OK dear readers, what the heck are these blind items all about? A fourth intriguing message has appeared in the window of the law office of Zenon B. Masnyj on East Seventh Street that hints at questionable goings-on at a credit union. Mr. Masnyj has told us in the past that he prefers to let the notes speak for themselves — the most recent one, pictured to the left, vaguely hints at “our money, their secrets.” Any East Village gumshoes have an idea what’s going on? Let us know in the comments or E-mail us.

Add Max Brennan to the long list of East Village business owners who have opened outposts in Williamsburg. Gothamist reports that Mr. Brennan, an owner of Lit Lounge, will open a new “swinging 60s-type jazz club” called The Flat on the other side of the East River later this month. Mr. Brennan, whose fellow Lit-owners celebrated the bar’s 10-year anniversary last week, will join familiar East Village eateries like Max, Crif Dogs, Mama’s and Cafe Mogador that have followed the L train east.

Daniel Maurer

Life Cafe’s bar was still standing last week when The Local reported that one of the shuttered cafe’s two landlords had given up trying to come to terms with the other. If the lingering fixture gave you hope that there might be an eleventh-hour rapprochement in time for outdoor brunching season (which, apparently, is already upon us), you can set it aside.

A peek into the space last night revealed that although the summer specials are still pitifully up on the chalkboard, the wooden bar decorated with covers of Life magazine has now been dismantled. Rentheads, if you’re looking for souvenirs, this might be the time to keep your eye on the sidewalk.

Oh, and speaking of brunch, Grub Street reports that the Beagle is now serving it. Pancakes with foie-gras maple syrup, anyone?

N.Y.P.D. The suspected slashers.

The police are on the hunt for two men who they say sliced two other guys outside of IHOP on March 3.

According to the police, the dispute between the men began at around 6:20 a.m. at the house of pancakes on 14th Street. That’s when things escalated and the 25-year-old and 27-year-old victims were cut with an unknown object.

Both suspects, who are thought to be 20 to 25 years old, then fled the scene.

Tim SchreierRetna (right) with Mista Oh! (left) and mentors from The Art School w/out Walls.

Marquis Lewis, a.k.a. Retna, returned to the scene of his Houston Street mural today, to donate $5,000 to a program that teaches at-risk youth to create street art similar to his own.

The artist, who painted “A Conversation with a Great Friend” on the wall at Houston Street and Bowery last week, said that his donation to the Gowanus-based organization, Cre8tive YouTH*ink, was triggered, appropriately enough, by a conversation between friends in which Carlo McCormick, an East Villager and the Senior Editor of Paper magazine, connected him to Jerry Otero, a.k.a. Mista Oh!, an educator who runs the non-profit.

Last year, Mr. Otero, along with artist Ray Smith, launched The Art School w/out Walls, a program that connects at-risk kids in low-income neighborhoods with mentors who help them create public art. The program aims to expand into dance, music, and sports – hence the $5,000 check that Retna handed over at the wall today. Read more…

Evan Bleier

The city has whacked a bodega on Avenue D with a hefty fine, and not because it was selling “loosies” or illegal Four Lokos. Indeed, the Sergio Deli Superette’s stock resembles that of other bodega: Goya products, six packs, the daily paper. And that’s exactly why it’s in the city’s cross-hairs.

According to the Certificate of Occupancy that was issued in 1940, 127 Avenue D was zoned for use as a “garage for not more than five automobiles and storage.” When a city inspector following up on a complaint confirmed in December that the building was storing beer cans instead of cars, Bernard Margalit, the owner of the building, was hit with a $6,000 fine. Read more…

Giuseppi Logan, the saxophonist who made a name playing with John Coltrane and other jazz legends before disappearing for decades, is back in the studio. In a Kickstarter video, producer and folk singer-songwriter Ed Pettersen recounts hearing in 2009 that “one of the most expressive and innovative free-jazz saxophonists of the 60s” was homeless and busking in Tompkins Square Park. “When I heard about this,” he says, “I said I have to find Giuseppi. I have to work with him because he was one of my favorite sax guys.” Read more…

Meagan Kirkpatrick

Good morning, East Village.

The Times speaks to some of hacker Hector Xavier Monsegur’s neighbors in the Jacob Riis Houses and discovers that he often irritated them by throwing loud parties into the wee hours. But he wasn’t the worst neighbor: he also offered to fix their credit scores.

The Villager notes that, based on a petition of nearly 500 signatures, Community Board 3’s Transportation committee has supported a motion to co-name a part of East 10th Street after Cornell Edwards, the beloved owner of The Flower Stall who died nearly a year ago.

John Liu’s audit of 107 city playgrounds reveals what we already knew about Tompkins Square Park (rats!) and more: “The comptroller’s inspectors also found chipped paint on playground equipment and a missing safety mat near its swings during a visit last July,” reports DNA Info. Plus, “tripping hazards or cracked safety surfaces” were found at Dry Dock Playground at East 10th Street and Avenue D. Read more…

The proposed redrawn Congressional map would make the neighborhood look a bit less like a jigsaw puzzle of districts, meaning that – for the most part – only one member of Congress would answer to the East Village instead of three.

Currently, the East Village is divided into three congressional districts — the 8th, 12th and 14th — which are represented by Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velázquez and Carolyn Maloney respectively. Under the proposed redistricting, the East Village would be dominated by the 12th District, with the 7th covering only the area east of Avenue D. Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba

As one of Benjamin Shaoul’s buildings loses a tenant, another one is gaining one: Bea’s Café, a new coffee shop, aims to open next month in a building that has brought criticism to the ubiquitous developer.

A sign in the window of 514 East Sixth Street touts Bea’s as “an espresso bar and more.” Read more…

Another interesting piece in The Villager today: Bill Weinberg, the former WBAI host who spoke with us a couple of weeks ago, pens a personal history of the East Village’s transformation “from a fecund past to a sterile future,” noting something that’s especially cogent in light of the forthcoming squatting museum: “One bitter irony is that the squatters of Alphabet City were themselves the vanguard of the very social process they sought to resist,” he writes. “They helped make the neighborhood fashionable for the artists who followed them, as radical chic gave way to bourgeois chic. The yuppies shortly followed the artists, and the process of cultural cleansing is now nearly complete.”

Suzanne Rozdeba

Since opening in December, Tompkins Square Bagels has unleashed its share of headline grabbers: French toast bagels! Sashimi-grade tuna bagels with wasabi cream cheese! Oh, and square bagels are said to be in the works (don’t tell David Cross), as is a deal with Doughnut Plant. But this. This. That’s right: a bagel burger.

It’s not the city’s first – RUB in Chelsea has offered one – but if nothing else, it single-handedly one-ups the entire menu of stunt burgers a couple of doors over at Bad Burger. Our mission is two-fold: to photograph this beast, and to eat it. Please stay tuned.

Clayton Patterson pens a long profile of Jim Power for The Villager in which he says the Mosaic Man has “a tremendous capacity for love, kindness and empathy for those who are struggling, or are helping him, or are his friends. Yet, on another day, to the same people, he can be ruthlessly vile, mean and hurtful.” In it, Mr. Patterson advances the theory that the artist’s light poles are a crime deterrent: “Maybe it’s the brightness, the glitter, the enshrined people who cross all color lines, the salute to the workers — the Fire Department, Sanitation, the Police Department — or the historic locations, like the Fillmore pole with famous acts who played there. But for whatever reason — respect, maybe — there is less criminal activity around his poles.”

Evan Bleier Patricia James at Housing Court

A Housing Court judge initially moved to evict a resident of Two Bridges who owes over $14,000 to the New York City Housing Authority yesterday, but then postponed the ruling, leaving 67-year-old Patricia James fearful that she’ll end up in a shelter.

During a hearing in Housing Court yesterday, Judge Verna Saunders initially granted a judgment of possession for the Housing Authority and asked both parties to work out a stipulation agreement. But Ms. James ultimately rejected a proposal that would’ve allowed her four months to vacate her apartment if she paid the back rent. She argued that the Authority’s requested sum of over $14,000 didn’t reflect changes in her income over the past year.   Read more…

Scott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

EV Grieve spots police removing the makeshift shelter that William Hernandez, a 59-year-old Cuban refugee who told The Local he had been homeless during his 30 years in the United States, had set up on the Bowery. We’ll let you know if we hear anything about Mr. Hernandez’s whereabouts.

The Real Deal cities a City Habitats survey showing that Manhattan rents were almost at an all-time high in February. Meanwhile vacancy rates in the East Village were at just 1.15 percent, compared to 1.59 and 1.34 percent for the Upper West and Upper East sides.

Eater reports that David Chang’s right-hand chef, Peter Serpico, is leaving the Momofuku empire to pursue independent ventures. The site also spots evidence that Momofuku Milk Bar is opening a location in Carroll Gardens. Read more…

Daniel Maurer The flyer, spotted on Second Avenue.

Flyers lambasting the owner of Bar Veloce have once again appeared in the neighborhood on First and Second Avenues — and this time the disgruntled ex-employee behind them cites the restaurateur’s other businesses as well.

“Beware East Village: Porsena, Porchetta, and Ugly Kitchen Restaurants’ Owner is suspected of Unlawful Practices at Various Locations!” the flyer reads. The owner in question, of course, is Frederick Twomey, who was the subject of a flyer campaign in January that alleged that he underpaid workers at Bar Veloce on Second Avenue. That led Mr. Twomey to counter-sue the former employee, John Sawyer Preston, alleging that “customers have been driven away, potential investors lost, and employees unnecessarily upset and confused” because of the campaign. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown

Efforts to keep the building that houses the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in use as a nursing home have proven fruitless, as Cabrini announced today that it will close its doors and will likely strike a deal that would move its beds to Brooklyn under a new operator. Benjamin Shaoul, whose company Magnum Realty Group bought the building at Avenue B and Fifth Street late last year, plans to start redevelopment immediately after the Center’s closure – likely in the summer.

“This week we are informing patients and their families and providing employees a three-month WARN notice required by the State Department of Labor,” Patricia Krasnausky, the CEO and President of Cabrini, wrote in a letter addressed to the elected officials who had tried to keep the Center’s 240 elderly residents in the East Village. According to the letter, which you can read below, a private nursing home operator in Borough Park is negotiating to acquire 117 of the Center’s beds for around $2.5 million, with plans to move them to Brooklyn, pending the state’s approval.

Even with that income going toward closure costs, said Ms. Krasnausky, Cabrini will have to spend another $4.5 million on its shutdown, due to the costs of unemployment insurance, pension funding, and severance pay. Read more…