Illustration by Tim Milk

Some time last year, I was in line at a smoke-stand to play lotto when the man ahead of me suddenly turned from the cashier and said: “Hey, do you remember me?”

I looked him up and down. A typical neighborhood guy, a deli and bodega guy, about sixty or so. “He doesn’t remember,” he laughed to his friend behind the counter. “Well, I remember you! A long time ago you used to buy cigarettes from me. On 14th Street! Remember?”

I squinted. I drew a blank. “You don’t remember? I can’t believe it. Surely you remember that day!”

That day?

“Not even that one day? Oh my goodness! That day! You were held up that day. Right there in my store! By the kid with the silver gun!”

It all came rushing back to me: a spring day, 1981. This guy had just sold me a pack of Camels when an audacious young voice arose from my side: “Hey mister, you got any money?”

I looked down to see this boy, not quite thirteen years old, with a face so angelic it belonged on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. “Well, not today,” I told him, “Sorry.”

The boy smirked. “No problem. I got money. Wanna see?” He then pulled from his pocket a whopping stack of fifties. He fanned them in my face so I could glory in his wealth. I had heard that drug dealers were making mules out of kids, but not until now did I make the connection.

“Wanna know how I got it?” he asked. Read more…

The State Liquor Authority Committee of Community Board 3 Monday night refused to endorse a liquor license for a proposed music and restaurant space on Avenue A. With the 4-3 vote, the committee turned aside a proposal to open a new Mexican restaurant and lounge at 34 Avenue A. The proposal had been submitted by several owners, including Phil Hartman, who owns Two Boots Pizza and a former venue, Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction, and the music promoter Todd Patrick; the fate of the project is unclear. —Hadas Goshen

Fire officials are investigating the cause of a blaze on St. Marks Place this afternoon. The fire, at St. Mark’s Comics at 11 St. Marks Place, began shortly after 1:30 and was declared under control about a half hour later. Officials said that one person sustained minor injuries in the fire but refused medical treatment. —Ian Duncan

Sun Ja Hwong runs Sunny’s Florist shop on 2nd Avenue and 6th Street. Her unassuming nature and beautiful flowers have kept her in business in the East Village for 23 years. Rachel Ohm

To people worn out by the din of honking taxis, the manic bustle of sidewalk life and the seemingly endless effort required this winter to negotiate snow drifts and slush puddles, Sunny’s Florist on Sixth Street and Second Avenue may appear to be a verdant oasis, and a signal of the approaching spring.

Pedestrians pause at the counter on Second Avenue, surrounded by a display of tulips, hyacinths and hydrangeas that crowds the corner of the sidewalk. Sun Ja Hwong, 55, the shop’s owner, stands in the narrow vestibule behind the counter, where there is just enough room for a space heater in the winter.

She cuts and arranges the flowers and wraps the bouquets in purple tissue paper. Behind her stretch rows of longer-stemmed flowers in white buckets – roses, chrysanthemums, calendulas and orchids. Most nights the shop casts its warm light on the street until midnight, a later hour than most florists keep.

“People pass by and think, ‘Am I in Paris?’” Ms. Hwong said recently. “’Am I in England? Am I in Tokyo?’”

Although she has never been to any of these places, Ms. Hwong says her arrangements reflect the styles of Tokyo and Paris, or at least what she imagines those styles to be.

The tiny shop was opened 23 years ago by Ms. Hwong’s first husband, who at one point owned seven florists in the city. She worked as a paralegal for ten years before taking over the East Village store, the only one still in existence.

Maybe that is partly due to its location, on one of the more trafficked blocks in the neighborhood. “The people here know the flowers,” she said. “When I make an arrangement they know how to appreciate it.”

Only when weather is bad is business slow. “I try to close at nine, but it is the busiest time,” she said. “At ten, at eleven it is still busy.”

Ms. Hwong said she sees herself as a “mother of flowers” and that when she closes the shop each night she feels like they are calling her name and asking her not to leave.

It would be impossible for this mother to have a favorite flower. She brings different blooms home every week to see how long arrangements will last after she gets the flowers shipped from Europe and South America.

Once, a customer who had seen Sunny’s Florist reviewed with five stars on Yelp, told Ms. Hwong her shop deserved six stars. Ms. Hwong, who was not familiar with the site, did not know that five stars is the highest possible rating. She wondered what she could do to obtain that elusive sixth star and asked her son.

He laughed. “You are so humble,” he said. “That is why your shop has five stars. Don’t change anything.”

The developer of 35 Cooper Square blamed a city-issued stop work order on a broken fence at the site and expects workers to return today. “It should be fixed this morning,” Jane Crotty, a spokeswoman for Arun Bhatia, who owns the property, told The Local this morning. “They will be back on the site this morning, and it should take about a half hour to fix, and then they will be back at work.” Ms. Crotty said that she expects full work to resume at the site once city inspectors approve the repairs.—Suzanne Rozdeba

The Local is pleased to announce that Colin Moynihan, a reporter who has written about the East Village for The Times over a period of 12 years, will join the blog as its next community editor. Mr. Moynihan succeeds Kim Davis, who recently completed a six-month rotation in the position. We will have more details and a fuller post tomorrow. —The Local

Last month, The Local published excerpts from a photo essay by Steven Hirsch on the community of “Crusty Punks” who live in Tompkins Square Park. Earlier this week, a commenter noted that one of the men featured in the post, Robert Edward Dyck, who was known as Yardsale, had recently been killed. The Local has confirmed that two men face voluntary manslaughter charges in the death of Mr. Dyck, who was found dead in Virginia last month of blunt force injuries.—The Local

A small fire on East 10th Street this morning was sparked by an extension cord that melted after being wrapped around a radiator in a fifth floor apartment, the authorities said. “Luckily, the tenant was home,” said John Bley, the chief of Division 1, adding that the fire could have been much worse had the resident not been there to report it right away. No one was injured in the fire at 215 East 10th, which was reported at 8:46 this morning; the fire was declared under control at 9:17.—Timothy J. Stenovec

Vivienne Gucwa

Good morning, East Village.

Enjoy an old school start to your day by following Sheryl Lee Ralph’s lead as she grooves through an almost unrecognizable East Village in her 1984 video for “In the Evening,” resurrected by Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.

On a less upbeat note, EV Grieve has photographs of the makeshift “for rent” signs which have appeared in the windows of the theaters at 45 Bleecker, seized in mid-October by the landlord. Several shows previously in residence there also have notices taped to the doors redirecting their audiences to different venues.

Finally, readers with a sweet – okay, make that very sweet – tooth will surely be voting for their favorite soft serve in a poll posted by Momofuku Milk Bar. The rest of us can cheer from the sidelines. “Go, snickerdoodle!”

Rachel Wise

Good morning, East Village.

Much of the city is still cleaning up from Thursday night’s powerful storm, which downed trees in Brooklyn and Queens; our neighborhood was relatively unscathed. As always, though, we’d like hear your stories or see your images.

This morning we noticed a post in The Bowery Boogie about a non-profit group that plans to apply white paint to the rooftop of the Bowery Mission, part of a broader citywide effort to reduce the heat retained by dark surfaces, which scientists believe could have an adverse effect on the environment.

Before the launch of The Local, NYU Journalism student Michelle Regalado reported on a similar effort by another program, NYC Cool Roofs. Ms. Regalado found that painting a roof white could lower its surface temperature by about 30 degrees. “If we end up shaving 1 or 2 degrees, that may not sound like a lot, but that is actually a climate change, ” Stuart Gaffin, a Columbia University researcher, told Ms. Regalado.

In other neighborhood news, EV Grieve has an item about a showing at The Film Forum of a newly restored print of the iconic 1956 documentary “On the Bowery.”

And Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York has an interview with photographer Ted Barron, who discusses his work in the East Village and throughout the Lower East Side.

Sophie Hoeller

Hello, East Village!

Author Salman Rushdie was at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute earlier this week for a wide-ranging conversation with NYU Journalism Professor Suketu Mehta for the Institute’s Primary Sources webisode series. Mr. Rushdie offered an interesting perspective of the Park51 mosque controversy. A link to an excerpt from the video can be found on the Institute’s homepage. We’ll alert you when all of the webisodes from the conversation are posted. In the meantime, you might enjoy the previously recorded pairings on the Primary Sources site.

We’re still assessing the ripples after eventful Primary Day, which saw East Village resident Reshma Saujani fail in her bid to unseat nine-term incumbent Carolyn Maloney for the 14^th Congressional district seat. In case you missed it, here’s a link to our earlier post detailing the results of the other major races.

In other neighborhood news, EV Grieve offers a comprehensive look at the impact of the new community garden rules. It’s one of an eclectic mix of posts on that blog this morning and is definitely worth checking out.

Sophie Hoeller

Good morning, East Village.

Today is primary day in New York and, in case you missed it, one of our first posts contained a summary of some of the major races and a link to help identify your nearest polling place.

In other neighborhood news, EV Grieve has an eye-opening post about the ongoing dispute over the Sin Sin Lounge, on Second Avenue and Fifth Street.

The Local’s arrival in the neighborhood prompted a considerable amount of discussion. The perspectives in the conversation have ranged from friendly to neutral — to not so neutral. In any case, we appreciate the reads by our neighbors and our neighbor blogs.

One of the most interesting posts related to The Local was this one by Curbed NY, which prompts us to encourage you to please nominate your suggestions for our blogroll. We should also note that you can access the blog at an abbreviated URL, www.localeastvillage.com.