Amanda Plasencia A bodega customer leaves the 21 Produce Corp. Deli & Grocery in the East Village.

Mexican music recently filled the 21 Produce Corp. Deli and Grocery on Avenue B near Second Street in the East Village. But on a recent Thursday afternoon there was no one in the store to buy the corn tortillas, cigarettes and other staples of this corner bodega.

“We’re already losing a lot of businesses due to increases in rent and if it keeps going on like this, we won’t be in business much longer,” Geodoro Hernandez, 55, who works the counter at 21 Produce Corp., said as he gazed around the empty store.

The desolate scene at 21 Produce is a stark example of how small, neighborhood grocery and convenience stores are struggling to stay afloat in a rough economy. Retail groups and other industry experts say that a combination of forces, including high rents and competition from larger, more upscale markets, have placed the future of many bodegas in jeopardy.

In a recent survey of the city’s bodega owners, roughly half said that their businesses are at risk of closing. The cause? Nearly three-quarters cited rising rents.
Read more…

Tim Milk

Good morning, East Village.

After being slated for almost certain demolition, 35 Cooper Square may live to see another day. Our friends at Bowery Boogie bring us news that neighborhood preservationists received support last night from Community Board 3, which voted to send a resolution to site developers outlining the community’s desire to save the historic building.

Get your brackets ready—March Madness is officially underway. Whether you’re a die hard fan or casual follower of the NCAA, it’s hard not to get swept up in the thrill of good competition. New York MetroMix suggests heading over to Professor Thoms or the Village Pourhouse to catch a game or two. We want to know—where will you be watching?

From slam dunks to slam downs, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe is housing a showdown of a different sort this weekend as aspiring young writers and lyricists go head to head to compete in Urban Word’s NYC Teen Poetry Slam. Come see the action yourself on Saturday.

EVGrieve reports a smash up between a taxi and a pickup truck yesterday on Second Avenue, and DNAInfo tells us not to expect any food vendors to come to Cooper Square Park anytime soon.

Expect this morning’s rain to give way to sunny skies later this weekend. Today’s temperature should climb up to 55 degrees.

Tim Schreier

Would-be messages from the East Village, in 140 characters or less.

Sunday Morning on Avenue C

The joy of it the sting of it the bells of it the glare of it
the birds of it the eyes of it the prayers of it the drugs of
it the it of it

Sidewalk Encounter

The rat crossed his path with such nonchalance the damn
thing might as well have been wearing shades &
smoking a bidi

The British Lawyer

…Surveyed our sunken roofs, loose bricks, black
spaghetti of dangling phone wires, & declared, “In
London, this would all be illegal!”

Personal Trainer

I met it at downtown’s trendiest gym
could never ascertain: her or him?
never saw it change or shower or swim…
but now I’m toned and trim

P.S. 122

Should artistes shovel snow like normal people? Please.
Pratfalls are aesthetic (Tati, etc.), and black ice is a
frozen film noir…

Middle Age (Paging Lou Reed)

O it’s such a perfect day (though I barely slept) I’m so
glad I spent it with you (whoever you are) where is the
damn zoo, anyway?

Disappointment

At the Immaculate Conception Church, the priest offers
bread, but no wine. The blood of Christ is available only
on Sundays

Beautiful Girl at the Nail Salon

She worked in TV and sounded like TV so he pretended
she was TV and returned his gaze to the mute black hair
of the Asian woman at his feet

Tech-Tock

Even when you refuse to believe them, memes can cling
like cellophane: This bookstore is a dying thing,
empty an hour before closing

Lunch Date

The Loneliest Man in the East Village took the Second
Loneliest Man to lunch. They ate mostly in the silence of
silverware. Both agreed

that they were failures, that their erotic prospects were
risible, that their Linked-In profiles were musty tombs,
and that they rarely met

anyone not connected to the service industry except in
movies, books, and dreams

Discuss

The fact people can be left to die on the sidewalk has
always made the East Village viscerally exciting to
young Europeans

Phillip Kalantzis Cope

As we know by now, the 185-year-old 35 Cooper Square is about to be torn to the ground, and replaced by a giant futuristic hotel, or luxury condominiums, or a really swanky office building, or some such non-East Village-y thing. And as we know by now, a lot of longtime East Villagers aren’t happy about it, the destruction of the awe-inspiring, historical, super-significant ageless wonder that was the Asian Pub.

Protestors picketed, petitions were signed, letters were mailed, and for naught. The capitalistic Man that is New York City prevailed. It’s a time for tears, right?

Not so fast. Recently, one of The Local’s readers commented on the expected demolition of the historic building, saying that even though she went to school and lived closed by, she “didn’t even know it existed.”

And although I’m but 22 years old, only lived in the East Village for some eight months, and am more privy to this neighborhood’s prolific bar scene than its historic past, I can’t help but thinking that maybe, just maybe, this sudden preservationist uproar is a bit, well, contrived.

Because as I said, I don’t know much about this neighborhood. I do know, though, that for years, 35 Cooper Square was little more than a place for broke NYU and Cooper Union kids to get really, really drunk. It was a lovely place, but not really historic. Where was the outcry then?

The days of Diane di Prima living upstairs have long since passed. Over time, 35 Cooper Square evolved, from a residential haven for poets and writers, to – like it or not – a cheap watering hole. Over time, 35 Cooper Square’s become little more than an eyesore next to its surroundings. And somewhere over that time, 35 Cooper Square lost its history.

One preservationist said to me in disgust that by the time the Bowery is fully developed, “only the wealthy and trust fund babies” would live here. Her anger seemed less directed toward 35 Cooper’s demise and more at the type of people who will ultimately live here.

But why are we fighting it? This is one of the most progressive neighborhoods in one of the most progressive cities in the world. For decades, we’ve been a haven for artists, musicians, minorities, gays, freedom fighters, beatniks, hippies. Our rich history stems from us opening our doors, to everyone, and the ever-shifting landscape that our tolerance produces.

The East Village skyline will shift, and shift again. It always has. Who’s to say this is a bad thing, or that tomorrow’s residents won’t include the next di Prima, Hendrix, or Madonna? As East Villagers, it’s our duty to remember the past. But when we reflexively cling to our past, when we use 35 Cooper Square as a scapegoat for fear and uncertainty of an unseen future, we become something altogether different.

Join the conversation: Is the concern over preserving 35 Cooper Square justified?

Fabio Clemente has been an East Village mainstay since he opened the Alliance Brazilian Jiu Jitsu studio nine years ago at 13th Street and Third Avenue. A single father of two and a second-generation jiu jitsu black belt, Mr. Clemente, who’s 45, dreams of one day spreading the art of jiu jitsu through the Americas with his promising son, Zata, 17, at his side.

NYU Journalism’s Mark Riffee and Greg Howard report.

Gloria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

Feeling down lately? You’re not the only one. From noxious dirt to demolitions to downpours it seems like a lot of people are in low spirits today.

A new poll shows 41 percent of New Yorkers believe quality of life has gone down in the past 10 years. Of those polled, 35 percent expect it to get worse.

East Village Community school is seeking relocation after potentially toxic oil was discovered in the soil underneath the school’s auditorium, DNAinfo reports. Citing a possible “environmental and structural crisis,” the principal is asking that the school be moved to an available space on East 12th Street — the same spot being eyed by the Girls Prep Charter School as it looks to expand.

Neighborhood activists intent on saving 35 Cooper Square from demolition will once again push their case before Community Board 3’s landmark and preservation committee at a meeting tonight. Work on the landmark building resumed last week after a stop work order was issued in February was lifted.

One mood booster that’s sure to work? Pinball. Ace Bar on East Fifth Street is conveniently hosting a tournament this weekend for casual players and pros alike. Come test your skill and maybe win a little cash along the way.

Don’t look to the weather today to cheer you up. While temperatures are expected to hover around 50 degrees, forecasters are predicting a 100 percent chance of rain.

The Local is proud to announce the members of the 2011 New York Times/NYU Hyperlocal Digital Reporting Internship class. The interns were chosen after a national competition and have been selected to participate in The Local’s paid, 10-week summer internship program.

“These are among the most talented and promising student-journalists in the country,” said Richard G. Jones, editor of The Local. “They have demonstrated a commitment to digital storytelling and hyperlocal news. We very much look forward to working with them this summer.”

The members of the intern class are:

Khristopher J. Brooks.

Khristopher J. Brooks is a student in the Literary Reportage master’s degree concentration at the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Mr. Brooks, who came to NYU after working as a reporter at the Bristol Herald Courier and the Omaha World-Herald, is a graduate of Central Michigan University. He has held internships at the Associated Press bureau in Louisville, Ky. and the Lansing State Journal. He has also filed on-air reports for WJHL-TV in Johnson City, Tenn.

Joshua Davis.

Joshua Davis is the Roy H. Park master’s fellow in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A veteran videographer and editor, Mr. Davis began his coursework at UNC after holding a range of production positions at the Travel Channel, PBS Frontline and Rollingstone.com. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Mr. Davis has taught digital video editing at Rutgers, NYU and UNC. He is also an Apple certified instructor for Final Cut Pro.

Ian Duncan.

Ian Duncan is a student in the master’s degree program in Journalism and International Relations in Global and Joint Program Studies at NYU Journalism. An international student from England, Mr. Duncan is a graduate of St. Anne’s College at Oxford University, where he served as editor-in-chief of Cherwell, a weekly student newspaper. Mr. Duncan, who has also studied at Fukuoka University of Economics in Japan, was a Rupert Murdoch Scholar during an internship at The Times of London and he has also held an internship at The Birmingham Post. Mr. Duncan’s work has appeared on The Local.

Meghan Keneally.

Meghan Keneally is a student in the master’s degree program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Ms. Keneally has held internships at The New York Observer, The Washington Post and The Sunday Times of London. A graduate of Georgetown University, she has studied at the University of Marc Bloch in Strasbourg, France and is also the creator of a restaurant review blog.

Laura E. Lee.

Laura E. Lee is a student in the master’s degree program at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland College Park. Ms. Lee went to Maryland after earning a law degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and working as an attorney and consultant. Ms. Lee, who also earned her undergraduate degree at UNC, currently works as a political reporter for the Capital News Service in Washington, D.C. She also reports for Patch.com, The Washington Blade and the Prince George’s Sentinel and has held an internship with National Public Radio. Ms. Lee is a member of the bar in North Carolina and the District of Columbia.

Chelsia Rose Marcius.

Chelsia Rose Marcius is a student in the Reporting the Nation master’s degree concentration at NYU Journalism. She has held reporting internships at the Chicago Sun-Times and Fox Chicago News and is the editor of Pavement Pieces, an online publication featuring work by Reporting New York and Reporting the Nation students. A graduate of Loyola University-Chicago, Ms. Marcius holds bachelor’s degrees in both journalism and international studies and minored in Italian. Ms. Marcius, who has also studied at The John Felice Rome Center in Italy, is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Her work has appeared on The Local.

Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good morning, East Village.

EV Grieve reports that renovations continue on St. Brigid’s Church on East Eighth Street and Avenue B after workers put new scaffolding up last week. Repairs to the landmark church began in 2009 after a mysterious donor saved the historic church from demolition. Read more about it here, here and here.

While one church gets a facelift, another one celebrates its 165th anniversary on Broadway.

Meanwhile, Grieve also points us to residents at 97 East Seventh Street, who are hoping for a miracle of their own after having gone 17 days without gas for cooking, though word is that management will have the problem fixed by today.

In other news, a man who punched a woman and nearly killed her over an East Village parking spot apologized yesterday after being charged with second-degree assault, DNAInfo reports.  Read more about what sparked the feud here.

Yesterday marked the beginning of National Procrastination Week. It’s only fitting that you start celebrating today. Or tomorrow, for that matter.

And it’s another beautiful day in the East Village, with sunny skies and temperatures expected to reach a high of 46 degrees.

Dayna Clark

Last week, we shared the story of how parents at Girls Prep Middle School are upset at the abrupt dismissal of the school’s principal, Kimberly Morcate.

The post struck a chord with many readers.

Cary Abrams questioned the school’s poor performance on recent standardized tests, commenting:

“The fact that a school is able to drop from the 82nd to the 13th percentile in a year is highly circumspect, more indicative of the unreliability of the evaluation process than other factors.”

Vilma wondered about the reasons behind Ms. Morcate’s dismissal; the board of directors declined to comment on the basis of their decision:

“I believe the Board that decided to fire Ms. Morcate did the wrong thing and they KNOW it and as much as they want to ADMIT it and bring her back, they will do no such thing. I just hope the girls do well on their tests this year and if they don’t then it will be FURTHER PROOF of the firing of Ms. Morcate with no reason at all.”

Maria A. noted how much affection students at the school felt for Ms. Morcate:

“Ms. Morcate is an incomparable, and irreplacable principal and it’s a shame that we lost a person who has a heart filled with love for all our girls. (Ms. Morcate, we love you and you don’t know how much Katie misses you. She prays and she cries for you. We wish you good luck and a lot of hugs, Thanks for your dedication and for sharing your knowledge with all of us.)”

Join the conversation: Should the board have been more transparent about the reasons behind Ms. Morcate’s dismissal?

Michelle Rick

If you had to identify one defining feature of life in Manhattan, it just might be pedestrianism. There are places where calling someone or something “pedestrian” is an insult; this isn’t one of them. Here, “pedestrian” is an identity to share and be proud of. It does occasionally need defending.

Only a minority of us have cars, but every New Yorker walks and lives near things worth walking to (no matter how often we also take taxis or Zipcars or anything else). Our street grid, formed by the 1811 Commissioners’ Plan, predates the automotive invasion of American space by nearly a century. We’re the pre-automotive Americans, by design and by history as well as by inclination. And if factors like climate change, oil shortages, energy costs, Middle Eastern warfare, and rising awareness of what cars do to human bodies all suggest that the automotive era won’t last forever, we’re ready for post-automotive life, too.

On the East Side, the human/vehicular competition is particularly intense, and with the tire tracks on people’s backs to prove it, a coalition of community groups led by the nonprofit group Transportation Alternatives (along with the East Village Community Coalition, East Harlem Preservation, Civitas, Upper Green Side, and others) has developed an East Side Action Plan to define goals for the improvement of street safety involving multiple city agencies. The East Side, particularly the East Village, is a logical place for this: the area from Chinatown up to East Harlem accounts for only 8 percent of the city’s population but 22 percent of its pedestrian commuters, 13 percent of its bike commuters – and 11 percent of its “fatal and injurious” crashes.
Read more…

Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

Last week, we reported on a mysterious writer who was posting mystery pages of a manuscript on lampposts and mailboxes all over the East Village. Since then, it seems more undercover authors have chosen to take the self-publishing routes. EVGrieve spotted pictures of new pages that have popped up throughout the neighborhood, including a piece of fiction titled “The Two Little Canker Sores.” Have you seen any more?

What goes better with cupcakes than, say, burritos? EVGrieve reports that Cowgirl Cupcakes, a completely vegan restaurant that specializes in both, opened its doors on East 10th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.

And if you’re still hungry after all that, Nearsay.com offers up suggestions on where to grab a quick bite in the East Village for under $10.

The Times reports that the building housing A Gathering of Tribes, an art gallery and salon on East Third Street between Avenues C and D, is up for sale at a listing price of $2.9 million.

In other news, the Department of Education will hold a final public hearing tonight to get feedback on plans to expand the Girls Prep Charter School to a new location.

Sick of rain? Today’s weather offers us some relief from yesterday’s showers. Expect sunny skies and a high of 45.

Adrian Fussell on following his camera around the city.

“A lot of people exclusively shoot at dawn and dusk because of the lighting. I always try to carry my camera when the sun goes down. Winter skies are some of the most beautiful, and with the reflection on Trump Soho and the lighting behind the silhouettes downtown, it looked like there were two suns. “
Read more…

This week’s Street Style features menswear including sporty jackets and accessories and vibrant colors and patterns (neon in winter?) that we expect to see more of this spring.

Classics like a vintage backpack, straw fedora and tailored jackets are always in style, as are clothes that fit well and reflect personality — whether that be in a hairstyle, handmade jewelry or clothing that is so well made it has lasted years and still fits.

Street Style hits the pavement with some locals to find that in the East Village the average man on the street is anything but.

NYU Journalism’s Rachel Ohm and Claire Glass report.

Rachel Ohm Dancers rehearse for this weekend’s continuation of “Body Madness” at Danspace in St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery.

As a warm-up, Mariangela Lopez instructs her dancers to walk across the hardwood floor of St. Mark’s Church without music. They begin slowly and as they progress to the opposite end of the room their movements become more pronounced. They stretch and contort their bodies, reaching to the sky and crawling on the floor, moving around and with each other.

When the music finally comes on, they are scattered to different parts of St. Mark’s. One dancer is in the upstairs vestibule, another in the risers on the side, and some are on the floor.

They are preparing for their next performance with the Danspace Project, a contemporary dance studio that has been performing in St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery since 1974, in a space that is also home to poetry and theater projects while still being a practicing Episcopal Church.

Last year Danspace executive director Judy Hussie-Taylor started the Choreographic Center Without Walls, an effort to bring dance curators, choreographers and artists together for a series of performances she calls “platforms”. One year later and the project has become an important part of what Danspace is all about.
Read more…

Phoenix Eisenberg

Graffiti is an iconic form of artistic rebellion, whose epicenter has long been New York City.

With activities ranging from boxcar tagging to anarchistic promotion, the graffiti artist has a persona associated with intrigue and deviousness. But why the fascination with graffiti as a fine art in the last few years? Do popular graffiti artists today such as Banksy, Judith Supine, Shepard Fairey, and Dan Witz still portray rebellion?

Antonio Garcia, better known as “Chico,” started his career of spray-painting illegally, but soon found a new way to use his talents. Seeing the plain walls and brick that covered the Lower East Side, Chico saw a market. Today it is difficult to walk a block without seeing his commissioned work, whether it is a memorial or a small ad for a veterinarian business. Although Chico’s work is arguably just as skilled and creative as some of the greatest artists in the field, he has not drawn as much interest as Banksy or Shepard Fairey. Perhaps this is because, in jumping on the legal and marketable side of the art form, he risks losing the exact quality that draws so many to graffiti – the thrill of the illicit.