By the looks of Scott Lynch’s photo above, Gem Spa is still missing an E.
The owner of Azaleas writes in to tell us the clothing and accessories store is moving around the corner to 140 Second Avenue, between St. Marks Place and Ninth Street. In the meantime, the current store at 223 East 10th Street is having a “humongoid” moving sale with $5 clearance baskets.
Tonight’s N.Y.U. Against the Sexton Plan benefit just got a special guest: we’re told Gord Gano of Violent Femmes has been added to a bill that already includes Thurston Moore, John Zorn, David Amram, and other heavy hitters. Read more…
A woman was robbed at gunpoint early this morning.
Chilling screams were heard near East 12th Street and Avenue A around 3 a.m.
The commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct, Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann, confirmed that a woman was held up at gunpoint by three men.
Though neighbors were awakened to a cry of “rape,” no formal allegations of sexual assault were made, said Deputy Inspector Cappelmann. The victim was sobbing as she told officers who responded to the incident, “I have nothing; he took everything.” She was unable to give a detailed description of her attackers, according to the commanding officer. No arrests have been made in the case.
A memorial for Michael Jones – consisting of a rosary, flowers, scrawled notes and a soccer jersey – drew the attention of local news cameras on West 14th Street last night. The Liverpool native’s father tells the Daily News that his family is “stuck in shock.” Residents of Armonk, N.Y., where Mr. Jones taught youth soccer, tell the Wall Street Journal they’re similarly shocked.
Following recent rape allegations in Tompkins Square Park, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio calls for the police to tally up data concerning rapes in city parks, according to Runnin’ Scared.
N.Y.U. Against the Sexton Plan will host a benefit for its lawsuit against the school’s expansion plan. The show at Le Poisson Rouge tomorrow will feature performances by legendary avant-garde saxophonist and composer John Zorn, Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore, David Amram, and, we’re told, special guests. More info here, and tickets here. Read more…
The police are seeking to question Joshua Nunez, 21, in connection with a fatal shooting that occurred Saturday night outside of a Lower East Side barber shop.
NoLIta resident Charles Fernandez was attacked outside of the Jose Beauty Salon and Barber Shop at 110 Forsyth Street, around 9:30 p.m. Saturday night. He was shot in the torso and taken by private means to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The shooting was just one of several weekend incidents in the area. In addition to an alleged rape in Tompkins Square Park and a fatal slashing near Union Square, a man was stabbed Saturday night in the subway station at West 14th Street and Seventh Avenue, according to Gothamist. The 28-year-old victim was in stable condition after the attack, per the Post.
The police have released new video of the man they say stabbed 25-year-old Michael Jones to death near Union Square early Sunday morning.
The Times reports that detectives are reviewing surveillance footage that shows Mr. Jones walking down West 14th Street with his attacker shortly before he was stabbed in the neck and torso (his ear was also cut off). According to The Post, he had been bar-hopping earlier in the evening, and called his girlfriend around 4:17 a.m., shortly before the assault.
Mr. Jones – a Liverpool native, per the Daily News – was in his fifth year as a coach at the New York Red Bulls Academy, a youth training program. (He is not to be confused with former Red Bulls defender Mike Jones.) The soccer team released a statement describing him as “a tremendous individual, a fantastic coach who loved soccer and a terrific friend for many of us.”
In case you missed our weekend posts, a homeless man was arrested after a woman said she was raped while sleeping in Tompkins Square Park Friday night. Plus, two more disturbing incidents: on Saturday, a NoLIta man was shot and killed outside of a Lower East Side barber shop, and on Sunday morning, a New Jersey man was slashed to death near Union Square. We’ll have more on that later this morning.
The Times notes that friends and relatives of Lower East Side documentarian Bradley Will are still pressing for information about his 2006 killing in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Former East Village couple Amber Tamblyn and David Cross got married, per US Weekly. An attendee said that Yo La Tengo played Superchunk, Mission of Burma, and Pixies covers at the ceremony. Read more…
A man was fatally shot on the Lower East Side last night and another was stabbed to death near Union Square early this morning.
Shortly before 4:24 a.m. today, a man was assaulted in front of 25 West 14th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, the police said. The victim, 25, was stabbed in the torso and neck. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Bellevue Hospital.
No arrests have been made, the police said. The Post has some gruesome details about the crime scene.
Investigators are also searching for suspects in the shooting of a man outside of a barber shop at 110 Forsyth Street last night. Witnesses told The Lo-Down that an argument at Jose Beauty Salon and Barber Shop spilled out onto the street.
Update | 3 p.m. The police have now identified the victim of this morning’s stabbing as 25-year-old Michael Jones of Hasbrouck Heights. The investigation is still ongoing.
Update | 7:45 p.m. The victim of last night’s shooting has been identified as Charles Fernandez, a NoLIta resident. The police said he was shot in the torso and pronounced dead on arrival at Bellevue Hospital. He was 29, not 32 as first reported by The Lo-Down. Also, the police now say that this morning’s shooting victim was a resident of West Harrison, N.Y., not Hasbrouck Heights, N.J. as they originally reported. The suspect in that homicide, thought to be between 25 and 30, appears in the video above.
A man was arrested last night after a woman said she was raped in Tompkins Square Park.
The police said that around 10 p.m., a woman who had been sleeping in the park said she was awoken to a man raping her. She ran to a nearby store for help. The police searched the area and arrested an individual who fit her description, and are currently trying to determine whether the woman’s allegations are truthful.
Last night, shortly after midnight, an area inside of the park, near Avenue B and East Eighth Street, was cordoned off by police tape.
Update | 8:50 p.m. The Daily News reports that the suspect is a 27-year-old homeless man, Ruben Canales.
As State Senator Daniel Squadron called for tougher gun laws at a press conference at Campos Plaza today, new information emerged about a shooting outside of The Central Bar on Sunday. Some believe the incident was tied to ongoing beef between certain residents of Campos Plaza in the East Village and their rivals in the Baruch Houses, on the Lower East Side.
Norris Barrino, 55, told The Local that his son, 26-year-old LeRon, was the organizer of an open-mic event at the sports pub where a fight broke out at around 10:40 p.m. Everything was fine, said Mr. Barrino, until “some gang members weeded in.”
Mr. Barrino was at Central Bar early in the night and heard an account of later events from his son, who did not respond to The Local’s request for comment earlier this week. According to Mr. Barrino, the trouble started with a rap about the killing of Donovan “Keith” Salgado, almost a year ago. “There was a comment made about a woman whose son was killed here,” said Mr. Barrino this morning at Campos Plaza. “One of the guys knew that some of the guys who were involved with that were there. He got up and rapped about him. He said, ‘The guys who killed Keith are here.’ That’s what started the whole thing.” Read more…
Funny, we were just talking about the East 13th Street penthouse with the slide in it. The Post reports that the apartment has been purchased for $3.3 million by a Canadian who “made a bundle selling a software company.” He plans to remove the slide and donate it to a children’s museum or a charity, but not before one last slide party.
The Times informs that John Derian has taken a floor in an 1850s East Village building and plans to give it a “makeunder.” “It comes as a relief to know that he is jettisoning the fetid, jerry-built shower, and though you sense he’d like to keep the light bulbs that swing from frayed wires overhead, he knows it’s an electrical debacle waiting to happen. Likewise, the sad excuse for a kitchen has got to go. But the brown tinge on the walls — the sculptor was a chain smoker — he is intent on preserving.”
Off the Grid admires the Astor Place subway station, noting that in 1990 it was “listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places for its engineering and architectural significance. The latter consists of Faince (fine tin-glazed pottery) plaques, marble wainscoting, ceramic cornices, and mosaic tablets.” Read more…
Just posted to YouTube, here’s a performance of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” at Middle Collegiate Church.
Curbed gets wind of a new building going up at 535 East 11th Street. “The project is described as 46 units of affordable housing for formerly homeless and mentally disabled East Villagers. The building is subsidized by HPD’s Housing Loan Program, and the community space on the first floor will go to local organization Community Access.”
Off the Grid looks back at the history of the “mystery lot,” which in 1913 was the site of the B.F. Keith’s vaudeville theater. “As vaudeville died out and film became popular, the theater was re-branded as the RKO Jefferson Theatre. The Jefferson operated into the late 1970s as a theater, when it was closed for good.”
In case you missed the late-breaking news last night: David Cruz, the young man who was shot in the leg at Campos Plaza, has come forward to identify himself and spoke to The Local about the horror of being stalked by a gunman in the early hours of Monday morning.
Curbed gets a rendering of the building that’s coming to 211 13th Street, a.k.a. the “Mystery Lot.” “The 83-unit building will have studios to three-bedrooms, with sizes ranging from 500-square-feet to 1,880-square feet. A press release says units will have nine foot ceilings, and a third will have ‘substantial outdoor space.’ There will also be six ‘private rooftop cabana terraces,’ which we assume will be connected to penthouses.” According to Commercial Observer, “Bank of America had provided $20 million to finance the purchase of the property in 2011 and added $30.9 million construction loan and a $8.3 project loan, according to public records.”
The Daily News reports that an East Village woman got to keep her $992-a-month rent-stabilized apartment by employing a “sushi defense.” Her landlord claimed that she mostly lived in Vermont and submitted low electricity bills to prove it, but the tenant “testified that she often eats out, orders takeout or makes sushi, which doesn’t require much juice.” Read more…
The young man who was shot in the leg at Campos Plaza has come forward to identify himself and to describe the horror of being stalked by a gunman in the early hours of Monday morning.
David Cruz, 24, told The Local that he and a friend were walking back to his apartment on East 13th Street, between Avenues B and C, shortly after midnight when he noticed “a navy blue or black car creeping,” and then saw it double parked. “We looked towards the car, and I noticed somebody jump out the car with an all-black hoodie on, covering his face,” he said.
The man quickly approached. “He started to run towards me and my friend. We ran towards East 12th Street, when he shot the first fire at me. My friend proceeded to run towards the basketball court and I proceeded to run towards the 635 East 12th Street tunnel when he shot the second fire that hit me.” The shooter wordlessly fired another two or three rounds that missed their target, said Mr. Cruz.
“When I got shot, it went in through the back of my thigh, and the bullet left the front of my thigh,” he said. “It was half an inch away from my artery and about an inch away from the main bone on my thigh.” Read more…
A tipster notes that a 99-cent store has opened in the ground floor of the tony Copper Building at Avenue B and East 13th Street, where the penthouse suite went for over $1.8 million.
A Fine Blog wonders how tall Karl Fischer’s building at 84 Third Avenue will be: “That cannot be the correct rendering as it depicts a 13 story building, not the 9 story building approved for the site according to DOB records.”
The Post notes that Raul Barrera’s police confession was heard in court for the first time. The paper also reprints a transcript of Mr. Barrera admitted to killing his girlfriend in her Lower East Side apartment. Read more…
In case you missed The Local’s report earlier this morning, a man was shot in the leg near Avenue C and 12th Street around 12:20 a.m. The shooting occurred hours after gunshots were heard near Ninth Street and Third Avenue. We hope to have more on this later today.
Also published over the weekend: The Local discovered that Alphabet City-based lawyer Stanley Cohen gave a speech to none other than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the Iranian president’s trip to New York last week.
Daniel MaurerPolice vehicles at the corner of Avenue C and East 12th.
A man was shot in the leg around 12:20 a.m. this morning near the corner of East 11th Street and Avenue C, the police said. He was taken to Beth Israel Hospital in stable condition and was not thought likely to die.
The police couldn’t confirm the victim’s age or the circumstances of the shooting, and said that no arrests were made.
Though a police spokesperson said the shooting occurred near East 11th Street, investigators were seen early this morning at the corner of East 12th Street and Avenue C, outside of Campos Plaza I. A section of the public housing complex’s courtyard was taped off.
The shooting came a few hours after police received a report of shots fired at 115 East Ninth Street, near Third Avenue. Read more…
Not only is he defending Mona Eltahawy, the commentator arrested Tuesday after defacing a provocative pro-Israel poster, but the Alphabet City-based lawyer spoke his mind about U.S.-Iranian relations to none other than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, The Local has learned.
Asked if it might have been unwise to meet with the oft-condemned Iranian president and other government officials during a time of heightened international tension – and on the eve of Yom Kippur, no less – Mr. Cohen said, “I don’t worry about crossing lines.”
That’s evident from his client list, which includes members of the hacker group Anonymous and Occupy Wall Street as well as alleged terrorists. His latest cause, Ms. Eltahawy, an Egyptian-American columnist, faces misdemeanor graffiti charges after spray-painting an anti-jihad ad in the Times Square subway station – an act that Mr. Cohen told the Daily News was an exercise in free speech.
On the day Ms. Eltahawy was arrested, Mr. Cohen was making some bold statements of his own: he was among a handful of U.S.-based speakers invited to the midtown hotel where Mr. Ahmadinejad was staying to share their views of the Middle East with the Iranian president. Also in attendance were Iran’s Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, and its Ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee. Read more…
Scott Lynch photographed the latest mural on the side of the Ideal Glass building. For more of Felix Morelo’s “Mad Supper,” see The Local’s Flickr pool.
The office of Margaret Chin sent The Local a press release, reproduced on The Lo-Down, announcing that the City Council Subcommittee on Planning, Dispositions and Concessions and the Committee on Land Use voted to approve the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area application. The Lo-Down has a rundown of concessions that were made – including additional housing and possibly a new school – in the Lower East Side development project’s latest iteration, as it heads toward a final City Council vote. DNA Info has more on the possibility of the school.
The organizers of the DayLife festival tell The Local that the annual street fair, this Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., will boast “over 35 vendors of food and fashion, a full line-up of top-tier DJs, and games such as Twister, badminton and urban croquet.” The event will take over Orchard Street, between East Houston and Delancey Streets. More details here.
Off the Grid reports that “Board of Standards and Appeals recently decided in favor of developers seeking to build rooftop additions at 329-335 East 9th Street and to allow illegally built additions to remain at 514-516 East 6th Street.” You can read the backstory on The Local.
Workers continued removing bricks this morning from the wall of the school building at 420 East 12th Street. Today is the first day that students of the evacuated schools will be relocated uptown.
ArtsBeat notes that Anne Hathaway is doing a night at Joe’s Pub. It’ll be an “unforgettable celebration of the score of Cabaret, beloved as both a smash Broadway musical and Oscar-winning movie,” and she’ll be joined by special guests.
City Guide notes that the Bowery House’s “gorgeous landscaped roofgarden” will host a movie night, featuring Tim Burton’s “Batman,” tonight. Read more…
Jim Power sends over the above photo of his tilework at the Economakis home on East Third Street. According to the Mosaic Man’s Website, “The owners of the building, Alistair and Catherine Economakis, commissioned Jim to build the decorative mosaics after they saw his work at The Bean next door. Alistair actually assisted with the design and Jim used some of the leftover marble tile that remained following the Economakis’s gut renovation of the building.”
The Times reports that eleven groups are suing the city over N.Y.U.’s expansion plans, having filed a lawsuit that “accuses government decision makers, including both the City Planning Commission and the City Council, of illegally turning over public land to facilitate the university’s plans. It also claims that the approval process lacked transparency and denied the public a chance for meaningful input.”
The Observer profiles Robert “Toshi” Chan, who went from operating controversial rentals on Airbnb.com to going legit on First Avenue: “The East Village Hotel is a self-service, apartment-style vacation rental at 147 First Avenue, on the corner of East Ninth Street. There are no concierges; guests check in via iPad. Rooms are small—280 square feet each—but there is a kitchen, and more importantly, they go for only $289 a night.”
The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards. Read more »
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