Stephanie Butnick The housing committee of Community Board 3 approved a plan to renovate a string of properties at 9 and 11-17 Second Avenue. The next step is a vote by the full community board Dec. 21.

The housing committee of Community Board 3 tonight endorsed a proposal to renovate a string of properties along a stretch of Second Avenue and turn them into a new mixed-income development.

The move also brings the temporary closure of the iconic Mars Bar, which is located on one of the properties, a bit closer to becoming a reality. The bar, a fabled East Village haunt, would likely remain closed for the two years it will take to renovate the property.

Representatives from the project’s developer, BFC Partners, and the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board explained the project, which would rebuild properties at 9 and 11-17 Second Avenue – currently in various states of disrepair and in some cases, code violation – into a single 12-story building offering both permanently affordable housing and market-rate units.

A tenant from 11-17, Gretchen Green, spoke in support of the project, saying “It’s going to give me an apartment where I can close the windows, and a safe place for my daughter and grandson to visit.”

The existing tenants of both buildings will be offered space in the new building – with the option to buy the new apartments for $1. A low fee to be sure, but – under the terms of the renovation agreement – the apartments will never be allowed to be offered at market rate (the re-sale price for the units is about $180,000).

Not all tenants are as optimistic as Ms. Green. John Vaccaro, a resident 11-17 Second Avenue for more than three decades who did not attend the meeting, told The Local afterward, “I don’t support them taking down what should be a landmarked building.” And, at 81, he is not keen to be relocated for the roughly two years it would take for the project to be completed.

Nevertheless, the committee voted to recommend the project, with one committee member abstaining – Val Orselli of the Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association declined to vote, citing a past professional relationship with the developers.

And what of the Mars Bar? It’ll be resurrected in the renovated space, owner Hank Penza says: “bigger and better, but with the same attitude.”

The next step is a Dec. 21 meeting, where the full Community Board will vote on the project.

Ruth Spencer Leonie Graham looks through her collection of photos of the Goldmeier family. Mrs. Graham has been out of work since July when she was let go as the family’s housekeeper.

It is an unusual tradition at the Goldmeier household: during celebrations of the Jewish New Year during Rosh Hashanah the family serves jerk chicken.

“We’ve all grown to love Caribbean food, because of Leonie,” says Debbie Goldmeier, referring to Leonie Graham, a Lower East Side resident who worked as the Goldmeier family’s live-in nanny for 15 years.

In July, Mrs. Goldmeier sat Mrs. Graham down at the kitchen table and delivered some tough news – the Goldmeiers would no longer be keeping her. Mrs. Graham would need to find another job.

“I was sad, you know, but I understood,” Mrs. Graham recalled in a recent interview. “I miss them so much.”

As the nation suffers through its worst economic recession in decades, an increasing number of New Yorkers are finding themselves unemployed. Last week, the Labor Department reported that the national unemployment rate increased to 9.8 percent. New York state’s unemployment rate is 8.3 percent. Experts note that these trends hardly occur in a vacuum. Unemployment reverberates through populations like falling dominos. One layoff leads to another, with negative impacts felt by individuals and families of various economic levels – like Mrs. Graham and the Goldmeiers.
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Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good morning, East Village.

Much of the discussion in the blogosphere centers around the possibility that the iconic Mars Bar would temporarily close if developers are able to move forward with a plan to renovate a row of properties along Second Avenue.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” read the headline on EV Grieve’s post. Grieve also takes a retrospective look at the bar’s place in neighborhood lore, and offers an amusing list of similar bars to visit if the closure occurs. There’s more at Curbed and Bowery Boogie.

And in other neighborhood news, congratulations are in order for EV Grieve, which Tuesday night won Best Neighborhood Blog at the Village Voice Web Awards. We at The Local tip our hats to Grieve and to Bowery Boogie, another locally produced blog that was also a finalist for the award. Bravo to both blogs.

An East Village man has been named by the authorities as a supplier to five Columbia University students who were arrested earlier today and charged with running a drug ring. The police said that Miron Sarzynski, and his girlfriend, Megan Asper, were arrested Oct. 27 in Mr. Sarzynski’s apartment on East Sixth Street. In addition to drug charges for the pair, Mr. Sarzynski also faces kidnapping charges after the authorities said that he tried to hire an undercover officer to abduct a rival drug dealer.—Meredith Hoffman

The Local East Village announces a new collaboration with SeeClickFix.

Today we have launched a new feature on The Local East Village – a collaboration with SeeClickFix, an organization that offers a variety of platforms to report local non-emergency concerns, such as potholes,
graffiti and broken street lamps.

Using SeeClickFix, we hope to raise awareness about different issues in the East Village. This collated information is directly available and can be viewed from the East Village watch area on this blog.

You can also use the page to post your concerns about the neighborhood.

Anyone, including local government officials, neighborhood groups and private individuals, can sign up to receive notifications about posted concerns.

As journalists, we also hope to use the information to help us report more effectively on community concerns and draw attention to them.

We would like to invite you to take a look at SeeClickFix on The Local East Village and encourage you to report neighborhood issues.

You can do this from the main map page on The Local East Village. The information you enter there will appear both as a report on the map and on the main SeeClickFix site.

If you have any problems posting or tracking issues, please visit the SeeClickFix help section.

You can also post to SeeClickFix while on the go using mobile devices and you can follow posts within the East Village area via @SeeClickFixLEV on Twitter.

We look forward to hearing what you think most needs fixing in the East Village.

Stephanie Butnick The buildings at 9, and 11-17 Second Avenue, which will be renovated as part a new development featuring low-income apartments that would be available for as little as $1.

Developers are expected to seek Community Board approval Wednesday for a plan to renovate a row of properties along Second Avenue, and sell some of the apartments to low-income families for as little as $1.

The mostly low-income families who currently live in the two buildings at 9 and 11-17 Second Avenue are guaranteed units in the proposed development, which would combine the two structures into one larger building.

The project, run by development firm BFC Partners, is operating under the Department of City Planning’s 2009 amendment to the inclusionary housing program, which creates permanently affordable housing, now with the option to buy. According to Juan Barahona of the development firm, tenants will be able to buy the new apartments for between $1 and $10.

The project will also take advantage of new zoning laws that allow developers to build more square footage on a lot, provided they allocate 20 percent of the building’s total area to affordable housing.

In this case, the 12-story, 4,000 sq. ft. building will house approximately 12 low-income units (available to those making 80 percent or less of the area’s median income ̶ approximately $63,000), dispersed throughout the complex, and about 48 market rate units. The development’s market-rate units, which make up the majority of the building, will offset costs.
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Shawn Hoke

Good morning, East Village.

We begin this morning with a look at a detailed report in The Times on the Ross Global Academy Charter School on East 12th Street, which received one of the worst grades in a recent report card on schools and is among three city schools slated for closure. DNAinfo and The Wall Street Journal have details, too.

In other neighborhood news, EV Grieve re-visits a Times article on Seventh Street and ponders a hypothetical, the-end-is-nigh scenario: What if a Shake Shack opened in Tompkins Square Park?

EV Transitions offers up a history lesson on the neighborhood’s place as a focal point for shipbuilding in the 19th century, including how the industry shaped such community institutions as St. Brigid’s, which was named for the patron saint of boatmen.

And the Village Voice has a humorous account of a brief evacuation at NYU Journalism Monday that was caused by heavy smoke after a mechanical failure. The evacuation occurred in the middle of a panel on influential media figures. The Voice’s headline: “This Discussion Panel Is On Fire.”

Timothy Krause

Good morning, East Village.

We return from the weekend with a report on what may be the latest scourge to afflict the neighborhood: an attack by cat.

The Post reported during the weekend on a lawsuit filed by a New Jersey woman against McSorley’s Old Ale House after she said she was attacked by Minnie, the tavern’s pet cat. EV Grieve posted a video of Minnie during what were apparently more benign and cuddly times.

Grieve also has a post about a newspaper distribution box designed by the street artist Cost, which was sold on eBay for $4,200.

And our belated, yet nonetheless enthusiastic congratulations go out to Grieve and Bowery Boogie, two locally produced sites which were each named finalists in the Village Voice Web Awards for best neighborhood blog. We try to send traffic to both blogs as much as we can and it’s nice to see their good work being acknowledged elsewhere.

Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

One of the most important ongoing stories in the neighborhood is the continuing evolution of small businesses. The Wall Street Journal offers its take on the issue with a look at the neighborhood’s transformation into a hub for nightlife by focusing on a stretch of East Third Street between Avenues A and D.

Framed around the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the article looks at the businesses that have come and gone in recent months. The piece – in an observation that could be applied to many parts of the neighborhood – describes how East Third “has become a destination for young bards, students and — often — tourists. Indeed, much of the gentrification that surrounds it today was inspired by the foot traffic the café attracted in the first place.” It’s a story well worth reading.

In other neighborhood news, EV Grieve posts a follow-up to an earlier interview with the new owner of the Polonia Restaurant, in which he further defends some of the changes that he’s made at the restaurant. “I have no plans, whatsoever, of trying to scare off Polonia’s long time patrons,” the owner says.

And The Villager profiles one of the neighborhood’s centenarians, Rose Padawer, who recently celebrated her 105th birthday.

Seeking The Next Community Editor

Today is the deadline for applications for our next community editor. If you live in our coverage area – 14th Street to Houston, Broadway to the East River – have editing experience, are familiar with WordPress and are interested in the paid position please e-mail us by the end of the day.

Meredith Hoffman Top: Jacqui Lewis, left, and Tricia Sheffield grasp a red cloth dedicated to victims of AIDS during a Wednesday night ceremony at Middle Collegiate Church commemorating World AIDS Day.

Debbie Totten knows about loss.

Four years ago, her brother Frank committed suicide after learning that he had contracted AIDS. “He had the beginnings of AIDS but he took his own life,” said Ms. Totten, a 53-year-old native of the East Village. Two years later, her brother’s friend also committed suicide when he learned that he, too, had AIDS.

On Wednesday night, Ms. Totten and 25 fellow congregants silently held candles in Middle Collegiate Church during a worship service to commemorate World AIDS Day.

And though the service’s message was of hope, the story of Ms. Totten and many others was of loss, with entire past communities gone, because of AIDS.

“There’s nobody here anymore I grew up with. Most of them passed away from the virus,” said Ms. Totten. While most of her friends contracted HIV back in the 70’s, she said that she’s known even more infected people in the neighborhood in recent years.

Every Monday with Middle Church Ms. Totten volunteers, giving hot dinners and groceries to people with AIDS. She volunteers at another food pantry on Wednesdays, but came to last night’s service instead, to reflect.
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Darla Murray This holiday season may be the last in which some New Yorkers are able to offer their apartments for short-term stays because of new regulations governing sublets.

As the holiday season approaches, Web sites like Roomorama, Homeaway and Craigslist will be flush with temporary vacation rental listings. According to Jia En, founder of Roomorama, a company specializing in short-term rentals, East Villagers are among the most active users of vacation rental sites.

“People in this neighborhood tend to travel a lot,” says Ms. En, who adds that they are also business savvy because “instead of leaving their place empty, they use it as a way to earn some extra money.” The holiday season can be especially lucrative.

“New Year’s Eve is one of the most popular times for visitors,” says Ms. En.
Unfortunately, for both residents wanting to make some extra cash and tourists hoping to save some, this will be the last holiday season that tenants will be able to sublet their apartments for short stays. In July, Governor David A. Paterson signed into law a bill that makes it illegal to rent out apartments for less than 30 days in New York.

The Local consulted veteran East Village subletters to draft a list of the Dos and Don’ts of subletting, just in case you’re hoping to take advantage of your last holiday season of short-term leasing:
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Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good morning, East Village.

The local blogosphere this morning is dominated by items about neighborhood real estate. EV Grieve takes a look at some of the neighborhood’s priciest apartments. Grieve also has an interesting then-and-now take comparing the price of an apartment at 224 Avenue B today – about as much as $2,400 – versus its price in 1909 – $25. Grieve notes that, according to inflation calulators, $25 in 1909 is equivalent to about $600 today. But, Grieve writes, “Inflation calculators don’t take into account East Village inflation.”

Earlier this week, we wrote about the roughly year-old concert venue known as Extra Place on the street of the same name. Bowery Boogie reports on the opening of a new restaurant nearby to give the party people “someplace to quell their munchies.”

And DNAinfo has a post detailing 14 building code violations at the recently opened Hotel Toshi on East 10th Street.

Seeking The Next Community Editor

And we at The Local would like to remind you that Friday is the deadline for applications for our next community editor. If you live in our coverage area – 14th Street to Houston, Broadway to the East River – have editing experience, are familiar with WordPress and are interested in the paid position please e-mail us.

Kim Davis.

It’s understandable, to me anyway, that East Village residents are concerned about NYU’s ambitious expansion plans and how they will affect the architecture and ambience of a treasured neighborhood. After all, it was the East Village which was landed with the enormous Founder’s Hall dormitory on East 12th Street, and although NYU might consider University Hall on East 14th Street part of the Union Square neighborhood, it supplies a steady stream of student revelers to the avenues running downtown from that location and into the heart of the East Village.

Even so, I read Rob Hollander’s post today on Save the Lower East Side with some puzzlement. “East Villagers ought to be alarmed by NYU’s decision not to build on its own campus,” he writes.

That’s something which might well give rise to concern, but as The Local recently reported – and even the The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation agrees – that’s not the decision which has been made at all. As the preservation group put it, “NYU is insisting that they will move ahead with seeking permission to build on the adjacent non-landmarked supermarket site instead.” In other words, the university is at this time pressing ahead with its original core plan.

Nobody can deny that the East Village may have plenty to worry about further down the road if the core plan does fail, but that hasn’t yet happened. So far, we are still chasing shadows. One irony which Rob Hollander’s post does highlight is that success in opposing the university’s plans for the Washington Square campus is indeed likely to have repercussions for other neighborhoods.

Kim Davis is the community editor of The Local East Village.

Simon McCormack Bars around the East Village, including The Continental (top) and the 13th Step, regularly offer promotional deals on alcoholic drinks. Research has found a link between those promotions and instances of binge-drinking.

Kelly Kellam and Michael Russinik were walking on Third Avenue near St. Marks Place when something caught their eye.

The sign over the door of the Continental bar where Mr. Kellam and Mr. Russinik found themselves one early Wednesday evening read simply: “5 shots of anything $10 all day/all night.”

“We said jokingly, ‘Hey, let’s each go get five shots’ and then there was that awkward pause,” Mr. Russinik said. “Then we were, like, ‘Let’s do it.’”

Mr. Kellam and Mr. Russinik said they would not have come into The Continental if it weren’t for the prominently advertised drink special. But do bargain drink prices at bars encourage people to drink too much?

Susan Foster, vice president and director of policy research and analysis at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, said bars have a major impact on drinking culture.

“The research finds a significant link between price-related alcohol promotions, easy access to alcohol and binge drinking,” Ms. Foster said in an e-mail message. “Study findings suggest that an environment that is not only conducive to drinking, but encouraging of drinking, and in which alcohol is inexpensive and easily accessed, makes excessive alcohol use seem normal.”
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Rachel Wise

Good morning, East Village.

With NYU’s decision to abandon plans for a new tower on Bleecker Street, Save the Lower East Side ponders what the move might mean for the prospects of future development by the university in the East Village. EV Grieve notes that the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is one of the participants in a town hall meeting about the university’s plans at 6:30 tonight at Our Lady of Pompeii, Carmine and Bleecker Streets.

Grieve also has detailed posts about the new “greenstreets” construction projects on Avenue D and along East First Street.

Ephemeral New York offers a quick riff on the turn of the 20th century trend of naming tenements for presidents and mentions two buildings in the neighborhood – the McKinley and the Roosevelt. EV Transitions offers a lesson in more recent neighborhood history with a look at some behind-the-scenes photos of the Rolling Stones filming their “Waiting On A Friend” video at the St. Marks Bar & Grill and along St. Marks Place in the 1980’s.

And DNAinfo has photos of the just-completed mural at Bowery and Houston Street. Bowery Boogie, Gothamist, and Grieve have details on the project, too.

Gloria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

We’d like to encourage you to check out the exploration of liquor licensing issues in the neighborhood over at Capital. The piece is framed around the demise of Superdive and describes how the East Village has become “a nightscape” in which bar owners have clustered together in the neighborhood. “A century ago, that meant the creation of a Garment District,” the Capital piece reads. “Now it means the creation of a Party District.” It’s a piece that it well worth reading and it has already generated its share of discussion in the blogosphere.

In other neighborhood news, The Daily News has an interview with Thomas Grant, a volunteer at an East Village soup kitchen who blacked out and tumbled onto the path of a subway train Sunday before being rescued by another man on the platform.

Gloria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

As we return from the long holiday weekend, the local blogosphere is filled with nostalgic takes on the neighborhood.

Emphemeral New York takes a closer look at the carvings on the facade of the old Italian Labor Center (now home to Beauty Bar) at 14th Street near Third Avenue.

Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York examines the history of the old Moskowitz and Lupowitz restaurant on Second Avenue and Second Street.

And Gothamist has a post about the Nostalgia Shoppers’ Special Train on the Sixth Avenue Line, which started this weekend and will continue each Sunday through Dec. 26

In other neighborhood news, EV Grieve has an interview with the new owner of the Polonia restaurant on First Avenue near East Seventh Street.

Bowery Boogie has an update on the new mural at Bowery and East Houston.

Seeking The Next Community Editor

And we at The Local are continuing to review applications for our next community editor. If you live in our coverage area – 14th Street to Houston, Broadway to the East River – have editing experience, are familiar with WordPress and are interested in the paid position please e-mail us.

Courtesy of the Beck Family Sammy, a Pomeranian last seen in the East Village, has been missing since June.

“Have you seen Sammy?” If you live in the East Village or Lower East Side, the answer is almost definitely yes – he’s plastered to poles, phone booths, and walls on what seems like every block.

Unfortunately, no one has really seen him since June 29. Sammy the shaved Pomeranian got loose from his leash outside of owner Henry Beck’s restaurant, Grill 21 in Gramercy, and ran out of sight, inspiring a massive puphunt that’s carried on for nearly seven entire months now.

Indeed, to say this shaved Pomeranian achieved local iconography in the latter days of summer might be something of an understatement. The Becks plastered flyers – in English, Spanish, and Chinese – on almost every block, and launched a “Help Find Sammy” Web site in no time.

“It’s very hard – he’s a member of the family,” said Mr. Beck. “You start the day with hope and go to sleep with the reality.”

The Becks have continued to comb the East Village, where Sammy was reportedly first spotted after he disappeared in June.  Last week, the unlikely quest to bring Sammy home gained a fleeting bit of momentum when a dog matching his description was apparently spotted in the neighborhood.

“As of recently we have been getting calls about a loose Pomeranian around Tompkins Square Park,” Alana Beck, Mr. Beck’s daughter and leader of the search effort, wrote in an e-mail message this week. “If it really is him, then he really is an amazing representation of his owners. We are just as adamant about getting him home.”
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Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

Having nimbly avoided the crush of Black Friday shoppers, we begin this morning with a look at Thursday’s article in The Post, which described how the firefighters of Engine 28 and Ladder 11, on Second Street near Avenue B, had recently opened a Twitter account to alert neighborhood residents when the firehouse was unable to respond to emergency calls.

Over the past month, The Post reported, the firehouse was pulled out of service on 20 occasions because of a range of issues including mechanical trouble or training or to provide coverage for other firehouses when their units were pulled from service.

EV Grieve reports that sometime after The Post’s piece went up, the firehouse’s Twitter account was disabled.

In other neighborhood news, DNAinfo has a post on the recently opened Dorian Grey Gallery on East Ninth Street.

Seeking The Next Community Editor

And we at The Local would also like to remind you that we are continuing to review applications for our next community editor. The six-month term of Kim Davis – who has performed the job admirably – ends just after the New Year. If you live in our coverage area – 14th Street to Houston, Broadway to the East River – have editing experience, are familiar with WordPress and are interested in the paid position please e-mail us.