Frank Mastropolo

Good morning, East Village.

“An NYU psychology student was busted Monday for allegedly turning his dorm room into an air- rifle factory where he assembled and sold illegal pellet guns used in recreational war games, cops said.” [NY Post]

“Staff at a lower East Side school roughed up a 7-year-old special-needs student and falsely claimed he tried to commit suicide in a desperate attempt to cover up their own incompetence, a lawsuit claims.” [NY Daily News]

The New Museum’s Ideas City festival, which hits the Bowery May 1, will take place in a “70-foot mirrored shed that will stand in front of the museum and reflect the surrounding cityscape and sky.” [Wall Street Journal, DNA Info]
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Kelsey Kudak More than 800 tiles like this will be hung in
the school’s gallery

“Community” is one word East Side Community High School takes seriously, and not just because it’s a part of its name.

After structural damages shut down their building on East 12th Street in September, students and administrators began to learn that although a community is not confined to a central location, it certainly makes a difference.

When art teachers Leigh Klonsky and Desiree Borrero were finally allowed to return to the building after four months, they decided to curate an all-school art show that would allow students to express their experiences about the unexpected exile. The result — a collection of more than 800 tiles created by students, family members, and staff — will be displayed for sale in the school’s art gallery starting tomorrow. Read more…

Just a couple of weeks after HBO announced that “The Newsroom” would be back for a second season, signs have gone up along Avenue B, just above Tompkins Square Park, indicating that Aaron Sorkin’s news drama, starring Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer, will film there. The notice at left says the shoot will occur Thursday evening but a locations person said interior and exterior shots are slated for Friday night. We’re not sure what to believe: paging Will McAvoy?

Samantha Balaban

Fatima Malik

Astor Place was buzzing today as a slew of bike-share docks were installed on Lafayette Street and construction of a public plaza at 51 Astor neared completion.

The Local noticed this morning that benches had come to the plaza at 51 Astor Place. When we popped into the construction site, we were directed to a project manager on the second floor, where we were able to snap the photo above. Looking good, eh?
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Joanna Marshall

Following an announcement that Cooper Union would cut scholarships for incoming students to 50 percent next year, current students and faculty members furiously scribbled questions onto slips of paper and shouted complaints during a tense back-and-forth at the school’s Great Hall.

Mark Epstein, chairman of the school’s Board of Trustees, read from the slips of paper, but it quickly became apparent that he wasn’t addressing all of them. “Why are you skipping questions?” a student called out.

“I am not reading the questions that are offensive or inflammatory or that I have already answered,” replied Mr. Epstein.

Mr. Epstein did reassure the crowd that the price of tuition won’t go up in the immediate future, but said that inflation would likely increase the price down the road. When a student asked what could be done to stop inflation, he replied, “You could all donate to the school.” Read more…

Daniel Maurer

As if Cooper Union didn’t have enough on its plate today, the East Village Community Coalition is circulating an online petition demanding that the school “not house students” in the former P.S. 64 building, which should instead be “returned to use for our community.”

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Cooper Union had signed a 15-year agreement securing 200 beds in the 500-bed dorm proposed for 605 East Ninth Street, the former home of P.S. 64 and, later, CHARAS. Developer Gregg Singer’s plan for the conversion got the blessing of Community Board 3’s Landmarks subcommittee earlier this month.

Among the 188 people who had signed the petition at the time of this post were Andrew Coamey, Sara Romanoski, and other members of the Community Coalition; Chad Marlow, founder of the Tompkins Square Park and Playgrounds Parents Association; Rob Hollander, author of the Save the Lower East Side blog and founder of the No 7-Eleven campaign; Laurie Mittelmann of the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space; Joyce Ravitz, president of the Cooper Square Committee, and Rev. Richard Del Rio, a candidate for City Council who wrote, “The school must be returned to the community. We need programs for our kids and suffer from a lack of space.”

Joanna Marshall

Cooper Union will cut in half the full scholarships it has traditionally awarded to incoming undergraduates beginning in the fall of next year, the Board of Trustees announced today.

Mark Epstein, chairman of the Board, made the announcement to a packed room at the school’s Great Hall this afternoon.

Mr. Epstein said the school would continue to offer larger and even full scholarships to those in need and would maintain a needs-blind admissions policy, but the long-dreaded and much-protested cut to full scholarships, which have been awarded to all students for over 100 years, was a necessary step toward financial solvency.
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Daniel Maurer

Just noticed the new mural at Heart n’ Soul, on East Third Street. What do you think? Better than Mama, below? Read more…

“Gold Guy” made an appearance this afternoon at the Astor Place cube. After aiming an aeresol can of gold paint at his face, he turned it toward the desk chair and naked mannequin he planned to use as props during a show in Union Square.

“I’ve been doing this for 12 years,” he told The Local.

So how’s the human statue business these days? “I do alright,” he said.

Liz Christy sunning in the garden.

Some forty years ago Liz Christy and her group of rebel gardeners, the Green Guerillas, set out to transform an abandoned lot into something resembling the Dutch bouwerij, the farmland that covered Manhattan in colonial times. In 1974, New York City’s first community garden opened at the corner of Bowery and Houston. Ms. Christy unpaved the way for dozens of similar gardens throughout the neighborhood before she died of lung cancer in 1985, at the age of 35.

In honor of Earth Day, Donald Loggins, a founder of the Liz Christy Community Garden, looks back on its history as it prepares for summer hours next month. Read more…

Joanna Marshall

Citi Bikes

Though it won’t launch until sometime next month, the bike share program is finally kicking into high gear.

This morning, we noticed that racks had materialized on Mott Street, near Prince Street. And EV Grieve spotted some on Lafayette Street.

The Times reported last week that registration for the long-delayed program started Monday.

If you see any stations, give us a heads-up in the comments. Meanwhile, you can click on the map at right to see where in the East Village the rest of the racks will be located.

Kelsey Kudak Firefighters gather outside 224 Avenue B

Kelsey Kudak

Firefighters were called to 224 Avenue B shortly before 10 a.m. today when a fire broke out in the basement of Amor Bakery.

Battalion Chief Mastandrea said the official cause of the fire was still under investigation, but it’s believed that it was started by an oven in the bakery’s basement kitchen and then spread to the walls of the building. It took firefighters approximately 30 minutes to contain the flames.

At this time, there are no known injuries.

Ray Lemoine

Good morning, East Village.

More on the fire at Momo+Momo: “Most of the LPs are fine, some of them were damaged by the water,” says manager Andy Song. “Luckily, nobody was hurt,” Song said. “We hope to be back up and running in a month.” [DNA Info]

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation complains that “as part of an ongoing renovation of the 85 year old tower, NYU is ripping out the modern casement windows and replacing them with the blank, single pane ones. The new windows look like they were made for a spacecraft, or at best, a suburban office park, rather than a pre-war Gothic tower.” [Off the Grid]

It’s official: Benjamin Shaoul has broken up with East Fourth Street. [Occupy East 4th Street]
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@ConnorASheets

A two-alarm fire gutted Mono + Mono early this morning.

The blaze broke out at the restaurant at 116 East Fourth Street around 1:15 a.m. and became a two-alarm fire at 1:27 a.m., with firefighters working both East Third and East Fourth Streets, between First and Second Avenues; it was under control by 2:24 a.m., the fire department said. There were no injuries.

Connor Adams Sheets, a reporter for The International Business Times who lives nearby, tweeted about hearing “a bang” and said others in the neighborhood had heard the same, but the fire department couldn’t confirm reports of an explosion.

Mono+Mono, which opened in late 2010 in the old Jeollado space, is known for its Korean fried chicken, in-house piano, and extensive vinyl collection. Over 30,000 of owner M.J. Chung’s records lined the walls.

Video of the fire can be found here. Its cause is still under investigation.

Update | 12 p.m.: Mary Murphy, a resident of 57 First Avenue, said that in addition to the fire at Mono + Mono, she saw “pretty big flames” on top of a multi-story apartment building on East Third Street that backs the one-story Mono + Mono building on East Fourth. Firefighters were seen entering the Hells Angels clubhouse at 77 East Third Street.

Update | 2 p.m. Mono + Mono has posted a message on its Facebook page: “Our big thanks to @FDNY. The fire that broke out last night at @MonoMonoNYC was quickly put out and everyone is safe. There was some water damage, so we’ll be closed for a few days to make repairs. We’ll be back stronger than ever! Stay tuned.”

Ray LemoineHowie Abrams and Tommy Carroll

Howie Abrams and Sasha Jenkins don’t rock the long hair or the sleeveless denim jackets, and their new book, “The Merciless Book of Metal Lists,” manages to embrace the spirt of heavy metal without taking it too seriously or making it cartoonish. Maybe that’s why a party for the book at Idle Hands last night drew such a diverse mix of closet and confessed metal heads, including rapper Mr. Kaves, SNL’s Vanessa Bayer, and Michael Malbon of Frank’s Chop Shop.

The Queens-born authors aren’t your typical metal heads or punk rockers: they’re the last of the analog set, absorbing every genre available to them. They were students of studying every available zine and record, and attending matinees at CBGB and lesser know venues like the Pyramid and the Gas Station.

Mr. Jenkins actually made his name in hip-hop, working as a founder of Ego Trip magazine and creating VH1’s “The (White) Rapper Show.” Meanwhile, Mr. Abrams was among the first in the music industry to understand the reach and power of hardcore and its appeal to metal fans. In founding hardcore label In-Effect Records in the 1980s and then bringing its sound to Roadrunner Records as head A and R, he saw the connection between the heaviness of metal/hardcore and the attitude of rap years before it was watered down and marketed as Nu-Metal.

The two met through Ego Trip and, after realizing they had many mutual friends and loves, went on to channel their many years of experience into a playful, poignant book on heavy metal. Read more…

Roni Jacobson After the blaze

The fire department has determined that a carelessly discarded cigarette was the cause of a deadly blaze that erupted shortly before midnight Tuesday, the police said.

The fire originated on the fifth floor of 115 Fourth Avenue and was under control by 12:46 a.m., but not before it caused “extensive damage” to the fifth and sixth floors of the eight-story building, a fire department official said. Mary Bonnell, an 84-year-old sculptor, died before firefighters arrived, according to the police.

In total, 78 firefighters responded to the scene, and one sustained minor injuries.

Daniel Maurer

When Record Store Day first launched in 2008, just a few eager buyers lined up early outside Other Music and Kim’s Video. But tomorrow morning, you can expect the queues to be deep and packed.

Mike Davis, owner of Academy Records on East 12th Street, said he usually does about a week’s worth of business during the audiophile free-for-all. “The crowds are over the top, and there’s a lot of people I don’t see the rest of the year, which is good,” he told The Local. “To my surprise, they don’t just buy the sexy RSD stuff and bounce – many of them scour the bins and buy a lot of our other stuff.”

These days, RSD can be a frenzied scavenger hunt, with vinyl enthusiasts rushing from store to store looking for the exclusive releases, tipping each other off to secret stashes, and even swapping records onsite as they caravan around. It’s a reminder of just how exciting buying physical releases can be.
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Click on the points to see individual buildings and click here to view a larger map.

Samantha Balaban 504-508 East 12th Street

How much of the Village now belongs to Jared Kushner? Patrick Crosetto, the Chief Operating Officer of Kushner Companies, answered that question — and not many others — during a brief appearance before Community Board 3’s Land Use committee last night.

Between the East and West Villages, the real estate baron and publisher of the New York Observer owns 36 buildings, including 40 storefronts, Mr. Crosetto revealed.

“We made a significant investment in the neighborhood,” said Johanna Greenbaum, the company’s Managing Director of Real Estate Development. “We want to introduce ourselves to the community.” Read more…

Roni Jacobson

Police taped off a portion of East Sixth Street today after a dead body was discovered on the block between Avenues B and C.

A detective on the scene wouldn’t comment on how the body might’ve ended up slumped against the doorway of 631 East Sixth Street, covered in a white sheet. Around 4 p.m., the medical examiner lifted the sheet to reveal a man dressed in a grey shirt and jeans, with sallow skin and balding brown hair. He appeared to have bruises on his arms.

Neighbors had seen the man earlier in the day. A longtime East Villager who did not want to be identified said the man appeared to be “nodding out” around 10 a.m., and remained in the same position for a couple of hours. “I saw him earlier but I thought he was just another guy taking a nap on the steps,” he said.
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