State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, with constituents this summer, co-sponsored a recently enacted law that can help close troublesome nightspots.

There’s a new weapon to close down noisy and violent bars. At Tuesday’s Community Council meeting, Daniel L. Squadron, a Democratic state senator for the 25th District, which includes the East Village, discussed a new law signed by Gov. David A. Paterson just last month, designed to fight the very problems making life miserable for many locals. But for it to work, neighbors have to voice their complaints.

In an interview Wednesday, Senator Squadron told The Local East Village that with the Squadron/Schimminger Bill, signed into law on Aug. 15, the State Liquor Authority can revoke a liquor license from an establishment when police have referred six or more noise or disorder incidents to the authority within 60 days. Before the new law was enacted, liquor licenses could be revoked for repeated noise violations, but a police complaint was not considered evidence of a disturbance unless the liquor authority could show that the license holder was responsible.
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Molly O’Toole

Hello, East Village.

We start this morning with two invitations from us here at The Local.

First of all, the development team that has been hard at work on the Virtual Assignment Desk has made the list of story assignments visible to the public on the beta version of the site.

You may recall that the Assignment Desk is an application that allows members of the community to suggest story ideas and volunteer to report, take photographs or otherwise contribute to the blog. It represents another way that we’re promoting journalistic innovation and bringing value to the blogosphere.

So we’d like to invite you to visit the assignment desk and try it out.

We’d also like to remind you that you’re all invited to a celebration of the history of the East Village at NYU Journalism tonight where Pete Hamill will discuss ways that storytellers can mine the neighborhood’s hidden past.

The event begins at 6 with Mr. Hamill’s lecture and the festivities continue with music from a playlist firmly rooted in the East Village and D.J.ed by NYU Journalism’s own Jenn Pelly, a familiar face in the local music scene whose work has appeared here on The Local and elsewhere.

There will also be food and drink and a raffle for a Kindle. We hope that you’ll join us and if you’re unable to attend we’re planning to stream Mr. Hamill’s remarks live on The Local, so check the site at 6.

In other neighborhood news, we wanted to draw your attention to a couple of links worth checking out including this one at DNAinfo about a resolution in the MTA’s case against Billy’s Antiques on East Houston Street, this one from our sibling blog City Room about Irish actors getting a taste of Yiddish theater on East Seventh Street and this story about a possible breakthrough in the murder of Second Avenue Deli owner Abe Lebewohl.

One more thing: You may recall that we at The Local are asking for your reports about bedbugs in the East Village so that we can map them. The Neighborhoodr blog has posted a link to a version of a citywide map – yuck! We’re still looking for your bedbug stories so please keep sending.

Kim Davis.

We’d like to introduce you to Kim Davis, the Community Editor of The Local East Village, and encourage you to contact him if you are interested in contributing to the blog.

Here at The Local we consider our neighbors in the East Village our partners in the journalistic collaboration that is at the heart of this site.

And Mr. Davis, a blogger and a resident of the East Village for nearly a decade, plays a crucial role in that partnership.

If you have a story idea, would like to submit photos or would like to contribute to the site in any other way please email Mr. Davis.

You can also follow him on Twitter @LEVkimdavis.

And we’d also like to remind you that you’re all invited to a celebration of the history of the East Village at NYU Journalism Thursday night where Pete Hamill will discuss ways that storytellers can bring tales from the neighborhood’s past into the present.

The celebration begins at 6 p.m. at 20 Cooper Square, 7th Floor with music, food and drink.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, here greeting constituents at the India Day Parade last month, said that job creation is crucial for eliminating income inequality in the East Village.

Only days after Representative Carolyn B. Maloney won the Democratic party’s nomination for the 14th Congressional District, she was on her way to Washington to continue her long fight to pass the 9/11 Health and Compensation bill, of which she has been a leading advocate.

Ms. Maloney, 64, who defeated her opponent, Reshma Saujani, in the primary elections on Sept. 14 with 81 percent of the vote, spoke with The Local East Village about her stance on poverty, homelessness, noise violations – and bed bugs! – in our neighborhood.
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C.C. Glenn

Good morning, East Village.

More than 150 people attended Tuesday night’s Community Council meeting at the Ninth Precinct where the talk was all about the charged atmosphere outside some of the neighborhood’s nightclubs.

In case you missed it, here’s a link to our post by NYU Journalism’s Rachel Morgan, who reported that many residents who live near the Sin Sin Lounge – where Devin Thompson was fatally shot last month – say the nightclub is still a source of problems with noise and violence.

Asia Thompson, a sister of Mr. Thompson, attended last night’s meeting and told NYU Journalism’s Timothy J. Stenovec afterward that she hopes more can be done to improve security at nightclubs like Sin Sin.

“My reason for coming here tonight is so my brother’s death won’t be in vain,” Ms. Thompson told Mr. Stenovec. “He was a father, he was a brother. I just want this tragic incident not to happen again to somebody else’s loved one.”

The owners of Sin Sin, which is located on East Fifth Street near Second Avenue, said that since the shooting they have put new security measures in place, including the use of handheld metal detectors.

Still, Ms. Thompson said that she hoped more could be done in the future and she wondered why more wasn’t done sooner to improve security at the club.

“My brother would still be here today,” Ms. Thompson said. “Because there’s a lot of complaints going on, so how come those steps weren’t taken before this happened?”

Timothy J. Stenovec Makeba Thompson, 41, holds a photograph of her brother Devin Thompson who was fatally shot outside the Sin Sin Lounge Aug. 22.

It’s been a month since the slaying of Devin Thompson outside the Sin Sin Lounge, and speaker after speaker at the Ninth Precinct Community Council meeting tonight told the police that things aren’t getting any better.

Of the more than 150 people who attended the meeting – residents and business owners – at least 25 indicated they had come expressly to urge the police to act against continued problems with noise and fighting at Sin Sin, which is located on East Fifth Street near Second Avenue.

“They have carefully crafted a bar where anything goes,” said Bill Koehnlein, who is in his early sixties. He lives down the block from the nightclub. “They cater to people who aren’t from this neighborhood to do what they would never do in their own neighborhood.”
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Rachel Wise

Hello, East Village.

We wanted to let you know that the Ninth Precinct will be holding a Community Council meeting tonight at 7 at the Ninth Precinct station house, 321 East Fifth Street.

NYU Journalism’s Timothy J. Stenovec spoke with Jeremiah Shea, the president of the Community Council, who anticipates a large crowd because it is the first council meeting since June. Mr. Shea recommends that people arrive early to get seats.

Tonight’s meeting does not have an agenda – although such topics as last month’s shooting outside the Sin Sin Lounge are likely to be discussed. The Neighborhoodr blog posted a flier calling on members of the community to attend the meeting and rally around the issue of violence in the East Village.

The Community Council sessions offer those who attend a chance to speak during the public comment period. “It’s a community expressing their opinions, their problems,” Beth Neuman, the council’s first vice president, told Mr. Stenovec. “It’s a place for them to vent.”

In other neighborhood news, in case you missed it, here’s a link to our earlier post about Monday night’s meeting of the liquor authority committee for Community Board 3.

There are several stories about the East Village resident who was killed in a hit-and-run accident on Canal Street. You can find them here and here.

And The Observer weighs in on the Sukkah City architecture competition up in Union Square. And here’s another image of it via Neighborhoodr.

Stephanie Butnick Angry neighbors of Table 12 hold up signs in protest of the East Village diner’s application for a liquor license. The application was denied.

Amid protests from angry neighbors, a Community Board panel refused Monday night to recommend that a new liquor license be granted to an East Village diner.

The diner, Table 12, a 24-hour eatery at 188 Avenue A, had applied to the State Liquor Authority committee for a new wine and beer license. The committee regulates liquor licenses in the East Village for Community Board 3.

But those who live near the bar – including about a half dozen residents who held up red signs reading “No More” – asked the committee to reject the request citing concerns about, noise, vandalism and alcohol-related violence.
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Every day, dozens of people line up in front of Key Food Supermarket at Fourth Street near Avenue A, waiting to redeem hundreds of tin cans for cash in the redemption machines outside. They carry their business in large plastic garbage bags and rusty shopping carts. Some of the regulars say they scrape by on their recycling income alone; others say they use it to supplement whatever other money they make by doing odd jobs.
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Amanda Schupak

Good morning, East Village.

Lots of news and good reads from around the neighborhood this weekend and we’d like to start by presenting a tool that we hope can help with the process of sorting through it all. Dave Winer, a visiting scholar at NYU Journalism and a pioneer in all things digital, has developed an aggregator of East Village blogs. It’s another way, thanks to Mr. Winer’s good offices, that we’ve added a little more value to the local blogosphere. Here is his post on how it works and why he built it.

In other neighborhood news, EV Grieve has posts about the shuttering of Bull McCabe’s back garden and compelling images of a pedestrian who was struck by a car on Third Avenue Saturday night.

We’d like to remind you that the State Liquor Authority (SLA) and Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Licensing Committee is convening tonight at 6:30 at 200 East Fifth Street (at Bowery). This committee, a part of Community Board 3, which covers the East Village, Lower East Side and parts of Chinatown, makes recommendations regarding appeals for new liquor licenses as well as renewals, alternations, transfers and upgrades. We’d also like to call your attention to some comprehensive community board reporting about both the East and West Village on the Eater blog.

There’s a nice neighborhood-related read from Saturday’s Times by Colin Moynihan about one artist’s very distinctive tag. And with the news that another store was forced to close over the weekend because of bedbugs, we’d like to renew our call for your stories about the critters in the East Village.

Strong images of the East Village here and here and the above photo, by community contributor Amanda Schupak, is a shot of the Mary Help of Christians flea market, which re-opened this weekend at Avenue A and 11th Street and was also covered by EV Grieve and others.

Rachel Wise

Good morning, East Village.

Much of the city is still cleaning up from Thursday night’s powerful storm, which downed trees in Brooklyn and Queens; our neighborhood was relatively unscathed. As always, though, we’d like hear your stories or see your images.

This morning we noticed a post in The Bowery Boogie about a non-profit group that plans to apply white paint to the rooftop of the Bowery Mission, part of a broader citywide effort to reduce the heat retained by dark surfaces, which scientists believe could have an adverse effect on the environment.

Before the launch of The Local, NYU Journalism student Michelle Regalado reported on a similar effort by another program, NYC Cool Roofs. Ms. Regalado found that painting a roof white could lower its surface temperature by about 30 degrees. “If we end up shaving 1 or 2 degrees, that may not sound like a lot, but that is actually a climate change, ” Stuart Gaffin, a Columbia University researcher, told Ms. Regalado.

In other neighborhood news, EV Grieve has an item about a showing at The Film Forum of a newly restored print of the iconic 1956 documentary “On the Bowery.”

And Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York has an interview with photographer Ted Barron, who discusses his work in the East Village and throughout the Lower East Side.

C.C. Glenn

Good morning, East Village.

The Neighborhoodr blog has very worthwhile links to stories about a proposed extension of the restaurant smoking ban and a new form that landlords are required to give potential tenants disclosing earlier infestations of bedbugs, one of the most vexing – and cringe-inducing – issues in the neighborhood.

The news about the disclosure form prompts The Local to refer you the video below, which was created during the summer by NYU journalism students, who moved out in front of the bedbug story before The Local East Village launched.

We’d like to hear your stories about bedbugs – where you’ve found them in the East Village (with enough reporting from the community, we can map them for future reference) and whether you think landlords should be required to disclose prior infestations.

And here’s another a link that might resonate deeply for the nostalgic: EV Grieve posted photos of Junk, the new clothing store that now occupies the site of the former De La Vega Museum. The Local spoke with Mr. De La Vega about the museum’s closing in one of our inaugural posts.

Investigators first released photos of the men on Aug. 31.

Have you seen these men? Then the police would like to talk to you.

Homicide detectives Wednesday issued a second call for the public’s help in finding the pair, who are wanted for questioning in connection with a fatal shooting last month outside an East Village nightclub.

Devin Thompson, 37, was shot on Aug. 22 outside the Sin Sin Lounge, on Second Avenue and Fifth Street, and died of his injuries eight days later.

In this final look back at Primary Day 2010, The Local East Village spends some time with poll workers at P.S. 34 who describe how they get through a long, uneventful day.

Matt Panuska

Broadway to the East River, 14th Street to Houston.

That’s how we define the boundaries of the East Village and the coverage area of this blog.

Do you think we’re on the mark or way off? What boundaries would you use to define the East Village?

Reshma Saujani isn’t focusing on the fact that she lost the battle for the 14th Congressional district seat against incumbent Carolyn Maloney. She’s already planning her next run for the position.

“I’m definitely running again. What we built was a movement,” she told The Local East Village at The Press Box bar on the Upper East Side, where she held her election night party yesterday. “There’s no way I’m going to be one of those folks who runs, loses, and you never see them again. We started something, and we’re going to finish it.”

Suzanne Rozdeba Reshma Saujani.

Ms. Saujani, 34, who rents in the East Village, took 19 percent (6,231 votes) of the vote to 81 percent (26,303 votes) for Ms. Maloney, a long-time incumbent.

Ms. Saujani said she was proud and moved by yesterday’s experience.

“One of the things we spent time on was getting out the Bangladeshi community,” said Ms. Saujani, who is Indian-American. “To see people who’ve never voted before go to the polls was amazing.”

About 200 people cheered loudly when she walked into her election night party around 11:30 p.m. She fought tears during her concession speech.

Read more…

Reshma Saujani, a hedge fund lawyer and East Village neighbor, attracted only a small fraction of the Democratic vote last night in her bid to defeat United States Representative Carolyn Maloney.

At the end of a day marked by problems with New York’s new optical scanner voting machines and poll workers, Ms. Maloney took 81 percent of the vote in New York’s 14th Congressional district to Ms. Saujani’s 19 percent.

Ms. Maloney has represented this district for 18 years. In November, she faces Republican candidate, Mr. David R. Brumberg.

The big surprise of the night in New York was the nomination of Carl P. Paladino by Republican voters. Mr. Paladino, a real estate developer from Buffalo, is a political novice who left New York’s Republican Party reeling by defeating former Congressman Rick A. Lazio.

Read more…

Share your experiences at the neighborhood polling sites. Tell us about the new voting machines, the poll workers, the turn-out — and, sure, if it makes you feel better, sound off about the candidates, too.

If The Local East Village, a collaboration between The New York Times and New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, is an experiment in online journalism, then one of its most ambitious applications, the Virtual Assignment Desk, is an experiment within an experiment.

Designed as a digital interactive platform that provides readers with a way to suggest stories or volunteer to produce them, the Assignment Desk is an effort to help readers shape The Local’s coverage of news in the East Village.

“The Local East Village is about experimenting with innovative means of producing quality journalism in and about our own community,” said Brooke Kroeger, director of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. “Making it easy for community members to participate in this project is just as high a value. One of our major purposes in taking on this project is to have an in-house professional-level laboratory for journalistic innovation.” Read more…