Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

Dreading another 4 a.m. hotspot full of rowdy, liquored-up party-goers, 16 East Villagers spoke out against a proposed music performance space at 34 Avenue A during last night’s Community Board 3 State Liquor Authority committee hearing. Another 11 locals said they support the venue, adding that it could help revive the East Village arts scene. The board will decide the fate of the space later this month. In case you missed it, The Local’s Laura E. Lee had more on the meeting earlier today. And The Lo-Down is on the story, too.

Other signs of neighborhood change have also left long-time residents feeling disgruntled. Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York blog reports that a new real estate agency has finally inhabited the 113 East 12th Street, former home to Footlight Records. And the Manhattan retail news site Paper & String recently Tweeted that, after a 10-year run, Elaine Arsenault will close her handmade handbag store at 305 East Ninth Street.

But there’s hope yet that some change has carried the neighborhood’s creative legacy into the digital age. The Next Web says thatFoursquare, a location-based startup conceived at an East Village kitchen table, has now reached 10 million users. According to The Post, Bianca Caampued and Mallory Blair — founders of the party-planning and marketing company Small Girls, Big Business who also met in the East Village — have already garnered tens of thousands of followers via Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Laura E. Lee Board members at a recent meeting.

After a contentious two-hour discussion in front of more than 100 people, the licensing committee of Community Board 3 took no action regarding a liquor license for Piney Woods, a proposed venue at 34 Avenue A. No majority emerged during three votes on potential resolutions so the committee turned the matter over to be considered by the full board.

The venue is the work of Todd Patrick, an indie music organizer commonly known as Todd P., and Phil Hartman, Two Boots Pizza owner. Mr. Hartman also owned Mo Pitkins, a venue at the same address that closed in 2007. The space ultimately became the bar Aces & Eights in 2009.

Tensions ran high among the crowd gathered for the meeting at the Green Residence on East Fifth Street. At one point, chatter from audience members prompted Alexandra Militano, committee chair, to scold the spectators for “heckling” when opposing viewpoints were presented.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Patrick said the space would bring back some of the neighborhood’s musical and cultural history lost to gentrification.

“We are looking to be a place that harkens back to what brought us all to this neighborhood in the first place, which is the quality artistic legacy of this community,” he said.
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Dozens of chanting New Yorkers marched through the East Village Monday afternoon trying to gather more voices to oppose anticipated rent increases in New York City.

The march — which started at the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue, snaked through the neighborhood and ended at Cooper Union’s Great Hall — took place as the Rent Guidelines Board was receiving an earful of public testimonies. Board members will decide next Monday if, or how much, rent prices will be increased starting Oct. 1 and ending Sept. 30, 2012. The decision will affect tenants in rent stabilized apartments and lofts.

As the marchers turned corners and crossed streets, participants waved makeshift signs, pumped their fists and yelled, “The tenants, united, will never be defeated!”

After the march, city council members Daniel R. Garodnick and Rosie Mendez chanted with the crowd and urged the marchers to go inside Cooper Union and testify about why the guidelines board should not increase rent prices.

Khristopher J. Brooks Adele Bender during today’s hearing.

Adele Bender is a quiet woman with short red hair who lives in a rent-stabilized apartment in Forest Hills, Queens.

The 80-year-old widow took an hour-long trip to the East Village this morning to tell the Rent Guidelines Board how she and her neighbors cannot afford to pay higher rent.

“I’m here for the concerns of senior citizens,” Ms. Bender said. “Social Security has not been increased, but rent has gone up. I have a friend, I can tell you right now, who gets $1,400 in Social Security a month and she has to pay for expensive drugs. Her pills are several hundred dollars. Look, I know we’re here talking about housing and not health, but most times they are connected.”

Ms. Bender and several other New York City residents have piled into Cooper Union’s Great Hall today hoping to convince board members not to increase rent prices this year.

More than 100 people from across the city have pre-registered to address board members and even more New Yorkers will arrive later today to speak to board members informally.
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Brendan BernhardKevin.

We met because he needed money, and I happened to be standing on Avenue A in bright, windy sunshine looking like someone who had more of it than he did. Not that he looked poor exactly. He was wearing a nifty white hat, a clean New York Jets shirt, and blue jeans. He was a tall, good-looking black man with a friendly smile and what appeared to be a positive attitude. Before handing over a buck, I asked him why he couldn’t find a job.

“Five felonies” was his crisp reply. It sounded like a movie title. One of the five, he said, involved a cut throat, but it was an “accident.” He’d served time (several times), had stayed out of jail since 2005, and had no plans on returning. We talked about this and that for a minute or so and then parted ways.

An hour later I ran into him again. He was walking down St. Marks Place. He looked cheerful and greeted me like a long lost friend. I’d already told him I was a journalist and so we decided to stop at a kebab house on First Avenue for a brief interview. Of course there was a price: We settled on $10. Since I refused to pay extra for food, he purchased a minute salad from the self-service counter, which left him with $8.81.

I quickly jotted down some basics. Name: Kevin. Age: 40. Birthplace: Yonkers. Mother a cleaning lady, father an alcoholic. It turned out Kevin did have a job of sorts: Selling roses on the street, mostly in SoHo. But since he also had five felonies on his record, and was panhandling, I cut to the chase.

“What’s the problem?” I asked.

“Women, drugs, and alcohol.”

“What’s your problem with women?”

“I never had a problem with women. I make a problem. I don’t trust ‘em.”
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Michelle Rick

Lindsay Wengler

Good morning, East Village.

As we told you last week, East Villagers will have their final chance today starting at 10 a.m. at The Great Hall at Cooper Union to address the Rent Guidelines Board before board members vote on increasing rent citywide. Renters will band together after the hearing at 4 p.m. to march in a rally for fair rents.

In other news, EV Grieve shared photos of a Mars Bar mural via local blogger Melanie Neichin. We’ve posted an image of the mural by community contributor Lindsay Wengler, the smaller image above and right. Grieve wonders if this will be the last mural to adorn the walls of the iconic bar before it closes in August. Crain’s business reported last week that the tenants living above Mars Bar tenants will only be charged $10 for rent – that is, after the building is demolished and rebuilt, which will take an estimated two years to complete.

While the days might be numbered for Mars Bar, Off the Grid posted pictures of other well-known East Village buildings over the weekend, including  the Umbrella House at 21-23 Avenue C, between East Second and Third Streets, showing a colorful array of umbrellas poking out of windows and fire escapes.

Heather Holland on the new season’s photographic possibilities.

“I didn’t get into photography (or what I call picture-taking) until about six months ago when I began my first job as a reporter. One of my first assignments was to take photographs in Stuyvesant Town after the severe snow storm from last Christmas. It was then that I realized how a picture can be used to tell a story, perhaps more vividly than my pen ever could. I took this photo from the boardwalk at Coney Island. Bubbles tend to add a little magic to photographs, but the story of this photo is in the little girl and she told it all on her own.”
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Meghan Keneally The 310 Deli Corp V.

Earlier today, EV Grieve reported on the police-ordered closure last night of an East Village convenience store. We now have more details about what led the authorities to shutter the store — the police said that the shop’s owner was arrested and charged with possession and sale of narcotics.

The authorities said that undercover officers bought narcotics from the store on five occasions and the police issued a warrant May 28 for the store’s owner, Saleh Fadhel.

Mr. Fadhel, 31, owns 310 Deli Corp V on the corner of East Fourth Street and Avenue C, and that is where he was arrested Thursday night; the police said that four bags of narcotics were recovered at the scene. The authorities did not indicate what kind of drugs were seized.

The store remained closed today with two duct-taped signs displaying a court order and restraining order. Mr. Fadhel is scheduled to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court on June 20.

Tim Schreier

East Villagers, Monday is your last chance to publicly address the Rent Guidelines Board before board members vote on rent increases.

The board held a public testimony session yesterday at the New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn. Board members will hold their final testimony session starting at 10 a.m. Monday inside Cooper Union’s Great Hall. Board members will listen to testimonies throughout the day and into the evening.

To the dismay of many East Villagers, the board took a preliminary vote last month to increase rent prices from 3 percent to 5.75 percent for tenants signing one-year apartment leases and from 6 percent to 9 percent for those inking a two-year lease.

Andrew McLaughlin, the board’s executive director, said Friday it’s tough to determine how much the public testimonies will impact the board’s final decision on increases.

“It’s certainly an important part of the process,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “It gives the board an opportunity to hear from the public, but the amount the testimonies impact the actual vote depends really on each individual board member.”

If you would like to speak during the public testimony session, arrive at the Great Hall before 6 p.m. and register with a board official.

The successor to the beloved Amato Opera, the Bleecker Street Opera, is closing its doors after two years of existence. One of the founders of the itinerant company, John Kim, wrote in an e-mail message that he and he his wife were recently “forced to leave our residence on City Island, which had been purchased and run jointly by the Amato family;” Mr. Kim said that the “home had been the headquarters of the Amato Opera for more than 40 years, and was the cradle of the Bleecker Street Opera.” The opera began as an effort by former Amato employees to carry on its legacy, and staged several performances that garnered favorable reviews.—Stephen Rex Brown

Meghan Keneally One of the few available rentals.

When scouring apartment listings, it always seems like that time — that particular time when you decided to move — was the worst possible choice because there are so few apartments available. For those searching now, they’re not just imagining it.

The percentage of available apartments in Manhattan this May hit its lowest rate in the past five years. With every neighborhood differing slightly, the East Village average was 0.69 percent — the same as the city wide average — and the overall city vacancy rate decreasing by 0.25 percent from the month prior.

According to StreetEasy, a real estate comparison website, the overall amount of rental apartments in Manhattan is down by 18 percent from this time last year.

“Rental inventory is tight everywhere right now. It’s the season: May, June, and July are the peak months for rental,” said Sofia Song, vice president of research at StreetEasy.

The East Village is known largely in the real estate world for being filled with college students and recent grads (along with the artists and musicians who shaped the area’s identity), and while they do still make up a sizable amount of the market, there are other groups interested in the area.
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Meghan Keneally Northern Spy Food Co.

Northern Spy Food Co., at 511 East 12th Street between Avenues A and B, is a very pure place. The produce is locally grown, the wine is artisanal and even the very simple décor — blue benches lining white walls — “incorporates as much reclaimed and repurposed materials as possible,” according to the restaurant’s website. The meat comes from “the best and most progressive butcher on the East Coast.” Even the name conjures up purity, since a Northern Spy is a New York State heirloom apple.

I was not initially aware of the depth of Northern Spy’s commitment to purity. At lunch the other day, I asked my waiter if the turkey in the turkey sandwich was regular Boar’s Head. He shot me a look of pure disbelief; maybe he thought I was needling him. The turkey came from a farm in Pennsylvania; it had been roasted in-house, and then shaped into a roulade for uniform slicing. And the turkey was, indeed, dense and moist and darker in color than most commercial birds, and made for a beautiful sandwich.
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Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

Some new names and familiar faces will be added to the menu of restaurants in the East Village soon, with the eventual opening of Tre Scalini restaurant on St. Marks Place. Vegan restaurant Quintessence is due to reopen today after being shut for a health code violation on Wednesday. And finally, a neighborhood jokester plays on the gentrification fears of many in the neighborhood with a mock sign advertising just what everyone has been waiting for: a faux Chase bank and Starbucks location replacing Café Centosette on 10th Street and Second Avenue.

While the crusties may not have returned to Tompkins Square Park, the pianos have! The charity Sing for Hope, which benefits artists throughout the city, has retuned to the city this summer and plans to place 88 pianos around for public use (a jump from last years 60 pianos). One of the 88 was spotted in Tompkins Square Park, but will not be officially unveiled until tomorrow.

Continuing the park’s cinematic tradition, free movies will be shown every Thursday night this summer, starting in two weeks time with “Raging Bull.” The event will be sponsored by a number of neighborhood bars, Two Boots Pizza and Epix films.

Though the Marriage Equality Bill continues negotiations, Lady Gaga has turned into the ringleader of support, both inside and outside of the State Senate offices. The popstar was quoted in the State Assembly when they were debating the bill (which they eventually passed) and at the New York City Council’s Gay Pride event last night. She’s done her part as well, urging her little monsters to call undecided state senators.

People are getting excited about the rumor of a floating summer pool in the East River. Even though it is being heavily hinted at by developers, this isn’t the first time that the crowds began to talk, so who knows whether it will come to fruition or not.

This post has been changed to clarify an item; the note about the opening of a new Chase-Starbucks location has been modified to reflect that it is a hoax.

Meghan Keneally Council Speaker Christine Quinn at tonight’s rally.

New York politicos gathered at Cooper Union tonight to kick off the city’s annual Gay Pride celebration, which this year is dominated by the “will they or won’t they” speculation over the State Senate’s impending vote on the Marriage Equality bill.

Though the spectacle’s Broadway-style musical numbers were lighthearted, the real focus was upstate. At last count, 31 senators publicly support the bill, falling just one vote short of the 32 needed to ensure passage. Late Wednesday night, the state assembly passed the bill — and it was the Assembly’s fourth time doing so — leaving the Senate as the final stop before the bill becomes law.

“This is finally our moment,” said Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who organized the event. “We know this is the moment again that New York can actually call itself the Empire State.”
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Khristopher J. Brooks A sign created by advocates for new rent laws.

As the hours tick by and criticism mounts, state lawmakers have not settled on a renewal plan for New York City rent laws.

Legislators in Albany allowed the law to expire Wednesday night and they’re now in extra innings trying to develop a solution that satisfies both Assembly Democrats and Senate Republicans. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said that he wants the law renewed in some form before the 2011 legislative session ends Monday.

Meanwhile, local tenants and tenant advocacy groups in our neighborhood are anxious to find out what will happen. They’re constantly checking news Web sites, e-mailing their contacts in the Capitol and taking their protest efforts to a higher level. Here’s some local reaction to the deliberations in Albany.

Steve Herrick
Executive Director
Cooper Square Committee

“I think it’s not surprising that it’s come down to the wire again because the Republicans have the majority in the Senate and so they have a little more leeway there, but luckily we have Gov. Cuomo on our side. Tenants are going to continue calling Cuomo and telling him they appreciate what he’s doing, but he has to continue to apply some pressure.”
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Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

Those who rise early to exercise can now add an extra drop of motivation to their morning protein shake as the ‘Summer in the Square’ fitness program kicks off today and continues through the summer. Every Thursday morning, starting at 7 a.m., running groups, yoga lessons and boot camp sessions will be held in Union Square. Events will also be held for children, including mommy and me yoga.

When one door opens, another begins to close: EV Grieve noted a new barber shop that opened on Avenue A between 13th and 14th Streets. Nearby, Exquisite DVD on 14th Street between Second and Third Avenues has signage hinting that they might be moving out. The storefront is apparently up for rent, which, if it leaves, will add to the list of movie rental stores that have left the East Village in recent weeks.

In spite of numerous rallies and protests, the city’s rent regulation laws expired last night. State Democrats continually called for not merely an extension of existing laws, but stronger laws all together. Neither option prevailed when legislators failed to come to an agreement.

The State Assembly passed the Gay Marriage bill yesterday, 80-63. This was actually the fourth time that the Assembly passed the bill, and surprisingly this had the smallest margin of the four. That being said, all attention is now on the Senate, who are expected to bring the issue to a vote either today or tomorrow, though it is up to Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos when it occurs. So far, 31 of the 32 senators needed to pass the bill have publicly declared their intentions to vote in favor.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg took to the microphone to push for one of his biggest pet peeves: immigration reform. At a meeting of New York’s Council on Foreign Relations, Bloomberg said that he wants to create programs allowing foreign entrepreneurs and permanent status for foreign students in top industries, along with an increase in guest-worker visas and legal guest labor visas. He later took to his Twitter to continue to the push to “honor the values that made America great, and we must embrace the new realities of the 21st century economy.”

Earlier this year, we told you about the frustrations some M15 riders share regarding local bus service. In response to rider complaints, Community Board 3 tonight voted to file a joint resolution requesting that New York City Transit and the Department of Transportation consider relocating Select Bus Service stops so they are adjacent to or combined with local stops. Board members hope that riders will have quick and easy access to both local and Select Bus Service.
— Chelsia Rose Marcius