Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The Daily News has a photo of the MTA worker who was treated for neck and back injuries after plunging down a shaft on 14th Street. He gave a thumbs up as he was transported to Bellevue.

The Post reports that bail has been denied in the case of Luis Martinez, accused of firing at police officers on the Lower East Side.

Last week, The Local discovered that an entity known as the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Spaces had started conducting squat tours and community garden tours in the East Village and was seeking capital via a fundraising video. The Times has more on the organization, which has secured a lease in the fabled C-Squat space. The rent? $1,700 per month. Read more…

Photos: Tim Schreier

Marquis Lewis, better known to the street-art world as Retna, has been painting one of his signature hieroglyphic works on the wall at Houston Street near Bowery for the past two days. Our photographer Tim Schreier stopped by yesterday afternoon and earlier today to document his progress. The artist was still at work when we last checked in with him at 6:45 p.m. this evening – we’ll show you his finished mural once it’s completed.

Fun fact: Retna recently participated in the Boneyard Art Project in Tucson, Arizona, for which artists such as Faile (creators of the previous Houston Street mural) and Erik Foss (the owner of Lit Lounge and Fuse Gallery on Second Avenue) made art out of decommissioned military aircraft.

Update: And Now, Retna’s Finished Mural at Houston and Bowery

Gil Weingourt The EVO office.

Yesterday, Peter Leggieri looked back on his time as an editor-owner of The East Village Other. Today he recalls his departure, and rebuts an earlier piece written by co-founder Dan Rattiner. In that piece, Mr. Rattiner remembered being told by EVO’s publisher, Joel Fabrikant, that the Mafia was behind secret, unauthorized print runs of EVO. He also described abandoning a takeover attempt with co-founder Walter Bowart after they were warned by a lawyer that the company had never paid its withholding tax. Here’s what Mr. Leggieri has to say about all that.

Dan Rattiner’s reminiscence “EVO, the Mafia, and the Takeover That Wasn’t” has so many factual errors and omissions that it should be labeled semi-fiction.

He said stock ownership in EVO began with Walter Bowart, Allen Katzman, and himself each holding three shares which cost $200 per share. He then described a strange “auction” in which he bid $200 and received a fourth share, and John Wilcock bid $100, a sum that should have purchased half a share. The truth is that Wilcock held twelve shares. I should know: I bought them from him when he left EVO in 1966.

Rattiner gave a melodramatic version of the “Takeover That Wasn’t.” Walter Bowart was always the majority holder of EVO stock. He did not need anyone else’s stock in making a corporate decision. However, there is a backstory to Bowart’s presence in New York at the time described by Rattiner.

When I was about to leave EVO in 1969, I called Bowart and explained to him that I was exhausted and burned out after working more than three years with little sleep and no rest. But most of all, I was completely disillusioned with the “Movement” because its leaders, in my eyes, were more interested in personal fame and fortune than with meaningful and achievable change. It was a time when rhetoric trumped reason; and the rhetoric was sounding more and more like slogans from the 19th century. In addition, I explained that, as evidenced by Woodstock, the “underground” EVO had achieved its goals of altering the public discourse on politics, religion, sex, art and lifestyle. Read more…

Earlier this week, the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute launched “Blowing Minds: The East Village Other, the Rise of Underground Comix and the Alternative Press, 1965-72,” with a rousing discussion that’s now archived on the exhibit’s Website, along with new audio interviews with veterans of the Other. Over the course of seven weekend editions of The Local, we’ve heard from all but one of the EVO alumni who spoke on Tuesday’s panel. Here now, to cap off our special series, is the story of Peter Leggieri.

Gil Weingourt Left to right: Peter Leggieri, Peter Mikalajunas, and Spain Rodriguez.

From the first day that I began working at The East Village Other, I was overcome by the sense that it was not only a newspaper but a strange and magical ship on a voyage with destiny. It seemed as though each issue printed was a new port of call, and the trip from one issue to the next, a new adventure. Many of EVO’s crew members expressed that same weird feeling – a sense of excitement and creative power.

And what a crew that was! No one was recruited. I don’t recall a resume ever being submitted. They all simply showed up and started working. EVO’s crew might just have been the greatest walk-on, pick-up team in the history of journalism. She was The Other but her staff of artists, poets, writers, photographers and musicians affectionately called her EVO. Her masthead bore a Mona Lisa eye. EVO created a cultural revolution and won the hearts and minds of a generation. She was the fastest ship in the Gutenberg Galaxy.

In the Beginning
I was the anonymous Other, the one editor-owner unknown to the public. I did not party. I did not schmooze with the literati or seek publicity. I had no time for such things. I worked seven days a week, 20 hours a day and, because of law school, I had to be sober. My friend, the poet John Godfrey, told me that I was afflicted with a Zen curse: a hermit condemned to be surrounded by people and events. That was certainly the case for me in the 1960s. Read more…

For every East Village business that’s opening or closing, dozens are quietly making it. Here’s one of them: Kelly Glass Studio and Gallery.

Photos: Vivienne Gucwa

Patti Kelly took a stained-glass making class at All by Hand Studio in Bay Ridge in 1976 and “took to it like a duck to water,” she said. After years of study, she opened her own Kelly Glass Studio and Gallery in Dumbo in 1989, then moved to St. Marks Place in 1992 and eventually settled at 368 East Eighth Street. Her pieces have made their way into the homes of John Leguizamo and Mary Lou Quinlan, and can be seen around the neighborhood – everywhere from a door panel at 243 East Seventh Street to the façade of the Cooper Union clock. We asked her how she’s managed to make it in the East Village for two decades.

How long have you been in the East Village?

I came to the East Village in 1992. First I was at 29 St. Marks Place and there for two years before I moved to a bigger space on Essex between Stanton and Rivington. It was an old Jewish theater. The rent got too high so then I moved to Avenue C between Seventh and Eighth where I was for about 12 years until the rent was too much. I’d started at $1,800 a month and when I left it was $4,500 a month. Five years ago I moved here to East Eighth between Avenues C and D. This space was already an artist’s studio. He was a sculptor who moved to Mexico. Before that it was a hardware store. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Spotted in Otafuku.

Stephen Rex Brown The sign in context.

During his recent visits to the East Village area, President Obama apparently found time to endorse the Black Boss Coffee at Otafuku. The sign advertising the $2.50 canned drink also declares, “No Mercey For Michelle Backmann.”

An employee at the octopus-balls destination on Ninth Street between Second and Third Avenues said that the sign had been up for a couple of months, and that a customer made it as a joke. “It’s not our biggest seller — it’s pretty strong though,” he said.

But is it stronger than the Obama Coffee from Ray’s Candy Store?

Daniel Maurer

Earlier this week, it was National Pancake Day at IHOP and today: 7-Eleven celebrates its grand opening on the Bowery with 25-cent specials, giveaways, and a balloon-making clown. One lucky raffle entrant won a basketball hoop; Diane Schwartz, posing here, took home a golf bag. The 48-year-old disabled resident of B.R.C.’s Palace Hotel just a block away on the Bowery took a different tone than David Cross and others who’ve griped about the 7-Eleven. “It’s good to have around because you can have your coffee and get a free refill,” said the regular customer. “All the other coffee places around here are kind of expensive.” She cited a store across the street that charges $1 for a cup. Read more…

Vanessa Yurkevich

The “Flea Market King” isn’t the only character at the Mary Help of Christians Church market every weekend: the parking-lot bazaar at Avenue A and East 11th Street has been around for more than two decades, and some of its vendors have been there just as long. Even in these winter months, they bundle up on Saturdays and Sundays hoping to make a bundle of cash. Today, The Local salutes just some of these weekend warriors. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown

A transit worker fell about 15 feet in a subway ventilation shaft beneath a grate on East 14th Street Friday morning, the Fire Department said. He was not seriously injured.

Stephen Rex Brown

The worker, in his 60s, was on the ladder built into the shaft beneath the grate in front of the IHOP restaurant at 237 E. 14th Street, near the Third Avenue stop on the L around 10:35 a.m., the authorities said. He was inspecting the grate when he fell from the ladder, said Charles Seaton, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, sustained minor neck and back injuries and was being treated at Bellevue Hospital Center.

Daniel Maurer Workers did demo work at 74-84 Third
Avenue earlier this week.

Karl Fischer is coming to Third Avenue.

The controversial architect, whose work is becoming an increasingly familiar sight in the neighborhood, is seeking to build a nine-story building at the corner of Third Avenue and 12th Street, documents filed with the Department of Buildings reveal.

A disapproved filing for the new building from January shows that the architect hopes to build an 82,000 square-foot building at 74-84 Third Avenue, which will be Mr. Fischer’s largest by far in the East Village. The building will have a 327-square-foot community facility, as well as 42 parking spaces that will be both indoors and outdoors. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

NY1 says residents are concerned about a sinkhole on Avenue C near 13th Street. ConEd says it will meet with the Department of Environmental Protection to figure out who’s responsible for fixing the hole.

The Lo-Down reports that a closed section of East River Park, near the Williamsburg Bridge, is now set to reopen this summer.

In The Villager, Jerry Tallmer pens an obituary for Barney Rossett. The late publisher’s wife says there are no immediate plans for a memorial – perhaps around the time of what would have been his 90th birthday in May. Read more…

Daniel Maurer Construction work on the building today.

As recently as yesterday, Kathy Kirkpatrick was holding out hope that Life Cafe would be resurrected in spite of the “For Rent” sign in the window of her iconic restaurant and a simmering dispute between her two landlords (yes, she has two).

“I’m still waiting to see how it plays out,” Ms. Kirkpatrick said. “Things are getting resolved, things are developing — though meanwhile, I wait.”

But today the dispute boiled over and Bob Perl, one of her landlords, said Life Cafe was dead — he could no longer bear trying to negotiate with Abraham Noy, the other landlord.

“I can’t get it done,” Mr. Perl said. “I’m done with Noy – these guys are just impossible.” Read more…

President Obama is back in the Union Square area tonight, this time for a fundraiser at ABC Kitchen on East 18th Street. But don’t expect him to zip down East 12th Street again: According to former Department of Transportation higher-up turned traffic watchdog “Gridlock Sam” Schwartz, Broadway between 14th Street and 23rd Street is likely to be his travel route between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Daniel Maurer

They’re back!

The pink signs you see above, as well as others posted on East Seventh Street between First and Second Avenues, reveal that the Coen Brothers will once again be filming “Inside Llewyn Davis” in the neighborhood, on March 5, 6, and 7, from about 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Parking will be held on Second Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets and on the same avenue between St. Marks Place and Ninth Street, as well as on Sixth Street and Seventh Streets between First Avenue and Second Avenues. (Tow trucks arrive on March 4 at 10 p.m.) Who knows whether all those vintage cars will return, but it looks like one pick-up truck is already in the spirit.

If you can’t wait till next week to start stalking the Coens again, they happen to be shooting in Greenwich Village today and tomorrow. NYU Local spotted them filming outside of the Silver School of Social Work earlier. One tweeter asked, “What will happen if the Chic-Fil-A [protesters] crash the Coen Brothers’ set?”, referring to protests against student debt and a controversial Chic-Fil-A location planned for earlier today.

On Tuesday, The Local’s seven-week series of essays celebrating The East Village Other culminated in the opening of “Blowing Minds: The East Village Other, the Rise of Underground Comix and the Alternative Press, 1965-72,” an exhibit of EVO artifacts now on display at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry: the above video will give you a good sense of what went down. And if you missed our livestream of the panel discussion featuring (from left to right) Ed Sanders, Dan Rattiner,  Claudia Dreifus, moderator John McMillan, Alex Gross, Steven Heller, and Peter Leggieri, it’s conveniently archived for you below. Read more…

Laura Edwins At Henry Street Settlement on Saturday.

District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. spent last Saturday night watching a basketball game, but not because he had scored Knicks tickets, or because his kids were playing – he was in the East Village, and none of the 12- to 19-year-olds on the court were his own.

“It’s a crime-fighting strategy,” he explained at the Boys and Girls Republic Gym at Henry Street Settlement. “I’d rather be in the back row of the gym watching a basketball game than in the back row of a courtroom watching a kid in trouble.”

In January, Mr. Vance’s office, along with the police department’s Police Athletic League and the Drug Enforcement Administration, launched an eight-week basketball training program that concluded with a tournament last weekend. Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The police say they’ve arrested the man they believe shot at officers on Monday morning. 25-year-old Luis Martinez, a resident of the Baruch Houses, has been charged with attempted murder, attempted assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and reckless endangerment.

Last night The Local reported from N.Y.U. President John Sexton’s town hall about the school’s ambitious expansion plan. Today, Chabad.org has news of students making some real estate moves: Chabad House has hosted its inaugural event in its new Bowery digs, a “8,000-square-foot space with exposed steel beams, warm wood-toned doors, leather couches and room for everyone.” The space, for which the Jewish organization has raised $5 million, is “divided into a main hall, industrial kitchen, a rabbi’s study, meeting space, conference room and offices, library and synagogue, the building will allow for even further innovation as programs migrate to the new space.”

DNA Info sits in on a cooking class at East Village Community School that’s sponsored by the Food Bank for New York City’s CookShop program. Started in 1994, the program aims to teach healthy choices to students in high-need areas. Read more…

Natalie Rinn John Sexton addresses a student.

John Sexton, the president of N.Y.U., addressed questions about the school’s considerable expansion plan at a Town Hall meeting earlier tonight. At the open forum for students, Dr. Sexton addressed a recent outpouring of community opposition, as demonstrated by a unanimous vote by Community Board 2 on Thursday disapproving of the proposed expansion near Washington Square Park.

“The community board vote did not surprise me,” he said, standing before a room filled with undergraduate and graduate students at the university’s Kimball Hall. “It would have been surprising if there had been a single dissent.”

He added, “You learn that there are a small minority of people that you can’t reach. They’ve gotta be what they are and they’re not going to be persuaded right or wrong.”

A recent Ph.D. graduate in comparative literature, Patrick Gallagher, pressed the president on being insensitive. “It sounds like what you’re saying is the community is always wrong. Has there ever been a time when you’ve come around to their point of view?”

“First of all, respectfully, I don’t think I said the community is always wrong,” Mr. Sexton responded. “The dialogue with the community has been fulsome for three years and 40 [community] meetings, and we’ve made changes in the plan based on things that were said.”
Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Angelica Kitchen

It’s been a while since we last heard from the would-be proprietors of the Superdive space at 200 Avenue A. Now, the just-released Community Board 3 agenda reveals that they will once again seek a full liquor license. Previously, one of the curators of the space told The Local that she hoped to turn it into an art gallery with a full bar that would host special events and workshops. When that idea was pitched last summer it was met with formal letters of opposition from Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and Community Board 3.

A few other items of note from the agenda: Angelica Kitchen will seek a recommendation for a proper beer and wine license after being told to stop its B.Y.O.B. service in December. A couple of meat lover’s spots, Wechsler’s and Prime & Beyond, are aiming to extend into their backyards. A couple of newcomers are vying for new licenses on Avenue C: Bikinis at number 56 and a mystery restaurant at 116 (once Lava Gina and more recently Vibrations Lounge). And Keybar, which met opposition when it went for booze at 14 Avenue B and was last seen planning a Hungarian joint in the Angels and Kings space, now has designs on 134 Orchard Street.

Lastly, after celebrating its seven-year anniversary this month, Luzzo’s is undergoing an (at least partial) change in ownership.

For the full agenda, check out Community Board 3’s website.