Photos: Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

Yesterday we spent 19 hours live-blogging May Day activities throughout the city: you can find our initial report here and our follow-up here. There was even a David Byrne cameo. Now a video of one of the arrests has popped up on YouTube (hat tip to Google Alerts). And above, here are Scott Lynch’s photos of Tom Morello’s “guitarmy” in Bryant Park and the festivities at Union Square.

Elsewhere: More Than Usual spots a swastika on the construction plywood at 51 Astor Place.

Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York discovers that sculptor Randy Hage has created a miniature version of Mars Bar. Read more…

Photos: Tim Schreier

A May Day march from Union Square to Wall Street, which some estimated to be over 30,000 people strong, ended with hundreds of participants gathering at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza near Battery Park, and then at Zuccotti Park after they were pushed out of the plaza by police.

The permitted march, which began after Tom Morello and members of his “guitarmy” performed at Union Square, stretched many blocks down Broadway and was both leisurely and boisterous. There was, however, the occasional scuffle: as The Local previously reported, bystanders booed and chanted “Shame!” as a photographer was arrested for climbing atop a food cart to take bird’s-eye photos. The police estimated that there were “above 30” arrests throughout the day, but were not able to give an exact number as of 2 a.m. Read more…

A surreal scene played out at the May Day march making its way down Broadway in SoHo. A photographer, Jessica Chornesky, who had climbed atop a food cart to get an overhead shot of the crowd as it passed Spring Street perturbed police officers, who demanded she get down. Ms. Chornesky complied, and passing protestors erupted in boos as the police tied her wrists with plastic bands at around 7 p.m.

The police then escorted her towards Mercer Street, where they awaited the arrival of a police van to haul her away. As Ms. Chornesky complained that the bands had cut off circulation to her hands, a sharply dressed David Byrne (giving Reverend Billy a run for his money) passed by on a bicycle, apparently unaware of the goings-on.

Ms. Chornesky was unable to say if she was working for any news organization before being taken away in the paddy wagon.

Update: Massive May Day March Ends Where Occupy Wall Street Began

Photos of the march across the Williamsburg Bridge, Sara D. Roosevelt Park, and the Wildcat March by Jared Malsin.

As documented on The Local’s liveblog, demonstrations and arrests took place across the city today as anarchists, union members, Occupy Wall Street supporters, employees of The Strand, residents of public housing in Alphabet City, and even banjo players used May Day as an occasion to protest the status quo.

The proceedings were for the most part orderly, but scuffles broke out when approximately 200 demonstrators, many dressed in black and some covering their faces, assembled in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, at Second Avenue and Houston Street, at 1 p.m. for a pre-planned, unpermitted “Wildcat March.” Read more…

Photos: John Penley. Speaking in first photo: Tuli Kupferberg of The Fugs.

Earlier this morning, we reprinted Ellen Moynihan’s account of the 1990 May Day riots in Tompkins Square Park. Now, let’s look back at John Penley’s photographs of the day, from a collection of his work at N.Y.U.’s Tamiment Library.

Speaking to The Local from his current home in Asheville, N.C., the activist and photographer said he sensed trouble was brewing that night, twenty-two years ago. “I was ready for this one,” he said. “The ’88 riot I wasn’t ready for, but this one I had a lot of film, I had batteries, and I expected stuff to jump off.” He added, “There’s nothing like riots, man, especially as a photojournalist – as long as you don’t get beat up or your cam doesn’t get broken or something bad doesn’t happen to you, you can’t miss with the photos.” Read more…

Today on The Local, we’re not only looking back at the May Day riot of 1990 (stay tuned for more on that), we’re also on the ground at a number of events planned city-wide and in the East Village. Below, you’ll find real-time updates from our reporters Jared Malsin (@jmalsin) and Evan Bleier (@itishowitis), as well as our contributing photographers Tim Schreier, Scott Lynch (@scoboco), Susan Keyloun, and others. We’ll also be linking to other online coverage. E-mail us, Tweet at us, or leave a comment if you have tips or want us to follow you on Twitter. And if you have photos to share, add them to our Flickr group.

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

Stay tuned for The Local’s comprehensive coverage of May Day. With major Occupy protests set to begin across the city later today, a number of smaller protest activities have been scheduled for points across the East Village. Among them is a demonstration touted by GOLES via Twitter: “This MAY DAY, LES Public Housing Residents take their struggle to the streets! Meet Up: 2pm Houston & Ave. D”

From 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., workers at The Strand plan to stage a picket outside the bookstore as a part of the 99 Pickets, which are taking place across the city on Tuesday.

And later, at 5:30 p.m., rent reform activists plan to hold a “Tenants’ General Assembly” outside Cooper Union’s Great Hall.

Before all that pops off, here, care of the Allen Ginsberg Project, is the poet waxing revolutionary in Prague, where he had been elected May King thirty years earlier. Read more…

Michael Natale

Good morning, East Village.

With May Day around the corner, the Cooper Square Committee announces in an e-mail that tomorrow at 5 p.m., as the Rent Guidelines Board makes its annual vote about raising rent-stabilized rents, there will be a “Tenants General Assembly” at 7 East Seventh Street: “It will be like an OWS general assembly, where you talk about your experiences with the RGB using the ‘people’s mike.’ People will also talk about the origins of tenant protections, the peoples’ struggles to protect them, and the roots of the dreaded RGB.” More info here.

Runnin’ Scared hears rumors that hundreds of police are training on Randall’s Island in preparation for tomorrow’s festivities. Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t say anything about the rumors but tells the blog, “We are prepared for everything we can think of all the time. Our tactics are something that we don’t talk about in advance for obvious reasons.”

Tomorrow will also be the 79th anniversary of Dorothy Day’s founding of the Catholic Worker Movement. The Times visits a resident of one of the Catholic Worker’s two East Village buildings: “Megan Fincher, who, at 29, having completed college (at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Day studied) and graduate school, decided to devote herself to the movement.” Back in October, The Local also paid a visit to the residences  – which, according to The Times, offer “lessons in the kind of radical empathy we rarely get to witness.” Read more…

The police have announced an arrest in the case of a man said to have inappropriately touched himself while staring at a woman on an L train bound for Union Square last week. Kyle Brown, a 23-year-old Bushwick resident, has been charged with public lewdness. The train rider who is alleged to have taken a photo up a woman’s dress on the same day is still at large.

Suzanne Rozdeba

May Day is almost upon us, and with it will come a citywide carnival of Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

But what will May Day actually look like in New York City and in the East Village? Will we see orderly marchers proceeding peacefully between police barricades? Or will Wall Street burn, as the graffiti on Avenue A warns? Or should we expect, as Jerry Rubin predicted for the 1972 Democratic National Convention, “ten thousand naked hippies” marching on Wall Street?

Asked to predict the size of the demonstrations, Occupy organizer Marisa Holmes, 25, told The Local that May 1 will be on par with the movement’s fall protests or larger. “It won’t be a general strike but it will be substantial,” said the freelance film editor and graduate student at Hunter College. Read more…

joanrrose

Good morning, East Village.

The Post reports that four 9mm guns – along with cash, jewelry, two bulletproof vests and an iPad – have disappeared from inside lockers at the Ninth Precinct station houses. Officers suspect an inside job.

An East Village man who was in a coma for two weeks after an air conditioning unit fell on him on Second Avenue has suddenly disappeared, possibly walking away from a rent-dispute settlement that would’ve netted him $25,000 and a lawsuit that might’ve brought in another $21 million. According to the Post, his lawyer is perplexed.

Writing for the Washington Square News, N.Y.U. student Ben Miller says the school doesn’t seem to be as frat-driven as others: “N.Y.U. has its flaws, but this kind of widespread Nihilistic violence, against others and against ourselves, is not one of them.” Read more…

Lauren Evans, Cafe Press The CBGB jersey spotted at REI and the snuggie from Mosaic Man’s Cafe Press line.

While rumors continue to swirl about the return of CBGB, we recently spotted a way to indulge one’s punk nostalgia and comfortably ride a bicycle. A CBGB cycling jersey is on sale at REI.

Here’s the write-up for the jersey: “The retro image CBGB performance bike jersey takes you on a ride down memory lane to the days when punk rock ruled high and mighty at New York’s famous CBGB underground rock club. Polyester mesh fabric wicks away sweat and dissipates it for quick drying-airy mesh weave allows excellent breathability.”

So, what’s more bizarre? This punked-out polyester that’s only $70? Or the warm and cuddly Mosaic Man snuggie?

Daniel Maurer

Community Board 3 just released its new agenda that, as always, is chock full of tantalizing tidbits regarding new restaurants and bars bound for the neighborhood. A few highlights from the State Liquor Authority licensing committee: a new “Empanadas Bar” is seeking a beer and wine license in the space formerly occupied by Itzocan Cafe on East Ninth Street. Shervin’s Cafe on East Seventh Street near Avenue A will also seek the board’s approval for beer and wine, though its Facebook page is already advertising new summer cervezas.

One of the neighborhood’s most frequented bars, the 13th Step, will seek approval for a renewal of its liquor license. On several occasions at least two neighbors of the popular bar have pleaded with officers at the Ninth Precinct Community Council meeting to do something about the boisterous behavior of its customers. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The Daily News reports that Jesse Kreuzer, the student who faced off with police atop the Peter Cooper monument yesterday, has been charged with reckless endangerment, criminal trespass and obstructing governmental administration. A student who tried to duck under a police line was also arrested.

There was also discontent at N.Y.U. yesterday, as three faculty members penned an op-ed for The Times about N.Y.U. 2031. “Our graduates are among the most indebted in the nation,” they write. “We’d rather see such misery ended than prolonged. This brings us to the academic impact. While Mr. Sexton has said often that his plan will make N.Y.U. strong, it will very likely have the opposite effect. This expansion of the university will eventually degrade our student body.”

According to The Post, “The Occupy Wall Streeter accused of dumping buckets full of urine and feces around the Financial District last month has been deemed mentally unfit to assist in his own defense, officials said yesterday.” Read more…

Photos: Tim Schreier

The Cooper Union student who climbed atop the Peter Cooper monument earlier today is still there, and has attracted the attention of a couple dozen police officers who have placed a ladder against the monument and are telling him to get down. “I’m just trying to bring attention to a cause,” he said while holding a sign reading “No Tuition It’s Our Mission.” The student assured officers, “I’ll come down eventually” as his fellow students cheered from a balcony of the school’s Great Hall. The police have taped off the area in front of the hall facing the statue and have told crowds to stand back. One bystander yelled his support to the student: “Epic scene, dude!” We’ll update as the situation unfolds.

Update | 6:48 p.m. Jesse Kreuzer, a 23-year-old graduate of the school, has now been taken into custody. He voluntarily stepped into a police cherry picker around 6:44 p.m. The Local spoke to Mr. Kreuzer via cell phone just minutes before he was taken by police. He told us he had reached the top of the monument by scaling the bronze statue of Peter Cooper. There, he shuffled to music while wearing headphones and made telephone calls as police officers told him to come down and students occasionally erupted in applause. Mr. Kreuzer told us that he was making the stand because he very much appreciated the free education he got at Cooper Union and wanted others to experience the same. He said he had never been arrested before.

New York Police Department The suspect

On the same day that a man is alleged to have taken a photo up a woman’s skirt as their train pulled into Union Square, another man is said to have been photographed inappropriately touching himself on his way to the same station.

The police said that on April 18, a man thought to be in his early twenties boarded an L train at Montrose Avenue and, sometime before deboarding at the Union Square station, fondled himself while staring at a 34-year-old woman. The victim snapped a photo of the man and showed it to police officers.

The suspect, who is thought to be around 6-foot-tall and 175 pounds, is wanted for public lewdness.

A housing court judge ruled last week that the eviction of Gathering of the Tribes should be settled in State Supreme Court. The decision led the founder of the homegrown art and performance space, Steve Cannon, to express guarded optimism that he could reach an out-of-court settlement with his landlord, Lorraine Zhang, because the scope of the case now goes beyond a standard eviction proceeding. Ms. Zhang had no comment on the latest development in the case, which hinges on the validity of a written agreement she signed when Mr. Cannon sold her the East Third Street building that houses Tribes in 2004.

New York Police Department The suspect.

A man took a photograph up a passenger’s skirt while they rode a southbound 4 train arriving in the Union Square station on April 18, police said.

The 24-year-old victim approached officers in the station at around 4:10 p.m. and showed them a photo she had taken of the voyeur. The suspect, who is said to be around five-foot-five and 150 pounds, is wanted for unlawful surveillance.

Karl Fischer The building bound for 74-84 Third Avenue.

Stephen Rex Brown The site at Third Avenue and East 12th Street.

Karl Fischer may be many armchair architecture critics’ favorite target, but in the eyes of the developer behind the nine-story building bound for Third Avenue, he’s a consummate professional.

“I think he’s a tremendous value-add to our developments,” said Eli Weiss, a partner in YYY Third Avenue, the company behind the new building. “From a developer’s point of view, an architect offers so much more than the façade: making sure that the building is efficient, structurally sound, that it’s livable. The façade is one very small aspect of what an architect does, and in some ways the most subjective.” Read more…