A truck struck and killed a 21-year-old woman crossing the street at Union Square early this morning and then fled the scene, the police said.

The truck was traveling eastbound on East 14th Street at around 1:15 a.m. when it made the turn onto Broadway and hit the victim, who was crossing Broadway, according to the police. The name of the victim, who was pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital, has not yet been released. The police have not made any arrests for the incident.

In an example of particularly grim timing, a new short video by Karen Loew, who lives near East 14th Street, highlights the particularly dangerous intersection with First Avenue, only three blocks away from the fatal accident. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The CBGB Festival isn’t the only one that announced details of its lineup this week: The Howl! Festival has posted its lineup, and what do you know, in addition to the usual opening reading of Ginsberg’s poem on June 1, CBGB favorites like Deans of Discipline, Bowerty Tones and Sic F*cs will be playing. The closing ceremony on June 3 will involve a “be-in of love and glitter” staged by Jackie Factory’s, Chi Chi Valenti and Johnny Dynell, and will celeberate “the world-changing explosion of East Village culture from 1966-1972 and pays homage to movements and supernovas of the time like The Exploding Plastic Inevitable; Jack Smith; The Fugs; the Yippies; and the Bowery-raised Warhol Superstar, Jackie Curtis.”

Speaking of Ginsberg, The Associated Press notes that the character he inspired in “On The Road” is played by Tom Sturridge in a new film version of the Kerouac novel. Viggo Mortensen plays the William S. Burroughs character and the film, produced by Roman Coppola, also stars Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Elisabeth Moss and Alice Braga. The Allen Ginsberg Project has a rundown of reviews of the film, which premiered at Cannes and will open in the U.S. in the fall.

The Daily News reports that two teenagers have been charged with firing a pellet gun at a custodian at Public School 2 on the Lower East Side. According to ABC News, the police found a blow dart gun, nun chucks, two BB rifles and knives in their apartment. The Post has more on the story. Read more…

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

The battle between Gathering of the Tribes and its landlord rages on.

Yesterday the founder of the art space at 285 East Third Street, Steve Cannon, was served with a formal “10-day notice of termination” for “continued use of the premises as an office and art gallery, which is contrary to the lawful usage permitted by the certificate of occupancy for the building.”

The document (below) goes on to cite a violation from the Department of Buildings, as well as parties that have “disturbed the quiet enjoyment as well as affected the safety of other tenants in the building” as other reasons for the notice. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown The arborists prepare to climb trees at Astor Place.

Tree-climbers are searching for the dreaded Asian longhorned beetle at Astor Place today. An arborist at the scene said that no beetles had recently been spotted, but that the area was contaminated about four years ago, so investigators are being “extra careful.”

The climbers typically look for circular, pencil-diameter holes in the trees, the signature of the Chinese beetle that first appeared in the city — and in the U.S. — in 1996. When a beetle is found, it spells the destruction of the infested tree and usually many of the other trees nearby in an attempt to quarantine the insect.

The tree-climbers are a fairly common sight in the neighborhood. Late last year they were spotted on Avenue A.

Clayton Patterson sent the above photo of over 100 people marching down Broadway, near East Ninth Street, in a show of solidarity for students protesting tuition hikes in Quebec. Another tipster sent us video of protesters heading down Bowery. Around 8 p.m., The Local spotted police cars racing down 12th Street and up and down Avenue A in an apparent effort to head off the march at Tompkins Square Park. It ended in Union Square.

A representative for Bantam tells us the Stanton Street lounge will open a 30-seat tented patio after a preview party tomorrow. It’ll be open at 17 Stanton Street, Tuesday through Saturday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for happy hour and then the door will get more selective after 11 a.m.

With the former Van Tassell & Kearney Horse Auction Mart building now a landmark, Off the Grid takes a closer look at its history, noting that it also served as an assembly-line training center for women during World War II. Read more…

CREDIT CAPTION

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

Above, a look inside the “Core 77 Open: All City All Stars” exhibition at 350 Bowery, near Great Jones. It’s part of NoHo Design District and features artists from all five boroughs.

The Real Deal reports that at 72,000 square feet plot at 79-89 Avenue D is on the market for $22.5 million. The current owners bought it for $3.6 million in 2005.

The Lower East Side History Project has won a 2012 Village Award from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, according to the L.E.S.H.P.’s blog. Other winners, according to the G.V.S.H.P.’s site, include Sixth Street and Avenue B Garden and City Council Member Rosie Mendez. Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba

Suzanne Rozdeba

Good morning, East Village.

Take note, pet owners: the flyer above and another at right went up around the neighborhood recently.

The Post reports that Kenneth Moreno, the former police officer who was acquitted of raping a woman on duty but fired after being found guilty of official misconduct, is thinking about suing the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for allegedly planting incriminating evidence.

You’ll recall baggies of heroin were found in Mr. Moreno’s locker, and woes at the stationhouse continue: The Post hears from a source that the last of four 9mm pistols stolen from the locker room was swiped after officers were assigned to patrol the room.

Speaking of guns, The Daily News reports that two teens were arrested at the Union Square station when police officers who stopped them for evading the fare found a pair of guns and two bulletproof vests on them. Read more…

Philip Ross The swarm capture on Wednesday.

Before Bee Week concludes here on The Local, we should mention that Timothy O’Neal, the beekeeper who tends to the bees on the rooftop of the 308 Bowery, got back to us today to tell us why exactly he thinks the bees that swarmed near Bleecker Street on Wednesday likely came from a neighboring hive rather than those belonging to Bowery Poetry Club owner Bob Holman.

According to the beekeeper, swarms don’t leave a hive until developing queens are properly nursed and are a day or two from emerging as adults. “When I inspected his hives, I found signs that they were preparing to swarm by creating queen cells, but that they were not far enough along for the swarm to have departed, and the population density was very high,” Mr. O’Neal wrote in an e-mail to The Local.  Read more…

Photos: Daniel Maurer

The Sixth Street Community Center got approximately 15,000 new tenants yesterday: about three and a half pounds of bees that may make honey for its café, opening next month. The hives on the community center’s rooftop are among many in the East Village, according to the beekeeper who brought the swarm down from Central Park.

On Wednesday (the same day he dealt with a mass of bees on the Bowery), Andrew Cote helped capture another swarm attached to a lamppost near Harlem Meer Lake, near 110th Street. He offered them up on the New York City Beekeepers Association’s Facebook page. Ray Sage, a member of the Sixth Street Community Center CSA who has tended to four hives on the former synagogue’s roof for the past three years, was the first to respond. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie, “The Dictator,” opened last night. Anyone else notice that when the titular despot is driving up Third Avenue, Blue 9 makes a brief appearance as Haffezi’s Burgers?

Speaking of the East Village on the big screen, Broadway.com reports that the CBGB biopic starring Alan Rickman as Hilly Kristal will begin production June 25 in New York and Georgia and should be released next year. Theater Mania adds that “the film will focus on the life of Kristal, who died in 2007, during the club’s early years in the 1970s. Several rock figures with ties to the club are expected to make cameo appearances.”

The Post reports that the unidentified man who was stuck and killed by an L train at Union Square yesterday was relieving himself on the tracks when it happened. Read more…

Jared Malsin D, right, and other members of her encampment.

Half a dozen homeless people have taken shelter under the awning of the shuttered East Village Farm, and police are allowing them to stay even as neighbors complain of unsanitary and potentially dangerous conditions on Avenue A.

Outside of the former grocery store, which closed in February, the group of black, white, and Latino men and women in their 30s to 50s makes do with a handful of blankets and a couple of sheets of cardboard laid on the sidewalk. They pass cigarettes to each other and sometimes pool small amounts of money, most of it acquired through panhandling. “We’re a family,” said one man.

“D,” a 49-year-old former clerical worker from Brooklyn, who like other members of the group wished to remain anonymous, said the police had tentatively allowed them to remain on the stretch of sidewalk between Sixth and Seventh Streets, provided they keep the area in order. Read more…

Photos: Philip Ross

Police were called to the area of the Chase Bank on Bowery around 1:30 p.m. today, but not because of another robbery: in a tree in front of the bank was a watermelon-sized cluster of bees.

A group of about 20 bystanders congregated near the taped-off tree between East First Street and Bleecker Street, snapping photos of the teeming, light-brown mass sagging from the tree branch. Some grumbled about the bees receiving so much attention (a squad car, a police van, and an emergency service vehicle blocked a lane of traffic).

Sans protective gear, a beekeeper called in to remove the swarm climbed on top of the emergency vehicle and, with a pair of hedge trimmers, cautiously removed the branches around it.

When it came time to extract the swarm, a police officer joined the beekeeper on the roof of the emergency vehicle. He extended a white Styrofoam box directly underneath the swarm as the beekeeper cut the branch that supported the mass. A lid was placed over the box. A couple of observers clapped in approval.

Watch our slideshow to see the drama unfold.

Stephen Rex Brown Capt. John Cappelmann

At last night’s meeting of the Ninth Precinct Community Council, Capt. John Cappelmann shared the latest on the early-morning shooting on May 12. “The guy didn’t wait for police,” Capt. Cappelmann said of the 29-year-old who took himself to Bellevue Hospital after being shot in the lower right leg. “Usually that means they were up to no good in the first place.”

He added that the victim is “no surprise. He’s known to us very well.” Surveillance cameras captured people fleeing the scene following the shooting, and police officers are dedicating manpower to preventing retaliation for the incident.

While that investigation is ongoing, Capt. Cappelmann singled out a few notable collars and said that crime in the neighborhood has decreased overall by 13 percent in comparison with the same 28-day period last year. Here’s a roundup of recent arrests and other items of note. Read more…

Ria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

To kick off your day, dig Joey Ramone’s new posthumous album, currently streaming on Rolling Stone’s site. Pyramid Club and Save the Robots, the legendary after-hours on Avenue B, get shoutouts in a song with the chorus “I’m proud to make my home in New York City.”

Speaking of gritty hangouts, Bowery Boogie has a look at Max Fish’s new Asbury Park outpost. Needless to say, the blog has an opinion about what’s more punk rock, skee ball or pool tables.

Commercial Observer reports that Edward Minskoff, who personally invested over $100 million in equity in his 51 Astor Place office building, is closing in on a deal with its first tenant: “Hult International Business School is in talks to take 51 Astor’s entire second floor, a roughly 55,000-square-foot space. Sources say the school could pay rents that begin in the $60s per square foot but escalate to around $100 per square foot over the life of a long term lease at the roughly 400,000-square-foot property.” Read more…

Daniel Maurer The car’s windows were shattered and its hood discarded.

A car mysteriously caught fire this morning on East Ninth Street between First and Second Avenues.

The Acura TL was parked on the quaint tree-lined block in front of the Meg boutique and across from the Mud Spot. A firefighter said the engine area of the unoccupied car caught fire shortly before 7:30 a.m. The cause was unknown.

Mike Sipser, a Boston resident visiting the city, witnessed the event. “I came out, and there was already smoke coming out of it and then the front of the car just burst into flames,” he said. The owner, he said, was nowhere to be seen.

According to a mechanic, Pablo Maurer, fires in unattended vehicles are rare, but in urban areas are usually the result of rats gnawing on insulation to create a nest; exposed wires can then short circuit.

Courtesy of L.P.C. A rendering of the proposed hotel.

A Community Board 2 committee threw a wrench in plans for a nine-story hotel next-door to the Merchant’s House Museum last night in response to concerns that the development would endanger the historic landmark.

The plan, which calls for the demolition of an unremarkable one-story garage to be replaced by the hotel, was disapproved by the Landmarks and Public Aesthetics committee in a unanimous vote. As expected, the museum’s staff and supporters  – including Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, who has funded restoration of the museum – voiced their concerns about construction next to the only intact family home from the 19th century in the city.

“We have to treat this as if it were Notre Dame in Paris,” Nick Nicholson, the chairman of the board of directors for the museum, told The Local today. “Whoever develops the property, the first concern has to be the preservation and safety of this building.” Read more…

Jared Malsin

The Horse Auction Mart isn’t the only local building garnering recognition from historians – a storefront on East First Street that once housed “the most famous radical center in New York,” according to Emma Goldman, will be in the spotlight later this month.

On May 30, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation will present a plaque commemorating the history of 50 East First Street, between First and Second Avenues. As The Local has reported, the ground-floor space – which recently got Fantom, a photography magazine, as a tenant – once housed Justus Schwab’s Saloon. The drinks den was an “important meeting place for like-minded radicals of the day, including anarchist Emma Goldman and writer Ambrose Bierce, many of whom used the saloon as their mailing address,” according to a letter from the G.V.S.H.P.

An invite to the 6 p.m. ceremony indicates that Two Boots will provide refreshments and entertainment, and “Emma Goldman” herself will make an appearance.

Lauren Carol Smith The former Van Tassel and Kearney Horse Auction Mart.

A building that served as an auction block for some of the city’s finest steeds around the turn of the century and decades later the studio of artist Frank Stella is now protected for the ages.

The city Landmarks Preservation Commission today voted to designate the former Van Tassel and Kearney Horse Auction Mart building at 126-128 East 13th Street a landmark, essentially preserving its exterior as-is. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown The State Liquor Authority committee of Community Board 3.

Last-minute negotiations between East Fifth Street residents and the owner of the Standard East Village paved the way for the hotel’s overhaul on Monday.

The famed hotelier Andre Balazs and members of the East Fifth Street Block Association presented Community Board 3’s State Liquor Authority Committee with a series of stipulations marked up with fresh ink before formally presenting the plans for the hotel formerly known as the Cooper Square Hotel.

The sticking points of negotiations were the concepts of “undetectable” sound versus noise that is “un-disturbing to neighbors,” according to Stuart Zamsky, an officer with the East Fifth Street Block Association. In the end, the association won the former. Read more…