Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

Hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July celebration last night.

The folks over at EV Grieve have two sets of vandalism photos this morning; in one series, someone has spray painted cars parked along East First Street. In the second photo, someone has spray painted the Subway restaurant that will be opening soon on Avenue B.

Grieve also reports that there will soon be a new bakery on St. Marks Place. The new bakery, which an on-site worker said will open in two weeks, will be located at a spot that previously held thrift store-boutique Junk. Junk closed in early March.

The suspect in the fatal shooting of an East Village man and a 2-year-old boy in Pennsylvania Saturday was killed in a standoff with the police earlier today just outside Philadelphia. The suspect, Mark Richard Geisenheyner, 51, had been sought in the shooting of Joseph Shay, 43, of East 10th Street, and Gregory Bosco, a toddler; three other people who were victims of the shooting, including the toddler’s mother, remained in critical condition this afternoon. The Times has complete coverage of the story. —Khristopher J. Brooks

Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

Get together with friends, munch on hamburgers and have fun for today is the Fourth of July. Today is a day of happiness and celebration. If you don’t have plans, here’s a list of places to watch fireworks later on tonight.

In other news, EV Grieve reports that Leo, a cat who was stranded on a East River barge, has been rescued. A reader noticed Leo stranded there Saturday afternoon. A Facebook page bringing attention to the cat’s plight was created yesterday. EV Grieve has a photo of Leo, safe and in a cage.

Meanwhile, EV Grieve also has a reader-submitted photo of construction work taking place at 200 Avenue A. The city’s Department of Buildings does not have work permits on file for the spot which used to house Superdive bar.

Leonardo Mendez on using photography to find stories with a life of their own.

“My father used to tell my brother and I bedtime stories. Though often lighthearted and warm, we also endured our share of mythology and Tolstoy. What does a child know of Tolstoy! Nonetheless, he was an actor, and he told them so well, that I lived them very vividly in my mind. I photograph, therefore, because I am in a constant search for more stories to live — either through the curvature of the lens, or the lips of an actor.”
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Ian Duncan Matt Capucilli at the table where he made the best-selling iPad app Video Time Machine. He also painted the portrait.

The fifth floor of an Avenue B walk up might not seem like the most likely place to find a computer programmer with a best selling app. But from his kitchen table Matt Capucilli developed Video Time Machine, which is now riding high in the iTunes store.

Since the launch of the iPad app on June 17, it has been climbing the charts, and as of last night, was the most downloaded iPad application, knocking the wildly popular Angry Birds, off the top spot. The app was also climbing up the more competitive iPhone rankings, reaching number two in the entertainment category. The app lets users pick a year and one of seven genres — games, television, ads, news, sports, movies and music — and serves up relevant videos. Showing off how the app worked, Mr. Capucilli selected 1968 and TV, pulling up an episode of “The Gumby Show”.

Mr. Capucilli, who is 29, said the app aims to tap into nostalgia for old TV. “It’s discovery based on things you might have once come across before in your life,” he said, “things you didn’t remember you remember.”
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Shawn HokeA Hairless Khala dog stands outside the Westville East — one of the locations where Sarah Shanfield has violently tripped while indulging her brunch habit.

It came on quickly.

I didn’t know I was addicted; I thought I just had a lot of friends. There was that birthday “Kegs & Eggs” celebration for my roommate’s coworker. There was that friend from home that only had a few hours until her return plane ride and desperately wanted to go dine at 11 a.m. at the Boathouse Cafe, “like Carrie Bradshaw!”

And then there was that day I woke up and there happened to be five people sleeping on the floor of my apartment, and the only way to get rid of them was to promise them really good pancakes at the cute little place around the corner.

It’s a sad story, but soon after I moved here, I became addicted to brunch.

I ate so many brunches that I began to choke when I had a piece of fruit that wasn’t drizzled in lemongrass-infused balsamic honey. Friends would joke that my blood was actually just Bloody Mary mix, but after violently tripping on the outdoor tables at Westville East I realized it wasn’t Bloody Mary mix, it was just straight celery juice running through my veins.
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Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good morning, East Village.

Local skaters can rejoice because Open Road Park officially reopens today. The park closed recently amid reports of drug dealing. The closing forced East Village skaters to go elsewhere to ride, hang out and practice kick-flips. East Side Community High School Principal Mark Federman, who held a public meeting earlier this week about the park’s closing, said he hopes to increase the park’s hours of operation next month.

In other neighborhood news, NY1 reports that the demolition of 51 Astor Place will begin in a few days. Later this year, construction is scheduled to begin on a 13-story, mixed-use office tower; that work is expected to take about 17 months.

The folks at EV Grieve have photos this morning showing that the Yippie Museum Cafe is closed temporarily for renovations. Along with the Chickpea location on 14th Street, many East Village business owners are closing for a few weeks in order to spruce up the interior of their shop. EV Grieve also has photos of boxing promoter Don King smoking a cigar in Tompkins Square Park during the premiere of the free, summer-long film series there. The Local’s Joshua Davis will have a full report on the series later today.

As we told you Wednesday, Open Road skate park on 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A will reopen this week. Our friends at DNAinfo report that the park will officially reopen Friday. East Side Community High School Principal Mark Federman said at a public meeting Wednesday that he hopes to increase the hours of operation next month. — Chelsia Rose Marcius

For a neighborhood with some of the highest concentrations of bars, restaurants and retail stores in New York, the East Village stands as a prime location for a coupon provider like Groupon.

“New York is a region that we continue to study intensively,” says Julie Mossler, a Groupon spokeswoman. “We handpick and curate the deals with the best businesses that are the most exciting or interesting in the area.”

But with questions being raised about Groupon’s business model, as well as complaints from some small business owners, The Local checked in with five East Village businesses to learn about their experiences with the coupon site.

While most business owners interviewed said that they saw an influx of customers, some voiced unhappiness with what they they saw as a lack of support by the site.

In response to situations in which a business owner was not completely satisfied with Groupon, Ms. Mossler said that Groupon attempts to work “extremely close” with merchants and describes their relationship as an “ongoing process.”

“It’s not like we sign you up, you run and that’s it,” she said. “You get an account representative who holds your hands through the process and gives you tools to help you take advantage of the feature.”
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Michael Natale

Good morning, East Village.

It’s a sight on the New York City skyline that’s been almost a decade in the making: the appearance of One World Trade Center. The GammaBlog has a collection of construction photos that show the tower poking up through the skyline (to the left of the traffic light in the image above, which was taken by community contributor Michael Natale at Canal and Chrystie Streets). That portion of the downtown skyline has been empty for far too long. By the way, an American flag stands atop the unfinished steel structure.

In neighborhood news, federal authorities say two East Village tattoo parlors were doubling as boutiques for illegal drugs. SiLive.com reports that two Staten Island residents were dealing designer drugs to tattoo parlors Addiction INK and Addiction NYC.  The dealers, Igor Kanchik, 31, and Steve Zhik, 30, were both charged in a federal drug sweep that netted a Washington state-based distributor and nine sellers.

The owner of d.b.a., a bar on First Avenue, was in critical condition Wednesday morning after being hit by a car while cycling on Canal Street. Ray Deter, 53, was taken to Bellevue Hospital, reports DNAinfo. The staff at the bar asks that well-wishers refrain from calling the bar, hospital or Mr. Deter’s home.

Finally, Mark Federman, the principal at East Side Community High School, told a group of locals that school officials closed the Open Road Park on 12th Street because of recent reports of the sale and use of marijuana on park grounds. The Local’s Chelsia Rose Marcius reports that there’s a good chance the park will reopen but with different hours of operation.

Chelsia Rose Marcius School officials and Open Road staff members gather to meet with skateboarders and area residents about the closed East Village skating space on 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.

At today’s public meeting to discuss the recent closure of Open Road Park on 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, Principal Mark Federman of East Side Community High School said recent reports of the sale and use of marijuana on the property were the primary reason that school officials decided to close the neighborhood skating space.

“There have been lots of reports of the smoking of cigarettes and the smoking and dealing of marijuana,” he said. “I’m not keeping stats but I have enough reports to be concerned.”

In the last few days, the school and Open Road have started raising money to hire more security to supervise the park during weekends and after school hours. Mr. Federman said that he understands “it’s a huge burden to the kids who come and skate,” and hopes to reopen the park — with restricted hours — later this week.
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Meghan Keneally The ‘assembly’ portion of the magazine is literal.

Nearly two dozen people walked past the “For Sale” sign and closed gate of a townhouse on Third Street on Sunday, invited themselves in the unlocked door, and made their way up to the second floor with folders of their work in tow.

When they walked in, it was like a mini reunion of yesteryear’s East Village art world: everyone knew each other, liked each other’s work, and swapped stories about peers of old.

And then they got to work publishing a magazine.

They were all there to put together the 34th issue of “What Happens Next,” an assembly magazine made up of poems, collages and drawings. The event, and the 33 issues prior, have been organized by Eve Packer who started it “just to have a forum” for the work of she and her friends, and anyone else who wanted to jump in.

The magazine is made up of individual work provided by the participants, with each bringing 100 copies of their pieces. The assembly aspect of the magazine is very literal: everyone lines their stack up and they start passing it along, with one person at the end taking charge with a stapler.
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Chelsia Rose Marcius Teri Hagen says that she is being unfairly denied access to the Peach Tree Community Garden on East Second Street. Those who manage the memberships at the garden deny any wrongdoing.

At the entrance of the Peach Tree Community Garden on Second Street between Avenues B and C stands a small, decorative sign bearing a one-word message: “Welcome” — seven letters that most take as a friendly invitation to enter.

But some residents say they’ve been locked out of this urban green space for at least nine months, and after voicing multiple complaints to Green Thumb, Community Board 3 and City Council District 2, one says she’s fed up with feeling overlooked.

“We have a right to be here, this is a community and everyone has to have a say,” said Teri Hagan, 75, who lives on East Second Street just across the street from the garden.
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Community Board 3 passed a resolution Tuesday night condemning the actions of the two former Ninth Precinct police officers who were convicted of official misconduct in May. The former officers, Kenneth Moreno and Franklin L. Mata, were acquitted of all other charges from the 2008 incident in which a woman said that she was raped by the officers after they helped her to her East Village home. The resolution calls on the sentencing judge to impose the harshest possible punishment on each of the men — two years in prison.
—Laura E. Lee

Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

It’s going to be hot outside today, so if you get too warm just know that all Manhattan public pools have opened. Yes, that means, in about an hour, you can go jump in that pool at Tompkins Square Park. Or, if that’s too crowded, try the Dry Dock Playground and Pool on East 10th Street. Remember though, the pools are open from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and they do a daily pool cleaning between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.

If you shop regularly at the Super Saving Store on 14th Street and Third Avenue, it’s time to make your final selections. Our friends over at EV Grieve report that the store is closing soon. The store is known for selling groceries, health care products, school supplies and clothing all under one roof.

Speaking of roofs, there’s a new historic landmark just south of our neighborhood — the Hardenbrook-Somarindyck House located at 135 Bowery. DNAinfo reports that the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the house and two other buildings during its meeting on Tuesday. The commission also voted to schedule a public hearing for two East Village historic districts: a 300-building stretch from East Second and East Seventh Streets between First Avenue and the Bowery and 26 buildings along East 10th Street between Avenues A and B, DNAinfo says.

Oh, and just in case you missed it, Community Board 3 denied a liquor license to a new music spot at 34 Avenue A. The music spot, already labeled Piney Woods, is a project by music curator Todd Patrick and longtime East Villager Phil Hartman.

The liquor license application for a new music venue at 34 Avenue A was denied by a Community Board 3 vote tonight. Tensions ran high as board members heard from the public on both sides of the issue, which was referred to the full board by the licensing committee. The 28-7 vote puts the future of the proposed site, a project by music curator Todd Patrick and longtime East Village proprietor Phil Hartman, on hold. — Laura E. Lee