Repairing Steps

The East Village is always getting better, from Department of Transportation workers fixing the streets, to painters painting, to step repairers repairing steps, like these, on East 5th Street:

Steps under repair.

How did only one side become so mangled?

#eastvillage #steps #stairs #orangecones #5thstreet

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

Mosaicy Building

While the Mosaic Trail is where East Village mosaics can be found in trail-fashion, mosaics appear all through the East Village!

Mosaics are easy to create, with any variety of found items!

Here is one example I discovered recently, on East 10th Street:

Mosaicy wall.

Mosaicy stairs.

Here is a close-up:

Close-up.

Even the sidewalk is mosaicy!

Mosaicy sidewalk.

From there to here
from here to there
mo…sa…ics
are everywhere

…in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #10thstreet #mosaictrail #mosaics #sidewalks #stairs

Recycling Poetry

I was walking across (you guessed it!) St. Mark's Place one recent Saturday morning, when I saw this lone book on the stairs of a building:

Lone book.

On closer inspection, it turned out to be an uncorrected proof of Kenneth Koch's finest collection of poems: New Addresses:

New Addresses.

East Village Today leaves things as they're found, but not everyone does. When I passed by again later that morning, the uncorrected proof was gone!

Book gone.

You might say it found a new address!

#eastvillage #books #kennethkoch #recycling #stairs #newaddresses #poetry #uncorrectedproofs #stmarksplace

Trash & Vaudeville Grand Re-Opening

It's back! After 19 excruciating days with nowhere to purchase 1970s-era punk-rock clothing in the East Village, the beloved Trash & Vaudeville is open for business at their new location on East 7th Street:

Trash & Vaudeville on East 7th Street.

I stopped by just before their announced re-opening time of 11:30 a.m., to see if a crowd was waiting outside, but there wasn't — East Villagers aren't out of bed at this hour!

The manager of the store was there, posing for the paparazzi:

Posing for the paparazzi.

Moments later, it was just another day in the East Village — it was as if they had always been there:

Just another day.

East Villagers had been hoping against hope that this new location would not have the treacherous stairs that the last location had, but to no avail. These stairs look to be potentially worse:

Potentially worse.

In closing, East Villagers didn't know it at the time, but when the beloved St. Mark's Bookshop moved from their location on the north side of St. Mark's Place, across the street to the south side, it was the beginning of the end for them.

Let's hope this move doesn't portend the same for Trash & Vaudeville — they don't even carry Sid Vicious t-shirts on their web site!

#eastvillage #7thstreet #paparazzi #stairs #trashvaudeville

…In With The New

As I wrote about a minute ago, the new East 7th Street location of the beloved Trash & Vaudeville will be free from the stair hazard that plagued their St. Mark's Place location all those years!

No stair hazard.

There are still stairs, but not the sort that make people fall and bash their shin!

They've already started preparing for their Grand Re-Opening, by painting their riot gates pink!

Pink riot gates.

As East Villagers all know, black and pink is the most fashionable of the 1980s color combinations, only slightly more fashionable than black and cyan, or leopard-skin!

Some things never go out of style… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #stairs #trashvaudeville #7thstreet #blackandpink #blackandcyan

Out With The Old…

As I wrote before, the beloved Trash & Vaudeville is moving to East 7th Street!

East Villagers are excited as all get out to be able to purchase their 1980s rock-and-roll clothes at a new location, one without the dangerous stairs that existed at the St. Mark's Place location!

Dangerous stairs leading up.

Here's another view:

Another view.

These were the stairs leading to the sidewalk from the downstairs area:

Dangerous stairs leading to the sidewalk.

They even painted a warning on them:

Watch Your Step.

Check out how the kids wearing Dr. Martens boots assemble on one side, leaving the sneaker-wearer isolated!

#eastvillage #stmarksplace #stairs #trashvaudeville #drmartens