Stephen Rex Brown Mike Zohn and Evan Michelson show off some just-purchased oddities in front of their new location at 207 Avenue A.

After a rushed departure from their former space on East 10th Street, the owners of Obscura Antiques and Oddities are aiming to reopen at a new, more spacious location at 207 Avenue A by the end of February.

Fresh from a visit to a Hell’s Kitchen building that yielded a Tibetan Kapala skull-cup, headhunter’s axe, a small replica of an electric chair, and old handcuffs, Mike Zohn and Evan Michelson touted their new store, which is nearly double the size of the previous location.

“There is room to breathe,” said Ms. Michelson. “It’s like a dream come true.” Read more…

If you’ve been dying to try Kajitsu ever since David Chang of Momofuku said it “might be the best restaurant in the city,” you better do it quick: Grub Street reports that the East Ninth Street spot (which has one of the city’s best vegetarian tasting menus, per a list on Eater today) is relocating to midtown in the summer.

Louie Lazar Billy Lyles poses in front of a mural that depicts him playing the saxophone.

The record vendor who toured the world with a disco star isn’t the only East Villager who’s both a musician and salesman: on Ninth Street, jazzman Billy Lyles and his wife, designer Jane Williams, have owned Katinka, an idiosyncratic store no bigger than a walk-in closet, since 1979.

Mr. Lyles, 69, has performed at clubs like the Bitter End, but neighbors know him best for his impromptu saxophone, keyboard, guitar, and flute performances outside of his shop on Ninth Street, near Second Avenue. There, Mr. Lyles interacts with passers-by from his usual position near a table where scented soap and incense are sold for just a dollar. A mural by Chico featuring his likeness – white beard, attentive eyes, saxophone at his lips – adorns an adjacent brick façade. On warm days, shouts of “Billy!” echo down the tree-lined block, and people wave at him from across the street.

“It’s nice to get said hello to,” said Mr. Lyles, wearing his trademark glasses and old-fashioned flat cap. “To be a nice person, man: they don’t have that going on any more like they used to.” Read more…

Having presided over another musical moment at Luna Lounge from 1995 to 2005, Rob Sacher has some strong opinions about the possibility of a CBGB revival. Writing for WNET’s MetroFocus, the former co-owner of the Lower East Side venue — which once hosted the likes of The Strokes, The National and Elliott Smith — says that it’s best to leave the Bowery’s punk rock Mecca to the history books: “Someone may buy the name, even buy the walls, but no one can buy into a time that is glorious, though frozen in the past.”

Illustration by Ed Sanders

As a founder of the influential musical group The Fugs, the proprietor of the Peace Eye Bookstore, and the publisher of a self-declared “magazine of the arts”  (we won’t reprint its title here, but it’s similar to the that of his recent memoir, “Fug You”), Ed Sanders displayed a unique brand of creativity. At Boo Hooray Gallery, from Feb. 16 to March 8, you’ll be able to step back into the 1960s and view many of his East Village-based printing press’s rarest treasures. Read more…

Phillip Kalantzis-Cope

Good morning, East Village.

Add Douglas Howard to the list of people who are unhappy with the permitting system at East River Park. According to The Post, the East Village resident is suing the city for revoking his permit to teach tennis due to what he says is racial discrimination. Mr. Howard, who is white, was arrested after clashing with a park employee who, the lawsuit claims, gave preference to a non-licensed Hispanic tennis instructor.

According to a Citi Habitats report released on The Real Deal, January rents were up 5% from last year. In the East Village, the average studio went for $1,881 and 1-bedrooms went for $2,616.

The Post and the Daily News report that Louise Meanwell, who is accused of extorting money from Brian Cashman, the General Manager of the New York Yankees, was told in court yesterday that she will also face charges of harassing an ex-boyfriend, Thomas Walsh, who lived in the East Village. The charges, from 2010, had been suspended but are now being revived. Read more…

Grace Maalouf

A critical hearing to determine whether a large swath of the neighborhood will be designated a historic district has been set for June 26, a spokeswoman for the Landmarks Preservation Commission just revealed.

The news sets the stage for another clash between local preservationists and the religious leaders who oppose the district on the grounds that it would create burdensome additional expenses. The public hearing is the final step before the Commission votes on the proposed district, which has Second Avenue south of St. Marks Place as its spine. The exteriors of all the 330 buildings within the district would essentially be preserved as-is.

Last month, a much smaller district on East 10th Street along Tompkins Square Park was approved with minimal opposition. However, the developer Ben Shaoul was able to get approval for a controversial rooftop addition to a building on the block literally hours before the district was given the green light.

The Commission spokeswoman added that on June 26 the former auction house at 126-128 East 13th Street will also face a separate vote to determine whether it should be designated an individual landmark. Here is the Commission’s write-up regarding the building. Read more…

Courtesy Travel Channel Billy Leroy on the set of “Baggage Battles.”

Billy Leroy, the proprietor of Billy’s Antiques & Props, said the goodbye bash that was originally planned for late January probably won’t happen until next month, and it’ll be followed by a proper burial.

“We’re going to have a monster party. It’s going to be in March, most likely on the tenth. I’m confirming the date this week,” said Mr. Leroy, who just got back from filming in Atlanta and Indianapolis for the Travel Channel show, “Baggage Battles.” Read more…

What says romance better than hot dogs? Crif Dogs just unveiled over Twitter a new line of condoms featuring a variety of puns on the wrapping that The Local need not reprint. (You can probably guess.) The condoms will be available for free at the Williamsburg location of Crif Dogs on V-Day. What, no love for St. Marks?

Stephen Rex Brown The scene at Cooper Square today at noon.

Stephen Rex Brown Peter Cooper, minutes before being donned with the wreath.

Under the shadow of Peter Cooper, students are celebrating the founder of their university while also protesting the possibility that future scholars at Cooper Union will have to pay tuition.

The wreath-laying ceremony is an annual event that honors Cooper’s birthday. Today at around 12:30 p.m., students were using the event as an opportunity to remind the president of the school, Jamshed Bharucha, of their opposition to any tuition hike. Many of the roughly 75 attendees held balloons that read “110 years free.”

“Once,” the well-received musical that recently ended its run at the New York Theatre Workshop, is headed for Broadway, but the cast hasn’t left the East Village far behind: A video posted to YouTube shows a photo shoot and hootenanny at Swift Hibernian Lounge. If you missed the show’s local run, tickets for the Broadway reprise, starting Feb. 28, can be purchased here.

And if you’d rather keep it local, the New York Theatre Workshop’s next production, “An Iliad,” opens Feb. 15. The adaptation of Homer’s classic, by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare, will feature Mr. O’Hare (“True Blood,” “American Horror Story”) and Stephen Spinella (“Angels in America”) in alternating performances. More information here.

Michelle Rick

Community Board 3 may reverse its hardline stance against new beer-and-wine licenses in booze-heavy areas of the East Village and Lower East Side. In a letter to residents, the board will ask whether it should be more lenient to those seeking such licenses within resolution areas, so long as the businesses agree to operate primarily in the daytime and close at midnight or earlier.

The move comes just a few months after The Local unleashed a sobering study showing that the State Liquor Authority regularly disregards the board’s recommendations regarding who should or shouldn’t be allowed to serve wine and beer (as opposed to hard liquor) in resolution areas – nightlife-heavy strips such as St. Marks Place where the board has recommended a moratorium on new licenses.

At a meeting of the SLA task force last night, board member David Crane described the motivation behind the potential policy shift. “The SLA generally is going to grant a beer-wine license,” he said. “Since that’s a reality, we’re interested in preventing problems. We want to work with the SLA given that that’s a fact.”  Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The Post has ID’d the man who climbed the statue of George Washington in Union Square yesterday as “Maksim Katsnelson – whose past antics have included a ‘protest’ against Donald Trump and scuffle with cops in Times Square.” He was taken to Beth Israel for evaluation but will not be charged.

The Real Deal reports that Rose Associates has taken over leasing at 2 Cooper Square, a 15-story rental building owned by a Kuwaiti firm where a studio goes for $4,125 per month.

Today in letter writing: Bowery Boogie reports that Rosie Mendez is on board with the East Bowery Preservation Plan proposed by the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors. That plan seeks to ensure that “any new developments in the area would be of a size and scale that would not interfere with the Bowery’s architectural integrity.” Read more…

Scott Lynch

First Catwoman, and now this: a man dressed as Superman climbed the statue of George Washington in Union Square Park this afternoon. Tweeters said he called for the freedom of Tibet and at one point uttered the Dr. Bronner’s-esque line: “The world will be united as one in the future.” According to DNA Info, he was in the saddle for about an hour before being taken into custody. City Room has a photo of the arrest.

Evan Bleier

Speaking of filming locations: James Gray will be shooting his next movie on East Ninth Street on Wednesday and Thursday, according to a notice between Second and Third Avenues demanding that cars be moved by 6 p.m. tomorrow. Here’s IMDB’s description of the film, which was at one point titled “Low Life”: “An innocent immigrant woman is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.” Keep your eyes peeled for the film’s top stars, Marion Cotillard and actor-turned-rapper-turned-actor Joaquin Phoenix, who has appeared in three of Mr. Gray’s other films, “Two Lovers,” “The Yards,” and “We Own the Night.”

The Local’s Facebook wall is an opportunity to sound off regarding anything in the neighborhood (noisy neighbors, beloved bar closing, missing squirrel, whatever). Bertha Freundlich — one of our many, many readers in New Delhi, apparently — posted a question on our wall today about the film “Bed of Roses.” Here’s Ms. Freundlich:

Has anyone seen the movie ‘Bed of Roses’ (1996) which shows, besides the love story, the Ottendorfer Branch library? Well there is also this flower shop in the movie, sort of hidden and in front of an open square or something. Any clue if this was also filmed in the Village?

We have no idea. Anyone else know? Tell us in the comments or “like” The Local on Facebook to answer Ms. Freundlich directly.

Chris Palmer Ryan Morningstone showed up at 10:30 a.m.

So how did all those Patriots fans who blitzed Professor Thom’s take the Giants win last night? Not too well, as you can imagine.

“This sucks,” said Melissa Garcia, 26, in barely more than a whisper.

Ms. Garcia, from Country Club, Bronx, had lost her voice from screaming during the game. After Tom Brady’s last-second Hail Mary pass fell to the turf in the end zone, ensuring a Giants’ victory, she slumped down onto a barstool and cupped her head in her hands while leaning onto a table littered with half-empty beer bottles.

The crowd exited quickly and quietly after the final whistle, turning Professor Thom’s into an island of heartbreak in a citywide sea of celebration.

“This one hurts,” said Jeffrey Tente, 24, standing outside the bar.

Mr. Tente, an East Village resident, grew up in Rhode Island. His dad has been a Patriots season ticket holder since before Mr. Tente was born, and the two attended the last two Patriots playoff games before this Super Bowl.

“I’ll give the Giants credit, they played a better game,” he said, sporting an oversized jersey of Devin McCourty, a Patriots cornerback.  “But it sucks to be in this situation.” Read more…

Jared Malsin 50 East First Street.

A storefront space on First Street is empty but for a stylized mirror in the shape of Babe Ruth – one of the few odds and ends left over from the previous tenant, a mirror and glass designer. The owners of the former studio are looking for a new tenant – and not a bar. But the space has a boozy past: it once held a tavern that Emma Goldman, the influential anarchist who counted herself a regular, called “the most famous radical center in New York.”

During the turn of the 20th century, 50 East First Street was the home of Justus Schwab’s saloon. Just 8-foot wide by 30-foot deep, it was described as a “bier-höhle” (or “beer-cave”), a pun on “bierhalle.” Though small in size, the tavern was a “mecca for French Communards, Spanish and Italian refugees, Russian politicals, and German socialists and anarchists who had escaped the iron heel of Bismarck,” according to Goldman, who spent so much time there that she had her mail sent there.

Christin Couture and William Hosie, who are members of the board that owns the building, said that the space had been vacant for a year. (The asking rent is between $3,000 and $3,500 per month.) Mr. Hosie said they were “not about steep rent hikes” and suggested they might be looking for someone unable to afford the ever-rising rents elsewhere in the neighborhood. Read more…