Scott Lynch Good morning, East Village.
The family of Private Danny Chen learned from Army investigators new details about allegations of mistreatment by his comrades. The New York Post reports that investigators said that “on the day of his death, he was forced to crawl 100 meters on gravel with his equipment on as his comrades threw rocks at him. It’s alleged that Chen was mistreated shortly before he committed suicide in an Afghanistan guardhouse.” Eight former comrades face charges ranging from dereliction of duty to involuntary manslaughter.
In his column for The Villager, Clayton Patterson remembers how the 1988 riots in Tompkins Square Park turned him into an activist: “I regret little, and to say both Elsa and I learned a lot about police corruption, the damaging role that gentrification plays on the downwardly struggling middle class, and the adversity that the poor and the disadvantaged face, as well as, how outsourcing has affected the economy in New York City would be a gross understatement.”
Real estate sales firm Massey Knakal sent The Local an email yesterday detailing the sale of 73 and 75 East Third Street, steps away from the Hells Angels Clubhouse. An Italian buyer purchased the property for $15.5 million.
Patti Smith read her poetry to a standing-room only crowd at St. Mark’s Bookshop on Tuesday night and confessed that she stole books when she was too poor to afford them, reports The Low-Down. After reading one poem, she said, “That had a couple vocabulary words I didn’t know I knew.”
The neighborhood’s construction sites are getting a makeover. DNA Info reports that Fourth Arts Block reached its goal and raised more than $3,300 through Kickstarter to expand its ArtUp program to spruce up the sites.
And if you’re looking for a workout while hanging out this weekend, East Village Arts writes that Performance Space 122 is presenting a ping-pong party on Sunday, part of its annual COIL Festival.
