The man suspected in three bank robberies.

Earlier today, we told you that the police are searching for a man suspected in a string of bank robberies in the city since last month, one of which took place in the East Village. We now have more details and some images of the suspect.

In all three cases the suspect entered a Chase Bank and passed a note to the teller demanding money.

The first incident occurred on May 2 at 8:19 a.m. at a branch at 350 West 125th Street. The suspect successfully fled with an unknown amount of cash.

The second occurred in our neighborhood on June 2 at 9 a.m. at a Chase Bank at 835 Broadway near East 13th Street. Again, the robber escaped with an unknown amount of money.

The suspect struck again four days later at 2438 Broadway near West 90th Street. This time, he left the scene empty-handed.

The authorities described the suspect as being in his 40’s. In a surveillance image he is shown wearing thick-rimmed glasses and a black coat.

Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good morning, East Village.

The big headlines of the weekend were all about the stores and buildings that are coming and going in our neighborhood. Famed Second Avenue dive bar, Mars Bar, is being torn down in August to make way for a 12-story luxury apartment complex — a sign many see as the destruction of the East Village of Yester Year. Adding fuel to the gossip fire, Joe’s Locksmith, located next to Mars Bar, announced that they will be closing on June 30, leaving residents wondering what else will be leaving the corner of First Street and Second Avenue.

After wandering aimlessly with no where to call home, those in search of the late night pancake can soon take a seat at IHOP. An EV Grieve reader was the first to notice the new signage on 14th Street between Second and Third Avenues. While it is unknown as to when the restaurant will open, it is expected to be one of many to come to Manhattan, making the clear connection between New York’s international appeal and the international culinary experience that is the International House of Pancakes.

NYC Icy also found a semi-permanent home, for the summer at least, in front of Badburger on Avenue A near 11th Street. Badburger’s owner said that the iced delicacy will be found there until at least October and then he will incorporate it into the dessert menu afterwards.

The former funeral home on Second Avenue between Ninth and 10th Streets is in the market for a facelift, or complete gut job: an application has been placed to allow for substantial changes to the building, including a possible expansion adding three floors on top of the existing three-story building. While the building does not have landmark status, some hope that it will be granted before the permit application is actually granted. The building, originally constructed in 1937, once was home to Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel, which was where Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were memorialized.

The police are looking for a man suspected of robbing three Chase bank locations since May, including one on Broadway near 13th Street. The man reportedly gets the cash by passing notes to tellers, but this plan only allowed him to end up with cash in two of the three instances.

Laura E. Lee Demonstrators marched through Tompkins Square Park this afternoon to protest the mayor’s proposal to dismiss 4,000 public school teachers.

Around 45 parents, teachers and children gathered in Tompkins Square Park this afternoon to protest Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to fire more than 4,000 teachers, saying the measure would have catastrophic consequences for the city’s public school students.

The protesters, many from nearby schools like the Earth School and the Children’s Workshop School, convened in the park shortly after class was dismissed at 3 p.m., chanting “No budget cuts, no layoffs” and carrying signs mocking Mr. Bloomberg. Some young students had even made their own signs in support of teachers. As the protest came to a close, parents and teachers pulled out their cellphones and flooded 311 with calls, telling operators that they were opposed to any teachers losing their jobs. Others filed their protest with 311 via text message.

“We know there’s money in the budget, it’s a question of priorities,” said Lisa Donlan, 51, who brought a megaphone to the park. “Everyone can come up with savings if we just reprioritize the education budget.”

Teachers opposed to Mr. Bloomberg’s plan were also among the crowd.

“I’m one of the teachers who will not be working next year if Bloomberg’s budget goes through,” said Stephanie Schwartz, a 27-year-old teacher at the Neighborhood School. “It’s stressful, I love my children as if they were my own. And after work I have to go and fight and make sure students will have enough teachers next year.”

Scenes from the Protest

Kaitlyn Bolton, of NYU Journalism’s Hyperlocal Summer Newsroom Academy, shares video of the demonstration.

Khristopher J. Brooks The committee is an organizer of the trip.

Leaders of the Cooper Square Committee and the Good Old Lower East Side are organizing a free bus trip to Albany Monday so East Villagers can speak out in favor of changes to New York City rent laws.

“We’re planning to have a rally inside the Capitol,” said Georgina Christ, housing chairperson for Cooper Square Committee. “We’re just gonna make noise and try to talk to the elected officials.”

At issue is how and at what rate landlords will be allowed to raise rent in future years. Rent prices are a particularly hot-button issue for locals since the East Village is the home of some of the city’s most expensive rental properties.

As the law stands, Ms. Christ said, landlords are allowed to dramatically raise the rent of a property after a tenant has moved out, a practice known as “vacancy decontrol” that prevents future tenants from paying the same price for rent. Wasim Lone, the housing services director for Good Old Lower East Side, said vacancy decontrol is responsible for tens of thousands of vacant units around the East Village and the Lower East Side.
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Laura E. Lee Extra Place.

Construction is scheduled to begin Monday on a new plan to turn the historic Extra Place alley into a pedestrian walkway for retail patios and a new local arts venue.

The art space is a collaboration between developer Avalon Bay and Fourth Arts Block, a non-profit coalition of arts organizations.

“We’re really excited” said the arts block’s director Tamara Greenfield. “We think it is a fantastic opportunity.”

The vacant alley, tucked off First Street between Bowery and Second Avenue, has special historical significance. In the 1970’s, the backdoor for the legendary music club CBGB opened to the alley and bands like The Ramones were photographed in the space.

“It managed to make garbage look beautiful, in its context,” said Rob Hollander of the Lower East Side History Project.
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Meghan Keneally The food pantry has reopened.

St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery started its annual food pantry last week, providing much needed food options for homeless and hungry in the East Village.

While there are two existing soup kitchens that provide hot meal options throughout the week, St. Mark’s is the only food pantry that is open mid week, allowing visitors to bring home fresh produce and non perishables so their supplies last till the weekend.

“There just aren’t enough services in this area, and people slip through the cracks,” said the Rev. Winnie Varghese of St. Mark’s.

After a previous relationship with Trader Joe’s ended in late 2009 due to rising costs on the supermarket’s side, Ms. Varghese partnered up with GreenMarket last year and they agreed to donate any remaining produce from the farmer’s market that they hold in the church square on Tuesdays. The food pantry at St. Mark’s will run every Wednesday at 6 p.m. and they hope to continue it through the winter if funding allows.
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Ian Duncan Ada Xie, 9, holds a petition calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg not to cut library funding.

With residents mounting a citywide campaign to stave off budget cuts and The Observer coining the term “bibliopocaplyse” to describe the future of New York’s libraries, the Tompkins Square branch has deployed its secret weapon: cuteness.

Yesterday afternoon, 9-year-old Ada Xie was stopping library users just inside the entrance and confidently presenting them with a petition. “The library could close because there’s not enough money,” she told The Local.

Ada added that it was her second day on the job and that she had collected “quite a few” signatures.

According to a New York Public Library campaign Web site, 533 Tompkins users have written to elected officials protesting the cuts. Across the city, more than 90,000 letters have been written.

Daniel Maurer.

The Local is pleased to announce that Daniel Maurer, co-founder of the New York magazine restaurant blog Grub Street, has been named the blog’s next editor, effective in August.

“Daniel emerged from a field of well over a hundred highly qualified candidates,” said Brooke Kroeger, the Institute director. “He impressed us with his ideas, his digital sophistication, his passion for this neighborhood, so often featured on Grub Street, and his proven know-how in mining information at the local community level.”

Mr. Maurer was an online producer and editor of nightlife listings at New York magazine before co-founding Grub Street, one of New York’s pioneering restaurant blogs, in 2006. While writing more than 7,500 posts over five years, Mr. Maurer grew the blog’s traffic steadily and helped expand it to five other cities. Grub Street New York was nominated for three James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards — it won in 2008 (for Multimedia Writing on Food) and then again in 2011 (for Group Blog) when Mr. Maurer was chief editor. It has also been nominated for a National Magazine Award and won a MIN Best of the Web award in 2007.
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Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

DNA Info previews this Sunday’s Middle Feast, a hummus making competition that will official crown the city’s best. Turns out, making hummus is a good two-day process: one contestant soaks Bulgarian-grown chickpeas for a day before cooking them for six hours. As we reported earlier this week, popular East Village spot Chickpea will be closed until July, eliminating one potential competitor for the prize.

The Times profiled Nublu, the eclectic Avenue C venue, calling it a club where anything goes (at least musically). It is also, it seems, a popular place for musicians such as Norah Jones and Moby to enjoy a quiet evening. Run by Ilhan Ersahin, the space is also home to a record label of the same name that produces records by artists who have developed their style at the club.

BBC radio host Richard Bacon was at 7A yesterday to interview David Simon, the creator of HBO series “The Wire.” Mr. Simon said nothing significant has changed in Baltimore’s poorest neighborhoods since he made the show. “The drug war is still the drug war,” he said.

And, in case you haven’t seen it yet, watch TV producer Casey Neistat receive a ticket for not cycling in a bike lane on Second Avenue. He then proceeded to demonstrate the futility of sticking to the designated lanes by crashing into anything in his way. The video had around 200,000 views early yesterday and is now pushing a million, thanks to coverage from New York magazine, The Huffington Post and TV networks.

Laura E. Lee Participants at tonight’s meeting.

The State Liquor Authority Task Force of Community Board 3 approved a resolution tonight that clarifies the terms under which liquor licenses can be transferred when bars and restaurants are sold in the East Village.

The action, which will go to a vote of the full board at its next meeting, allows for “grandfathering” — a process in which the buyer of a business is allowed to assume the license owned by the seller, provided that the business had its license prior to June 28 and other criteria are met.

Before tonight’s meeting, it was unclear how policy changes enacted by the full community board in February would affect applicants who requested a “grandfathered” transfer.

The “grandfathering” provision is not used by other community boards, according to Susan Stetzer, the district manager of Community Board 3. But Community Board 3 allows businesses to apply as transfers, provided they meet other criteria like being deemed responsible business owners — a status evaluated by a review of liquor authority reports, police violations and complaints to the 311 city services information hotline.
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Locals will soon be able to surf the web while lounging in Tompkins Square Park, thanks to a new initiative that will install free Wi-Fi service at 20 city parks. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the measure at a news conference at Battery Park today alongside executives from AT&T, which will administer the service. The free wireless signal for smartphones, tablets and old-fashioned computers will be available in Tompkins Square Park by the end of the summer, according to Mr. Bloomberg.—Stephen Rex Brown

Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good morning, East Village.

Seems like everyone’s looking backward today. Performer Edgar Oliver will be doing a show in Savannah, Georgia about his time living in rooming house on East 10th Street in the late 1970’s. Charleston City Paper has a preview. Mr. Oliver lived with a wheelchair-bound man, who, having no use for the upper stories of his house, rented them out. On the top floor were some people that possibly tried to kill Mr. Oliver, but, he told the paper, he developed a fondness for them nonetheless.

Santa Fe-based travel writer Billie Frank offered a different sort of trip down memory lane, recalling her 1950’s escapes from “middle-class prison” Stuy Town into the hurly-burly world south of 14th Street.

DJ Josh Sparber found a stash of old gay news-weeklies on Second Avenue, buried among a pile of less salubrious publications. He was rewarded with early photos of some of today’s biggest night life personalities, which he promptly posted to his blog.

Popping — as they say — on Twitter yesterday was DNAinfo’s interview with style blogger Scott Schuman, aka The Satorialist. The influential fella slid east from his Greenwich Village home to promote a tie-in with skin care brand Kiehl’s at its Third Avenue store. He said he likes shooting young women in Tompkins Square Park because they mix “vintage with designer.” That’s as opposed, presumably, to the rest of the park’s denizens who merely are vintage, and rarely find themselves on the blog.

The tabloid story of the day was The Post’s news that NYPD officers are encouraging East Village barkeeps to put themselves on the front line in the fight against international terrorism. By using ID-card scanners the police apparently hope to track would-be attackers who are also fond of a tipple. Gothamist casts a quizzical eye over the story so you don’t have to.

If you’ve yet to find out, it’s going to be another hot one, with a heat advisory still in force and temperatures forecast to reach 100 degrees. Take care.

Stephen Rex Brown The New York Film Academy Cafe is expected to close as developers begin demolition work on 51 Astor Place (below) in July.

Meghan Keneally

Last night we told you that the demolition of 51 Astor Place would begin next month. Today, we confirmed what some have speculated: the destruction of the site will require the closure of one of the neighborhood’s only cafes with a large outdoor space.

The New York Film Academy Café at the corner of Astor Place and Third Avenue will be used as a staging ground for workers tearing down the six-story building next door, meaning the business will serve its last cup of coffee on June 30.

“A lot of our customers are really bummed,” said Jennifer Lee, 33, a cook at the café. “It’s a good spot. It’s rare to have a patio where people can lounge outdoors.”

Lee added that the majority of the six or seven employees still on the payroll were planning to go on unemployment.

But she bore her bosses no ill will. In fact, employees were told when the café replaced the Starbucks at that location last year that the job would be short-lived.

“They knew this was going to happen. They told us before the place was open,” Ms. Lee said.

A regular at the café, Lou Stoltz, said that he would miss the space.

Courtesy of Sciame Construction Corp. A rendering of the planned development.

“It’s a great place to have my coffee, read my paper, do my Sudoku and just keep cool — like I’m doing now,” said Mr. Stolz, who has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years. “There’s an outdoor and an indoor space, even a smoking area. No one rushes you out. I hope they find a comparable location nearby.”

Mr. Stolz, who lives nearby at 10th and Stuyvesant Streets, added that he would even miss the building at 51 Astor Place.

“I’ll miss it, it’s been here since the 1950’s,” he said.

“I wish they’d build something here more along those lines,” Mr. Stolz added, gesturing toward the Cooper Union building. “Something more in keeping with the neighborhood.”

Mario Ramirez

Good morning, East Village.

Streetsblog profiles Local Spokes, a cycling planning organization. It hopes to work with the community across the Lower East Side to promote cycling and make life easier for bikers. Given all the back-and-forth on the issue of bike lanes, a new approach to planning might be a good idea.

Curbed asked restaurateur and general man on the scene Cobi Levy where he gets his hair cut. After abandoning an up scale Meat Packing salon he switched allegiances to Neighborhood Barbers on East Ninth Street, he told the site. Your correspondent is a Rafael’s man, but to each his own.

Showbiz 411 reviews, in ecstatic fashion, a recent Paul Simon show at Webster Hall. It was a rare club appearance for the musician and, in addition to his fans, a PBS crew was at the venue filming for an upcoming documentary on Mr. Simon.

Lastly: it’s going to be hot today, so be careful if you’re outside. The mayor’s office runs cooling centers – you can search for your nearest one here.

Courtesy Sciame Construction Corp.An artists conception of how 51 Astor Place will look once development is completed. Demolition of the current site, below, will begin in July.

Meghan Keneally

Construction officials announced tonight that they will begin demolishing the former Cooper Union Engineering Building July 1.

Representatives from Sciame Construction Corp. hosted a public hearing about the demolition of the building at 51 Astor Place, located between Eighth and Ninth Streets. They expect the entire construction process to take 17 months, finishing by December 2012.

Because the building was constructed in the 1950’s, there will be an initial 40-day abatement period where specialists will secure any hazardous materials, like asbestos which covers some pipes in the building. Then, following city demolition procedures, there will be a two week period before any actual demolition of the existing building occurs, meaning that the existing structure will not begin to be taken down until approximately the third week of August.

About 50 people who live near the site attended the meeting, and their biggest complaint was about the city-designated hours of construction which begin at 7 a.m.

Steven Colletta, vice president of Sciame, said that because of the city regulations and workers union hours, construction will generally occur between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and, as of right now, there are no plans to build on weekends, though permits for weekend work may be applied for if needed on a week to week basis.

The plan for the new building, which includes retail space, commercial offices, and a portion dedicated to education use, was completed and approved in 2002, leaving the design of a public outdoor area as the only issue up for debate.

Meghan Keneally Construction officials at tonight’s meeting.

The new building, designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, will be multi-tiered with the highest point reaching 12 stories, and the lowest being dedicated to retail space and standing 4 stories. The plan for the outdoor space includes benches and area for flower arrangements. The plan will be finalized at an as-yet-undetermined Community Board 3 Land Use meeting in mid-July.

Ian Duncan Patrons sit on the steps of the Russian and Turkish Baths. Its kitchen was recently closed after failing a health inspection.

Citing the presence of vermin and flies, the Health Department shut down the kitchen of the Russian and Turkish Baths on East 10th Street during the last week of May. The baths was again permitted to serve food on Friday, but will be subject to monthly inspections until its cleanliness improves.

A health department spokeswoman told The Local that the kitchen was closed for “extensive evidence of vermin conditions and conditions that supported their existence” and the department’s Web site lists other violations, including failure to keep food hot. The kitchen was initially closed on May 25; it was allowed to reopen June 1 after a follow-up inspection.

Ian Duncan

Since July 2010, the city has graded restaurants’ hygiene on an A to C scale, and owners are required to display their most recent grade to the public. Individual violations incur points, and anything above 28 points equals a grade C and means an establishment will be subject to monthly checkups by the health department. During the May 25 inspection, the Russian and Turkish Baths scored 55 points. The health department spokeswoman confirmed another inspection will take place in the next few weeks.

Currently, a “grade pending” poster is on display at the Russian and Turkish Baths, meaning the venue is contesting the results of the inspection. Speaking with The Local today, the manager of the Baths, Dimitri Shapiro, played down the results of the inspection. “We have an exterminator but we never saw any mouse. It was mostly paperwork issues that stopped it getting done,” he said, referring to the kitchen reopening.

Mr. Shapiro added that during the second inspection on June 1 the kitchen got “a clean bill of health.”

The baths serve traditional Russian food, as well as all-day breakfast. The baths have occupied their site on East 10th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A since 1892.

Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

We start this morning with the neighborhood distilled into neat statistical form. Nabewise, a data Web site, posted a chart of the East Village’s best and worst attributes to Neighborhoodr. It scored highly in the singles and nightlife categories and poorly in the quiet and parking categories. Seems about right to us, but what do you reckon?

Over on NearSay, Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation posts an update on the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel building on Second Avenue. Once home to a funeral parlor, the site has been vacant for some years now. A Department of Buildings permit will give developers scope to add three extra storys to the building. The spot is between East Eighth and East Ninth Streets, so it falls outside the proposed historic preservation district.

Nearby, EV Grieve notes that the brownstone undergoing renovation on East 12th Street between Second and Third Avenues will become a Jewish cultural and education center, known simply as The Brownstone. According to its Web site, the center will partner with universities to offer 10-day and weekend programs.

On her Tumblr, writer Holly Hughes posted an intimate portrait of the WOW Café Theatre on East Fourth Street. She described the mini-memoir as “drafty, and partial” notes towards an introduction for a forthcoming WOW anthology, but it’s well worth a read in its current form.

Lastly, Fox reports that Ron Paul, the perennial presidential candidate, is gaining traction among East Village bartenders. The libertarian is proposing to make tips tax free, a policy sure to go down as smoothly as a cold beer on a hot day.

Ian Duncan One of the Con Ed mechanics at this site, Mike Dwyer, was treated by paramedics at the scene of the gas leak.

The Local has more details of the Con Ed mechanic treated for gas inhalation earlier today. He was Mike Dwyer, a 38-year veteran of the utility company, who worked at Ground Zero for 293 days after the 9/11 attacks. As a result of his work there and exposure to asbestos, he said, he has restricted airways.

Mr. Dwyer said paramedics were worried about his condition and offered him oxygen but he refused to go to the hospital. Instead, he intended to get back to work this afternoon and finish his shift at 11 p.m. this evening. A Con Ed spokesman said that Mr. Dwyer was back on duty at precisely 3:51 p.m.

“I was responding to a gas emergency, I was doing what I had to do,” said Mr. Dwyer, who is 60. He wears long gray hair scraped into a pony tail and wore heavy blue overalls, despite the heat. He spoke to The Local as he sorted tools in the back of a Con Ed emergency van.
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Ian Duncan The site of the incident on 11th Street.

A Con Ed worker was treated by paramedics this afternoon after inhaling gas from a broken line, the authorities said. The incident occurred outside a seven-story residential building on 11th Street between Avenues A and B.

The Fire Department evacuated the building, according to staffers with the office of emergency management who were at the scene.

A private contractor was working on the line when it started to leak. But Con Ed is responsible for responding to emergencies of this kind.

The area was closed to vehicle traffic but open to pedestrians at 3:20 p.m. At 3:33 p.m., an ambulance was still parked on the street. The injured Con Ed worker was inside. He emerged from the front seat of the ambulance unaided, clutching his heavy blue work jacket and a half-empty bottle of orange Gatorade.

This post has been changed to correct an error; an earlier version misstated the site of the leak.