Bland Fence

It's hard to be sure whether this fence here on St. Mark's Place is in the process of being painted, or if the paint is being stripped off to allow the metal to rust, and look… rustic:

Hard to be sure.

(It's weird how they stopped at the bendy bar!)

I'd like to think the fence was being primed for painting, and that isn't the final color.

It's pretty bland, no?

#eastvillage #stmarksplace #fences #paint #bland

Newly-Painted Bus Lane

Paint, Glorious Paint!

Here is the Second Avenue bus lane, newly painted this past Monday.

Newly painted.

Where would the East Village be without paint? I ask you!

#eastvillage #buslanes #secondavenue #paint #orangecones

Re-Paint Job?

Did the beloved Miss Lily's, on the corner of Avenue A and East 7th Street, repaint?

Is this a new color?

I'm not sure. Maybe it's just that the tables are gone from the sidewalk.

#eastvillage #7thstreet #avenuea #misslilys #paint

Making the East Village (More) Beautiful

I was walking across East 4th Street recently, when I saw these workers painting a lamppost at First Avenue:

Painting a lamp post.

It was a gray day, so the gray lamppost blended into the background — but on a sunny day… whoa Nelly, will that ever stand out!

#eastvillage #4thstreet #firstavenue #lampposts #paint #painters

This Way Up

I was walking across East 9th Street, oh, about fifteen days ago, when I saw these masking-taped stairs, directing people up and away from the wet paint:

Up and away.

How do you get down though?!

#eastvillage #9thstreet #maskingtape #paint #signs #stairs

White Like Vanilla Gelato

Do you remember this building on the corner of Avenue A and East 9th Street, and our campaign to have the trim painted cerise?

Of course you do!

And do you remember this past April, when work began on a new store! Well…

This building came one step closer to completion last week, with the removal of the construction fence and the revelation of…  newly-painted street level walls:

White building.

There's now a gelato store called the beloved Gelarto. Here is a close-up of the front:

Close-up of front.

Cool lighting, and they kept the Invader mosaic!

Now all that's left is this ugly-ass mess, on the 9th Street side:

9th Street side.

It might be too late for a new campaign to have it painted cerise, but something has to happen here!

#eastvillage #gelarto #gelato #avenuea #9thstreet #renovations #paint #invader #mosaics

Red Call Box, Red Post

Like many East Villagers, I ride my Citibike down the Second Avenue bike lane.

Through a combination of my average speed and the timing of the stoplights, I oftentimes find myself stopped at the corner of East 7th Street, which is where I saw a newly-painted call box (below). The painters must have had a bit of paint left over, because they painted the post beside it also!

Unfortunately, this occurred a month or so ago, when it was still dark at 5:30, so I couldn't get a decent picture of it.

Today, it looks like this:

Scribbled-on.

Last month, it looked a lot like this quick and dirty rendering:

Quick and dirty rendering.

Scribblers gonna scribble!

#eastvillage #call boxes #paint #secondavenue #7thstreet #bikelanes #graffiti

New Paint

Because so many East Villagers ride Citibikes to work, they don't often get to see the inside of the First Avenue F subway station (the East Village's favorite!).

For this reason, very few are aware of the painting that's been taking place of late.

Behold:

New paint.

Why some areas get paint and others don't is a mystery!

By the way, did you know this?

Litter stops here.

It starts again just outside the station!

#eastvillage #paint #ftrain #trashcans #litter

Pink Cellar Entrance

As every East Villager knows, a little bit of paint makes everything nicer!

I'm not sure what color this cellar entrance was before, but being newly painted, it's certainly nicer now:

Nicer now.

Heres a close-up:

Close-up.

It's too bad they didn't see fit to remove the litter when they painted!

A few short steps down the block, I found these empty paint cans:

Empty paint cans.

None of them have pink dribblings on them, so these were not the cans discarded after painting the cellar entrance. These are from another paint job, where they ate pizza while they worked.

Every job is more fun with pizza!

#eastvillage #paint #cellars #pizza #renovations #2ndstreet

Am I Dreaming?

Sometimes in the East Village, so many good things happen that you think you're dreaming. Today was one of those days!

I was walking across St. Mark's Place tonight, having just parked my Citibike, when I saw…

Well, let me show you instead:

Amazing.

Is this not amazing?! Just eight days ago, this building was probably the second ugliest building in the East Village — now it's clean as a whistle!

It's as if the person responsible said "You know, East Village Today is right, we should make this place look nicer", and then they did it!

Already on St. Mark's Place, I would usually walk through Tompkins Square Park, to see what sort of activities were taking place, but without even being aware of it, I was drawn, pulled, summoned… to East 4th Street:

No words.

No words could describe the feeling I had when I saw that the ugliest building in the East Village was no longer ugly — a small tear formed in my eye.

At this point, a unicorn flew out of the sky and spoke to me: "Wake up, East Village Today, this is all a dreammmmm…"

Just kidding!

I'd like to think, in my own small way, I had everything to do with this!

#eastvillage #4thstreet #paint #renovations #stmarksplace #ugliestbuilding

Purple Cow Building

I was walking across St. Mark's Place — oh, a month ago, or so — when I saw this purple cow building:

Purple cow building.

It's not exactly new — the paint job, that is — but it hasn't been this way for long!

You might recognize the blighted area on the left as the building I just wrote about in Trash & Graffiti!

As luck would have it, I discovered a picture I took of this same building a long, long time ago (2014!):

Yuck.

Can you imagine living there? Yuck! There's even a shadowy figure loitering in front!

What a difference paint makes… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #stmarksplace #paint #renovations

The Smell of Victory

East Villagers love the smell of fresh paint in the morning — it smells like victory!

I was walking across St. Mark's Place two Saturday mornings ago, when the smell of victory reached my nose.

I didn't have to look far before finding the source:

The source.

It was the site of the formerly-beloved Sushi Lounge!

I took the picture, and thought that I would write another story about how East Villagers love paint, but then this past Saturday morning, I walked by the site again, only to see a sign hanging where before there was none:

Restaurant for lease.

So this is a story not just about new paint, but a new beloved restaurant to boot!

#eastvillage #sushilounge #stmarksplace #paint #restaurants #signs

Spring Painting

I was walking across St. Mark's Place — oh, about three days ago — when I saw this bit of fresh paint covering the beloved billboard for Yaffa Cafe, outside the formerly-beloved Yaffa Cafe:

Fresh paint.

Hopefully, this is just primer — hopefully, they'll paint the bare spot spruce green. As long-time readers of this blog know, there's nothing like a bit of paint to spruce up the East Village!

Sprucing up with spruce green.

This recess has been the focus of great coolness for decades — hopefully it will remain so for decades to come… in the East Village Today, and Beyond!

#eastvillage #stmarksplace #yaffacafe #paint

Yellowish

I was walking across East 3rd Street this past Sunday, when I happened upon what looks all the world like a relatively new paint job:

Relatively new paint job.

The way the bicycle stood out against the yellowishness of the paint made me take notice.

And the rest is history!

#eastvillage #3rdstreet #bicycles #paint #yellow

Wet Paint

I was walking across East 3rd street the other day, when I saw this Wet Paint sign:

Wet Paint sign.

Here is a close-up:

Close-up.

It was certainly considerate (and East Villagers are nothing if not considerate!) to put up this sign, warning people of the paint hazard, but who would stand on cellar doors and lean against the bottom of a storefront, anyway?!

In case you were wondering what the inside of this formerly-beloved store looks like, it looks like this:

Inside the formerly-beloved store.

White is the new black… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #signs #3rdstreet #inside #paint

AAA Glass Plus is Fixin' It Up

This morning, I walked past the beloved AAA Glass Plus on Avenue C. I usually only see it in the evening, not in the morning, but today was different!

It's possible that they painted everything blue and put up their new signs before yesterday, but I doubt it!

Blue paint, new signs.

Why do glass companies all name themselves with A's? AA Glass Company; AAA Glass Company; AAAAA Glass Company; etc.

No matter. Triple-A Glass Plus is leading the way in fixing up their appearance! (Hint, hint, all you others!)

#eastvillage #avenuec #aaaglassplus #paint #signs

Dirty Car Ticket

East Villagers might like litter, they might even like graffiti, but there's one thing they don't like, and that's a dirty automobile!

I was walking up Second Avenue this past Saturday morning, when I saw Officer Friendly giving a ticket to this dirty car, parked in front of the beloved Himalayan Visions:

Ticket for excessive dirtiness.

His shirt matches the color of the paint — that's what caught my eye!

#eastvillage #cars  #himalayanvisions #paint #secondavenue

Lavender is the New White

I was walking down Avenue B this past Saturday, when I saw this new paint job on the building at the corner of  East 4th Street:

New paint job.

This building has always been nice looking, now it's even more so!

East Villagers love new paint jobs!

#eastvillage #4thstreet #avenueb #paint

The Ugly Building

I was walking across East 2nd Street this past weekend, approaching First Avenue, when I passed (again) what East Villagers like to call "the ugly building":

The ugly building.

It actually looks better here, for two reasons: 1) everything looks better framed; and 2) it looks like it was recently painted!

Just outside the frame above, to the right, there was a makeshift door with a hole left in it:

Locked door with hole.

"What could be inside?" I wondered.

Inside.

Yuck — this is what it looked like before they painted it!

East Villagers love paint!

#eastvillage #2ndstreet #firstavenue #paint #doors

Paint It White

There's a song by the Rolling Stones that's very popular in the East Village, called Paint It White:

I see a red door and I want it painted white
No colors any more, I want them to turn white

East Villagers love to paint things white!

The beloved Best Hou ekeeping appliance store on Avenue A is painting their riot gates white:

Paint it white.

It's probably primer — I'm sure some wonderful new mural will be painted over it, to replace what was there before:

Google view of wonderful old mural.

Best Hou ekeeping is a source of many jokes. Here are a few of them:

Best Hou ekeeping's sign is so old!
(How old is it?!)
It's so old, the phone number doesn't have an area code in it!

Best Hou ekeeping's sign is so old!
(How old is it?!)
It's so old, the letter S fell out of the name!

Best Hou ekeeping's mural is so old!
(How old is it?!)
It's so old, the paint has faded!

All in good fun… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #avenuea #besthousekeeping #paint