Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

We heard from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg last night in his State of the City speech. The Times reports that he focused on small-scale local initiatives and spoke little of education, and didn’t even mention last month’s blizzard.

While the mayor made his address, a Village Voice blogger was busy teaching a lesson to every young person in the “greatest city in the world.” In response to a girl’s complaint of getting overcharged by a locksmith, blogger Joe Coscarelli said getting ripped off here is inevitable, and recalled his decrepit past East Village apartment. Perhaps you can relate.

Meanwhile, tenants on 13th Street are scrutinizing their building’s facade for its constant graffiti. DNAinfo reports on the “tagger’s paradise” that some suggest should become a mural.

And though cops have monitored the wall, many will be on a bigger mission today: one of New York’s largest Mafia arrests.