Right next to the incoming Japanese restaurant, Whole Earth Bakery is the subject of a Lucky Ant fundraising campaign: “By helping out the Whole Earth Bakery in this time of need, you are working to ensure the oldest vegan bakery in NYC stays open for many years to come. Take that Sandy!” [Lucky Ant via East Village East East Village]
Michael Sinensky, a Rockaways native, is giving Rockaway bartenders shifts (and a percentage of sales) at his Union Square joint sideBar. [DNA Info]
The pop-up project that the project that Nom Wah Tea Parlor’s Wilson Tang and Jon Daou of Openhouse Gallery are bringing to 168 Bowery will be in “a former subway station–glossy McNally-esque tiles, creepy staircase leading underground, and old phone booth included.” [Zagat] Read more…
Dana VarinskyStudents occupying the school’s Peter Cooper Suite Skype into a community summit downstairs in the Great Hall.
A dozen Cooper Union students currently occupying the school’s Foundation Building were met with an enthusiastic round of applause when they joined a community summit via Skype this evening.
During their brief appearance, they urged their peers, who had gathered for a series of presentations about higher education and student debt, to continue protesting tonight and throughout the day tomorrow.
The occupiers also informed summit attendees about a document, reprinted below, that came into their possession, which outlines four possible plans for implementing undergraduate tuition. Read more…
A dozen Cooper Union students barricaded themselves inside the school’s Foundation Building earlier today, refusing to leave until their demands for free education are met.
“We’re trying to bring awareness of the scandal that is happening. The mismanagement by the board is putting us in strains,” said organizer Jake Lee, a fifth-year thesis student in the architecture program of the art and engineering school.
Students for a Free Cooper Union issued a statement earlier today announcing that they would continue to occupy the Peter Cooper Suite, on the top floor of the building, until President Jamshed Bharucha agreed to resign and the administration agreed to stopped pursuing tuition-based educational programs. Read more…
St. Marks Places may have lost Natori, but it’s gaining another Japanese spot.
In the next couple of weeks, Kura will begin serving sushi and sashimi at a 10-seat counter in the former home of Mohamed Falfel Star, at 130 St. Marks Place.
Huey Cheng, who is involved in the project, told The Local that Kura (meaning a place to store valuables) will be open daily for lunch and dinner.
An early sample menu submitted to Community Board 3 included items such as tuna with grated mountain yam, clams cooked in a sake broth, grilled duck, fried oysters, and various assorted vegetable dishes.
The holiday season officially begins this Sunday. That’s right: the Holiday Tree will be lit at 4 p.m., according to the Tompkins Square Park Conservancy.
Unlike the tree that all the tourists love uptown, ours didn’t have to be chopped down and trucked in: Albert Fabozzi, president of the Tompkins Square Park Neighborhood Coalition, planted the evergreen two decades ago in memory of his boyfriend Glenn Barnett, a victim of A.I.D.S.
The tree lighting isn’t the only bit of holiday cheer this weekend: Saturday a newer tradition, the Ugly Sweater Pub Crawl, kicks off at Village Pourhouse at 3 p.m. $5 gets you $2 beers and two-for-one drinks until 11 p.m.
Still have another stocking to stuff after last week’s half-dozen recommendations? Here are six more gift-ready items that were made right here in the East Village.
7. Credit Card Case with Change Purse for Men, $98 Jutta Nuemann New York Inc. 355 East Fourth Street, at Avenue D
Visitors to Ms. Nuemann’s tiny store must first walk through her production space, where she crafts colorful leather pieces. Read more…
On Friday we showed you the latest cycle of the Centre-Fuge Public Art Project as it kicked off on East First Street. Saturday we headed back as the epic collaboration came together. See our shots below, and check back later for more. See the photos…
Spain Rodriguez, the legendary cartoonist who got his start at the East Village Other, has died of cancer at the age of 72, according to The Times. “It’s close to impossible for me to find the words to express how important Crumb, Wilson, Rodriquez and Bill Griffith were in helping to alter the ways in which teenyboppers like myself viewed the world,” says Dangerous Minds.
“An East Village 11-year-old was handcuffed and taken into custody last month after strolling into MS 345 on the Lower East Side with a play pistol — a black plastic prop given to him by an after-school theater company.” [NY Post]
A new exhibit of Tenement Museum replicates Schneider’s Lager Beer Saloon, a saloon that “provided everything a patron needed: a glass of their favorite German lager, free home cooking, and a connection to the community.” [Epoch Times] Read more…
Yup, it’s the latest cycle of Centre-Fuge on East First Street: for the sixth time since 2011, artists like Adam Kidder, Lexi Bella, and a host of others spent yesterday and today reimagining the construction trailer between First and Second Avenue, this time with help from the kids at Cre8tive YouTH*ink.
We’ll bring you more photos after they’ve finished their work tomorrow; in the meantime, enjoy the makings of this last bimonthly installment of the year. And don’t worry: the project’s creators, Pebbles Russell and Jonathan Neville, have announced it will be back for six more cycles in 2013. Read more…
The new owners of a former Hot and Crusty on 63rd Street have agreed to rehire employees who picketed the store this summer. But the battle isn’t over at a former Hot and Crusty on 14th Street, where at least one worker claims management continues to threaten employees.
In May, 13 workers at a Hot and Crusty on 63rd Street filed a lawsuit alleging that the bakery’s owners – Paul Pappas, Evangelos Gavalas, and several others – failed to pay overtime or minimum wage, demanded kickbacks, and required deliverymen to buy and repair their own bicycles. (The suit was settled by the end of the summer.)
That same month, workers voted to form a union. In August, the owners announced they were shutting down the store. Employees alleged the closure was retaliatory and began picketing the store on its last day. Their colleagues at Hot and Crusty’s 14th Street location joined them in passing out flyers that alleged, among other things, that one employee was called a “fat idiot” by management.
Just how much business did Halloween Adventure lose when Sandy forced it to close during its busiest season?
Tony Bianchi, 67, who has managed the store for over 15 years, told The Local, “We’ve lost at least half a million dollars, and that’s putting it conservatively.”
Still, with SantaCon scheduled for Dec. 15, the store is hoping a horde of drunken Clauses will take some of the coal out of its stocking.
The massive costume and makeup store, located at 104 Fourth Avenue, closed its doors at 5 p.m. on Oct. 28 so that staffers could get home before the subway shutdown. The next day, it lost power for five days.
Mr. Bianchi considered opening and using headlamps to navigate inside but, ultimately he decided it would have been too dangerous. The subsequent closure, he said, created a “financial mess.”
“It’s sort of like FAO Schwartz or Macy’s being closed on Christmas,” he said. Read more…
Preservationists want Douglas Steiner to keep Mary Help of Christians Church standing when he brings a residential development to a lot between East 11th and 12th Streets.
“We’re really tremendously concerned about this church. It’s one of the great buildings in the East Village,” said Richard Moses, president of the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative. “We’d like to see if there’s a way to incorporate preservation into his plans. Demolishing it would be a terrible loss for the East Village, and for the city.”
Mr. Moses said his group will once again ask the Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider protecting the church. The Preservation Initiative, along with the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, is also requesting a meeting with Mr. Steiner, who bought the church property for $41 million two weeks ago.
Mr. Moses said he wanted to see the “desires of the community” incorporated into the developer’s plans, which call for an 80/20 percent mix of market-rate and affordable housing. “In terms of preservation, we’d like to sit down with him in a positive spirit to discuss this challenging but potentially extremely rewarding development,” he said.
Yesterday, Diana Timmons, who has lived steps away from the church since 1983, mailed a letter asking the Landmarks Preservation Commission to evaluate it. “I am outraged that I have to go to the L.P.C. on this,” she said, adding that the Commission should have proactively sought out the site as a landmark. Read more…
After a five-year battle, “Tenants and the company that controls Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the largest apartment complexes in Manhattan, reached a tentative $68.7 million settlement on Thursday, settling claims of rent overcharges since 2003.” [NY Times]
On the “grimy street” outside of Daniel Craig’s East Village apartment and at the next-door tattoo parlor, “the locals are positively falling over themselves to talk about their famous neighbor.” [The Daily Mail]
The owner of a Mobil on East Houston Street and Avenue C seemed a little nonplussed when a flash mob showed up to watch a movie about climate change get projected by the Illuminator, but everything went well. [City Room] Read more…
Sasha von OldershausenLooks like the work of a flying horse!
A star-studded film that has caused consternation among Red Hook residents is coming to the East Village.
Flyers on East Seventh Street, near Cooper Square, indicate that “Winter’s Tale” will be filmed in the area on Dec. 2.
Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman’s adaptation of Mark Helprin’s magical-realism novel — starring Russell Crowe, Will Smith, Jennifer Connelly and Colin Farrell — has already rankled some residents in Red Hook, according to CBS Local, Page Six, and others.
An owner of Sunny’s, in Brooklyn, described the oddness of watching the production while her beloved bar is still struggling to reopen. “It’s kind of strange when you’re still kind of huddling in the cold and you look at all the people eating the fancy food that you can’t cook,” Tone Balzano Johansen told NBC New York.
According to the flyer, “Winter’s Tale” is a tale of love, fantasy, and redemption set in both early-1900s and present-day New York. Vulture says it features “an angelic white horse that can actually jump five New York City blocks.” It’s doubtful you’ll see that flying horse in action, but whatever: a Skyhorse already appeared on East Seventh Street, at Jimmy’s No. 43 last night.
Expect a parking freeze on East Sixth and Seventh Streets, between Cooper Square and Second Avenue; on Taras Shevchenko Place, between East Sixth and Seventh Streets; and on a portion of Cooper Square.
“Smash” is in the neighborhood yet again. The NBC drama about the production of a Marilyn musical will be filming on St. Marks Place, between First and Second Avenue, tomorrow. Cars must be moved by 10 p.m. tonight.
Scenes will be filmed outside, but St. Marks will remain open to traffic, a locations spokesperson said. Passersby who haven’t yet tired of seeing the show filmed around the area should be able to watch from a distance.
The Bowery is getting burlesqued! Bettie Page, a boutique selling outfits inspired by the 1950s pin-up, opened Monday, right across from where Bowery Poetry Club is getting a racy makeover.
The shop at 303 Bowery is Russian fashion designer Tatyana Khomyakova’s eleventh nationwide (the original opened in Las Vegas in 2007) and her first in New York City, where it’s expected to be a flagship.
Sure, the store’s opening precedes those of Patagonia Surf, Anthropologie and Intermix, but don’t get too worried about chains taking over the Bowery. “Even though it’s corporate now, they still keep it very mom and pop,” assured Sharone Grant, an assistant manager. “We don’t want it to be stuffy.” Read more…
East Village Thai reopened Monday for the first time since a gas leak forced it to close in late September.
Paul Euiud put his restaurant’s losses at around $10,000, but said, “We’re just happy to be open.” He added that his landlord hadn’t yet offered to discount his rent, but he intended to negotiate with them.
Joann PanSigns on the shutter last month.
The tiny takeout joint was shuttered for two months while leaky gas pipes at 32 East Seventh Street were repaired. Residents had to cook with hot plates until the gas was turned back on last Wednesday.
There was little fanfare when East Village Thai reopened four days later, but customers were glad to have it back. Before it closed, Jake Lee, a fifth-year architecture student at Cooper Union, got takeout once or twice a week. “This is definitely a regular lunch spot. We’re all happy that it’s back,” he said of his fellow students. “This is always good variety and good food.”
This holiday season, support local artisans with gifts that are made right here in the East Village.
1. Feature Articles Stamp & Colorin’ Zine by Keat, $35 Casey Rubber Stamps 322 East 11th Street, between First and Second Avenues
Keat Teoh, an artist who works at Casey Rubber Stamps, designed and produced this set of facial-features stamps and coloring book with blank faces.
2. Spike Chain Bracelet by Nishi, $315 Duo 337 East Ninth Street, between First and Second Avenues
Duo is a boutique owned by sisters Wendy and LaRae Kangas. They stock young, emerging designers such as East Village based Joanna Bengo of Nishi.
3. Large Briefbag 2 Lock, $500 Village Tannery 7 Great Jones Street, between Broadway and Lafayette Street
Leather goods are handmade onsite at this tannery, where clients can custom design their own bags to their specifications. Read more…
The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards.
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