CBGB Flyers on a newspaper box in Austin.

The new CBGB is looking for a few good bands at South By Southwest.

One of the owners of the lucrative brand passed along this photo of CBGB flyers posted on newspaper boxes in Austin, Texas. “We are looking to be honest, raw, loud. We are not going to franchise or turn into the Hard Rock Cafe or CMJ but we do want punks to take over the city for one week this summer,” wrote the owner, who still wishes to remain anonymous. “We’ll try to prove that in just a few months.”

The co-owner also noted that he and his partners are still in the hunt for a permanent venue, likely south of Houston Street. At least one former staffer from the legendary club is said to be involved, as well. In the meantime, they are scouting bands in Austin for the CBGB music festival set for July 4 weekend.

Yesterday This Ain’t The Summer of Love spotted new details about the festival, which will take place in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. The event will feature a mix of “music, rock-n-roll films, insider-industry workshops, and intimate storytelling.”

Ray LeMoine Yesterday in Tompkins Square Park.

Good morning East Village.

Well, that didn’t take long. The Villager reports that the annex of Ninth Street Espresso next-door to the old Life Cafe space will move into the portion of the restaurant owned by landlord Bob Perl. Earlier this month The Local broke the news that Life Cafe would be split in two after negotiations collapsed between its dueling landlords.

DNAInfo has a dispatch from Olek’s new exhibition at the Krause Gallery in the Lower East Side. The artist, who “yarn bombed” the cube at Astor Place (among other things ), chose a new medium for her latest show: balloons.

Bowery Boogie attends the unveiling of new scaffolding art on East Fourth Street.

The Times gives a shout-out to the live Irish music at 11th Street Bar, Dempsey’s and Swift Hibernian Lounge. (Sounds great, but Saturday won’t be the day to enjoy the tunes).

Fresh off The Local’s East Village Other retrospective, John Wilcock talks with The Atlantic’s Steven Heller.

And lastly, NY1 has the story on the latest sinkhole horror in the neighborhood — this one at Avenue C and East 13th Street.

Suzanne Rozdeba Attendees at last night’s meeting regarding the new cameras.

Residents of Campos Plaza expressed optimism last night that new high-tech security cameras would deter the violence that they said has left many of them living in fear.

“I am scared for a lot of our lives here in this development. I am scared for our kids, for ourselves, for our elderly, for us all,” said Dereese Huff, president of the Campos Plaza tenants association. “We need these cameras.”

The surveillance equipment, financed by Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, will be installed in pathways, playgrounds and lobbies around the houses bordered by East 13th and 14th Streets and Avenues B and C. Public officials hope to have 16 cameras for each of the four building at Campos Plaza. Ms. Mendez has secured $400,000 for the cameras, which is roughly half of the total needed to cover the entire complex. The cameras would monitor both inside and outside the buildings and will be connected to a network than can be observed from a central location.

An official with the New York City Housing Authority sought to dispel any notions of a “Big Brother”-style system.
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Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance just announced the indictment of Luis Martinez, the man accused of firing at two police officers in a wild gun battle last last month that culminated in the Baruch Houses. Mr. Martinez is charged with attempted murder in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon. During the melee an officer narrowly avoided being shot in the gut thanks to an extra ammo clip on his belt that deflected the bullet. The violence prompted Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to renew a call for a gun buy-back program in the neighborhood. “A metal gun magazine and its leather pouch was all that stood in the way of a bullet piercing an officer’s abdomen, after he was fired upon by this defendant,” Mr. Vance said in a press release.

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

This Ain’t the Summer of Love spots an update to the CBGB website, which includes more information about a music festival planned for Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the Lower East Side and the Bowery on July 4 weekend. “Experience four energy-fueled days & nights of music, rock-n-roll films, insider-industry workshops, and intimate storytelling; all live, all in New York City,” the still-anonymous promoters write.

Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, passes along a letter to public officials expressing concern that the City Council’s public hearings on N.Y.U.’s proposed expansion will take place in late June and early July — presumably when people will be on vacation. “Holding the City Council public hearings during a time period when the broadest possible cross-section of the public was not able to participate would significantly favor the applicant, N.Y.U.,” Berman wrote.

The Post reports that Faye Dunaway, fresh off her embarrassing exile from a rent stabilized apartment in the Upper East Side, is now house hunting in the East Village — specifically at 300 East Fourth Street.
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Elizabeth Ferrara Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council said the plan would create much-needed construction jobs.

In the first rally of its kind, advocates of N.Y.U.’s controversial expansion gathered yesterday at City Hall calling on Borough President Scott M. Stringer to approve the plan.

About 35 people, business owners, union leaders, and construction workers among them, attended the roughly 15-minute gathering in support of the university’s proposal that would add four new buildings south of Washington Square Park.

“We’re here today asking Borough President Stringer to recognize that N.Y.U.’s growth strategy is an essential part of securing the financial future of small businesses in Greenwich Village,” said Tony Juliano, president of the local Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce, which represents around 200 businesses in surrounding neighborhoods.

It was clear that the approval for the plan dubbed N.Y.U. 2031 is getting down to crunch time. The event amounted to a formal endorsement from the Building and Construction Trades Council, which is led by the influential Gary LaBarbera.
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Meagan Kirkpatrick

Good morning, East Village.

EV Grieve is alerted to a protest planned for 2 p.m. at the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, which is expected to close this summer. Check back later for The Local’s coverage of the gathering.

The Wall Street Journal examines the Archdiocese of New York’s efforts to revamp its Catholic education system, and singles out La Salle Academy on East Fifth Street. By 2009 the school’s enrollment had shrunk to only 360, down from around 900 in the 60s. By leasing out part of its facility to another private school it was able to pull back from the brink.

The co-owners of The Bean tell Dollars and Sense that they are seeking a beer and wine license due to customer demand. “Small businesses do whatever we can do to keep our customers coming back,” the café’s manager said.
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Scott Lynch What to like better? The necklace celebrating Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog, or the Marvel Comics bag?

Good morning, East Village.

Our friends at Arts Beat got wind of a new record label put together by the owners of Other Music. Other Music Recording Co. will showcase lesser-known musicians in the city while also reissuing foreign recordings. “Despite everything happening in the music industry, we are always getting excited about new bands,” an owner of the record store said. The first release is slated for April 24.

The Lower East Side Preservation Initiative urges its supporters to attend tonight’s meeting of the Community Board 3 landmarks subcommittee, which will consider issuing a letter in support of preserving the Bialystoker Senior Center in the Lower East Side. “Unprotected by landmark status, the building is threatened by demolition or drastic alteration,” the group writes. The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at Campos Plaza Community Center, 611 East 13th Street.

In other development news, check back later this afternoon for our coverage of a rally at City Hall in support of N.Y.U.’s expansion plan.

Bowery Boogie unearths a cool trove of photos of the Lower East Side from 1997.
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Today EV Grieve shared a photo of two men and a minivan inside the lot at 35 Cooper Square. Naturally, the prospect of a surveying crew prepping for construction at the high profile site led us to ask its owner, Arun Bhatia, what was going on. His spokeswoman’s response only added to the intrigue: “I spoke to Arun and we do not know who those men were. We are trying to find out. We are not doing anything on the site.”

Following the recent gun battle near the Baruch Houses and the arrest of an alleged armed member of the Money Boys gang, The Lo-Down reports that State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is calling for a gun buy-back program in the Lower East Side. “Far too many of my constituents live in fear of violence. We must take proactive steps to take guns out of the hands of criminals so that our streets are safer,” Mr. Silver wrote in a letter to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. A recent buy-back program in Crown Heights netted 29 semi-automatics.

Suzanne RozdebaPolice officers at the scene of a bank robbery this morning.

While taking photos for an upcoming story about the loss of parking spaces that will result from N.Y.U.’s proposed expansion (check back soon!), The Local was alerted to a robbery at CitiBank on Laguardia Place near West Third Street.

A police officer at the scene said that at around 9:30 a.m. a white male wearing a black hat, sunglasses and a black jacket flashed a gun at the bank and then fled. A police spokesman did not yet have information regarding whether the suspect escaped with any money.

An hour after the incident officers were still lingering at the scene and barring any customers from entering the bank.

As we noted on Saturday, Billy Leroy planned to fold up his tent following a late night funeral bash and place it in a casket. Tim Schreier, a community contributor for The Local, was there to snap photos of the somber scene. According to him, the casket was on loan from a friend, which raises the obvious question: what lucky stiff will be laid to rest in the box that once held Mr. Leroy’s storied tent?

Tim Schreier

Top of the morning to you, East Village.

Our community contributor Tim Schreier snapped the above photo while attending a Code Pink protest that culminated in Union Square on Saturday. The group of under 100 protesters marched from Zuccotti Park in recognition of International Women’s Day. To see more photos from the scene check out Mr. Schreier’s photostream.

A tipster tells EV Grieve that Artichoke Pizza has expanded into the neighboring storefront that was occupied by Curly’s Vegetarian Lunch only two weeks ago. Grieve also notes that a tile bearing the “R” from the long gone Ratner’s restaurant has finally been removed thanks to renovations in Met Foods. If you’re feeling nostalgic you can still buy buttons from the waiters’ uniforms.

Following up on our coverage of Billy Leroy’s goodbye bash on Friday night, The Times attended the funeral procession for the tent “that had been patched so many times it was now more plastic than canvas.” Check back shortly for some more photos from the solemn ceremony.
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The hand in formaldehyde, the dusty Styrofoam mannequins and the subway signs for sale were long gone. But last night Billy Leroy and around 200 friends celebrated the now-closed antique shop on the Bowery a final time, raising their beers inside the iconic tent that will soon be six feet under.

“It’s sad, but it’s a new beginning,” said Mr. Leroy, patting the coffin like an old friend as neighborhood characters like Clayton Patterson, director Jim Jarmusch and writer Anthony Haden-Guest mingled with the crowd. “It’s an outpouring of love. All of my friends are here. It’s really amazing. I didn’t realize how much people love this place.”

The love was not in short supply because Mr. Leroy’s eponymous shop on East Houston Street at Bowery, which he ran for 10 years, had to close on Jan. 1. In the place of the store will go a two-story development, though the story isn’t entirely tragic. The tent will be gone, but the landlord, Tony Goldman, has assured Mr. Leroy his store will have a space in the building when complete.

By 8 p.m. the tent was at capacity as old friends and the crew from Mr. Leroy’s upcoming film rocked out to the bands The Naked Heroes and The Virgins. Two hours later the funeral bash had spilled out to the sidewalk.

At one point Mr. Leroy — a raconteur if there ever was one — grabbed the mic and shared a tale from his tent’s glory days. “A homeless dude came into the store and he brought me some pieces of junk. I said, ‘Dude, I don’t want this crap. Bring me like a human head or something,’” he recalled. “The next week, he was on 12th Street and saw a beautiful trunk. He was going to bring me the trunk, but it smelled funny. Inside the trunk was a young lady, dead. He was going to bring her to me, but he freaked out, and the cops took the trunk. His name is Spider, and he’s probably slithering around here somewhere.”

Not surprisingly, that wasn’t the only example of gallows humor last night.
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N.Y.P.D. The suspected slashers.

The police are on the hunt for two men who they say sliced two other guys outside of IHOP on March 3.

According to the police, the dispute between the men began at around 6:20 a.m. at the house of pancakes on 14th Street. That’s when things escalated and the 25-year-old and 27-year-old victims were cut with an unknown object.

Both suspects, who are thought to be 20 to 25 years old, then fled the scene.

Meagan Kirkpatrick

Good morning, East Village.

The Times speaks to some of hacker Hector Xavier Monsegur’s neighbors in the Jacob Riis Houses and discovers that he often irritated them by throwing loud parties into the wee hours. But he wasn’t the worst neighbor: he also offered to fix their credit scores.

The Villager notes that, based on a petition of nearly 500 signatures, Community Board 3’s Transportation committee has supported a motion to co-name a part of East 10th Street after Cornell Edwards, the beloved owner of The Flower Stall who died nearly a year ago.

John Liu’s audit of 107 city playgrounds reveals what we already knew about Tompkins Square Park (rats!) and more: “The comptroller’s inspectors also found chipped paint on playground equipment and a missing safety mat near its swings during a visit last July,” reports DNA Info. Plus, “tripping hazards or cracked safety surfaces” were found at Dry Dock Playground at East 10th Street and Avenue D. Read more…

The proposed redrawn Congressional map would make the neighborhood look a bit less like a jigsaw puzzle of districts, meaning that – for the most part – only one member of Congress would answer to the East Village instead of three.

Currently, the East Village is divided into three congressional districts — the 8th, 12th and 14th — which are represented by Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velázquez and Carolyn Maloney respectively. Under the proposed redistricting, the East Village would be dominated by the 12th District, with the 7th covering only the area east of Avenue D. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

EV Grieve spots police removing the makeshift shelter that William Hernandez, a 59-year-old Cuban refugee who told The Local he had been homeless during his 30 years in the United States, had set up on the Bowery. We’ll let you know if we hear anything about Mr. Hernandez’s whereabouts.

The Real Deal cities a City Habitats survey showing that Manhattan rents were almost at an all-time high in February. Meanwhile vacancy rates in the East Village were at just 1.15 percent, compared to 1.59 and 1.34 percent for the Upper West and Upper East sides.

Eater reports that David Chang’s right-hand chef, Peter Serpico, is leaving the Momofuku empire to pursue independent ventures. The site also spots evidence that Momofuku Milk Bar is opening a location in Carroll Gardens. Read more…

Daniel Maurer The flyer, spotted on Second Avenue.

Flyers lambasting the owner of Bar Veloce have once again appeared in the neighborhood on First and Second Avenues — and this time the disgruntled ex-employee behind them cites the restaurateur’s other businesses as well.

“Beware East Village: Porsena, Porchetta, and Ugly Kitchen Restaurants’ Owner is suspected of Unlawful Practices at Various Locations!” the flyer reads. The owner in question, of course, is Frederick Twomey, who was the subject of a flyer campaign in January that alleged that he underpaid workers at Bar Veloce on Second Avenue. That led Mr. Twomey to counter-sue the former employee, John Sawyer Preston, alleging that “customers have been driven away, potential investors lost, and employees unnecessarily upset and confused” because of the campaign. Read more…