According to a press release posted by Bowery Boogie, a new East Village-based start-up lets you have packages delivered to participating stores so that you can be notified via text message about their arrival and pick them up 24/7.
Photographer Michael Sean Edwards gave EV Grieve some photos from the last night of service at Life Cafe. Designer Patrick McDonald was on the scene, and the chalkboard sign read “9-11-11: Landlords are the real terrorists.”
Grieve noticed that gift shop Exit 9 reopened at its new location yesterday – it can now be found at 51 Avenue A between Third and Fourth Streets.
According to the Wall Street Journal and others, drug charges have been dropped against Kenneth Moreno, the former NYPD officer that was found guilty of official misconduct for repeatedly entering a woman’s East Village apartment in 2009. The charges stemmed from the discovery of a small amount of heroin in the officer’s locker.
Finally, we get to hear Ryan Gosling’s take on the Astor Place street fight, in an MTV interview. He says he’s embarrassed and “should’ve just kept my nose out of it,” because the alleged thief was actually a fan of the artist whose painting he stole: “He finally steals the painting and he’s getting his ass kicked by his hero and then the guy from ‘The Notebook’ shows up and makes it weirder. The whole thing – nobody wins.” Gosling had just come from the gym and was “feeling warmed up.”
Elsewhere in heartthrob news, The Daily Beast reports that former Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean was a no-show at the Fashion’s Night Out event at Kiehl’s last night.
Here’s some good news: According to DNAinfo’s math, parking tickets in the East Village were down 48.8 percent – from 26,200 citations issued to 13,422 – between 2009 and 2010.
According to Eater, NGam, a new spot serving traditional Thai dishes as well as a burger and chicken wings for lunch, has opened at Third Avenue and 13th Street.
According to a report compiled by DNAinfo, the East Village is the 58th safest out of 69 neighborhoods citywide. The reason it’s less safe than Harlem, according to DNAinfo’s math? High rates of grand larceny and burglary, as well as a “600 percent increase in DWI arrests from 2001 to 2010 in the East Village’s 9th Precinct, as well as a 56 percent increase in reported rapes since 2008.”
Some more stats for you: According to a rental market report released by Citi Habitats and excerpted on the Real Deal, the citywide occupancy rate has risen to 1%, but is still at 0.88% in the East Village: “Below 96th Street, the cheapest neighborhoods were on the East Side, the report shows, as rents in the neighborhoods from the Lower East Side to the Upper East Side rose steadily from $2,950 to $3,290 heading north.”
According to City Room, the city’s plan to install a restaurant, City Farm Café, in the Union Square Park pavilion has fallen through because concessionaire Don Pintabona pulled out. Manhattan borough president, Scott Stringer, wants to see the pavilion go to public use, but the Parks department says it’s “reviewing other high-quality proposals submitted and will select a new operator in the very near future.” Read more…
City Room profiles Larry Fagin, a poet and teacher who, at the age of 74, is “one of the East Village’s last standing bohemians.” He lives in a two-bedroom walk-up in Allen Ginsberg’s old building. His rent has almost tripled since he took the apartment in 1968 – yet he’s still paying only $150 a month.
Thought Delancey was a bad street to bike on? Brooklyn Spoke thinks the Bowery is also a “death-trap” for bikers, and believes there has been “too much focus on what’s happening on the Manhattan Bridge and not enough on what’s happening when cyclists get off of it.” Read more…
Good morning, East Village. It was a busy holiday weekend, so let’s get right to it.
First, a sign in the door of Ave. A Mini Market indicates the mysteriously shuttered deli will return after a renovation.
Over the weekend, a local lounger, Heryk Tomasini, set up hammocks at Astor Place, Houston Street, and some other East Village and Lower East Side spots. According to Bowery Boogie, two of them were promptly stolen. Meanwhile a more renowned public artist, Chico, painted a new mural on Houston Street (EV Grieve has a photo), but was upstaged by actor-comedian Jim Carrey, who according to the Post “tried his hand at tagging yesterday by spraying the outside of a multimillion-dollar East Village home.” Contact Music says the home was Mr. Carrey’s own.
Jay HukahoriIntersection of West Broadway and Grand Street, after the storm.
Good morning, East Village.
Three weeks after his attack, Gavin DeGraw talks to AOL Music Blog about what he calls “a rumble in the Bronx but it was Manhattan.” He says, “I guess some people could walk away from [it] and could be like, ‘Forget New York, I do so much targeted toward adding to the New York scene and it didn’t love me back,’ but I really don’t have that attitude about it.”
The Times profiles Taavo Somer of Freemans and Peels, who is opening Isa in Williamsburg, and reveals that the so-called “patron saint of hipsters” is “getting sick of New York. Yes, one of downtown’s most imitated tastemakers of the last decade is itching to leave the very place where he made his mark.”
Those flashy “jeggings” that rapper Lil Wayne wore at the MTV Music Video Awards? The Daily News discovers they were created by an East Village designer, TrippNYC.
According to The Post, two teenagers and a 21-year-old were arrested for sneaking into an East Fifth Street apartment around 2 a.m. on Sunday and making off with an iPod, iTouch, and some cash. Read more…
Rebecca HamiltonAnother scene from yesterday’s Eid ul-Fitr prayers at Madina Masjid, the mosque on 11th Street and First Avenue.
Good morning, East Village.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan, who now lives in Brooklyn, returns to her old neighborhood for a sit-down with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Despite her new zip code, she’s still “at ease among the eccentrics sunning on benches in nearby Tompkins Square Park, eying them as if one might inspire her next protagonist.”
The Mirror checks in with Mike Kehoe, a firefighter at Engine 28 on East 2nd Street who survived the World Trade Center attacks. Roy Chelsen, the colleague who helped save him, has since died owing to what Mr. Kehoe heard was a 9/11-related illness.
According to Playbill, “Silence! The Musical,” a parody of “The Silence of the Lambs” that won the 2005 FringeNYC award for Outstanding Musical, will end its run at Theatre 80 on St. Marks Place next month. Read more…
On the heels of her Times profile, Budd Mishkin visits the apartment of Vashtie Kola, the “East Village ‘it’ girl” (look out, Chloe Sevigny) who directs music videos, plans parties, blogs about fashion, and is “the first woman to design an Air Jordan sneaker.”
The Lo-Down has posted the September agenda for Community Board 3’s SLA & DCA Licensing Committee. Ichibantei is applying for wine and beer and Heathers is seeking to renew its license despite a complaint history.
Neither More Nor Less spotted workers cleaning up trees in Tompkins Square Park yesterday.
Good morning, East Village, and good night, Irene.
Actually, The Local will have the last of its hurricane coverage for you later today (stay tuned!), but now that the neighborhood’s subways are running smoothly again, we’ll refrain from exacerbating your Irene fatigue and tell you what else is going on.
If that’s not gross enough: A sculptor that developed a six-story condo at 259 Bowery is feuding with his next-door neighbor, the Sperone Westwater Gallery, and according to The Post he is accused of flinging feces at the gallery. Read more…
According to DNAinfo and other sites, including NYC.gov’s slow-moving Office of Emergency Management page, parts of the East Village are among the “Zone A” areas most at risk should Hurricane Irene strike Manhattan: “In the East Village, Zone A extends to Avenue D from East 4th Street to East 8th Street. From there, it extends to Avenue B up to 14th Street.” If evacuations are called for, shelters opening at 4 pm on Friday include Seward Park High School (350 Grand Street) and Baruch College (East 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue). Hurricane or no hurricane, the Tompkins Square Park leg of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, on Sunday, has been canceled, according to a press release picked up by Brooklyn Vegan.
Both the Villager and EV Grieve have the latest on what the Parks Department is doing to fight the Tompkins Square Park rats. NY1 also ran a story, and shortly before 11 p.m. last night, The Local spotted “Inside Edition” filming a segment that a crewperson said would air in about two or three weeks. Neither More Nor Less has photos.
If caffeine just isn’t cutting it, dive into the above homage to Erasure that East Village resident Jason Stein, a founding partner in Laundry Service Media, created with kids from The Hetrick-Martin Institute (home of Harvey Milk High School on Astor Place). This video has been floating around for a while, but only gets better with age.
While Zagat Buzz hears that a Williamsburg pizzeria, Forcella, plans to open its outpost at 334 Bowery on September 15, Eater gets word that St. Marks stalwart Café Mogador (a celebrity hangout of sorts) may open its Williamsburg offshoot in September as well.
According to Bowery Boogie, 87 East Houston Street will soon house Bowery Coffee, serving Counter Culture coffee, brownies, and cookies. Meanwhile another coffee shop, Fab Café, got some nice exposure on ABC7’s Eyewitness News, which strangely thinks the East Fourth Street business is in SoHo.
Finally, EV Grieve has a daytime and then a nighttime look at signage for the new Ihop, now glowing on 14th Street.
A couple of jazz fixtures are back in Tompkins Square Park: While DNA Info previews this weekend’s Charlie Parker Jazz Festival (Sunday’s East Village installment will be headlined by Archie Shepp), EV Grieve notes that Giuseppi Logan, who recorded for the legendary ESP label and went on to live a life checkered with homelessness, is back to playing sax on his bench after hip surgery. The Local caught up with Mr. Logan last November, as you can see in the video above.
Ephemeral New York points to an entry in “The Inside Guide to Greenwich Village” indicating that the fabled St. Marks club The Dom only made it six months before it was invaded by “another element” with “absolutely no cool whatsoever.”
Gothamist points out that “On The Bowery,” Lionel Rogosin’s vérité portrait of the Bowery circa 1957, will return to Film Forum in November.
316 East Third Street isn’t the only building fighting for survival around here: Bowery Boogie circulates a letter asking Councilmember Margaret Chin to uphold landmark status for 135 Bowery.
Meanwhile it’s too late for a townhouse that dated back to 1852, at 331 East Sixth Street— an EV Grieve reader snaps a photo documenting the latest state of its demise.
It’s not all gloom and doom as far as preservation goes. The Epoch Times has a report from the scene of the White Roof Project we told you about earlier: “Housing developments that faced obliteration multiple times are now being painted as the beacon of hope for a sustainable future in New York City.”
Elsewhere in sustainability, Goat Town has completed its backyard, where Eater reports that the restaurant is growing lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and the like.
The Daily News reports that three First Avenue teenagers were arrested for walking across a beam of the Williamsburg Bridge early Saturday morning.
According to The Post’s crime blotter, a man posing as a real estate agent showed off an East Third Street apartment and pocketed $3,575 from two victims who thought they had snagged the digs.
EV Grieve notices a sign indicating that an outpost of the organic hamburger chain BareBurger is coming to the former Sin Sin space.
In addition to the mint trash bags we told you about, a baiting station is now being used to fight the Tompkins Square Park rats, EV Grieve notices.
Flaming Pablum shares a clip of Cro-Mags vocalist John “Bloodclot” Joseph leading his tour of the East Village. Mr. Joseph promises, “It’s the only place you can hear about murders, drugs, and vegan food all on the same tour.”
According to East Village Eats, Casimir’s new owner Mario Carta has started a brunch deal that gets you bottomless mimosas and Bloody Marys for $19.95.
An episode of “Let Them Talk” just posted to YouTube features playwright Juan Valenzuela recalling the glory days of the Nuyorican poetry movement. Along with Pedro Pietri, Mr. Valenzuela led the Latin Insomniacs Motorcycle Club.
WPIX interviews Aaron Goldblum, the Fordham Law student behind the “Rats of Tompkins Square Park” trailer, and gets still more footage of rodents chasing squirrels and pigeons. A resident says dogs are getting rat-borne illnesses at the park. Meanwhile EV Grieve notices some new “Feed a pigeon, Breed a rat” signs.
Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York musters an overview of “the battle for Astor Place— and how Cooper Union helped hatch the plan to turn Astor Place into a suburban office campus.”
EV Grieve points to a trove of photos of the neighborhood from the seventies and eighties taken by East Village resident Michael Sean Edwards.
As seen on EV Grieve, the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors and others are circulating a petition to make sure the circa 1818 Federal-style house at 135 Bowery becomes a landmark.
An East Villager tells The Post that he thinks Gavin DeGraw is getting preferential treatment from the NYPD— the police have posted fliers in an attempt to find the singer’s attackers.
The owner of the building that formerly housed Sin Sin tells DNAinfo that plans to turn the ground space into a bakery are off the table. Read more…
A reader points out a movie trailer that puts a cinematic spin on the Tompkins Square Park rat infestation. Or is it an invasion? Watch the video above. Meanwhile, rats aren’t the only nuisances in the park. Neither More Nor Less has photos of a Friday afternoon arrest.
According to The Post, an appeals court has given Jerry Delakas, operator of the endangered Astor Place newsstand, until at least November.
The Times profiles Paul Marino, a manager at Hearth and half of the duo Popeye & Cloudy. They perform Shakespeare scenes and Abbot and Costello bits on the subway.
New York Magazine sits down with actor, director, and former St. Marks resident Vera Farmiga at her beloved Ukranian East Village Restaurant. “Farmiga mentions, without disapproval, that it smells like an old gymnasium.” Read more…
Have you seen the bus stop sign on St. Marks Place that seems to have been hacked down like an old oak tree? If not, Neighborhoodr has some fun photos. “No Standing” indeed.
In other news, the fire department had an early wake up call this morning. DNAinfo reports that a minor fire broke out at 5:43 a.m. at 40 Avenue D. It took firefighters 30 minutes to control the blaze on the eighth floor. No one was hurt and the cause of the fire is being investigated.
Finally, after the closing of Banjo Jim’s was delayed, the staff of the bluegrass, jazz, and Americana bar has now announced (per EV Grieve) that Monday is the final day of business. As you know, new owner Rob Ceraso is converting the space into an artisanal cocktail bar.
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 »
Phillip Kalantzis-Cope
