After two neighborhood shooting incidents this week, and amid the nationwide gun control debates provoked by the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, The Local sought out the reactions and opinions of East Villagers.

NYU Journalism’s Meredith Hoffman reports.

Meredith Hoffman Paul’s Da Burger Joint, 131 Second Avenue.

Here’s a test: You come back to your office with your lunch, peel the silver-foil rim off the cardboard lid, and behold a very large hamburger slathered in a layer of sauteed mushrooms and onions so vast that it carpets the container; the combination of grease and a plasma of melted American cheese has rendered the bottom bun so soggy that the whole mass can be held only with great care, and the assistance of many napkins. The test: Do you think “Gross!” Or do you think “Yes!”?

If you fall in the first camp, there is no good reason to go to Paul’s Da Burger Joint at 131 Second Avenue, between Saint Marks Place and Seventh Street. You probably should stop reading this article right here. Only the hard-core carnivores still with me? Okay, let’s proceed.

In days of yore, the East Village was full of joints — pizza joints, burger joints, beer joints. Today the neighborhood is given over to the Danish open-faced sandwich and the Japanese pork butt — which I, for one, am happy to celebrate. But a place without neighborhood joints is hardly a neighborhood at all. Paul’s, founded in the remote era of 1989 and bearing the accumulated grit of years of honest service, is the kind of place Jane Jacobs would have celebrated in “The Death and Life of Great Cities.”
Read more…

If I’m still living in this neighborhood when I turn 50, I’m going to knock on the door of the Third Street Music School at 11th Street and Second Avenue and join New Horizons, a wind and brass ensemble composed only of adults that old and older, many of whom had never picked up an instrument until they retired from other careers.

In the three and a half years since New Horizons came to the East Village, it has grown from 15 students to 70 and split into two bands that each meet twice a week. These students practice on their own up to two hours a day and the bands perform once every several weeks.

New Horizon’s parent organization, New Horizons International Musical Association, started twenty years ago in Rochester as the inspiration of Roy Ernst who wanted to get older adults into playing music together. It now has locations across the United States and in Iceland, the Netherlands, Australia, and Ireland. Here, the program has funding from the National Endowment for the Art and is “the first and only New Horizons in New York City,”according to Nancy Morgan, the director of school and community partnerships at Third Street.

Ms. Morgan told me that when this band of New Horizons musicians started, “they didn’t even know how to put their instruments together.” New students are always welcome, she said, so if you’re “50 or better” and you’ve always wanted to become a musician, maybe now’s the time. Check out the band and see what you think.

More information about New Horizons can be found here.

Vivienne Gucwa

Good morning, East Village.

We know it’s cold out, but this weekend if you’re yearning for a peaceful stroll you should head to the East River Park promenade, nearly completed after five years of renovation. The Villager describes the progress so far.

DNAinfo also reminds us that today at 5 p.m. is the deadline to apply for membership to our local community board, communty board 3. If you’re looking to get more involved in local decision-making, you might be interested. And EV Grieve offers a humorous take on local celebrity Chloe Sevigny’s decision to join or not to join the board.

In housing news, The Village Voice tells us that yesterday Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg vowed to “close a slumlord loophole” and require landlords to pay for repairs that they’ve neglected to pay. The Voice reports that landlords owe the city a total of $19 million in emergency repairs made since 2007.

This morning we’d also like to bid a fond farewell to Ellen Stewart, iconic founder of the LaMaMa Theater on East Fourth Street. She died yesterday at age 91, and The Times and DNAinfo gives us a glimpse of her full life.

Courtesy of Eric Felisbret Eric Felisbret.

After an MTA representative went to Eric Felisbret’s school to speak to his class against subway graffiti, his curiosity was immediately sparked. Despite being warned of the consequences of what his school called “vandalism,” Mr. Felisbret began exploring the culture of graffiti writing and dove headfirst into the world of street art. In the mid ‘70s, he tagged local streets and painted subway cars with his pseudonym DEAL, eventually becoming a member of the infamous writing crew known as Crazy Inside Artists. Now as the author of Graffiti NYC and co-founder of the old school graffiti website at149st.com, Mr. Felisbret talks to The Local about how he continues to document the best works of past and present generations.

What is the difference between graffiti and street art?

Graffiti is almost exclusively letter-based, with a focus on signatures, bubble letters, and different letterforms. In street art, if an artist wants to use stickers or wheat pasting for a collage on a wall, they can. It’s a different kind of medium.

What made you want to document he graffiti you saw in your book and on your website?

I really wanted to let the younger generation of graffiti writers and the general public to get a bigger understanding of the history behind the movement. I wanted the public to understand that it’s not just vandalism, but a community of thoughtful organized artists. Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba

More than a week has gone by since a fire blazed through a restaurant on East Sixth Street, and residents who live above it are still without house and home.

“We’ve been sleeping on a friend’s couch on the Upper East Side. It’s still unclear when we’ll be able to move back in,” Paul Canetti, a tenant on the third floor at 507 East Sixth Street, told The Local.

The fire on Jan. 4 occurred around 7:30 a.m. inside 6th Street Kitchen, a restaurant on the first floor. All tenants were evacuated, and the restaurant was destroyed. Read more…

The Local has learned that Mike Zecchino, 63, has died after being found at his home with gunshot wounds, as reported yesterday. His name was misspelled in yesterday’s post, but has since been corrected. — The Local.

Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

This link kind of sums up where we were yesterday, so it is good to see a little sunshine filtering through this morning, turning some more of the snow to grey water.

Consider traveling uptown to see some drawings of downtown in the ‘thirties and ‘forties as The Museum of the City of New York mounts the exhibition “Denys Wortman’s New York.” As Jeremiah writes, “priceless images largely of a lost Lower East Side.”

Or just settle down for another year of debating the bike lanes. Here’s a supporter’s take a recent City Council debate at The Villager.

Keep jumping the puddles.

Meredith Hoffman

According to the Fire Department, firefighters called to an alert at 362 East Tenth Street (reported earlier) discovered a male in a bathtub with gunshot wounds. He was taken to Beth Israel Hospital but there is no further report on his condition.

The fire alert had caused firefighters and police to close down most of the block between Avenue B and Avenue C.

The owner of the building, Irwin (who declined to give his last name), told The Local that the man in the apartment was Mike Zecchino, a man in his sixties, who had been living in the building since before Irwin bought it seventeen years ago. A police detective who did not give his name said the situation seemed to be that the man had shot himself.

Irwin described Mr. Zecchino as “an intelligent man,” saying he “drank a lot of wine and smoked Pall Mall cigarettes,” adding that he “has a daughter.”

Damaris Reyes, Executive Director of the GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side) community organization, who was at the scene to speak with police, said she knew Mr. Zecchino from working with him. “He organized neighborhood campaigns with GOLES” said Ms. Reyes. “He’s a good guy.” Read more…

A reporter on the scene for The Local says that parts of East 10th Street were cleared between Avenues B and C shortly before 4 this afternoon and that firefighters have entered the fourth floor of a building by ladder. We are continuing to track the story.—The Local

This post has been changed to correct an error; an earlier version misstated the extent of the evacuation effort along East 10th Street.

Al Kavadlo The author during a recent workout in the snow at Tompkins Square Park.

This snowy weather may be keeping many East Village residents cooped up indoors, but it hasn’t stopped me from doing my usual workouts at Tompkins Square Park. In fact, the snow makes my routine a lot more fun!

In addition to my standard regimen of pull-ups and dips, I also did some parkour
training. After all, parkour is about overcoming obstacles and the snow is just another obstacle to work around!

If you’re serious about getting in shape or improving your fitness, there is no reason that you can’t make time for exercise no matter what craziness is going on with the weather. Even if you have to fit in a quick at-home workout with no equipment, you can always dedicate at least a few minutes a day to improving your body.

I’m not saying you have to go out in a blizzard, but once you get moving out there in the snow, you might be surprised how fun and invigorating cold weather workouts can actually be.

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.

Colin Moynihan

Two people were injured on East Second Street on Wednesday morning. The authorities said that a man was shot in the abdomen and a woman received a cut to the head. Both were removed to hospitals, and neither injury appeared to be life threatening, the authorities said.

Several police officers, including some from the Emergency Services Unit, arrived on the block of East Second Street between Avenue B and Avenue C around 9:30. Shortly afterward, police escorted a woman with a bandaged head from a brick building at 225 East Second Street.

Police confirmed that a Hispanic male, 33, was shot one time in the abdomen. Emergency services responded and transported the victim to Bellevue Hospital where he is listed in stable condition. A woman was also taken to Bellevue to be treated for a laceration to her head. The perpetrator fled the location and the investigation is still ongoing.

Denis Dang, 33, who lives across the street, told The Local that at about 8:30 a.m., “I heard crying. and then I looked out the window. He was laying on the ground, and she was laying over him in her pajamas.”

Although Mr Dang said “This is a great neighborhood,” when asked about how he feels about shootings in his neighborhood, he also said, “This is normal.” A resident who asked not to be named said there was a shooting at the same building last summer.

Meredith Hoffman and Suzanne Rozdeba contributed information to this report.

Dan Nguyen

Good morning, East Village.

As we trudge through the slushy snow – we got nine inches overnight – the cleanup is in full force. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, mindful of the mistakes of the Dec. 26 and 27 blizzard, when the city was left in a snowy, trashy mess, has declared a “weather emergency”. Tread carefully — more injuries are caused after the snow falls as we slip in icy patches and dodge puddles, reports NY1.

Speaking of snow, if you’re walking near First and First on your way to work, catch a glimpse of a tag by the late East Village artist Daniel “Dash” Snow, his work on the rolldown gate at Rogers Garden, which is under renovation.

Finally, more changes in view for the Bowery. Curbed reports on plans for the Salvation Army shelter with its familiar red sign at 347, sold for $7.6 million to a London-based boutique hotel group.

Two years ago, Dave Ahdoot and his childhood friend Ethan Fixell (who together form comedy duo Dave and Ethan) went on a “man date” that was so much fun it got them wondering “why don’t we take girls on something like this?” They put an ad on Craigslist and linked it to a YouTube video asking for submissions for pairs of girls wanting to go on a double dates.

Thousands of responses and more than 200 double dates later, the pair have become dating experts and gained a wealth of knowledge about what to do, and more importantly what not to do on a date. Some of their filmed double dates have been made into a YouTube video series.

The response to the series led to monthly performances at The Peoples Improv Theater, re-enacting some of the dates, singing songs about first date fouls and even conducting spur of the moment dates live on stage. Recognizing that college students need their instruction the most, Dave and Ethan have started touring college campuses across the nation imparting their wisdom into the porous minds of today’s youth. In 2011 alone, they are scheduled to perform at more than 50 colleges and as long as people date, there seems no sign of a slowing demand for this kind of expert advice.

I sat down with Dave Ahdoot, until recently an East Village resident, to get some tips and play some games.

Allison Hertzberg is owner and head designer at Accessories by ASH.

Joy Malin Neo stands beside a portrait created by Joy Malin, an East Village painter who specializes in portraits of dogs. Below: Ms. Malin with Neo and Charlie.

Alexa Tsoulis-Reay

Joy Malin can’t conceal her love of dogs, even over the phone. “When you arrive, come to apartment D, as in dog” she announced when I called to schedule a meeting. This was a fitting introduction to the East Village-based artist who estimates that she has painted oil portraits of more than 120 dogs in the last three years.

Her animal portrait business started when she did an oil painting of her daughter’s Doxie, Neo. Her daughter was delighted with the result and Ms. Malin decided it would be a fulfilling way to supplement her art brokering business which had suffered during the recession.

She began to advertise on Craigslist, with signs in Washington Square Park and through the gossip networks that connect East Village dog lovers. She’s a regular at Tompkins Square Park where she walks her Yorkie Charlie with a team of dog owners who call themselves the “Housewives of Tompkins Square Park,” because their lives are so intertwined.

While Ms. Malin’s process varies from dog to dog, she usually paints from photos. That, she says, is the key to a successful portrait: turning the 11 × 14 inch oil paintings into more than generic portraits of a breed. “If you have a great photograph then it is easy to capture the soul of the dog,” Ms. Malin says. “It’s in the eyes.” She tends to work quickly noting “when you spend a lot of time on it, it gets stale.”
Read more…

Kelly Samardak

Good morning, East Village.

Noise-burdened neighbors may be relieved to hear EV Grieve’s news that in the Community Board’s meeting last night, they didn’t renew hookah bar La Vie’s license. Of course, La Vie wasn’t so happy at the verdict.

Meanwhile, also check out Grieve for shots of yesterday’s bustle in Tompkins Square Park, with the filming of CBS police drama series Blue Bloods.

In case you haven’t heard yet, more snow is headed our way this evening. If you’re looking to stay warm to watch the flurry, you might venture to Lebanese restaurant Balade at 1st Avenue and 13th Street, where they’ll be offering a free glass of wine to toast their one-year anniversary.

Meanwhile, on a more somber note, Engine 28 has posted the funeral time for its noble firefighter, Roy Chelsen, whose death from cancer was announced yesterday.

Stay safe and stay warm.

Suzanne Rozdeba Firefighters at Engine 28 and Ladder 11 mourn Roy Chelsen, who died Sunday of bone-marrow cancer and was credited with saving the lives of 11 of his colleagues on Sept. 11.

Courtesy of FDNY

Already, the south tower of the World Trade Center had collapsed. But as Kevin Murray and Roy Chelsen huddled with their fellow firefighters for safety in the lobby of the north tower on Sept. 11 – debris and bodies falling all around them outside – no one knew what had happened.

“Roy ran out to leave, and realized the whole other building wasn’t there,” Mr. Murray recalled in an interview earlier today, describing how Mr. Chelsen, who died Sunday, saved the lives of 11 of his fellow firefighters. “He turned around, and ran all the way back to get us. He ran through it three times to get us out. He convinced everybody that we had to go because it looked like the north tower was coming down.”

In all, Mr. Murray and Mr. Chelsen worked side-by-side for eight years as firefighters in the East Village. And they were side-by-side again Sunday just hours before Mr. Chelsen died after a long battle with bone-marrow cancer at age 51.

At Engine 28 and Ladder 11 firehouses in the East Village, the mood was somber today after firefighters learned of the death of Mr. Chelsen, whose cancer had been linked to his work digging through the rubble at Ground Zero in the days and weeks after the attacks.

But Mr. Murray, who still works with Ladder 11 on East Second Street, said that the sadness at the firehouse was tinged with something else.

“Of course everybody’s upset,” said Mr. Murray, who’s 36. “But nobody wanted to see him suffer anymore.”
Read more…

Whiskers at Ninth Street and Second Avenue was something of a novelty when it opened back in 1988. Its approach to pet care was an idea Phil and Randy Klein seized on after a holistic veterinarian treated their cancer-stricken dog. The couple became convinced that raw foods and natural supplements were the way to help anxious city animals. The shop is now three times the size it used to be and their philosophy is so popular that similar stores have sprung up. In Mr. Klein’s words, “it’s become the wave.”

Most days you can find him holding court in the supplements corner of the store. Owners approach him like a soothsayer for advice about their pets.

NYU Journalism’s Meredith Hoffman reports.

Courtesy of Daniel L. Squadron State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, with constituents last fall, said that he favors expanding the East Village’s “bike network so that it’s a viable way for folks to get around to commute and recreate.”

A new year brings a new legislative agenda for State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, who – entering his second term – says that he wants to bring issues that are important to neighborhood residents to the forefront in Albany. In an interview with The Local, Senator Squadron, whose 25th District includes the East Village, the Lower East Side and parts of Brooklyn, discussed the importance of bike lanes, renewing housing laws, cracking down on careless drivers and noisy bars, and expanding East Village parks.

Bike lanes are a hot topic right now. But there are battles still brewing. What will you do this year to help smooth out the sometimes rocky relationship between bikers, businesses, the community and the Department of Transportation?

There’s an overall increase in the bike lanes use, and I think that is great. We are continuing to develop the bike network so that it’s a viable way for folks to get around to commute and recreate.

I like the idea of a bike share program. As we have more bicyclists and more access, which is a great thing, we need to increase compliance with laws. And we need to expand our bike networks for more people out there.

My frustration at bike lanes comes from two places: failure, in some cases, to be fully collaborative with communities and think through the consequences as we expand the network, and secondly, from those few who don’t follow the rules. Too often, the DOT implements lanes without preparing businesses to understand what the rules are. They’ve done it in ways that are not responsive to the community. DOT has gotten better at this; my job is to keep the pressure on. We need clarity about rules for bicyclists and members of the community, and work with community boards, businesses and residents before implementing them. We need opportunities for folks in bicycling communities and other groups to weigh in.
Read more…