Suzanne Rozdeba

“President Obama in Our HAT!” touts a sign on the door of Village Scandal.

So did the endorsement-happy president stop into the hat shop during his East Village days?

Nope. “I would love to say that he got it at the Scandal, but he didn’t,” the store’s owner, Wendy Barrett, said of the item, which she described as “a skimmer, or a boater hat.”

But the 17-year-old shop does sell a similar hat for $145. “Since he was just reelected, I wanted to show my support and use a little bit of humor,” she said.

As for the fiscal cliff her store is facing, the milliner has so far raised $7,000 towards a court-mandated payment to her landlord; to raise more, she’s selling items at discounts of up to 35 percent. She has also hired an artist to create paintings of her store, which she’ll auction off on her Facebook page, and is selling gift certificates worth 50 percent more than the purchase price.

And maybe she should stock some Michelle Obama sneakers?

Earlier today Cooper Union students stormed a board meeting and then headed over to Cooper Triangle to deliver messages, by balloon, to eleven colleagues, plus a New School student, holed up in the school’s Peter Cooper Suite. We now have video footage of the air-mail operation.

After writing messages on index cards, stringing ribbons through them, and floating them up to the eighth floor, about 20 students marched in circles while chanting: “Where’s our president?” The group formed a ring held together by reams of plastic wrap that group spokesperson Audrey Snyder said were meant to “demonstrate our need for transparency.”

The commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct, Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann, briefly looked on along with Detective Jaimie Hernandez of the precinct’s Community Affairs department.
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The cafe launched a fundraising campaign in May.

Fourth Arts Block, the nonprofit that supports arts organizations on East Fourth Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square, is closing its FAB Cafe, according to a press release reprinted below. The artist-run cafe, which opened in January of last year, will close after a party on Dec. 14 and will reopen as FAB Lab, a “shared creative workplace and hub for community events and programs.” Full details below.

Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc), a nonprofit arts organization serving the cultural community of the Lower East Side, announces the closure of FAB Café at 75 East 4th Street in Manhattan, New York. FABnyc will be holding a Closing Holiday Party, open to all 5-7PM on December 14, 2012, theCafé’s last official day of service. 
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Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

Imre Meszesan, who was arrested last November after he followed a woman into her apartment and attempted to lift up her skirt has been sentenced to five years in jail. [NY Post]

Erik Foss, owner of Lit, tells The Local that on Dec. 8 the bar will be throwing its first Art Basel party in Miami, with Paul Sevigny, Paul Sevigny, Brian Degraw, Carlo McCormick and others as hosts.

“Taavo Somer and Kent Kilroe of the Freemans empire plan to take over 8 Rivington Street, the former home of The National. Based on diagrams submitted to the board, it looks like they want to expand Freemans Sporting Club (their upscale men’s clothing store) into the ground-floor space and add a bar with small plates and appetizers on the lower level.” [The Lo-Down]
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Zen 6, the ramen and dumpling joint from the owners of Sushi Lounge and Noodle Cafe Zen, unveiled itself on East Sixth Street yesterday, and is now open daily from noon to 11:30 p.m. You can enjoy the menu items below with a Sapporo ($5), plum wine ($5.50), red or white wine ($7 by the glass, $24 by the bottle), or sake ($9.75 to $15). Check out the cozy space via our slideshow.
See the menu…

Alexa Mae Asperin

Proceeds from the sale of this
shirt will go to Sandy relief.

East Village surfers, here’s something to tide you over while you wait for Patagonia Surf to open on the Bowery: Liberated China will open a pop-up store, Panda Diplomacy, at 206 East Sixth Street this Friday.

The pop-up, between Second Avenue and Cooper Square, will feature the label’s surf-, skate- and street-inspired apparel and accessories including limited-edition longboard decks, hand-knitted surf beanies and cotton tees emblazoned with the brand’s mascot, Genghis.

The store, open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily until Christmas Eve, will also offer the one-eyed panda’s favorite snack (bamboo) in the form of Timber sunglasses, Sprout watches and ibamboo iPhone speakers.

Photos: Suzanne Rozdeba

Suzanne Rozdeba New communal tables at Nino’s.

Check out the latest from Nicolina, the East Village artist who does the holiday windows at The Bean, among others (though apparently not Nino’s this year; the pizzeria is getting a new look, complete with wooden communal tables).

We’d like to think that’s EV Grieve in the NYU sweater. Hey, if it can happen to Scrooge…

Update | 11:15 a.m. We’ve now heard from Nicolina, who said that she and Walker Fee painted the windows Friday night. She also did the windows at Two Boots, complete with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cameo (take that, Homer!). In all, Paint the Town does about 40 holiday windows around the city each season.

If you’re looking for gifts that were made in the East Village, look no further than a holiday cookie tin from the Lower Eastside Girls Club. This year, Sandy flooded the basement of the organization’s Sweet Things Bake Shop, ruining a boiler and electrical boxes and forcing the mother-daughter baking teams who rely on them to find new facilities. The Local dropped into Astor Center, which generously donated its kitchen, to see how things are going this year.

Ria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

Right next to the incoming Japanese restaurant, Whole Earth Bakery is the subject of a Lucky Ant fundraising campaign: “By helping out the Whole Earth Bakery in this time of need, you are working to ensure the oldest vegan bakery in NYC stays open for many years to come. Take that Sandy!” [Lucky Ant via East Village East East Village]

Michael Sinensky, a Rockaways native, is giving Rockaway bartenders shifts (and a percentage of sales) at his Union Square joint sideBar. [DNA Info]

The pop-up project that the project that Nom Wah Tea Parlor’s Wilson Tang and Jon Daou of Openhouse Gallery are bringing to 168 Bowery will be in “a former subway station–glossy McNally-esque tiles, creepy staircase leading underground, and old phone booth included.” [Zagat]
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Photos: Alexa Mae Asperin

A dozen Cooper Union students barricaded themselves inside the school’s Foundation Building earlier today, refusing to leave until their demands for free education are met.

“We’re trying to bring awareness of the scandal that is happening. The mismanagement by the board is putting us in strains,” said organizer Jake Lee, a fifth-year thesis student in the architecture program of the art and engineering school.

Students for a Free Cooper Union issued a statement earlier today announcing that they would continue to occupy the Peter Cooper Suite, on the top floor of the building, until President Jamshed Bharucha agreed to resign and the administration agreed to stopped pursuing tuition-based educational programs.
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Dominique Zonyee Scott The Holiday Tree last year.

The holiday season officially begins this Sunday. That’s right: the Holiday Tree will be lit at 4 p.m., according to the Tompkins Square Park Conservancy.

Unlike the tree that all the tourists love uptown, ours didn’t have to be chopped down and trucked in: Albert Fabozzi, president of the Tompkins Square Park Neighborhood Coalition, planted the evergreen two decades ago in memory of his boyfriend Glenn Barnett, a victim of A.I.D.S.

The tree lighting isn’t the only bit of holiday cheer this weekend: Saturday a newer tradition, the Ugly Sweater Pub Crawl, kicks off at Village Pourhouse at 3 p.m. $5 gets you $2 beers and two-for-one drinks until 11 p.m.

Still have another stocking to stuff after last week’s half-dozen recommendations? Here are six more gift-ready items that were made right here in the East Village.

7. Credit Card Case with Change Purse for Men, $98
Jutta Nuemann New York Inc.
355 East Fourth Street, at Avenue D
Visitors to Ms. Nuemann’s tiny store must first walk through her production space, where she crafts colorful leather pieces.
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Daniel Maurer

The new owners of a former Hot and Crusty on 63rd Street have agreed to rehire employees who picketed the store this summer. But the battle isn’t over at a former Hot and Crusty on 14th Street, where at least one worker claims management continues to threaten employees.

In May, 13 workers at a Hot and Crusty on 63rd Street filed a lawsuit alleging that the bakery’s owners – Paul Pappas, Evangelos Gavalas, and several others – failed to pay overtime or minimum wage, demanded kickbacks, and required deliverymen to buy and repair their own bicycles. (The suit was settled by the end of the summer.)

That same month, workers voted to form a union. In August, the owners announced they were shutting down the store. Employees alleged the closure was retaliatory and began picketing the store on its last day. Their colleagues at Hot and Crusty’s 14th Street location joined them in passing out flyers that alleged, among other things, that one employee was called a “fat idiot” by management.

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Suzanne Rozdeba

Preservationists want Douglas Steiner to keep Mary Help of Christians Church standing when he brings a residential development to a lot between East 11th and 12th Streets.

“We’re really tremendously concerned about this church. It’s one of the great buildings in the East Village,” said Richard Moses, president of the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative. “We’d like to see if there’s a way to incorporate preservation into his plans. Demolishing it would be a terrible loss for the East Village, and for the city.”

Mr. Moses said his group will once again ask the Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider protecting the church. The Preservation Initiative, along with the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, is also requesting a meeting with Mr. Steiner, who bought the church property for $41 million two weeks ago.

Mr. Moses said he wanted to see the “desires of the community” incorporated into the developer’s plans, which call for an 80/20 percent mix of market-rate and affordable housing. “In terms of preservation, we’d like to sit down with him in a positive spirit to discuss this challenging but potentially extremely rewarding development,” he said.

Yesterday, Diana Timmons, who has lived steps away from the church since 1983, mailed a letter asking the Landmarks Preservation Commission to evaluate it. “I am outraged that I have to go to the L.P.C. on this,” she said, adding that the Commission should have proactively sought out the site as a landmark.
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Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

After a five-year battle, “Tenants and the company that controls Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the largest apartment complexes in Manhattan, reached a tentative $68.7 million settlement on Thursday, settling claims of rent overcharges since 2003.” [NY Times]

On the “grimy street” outside of Daniel Craig’s East Village apartment and at the next-door tattoo parlor, “the locals are positively falling over themselves to talk about their famous neighbor.” [The Daily Mail]

The owner of a Mobil on East Houston Street and Avenue C seemed a little nonplussed when a flash mob showed up to watch a movie about climate change get projected by the Illuminator, but everything went well. [City Room]
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Sasha von Oldershausen Looks like the work of a flying horse!

A star-studded film that has caused consternation among Red Hook residents is coming to the East Village.

Flyers on East Seventh Street, near Cooper Square, indicate that “Winter’s Tale” will be filmed in the area on Dec. 2.

Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman’s adaptation of Mark Helprin’s magical-realism novel — starring Russell Crowe, Will Smith, Jennifer Connelly and Colin Farrell — has already rankled some residents in Red Hook, according to CBS Local, Page Six, and others.

An owner of Sunny’s, in Brooklyn, described the oddness of watching the production while her beloved bar is still struggling to reopen. “It’s kind of strange when you’re still kind of huddling in the cold and you look at all the people eating the fancy food that you can’t cook,” Tone Balzano Johansen told NBC New York.

According to the flyer, “Winter’s Tale” is a tale of love, fantasy, and redemption set in both early-1900s and present-day New York. Vulture says it features “an angelic white horse that can actually jump five New York City blocks.” It’s doubtful you’ll see that flying horse in action, but whatever: a Skyhorse already appeared on East Seventh Street, at Jimmy’s No. 43 last night.

Expect a parking freeze on East Sixth and Seventh Streets, between Cooper Square and Second Avenue; on Taras Shevchenko Place, between East Sixth and Seventh Streets; and on a portion of Cooper Square.

Stephen Rex BrownEarlier shoot at Cafe Orlin.

From Bettie Page to Marilyn Monroe.

“Smash” is in the neighborhood yet again. The NBC drama about the production of a Marilyn musical will be filming on St. Marks Place, between First and Second Avenue, tomorrow. Cars must be moved by 10 p.m. tonight.

Scenes will be filmed outside, but St. Marks will remain open to traffic, a locations spokesperson said. Passersby who haven’t yet tired of seeing the show filmed around the area should be able to watch from a distance.