Ian Duncan Owner Mitch Cutler, right, surveyed the damage caused by a fire at St. Mark’s Comics.

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

Witnesses at the scene said the fire started in the building’s basement. After the blaze, the basement was dark, damp and smelled strongly of smoke but the only visible damage was a few wooden beams that had been knocked down. Most of the damage was caused to St. Mark’s Comics, a store on the building’s first floor.

James Kwiecinski, the building manager, said a man he described as a “caretaker” uses part of the basement as an art studio. Numerous landscape paintings hung on the basement’s wall.

Partially damaged comics and a wrapped Superman t-shirt littered the entrance to St. Mark’s Comics. Mitch Cutler, the owner, said he stocks potentially valuable vintage comics but he added it was “too soon to tell” the extent of the damage.

Yoshi Onoyuri, a chef and manager at Udon West, also on the building’s first floor, said fire fighters had knocked through the wall between his restaurant and the comic store.

Mr. Cutler, who has owned St. Mark’s Comics for 27 years, said water, smoke and sawdust could all damage comics. “Firemen were here with lots of water,” he said, adding that he planned to reopen the store later today.

Mr. Onoyuri said his electricity and gas were still working. “We’re waiting for the insurance company so we can reopen,” he said.

Mr. Kwiecincski said he was fully insured but could not estimate the cost of the damage.

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

Dan Glass Saxophonist Darius Jones and Kirk Knuffke on cornet lead the Kirk-Jones Quintet duiring a performance at the University of the Streets, the cultural center that has thrived for four decades.

A tumble of snare snaps and clarinet wails escaped the second-floor windows above the restaurant 7A on a recent Saturday night. A garbage truck and police car replied with a snort and a whoop. Jazz was happening up there, in a place called the University of the Streets.

Neighborhood folks know the tagged glass door, the kitchen-bright vestibule on East Seventh Street and maybe the lighted sign mounted next to it But few know what is on the six floors above, where a karate dojo, artist studios, and until recently a pigeon coop, operate along with a small amphitheater that hosts an open jam session that has taken place every Friday and Saturday night since 1969.

It’s a remarkably consistent run by nearly any measure, but all the more impressive for taking place here in the center of the in the East Village, which has been on an express track of socioeconomic change for the past 40 years.

“This place is an institution,” said Robert Anderson, 57, a Saturday night house bassist who is built like a light heavyweight. “And we’re trying to get it back to how it used to be, back when those guys was comin’ down – C-Sharpe, Barry Harris. Monk used to come through here, Dizzy – everybody used to come through here.”
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Vivienne Gucwa

Good morning, East Village.

Whether or not you enjoyed the raucous atmosphere at Coyote Ugly, or its trademark bar-top dancing, it’s worth noting that the First Avenue saloon that Hollywood made famous is currently closed. EV Grieve speculates that the watering hole will open again soon but it’s not the only local business that suddenly finds itself shuttered: The Bean Coffee Shop on First Avenue at Third Street currently sports a fluorescent orange “Seized” sign in its large, front window. Apparently the place owes some $25,000 in back taxes. The owners promise that the shop will re-open soon.

Gothamist reports that the city has rolled out a new online 311 Complaint Map. The map allows visitors to track complaints that are being lodged about issues ranging from air quality to noise – a service not unlike our own collaboration with SeeClickFix, which allows East Village residents to report and track neighborhood concerns.

Although informative, the new 311 map probably won’t help anyone in the neighborhood locate the man who the authorities say may be our very own Ponzi schemer and who is still on the lam.

Reginald Pointdujour

Reports from Washington D.C. today reveal that the Federal Reserve has upgraded its outlook on the national economy. The Fed is now forecasting greater economic growth this year, although unemployment is expected to remain high.

Is it too early to detect signs of a return to economic health in the East Village? Is the pinch at least a little less painful than it was a year ago? Let us know. Put your response in the comments below. Provide details, please.

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.”

Gloria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

More developments about 35 Cooper Square were reported by The Local this morning, but that’s not all that’s happening in local construction news. It seems Seventh Street may be getting a facelift with discussions about a new parking lot between Avenues C and D. There’s also word of a new coffee and ice cream shop to fill the vacant storefront, formerly occupied by City Copies, between First and Second Avenues.

And in a twist on the long-running debate over whether graffiti is blight or art, one East Village teacher has decided it might be something else: a learning opportunity. She’s using the neighborhood’s murals and street art as part of the curriculum in her English classes. She was inspired to do so after learning that a neighborhood mural of President Barack Obama had been painted over.

In other news, the East Village will be receiving its very own Union Market on Houston Street and Avenue A. This store promises to be larger than its predecessor in Brooklyn and is expected to open in the fall.

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

Colin Moynihan The New York City Department of Buildings posted a full stop work order outside 35 Cooper Square. Below: A close-up of the roof of the building. A violation notice from city officials cited the roof, which “has been partially stripped to sheathing and in some cases joists.”

Tim Milk

The New York City Department of Buildings posted a full stop work order on a plywood wall that developers recently put up the front of 35 Cooper Square, a nearly 200-year-old federal-style building near the corner of East Sixth Street.

The stop work order is dated Feb. 14, the same day that a demolition permit for the building was granted to a developer, Arun Bhatia, and others who own the property. Mr. Bhatia could not immediately be reached for comment.

Neighborhood residents, elected officials and conservation advocates had held rallies and circulated petitions in an attempt to convince the Landmarks Preservation Commission to protect the three-story building, which is the oldest structure on Cooper Square. But the commission recently declined to make the building a landmark, saying that its historic façade had been altered. A spokeswoman for Mr. Bhatia has said that he has no firm plans for the building or the site.

Accompanying the stop work order were two notices of violation that were issued in Mr. Bhatia’s name because, they said, a work permit had not been posted in area visible to the public and because of what one form termed a “failure to protect public and property affected by construction operations.”

That form went on to offer additional details, saying that 35 Cooper Square’s roof “has been partially stripped to sheathing and in some cases joists” and is accessible by way of a second floor bar in the Cooper Square Hotel, a recently built high rise.

On Tuesday evening several passersby paused to gaze at the stop work order and other documents. Among them was Cynthia Pringle, an arts administrator from Greenpoint who works near Cooper Square.

Ms. Pringle, 29, said that she hoped the stop work order would prevent the demolition of the old building.

“This is the last of its kind around here,” she said. “This is history.”

Ian DuncanMembers of the Village Lions take refreshment.

Just in case it has escaped your attention, we are deep into rugby’s Six Nations tournament, an annual contest fought out by England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. No fancy ads, no halftime shows, just 30 burly, unhelmeted Europeans butting heads every weekend until March 19.

Even though the sport’s popularity with Americans has grown steadily in the last few years, for me – an Englishman new to the neighborhood – finding somewhere to watch the games took some sleuthing. The time difference with Europe, where the games take place at a more hangover-friendly hour in the afternoon, only makes things more difficult.

Luckily, on Google, I turned up Bret Costain, president of the Village Lions rugby club, and found that I wouldn’t have to go far. His friend and clubmate, Peter Cavanaugh, shows the games in full-HD, of course, on a screen above the smooth, pale wood bar at Dorian Gray, a saloon on East Fourth Street between Avenues A and B, which he opened on New Year’s Eve.

On Saturday, at the ungodly hour of 9:30 a.m., the earliest I’ve been up on a weekend since coming to New York, I walked through deserted East Village streets to join members of the club and Mr. Cavanaugh as Wales routed Scotland 24-6 in its first victory after eight straight losses. Read more…

M.J. GonzalezRoss Global Academy Charter School on 11th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.

In 2009, teachers at the Ross Global Academy Charter School hung a blue banner across the main entrance that read, “We must become the change we want to see.” These days, the words on the banner are regarded by the school’s staff, parents, and students as more than an aspirational motto. In December, the Department of Education announced that the five-year-old school on East 11th Street near First Avenue will close at the end of the academic year. But some of the people involved with the school said that they are determined to convince the department to keep the school open.

They may have serious hurdles to overcome. When the academy was founded in 2006, it was given a five-year charter outlining academic, organizational and financial goals. Each year, the Department of Education performs a citywide evaluation to ensure that such goals are being met. This past year, the Ross Global Academy was ranked as the lowest performing charter school in the city.

Richard Burke, the executive director of a specialized enrichment and tutoring program at the school, said that the faculty is exploring every option they can think of to keep the school functioning.

“We’re doing everything possible to keep the school open,” he said. “Everything from a city to state level and a legal angle.”

While there are many at the school who share Mr. Burke’s goal, some of them said that they can’t help feeling worried about the future.

“We are dismayed,” said Stephanie Wilson, a member of the school’s Parent Teacher Association and Board of Trustees. “We’ve gone through the shock, and are now really sad and anxious.”

One of the things that Mrs. Wilson is most worried about, she said, is the possibility that the school’s successes will be overlooked. She said that the academy has had a positive effect on her two children.

Her 15-year-old son, Demetrius, graduated from R.G.A. in 2009 after completing eighth-grade, and was accepted into Brooklyn Technological High School, a highly competitive and academically rigorous specialized science high school in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

And Mrs. Wilson’s younger son, Elijah, 7, began at R.G.A. two years ago as a kindergartener. Read more…

Kevin Farley

Good morning East Village.

Many of us are mourning the now certain loss of 35 Cooper Square, one of the last emblems of another New York in the East Village. EV Grieve gives a taste of the building’s history this morning.

The space, which was slated for complete demolition as of yesterday, is framed by scaffolding. For current news on the matter, refer to yesterday’s coverage in The Local.

Across the square, the gargantuan new apartment building at 2 Cooper Square is serving as a skate ramp for kids in the neighborhood, according to EV Grieve. The building’s high-ticket units and roof pool do not excuse it from skate duty.

In other real estate news, a For Sale sign flew off a building on 9th Street yesterday due to severe winds. The blizzard may be over, but natural forces are still among us, so watch out!

Claire Glass City officials today approved a plan to demolish the historic site at 35 Cooper Square. Below: About 100 people held a demonstration last month to protest planned demolition at the site.

Suzanne Rozdeba

Scaffolding has gone up, workers are busy on the roof and an application for full demolition was filed and approved today for 35 Cooper Square. Yet the new owners of the nearly 200-year-old federal-style building that preservation groups are trying desperately to keep standing told The Local three times in the past 10 days that the firm as yet had no concrete plans for the property.

Beyond erecting the scaffolding, removing the asbestos, and blocking the windows with wood as a “safety” precaution, there are no definite plans for construction, Jane Crotty told The Local today, speaking for developer Arun Bhatia, one of the new owners. Mr. Bhatia is a partner at Cooper and 6th Property LLC, which owns the building. “I don’t have any word on that,” she said.

As for the application for full demolition, Ms. Crotty said, “They’re pursuing their rights to develop the property. The application was filed today.” She confirmed asbestos removal began this past weekend, and is continuing today. “The removal will probably take a couple of days, if not a week.” In conversations on Feb. 4 and Feb. 11, Ms. Crotty had also said there were no definite plans for the site.

Over the last several weeks advocacy groups and elected officials have fought to preserve the site. The Bowery Alliance of Neighbors had gathered more than 1,000 signatures for a petition to designate the spot a historic landmark. Now, it would appear, those efforts have been dealt a significant setback.

Upon hearing news of the approval of the application for full demolition, David Mulkins, chair of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, said, “This city needs to do something very quick to preserve and protect this street before all of this historic character, all evidence of it, is gone. It does break your heart, and it also breaks your spirit.”
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With fresh flowers in bodegas, chocolates displayed prominently on grocery and drug stores shelves, and red and pink hearts in store windows, love has certainly been in the air in the week or so leading up to Valentine’s Day.

So we here at The Local were curious to see how people in the East Village were going to spend the most romantic day of the year – or, at least, the day of the year most frequently referred to as romantic. So we took to the streets to ask a few questions. And we found that you don’t have to go out on a traditional date, or even be in a relationship, to enjoy the year’s most amorous holiday.

Gregory Howard For some couples, Valentine’s Day provides a chance for them to demonstrate their affection through therapy and counseling sessions.

This Feb. 14, while most of America translates love into flowers, you might consider giving your loved one a different sort of gift — a trip to a therapist.

“Couples therapy is a safe space for couples to engage, slow down and gain insight on their challenges and resources,” said Jean Malpas, a licensed marriage and family therapist and faculty member at the Ackerman Institute for the Family on the Upper East Side. “It’s a place to rediscover the wonderful aspects of one’s relationship, things that might otherwise get lost under the noise of the conflict.”

While many consider counseling to be the residue of conflict, it does not have to be used only as a tool of intervention. There are also plenty of people in healthy relationships who have decided to use counseling as a method of developing more successful communication.

“It’s a far-reaching concept, and it certainly includes nonverbal cues,” said Gertraud Stadler, Postdoctoral Research Scientist and a founder of the Columbia Couples Lab, a research center where members of couples and their interactions are studied, especially under stressful conditions. The lab also collaborates with the New York University Couples Lab.

Manner of phrasing — pronunciation, rhythm and tone — are all quiet cues that sometimes go unrecognized. Attempts to communicate can get “lost in translation,” Mr. Malpas said, propagating an unintentionally destructive cycle of reactivity and hurt.
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Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

And a happy Valentine’s Day from all at The Local. We hope that you find love in the air, but if not, you’ll definitely find spring. This week’s unseasonably warm temps are already in full swing with highs expected to surpass 50 degrees on Thursday and Friday.

If community service is more your bag, DNAinfo wrote about some East Village events for philanthropic couples.

And while we’re on the subject of spring, you might be seeing fewer open street fairs once the warm weather decides to stick around. DNAinfo reports that residents and storeowners will be taking the matter up with Community Board 1 next week.

More in East Village changes: the Department of Health closed Yerba Buena on Saturday, citing a long list of sanitary code violations. So some romance-minded diners will have to look elsewhere tonight.

Vivienne Gucwa discusses photographing the graffiti and wall art inside the iconic Mars Bar for a recent essay.

“As a haven for artists over the years, the walls of Mars Bar were a constantly evolving canvas. With its closing imminent, it felt like an appropriate time to document the elements of Mars Bar that made it a truly unique part of the East Village community.”
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Stephen Morgan

Stephen Morgan

Mark Riffee The city’s expanded smoking ban applies to city parks, including Tompkins Square Park where these smokers were lighting up.

When City Council members voted the other day for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest anti-smoking bill there was urgent debate for and against the legislation, which bans cigarette smoking in all New York City parks, certain public “plazas” (Times Square, for instance), and on all of its public beaches. Some Councilmen considered the bill to be a vital public health measure. Others, like Manhattan’s Robert Jackson, warned that such laws move us toward “a totalitarian society.”

But no worries. If Mr. Bloomberg signs the bill as expected, East Villagers will be able to enjoy the sanctuary of Tompkins Square Park this summer – safe in the knowledge that they can sit on a bench and talk for hours on cell phones, bang on bongos until sundown, or practice their scales on a tuneless guitar while others are trying to read – without even a wisp of silent smoke to poison their cacophonous idylls.

And if smokers do wish to smoke, they may leave the park, as if it were an unusually large restaurant, and indulge themselves on the periphery. In time, the subsequent clotting and befouling of the sidewalks around the park might understandably irritate pedestrians, thus leading to a new ban. Eventually, smokers may be forced to take their chances and light up in the middle of the road.

It is undeniable that smoking is harmful to one’s health and there is ample evidence that smokers can indeed quit. Well, at least some of them can. Perhaps even most. But certainly not all. Certain stubborn souls just can’t, or won’t, shake the habit. Then there are schizophrenics, the bipolar types, the deeply depressed, and others to whom cigarettes are a crucial crutch.
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Crystal BellAfter years of complaining about the rat problem in this vacant lot on East First Street, residents will welcome the BMW Guggenheim Lab to the site this summer.

For Ann Shostrom, a local artist and resident of 35 East First Street, the constant screams and shrieks outside her window have become a nightly lullaby. No, her block isn’t particularly violent or dangerous, but it does have a huge problem, or more like thousands of little, scampering ones.

The residents on the block all seem to agree that the rat infestation on First Street between First and Second Avenues is the worst they have ever seen. And chances are if you’ve walked past the vacant lot located on 33 East First Street, then you probably feel the same way.

“I’m so acquainted with the rats now that I’m not afraid of them anymore,” said John Bowman, a professor at Pennsylvania State University and Ms. Shostrom’s husband. “We start to recognize some of them. There’s a big guy I call Bruno. But there are just so many of them. Kids on the block have had a rat safari. It’s dangerous.”

So Ms. Shostrom and her husband decided to take action and in 2008, created First Street Green, a grassroots organization dedicated to cleaning up the lot and turning into a community sculpture park. They raised funds through summer bake sales, art shows and benefits, but progress was slow. But their project received an unexpected boost last year, when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, decided that the block’s eyesore was the perfect place for their 5,000-square-foot traveling urban lab.

“They have money, and we need something done about the site,” said Ms. Shostrom. “With this economy, the city doesn’t have the money and the Parks Department certainly doesn’t have the money, so this was just perfect for the community.”
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