The police have released these images of a suspect in a purse-snatching at an apartment building on FDR Drive earlier this month.
This morning, we told you that investigators are looking for the suspect in a purse-snatching at 819 FDR Drive.
Here are more photographs of the suspect that were released by the authorities.
The police said that the suspect is in his early 30’s and was last seen May 15 leaving the apartment building where the mugging occurred. —The Local
Michelle RickWould-be messages from the East Village in 140 characters or less.
Clouds, rain, ice, wind or lung-stopping heat pursue
him, in any country, on almost any day. God’s
punishment for spending ten years in L.A.
The taxi driver from Senegal has lived in Dijon, NY,
Barcelona, and Kansas. He speaks three languages. Just
another working stiff, y’all
‘The debris of laptops’ (Colin Firth) on silvery display.
Everyone mit coffee & Mac. We all changed so quickly.
Can we please change back?
Writers mythologized it, residents boasted of it, tourists
ate it up. Now landlords happily serve it to us, in a
grimy, $2,000 plastic cup
Michael NataleGood morning, East Village.
The jury in the rape trial involving two East Village police officers has asked to review the plaintiff’s testimony about four visits that prosecutors said the officers made to her apartment on the night of the incident. DNAinfo reports that since May 18, the jury has requested several pieces of evidence to assist in their deliberations, including transcripts from a tape-recorded phone call and a special meeting arranged by the district attorney’s office.
East Village police are on the lookout for a man accused of mugging a 60-year-old home health aide worker earlier this month in her apartment building on FDR Drive. The authorities told The Local’s Stephen Rex Brown that this man followed the woman into the elevator and wrestled the purse off her neck. DNAinfo is on the story, too.
And finally, Ray’s Candy Store can’t stay out of the lens. EV Grieve reports that the film crew of “How to Make it in America” used the Avenue A storefront as a backdrop for filming yesterday. Didn’t know it was one of Bryan Greenberg’s favorite places.
Stephen Rex Brown Damaso Vigo takes a defiant puff.As you probably heard, smoking is now banned in city parks and beaches. The Local stopped by Tompkins Square Park to see if East Village smokers were following the letter of the law.
The first thing we saw upon entering the park at St. Marks Place? That’s right, a smoking scofflaw.
“You can’t even smoke in the park? Then where you going to smoke?” said Damaso Vigo, in between puffs of a Tiparillo Mild cigar. “It’s a stupid thing.”
The new law was hailed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as an important measure to protect locals’ lungs.
“The science is clear: prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke, whether you’re indoors or out, hurts your health,” the mayor said in a statement. “Today, we’re doing something about it.”
But even some non-smokers in Tompkins Square Park were uneasy with the nix on nicotine in parks.
Read more…
Michelle Rick
Stephen Rex Brown Ray Alvarez, the owner of Ray’s Candy Store.This morning, we told you that Ray’s Candy Store is open for business again after the Avenue A mainstay failed a health inspection last week and was forced to close for five days.
The Local paid a visit to Ray’s this morning and spoke with the owner and namesake, Ray Alvarez, who described how he and some friends worked late into the night to clean the shop so that it could eventually pass muster.
“I only slept three hours a night,” said Mr. Alvarez, who’s 78. “We swept, mopped, and patched over 200 holes. I had two exterminators come last week.”
Health inspectors first visited Mr. Alvarez’s eatery between Seventh Street and St. Marks Place last Monday, and cited the shop for contaminated food, evidence of mice in food preparation areas, and improper storage areas.
The inspector told Mr. Alvarez to close his business, but — concerned about the financial ramifications of closing —he remained open and was slapped with a $2,000 fine on a return visit the same day.
“Too many fines,” Mr. Alvarez said. “The inspectors ran out of paper, and my pen ran out of ink from signing my name so much.”
Read more…
Stephen Rex Brown.The Local is pleased to welcome Stephen Rex Brown, who today begins work as the blog’s senior correspondent.
Mr. Brown recently worked as the editor of the hyperlocal news site, Fort Greene Patch. In 2010, he worked for The Brooklyn Paper and won “Reporter of the Year” from the Suburban Newspapers of America.
He taught journalism in Monterey, Calif. to high school students for National Geographic Student Expeditions. As a graduate of NYU Journalism’s Global and Joint Program Studies, he holds a joint master of arts degree in Journalism and Latin American Studies. His work has appeared in The Brooklyn Eagle and The Times and he has held an internship with The Daily Beast.
In addition to reporting for The Local, Mr. Brown will also serve on the faculty of NYU Journalism.
“We’re delighted to have Stephen on board,” said Richard G. Jones, editor of The Local. “He’s a dynamic young talent with a solid grounding in hyperlocal journalism and an appreciation of the innumerable storytelling opportunities in the East Village. Our readers will benefit from his reporting in the field and our students will benefit from his work in the classroom.”
Follow Mr. Brown on Twitter: @LEVStephen.
Vivienne Gucwa, a community contributor to The Local East Village Flickr Group shares her images of the weekend’s New York Dance Parade, which wound its way through the East Village Saturday.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
If you’d like a chance to see your best shots appear on The Local, join The Local East Village Flickr Group.
Heather Holland Good morning, East Village.
So the rapture didn’t happen. On Saturday, the only thing to descend on the East Village was a massive flock of dancers. Out of the ordinary, perhaps, and measurably more welcome than pestilence and stinking sores, but still, it was not what Harold Camping had envisioned when he spoke of the Earth’s assured destruction on May 21, 2011. Some people are now wondering where the old radio minister is? Chief among them, Robert Fitzpatrick, the man who plunked down $140,000 — his life savings — to finance the doomsday ad campaign. But most are simply turning their attention elsewhere. Even the Mars Bar has a new sign!
The allergy season is flaring up and blurring the lines between pets and their owners. According to The Post, one in five pets may be suffering from some form of allergy, and with the pollen season in full swing, some East Village pups are now taking human antihistamines for the doggie form of hay fever.
As for the human-caused air irritants, EV Grieve is up on the latest extension of smoking bans to city parks. Starting today, if you light up in Tompkins Square Park you might have to cough up $50.
The Daily News has a special multimedia report today that was prepared by the students of NYU Journalism. The report finds that residents of East Village and Lower East Side public housing developments are complaining about the damaging effects of mold and other hazards found inside their apartments. According to the report, out of 106,000 orders for repair, only 9,000 have been scheduled for 2012.
And good news for Ray’s Candy Store, which finally reopened last Friday. Last week, the owner, 78-year-old Ray Alvarez, had been fighting to pass a series of follow-up inspections, after racking up 53 points in health code violations that had earned his shop a forced closure sign on Monday. Neither More Nor Less captured Mr. Alvarez doing one last bit of cleaning before reopening to the public.
Phillip Kalantzis Cope A mural outside Mars Bar earlier this week.Yesterday, I went to Pas De Deux on East 11th Street to pick out a dress for my girlfriend. Two women approached, one short-legged, the other willowy; both were stylish, in their own way.
“How can we help?” they said in near unison.
I explained that I wanted to buy a dress for my girlfriend.
“Something that says, ‘I really enjoyed our time together and I’m sorry I could not prevent the inevitable.’”
The short girl bit her cheek, “That…sounds interesting, are you breaking up?”
“The world is ending,” I said.
Read more…
Kenan Christiansen Antonio Garcia, the street artist known as Chico, recently received commissions for 10 new neighborhood murals, including this in-progress work outside Whiskers pet supply store on Ninth Street. Below (from left), Phil Klein, a co-owner of Whiskers, Mr. Garcia and artist Joel Salas.
It’s hard to walk around the East Village and not run into a mural by Antonio Garcia, who’s known to almost everyone by his nom de spraypaint, Chico. The locally born graffiti artist has spent most of his 34-year-career dedicated to painting the public walls of the neighborhood with lush murals often directly inspired by contemporary events. When he was laid off from his job at NYC Housing in 2008 he left the city to live in Florida with his family.
“I always said I’d come back,” said Mr. Garcia, standing before his latest work at Whiskers Holistic Pet Care on Ninth Street. “If they pay for my ticket, I’ll come.”
And even though he’s only been in the city a few weeks his murals have already began to proliferate.
On his most recent trip, sponsored by Branson B. Champagne, Mr. Garcia painted a mural celebrating the royal wedding on a wall in East Houston and Avenue B. The job only took 12 hours and he soon had more projects lined up. Before he leaves on June 24, Mr. Garcia agreed to 10 new mural projects in the neighborhood.
Read more…
Phillip Kalantzis CopeIf you see the phrase “East Village” after a byline at The Local, it means that the article is the work of one of our community contributors. These are people who live or work in the neighborhood, or have strong ties to it, and are willing to report on local news, talk about their interests and passions, or just inform and entertain us about aspects of East Village life. The Local is always looking for writers to join the party. Most of the articles we publish are around 500 to 600 words, but we are also on the lookout for brief, focused telegrams from the street.
You don’t need to be a professional journalist. We’ll provide help in getting your copy into shape if you need it. Interested? For more details, e-mail Kim Davis, The Local’s associate editor (kimdavis@thelocaleastvillage.com). Add your voice to the choir.
Vivienne Gucwa Good morning, East Village.
It’s official: with the demolition order on file, we can finally say that it’s the beginning of the end for Mars Bar. Its destruction has been long anticipated, and it’s unclear exactly how many days the iconic dive bar has left before it becomes part of the permanent foundation for 12-story apartment complex. Ultimately though, the end may turn out to be more of a hiatus. As DNAinfo notes, after two years Mars Bar will get the chance to reopen in the same place at quadruple the square footage.
The EV Grieve just sent out invitations for the funeral of 35 Cooper Square, scheduled May 25. The event will no doubt serve as a bit of closure for preservationists after the long fight to save the historic building ended in defeat.
And finally, The Times recently had a rummage through the eclectic collection of trinkets, odds and ends, and bric-a-brac at Archangel Antiques. The Ninth Street shop carries a stock of over 1 million buttons dating back to the 1860’s and proves that at least half the fun of collecting antiques is the type of people that you meet.
Michelle Rick
Phillip Kalantzis Cope A sampling of reader reactions to posts that have appeared on The Local.
Brendan Bernhard’s post about Mast Books on Avenue A and its distinctly East Village vibe resonated with readers.
Amy Bull wrote:
“This seems to sum up the direction “modern society” is taking. Books become artifacts, newspapers a luxury. So what becomes of the tactile pleasures which used to make up our delgihtful every day routines? Morning coffee with the paper and curling up with a book on the couch…”
Michael Hoinski added:
“take your blogs, your mp3s, your kindles, so i can have my trad pubs, my vinyl, and my sweet, glorious hardcovers.”
Readers also responded to Mr. Bernhard’s piece about the CBGB’s era band Television.
Tony B. wrote:
“I’ve never dug Television, though I did love a lot of the music at CBGB. Ned Sublette comes gracefully to mind. Your story, however, gets Television’s appeal across to me.”
Mario RamirezThe bicycle is such a decorous, ingenious, quiet machine, it’s a shame it has become a politicized one as well. But when you see somebody on a bike with a placard attached to it which reads A QUIET PROTEST AGAINST OIL, you know Politicization has arrived. (On First Avenue, in this case.)
Beautiful and ingenious as the bicycle may be, the human body is even more beautiful and ingenious, at least until the age of 60, and especially below the age of 30. And let’s not forget one important thing. As a pedestrian, I also fall into the category of partaking in A QUIET PROTEST AGAINST OIL, unless I’m in a cab. I just don’t have a sign, or a T-shirt, with which to make this fact plain. But I’m going to get one. It’s going to be a quiet protest against other, equally quiet protests.
Read more…
Gloria ChungGood morning, East Village.
Around 3 p.m. yesterday, in the midst of the downpour a cyclist was struck by a white van while moving between Broadway and East Houston. The accident, also involving a truck, resulted in three injuries, none of which the authorities believed were life-threatening. The police secured the scene until emergency responders could arrive. The injured were transferred to local hospitals.
New rules by the Parks Department will limit the number of art vendors in Union Square, along with three other city parks. A temporary restraining order to block the rules was lifted last Tuesday by a Manhattan appellate court. According to DNAinfo, the number of art vendors in the Union Square will be reduced to 18. Enforcement starts on Monday.
And there’s more news about Ray’s. According to Neither More Nor Less, health inspectors revisited Ray’s Candy Store yesterday and, despite all his efforts to clean up, the inspectors were still able to locate mouse droppings. Earlier in the day, the store’s owner, Ray Alvarez, went to court to address his fines for the citations he had been issued over the last couple of days. EV Grieve posted a listing of area bars and restaurants that received flawless inspections from the Department of Health — something for Ray to aspire to. Yesterday he was hoping to open his doors. Looks like we’ll all have to be a bit more patient.
Tim Schreier
Michelle RickBrowsing outside Strand Books.I enjoyed the portrait of Mast Books by Brendan Bernhard we published yesterday because the clean, bright space has become one of my regular haunts on Avenue A. Not that I can claim to be a valued customer. I like to take my ten year-old daughter in there and point out the books I’ve already got. “I have that. I have that. I do have that, but in a different edition.” The problem for Mast Books, if not for me, is that its curation of titles is so close to my taste that the store’s bookshelves uncannily mirror my own.
Reading the piece, I mentally counted off the neighborhood’s surviving independent bookstores and paused to mourn a few long lost. Posman’s on University Place was somewhat west of the East Village but housed an extraordinary selection of academic paperbacks. This was a place to revel in critical theory, bask in sociology and drown in philosophy. Almost irreplaceable, but I get an adequate fix of Foucault and Badiou, together with the opportunity to browse improbably expensive glossy magazines, at St Mark’s Bookshop.
The Strand is the neighborhood giant, of course, and one of the largest bookstores in the world in terms of miles of shelving. Usually crowded, always hard to navigate thanks to crowd-sourced aisle dithering, it’s the place to find relatively new books heavily discounted as well as cheap used editions. The Strand has been easier to access since surveillance cameras took over from the bag check (like only people with large bags can steal books) and the store’s website, unlike aspects of the store itself, is a model of user-friendliness. Read more…
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