Heather Dubin The Wayland on Avenue C

Four months after Sandy struck, a church that was flooded during the storm continues to offer financial aid to hobbled businesses, as well as counseling to locals still coping with stress and aggravation.

Since January, Graffiti Community Ministries, a Baptist church on East Seventh Street, has given out grants of about $500 each to 16 recipients. Nine more are currently in process, and there’s more where that came from.

“We still have about 50 percent of our grant available for distribution,” said Christy Dyer, an administrator of the church’s flood recovery committee.

John Johnson, a coordinator, said residents or business owners should bring receipts into the church at 205 East Seventh Street to see if they qualify for one of the reimbursement grants. “We have limited funds to help people out,” he said. “There’s money for space heaters, money for sheet rock to replace what they ripped out, and money for lost work.” Additionally, teams of volunteers are readily available for any necessary cleanup. Read more…

Royal Bangladesh Indian Restaurant will be closed until March 4, according to a sign posted on its shutter. Of course, the BYOB spot on First Avenue and East Sixth Street shares an address with two other Indian restaurants that have been battling for over 20 years. When The Local stopped by earlier today, the ground-floor space was stripped of its trademark Christmas lights and there wasn’t a sidewalk barker in sight.

An electrician confirmed that the restaurant is undergoing renovations. Maybe so it can better compete with the light shows upstairs? Heck, maybe it has finally caught on to the filament bulb trend…

Mel BaileyAn empty lot at 89 Bowery may soon get a commercial condo building.

Tenants of a Hester Street building that was leveled as a result of the new Wyndham Garden‘s construction will demand compensation during a rally Thursday. Meanwhile, another building that was razed as the 18-story hotel went up is finally being replaced.

The tenement at 128 Hester Street was demolished in 2009 after it was destabilized by construction of the hotel next door. A lawsuit brought by the tenants of the building late last year alleges that the owner allowed building violations to pile up and ignored an “enormous volume of evidence of grossly substandard and hazardous conditions.” The building’s walls were damaged in part because of construction of the Wyndham Garden at 93 Bowery, Department of Buildings records indicate. The tenants were ordered to vacate the building in August of 2009 and it was demolished in November.

The tenants allege that William Su, an owner of both the hotel and of 128 Hester Street, intentionally allowed the tenement’s condition to decline. “It’s my belief, and my clients’ belief that [Mr. Su and his partners] acquired 128 Hester knowing that there were some serious violations, structurally,” said John Gorman, their lawyer. “This group acquired 128 Hester, not to re-inhabit, not to maintain it, but to avoid any interference with the construction of the hotel.”

In the years since the vacate order, a non-profit organization, Asian Americans for Equality, helped tenants file a petition with the New York Division of Homes and Community Renewal, which in 2010 ordered the building owner to pay his former tenants a stipend as well as moving expenses.

But Mr. Su hasn’t produced the money. Instead, the agency decided to reconsider its initial judgment for reasons that remain unclear, according to Mr. Gorman. “I do not understand why after two levels of review the D.H.C.R. decides hey, maybe lets take another look at this; meanwhile my clients are dislodged without a penny of relocation benefits,” said the tenants’ lawyer, who estimated that they were owed around $800,000. “It bothers me to no end.”

According to Mr. Su’s attorney, Stuart Klein, the agency realized it had erred and withdrew the claim.

Meanwhile, Asian Americans for Equality has continued to facilitate conferences between the owners and tenants. The organization’s director, Peter Gee, said that Mr. Su has only attended one of the four meetings. Mr. Su’s lawyer said he was only invited to one. This Thursday, A.A.F.E. will host a rally in hopes of finally winning tenants the compensation to which they feel they’re entitled.
Read more…

Daniel Maurer

The imminent opening of Block Vision Care couldn’t be timelier: a couple of blocks up on Second Avenue, Cohen’s Fashion Optical has closed. An employee told us the shop moved to 106 East 23rd Street (between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenue) about a week ago.

The “retro chic” outpost of the Cohen’s chain was across the way from Anthony Alden Opticians at 42 St. Marks Place, which also used to be a chain: it was an outpost of Myopics until it broke away and then changed its name in 2009. On its Website, Anthony Alden encourages customers to “shop locally” and notes that “glasses are easy to try on and doesn’t require removing your clothes!”

Courtesy Jennifer’s Way Jennifer Esposito baking.

Brooklyn-born actress Jennifer Esposito is no stranger to the East Village: the crime drama she starred in, “Blue Bloods,” has filmed in the neighborhood before. But she’ll become invested in a much bigger way when she opens Jennifer’s Way Bakery on East 10th Street this Friday. Ms. Esposito, who was diagnosed with celiac disease five years ago, plans to serve organic baked goods that are free of gluten, dairy, refined sugar, soy, and peanuts. Aside from offering gluten-free bagels on weekends, she’ll occasionally bring in a doctor to talk about celiac disease — “sort of like a support group for adults and kids,” said Ms. Esposito. “Because there are so many social elements that come along with this disease that having like-minded people come in and talk.”

We met Ms. Esposito at the bakery for a chat.

What made you choose the East Village to open Jennifer Way’s Bakery?

It seems to me the area is very health conscious. As you can see there are a lot of organic places around. I think being around like-minded individuals is important for this, so I thought this was a great area…it’s a great location. I have a lot of friends in the area, and a lot of friends who own restaurants in the area — and have been here for years. And my first apartment was over here on 11th Street, when I was 18 years old, so I really do like this area.  Read more…

Michelle Matson

“That’s a beautiful meat Popsicle,” says Dave Graw of the cooking show “Solid Dudes Kitchen.” As he speaks off-screen, two men from Detroit’s Porktown Sausage squeeze fresh sausage out of a Play-Doh Fun Factory-esque machine. “That was my nickname in high school,” says Derek Swanson, the other “Dude.”

On a recent Sunday night, the unique Detroit-ness of the cooking show delighted nearly 80 people who watched it at the pleasantly divey bar and performance space, Brooklyn Fire Proof, in Bushwick. The event was brought to Brooklyn by Paulina Petkoski and Samantha Banks Schefman, the co-founders of Playground Detroit, a New York-based non-profit that connects Detroit artists to “exposure and collaboration opportunities in New York City.”

New York is no stranger to the Motor City: last April, Detroit artist Robert Sestok installed a sculpture at First Street Green that paid tribute to his time in New York.

That’s exactly the kind of cross-pollination Ms. Petkoski and Ms. Banks, a pair of 26-year-old suburban Detroit ex-pats who now live in Williamsburg and Bushwick, want to encourage.

The two see a similarity between NYC and the D. “Look back at that film ‘Blank City’ and the Lower East Side in the ‘60s,” said Ms. Schefman, “and what a mess it seemed to be and hopeless and extremely dangerous. Part of what rebuilt [the Lower East Side] was the artist communities that decided to stay and find inspiration in the dilapidation and in what other people fear.”
Read more…

Nina Robinson Sick indeed.

Young & Sick – an art, music and fashion project out of L.A. – just finished the above mural on the walls of Rag & Bone’s Nolita outpost.

Each month Rag & Bone features a new mural on the store’s Elizabeth Street facade. The so-called Houston Project (not to be confused with the wall at Bowery and Houston, across the street) was started in 2010 because the fashion brand was “tired of bad graffiti,” according to its blog. They’re open to design submissions and will “provide the paint, if you provide the art.”

Before the latest mural, a sign painted on the space stated, “This is a designated graffiti area,” and opened the wall up to passing street artists. Quite a few people obliged with tags and “throw-ups.” But as of last week, Young & Sick has officially staked claim. Read more…

Samantha Balaban

Opponents of N.Y.U.’s expansion in Greenwich Village, including actor Matthew Broderick, scored a small victory in a packed courtroom today.

As you’ll recall, 11 groups — including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the East Village Community Coalition, and N.Y.U. Faculty Against the Sexton Plan — are fighting the City Planning Commission’s and the City Council’s decision to approve N.Y.U.’s plan to build just under 1.9 million square feet across two blocks. Opponents argue, in a suit filed in September, that the city violated a law preventing the transferal of parkland without prior approval from the state legislature.

Today, Randy Mastro, counsel for the petitioners, argued that the city improperly transferred four parcels of land to N.Y.U. The parcels include Mercer Playground, Mercer-Houston Dog Run, LaGuardia Park and LaGuardia Corner Gardens.

According to a letter submitted to the court by Mr. Mastro (reproduced below), the city is withholding evidence that it has long treated the property as parkland, even if the land was never officially mapped as such and never formally transferred to the Parks Department.

The plaintiffs in the case want the city to produce documents regarding the matter before a hearing in April that will determine the merits of the lawsuit. The judge granted them permission to argue for discovery in mid-March.

According to Mr. Mastro, Henry Stern, a former parks commissioner, has submitted an affidavit stating that “all four of these Superblocks sites have been dedicated as public parks, either expressly or impliedly,” and that they would have been mapped as such in the 1990s if not for “N.Y.U.’s obstructionist tactics and steadfast opposition.” Read more…

Courtesy Animus Art Salon

Once a month, an eclectic band of experimental artists assembles for an evening of community, inspiration and presentation. Tonight, the Animamus Art Salon kicks off its most ambitious project yet: a week-long Living Salon at the hybrid bar and art gallery, Culture Fix. Works by fifty artists will line the walls, priced $100 each. Four artists-in-residence will set up makeshift studios, and daily events include a tea salon, movie night, a trendy gem spa, and a poetry “brunch.”

The Salon began in 2011 when a frustrated photographer who goes by her first name, Ventiko, decided to convene other artists struggling with similar issues. Now she is at the heart of a roving support group of sorts. “We never talk about the darkness,” said Ventiko of the self-doubt many artists deal with regarding to their personal artwork. “It’s not considered ‘cool’ to discuss anxiety when there’s so much pretension out there, but our group is all about giving somebody the chance to really express themselves in front of an audience that is encouraging.”

The monthly gatherings are something like master-class critiques. “The idea is to get up there, show your ideas, and people make suggestions and ask questions,” explained Michael Blase, a Lower East Side-based photographer and frequent participant and time-keeper. “Sometimes people collaborate afterwards.”
Read more…

Walking to CBGB on the way to a hardcore matinee in 1997 made me think about the contrast between the relatively safe Giuliani-era Bowery and the sleazy punk scene born there twenty years prior. Even 16 years ago, the thought of Television or Blondie playing the venue seemed distant as I watched a boy answer a bulky flip phone while waiting in line.

Despite constantly being surrounded by the familiar cultures of skateboarding, indie rock, and art, it wasn’t until I entered the lobby of the New Museum to view “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star” that I felt their impact on downtown culture today and also felt like a relic.

While there is a long and impressive list of artists that contributed to “NYC 1993,” it’s Larry Clark’s mounted skateboard decks, stickers, and stills from his 1995 movie “Kids” that dominate the exhibit. A deck with a hanging Klansman is mounted on the main wall next to one with a naked woman. Next to them is another with a swastika and Star of David with the text, “Never Forget 6,000,000 Dead.”

In 1993, most East Coast skateboarding scenes were tight-knit enclaves for latchkey kids and diehards: skating was far from a sport. “Kids” depicted that culture and the drinking, drugs, and sex that surrounded it in a new light that disturbed many. Because skateboards weren’t lining the shelves of department and sporting goods stores and they were produced in such small runs, their graphics could be as taboo as the designer wanted. Deck design hasn’t become completely tame, but at a time when the industry was so small, there was no filter.
Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Here’s a peak inside the “all-day American brasserie” that the operators of Tocqueville and 15 East are opening on the ground floor of the long delayed Hyatt Union Square.

Named after Paris’s Fourth Arrondissement (and located on Fourth Avenue), The Fourth will occupy one of the city’s legendary nightlife spaces: 76 East 13th Street has held The Cat Club, The Grand, Spa, and Plaid. According to the Hyatt’s Website, the 100-seat room will boast “a café with a European style espresso and wine bar, a 24-seat communal bar and dining space, and a 45-seat full-service formal dining area.”

The menu will consist of “traditional brasserie fare with a modern American interpretation: upscale fare with a continental flair.” The wine program will be overseen by Roger Dagorn, the highly decorated Master Sommelier from Chanterelle, Tocqueville and 15 East, and the cafe will have its own private-label coffee. Read more…

Lila Selim

Lila Selim Kathleen Webster.

Kathleen Webster has had enough of her unwelcome neighbors at Sara D. Roosevelt Park. She thinks the rat population has exploded since Hurricane Sandy, particularly around the Golden Age Center for senior citizens.

“I saw about forty of them crawling out of the garbage in back of the building,” she told Community Board 3’s parks committee last week.  Ms. Webster, a representative of the SDR Park Coalition, said the health department “hasn’t been as diligent as it needs to be” about the increased rat population and asked the board to press for action.

Phil Abramson, a spokesperson for the parks department, confirmed that there had been an uptick in rats in recent weeks. As a result, the parks department has upped the amount of bait it uses. In addition to collecting trash daily, employees routinely patrol Roosevelt Park looking for rat burrows, then bait and destroy them, Mr. Abramson said. Several dozen of the holes were visible in the park yesterday morning.
Read more…

Courtesy Ichabod’s

The space that held the hemp-happy Galaxy Global Eatery for 15 years will be reborn as Ichabod’s tomorrow. It’s the second establishment named after Washington Irving (it’s on Irving Place, see) that Eric Sherman and Brian Krawitz have opened in recent months.

At a private party last night, many of the guests were friends of the owners, who took over the space adjacent Irving Plaza last year. A couple of months ago they opened The Headless Horseman in the former home of Bar 119, around the corner on East 15th Street. It’s a woodsy speakeasy-type spot that looks like a dungeon from the outside.

So what’s with the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” allusions?
See the menu…

Daniel Maurer

On the heels of an application to convert the former P.S. 64 building into college dorms, Villagers are again calling for the historic building to be used for non-profit organizations and low-income housing.

“The building was an arts and cultural center, and it really needs to be returned to that,” said Carolyn Ratcliffe, a member of Community Board 3 who is also vice president of the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative and a member of the Ninth Street Block Association.

Ms. Ratcliffe, who protested the eviction of the CHARAS/El Bohio community center in 2001, questioned the intentions of Gregg Singer, the developer who bought the building from the city in 1998 and has been clashing with local residents and elected officials ever since. “He has not been a good neighbor in the past,” she said.

Frank Morales, a long-time housing activist who has led numerous discussions about the building’s future, is hopeful that community members can reclaim it. “The former P.S. 64 needs be converted into low-income and affordable housing for those in need,” he said, “as we are amidst a deep crisis in this city regarding the lack of accessible housing for poor and working-class people, a situation that we intend to change and reclaiming Charas back from the speculators is part of that plan.”
Read more…

William S. Burroughs would’ve turned 99 this month. Portraits of him are currently on display, but Tim Milk, who met the literary lion, thinks they’re not to be believed.

Tim Milk

Ask anyone. They’ll tell you. The invisible man cannot be photographed. I should have known better than to try.

“El hombre invisible,” as he was known in Tangier, ever dodgy and evasive, was infamous for his vanishing acts. Whenever he did appear in the flesh it was a set-up, an illusion, the oldest trick in the book. As a matter of fact the entire extant history of William S. Burroughs is a complete fabrication. All those blurry shots from the 1950s — so evocative of the times, boasting the faces of America’s greatest writers — that was also a sham. That fellow standing next to the Beat Poets in Paris or New York isn’t the real Burroughs. He is nothing but a stand-in, an extra in a documentary film — dim, jerky, faraway.

“Now you see me, now you don’t,” said the last of the great Midwestern story-tellers. Never mind that his stories were phrases drawn at random, or not so random as he preferred it, indicating broadly that chance as a concept did not exist any more than he did. By shredding his manuscripts and reading across, inventing incantations from the results there before him, he could mesmerize the whole room and disappear unnoticed.

Poof.

So you were taken in the same as I was. Well, don’t feel too bad about it. Happens to the best of us. The corner of the photograph that escaped everyone’s attention will swallow us all one day, but not “El Hombre Invisible.”

My quest began in February of 1978, on my initial trip to New York. My digs were a cavernous former workhouse directly across from where Burroughs lived at 222 Bowery. One stormy evening found me there all alone, with the sleet coming down thick and relentless. By nightfall the icy slurry was six inches deep: not a night fit for man or beast.

On the windows across the way the blinds were pulled down. Fitful silhouettes of men played across them, producing a startling film-noir effect. They were drinking, smoking, pacing. One of them jabbed at the air with his cigarette, another nursed himself from a rock glass. Sometimes their shadows would whisk away and vanish for a while, only to loom once again into view.

On the turntable I dropped the needle onto a recording of Burroughs reading “The Chief Smiles,” one of a number of readings on vinyl that were at hand at the loft. Dry-as-gin came his voice, floating out into the dank, cold air. Read more…

Nicolina Portal 3

Local artist Nicolina Johnson, better known as just Nicolina, revealed the latest in her series of epic “portals” today, and moved quickly to fix one that had been vandalized.

Portal 3, titled “Movement,” was unveiled on the artist’s Facebook page along with a brief description: “The Lord of Death from the Tibetan Wheel of Life pictured at the top of the triangle, represents the Impermanence; change. The Baby Dragon inside the circle represents the movement of time and the three dimensions.” The painting, which is about the size of a doorway, should go up “somewhere around Second Street” in May, said Nicolina, who lives on East Second Street, near Avenue A.

The artist and her partner on the project, Pérola M. Bonfanti, are currently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where today they planned to start work on Portal 4, titled “The Material World, Nature and Sexuality.” While away they’re organizing a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for Envirotex, a varnish that will prevent vandalization of their art. The campaign’s grand prize? A personalized portal in your home. Read more…

Kavitha Surana

“Oh my God, your mannequins are real-sized!”

“Look, clothes for big girls like me!”

Those are the reactions Kathy Sanchez said she had gotten from passersby after opening Curvaceous K boutique over the weekend.

Even petite women have come in to express their excitement about the healthy-sized models in the window, she said.

The store stocks sizes 14 through 26 and a wide range of hard-to-find labels like Igigi, Mynt, SWAK, and Queen Grace.

Ms. Sanchez gained her nuanced understanding of plus-sized clothes from personal experience. “I’ve been so many different sizes and I always had to learn how to dress my body,” she explained. “Eventually I became the go-to girl for styling my full-figured friends.” Read more…

Michael Natale

Good morning, East Village.

More details have emerged about the 19-year-old who died after walking into a lobby on East 12th Street early Saturday: “She had been drinking heavily with pals at Webster Hall, law-enforcement officials said. Her father, Richard Pascucci, said she had an adrenal gland disorder. He said he thought someone had slipped drugs in her drink.” [NY Post]

“The four-story East Village townhouse that actor John Leguizamo bought in 1995 for an undisclosed amount has just hit the market for $3.995 million.” [Curbed]

More on Jared Kushner’s East Village buying spree: ““[Kushner] love[s] the East Village because there are a ton of people looking to rent there and under 1 percent vacancy,” says an industry source. “[It is] now likely the largest landlord in the East Village with all [its] acquisitions, and will continue to buy more.” [The Real Deal]

Alec Baldwin got in another tiff with a photographer on East 10th Street, and this incident led to both him and the photographer filing harassment complaints. [NY Post, Daily News]
Read more…

While one Monday-night open mic is just beginning, another is celebrating two decades.

Sidewalk Cafe’s Winter Antifolk Festival returns Feb. 19, and this one promises to be special: it was just about 20 years ago that singer-songwriter Lach, who had established the first Antifolk Festival back in 1983, brought his weekly Antihoot to the back room of Sidewalk. Since then, the open-mic series — a showcase for the genre-bending musicianship that Lach dubbed “antifolk” — has featured the likes of Regina Spektor, the Moldy Peaches, and the Avett Brothers. Lach moved on in 2008 (he now lives in Scotland), but not before tapping musician Ben Krieger to continue booking shows at Sidewalk.

As you can see from the lineup below, this year’s 10-day festival will bring back some recognizable names: Jeffrey Lewis will perform with the great Peter Stampfel of the Fugs, Jason Trachtenburg will play with his big band, and Seth Faergolzia of Dufus will be there with John Ludington.

To celebrate 20 years of antifolk, Sidewalk has sent us a sheaf of show flyers from years gone by. Click through the slideshow for a trip down memory lane.
Read more…