G.V.S.H.P.

After defying his landlord’s repeated requests to stop holding events at A Gathering of the Tribes, Steve Cannon,who founded the homegrown gallery in 1991, has received a notice ordering him to vacate his East Third Street live-work space by Feb. 1. The gallerist, who said that he had neglected to sign a new rent agreement in part because he is blind, has vowed to prevent yet another disappearance of an eccentric art space.

“I’m going to fight her,” Mr. Cannon said of his landlord. “I don’t think she has a leg to stand on.” Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown

After abruptly shuttering during the summer and moving its parties to the basement of Lucky Cheng’s, Nublu will reopen at its original Avenue C location, serving beer and wine rather than hard liquor.

E-mailing from Sweden, Nublu’s owner, Ilhan Ersahin, said that the club would reopen tonight at 62 Avenue C and will once again operate from 8 p.m. till 4 a.m. nightly, but will now host earlier shows at lower volumes. He described the new operation as “less clubby style,” with “more wine/lounge/art/talky kinda vibes,” and said that finger food would be served. He added that there would be “more acoustic-friendly nights, neighborhood-style, with an international touch” in keeping with his record label. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown

A letter sent from Kenneth Fisher to local politicians indicates that the attorney’s client, Benjamin Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group, may be close to reselling the property that houses the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, which Magnum recently purchased for $25.5 million. With a new for-profit operator in the mix, the deal would allay fears that the building will be replaced by condos, and would help insure that it continue to be used as a nursing home.

The letter was sent on Wednesday to State Senator Daniel Squadron and other politicians who had earlier written to Mr. Fisher reiterating their position that “any future use of the building should retain nursing home beds on the Lower East Side.” In his response, Mr. Fisher indicated that on Dec. 6, he was advised by a lawyer representing Cabrini that an earlier plan to relocate the not-for-profit nursing home had fallen through, and the Center was now negotiating to be purchased by a for-profit operator that might also be able to purchase the building from Magnum. Read more…

Have you abandoned South Brooklyn Pizza ever since it stopped carrying Manhattan Special coffee soda on draft? (We’re assured it’ll return when the takeout parlor expands into a proper restaurant, possibly next month.) Well, there’s a new option just a block away: L’asso has opened its East Village outpost for dinner. Last month, The Local told you what to expect from the NoLIta transplant. Check back here shortly for interior shots as well as the menu, which features a Polish pie with kielbasa, pickles, and mustard oil.

Daniel Maurer

Evan McKnight, who discovered on Christmas Day that his $1,100 bicycle had been stolen from his East 10th Street apartment building, has recovered the bike and will end the year on a positive note – though he’s out $50 that he spent printing “Stolen Bike” flyers plus $40 that had to be paid to the man who returned the custom wheels after seeing one of the flyers posted at a local shop.

Mr. McKnight said that yesterday evening, a man came into Continuum Cycles on Avenue B to buy a tire tube for a bike he had purchased on the street the previous night. He told the rest of the story in an e-mail to The Local.

On his way out of the shop he noticed one of my flyers. He gets home to his new bike and after deducing that he’s in fact purchased a stolen bike from the ‘homeless man’ he decides to bring it back to Continuum Cycles. He speaks with my friend Jeff and tells him he doesn’t want the reward money he just wants his $40 back. Jeff hands it over out of pocket, and sends me a text later that night to let me know he had my bike.

Jeff Underwood, the owner of Continuum Cycles, said that at least once a day, someone comes into his shop complaining about a stolen bike, and complaints about stolen parts are even more numerous. (The editor of this blog had his locked bike stolen on the Bowery last month, a couple of months after having to replace a stolen seat.) Read more…

New Year’s Eve is the worst night of the year to catch a cab  – reason enough for East Villagers to keep it local. And if you don’t live in the neighborhood? Well, some of these parties are worth crawling to.

Noah Fecks

Daniel Maurer

7A Café
Tapas menu, including sea scallops with chorizo ragout and herb polenta, and steamed mussels in a scallion, ginger, curry and coconut sauce. Midnight champagne toast. No reservations required. $6.95 and up, 109 Avenue A, (212) 475-9001.

Back Forty
Devour pigs-in-a-blanket, mini muffulettas, oysters and ceviche while a D.J. spins R&B, soul and funk. The party ticket also includes three drinks. 9:30 p.m., 190 Avenue B, (212) 388-1990; $115.

The Beagle
A four-course dinner that includes confit quail leg in sauerkraut mayo, cured scallop grits with dill and pomegranate, and short ribs. 162 Avenue A, (212) 228-6900; $65 or $85, plus tax. Read more…

Anthony Ptak

After 28 years in the East Village, the owners of Polonia have closed shop after their landlord said she would more than triple their rent.

“I came here from Poland, my husband and I raised our children, and ran this business. We worked hard. I did everything I could,” Renata Jurczyk, who owns Polonia with her husband Jozef, said in Polish. “The landlords are killing small businesses in this neighborhood with the rent.”

The family had a small, informal gathering at Polonia last night with longtime customers. “After all these years, Polonia was important to the East Village,” said Ms. Jurczyk, 51. “When I told customers who have been coming here a long time that we’re closing, they started crying. They were Poles and non-Poles, and it was their second home.”

Ms. Jurczyk and her son Paul, 23, said they closed on Christmas Eve after the landlord, Ludmilla Lozowy, said she would raise their rent from $3,500 to $12,000 per month starting February 2012. “I tried to do something, but the landlord said we pay too little,” said Ms. Jurczyk. Read more…

Yesterday, City Room reported that “the picture of crime in New York City in 2011 is shaping up as virtually a mirror image of the year before, according to police statistics.” In the East Village, statistics released this week (tracking incidents reported to the Ninth Precinct in the period ending Dec. 11) show that crime complaints were almost universally down with three weeks left in the year. Petit larceny (theft of property valued at $1,000 or less), grand larceny auto, and misdemeanor sex crimes were the only categories that saw increases in reported crime following Deputy Inspector Kenneth Lehr’s appointment as precinct commander in January. Below, our chart comparing this year’s numbers with last year’s, and comparing the percentage of change in the Ninth Precinct to the same citywide.

View View a larger map

Of the many historical scavenger hunts that Watson Adventures conducts across the country, one of founder Bret Watson’s personal favorites is “Secrets of the East Village.” With winter upon us, The Local thought you might prefer to go on the hunt from the comfort of your warm and toasty apartment, by having a look at the clues below. Need more? After hearing Mr. Watson introduce the tour at Cooper Square, click on the points in the above map to hear him share more history about each location (you can view a larger version of the map here). The answers to his questions are at the bottom of this post. Read more…

As Mars Bar disappears, an artist who lived across the street from the dive and was regularly featured on its walls is honoring its memory by selling t-shirts. Last year, Sergey Aniskov marked Christmas at Mars Bar by painting a mural of a booze-swilling anarchist Santa Claus (see it below). This year, he has printed the image on limited-edition t-shirts that are going for $22.99 on eBay and will also be sold, said the artist, at Reason Clothing at 436 East Ninth Street.

“I was a regular at Mars Bar for ten years,” said Mr. Aniskov, 41, who came to New York from Moscow in the 1990s and now works at Animation Collective. “It was the place where you went when you were really having problems. You knew you’d find good company and get good feedback from the real people and the real East Village. I felt like I had to do this as a memory.” Read more…

Footage of Occupy Wall Street by Noam Berg.

Emma Goldman may have been the East Village’s most famous radical. For ten years she published the magazine “Mother Earth” out of her 13th Street residence, where she housed transient intellectuals of every stripe. At one point she listed her return address as 50 East First Street, where the tavern of Justus Schwab, an anarchist who was among those charged with inciting the Tompkins Square Riot of 1874, served as “the most famous radical center in New York.”

The tavern, she wrote, was “a mecca for French Communards, Spanish and Italian refugees, Russian politicals, and German socialists and anarchists who had escaped the iron heel of Bismarck.” Interestingly, a storefront at the address is currently for rent. Invoking Ms. Goldman in a Craigslist posting, the landlord seeks “a thriving local business forced to relocate because of a steep rent hike.”

Indeed, Emma Goldman’s theories are more than just an interesting relic of the neighborhood’s past. Her deeds and words have gained renewed notoriety among Occupy Wall Street protesters, one of whom, Miriam Rocek, has even taken to impersonating her. Watch her spread the late radical’s spirit and ideas in a video that also features Vivian Gornick, author of the recently published “Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life,” about the anarchist’s life in the East Village at the turn of the twentieth century.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 1, 2012

An earlier version of this post misidentified the address of Justus Schwab’s tavern. It was at 50 East First Street, not 10.

Just a couple of weeks after State Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh announced a new basketball program operated by the Police Athletic League at the Campos Plaza housing complex, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has announced that it is teaming with P.A.L., the police department, and the D.E.A. to bring a similar program to the Henry Street Settlement’s Boys & Girls Republic at 888 East Sixth Street next month.

At a Community Board 3 meeting Tuesday night, Linda Jones-Janneh of the District Attorney’s Community Affairs Unit announced that the Pro Hoops L.E.S. Free Basketball Training Camp would start Jan. 6, and would include two Friday evening sessions for boys (one for ages 12 to 14, the other for ages 15 to 19) and a Saturday evening session for girls aged 15 to 19. The program will run through Feb. 25. Read more…

Now that you’ve crossed the guys, the girls, and the geeks off your holiday shopping list, here’s what to get the wee ones.

Above:
1. Fly vs. Frog mittens, $28 – JellyFish New York (244 East 13th Street)
2. Boite à Outils children’s tool box, $32.99– Dinosaur Hill (306 East Ninth Street)
3. Franklin fat tie tee, $38 – Pink Olive (337 East Ninth Street)
4. Princess and The Pea bed set, $124 – Pink Olive (337 East Ninth Street)
5. Mr. Robot Head, $33 – Dinosaur Hill (306 East Ninth Street)
Read more…

Noah Fecks B.A.D. Burger

Keith Masco, the owner of B.A.D. Burger and once an outspoken critic of Community Board 3, will try to get approval for a beer and wine license at his restaurant at next month’s meetings. Mr. Masco’s reappearance before the board comes over a year after he tried to obtain a liquor license for a seafood restaurant and fishmonger at the same location. The board’s denial of his efforts resulted in Mr. Masco colorfully writing to EV Grieve, “I see no reason to bow to the communists at the community board.”

Other burger joints are on the just-released agenda, as well. BareBurger, which has been under construction for several months on Second Avenue will also push for a beer-wine license. Lastly, Five Napkin Burger on 14th Street will seek approval for a sidewalk cafe. The yet-to-open chain joint was previously a bodega.

And there’s one more location with a rocky history with the community board. Goat Town will ask the board for approval of an upgrade to its space on Fifth Street. The previous restaurant there, Butcher Bay, sued the board for denying an upgrade to its liquor license.

Lastly, new owners are apparently getting involved in the nightclub La Vie under undesirable circumstances: there was a knife-fight there on Thanksgiving.

In September, Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram Yoga, filed a $1 million lawsuit against his former student Greg Gumucio, founder of the wildly popular Yoga to the People chain. Mr. Choudhury copyrighted his series of 26 poses and two breathing exercises in 2002, and he’s been known to sue people who infringe on it. The Bikram guru has said the poses were designed in a series for health benefits, and to effectively teach the courses, instructors must become certified, which costs $10,000. The million-dollar question: Can yoga be owned?

G.V.S.H.P. The Gathering of the Tribes building.

The landlord of Gathering of the Tribes says she will now make good on her longstanding threat to send the freewheeling artistic space into exile.

The relationship between Steve Cannon, the blind poet who founded Tribes, and his landlord, Lorraine Zhang, seems to have been contentious virtually from the moment he sold the building at 285 East Third Street to her in 2005 for $1.2 million.

The space regularly hosts gallery openings and music shows; a magazine is put together there, as well. But all the foot traffic, artistic exploration and revelry comes at a price Ms. Zhang says she can’t afford.

“My attorney is going to send him a notice that he must remove all the events from the building or remove himself,” she said. Read more…

You already know what to get the get the guys (and the geeks) in your life. This one’s for the ladies.

Above:
1. Jumbo chocolate Buddha, $50 – Bond Street Chocolate (63 East Fourth Street)
2. Giles and Brother silver necklace, $84 – Oak (28 Bond Street)
3. Great Lake sand terrarium prism, $65 – Duo (337 East Ninth Street)
4. Collina Strada muff bag, $298 – Cloak and Dagger (441 East Ninth Street)
5. Two-tone belt, $38 – Pinky Otto (307 East Ninth Street)
Read more…

PKSB Architects The original and final proposals for a rooftop addition to the Puck Building.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission finally approved a rooftop addition to the Puck Building today, concluding a four-month process that resulted in numerous rejections of numerous designs.

The owner of the landmarked building at Lafayette and East Houston Streets, Jared Kushner, expressed his pleasure with the outcome, which only came after four other designs were rejected by the commission.

Michael Natale Puck.

“I am very pleased with the results. We got an extension approved that allows us to go forward with a special project,” said Mr. Kushner, who owns the New York Observer. “The additions to the building will further enhance one of the most iconic buildings in the world.”

Elisabeth de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the commission, said that the latest design would not amount to a drastic change to the Puck Building.

Commissioner Michael Devonshire, an architectural conservator, said, “They’ve reached the target of minimalism in terms of massing.”
Read more…

Last month, The Local introduced you to the owners of the East Village Cheese Shop, Tibetan refugees who attend rallies in support of their homeland’s independence and regularly send funds to their family there. The Cheese Shop isn’t the neighborhood’s only link to the Himalayas: Just a block away at The Three Jewels – the Buddhist community center at 61 Fourth Avenue – a lama and some of his students are raising money for the neediest inhabitants of Nepal. Read more…