Suzanne Rozdeba Firefighters at Engine 28 and Ladder 11 mourn Roy Chelsen, who died Sunday of bone-marrow cancer and was credited with saving the lives of 11 of his colleagues on Sept. 11.

Courtesy of FDNY

Already, the south tower of the World Trade Center had collapsed. But as Kevin Murray and Roy Chelsen huddled with their fellow firefighters for safety in the lobby of the north tower on Sept. 11 – debris and bodies falling all around them outside – no one knew what had happened.

“Roy ran out to leave, and realized the whole other building wasn’t there,” Mr. Murray recalled in an interview earlier today, describing how Mr. Chelsen, who died Sunday, saved the lives of 11 of his fellow firefighters. “He turned around, and ran all the way back to get us. He ran through it three times to get us out. He convinced everybody that we had to go because it looked like the north tower was coming down.”

In all, Mr. Murray and Mr. Chelsen worked side-by-side for eight years as firefighters in the East Village. And they were side-by-side again Sunday just hours before Mr. Chelsen died after a long battle with bone-marrow cancer at age 51.

At Engine 28 and Ladder 11 firehouses in the East Village, the mood was somber today after firefighters learned of the death of Mr. Chelsen, whose cancer had been linked to his work digging through the rubble at Ground Zero in the days and weeks after the attacks.

But Mr. Murray, who still works with Ladder 11 on East Second Street, said that the sadness at the firehouse was tinged with something else.

“Of course everybody’s upset,” said Mr. Murray, who’s 36. “But nobody wanted to see him suffer anymore.”
Read more…

Whiskers at Ninth Street and Second Avenue was something of a novelty when it opened back in 1988. Its approach to pet care was an idea Phil and Randy Klein seized on after a holistic veterinarian treated their cancer-stricken dog. The couple became convinced that raw foods and natural supplements were the way to help anxious city animals. The shop is now three times the size it used to be and their philosophy is so popular that similar stores have sprung up. In Mr. Klein’s words, “it’s become the wave.”

Most days you can find him holding court in the supplements corner of the store. Owners approach him like a soothsayer for advice about their pets.

NYU Journalism’s Meredith Hoffman reports.

Courtesy of Daniel L. Squadron State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, with constituents last fall, said that he favors expanding the East Village’s “bike network so that it’s a viable way for folks to get around to commute and recreate.”

A new year brings a new legislative agenda for State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, who – entering his second term – says that he wants to bring issues that are important to neighborhood residents to the forefront in Albany. In an interview with The Local, Senator Squadron, whose 25th District includes the East Village, the Lower East Side and parts of Brooklyn, discussed the importance of bike lanes, renewing housing laws, cracking down on careless drivers and noisy bars, and expanding East Village parks.

Bike lanes are a hot topic right now. But there are battles still brewing. What will you do this year to help smooth out the sometimes rocky relationship between bikers, businesses, the community and the Department of Transportation?

There’s an overall increase in the bike lanes use, and I think that is great. We are continuing to develop the bike network so that it’s a viable way for folks to get around to commute and recreate.

I like the idea of a bike share program. As we have more bicyclists and more access, which is a great thing, we need to increase compliance with laws. And we need to expand our bike networks for more people out there.

My frustration at bike lanes comes from two places: failure, in some cases, to be fully collaborative with communities and think through the consequences as we expand the network, and secondly, from those few who don’t follow the rules. Too often, the DOT implements lanes without preparing businesses to understand what the rules are. They’ve done it in ways that are not responsive to the community. DOT has gotten better at this; my job is to keep the pressure on. We need clarity about rules for bicyclists and members of the community, and work with community boards, businesses and residents before implementing them. We need opportunities for folks in bicycling communities and other groups to weigh in.
Read more…

Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

We wake up to the sad news that Roy Chelsen, an East Village firefighter who rescued his colleagues from the north tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11, has died from cancer. The Daily News and DNAinfo have his story.

In other neighborhood news, the folks at East Village Radio were recognized in a light video on Huffington Post on the musical passions of the station’s DJs.

Meanwhile, many East Village residents were out and about this weekend, some of them mulching their trees at Tompkins Square Park, as The Epoch Times reports. Trees across the city are being mulched, including the 74-foot one at Rockefeller Center, the remains of which will go to Habitat for Humanity to build part of a family’s home.

If you feel like treating yourself after all that mulching – or just because it’s Monday – you might want to check out The Village Voice’s list of the most pretentious restaurants; two of them are in the East Village.

For the first 29 years of his life, Vincent Ciniglio was an artist waiting to happen. With no training or art appreciation classes, he’d simply marvel at the religious statues of his Catholic school, and he felt moved to tears by paintings on his first trip to Italy.

One day he walked into the New York Studio School on West Eighth Street, and then studied there for three years. At the encouragement of one of his teachers, the artist Philip Guston, Mr. Ciniglio then went on to Columbia University, where he earned a master of fine arts.

Since the 1980’s, Mr. Ciniglio has had a studio in the P.S. 122 performance space on First Avenue and Ninth Street, where he paints nearly every day. His work – which usually depicts tender, whimsical figures and are each painted in only three days – are modeled off of plastic baby dolls. On canvas, Mr. Ciniglio’s creations appear to look viewers straight in the eye with surprising intensity.

An exhibition of Mr. Ciniglio’s work will be held this weekend upstate. Before Mr. Ciniglio leaves for the show, he’ll bid each painting left in his studio a fond farewell, such is the connection he feels with his art.

NYU Journalism’s Meredith Hoffman reports.

Emily Lawrence

Good morning, East Village.

We’re expecting up to five inches of snow today, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg insists the city is ready to handle the storm, reports The Times. He was heavily criticized after the big blizzard on Dec. 26 and 27, when trash piled high, emergency response was slow, and New Yorkers couldn’t get to work. Let’s hope we won’t have to navigate around big mounds of trash in our neighborhood again.

Meanwhile, pedestrians will enjoy more open space at the busy intersection of Astor Place and Cooper Triangle. DNA reports that at a meeting Thursday night, Community Boards 2 and 3 passed a big redesign plan, unveiled by the Department of Design and Construction.

In culinary news, if you’re planning for brunch this weekend, 7A, a favorite breakfast spot for East Villagers, will unfortunately be closed for renovations until Jan. 14, writes EV Grieve. (And on the subject of building projects, Grieve also has a very cool look at the construction of 2 Cooper Square.)

If you’re still thirsty for the banned Four Loko, you might think twice after we tell you it’s now being turned into (gulp) gasoline. The Village Voice reports that a company called MXI Environmental Services is converting the alcoholic and caffeinated drink into, yes, petrol. Still thirsty?

Suzanne Rozdeba Pratik Shah, owner of the East Village Farm & Grocery, stands in front of what remains of the store after it was devastated by a fire Tuesday morning. Below: Mr. Shah greets a well-wisher outside the store.

When Pratik Shah’s family opened East Village Farm & Grocery 20 years ago, he was 14 years old. He quickly got to know the customers as he helped his parents, who had emigrated from India, run their first, successful business on the corner of Second Avenue and Fourth Street.

“Our customers watched me grow up. I remember being a teenager there, and then I worked there through college. It’s a family business,” Mr. Shah, 34, told The Local. “It didn’t make us rich. It was more for survival. This is what we have, and this is what we will have, if it’s reconstructed. We are ready to do whatever it takes to bring this place back.”

On Tuesday at 4 a.m., a fire roared through the business, leaving the store, which Mr. Shah owns with his father, in ruins. Seven residents of the six-story building were treated for minor injuries, officials said; all of the injured were taken to Beth Israel Hospital. The fire, which was confined to the first floor, was declared under control within an hour. Mr. Shah said that the Fire Department told him it seems there was an electrical fire, but officials say the cause is still under investigation.

Mr. Shah estimates the damage at close to $500,000.

“This business is how I support my family,” said Mr. Shah, who has a wife, Niti Parekh, and 6-year-old son, Sahil. As he stood outside the boarded-up bodega, customer after customer walked by to offer apologies. One gave him a huge hug, and said, “It’ll be alright.”

He found out about the fire when his cashier, who was working the late shift at the 24-hour store, called him at 4 a.m. that morning. “I had just come back from India after a two-week break. They don’t usually call me then, so I knew there was something wrong,” he said. “There were sparks in the ceiling lights. It was a flammable drop ceiling. In the area where it started, we had paper products. It all caught fire really quickly.

“The workers tried to open water jugs and throw it on the fire, but they only did it to the point they thought it was safe. Then the FDNY came and took it from there.”

Mr. Shah arrived 15 minutes after he got the call. The damage was so bad that it took the better part of 24 hours for him to be able to see what was left of his store. “There’s a lot of water damage,” he said. “Most of the inventory, equipment and infrastructure have been damaged. It’s just something we have to deal with.”

He’s been busy meeting with his insurance investigator and an architect to assess the damage, and see how quickly he can rebuild the family business. “This was an area which was affordable 20 years ago,” Mr. Shah said. “The first line of work my father got was in a convenience store, and he found it interesting because of all the people. He wasn’t skilled in any profession, but he said, ‘This is something I can do.’ And he loved being around people all the time.”

“We’re hopeful that we can get it running again in one or two months,” Mr. Shah said. “It takes time to rebuild. We’ll recreate what we had. We’ll come back. We will.”

Suzanne Rozdeba Mr. Shah has been busy meeting with his insurance investigator and an architect to assess the damage, and determine how quickly he can rebuild the family business.

Suzanne Rozdeba Bike lanes along First Avenue.

The city announced on Tuesday that a record 47.8 million tourists visited New York City in 2010 and in a lot of ways that is good news. There are a plenty of things that bring visitors to New York: a fascinating history, excellent museums, and beautiful public places like Central Park and Prospect Park.

As the city noted, tourists have helped bolster the declining local economy. During his announcement at the conservatory of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that tourists contributed $31 billion last year. They have also played another positive role that has gone largely unnoticed. Tourists, in some ways, have become the newest public space activists. New York City has always been a tough town when it comes to expanding on green infrastructure, like car-free pedestrian malls and bicycle lanes. But this car-centric city is now changing. Tourists have always loved strolling in New York’s gorgeous parks and gardens and now they are also enjoying other amenities like bike lanes, open walkways in Times Square and the greenways that edge the city’s rivers. Visitors love the new green infrastructure and use it heavily – thus creating the demand for more.
Read more…

Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good morning, East Village.

While you were sleeping (unless the sirens awoke you) our neighborhood witnessed yet another fire, on East Seventh Street near First Avenue. Officials said that the blaze broke out around 11:40 Wednesday night at 127 East Seventh; the fire was declared under control in about 40 minutes. Two firefighters were hospitalized with minor injuries and investigators are still working to determine the cause. The blaze is the third in the neighborhood this week after a pair of fires Tuesday morning. DNAinfo has more information and there are photos at EV Grieve.

In school news, on this first week back for the semester, we’d like to point you to DNAinfo’s report on an East Village charter school suing the city to stay open.

Meanwhile, if you’re hungry for brunch, you might be tempted by The Wall Street Journal’s blurb on Jewish-fusion foods at Octavia’s Porch on Avenue B.

This post has been updated to correct an error; an earlier version misstated the location of the restaurant Octavia’s Porch.

Suzanne Rozdeba A day after a fire that destroyed the 6th Street Kitchen restaurant and severely damaged several apartments above it, displaced residents of the building are still trying to cope with damage from the blaze and an uncertain timetable for a return to their homes. Below: Damage to a third-floor apartment.

Paul Canetti

When David Gold stopped by his apartment on East Sixth street Tuesday evening, hours after a fire ripped through the restaurant on the first floor, he couldn’t bear the smell.

“It smells terrible. It’s like being around the biggest campfire you’ve ever seen – in a closed apartment,” Mr. Gold told The Local earlier today. “You get a headache after being in there for 10 minutes. There was no way I could sleep there. It’s that bad.”

Instead, Mr. Gold spent the night at his girlfriend’s apartment. “I’m assuming I’ll be there at least a week until it’s cleaned up.”

Mr. Gold’s apartment was one of eight that firefighters stormed through after a blaze broke out in 6th Street Kitchen, the restaurant on the first floor of the building at 507 East Sixth Street. While the building’s management has already begun repair work, there is no timetable yet for when residents might be able to return. In the meantime, Mr. Gold and his displaced neighbors have taken temporary refuge with friends and family.

Even as residents adjusted to their jarring, new living arrangements, a fire department spokesman told The Local today that officials were continuing to investigate two fires that broke out there yesterday morning, and an earlier blaze at a bodega on Second Avenue and Fourth Street.

While Mr. Gold applauded the work of the firefighters, he’s left with torn-up floors, ripped-open walls, and broken furniture. “There’s so much smoke damage that I don’t know yet if it can be cleaned. If damage is bad enough, you have to replace your whole wardrobe.”

The management company of the East Sixth Street building already had workers repairing apartments last night, said Mr. Gold. “They’re cleaning up the walls, floors, and ceilings, and the smashed windows and doors. The problem is, I can’t really go back there until it’s done. Hopefully, they’ll do a quick job.”

While Mr. Gold’s apartment will eventually be restored, 6th Street Kitchen, which had quickly become a neighborhood favorite, is in ruins and its future remains uncertain.

“Chris is a wreck,” Annie Wang, a publicist for the restaurant, told The Local referring to Chris Genoversa, the restaurant’s owner. “Right now, we’re going through all our options. The staff is taking it pretty hard.”

Ms. Wang said Mr. Genoversa was told by the fire department that there seemed to have been an electrical fire in the restaurant, but an investigation is still pending. “It was the FDNY that called him yesterday morning to tell him about the fire. When I talked to him, he was just speechless. You could tell in the tone of his voice he was completely torn apart. He’s invested so much money into the place. We were all really optimistic about the New Year.”

“There are still a lot of things going on before Chris can make a decision on what to do next,” Ms. Wang said. “I don’t know how long it would take to fix the place up. It’s a complete mess.”

The entry of 2 Cooper Square onto the East Village real estate scene has been well-chronicled, from its high-profile residents to the renovation of the landmarked Skidmore House next door.

Recently, The Local spoke with residents of the luxury high-rise about life in one of the neighborhood’s newest – and priciest – addresses, which has a gym and screening room in the basement lounge as well as a much blogged-about rooftop pool.

Residents say the building’s amenities are top-notch. For some, though, the prime East Village location is perhaps busier than they had expected. One resident cites disturbances from an ongoing construction project on Fourth Street, which impacts residents in Southern-facing units; she also says that noise from the nearby nightspot Bowery Bar keeps her up at night.

NYU Journalism’s Stephanie Butnick reports.

Comprehensive real estate information about the East Village is available at the following links:

• Market Snapshot Data
• Building Permits Data
• Sales Activity Data
• Building Directory Index

Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

After Tuesday morning’s fires, if you feel local blazes have run rampant of late, you’re not alone. This morning EV Grieve scrolls through shots of 13 neighborhood fires it’s covered since May.

On a more positive note, the Historic Districts Council has deemed the Bowery as one of its top six places to preserve, writes Bowery Boogie.

DNAinfo reports further on the Bowery Alliance’s continuing effort to limit building heights.

Now, if only we could get our trash problem resolved soon.

Courtesy of Eater NYThe 6th Street Kitchen last spring and after this morning’s fire.

Suzanne Rozdeba

The premises at 507 East Sixth Street, stricken by fire early this morning, housed the yearling restaurant 6th Street Kitchen which had replaced the long-established Oriental Grill early last year.

“O.G.,” as it was universally known, enjoyed a long run by New York restaurant standards – some 15 years – offering an Asian-fusion menu ranging from duck rolls to BBQ pork at reasonable prices. Regulars, including myself, missed the cozy, lived-in feel of the place and the friendly service when it closed. What replaced it looked altogether smarter and trendier, with communal tables, and an open kitchen; but an owner of O.G., Chris Genoversa, was behind the project, the prices were reasonable, and so I soon found myself eating there.

Gone were the Asian flavors, replaced by shareable plates of modern American food, evidently market-driven and seasonal, with a few hearty entrées like pork belly and radicchio topped with a poached egg. I found the transition to the new régime painless, and continued my patronage. My interest intensified last fall, when a new chef, Greg Torrech, began to stamp his personality on the menu. I discovered a remarkably light flan made with summer’s corn and topped with arugula and chanterelles, and a plate of fried chicken and waffles with what looked like cream but turned out to be smooth, seasoned ricotta.

Recently the wheels turned again and Andrew Kraft, who Mr. Torrech had brought in to work as his sous chef, assumed charge of the kitchen. He has continued the family-style dining theme of shared small plates, and you can still get the signature house-made chorizo and Manchego sliders. Publicist Annie Wang told The Local that the fire has been “devastating” for the kitchen team. Kitchen supplies were destroyed with the exception of one lucky chef’s tools. Mr. Genoversa’s guitar also survived, discovered undamaged in a well-charred guitar case. Here’s hoping this kitchen can rise again from the dismay of this morning’s ashes.

Kim Davis is the community editor of The Local East Village. He also authors a blog about restaurants and food.

A slideshow of images of this morning’s fire at 6th Street Kitchen by NYU Journalism’s Suzanne Rozdeba and community contributors Paul Canetti and David Gold.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

David Gold Flames erupt as firefighters attempt to enter the 6th Street Kitchen around 7:30 this morning. A second blaze around mid-morning forced another evacuation for the residents of apartments above the restaurant.

Shortly after the tenants of a Sixth Street apartment building were allowed to return to their homes after an early morning fire, they were forced to evacuate a second time while firefighters put out a lingering pocket of flames.

The second evacuation, which occurred around 9:40 a.m., came after firefighters extinguished a blaze that gutted the 6th Street Kitchen, a restaurant located on the ground floor of the building at 507 East Sixth Street.

A Fire Department spokesman said that fire marshals at the scene came across areas that were still smoldering on the first floor. They called for several units to return. “It wasn’t a major operation. It was put out in about 20 minutes,” said the spokesman.

Paul Canetti, 27, who lives on the building’s third floor said that he had returned to his apartment after being allowed back inside by firefighters.

“Within 30 seconds of being in the apartment, we couldn’t breathe, so we said, ‘No, we will not stay here,’ ” Mr. Canetti said. “We went back downstairs. Within five minutes, we hear them radioing for firefighters to come back because the fire was still burning between the first and second floor.”

Mr. Canetti said he and other tenants were again forced to evacuate.

Around 1 p.m., Mr. Canetti said they were let back into their apartments. “The apartment is a war zone. It’s pretty terrible. Everything is knocked over and completely covered in soot.”

The American Red Cross was at the scene and gave disaster relief paper work to the tenants. “They said we should call them if we need a place to stay, and they would put us up in a hotel for a few days,” he said. “I think I’m going to take them up on that because I definitely cannot stay in my apartment.”

Suzanne Rozdeba Firefighters at the scene of a blaze at Kitchen, a restaurant on East Sixth Street. The fire was one of two this morning in the East Village that sent eight people to the hospital with minor injuries.

Eight people were treated for minor injuries after two separate early-morning fires that broke out in the East Village today, one that destroyed a restaurant on East Sixth Street, and the other in a bodega on Second Avenue.

The first blaze occurred at East Fourth Street and Second Avenue around 4 a.m. at the East Village Farm Groceries store, the authorities said. Seven residents of the six-story building were treated for minor injuries, officials said; all of the injured were taken to Beth Israel Hospital. The fire, which was confined to the first floor, was declared under control within an hour.

The second fire, at 507 East Sixth Street, occurred around 7:30 a.m. inside 6th Street Kitchen, a restaurant on the first floor. The authorities said that a firefighter sustained a minor injury while battling the blaze and was being treated at Bellevue Hospital.

Deputy Chief Robert Carroll told The Local that firefighters had to cut their way through the restaurant’s roll-down security gate before they could put out the fire.

The restaurant was all but destroyed by the blaze. “It’s pretty bad,” Chief Carroll said of the damage. “It’s all burnt out. We had to go in there, take the ceilings down, check for any hidden fire.”

Paul Canetti, 27, who lives on the building’s third floor and was with his girlfriend, told The Local, “I woke up at 7:30. We heard the beeps from the fire alarms. We started to smell smoke. We opened the front door, and you couldn’t see in the hallway. It was filled with smoke.”

After exiting the building safely, he said, “A couple minutes later, the fire trucks came. They cut the locks off the restaurant gate. When they lifted it up, the flames came shooting out.”

David Gold, 32, who also lives on the third floor, said, “We heard four, loud pops. They sounded like gunshots. That woke me up. Then the smoke alarm went off and we came down and called 911.”

Tom Claxton, 35, who was staying at a friend’s apartment in the building, said, “I heard this large, cracking noise, and then the fire alarm started. A few minutes later I smelled smoke. I panicked, grabbed my laptop and a couple of things and got out. I just got in last night from London, and this was my first night here. Most of my things are still in a suitcase upstairs.”

The authorities said that investigators are still trying to determine what caused both blazes.

Suzanne Rozdeba A firefighter surveys the damage to the 6th Street Kitchen.

Firefighters are investigating the cause of two separate blazes that broke out in the East Village this morning. The first fire, near Second Avenue and East Fourth Street, occurred about 4 a.m. and was placed under control in about an hour; the second blaze, near East Sixth Street and Avenue A, erupted around 7:30 and was placed under control in about 45 minutes. There were no immediate reports of injuries in either blaze; reporters from The Local are on the scene and will post a full report as soon as we have more details.—Suzanne Rozdeba

Suzanne Rozdeba With city sanitation trucks busy plowing snow-covered streets, piles of trash have continued to accumulate in the East Village. Limited trash pickups are scheduled to resume today.

The snow is melting away, but the piles of trash in the East Village keep getting bigger.

“It’s disgusting,” Yolanda Gonzalez, 26, an East Village resident, told The Local on Jan. 3. Staring at a mountain of over 25 bags of trash on Avenue A, she said, “I’m worried about the rats, and about diseases from this garbage. I don’t know why they’re not picking it up. It’s been too long.”

According to the Department of Sanitation, limited pickup resumed today. But as of this morning, residents and businesses that normally have Monday garbage pickups have yet to see the trash disappear.

On Monday morning, Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty held a press conference at Foley Square and told reporters that 1,100 trucks would be picking up trash throughout the city on Monday. He estimated that about 50,000 tons of trash had accumulated since the storm.

“We’re not going to get it all today,” he said, adding that by the end of the day: “I think there’ll be less garbage.”

The pickups cannot come quickly enough for some East Villagers.

“The trash is still out there. Now there are lots of bags, and furniture, and Christmas trees,” said Hugo Ascazubi, 21, an employee at 442 Quality Cleaners on East Ninth Street. Outside the business, there were more than 15 bags of garbage piled up. “People do make comments that it’s gross. It smells. Do you know why they haven’t come to pick it up yet? They haven’t told us anything. I’ll be relieved when it’s gone.”

At East Village Gourmet Deli on Avenue A, 25 bags of garbage created a mini-mountain outside the business. “It’s been a week, and nobody has picked up anything,” said Ali, an employee there. “We have our own garbage picked up privately, but there is still all this other trash. I saw the garbage trucks plowing this morning, but not picking up garbage. They are supposed to come today to pick it up, but nothing yet.”

But some East Villagers were unruffled about the pileups. “I’m not concerned. I’ve seen it before,” said Angel Shea, 54, who’s lived in the East Village for 30 years.

And in at least one instance, the trash piles have been credited with doing some good elsewhere in the city, according to authorities. Vangelis Kapatos, 26, a resident of Hell’s Kitchen, was saved by a huge pile of garbage bags after leaping from his apartment window on the ninth floor of a building on West 45th Street Sunday.

Although regular trash pickups are not expected to resume immediately in the East Village, some hopeful locals have continued to stack bags at the curb.

“We put out our garbage today because it’s supposed to be picked up. If they don’t come today, I’m not worried,” said Duane Zaloudek, 80, who’s lived in the East Village since 1983. “The rats are here, anyway. I’m happy they plowed the streets, and I know there aren’t enough people in the sanitation department to do it all. This was a big snowstorm.”

Colin Moynihan contributed information to this report.

Share your stories about trash collection at The City Room blog at The Times.

Colin Moynihan Before the snow began melting during the weekend, Adam Johnson used letters made of snow to create poetry on the barks of trees in Tompkins Square Park. Below: Mr. Johnson at work.

In the days since a powerful blizzard blanketed the neighborhood East Village residents have built snowmen, snow forts, igloos and even a few abstract-looking sculptures out of snow. The drifts are now vanishing quickly, but on Friday afternoon, when many surfaces were still covered by a thick blanket of white, Adam Johnson, a 26-year-old furniture designer and painter, decided to introduce in Tompkins Square Park what could be a brand new genre of expression: snow poetry.

Initially Mr. Johnson was drawn to the park because he hoped to build a snowman that would compete with a large specimen near the center of Tompkins Square. A different inspiration struck, however, when he observed that a hurled snowball left a white mark on the bark of a tree.

“I wanted to top that guy in the other part of the park,” he said as he worked on his creations near the East Ninth Street entrance from Avenue A. “But I couldn’t do that so I had to find a new route to snow-making fame.”

For more than an hour on Friday afternoon, Mr. Johnson, carefully wrote messages on the trunks of trees in Tompkins Square. The technique he employed was methodical and involved picking up bits of snow that had just the right gooey consistency then shaping that raw material into letters that could be read from yards away.

The first snow poem he created read simply “I’m melting” and was accompanied by the silhouette of a running figure. Next, Mr. Johnson began making a message that read: “Whatever you do, don’t trust the snowman.”

As he formed those letters, passersby stopped to photograph him and inquire about the project. All the attention prompted Mr. Johnson to muse aloud about Thierry Guetta, a mysterious street artist character depicted in the 2010 film “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” which was said to have been made by Banksy, the reclusive artist and prankster.

“Maybe I should take on a street artist persona right now like Mr. Brainwash,” he said, referring Mr. Guetta’s pseudonym. “And put a bunch of stuff on the Internet for sale for $20,000.”