Rachel Citron on photographing quirky New York.

“This, in a nutshell, is my New York. Quirky, unexpected, crowded…The image was taken during one of my many walks through Central Park last spring.”
Read more…

Tim Schreier

We at The Local try to provide a rich pastiche of news, commentary and creativity. The work of one of our community contributors, Brendan Bernhard, the author of “East Village Tweets”, has quickly gained a wide following.

Readers have found Mr. Bernhard’s work humorous, evocative, poetic, and quintessentially of the East Village.

In an e-mail exchange with The Local, Mr. Bernhard shared some insights about how he works and what moves him to write (he also passed along a photo of the dog that inspired one of his most popular “tweets,” “A Serious Mutt“):

“I am a journalist but poetry has always been my first love. I started these ‘tweets’ – they’re not real tweets, of course – because I had begun writing for this blog and wondered if I could come up with something a different which would allow me to express my feelings about the East Village. As it turns out, I have ranged from the fantastical to the concrete and various shades in between. It’s been great fun for me, it has made me look at my neighborhood in a different way (I’m practically thinking in tweets) and I hope at least a few of them have resonated with readers.”

If your comments are any indication, they have:

Leslie Monsour wrote:

“These are a new kind of super contemporary baroque haiku. Very amusing. I could go on reading.”

Marilyn Widrow said:

“Brendan has captured the essence of the East Village through imagery, poetry and sheer beauty. I feel its pulse beat.”

Janet offered:

“I don’t live in the East Village or even in Manhattan, but it’s a treat to read such elegant, evocative poesy. Please, may we have more?”

brenda cullerton asked:

“who is this furtive genius roaming around my favorite streets? The David Markson of Tweets, that’s who he is.”

“West of Broadway” said:

“These are lovely, smart, funny, delightfully observant and far more intelligent than one has a right to expect from the form. Call it poetweetery.”

Join the conversation: Have you seen other attempts at a similar form? What about the East Village does Mr. Bernhard’s poetweetery evoke for you?

Fans of the English soccer team Liverpool make the East Village their home base, meeting here every week at the 11th Street Bar to watch games. The club has used the bar, located near Avenue A, as a headquarters since 2003, and scores of fans show up for big games — even at 7 a.m. on a Sunday. Club members include both Americans and ex-pats from England, though at least once a week they’re all Village residents.

NYU Journalism’s Grace Maalouf reports.

Shawn Hoke

Earlier this week, as part of our recurring “Street Scenes” series of neighborhood photographs, we brought you Shawn Hoke’s images of a green Cadillac – rusted, pock-marked and yet still jealously clinging to its former grandeur – parked on a rainswept sidestreet.

Today, a reader, Bill Poznanski, stepped forward to say that he is the owner of the car in question and described the vehicle’s fascinating history.

“My (distressed) pistachio green 1978 Cadillac Sedan Deville has been driven 400,000 miles (by my estimate as the odometer stopped working about 200,000 miles ago)… which is almost to the moon and back…Kind of appropriate since parts of this neighborhood still looked like a lunar landscape when I bought the car nearly 20 years ago.

It’s been stolen and recovered three times. Maximum capacity: I once gave 12 drag queens from Lucky Cheng’s a lift uptown. Now some nights there are as many rats keeping warm next to the engine. Most curious observation: One year
a mystery woman took one photo of my ‘disco- mobile’ for 365 days. (Was this an art project for some swank gallery?)

Cab drivers fear it. An older woman on my street loathes it. Young professional newcomers to the neighborhood seem mystified by it.”

In a follow-up e-mail with The Local, Mr. Poznanski, the artistic director of The Imprint – a 30-year-old arts colllective based in the neighborhood, said that although he still drives the car, it is in extreme disrepair.

“it needs brakes and an exhaust system,” he wrote. “If there’s any Cadillac enthusiast that would like to donate to the ‘Save the disco-mobile fund’ that would be great. Otherwise, I might have to junk it soon.”

Courtesy of dirtybuildings.orgA screenshot of a Web site that details the buildings in Manhattan that use No. 4 or No. 6 heating oil. Environmentalists say that the buildings produce more air pollution than all of the city’s cars and trucks combined.

Last month’s anti-smoking legislation may have irritated some Local readers, but environmentalists say that another pollutant continues to fill the air.

An interactive map of New York City’s “dirty buildings” on the Environmental Defense Fund Web site shows over 9,000 red and yellow dots spanning Manhattan, charting real locations of the city’s sludge-burning buildings.

Buildings utilizing No. 4 and 6 heating oil produce more soot pollution than any number of cigarettes could – more than all of New York City’s cars and trucks combined, according to Isabelle Silverman, attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, a national advocacy group.

Environmentalists say that the buildings’ output of particulate matter can aggravate asthma, increase risk for heart and lung disease, and have other consequences. In two weeks, the Department of Environmental Protection will review a rule to gradually phase out the permits of such structures; so how many of them are in the East Village?

According to the map, the East Village has about 20 buildings burning No. 4 oil and about 20 burning No. 6, which Ms. Silverman said is attributable to the East Village’s relatively smaller apartment complexes and commercial structures. But while other high-density buildings north and west of the village continue to cough up dirty matter, all of Manhattan – which still fails federal health standards – remains susceptible.
Read more…

Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

It’s finally Friday, but the ongoing debate over the budget for city schools may keep you talking through the weekend. According to BoogieDowner, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson sent out a letter Thursday protesting Chancellor Cathie Black’s new budget requirement for school principals. For the first time, school principals have been asked to give a portion of their year-end surplus back to the city, rather than “roll over” their budget to the following year. How will East Village schools be affected? Read more about the proposed education cuts here.

And DNAinfo reports that the East Village graffiti artist Angel “LA II” Ortiz missed his own gallery opening last week after his arrest for – what else? – graffiti, after the authorities said that he tagged an East Village building the night before his collection was scheduled to open at Dorian Grey Gallery on East Ninth Street. Mr. Ortiz calls the streets his canvases, but art lovers can also view his work indoors, with his exhibit on display through April 17.

Of course, the East Village mural on Houston and Bowery, otherwise known as the Dietch Wall, pictured above, is always accessible to fans of street art. But after some taggers recently took turns on the work by Kenny Scharf, gallery workers from The Hole, which curates the wall, cleaned up the mess Thursday, according to Bowery Boogie.

East Village graffiti is just one manifestation of the recurring battle between the old and the new. EV Grieve shares photos of what the blog calls “intruding buildings” collected over the past year, “lurking, menacing in the background.”

And here comes the sun, but not for long; today’s high of 70 degrees will most likely cloud over Monday, with rain in the low 50’s.

Courtesy of Al Kavadlo The author demonstrates the jungle gym workout technique.

With the cold winter weather finally winding down, more and more people are thinking about getting ready for summer. For a lot of East Villagers, this means it’s time to ramp up their exercise regimen. This neighborhood is home to some of the city’s trendiest, most high tech fitness facilities, but sometimes the best things in life are free. Tompkins Square Park has all
the equipment you need to get a great workout, and you don’t need to purchase a bank-breaking membership to use the facilities.

Tompkins has several jungle gyms that were made with children in mind, but near the Northeast corner of the park, there is a jungle gym that seems to have been designed for full-grown adults. The set up there is ideal for parkour training, as well as pull-ups and many other fun exercises. Besides, training outside in the fresh air and feeling the warmth of the sun adds to the enjoyment (though I don’t mind working out out in the snow, either).

I recently got to exercise at Tompkins Square Park with my friend Rick Seedman, another local personal trainer. We had a great time and a great work out without having to spend a penny.

Watch the video below for more:

Al Kavadlo is a personal trainer, freelance writer and author of the book, “We’re Working Out! A Zen Approach to Everyday Fitness” (Muscle-up Publications, 2010). For more information visit www.AlKavadlo.com.

Kathryn Kattalia As the Brooklyn-based Union Market prepares to make its Manhattan debut in the East Village this fall, it’s trying to be seen as just another grocery store – despite such features as an oyster bar and an assortment of nearly 300 domestic and imported cheeses.

With its wide array of fresh olives, a sprawling oyster bar and assortment of nearly 300 domestic and imported cheeses that accompany an equally diverse selection of dried meats and charcuterie, Union Market doesn’t exactly seem like your typical neighborhood grocery store.

And yet, as the Brooklyn-based mini chain prepares to make its Manhattan debut in the East Village this fall, that’s exactly what it wants to become.

“You can stop on your way home and get everything that you need,” said Marko Lalic, one of the store’s co-owners.

It’s been more than a month since scaffolding first went up at 240 East Houston near Avenue A, announcing the arrival of the new store which plans to take over the first floor of a building currently housing another small market, Houston Deli and Grocery. Spanning 6,000 square feet and offering a range of all-natural produce, Mr. Lalic said Union Market will provide customers with the intimate shopping experience often associated with local grocers.

But in a neighborhood brimming with corner bodegas and small markets, some area grocers fear the new store is another example of outside competition swooping in on small businesses already struggling with high rents in a slow economy.
Read more…

Bruce Monroe

Good morning, East Village.

New York University finally showed us yesterday what Washington Square could look like by 2031 through what it describes as “subtle interventions.”

Having withdrawn plans for a fourth building on the landmarked Silver Towers site, the university now envisages meeting its core expansion requirements. Seven floors of dorms above a public school replacing the current Morton Williams supermarket, together with a major tower on the site of the Coles Sports Center at Mercer and Houston, are part of the new design, as well as lower rise buildings on the north side of the park. As anticipated, the university continues to leave open the possibility of further developments in the neighborhood around the core, which includes – of course – the East Village.

In other neighborhood news, today, of course, is St. Patrick’s Day, and local bars are dressing up for the occasion; according to EV Grieve, some bars on Avenue C are sporting identical signs over the battle for “official party headquarters.” And for those of us who prefer inebriation in the form of sugar, Butter Lane is offering Jameson icing and free icing shots to those clad in green.

In other news, DNAinfo reports that comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade has finally agreed to remove its “Hot Chicks Room” sign from its space near East Third Street, following angry complaints from some neighbors who felt it the sign was more fitted for the old Times Square or the Red Light District, than the East Village.

And on a more somber note, East Villagers are offering aid to Japan following the devastating earthquake and ongoing nuclear crisis that began last Friday. A donation box has been placed on the counter of Takahachi restaurant on Avenue A. Have you seen other donation stations around the East Village? Leave a comment and let us know where to find them.

Expect a gorgeous high of 62 degrees today, with another beautiful day to follow.

Margot Wood

Would-be messages from the East Village, in 140 characters or less.

Instructions from the Muse

“Tweet!” the birdie cried. “I am tweeting,” the surly poet
replied. “Tweet! Tweet!” “Look, you dumb… sparrow, I
just told you…” “Tweet!”

A Serious Mutt

Would I be caught dead showboating in that dog run
across the street? Nyet. I’m not some pansified “pet”
pawing the air for adoring looks,

I’m here on important business: Waiting for my Master
to exit the Tompkins Square Library with his usual dose
of videos and books

We ♥ Poets!

Ginsberg’s E. 10th St. apt. gutted; O’Hara’s @ 441 E. 9th
unmarked; the plaque outside Auden’s home on E. 8th
gets the dates wrong

Observer With Cataracts

He finds it hard to not be trivial. He skims, he skates, past
the same stores & faces. Epitaph: “He was not convivial,
& he left no traces”

Materialism

He’s stuck with it, a life of fabricated purpose and no
God. Mud encrusted with jewelry stores. His Western
inheritance, along with not

knowing how to dance. Temples, mosques, are alien, and
the Church does not speak. “Maybe,” he thinks, “It’s
time to speak to It”

Read more…

Grace Maalouf Soccer fans watch multiple live games on a recent Saturday morning at Nevada Smiths, an East Village institution where fans are split over the dismissal of several employees last fall.

Our recent post on how patrons have responded to recent staffing changes at Nevada Smiths generated a wide range of feedback about the landmark soccer bar.

Jon criticized the atmosphere at the bar:

“Nevada Smiths, a dump from day one. A big souless barn of a place with poor ale to boot. got away with it for years, when the choice of bars was limited.”

Mozza wrote in defense of Nevadas:

“Nevada’s could be criticised for a number of things but being soulless wasn’t one of them. In fact the first thing that struck you when you walked in the door was that, if nothing else, the place had character and atmosphere.”

Chinatownbranch agreed:

“Quality ale and a big fry up, the two crucial ingredients that go miles towards creating atmosphere in a pub before 10am in the morning. The whole point of Nevada’s Jon was that it had a banging atmosphere.”

Chinatownbranch continued:

“If you havent been for years and you spent all your time in another pub what would you know, and why would you bother commenting?”

Join the conversation: Soccer fans, what’s your take on the changes at Nevadas?

Ian Duncan

With huge facial features, a mane of dyed blond hair and an immaculate white suit, Bill Talen looks every bit the televangelist. But he is not offering eternal salvation.

Mr. Talen is the leader of the Church of Earthalujah. Styling himself Reverend Billy , he delivers environmental rhetoric in the manner of a charismatic evangelical preacher.

Each Sunday through June, Mr. Talen will be lending his theatrical services at Theater 80 on St. Mark’s Place . Mr. Talen is supported by the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, who belt out songs Mr. Talen has written that relate to the church’s themes – the evils of capitalism, impending environmental disaster and the decline of neighborhoods.

That last will have particular resonance in the East Village. Read more…

Clockwise from top left: (1.) Bowery Elevated Train, circa 1896; (2.) Bowery near Bleecker, circa 1915; (3.) 35 Cooper Square in February this year; (4.) Boys on the Bowery selling chewing gum, 1910; (5.) A Union enlistee of the New York 86th Regiment and his betrothed, circa 1861. All images courtesy Library of Congress, except (3.) lower right, photo illustration by Tim Milk

Local historian Tim Milk recalls dark episodes which never quite extinguished the charm of 35 Cooper Square.

They could hardly believe the fellow, wanting to go back to his regiment. Especially considering what he had seen: the rout of the Union at the bloody battle of Bull Run. There, the heroic Lieutenant John S. Whyte, who had refused to leave his wounded commander, fell into Confederate hands. But in a recent prisoner of war exchange, he was returned home to his kith and kin in New York.

But he did not wish to retire with honors. Indeed, he was keen to “return to the fight,” he said.

And so his pals shook their heads and dragged him down to the Marshall House, a tavern at 391 Bowery, an address we know today as 35 Cooper Square. There they presented him with a sword and a sash in an affair both touching and festive. After a grand hurrah, the champagne flowed like a river long into that night of March the 21st, 1862.

This I found in the archives of the New York Times, in a curious walk down that ancient lane, the Bowery. From out of each door came someone with a tale to tell which, except for these old papers, and poor relics like 35 Cooper Square, would otherwise have vanished, lost in time.

“Time,” Stephen Hawking once said, “…whatever that is.” Even he doesn’t pretend to know. As the so-called future, it is but a mere concept. As the past, it holds everything that has ever happened, and leads all the way back to eternity. There it washes up on distant shores for no apparent reason, except perhaps for our return. Read more…

Tim Milk

Since 2002, architectural historian Kerri Culhane has worked with Two Bridges Neighborhood Council to document the history of the neighborhoods of the Lower East Side. In December 2010 she and Two Bridges received the New York State Preservation Award for Outstanding National Register nomination for the Chinatown and Little Italy Historic District. She is currently writing the forthcoming Bowery Historic District nomination, sponsored by Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and Bowery Alliance of Neighbors.

Formerly 391 Bowery, 35 Cooper Square was built between 1825-27, as one of four houses developed on the land of Nicholas William Stuyvesant. Stuyvesant was a direct descendant of the Dutch West India Company’s last director-general, Petrus Stuyvesant.

The development pattern north of Houston (then called North Street) remained very rural until the early 19th century. In 1811, a plan to establish a street grid north of the haphazard jumble of streets below Houston was mapped by surveyor John Randel. Third Avenue, branching off of the Bowery, was not built until the early 1820s. Stuyvesant’s four buildings were among the first ever built on this new road — the Bowery spur of Third Avenue. The 35 Cooper Square site is, therefore, an artifact of the most significant urbanization effort of New York, which left us with the grid system that now blankets the island.

The modest brick house at 35 Cooper Square would have been typical of its period, two-and-one-half stories, with a generous attic under a “peaked” roof lit by a pair of dormers. The defining architectural characteristics of the urban Federal era rowhouse include the form, most commonly two-and-one-half to three-and-one-half stories; gambrel or side-gable roofs featuring single or paired dormers; Flemish bond brickwork; and simple stone lintels. My recent research has identified at least 26 buildings dating to the Federal period still standing on the Bowery, of which only 12, thanks to minimal alterations, still clearly represent the era. Read more…

Kim Davis

Climbing the rickety, makeshift stairway of the century old former tenement building on East Third Street that houses the Nuyorican Poets Café there was little to foretell the treasure trove Kim Davis and I would encounter. Daniel Gallant, executive director of the Nuyorican, explained that few know of the existence of the archives we were set to explore, and even fewer got to view this lofty realm as the Café has no certificate of occupancy for the top three floors of the building, which are not open to the public and are used strictly for storage. Daniel described how poet Miguel Algarín, and the Café’s other founders, had acquired the building from LaMama Theater creator Ellen Stewart in 1980 and established a venue where Lower East Side poets, playwrights and musicians could present their work.

After Daniel unlocked the padlock fastened to a small piece of plywood serving as a makeshift door leading to the third floor, we crouched to squeeze through the narrow entryway. As we ascended the stairs, the exposed brick walls were crowded with posters, paintings and costume designs from former productions held in the performance space occupying the first two floors of the building. Reaching the top of the stairs we entered a dimly lit, open loft space crammed in virtual disarray with a treasure trove of costumes crowded on racks, stage props, banners, posters and a vast collection of bric-a-brac accumulated over more than thirty years.

Costume designers have borrowed some of these period outfits for use in recent films. A large sign for one of the Nuyorican’s landmark productions, “Julius Caesar Set in Africa,” hung on the wall. As we wandered about the floor, it was difficult to appreciate everything. Exposed brick walls, fireplace mantles, thick wooden rafter beams were the only remains of the former railroad apartments that had existed in the building’s former tenement incarnation.

Dan regaled us with the history of numerous Nuyorican productions which had their sets and costumes created in this space. Tony Award winning playwright and actor Sarah Jones began her career with her first solo show, “Surface Transit” at the Nuyorican in 1998. She recently returned for a two week engagement after a Broadway run of “Bridge and Tunnel.” A sewing machine, paint cans, bolts of fabric, containers holding glitter, jars full of buttons, rolls of yarn and thread were evidence of the many hours that artists and writers like Sarah Jones “Bridge and Tunnel” and Miguel Piñero (“Short Eyes”) labored in the space. Read more…

The State Liquor Authority Committee of Community Board 3 Monday night refused to endorse a liquor license for a proposed music and restaurant space on Avenue A. With the 4-3 vote, the committee turned aside a proposal to open a new Mexican restaurant and lounge at 34 Avenue A. The proposal had been submitted by several owners, including Phil Hartman, who owns Two Boots Pizza and a former venue, Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction, and the music promoter Todd Patrick; the fate of the project is unclear. —Hadas Goshen