David Sierra
Good Morning, East Village.
Congregation Adas Le Israel Anshei Meseritz is concerned that plans to convert much of the synagogue to apartments will ruin the building’s facade. The architect assures congregants the proposed penthouse will not be visible from the street. [DNA Info]
The Angel Orensanz Foundation is showing an exhibition by its namesake artist as part of Armory Show and the Art Show. “Transparent Matter” runs today through Saturday. [The Lo-Down]
Success Academy presented a proposal for two new charter schools in the Lower East Side last night. [The Lo-Down]
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Mel Bailey Good Morning, East Village.
Residents of affordable housing complex Knickerbocker Village are “still struggling to bounce back” from the effects of Hurricane Sandy and FEMA has “rejected claims from several residents” for reimbursement of hotel expenses. [The Lo-Down]
Village East Cinema on 12th Street and Second Avenue is named “Best Gem Hidden in a Multiplex” and one of the 12 best movie theaters in New York City. Landmark Sunshine Cinema on the Lower East Side is also pretty cool. [Gothamist]
The East Village has two of the least brunch-y-est brunch spots in New York City. Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria at 53 Great Jones Street and Le Philosophe at 55 Bond Street were just included on a list of 16 of “the least douche-y spots in the city” for brunch. [Grub Street]
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Scott Lynch Good morning, East Village.
The East Village, Lower East Side and Williamsburg “are the noisiest in New York City, with 2,108 noise complaints coming from the East Village over the last year, according to an amNewYork analysis of 311 data.” [AM NY]
“Community Board 3′s Landmarks Subcommittee will hear proposals for changes to two East Village landmarks: St Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery (an individual landmark and part of the St. Mark’s Historic District) and Congregation Mezritch Synagogue at 415 East 6th Street in the newly designated East Village/Lower East Side Historic District.” [Off the Grid]
The JJT Gallery on the Lower East Side has a conundrum at the heart of its latest exhibit: how did the single-piece installation called “Cave” by Brooklyn artist Charles Harlan, which is a corrugated cylinder with a 10-foot fit through the 7-foot 6-inch doors of the gallery? [DNA Info]
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Good morning, East Village.
Above: the latest mural at Ideal Glass, by LNY.
“No Wave underground legend, feminist icon, artist, author, actress, musician and all-around troublemaker Lydia Lunch is now the author of a cookbook, The Need to Feed: Recipes for Developing a Healthy Obsession for Deeply Satisfying Foods, a “hedonist’s guide.” [Dangerous Minds]
Bowery Poetry Club relaunches Friday with Duane Park Burlesque. [Blackbook]
The Department of Transportation has installed a “bike corral” on Avenue B. “Mosey on up and tie up your steed.” [GammaBlog]
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Scott Lynch Good morning, East Village.
Joe’s Pizza didn’t open last week as expected but is due to open today, per Eater. Above, Scott Lynch got a glimpse inside.
“The owners of high-priced units at 199 Bowery want a judge to overturn the liquor license granted to The EMM Group — which operates Finale, the ground floor disco, and Bow, a jazz club in the basement.” [NY Daily News]
Gunshots were heard on Essex Street near Stanton. [The Lo-Down]
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Joann Jovinelly Good morning, East Village.
“Four months after Hurricane Sandy flooded the streets of lower Manhattan, 94 businesses in the area are still lacking phone and Internet service, according to a new report by the Alliance for Downtown New York.” Businesses in Alphabet City are among those affected. [Huffington Post NY]
“Two Stuyvesant Town residents have asked a judge to toss the $68.7 million planned settlement that tenants reached last fall with the owners of the massive apartment complex over inflated rents.” [NY Post]
A roundup of vinyl spots still in the Village. [Off the Grid]
Speaking of vinyl, Brindle Room is throwing a Monday night vinyl party: “9-midnight $15 bottomless PBR and passed apps. Bring your old vinyl and come dance!” [Twitter]
“The East Village’s bounty of bento boxes, sushi and ramen will soon be the focus of Japanese Restaurant Week, which returns to the city on Monday.” [DNA Info]
“Officers from the 7th Precinct visited 151 Bar on Rivington Street last night to deliver a restraining order to owner Francine Marchese. The city has filed a civil suit accusing the divey nightlife spot of selling liquor to underage auxiliary police officers.” [The Lo-Down]
“El Sombrero (The Hat) is on the verge of extinction,” says Clayton Patterson, “simply because the ever-increasing cost of living on the Lower East Side has purged the community of local long-term residents, and the tourists, students and trendy visitors do not seem to have a taste for an authentic L.E.S. Hispanic restaurant.” [The Villager]
Comedian Sara Schaefer on brunching: “My boyfriend and our friends scoped out a place using Yelp. Time for my farm-to-table brunch! We pull up, however, and it’s overrun with people. Being in a strange town with few options, we make a split decision. A decision that is necessary given the circumstances. A decision I will have to live with for the rest of my life. No, we didn’t decide to eat each other. We went to IHOP. [Grub Street]
Scott Lynch Good morning, East Village.
A number of blocks in the East Village have been added to FEMA’s flood maps. “The maps are preliminary, but FEMA officials said they will be useful in rebuilding and fortifying flooded areas. Official versions of the maps will be rolled out this spring and finalized over the next year or two. Those maps will be used to set premium rates for flood insurance and play a role in building codes and other regulations.” [Crain’s]
Community Board 3 has released its calendar of meetings for March. By the looks of it, the new restaurant going into the Mama’s Food Shop space may be called Hearth N Soul and the controversial General is aiming for a sidewalk cafe. [The Lo-Down]
Speaking of The General, Ryan Sutton thinks the restaurant offers “diluted flavors that never reach beyond pan-Asian party fare begging to be paired with $16 Scotch cocktails.” [Bloomberg]
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Gloria ChungGood morning, East Village.
The city has put out a Request For Proposals for the Seward Park Urban Renewal area and “interest among developers has been frenzied, city officials said. Since the announcement, bidding information has been downloaded from the city’s Web site 750 times by parties… More than 200 people turned up at a city information session this month, including representatives from the Related Companies, Forest City Ratner, Edward J. Minskoff Equities and AvalonBay Communities, a developer based in Arlington, Va.” [NY Times]
“The long-neglected Pier 42 on the southern end of East River Park will open to the public for the first time this spring, officials announced Tuesday.” [DNA Info]
“Four years into his 154-year prison sentence, a violent sex fiend — dubbed the ‘Crackhead Casanova’ by Manhattan prosecutors — is trying to overturn his conviction for a pair of 2006 attacks in an East Village apartment building.” [NY Post]
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Steven Matthews Good morning, East Village.
John Legend sold his Bowery condo — purchased for $1.9 million in 2009 — for a $775,000 profit. [TMZ]
At the Rite Aid on First Avenue, “an East Village store clerk jumped into action after spotting an alleged shoplifter making a run for it yesterday, chasing and tackling the suspect as the man crashed over displays of merchandise.” [NY Post]
Four of Julian Schnabel’s large early paintings are on display at a storefront on East 10th Street. “Speaking of the one-at-a-time presentation of large paintings in a tiny space, Schnabel said, ‘There’s something absurd about it, like there is about all art. At the same time there’s something very pure about it.'” [Art in America]
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Michael Pearce Good morning, East Village.
“Word just came from the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors that the legendary street is now included in the National Register of Historic Places.” [The Lo-Down]
Luc Sante, Martin Scorsese and Angela Westwater are among the honorary hosts of a benefit to celebrate the designation on March 20. [LES History Project]
“A lower East Side theater that championed anarchism, Utopian experimentalism for 66 years will close for good this week — and its fiery founder will spend her remaining days in an unhappy retirement. Judith Malina will move Thursday to the Lillian Booth home for retired artists in New Jersey after losing her lease on Clinton Street’s Living Theatre, where she produced cutting-edge theater for six decades.” [NY Daily News]
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Steven Matthews Good morning, East Village.
Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer and State Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh pen an op-ed about the Blueway: “We would build a footbridge spanning the FDR Drive at East 14th Street that would not only improve pedestrian access, but also protect the Con Ed power station from future floodwaters and guard against a repeat of last fall’s devastating blackout.” [Town & Village]
“In honor of Black History Month, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has released a list of 25 designated landmarks related to African-American culture and history. One of the 25 is the Charlie Parker Residence at 151 Avenue B in the East Village.” [Off the Grid]
The Brisket King of NYC has been crowned: “BristketTown’s Daniel Delaney took home the top prize at last night’s Brisket King competition at Santos Party House.” [Eater]
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Roey AhramGood morning, East Village.
Jared Kushner ain’t done yet: “Kushner Cos. is in contract for two deals with Icon Realty Management’s Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen. The deals include 325 East 10th Street right on Tompkins Square Park, and the nearby 329, 331, 333 and 335 East Ninth Street for a total of 55 apartments and five stores for $28.75 million.” [NY Post]
“Two bedbugs have been found at a Lower Manhattan elementary school since early January, and at least one parent says her child came home with bug bites. PS 188 on the Lower East Side confirmed there was a bedbug sighting in early January, and then again last week.” [NBC NY]
A witness to the Alec Baldwin kerfuffle says he didn’t hear the actor use the word “crackhead” or make any other derogatory comments to a New York Post photographer who has accused him of using a racial slur. [Gothamist]
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Scott Lynch Good morning, East Village.
East Village-based Travel Agency of Change, which uses hip-hop travel to influence at-risk youth, “has taken about a dozen young people from all over the city to experience Berlin’s hip-hop community and is currently raising funds to bring several more 18- to 25-year-olds to Barcelona, Spain in April.” [DNA Info]
A sobering assessment of the Upright Citizens Brigade: “As it has grown, the theater has chosen to keep ticket prices low and has put money into renting real estate (its East Village space led to $1 million in debt) and not to paying for onstage talent.” [NY Times]
“Orchard Street between Canal and Grand streets has emerged as the epicenter of the Lower East Side’s gallery scene in recent years, but that stretch seems to be extending to the north, especially with the arrival of two more players on the strip: Brooklyn transplant Muriel Guepin Gallery at 83 Orchard, and New Jersey-based newcomer Broadfoot and Broadfoot at 155 Orchard.” [Art Info]
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Scott LynchGood morning, East Village.
Under a proposed redistricting, the boundary lines of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd districts wouldn’t change much, even though population in that area grew tremendously in the past 10 years. “This means that residents of the Village, East Village and the other neighborhoods in these three districts would be among the most underrepresented in the City Council under the proposed new plan.” [Off the Grid]
Damaris Reyes of Good Old Lower East Side addresses the housing authority’s plan to allow developers to build on public-housing parking lots: “People are concerned about losing trees and space and parking,” she says. “What’s next? Will you sell our buildings? Those are the fears.” [NY Times]
“Here are the first renderings of the hyper-modern condo building soon to rise above 100 Norfolk Street, right across the street from the Lower East Side’s most controversial glass tower. ODA Architecture is building the 12-story, 38 unit residential complex, which will loom over Delancey Street. [The Lo-Down]
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Michael NataleGood 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]
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Gloria Chung Good morning, East Village.
“Muji is something that is going to help transform the area,” says a broker involved in the deal we broke news of nine days ago. [The Real Deal]
A penthouse unit at 250 Bowery has sold for around $3.9 million. “Douglas Elliman’s Fredrik Eklund, who is handling sales at the building with his colleague John Gomes, uploaded an Instagram photo of the apartment yesterday, noting that the contract price is a price-per-square-foot record “for the area,” meaning the Bowery.” [The Real Deal]
Clayton Patterson on today’s Lower East Side: “Gone are the days of political outrage, mass political gatherings, inspired firebrand speeches. Today if a youth gets murdered, the most we can hope for is an hour of speeches and maybe a six-block memorial walk.” [The Villager]
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Steven Matthews Good morning, East Village.
Clayton Patterson discusses his new new book, “Jews: A People’s History of the Lower East Side.” [East Village East East Village]
“For more than a decade now, Manhattan performance artist and former Warhol starlet Penny Arcade has been doing her part to preserve the legacy of fellow downtown artists—a legacy that continues to be gradually erased as the East Village and the Lower East Side march toward total gentrification.” [Capital NY]
A Valentine’s chat with Pilar and Walter La Rosa of Pilar Jewelry Repair on East Seventh Street: “This adorably cute couple hail from Lima, Peru, and have been coworkers for the past 20 years at this East Village storefront, which is an accomplishment in itself. What is even more astonishing is that they’ve been married for the past five decades!” [Runnin’ Scared]
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Scott Lynch Good morning, East Village.
“A report released by the National Hurricane Center on Tuesday charged that downgrading Hurricane Sandy to a post-tropical cyclone limited the warnings that weather forecasters could issue.” [NY Times]
“With Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to leave office at year’s end, there is concern that the city’s next leader will end a period of bike-friendly programs and policies.” [NY Times]
Lucien Bahaj explains the closing of the Pink Pony: “I serve high quality food at lower prices and that market is not there anymore. My prices cannot be maintained with that kind of rent and I don’t want to raise my prices,” he says. “It’s not a tragedy. It belonged to an era and the era changed and I changed with it. All my customers have left or changed. The neighborhood used to be full of creative types — painters, writers, filmmakers. We don’t have that anymore.” [NY Daily News]
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Rachel Citron Good morning, East Village.
Ludlow Street fixture the Pink Pony has closed. “The owner, Lucien Bahaj, a Moroccan-born Frenchman who took over the Pink Pony in 2001, said he closed it partly because of his health – he is 68 and diabetic – but primarily because the landlord wanted $20,000 a month in rent, up from the current $14,000.” [NY Times]
And another Lower East Side longtimer, Motor City, will follow it. The owner says the lease is up at the end of the month. [The Lo-Down]
“Tom Cruise is in contract to sell his condominium unit at the American Felt Building in the East Village for $3 million.” [The Real Deal]
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Bahram Foroughi Good morning, East Village.
District 1, which includes the Lower East Side and East Village, is “one of the only places in the city where parents can send their children to any elementary school in the area, rather than being guaranteed a seat in a local zoned school.” [DNA Info]
And we also have a lot of cafes: “The East Village ZIP code of 10003 has the highest number of shops with 49, closely followed by Midtown/Hell’s Kitchen (10019) with 47. Midtown East (10017) and SoHo (10012) each have 41, and Tribeca/Chinatown (10013) has 40.” [NYC EDC]
Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar made a cooking demo parodying an 80s workout video. [Eater] The sweets shop is now offering baking lessons. [Gothamist]
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