Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The Daily News reports that Star, the pit bull shot by a police officer on 14th Street yesterday survived, and is being cared for at a shelter in East Harlem.

The Wall Street Journal got in touch with Eli Halali, the owner of Two Bros. Pizza, to explain why he has shaken the very foundation of the pizza industry by selling a slice for $1.50. “We’re feeling the customers out, seeing what they think of this particular slice,” he said. “This may or may not be an item that we may add to the menu if people want a bigger slice.”

A second soldier facing charges related to the death of Private Danny Chen pleaded guilty in Fort Bragg, N.C. to charges of hazing and maltreatment. He has been kicked out of the Army and will serve six months behind bars, The Daily News reports. Read more…

New York Police Department The suspect.

A man followed a woman into 116 Avenue C on August 11 and punched her in the face several times before snatching her purse, the police said.

The man, thought to be in his late 20s, made his move at 11:45 p.m. in the building near East Eighth Street. As the 28-year-old victim began to go up the stairs the suspect threw her to the ground, punched her and ran out of the building.

Melvin Felix Officers loaded a dog kennel into the trunk of a
police car as friends of the
owner of the dead pitbull looked on.

A police officer shot a pitbull that was apparently trying to defend its passed-out owner on 14th Street at around 4:15 p.m., horrifying passersby who watched the wounded mutt suffer a slow death.

A man who identified himself as Steve-o, who was lingering at the scene near Second Avenue said he was a friend of the passed-out man, known as Pollock. The dog, according to Steve-o, was named Star.

Another witness, Roland Bueler, said the dog was protecting his master as a police officer tried unsuccessfully to rouse him while an ambulance awaited. “People who live in the neighborhood say he’s along here all the time,” Mr. Bueler said of Pollock. “He had a dog that was, I think, a pitbull mix. And the dog was defending the guy so no one could approach him.” Read more…

First a swimming pool appeared in Union Square and now a beachy bocce court has come to East Fourth Street, courtesy of “Boardwalk Empire.”

As expected, the HBO show’s cameras were rolling today at the Cornelia Connelly Center, between First Avenue and Avenue A; an adjacent empty lot was filled with sand and a sandbox where a pair of actors seemed ready to play bocce.

The show had previously filmed inside the soon-to-close Mary Help of Christians Church on East 12th Street. Today, crew members left their modern-day cars in the church parking lot while the show’s old-time buggies lined East Fourth Street.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 20, 2012

An earlier version of this post misidentified the location of Mary Help of Christians. It is on 12th Street, not Seventh.

Daniel Maurer

The weekends are always pandemonium in the East Village, but it’s rarely the older hippies causing a scene.

And yet on the corner of First Avenue and Second Street last Friday around 8:20 p.m., a gray-haired man wearing a tucked-in tie-dye shirt – and, oddly enough, a Yankees cap – was vehemently stomping the back wheel of someone’s bicycle.

“Hey, don’t do that!” a bystander cried out limply. But the bike basher was already heading across First Avenue for a bite to eat.

Minutes later, he was back to where the bike was chained up, kicking it a couple more times for good measure before storming off with his takeout bag.

Before we could confront the man, he ducked into an apartment building on Second Street between First Avenue and Avenue A. That’s when we popped off the photo you see here.

Meanwhile, back at the scene of the trouncing, a woman accompanied by a pair of dogs was taking photos of her own. Lo and behold: it was Grace Weaver, the “Singing Vegan Lady” who was profiled by DNA Info just last week. Maybe she was documenting the effects of meat rage? Actually, no: it turned out the bicycle was hers, and the man who had assaulted it was her roommate. Read more…

Looks like Village Fishmonger isn’t the only seafood co-op coming to town: Matt Grove, a Lower East Side resident, uses our handy Virtual Assignment Desk to tell us about a seafood CSA that he’s bringing to the Union Square Greenmarket:

Big City Fish Share, a seafood CSA, will begin deliveries to Union Square on Saturday September 8th, continuing for 8 weeks. They will be supplying local, sustainably caught seafood that supports New York fishermen. Check them out and sign up now at www.bigcityfishshare.com.

Want to sign up for the program and let us know how it is? or interview Mr. Stone about it? Volunteer to do so via our Open Assignments page.

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The Times bring word that Piotr Pasciak, 24, has been arrested for the burglary of 516 East 11th Street, which was captured in surprisingly crisp surveillance video. According to the paper, Mr. Pasciak had completed a bid behind bars last year for charges related to three home invasions in Ostego County.

The Post reports that a bus driver and a matron, Barry Kurt and Akilah Toppin, have been arraigned on charges of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a developmentally disabled East Village resident who was left in a van on a sweltering day last summer.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Nielsen is preparing to ditch its digs at 770 Broadway and head Downtown. Meanwhile, a real estate agent for the nearby and under-construction 51 Astor Place has a quick update on the search for tenants. “We have strong activity on the building from a wide and diverse array of tenants, particularly those from the technology and digital media industries,” the agent told the paper. “It provides for a large block of space in a marketplace that’s lacking blocks over 100,000 square feet.” Read more…

Chelsia Rose Marcus

There will be no more services at Mary Help of Christians Church come September, according to pastor Kevin Nelan. The announcement, made after mass today, seems to confirm rumors that the sale of the church, as well as the adjacent school building and parking lot, will be finalized next month.

Mr. Nelan said the church, which was consecrated in February of 1918 and most recently served as a filming location for HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” would hold its last service on Sept. 9.

A week after that, Spanish-speaking churchgoers can attend mass at a “temporary home” at Immaculate Conception Church, on East 14th Street and First Avenue. The Immaculate Conception parish has been overseeing Mary Help of Christians church since 2007. Read more…

Introducing a new column in which we get to know the strangers who are yelling under our windows, making out on our stoops, and keeping the dream alive every Friday and Saturday night. They’re the Weekend Warriors.

Alexandra Reali

We met this foursome in the middle of Ninth Street and First Avenue on a recent Saturday night. Dana is from Syracuse, N.Y., Andy lives in Brooklyn, and Arezu and Yasmin were visiting from Montreal. They came to the East Village after a night out in Williamsburg, looking for a bite.

Yasmin: We were here earlier today! I’m actually not too familiar with the neighborhood; we’ve only been here during the day. Now it’s very quiet.

Andy: I like Tompkins Square Park, I like St Marks. They have shows there in the summer, the old punk scene.

Dana: West Village is nicer. I like the roads in this neighborhood.

Arezu: I think there’s more to do at night, actually, in Montreal. Places stay open later and there’s more people on the streets. I find there’s peak hours here. And then it kind of dies – like it fluctuates. In Montreal it’s a steady flow, and different types of people. There are places in Montreal that are very diversified. This particular neighborhood I think is one social group.

Andy: Everyone’s in Brooklyn now, and you gotta move.

Arezu: We were just in Brooklyn, actually. The only reason we left Brooklyn is because I’m staying here. But we would have stayed. Read more…

Sarah Darville Remodeling today.

Here’s one more late-August bar opening: The Beagle on Avenue A will reopen its doors in two weeks with a new look and a focus on the cocktails that Jim Meehan of PDT likes so much.

The Beagle’s cream-colored walls and tables have been replaced with dark blue paint, new blue glass doors, and booth seats. Its owners Matt Piacentini and Dan Greenbaum said their goal is to create a “cocktail den,” moving the space away from its previous status as half-bar, half-restaurant.

“We’re going for that intimate, cozy feel,” he said. “Making it somewhere where it’s a little more fun and easy to hang out.”

Mr. Piacentini said a new menu of cocktails and charcuterie would be “more approachable” but that the specifics were still in the works. One thing is certain: “There will be a lot of sherry,” he said.

Molecule really made a splash last month, opening to a veritable wave of publicity: the “water cafe” got several write-ups, and news of $2.50 to-go glasses of filtered water even crossed the pond. But while the owners touted their $25,000 filtering machine and their “fountain of youth” and “body repair” supplements, there was no shortage of wet blankets: here at The Local, a commenter, Courtney, called the place “one of the most offensive things I’ve heard recently” and implored: “Can we as a neighborhood agree to stay far away from it so that they go away?”

So, is anybody – other than intrepid reporters, of course – actually going to Molecule? Turns out, they are. During a recent afternoon, about eight people trickled into the store over the course of two hours. Okay, not exactly a flood of customers, but they came from Brooklyn, the Bronx, and (sorry, Courtney) right here in the East Village – and some were back for seconds. Maybe the store won’t be a one-sip wonder? Maybe this concept really will hold water?

Watch our video to hear customers shower the place with praise and tell us what you think: are they just drinking the Kool Aid?

The police are now offering $32,000 for information that leads them to the man who shot a police officer in the Seward Park Houses on July 5. In the incident, Officer Brian Groves was patrolling the public houses when he came upon the suspect between the 18th and 19th floors. A brief chase ensued, and the suspect shot the officer, who narrowly escaped death thanks to his Kevlar vest.

Sunda Croonquist A photo taken by Ms. Croonquist before her arrest.

She was only trying to take pictures of the rowdy crowds that congregate every weekend mere steps from her apartment. Then, she ended up in handcuffs.

A 51-year-old standup comedian was arrested on Friday night after trying to take pictures of a woman on a stretcher outside of nightlife hotspot Solas.

Sunda Croonquist, who lives a few doors away from the club, had just returned with her husband and two kids from a party in New Jersey when they came upon a crowd spilling into the street around 1:40 a.m. Gawkers were eyeing an intoxicated woman on a stretcher.

Outraged by the behavior of the crowd of revelers, Ms. Croonquist began to take pictures. “The crowd was laughing at my 9-year-old daughter who was having trouble walking through a crowd of over 80 people congregating on the sidewalk,” wrote Ms. Croonquist’s husband, Mark H. Zafrin in an e-mail. “My wife was mostly in Los Angeles this year and was shocked by the weekend mayhem. It became acutely personal when my daughters (a) had to see a young girl laying in her own vomit on the street (b) had to navigate through a huge crowd on their own sidewalk.”

Police didn’t take kindly to Ms. Croonquist standing in the street and snapping photos. A police spokesman said that she was told to return to the sidewalk, refused, and was then escorted to the sidewalk. She then returned to the street and ended up in a confrontation with Sergeant Timothy Brown. She faced off chest-to-chest with the sergeant, who told her to step back — an order she ignored, the spokesman said. Ms. Croonquist was then put under arrest, and according to a criminal complaint, flailed her arms and kicked her legs while being handcuffed. She faces charges of obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest and harassment.

But Ms. Croonquist’s husband has a different version of events. Read more…

For every East Village business that’s opening or closing, dozens are quietly making it. Here’s one of them: Enchantments.

Melvin Felix Cat Cabral carves a candle.

When Enchantments opened in 1982, the “witchcraft, goddess, and nature religion” store was “narrow, dark and kind of creepy, which was fun because it looked like a witchcraft store by movie standards,” said Cat Cabral, manager of seven years. In 2003, employee and lifelong witch Stacy Rapp bought the store and in 2008, she moved it down the block to 424 East Ninth Street – a sunnier, airier space where the rent is $6,500 per month (up roughly $1,000 over four years). Sunlight has been good for business. “It’s helped people realize our shop is a positive thing and not about black magic,” said Ms. Cabral. The Wiccan accoutrements are flying off the shelves – and not as the result of spells. Even in challenging times, said Ms. Rapp, the store sells well over 50,000 candles a year. We asked Ms. Cabral how the magic happens.

Can you describe to the curious yet unfamiliar what Enchantments is all about?

It started out primarily as a Wiccan and pagan supply shop, a community center selling books on different Wiccan and neo-pagan alternative systems. It also specialized in Afro-Creole-Caribbean religions like Santeria and kabbalistic, hermetic magic, different systems of European magic. We’ve grown over the years to cater to so many different spiritual and magical paths. I think of it as eclectic like New York is – full of people raised in different religions and now on various different paths of discovery and interested in hidden knowledge. Read more…

Blackbird, the bar that was set to fill the former Lakeside Lounge space next week, will be opening a little earlier than expected, according to Maria Devitt, the longtime CBGBs bartender who’s a managing partner. The one and only Jonathan Toubin, of the popular “New York Night Train” parties, will spin sounds from the 60s on Sunday.

As previously mentioned, the new bar won’t have live music. If that’s got you bummed, check out footage that hit Vimeo yesterday, of Jim Keller – best known for scoring a hit, “867-5309/Jenny,” with the band Tommy Tutone – performing his own song, “Soul Candy,” during Lakeside’s final days.

Mattron Chico’s mural at the former Nice Guy Eddie’s.

Good morning, East Village.

Add Kickstarter to the long list of businesses in the neighborhood that have packed up and moved to Brooklyn. The New York Post reports that the fundraising site is spending $7.5 million to buy and renovate a landmarked former pencil factory in Brooklyn. That means Kickstarter will soon bid farewell to its current location at 155 Rivington Street. A few other local businesses that decided to open outposts in Willyburg: Mama’s (it was short-lived), Cafe Mogador, Norman’s Sound & Vision and Vanessa’s Dumpling House.

DNAInfo takes a look at Ruff Club, the new dog social club coming to 34 Avenue A. The space will have free wi-fi, and its owners hope that it will turn into a gathering place for dog-lovers, as well as their dogs. “We really want people to come in and meet other people,” said Simon Frost, one of the owners. “The only other place is the dog park, which isn’t that friendly when it is 10 degrees out.”

Bowery Boogie notes that cars traveling southbound on Essex Street can no longer make a left turn onto Delancey Street. The traffic pattern tweak is part of a wave of safety improvements that were expedited following the death of 12-year-old Dashane Santana, who was crossing Delancey Street earlier this year. Read more…

Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong continue sorting through their archives of punk-era concert footage as it’s digitized for the Downtown Collection at N.Y.U.’s Fales Library.

At CBGB, it was a crapshoot what you would hear on a given night (maybe folk rock, maybe noise bands) and we, the audience, said bring it on. If the music was good, we listened to it. But over in England, there was a culture war raging that was alien to most variety-loving New Yorkers.

Teds were the original “rebel teenagers” of the late 40s and early 50s, with their own unique clothing style and love of early rock and roll. They endured as a niche group for years, enjoying a resurgence in the 70s. They held on to their sartorial and musical traditions – and with it, an unfortunate penchant for violence, a behavior certainly fanned by the British tabloids. Though the gritty details remain debatable, it seemed inevitable that the conservative, volatile Teds would pick a fight with the publicity-loving, anarchic punks. The natty Teds didn’t like safety pins and they sure didn’t like the Sex Pistols.

Leee Black Childers remembered going to a rockabilly show in London in 1977 while touring with the Heartbreakers as their manager during the “Anarchy in the UK” tour. “When the lights went up, Teds suddenly descended on us and threatened to beat us up for being punks,” he said. “This kid, Levi Dexter stepped up and stuck up for us and we were saved.” Childers asked him if he had any friends, because with his looks he could start up a band. Levi recruited childhood friend Smutty Smiff and a few others and Childers became their manager. Read more…

Sarah Darville Work at Blackbird earlier today.

Blackbird will open in the former Lakeside Lounge space next week with seasonal cocktails on offer and a longtime CBGB bartender at the helm.

As The Local revealed last month, the new bar’s principal owner is Laura McCarthy, an original partner in Lakeside who also helps run Bowery Electric, HiFi, and Niagara. Her operating managers will be Maria Devitt, a neighborhood bartender for over 15 years, including a 10-year stint at CBGB; Jesse Malin, who is also a partner in Niagara and Bowery Electric; and Mr. Malin’s bandmate in D Generation, Danny Sage.

During a stop-in earlier today, it was clear the former Lakeside space was getting a major makeover (ongoing construction has delayed a friends-and-family opening planned for tonight). Ms. Devitt said a new black-and-white look, which she described as “60s rock and roll,” would appeal to a broader audience.

“I said, ‘Let’s make it a place where girls want to go – have bathrooms that work and don’t smell horrible,’” she told The Local. “People say, ‘I love a dive bar. I love that it’s dirty and all that.’ And I enjoy it too – but I have to be pretty drunk to enjoy that.” Read more…

An East Villager’s surveillance camera caught a gloved burglar snooping around inside his apartment on August 6.

The police said that the burglar entered the abode at 516 East 11th Street at 3:35 p.m. and stole “some personal items.”

A police spokesman did not have further information on what type of video camera captured the suspect, or what valuables he swiped. But the camera sure did get a good look at him.