Here’s the latest installment of “Police And Thieves,” The Local’s regular roundup of crime. What follows are the latest reports from March 26 to April 1, sorted by the type of incident. Plus: Our map of all of crime since Jan. 15.
Stabbings and Slicings
Four men stabbed a guy twice on March 28. The victim told the police he was walking on East Seventh Street between Avenue A and Avenue B at around 12:30 a.m. when the quartet grabbed him from behind. He managed to fight off the group, continued walking to a relative’s house on Avenue D and realized he’d been stabbed. The victim was treated at Bellevue Hospital and was expected to live.
A guy sliced a 27-year-old’s face and hand with a box-cutter on March 30. The victim and the suspect were in an apartment on Avenue D near East Fifth Street at around 3 p.m. when the fight broke out. Read more…
Scott Lynch snapped the above photo of graffiti artist Fumero beautifying a wall of The Strand yesterday. You can see the product of his work here.
The Lo-Down reports that Community Board 3 has a handful of new members, including an architect, a real estate broker, the co-owner of Pushcart Coffee, a former member of the City Council in Chapel Hill, N.C., and the owner of Nom Wah Tea Parlor.
According to the Post, the police nabbed a man who lifted a $3,598 jacket from the John Varvatos store. A DNA sample of gum left in the pocket of a coat that the man left behind led investigators to their suspect. Read more…
Stephen Rex BrownFirefighters at the Schwimmer house.
A small crane lifting construction material at the Schwimmer house knocked over a piece of scaffolding this afternoon, injuring a pedestrian below.
Frank McCarton, the deputy commissioner of operations with the Office of Emergency Management, said that the scaffolding struck the passerby at around 2:30 p.m. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital with a minor injury to his shoulder. Read more…
The 14th Street Y has released the cute video above, featuring Nathan Tysen, the winner of its “green song” contest, along with some of the Y’s kids. According to Mr. Tysen’s website, the singer-songwriter has written tunes for “Sesame Street,” which (fun fact!) was almost called 1-2-3 Avenue B.
The latest on stop and frisk: The Times publishes an editorial regarding a lawsuit that the N.Y.C.L.U. has filed regarding a program that allows the police to patrol private rental buildings. “The city claims that the Clean Halls program fights crime and that building owners and managers heartily approve of it,” it reads. “But that does not justify the kinds of abuses that the plaintiffs claim to be receiving at the hands of the police. At the very least, the city needs to make sure that its officers are following the law and treating these residents with respect.”
33 St. Marks Place, the building that houses outgoing Rockit Scientist Records, is for sale for $7.5 million. The listing touts “nine apartments; eight in the front building and one duplex unit in the rear carriage house of approximately 1,200 square feet.” Read more…
Here’s the latest installment of “Police And Thieves,” The Local’s regular roundup of crime. What follows are the latest reports from March 12 to 18, sorted by the type of incident. Plus: Our map of all of crime since Jan. 15.
Trouble on the Trains
Vivienne GucwaThe Astor Place station.
A thief chucked two sneakers at a man and robbed him on March 12. The 44-year-old victim told the police he was sitting on a bench on the northbound platform in the Astor Place station at around 6 a.m. when a man sat beside him and said, “I’m going to kill you if you don’t give me your money.” After getting what he asked for, the suspect reached into his jacket, pulled out the shoe and threw it at the victim, hitting him in the back. The victim alerted a booth clerk, and re-approached the suspect, who had moved up the platform, only to get a shoe hurled at him again.
A guy asked a woman for directions in the Second Avenue subway station and then snatched her cellphone on March 17. The 23-year-old victim said that after she gave the suspect directions at around 9:50 p.m., he grabbed her iPhone 4S from her hand. She gave chase but lost the thief on the street.
After drinking till closing time at Double Down Saloon on March 18, a 27-year-old from Wisconsin passed out on a subway platform. He woke up four hours later and was missing his cellphone as well as the iPhone that he used for browsing the internet. To add insult to injury, when he awoke and tried to report the crime to a booth clerk at the station she wouldn’t help him out. Read more…
Good morning, East Village. Enjoy the above video, recently uploaded to YouTube, of Jon Brown and Bill Pierce skating Tompkins Square Park.
The Times runs an editorial in favor of N.Y.U.’s expansion. It acknowledges concerns about the current plan and goes on to say, “But this important New York institution should be able to expand in its core area. It is one of the nation’s elite universities; it adds high-paying jobs and intellectual allure to the city and to the Village. It is just the sort of thing New Yorkers should encourage.”
On the very day that Bill Ayers told Occupy protesters at Union Square Park not to look to the media for validation, The Times publishes a piece noting that “with less visibility, the movement has received less attention from the news media, taking away a national platform.” Meanwhile City Room reports that a judge in Criminal Court in Manhattan is deciding whether Brookfield Properties overstepped its bounds when it teamed with the police to roust protesters out of Zuccotti Park.
With “Passing Stranger,” an audio tour of East Village poetry landmarks, set to debut at the Bowery Poetry Club later this month, The Times visits some of the stops on the tour with creator Pejk Malinovski, including Allen Ginsberg’s old place. Read more…
To conclude our week-long look at the impacts of N.Y.U.’s expansion plans, The Local examines the concerns surrounding loss of light under the proposed development.
Q.
How will the new buildings proposed on the two superblocks south of Washington Square Park affect sunlight in the area?
A.
There’s no getting around it, the new buildings mean less light. The LaGuardia and Mercer buildings planned for the north block will cast shadows on the two Washington Square Village buildings. More controversially, the proposed Bleecker building on the south block will cast a shadow that likely means an end to the LaGuardia Corner Gardens, located in front of the Morton Williams supermarket on a strip of property that belongs to the Transportation Department. The university notes that the alignment of the LaGuardia and Mercer buildings would make the block resemble the dimensions of the city’s grid pattern – “not an unusual New York City condition,” per William Haas, the university’s director of planning. Read more…
A new site dedicated to the Occupy Wall Street movement aims to be a sounding board for protests around the world, and its launch party is next week at Arrow Bar on Avenue A. According to a write-up on Facebook, Occupy.com will “use media as a call for social, economic, environmental and political justice. We seek to inspire resistance, engagement and the creation of the new world we imagine.” The architects of the site add that they are “morally accountable to the movement as a whole.”
Sources close to Scott Stringer tell The Times that the Borough President is frustrated with the N.Y.U. expansion plan, which “will overwhelm the existing community.”
An Associated Press item at SFGate details protests in front of the Village Voice headquarters yesterday. A group that included Norman Mailer’s son again accused the publication of promoting underage sex trafficking.
A Kickstarter project is underway to raise $17,500 to open a Giant Donuts NYC somewhere in the East Village, which would sell miniature, not giant, donuts. Bowery Boogie got the tip. Read more…
As Village residents await Borough President Scott Stringer’s recommendation early next month regarding N.Y.U.’s expansion plans, The Local is taking a look at the impacts of the project. Today, we’re examining the concerns surrounding the replacement of a dog run under the proposed development. Yesterday, we looked at the impact the proposal would have on three playgrounds in Greenwich Village. Check back for our coverage of concerns surrounding loss of light and the LaGuardia Community Garden.
Q.
So what does the future hold for the dog run at the corner of Houston and Mercer Streets should N.Y.U.’s expansion be approved?
A.
N.Y.U.The proposed dog run.
The dogs and their roughly 300 owners at the Mercer-Houston Dog Run will have to be relocated to make way for the Zipper building, which will be 26 stories at its highest point. The building would extend almost the entire length of the south block along Mercer Street between Houston and Bleecker Streets. In addition to housing, academic, retail space and a hotel, the new structure would also hold the replacement for the Morton Williams Supermarket at the northwest corner of the south block. The university says the replacement grocery store would be fully operational before Morton Williams is demolished in 2018. Read more…
Update | 10:57 a.m. This article was revised to include comments from Bruce Morris, the co-owner of 5C Cultural Center, who responded to several phone calls from The Local shortly after the story was posted.
After 17 years of bad blood, injunction orders, and noise complaints, the co-op board of 702 East Fifth Street dropped its eviction of 5C Cultural Center and Cafe yesterday.
According to David Studer, the maintenance coordinator for the building, the board had been trying to drop the eviction for the past year, but the owners of 5C resisted, opting to keep an injunction in place that discouraged their landlords from seeking the monthly rent. Yesterday a judge sided with the board and lifted that injunction on the grounds that it was moot because the board no longer wished to evict 5C. Now the board is free to pursue around $16,000 in back rent. Read more…
EV Grieve confirms earlier rumors that the owners of Mona’s and Sophie’s are taking over Joe’s bar after the death of its proprietor Joe Vajda. Richard Corton plans “small changes. Clean up. Maybe, if we feel ambitious, we might redo the wallpaper with exactly the same wallpaper.”
DOT Bike Share presentations have made their way up to C.B. 8, and went over well yet again. In a Metro Focus article, David Crane of C.B. 3 expressed pleasant surprise that no one in the Lower East Side or East Village, neighborhoods with a troubled history of bike accidents, has decided to complain. Read more…
Finally, the perfect t-shirt to go along with your mosaic belt buckle. The Mosaic Man Jim Power just alerted The Local on Twitter to his new shirts, which feature a portrait of the local legend gazing into the distance. The collection on Cafe Press also includes Mosaic Man-endorsed iPhone covers, coffee mugs, notebooks and even t-shirts for a dog.
As Village residents await Borough President Scott Stringer’s recommendation early next month regarding N.Y.U.’s expansion plans, The Local is taking a look at the impacts of the project. Today, we’re examining the concerns surrounding the replacement of four playgrounds under the proposed development. Yesterday, we looked at the impact the proposal would have on parking in Greenwich Village. Check back for our coverage of concerns surrounding loss of light, the dog run, and the LaGuardia Community Garden.
Q.
If N.Y.U.’s expansion is approved, what will happen to the playgrounds in its footprint?
A.
There are three playgrounds on the two blocks where N.Y.U. is seeking to build. They are Mercer Playground, located along Mercer Street on the north block; Key Park, which is just west of Mercer Playground between the two buildings in Washington Square Village; and Rocket Ship Park on the south block. Each one will be demolished and eventually replaced. N.Y.U. says that at a minimum, a temporary playground will always be open during the proposed 20-year buildout. Key Park and Rocket Ship Park are not open to the public — the replacement parks will be public. Read more…
If you’re wondering why helicopters have been hovering over the East Village, it’s likely due to a three-alarm fire that broke out in the upper stories of Masaryk Towers at Columbia Street near Rivington Street in the Lower East Side. Fire trucks and emergency vehicles are lined up all the way to Houston Street. DNA Info reported that the blaze broke out on the 16th floor of 89 Columbia Street at 11:20 a.m.; no injuries were reported at the time of its story. Our friends at The Lo-Side are following the fire and posted aerial shots as well as photos of the charred building just minutes ago.
Update | 1:20 p.m. The Lo-Down reports that the blaze has been extinguished.
Last night, members of the Park Slope Food Co-Op voted against a controversial motion that would have banned Israeli foods at the 16,300-member grocery store, as our colleagues over at The Local Fort Greene reported.
Here in the East Village, members of the 4th Street Food Co-Op (no relation) told The Local they hadn’t given much thought to the Brooklyn brouhaha. That’s not to say the Co-Op – which consists of 60 unpaid members who each put in around two hours per week in exchange for a 20 percent discount at the store – hasn’t had its tense moments. Read more…
The New York Post says Mayor Bloomberg is in favor of having the Parks Department oversee privately owned public spaces such as Zuccotti Park.
South Brooklyn Pizza’s plans to expand to a next-door space have resulted in a court battle. Kati Duncan, who says she sublet her space to the pizza parlor, tells Jeremiah’s Vanishing NY that its owner acquired a next-door store and then tore down the dividing wall without her knowledge.
EV Grieve has photos of the space where 316 East Third Street, a 19th-century townhouse, used to be. A 33-unit apartment building of Karl Fischer design is planned for the lot, though the DOB disapproved the plans earlier this month. Read more…
As Village residents await Borough President Scott Stringer’s recommendation early next month regarding N.Y.U.’s expansion plans, The Local is taking a look at the impacts of the project. Today, we’re examining the concerns surrounding parking under the proposed development. Check back throughout the week for our coverage of concerns surrounding loss of light, the dog run, playgrounds, and the LaGuardia Community Garden. What other issues should we tackle? Let us know in the comments.
Q.
OK, so how is parking in Greenwich Village going to be affected by this plan?
A.
Currently, there are 670 spaces in a garage underneath Washington Square Village. Of these, 150 are public and the rest, a total of 520, are reserved for residents and their guests. As proposed, 281 parking spaces will be permanently eliminated. No spaces will be available to the general public.
Q.
So, 281 lost? That sounds like a lot.
A.
The new garage would have 389 total spaces, which is the minimum required by the city zoning code. The entirely private garage would be built starting in 2022 and would be accessible through only one entrance, whereas the existing one has two (on West Third and Bleecker Streets). The current garage operates at around 80-percent capacity, and has around 130 spaces available on a typical workday. N.Y.U. believes that the amount of traffic using the new garage will be significantly less than it is now, given that the lot will not be open to drivers regularly commuting into the area. Opponents like Terri Cude, co-chairwoman of the Community Action Alliance, argue that the single entrance and exit would create a choke point that would exacerbate traffic. Read more…
City Room reports that the city has extended its participation in rent regulation for another three years, since the current occupancy rate of 3.12 percent (considered a state of housing emergency) is below the 5 percent mark at which it must be lifted.
Racked NY assures that the Patricia Field boutique where a “For Rent” sign went up this weekend isn’t moving very far. The store is set to reopen two doors down, at 306 Bowery, leaving the old space at 302 Bowery available for only $30,000 per month. Takers?
New York Police DepartmentSurveillance footage of the suspect.
The police are on the hunt for a man suspected of a string of four robberies at knife-point, two of which occurred within the span of 20 minutes.
The police said that on March 13 at around 4:30 a.m. the suspect robbed a 41-year-old man at Seventh Avenue and West 12th Street. Less than a half-hour later he struck again at East 14th Street and First Avenue, robbing a 24-year-old man. In both cases the victims handed over their cash and cellphones.
The man is also wanted in connection with two other similar incidents. The first occurred on Feb. 25 at West 26th Street and Broadway. The other March 17 on the platform of the 23rd Street station of the F train. None of the four victims were injured, the police said.
The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards. Read more »
