Lauren Carol Smith The A.H.R.C. group home on East Fifth Street
where Alonzo Eason livedThe death of a severely disabled man who lived in a group home on East Fifth Street has been ruled a homicide, the Medical Examiner’s office has confirmed. The police are investigating the case but have yet to make an arrest, according to a spokesman.
On the morning of Aug. 2, Alonzo Eason was wheeled out of the group home and loaded into the back of a Ford Econoline van. He was then driven uptown to a day program on Lexington Avenue near 125th street.
While the other residents were taken inside for their classes, Mr. Eason was left behind. Due to brain damage caused by a fever he had contracted as a baby, he was unable to communicate. As the temperature outside climbed above 90 degrees, Mr. Eason’s absence went unnoticed. When he was finally discovered at 3:30 p.m. that afternoon, he was unresponsive and paramedics declared him dead at the scene.
The group home and day program are both run by A.H.R.C. New York City, a large private provider of services for developmentally disabled people.
Mr. Eason’s older brother, Leroy, confirmed that he had hired a lawyer and private investigator to pursue a civil action against A.H.R.C. “Here we are dealing with a case of pure neglect,” he said. “I’m irate at the things that have occurred.” Read more…
Scott Lynch According to The Lo-Down, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, City Councilmember Margaret Chin, and community advocates are scheduled to meet with Pentagon officials on Wednesday regarding the mysterious death of Private Danny Chen. There will be a vigil and march on Thursday demanding more transparency in the investigation. In a separate post, The Lo-Down posts a video in which friends and family of Mr. Chen demand an answer to the question, “What happened to Danny?”
Gay City News reports that Davawn Robinson, who is accused of murdering a man in his Avenue C apartment in 2009, testified in court yesterday that he was engaged in sex play when he accidentally killed Edgard Mercado with a rope.
Jeremiah’s Vanishing recalls the time when the Lucky Cheng’s building was home to Club Baths, a tropical-themed gay bathhouse, and then Cave Canem, a Roman-themed restaurant that was called “a real hot spot for the chic-est of the yuppies” and “the place for downtown’s hip art scene.” Read more…
Chelsia Rose Marcius Alex Diaz, 13, of the Lower East Side, skates
on the dismantled ramps.Open Road Park was recently closed until further notice, but its wooden skate ramps lingered. On Saturday, they were finally removed from the lot on 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A and put out on the curb for trash pickup. That didn’t stop local skateboarders from using them one last time, as Jose Morales and a few friends reassembled a pile of dismantled planks into a makeshift skate park along 12th Street.
Mr. Morales, 13, of the Lower East Side, said school officials were already breaking down the ramps by noon on Saturday when he arrived at Open Road. He said he asked one official what he was doing, but was quickly dismissed.
“He said, ‘Don’t touch these ramps, they’re garbage,’” recounted Mr. Morales. But he and his friends set two ramps back up against the wall of East Side Community High School and continued to skate. Read more…
Dominique Zonyee ScottYuletide cheer spread through Tompkins Square Park on Sunday evening at the twentieth annual Holiday Tree lighting. About 75 locals sang along to “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” while sipping hot cocoa provided by Veselka.
The Theater for the New City’s Carolers of Olde New York quieted just before dusk, and the crowd counted down to the moment that bright white lights illuminated the park.
Albert Fabozzi, president of the Tompkins Square Park Neighborhood Coalition, said, “We have been doing this for 20 years, but this year was tough because I did it alone, without Kevin.” Kevin Dowd, the former vice president of the Neighborhood Coalition, died of lung cancer on March 8.
Mr. Fabozzi and Mr. Dowd met in the 80s, when Mr. Dowd was a New York University film graduate and Mr. Fabozzi was a hair stylist turned interior designer. The men shared a passion for the arts and an investment in the growth of Alphabet City. Read more…
Nick DeSantisThe Local’s Nick DeSantis took the above photo on Saturday. Downtown Traveler, Zoon, EV Grieve, and East Village Corner also got shots of the SantaCon merriment.
DNA Info reports that Gregory Gumucio, the founder of Yoga to the People, filed papers in court on Friday that “cited a decision from the U.S. Copyright Office that indicates that yoga exercises aren’t protected by current law,” in hopes that a judge would throw out the lawsuit brought against him by Bikram Yoga. Metro quotes an e-mail from the chief of the Performing Arts Division of the U.S. Copyright Office: “We determined that exercises, including yoga exercises, do not constitute the subject matter that Congress intended to protect as choreography.”
Composer Phil Kline’s roving holiday boom box orchestra, Unsilent Night, will return on Dec. 17, and guess what? There’s an app for it! According to the Times, participants who don’t have a portable cassette player can now blast the score on their iPhones. Read more…
Daniel Maurer The burnt-out apartment on the fifth floor.Firefighters battled an apartment fire at 14 Stuyvesant Oval, in the northeast section of Stuyvesant Town, earlier this afternoon. According to a spokesperson for the F.D.N.Y., a report of a fire on the high-rise’s fifth floor came in around 12:39 p.m.; it was extinguished by 1:14 p.m. One civilian and two firefighters were sent to Beth Israel with minor injuries. The cause of the blaze was unknown.
It wasn’t the only incident in the Stuyvesant Town area this afternoon. Around 2:30 p.m., The Local spotted firefighters, including a Haz-Mat unit, at work securing what the fire department said was fuel leaking from a pickup truck parked on 14th Street near First Avenue.
A police helicopter circled over Alphabet City earlier this morning as officers looked for evidence of an apparent shooting. Around 12:45 a.m., police that were working in the cordoned-off courtyard of N.Y.C.H.A.’s Campos Plaza II complex at 641 East 13th Street as well as the street in front of the Pedro Albizu Campos Community Center at 611 East 13th Street – both between Avenues B and C – were unable to confirm reports of a shooting, and a N.Y.P.D. representative did not yet have details of the incident, but The Local’s Blair Hickman reported hearing “something like a firecracker sound” near Seventh Street and Avenue A. Another Twitter user, Stephanie Begg, also reported hearing a “loud firecracker noise.”
We’ll share more information as it becomes available. If you know anything about the incident, please e-mail The Local.
Update, 11:35 a.m. | The police now confirm that around 12:15 a.m. they received reports of shots fired in the courtyard of Campos Plaza II. A 19-year-old Hispanic male was shot in the leg and taken to Beth Israel hospital, where he remains in stable condition. No arrests have been made, no suspect has been identified, and the investigation is ongoing.
Rachel Citron Good morning, East Village.
The Lo-Down reports that the building housing the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation at Avenue A and Fifth Street sold last week for $25.5 million. Last month, The Local pointed out that Community Board 3 was concerned that a sale of the building might lead to the center’s closure before its relocation in approximately five years. The buyer and his or her intentions remain a mystery.
Dominic Pisciotta, the chairperson of C.B. 3, and Susan Stetzer, the district manager, pen a piece for the Villager patting the board on the back for successfully working with local politicians on issues like the St. Mark’s Bookshop, Wald Playground, and more.
EV Grieve discovers that 15 East 10th Street was sold for $3.7 million in September. Magnum Real Estate Group is the name given on a demolition permit, indicating that Benjamin Shaoul may have bought the building. Read more…
Gloria ChungGood morning, East Village.
Grub Street notices a listing that would seem to indicate that drag-queen institution Lucky Cheng’s is on the market for $25,000 a month. The link to the listing was live yesterday but is no longer available.
How’s Alec Baldwin enjoying his new digs at Devonshire House on East 10th Street between Broadway and University Place? As Curbed pointed out, he recently told Conan, “The Village is like one big bus depot of drunken young people.” Watch the clip and hear him continue: “It’s all night long. It’s like, ‘Stanley, you bastard!’ – women screaming at their boyfriends and punching their boyfriends, people screaming at each other… it’s like two o’clock in the morning. It’s loud. It’s young people drinking.”
A judge has ruled that the N.Y.P.D. was “not incompetently or in knowing violation of the law” when it arrested a 52-year-old man on charges of prostitution. According to Gay City News, Robert Pinte claimed he was arrested on false charges after being approached by an undercover officer who offered him $50 and oral sex in an East Village porn shop. Read more…
Stephen Rex Brown Shots from the scene of the accident and photos of the demolition taken from an adjacent rooftop.
One construction worker suffered a leg injury after an accident on the third floor of the Mars Bar building at around 1:45 p.m.
A battalion chief with the Fire Department, Bob Sputch, said that the worker was removing a piece of ceiling when a beam collapsed, possibly breaking the worker’s leg. Several witnesses at the corner of Second Avenue and First Street said that the injury did not appear to be serious.
“If you’d heard the bang, you would have thought it was something serious. But I think he’s alright,” said Malik Johnson, a construction worker at the site. Read more…
Left: The building as it is today, without the addition. Right: The most recent proposal. Note the small structures on the roof. Kushner PropertiesJared Kushner did not succeed the first time he sought approval for a rooftop addition to the landmarked Puck Building, and he’s still trying again and again.
Today the Landmarks Preservation declined to approve a plan for a condominium on the roof for the third time, this time because a rendering of the proposal was found to be inaccurate. Still, it appears that approval of the plan — the three others were rejected for being too ostentatious — is near.
Kushner Companies A previous version of the rooftop addition, which was rejected.“The architecture has calmed down. It’s not a statement anymore,” said Frederick Bland, a commissioner with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Throughout the process, which began in September, Mr. Kushner has remained positive in spite of the rejections. His tone hadn’t shifted so close to the finish line.
“We are pleased with the progress we’re making,” he said in a statement. “This continues to be a productive process leading to a very special finished product which will improve the building in many ways.” Read more…
Scott Lynch The Bowery Hotel’s restaurant, Gemma.The Bowery Hotel, where the accommodations are a few steps up from the tents of Zuccotti Park and the room rates aren’t exactly 99%-friendly, might not be the first place where you’d expect an Occupy Wall Street event to take place. But tonight, East Village-based author Daniel Pinchbeck will team up with Penn Badgley (the actor best known for his role in “Gossip Girl”), Zoe Kravitz (the actress, singer, and model who is daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet), and several other bold-face names to host an evening of music and discussion at the hotel, to coincide with Occupy’s latest “Day of Action.”
During a conference call with Aaron Stern, a West Village-based producer of music- and film-industry events who is helping to stage tonight’s salon, Mr. Pinchbeck told The Local that he had written about Occupy Wall Street on his Website, and had attended some of the marches and general assemblies; but he and his fellow hosts had remained mostly “on the periphery” of the movement. Read more…
Brendan BernhardGood morning, East Village.
DNA Info, EV Grieve, and Runnin’ Scared have more on the temporary closing of Billy’s Antiques. Billy Leroy tells Runnin’ Scared, “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh my God, the tent is closing! Sniff, sniff.’ But try sitting in here in winter. The conditions are rough, and I think it will be nice to have heat, maybe air conditioning. But will it be a tent with everything splattered on the sidewalk? No.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Foursquare has outgrown its office at 36 Cooper Square and has signed a 10-year deal at 568 Broadway near Prince Street.
According to the Lo-Down, times are tough at the flea market behind the struggling Mary Help of Christian’s Church. One vendor used to make $300 to $350 per weekend, but “today, she said, she is lucky if she reaches $100. Add the $80 it costs to rent her table and the $5 to $10 in equipment storage fees, and she is essentially breaking even.”
Read more…
Chelsia Rose Marcius Skaters hop the fence at the now-closed Open Road park.Open Road Park — the lot on 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A that attracts skaters from across the city — is closed to the community until further notice.
Mark Federman, principal of East Side Community High School, which sits adjacent to the park, cited overall disregard for the space as well as drug use on the premises, including the smoking and selling of marijuana.
“At this point it’s not really a safe space to keep open,” he said. “We decided that we’re just going to keep it closed until we figure out a way to resolve these issues.” Read more…
Renderings courtesy of Grace Church School
Over 115 years after it began as an all-boys choir boarding school, Grace Church School is adding a new high school division this fall. The school is currently renovating a building at 38-50 Cooper Square and accepting applications to its first ninth grade class, which will have up to 80 students. The deadline for applicants is next Thursday, Dec. 15.
Sandwiched between N.Y.U. (the building’s previous occupant) and Cooper Union, and located across the street from the new Preschool of the Arts, the new high school will be part of a complete transformation of Cooper Square that includes the unveiling of a new park and pedestrian plaza that the school will help maintain parts of along with Cooper Union. Read more…
Chelsia Rose Marcius Mary Help of Christians on East 12th Street.With few parishioners attending only one service per week, the nearly century-old Mary Help of Christians Church is officially on the market and making preparations to be sold.
After what seemed like several years of rumors regarding the fate of the church on 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, Pastor Kevin Nelan confirmed that developers have recently expressed interest in purchasing the parish. Read more…
Daniel MaurerA couple of changes on First Avenue: Yesterday, The Local spotted new signage (above) indicating that the former Quantum Leap space will become a Vietnamese restaurant, Sao Mai. Today, EV Grieve notices that Kebab Garden, near St. Marks Place, is becoming Mediterranean Grill.
Last night, members of the Cooper Square Committee attended a party celebrating the rent reduction at the St. Mark’s Bookshop. According to DNA Info, the Committee has now turned its attention to the possibility of tuition at Cooper Union: “[Joyce] Ravitz and others from the committee met with the university’s president Jamshed Bharucha last Monday to talk about the tuition proposal. Among other ideas, Bharucha discussed making tuition free only to those with no means to pay for an education, according to Ravitz.”
City Room has more on the lawsuit that Bikram Yoga NYC filed against Yoga to the People, including a copy of the lawsuit itself. “We sent an investigator to take the classes,” says Bikram Choudhury’s lawyer. “The classes were virtually mirror images and the dialogue was consistently the same.” Read more…
The police easily tied one of the men accused of robbing Souen to the crime: he had a large bird tattoo on his face that was captured by surveillance cameras. DNAInfo reports that 22-year-old Jorge Molina was arrested on Nov. 20 for running from the police — seven days after the macrobiotic restaurant near University Place was burglarized. The police quickly recognized the tattoo on his right cheekbone and charged him with the crime. An accomplice in the heist is still being sought.
Earlier this week, The Local reported that on Black Friday, a handful of youngsters brazenly stole four vaporizers from a St. Marks Place tattoo parlor and smoking accessories store. Now the owner of Smoking Tattoos has provided surveillance camera footage that shows the team not only snatching the vaporizers, but returning just minutes later to help themselves to more.
Grace Liu, 19, the lone sales clerk at the store when the theft happened around 9:20 p.m. on Nov. 25, said that she had no idea that the team removed four Iolite Wisprs from a temporarily unlocked display case and then walked out with them (watch it happen from 0:58 to 1:28). But when two members of the team returned (at the 1:40 mark of the video) and one of them tried to take another box out of the cabinet, she noticed him and removed it from his hands. Read more…
Stephen Rex Brown Workers on a cherry picker chipping away at the mural this morning.While trudging through this morning’s nasty weather, The Local spotted a pair of workers peeling away the Shepard Fairey mural on the building adjacent to the recently rechristened Standard Hotel.
Later in the day, a spokeswoman for Balazs properties, Lucy McIntyre, confirmed that the mural depicting a monk was coming down. “Having discussed with Art Production Fund that the piece was originally intended to be a temporary mural, and given its condition was peeling off the wall, we opted to remove it,” Ms. McIntyre said. Read more…
