The bicycle-powered generator used to pump water out of the basement of the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space has been put to yet another creative use: it’s been charging cellphones.

Konstantin Sergeyev sent us photos of the generator at work, along with others of fellow C-Squat resident Nico de Gallo grilling donated food items for neighbors.

The bicycle generator, created by Time’s Up for Occupy Wall Street events, was to be part of an exhibit at MoRUS, slated to open Nov. 17. That opening date is now up in the air as the homesteading and community gardening museum continues to repair its basement.

According to an update on its Website, MoRUS planned to continue offering cell phone charging today — at 155 Avenue C, between Ninth and 10th Streets — and C-Squat will keep doling out free food.

“As always, we’d like to highlight the East Village community,” the update read. “We’re all getting through this crisis together, and there are sure to be better times ahead.”

Suzanne Rozdeba Zum Schneider

Three days after Sandy wreaked havoc in the East Village, businesses on and near Avenue C were still reeling from what some owners were calling the worst damage they had ever suffered.

At Zum Schneider, on the corner of Avenue C and East Seventh Street, the owner shook his head as about 15 employees and friends ran up and down from the basement and helped clean the German restaurant and bar. Three feet of water flooded the main space and inundated the basement.

Suzanne Rozdeba The owners of Verso.

“This is the worst damage I’ve seen,” Sylvester Schneider, the owner, told The Local today, looking at his own business and then observing similar scenes down the street at the establishments of his friends. Since Tuesday, he’s spent his time in the basement and cleaning. “I haven’t yet been able to asses all the damage and how many of the machines are broken, but if I need to get all new equipment, it’s going to cost around $50,000 to $75,000,” Mr. Schneider said, adding that he lost about $5,000 to $7,000 in food and beer. Pumping out the water cost another $2,000.

Mr. Schneider said he is grateful none of his employees was hurt. “We are lucky,” he said. He is hoping he can reopen partially by Friday evening, and serve beer and a light menu. “But it gets difficult cleaning here in the dark. We are doing as much as we can while it’s still light out. Businesses have really suffered here, and they need to be open, especially for the local economy.”
Read more…

Micah Kaplan Arthur

It’s been especially trying for Micah Kaplan to find Arthur, his brown-and-white Beagle mix, lost near Cooper Square Monday right before superstorm Sandy hit.

Mr. Kaplan was taking Arthur for a walk around 3:30 p.m. that afternoon, just before the storm escalated. When he heard a loud noise, Arthur, who is shy and scares easily, slipped out of his collar and ran. Mr. Kaplan chased after him from Seventh Street and Avenue C all the way up to Cooper Square, but lost sight of him around Cooper Union. His close friend Sophie Pauz has helped him post fliers all around the East Village, in hopes someone will recognize Arthur.

“Our hope is that someone found him and has been taking care of him and maybe doesn’t have power so they haven’t been able to reach out,” Ms. Pauz said. But with power outages the past few days, and so many places closed, checking shelters for Arthur has been nearly impossible.

Micah Kaplan Arthur

“The only shelter we got into was the NYACC on 110^th,” Mr. Kaplan said. “All the others we visited were closed, but we slipped flyers under their doors.”

The Humane Society at 306 E. 59^th Street is now open regular business hours, but was closed Monday and Tuesday.

Animal Haven, at 251 Centre Street, is still without power and not open to the public, but employees have been going to the shelter every morning at 8 a.m. and staying till about 6 p.m with the animals.

Kristen Lasher, Animal Haven’s client service manager said employees have been using flashlights to make their way around the building. The best way to find out if a lost pet has been turned into Animal Haven is by sending an inquiry through their website, or on the organization’s Facebook page, she said.

Mr. Kaplan is offering a reward for Arthur’s return. If you’ve seen or heard anything regarding his whereabouts please call Mr. Kaplan at 212-221-0127.

Daniel Maurer The Wicked Willy’s party shuttle was out and about yesterday.

Good afternoon, East Village. Here’s the latest from around the neighborhood and around the Web.

Lower East Side residents are growing increasingly frustrated. [Gothamist]

Neighbors have been helping residents of housing complexes such as Haven Plaza. [DNA Info]

WNYC and Democracy Now! checked in with residents of local low-income high rises.

A Lower East Side resident set up an impromptu coffee stand. [Gawker]

A list of places to find free WiFi. [Observer]

In addition to stopping by NYU’s student center, Alec Baldwin helped out his neighbors. [Today]

Percy’s Tavern and others have been running generators and allowing customers to charge cellphones. [DNA Info]

In addition to Percy’s, Mug Lounge, Key Bar, Phoenix, and Heathers were open on East 13th Street last night. [The Local/Twitter] Bait & Hook was also operating with a generator, and offering cell phone charges.

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space is offering a free cell charging service. [MoRUS]

Theater for the New City is operating a charging station at East 10th Street, between First and Second Avenues. And NYU’s Bobst library is again offering outlets and free WiFi to the public. [The Local/Twitter]

The parties raged on at Wicked Willy’s and Le Souk. [The Daily]

Food and water have been donated to the Seward Park Coop, but concern about the development’s older residents is growing. [The Lodown]

Generators have been deployed to public housing complexes. [The Lodown]

169 Bar, Interstate Food & Liquor, and others were open last night on the Lower East Side. [The Lodown]

Robert Sietsema of The Voice checked in with local restaurant owners. [Fork in the Road]

Rai Rai Ken is giving away hot ramen today. [Twitter]

The owner of 7th Street Village Farm didn’t sleep for two days, keeping the store open during the storm. [Washington Post]

The East Village showed “signs of life amid eerie calm,” according to The Guardian.

Up and running again:
Union Square location of Whole Foods. [Twitter]
Russ & Daughters. [Twitter]
Idle Hands Bar [Twitter]
La Lucha [Twitter]
Danspace [Twitter]
Village Voice [Twitter]
Tinto Fino [Twitter]

Shows canceled:
Stomp [Twitter]
Public Theater [Twitter]
Horse Trade Theater [Twitter]
Bowery Electric [Brooklyn Vegan]

Follow The Local on Twitter as we continue to post and retweet status updates, and give us your own updates there or in the comments.

Suzanne Rozdeba

Food and water distribution sites will open throughout lower Manhattan at 3 p.m., Mayor Bloomberg and State Senator Daniel Squadron announced today.

Sites below 14th Street include:

10th Street between Avenues C and D
Catherine Street between Monroe and Cherry Streets (Smith Houses)
Pitt and Houston Streets
Grand and Clinton Streets — water only
Bowery and Division Street (Confucius Plaza)

In addition, the National Guard, NYC Service, and the Salvation Army will go door-to-door in residential high-rises in order to check on seniors and those with disabilities who have been affected by the blackout.

“For many seniors and others stuck on high floors with no water and access to medical help, we must get relief,” said Senator Squadron in a press release.

The senator’s office is maintaining an updated list of transportation and relief information here.

The city’s death toll is now at 37, the mayor said in a press conference this morning, and it is expected to rise.

Ray LeMoine

As the East Village got walloped by Sandy, another force of bluster made his presence known in the neighborhood.

On Monday afternoon, as mentioned on The Local’s liveblog, Jimmy McMillan was spotted cruising the streets in his Rent Is Too Damn High-mobile, an SUV plastered with his face, an American flag, and his trademark slogan. (And did we mention the purple-lit undercarriage?) He occasionally pulled up to chat with locals.

Shortly before midnight, after the storm subsided, he was back for an encore: the power had been knocked out but a full moon made it easy to spot Mr. McMillian’s car idling on St. Marks Place. The Local knocked on his window.

“Free ice cream on First Avenue and Seventh Street, around the corner!” shouted a grinning Mr. McMillian, between scoops.

Ray LeMoine

Indeed, there was a freezer full of free ice cream at the deli at 118 First Avenue. The deli’s owner had come in at 8 p.m. to tend to the store, which was filling up with festive freeloaders.

Across the street, the owner of Stromboli’s, who used his car’s headlights to illuminate the pizzeria, said he had also given away freebies to customers who couldn’t use their credit cards while his reader was down. The Westchester resident planned to close the pizzeria around midnight and didn’t yet know where he was going to stay. He didn’t seem to concerned, though. If worse came to worse, he said, he would sleep in his car.

We’ll keep updating this post, so check back periodically.

Daniel Maurer The charging crowd at NYU Bobst.

Good afternoon, East Village. We’re writing from NYU Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South. As The Local tweeted earlier, it’s offering free WiFi and charging stations to the general public until 4 p.m. The internet connection is a lot better than at the midtown pub from which we filed yesterday’s update.

Con Edison said this morning that “customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn who are served by underground electric equipment should have power back within three days. Restoration to all customers in other areas served by overhead power lines will take at least a week.” [Con Ed]

This afternoon, Governor Cuomo announced that subway service would resume above 34th Street tomorrow, and outlined the particulars. Metro-North service has resumed on the Harlem line, but other lines are suspended. LIRR service is suspended, though Ronkonkoma and Port Washington service may be restored by tomorrow morning. Several bridges have reopened but the Hugh L. Carey and Queens Midtown Tunnel remain closed. [The Times]

The East River Ferry remains closed today, with service hopefully resuming “within the next couple of days.” [NY Waterway]

Bellevue Hospital, which has been powered by generators, is currently evacuating 500 patients. The evacuation follows that of 300 patients at NYU Langone Medical Center. [The Times]

Newark and JFK airports have reopened. Schools and parks remain closed. The national death toll is at 59, with 22 dead in the city. [The Times]

Very few people ventured onto the darkened streets of the East Village last night (shortly after midnight, The Local posted a list of businesses that were open, but only a few of them were full). There were no early reports of opportunistic crime around the city, the police said. [The Times] Read more…

Earlier we showed you Sandy hitting the East Village. Now we’ve received a batch of photos from the Lower East Side. Have some of your own? Add them to the pool.

We posted a few cell phone shots of Sandy’s aftermath yesterday. Here now are some proper photographs of the storm and its wake, by photographer and C-Squat resident Konstantin Sergeyev. Stay tuned for this morning’s update.

Konstantin Sergeyev Avenue C becomes a river.

Read more…

Daniel Maurer Bistro Truck

Here’s who was up and running (or crawling, anyway) at the witching hour, or shortly before.

ST MARKS
Grassroots Tavern
Gem Spa
St Mark’s Market

2ND AVE
2nd Ave Smoke Shop 
Heart of India 
East Village Grocery
Winebar
Yem Yem Falafel

FIRST AVE
DBA
East Village Farm
Bodega at 118 1st Ave
South Brooklyn Pizza 
Lunasa Pub
Cheap Shots
East Village Pizza
Sahara East

AVE A
Percy’s Tavern
Phoenix 
Bistro Truck
Tompkins Finest Deli
2A
Double Down

AVE B
Sunny & Annie’s
Horus
Sheen Broa
B Side

AVE C
Compo Deli Grocery
Teneleven
Fresno Deli

Did we miss anyone? Tell us in the comments.

It’s about time to fire up the liveblog as Hurricane Sandy moves in. We’ll keep you posted on who’s open, who’s closed, what’s up, what’s down, and any other news as this potentially unprecedented storm closes in on Zone A and beyond. Tweet at @nytlev or e-mail us and we’ll include your updates in this news stream. Upload your photos to our Flickr group and we’ll share them. We’ll also keep an eye on our Facebook page.

Daniel Maurer

Before we move on to our storm coverage, here’s a look at Lorenzo Masnah’s finished mural on the roll-down gate of Lit. The candidate at left declared a state of emergency in New York yesterday. (And we’ve already moved on to our storm coverage….)

NYTimes.com

Fireworks, presumably World Series-related, boomed over the East Village shortly after midnight, capping off a night of hurricane preparation and anticipation that was described as eery and sedate.

Sunday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that portions of the East Village were subject to mandatory evacuation, with adjacent areas in Alphabet City also subject to potential flooding from Hurricane Sandy, expected to hit Monday night.

“Zone A,” which is under an evacuation order, includes the areas east of Avenue B from East 14th and Ninth Streets, and east of Avenue D from East Ninth to East Houston.

DNA Info reported that some residents of Campos Plaza and Baruch Houses met the order with skepticism, and chose to disregard it. Yesterday afternoon, when the Mayor toured a shelter at Seward Park High School, just 90 people had taken refuge there, The Lo-Down reported. Read more…

The Halloween parade is over, but we’re still having fun at the run. Here’s this week’s dog-run duo.

Nicole Guzzardi

The Master: Greg Ko, an East Villager of 27 years, hits the run two or three times a day with his canine companions Boots and Brody.

The Dog: Ambrotious Brody, a.k.a. Brody, a.k.a. Bro-Bro. The 15-month-old came all the way from a breeder in Connecticut and is the third Dalmatian Mr. Ko has owned.

Favorite Food: Shoelaces, but he’ll eat anything and everything. “It goes from regular dog food, to human food, to duct tape, to iPod chargers, to glasses, contact lens cases, coffee table legs, sneakers,” said Mr. Ko.

Best Friend: Boots, a four-year-old Shepherd/Border Collie. Brody follows Boots everywhere, but it took him some time to warm up to her. “In the beginning she was like, ‘Get rid of the puppy,’” Mr. Ko laughed.

Claim to Fame: Pulling things off the shelves. Now that Brody’s getting taller, he needs to be put in a crate when Mr. Ko isn’t home: “One time he grabbed some grated cheese – all over the living room floor, he opened the container.”

Dana VarinskyLorenzo Masnah starts work on Romney

Gritty, artsy Lit Lounge is the last place you’d expect to find Mitt Romney, but now he’ll be there every night.

Lorenzo Masnah, a Colombian-born artist who shows at Fuse Gallery, behind the Second Avenue rock bar, is painting a mural depicting the presidential candidates wearing party (get it, “party”?) hats. In between them, a witch-like figure will represent “the universe working its magic,” said Erik Foss, owner of Lit. Read more…

Dana Varinsky Alexia Simon, Danny Frost, and Leo.

The space that has been vacant ever since Aces & Eights bar was closed for operating without a license in 2010 is just a few weeks away from reopening as a dog-friendly social club and pet-care center. Yesterday evening, Ruff Club unveiled its window signage and this weekend, it will begin scheduling interviews with potential concierges and dog handlers.

Calling itself a “parlor room for East Village dog people,” the “contemporary pet care hub” will allow locals to use WiFi and sip locally roasted coffee up front while their dogs are cared for in the back – no matter the weather. “People who would sit outside at a café with their dog during the summer will come here,” said Alexia Simon, co-owner of the club with her husband Danny Frost.

The idea evolved out of the couple’s dissatisfaction with the day-care centers they tried for their miniature Australian Shepherd, Leo, a regular at the Tompkins Square Park dog run. “We found it was deeply impersonal. You didn’t know who the other animals were; you didn’t know who the owners were,” Mr. Frost said. Read more…

Annie Fairman Officers applaud colleagues.

It was a welcome break in a week of bad press for the Ninth Precinct: guests filed into Cooper Union’s Great Hall on Tuesday night to honor officers who excelled in the face of danger.

“Each day our officers continue to renew my faith in the New York City Police Department,” said Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann at the Ninth Precinct Community Council’s annual awards ceremony. “I am honored and humbled to serve with them.”

Among those commended were officers Michael Radosta and Andrew Beirne, who were completing a midnight shift on Christmas Eve when they spotted a suspicious man emerging from a basement hatch door on East 12th Street. The officers, backed up by their colleagues Jose Ramos and William McNeece, pursued the suspect on foot and arrested him; he later confessed to a series of burglaries.

“The keen observations and quick actions of all of these officers led to a felony arrest that closed a serious pattern of burglaries in the area,” said the evening’s emcee, Christine Widgren. Read more…

Nicole Guzzardi

Well, looky here: the Starbucks on Second Avenue and Ninth Street got its outdoor seating back.

The Department of Consumer Affairs shuttered the location for a few days in May due to what Starbucks described as an “administrative oversight” in renewing a sidewalk cafe license. The location had to go all summer without outdoor seats.

Meanwhile, according to Community Board 3’s November agenda, the Starbucks at 49 1/2 First Avenue is seeking “new revocable consent to install, maintain and use four benches on the sidewalks of the southwest corner of First Avenue and East Third Street.” There are currently three outdoor benches at the corner.