Baseball fans are crowding the sidewalk at Broadway and East Fourth Street, waiting for a chance to get an autograph from Yankee great Bernie Williams in the MLB Fan Cave. The baseball Xanadu is in full swing for opening day, and even has fresh AstroTurf around the entrance. Photos of fans with the longtime outfielder are all over Twitter.

Billy Leroy may have buried his tent on the Bowery last month, but the antiques dealer isn’t done snatching up oddities from around the world. He just got back from Glasgow, Scotland, where the seventh episode of the Travel Channel’s “Baggage Battles” was filmed. “It was a bidding bloodbath between me and my co-competitor Laurence Martin on a very historic item,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Local. “The Scottish people are really friendly and the single-malt whiskey is sublime.”

In this footage provided exclusively to The Local, Mr. Leroy, seated in front of a skull stash with his trademark cigar in hand, lets us in on the secret of getting a good deal. After the show premieres April 11 at 10 p.m., he’ll try his luck in Miami, during the filming of episode eight. “Boy, TV Land is a lot different then the Bowery,” he said. “I am starting to miss Bowery Misfits.”

Locals grumpy about smartphone zombies have something new to grumble about. Today Google unveiled its futuristic Google Goggles, which stream information on the lenses of a pair of high-tech glasses. A video highlighting the mind-boggling — and mildly creepy, perhaps? — features of the gadget visits familiar sights like the Mud truck and the new Cooper Union building. Would you be seen in public wearing these things?

Lauren Carol Smith The site’s founders, Seth Cohen and David Sauvage.

Frustrated with the media’s portrayal of the Occupy Wall Street movement, two veterans of the film industry aim to bypass it entirely with a website that aspires to be a portal to all things O.W.S.

Founded by David Sauvage, who last year co-produced a promotional spot for the movement, and Seth Cohen, Occupy.com celebrated its launch last night at the hot and crowded Arrow Bar on Avenue A. With substantial financial backing from west coast lawyer and producer Larry Taubman and a staff of around 10 people, the polished site is trying to reach an audience beyond the protesters familiar with Zuccotti Park and Union Square. Read more…

Here’s the latest installment of “Police And Thieves,” The Local’s regular roundup of crime. What follows are the latest reports from March 26 to April 1, sorted by the type of incident. Plus: Our map of all of crime since Jan. 15.


Stabbings and Slicings

• Four men stabbed a guy twice on March 28. The victim told the police he was walking on East Seventh Street between Avenue A and Avenue B at around 12:30 a.m. when the quartet grabbed him from behind. He managed to fight off the group, continued walking to a relative’s house on Avenue D and realized he’d been stabbed. The victim was treated at Bellevue Hospital and was expected to live.
• A guy sliced a 27-year-old’s face and hand with a box-cutter on March 30. The victim and the suspect were in an apartment on Avenue D near East Fifth Street at around 3 p.m. when the fight broke out. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

The bacon will keep sizzling, but the smell won’t linger.

At least that’s what Ed Scannapieco, the owner of the IHOP on 14th Street, expects when he installs a new ventilation unit that costs $40,000.

“It knocks down virtually all of the odor and almost all the noise,” said Mr. Sannepieco, who was taking a break from an IHOP conference in Washington, D.C. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Firefighters at the Schwimmer house.

A small crane lifting construction material at the Schwimmer house knocked over a piece of scaffolding this afternoon, injuring a pedestrian below.

Frank McCarton, the deputy commissioner of operations with the Office of Emergency Management, said that the scaffolding struck the passerby at around 2:30 p.m. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital with a minor injury to his shoulder. Read more…

For every East Village business that’s opening or closing, dozens are quietly making it. Here’s one of them: Gizmo.

Shira Levine Hossein Amid

The notion of describing sewing accessories as “notions” is a rather antiquated one. But notions, like buttons, snaps, trimmings, seam rippers and collar-stays, are exactly what Hossein Amid has been selling to the East Village’s artists, D.I.Y. designers, and drag queens for 22 years. The trimmings and fabrics at his First Avenue shop, Gizmo, are particularly popular among casual costume designers. “Every year, Halloween is a big, busy time for me,” Mr. Amid told The Local. But how does Gizmo manage to make it the rest of the year?

You must really love to sew.

Repairing this stuff is what I like doing. I have a mechanical background from when I lived in Iran. When we first opened in 1990, my wife did all the sewing, now she doesn’t. My work is helping people find what they need and repairing sewing machines. Read more…

Better get Michael Moore on the phone. City Room reports that a fight is on the horizon between the owners of the Strand Bookstore and its unionized workers, who are likely to reject a new contract that cuts back on benefits. The store’s general manager says that the offer reflects the realities of the ailing book industry, which affects independent stores in particular. The staff counters that a strike might be necessary down the road. “If that’s what we need to do to defend our rights in the long term, well, we’ll see when we cross that bridge,” an employee says.

Lauren Carol Smith The restaurant at 7 St. Marks Place will expand next door.

A worker renovating the below-ground space at 5 St. Marks Place, near Third Avenue, just told The Local that the Thai restaurant next door, Klong, will be moving in. An employee at JKNY Realty, which is listed as the owner in Department of Buildings records, confirmed the expansion. The space was previously occupied by Hottie, which closed in November.

Around 250 parents and friends of the Children’s Workshop School gathered on Friday evening for a benefit that featured a silent auction of art by local artists, as well as a performance by the pop singer Lisa Lisa (of Cult Jam fame). As turned out, the organizers of the “SchoolAPalooza” didn’t have to pull too many strings to get the woman behind the 1987 hit “Lost in Emotion” to make an appearance: the principal of the school, Maria Velez-Clarke, is her older sister. The Local was there with camera in hand to document the festivities — as well as footwear signed by none other than the Material Girl.
Read more…

Here’s the latest installment of “Police And Thieves,” The Local’s regular roundup of crime. What follows are the latest reports from March 12 to 18, sorted by the type of incident. Plus: Our map of all of crime since Jan. 15.

Trouble on the Trains

Vivienne Gucwa The Astor Place station.

• A thief chucked two sneakers at a man and robbed him on March 12. The 44-year-old victim told the police he was sitting on a bench on the northbound platform in the Astor Place station at around 6 a.m. when a man sat beside him and said, “I’m going to kill you if you don’t give me your money.” After getting what he asked for, the suspect reached into his jacket, pulled out the shoe and threw it at the victim, hitting him in the back. The victim alerted a booth clerk, and re-approached the suspect, who had moved up the platform, only to get a shoe hurled at him again.
• A guy asked a woman for directions in the Second Avenue subway station and then snatched her cellphone on March 17. The 23-year-old victim said that after she gave the suspect directions at around 9:50 p.m., he grabbed her iPhone 4S from her hand. She gave chase but lost the thief on the street.
• After drinking till closing time at Double Down Saloon on March 18, a 27-year-old from Wisconsin passed out on a subway platform. He woke up four hours later and was missing his cellphone as well as the iPhone that he used for browsing the internet. To add insult to injury, when he awoke and tried to report the crime to a booth clerk at the station she wouldn’t help him out. Read more…

Union Square has a knack for drawing the talented, the bored, and the show-offs to its broad open spaces. For that reason I gravitate to this part of the city on a daily basis in order to capture some of its magic and to add some of my own. Now Occupy Wall Street protesters have bitten off quite a chunk of the south side of Union Square, and in response, police officers hover around the perimeter of the park, poised to stop anything unruly or obstructive. Despite surveillance, artists, street performers and park-goers don’t seem to shy away from self expression. Rush hour is a great time to take photos not only because the park is flooded with characters, but also because it’s then that the sun is likely to create interesting highlights and shadows on faces.
Read more…

A new site dedicated to the Occupy Wall Street movement aims to be a sounding board for protests around the world, and its launch party is next week at Arrow Bar on Avenue A. According to a write-up on Facebook, Occupy.com will “use media as a call for social, economic, environmental and political justice. We seek to inspire resistance, engagement and the creation of the new world we imagine.” The architects of the site add that they are “morally accountable to the movement as a whole.”

Daniel Maurer

A Japanese restaurant with three locations in Long Island will open in the space that was home to Lan, a neighborhood favorite for a little over a decade. When The Local stopped into Kotobuki at 56 Third Avenue earlier today, the owner politely declined to speak about the restaurant or let us take photos, since he is still staffing up, but said he hoped to quietly open next Thursday.

According to a Website advertising outposts in Babylon, Roslyn, and the original location in Hauppauge, the mini-chain was established in 1987, with an aim to “relentlessly revolutionize the facets of Japanese fare to craft extraordinary delights to satisfy even the most discerning of palates.” Read more…

Maya Millett The 5C Cultural Center, 68 Avenue C.

Update | 10:57 a.m. This article was revised to include comments from Bruce Morris, the co-owner of 5C Cultural Center, who responded to several phone calls from The Local shortly after the story was posted.

After 17 years of bad blood, injunction orders, and noise complaints, the co-op board of 702 East Fifth Street dropped its eviction of 5C Cultural Center and Cafe yesterday.

The decision draws the lengthy court battle to a close, though it’s far from certain that the conflict between the art and performance space and its upstairs neighbors has been resolved. In fact, the outcome may not be as favorable for the owners of 5C as it appears.

According to David Studer, the maintenance coordinator for the building, the board had been trying to drop the eviction for the past year, but the owners of 5C resisted, opting to keep an injunction in place that discouraged their landlords from seeking the monthly rent. Yesterday a judge sided with the board and lifted that injunction on the grounds that it was moot because the board no longer wished to evict 5C. Now the board is free to pursue around $16,000 in back rent. Read more…

A sign posted at Astor Place between Broadway and Lafayette Street indicates that The CW’s show based on Candace Bushnell’s “Sex and the City” prequel, “The Carrie Diaries” will be filming in the neighborhood on Sunday. The show will follow a 17-year-old Carrie Bradshaw, played by AnnaSophia Robb, through high school life in Connecticut. Adult Carrie was no stranger to the East Village: She attended Miranda’s birthday party at Lucky Cheng’s during the “Sex and the City” pilot, and one of her clothiers of choice, Patricia Field, is right here on the Bowery.

Finally, the perfect t-shirt to go along with your mosaic belt buckle. The Mosaic Man Jim Power just alerted The Local on Twitter to his new shirts, which feature a portrait of the local legend gazing into the distance. The collection on Cafe Press also includes Mosaic Man-endorsed iPhone covers, coffee mugs, notebooks and even t-shirts for a dog.

Vanessa Yurkevich The former of home of “Lucky” Luciano at 265 East 10th Street.

Before there were squats, there were social clubs. And before pricey restaurants began taking over East Village storefronts, many were gathering places for the mob.

Every Friday and Saturday night Gideon Levy, the founder of NYC Gangster Tours, gives a tour of these onetime crime scenes, clandestine casinos and fronts for drug smuggling operations.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Mr. Levy’s obsession with mob history started in 2003 when the film “Gangs of New York” inspired him to organize his tours, one of which winds through the East Village.

“Walking through neighborhoods that are familiar, that you might walk by every single day, you might not know about a thread that leads back to smuggling or a murder,” said Mr. Levy during a recent tour. Read more…