The Lower East Side Tenement Museum has opened its long in-the-works exhibit, “Shop Life,” which recreates a German saloon that used to be in the basement of 97 Orchard Street. “The neighborhood was then called Kleindeutschland (Little Germany), and New York had the third-largest German-speaking populace in the world (after Vienna and Berlin). There are brass musical instruments on shelves (John played in a Union Army regiment), beer steins ready for the opening of a keg, plates heaped with ersatz sausages and cheeses. (Food came with the purchase of lager.)” [NY Times]
The Blueway plan proposes to protect the Con Ed plant at 14th Street by “building a new, green pedestrian bridge that would also serve as a flood wall, preventing water from inundating the plant. The plan also calls for shoring up the thin concrete bulkhead that now runs underneath the FDR with protective wetlands and new drainage to try to minimize a future surge.” [DNA Info]
Prompted by the latest exhibit at New Museum, “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star,” Walter Robinson recalls the early ’90s art scene on the Lower East Side. [Gallerist] Read more…
At 250 Bowery, “22 of 28 units sold in just one month, with prices from $925,000 for a one-bedroom to a hair under $6 million for a penthouse. The loft-like project is attracting the likes of Scarlett Johansson and singer Paul Simon, and will house an upscale Anthropologie shop in the ground floor.” [Daily News]
Heidi Grumelot, head of artistic development at Horse Trade Theater, explains why the Red Room will close: “We’ve been renegotiating our lease since the beginning of January, and our landlord has told us that he wants to repurpose the Red Room space into something besides a theater. We’re retaining the Kraine and Under St. Marks, but starting April 1, he’s going to be using the Red Room for his own purposes.” [Astor Place Riot]
An East Villager is facing up to $30,000 in fines for renting his apartment on Airbnb. [WNYC] Read more…
Almost a decade later, the man who poured kerosene on patrons of Bar Veloce and held them hostage at gunpoint has been found guilty. Steven Johnson faces life in prison. [NY Times]
“While ‘P.S. 122: East Village’ is under construction, funded primarily by the City of New York, P.S. 122 will work collaboratively with small Brooklyn theaters, stage performances in public parks and dive bars, to bring more innovative and site-specific work to the outer boroughs and beyond.” [Theatermania]
Bummer: “Starting with the 2013-2014 school year, the Greenwich Village-based university will no longer allow first-year students to select their own roommates.” [DNA Info]
“A major orthodox Jewish New York developer wants to open up a new Jewish Lower East Side kosher restaurant to replace the old Schildkraut Vegetarian Restaurant at 171 Broadway.” [Jewish Press] Read more…
Above, footage from Saturday’s Bodega Walk, in which poets Bob Holman, Eileen Myles and other East Villagers protesting the influx of 7-Elevens. [Gamma Blog]
“Hundreds of local residents marched through the streets Thursday night as a show of unity against a spate of Lower East Side shootings in recent months, with the latest resulting in the death of 16-year-old Raphael Ward.” [DNA Info]
Jared Kushner, publisher of the New York Observer, has purchased 17 apartment buildings for $128 million. The seller was Benjamin Shaoul and Westbrook Partners. [New York Post, The Real Deal]
“Some of Joey Ramone’s leather wardrobe and some of his other personal belongings are hitting the auction block. A custom-made black leather motorcycle jacket with zebra-skin pocket flaps, cuffs and epaulets is the star item in an online sale of the Queens-raised punk rocker’s belongings.” [NY Post] Read more…
A neighborhood legend has passed: “Butch Morris, who created a distinctive form of large-ensemble music built on collective improvisation that he single-handedly directed and shaped, died on Tuesday in Brooklyn. He was 65.”
On East Sixth Street, “The Congregation Adas Le Israel Anshei Meseritz has signed over the rights to its second floor to East River Partners LLC, as part of a 99-year lease worth approximately $1,225,000, according to documents filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.” [DNA Info]
Following a New York Times article about an American Girl doll that was being lent out to patrons, the Ottendorfer library has received an outpouring of support, including a $1,000 check and five new dolls. [NY Times] Read more…
“Congress gave final approval on Monday to an emergency aid package of nearly $51 billion to help millions of victims of Hurricane Sandy, ending the legislation’s long and complicated odyssey.” [NY Times]
The current anti-7-Eleven campaign recalls the anti-K-Mart sentiment of the late ’90s. [Village Voice]
A comic strip in a very special issue of Punk magazine starred Richard Hell as Nick Detroit, with David Johansen as Mob King Tony. [Dangerous Minds]
A couple that lived in one of Allen Ginsberg’s old apartments decided they wanted out. “They paid around $2,400 a month for less than 500 square feet and a bit too much old-fashioned charm. The claw-foot bathtub was child-size, and the bathroom sink was in the hall. You couldn’t fit a cookie sheet in the oven. Screaming pedestrians passed by at all hours.” The solution: moving to Bushwick. [NY Times]
“A straphanger was slashed aboard an F train on the Lower East Side early yesterday, police said.” [NY Post]
A bitter divorce may mean the end of a sweets spot. “Derek Hackett and Blythe Boyd, both of Manhattan, opened Lula’s Sweet Apothecary in 2008 while still married. But they divorced in 2012, and this month Hackett filed papers in Manhattan Supreme Court demanding the business be dissolved because, he says, Boyd is hoarding profits.” [NY Post] Read more…
Check out the trailer for “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the Cohen Brothers film that was filmed in the East Village. [YouTube]
“The burgeoning art gallery scene on the L.E.S. is not showing any signs of slowing down — if anything, it feels like it’s speeding up. Three new arrivals – Garis & Hahn (263 Bowery), Shin Gallery (322 Grand St.) and Sasha Wolf Gallery (70 Orchard St.) have opened their doors in the last month.” [The Lo-Down]
The Bowery Mission has launched a #NoMildWinter campaign to raise awareness for homelessness. [Bowery Mission]
“From the team at Openhouse Gallery and Nom Wah Tea Parlor, OBS is a (somehow) bright, airy room settled into an abandoned Bowery subway station that’ll rotate popups pumping out dishes from a wide-open kitchen.” [Thrillist]
“The proprietors of Joe’s Pizza on Carmine Street are opening a new location in the 14th Street space that most recently housed Naked Pizza. Nobody liked that place. The drunk NYU kids wouldn’t even take that bait, and it sits right next to their dorm. This is a real trade-up.” [Eater]
Warhol legend Taylor Mead is one of the few people remaining in his building, according to Clayton Patterson: “The whole place is a construction site with all the expected noise, dust, obstacles, worker traffic, open doors, coldness and activities that come with construction.” [The Villager]
“At Han Joo, each tabletop grill uses infrared heat to cook everything to an eerie evenness. You miss the drama, but it’s hard to argue with results.” [NY Times]
Baby, it’s cold outside. Just look at this photo of a fire hydrant at Avenue A and East Fifth Street.
Community Board 3 has released its February calendar of meetings. [C.B. 3]
“A substitute teacher at an East Village junior high school stole donated books bound for Africa and sold them on eBay, city investigators have found.” [DNA Info]
A Brooklyn woman was “caught red-handed Sunday for allegedly stealing a pair of Jimmy Choo boots from Cadillac’s Castle at 333 E. Ninth St. — after biting both a store employee and a police officer who tried to restrain her, according to the clothing store’s owners and cops. [DNA Info] Read more…
About 40 local residents met last night to discuss the onslaught of 7-Elevens. “Bob Holman, founder of the Bowery Poetry Club and the ‘No Chains on the Bowery’ campaign, brought the performance art to the meeting, draping himself in chains that he rattled defiantly during his speech. Tired of corporations trying to ‘Pringle-ize our population’ with chains that are ‘boring and bland and not New York,’ Holman defiantly declared that ‘we refuse to fit in the tube.’ [Gothamist] A 7-Eleven spokesperson says its “nice, fresh and new stores” are helping to fill empty storefronts. [DNA Info]
Clayton Patterson wants to know why three locals couldn’t get support for their liquor license application. “I know that getting a liquor license is tied to community politics. Even recently, I have been surprised as to who gets and who does not get.” [East Villager]
“Police arrested a man who allegedly punched a panhandler in Union Square around midday on Thurs., Jan. 10.” [East Villager] Read more…
Hatem Farsakh has been charged with beating a man nearly to death on MacDougal Street, but he denies it. “I was eating a falafel sandwich at Mamoun’s — you guys know Mamoun’s? Great sandwich.” [NY Daily News]
“The police released surveillance video of a man who allegedly sexually assaulted and robbed a woman at the Lorimer L train station on Sunday morning.” [Gothamist]
St. Mark’s Church will host a concert in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Sunday. [Off the Grid] Read more…
A Christmas tree caught fire outside of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church on East Third Street. [Gamma Blog]
Check out a video that’s “the art of idiocy at its finest, showing a group of young men whom we can only assume are tourists, and whom we can only assume had some alcoholic beverages that night, partying on top of a moving party bus (albeit, a slow moving one).” [Gothamist]
The St. Mark’s Historic District turned 44 yesterday. [Off the Grid]
John Cale is at BAM this week: “On Wednesday, he’ll present ‘Life Along the Borderline,’ an all-star tribute to his late bandmate in the Velvets, Nico — a singer both lauded and ridiculed for her sky-high cheekbones, haute Germanic scowl and ruinous heroin habit. On Friday and Saturday, Cale will perform in its entirety his classic 1973 album “Paris 1919,” a work informed by dramatic events from throughout the 20th century.” [NY Daily News]
Photos and video from the annual No Pants Subway Ride, which ended at Union Square. [Gothamist]
51 Astor successfully divides “the energetic grime of the East Village and the gentrified civility of the West Village.” [Wall Street Journal]
Speaking of clown porn: you can sometimes find it playing at Double Down on Avenue A. [Gothamist]
Morrissey was spotted on First Avenue. [Bowery Boogie]
“The teen charged with murder in the shooting death of 16-year-old Raphael Ward last week said he gave the gun used to kill the young victim to another person who pulled the trigger, according to the criminal complaint.” [DNA Info]
A fire broke out in Heather Graham’s Union Square apartment when candles ignited some clothing near a bathtub. [NY Post]
Whole Foods Bowery was evacuated Sunday. “Fire in Whole Foods,” tweeted one customer. “Not a single customer took the alarms seriously until the sprinklers came on.” [Gothamist]
A 57-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man were struck by a Fung Wah Bus at the intersection of Bowery and Canal Street. [NY1] Read more…
Timothy Montalvo, the 16-year-old who was charged with murder and weapons possession in the killing of Raphael Ward was “arrested for having the weapon, carrying the weapon and giving it to the shooter,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said. The alleged shooter has now been identified as Walter Rodriguez, 20, and the shooting was due to “a dispute, possible retaliation, over jackets being stolen earlier that evening,” according to Kelly. “The victim may have been involved in a theft of a jacket.” [NY Times] Hundreds of mourners turned out Thursday to mourn the slain teen. [DNA Info] A basketball tournament will be held in his honor tonight at 6 p.m., at Grand Street Settlement. [The Lo-Down]
Here’s more on why a judge ruled against the city’s bid to install a restaurant in the northern pavilion of Union Square Park: “The pavilion restaurant’s proposed prices would make broad swaths of the public think twice before entering,” wrote the judge in his decision. [NY Times]
Reciprocal Skateboards is one of the city’s pinball domains: “The owner, Jon Ehrlich, added an annex to the skate shop that has let him install 9 machines from his collection of nearly 50. On Saturday the shop will play host to Pinferno, the seventh edition of a tournament that originated in Mr. Ehrlich’s apartment and now attracts top players from all over the United States.” [NY Times]
210 Bowery, which served as the Monroe Hotel in the 1930s and now houses a restaurant supply company, has been sold for $7.5 million. [National Real Estate Investor]
“86 year old Judith Malina and the Living Theatre will be moving out of their home on Clinton Street next month, but not before putting on one last show for us. Their latest production, Here We Are opens tonight and will run through February.” [The Lo-Down]
The Momofuku restaurants held a mustache contest among employees. [Momofuku Long Play]
Activists traveled to Tarrytown to picket the offices of Whole Earth Bakery’s landlord. [East Villager]
The Juice Press has opened a 1,500-square-foot flagship in the meatpacking district, “the first step in the company’s plans to cover New York with cold-pressed, vegan, organic juice, from the Upper West Side to Williamsburg.” [Grub Street]
Short-rib and bone marrow toast, chicken potpie and duck confit carbonara are some of the items that will be served at Boulton & Watt, in the former Nice Guy Eddie’s space. [NY Times]
At The General, EMM Group’s new restaurant on the Bowery, you’ll find “dim lighting, gold-and-red-brocaded wallpaper, candlelit lamps—all in all, a pretty Asian-y scene.” [UrbanDaddy] On the menu: “sushi rolls (spicy tuna, salsa verde; spicy king crab, mango sauce, wasabi honey) and small plates (roasted duck salad, Philly pepper steak sticky buns).” [Daily Candy] You can see some of the dishes and the complete menu at Grub Street.
At L’Apicio, “crowd-pleasing food isn’t chasing trends or setting them, but with its bold, layered flavors, it has enough personality to match that quirky wine list.” [Timeout]
“The Department of Transportation is shelling out nearly $2 million to turn 12,000 old parking-meter poles into bike racks.” [NY Post]
Neighbors and acquaintances gathered at a vigil for Raphael Ward, the 16-year-old who was gunned down near his home in the Baruch Houses Friday night. [Fox 5 News] His funeral is Wednesday. [The Lo-Down]
Friends describe the teenager as a “good kid.” [Wall Street Journal] He posted a mysterious Facebook update reading “I’m dead” hours before the shooting, which may have been over his winter parka. [NY Post]
Others in the neighborhood believe the shooting “could have stemmed from a simmering feud between youths living in the Baruch project and the nearby Riis Houses.” [NY Times]
A friend of the victim reiterates that “these projects and Baruch, we’re targets to all these other projects. They don’t like us.” [WABC]
Responding to criticism from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, the public housing authority says it’s on track to install security cameras at 85 developments by the end of the year. [WABC] Read more…
Pizza joints play musical chairs on East 14th Street, with the brown-papered Naked Pizza reportedly making way for the first branch of Carmine Street’s Joe’s Pizza.
Some belated silent nights recently for folks around Avenue B and East 12th Street, where the Department of Buildings finally hit the pause button on an apartment construction site which was making life generally miserable with its noise and vibrations. Here are the details of the violation, and a hearing on February 7th.
Remember Ruff Club, the dog spa on Avenue A? Turns out they’re screening possible canine guests for issues like “toy aggression” and inability to share. “We’re not trying to create a master race of dogs,” owner Danny Frost assured the New York Times.
Finally, if the well of inspiration ran dry on New Year resolutions, how about some unusual diet options? You needn’t stray far from the neighborhood to find raw food at Pure Food and Wine on Irving Place, or a paleo diet (cave-dweller goodies) at Hu Kitchen, a block from Union Square. Enjoy!
In one of the more extreme transformations to hit the neighborhood, word comes that a branch of TD Bank will occupy the ground floor space of the 12-story apartment building under construction on Second Avenue at East 1st Street. An answer, at last, to the question: what could possibly replace Mars Bar?
Perhaps less jarring, the Lower East Side Ecology Center has laid out a proposal for a wetland at East River Park–which, after all, is very wet a lot of the time. The plan calls for fencing off part of the area already used for composting, and would use naturally filtered water generated by the composting process.
By the way, do you call 311 to complain about rats in the ‘hood? Hardly ever, according to this interactive map. I guess we just got used to them.
Amid all the giddy talk of a pill-based solution to the bedbug problem, it’s not all good news this morning.
For example, not the happiest of New Years for artists Thomas Nozkowski and Joyce Robins, evicted from occupancy of a former synagogue, built in 1860, on Hester Street. They had been residents there since 1967. The future of the building, which was sold last week, is uncertain.
Nor for patrons of the Living Room, the live music venue on Ludlow Street which is packing its bags after ten years. A rent hike, as usual, is the cited reason, but the owners have started a campaign to fund a new space.
If you’re still feeling jittery, Atlas Café on Clinton Street makes Gothamist’s “Best Hangover Foods” list: an everything bagel with lox and “the works” is the prescription.
But not all is greyness and gloom, even if–at time of writing–it does feel like 17 degrees Fahrenheit out there. Youngsters still have chance to learn that there were bohemians before Allen Ginsberg, as Amore Opera presents a mini version of Puccini’s “La Bohème” at East 4th Street’s Connelly theater this Saturday.
If nothing else, they’ll learn a song about their tiny hands being frozen.
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 »
Rachel Citron 
