Carl Guadalupe Physical Graffiti, a vintage clothing store located in a building that was featured on a Led Zeppelin album cover (below) and in a Rolling Stones music video, will soon close and re-open next month as a tea shop.

A lonely pink high heel lay atop a basket of embroidered scarves, its beautiful gold toe pointing away from a box marked “Moving and Storage.”

Outside, on St. Marks Place, it was raining; inside Physical Graffiti, a vintage clothing store, which occupies a landmark site on the block between First Avenue and Avenue A, workers were packing up the contents of the shop.

The clothing store is closing its doors after 16 years because of the bad economy, but will re-open in March as a loose leaf tea shop under a slightly different name – Physical Graffi-tea – and the same management.

“It’s so sad but there is just no market for the clothes,” said Ilana Malka, 45, the store’s owner.

“Teas are affordable,” she said. “People eat and drink anyway even when the economy is bad and there are a lot of people out there who are looking for good fresh loose tea.”

On Wednesday Ms. Malka was busy packing boxes along with Holden Bucy, 24, a seamstress who had worked at the store for the past year. Ms. Malka picked up some of her favorite pieces that were still on display— a yellow taffeta dress and a 1950’s Persian fur coat, as Ms. Bucy filled bags with men’s collared shirts.

“Everyone was concerned that we were closing,” said Ms. Malka, reminiscing as she made her way past boxes holding in her hand the floor plan for the new shop. “But a lot of people are also excited about the teas.”
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Vivienne Gucwa

Good morning, East Village.

After a few miserable days of rain, snow, and ice, we’re going to get some sun today. Unfortunately, temperatures won’t rise above freezing, according to The Weather Channel, so keep an eye out for ice.

According to DNAinfo, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation has urged the designers of the Astor Place and Cooper Square project to better recognize the historic significance of the area in their plans. In a letter to the Public Design Commission, the preservation advocates asked that old Native American and Dutch roadbeds, which date back as far as 1639, be maintained.

Having trouble eating healthily and cheaply? Check out NearSay’s guide to reasonably priced vegetarian restaurants and grocery stores in the East Village and Lower East Side.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposed an overhaul yesterday of New York’s pension system, which would require new municipal workers to work for at least 10 years to receive pension checks at age 65, eight years after most workers begin receiving them now. Read the full story in The Times.

Call in the canines. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development is looking for a pair of bedbug-sniffing dogs to help inspect buildings throughout the city, DNAinfo reports. In a 2008 University of Florida study, dogs located the bugs and their eggs with a success rate of up to 98 percent. They might consider reaching out for this pooch.

Meredith Hoffman The Ukrainian Sports Club, a hub for emigres for four decades, is set to close soon. Citing a membership of 20 people, club organizers say that it can no longer continue with an $80,000 annual property tax bill and the $25,000 per year cost of insurance.

From his barstool at the Ukrainian Sports Club, Ozzy Verbitsky yelled a message to his fellow Ukrainian-Americans on a recent evening, “There’s no more club anymore! We’re finished!”  Then he shook his head mournfully and turned back to the bar.

Though other members wore less visible despair, most turned glum at the mention of the club’s future. The space on Second Avenue near Seventh Street, which has been owned and occupied by the “Ukrainian sports fraternity” since 1972, was put on the rental market last week, due to the club’s financial struggle. Already, 15 interested businesses have responded, said real estate broker Gary Rubinstein.

“This is a unique opportunity because of size and location,” said Mr. Rubinstein, who listed the price for the 3,150-square-foot ground floor space at $26,500 per month. “A major change is coming to the building.”

That change will leave old-timers like John Kowal, 85, and recent immigrants like Jerry Gritsik, 57, searching for a new spot to play cards each night.

In a vast room covered with soccer photos and old trophies, Mr. Kowal looked up from his four-person game but continued to grip his cards as he spoke.

“The old timers die, there are very few people left,” said Mr. Kowal, who was around at the club’s founding and during its soccer championship in the U.S. Open Cup in 1965. “But so far we still exist.”
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Meredith HoffmanA new series of programs offered by the Educational Alliance for those 55 and older include lessons in ballroom dancing, tai chi and yoga. Here, Marcy Simon, who directs the program, leads a class.

There were lessons in zumba, ballroom dancing, karaoke, ceramics, and tap dance. Some people were learning tai chi and yoga. Others were taking part in poetry readings or Chinese dance sessions.

Many might assume that a place offering those programs was some ultramodern studio targeting this year’s crop of college students. In fact, these are just some of the new programs being offered by the Educational Alliance’s specifically for older adults. And no, they do not offer bingo.

The East Village Center for Balanced Living is located in the Sirovich Center on 12th Street between First and Second Avenues (similar programs are also available at the Whittaker Center on East Broadway). The center believes that just because people qualify for the breakfast special, this doesn’t mean that their health and wellness shouldn’t remain a vital aspect of their day. “It is about finding ways to challenge people as they get older, not feeding into it,” said Marcy Simon, the director and founder of the center.
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Gloria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

Staten Island Chuck, New York City’s groundhog meteorologist in residence, may not see his shadow today—freezing rain will continue to fall from overcast skies throughout the morning, according to Accuweather—but it’s hard to imagine winter will end any time soon.

Check out the City Room’s look back on 110 years of Groundhog Day coverage at The Times.

The proposed redesign of Astor Place and Cooper Square is causing trouble on a variety of fronts, Curbed reports. Nearby residents are worried that rowdy crowds would loiter late at night in the expanded Cooper Triangle and a new, thin plaza called the Village Square. On top of that, the plans for Astor Place interfere with an old Native American trail. Check out these renderings at The Architects Newspaper.

According to Real Estate Weekly, the owners of 35 Cooper Square, Arun Bhatia Development Organization, have not yet decided if they will demolish the building, which housed the Asian Pub until a few days ago. A spokesperson for the development group said a decision would likely be made within three or four weeks.

Colin Moynihan

The perils of the snowy season can take several different forms. There are the tall, thick drifts that entomb cars and end up forming ramparts that line the sidewalks. There is the gray slush that forms as those drifts melt, coalescing into pools and puddles – some of them deceptively deep – at intersections. And then there is perhaps the most subtle and hazardous result of the sorts of heavy snowfalls the East Village has been experiencing lately: slippery sidewalks coated with a thin sheet of ice.

This phenomenon typically occurs when sidewalks have not been shoveled completely clean. As temperatures drop, the remaining bits of snow harden into a slick surface that can send pedestrians sprawling. What’s worse, it is sometimes difficult to see when an icy stretch of sidewalk lies ahead. There are occasions when that realization comes accompanied almost simultaneously by a sudden loss of balance.

New York City law requires that landlords and businesses clear sidewalks, but anybody who has walked along the streets of New York City knows that some take that responsibility more seriously than others.

Temperatures tonight are expected to be below 30 degrees. Freezing rain is also forecast. As you walk – or slide – to work or to school tomorrow please take note of areas that seem particularly difficult or dangerous to navigate. Take a picture if you can, and remember the address. Then send the information in to us. We’ll do our best to look into whatever we hear about.

E-mail address: editor@thelocaleastvillage.com.

Tim Milk An artist’s rendering of Charlotte Canda.

She was swept inside from out of the gloom and crowned with 17 roses. It would be, despite the weather, her happiest birthday ever, or so her friends had thought. Singing and dancing ensued, while a great storm, like an ogre, shook the panes and doors with the devil’s own passion. Each colossal display of its might caused the celebrants to thrill and delight ever louder in singing their songs.

She was born on Feb. 3, 1828 in New York, and thereafter forsaken until her adoption by Charles and Adele Canda, notables of the local French Quarter. The Candas, it seems, were childless, and so they took in this girl as their own, and duly named her Charlotte.

As the years went by, Charlotte astounded one and all. By age 13 she could speak five languages and sketch like Da Vinci. The finishing school her parents ran on Lafayette Place became famous to have such a star pupil, and soon the whole town was smitten with the attractive lass. They lovingly called her “The French Girl.”

Vivacious Charlotte was known to keep a whole aviary of parrots, a teeming flock of friends, and a standing army of admiring boys. She drew the attention of the clergy, socialites, and, yes, politicians, who found in her smile that rare and shining light that flatters even scoundrels if only they should stand nearby.

By age 16 she had scored her beau, a young French nobleman, and they were soon engaged.

Tim Milk Charlotte Canda’s tomb at Green-wood Cemetery, which she designed for her aunt who had died only months before.

But in the bleak November of 1844, her adoring aunt Clemence died at age 26. Charlotte was devastated. She took refuge in Old St. Pat’s, and amidst its gothic tracery found inspiration to sketch a fairy tale castle for Clemence. But she, in her grief, let no one see it, and hid the drawing in her desk.

On the evening of Feb. 3, 1845, Charlotte’s 17th birthday, a great Nor’easter swept in off the sea, a maelstrom of sleet and hail. Charlotte’s friends nonetheless showed up at her house, to entice her to a party. Her mother forbid it, but Charlotte insisted, and so Mr. Canda conceded to chaperone.

At the close of this happy soiree, she and her father drove her girlfriend home to Waverly Place. The coachman tossed the reins across the seat, dismounted, and let Mr. Canda escort the girl inside. Meanwhile he stamped his frozen feet, and his team shook the heavy sleet from their manes.

Suddenly, inexplicably, the horses spooked, and off they charged with Charlotte still in the carriage. As it rounded the corner, she was thrown out and onto Broadway.

Witnesses from a nearby hotel then dashed out to carry The French Girl inside. There, just before midnight, she gave a smile, and then she died.

Her parents later found Charlotte’s fairy tale castle, and it became her tomb. Today, at Green-Wood, it still encloses their daughter’s likeness, where on her face, in certain lights, you can sometimes glimpse that one last smile.

Meredith Hoffman Writer Laurie Kamens gets make-up advice.

It felt unnatural. I arched my foot backwards, gracefully pointing my toes, pushed out my chest, and forced a cheesy grin. Posing as a pin-up model was proving harder work than the smiling, curly-headed girls of the 1940’s and 50’s made it look.

“If it feels comfortable, you’re doing it wrong,” Bettina May said as we started mugging for the camera.

A professional pin-up model and burlesque dancer, Ms. May has been teaching her Pin-Up Class for the past five years, giving contemporary women a tutorial in vintage make up and hair, complete with a personalized photo shoot at the end.

Bettina May removes curlers.

Popularized by movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page, and Rita Hayworth, the classic pin-up look, defined by Ms. May as, “red lips, black eyeliner and a big smile,” is now an iconic image of feminine beauty and sex appeal.

Held at Beauty Bar on 14th Street, the class I attended was intimate, six women including myself. A perfect setting, the converted beauty parlor is decorated with swiveling chairs and display cases holding dusty hairbrushes and expired beauty products. As we settled into the vinyl salon chairs, Buddy Holly playing softly in the background, Ms. May asked why we had signed up for the class and what we hoped to take away from it.

There was Kim, 47, a mother of two, who became interested in pin-up culture through themed events she helped organize. Her enthusiasm reached so far that she brought along a friend, Marcela, 36. Also recommended by a friend was Margaret, 27. Swing dancing since high school, she was looking for a vintage hair and make up style to match her dance moves.

Hailing from Texas, Lorraine, 30, was a one-time hairstylist who was looking to fill a gap in her professional knowledge, as well as make a personal connection; “I’ve recently been looking at pictures of my grandmother and I kind of resemble her,” she said. “I remembered seeing some of her outfits in my dad’s closet. I just want to start presenting myself in a glamorous way.”

Then there was Amy who, though 37, looked as if she was in her early 20’s with a pixie haircut and a bubbly personality to match. After a long-standing fascination with vintage glamour, she was excited to resemble the pin-up girls she had plastered on the walls of her apartment. Read more…

Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

According to the Weather Channel, we can expect a steady mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain, which will bring three to six inches of accumulation between now and tomorrow evening. The National Weather service has issued a winter storm warning that will remain in effect until 7 p.m. tomorrow. Meanwhile, The Times reports, a grand jury is still trying to clean up the Sanitation Department slowdown mess from the Dec. 26 blizzard.

The city’s Parks Department is looking for restaurant vendor proposals for the kiosk at the corner of East First Street and First Avenue, according to DNAinfo. Veselka, the Ukrainian restaurant that has occupied the space for the past five years, may be moving out when its contract runs out in June. The Parks Department has said that the ideal eatery will be affordable and will “incorporate ethnically diverse and/or healthy food choices, such as salads, fresh fruit, yogurt, nuts, granola bars, protein bars, bottled water, juices, smoothies, etc.” Bids are due by March 4.

In local history today, EV Grieve looks back at the old Salvation Army building over the years before a new boutique hotel and restaurant takes its place at the corner of East Third and Bowery. Finally, the Community Board 3 Economic Development Committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. today at 59 East Fourth Street. The Local will be in attendance.

Vivienne Gucwa Protesters outside the Continental bar Saturday. The bar’s owner, Trigger Smith, said that he was willing to meet to discuss concerns about discrimination at the bar.

The owner of the Continental Bar, which is being investigated by the City Human Rights Commission, told demonstrators who gathered outside the bar on Saturday night that he would meet with them to discuss their grievances.

Since December, members of the ANSWER coalition have held protests outside the bar, saying that its bouncers have enforced a discriminatory policy that has barred some African-American patrons. In the past, the bar’s owner, Trigger Smith, has denied that the door policies were meant to keep out any particular group, but on Saturday, he emerged to say that he was willing to hold a dialogue.

Some protesters welcomed the offer, but others said they would reserve judgment.

Jeanette Caceres, a lead organizer with the ANSWER Coalition, said she was heartened that Mr. Smith was “at least showing in words that he wants to meet,” but said she has “yet to see” if he will follow through with his statement. She said that Mr. Smith  offered to meet with protesters in his bar during the picket, but the group preferred to wait and meet in a more “neutral” location.

Danny Shaw, a professor at the City University of New York said that he didn’t think it would be appropriate to meet inside the bar because its  “ambiance is not conducive to a serious sit-down about issues so intense.” Mr. Shaw, who teaches a class on cultural diversity, brought his students, some of whom, he said, had discussed friends’ complaints of being denied entrance to the bar.

Like Ms. Caceres, Mr. Shaw called Saturday’s picket “successful” but said he found Mr. Smith’s demeanor to be “mocking” and “sarcastic.” At one point in the evening, he said, Mr. Smith had joined in the chanting with the protesters.

“It was tongue-in-cheek,” Mr. Smith said of what he called his “dancing and cheering” at the picket. In a more serious tone, he acknowledged that the protesters’ “issues are legitimate” because “there’s racism in the world.”

Mr. Smith also said he is willing to meet somewhere “neutral,” with members of the group but said he did not want to meet with Ms. Caceres. He said that Ms. Caceres asked that Mr. Smith meet at the Answer office, a request that he called “irrational.”

And, as he has in the past, Mr. Smith stated that his door policy is not motivated by prejudice.

“I told them I supported Barack Obama,” he said adding that the bar’s dress code, which he said does not allow “baggy saggy jeans or bling” is not racist.

“Some minorities wear them more than others,” he said.

The picket, which ended at 9 p.m. – an hour earlier than scheduled because of the freezing weather, had “no effect” on business, Mr. Smith said, although one protester, Armide Pierre, said some potential customers “walked away” from the bar after she handed them flyers.

After the rally, Mr. Smith reflected in the warmth of his bar, where customers drank and mingled. “I’ve been here 19 years,” Mr. Smith said as a customer stood at the bar and order one of the house specials – five shots of liquor for $10.

Courtesy of Rose Keefe. ‘Monk’ Eastman.

Eleven days ago, the arrest of nearly 125 mobsters reacquainted many to the fact that the mob still has life outside of the occasional H.B.O. series.  Federal officials labeled the bust “the largest mob roundup in F.B.I. history,” and once the media got ahold of the accused’s food-centric monikers – here’s lookin’ at you “Junior Lollipops” – curiosity ensued.

Americans have a longstanding fascination with the mob. As Eric Ferrara, director of the Lower East Side History Project puts it, “The outlaw is timeless. They have a certain brazen quality that people tend to admire.”

In light of recent gangster coverage, The Local thought it might be the perfect time to take a look at one of the East Village’s own “brazen” outlaws – one with whom you may not even be acquainted.

Before Al Capone, before Luciano, and definitely before “Tony Bagels,” the gangster to be feared and admired was “Monk” Eastman.

Born Edward Eastman in 1873, the mobster known as “Monk” was a frightening figure to behold. As the historian Herbert Asbury described, “He began life with a bullet-shaped head.” He was broken-nosed, bull-necked, and had a face scarred from smallpox and a lifetime of brawling.

In the 1890’s, the Lower East Side was a warren of disease-friendly tenements for the immigrated poor and, by all accounts, its streets were a breeding ground for pickpockets, thugs, and slummers of all stripes.

It was on these same mean streets that Mr. Eastman carved out a reputation as a neighborhood tough and eventually recruited his own gang: the Eastmans.
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Liz Wagner Homeless and needy line up for free lunch outside Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish on East Ninth Street and Avenue B. The pastor of the church says that its soup kitchen is being stretched thin by an uptick in need.

Joey Ortiz has been coming to Trinity Lower East Side Parish on Ninth Street and Avenue B for a hot lunch nearly every weekday for two years. He’s been struggling to make ends meet since he lost his job working in an optometrist’s office at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. One recent afternoon, he stood in the soup kitchen line for 20 minutes with dozens of people in front of and behind him. While Mr. Ortiz says he has never been denied a meal, he wonders how long the church will be able to feed an increasing number of hungry New Yorkers.

“You see how many people,” Mr. Ortiz said pointing to the growing line. “There is not enough food. There is more need.”

Pastor Phil Trzynka says Trinity’s nonprofit, Services and Food for the Homeless, Inc., is seeing more needy people now than ever before, but can still meet the demand. He says the soup kitchen, which provides lunches Monday through Friday, serves 235 meals a day — up from 150 meals five years ago. But Mr. Trzynka also says the church’s budget is $30,000 less than what it was last year because government grant money and individual donations are down. He says the Lutheran parish which serves all denominations and has operated a soup kitchen since the 1950’s, is being stretched thin.

“We have no funds to draw on anymore,” he said. “This year will be a year to decide how the program will continue.”
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Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

Cooper 35 Asian Pub is closed, Bowery Boogie reports. Drinks were served for the last time on Saturday night, just one day after a rally to protest planned development at the site of the historic 35 Cooper Square. EV Grieve has posted a link to a petition you can sign to urge the Landmarks Preservation Committee to grant the building a designation that would prevent construction at the site. Nearly 1,100 people have attached their names so far.

George Condo, a prominent artist in the East Village in the 1980’s, has a new exhibit called “Mental States” at the New Museum. NearSay gives a taste of the artist’s idiosyncratic representation of the human psyche, which will be on display until May 8.

Want to see the New York that could have been? Check out David W. Dunlap’s “The City’s Future That Never Was” in The Times. The United Nations center could have been in Flushing Meadow Park, bridges could have traveled over and through skyscrapers, and the Jets could have called Hudson Yards home.

Brace yourself: New York’s snowiest winter is showing no signs of slowing down. Accuweather says to expect another two to five inches between tonight and Wednesday evening.

Suzanne Rozdeba David Mulkins, chair of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, speaks at a demonstration this evening in support of a landmark designation for 35 Cooper Square. The designation would prevent development at the site.

Holding signs that said “Build Memories, Not Luxury Hotels” and “Save Cooper Square’s Oldest Building,” about 100 people, many of them East Village residents, gathered in front of 35 Cooper Square today in a rally supporting the designation of the site as a historic landmark.

“We’re here today because this is one of the most significant buildings on this street. This is the oldest building on Cooper Square. If you lose this building, Cooper Square loses a much earlier sense of its history,” David Mulkins, chair of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, which organized the rally, told the crowd, which included a handful of children from The Children’s Aid Society holding a sign that said, “Make 35 Cooper Square a Landmark.” The rally, which started at 4:30 p.m., lasted about 45 minutes.

The alliance is circulating a petition asking for supporters to urge the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the site as a historic site; more than 700 signatures have been collected so far. The building was sold for $8.5 million in November.

Mr. Mulkins, holding a sign with pictures of Cooper Square from the late 1880’s and early 1900’s, mentioned the site’s next-door neighbor, the Cooper Square Hotel, saying, “If we have this kind of out-of-scale, out-of-context development, we are destroying the sense of place that we get in these historic neighborhoods.”

The building at the current site, which houses the popular Cooper 35 Asian Pub, has a rich history that should not be destroyed, said State Senator Thomas K. Duane, whose 29th District includes the East Village. “There’s so little left of our beloved Village, of the history we are proud of. To risk losing a piece of that, even just one building, is tragic. We need the Landmark Commission to get this building on the calendar, and we need to preserve it.”

Assemblywoman Deborah J. Glick, who was also at the rally, said,  “We will continue to fight to landmark this essential part of New York’s history. I believe that people raising their voices will overcome the attempt of the administration to ignore us. Today is a great representation that we are standing together. We will fight until we win.”

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Over the years, contributors to the political publication World War 3 Illustrated have created art and written about 1980’s guerilla war in Central America, the demonstrations that disrupted 1999 meetings of the World Trade Organization in Seattle and the ravages visited upon New Orleans in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.

But the geographic entity that features most prominently in the history of the publication is the East Village. That is where the artists Seth Tobocman and Peter Kuper came up in 1980 with the title World War 3, which was based upon the idea that the United States has been involved since the Cold War in a nearly constant string of military conflicts.  (Armed warfare and civil unrest are not the publication’s sole subjects: “WW3 also illuminates the war we wage on each other and sometimes the one taking place in our own brains,” its website notes.)

Mr. Tobocman, who has participated in exhibitions at ABC No Rio and the Museum of Modern Art, lives to this day in the East Village.  So do several other World War 3 contributors like Mac McGill, Fly, and James Romberger.  It comes as little surprise, then, that stories and images related to the neighborhood play a significant part in a World War 3 retrospective at Exit Art called Graphic Radicals that runs until Feb. 5.
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Meredith Hoffman Porchetta, 110 East Seventh Street.

The supreme realization, or maybe the reductio ad absurdum, of the East Village nano-scale restaurant is the place which serves only one item, and has no room to do anything other than order that one thing. In this regard, I would say that the echt East Village establishment is Porchetta, a shoebox at 110 East Seventh Street, between First and A. It is at least theoretically possible to eat something there other than porchetta – a roast pork sandwich – though it’s hard to see why you would; and you can squeeze onto a stool at the counter, though you’re liable to get trampled by the foot traffic if you do.

What is porchetta that one should make so much of it? Sara Jenkins, the founder, owner and master chef, explains that, in classic form, porchetta is a whole, slow-roasted pig stuffed with herbs and innards, and then encased in its own belly to produce a rich outer layer of crispy fat. Porchetta is street food, and served only in the form of a sandwich consisting of a thick slab of pork and its surrounding fat.
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Rachel Citron

Good morning, East Village.

Another inch of snow is on its way, according to Accuweather, but with the mountains of white out there already, we may not even notice. If you’re sick of the weather, check out the nation’s 5 coldest cities for consolation. Number 1, according to the Weather Channel? Barrow, Alaska. Its population is a tenth that of our neighborhood, but nearly half their days are below zero, and think of how few cafes they have for respite from that cold.

Apparently, the snow won’t deter East Village activists, with two demonstrations planned – a rally at 4:30 this afternoon to protest planned development at the historic 35 Cooper Square and a picket tomorrow night at 8 over allegations of bias at the Continental bar.

Also out in full force will be 3,000 volunteers counting the homeless throughout the city, this Sunday night with HOPE NYC, the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate.

Who else will be winding through the snow-swirled streets? Well, DNAinfo suggests, red-tailed hawks are actually on the rise, and may just be the answer to our rat predicament.

If you’re looking for local – indoor – activities, you may want to tuck into the Bowery Poetry Club Sunday for David Amram’s 80th birthday celebration. Mr. Amram, a noted musician and author who performed with the likes of Jack Kerouac, will be performing at 8 p.m.

A slideshow of images of today’s snowstorm by NYU Journalism’s Suzanne Rozdeba and community contributor J.B. Nicholas.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Gloria Chung After yet another big snowfall, residents of the East Village shoveled, played and improvised their way through the day.

Once again the snow has put a wrench in the daily lives of East Villagers. The subways are slow, the corners are drenched in slush, and so are our shoes.

In light of all this immobility, we thought we’d ask some of the people most directly affected by the weather – retailers feeling the effects of meager foot traffic, school children with a suddenly free day and older East Villagers – to weigh in on how the snowy tundra is affecting their lives.

Here are a few snapshots from a snowbound Thursday:

Meltzer Towers Senior Center

Meredith Hoffman Mary Williams and Lulu, a Maltese puppy, prepare to brave the elements.

Holding her heart-fleece coated Maltese pup, today Mary Williams walked into the bustling lobby of the Meltzer Towers Senior Center and shared news from the outside world’s snowy craters.

“Don’t go out the back — the snow went up to my knee!” Ms. Williams, 68, warned the other residents of the center, a public housing building on First Street and First Avenue. Despite the “awful day,” Ms. Williams had taken her dog, Lulu, out to play, because “we love the snow.”

But Ms. Williams’ fearless spirit was unmatched in most other residents, who said the inclement conditions would confine them to their building all day. And with even boisterous twentysomething’s falling in muck on street corners, who could blame older East Villagers?

Another resident sitting in the lobby of the senior center, Iris Sweiberg, 68, shivered with her back to the snow and recalled her 6 a.m. excursion outdoors as if it were an intrepid adventure.

“Everything was dark,” Ms. Sweiberg said. “I thought I was going to fall, it was so slippery.” Ms. Sweiberg had walked to the subway in an attempt to get to her job at the Medicaid building on 34th Street and Eighth Avenue. Since the trains weren’t running, she’d returned home, for a holiday — without pay, she lamented.

Perhaps Maria Montalvo, an East Village resident who slowly made her way down East Sixth Street this morning, said it best.

“When I see this kind of weather, I say ‘I want to go back to Puerto Rico!’”—Meredith Hoffman
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