photos from this corner

Tuesday's parting shot

Valentine's Day evening on St. Mark's Place... photo by Derek Berg...

RIP Travis 'Grim' Durkin

Photos and text by Stacie Joy 

Updated 2/19: The Daily News has a follow-up on Travis' death here.

In a follow-up email with Stacie Joy, his sister Chloe said that she is particularly upset that the police told media outlets how much Travis shoplifted to the penny but couldn't tell the hospital how long he was unconscious following the arrest. "That was just intolerable," she said.

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A familiar face in Tompkins Square Park, Travis "Grim" Durkin, died this past week while in the custody of the 6th Precinct in a hospice setting at Weill Cornell hospital. He was 47. 

Travis' family doesn't have a lot of answers and is left with questions after being notified that he was found unconscious in his cell after an arrest for shoplifting on Jan. 18. There was speculation that he suffered a cardiac event and was placed in a medically induced coma. 

After weeks of deteriorating condition, he was transferred to hospice care, and his life-saving support was removed. He died a few days later, on Feb. 9. 

An autopsy is pending, as is a local memorial event. The family plans on Saturday, March 4, at 2 p.m., in Tompkins Square Park. Travis especially loved the New York hardcore scene, concerts in the park and dancing, so it's a fitting spot to pay respects.

"Being a good friend was important to Travis, as well as capturing the imagination of the person he was engaging in conversation with," his sister Chloe told me. "He liked to entertain people and cheer them up. And he wanted to be loved." 

He is survived by his father and stepmother, Michael Durkin and Judy Durkin, two sisters, Chloe and Erin Durkin, and his daughter Rhiannon Jamison. His mother died giving birth to him. 

The family requests that instead of assistance, please donate to Washington Square Park Mutual Aid or your favorite police reform cause.

[Updated] The archives of The East Village Eye now at the New York Public Library

The archives of the East Village Eye, the legendary magazine published from 1979 to 1987 that covered the arts, politics and social currents of the neighborhood at the time, have a new home at the New York Public Library. 

From the Eye's website: 

After numerous discussions and negotiations with the world's leading research institutions, we are thrilled to announce that the East Village Eye archive, consisting of documents, manuscripts, artworks, videos, ephemera and a complete run of the original printed publication, has been acquired by the New York Public Library.

And via editor-publisher Leonard Abrams: 

NYPL's acquisition of the East Village Eye archive is the perfect outcome of our years-long search for the best home for these materials. I can't think of another institution with the breadth and depth of interest, the institutional strength and the dedication to the common good that compares to the New York Public Library – not to mention where it lives. New York deserves to keep this essential trove of materials. It covers a time when it wasn't always easy to love New York City, but we always knew how important it was to bring these voices to the public and to preserve them, even if it meant dragging them from one storage space to another for some 35 years. 

There's a detailed piece about all this at The New Yorker, via writer Hannah Gold ... here's a passage with NYPL curator Julie Golia: 

Golia explained to us what would happen next: when the library acquires a collection, it is inspected for pests and water damage. When necessary, materials are isolated and treated in the Disaster Recovery room. Once they've been cleared, the collection moves into the archival-processing queue and the items are rehoused in acid-free folders and boxes. 

The library's staff begins to make the finding aid, essentially an index of the collection. This inventorying can be time-consuming, depending on the scale of the collection, which can vary widely — the Eye archive arrived in fewer than twenty containers, which is relatively small. The library's New Yorker archive, on the other hand, is stored in more than two thousand containers. 

Golia says the East Village Eye archives will arrive at the basement stacks in about a year. The finding aid will go live on the N.Y.P.L.'s Web site, and researchers will officially be able to view the materials. 

As Golia explained the process, Abrams was visibly moved, yet characteristically irreverent. "I don't care what order they’re in!" he insisted, when Golia told us it was library policy to preserve the way donors had grouped their own collections. "Leonard organized them in a certain way, because that's the way his mind worked, and part of what we're trying to preserve is the way his mind works." Abrams waved his hands dismissively, the journalist both flattered and uncomfortable with attention turned his way. Before we left the library's processing center, he had a question: Would they let him throw a party? 

Updated 3/13 ... the party has been rescheduled for March 23... there's a celebration of this union coming up on March 2 with The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black at Bowery Electric and other guests...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Q-and-A with Leonard Abrams, publisher of the East Village Eye

The squash court at Hamilton Fish Park has been demolished

Photos by Stacie Joy

A reader tipped us off to the current state of the public squash court at Hamilton Fish Park along Pitt and East Houston.

The court, located on one of Hamilton Fish Park's handball courts, is now an assortment of barricades surrounding a pile of supports that once kept the glass in place here.

The court arrived to great fanfare in the spring of 2018, a debut that garnered plenty of press attention, such as in Vogue. 

We're bringing squash outdoors! Check out the @Public_Squash Court at Hamilton Fish Park, the first of its kind in the world! It's FREE to use and now open to the public. https://t.co/cIohG6a9eu pic.twitter.com/5qHPanCa5H

— NYC Parks (@NYCParks) April 17, 2018

This was the initiative of the Public Squash Foundation, which aims to offer free access to squash in public places. 

Per press materials at the time: "The inaugural all-glass court, manufactured by ASB Squash, is modeled on the type used at Professional Squash Association World Tour events, as well as the World Squash Federation World Championships and the Commonwealth Games. However, it has been modified for outdoor usage. The new court, at Hamilton Fish Park on the Lower East Side, was officially opened by New York City Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver."

By spring 2019, someone had vandalized the court, shattering a glass section. There were efforts to raise money for repairs...

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Public Squash (@public_squash)

By the spring of 2021, the court was still out of commission...

This is the outdoor squash court at Hamilton Fish Park, Manhattan, New York
It is currently closed for repairs, and they are looking for donations.https://t.co/k8IXzYp382

No. 29 in my beautiful squash courts series.⁠

⁠#Squash⁠#BeautifulSquashCourt pic.twitter.com/T6dRiO1zna

— Phillip Marlowe: BetterSquash (@bettersquash) April 4, 2021

And nearly four years of "closed for repairs" status, we're told that Parks employees recently removed the remaining glass walls... and that the squash court will not be replaced.

Village Happy House Convenience coming to Second Avenue

Photo by Steven 

Signage went up last evening for Village Happy House Convenience at 127 Second Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place. 

At this point, we're not sure what type of convenience Happy House will offer — the usual sodas, snacks, smokes, etc., or an illegal cannabis-CBD establishment. 

Himalayan Vision closed here last March after 23 years in business. The owners told us that there was not a rent increase ... though the landlord was also not going to negotiate a lower rate.

Monday's parting shot

The latest addition to the Bowery Mural Wall on Houston... "Love Is," corrugated letters by @imkman00 ... @emergence.arts ... and @the_mr.man ...

 H/T @catscoffeecreativity

Updated: Sunny's is open after all!

Updated 2/14: Multiple readers said that, despite the sign, Sunny's is open! 

Apparently, the eye doctor gave her the OK to work today... photos by Lola Sáenz ...

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One of the city's best destinations for flowers will be closed this Valentine's Day. (Thanks to EVG reader roflo for the photo.)

Signage at Sunny's Florist on the SE corner of Second Avenue and Sixth Street points to an "eye medical condition" that shuttered the sliver of a storefront today ... and again for tomorrow, Feb. 14...

Sunny's had just reopened after a winter break... And, as you'd expect, Valentine's Day always sees long lines here. (Except for last year.)

Meanwhile, for Valentine's Day tomorrow, Book Club is once again hosting the East Village-based Bloom Bloom floral design studio in store. 

Starting at 11 a.m. to whenever the flowers are gone, Bloom Bloom is selling grab-and-go wrapped bouquets and custom floral arrangements. 

Book Club is at 197 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. 

A 2nd Avenue sidewalk now and then

Last Monday, we noted the above fresh patch of sidewalk on Second Avenue between Fifth Street and Sixth Street ... in which a lot of people decided to adorn with their initials.

Now!

Over the weekend, Carol from East 5th Street told us that workers redid this section of sidewalk outside 100 Second Ave. ... there was even a guard on duty all day Saturday to keep the cement taggers away until things were dry...

On 2nd Avenue, historic Isaac T. Hopper House hits the market for the first time in 149 years

A historic East Village building is for sale for the first time since (checking notes) 1874.

There's a new listing for 110 Second Ave., aka the landmarked and currently vacant Isaac T. Hopper House between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. 

Per the listing via Denham Wolf Real Estate Services: The property is vacant and provides a unique redevelopment opportunity. Asking price: $7.1 million. The building also has "+-4,628 ZFA potential excess development rights." (Any alterations to the landmarked building must go through the Landmarks Preservation Commission and other city agencies.)

The Women's Prison Association has owned it since 1874.

Here's some history of the address of No. 110, built circa 1837-1838, via Village Preservation:

This three-and-a-half-story Greek Revival structure is a rare surviving house from the period when this section of Second Avenue was one of the most elite addresses in Manhattan. Additionally, it is also a rare surviving nineteenth-century institutional presence in this ever-changing neighborhood.

The house at 110 Second Avenue was constructed as one of four houses built for brothers Ralph, Staats, and Benjamin Mead and designed in the Greek Revival style. Although the only one remaining of the original four houses, 110 Second Ave. retains much of its original details characteristic of a Greek Revival row house. The façade is clad in machine-pressed red brick laid in stretcher bond, tall parlor-level windows with a cast iron balcony, a denticulated cornice, and a brownstone portico with ionic columns supporting an entablature.

In 1839 David H. Robertson, a shipbroker and tradesman, bought the house for his widowed mother, Margaret. Three years later, however, he declared bankruptcy. The house was foreclosed, and in 1844 it was auctioned and transferred to Ralph Mead. Mead was the proprietor of Ralph Mead and Co., a wholesale grocery business. He and his second wife, Ann Eliza Van Wyck, lived at 110 Second Avenue (then No. 108) from 1845-1857. After that, they leased the house but retained ownership until 1870. It was sold in 1872 to George H. and Cornelia Ellery, who then sold it in 1874 to the Women's Prison Association ...

In 1992, the Hopper House was renovated and re-opened as a residential alternative to imprisonment for women. The residents and staff were displaced when the six-alarm fire destroyed Middle Collegiate Church next door in December 2020.

In January, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to allow the demolition of the remains of the fire-damaged structure to allow Middle Collegiate to rebuild on the site.

Previously on EVG:

• At the first WPA Arts exhibition

Openings: Union Square Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store

The city's third legal cannabis shop — aka Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary — opens today (Feb. 13) at noon at 62 E. 13th St. just west of Broadway. 

The dispensary will be known as Union Square Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store. 

According to the press materials, the Doe Fund owns the dispensary, "a nonprofit that has served justice-involved individuals previously criminalized by cannabis prohibition." (Read more about the Doe Fund here.)

Initial operating hours (after today) will be 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday-Thursday, with an 11 p.m. close Friday and Saturday.

The Housing Works Cannabis Co. store — New York's first legal recreational marijuana market — opened to great fanfare in late December on Broadway at Eighth Street in a former Gap retail space. The second space debuted on Bleecker Street on Jan. 24. Another legal dispensary is expected to open on Third Street near the Bowery this spring.

Meanwhile, Mayor Adams and DA Bragg are cracking down on illegal storefront operations by targeting the landlords. 

Baya Bar bringing the açai bowls to Union Square

An outpost of Baya Bar is coming soon to 14th Street just west of Irving Plaza in the retail spaces of Zeckendorf Towers. 

The quick-serve brand, which started in Bay Ridge in 2016, specializes in açaí bowls, avocado toast, smoothies and cold-press juices. There are 20 BB outposts in the metropolitan area — with more on the way in 2023. 

Baya Bar is in a chain-friendly corridor with Chipotle, Sticky's Finger Joint and a Subway (sandwich shop).

Sunday's parting shot

Crossing the Bowery today... photo by Derek Berg...

Week In Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo of street performer Matthew Silver on St. Mark's Place by Derek Berg) ... 

• A timeline of events after the assault outside Ray's Candy Store (Tuesday) ... Cake and soup at Ray's Candy Store (Thursday)

• An appeal to help a longtime East Village resident (Wednesday) 

• City's fight against unlicensed cannabis shops now targets landlords; 4 East Village shops busted (Thursday)  

• Work on the multipurpose courts in Tompkins Square Park expected to start in September (Wednesday)

• Reconstruction of the Tompkins Square Park field house expected to start next month (Tuesday)

• La Mama officially unveils its refurbished new home (Thursday) 

• The former Commodities space is now for rent on 1st Avenue (Monday) 

• Sunny's Florist returns after winter break (Tuesday) 

• 6 Avenue B, long-abandoned, has a new owner (Friday) 

• About the 3rd & B'zaar Valentine's Market this weekend (Friday) 

• Owner of the fire-damaged Gjelina seeking jobs for its staff (Monday) 

• A leaning bench for Avenue C (Wednesday) 

• A Korean-style pizzeria for 1st Avenue (Thursday)

• Offside Tavern shapes up on Avenue A and 6th Street (Friday)

• Retail options on the Bowery (Monday) 

... and making room for Valentine's Day (or the Super Bowl?) yesterday on Third Avenue and 12th Street... photo by Jefferson Siegel...

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