Roey Ahram

Former Cro-Mags bassist Harley Flanagan was arrested after reportedly stabbing and biting current members of the band before their show at Webster Hall last night, law enforcement sources told The Post.

Bowery Boogie witnessed the incident and reported that “Harley Flannegan [sic], founding member of the Cro-Mags stumbled into the VIP lounge with a knife.” According to the site, security quickly mobilized and “it took no less than six beefy dudes to control the madness. Blood was everywhere, and bone protruded from his shin.” The site followed up its initial report with photos from the scene.

Sources told WABC that “a former member of the band” was taken into custody after “one of the victims had been slashed, and the other had been bitten. Sources say that the two injured men were members of the band that was performing on Friday night. Both victims are expected to be okay.”

Mr. Flanagan is a longtime East Villager who at one point lived in Allen Ginsberg’s building at 437 East 12th Street (the poet was a family friend and introduced a book that Mr. Flanagan wrote at the age of nine). He co-founded the Cro-Mags but is at odds with the current iteration of the band. He discussed his semi-professional dedication to mixed martial arts and his issues with former bandmates in Fight! magazine in 2009. “There were years during our beef where we said a lot of shit and I offered to fight it out and put it on video,” he said. In March of this year, he once again called out John “Bloodclot” Joseph McGowan, current Cro-Mags frontman and East Village tour guide.

“The dude is a fraud. He was back in the day and he still is,” Mr. Flanagan told Vista Fanzine, going on to say, “All I know is this, from here to eternity I will always be willing to EITHER one, gig together with all of those guys just strictly out of the love for the music & the Cro-Mags or if John EVER actually has the balls to back up all the shit he talks, to step up and I’ll beat his ass. Again…That is if he EVER has the balls to actually step up to the 100’s of times I’ve called him out, emailed him, called him, etc.”

It’s unknown whether Mr. McGowan was involved in the incident, and according to The Times, law enforcement officials have not yet identified the attacker in last night’s incident. The victims were taken to Bellevue Hospital and were in stable condition. “One was treated for a bite mark and a cut to the face and the other had cuts to his arm and stomach,” police sources told The Daily News.

Update | 9:03 a.m. The Post has now printed the names of the victims and reports that Mr. Flanagan was hit with two counts of second-degree assault and weapons charges. “William Berario, 45, was slashed above the eye and bitten on his cheek. Michael Couls, 33, — the band’s current bassist, who is known in the hardcore world as ‘The Gook’ — was cut on his arm and stomach.”

Just a handful of blocks from where “Safety Not Guaranteed” is playing at AMC Loews Village 7 are the offices of Big Beach, the company that produced the endearing indie comedy about a wannabe time-traveler, played by Mark Duplass, and his adoring sidekick, played by Aubrey Plaza of “Parks and Recreation.” Since Big Beach was founded in 2004 by Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf, it has produced “Sunshine Cleaning,” starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, as well as the Sam Mendes film “Away We Go,” written by Dave Eggers and his wife Vendela Vida and starring Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski. Both followed the runaway success, in 2006, of “Little Miss Sunshine.”

The Local recently spoke to Mr. Saraf, who got his start working with director Jonathan Demme on Broadway and Bond Street, under the skylight of his office on Great Jones Street. As clouds shifted above, he spoke about his past, present, and upcoming projects and, of course, his chosen neighborhood. “It’s gone through a lot of changes over the eight years we’ve been here and over the 25 years I’ve lived in New York,” the producer said of the East Village, “but it remains still a very vibrant and exciting place where there’s a real history of great experimentation and great artistry going on. And yet it’s not all in the past. That present energy is still here.”

Melvin Felix Left to right: Councilmember Letitia James, union member Carol Phillips, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito.

A couple of hundred demonstrators today continued to protest outside of Con Ed headquarters at 4 Irving Place, where unconfirmed rumors of on-the-job heart attacks bounced between union representatives and City Council members.

Paul Albano, a business agent for the Utility Workers Union of America’s Local 1-2 division, which represents over 8,000 workers locked out by the utility company Sunday, continued to insist that the 5,000 managers who have replaced the unionized workers are too inexperienced to properly perform maintenance and repairs. “We had people that witnessed management taking cones — as simple as cones — off the back of the truck, and because they’re so hot, they burned their hands and they dropped them,” he said. “You’re supposed to be using gloves on it. They don’t even know the basics of setting up a manhole.”

Con Ed told Reuters that since the lockout, four replacement workers had received injuries, none of them life-threatening. But Mr. Albano had heard otherwise. “We’ve heard of about five to seven management personnel getting hurt, anywhere from car accidents to flashes in the face and explosions,” he said, “and we’ve even heard two managers had heart attacks.” Read more…

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

Courtesy NYC Velo Andrew Crooks

Andrew Crooks raced bikes in college and then graduated to become an engineering consultant in Houston, Tex. He was coming to New York City a few times a month when he decided it was time to shift gears, career-wise. “When I made that list of what I’d like to do for 70 to 80 hours a week, cycling was at the top of the list,” he said. When he opened NYC Velo seven years ago on Second Avenue (a popular commuter route even before it got a bike lane) the East Village’s other bike shops specialized in used rides. On the other hand, NYC Velo’s brand new bikes are priced from $400 to $4,000: hence clientele like Robin Williams and Leo DiCaprio. We asked the bicycling enthusiast turned entrepreneur how he’s managed to make it.

Have the bike lanes brought you more business?

It’s hard to pin it on the bike lanes. We chose the location long before there was a lane. We do tailor our schedule around the commuting culture so we’re open later for people riding home from work and who might stop by because they need something. We open later in the morning because not a lot of things happen in the East Village before 11 a.m. Read more…

Courtesy Diana Diaz Diana Diaz (right) and her family in the early 80s.

Diana Diaz lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, but she grew up on the Lower East Side during the 1970s and 80s, and it’s the stories of Puerto Ricans of that time and place that she wants to tell. The N.Y.U. graduate and freelance writer, who grew up ducking into Alphabet City clubs and catching shows at the Nuyorican, has raised funds for a book that she hopes will educate the current wave of nightcrawlers who come to the East Village just “because it’s so gritty” or “because they want to have sex in a bathroom.”

“We have them in our murals, we have them in our kitchens, we have them in our anecdotes,” said Ms. Diaz of the neighborhood’s stories. “But if they’re not written down, our culture is lost.”

Last week, she raised $845 (well over the $525 she was aiming for on Kickstarter) to self-publish “Tales from the East Side,” which she hoped would be the first step toward a wider release. Read more…

Sandy Berger The new machinery.

Can the neighbors of IHOP breathe easy?

Sandy Berger, a watchdog of the chain restaurant that she dubbed The International House of Putrid Odors, just sent over photos of a new piece of equipment that seems to have eliminated the overwhelming odor of bacon that has tormented her and many others for months.

“I can smell something now, but it doesn’t assault you. It would be the same as if you were walking down the hallway and you smelled a neighbor’s cooking,” Ms. Berger said. “That’s livable. It’s nothing like it had been before. Nothing.”

Ms. Berger added that three or four workers installed the machine on Tuesday using blowtorches and jackhammers.
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Here’s a sketch of the suspect in this morning’s shooting in the Lower East Side that likely would have killed a police officer were it not for his Kevlar vest. The incident happened in the stairwell between the 18th and 19th floors of the Seward Park Houses at around 3:40 a.m. While on a routine patrol, Officer Brian Groves came upon the armed suspect, who shot him in the chest after a brief pursuit, according to a statement from Commissioner Raymond Kelly. The Lo-Down reports a heavy police presence in the neighborhood.

Mary Reinholz

Chanting slogans and waving flags, including one that read “Don’t Tread on Me,” at least 1,000 demonstrators massed this morning near the headquarters of Consolidated Edison at 4 Irving Place to support some 8,000 unionized employees locked out early Sunday morning.

The utility company and representatives of Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers of America resumed negotiations around noon today, assisted by federal mediators. Allan Drury, a spokesman for Con Edison, declined to give the location. Previous talks had been held in Rye, N.Y.

Meanwhile, demonstrations continued in the sweltering heat. “We’re here to show our support for the union,” said utility worker Damon Romanelli, 49. “I’ve been working for Con Ed only five years but there are guys here who have worked for them for 30 and 40 years and they locked us out. They want to cut back on our pensions and on medical. It’s not fair.” Read more…

Melvin Felix Steve Rose in the garden.

On May 26, less than three weeks after the Creative Little Garden was touted as the best community garden in the city by readers of the Daily News, a message appeared on the garden’s Facebook page: “Without new volunteers our garden may close at the end of this summer.”

For the past five years, Steve Rose, a “semi-retired” 62-year-old resident of the block, has opened the garden’s green gates every morning at 11 a.m and watered its azaleas, hydrangeas and ferns. He closes the park at sundown — to prevent vagrants or late-night partiers from entering — and when it’s used for events: 14 weddings were held at the Creative Little Garden last year, and a “Saturday Night Live” skit was filmed there. But earlier this summer, Mr. Rose decided he would no longer be involved with the garden, citing personal reasons he did not want to discuss on the record.

Most East Village gardens are run in a communal fashion, meaning the loss of one member wouldn’t bring on a closing scare. But Mr. Rose runs the garden if not with an iron fist, then with a very green thumb. “The good thing about our garden is that it’s run by one guy,” he said. “That’s why it looks the way it does. It’s not a whole bunch of people complaining and compromising — which is most gardens, where it gets political. I sort of became the dictator and did everything when no one else did and it just worked out easily that way.”

Mr. Rose did get assistance from Ron Curtis, a friend who built the garden’s 66 birdhouses and has been involved with it since it opened in 1978. But Mr. Curtis wasn’t an ideal replacement, since he travels constantly. (This summer, he’s in Nova Scotia.) Read more…

Alberto Reyes Sugar and Toasty

Meet Toasty and his mutt, Sugar. They sometimes hang out on the corner of Second Avenue and 10th Street at St. Mark’s Church. The church isn’t thrilled about the “crusties” who loiter outside, especially after a recent act of vandalism. But when the weather’s nice, they can be found sitting in a group, drinking, laughing, sleeping, fighting, and hanging out with their dogs.

“Sugar just makes me happy. I don’t know, she just does,” said Toasty as he petted Sugar’s head. He said he rescued her from the home of his ex-girlfriend’s mom in the Bronx six months ago. “She had him in a tiny cage, you can tell by the marks on her tail,” he said, pointing to an area on Sugar’s tail where the hair grew in patches because of scarring. Sugar looked up at Toasty and it seemed she was comfortable with her new owner. Read more…

Sarah Darville Sue Palchak-Essenpriess in her apartment.

Sue Palchak-Essenpriess caught a break in Housing Court last week.

The resident of 50 East Third Street, who along with her husband organized fellow tenants against the landlord who refused to renew their leases, defiantly stayed two months past the expiration date of her lease. That caused her landlord, Abart Holdings, to file suit for $2,400 on top of the rent she had paid for the two extra months, as well as for legal fees. On Friday, those demands were dropped, Ms. Palchak-Essenpriess said, and the parties settled for the amount of their security deposit and a month’s rent.

Now Ms. Palchak-Essenpriess is packing up and preparing to move to a new apartment in Washington Heights. “If you were to think of the stress arc, I guess this is the peak of it. The uncertainty is over, but now the devastation of the change is settling in,” she said.

Actually, there’s still one bit of uncertainty: Who owns 50-58 East Third Street? Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown The unmarked police car and the van in the background.

Stephen Rex Brown Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann speaks with the driver, who eventually decided against going to the hospital.

We already knew traffic on the Bowery was a nightmare, but a van driver found out the hard way this afternoon, after rear-ending an unmarked police car at East Fourth Street. Awkward!

The commanding officer of the Ninth, Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann, made a star appearance at the scene of the fender-bender at around 4:30 p.m. He said the officer driving the car, who works at the Police Academy, considered going to the hospital, but then decided against it.

The passengers in the van were fine, and no damage was evident to either vehicle.

Stephen Robinson The victim, on a stretcher, being treated by medics.

A would-be robber cracked a female employee at Snack Dragon in the head with a tip jar he tried to snatch at around 2 a.m.

Stephen Robinson Bloody gauze at the scene.

“Somebody walked in there and tried to take the tip jar,” said Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann, who confirmed the incident on East Third Street near Avenue B. “The female tried to stop the perp, and he wound up using it as a weapon.”

The victim required stitches in her head. Bloody gauze was left at the scene, where several stunned witnesses lingered until around 3 a.m.

One of the bystanders, who did not give his name, said he tried to pursue the suspect who fled the scene, but lost him on Avenue C.

Inspector Cappelmann added that investigators from the Ninth Precinct were on the verge of arresting a suspect.

Stephen Robinson The scene at East Third Street and Avenue B.

DNAInfo reports that the Bowery Poetry Club will close for around one month starting in mid-July to make way for full food service. “There will be a better mix of food and art,” club owner Bob Holman tells the site, without going into further detail about how the well known performance space will change. The news comes after much concern over the poetry club’s fate. Last month EV Grieve noted its nearly empty events calendar for August. And a Kickstarter for a restaurant in the club was quickly abandoned in May.

Today at 1 p.m., a former CIA agent will team up with a Yonkers firefighter for a live-painting performance. Allow us to explain: The former Fed is Hank O’Neal, a longtime East Village photographer who goes by the handle XCIA. And the firefighter is Jef Campion, better known as Army of One.

Last week, guerrilla-art aficionados spilled onto East Ninth Street as the Dorian Grey Gallery hosted the opening of “Street Artists Unite!” For the exhibit, artists like Mr. Campion and John “Crash” Matos (whose work showed at TT Underground before The Melvins moved in) tagged the photos of Hank O’Neal, whose snaps of international street art were recently published in “XCIA’s Street Art Project: The First Four Decades.” (Mr. O’Neal’s Website features a gallery of his photos of the East Village from 1986 to 2010.)

Christopher Pusey, director of the Dorian Grey Gallery, spoke to The Local about the exhibit, which also features the work of AV ONE, BTA, COPE2, ENX, Fumero, Kid Lew, Screwtape, SEE One, Chris Stain, TMNK, and Robots Will Kill. It remains on display at 437 East Ninth Street, near Avenue A, through Aug. 5.

Photos: Daniel Maurer

The Melvins are widely considered the godfathers of grunge: Kurt Cobain, who drove them to shows in their Mel-van, was so heavily influenced by their brand of “sludge metal” that he once worried Nirvana would be considered a “Melvins rip-off.” So why did their latest show draw just under 150 people?

Rest assured, the band’s fan base isn’t dwindling as it enters its third decade. The half-filled basement of Lit was part of (what else?) a “Post Moral Neanderthal Retardist Pornography” art show.

Tom Hazelmyer, who produced the show (his Amphetamine Reptile record company put out a couple of the band’s 18 studio albums) said tickets sold out in about 20 minutes. The $50 cost of entry got attendees one of 300 handmade records as well as a wristband. Those who couldn’t get into Lit’s cave-like basement were able to watch a simulcast of the show next-door at TT Underground underneath Toy Tokyo, where Melvins-related artwork by Mr. Hazelmyer (a.k.a. HAZE XXL) and others graced the walls. Read more…

Speaking of rock and roll legends at local hangouts, City Room happened to strike up a conversation with Alice Cooper at the Broadway location of The Bean this morning. Later on Mr. Cooper made a stop at Trash and Vaudeville. Tonight the man behind “School’s Out” plays the Prudential Center in Newark.

Melvin Felix

As Spanish soccer fans celebrated their Euro 2012 victory by thrashing in the Washington Square Park fountain yesterday afternoon, members of the East Village Book Club sat in a grassy corner of the park and pondered the birth of Frankenstein’s monster.

The book club had decided to take its monthly discussion, which usually occurs at Bar on A, outdoors for the first time since its inaugural meeting in Tompkins Square Park last November.

Melvin Felix The East Village Book Club

Sitting in a circle around cookies and chicken fajitas, the group of eight agreed that there was more to Mary Shelley’s classic novel than a mad scientist screaming, “It’s alive!”

“The movies massacred what the book was all about,” said Ranita Saha, a long-time member who commutes from the Bronx.

Jae Disbrow, the East Village resident who created the club, picked this month’s book for its philosophical and existential themes. “It gets a really bad rap,” she said. “I had to convince some of our members that it’s not like the book ‘Dracula.’ It has a lot of subtext and a lot of good things about it.” Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Andre Balazs speaking to East Fifth Street block association.

That book nook isn’t the only new development at The Standard, East Village: hotel higher-ups are moving forward with plans for a overhaul of the ground floor, and according to Department of Buildings records, initial construction will cost over $3 million.

Last week, The Standard filed two applications for construction work and zoning changes to 25-33 Cooper Square. The first, requesting permission to modify egress on the first floor as well as other general construction, estimates a price tag of $2.4 million. The second, for similar work, predicts an additional expenditure of $610,000.
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