Laura Edwins

Less than a year ago, David Moster, a Ph.D. candidate at N.Y.U., paid a $5,625 broker fee to move into his apartment at 50 East Third Street. “It was a huge hassle moving last summer,” he recalled. Now he’s getting ready to deal with the headache again. Earlier this month, his landlord, Abart Holdings, sent him a letter informing that the building would be sold within a few months and that his lease would not be renewed.

Mr. Moster and his two roommates, who pay $3,000 per month for their three-bedroom unit, are among an estimated 17 residents of the building and of two neighboring ones at 54 and 58 East Third Street who were given 60 days to find a new place to live. Yesterday, many of those tenants met to discuss their options. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

Thought the Hole’s indoor garden was wild? Fuse Gallery may just give it a run for its money when its latest exhibit, “XOS / SOX” opens May 2. Skullphone, the Los Angeles-based street artist last seen purdying up construction containers on East Fourth Street, is piling 1,000 “custom produced” socks in the gallery behind Lit lounge, for everyone to take. Street-art inspired footwear sure is a thing lately. Is this going to hurt business at Sock Man and Sox in the City? Dunno, but we’re definitely snagging a pair to toss in the drawer with those pink tiger-print aNYthing socks…

“XOS / SOX,” opening reception May 2, 7 p.m.; through May 30, Fuse Gallery, 93 Second Avenue, (212) 777-7988 

Daniel MaurerSubways at 108 and 226 First Ave, Avenue B, and Houston Street. Not shown: another on Second Ave and still another on Bowery.

With 7-Elevens opening left and right and the community board strategizing ways to keep small businesses in the East Village, chain stores have been on our minds this week – as well as on the minds of readers. “7-Eleven in a historic neighborhood like the East Village is not O.K.,” wrote JP. Another commenter, Local of East Village, disagreed: “I think 7-Eleven is an example of one thing that is good about the 1 percent. We see here, a major corporation, giving a regular Joe the plumber the chance to turn his own profit.” And Johnny C was also pro-chain: “The local hardware stores charge 50 percent to 100 percent more than Home Depot and Lowe’s and the Bean charges $6 or $7 for a pastry. You really believe that benefits local residents?”

Here’s a question: If you lined up every chain store and bank in the neighborhood, how many blocks would they span? We’re working on the answer right now, but before we reveal it: What’s your guess?

Laura Edwins The director of First Steps, Luz Whetstone, teaches a youngster. The daycare has struggled to attract parents in the aftermath of another preschool’s abrupt closing in the same location.

A new daycare on Clinton Street is struggling to attract parents who remain wary thanks to the previous occupant: the notorious Love A Lot preschool.

After eight months in operation, First Steps only has 12 preschool students, and director Luz Whetstone said parents and city officials are still asking questions about Love A Lot. “We still get the residuals of it, I guess,” Ms. Whetstone said. “The Labor Department came by and we had to show them our tax ID and show them that we have no affiliation with Love A Lot. We didn’t just change the name. We’re really a legit business.”

But parents still remember the mess that led to the Clinton Street location of Love A Lot closing in July due to financial struggles and a variety of Department of Health violations including the lack of an educational director, the inability to provide documentation of staff medical records, and failure to screen staff. Read more…

Though it didn’t have its paperwork in order at C.B. 3’s liquor-licensing committee meeting earlier this week, Porchetta has managed to snag a beer-and-wine license from the State Liquor Authority, according to the Authority’s Website and to a tweet from co-owner Sara Jenkins: “Coming soon to a Porchetta stand near you, beer and wine finally! Only two years from Start to finish.”

Daniel Maurer

David Ravvin, a 29-year-old graduate of N.Y.U.’s Stern School of Business, is opening a sushi joint where Cotan once rolled rice at 135 First Avenue, near St. Marks Place. As you can see from the plywood art created Tuesday by street artist Para, he’s hoping his concept will be a bit more iconic than his predecessor’s was.

The name of the 14-seat restaurant, Iconic Hand Rolls, is a play on the word “cone” – a reference to the funnel-like rolls that Japanese cooking authority Hiroko Shimbo created for the 8- to 12-item menu.  Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

The Daily News reports that Michael McManus, a.k.a. the White-Glove Bandit, was arrested near Tompkins Square Park yesterday afternoon. The F.B.I. believes he’s the man who robbed the HSBC branch at Broadway and East Ninth Street on Monday, along with three other banks.

Dwyane Wade wasn’t spotted at Tompkins Square Park on Sunday, despite the Post’s report that the NBA star played a game of pick-up basketball with some kids there (The Observer points out that he was at Thompson Street Playground in SoHo). But another celeb was spotted in the East Village: Rachel Weisz checked out a $8.5 million townhouse at 238 East Fourth Street, between Avenues A and B. The Post calls the townhouse “gorgeous” — you be the judge!

Speaking of which, Real Estate Weekly reminds us that it’s harder to score an East Village apartment than some people think. One group is having trouble finding a true four-bedroom for $5,500 a month, and their broker “recently convinced another college student, who was bent on living by herself in the East Village on a budget of $1,700 a month, to search for cheaper apartments on the Upper East Side.” Ouch. Read more…

Daniel Maurer Campos Plaza.

Narcotics officers arrested nine people inside an apartment in Campos Plaza that contained a loaded 9-millimeter, cocaine, marijuana, shotgun shells and scales.

A police spokesman said that the investigators served the warrant at an apartment at 641 East 13th Street around 5 p.m. on Sunday following a longterm investigation. Three men caught there face charges of criminal possession of a weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and criminally using drug paraphernalia. They are Andrew Hudson, 20, Jose Perez, 21, and Demetrius Blas, 17. The trio all have criminal records, according to a criminal complaint. The others busted in the apartment were released. Read more…

Natalie Rinn

Could new zoning help bring mom-and-pop businesses to the East Village and Lower East Side, and keep them there? Community Board 3’s Economic Development Subcommittee met last night to continue a discussion about retail diversity.

Mary DeStefano, the Urban Planning Fellow from Hunter College who has been working with the board, again raised the possibility of Special Purpose Districts, 20 of which have been created in Manhattan by the City Planning Commission in order to meet the specific needs of their neighborhoods. In Community Board 3, such a district would likely put a cap on chain stores and curb operating hours. Ms. DeStefano clarified that S.P.D.’s are “not banning anything, just seeking a way to preserve it, and it’s just giving the community some level of control.” Read more…

The connection between Tulsa and the Lower East Side isn’t as distant as you think: in the early ’60s a group of artists and writers who first met in Tulsa – including Ted Berrigan, Joe Brainard and Ron Padgett – arrived in the East Village and grew to occupy a prominent place in the burgeoning writing scene.

Tonight at 8 p.m., the St Marks Poetry Project celebrates the Library of America’s publication of “The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard” with a reading and reception. Brainard wasn’t just a writer: his prodigious creative output included paintings, collages, assemblages, and designs of sets and costumes for theater. His witty use of comics in his work mirrored developments by Pop artists of the period.

Tonight’s readers will include Ron Padgett, Michael Lally, Larry Fagin, Ann Waldman, and Edmund White, as well as Thurston Moore, who, incidentally, will return to the Poetry Project on May 4 for a benefit performance with neighborhood fixture John Zorn.

Jared Malsin Author Wayne Price, left, makes a comment.

Three days after alleged anarchist protesters ran amok in the East Village, an anarchist meeting on Sixth Street was disrupted by a verbal altercation between an organizer of the event and a man he later accused of being a police spy.

Nine people were in attendance at Tuesday’s Anarchist Forum at the Sixth Street Community Center. The meeting featured coffee in paper cups, vegan cucumber sandwiches, and a polite discussion of how health care services might be organized in a future anarchist society.

The forum is a social event that has taken place once a month since November, according to organizers Evan Courtney, 36, who works in an import-export business, and Walter Williams, 60, a retired software developer residing in Washington Heights.

The tension occurred during its second hour when Mr. Courtney confronted an attendee named Leo, who had arrived over an hour late. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown The film crew outside of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge.

“Kill Your Darlings,” starring Daniel Radcliffe along with Jennifer Jason Leigh, former local David Cross, and Michael C. Hall (also no stranger to the neighborhood) is filming at the vacant Holiday Cocktail Lounge right now.

A couple of weeks ago, The Times looked back at the incident on which the film is based: 68 years ago, Beat muse Lucien Carr, then 19 years old, stabbed an older suitor with his Boy Scout knife and dumped his body in the Hudson River. Mr. Carr (played by Dane DeHaan in the film) confessed to his friends William S. Burroughs (played by Ben Foster) and Jack Kerouac (played by Jack Huston) before eventually turning himself in and being convicted of manslaughter. Mr. Radcliffe plays Allen Ginsberg, who was well familiar with the Holiday while it was open.

Daniel Maurer

Just minutes ago, The Local got an early look inside the 7-Eleven that’s caused such a fuss on St. Marks Place, but any hope of bringing powdered mini donuts back to everyone at the office went poof when an employee told us the store wouldn’t open for another hour. Still, clerks were nice about letting lurkers take it all in, and one reporter jotted down notes by the chili-cheese dispenser. So here’s your first look inside: thank heaven for 7-Eleven?

Update | 12 a.m. Norman Jemal, the store’s owner, tells us it opened about twenty minutes ago. “Everyone’s been really supportive,” he said. “We’ve been giving away free Slurpees and free coffee.”

Stephen Rex Brown Capt. John Cappelmann

Last night’s meeting of the Ninth Precinct Community Council featured several interesting details regarding recent crime in the neighborhood. Here’s a roundup, and check back later for more detailed posts about other recent arrests.

Capt. John Cappelmann, the new commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct, reported that four new officers started patrolling the neighborhood on Monday, as he promised in January. Four to six more officers should start in the next couple of weeks, some of whom will focus on quality of life issues. “It’s a tremendous boost for us in personnel numbers,” Capt. Cappelmann said. Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba

Good morning, East Village.

The Local snapped the above shot a day before longstanding vegetarian spot Kate’s Joint was seized by its landlord yesterday, presumably due to the back rent it owed.

Gothamist reports that a National Lawyers Guild observer is suing the NYPD for wrongfully arresting him on Second Avenue between East 12th and 13th Streets during an Occupy Wall Street march back in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

A real estate broker tells The Voice that you can still get a deal in the East Village. “You could get a small, two-bedroom apartment [in a walk-up], with a kitchen you could cook in for $3,000 a month,” she says. “I’m not saying the rooms are going to be the size of Texas, but I think that’s a bargain. And you have fantastic restaurants.”
Read more…

A study commissioned by opponents of N.Y.U.’s expansion finds that the city’s economy would be better served if it were built outside of Greenwich Village. The report, released today by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, states that the Financial District, Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City could all better accommodate the amount of construction required for N.Y.U. 2031 while also reaping the benefits of the influx of students and scholars. The analysis comes only weeks after the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber Commerce released its own study highlighting the economic benefits of the expansion in Greenwich Village, as well as its support among local merchants.

Arne Svenson Barney Rosset in 1986.

The family of late publishing legend Barney Rosset, who died in February at the age of 89, has planned a public memorial for next month.

A representative of Grove/Atlantic – the parent company of Grove Press, which Mr. Rosset sold in 1986 – told The Local that the memorial, organized by the publisher’s wife Astrid Myers along with his four children and described as “a celebration of his life and work,” will take place at the Great Hall at Cooper Union, a short walk from the literary iconoclast’s loft near Cooper Square. Read more…