Emily Armstrong Toilets have been installed at the BMW Guggenheim Lab on First Street.

“Rat City” is gone, and now the lot at First Street and First Avenue looks ready to host humans.

An eagle-eyed local passed along photos of new toilets being installed last Thursday at the BMW Guggenheim Lab, which will open on August 3.

“I thought this was a sophomoric art installation, but it’s the real thing,” said Emily Armstrong, who snapped the photos.

In an effort to head off any concerns about unwanted odors, a spokeswoman for the elaborate development at First Avenue and First Street said the toilets would be carefully maintained.

“The bathrooms at the BMW Guggenheim Lab are built with special temporary toilets equipped with water tanks,” said Lauren Van Natten, a spokeswoman for the Guggenheim. “They will be serviced at least once a day.”

Trevor Stahelski, the owner of a building on First Street that is near the high-tech outhouse facing Houston Street, said that the bathrooms were a small price to pay, given what used to be there.

“It’s better than a rat-infested dirt lot. It was just disgusting before,” Mr. Stahelski said. “It’s not the most optimal thing, but I still support it — it won’t be there forever.”

Stephen Rex Brown The shed housing the toilets.

Indeed, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will be relatively short-lived; it closes Oct. 16.

During that time, the space will host various events “meant to inspire innovative ideas for urban life,” according to the project’s website. One event on Aug. 6 will encourage visitors to “find and collect sounds around the city, then learn how to remix them into audio tracks.”

Though one prominent local expressed skepticism about the East Village serving as the headquarters of an “urban experiment,” no one has, of yet, lamented the eviction of the hoards of rodents that for years called the space home.

As we noted earlier, the owners of a proposed business at 200 Avenue A — the former home of the oft-criticized Superdive — are speaking before the State Liquor Authority today. City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and members of Community Board 3 have both submitted formal letters in opposition to a liquor license for the business, which the applicant says will be an art gallery and restaurant. “The application also includes plans for a full service bar with 12 seats, live acoustic music and a DJ,” Ms. Mendez writes. “It appears that the gallery is incidental to a full service nightlife establishment.”
— Stephen Rex Brown

Joshua Davis About 150 people turned out for a Second Line tribute to Ray Deter.

Joshua Davis

Joshua Davis

Roey Ahram

A trumpet sounded. A trombone rose. And in a mix of mourning and celebration, dozens of feet danced up First Avenue Monday night in a true New Orleans tradition — a Second Line parade honoring the life of Ray Deter, owner of d.b.a. bar who died July 3, six days after he was struck by a car while cycling.

About 150 people turned out for the march, which wove from the bar on First Avenue through the East Village and ended at Mr. Deter’s Sixth Street apartment. The procession spilled out from the sidewalks and blocked traffic for several blocks. Led by musicians, the crowd sang songs, waved umbrellas and lit candles in memory of their friend.

Linnzi Zaorski, a jazz singer, offered an a capella song in memory of her friend as the parade paused in front of the New York City Marble Cemetery where Mr. Deter’s memorial service will be held on Wednesday. Then she looked up, smiled and blew a kiss towards the sky. “We love you, Ray,” she said, as the brass music began again.

Sounds of the Second Line

The Local’s Laura E. Lee and Chelsia Rose Marcius share their video of Monday night’s Second Line parade honoring Ray Deter.

Meghan Keneally Thomas Balsley at Monday’s meeting.

Members of Community Board 3 voted unanimously Monday night to oppose plans for an outdoor plaza at the new 51 Astor Place because of questions about whether the design provides enough space for the public and fits aesthetically with the surrounding neighborhood.

The board’s Planning and Land Use committee said that it will not endorse the plaza project unless changes are made that take into account the historic nature of the area around 51 Astor and other design issues, including the placement of benches.

Work is set to begin in the next few days, and the construction of the mixed-use commercial tower is set to last for 17 months.

After listening to a presentation by Thomas Balsley, the designer in charge of planning the outdoor space that will accompany the new building on Astor Place, members of the public were given a chance to address the board.

Speakers, many of whom were opposed to the design, raised a range of issues about the project from its look and aesthetics to what some said was its failure to account for the historic nature of the district.

“It’s like it’s from some other city,” said Marilyn Appleberg, who was a part of the group that discussed the initial plans for the building when they were approved in 2002. “I was really disappointed.”

A final discussion on the plaza project will occur at the full community board meeting on July 26.

Adrian Fussell

Good morning, East Village.

And welcome to the hottest day of the week. City cooling centers are open today in the East Village. Avoid the heat at the Ottendorfer library, Sirovech Senior Center, John Paul II Friendship Center or Tompkins Square library. Search for other locations here.

The heat added to the authenticity of the New Orleans-style second line march last night in remembrance of Ray Deter. We’ll have a full report on the tribute to Mr. Deter later today.

Proponents of a new art and restaurant space at 200 Avenue A, the former site of Superdive,  will present their application for a liquor license to the State Liquor Authority at 11 this morning, EV Grieve reported. The request follows the refusals of Community Board 3 to lend their support to the application.

The 9/11 memorial ticket reservation system went live yesterday and Gothamist reported the site received tremendous traffic in the first few hours.  The memorial at the World Trade site will initially open on Sept. 11 — the 10-year anniversary of the tragedy — but only to family members of victims. Members of the public can obtain free, timed-entry passes through the online system for visits beginning Sept. 12, but tickets are already sold out for Sept. 12, 13, and the following weekend. A limited number of passes will be distributed in-person each day as well.

With temperatures soaring to the mid-90’s today and tomorrow, the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for New York City. Residents can avoid the extreme heat in one of the city’s cooling centers, which will be open tomorrow, an Office of Emergency Management spokesman said. After the official announcement, the list of center locations will be available here or by calling 311. — Laura E. Lee

Meghan Keneally The logo for Restaurant Week.

The economics behind Restaurant Week means that a surprisingly small group of East Village restaurants are participating in the program.

The city-wide promotion, which runs for two weeks starting Monday, offers a prix fixe menu for $24.07 at lunch and $35 for dinner, the idea being that diners have the chance to get fancy meals at a lower cost. Because the majority of the East Village’s restaurants are less expensive already, many don’t see the need to participate.

“Our price point is extremely low — everything here is under $12 — so we don’t really fit the restaurant week model,” said Craig Koenig, one of the partners at Whitman’s restaurant on East 9th Street who is not involved in the promotion.

Yerba Buena, a Latin restaurant on Avenue A, is one of the five restaurants in the East Village that is offering Restaurant Week menus.

Participation in the East Village is low “because the restaurants are very small and a lot of people like to hit the really big places, like Gramercy Tavern and Nobu,” said Angel Deleon, the manager of Yerba Buena. “Those places may not give you the same value because the portions are small.”
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Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

We begin the week on a somber note. The neighborhood paused in remembrance Saturday night, as friends gathered for a vigil in honor of Monica Shay, an East Village resident and Pratt Institute professor who was killed last week. The event turned into a protest of sorts as participants celebrated Ms. Shay’s longtime community activism. Ms. Shay’s nephew and a toddler were also killed in the shooting. Ms. Shay’s husband and another victim in the shooting remain in critical condition.

Two other members of our community will be celebrated and remembered tonight. Friends and family will gather in Queens for a visitation for Dominique Philbert, who died last week. Mr. Philbert worked with his father, George, at Bikes by George on Fourth Street.

In traditional New Orleans fashion, friends of Ray Deter, the d.b.a. bar owner who died from injuries sustained in a biking accident, will take part in a second line funeral march beginning at 7 tonight — a fitting tribute for Mr. Deter who also owned two bars in the Big Easy.

Roey Ahram on finding picture-taking opportunities in unlikely places.

“From a photographic perspective, New York City is like a few other places I’ve been. The photographic icons have already been established — the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge. But what I love about taking pictures in New York, particularly in the East Village and Lower East Side is the richness and beauty in the parking lots, storefronts, sidewalks, and people — each are icons in their own right.”
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On a recent afternoon in the East Village, the sun shone relentlessly on the sidewalks and streets of the neighborhood — to the dismay of some and delight of others (perhaps having the proper headwear helps?).

A light hat in the style of the fedora, made from paper, polyester or other lightweight and breathable material (one gentleman sported a chapeau of Siberian horsehair!) may be the secret to a stylish and shady summertime stroll.

In one interview, the East Village ambler in question was so attached to his wool hat that he insisted on wearing it year round. He noted that it was a “stogie fedora” because the brim was so small, and he wore the hat as far back on his head as possible. The name for this type of hat is actually the “homburg,” and it is characterized by the brim fixed in a tight, upward curl — an adaptation that suits it for summer in the city.

The Local’s Rachel Ohm reports.

Khristopher J. Brooks Work is underway at the Yippie Museum Cafe.

Earlier today, EV Grieve reported that the Yippie Museum Cafe is under renovation. We now have more details about what the place will look like when the work is done.

When customers walk in, they’ll notice that the carpet, which dated back to the 1980’s, is gone. That’s because the cafe’s manager, Robert Payne, had the carpet pulled up and thrown away. Now after stepping in the front entrance, customers will see a black, rubber mat covering the hardwood floor.

After taking a few more steps into the cafe, customers will see stencil designs on the wood floor. Customers will also notice that the loft that loomed over the cafe’s cash register is gone. Mr. Payne, who plans to create the designs for the floors, decided the loft was taking up too much space. On the walls, customers will see the same Yippie posters and psychedelic art that was there before, but Mr. Payne will have the art restored, so the images will look like new.
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Courtesy of Y GalleryFrom a video installation by Juanli Carrion.

The subjects lurch to and fro in a drunken, slow-motion dance across the barroom floor, enveloped in a thick and sultry green fog. Then the action cuts to a solitary young woman who stares silently through this murk into a computer, until you the viewer turn away to find distraction in a barren art gallery as if possessed by a waking nightmare.

Such is what Juanli Carrion’s wall-sized video brings to the eyes in an exhibition entitled “The Plague of Darkness,” at Y Gallery on Orchard Street. The green-tinged night-vision technology so valued for military applications is employed here by Mr. Carrion to evoke its authoritative intrusion on a very personal level.

The work of other Latin American artists was also on display. Some speak to the history of totalitarian regimes in their native countries, and the will of the artists to survive them. Associate director Yoab Vera, himself from Mexico City, guided me through the gallery, and explained that although Y Gallery’s representation was 50 percent Latin American, the true goal was to open a dialogue between cultures, theirs and ours.

Y Gallery is located at 165 Orchard Street, between Rivington and Stanton. The exhibit runs through July 31.

Michelle Rick Local theater producer John Kim (below) said that the owners of the Amato Opera promised that he could take over the theater when it closed in 2009. A long legal fight stemming from his falling out with the opera’s former owner is winding down.

Stephen Rex Brown

As the curtain fell on the Amato Opera’s final performance in May 2009, many tears were shed and its eponymous founder received a standing ovation. But perhaps few in the audience knew that behind the scenes, a family feud had led to the end of the revered East Village opera house — a dispute that continues in court two years after the opera shut its doors.

Since the opera closed, a circuitous legal battle has ensued, which pits the charismatic owner of the opera, Anthony Amato, against his niece, Irene Frydel Kim and her husband, John Kim, who charge that Mr. Amato owes them more than 10 years worth of back wages, worth roughly $70,000. They also say in court papers that Mr. Amato owes them a portion of the $3.7 million he received through the 2009 sale of the opera building at 319 Bowery.

Mr. Amato counters that Ms. Kim misused money from a trust that he had established for her, and that she should repay the trust around $72,000.

This summer marks the end of one aspect of the dispute: under the terms of a court ruling late last year, the Kims have until September to vacate the City Island home that they once shared with Mr. Amato while helping him care for his ailing wife.

The ongoing legal wrangling has cast a cloud over the closing of the Amato Opera, which was previously portrayed publicly by Mr. Amato as inevitable, given that he is now 91.

Speaking about the matter on the record for the first time, Mr. Amato attributed his decision to close the opera to the lingering dispute with the Kims.

“I tried my best to turn it over to assistants but it wasn’t working. I just didn’t see any future in the opera the way I created it,” Mr. Amato said. “Nobody had the nerve to continue it.”
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Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

Watch where you step for the next couple of days. EV Grieve reports that someone in the neighborhood has lost a pet turtle. According to a flier posted on a pole at Ninth Street and Avenue C, the turtle is a red-eared Slider named Claudius. So, if you spot a random turtle crawling down the street, call 917-319-3975; it might be Claudius.

Also on Grieve: the management team at Sidewalk Bar & Restaurant says the bar aims to re-open Aug. 5 after being closed for repairs since March. The bar is known for its open mic nights; the owners proclaim Sidewalk holds the longest-running open mic night in the city. EV Grieve has snippets of an e-mail interview with the open-mic night leader Ben Krieger who said, “It looks like things are finally getting close to completion.” Mr. Krieger also wrote, “From what I know, the menu should be the same, but stripped down to about a third of the size, mainly the items that were selling. Prices should be about the same.”

And finally, East Villagers mourn the death of a long-time resident and Pratt Institute professor. The Local’s Chelsia Rose Marcius reports that Monica Shay, 58, a resident of East 10th Street, died Thursday after being shot in the head last weekend at her country home in eastern Pennsylvania. Mrs. Shay is the third person to die in the shooting; her nephew Joseph Shay and a 2-year-old boy died shortly after the shooting occurred. Two other people, including Mrs. Shay’s husband, Paul, remain in critical condition.

Stephen Rex Brown The subcommittee at tonight’s meeting.

The divide between preservationists and the opponents of a proposed historic district in the neighborhood was on full display Thursday night, as critics of the plan derided a proposed landmark district as an insult to some area institutions.

Supporters of the planned district, covering 330 buildings near Second Avenue and one block of Tompkins Square Park, countered that it would protect the East Village from development and preserve the architectural features of the neighborhood for future generations.

Opponents of the plan, led by representatives from three houses of worship — Congregation Meseritz Syngg, the Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection and St. Stanislaus Church — questioned whether the district would place an undue burden on them by requiring that they pay for the increased maintenance and upkeep of their buildings.

By the end of the two-hour meeting of Community Board 3’s landmarks subcommittee at 41 Cooper Square it was clear that the debate is far from over.
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Monica Shay, 58, a resident of East 10th Street, died today after being shot in the head last weekend at her country home in Bechtelsville, Pa. The authorities said that Richard Geisenheyner — who was later killed in a standoff with the police — shot Mrs. Shay, her husband Paul, her nephew, Joseph Shay, Joseph Shay’s girlfriend Kathryn Erdmann, and Ms. Erdmann’s 2-year-old son Gregory; Joseph Shay and the toddler died before help arrived. Neighbors and friends held a vigil Tuesday outside Mrs. Shay’s home at 263 East 10th Street hoping for her recovery.
— Chelsia Rose Marcius