Laura Kuhn Isaac Lankin prepares to board the new M15 Select Service. Some riders have complained about the new payment system.

The M15 bus line that runs up First Avenue and down Second Avenue started its Select Service on Sunday with much fanfare from the MTA and an equal degree of anticipation from customers.

But if the early days of the new service are any indication, the new system is a long way from offering the easy use that transit officials predicted.

With the new service, riders now pay fares – using coins or a Metrocard – at street machines. Instead of swiping Metrocards while boarding the bus, riders present receipts to the driver.

The idea is to save time not only by pre-collecting the fares but also by making fewer stops (only two each way in the East Village) and using an express lane.

But the system has already hit a few bumps. Despite the intermittent presence of MTA officials on the street, some riders were having trouble using the machines.

On Sunday, one man, who declined to give his name, had to insert his payment into the machines three times before receiving his receipt, only to realize the bus had left without him at 14th and Second. He stood muttering on the sidewalk while the bus heaved down the street without him.

Other riders were furious about confusing rules regarding transfers. Some worried about stops that had apparently been moved (“They changed my stop,” said one rider, Gwen Trombley, as she stood at First Avenue and 14th Street Tuesday afternoon. “I was waiting at Houston and the stop moved up to Second.”)

And already some riders were trying to figure out a way to manipulate the receipt process, which largely relies on an honor system (as one rider, Syd Lazarus, put it, “This is New York”).

Despite the $150 fine for fare jumpers, riders noted that it would be easy not to pay, especially because they can also enter at the back of the bus. “You just show your receipt,” said another rider, Isaac Lankin, as he waited for the local line at a stop on 14th Street and Second Avenue. “You could keep it for a week.”

Regardless of the complaints, some riders saw parallels between the learning curve for the new system and another new process implemented by the MTA not long ago. “It’s exactly like the Metrocard,” said rider David Lukomnik, a neighborhood resident since the 1960s. “At first everybody was still using change and it would take 20 minutes to get on the bus. But, eventually they all learned.”

What do you think of the new M15 bus service?

Gloria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

Here’s what we’re reading today: EV Grieve has a post about the Celebrate Cafe’s move to Avenue C. The Times offers more details about the possible origin of the explosives that were discovered Monday in a cemetery on East Second Street. And this post from Bowery Boogie describes an unusual ban at a bar on East Houston Street.

Timothy J. Stenovec The Sin Sin Lounge, where a clubgoer was fatally shot in August, will shutter its nightclub operations later this month and re-open as new type of venue.

The Sin Sin lounge is undergoing a major makeover.

The Local has confirmed reports that the lounge, the scene of a fatal shooting of a clubgoer in August, will close its doors at the end of the month to undergo renovations and re-open as a new type of venue with a different theme.

Sin Sin had become a focal point for neighborhood complaints about violence and noise at bars after the shooting death of Devin Thompson, who was 43, outside the club on Aug. 22. No arrests have been made in connection with Mr. Thompson’s death although the police want to question two men who were at the club the night that he was killed.

A post Tuesday on EV Grieve was one of the earliest indications that changes might be coming to the bar. Posts on other blogs offered similar reports.
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Kim Davis.

I moved to the East Village – in fact to Alphabet City, as it was then called – when my daughter was a year old. All her schooling has been here (she’s in middle school now) and as a parent I’ve been happy with every bit of it. I share the surprise expressed by some residents in The Local’s report Monday. I just don’t recognize my daughter’s school in the Department of Education’s findings.

East Village education began for her at the Emmanuel Day Care center on Sixth Street, with its smart, friendly and in some cases very long-serving staff. I was staggered by the Center’s ambition, watching them introduce pre-schoolers not only to reading and writing, but sophisticated math and science topics.

I had always assumed she would progress from there to P.S. 364, a nearby public school. Her mother had ideas about a private Catholic education. Thankfully we never had to debate it. One day, browsing among the stalls at the Loisaida street fair, we came across flyers for an all-girl charter school, not yet open. At the time I had no idea what a charter school was, although I did notice that it was free. I think we all know about charter schools now, and the debates about sharing space with city schools, about non-unionized teaching staff, and the lottery admission system – but that’s another story.

Anyway, that’s where my daughter went – Girls Prep on East Houston – and she’s been happy and successful there ever since. I read the report card with amazement. A and B for environment and student performance, a C score overall, but F for student progress. As a parent, I shrug my shoulders. (Full disclosure: her mother is employed by the school as a teaching assistant; she’s usually more critical of it than I am.)

The report card doesn’t really explain how this was measured. My daughter and her sharp, alert, articulate friends are making plenty of progress as far as I can see. It just makes me nervous for the school and the staff. Monitoring school performance is a great idea. Clarity and transparency in the reporting could be improved.

For what it’s worth, P.S. 364 got an overall D.

Kim Davis is the community editor of The Local East Village.

Tell us how you feel about the latest evaluations of neighborhood schools.

Mariya Abedi An all-in-one flu shot protects against the traditional flu as well as the H1N1 virus.

Last year everyone was talking about the swine flu but modern medicine has made some changes to make your life a little easier and less painful. Now an all-in-one flu shot is widely available, so you don’t have to get injected twice.

While flu shots were offered for free to all public school students last year, including schools in the East Village, the vaccines won’t be available in schools this year.

The Department of Health still recommends every New Yorker older than six months get a shot or nasal spray but check with your doctor.

While you can get a flu shot at your doctor’s office, some pharmacies in the East Village will carry the vaccine starting this month, including the New York City Pharmacy, 206 First Avenue,
 and Avenue C Pharmacy & Surgical, 
178 Avenue C. CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid pharmacies will also carries the vaccine.

CVS and Walgreens are also providing the shot to those who are uninsured and hold special vouchers. Unfortunately, the closest place to get vouchers is at the Brooklyn Plaza Medical Center on 650 Fulton Street, near the Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street subway stop. Without the voucher, the shot costs around $30.

Senior citizens are able to get free flu vaccinations at the Chelsea Health Clinic at 303 Ninth Avenue between 27th and 28th Streets. It’s the closest location to the East Village where the Bureau of Immunization is holding clinics. The walk-in clinic is open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Call them at 917-438-9780 an hour before you plan to arrive.

For more information about the flu vaccine, visit www.nyc.gov/flu and www.cdc.gov/flu/.

Jamie Newfield An illustration by Terry Galmitz from his exhibit, “My East Village.”

When Terry Galmitz went to Avenue D looking for a candy store half-remembered from his youth, he found it was no longer there. In its place stood Sergio Deli Superette, a Spanish bodega, but, Mr. Galmitz reasoned, since he was already there, he would stay a while and draw. The result is one of the most striking images in “My East Village,” his portfolio of neighborhood sketches, on display at SB D Gallery on East 4th Street through Dec. 4.

In black-inked illustrations, a group of children jump gleefully in the water of an open street hydrant, the bodega behind them, its windows postered with lunch and lottery ticket advertisements. This quintessential image of urban summer, and its resonant sense of community, lie at the very heart of Mr. Galmitz’s show, a snap shot of the East Village caught between ethnic and bohemian roots and an ever-developing future.
Read more…

Ben Chislett

Good morning, East Village.

A quick look at what we’re reading: Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York has a nice riff on the proliferation – and high prices – of various Bowery-themed clothing and apparel. EV Grieve writes about the arrival of the Hotel Toshi chain on East 10th Street. And after the discovery of explosives in a cemetery on East Second Street Monday, a few outlets have offered follow-up pieces this morning. The Daily News and The Times are among those who offer up a theory that the explosives might be related to a nearby clubhouse of the Hells Angels.

Carolyn Stanley A sticker for the Barcode Cinema project, one of the walkable exhibits at the Conflux Festival.

The East Village became a technological playground of sorts this weekend: an 8-foot tall “Urban Speaker” received phone calls and broadcast them across Tompkins Square Park. Images of bustling city sidewalks flickered across an outdoor movie screen attached to the handball court fence near Avenue B. Custom-designed barcode stickers were affixed to street signs, lampposts and buildings.

A mix of events, activities, and installations were dispersed throughout the neighborhood, all part of Conflux, an experiment in psychogeography, demonstrating how changing the urban landscape impacts people. Established in 2003, the Conflux Festival is an annual art and technology exhibition, and this year, most of the festival’s 75 projects appeared in the East Village. Exhibitors were encouraged to position their projects within a walkable radius, so they could explore how a community responds to participatory art.
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Rhea Mahbubani Thomas Krever, executive director of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, says recent suicides by gay teenagers reflect a troubling “sense of isolation and hopelessness.”

Growing up, Jairo Alcantara thought it was normal to be treated badly. It seemed ordinary to walk down the hallways of his Queens high school hearing homophobic slurs. “I can’t help the fact that I’m gay,” Mr. Alcantara said in a recent interview. “It’s a horrible feeling when you think God made you the wrong way. It’s an even more horrible feeling when other people tell you so.”

After years of pretending to be someone else, Mr. Alcantara, although still fearful for his safety, grew tired of being weighed down by a single lie. Today, Mr. Alcantara, who’s 18 and a recent graduate of the Harvey Milk High School in the East Village, is candid about his sexuality after having come out twice – first as bisexual and then as gay. “I had to come out,” said Mr. Alcantara, who transferred to Harvey Milk after two years at another school. “I was tired of living in this bubble that I couldn’t breathe in.”

Advocates point to the recent spate of teenage suicides by those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning as evidence of the pervasiveness of bullying and victimization. It is against that backdrop that the gay community today observes National Coming Out Day – an annual call for equal rights that is framed this year by the loss of young lives.
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Jenn Pelly The bomb squad was called to the New York City Marble Cemetery this morning after a report of a suspicious package.

Jenn Pelly Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly (right) said that the explosives could not have gone off because there was no detonator.

A volunteer at an East Village cemetery discovered a stash of old military explosives this morning setting off a chain of events that brought out the police department’s bomb squad and jarred nerves around the neighborhood.

At a news conference near the cemetery this afternoon, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the explosives were potentially deadly but that there was no danger that they would go off because there was no detonator.

Commissioner Kelly said that the explosives – eight sticks of C4 – had originally been found last year by a caretaker at the New York City Marble Cemetery, on Second Street near First Avenue, who unearthed them and placed them next to a tree at the rear of the property.

“He placed the bag next to the tree,” Mr. Kelly said. “The bag stayed there up until yesterday.”

That’s when a volunteer at the cemetery found the explosives and asked the police to remove them.

In a separate incident, police officers also discovered two notes – a rambling note with religious overtones that was written on a sheet of paper and had been placed on a patrol car Sunday and another one written in chalk on the street in front of the cemetery that read, “I really hope one of you finds this.”

The authorities initially believed that there might be a link between the notes and the explosives but dismissed that possibility after investigating further and now believe that the incidents are unrelated.

“It would be difficult to tell when the chalk note was written,” Commissioner Kelly said. “We will look at cameras in the area to try to see if there’s any indication to who wrote that and when it was written.”

The authorities received a call about 10 a.m. this morning reporting that the package had been found in the cemetery on Second Street between First and Second Avenues. The cemetery, which is usually closed to the public, had been open during the weekend for the eighth annual Open House New York weekend.

The bomb squad was called to scene along with a police helicopter to search the area. Commissioner Kelly said that the police investigation is continuing and that the bomb squad would continue to search the cemetery for additional explosives.

Chris Whitehead Rabbi Greg Wall, one of the founders of the Ayn Sof Arkestra and Bigger Band.

The saxophone of a Carnegie Hall veteran and trumpet of a Grammy winner nimbly croon and sway to the drum-brush beat, punctuated by sharp brass notes and bass thumps so close that the front row sees players’ tendons twitch.

That might sound like $150 seats at Lincoln Center, but catching this performance actually requires a padded pew at Sixth Street Synagogue, between First and Second Avenues, home of the Ayn Sof Arkestra and Bigger Band, a Jewish ensemble founded by Greg Wall, the well-known sax-playing rabbi there, and Frank London, his friend and an accomplished trumpeter.

Believed to be one of only a handful of Jewish big bands in the country, the 15-piece group rehearses and plays shows in the Modern Orthodox shul. Lately, its music has added the Talmudic verse of Jake Marmer, poetry columnist for The Forward, the weekly Jewish newspaper.
Read more…

Timothy J. Stenovec The East Village Community School and the Children’s Workshop School share a building on East 12th Street and both earned a C grade for academic performance.

Report cards are out for public schools in neighborhoods across the city and the East Village is getting the kind of grades that would cause just about any parent concern.

Of the 15 neighborhood elementary and middle schools graded as part of the city’s annual progress report, which was released on Sept. 30, only four were awarded A’s or B’s. Ten schools received C’s, and one earned a D. The scores dropped significantly compared to last year, when every East Village K-8 school earned at least an A or a B.

Failing grades for schools come with repercussions. Schools that receive low grades can face closure, and the principals of low performing schools can be fired.

Parents dropping their children off at the East Village Community School and the Children’s Workshop School recently were surprised to learn about that their schools were not making the grade.
 Both schools, which share a building on East 12th Street, got C’s this year, although the East Village Community School got D’s in “student progress” and “student performance,” two of the sub-categories that contribute to the overall grade.
Read more…

Sarah Tung

Good morning, East Village.

Just above this post, we’ve published a story by NYU Journalism’s Timothy J. Stenovec in which he takes a look at recently released performance evaluations for 15 neighborhood elementary and middle schools.

The results of those evaluations were not encouraging – just four of the 15 schools received a grade of B or better. Two received A’s, one received a D.

Viewed one way, the grades might not have been totally unexpected during a year in which education officials overhauled the state’s standardized testing system. Department of Education officials acknowledged as much when they told Mr. Stenovec that part of the showing by city schools could be attributable to the change.

But that only tells part of the story of what’s happening in East Village schools.

Parents, teachers, union officials, politicians and other stakeholders often speak in general terms when discussing some of the challenges facing public education.

We’d like to hear some specifics from you.

What kind of teaching initiatives are working in your school?

Has enough been done to fix the aging infrastructure at some school buildings?

What kind of penalties should be levied against schools that under perform?

We encourage all of you – parents, teachers, administrators, students – to read Mr. Stenovec’s post and add your comments to it.

Robyn Baitcher Wechsler’s Currywurst & Bratwurst, 120 First Avenue.

It was the second-to-last day of Oktoberfest at Wechsler’s, a midget wursthaus — more like a wurstkiosk — at 120 First Avenue, between Seventh Street and St. Marks Place. Andre Wechsler, the eponymous owner, had his barman/waiter/busboy pour a draft of Schneider Weisse beer and another of Radeberger Pilsener. Each arrived in a glass from its own brewery. It would be an insult to Andre to say the foam on each was just so — of course it was. Still, my friend Birte Kleemann, who ran an art gallery in Berlin before becoming director of The Pace Gallery in Chelsea, had a probing question: “Are these German strength, or American?” The typical alcohol level of German beer, Birte explained to me, was 5.45 percent, slightly above the strength of the dishwater served in this country. Andre solemnly averred that the provenance of both was pure German. “Actually,” he added, “the Schneider Weisse is 6.2 percent—special for Oktoberfest.”
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It’s the time of year when some of New York City’s most intriguing architectural sites are offered up to the public complete with guided tours. To prepare you for the eighth annual Open House New York weekend this Saturday and Sunday, The Local got the insider scoop on where to head in the East Village.

New York Marble Cemetery
41 1/2 Second Avenue (at Second Street)

www.marblecemetery.org
Hours: Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tania Barnes New York Marble Cemetery.

New York City’s oldest non-sectarian burial ground dates back to 1830 and sits on a half-acre of land, tucked behind a row of townhouses on Second Avenue. More garden than cemetery, the 156 underground vaults are indicated not by markers in the grass but by plaques on the walls.

Hellenophiles, rejoice: at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, the Natasa Trifan group will perform a 20-minute dance based on the Greek myth of the minotaur. “We’re Greek revival,” Caroline DuBois, president of the cemetery, says by way of explanation. Be sure to also check out the placards on how to bury someone and the main causes of death — from the ubiquitous consumption and still birth to the rarefied, such as scrofula (“King’s Evil” – number 137), Winneplegia (number 142), and Womb Complaint (number 143.)
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Robyn Baitcher Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer called for more measures to protect cyclists in bike lanes.

Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer held a news conference this morning on the corner of St. Marks Place and Second Avenue where he revealed the findings of a three-day observational study on the safety of bike lanes in the city.

The results?

“Unfortunately, chaos reigns in bike lanes across the city,” Mr. Stringer said.

Data collectors for the study cited a multitude of infractions involving bike lanes, Mr. Stringer said. They included instances in which cars encroached onto bike lanes and unmarked police vehicles cut across the lanes in non-emergency situations.

Mr. Stringer said that he chose St. Marks and Second for the news conference because it was the site of 173 traffic infractions involving bike lanes during a two-hour period. That figure makes the corner one of the most active locations for bike lane infractions in New York City, according to the study.

The intersection of 14th Street and First Avenue was also noted as being a particularly dangerous location; it tallied 76 infractions.

According to the study, the 22 hours of observation revealed over 1,700 infractions, including over 275 cases of motorists blocking bike lanes. But observers for the study reported that they only saw two tickets issued.

Mr. Stringer, who also called bike lanes “unpredictable and unprotected,” issued a set of recommendations designed to help make the lanes safer. Those steps include an awareness campaign about the perils of open car doors and creating reserved parking spaces to facilitate deliveries to businesses.

Tell us about your experiences with bike lane safety in the East Village.

Darren Tobia Angelo Cabrera, 19, from the East Village performs “the flag” in Tompkins Square Park. He is a member of the NYC Parkour team, which performs gymnastic maneuvers against an urban backdrop.

The Local East Village takes a look at the fitness phenomenon known as parkour through a pair of reports. First, Community Contributor Al Kavadlo, a personal fitness trainer, offers a first person account where he tries out some parkour moves. Then, NYU Journalism’s Lesley Messer and Suemedha Sood report on four neighborhood teenagers who’ve formed a bond through their practice of the sport.

What began with a group of teens in France running and jumping through the city streets has turned into a worldwide fitness movement, with the East Village as one of NYC’s primary hubs. Tompkins Square Park has had a reputation for many different things over the years. You can now add parkour to the list.

Parkour involves training to overcome physical obstacles by adapting to the environment. If there is a ledge, you vault over it, if there is a tree, you climb it and if there is a gap, you jump it.
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Suzanne Rozdeba Junk, 102 St. Marks Place.

James De La Vega’s funky museum art store has been replaced by Junk.

Amy Sidney, took over the St. Marks Place store as a space to sell her collection of things tossed aside. She calls herself a gatherer of memories, of stories behind the items she personally picks to sell. She calls her thrift store Junk.

The store’s name was created on a simple rule of marketing.

“I studied marketing, and the rule was the acronym KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. You have two or three seconds to catch someone’s eye. Eve and I came up with ‘Junk.’ We thought, ‘What a great name,’” laughed Mrs. Sidney. The store’s rent and overhead cost come to $8,000 a month.
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Sarah Tung

Good morning, East Village.

Some of what we’re reading today: EV Grieve has a post about an exhibit at the New City Gallery by Peter J. Ketchum. Neighborhoodr writes about the arrival of the Urban Speaker in Tompkins Square Park this afternoon. And reading The Villager’s fine appreciation of Michael Shenker reminds us to point out the first-person post about Mr. Shenker that we published Thursday that was written by NYU Journalism’s Dyan Neary.