A little over a month after Superman climbed the George Washington statue in Union Square Park, an Occupy Wall Street protester – wearing a keffiyeh instead of a cape – climbed onto George’s horse early this morning and held court for about 40 minutes. NY1 has footage of police officers escorting the man to an ambulance after he finally came down, and reports that about 50 protesters spent the night in the park.

Michael Natale

Good morning, East Village.

As The Times reported, scores of people were arrested as protesters converged on Zuccotti Park to mark the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. Gothamist notes that among the 73 people detained was a man who, in a video, appears to have had his head slammed into a glass door on East 10th Street. The Post has a better video clip of the incident.

EV Grieve points to a campaign aiming to raise $30,000 to save Kate’s Joint, the vegetarian restaurant on Avenue B that has been female-owned and operated since 1996. According to the Indiegogo plea, “Kate is currently in arrears with the landlord. Eviction notices have been sent, court appearances have been made, and if a substantial amount of money is not raised by April 11th, the next court date, the doors will shut permanently at Kate’s Joint.”

Local resident (or is he?) Jimmy “The Rent Is Too Damn High” McMillan has lost his bid for a recount of gubernatorial votes, according to The Daily News: “Brooklyn Federal Judge John Gleeson ruled that an expensive and time-consuming recount could be justified if there was a serious question about whether the wrong person was declared the winner. But Gov. Cuomo won in a landslide.”

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The Lo-Down provides an in-depth examination of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area — easily one of the most important developments in Manhattan and one that will radically change the Lower East Side. The article explains the plans for the project that involve a new school, room for a “big box store” like Wal-Mart, 900 new apartments, and possibly the relocation of the Essex Street Market. The three-year planning of the project is now entering a new phase in which Community Board 3’s will have “the most leverage to impact what will be built,” according to the website. The next public hearing is scheduled for April 18.

Suzanne Rozdeba Coal Yard and International Bar owner Molly Fitch is prepared to lay down the law on any drunken St. Patty’s Day revelers.

Anxious about the hordes of St. Patrick’s Day revelers ready to stumble their way through the neighborhood tomorrow? The Local is here to help. We called dives around the neighborhood to find out which ones would rather you not show up in a green top hat with shamrocks painted on your face. Here are your shelters from the drunken storm.

International Bar, 120 First Avenue, 212-777-1643
“I celebrate drinking at two in the afternoon every day. St. Patrick’s is a day where, all of a sudden, drinking in the afternoon is fun, and it ruins it for us,” owner Molly Fitch said. “I do not want a St. Patrick’s day pub crawl in my bar in any shape or form.”

Blue & Gold, 79 East Seventh Street, 212-777-1006
“This place is going to the anti-anti-anti haven. We’re not an Irish bar; we’re a Ukrainian bar. People will pack in here to get away,” said bartender Mike Roscishewsky. “We are absolutely not doing anything.”
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Sasha Von Oldershausen Women and children hopped over the symbolic fires on Tuesday night.

Iranians from as far away as Houston, Texas crowded into La Plaza Cultural Community Garden on Tuesday night to observe a holiday that celebrates Iran’s pre-Islamic past.

“Chahārshanbe-Sūri,” or, “Red Wednesday,” is rooted in Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions. The holiday, which precedes the Persian New Year, occurs on the eve of the last Wednesday of the Zoroastrian calendar. Since the 2009 elections, the Iranian government has tried to dissuade residents from celebrating the holiday considered un-Islamic, though many continue to celebrate it throughout the country.

Children and adults alike hopped over bonfires lit at sunset to symbolize the passage of the old year.

Simin Farkhondeh, the event organizer, felt a particular pleasure in the gathering. “It’s a celebration of resistance,” she said.

Ms. Farkhondeh has coordinated the event at La Plaza for the past three years. She said the celebration was a way for her to reminisce about the holiday with fellow Iranians, and to share a lesser-known cultural tradition with the community.

“Since I left Iran, I felt a need to do this,” Ms. Farkhondeh said. “I wanted to share something really beautiful.”
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Fuse Gallery Anton Perhlich in Chelsea in 1979, one of the artists participating in the upcoming exhibit.

Normally, a nosebleed at Lit is just another Monday night. Starting on March 28, it’s art.

“Nose Bleed” is an upcoming exhibition at Fuse Gallery (in the back of Lit) of artists nurtured in the neighborhood. “Nosebleed takes its name from the prevailing motto of that sensibility, that we wouldn’t go up there (up being anything north of 14th Street ) because we’d get a nosebleed,” writes Erik Foss. The co-owner of the bar adds that to him and his cohorts, there is nothing more than “a void” outside of the neighborhood. “Downtown may have been colonized by money and gentrified into something way white and polite, but the attitude persists.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Foss’s own art is on display in SoHo at the Munch Gallery as part of a group show, “Night,” which opens tomorrow. Earlier this week, Ray LeMoine looked back at the illustrious 10-year history of Lit Lounge.

CBGB Flyers on a newspaper box in Austin.

The new CBGB is looking for a few good bands at South By Southwest.

One of the owners of the lucrative brand passed along this photo of CBGB flyers posted on newspaper boxes in Austin, Texas. “We are looking to be honest, raw, loud. We are not going to franchise or turn into the Hard Rock Cafe or CMJ but we do want punks to take over the city for one week this summer,” wrote the owner, who still wishes to remain anonymous. “We’ll try to prove that in just a few months.”

The co-owner also noted that he and his partners are still in the hunt for a permanent venue, likely south of Houston Street. At least one former staffer from the legendary club is said to be involved, as well. In the meantime, they are scouting bands in Austin for the CBGB music festival set for July 4 weekend.

Yesterday This Ain’t The Summer of Love spotted new details about the festival, which will take place in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. The event will feature a mix of “music, rock-n-roll films, insider-industry workshops, and intimate storytelling.”

Ray LeMoine Yesterday in Tompkins Square Park.

Good morning East Village.

Well, that didn’t take long. The Villager reports that the annex of Ninth Street Espresso next-door to the old Life Cafe space will move into the portion of the restaurant owned by landlord Bob Perl. Earlier this month The Local broke the news that Life Cafe would be split in two after negotiations collapsed between its dueling landlords.

DNAInfo has a dispatch from Olek’s new exhibition at the Krause Gallery in the Lower East Side. The artist, who “yarn bombed” the cube at Astor Place (among other things ), chose a new medium for her latest show: balloons.

Bowery Boogie attends the unveiling of new scaffolding art on East Fourth Street.

The Times gives a shout-out to the live Irish music at 11th Street Bar, Dempsey’s and Swift Hibernian Lounge. (Sounds great, but Saturday won’t be the day to enjoy the tunes).

Fresh off The Local’s East Village Other retrospective, John Wilcock talks with The Atlantic’s Steven Heller.

And lastly, NY1 has the story on the latest sinkhole horror in the neighborhood — this one at Avenue C and East 13th Street.

While on our daily perambulation on the Bowery, we noted that there is construction on nearly every block between St. Marks Place and East Houston Street. The experience was so intense we recreated it for our readers who can’t live it for themselves. Mouse over the cones, put on your headphones, and brace yourself for an immersive auditory experience.


Road Construction

Suzanne Rozdeba Attendees at last night’s meeting regarding the new cameras.

Residents of Campos Plaza expressed optimism last night that new high-tech security cameras would deter the violence that they said has left many of them living in fear.

“I am scared for a lot of our lives here in this development. I am scared for our kids, for ourselves, for our elderly, for us all,” said Dereese Huff, president of the Campos Plaza tenants association. “We need these cameras.”

The surveillance equipment, financed by Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, will be installed in pathways, playgrounds and lobbies around the houses bordered by East 13th and 14th Streets and Avenues B and C. Public officials hope to have 16 cameras for each of the four building at Campos Plaza. Ms. Mendez has secured $400,000 for the cameras, which is roughly half of the total needed to cover the entire complex. The cameras would monitor both inside and outside the buildings and will be connected to a network than can be observed from a central location.

An official with the New York City Housing Authority sought to dispel any notions of a “Big Brother”-style system.
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Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance just announced the indictment of Luis Martinez, the man accused of firing at two police officers in a wild gun battle last last month that culminated in the Baruch Houses. Mr. Martinez is charged with attempted murder in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon. During the melee an officer narrowly avoided being shot in the gut thanks to an extra ammo clip on his belt that deflected the bullet. The violence prompted Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to renew a call for a gun buy-back program in the neighborhood. “A metal gun magazine and its leather pouch was all that stood in the way of a bullet piercing an officer’s abdomen, after he was fired upon by this defendant,” Mr. Vance said in a press release.

Kathryn Doyle Eric Borg and his dog Sam enjoyed coffee in front of The Bean last week.

Now that Starbucks and The Bean are squaring off on either end of their block on East Third Street, you might be wondering: which is doing swifter business? Are The Bean’s loyal customers walking that extra block to avoid the corporate coffeehouse? Or has the demure signage of the “neighborhood Starbucks” managed to win folks over?

To answer those questions, The Local stationed a reporter outside of the Starbucks on First Avenue, and another outside of The Bean on Second Avenue. They counted customers from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. last Wednesday, and here’s what they found.

29 people walked into Starbucks.

43 people – and over a dozen dogs – walked into The Bean.

Siobhan Quinn said she chose The Bean partly because it accommodates Seamus, her Cavalier King Charles spaniel. “I like the owner, and it’s more neighborhoody,” she added. “There’s more of a community feel.”
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Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

This Ain’t the Summer of Love spots an update to the CBGB website, which includes more information about a music festival planned for Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the Lower East Side and the Bowery on July 4 weekend. “Experience four energy-fueled days & nights of music, rock-n-roll films, insider-industry workshops, and intimate storytelling; all live, all in New York City,” the still-anonymous promoters write.

Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, passes along a letter to public officials expressing concern that the City Council’s public hearings on N.Y.U.’s proposed expansion will take place in late June and early July — presumably when people will be on vacation. “Holding the City Council public hearings during a time period when the broadest possible cross-section of the public was not able to participate would significantly favor the applicant, N.Y.U.,” Berman wrote.

The Post reports that Faye Dunaway, fresh off her embarrassing exile from a rent stabilized apartment in the Upper East Side, is now house hunting in the East Village — specifically at 300 East Fourth Street.
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Suzanne Rozdeba Dorothy Rasenberger, Elizabeth Herring, and Joy Garland protested outside of the Cabrini Center this afternoon.

The staff of the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation were still breaking the news to elderly residents that their home on Avenue B and East Fifth Street would soon close, leaving some of them in tears, a family member of a resident said today.

While the meeting regarding the closure was going on, a small group of protesters outside toted signs saying “Occupy Cabrini!” and “Save Cabrini! From Condos.” The mix of around 10 locals and family members of residents decried the failure of the new owner of the property, Benjamin Shaoul, to secure a deal to keep it open. They also blamed local politicians for not doing enough to facilitate the negotiations. Without the deal, Cabrini will almost certainly become apartments of some kind.

“My mother turned 101 on Feb. 1, and she’s been here for two years. It’s a shame,” said George Matranga, 70. “Six months ago, she’s telling me that they’re going to make the second and third floor condominiums. I’m going, ‘Mom, you’re hallucinating.’”

He added that he received a packet last week detailing the closing and how Cabrini would help residents with the transition.
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Olvier Zahm In 2009 Lindsay Lohan, looking somewhat stressed, showed up at Lit Lounge.

“The new Lit.” The expression has been used countless times to describe a club that might just be as cool as Lit when it opened a decade ago. Many of the venues that have vied for “new Lit” status have come and gone, but the original gallery/bar/club hybrid, improbably, is still going strong on Second Avenue. It’s still the best place to splash your beer all over the place while dancing to Britpop and punk at 3 a.m. It’s had its slumps, to be sure, but these days Lit is enjoying what can only be called a flare-up.

You might say Lit has had three lives. Its first golden age lasted for a few years after it opened in February of 2002. Then things slowed down around 2006 when the cool crowd moved on to the newly opened Beatrice Inn. But when that club was shut down in 2009, some of its DJs moved over to Lit, bringing a new generation with them.

The First Golden Age 2002-2004
Dave Murphy used to run around downtown and now, at the age of 36, owns Towne Deli in Summit, New Jersey. “Mondays were the big night in town,” he recalled. Lit was always the last stop after you made the scene at Max Fish, the Lower East Side’s perennial art bar, and Pianos, another cool newcomer.

Adrian Fussell Big Ups performing at Lit Lounge last year.

“Bjork was at the Monday Pianos party one night, in some furry outfit, just sitting at the bar looking like a giant mouse,” said Mr. Murphy. “This was right after we’d seen somebody get shot in the foot outside Lotus. D.J. Clue laughed at the guy, who was bleeding from one foot and hopping on the other. That night ended in the cave at Lit.” Mr. Murphy recalled watching a member of a well known band from San Francisco snorting cocaine off of one of the couches in the cavern-like basement.

At the time, two local music scenes were converging and about to go national: dance pop and retro rock.

Electro-clash, a punk-techno hybrid that drew inspiration from Germany, was at its peak. Fischerspooner’s single “Emerge” was played at clubs as often as Rihanna’s “We Found Love” is today. James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem was DJing at Meatpacking District lounge APT, honing the DFA sound that sprung to life in 2003 with The Rapture’s ubiquitous single “House of Jealous Lovers.”

Lit was essential in helping this music find an audience. It was also one of the first clubs to embrace Euro DJs like Soulwax a.k.a. 2 Many DJs, and Erol Alken, who were inventing the mash-up, where the vocals of one song are played over the music of another song.
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Suzanne Rozdeba Looks like there is still some work to do before the Gin Palace can open.

Out with the Iberian, in with the Victorian.

Gin Palace, the Victorian-themed bar replacing El Cobre on East Sixth Street, is opening by the end of April, co-owner Ravi DeRossi, told The Local this morning.

The new bar, which has a fancy mural in the works on the ceiling, will not have the same air of exclusivity as Mr. DeRossi’s other popular establishment, Death and Company.

“The original gin palaces in England in the 1800s were a response to a failing economy, where people would go to get wasted and escape disease and the plague. It’s not as bad right now, but it’s a pretty weak economy,” said Mr. DeRossi, who also owns nearby The Bourgeois Pig. “This will be a spinoff of those old Victorian dive bars, and no pretension. If the space fits you in, you get in.”
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Elizabeth Ferrara Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council said the plan would create much-needed construction jobs.

In the first rally of its kind, advocates of N.Y.U.’s controversial expansion gathered yesterday at City Hall calling on Borough President Scott M. Stringer to approve the plan.

About 35 people, business owners, union leaders, and construction workers among them, attended the roughly 15-minute gathering in support of the university’s proposal that would add four new buildings south of Washington Square Park.

“We’re here today asking Borough President Stringer to recognize that N.Y.U.’s growth strategy is an essential part of securing the financial future of small businesses in Greenwich Village,” said Tony Juliano, president of the local Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce, which represents around 200 businesses in surrounding neighborhoods.

It was clear that the approval for the plan dubbed N.Y.U. 2031 is getting down to crunch time. The event amounted to a formal endorsement from the Building and Construction Trades Council, which is led by the influential Gary LaBarbera.
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Meagan Kirkpatrick

Good morning, East Village.

EV Grieve is alerted to a protest planned for 2 p.m. at the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, which is expected to close this summer. Check back later for The Local’s coverage of the gathering.

The Wall Street Journal examines the Archdiocese of New York’s efforts to revamp its Catholic education system, and singles out La Salle Academy on East Fifth Street. By 2009 the school’s enrollment had shrunk to only 360, down from around 900 in the 60s. By leasing out part of its facility to another private school it was able to pull back from the brink.

The co-owners of The Bean tell Dollars and Sense that they are seeking a beer and wine license due to customer demand. “Small businesses do whatever we can do to keep our customers coming back,” the café’s manager said.
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