Stephen Rex Brown

Good morning, East Village.

Yesterday The Local spotted a construction crew removing jersey barriers on Houston Street, near Crosby Street – close to where a bus got stuck in August. Will the congested artery be slightly less of a pain now?

According to another press release, Magen David of Union Square, a Sephardic synagogue based in Union Square, is planning to move to new digs on Sullivan Street. The Real Deal has more about the new facility and the $3.3 million building purchase.

The Wall Street Journal reports that online poker player Phil Galfond is selling his East Village duplex, which includes a game room, a wet bar, and a custom-built steel slide connecting two floors, for $4 million.
Read more…

Evan Bleier This banner promoting the Vagina Monologues
(spotted at Astor Place earlier today) has nothing
to do with Occupy Town Square, but we had to
share it somehow.

Nearly a month after an Occupy Wall Street march rolled up to Tompkins Square Park but stopped short of entering it, an offshoot group called Occupy Town Square is planning a day of teach-ins, discussions, “brain monsoons” and “radical dreaming” in the park this Sunday.

Lily Defriend, a 32-year-old Ph.D. candidate at NYU who helped organize two similar roving occupations in Washington Square Park and West Park Church on the Upper West Side, said that the Tompkins Square Park event will address issues like gentrification, squatting, and health care.

“We’re hoping local issues come to the forefront,” she told The Local, adding that her team of about eight people is working with organizations such as the fledgling Occupy Avenue D as well as reaching out to others such as the Tompkins Square Greenmarket and the group that is attempting to return the former CHARAS/El Bohio building to use as a community center. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Captain John Cappelmann at the Ninth Precinct.

Captain John Cappelmann has taken over his new post as the top police officer in the East Village with a bang, arresting three men suspected of a string of nine middle-of-the-night robberies of local businesses as well as a series of apartment break-ins.

In a conversation with The Local that covered his previous experience policing public housing in Northern Manhattan, gang activity in the East Village and the challenges of quality of life enforcement, the new commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct shared a few more details about the bust.

“Burglaries are the biggest crime that we have here, grand larcenies notwithstanding,” Captain Cappelmann said in his office overlooking East Fifth Street. “We normally average about 16 for a 28-day period. So, that would be four a week on average from last year. Now to go almost three days since the arrest without any burglaries, I think we got the right people.”
Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The Times prints a proper obituary for Barney Rosset, the trailblazing publisher who died at the age of 89 on Tuesday. According to his son Peter, he died after a double-heart-valve replacement.

NY1 reports that a teacher’s aide at P.S. 94 was suspended and transferred to another school after she was accused of striking a nine-year-old autistic student on the head and then later grabbing him by the arm and slamming into a chair. “It’s disturbing,” says the mother, “that she’ll be working with other children with special needs that can’t speak and can’t defend themselves.”

Gothamist talks to Lit owner Max Brennan on the bar’s tenth anniversary, who says the neighborhood has changed since the bar opened. “There were many little bar/venues for bands that have since gone out of business and have been replaced with upscale, overpriced coffee lounges and designer clothing boutiques.” Still, he admits “the coffee is pretty good” at Starbucks. Read more…

Natalie Rinn The intersection of Bowery and Houston.

Ten East Village intersections have been targeted for improvement by the Department of Transportation, including one – the intersection of Houston and Bowery – that has seen a bevy of biking accidents.

Last night at a joint meeting of Community Boards 2 and 3, the department unveiled the findings of a two-year survey covering a southern portion of the East Village as well as portions of Greenwich Village, NoLIta, and the Lower East Side. The study, which can be seen below, identified 15 intersections (10 of them in the East Village) that the city will target for future makeovers, including five intersections (one in the East Village) that were said to be “high accident locations.” From 2008 to 2010, the intersection of Avenue A and First Street saw 25 accidents, 18 of which resulted in injuries and one of which resulted in the death of a pedestrian.

Though the intersection of Houston Street and Bowery wasn’t among those identified by the D.O.T. as the most dangerous, it was that crossing – the city’s most accident-prone intersection for bicyclists from 1995 to 2009 – that initiated the study to begin with, and it was the one most East Village residents spoke up about. The study found noticeable congestion at the intersection, where 10 to 15 percent of daytime vehicles were trucks, and noted that it was in need of changes to better accommodate turns. Read more…

Good morning, East Village.

Hypervocal points to a trailer for “This Is My Home,” Mark Cersosimo’s documentary about Anthony Pisano, whose East Village apartment of 32 years is a virtual curiosity cabinet. Watch it above.

The paparazzi stalking the shoot of “A Case of You” yesterday apparently got the goods: Gossip Center posts a photo of Evan Rachel Wood.

Is it finally the end for embattled Life Cafe? EV Grieve spots a “retail space available” sign on the window. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown The Local now shares a light pole on Second Avenue with other neighborhood blogs.

A phone call from “Mosaic Man” Jim Power brought our favorite news of the week: The Local has been immortalized in tile form on a light pole on Second Avenue at St. Marks Place.

The Local shares the pole with other neighborhood media outlets like Bowery Boogie, EV Grieve, Neighborhoodr, East Villager, Neither More Nor Less, and The Village Voice (our Cooper Square neighbor is next to us on the pole as well).

“If you want information about the neighborhood, that light pole will tell you,” Mr. Power said. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

Add another one to the more than 80 crimes we brought word of yesterday: The Post reports that two men were caught sneaking into Il Bagatto on East Second Street on Feb. 13 and one of the perps admits to having broken into Spice Cove and Landmark Vintage Bicycles.

Real Deal notes that Ashkenazy Acquisition has ramped up its marketing efforts to sell 235 East 14th Street for an asking price of $14.5 million. According to the item, the building got an IHOP because Ben Ashkenazy is a managing member of Trihop, which owns IHOP franchise rights in the tri-state area.

The Wall Street Journal notes that the bi-annual Antifolk Festival will be at Sidewalk Cafe from Feb. 22 to Feb. 26. American Songwriter also sits down with booker Ben Krieger, who confesses he misses a couple of things about the old Sidewalk: “There was this smokin’ hot Southern waitress that used to work the back room on Mondays. I miss her. And I’ll never forgive [management] for killing the salmon burger.” Read more…

With this post, The Local concludes its recap of the past month of crime within the Ninth Precinct. We started with beat-downs, brawls, and blades, then continued on to burgled businesses and stolen rides. After that: Robberies and cell-phone snatches. And now: Purse pinches and bag snags. Plus: Click on our crime map, which will be constantly updated and can always be found on the right-hand column of The Local’s homepage.

View Crime Report in a larger map

• A club-goer left Nublu with the blues on Jan. 21. A thief swiped a bag containing a laptop and jewelry that the victim had left unattended in the club between East Fourth and Fifth Streets at around 2 a.m.
• A quick-handed thief snatched a woman’s bag on Jan. 14. The 49-year-old victim said she was inside her building on East Fourth Street between Avenues C and Dat around 4 p.m. when she placed her bag (containing $2,281-worth of items) on the ground. That’s when the thief made his move and fled towards East River Park.
• A thief snatched a man’s bag on Jan. 16. The 25-year-old victim said that he had placed his bag down at around 10 p.m. at Avenue B and East Seventh Street when the thief grabbed his bag and ran into Tompkins Square Park. The bag contained a laptop, camera and sunglasses worth $2,281.
• A not-so-sweet thief snatched a woman’s bag from Jane’s Sweet Buns on Jan. 16. The victim told police that she set her bag down by the front door of the store on St. Marks Place between First Avenue and Avenue A at around 3 p.m. and went downstairs to work. When she returned the bag, containing an assortment of credit cards, was gone.

Read more…

Today, we’re looking back on the past month of crime within the Ninth Precinct. Earlier it was beat-downs, brawls, and blades. Then: Burgled businesses and stolen rides. And now: Robberies and cell-phone snatches. 

Daniel Maurer Metro PCS on Jan. 6

• At last, the incriminating words uttered by the man who twice robbed a Metro PCS store on 14th Street have been revealed. An employee at the store between First and Second Avenues told police that when the suspect showed up on Jan. 20, he said, “Give me the money, I was here before,” and simulated a gun. The man then told the victim to go downstairs into the basement, and he made a run for it.
• Three perps pushed a woman down and snatched her shopping bag on Jan. 22. The victim told police she was at Second Avenue and East Ninth Street at around 8:30 p.m. when she was shoved and robbed.
• An attempt to hold an iPhone ransom went sour on Feb. 11. The 22-year-old victim told the police that when she realized her phone was missing she called it at around 2:30 a.m. and was told she could have it back for $150. The suspect instructed her to meet him at East First Street and Avenue A. When they made their rendezvous an officer pounced from behind, leading to a struggle on the street. The officer eventually arrested a 46-year-old man and recovered the woman’s bag and iPhone.
• A teenager snatched a woman’s phone on Jan. 24. The 26-year-old victim told the police she was on East Seventh Street between Second and Third Avenues at around 10 p.m. when the suspect put her arm around her neck, covered her eyes and grabbed the phone. Police are on the hunt for a 17-year-old woman.

Read more…

Today, we’re looking back on the past month of crime within the Ninth Precinct. Earlier it was beat-downs, brawls, and blades. Now: Burgled businesses and stolen rides.

Daniel Maurer A burglar struck Angels and Kings on
Jan. 16.
• A burglar struck Angels and Kings on East 11th Street on Jan. 16. An employee told the police that as he left his apartment in the morning he noticed the gate of the bar near Avenue A was lifted up and the cash registers were empty.
• A burglar snatched a 46-inch television from the Haven Plaza community center on Jan. 22. An employee told police that she arrived for work at the center near Avenue C and East 12th Street and noticed the padlock to an entrance on the floor. Another door was locked from the inside, and the television was missing from its mount on a wall.
• Someone stole $300 from Baohaus on Jan. 23. An employee of the restaurant on East 14th Street between Second and Third Avenues told the police that the bandit must have entered through a rear bathroom window, which had a broken lock from apparently being forced open.

Read more…

Last month, The Local unveiled its inaugural weekly police blotter. Subsequent changes at the Ninth Precinct caused delays, so today we’re playing catch-up and presenting the past month in crime, in four handy installments. First up: Brawls, beat-downs and blades.

• Four teenagers are accused of beating up a 50-year-old man as he was parking his car on Sept. 14. The victim told the police — on Feb. 7 — that he was parking near Avenue D and East Seventh Street at around 1:30 a.m. when the four perps picked a fight. He said that one slapped the hood of his car with a t-shirt, and when he got out of the vehicle they pounced, punching him and causing multiple fractures in his face.
• A man is accused of stabbing another reveler at a rowdy party on Feb. 1. The police said that they entered the building on East Seventh Street between Second and Third Avenues at around 1:05 a.m. after receiving three noise complaints about the bash. When they arrived they came upon a 24-year-old in the hallway of the fourth floor shirtless and bleeding from a finger. Cops arrested both the victim and the alleged slicer.
• A brawl on Broadway resulted in an 18-year-old man and two 19-year-olds being arrested on Feb. 7. The 48-year-old victim told police that three teenagers tried to rob him near East Fourth Street at around 5:48 p.m. and that he resisted, resulting in the youngsters hitting him with two metal ladders and a chair.

Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Good morning, East Village.

Your “neighborhood” Starbucks opened today in the Bean’s former home at First Avenue and Third Street. Hours are from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday (it closes at 10 p.m. on Sundays) and wireless won’t be installed for another few weeks. So much for our plans to liveblog the coffee shop’s first day. And three blocks north, the Subway between Sixth and Seventh Streets has opened.

On Friday night, Marco Canora, the owner of Hearth, tweeted, “Yes that’s a cab that just ran into the corner of HEARTH restaurant. Scared the hell out of our guests.” According to Eater, there were no injuries.

Pavement Pieces speaks to Larry Jackson, a 56-year-old homeless man who sells cigarettes in Tompkins Square Park and sleeps on the banks of the East River. “After losing his ‘dream job’ as mortician in sunny Los Angeles, Jackson hitchhiked across the country, arriving in New York City on his last dollar and dying hope for work just eight months ago.” Read more…

Gersh Kuntzman The only other example of in-street parking in the city at Smith and Sackett Streets in Brooklyn.

The Mudspot on East Ninth Street will get the first in-street bike parking of its kind in Manhattan, which will claim one space for a car and give cyclists eights new spots to lock up.

“As cycling increases in popularity, we’re starting to look to the street for parking,” said Hayes Lord, the bicycle program director for the Department of Transportation.

Under the plan, a car-length space would be cordoned off with planters and four circular bike racks would be installed. Mudspot lobbied for the additional parking and will be responsible for keeping the area clean.

During a presentation to Community Board 3’s Transportation Committee, Transportation official Wallace Murray said that the parking would help alleviate the foot-traffic jam caused by the numerous bicycles locked up in front of the cafe just as the sidewalk narrows. Read more…

Phillip Kalantzis-Cope

Good morning, East Village.

According to DNA Info, Kelly’s Sports Bar on Avenue A is one of the satellite-equipped watering holes benefiting from the cable blackout on Knicks games. In a previous item about Linsanity, DNA Info noted that 13th Step has also seen its share of basketball fans.

Speaking of Jeremy Lin, Diner’s Journal reports that Baohaus has added a sandwich to its menu called the “The Taiwanese Te-Bao,” and Eater notices that the restaurant has built a shrine to the baller.

Sound of the City attends the opening of Ed Sanders’s exhibit at Boo Hooray Gallery. Jesse Jarnow describes Mr. Sanders as “a soft-spoken straight man to the world’s ‘military-industrial surrealists,’ as he dubbed them in his nine-volume ‘America: A History in Verse.’ During a short reading, he presented from Fug You’s chapter about the Peace Eye obscenity raid and, while undoubtedly mellowed since his Fugs days, retained his keen drollness.” Read more…

Filing almost 3,000 words for The Villager about the restoration of St. Brigid’s, Roland Legiardi-Laura opines on the good (wonderful new stained-glass windows, a beautiful copper batten-seam roof), the bad (picketing electrical workers, the loss of a cast-iron fence, the lack of two steeples that came off of the church in the 1960s), and the ugly: dirty windows, a “bargain basement redo” of the rectory’s exterior, a “hulking industrial” back wall, and a poorly colored cornice.

On Ninth Street, setting the scene for the Coen brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis.” See more of Scott Lynch’s photos in The Local’s Flickr Pool, and see Rachel Citron’s slideshow here.

Good morning, East Village.

AM New York reports that the driver and passenger who crashed into a taxi cab yesterday at 13th Street and Third Avenue and then fled the scene have turned themselves in and have been charged with leaving the scene of an accident and (in the driver’s case) reckless endangerment.

The developer behind the 12-story office building coming to 51 Astor Place has released new renderings. Curbed, which first noticed the renderings, shares a rumor that Microsoft and IBM have both eyed the building.

The Daily News has the latest on the Denny Chen case: “The Army officer accused of looking the other way while his soldiers drove Pvt. Danny Chen to his death is facing a court martial. So is a sergeant who allegedly joined in on the sadistic and racist abuse of Chen, a 19-year-old soldier from the Lower East Side, the military said.” Read more…

Jared Malsin Obie Johnson, 66, a Marine veteran, said he was
stopped and searched by the police.

In the East Village last year, blacks and Hispanics were stopped and questioned by the police more often than whites, according to newly released stop-and-frisk statistics and a street poll conducted by The Local. The neighborhood’s new Commanding Officer touts the effectiveness of the controversial policy, but some residents complain that it has been used to unfairly target minorities.

According to data obtained from the Police Department by the New York Civil Liberties Union and released yesterday, police officers stopped and questioned people in the Ninth Precinct (which covers the East Village) 3,614 times in 2011. Of those stopped, 1,113 were black, and 1,200 were listed as either “black Hispanic” or “white Hispanic.” Altogether, 63 percent of those stopped were either black or Hispanic –  even though, according to 2010 census data, those groups made up just 33.1 percent of the neighborhood’s population. Just 28 percent of those stopped (about 1,033 people) were white, though 63 percent of East Village residents belonged to that race.

Those numbers are in keeping with an informal poll in which The Local surveyed 107 people, roughly half of them on Second Avenue, and half on Avenue C. Of 55 people approached at Second Avenue and Fourth Street, only three (six percent) said they had been stopped and questioned. On Avenue C and Fourth Street, 14 out of 52 people (about 27 percent) said they had been stopped and questioned.

During a conversation with The Local, Captain John Cappelmann, the new Commanding Officer of the Ninth Precinct, described stop-and-frisk as an “effective crime-fighting tool,” citing a Monday morning arrest in connection with a string of restaurant robberies in the neighborhood. He hypothesized, “If someone had seen one of the perps walking down the street the other day with a crow bar right before he crow-barred the window? You want to stop him before he commits the crime, right?”

But many East Village residents who spoke with The Local said they believed that stop-and-frisk was being applied selectively – a concern that last month prompted Community Board 3 to support a resolution, brought by Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, calling for the policy’s reform. Mr. Stringer, who spoke at a protest on Tuesday, has blamed the enforcement technique for “creating a wall of distrust between people of color and the police,” and is calling for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into whether the Police Department is committing racial profiling. Read more…

Photos: Daniel Maurer

While news cameras focused their attention on a block on East Second Street where a three-alarm fire tore through a six-story apartment building last night, cameras were out for a different reason one block east: the Coen Brothers have parked over twenty vintage cars on Second Street between First and Second Avenues, where they’re shooting their new film “Inside Llewyn Davis.”

“Hollywood” Nick Pagani, a car wrangler for motion pictures, told The Local that he had secured the vintage vehicles for traffic scenes set in 1961. “We’re only going to drive five of them today,” he said.  Read more…