Ray Sumser, the East Villager who drew pretty much every cartoon character ever, is back with a new project. This time, he wants you to suggest your favorite female characters from comic books, cartoons and video games, so he can create “a sampling of the often overshadowed and under-appreciated heroes that are pop fiction females.”
According to Mr. Sumser’s Kickstarter blurb, the idea arose because the epic creations he has shown in Union Square, including a crowd-sourced collection of comic-book villains, “tended to be boys clubs. This seems like something worth acknowledging and possibly changing.”
And so he has kicked off his latest with drawings of Miss Piggy, Belle from “Beauty and the Beast,” Patti Mayonnaise from “Doug,” Velma from “Scooby-Doo,” Valerie from “Josey and the Pussycats,” and Marceline the Vampire Queen from “Adventure Time.” You’ve got eight days to contribute $15, which gets you a print of the finished work with your favorite character in the mix.
Daniel Maurer
Daniel MaurerA kitchen fire broke out at 151 Avenue A this afternoon.
The blaze on the fifth floor of the building near East 10th Street was called in at 12:13 p.m. and under control within 15 minutes, the fire department said.
No injuries were reported.
Daniel MaurerYes, indeed: we’re cruising for contributors! Want to write for The Local? Hop on board by using our nifty Virtual Assignment Desk. Just pitch us a story (whether it’s something you want to write or something you want us to cover) and we’ll get right back to you. If you end up contributing, we’ll even give you gas money.
And if you have photos of the neighborhood to share, post ’em to our Flickr group.
Gloria Chung Good morning, East Village.
“A proposal to renovate a historic East Village synagogue and construct a penthouse suite on top of it took a step forward last week, with plans passing through a Community Board 3 committee and subcommittee and now awaiting approval from the full community board and the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.” [East Villager]
“A somewhat grim Department of Transportation parking lot on the Lower East Side is getting a major facelift (or facade-lift, as the case may be), courtesy of Michielli and Wyetzner Architects and the city’s ‘design excellence’ initiative.” [Curbed]
“Police were able to get their hands on a knife-wielding robber after he struck at a Union Square Taco Bell restaurant, but his accomplice fled with the cash.” [East Villager]
Read more…
Lila Selim A parking lot at Campos is slated for redevelopment.Mayor Bloomberg released more details today about the New York City Housing Authority’s controversial plan to lease its property to private developers, indicating that a request for proposals will go out around the end of April and developers for the sites will be chosen between August and November.
State Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, one of the elected officials who had demanded more transparency and community outreach from the housing authority, called the Mayor’s response (below) “the most specific document available” regarding the agency’s plan to allow private development on its property. He also pointed to other positive steps in recent days. During a meeting with the state assembly’s housing committee Friday, N.Y.C.H.A. revealed that it would ask prospective developers to propose security and energy upgrades for the affected complexes, said Mr. Kavanagh.
For the first time, the housing authority has also posted information about its plan on its Website.
Still, members of Community Board 3 are concerned that they won’t have a chance to consider the plan until days before the request for proposals goes out.
Read more…
Daniel MaurerHere’s something we noticed last week and are just getting around to posting: a new Chinese takeout joint is opening on 14th Street.
Bei Jing is currently under construction at 223A East 14th Street, between Second and Third Avenues. Surely the future tenants of The Jefferson, going in across the street, will appreciate the $6.29 lunch special.
Correction, April 16, 2013: This post has been revised to correct an error. The original version mistakenly reprinted a menu that did not belong to the restaurant, and referred to menu items in the text. The restaurant has now opened and you can see the correct menu here.
Sarah Darville Elderly residents held a “memorial” for Sasaki Garden in June.A judge has dismissed one of two lawsuits against New York University’s controversial plan to expand in Greenwich Village.
Rent-stabilized tenants of Washington Square Village sued N.Y.U. in August, claiming that their landlord’s plan to redevelop a park-like courtyard in order to make way for two new high-rise buildings would illegally eliminate a “required service.”
The tenants had argued that the 2-acre “park-like area,” which includes a locked children’s playground and the historic Sasaki Garden, was one of the “required services [N.Y.U.] is obligated (as a rent-stabilized landlord) to provide without interruption to its rent stabilized tenants,” as part of Washington Square Village’s original “towers-in-the-park” design.
The lawsuit sought to block N.Y.U.’s plan to first eliminate the private park (along with the underground parking garage on which it sits) and then redevelop it as a “much smaller public park.”
Read more…
Meghan KeneallyIs Jimmy “The Rent Is Too Damn High” McMillan a fan of 7-Eleven?
Damn straight, he is.
“I applaud 7-Eleven!” the mayoral candidate told The Local earlier today, striking a decidedly different tone than the anti-chain activists who’ve been plastering the neighborhood with stickers reading “Shopping 7-Eleven? Shame On You!”
“I hope 7-Elevens pop up all over the place,” he added.
Mr. McMillan was spotted shopping at 7-Eleven last week, but he isn’t ashamed. “Anything that opens so people can grab a quick snack on their way to work, I welcome that,” he said, later adding, “The reason you see places like 7-Eleven and Walmart popping up all over the country is because people can’t afford to shop on Fifth Avenue. People complain that 7-Eleven is turning the East Village into a mall but they are not talking about the real issues that will get America back on track.”
Read more…
Scott Lynch Good morning, East Village.
Now playing at The Box: “Eliogabalo,” “a Baroque Italian opera by Francesco Cavalli, written in 1667 but never performed in the composer’s lifetime, partly because the story was a shocker even for Venetian audiences used to seeing all manner of wild sexuality and political corruption on the opera stage.”
A local resident pens an op-ed: “For many, Soho House coming to the Lower East Side is just another stage in the gentrification process. As New Yorkers, we have come to view gentrification as just a natural part of urban life. However, Soho House’s plan for our neighborhood reaches beyond gentrification.” [The Lo-Down]
Empellon Cocina and David Chang are among the finalists for the James Beard Foundation Awards. [Grub Street]
Read more…
Paul Wagtouicz
Paul WagtouiczAfter sitting vacant for nearly four years, the Amato Opera House may finally be getting an encore.
Real-estate heavyweight Steven Croman, a member of the LLC that bought the iconic building in 2009, has filed an application to convert the jewel-box theater at 319 Bowery into a commercial and residential building, with a penthouse addition above the fourth floor.
The change of use would heighten the building by 10 feet and add three residential units, according to an application for a construction permit filed last week and currently being reviewed by the department of buildings.
The Amato Opera, a onetime fixture of the Bowery art scene, closed in 2009 after Anthony Amato sold it for $3.7 million amidst a heated inner-family legal dispute. It had served as “The Smallest Grand Opera in the World” for more than 60 years. After Mr. Amato died at 91 in December of 2011, The Local got an extraordinary look inside the opera house, then on sale for $6.5 million. At the time, prospective buyers had considered the space for a one-family home, a nightclub, restaurant or bar.
The building’s property manager was not immediately available for comment.
Update | 6:30 p.m. Lauren Muss, the broker of 319 Bowery and Senior Vice President at Corcoran, confirmed that “the owner is keeping” the building.
Anna Silman
The chef-owner of Candela Candela has returned to his roots with a new Israeli and Mediterranean restaurant, Local 92.
“I wanted to do the stuff that I know how to do the best,” explained Shai Zvibak. “I can do Italian and French, but why walk to the side when you can walk straight?”
Where Candela Candela once offered Italian fusion, the Israeli native now focuses on dishes based on traditional family recipes, such as shakshuka, falafel and baba ganoush. “It’s stuff from my childhood, stuff that my mom cooked — my grandma, my friends’ moms,” said Mr. Zvibak.
The menu, below, features “bissim,” or small bites, designed for sharing, as well as nine different varieties of hummus. Those not in a sharing mood can choose from a list of larger entrees, including a falafel-crusted salmon served with cucumber dill yogurt and Israeli meatballs served on a couscous nest, as well as a rotating roster of daily specials.
See the menu…
Heather DubinPaging the owner of this Nissan Altima on East Seventh Street, near Avenue C.
Last week, Verizon posted “no parking” signs on the block, where installation of fiber optics for FiOS service continues this week.
Most vehicles complied with the request, except for this car with dents on its roof, plastic covering the rear window, and multiple parking tickets stuffed under its windshield wiper, dating back to Feb. 7.
Someone in the neighborhood has clearly had enough. “Dear Lord,” reads a message on the car’s window. “In case you didn’t receive the last message, we are still waiting for a miracle here on E. 7th St. (telephone and internet service after “Sandy,” preceded by removal of this abandoned car.)”
Scott LynchGood morning, East Village.
As you can see above, St. Patrick’s Day rolled through the East Village. For more photos of celebrations in the neighborhood, check out Gothamist as well as The Local’s Flickr pool.
The new Soho House on Ludlow Street will have “a ground floor restaurant and bar, a sitting area on the second floor and a third four “old school” gym meant for activities such as boxing and yoga.” [The Lo-Down]
“An 1861 East Village townhouse, built by architect James Renwick, Jr. (who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Washington DC’s Smithsonian Castle) has appeared on the market for $6.7 million.” [Curbed]
“’The Love Song of Jonny Valentine,’ by East Village author Teddy Wayne, has quickly morphed into the hipster must-read of the moment.” [Daily News]
Read more…
Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesN.Y.U.’s Faculty of Arts and Science has issued a vote of no confidence in the university’s president, John Sexton.
The vote was met immediately with a statement from N.Y.U.’s board of trustees, reprinted below, indicating that it “strongly supports President Sexton, and believes in his strategic direction for the University.”
Mr. Sexton followed the board’s statement, which praised him as a “nationally recognized innovator,” with his own e-mail citing recent “expressions of support – from the Medical School, from the Nursing School, from the Dental School, from the Deans of all the schools, as well today’s email to the NYU community from the Trustees – and now this expression of dissatisfaction from FAS.”
Mr. Sexton’s letter, also reprinted below, acknowledged that “faculty must be at the center of the academic endeavor and involved in the decision-making. We have taken some important steps in that direction and, particularly with this vote in mind, that effort will continue.” Read more…
Daniel MaurerJohn “Crash” Matos finished his mural at Bowery and Houston today, according to a security guard. The paint was still fresh — and we do mean fresh — when we stopped by minutes ago.
Daniel MaurerSpeaking of Rockaway, the folks behind Death & Co. have brought a piece of the peninsula to Russia. Sort of.
David Kaplan and Alex Day, proprietors of Proprietors LLC, recently helped a Russian restaurant group open a cocktail bar called Far Rockaway.
The concept for the “pseudo ex-pat bar” evolved months before Hurricane Sandy brought national notoriety to the neighborhood, said Mr. Kaplan. “What we really wanted to capture was the idea of Far Rockaway as a local escape – it’s close and easy to get to but it’s still kind of not within your every day.”
Don’t expect Rockaway kitsch on the walls, as at Chinatown’s new bar Forgetmenot. Mr. Kaplan and Mr. Day went back and forth about whether to keep the name Far Rockaway in the wake of Sandy, but they knew for certain they didn’t want to open a theme bar. Read more…
Daniel MaurerThe “Rent Is Too Damn High”-mobile was spotted outside of the 7-Eleven on St. Marks today while Jimmy McMillan yucked it up at the checkout counter. That’s right: the Man of the People, in The Man’s convenience store! Will the No 7-Eleven folks smack a “Shame on You” sticker on his ride?
We’ve asked the mayoral candidate where he stands on Pringles, and will let you know if we hear back. To be fair, he is a champion of bodegas — at least, when there’s free ice cream involved.
“The Tomorrow People” is filming in the neighborhood next Wednesday and Thursday, per signs posted on East Sixth Street near Cooper Square. According to Deadline, the CW revival of the 1970s British sci-fi series (previously revived in the ’90s and ’00s) stars Mark Pellegrino (best known as Jacob on “Lost”) and “is about several young people from around the world who represent the next stage in human evolution and work together to defeat the forces of evil.”
Daniel MaurerAn outpost of UPS has opened at 34 Third Avenue, where Atlas Barber School went out of business after 64 years. Will the neighborhood’s custodians scoff at another chain, or will they welcome an alternative to the local post office?
Needless to say, Stuyvesant Station has only received more hatred from Yelpers since we last checked in. Here’s a not-so-glowing four-star review.
This was the best trip to the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office I’ve ever had. Clearly they have made some drastic improvements since the last time I patronized the establishment. Oh, where to begin.
First, I was pleasantly surprised that the owners had decided to add doorman service. I nice homeless man happily opened the door for me with a smile as I entered. It being cold out, it was good I did not have to take my hands out of my pocket for this. Read more…
