Micah Kaplan Arthur

It’s been especially trying for Micah Kaplan to find Arthur, his brown-and-white Beagle mix, lost near Cooper Square Monday right before superstorm Sandy hit.

Mr. Kaplan was taking Arthur for a walk around 3:30 p.m. that afternoon, just before the storm escalated. When he heard a loud noise, Arthur, who is shy and scares easily, slipped out of his collar and ran. Mr. Kaplan chased after him from Seventh Street and Avenue C all the way up to Cooper Square, but lost sight of him around Cooper Union. His close friend Sophie Pauz has helped him post fliers all around the East Village, in hopes someone will recognize Arthur.

“Our hope is that someone found him and has been taking care of him and maybe doesn’t have power so they haven’t been able to reach out,” Ms. Pauz said. But with power outages the past few days, and so many places closed, checking shelters for Arthur has been nearly impossible.

Micah Kaplan Arthur

“The only shelter we got into was the NYACC on 110^th,” Mr. Kaplan said. “All the others we visited were closed, but we slipped flyers under their doors.”

The Humane Society at 306 E. 59^th Street is now open regular business hours, but was closed Monday and Tuesday.

Animal Haven, at 251 Centre Street, is still without power and not open to the public, but employees have been going to the shelter every morning at 8 a.m. and staying till about 6 p.m with the animals.

Kristen Lasher, Animal Haven’s client service manager said employees have been using flashlights to make their way around the building. The best way to find out if a lost pet has been turned into Animal Haven is by sending an inquiry through their website, or on the organization’s Facebook page, she said.

Mr. Kaplan is offering a reward for Arthur’s return. If you’ve seen or heard anything regarding his whereabouts please call Mr. Kaplan at 212-221-0127.

Daniel Maurer The Wicked Willy’s party shuttle was out and about yesterday.

Good afternoon, East Village. Here’s the latest from around the neighborhood and around the Web.

Lower East Side residents are growing increasingly frustrated. [Gothamist]

Neighbors have been helping residents of housing complexes such as Haven Plaza. [DNA Info]

WNYC and Democracy Now! checked in with residents of local low-income high rises.

A Lower East Side resident set up an impromptu coffee stand. [Gawker]

A list of places to find free WiFi. [Observer]

In addition to stopping by NYU’s student center, Alec Baldwin helped out his neighbors. [Today]

Percy’s Tavern and others have been running generators and allowing customers to charge cellphones. [DNA Info]

In addition to Percy’s, Mug Lounge, Key Bar, Phoenix, and Heathers were open on East 13th Street last night. [The Local/Twitter] Bait & Hook was also operating with a generator, and offering cell phone charges.

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space is offering a free cell charging service. [MoRUS]

Theater for the New City is operating a charging station at East 10th Street, between First and Second Avenues. And NYU’s Bobst library is again offering outlets and free WiFi to the public. [The Local/Twitter]

The parties raged on at Wicked Willy’s and Le Souk. [The Daily]

Food and water have been donated to the Seward Park Coop, but concern about the development’s older residents is growing. [The Lodown]

Generators have been deployed to public housing complexes. [The Lodown]

169 Bar, Interstate Food & Liquor, and others were open last night on the Lower East Side. [The Lodown]

Robert Sietsema of The Voice checked in with local restaurant owners. [Fork in the Road]

Rai Rai Ken is giving away hot ramen today. [Twitter]

The owner of 7th Street Village Farm didn’t sleep for two days, keeping the store open during the storm. [Washington Post]

The East Village showed “signs of life amid eerie calm,” according to The Guardian.

Up and running again:
Union Square location of Whole Foods. [Twitter]
Russ & Daughters. [Twitter]
Idle Hands Bar [Twitter]
La Lucha [Twitter]
Danspace [Twitter]
Village Voice [Twitter]
Tinto Fino [Twitter]

Shows canceled:
Stomp [Twitter]
Public Theater [Twitter]
Horse Trade Theater [Twitter]
Bowery Electric [Brooklyn Vegan]

Follow The Local on Twitter as we continue to post and retweet status updates, and give us your own updates there or in the comments.

Suzanne Rozdeba

Food and water distribution sites will open throughout lower Manhattan at 3 p.m., Mayor Bloomberg and State Senator Daniel Squadron announced today.

Sites below 14th Street include:

10th Street between Avenues C and D
Catherine Street between Monroe and Cherry Streets (Smith Houses)
Pitt and Houston Streets
Grand and Clinton Streets — water only
Bowery and Division Street (Confucius Plaza)

In addition, the National Guard, NYC Service, and the Salvation Army will go door-to-door in residential high-rises in order to check on seniors and those with disabilities who have been affected by the blackout.

“For many seniors and others stuck on high floors with no water and access to medical help, we must get relief,” said Senator Squadron in a press release.

The senator’s office is maintaining an updated list of transportation and relief information here.

The city’s death toll is now at 37, the mayor said in a press conference this morning, and it is expected to rise.

Daniel Maurer Baldwin leaves the building.

Displaced NYU students got an unexpected dinner guest today, as Alec Baldwin made a star appearance at the school’s student center.

The “30 Rock” star stopped into Kimmel Center, off of Washington Square Park, around 7 p.m. tonight. “I’m an alum and John Sexton asked me to come and talk to the students, thank them for their patience,” he told The Local as he left the building, politely breaking free from a dozen students that swarmed him at the elevator.

NYU relocated about 6,000 students earlier today after back-up power ran out at their dorms, according to an e-mail from Jules Martin, the school’s Vice President for Global Security and Crisis Management. Around midday, the generator at 3rd North residence ran out of fuel, creating a “temporary smoke condition,” but power was expected to be restored this evening, the e-mail said. Displaced students are currently showering at the school’s two sports complexes.

Mr. Baldwin, who lives near Kimmel on East 10th Street, has also been displaced by the storm: he told The Local that he and his wife had moved to a friend’s hotel because his elevator was out and taking their two dogs up and down several flights of stairs “wasn’t working.” He was also out of work for two days: “the show I do,” he said, referring modestly to “30 Rock,” suspended filming on Monday and Tuesday because team members couldn’t make it to Silvercup Studios in Queens.

As soon as Mr. Baldwin made his appearance alongside school president John Sexton in the cafeteria, students charging their phones, pecking at laptops, and dining at Kimmel sent out word via Twitter.

“Alec Baldwin just came to Kimmel and told us to stay safe #YesSir,” wrote @Glenneth_Coco.

“You know those weird moments when you’re temporarily living in Kimmel and you run into Alec Baldwin?” wrote @taylorsprow.

“Thats cool Alec Baldwin came to NYU to chill, but uhh.. can you take us home with you so we can shower n sleep in your probably fancy bed?” tweeted @CinemaBite.

Ray LeMoine

As the East Village got walloped by Sandy, another force of bluster made his presence known in the neighborhood.

On Monday afternoon, as mentioned on The Local’s liveblog, Jimmy McMillan was spotted cruising the streets in his Rent Is Too Damn High-mobile, an SUV plastered with his face, an American flag, and his trademark slogan. (And did we mention the purple-lit undercarriage?) He occasionally pulled up to chat with locals.

Shortly before midnight, after the storm subsided, he was back for an encore: the power had been knocked out but a full moon made it easy to spot Mr. McMillian’s car idling on St. Marks Place. The Local knocked on his window.

“Free ice cream on First Avenue and Seventh Street, around the corner!” shouted a grinning Mr. McMillian, between scoops.

Ray LeMoine

Indeed, there was a freezer full of free ice cream at the deli at 118 First Avenue. The deli’s owner had come in at 8 p.m. to tend to the store, which was filling up with festive freeloaders.

Across the street, the owner of Stromboli’s, who used his car’s headlights to illuminate the pizzeria, said he had also given away freebies to customers who couldn’t use their credit cards while his reader was down. The Westchester resident planned to close the pizzeria around midnight and didn’t yet know where he was going to stay. He didn’t seem to concerned, though. If worse came to worse, he said, he would sleep in his car.

We’ll keep updating this post, so check back periodically.

Daniel Maurer The charging crowd at NYU Bobst.

Good afternoon, East Village. We’re writing from NYU Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South. As The Local tweeted earlier, it’s offering free WiFi and charging stations to the general public until 4 p.m. The internet connection is a lot better than at the midtown pub from which we filed yesterday’s update.

Con Edison said this morning that “customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn who are served by underground electric equipment should have power back within three days. Restoration to all customers in other areas served by overhead power lines will take at least a week.” [Con Ed]

This afternoon, Governor Cuomo announced that subway service would resume above 34th Street tomorrow, and outlined the particulars. Metro-North service has resumed on the Harlem line, but other lines are suspended. LIRR service is suspended, though Ronkonkoma and Port Washington service may be restored by tomorrow morning. Several bridges have reopened but the Hugh L. Carey and Queens Midtown Tunnel remain closed. [The Times]

The East River Ferry remains closed today, with service hopefully resuming “within the next couple of days.” [NY Waterway]

Bellevue Hospital, which has been powered by generators, is currently evacuating 500 patients. The evacuation follows that of 300 patients at NYU Langone Medical Center. [The Times]

Newark and JFK airports have reopened. Schools and parks remain closed. The national death toll is at 59, with 22 dead in the city. [The Times]

Very few people ventured onto the darkened streets of the East Village last night (shortly after midnight, The Local posted a list of businesses that were open, but only a few of them were full). There were no early reports of opportunistic crime around the city, the police said. [The Times] Read more…

Earlier we showed you Sandy hitting the East Village. Now we’ve received a batch of photos from the Lower East Side. Have some of your own? Add them to the pool.

We posted a few cell phone shots of Sandy’s aftermath yesterday. Here now are some proper photographs of the storm and its wake, by photographer and C-Squat resident Konstantin Sergeyev. Stay tuned for this morning’s update.

Konstantin Sergeyev Avenue C becomes a river.

Read more…

Daniel Maurer Bistro Truck

Here’s who was up and running (or crawling, anyway) at the witching hour, or shortly before.

ST MARKS
Grassroots Tavern
Gem Spa
St Mark’s Market

2ND AVE
2nd Ave Smoke Shop 
Heart of India 
East Village Grocery
Winebar
Yem Yem Falafel

FIRST AVE
DBA
East Village Farm
Bodega at 118 1st Ave
South Brooklyn Pizza 
Lunasa Pub
Cheap Shots
East Village Pizza
Sahara East

AVE A
Percy’s Tavern
Phoenix 
Bistro Truck
Tompkins Finest Deli
2A
Double Down

AVE B
Sunny & Annie’s
Horus
Sheen Broa
B Side

AVE C
Compo Deli Grocery
Teneleven
Fresno Deli

Did we miss anyone? Tell us in the comments.

Daniel Maurer FDR Drive near East 10th.

East Villagers woke up to waterlogged cars, downed trees, limited cell phone reception, and an acrid smell in the air – a lingering reminder of a circuit-breaker explosion at the Con Edison plant on 14th Street that preceded a blackout affecting nearly all of Manhattan south of 39th Street.

Next to the facility, on 13th Street east of Avenue C, a half dozen people attempted to dry out and jump-start cars that had been underwater hours before, as other vehicles sat in garages where water still stood above tire level. On Avenue C, a Stuy Town resident tended to a Volvo with a smashed window. The man, who did not want to be named, said he had tried to drive the car out of an underground garage after he looked out of his apartment window and saw river water beginning to gush up Avenue C.

Daniel Maurer

Within five to ten minutes, he said, the water was up to mid-thigh level. “I tried to get out of the garage and as soon as I hit the gate it was a wall of water,” he said. When he realized the water had reached his car window, he bailed out and waded through a chest-level “river,” dodging floating vehicles as he tried to get to shallower waters on 14th Street. “Cars were afloat. All I needed was one car to blow me into the wall. It was chaotic,” he said, adding that the scene became “9/11-like” when a circuit-breaker exploded at the Con Ed plant, just a block away, and plunged the neighborhood into darkness around 8:30 p.m. Read more…

It’s about time to fire up the liveblog as Hurricane Sandy moves in. We’ll keep you posted on who’s open, who’s closed, what’s up, what’s down, and any other news as this potentially unprecedented storm closes in on Zone A and beyond. Tweet at @nytlev or e-mail us and we’ll include your updates in this news stream. Upload your photos to our Flickr group and we’ll share them. We’ll also keep an eye on our Facebook page.

Daniel Maurer

Before we move on to our storm coverage, here’s a look at Lorenzo Masnah’s finished mural on the roll-down gate of Lit. The candidate at left declared a state of emergency in New York yesterday. (And we’ve already moved on to our storm coverage….)

Michael Natale/GammaBlog

Good morning, East Village.

As noted earlier this morning, fireworks followed what some described as an eerily quiet evening of anticipating Hurricane Sandy. The Times reports that the hurricane gained strength before dawn and is now producing sustained winds of 85 miles per hour. Con Edison, the paper reports, has cut off steam distribution to some buildings, since floodwater could cause pipes to burst, and will shut off two Lower Manhattan electricity networks if flooding occurs around the Battery.

As of last night more than 300 people had checked into a shelter at Seward Park High School, according to The Lo-Down.

Neighborhoodr posts a photo of an emptied bodega shelf and reminds you to tip your deliveryman.

Gallerist notes that Lower East Side galleries have canceled openings. Lower East Side Pickle Day was also rescheduled, according to Gothamist.

But enough about Sandy. Let’s talk about Betty: Racked reports that an arm of Las Vegas-based retailer Betty Paige Clothing is coming to 303 Bowery.
Read more…

NYTimes.com

Fireworks, presumably World Series-related, boomed over the East Village shortly after midnight, capping off a night of hurricane preparation and anticipation that was described as eery and sedate.

Sunday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that portions of the East Village were subject to mandatory evacuation, with adjacent areas in Alphabet City also subject to potential flooding from Hurricane Sandy, expected to hit Monday night.

“Zone A,” which is under an evacuation order, includes the areas east of Avenue B from East 14th and Ninth Streets, and east of Avenue D from East Ninth to East Houston.

DNA Info reported that some residents of Campos Plaza and Baruch Houses met the order with skepticism, and chose to disregard it. Yesterday afternoon, when the Mayor toured a shelter at Seward Park High School, just 90 people had taken refuge there, The Lo-Down reported. Read more…

The Halloween parade is over, but we’re still having fun at the run. Here’s this week’s dog-run duo.

Nicole Guzzardi

The Master: Greg Ko, an East Villager of 27 years, hits the run two or three times a day with his canine companions Boots and Brody.

The Dog: Ambrotious Brody, a.k.a. Brody, a.k.a. Bro-Bro. The 15-month-old came all the way from a breeder in Connecticut and is the third Dalmatian Mr. Ko has owned.

Favorite Food: Shoelaces, but he’ll eat anything and everything. “It goes from regular dog food, to human food, to duct tape, to iPod chargers, to glasses, contact lens cases, coffee table legs, sneakers,” said Mr. Ko.

Best Friend: Boots, a four-year-old Shepherd/Border Collie. Brody follows Boots everywhere, but it took him some time to warm up to her. “In the beginning she was like, ‘Get rid of the puppy,’” Mr. Ko laughed.

Claim to Fame: Pulling things off the shelves. Now that Brody’s getting taller, he needs to be put in a crate when Mr. Ko isn’t home: “One time he grabbed some grated cheese – all over the living room floor, he opened the container.”

Suzanne Rozdeba

Litro, the Italian restaurant that opened in May, is changing things up.

Riccardo Paletti, a native of Rome who owns the tiny spot with his brother Alessandro, said it will now be a lounge by named 308, after its location at 308 East Sixth Street, near Second Avenue.

Just how much of a lounge? Well, there will be a weekly “college party” and a weekly “model party,” he said. Tonight’s bartender is Veronika Kovarikova, who has modeled for La Perla.

“In the East Village, especially here on Sixth Street and with so many young people and students, we wanted to make it more affordable for everyone,” said Riccardo. “And here, people like more of a bar.”

The new menu features appetizers ($7 to $12) and panini ($8 to $15).

Dana VarinskyLorenzo Masnah starts work on Romney

Gritty, artsy Lit Lounge is the last place you’d expect to find Mitt Romney, but now he’ll be there every night.

Lorenzo Masnah, a Colombian-born artist who shows at Fuse Gallery, behind the Second Avenue rock bar, is painting a mural depicting the presidential candidates wearing party (get it, “party”?) hats. In between them, a witch-like figure will represent “the universe working its magic,” said Erik Foss, owner of Lit. Read more…

Dan Varinsky

As a bullying-related suicide in Staten Island swept the headlines today, students at George Jackson Academy got a lesson in how to keep their community bully-free.

In a presentation about self-defense and inner strength that included lessons in deep breathing and non-violent assertiveness, John Mirrione, a karate sensei who runs Harmony by Karate on the Upper West Side, announced the creation of the Harmony Power Foundation, a non-profit that will fund similar anti-bullying presentations around the country.

Students of the school on St. Marks Place seemed to agree that bullying isn’t a big issue for them. “Some people might need occasional reminders, but I haven’t taken part in or seen any bullying in this school,” said Kai Parris. Still, the sixth grader appreciated the anti-bullying videos Mr. Mirrione showed. “You only need to use one word to hurt somebody’s feelings,” he said. Read more…