Last week a dump truck pulled up near the corner of Second Avenue and East Fourth Street and workers added a touch of the Southern bayou to the East Village by planting a bald cypresses sapling in the sidewalk (don’t get too excited: the lack of Spanish moss in New York will render it much less exotic-looking once it’s grown.)
It’s not the only tree that’s new to the nabe. Since 2007, MillionTreesNYC, an initiative aimed at — you guessed it –bringing one million trees to the city by 2017, has planted more than 814 of them in the Community Board 3 area, according to program manager Andrew Newman. In recent days, The Local spotted newly planted trees on East Sixth and Seventh Streets, also near Second Avenue.
The Parks Department plants hundreds of varieties of trees; in the East Village you’ll see oaks, cypress, ginkgoes, lindens and most recently Japanese scholar trees, which grow hanging bean pods that bloom into delicate white flowers. Each tree is labeled with a tag identifying the species, planter and caretaker. Read more…
In yet another case of neighbor versus nightlife, a long-running dispute between an East Village bar owner and a tenant who lives in the apartment upstairs spilled over into the Ninth Precinct Community Council meeting Tuesday night. The bar in question is Manitoba’s, a punk-themed dive opened at 99 Avenue B in 1999 by Richard “Handsome Dick” Manitoba of the Dictators.
William Huffman, the tenant, is a private chef who lives directly above the bar. At the meeting, he said he has made countless noise complaints and calls to 311, 911, and the bar itself over the past five years. Mr. Manitoba corroborated the mere existence of the dispute, but the parties disagree wildly on its particulars.
For example, Mr. Manitoba claims that a few weeks ago, Mr. Huffman, in a fit of pique, came downstairs to the bar and “threw water on the patrons. I called 911. When [Mr. Huffman] came out of the building, he had a beer in his hand and the cops gave him a ticket for drinking on the street.” Read more…
The construction site at 26 Avenue B was slapped with a Stop Work Order yesterday after a Department of Buildings inspector determined that excavation at the site undermined an adjoining building’s foundation. A five-story apartment building next to the site, at 28 Avenue B, was evacuated yesterday after large cracks appeared in the walls.
Chris McCabe — a lawyer representing Gail Weinsten, the owner of 28 Avenue B — said he was hired “immediately after she received the first tenant’s call” on Monday. He insisted that the instability occurred because workers excavating at 26 Avenue B, where a six-story building is expected to rise, “didn’t do it right.” Mr. McCabe couldn’t say when exactly 28 Avenue B, home to Croxley Ales, would be inhabitable again but said his client was willing to do whatever was necessary to make it happen. Read more…
A man was struck by a Mercedes Benz around 1:46 p.m. today while crossing the street near the corner of Avenue C and East Houston Street, authorities said.
The 43-year-old victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital, the police said. He is in critical condition, according to the fire department.
An East Village woman got some surprise house guests in the early-morning hours of April 6.
Around 1:20 a.m., three young men clambered up a fire escape ladder at 500 East 11th Street and entered the first window they found open — likely in search of valuables like MacBooks and iPads, said Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann, commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct.
Upon entering the apartment, they surprised the occupant, a woman who was alone and awake. She ran out the door and from her neighbor’s apartment called the police, who quickly arrested the teenagers, said Mr. Cappelmann.
Bronx resident Diejo Martinez, 19, already on probation for burglary, was caught along with a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old, also from the Bronx; they claimed that they were visiting a friend in the area, saw the fire escape and wanted to see what was at the top, according to Mr. Cappelmann.
The building on the corner of Avenue A is where a controversial 7-Eleven is under construction on the ground floor.
By the way, Lafayette isn’t the only newcomer on Lafayette Street. Just a couple blocks away, between Bleecker and Bond Streets, a new shop has quietly opened in the former home of Hip-Hop USA.
Daika features one of-a-kind leather handbags, wallets, sandals, and wristbands, all of which are made by Taichi Shimizu, a longtime maker of “classic European style” handbags who goes by the name Daika. Read more…
Like Wylie Dufresne, chef Andrew Carmellini has deep ties to the East Village. He’s lived in the neighborhood for years: you may have spotted him walking to work at The Dutch, his American tavern in SoHo, or coming home from The Library, the lounge he and his partners opened in The Public Theater in October. His wife and cookbook co-author, Gwen Hyman, walks to work, too: she’s a professor at Cooper Union.
This week, Mr. Carmellini opened his second restaurant in the neighborhood. Lafayette occupies the corner spot that housed Time Cafe when he first moved to New York. “It’s an amazingly beautiful building,” he said of the landmark Schermerhorn Building. “One of the first things we did was turn the lights back up on the building, here at nighttime, because it just has amazing features.”
Designed by Roman and Williams (no strangers to the neighborhood themselves) to evoke France’s “grand cafes,” the 150-seat, bi-level spot bills itself as a “light-filled restaurant” where the seasonal fare is light, as well. See le menu…
Just a couple of days after a 52-year-old man, now identified by police as Arnold Cintron, was shot in the stomach in broad daylight Saturday, an arrest was made 200 miles from where the incident occurred on East Third Street.
Authorities tracked the alleged gunman, 44-year-old Jose Cintron (no relation) up to Bedford, Mass.; on Tuesday morning, he was apprehended there while in possession of three bags of heroin, said Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann, commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct.
The dispute between the two men was likely personal and probably centered on narcotics, said Mr. Cappelmann — both the victim and the perpetrator have histories of drug-related offenses. At the time of the shooting, Jose Cintron was on parole for drug sales. Last September, Arnold Cintron, who survived the shooting, was locked up for possession of heroin.
An 84-year-old woman perished in an apartment fire near Union Square early this morning, the police said.
The fire broke out in a fifth-floor apartment of The Petersfield, at 115 Fourth Avenue, shortly before 12:15 a.m. The woman’s lifeless body was discovered after the blaze was extinguished and paramedics pronounced her dead on the scene, according to the police.
The investigation is ongoing and the victim’s identity has not yet been revealed.
A dozen people were evacuated from a five-story apartment building at 28 Avenue B after debris fell from it shortly before 3:15 p.m. today, the fire department said.
The building, between Second and Third Streets, was evacuated after a tenant called to say her walls were cracking, according to one of dozens of firefighters that have converged on the scene. A crack running along the back of the building — visible from the adjacent Miracle Garden — has loosened a second-floor window pane and runs from the vents belonging to the bottom-floor tenant, Croxley Ales, to the roof.
Construction of a six-story building recently started in an empty lot next to 28 Avenue B. A complaint to 311 alleges that excavation at the lot “has hit and damaged building with large gaping space on out facade, brick is falling.” The Department of Buildings has been requested at the scene. Read more…
Police were called to the Starbucks at Astor Place this morning after a suspicious package was discovered there, adding to the tense mood in the wake of the Boston bombings yesterday.
The situation was quickly diffused when the customer who had walked away from the worrisome item came back to claim it. The manager on duty declined to comment further, so the nature of the item is uncertain.
The Astor Place Starbucks was targeted almost exactly a year ago, on April 14, by a group that attempted to smash its windows with steel pipes. At the time, police pinned the mayhem on anarchist protesters.
After countless rehearsals and a victory at the Northeast Regional Barista Competition in February, Sam Lewontin of Everyman Espresso vied for the national title this past weekend. Mr. Lewontin’s regional win afforded him a bye in Thursday and Friday’s preliminary rounds, and he showed up at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center ready to compete on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday’s semi-final was full of strong competitors, including former U.S. champions Pete Licata of Parisi Artisan Coffee in Kansas City and Katie Carguilo of Counter Culture Coffee in Brooklyn, whose coffee producer from El Salvador had come to watch her compete. Read more…
Ray LemoineThe game on one television, President Obama
on the other.
Bostonians came together at Professor Thom’s today, visibly rattled by news that explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon had killed two and injured dozens more.
“I’m devastated and wanted to come somewhere Boston to show solidarity,” said Carolina Tenjo, a 27-year-old who hails from Newton, Mass., where an unexploded device was found after the initial two blasts in Copley Square. “I wanted to be there today. I was like, ‘I want to be there,’ and then bombs went off.”
Professor Thom’s was closed for weekend cleanup when news of the explosions broke around 3 p.m., but Bostonians were there to show solidarity immediately after it opened at 5 p.m.
Heather DiMare, 26, from Medford, said she attends Marathon Monday, “the only Boston day,” every year. “I was shocked,” she told The Local. “My father’s a cop; he called me first. I used to work at Mass Gen[eral Hospital]. The E.R. looks like a battle zone, my friends there say.” Read more…
The Bowery was abuzz this afternoon, as workers installed a new billboard above B Bar. Say hello to Questlove, folks. On the opposite corner of Bowery and East Fourth Street, scaffolding went up at 3 Cooper Square. The application for the construction permit indicates the owner is simply patching and repairing defective concrete spandrels.
A couple of blocks south, at Bowery and East Second Street, workers were spotted hauling pipes and garbage bags into the Amato Opera House building. We asked one of the contractors what was happening and in broken English he said “make new,” and motioned up and down the building. He shrugged when asked for details.
Daniel Maurer3 Cooper Square.
Last month, The Local broke news that Steve Croman had filed an application to convert the former opera house into a residential building. According to its Website, the Department of Buildings was still examining the plans as of Friday.
Last week, we spotted a new newsstand in front of the former opera house. EV Grieve noticed it too, and today posted a photo of it with the sadface headline “The Bowery just got a little more bland.” Cheer up, guy: maybe the newsstand will stock Ramones sticker books.
In honor of National Grilled Cheese Day, here’s the story of one of the cheesiest couples we know.
Adam Schneider and Vanessa Palazio
In 2011, Vanessa Palazio and her boyfriend, Adam Schneider, bought a 300-square-foot space in the Lower East Side and opened a grilled cheese shop called Little Muenster. Since then they’ve launched a takeout spot in Dumbo and popped up at foodie festivals like Hester Street Fair, Urban Space, DeKalb Market, and Googa Mooga. Next year, they’ll join Sprinkles and Umami Burger at the World Financial Center’s new food court, slated to open in January.
Ms. Palazio and Mr. Schneider met through mutual N.Y.U. friends. For their third date, he asked her to watch him compete in a mac n’ cheese cooking contest. “I wasn’t initially concerned with impressing him, so I voted for someone else,” said Ms. Palazio. “He lost.”
Ever since then, cheese has constantly seeped into the folds of their relationship. They see a dish while out at dinner and imagine it reinvented as a grilled cheese, and they bring cheese plates to their friends’ parties (chunks of Saxelby’s cheese they’re testing for the restaurant tend to build up in their refrigerator).
When they met, Ms. Palazio and Mr. Schneider were different in many ways. She’s a Nicaraguan, raised in Brooklyn, who grew up on casillo melted inside fresh tortilla. He’s an all-American white boy from the L.A. suburbs who favored the classic white-bread grilled cheese. These days he prefers milder cheeses while she favors the stronger, more pungent, nutty and grassy varieties like bleu cheese. Read more…
The District Attorney has indicted 41 alleged members of two East Village and Lower East Side drug trafficking rings. The rings, based out of Baruch Houses and Campos Plaza, sold and delivered crack and cocaine to customers throughout Manhattan, the D.A.’s office said.
Officials claim that 33 members of the “Blocc Boyz” — a composite of two gangs based in Baruch Houses, “Cash is King” and “Stack” — ran a distribution ring using car services to transport drugs to clients on the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Midtown and the outer boroughs. Two of the defendants – Derrell Underwood, 30, and Gerald Espinal, 60 – are said to be livery drivers.
Four of the accused — Sean Steele, Jr., 25; Anthony Alvarez, 20; Adrian Rivera, 24; and Michael Austin Rodriguez, 24 — are said to be major traffickers, and are charged under the “Drug Kingpin” statute, a felony punishable by a life sentence in prison. Read more…
Muji, the Japanese version of IKEA, opened its Cooper Square store today.
As mentioned when we broke news of the location in February, it’s the brand’s fifth in New York. Yuka Sakamoto, a P.R. and marketing manager who was at the bilevel store when we dropped by today, said the clothing, housewares, stationary and furnishings brand was eager to establish a presence in the East Village because “there are so many interior design companies, there are students — a lot of people who might be interested in our brand.”
Store hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Muji, 52 Cooper Square (between East 6th and 7th Streets), (212) 358-8963
A 26-year-old man was struck by a Brooklyn-bound F train at the Second Avenue station this morning. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he is “conscious and alert,” according to a police spokesperson.
At about 10:30 a.m. the man was walking along the platform when he fell between two cars as the train pulled into the station, the police said. The train had almost stopped when the accident occurred, potentially averting more severe injuries or fatality.
The extent of the man’s injuries are unknown, but the police said he would likely survive the collision.
Police blocked off the platform and turned away commuters for about an hour while they investigated the scene. Trains are now running as scheduled.
Here’s a bright spot on this gloomy day: the Papaya King we broke news of in March and told you more about last month just got its neon signage. Hot dog!
Shots of the neighborhood from 1987 include one of “a youthful looking Jim Power working on his mosaic outside of the old Alcatraz bar on the St. Marks and Ave A.” [Flaming Pablum]
A chat and a song from the Singing Vegan. [The Lo-Down]
Molly Crabapple is showing paintings inspired by Occupy Wall Street. “Called ‘Shell Game,’ the series of nine 4-foot-by-6-foot paintings is due to go on view Sunday at the Smart Clothes Gallery, on the Lower East Side. [DNA Info] Read more…
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 »
Daniel Maurer
