Scott Lynch The Con Edison protests continue.

Good morning, East Village.

The Jewish Week reports that Greg Wall, the jazz-playing rabbi of Sixth Street Community Center, is stepping down amid financial troubles at the synagogue and infighting among board members. “The synagogue is financially challenged (aren’t we all!), and must now raise cash to shore up their 150-year old building, and cannot afford to fund a permanent rabbi,” Mr. Wall wrote.

The Paris Review has joined the fight to help the St. Mark’s Bookshop as it considers a move to a smaller location. The magazine is offering a one-year subscription to the first five customers who spend $500 during Saturday’s cash mob.

One of The Local’s community contributors, Martin Johnson, has a review of “Love Goes To Buildings On Fire,” by Will Hermes. The book examines the city’s music scene from 1973 to 1978, a time in which “great music grew out of buildings on fire.” Read more…

N.Y.U. Red lines indicate the reduction of the boomerang buildings on the northern block.

A City Council committee voted in favor of New York University’s expansion plan on Tuesday following last minute negotiations that yielded several significant reductions of the project.

The land use committee’s 19-1 vote sends the plan, dubbed N.Y.U. 2031, to the full City Council, which will vote on the plans later this month. Councilwoman Margaret Chin, a member of the committee who represents Greenwich Village, took the lead in negotiations with the university and strongly urged other council members to support the modified plan.

“I wholeheartedly believe that this proposal will allow N.Y.U.’s growth in the Village to occur at a sustainable pace, and that it will not overwhelm the wider Village community,” Ms. Chin said. “Over the past few months, I have heard a litany of N.Y.U.’s broken promises from Village residents. It is time to start a new chapter.” Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown The dormant construction site next to the garden that is owned by the Educational Alliance. Green thumbs say it is a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Alphabet City’s community gardens always feel like verdant refuges from city life, but lately Orchard Alley Community Garden has seemed downright tropical.

Stephen Rex Brown Check out the bites on Steven Matthews’ leg.

Yesterday swarms of mosquitoes forced members of the garden on East Fourth Street near Avenue D to close it indefinitely. The itchy green thumbs point to an adjacent stalled construction site owned by Educational Alliance as the insects’ breeding grounds.

“I was here playing catch with my son; after 10 or 15 minutes we had to go,” said Steven Matthews, whose legs were covered in bites from a recent visit.

Until the pools of water at the site are cleaned up the garden, which is open to the public whenever one of its 15 members is present, will remain closed.

Ayo Harrington, the head of the garden, won’t walk on the same side of the street as the garden, and said she’d been taking double-doses of Benadryl to keep the itching at bay. Read more…

Matthew Kraus

Good morning, East Village.

DNAInfo reports that Il Laboratorio del Gelato has a strict two-sample limit on ice cream flavors. With all the exotic flavors, some folks tend to try lots of ice cream before making a decision, an owner says. The excessive sampling creates a long line, and also costs money. “”If a group of eight people come in, that is still 16 samples,” the owners of Il Laboratrorio tells the Web site. “”If any of my staff break it, I flip out.”

EV Grieve notes that a water cafe — that’s right, a water cafe — is open on East 10th Street. It sells “hyper-filtered, perfectly pure, eco-conscious” agua.

Booker & Dax, Death & Co., and Summit Bar are featured in Eater’s roundup of the city’s best cocktail bars.
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Brenda H.

Good morning, East Village.

The economic woes at St. Mark’s Bookshop continue, but Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York refuses to bow to the ailing print industry. The blog has planned a cash mob on Saturday at 3 p.m. To hear the owners (and Jeremiah) tell it, the stakes couldn’t be higher. “We’re in the midst of some serious summer doldrums and could use a little lift….a shot in the arm,” one of the owners writes.

The fallout from the theft of guns from Ninth Precinct locker rooms continues. The Post reports that one of the suspects in the ring is a woman who sold her web streaming company for $70 million in 2000. She then blew through her fortune and got caught up — allegedly — in last week’s bust involving the guns and “large-scale drug deals.”

Grub Street has more analysis of the images spotted at the location of Andrew Carmellini’s new French restaurant. According to the blog, the mysterious images at 380 Lafayette Street harks back to famous silk-screened posters that “went up all over Paris after De Gaulle left France in May of 1968 during the protests.”
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Melvin Felix 106 and 110 East 10th Streets.

It’s not the closing of Mars Bar, or the opening of another 7-Eleven, but Community Board 3 reached a milestone yesterday as the Landmarks Subcommittee held its first public hearing on proposed renovations to buildings in a historic district.

The new protocol — in which the subcommittee votes on a “certificate of appropriateness” for renovations to protected properties before sending them to the parks committee and then the full community board — will be applied to the 330 buildings in the East Village-Lower East Side Historic District if the district is approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“When Landmarks decided they were going forward with the two historic districts, we started looking at the increased responsibility because of the sheer number of buildings,” said Carolyn Ratcliff, chairwoman of the subcommittee.

But don’t expect the meetings to become as epic as the board’s S.L.A. committee meetings. Read more…

The Police Department canvassed the 179 apartments in the Seward Park Houses on Essex Street today, a show of force in the ongoing search for the suspect in last week’s shooting of an officer on patrol. The reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect has also been raised to $22,000, as indicated in the video above.

Joel Zimmer

The Police Department just confirmed that Officer Nicholas A. Mina is the man investigators believe is behind the missing guns from the Ninth Precinct. He was arrested last night. The Post has the exclusive on the details. In April Mr. Mina, 31, was assigned to guard the locker room where the guns were stored following the initial thefts, and dared to swipe another gun, according to the paper’s sources. Mr. Mina and three civilians allegedly sold the guns on the street. “To rob a gun that could be used against a fellow cop someday. There’s nothing lower,” a source tells the paper.

The Times has a dispatch from Whiskers Holistic Pet Care. “Whiskers may be the pet world’s closest approximation of the Park Slope Food Co-op.” Sure, but do they carry pet care products from Israel? And the store has more good publicity on the way: Chico is planning to do a mural dedicated to Whiskers on the old Nice Guy Eddie’s wall.

The developer behind Bushwick’s Third Ward just put his NoHo penthouse on the market for $8.95 million, The Real Deal reports. Read more…

Ray Lemoine Mr. Flanagan shows off his wound outside of court today.

Speaking for the first time since his arrest at Webster Hall last Saturday, former Cro-Mags bassist Harley Flanagan insisted he was acting in self-defense during a brawl that landed two of the band’s current members in the hospital with knife wounds. A grand jury trial was scheduled for Sept. 27 during a hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court today.

“DMS jumped me, man,” Mr. Flanagan told The Local outside of the courtroom, upon recognizing this reporter as the roadie for an opening band who bunked with him on a Cro-Mags tour in 2000. Mr. Flanagan said he was attacked by members of the Doc Marten Skinheads, a gang with a history of violence that grew out of the 1980s hardcore scene and is still active today (graffiti around the Lower East Side reads “Demonstrating My Style” and “Drugs Money Sex.”)

“You know this scene – a bunch of loser bullies,” said Mr. Flanagan, who appeared in court along with three fellow Hare Krishna devotees and his attorney. “Seven or eight guys kicked me to a bloody mess.” Read more…

A 24-year-old man was sliced across the face for no apparent reason after leaving Famous Hakki Pizza at Essex and Rivington Streets this morning. A police spokesman said that the victim had just bought a slice and stepped onto the sidewalk when the unknown assailant cut him from his left cheek to the bottom of his chin at around 2:15 a.m. with a sharp object and then fled. The victim was treated at Bellevue Hospital. Check back later for further details.

Jamie K. A shot from the D Generation show at Bowery Electric last weekend.

Gothamist has the scoop of the summer (if you have money to burn): The one-of-a-kind timeshare backyard on Ludlow Street is back for a second season. Love partying outdoors, but can’t stand rubbing elbows with the hoi polloi in Tompkins or along the East River? For a mere $100 you and 30 friends can party in an authentic backyard in the Lower East Side. Added bonus: “BBQ grill, picnic benches, loungers, sun umbrellas, coolers, and a bathroom on site.” Believe it or not, reservations are being sold.

By the way, for free fun, The Fantastic Mr. Fox is screening tonight at sundown in Tompkins Square Park. Live music will kick off a half-hour prior.

EV Grieve notes that the conversion of the Cabrini Center For Nursing & Rehabilitation to a residential building is underway. A commenter on one of The Local’s previous stories on the shuttered nursing home left a stern words for the building’s new owner, Ben Shaoul, just last night: “I wish him the misery he has forced onto many elderly men and women who called the Cabrini House their home.”
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Frank Bardin A cane left on the front door of 510 East Sixth Street that belongs to the landlord, according to a resident.

On monday evening firefighters were called to 510 East Sixth Street after the elderly landlord, Martha Fedorko, fell asleep with a pot on the stove, a resident said.

“The firemen had to break into her apartment and luckily, no damage resulted,” wrote the resident, Frank Bardin, in a comment on last month’s article on Ms. Fedorko. “Earlier, late afternoon, she sat on a chair just inside the foyer to the building, lifting her lower leg, trying to block tenants from entering the building and in one case, yelling ‘police, police’ when one entered, gingerly slipping past her.”

A spokesman for the Fire Department confirmed that firefighters responded to a kitchen fire in the building between Avenues A and B at around 8:50 p.m. Following The Local’s story on the quandary the tenants of the building found themselves in, several others came forward with their own stories.
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A screengrab of the fundraiser.

If you can’t donate $5,000 for a brand-new 3-D portrait, then can you spare a dollar for a hardcore legend behind bars?

After allegedly biting and slashing members of the Cro-Mags at Webster Hall last weekend, Harley Flanagan, a founding member of the band, needs help.

Friends of Mr. Flanagan’s are soliciting money for a legal defense fund on IndieGoGo, and hope to raise $50,000 in the name of “Harley’s Army.” So far supporters have donated $579.

“All of the details aren’t out, though certain stories are being bandied about in the court of public opinion,” the post reads. (The Local corrected typos). “All of the details aren’t going to get out, or get presented properly in a court of law if Harley doesn’t get top notch legal representation.”
Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The organizers of the CBGB Festival are putting all that attention they got to good use: A Twitter war with Dial 7 car service. Bowery Boogie got the full story on the salty tweets that encourage followers to retweet the anti-Dial 7 message to get a free poster from the festival.

EV Grieve has a picture of an old lady trying to cross the Bowery at East Fourth Street that pretty much says it all. The short countdown clocks, he writes, simply do not give slow pedestrians enough time to cross the street. “She started moving the moment the ‘walk’ sign started flashing. And she wasn’t dawdling. The woman simply didn’t have enough time to cross a treacherous intersection.” The intersection of Bowery and Houston Street was targeted for safety improvements recently. Might the Department of Transportation give this intersection four blocks north a look as well?

The Cooper Square Committee sends word about an important public hearing on SPURA before the City Planning Commission beginning today at 10 a.m. on the sixth floor of 22 Reade Street. The Lo-Down has more information.
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Sarah Darville The vacant building at 222 East 13th Street.

A long-vacant and dilapidated building will become a safe haven for homeless gay, lesbian and transgender young people thanks to $3.3 million in grants from city officials and a crucial city approval.

The Cooper Square Committee and the Ali Forney Center plan to transform 222 East 13th Street, a three-story building owned by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, into the Bea Arthur Residence For L.G.B.T. Youth. Last week, the organizations found out that the City Council had allocated $3 million and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer had allocated an additional $300,000 to the project — money that will allow them to move ahead with renovations.

“Homeless L.G.B.T. youth, most of whom have been cast out of their homes, have faced the worst kind of cruelty and rejection,” said Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center, in a statement. “I am overwhelmed with gratitude that they are now being shown kindness by this community and its leaders.” Read more…

Philip Kalantzis-Cope

Good morning, East Village.

DNAInfo chats with the new chairwoman of Community Board 3, Gigi Li. The 30-year-old, who was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Long Island and moved to Chinatown in 2009, tells the Web site she plans to continue the board’s focus on retail diversity. One initiative she’s considering: a way for the board to oppose the combination of multiple storefronts into one larger store.

Kyle Brincefield, the owner of the fashion line Studmuffin NYC, tells Racked that one of his favorite thrift stores is Search & Destroy on St. Marks Place. “From heavily studded jackets and vests to brightly colored lucha libre masks, S&D quickly became my go-to spot for a hot piece in a pinch.”

New York Magazine has its annual cheap eats list, and Mile End and Bobwhite earn mentions. A roundup of the “cheap eat of the year,” the steamed bun, features plenty of familiar local spots, as well.
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Still steamed about that canceled Cro-Mags show? Bowery Boogie has a gallery of the band rocking out at CBGB in 2006 and Highland Ballroom in 2011. The photos, by Clayton Patterson, capture the raw energy that never made it to the stage on Friday due to an alleged knife attack by Harley Flanagan, a disgruntled founding member of the band.

Scott Lynch The artist Aiko at work on the famed wall at Houston and Bowery.

Good morning East Village.

The Times followed up with more details on the alleged attack by Harley Flanagan on his ex-bandmates in the Cro-Mags. Turns out the conflict has been brewing for years. “This dude has been a negative thorn in the side of this band forever,” said John Joseph, the band’s lead singer. “I hope he gets what’s coming to him.”

The brawl didn’t mar the larger CBGB Festival, however. (In fact, maybe it lent it a little punk authenticity?) In a review of the weekend-long series of shows, The Times’ Jon Pareles writes, “The festival also preserved the CBGB legacy on Thursday and Friday nights by extending into dozens of clubs, large and small, where even newer bands were playing for fellow musicians and for the curious — hoping, perhaps, for an early glimpse of the kind of paradigm-shifting music once nurtured at CBGB.”

Occupy East 4th Street details a pair of tense encounters with brokers. “They were rude and refused to identify themselves, so I refused them entry.”
Read more…

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.”