Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong continue sorting through their archives of punk-era concert footage as it’s digitized for the Downtown Collection at N.Y.U.’s Fales Library. Today, they look back on the N.Y.C. debut of the Dead Kennedys.

Emily Armstrong Jello Biafra

For die-hard NYC punks, the West Coast seemed a little daunting. It was so bright! But in the fall of 1979, we went to Los Angeles to be on a panel at an early MTV music video conference. We stayed at the Tropicana Hotel, which was the preferred accommodation for traveling rockers. Jim Morrison and Tom Waits had lived there – on this trip, it was Nina Hagen and The Slits hanging at the pool.

Emily Armstrong Dead Kennedys luggage

After L.A., we headed up to San Francisco to do a Nightclubbing video screening at the Mabuhay Gardens. The club was right in the middle of San Francisco’s red-light district, and our hotel, the Sam Wong, was across the street from Carol Doda’s strip club. The only people who stayed at the Sam Wong were old Chinese men and punk rockers. We paid $21 for a threadbare room that overlooked Carol’s flashing neon breasts.

The next night, we caught The Offs and The Nuns at the club, and stayed up all night to catch a 6 a.m. flight home. At airport security, we met the Dead Kennedys as they headed east for their first N.Y.C. show. Airport security was nothing like it is today, but they did have a metal detector and they weren’t letting lead singer Jello Biafra off easy. He drew a crowd as he emptied his chains, rings, studded belt, boots, dog collar, and other metal into a plastic bin. We had found some new friends. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown All that’s left of the rack.

The bike rack on East Fourth Street that a scofflaw cyclist claimed as his own has been removed.

Kyle, the East Fourth Street resident who had his bike stolen from the rack last weekend, noticed that the rack was gone this morning. Sure enough, where once was an arched beam with “Private Bike Rack” painted on it there is now nothing more than six bolts in the sidewalk.

“It’s obviously a bummer that the bike rack had to go, but it’s better than having to put up with someone’s abuses,” said Kyle, who did not wish to give his last name for fear of a confrontation with the rack’s “owner.”

He added, “That guy probably wasn’t going to relent. If it were the bike rack or the guy, the only thing that would have changed is the rack.”

The Local is awaiting a response from The Department of Transportation, regarding whether it removed the rack between Avenues A and B. Back in October the department confirmed that it hadn’t installed the rack, and that it was illegal to claim it as one’s own. In fact, the department can bill whoever installed the rack for the expense of removing it. Of course, that seems unlikely given that the owner has never come forward, though rumors abound.

Update | 4:31 p.m. A spokeswoman for The Department of Transportation confirmed that workers removed the rack today, and that it had received no complaints about it since October. Read more…

Melvin FelixOutside of BRC Senior Services Center last night.

Skate or die! But only between the hours of noon and 8 p.m.

A Community Board 3 committee has recommended new hours of access that will limit the amount of time skateboarders can ride the ramps at Open Road Park. The public park, jointly operated by the neighboring East Side Community High School and the parks department, was closed last summer and then again over the winter due to concerns about drug use and noise.

At a meeting of the Parks, Recreation, Cultural Affairs, Landmarks, & Waterfront committee last night, those issues resurfaced. “Neighbors had concerns with people climbing the fence late at night and using it to skateboard and making a lot of noise,” said Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3.

Residents of the block on 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A said they didn’t mind skateboarding so long as it was regulated. Genevieve, a neighbor of the park who did not want to give her last name, complained that skaters show up as early as 7:30 a.m. and don’t leave until late at night. “The noise it creates rebounds like an echo chamber,” she said. “When you have 50 kids skateboarding back and forth, it’s just an incredible noise.”

Monique Flores, director of University Settlement’s Beacon program at East Side Community High, worried that the 250 children she regularly takes to the park were being exposed to foul language and drug use. “I’m responsible for anything that happens to those kids,” she said. “Scary things have happened there. There has to be a solution and there has to be someone who monitors.”

The schedule proposed last night would allow skateboarding on weekdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturdays from noon to 8 p.m., but not on Sundays. Read more…

Joel Zimmer

The Police Department just confirmed that Officer Nicholas A. Mina is the man investigators believe is behind the missing guns from the Ninth Precinct. He was arrested last night. The Post has the exclusive on the details. In April Mr. Mina, 31, was assigned to guard the locker room where the guns were stored following the initial thefts, and dared to swipe another gun, according to the paper’s sources. Mr. Mina and three civilians allegedly sold the guns on the street. “To rob a gun that could be used against a fellow cop someday. There’s nothing lower,” a source tells the paper.

The Times has a dispatch from Whiskers Holistic Pet Care. “Whiskers may be the pet world’s closest approximation of the Park Slope Food Co-op.” Sure, but do they carry pet care products from Israel? And the store has more good publicity on the way: Chico is planning to do a mural dedicated to Whiskers on the old Nice Guy Eddie’s wall.

The developer behind Bushwick’s Third Ward just put his NoHo penthouse on the market for $8.95 million, The Real Deal reports. Read more…

Sarah Darville

Ray Lemoine The gutted Chinatown Brasserie.

New signage went up today at 380 Lafayette Street (Great Jones Street), where Chinatown Brasserie recently closed. Last month, Diner’s Journal reported that Andrew Carmellini, Luke Ostrom and Josh Pickard, who own The Dutch and Locanda Verde, are opening a French restaurant in the bi-level space.

It’s a return to form for Mr. Carmellini, who received acclaim cooking French cuisine under Daniel Boulud of DBGB, and the chef’s second project on Lafayette Street. He and his partners are also opening The Library at Joe’s Pub, just a block away.

Sarah Darville Sewer work on Seventh Street.

Time for your traffic report on the fives!

As you can see here, work continues on Seventh Street between First and Second Avenues, where a new sewer line is being installed following that nutty sinkhole accident. The job is expected to last another four days. A worker said a crack in the previous line created a leak that caused the street to collapse, taking a moving truck with it.

Elsewhere, change has come to one of the traffic-plagued areas that the Department of Transportation targeted for improvement earlier this year.

A new 20-second countdown clock should give pedestrians more time to cross the intersection of Fourth Street and Bowery. Read more…

Sarah Darville Yael Carmel (center) tries out a bike.

The 7,000 bicycles that will hit the road when the city’s bike share program launches at the end of summer were meant to be sturdy and hard to topple. “They’re a bit like a tank,” remarked a Citi Bike employee who showed some of them off at Tompkins Square Park today.

So when Yael Carmel wobbled and nearly fell off of one of them, she had to laugh. It was one of her first times on a bike after recently learning to ride, she admitted. The employee steadied her and she was off toward Avenue B.

“I really like it,” she said as she got off the bike. “I need to get used to the idea of riding in the city. But I will.”

Ms. Carmel’s test ride might terrify those who worry the city’s bike share program will flood the streets with inexperienced riders, but today’s preview attracted more experienced cyclists as well. Read more…

Ray Lemoine Mr. Flanagan shows off his wound outside of court today.

Speaking for the first time since his arrest at Webster Hall last Saturday, former Cro-Mags bassist Harley Flanagan insisted he was acting in self-defense during a brawl that landed two of the band’s current members in the hospital with knife wounds. A grand jury trial was scheduled for Sept. 27 during a hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court today.

“DMS jumped me, man,” Mr. Flanagan told The Local outside of the courtroom, upon recognizing this reporter as the roadie for an opening band who bunked with him on a Cro-Mags tour in 2000. Mr. Flanagan said he was attacked by members of the Doc Marten Skinheads, a gang with a history of violence that grew out of the 1980s hardcore scene and is still active today (graffiti around the Lower East Side reads “Demonstrating My Style” and “Drugs Money Sex.”)

“You know this scene – a bunch of loser bullies,” said Mr. Flanagan, who appeared in court along with three fellow Hare Krishna devotees and his attorney. “Seven or eight guys kicked me to a bloody mess.” Read more…

A 24-year-old man was sliced across the face for no apparent reason after leaving Famous Hakki Pizza at Essex and Rivington Streets this morning. A police spokesman said that the victim had just bought a slice and stepped onto the sidewalk when the unknown assailant cut him from his left cheek to the bottom of his chin at around 2:15 a.m. with a sharp object and then fled. The victim was treated at Bellevue Hospital. Check back later for further details.

Melvin Felix

Somebody call Michael Moore: there’s been a Factory closing on 14th Street.

The mysteriously-closed Meatball Factory is a goner and will become a seafood restaurant next month, its new owner said today. Miha Khondoker, who previously owned the West Village’s now-closed Mixx Lounge, said he’s busy deciding on a name and finalizing the new restaurant’s menu and decor.

“It’s going to be very different,” he said. Read more…

Crystal Field, the executive artistic director at Theater for the New City, has issued an “emergency request” in an effort to raise another $14,000 for this summer’s Street Theater tour. This year’s free traveling musical, “99% Reduced Fat, or, You can Bank on Us,” is about “a young Gang Member who grows into a Community Activist, and a true citizen of New York City,” and will make stops in the Lower East Side, Bed-Stuy, the South Bronx, Coney Island, Harlem, and Jackson Heights, according to the release. You can donate here and take a look back at last summer’s show here.

Jamie K. A shot from the D Generation show at Bowery Electric last weekend.

Gothamist has the scoop of the summer (if you have money to burn): The one-of-a-kind timeshare backyard on Ludlow Street is back for a second season. Love partying outdoors, but can’t stand rubbing elbows with the hoi polloi in Tompkins or along the East River? For a mere $100 you and 30 friends can party in an authentic backyard in the Lower East Side. Added bonus: “BBQ grill, picnic benches, loungers, sun umbrellas, coolers, and a bathroom on site.” Believe it or not, reservations are being sold.

By the way, for free fun, The Fantastic Mr. Fox is screening tonight at sundown in Tompkins Square Park. Live music will kick off a half-hour prior.

EV Grieve notes that the conversion of the Cabrini Center For Nursing & Rehabilitation to a residential building is underway. A commenter on one of The Local’s previous stories on the shuttered nursing home left a stern words for the building’s new owner, Ben Shaoul, just last night: “I wish him the misery he has forced onto many elderly men and women who called the Cabrini House their home.”
Read more…

Frank Bardin A cane left on the front door of 510 East Sixth Street that belongs to the landlord, according to a resident.

On monday evening firefighters were called to 510 East Sixth Street after the elderly landlord, Martha Fedorko, fell asleep with a pot on the stove, a resident said.

“The firemen had to break into her apartment and luckily, no damage resulted,” wrote the resident, Frank Bardin, in a comment on last month’s article on Ms. Fedorko. “Earlier, late afternoon, she sat on a chair just inside the foyer to the building, lifting her lower leg, trying to block tenants from entering the building and in one case, yelling ‘police, police’ when one entered, gingerly slipping past her.”

A spokesman for the Fire Department confirmed that firefighters responded to a kitchen fire in the building between Avenues A and B at around 8:50 p.m. Following The Local’s story on the quandary the tenants of the building found themselves in, several others came forward with their own stories.
Read more…

The founder of Gathering Of The Tribes, Steve Cannon, says that negotiations are underway with his landlord, and that the lengthy dispute should be resolved by the end of the month. “It looks like she’s going to agree what we want,” said a confident Mr. Cannon. “I feel relieved. It’s going in my direction.” In April the founder of the art space won a legal victory when a Housing Court judge ruled that his dispute with his landlord, Lorraine Zhang, should be settled in State Supreme Court. Nevertheless, Ms. Zhang served Mr. Cannon with a 10-day notice to leave the building at 285 East Third Street in May. (The notice was ignored). Ms. Zhang would not comment on the latest developments in the saga, which has been brewing since March of last year.

Melvin Felix PS 122 at 150 First Avenue.

After months of delays, the overhaul of Performance Space 122 is moving forward.

A work order filed last week and pending approval by Department of Buildings paves the way for construction of two brand-new performance spaces in the venerable theater, which will cost an estimated $15.1 million. The plans call for more than 9,000 additional square feet to be added to the building at 150 First Avenue, all paid for by the city.

PS 122’s artistic director, Vallejo Gantner, said Wednesday that he was “delighted” that work will soon be underway. Since the city has already funded work on the building’s facade, replaced old energy-inefficient windows, and gotten rid of asbestos and lead paint, he estimated that the project’s full cost will be more than $20 million. He’s thankful for every penny.

“I think the city is kind of amazing that, in a time like this, they’re investing in cultural activities,” Mr. Gantner said. “The fact that it’s happening at all is such an amazing thing.”
Read more…

Architects tackling Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s challenge to design a livable 275-square-foot “micro-unit” apartment can take inspiration from James Hong. The East Village resident maximized the space in his 500-square-foot digs by using a sliding door, a custom tub and all kinds of other high-end renovations depicted in the video above. (Clearly, it helps to have some cash to spend.)

Of course, Mr. Hong isn’t the first to make the most of a small East Village apartment. Back in 2009 the firm Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture squeezed a home office into a small studio, thanks to stairs that doubled as drawers and an elevated bed built above a walk-in closet.

A screengrab of the fundraiser.

If you can’t donate $5,000 for a brand-new 3-D portrait, then can you spare a dollar for a hardcore legend behind bars?

After allegedly biting and slashing members of the Cro-Mags at Webster Hall last weekend, Harley Flanagan, a founding member of the band, needs help.

Friends of Mr. Flanagan’s are soliciting money for a legal defense fund on IndieGoGo, and hope to raise $50,000 in the name of “Harley’s Army.” So far supporters have donated $579.

“All of the details aren’t out, though certain stories are being bandied about in the court of public opinion,” the post reads. (The Local corrected typos). “All of the details aren’t going to get out, or get presented properly in a court of law if Harley doesn’t get top notch legal representation.”
Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The organizers of the CBGB Festival are putting all that attention they got to good use: A Twitter war with Dial 7 car service. Bowery Boogie got the full story on the salty tweets that encourage followers to retweet the anti-Dial 7 message to get a free poster from the festival.

EV Grieve has a picture of an old lady trying to cross the Bowery at East Fourth Street that pretty much says it all. The short countdown clocks, he writes, simply do not give slow pedestrians enough time to cross the street. “She started moving the moment the ‘walk’ sign started flashing. And she wasn’t dawdling. The woman simply didn’t have enough time to cross a treacherous intersection.” The intersection of Bowery and Houston Street was targeted for safety improvements recently. Might the Department of Transportation give this intersection four blocks north a look as well?

The Cooper Square Committee sends word about an important public hearing on SPURA before the City Planning Commission beginning today at 10 a.m. on the sixth floor of 22 Reade Street. The Lo-Down has more information.
Read more…