Michelle Rick Good morning, East Village.
It’s Good Friday. CBS New York has word of an Easter egg walking tour – walking tour meaning ‘hunt’ but less frenzied and with a knowledgeable guide rather than cryptic clues. The jaunt will include chocolate pizza at Max Brenner and a stop in at Black Hound.
It’s also Earth Day. In the spirit of things, EV Grieve published the announcement that the St. Mark’s Church Greenmarket at East 10th Street and Second Avenue will return for the summer May 3.
NYU Local has an interview with a dope dealer at the school. According to the post business is good, despite the highly publicized bust of a Columbia University drug ring and its East Village supplier late last year.
Blockshopper reports that political consultant John Del Cecato has bought a condo in the neighborhood. Mr. Del Cecato, an associate of former presidential advisor David Axelrod, was obviously not put off by Chico’s Barack Obama mural becoming instead a plain blue wall covered in tags. Perhaps most interestingly, the Blockshopper post adds that 71 East Village condos have been sold in the last 12 months at an average price of $750,000.
Among a flurry of preservation news, DNAinfo reports that the Landmarks Preservation Commission is considering a new historic district in the neighborhood. It could include up to 300 buildings in an area bounded by East Second Street, Bowery, East 10th Street and Second Avenue. The commission will hold a meeting for property owners on April 26.
As for the weekend’s weather forecast: Today a high of 55 degrees with some clouds, Saturday 62 degrees and wet with more of the same on Sunday. Not the nicest, but try to enjoy yourselves.
This post has been changed to correct an error; an earlier version misidentified the greenmarket that is opening next month.
The developer of 35 Cooper Square has resolved three outstanding code violations concerning work at the site, according to a spokeswoman with the Department of Buildings. The developer, Arun Bhatia, paid about $16,000 in fines related to the violations, according to department records; the status of a fourth violation was unclear. Mr. Bhatia has not said how he intends to develop the site, which preservationists have asked him to maintain. —Suzanne Rozdeba
Suzanne Rozdeba Preservationists have rallied around the Essex Street Market, which may be forced to move because of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area development project.While a battle between preservationists and the developer of 35 Cooper Square is still brewing, residents on the Lower East Side are raising their voices about the possible uprooting of another historic location, the 70-year-old Essex Street Market.
“If that market had disappeared, and I had just sat back in my apartment, I don’t think I could live with myself,” said Cynthia Lamb, a Lower East Side resident who is circulating a petition to keep the market, home to more than 20 businesses, from being relocated as part of the contentious Seward Park Urban Renewal Area project. The site is home to five parcels of land that have sat empty as a development debate has steeped for over 40 years. John Shapiro, the city’s planning consultant, has suggested a “superior location” elsewhere on the Seward Park site for the market.
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Mario Ramirez Good morning, East Village.
Neighborhoodr spotted a Seventh Street and Second Avenue subway stop in the new Atlas Shrugged movie. The adaptation of Ayn Rand’s famous novel is set in 2016, by which time the Second Avenue subway should be completed, but in real life it will stop at 14th Street and Houston, bypassing the East Village entirely.
Until then, the most rapid form of transport might be the bicycle. But watch out, one EV Grieve reader sent the blog a copy of a $270 ticket he was given for running a red light on his bike.
Grieve also brings word that an apartment has been rented out in 120 St. Marks Place. The address is the former site of the Cave artist’s commune and was home to the Mosaic Man. A developer eventually removed the squatting artists in 2006.
DNAinfo has mapped out bedbug complaints for the first three months of the year. The Community Board 3 area, which includes the East Village and the Lower East Side, got off relatively lightly with only 4 violations and 27 complaints. Compare that with Community Board 9 on the far Upper West Side, which had 30 violations. Bowery Boogie notes that Discovery Channel show Human Planet will take a look at Lower East Side rats this weekend. According to the show, rat-related complaints are up 9 percent so far this year.
There’s more from The Lo Down on the 7th Precinct’s crackdown on troublesome Lower East Side revelers. But 102-year-old Lillian Sarno probably isn’t among their number, though. According to the Post, Ms. Sarno was at Back Room last weekend for a birthday tipple. The faux-speakeasy stands on the site of a real speakeasy she visited 78 years ago to celebrate passing the New York bar exam.
The weather? A high of 57 degrees and mostly sunny, so a fine day indeed.
Despite the impending arrival of upscale Brooklyn chain Union Market, finding good quality food in East Village supermarkets can be difficult.
Health and nutrition coach Magdelena Wszelaki, who runs tours of supermarkets, offers some advice on what to look out for at Key Foods on Avenue A and East Fourth Street.
For those locals who took a quick glance at accident statistics for New York City compiled by Transportation Alternatives, it probably came as little surprise that the East Village is home to two of the city’s most perilous intersections.
The intersection of Third Avenue and East 14th Street tied for the fifth most dangerous intersection in Manhattan with 66 crashes involving pedestrians from 1995 to 2005.
Bowery and West Houston Street tied for the most dangerous intersection in the entire city with 29 crashes involving cyclists.
Now that Transportation Alternatives has unveiled a plan that it believes will help make streets safer, The Local decided to pay a visit to 14th Street between Second and Third Avenues to talk to residents and business owners about the area’s dubious place as one of the city’s most treacherous stretches of asphalt.
NYU Journalism’s Claire Glass reports.
M.J. Gonzalez Giano, 126 East Seventh Street.One morning not long ago, Paolo Rossi, the co-owner of Giano, an Italian restaurant at 126 East Seventh Street, was having his coffee when he was struck by an inspiration for “a new caprese for 2011.” The caprese is a classic Italian sandwich with tomato and mozzarella. Paolo is fond of the classics but also, as a worldly Milanese, of the newest of the new. The caprese of 2011, now available on Giano’s menu, would feature a basil-flavored soft bun wrapped around a paper-thin slice of tomato and buffala mozzarella ice cream.
After more than 10 years in New York, Paolo’s English is pretty good, but I thought I had misheard him. Ice cream? “It’s a ‘Wow’ effect,” Paolo explained. “I can ask Simone to make you one.” Simone Bonelli is Giano’s new chef. He had, Paolo proudly told me, “worked seven years next to the number six chef in Italy” and had recently left the terribly pricey Per Bacco to cook at Giano. It was the middle of the afternoon, and Simone had just arrived on his Vespa; his helmet, bright orange with a white racing stripe, was sitting on Giano’s curving, fan-shaped white bar. I felt like I had walked into a Fellini movie.
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Rachel Citron Good morning, East Village.
It’s tax day. If you haven’t filed yet, better get down to the post office quick sharp. If that’s not encouragement enough, an EV Grieve reader spotted this friendly warning.
In better news, Passover begins at sundown. Last week, The Times reported on the growing trend of eating out for the traditional Seder meal. East Village spots JoeDoe and Octavia’s Porch will be offering their take, and JoeDoe co-owner Jill Schuster put together a playlist to remind guests of a old-fashioned family Passover.
Hot on the heels of incredibly popular Tompkins Square Park ping pong table, which has seen action from all ages, DNAinfo reports that the planned facelift for Dry Dock Park will include domino tables. The $1.2 million restoration will also repair dilapidated basketball courts and install better lighting.
EV Grieve notes that traffic lights on Cooper Square are new, after originally wondering if they had been covered as part of a prank. That will probably come as welcome news to anyone used to madly dashing across the Square in the face of buses and cabs coming from all directions.
And finally, The Times reported on Friday that the Hot Chicks Room sign that had so irked some residents will find a new home in a Governors Island chicken coup.
After a blustery weekend, things are looking up: highs of 60 degrees are in the cards today with a few spots of cloud. Have a good week.
C. Ceres Merry on stitching together compelling images in New York.
“The date 10/10/10 was the day of the online event called One Day On Earth. When I saw Land’s End LES I decided not to just snap a pic but take a photograph. I truly changed that day from just taking many quick snaps to seeing the city as collected works of art and really learning how to take better photographs.”
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Tim Milk The developer of 35 Cooper Square has been cited by the Department of Buildings for the condition of the historic structure’s roof, which is pictured above in a February photo.City officials have ordered the developer of 35 Cooper Square to take immediate steps to repair the roof of the historic structure, which has been the subject of a campaign by preservationists to keep it from being razed.
On Wednesday, officials with the Department of Buildings issued a citation to the developer of the site, Arun Bhatia, ordering him to make the repairs.
Since February, city officials have issued four citations concerning work at 35 Cooper Square, all of which are still open. In addition to this week’s notice regarding the roof repairs, Mr. Bhatia has been cited for failure to safeguard property, performing work without a permit, and failure to post a permit.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings said that the citation regarding the roof repairs “means that we had previously issued a violation for the condition of the roof and the property owner has not corrected that condition. What the property owner should do now is obtain permits to perform the necessary roof work. In this case it would be to close off the roof.” A hearing on the roof violation is set for June.
Asked about the gaping hole in the roof and whether the developer would be required to cover it, she said, “We issued a violation for the roof. To bring the site into compliance, the owner should obtain a permit for the necessary work.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Bhatia, who met with preservationists on Tuesday to discuss the building’s future, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
We at The Local have spring fever. And as we scoured the streets for this week’s Street Style, we noticed that the warm weather is starting to take effect on fashion. Whether in the first shorts of the season, white denim or light jackets, plenty of East Villagers are taking hold of fashion’s ubiquitous denim and stylin’ it up for spring.
The students of The Hyperlocal Newsroom (from left): Claire Glass, Kathryn Kattalia, M.J. Gonzalez, Crystal Bell, Rachel Ohm, Ian Duncan, Grace Maalouf, Greg Howard, Mark Riffee, Kenan Christiansen and Hadas Goshen.Today, we would like to extend our appreciation to the students and community contributors who have joined our experiment in collaborative journalism in recent months.
They have joined so many others who have shared their talents and energy with the blog. The site could not exist without them – and all of you who read and engage with The Local.
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Phillip Kalantzis Cope Good morning, East Village.
We begin the day with talk of bicycles. A community meeting was held Thursday night at St. Mark’s Church In the Bowery to discuss bike lanes. And in other two-wheeled news, DNAinfo reports only 0.6 percent of New Yorkers ride bikes to work, according to census figures. The post notes that Department of Transportation figures show that cyclists in New York City increased by 66 percent between 2007 and 2009.
Second Avenue Saga checks in this morning with an update on the construction of the Second Avenue Subway. Work has been underway for four years on the line, which runs from 125th Street to the Financial District, but the MTA is currently facing a budget shortfall of $10 billion, which could potentially affect its completion.
Help find Harry! EV Grieve reports that a Chihuahua by the name of Harry is missing in the East Village and needs his medication. There’s a $2,500 reward if found.
Today’s forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and a high of 53 degrees. Happy Friday, East Village!
Michelle RickWould-be messages from the East Village, in 140 characters or less.
First Steps Toward Marriage
The 1st time they met, she listened. The 2nd, she spoke.
The 3rd, they crossed swords over Sushi, & fought until
their chopsticks broke
Welcome to the Three-Day Week
Monday to recover, Friday to prepare. Then comes the
Insanely Unseemly Weekend – leaving only Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, there
Maids Gone Wild
Bar maids & chamber maids, old maids & French maids,
going on drink-raids, jumping on beds made, dancing
like demons in a big hotel
Read more…
Vivienne Gucwa Good morning, East Village.
We begin the day with a bit of good news that you might not have seen Wednesday: Alexander Vorlicky, a 14-year-old who had gone missing from his East 10th Street apartment Sunday, was found unharmed. News that Alexander, who attends the Friends Seminary on East 16th Street, was found and safe, was announced via Twitter by a friend of the Vorlicky family.
More news on 35 Cooper Square: EV Grieve reports that a notice of Violation and Hearing was taped onto the building, citing the exposed roof and noting that a hearing is scheduled for June 1.
Dry Dock Park at 10th Street and Avenue D has long been the object of complaints, with those who live nearby noting how the park — with its cracked pavement, peeling paint, and broken basketball hoops — has fallen into disrepair, according to DNAinfo. The local tenant advocacy group Good Old Lower East Side has been working to raise money to improve the state of the park, and the Parks Department plans to unveil a reconstruction proposal this week. City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and local residents have worked toward securing $1.2 million toward the project.
German boutique Personal Affairs on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Avenue A is going out of business. The shop’s owner announced that the store could close as early as Sunday. Guerilla Shopper says the store will be holding a sale before it shutters for good.
As for the weather, today’s forecast promises sunshine and a high of 65 degrees.
