Claire Glass City officials today approved a plan to demolish the historic site at 35 Cooper Square. Below: About 100 people held a demonstration last month to protest planned demolition at the site.

Suzanne Rozdeba

Scaffolding has gone up, workers are busy on the roof and an application for full demolition was filed and approved today for 35 Cooper Square. Yet the new owners of the nearly 200-year-old federal-style building that preservation groups are trying desperately to keep standing told The Local three times in the past 10 days that the firm as yet had no concrete plans for the property.

Beyond erecting the scaffolding, removing the asbestos, and blocking the windows with wood as a “safety” precaution, there are no definite plans for construction, Jane Crotty told The Local today, speaking for developer Arun Bhatia, one of the new owners. Mr. Bhatia is a partner at Cooper and 6th Property LLC, which owns the building. “I don’t have any word on that,” she said.

As for the application for full demolition, Ms. Crotty said, “They’re pursuing their rights to develop the property. The application was filed today.” She confirmed asbestos removal began this past weekend, and is continuing today. “The removal will probably take a couple of days, if not a week.” In conversations on Feb. 4 and Feb. 11, Ms. Crotty had also said there were no definite plans for the site.

Over the last several weeks advocacy groups and elected officials have fought to preserve the site. The Bowery Alliance of Neighbors had gathered more than 1,000 signatures for a petition to designate the spot a historic landmark. Now, it would appear, those efforts have been dealt a significant setback.

Upon hearing news of the approval of the application for full demolition, David Mulkins, chair of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, said, “This city needs to do something very quick to preserve and protect this street before all of this historic character, all evidence of it, is gone. It does break your heart, and it also breaks your spirit.”
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With fresh flowers in bodegas, chocolates displayed prominently on grocery and drug stores shelves, and red and pink hearts in store windows, love has certainly been in the air in the week or so leading up to Valentine’s Day.

So we here at The Local were curious to see how people in the East Village were going to spend the most romantic day of the year – or, at least, the day of the year most frequently referred to as romantic. So we took to the streets to ask a few questions. And we found that you don’t have to go out on a traditional date, or even be in a relationship, to enjoy the year’s most amorous holiday.

Gregory Howard For some couples, Valentine’s Day provides a chance for them to demonstrate their affection through therapy and counseling sessions.

This Feb. 14, while most of America translates love into flowers, you might consider giving your loved one a different sort of gift — a trip to a therapist.

“Couples therapy is a safe space for couples to engage, slow down and gain insight on their challenges and resources,” said Jean Malpas, a licensed marriage and family therapist and faculty member at the Ackerman Institute for the Family on the Upper East Side. “It’s a place to rediscover the wonderful aspects of one’s relationship, things that might otherwise get lost under the noise of the conflict.”

While many consider counseling to be the residue of conflict, it does not have to be used only as a tool of intervention. There are also plenty of people in healthy relationships who have decided to use counseling as a method of developing more successful communication.

“It’s a far-reaching concept, and it certainly includes nonverbal cues,” said Gertraud Stadler, Postdoctoral Research Scientist and a founder of the Columbia Couples Lab, a research center where members of couples and their interactions are studied, especially under stressful conditions. The lab also collaborates with the New York University Couples Lab.

Manner of phrasing — pronunciation, rhythm and tone — are all quiet cues that sometimes go unrecognized. Attempts to communicate can get “lost in translation,” Mr. Malpas said, propagating an unintentionally destructive cycle of reactivity and hurt.
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Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

And a happy Valentine’s Day from all at The Local. We hope that you find love in the air, but if not, you’ll definitely find spring. This week’s unseasonably warm temps are already in full swing with highs expected to surpass 50 degrees on Thursday and Friday.

If community service is more your bag, DNAinfo wrote about some East Village events for philanthropic couples.

And while we’re on the subject of spring, you might be seeing fewer open street fairs once the warm weather decides to stick around. DNAinfo reports that residents and storeowners will be taking the matter up with Community Board 1 next week.

More in East Village changes: the Department of Health closed Yerba Buena on Saturday, citing a long list of sanitary code violations. So some romance-minded diners will have to look elsewhere tonight.

Vivienne Gucwa discusses photographing the graffiti and wall art inside the iconic Mars Bar for a recent essay.

“As a haven for artists over the years, the walls of Mars Bar were a constantly evolving canvas. With its closing imminent, it felt like an appropriate time to document the elements of Mars Bar that made it a truly unique part of the East Village community.”
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Stephen Morgan

Stephen Morgan

Mark Riffee The city’s expanded smoking ban applies to city parks, including Tompkins Square Park where these smokers were lighting up.

When City Council members voted the other day for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest anti-smoking bill there was urgent debate for and against the legislation, which bans cigarette smoking in all New York City parks, certain public “plazas” (Times Square, for instance), and on all of its public beaches. Some Councilmen considered the bill to be a vital public health measure. Others, like Manhattan’s Robert Jackson, warned that such laws move us toward “a totalitarian society.”

But no worries. If Mr. Bloomberg signs the bill as expected, East Villagers will be able to enjoy the sanctuary of Tompkins Square Park this summer – safe in the knowledge that they can sit on a bench and talk for hours on cell phones, bang on bongos until sundown, or practice their scales on a tuneless guitar while others are trying to read – without even a wisp of silent smoke to poison their cacophonous idylls.

And if smokers do wish to smoke, they may leave the park, as if it were an unusually large restaurant, and indulge themselves on the periphery. In time, the subsequent clotting and befouling of the sidewalks around the park might understandably irritate pedestrians, thus leading to a new ban. Eventually, smokers may be forced to take their chances and light up in the middle of the road.

It is undeniable that smoking is harmful to one’s health and there is ample evidence that smokers can indeed quit. Well, at least some of them can. Perhaps even most. But certainly not all. Certain stubborn souls just can’t, or won’t, shake the habit. Then there are schizophrenics, the bipolar types, the deeply depressed, and others to whom cigarettes are a crucial crutch.
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Crystal BellAfter years of complaining about the rat problem in this vacant lot on East First Street, residents will welcome the BMW Guggenheim Lab to the site this summer.

For Ann Shostrom, a local artist and resident of 35 East First Street, the constant screams and shrieks outside her window have become a nightly lullaby. No, her block isn’t particularly violent or dangerous, but it does have a huge problem, or more like thousands of little, scampering ones.

The residents on the block all seem to agree that the rat infestation on First Street between First and Second Avenues is the worst they have ever seen. And chances are if you’ve walked past the vacant lot located on 33 East First Street, then you probably feel the same way.

“I’m so acquainted with the rats now that I’m not afraid of them anymore,” said John Bowman, a professor at Pennsylvania State University and Ms. Shostrom’s husband. “We start to recognize some of them. There’s a big guy I call Bruno. But there are just so many of them. Kids on the block have had a rat safari. It’s dangerous.”

So Ms. Shostrom and her husband decided to take action and in 2008, created First Street Green, a grassroots organization dedicated to cleaning up the lot and turning into a community sculpture park. They raised funds through summer bake sales, art shows and benefits, but progress was slow. But their project received an unexpected boost last year, when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, decided that the block’s eyesore was the perfect place for their 5,000-square-foot traveling urban lab.

“They have money, and we need something done about the site,” said Ms. Shostrom. “With this economy, the city doesn’t have the money and the Parks Department certainly doesn’t have the money, so this was just perfect for the community.”
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Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good morning, East Village.

Over the past week we’ve witnessed the subtraction of some of New York’s Congressional representation, the addition of a former governor to NYU’s faculty, and the wild fluctuations of our weather thermometers. But for the near future, changes are looking to be for the warmer (we won’t try to predict the political ones). Snow is nowhere on the horizon, and we might reach 50s by next week.

But we aren’t the only ones obsessed with the weather. The Times has a nice round-up of how this winter has emptied the city coffers, slashed major crime numbers, interfered with all sorts of businesses – and even prevented a suicide. It also seems to have kept Christmas spirit in the air (or at least on the sidewalks), according to Gothamist.

But apparently, a little snow is nothing to deter cell phone thieves from grabbing your App-collector — DNAinfo tells us the East Village has seen quite a few phone thefts in the last month. Deputy Inspector Nancy Barry warns that thieves have a penchant for picking pockets on subway trains about to pull away, so they escape into the station while you stand clear of the closing doors. Clutch those tech toys near your heart, where they belong.

Worried that you might be mourning the loss of football season, Nearsay has profiled a solid bunch of neighborhood brunch spots to replace the game as your weekend excuse to … socialize.  Have a favorite that wasn’t mentioned? Do tell.

Grace Maalouf Manchester United fans Leigh Mazzagetti and Marc McDermott watch a game at Nevada Smiths. The fallout from the departures of three longtime staffers caused several major soccer-team supporters’ clubs to leave the pub, which is something of an institution for local soccer fans.

Grace Maalouf FC Barcelona fans watch their team play at Village restaurant Mercat. The Barcelona fan club moved their headquarters to the Catalan dinner spot after several staffers left Nevada Smiths.

For a bar whose motto is “Where football is religion,” Nevada Smiths could be said to have suffered something of a Great Schism last year. As some sports fans (and East Village residents) may already be aware, two longtime staff members were fired in the spring and a third left in September.

In addition, Thomas McCarthy, a co-owner of the bar, sold his shares to his partner and uncle and left the business. Although none of the people who parted as a result of the disputes would offer details, the fallout was serious enough to cause several major soccer-team supporters’ clubs to leave Nevada’s.

Patrick McCarthy, now the sole proprietor of the bar, said the flight of some fans hurt but added that business now is good — and he’s looking to make changes at the Third Avenue mainstay.

A colorful renovation may be in store for the trademark black awning, more rugby will be included in the viewing schedules and new food and drink offerings are in the works. Mr. McCarthy said he plans to innovate by adding coffee and shepherd’s pie to the beer-heavy menu.

As for evergreen rumors about the bar changing locations, Mr. McCarthy said he knows “for a fact” that won’t happen.

“There will always be a Nevada Smiths as long as I’m in New York City,” he said, adding that he’s even hoping to open one on the West Side. After experiencing controversy over the recent firings (it was, he said, like being “kicked in the head”) Mr. McCarthy said he is finished with drama.

“I’ve moved on,” he said.
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Caryn Rose Patti Smith performed Wednesday night at a celebration commemorating the 40th anniversary of her first reading at The Poetry Project.

The headstones filling the old churchyard at St. Mark’s Church-in-the Bowery churchyard lay buried beneath a deep blanket of snow on Wednesday night. But a line of people on East 10th Street braved an icy chill while waiting to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Patti Smith’s first reading at The Poetry Project, a St. Mark’s institution, which took place at the church on Feb. 10, 1971.

From that distant beginning, Ms. Smith’s lengthy career has gone on to include world wide recognition as a visual artist, songwriter, photographer, musician and writer. In 2010 she won the National Book Award for her memoir, “Just Kids,” describing her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe.

The Poetry Project, founded at St. Mark’s in 1966, has included weekly readings, open mike events, and workshops provide a forum where both celebrated and unknown writers can present their work. John Ashbery, Robert Lowell, Yoko Ono, Ted Berrigan, Alice Walker, Allen Ginsberg, and Robert Creeley are a few of those whose words have filled the vaulted chamber.

In 1971 Patti Smith viewed the full moon that illuminated the sky that night as a fortuitous sign. Gerard Malanga, an assistant to Andy Warhol at The Factory, and featured reader of the program, generously allowed Patti Smith to open for him.
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C. Ceres Merry

Good morning, East Village.

We’re working through this little cold front one day at a time, but take heart — the weekend should bring back (relatively) higher temperatures. Also on the radar: a detour for anyone taking the Brooklyn Bridge into the Lower East Side, and the arrival of some fashion week festivities.

Whether you’re driving, walking the runway or just walking down the street, however, don’t get distracted. Thanks to a wintery mix of bad conditions and work-scheduling issues, roads in the city have more potholes than the transportation department can keep up with.

And if you travel on foot, beware: Broadway may be the most dangerous New York street for pedestrians, but our neighborhood’s very own Bowery had the dubious honor of placing not too far behind. EV Grieve takes a look at an East Village map of the transportation department report.

Residents of one building on East 11th Street aren’t too happy about a rooftop radio antenna, DNAinfo says. They’ve been trying to convince its owner, an amateur radio operator, that it poses a danger — and is ugly enough to scare off house guests and buyers.

In other 11th Street news, Girls Prep is looking to relocate its middle school from Astor Place to East 11th, DNAinfo tells us. The charter school hopes to expand after moving into the building between First Avenue and Avenue A, which currently houses Ross Global Academy.

And finally, police have released a sketch of the man believed to have pushed a local woman onto the subway tracks in Chinatown last week.

Raquel Marvez Sandy Adames.

Raquel Marvez Mr. Adames displays a tattoo that he wears in honor of his late father.

Sandy Adames has been working the deli at the Associated Supermarket on East Eighth Street and Avenue C for seven years.

He knows many customers by name, and can handle the most complex deli orders with a meticulous attention to detail. But most people don’t know that Mr. Adames cannot read or write.

“When I was 11, three years after my parents and two sisters moved from The Dominican Republic, I had a car accident,” said Mr. Adames, as he recalled being struck by a taxi cab while crossing the street.

Mr. Adames, who’s 29, sustained an apparent brain injury and has had problems reading and writing ever since. Frustrated by the difficulties of learning, Mr. Adames dropped out of school and began working to make ends meet for his family.

A supervisor at the supermarket, Candido Morel, said Mr. Adames’s sunny disposition has endeared him to deli customers.

“Clients love Sandy because he is always happy,” Mr. Morel said.

And a co-worker, Randol Vasquez said: “He is dedicated and finds a way to stand out.”

But Mr. Adames dreams of one day being able to read and write. His ambition, he said, is to work on computers.

“I would love to provide better for my wife, daughter and the baby that is on its way,” he said.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. Click on each photo for detailed information about the image.

Raquel Marvez is a field director and senior producer at The Generations Project. This post was the winning entry in a photography contest during the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Region 2 conference, which was recently held at NYU Journalism.

Adrian Fussell

Good morning, East Village.

Hope you’re bundled up and ready for the wind, which is dropping the “feels-like” temps into single digits today.

In neighborhood notes, EV Grieve takes a look at some construction and renovation work that’s bringing changes to the Village, as well as a mysterious hole that may or may not be a harbinger of the zombie apocalypse.

Meanwhile, Lüc Carl, manager of the Lower East Side bar St. Jerome, wants to help you make good on your New Year’s resolutions, unless your resolutions are about drinking less. DNAinfo tells us that Mr. Carl, who also happens to be Lady Gaga’s boyfriend, is releasing a diet book called “The Drunk Diet,” to help you lose weight while partying like a rock star. But it won’t come out until next year, so your 2011 health efforts may have to be sans keg.

Happy Wednesday.

Vivienne Gucwa

On a recent Saturday night, I put my ugliest sweater on over my most sequined top and went out to a new bar in Alphabet City.

This bar was so hip it did not even have a name on its door or façade. Inside there were chandeliers. The wallpaper choice was a velvet fleur-de-lis pattern. There was a large portrait of a pink cocktail that was lit from behind. The bouncers were thin, glamorous, and female. I pointed to the cocktail portrait and asked for one, on ice.

While I waited to give my credit card to one of the two young, pouty Frenchmen behind the bar I admired the postage stamp picture of myself on the corners of the plastic square I was about to hand over. I’ve had the same credit card picture since I was 15 years old. In this portrait, I had just gotten my braces off and my smile seems wide enough to stretch across all eight digits of my account number. It’s quite adorable, and I get a lot of compliments on it, but the bartenders, who looked scarcely older than I was in the photograph appeared to take little notice.

Oh, well, I thought.  It was probably too dark for them to realize what they were missing. I took my drink and descended a wooden set of steps in search of the dance floor.
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Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

Whether you spent yesterday hacking at the ice wall around your frozen car or stalking Gossip Girl’s Village visit (we won’t tell), today is a brand-new day. You may have needed to face its earlier hours with an umbrella, but for now, grab your hat and gloves. Temperatures are set to drop steadily, hitting 18 degrees by the time midnight rolls around.

Maybe someone should head over to East Houston and tell the model in this new American Apparel billboard to don some warm leggings? I hear electric blue is the new day-glo pink. In other additions to Village advertising, EV Grieve takes a look at various neighborhood graffiti and brings word that comic bookstore Forbidden Planet might be looking for some breathing room.

Yesterday we gave you a look at rider contention over the new M15 select bus service, and now City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin tells DNAinfo she’s given the service a B minus for its efforts. She says she supports the goals, “but it’s not quite living up to its potential.” C minus for accessibility, A for effort? Let us know how you feel about the new system.

Speaking of report cards, New York students might be graduating from high school, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready for college or a career — a new set of statistics says only 23 percent are meeting that standard. This news comes on the heels of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s voiced disappointment in state budget cuts for our little town, which he says will be devastating for teachers and other public employees (mayors excepted).

And finally, a super-short film to watch over your coffee break: Manhattan re-imagined as your favorite arcade game.

Laura Kuhn Some riders who use the M15 bus line wonder if more stops in the East Village should be added to the route. Currently, the bus makes two stops either way in the East Village, one at Houston Street and the other at 14th Street.

One recent evening, Tanya Garrett stood at the corner of 14th Street and Second Avenue counting with frustration the number of M15 select service buses that blew past her as she waited for a local.

“I probably missed the last local bus and now I’m going to wait here forever,” Ms. Garrett said Wednesday as she watched another select bus approach, its blue lights flashing.

“They have a million of those select buses going by,” Ms. Garrett said. “It’s uncalled for.”

Since its launch in October, the M15 select bus service – which runs express routes along First and Second Avenues – has promised riders faster commutes by featuring fewer stops, designated bus-only lanes and a pay-before-boarding system that requires users to purchase tickets prior to getting on at street machines.

But for some customers like Ms. Garrett, who lives four blocks away from the nearest select bus stop, the new service has only made the ride home more difficult.

“The select doesn’t stop at my stop,” she said. “I’m stuck with the local. They need to have more locals running. They don’t need all those select buses. They come back to back and you have to stand here and wait for a local forever.”
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Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

And happy new year! Here’s hoping you found a good way during this busy weekend to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit, mark World Nutella Day and spend a few hours with friends in front of a television cheering for a team you don’t hate. (The Local is referring to the Knicks victory, of course.)

If you didn’t make it outside to enjoy yesterday’s sunny temperature break, try to catch some elusive rays during your morning commute – the clouds will be back by afternoon, and the cold’s not far behind. If you walk to work slowly enough, maybe you can formulate your official position on the merits of the Black-Eyed Peas halftime show. Your co-workers will want to know.

Just don’t let your inner music critic distract you from looking both ways. Figures show traffic deaths in the city are up from last year, though over all numbers for the last two years put New York ahead of its American peers, and are the best the city has seen since your other car was a horse. Drivers with more modern transportation options may need to pry their ride from the snow and turn it around or face a fine, as alternate side parking rules are back to normal today.

Over at Bowery Boogie, Villagers get another look at progress and projections for the Allen Street Hotel. Meanwhile, Neighborhoodr reports the closing of Avenue A’sApizzA. Is fellow pie joint Tonda going the same route? Finally, congratulations and a warm neighborhood welcome to Jamshed Barucha, new president of Cooper Union.

A look back at the images produced by the members of The Local East Village Flickr Group during the snowiest January in New York City history.

Vivienne Gucwa

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C.C. Glenn Still reeling from the Jets’ playoff loss, the author considers some Super Bowl viewing options.

As the 2011 NFL season comes to a close with a Super Bowl clash between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, there’s a detached air in New York City. There are no more random battle cries of J-E-T-S. Rex Ryan’s personal league-wide vendetta is a thing of the past. Green jerseys lay balled up in the back of closets or the bottom of dumpsters, stained with beers and tears. There’s a game left, but for us –– that is, Jets fans in the East Village and other parts of New York City –– the season’s over. We’re tired. We’re confused.

For the first time since August, we have nowhere to turn. Since the football season began in August, many of us have gravitated toward the Jets, with their scrappy play. For New York City transplants, the gradual adoption of the Jets meant defecting not only from the Giants (the other “New York” team that plays in New Jersey) but also hopping fickly from less fortunate childhood teams in other states and cities.

Throughout the team’s improbable playoff run, it felt like every New Yorker was a New York fan, every bar was a Jets bar.
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