Vivienne Gucwa

Good morning, East Village.

With each passing day, more details surface about Grace Farrell’s life, and death, near Tompkins Square Park. It’s reported that last Thursday, when a friend, Danielle, overdosed in Tompkins Square Park, Ms. Farrell assisted in CPR while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.  If Ms. Farrell’s own death turns out to be from the cold, she would officially be the first to freeze to death in city streets this winter.

Last night’s protest at 35 Cooper Square, in which dozens of demonstrators congregated to protest its planned demolition, might have been too little, too late. EV Grieve reports that a Feb. 13 stop work order has been resolved, and that work leading to the building’s demolition could resume today.

Looking to catch Carmelo Anthony’s debut?  Your best bet may be an East Village bar. Following the N.B.A. superstar’s move to the New York Knicks in a blockbuster trade on Monday night, The Daily News reports that ticket prices have tripled in anticipation of tonight’s Madison Square Garden clash against the Milwaukee Bucks. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m.

And today’s weather? Pretty manageable, all things considered. The Weather Channel predicts a sunny high of 43.  Temperatures Thursday are also supposed to reach the mid-40s, but rain is possible.

Ian Duncan Members of Community Board 3 debated changes to the liquor licensing process Tuesday night during a meeting at P.S. 20.

Ending months of debate, Community Board 3 Tuesday night approved a sweeping overhaul of the way it makes recommendations to the State Liquor Authority for alcohol license applications.

As the motion passed, by a vote of 37 to 1, attendees made hasty moves for the exit. When board members were asked toward the end of the three hour meeting at P.S. 20 whether they wanted further time to debate, there were groans and calls of “No!”

The vote ended five months of consultation and debate, some of it acrimonious, about the new policies, which are aimed at providing applicants with clarity and guidelines to follow if they are awarded a license.

Much of the debate focused around so-called “transfers” or the ability to pass liquor licenses on to new owners following the sale of business. Bar and restaurant owners had argued this increases the value of the business and any moves to change the policy would hurt them financially.

Under the policy adopted Tuesday night, the board’s State Liquor Authority committee will review transfers of licenses as though they are new applications. In the past they had been automatically approved. The committee does not have the final say over licensing decisions but passes on recommendations to the State Liquor Authority.
Read more…

Greg Howard About three dozen demonstrators turned out to protest the planned demolition of historic 35 Cooper Square. Below: The journalist Pete Hamill (left) speaks with David Mulkins of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors.

Braving freezing temperatures and acknowledging long odds, about three dozen demonstrators took part in a protest tonight calling for a halt to the planned demolition of 35 Cooper Square.

The demonstration, described as a vigil by organizers, represented what preservationists characterized as their last-ditch effort to stop the destruction of the 185-year-old Federal-style structure, which is the oldest building in Cooper Square.

After a months-long fight between preservationists and developers of the site, the fate of 35 Cooper Square is all but certain. Nevertheless, protesters tonight brandished picket signs and defiantly chanted “Keep alive 35!” while organizers gave speeches about the historical significance of the site.

“The city wants to develop, that’s what this is all about,” Rob Hollander, a co-founder of the East Village History Project told the crowd. “It’s our community. It really belongs to us.”

The sense of community ownership, and of loss, pervaded the atmosphere on the blustery night. David McReynolds, 81, said that he has lived in the East Village for 50 years and has many fond memories of 35 Cooper Square.

“I knew Diane di Prima decades ago,” said Mr. McReynolds, referring to the poet priestess who lived in the house in the 1960’s. “She used to stuff envelopes for me at Liberation Magazine.”

The journalist Pete Hamill, who’s 75 and a former resident of the East Village, was one of the most recognizable faces at tonight’s protest.

“It’s an example of failure,” Mr. Hamill, who’s also a member of the faculty at NYU Journalism, said of the impending demolition of the building. “There are people not yet born who won’t get to see what New York was. This is our inheritance. We have to keep this place alive.”

Many demonstrators said that they recognize the futility of trying to stop new construction altogether. “We’re not saying we’re against development,” said Richard Moses, of the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative. “We’re for sensitive development. This place has cultural and historic significance.”

And in the blistering winter cold, under the metal scaffolding, in front of the boarded up, doomed little brick house on 35 Cooper Square, East Village residents continue to protest for the preservation of what they call “The Old New York.”

“It’s the eleventh hour,” Mr. Moses said. “But we’ve got to fight.”

Kathryn Kattalia

During the 20 years that she has lived on East Fourth Street, Frances Bush has seen dozens of accidents involving pedestrians rushing across the Bowery — a wide avenue stretching roughly a mile from Chatham Square in Chinatown to Cooper Square in the East Village.

“You have cars coming off of Houston onto Bowery and they’re going quite rapidly,” said Ms. Bush, 50. “With the construction and the bike lanes, people get confused. A lot of safety has to do with that.”

With traffic running north and south, the Bowery is one of the main arteries of the East Village. It is also one of the deadliest.

Of the 109 pedestrians hit and killed on Manhattan’s streets between 2007 and 2009, seven fatalities took place on the Bowery, making it the fourth most dangerous road for pedestrians in the borough, according to a newly released report by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

For a longtime Bowery observer like Ms. Bush, that comes as no surprise.

“People don’t abide by the law,” she said. “They don’t follow the lights, they don’t follow directions. It gets real crowded here and people get distracted.”
Read more…

Rachel Citron

Good morning, East Village.

We start the day with news on Grace Farrell, the homeless woman who was found dead on Sunday morning near Tompkins Square Park.  The Daily News reports Ms. Farrell, 35, was an aspiring artist who emigrated from Ireland at 17 to attend art school. Police are now trying to track down her family. Ms. Farrell was said to tell friends that her mother lived in the Bronx.  It is also reported that she was once married, and is survived by an estranged son who is about 9 years old.

Preservationists from various New York City organizations are expected to gather at 35 Cooper Square tonight from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in a last-ditch effort to prevent the demolition of the 185-year-old building, Nearsay reports.  The two-and-a-half story brick house is the oldest building in Cooper Square but was not granted landmark status by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.  On Jan. 28, a similar rally in front of 35 Cooper Square garnered more than 1,000 signatures asking for the landmarks commission to protect the building, but demolition plans are still underway.

Meanwhile, the weather is looking up. Sort of. According to Accuweather, today will be cold, with highs around 30, but milder the rest of the week, with temperatures creeping toward the mid-40s.

J.B. Nicholas For many of the neighborhood’s homeless, the death of a woman who was sleeping outside St. Brigid’s Church on Sunday underscored the perilousness of life on the streets.

Greg Howard Top: A man known as El Presidente who frequents Tompkins Square Park. Below: The makeshift alcove where a woman’s body was found Sunday.

It’s been a day since Grace, the homeless woman who was a regular around Tompkins Square Park, was found dead under a scaffolding outside of St. Brigid’s Church. The layers of cardboard that she slept and died on are still on the ground, wet and wrinkled from the morning’s snow. Several rubber gloves, once worn by paramedics are strewn about. A single candle burns, a memorial to Grace’s lonely demise.

Tony, the homeless man who found Grace’s body, was unavailable for comment, but was said to still look shaken up this morning at The Bowery Mission from the loss of his friend, who he said had “a beautiful heart.”

Across the street in Tompkins Square Park, however, life is a bit more cheerful as dozens of homeless and needy New Yorkers line up for helpings of soup, bread, fruit, and vegetables that volunteers from The Bowery Mission are passing out. Men and women chat amicably, greeting familiar faces as they wait in the cold for the meal.

One of those in line, who identified himself only as “El Presidente,” 75, says he used to sleep at The Mission’s headquarters on the Bowery every night. Now, he says, he mostly spends the nights around Tompkins Square Park with a small band of younger men.

“They’re like my family,” El Presidente says. When asked about Grace, he scratches his head before conceding, “I don’t know her.” Disappointed, he asks for more physical detail, knowing that in the small Tompkins Square Park community, the likelihood of the two crossing paths was very high.

The sense of community extends to the volunteers of The Bowery Mission, as well. Marcus Nicholls, 25, has volunteered for just five months, but is familiar with a lot of the locals, greeting some by name.

“A lot of these people feel like people don’t care about them,” Mr. Nicholls says. “But we support them, we try to help them out.”

Matt Krivich, 37, director of operations at The Bowery Mission, is only too familiar with the constant uphill battle that the city’s neediest face. An ex-addict and homeless at one point himself, Mr. Krivich said he was saddened by Grace’s death.

He is not the only one to feel regret over her departure. Late on Monday afternoon people from the neighborhood stop at St. Brigid’s to gaze at the spot where Grace slept and died. The single candle has been joined by a second one and by handwritten messages.

“May the gods and goddesses bless you,” one reads. “You won’t be forgotten; your soul is at rest.”

jdx

Good morning, East Village.

We begin the week with word of a grim discovery.  A woman was found dead outside St. Brigid’s Church Sunday morning; the authorities are not treating her death as crime. EV Grieve has details about a spontaneous memorial that’s developed at the scene.

Two police officers are set to go on trial next week after being accused of raping an East Village woman, according to The Post.  Kenneth Moreno, 43, and Franklin Mata, 28, patrolmen of the Ninth Precinct, both face up to 25 years in jail for rape, burglary and official misconduct. The Village Voice notes that both officers are still on the city’s payroll.

Meanwhile, there are apparently more shake-ups on the local restaurant scene. Grieve reports that Tonda, the Fourth Street pizzeria originally famous for its $30,000 brick oven, seemed to be open for the first time in two weekends. Upon closer inspection, however, its gates were down, and the restaurant appeared to be closed. And though Olympic Deli on First Avenue has shut down, it’s being replaced by Hamptons Market Place, an upscale grocery and deli that already boasts two locations on the West Side.

And it turns out the weekend was a false alarm, East Village. After a beautifully warm day on Friday and a feel-good hangover this weekend, Mother Nature is reminding us that it’s still winter. According to The Weather Channel, we should expect between three and five inches of snow today, highs in the mid-30s, and more snow tomorrow.

Vivienne Gucwa

Good morning, East Village.

And Happy Friday. The forecast calls for a windy and overcast weekend so bundle up.

We begin this morning with a few re-openings of note in the neighborhood. St. Mark’s Comics has re-opened after Thursday afternoon’s fire, EV Grieve reports.

DNAinfo reports that Coyote Ugly will re-open today after being shuttered because of some health code violations. (Grieve has posted the health department’s report outlining eight critical violations, including evidence of rats and mice.)

DNA also has a post on another local pub marking more than a century of keeping its doors open: McSorley’s Old Ale House, which Thursday celebrated its 157th anniversary.

And Bowery Boogie describes the sudden end to the problematic Levi’s “gears” billboard at East Houston and Lafayette.

Ian Duncan Owner Mitch Cutler, right, surveyed the damage caused by a fire at St. Mark’s Comics.

Fire officials are investigating the cause of a blaze on St. Marks Place Thursday afternoon. The fire, at St. Mark’s Comics at 11 St. Marks Place, began shortly after 1:30 and it was declared under control about a half hour later. Officials said that one person sustained minor injuries in the fire but refused medical treatment.

Witnesses at the scene said the fire started in the building’s basement. After the blaze, the basement was dark, damp and smelled strongly of smoke but the only visible damage was a few wooden beams that had been knocked down. Most of the damage was caused to St. Mark’s Comics, a store on the building’s first floor.

James Kwiecinski, the building manager, said a man he described as a “caretaker” uses part of the basement as an art studio. Numerous landscape paintings hung on the basement’s wall.

Partially damaged comics and a wrapped Superman t-shirt littered the entrance to St. Mark’s Comics. Mitch Cutler, the owner, said he stocks potentially valuable vintage comics but he added it was “too soon to tell” the extent of the damage.

Yoshi Onoyuri, a chef and manager at Udon West, also on the building’s first floor, said fire fighters had knocked through the wall between his restaurant and the comic store.

Mr. Cutler, who has owned St. Mark’s Comics for 27 years, said water, smoke and sawdust could all damage comics. “Firemen were here with lots of water,” he said, adding that he planned to reopen the store later today.

Mr. Onoyuri said his electricity and gas were still working. “We’re waiting for the insurance company so we can reopen,” he said.

Mr. Kwiecincski said he was fully insured but could not estimate the cost of the damage.

Fire officials are investigating the cause of a blaze on St. Marks Place this afternoon. The fire, at St. Mark’s Comics at 11 St. Marks Place, began shortly after 1:30 and was declared under control about a half hour later. Officials said that one person sustained minor injuries in the fire but refused medical treatment. —Ian Duncan

Vivienne Gucwa

Good morning, East Village.

Whether or not you enjoyed the raucous atmosphere at Coyote Ugly, or its trademark bar-top dancing, it’s worth noting that the First Avenue saloon that Hollywood made famous is currently closed. EV Grieve speculates that the watering hole will open again soon but it’s not the only local business that suddenly finds itself shuttered: The Bean Coffee Shop on First Avenue at Third Street currently sports a fluorescent orange “Seized” sign in its large, front window. Apparently the place owes some $25,000 in back taxes. The owners promise that the shop will re-open soon.

Gothamist reports that the city has rolled out a new online 311 Complaint Map. The map allows visitors to track complaints that are being lodged about issues ranging from air quality to noise – a service not unlike our own collaboration with SeeClickFix, which allows East Village residents to report and track neighborhood concerns.

Although informative, the new 311 map probably won’t help anyone in the neighborhood locate the man who the authorities say may be our very own Ponzi schemer and who is still on the lam.

Gloria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

More developments about 35 Cooper Square were reported by The Local this morning, but that’s not all that’s happening in local construction news. It seems Seventh Street may be getting a facelift with discussions about a new parking lot between Avenues C and D. There’s also word of a new coffee and ice cream shop to fill the vacant storefront, formerly occupied by City Copies, between First and Second Avenues.

And in a twist on the long-running debate over whether graffiti is blight or art, one East Village teacher has decided it might be something else: a learning opportunity. She’s using the neighborhood’s murals and street art as part of the curriculum in her English classes. She was inspired to do so after learning that a neighborhood mural of President Barack Obama had been painted over.

In other news, the East Village will be receiving its very own Union Market on Houston Street and Avenue A. This store promises to be larger than its predecessor in Brooklyn and is expected to open in the fall.

The developer of 35 Cooper Square blamed a city-issued stop work order on a broken fence at the site and expects workers to return today. “It should be fixed this morning,” Jane Crotty, a spokeswoman for Arun Bhatia, who owns the property, told The Local this morning. “They will be back on the site this morning, and it should take about a half hour to fix, and then they will be back at work.” Ms. Crotty said that she expects full work to resume at the site once city inspectors approve the repairs.—Suzanne Rozdeba

Colin Moynihan The New York City Department of Buildings posted a full stop work order outside 35 Cooper Square. Below: A close-up of the roof of the building. A violation notice from city officials cited the roof, which “has been partially stripped to sheathing and in some cases joists.”

Tim Milk

The New York City Department of Buildings posted a full stop work order on a plywood wall that developers recently put up the front of 35 Cooper Square, a nearly 200-year-old federal-style building near the corner of East Sixth Street.

The stop work order is dated Feb. 14, the same day that a demolition permit for the building was granted to a developer, Arun Bhatia, and others who own the property. Mr. Bhatia could not immediately be reached for comment.

Neighborhood residents, elected officials and conservation advocates had held rallies and circulated petitions in an attempt to convince the Landmarks Preservation Commission to protect the three-story building, which is the oldest structure on Cooper Square. But the commission recently declined to make the building a landmark, saying that its historic façade had been altered. A spokeswoman for Mr. Bhatia has said that he has no firm plans for the building or the site.

Accompanying the stop work order were two notices of violation that were issued in Mr. Bhatia’s name because, they said, a work permit had not been posted in area visible to the public and because of what one form termed a “failure to protect public and property affected by construction operations.”

That form went on to offer additional details, saying that 35 Cooper Square’s roof “has been partially stripped to sheathing and in some cases joists” and is accessible by way of a second floor bar in the Cooper Square Hotel, a recently built high rise.

On Tuesday evening several passersby paused to gaze at the stop work order and other documents. Among them was Cynthia Pringle, an arts administrator from Greenpoint who works near Cooper Square.

Ms. Pringle, 29, said that she hoped the stop work order would prevent the demolition of the old building.

“This is the last of its kind around here,” she said. “This is history.”

Kevin Farley

Good morning East Village.

Many of us are mourning the now certain loss of 35 Cooper Square, one of the last emblems of another New York in the East Village. EV Grieve gives a taste of the building’s history this morning.

The space, which was slated for complete demolition as of yesterday, is framed by scaffolding. For current news on the matter, refer to yesterday’s coverage in The Local.

Across the square, the gargantuan new apartment building at 2 Cooper Square is serving as a skate ramp for kids in the neighborhood, according to EV Grieve. The building’s high-ticket units and roof pool do not excuse it from skate duty.

In other real estate news, a For Sale sign flew off a building on 9th Street yesterday due to severe winds. The blizzard may be over, but natural forces are still among us, so watch out!

Claire Glass City officials today approved a plan to demolish the historic site at 35 Cooper Square. Below: About 100 people held a demonstration last month to protest planned demolition at the site.

Suzanne Rozdeba

Scaffolding has gone up, workers are busy on the roof and an application for full demolition was filed and approved today for 35 Cooper Square. Yet the new owners of the nearly 200-year-old federal-style building that preservation groups are trying desperately to keep standing told The Local three times in the past 10 days that the firm as yet had no concrete plans for the property.

Beyond erecting the scaffolding, removing the asbestos, and blocking the windows with wood as a “safety” precaution, there are no definite plans for construction, Jane Crotty told The Local today, speaking for developer Arun Bhatia, one of the new owners. Mr. Bhatia is a partner at Cooper and 6th Property LLC, which owns the building. “I don’t have any word on that,” she said.

As for the application for full demolition, Ms. Crotty said, “They’re pursuing their rights to develop the property. The application was filed today.” She confirmed asbestos removal began this past weekend, and is continuing today. “The removal will probably take a couple of days, if not a week.” In conversations on Feb. 4 and Feb. 11, Ms. Crotty had also said there were no definite plans for the site.

Over the last several weeks advocacy groups and elected officials have fought to preserve the site. The Bowery Alliance of Neighbors had gathered more than 1,000 signatures for a petition to designate the spot a historic landmark. Now, it would appear, those efforts have been dealt a significant setback.

Upon hearing news of the approval of the application for full demolition, David Mulkins, chair of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, said, “This city needs to do something very quick to preserve and protect this street before all of this historic character, all evidence of it, is gone. It does break your heart, and it also breaks your spirit.”
Read more…

Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

And a happy Valentine’s Day from all at The Local. We hope that you find love in the air, but if not, you’ll definitely find spring. This week’s unseasonably warm temps are already in full swing with highs expected to surpass 50 degrees on Thursday and Friday.

If community service is more your bag, DNAinfo wrote about some East Village events for philanthropic couples.

And while we’re on the subject of spring, you might be seeing fewer open street fairs once the warm weather decides to stick around. DNAinfo reports that residents and storeowners will be taking the matter up with Community Board 1 next week.

More in East Village changes: the Department of Health closed Yerba Buena on Saturday, citing a long list of sanitary code violations. So some romance-minded diners will have to look elsewhere tonight.

Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good morning, East Village.

Over the past week we’ve witnessed the subtraction of some of New York’s Congressional representation, the addition of a former governor to NYU’s faculty, and the wild fluctuations of our weather thermometers. But for the near future, changes are looking to be for the warmer (we won’t try to predict the political ones). Snow is nowhere on the horizon, and we might reach 50s by next week.

But we aren’t the only ones obsessed with the weather. The Times has a nice round-up of how this winter has emptied the city coffers, slashed major crime numbers, interfered with all sorts of businesses – and even prevented a suicide. It also seems to have kept Christmas spirit in the air (or at least on the sidewalks), according to Gothamist.

But apparently, a little snow is nothing to deter cell phone thieves from grabbing your App-collector — DNAinfo tells us the East Village has seen quite a few phone thefts in the last month. Deputy Inspector Nancy Barry warns that thieves have a penchant for picking pockets on subway trains about to pull away, so they escape into the station while you stand clear of the closing doors. Clutch those tech toys near your heart, where they belong.

Worried that you might be mourning the loss of football season, Nearsay has profiled a solid bunch of neighborhood brunch spots to replace the game as your weekend excuse to … socialize.  Have a favorite that wasn’t mentioned? Do tell.

C. Ceres Merry

Good morning, East Village.

We’re working through this little cold front one day at a time, but take heart — the weekend should bring back (relatively) higher temperatures. Also on the radar: a detour for anyone taking the Brooklyn Bridge into the Lower East Side, and the arrival of some fashion week festivities.

Whether you’re driving, walking the runway or just walking down the street, however, don’t get distracted. Thanks to a wintery mix of bad conditions and work-scheduling issues, roads in the city have more potholes than the transportation department can keep up with.

And if you travel on foot, beware: Broadway may be the most dangerous New York street for pedestrians, but our neighborhood’s very own Bowery had the dubious honor of placing not too far behind. EV Grieve takes a look at an East Village map of the transportation department report.

Residents of one building on East 11th Street aren’t too happy about a rooftop radio antenna, DNAinfo says. They’ve been trying to convince its owner, an amateur radio operator, that it poses a danger — and is ugly enough to scare off house guests and buyers.

In other 11th Street news, Girls Prep is looking to relocate its middle school from Astor Place to East 11th, DNAinfo tells us. The charter school hopes to expand after moving into the building between First Avenue and Avenue A, which currently houses Ross Global Academy.

And finally, police have released a sketch of the man believed to have pushed a local woman onto the subway tracks in Chinatown last week.