Daniel Maurer

Good to see this: the Volkswagen T1 that was hauled off back in January is back. Congos to the Kombi!

LES Visitors Center

Williamsburg After Hours

If you’ve been meaning to catch up on the Lower East Side and Williamsburg gallery scenes, here’s two not-to-be-missed opportunities.

On March 10, fifty Lower East Side galleries will host receptions, openings and other events during a “Sunday FunDay” — an offshoot of the Amory Arts Show.

Eleven of the galleries will serve up brunch from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (just RSVP to galleriesinLES@gmail.com). The brunch bunch includes james fuentes, brennan&griffin, LMAK, Callicoon, Essex Gallery, Simon Preston, Toomer-Labzda, Nicelle Beachene, P!, and Jack Hanley.

For a list of participating galleries, check out the Lower East Side Visitor Center’s page (the center will be giving out a free gallery guide during the event, from noon to 6 p.m.) and for more information, visit the Armory Arts Week site.

There’s also a gallery crawl in Williamsburg that week: at least 23 galleries will host video installations, receptions, and meet-and-greets during Williamsburg After Hours, on March 9 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. For the full run-down, visit the event’s Website.

Daniel Maurer

Japadog is doling out free dogs again, this time to celebrate its first anniversary: you can score a freebie until 10 p.m. tonight and then again from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. tomorrow. There were about six people in line when we passed by the store at 30 St. Marks Place earlier this evening.

Mel BaileyAn empty lot at 89 Bowery may soon get a commercial condo building.

Tenants of a Hester Street building that was leveled as a result of the new Wyndham Garden‘s construction will demand compensation during a rally Thursday. Meanwhile, another building that was razed as the 18-story hotel went up is finally being replaced.

The tenement at 128 Hester Street was demolished in 2009 after it was destabilized by construction of the hotel next door. A lawsuit brought by the tenants of the building late last year alleges that the owner allowed building violations to pile up and ignored an “enormous volume of evidence of grossly substandard and hazardous conditions.” The building’s walls were damaged in part because of construction of the Wyndham Garden at 93 Bowery, Department of Buildings records indicate. The tenants were ordered to vacate the building in August of 2009 and it was demolished in November.

The tenants allege that William Su, an owner of both the hotel and of 128 Hester Street, intentionally allowed the tenement’s condition to decline. “It’s my belief, and my clients’ belief that [Mr. Su and his partners] acquired 128 Hester knowing that there were some serious violations, structurally,” said John Gorman, their lawyer. “This group acquired 128 Hester, not to re-inhabit, not to maintain it, but to avoid any interference with the construction of the hotel.”

In the years since the vacate order, a non-profit organization, Asian Americans for Equality, helped tenants file a petition with the New York Division of Homes and Community Renewal, which in 2010 ordered the building owner to pay his former tenants a stipend as well as moving expenses.

But Mr. Su hasn’t produced the money. Instead, the agency decided to reconsider its initial judgment for reasons that remain unclear, according to Mr. Gorman. “I do not understand why after two levels of review the D.H.C.R. decides hey, maybe lets take another look at this; meanwhile my clients are dislodged without a penny of relocation benefits,” said the tenants’ lawyer, who estimated that they were owed around $800,000. “It bothers me to no end.”

According to Mr. Su’s attorney, Stuart Klein, the agency realized it had erred and withdrew the claim.

Meanwhile, Asian Americans for Equality has continued to facilitate conferences between the owners and tenants. The organization’s director, Peter Gee, said that Mr. Su has only attended one of the four meetings. Mr. Su’s lawyer said he was only invited to one. This Thursday, A.A.F.E. will host a rally in hopes of finally winning tenants the compensation to which they feel they’re entitled.
Read more…

Samantha Balaban

The Anarchist Book Fair, which last year ended in smashed windows and scuffles with police, is back for a seventh year. And this time it’ll be a two-day extravaganza.

Last night, six members of the collective that organizes the fair met at ABC Beer Co. for a planning session.

Elias, who declined to give his last name, insisted that the book fair doesn’t promote violence. The collective contends that undercover cops incited last year’s incidents.

Elias said he was attending a workshop at the Sixth Street Community Center last April when “out of nowhere the police came and started beating people up. They just like bum-rushed them.”

This year, the National Lawyers Guild will be on hand to help ward off any trouble.

“We’re going to have people observing constantly,” said Chuck Reinhardt, who facilitated the meeting.

This year’s fair will take place April 6 and 7 at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center rather than the usual Judson Memorial Church. Read more…

Kelsey Kudak

The designer who outfitted Chloe Sevigny’s apartment as well as her brother’s club, the Beatrice Inn, has opened an expanded retail shop on Second Avenue.

Kelsey Kudak

Cafiero Select, formerly on East Sixth Street, moved to the corner of Second Avenue and East Second Street late last year. Last week, it finally reopened to the public.

“We’re looking forward to a larger street presence,” said David Cafiero, using words like “excited” and “deliriously happy” to describe his feelings about the new, larger digs. His design firm’s studio, formerly located in Williamsburg, is now in the basement; the store is now on the ground level. The offices are on a second-floor loft. The whole shebang is around the corner from Cafiero Lussier, the event design and catering business he co-owns with Thom Lussier.

According to Mr. Lussier, the space had been vacant for more than 30 years when the building’s owners offered it to them. “The universe chose us,” he said.

The sun-drenched shop is filled with an eclectic selection of brightly woven throw pillows, wingback chairs, tripod lamps and original artwork. You can browse the inventory online.

Cafiero Select, 36 East Second Street (at Second Avenue); (212) 414-8821

Sam Lewontin burst into tears when he learned he’d won the Northeast Regional Barista Competition this afternoon.

“I don’t know if I can describe it,” said Mr. Lewontin, who works for Everyman Espresso in the East Village (he was one of the local baristas we profiled earlier this week). “It’s a little surreal. I’ve watched a lot of people be in that spot.” Though he has been a barista for more than 12 years, this competition was only his fifth.

Mr. Lewontin’s competitive strengths come from his background in performance and theater, and his touch for signature beverages. At the beginning of his 15-minute performance, he handed out cards with a flavor note on each side and asked the judges to pick the flavor they expected from the Burundi coffee he was using. Then, on the fly, he created a signature beverage that highlighted the opposite flavors, using an apple-like acidity and ginger-rimmed shot glasses.

The win means Mr. Lewontin will get to bypass the first found of the U.S. Barista Competition in April, and will get to visit a coffee farm in Kenya.
Read more…

NGAP

Earlier this week we discovered that Star, the wonder dog that survived a police shooting, was given a new identity. But why?

We called the National Greyhound Adoption Program to ask whether Shiloh, a dog it had listed for adoption, was really Star. “I don’t know,” said Bobbie Gunning, an adoption coordinator there.

But after a minute of conversation, she admitted she knew Shiloh’s heart-wrenching story. “I just don’t tell people when they call,” she said. “It’s supposed to be a secret.” She said she didn’t know why there was a need for secrecy, but thought it was to protect the dog.

As footage of Star’s shooting on East 14th Street went viral last summer, the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals and the Lexus Project took custody of her. She was then turned over to the National Greyhound Adoption Program.

Robin Mittasch, president of the Lexus Project, said that’s when she became Shiloh. “Her name was changed in Pennsylvania so even the staff wouldn’t know who she was and they didn’t.” Read more…

Courtesy Andreas Knutsen Rodriguez and Andreas Knutsen

Sunday night, when the Best Documentary feature is announced at the Oscars, you can be certain which film Andreas Knutsen and his fellow staff of Other Music will be rooting for.

Last year, on April 25, the 38-year-old manager and head buyer had barely opened the store when in walked a man with long black hair. Mr. Knutsen almost dropped his coffee.

During his years working for the East Village’s largest indie-music record store, Mr. Knutsen had been pushing customers toward a 2006 reissue of “Cold Fact,” a “tripped-out, fuzz-heavy” 1970 album recorded in Detroit by Rodriguez, a long-forgotten singer who he describes as “part Jose Feliciano, Bob Dylan, and Love’s Arthur Lee, all in one.”

But here before him was unmistakably the same Mexican-American man on the legendary album cover, but face aged by four decades. And Rodriguez, the subject of “Searching for Sugar Man,” wanted to shake his hand.
Read more…

Mel Bailey

Dolphins in Gowanus, seals in Rockaway, and now pandas in the East Village.

Panda Diplomacy, the pop-up surf-wear shop on East Sixth Street, has unleashed a sleuth of eye-patched pandas on the neighborhood. (Fun fact: sleuth is the technical term for a family of pandas.) According to a rep, they’re there to hand out discount cards and “spread panda love and share their joy with the community.”

So look out for bear hugs.

Samantha Balaban

As expected, current and prospective students gathered outside Cooper Union’s Foundation Building today to protest the deferral of early-decision applicants. Students from the group Cooper Union SOS read statements from prospective students who are in limbo ahead of the school’s vote next month regarding the possibility of charging tuition.

Victoria Sobel, a senior in the School of Art, kicked off the event at 1 p.m. with a statement in support of deferred students and a list of demands for the administration, including that it publicly affirm the college’s commitment to free education and let early-decision applicants know whether they have been accepted to the School of Art.

“I think we need public redress on this issue. I think it’s something that the city needs to be aware of, that other institutions and other students need to be aware of given the climate of higher education globally and what’s going on with student debt,” said Ms. Sobel.

Earlier today, The Cooper Union explained its decision to defer early-decision applicants to the regular admission pool.
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Daniel Maurer The brisket sandwich at Mighty Quinn’s.

Tomorrow night a barbecue pro will be crowned the next Brisket King of New York. Some of the city’s best chefs will braise, smoke, and sauce their entries in a throwdown organized by the East Village’s own Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy’s No. 43. The second annual cook-off pits the reigning champion, Josh Bowen of Long Island City’s John Brown Smokehouse, against 15 meat masters from across the city whose creations will be judged by Julia Moskin of The New York Times, among others.

We asked three East Village competitors to divulge their secrets. Some were more forthcoming than others.

ANDREW BERMAN, Taboonette
The Mentor: Adam Perry Lang of Daisy May’s BBQ.
The Meat: 43 pounds of certified Angus beef from DeBragga.
The Method: 14 to 16 hours in the smoker at what he calls the sweet spot: 225 to 250 degrees.
The Twist: Mr. Berman will bring a Middle Eastern twist to Southern-style tomato-based sauce via lime, hot peppers and his secret weapon: a Moroccan spice blend called ras el hanout — a mix of between 12 and 27 powders like cinnamon, cardamom, and cumin. He’ll top the meat with tahini, cilanto, preserved lemon and pickled onions. Read more…

Cooper Union SOS

A few days after The Times ran a piece about the possibility of tuition at Cooper Union, student protests are gearing up again.

At issue this time: prospective students whose early-decision applications have been deferred ahead of the school’s vote, next month, about whether or not to begin charging tuition to incoming undergraduates. The group known as Cooper Union SOS will protest the deferrals tomorrow.

Last week, Cooper Union’s president, Jamshed Bharucha, announced that students seeking early admission to the School of Art would instead be considered with the general applicant pool, meaning they would have to wait to hear whether they had been accepted.
Read more…

Kavitha Surana

A scruffy lot at 181 Stanton Street will soon blossom into a community garden. With spring around the corner, residents will gather at ABC No Rio tomorrow to plot the future of Siempre Verde. Locals successfully lobbied to use the vacant space for an interim garden back in the Fall, but there hasn’t been much activity over the cold winter months.

Though the lot may look abandoned, garden member Ilyse Kazar said that some members have been tending to sections of the property for years. According to Ms. Kazar, the community was pushed to achieve legal status when the lot appeared as vacant land on 596 Acres, a land-access advocacy group.

Residents organized over the summer to preserve the patch of potentially vibrant green space and in November, GreenThumb, a city program that supports interim gardens, granted a one-year license to Siempre Verde, according to the garden’s website.
Read more…

N.G.A.P.

Star, the pit-bull that was shot by a police officer last August, is finally up for adoption.

The miracle mutt has spent the last few months recovering in Pennsylvania, and the National Greyhound Adoption Program has now posted her adoption profile on its Website. One catch: her name has been changed to Shiloh (perhaps a reference to the children’s novel about a dog that is rescued from violence.)

According to the Website, the pit-bull formerly known as Star has recovered her “wonderful disposition” and her health has improved “significantly,” however many of her senses are still hampered by her injuries. The pit-bull has “significant vision loss in her right eye,” but she can see up to 15 feet away. (The dog lost her left eye completely in surgery.) Her hearing is very limited and she has a hard time pinpointing the direction of sounds. The adoption description also notes that she appears “aggressive and not trustworthy” when socializing with other dogs.

Despite New Yorkers clamoring to adopt the miracle dog in the wake of the shooting, the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals said in December that she would need more rehabilitation before she could be released for adoption. The National Greyhound Adoption Program has decided that she is ready, but the group is “setting the bar very high on requirements to adopt her.” These requirements include an owner with no other dogs and a fenced yard with a locked gate.

A small group chanted anti-7-Eleven slogans at the site of the incoming store on Avenue A and then voiced support for local delis in front of New York Healthy Choice, Yankee Two, and others. No 7-Eleven, which organized Saturday’s march, posted photos on Twitter, and Matteo Minasi posted the above video on YouTube.

Bob Holman, one of the march’s organizers, told Let’s Get Real that the protests against the “Pringle-ization” of the East Village would continue to be held every other Saturday; Rob Hollander, another organizer, said a Website would launch this week.

Stony Brook

A 19-year-old woman died in the lobby of an East Village building early Saturday morning, the police said.

Authorities found Jocelyn Pascucci of East Meadow, N.Y. unconscious in the lobby of 125 East 12th Street, shortly after they were summoned to the scene at 4:59 a.m. She was pronounced dead on arrival at Beth Israel hospital, the police said.

A police official told City Room that the building’s doorman let her in because she looked like she was cold; he called 911 after she either collapsed or lay down. She had been bar-hopping in the neighborhood but was separated from her friends at some point, the official said. According to the Daily News, the Stony Brook sophomore had a congenital heart condition that required daily injections.

The medical examiner will determine the exact cause of death, the police said. The investigation is ongoing.

In a profile on Stony Brook’s Website, the marine biology major, who was on a pre-veterinary track, wrote, “I consider myself artsy, as I like drawing, painting, and all other sorts of art-based things. My hobbies include reading, shopping, drinking lots of coffee, watching nature documentaries (I’m kind of science nerd!), and just hanging around with friends.”

Daniel Maurer

What’s this $2,200 samurai doing on First Avenue? Tune in Monday to find out. Hint: it has everything to do with this place.