Suzanne RozdebaJames De La Vega puffs on a cigar outside the former home of his East Village Museum.
James De La Vega, who shut down his East Village museum in August of last year and left followers wondering where he’ll end up next, has taken his brand online.
“De La Vega is now writing on the sidewalks of cyberspace,” said the artist, famous for his street art, often adorned with the catch phrase, “Realiza Tu Sueno / Become Your Dream.” In January, Mr. De La Vega said he was working on a “digital experience.” Now, that experience has been revealed: an online store, featuring De La Vega T-shirts, tote bags and even an organic baby body suit with his signature fish jumping out of a bowl. An assortment of coffee mugs, shot glasses and water bottles range from $10-$18.
Mr. De La Vega remained confident that his followers — who see him as an artistic prophet of sorts — would follow him in his new, commercial direction. Read more…
Stephen Rex BrownThe violation at 331 East Sixth Street.
The construction site at 331 East Sixth Street — rumored to be the future home of “Friends” star David Schwimmer — received a violation from a Department of Buildings inspector today.
The notice cites the developer for failure to post the required permits for an eight-foot-tall fence at the front of the lot.
Much speculation and anger has surrounded the site since it was reported in July that the townhouse built in 1852 would be demolished to make way for a new dwelling.
The Local made numerous attempts to find out who the owner of the building is, as well as what the new building will look like. The accounting firm handling the property has remained tight-lipped about the identity of its client, and the architecture firm designing the building has not returned several phone calls.
Meanwhile, an apparent anarchist and architecture critic has left a note at the lot letting the developers know what he thinks about their “ugly, yuppie, ghetto catering to monied transients.”
Many East Village residents have expressed their dismay over the Time Warner cable outage that occurred this morning. Well, The Local is here to give you good news (if you can manage to get it without internet service): free wi-fi is now available in Tompkins Square Park.
A spokesman with the Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications said that the service quietly launched on Sept. 29, and a stroll through the park confirmed that sure enough, “attwifi” is an available network there.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable said that the outage was the result of a fire in the Lower East Side, which melted a portion of the fiber-optic network. Read more…
As expected, hundreds of students from NYU and the New School showed up at Washington Square Park Wednesday afternoon, before marching down Lafayette Street to join the Occupy Wall Street protesters. “A lot of the problems that Occupy Wall Street is addressing have a particular impact on students,” said co-organizer of NYU Student Walk Out, Christy Thornton, 32. After hooking up with what she said were 60 community groups and what the Times reported were several labor unions at Foley Square, several thousand marched on to Zuccotti Park, per the AP. In the course of the evening, about 28 arrests were made, according to NY1 (update:City Room hears that 23 were arrested), and protesters reported police using pepper-spray and batons to keep the crowd at bay. (Gothamist has video of one such incident.) As you can see from Liv Buli’s report above, the Local was at Washington Square Park to see the start of it all.
Update | 11:15 a.m. Our reporter Yoo Eun Lee was also on the scene and captured the raw footage below. Read more…
It seems Bob Arihood (the above tribute to whom was painted by Chico yesterday) wasn’t the only one to tend after injured squirrels. On East Seventh Street near Second Avenue, we spotted a sign explaining that an orphaned baby squirrel has gone missing, and must be returned to a “federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator” because it is too young to crack nutshells for itself.
Just in time for Game 5 tonight, former Yankees and Mets right fielder Darryl Strawberry will be signing autographs between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. at the Village Pourhouse, reports Bowery Boogie. Read more…
Stephen Rex BrownThe crew from “CSI” packs up its gear on Wednesday.
The Local spotted the crew for “CSI: NY” filming on Eighth Street between Broadway and Lafayette Street all morning. And for all you would-be paparazzi out there, “Nurse Jackie” — starring Edie Falco of “Sopranos” fame — will be shooting on Thursday on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue, according to notices posted on the street.
Stephen Rex BrownAstor Place, minutes after a pedestrian had been taken away in an ambulance.
A pedestrian was hit by a car at Astor Place at around 2:30 p.m. today.
A fire department spokesman said the accident, which happened at Fourth Avenue and East Eighth Street, left the victim with “serious injuries.” No further information was available, though an NYPD spokesman said no criminality was involved in the collision. Last month, a pedestrian was hit by a cyclist at the same intersection.
Did you see the accident? Let us know in the comments.
Justin BagleyCareful! There is some foul language in this video (originally picked up by Deadspin).
It’s two of the most common sights in Tompkins Square Park: rats and two guys ready to fight. Justin Bagley, who was on vacation from Milwaukee, was shooting a video on Monday of the scurrying rodents when he spotted two men nose-to-nose and ready to throw down. The brawl was over before it started: as you can see in the graphic video Mr. Bagley posted to YouTube, one swing led to a knockout.
“Totally random – it was crazy,” said Mr. Bagley, 28, who was back in Milwaukee today. “I was thinking, ‘Those are ratholes?’ Then, out of nowhere, all of a sudden the guy blasts him.” Read more…
Puck, the mascot of the building of the same name on the corner of Houston Street and Mulberry Street, is facing the prospect of some shiny glass condos above his shiny gold top hat. Kushner Companies, the building’s owner, wanted to stick apartments on the roof of the landmarked structure. The Landmarks Preservation Commission told it no back in September. Today, it again said no to revised, more modest designs.
In an e-mail, a spokeswoman for the commission said, “The Commissioners did not approve the proposal as presented. They commented and voiced a variety of concerns about the bulk, scale and design of the proposal.” Read more…
Tonight at 7:15 p.m., friends of Bob Arihood and admirers of his work documenting the daily life of the East Village will gather at Lucy’s, with a candlelight vigil to follow at 8 p.m. at Ray’s Candy Store. Today, his body is being returned to his hometown of Lafayette, Indiana. According to Leslie Arihood, his younger brother, funeral arrangements have been tentatively set for Sunday at the Soller-Baker Funeral Home.
In the days since Mr. Arihood was found dead in his apartment, bloggers have paid tribute to him, but few personal details have emerged about the man who Wah Mohn, 21, a Columbia student and acquaintance of the photographer, called a “super loner.”
“What made Bob special was that he listened to people,” said one of the three men who found Mr. Arihood’s body on Friday, adding that Mr. Arihood was more inclined to hear someone’s life story than to tell his own.
It was just that kind of warmth that drew people to him as he canvassed the neighborhood, and last week, his conspicuous absence from his usual local haunts around Tompkins Square Park was cause for concern. So was the surgical appointment he missed on Tuesday. Read more…
Tickets are on sale for the Fourth Arts Block East Village Eats Tasting Tour on October 22. According to East Village Eats, $29 buys around $50 in food, drink and discounts. Participating restaurants include Cucina di Pesce, Hecho en Dumbo, Jimmy’s No. 43, Luke’s Lobster, Oaxaca and others. In June the tasting tour was canceled due to poor ticket sales. Hopefully, appetites will be stronger this month.
State Senator Daniel Squadron has announced that the Metropolitan Transit Authority will increase the number of trains running on the L line around June of next year. Mr. Squadron said that the authority had analyzed data and found a “meteoric” increase in ridership on the line. “Weekend ridership on the L train has increased by 141 percent since 1998, while service has only increased by 58 percent on Saturdays and 52 percent on Sundays,” Mr. Squadron said in a press release. Unfortunately, straphangers on the F train aren’t so lucky. The M.T.A. studied the line and determined that an increase in F trains on the weekend is not currently feasible, according to the release. City Room has more on the story.
A man’s foot was lodged between the 5 train and the subway platform at the Union Square station at 9:55 a.m. this morning. A spokesman for the fire department said the man was taken to Bellevue Hospital, but no further details were available. This is at least the second near-miss at the station in the last two days. Yesterday, a drunk man fell onto the tracks of the Q train and narrowly avoided being run over, according to the New York Post. Last week, Joe Pan Millar wrote about an apparent suicide that occurred a couple of stops over on the L line.
Kathy Kirpatrick, the owner of Life Cafe, is apparently pretty peeved that her business is still shuttered as a result of a dispute with her landlord. In a series of messages posted on Facebook, the owner considers converting the cafe at 10th Street and Avenue B into a space that would host “events around the theme Art Against Greed.” Two days prior to that post, Ms. Kirkpatrick noted, “It’s been three weeks this weekend since I had to close with a hope and a dream to be able to reopen. I, a single woman warrior, am fighting two Goliaths with deep pockets for Life.”
Around 5 a.m. today, Agata Olek, the artist and “yarn bomber” behind this little number and others, pulled off what may be her masterpiece by wrapping the Astor Place cube. She told Runnin’ Scared the piece is her response to Wall Street, and its name is “I’m still proud to say what i do for a living.”
Around 1,000 people gathered in Union Square on Saturday for “SlutWalk,” which seeks to highlight violence against women, as well society’s perception of the crime. The Local was on the scene and spoke with the diverse group of protestors.
Villagers continued to mourn the passing of photographer Bob Arihood on Friday. EV Grieve shares a collection of Mr. Arihood’s photographs, and Runnin’ Scared offered its own tribute over the weekend. A vigil is planned for Tuesday night in front of Ray’s Candy Store, one of Mr. Arihood’s favorite haunts.
From one artist to another, Antonio “Chico” Garcia completed a mural for The Children’s Workshop School on East Twelfth Street over the weekend. NY1 reports that the veteran graffiti artist now plans to “cap his spray cans for good.”
Garcia began his painting career 34 years ago — not long before the band Blondie started playing CBGB. The San Francisco Chronicle writes that the band has stayed true to its East Village roots with its latest release. Read more…
Bob Arihood, friend and photographer of the East Villlage’s misfits, free spirits and longtime locals died yesterday in his Fourth Street apartment. He was 65.
A spokesman for the fire department said that the cause was cardiac arrest at around 7:45 p.m.
Many of Mr. Arihood’s photographs on his blog, Neither More Nor Less, had an unmistakable air of grit and nostalgia. But others, many of them snapped in the wee hours of the morning, carried legitimate neighborhood news overlooked by other outlets. His blog began as a way to document the plight of the Mosaic Man Jim Power, who was evicted from an apartment on St. Marks Place. Later, Mr. Arihood would expand his blog to cover the ups and downs of Ray’s Candy Store, as well as the constant goings-on in Tompkins Square Park. Read more…
A fire broke out in a stove at 107 St. Marks Place at around 6:25 p.m. today, and was under control within 20 minutes. According to a fire department spokesman, 60 firefighters responded to the fire in an apartment on the first floor of the six-story building between First Avenue and Avenue A. Only one fire hose was needed to extinguish the blaze and there were no injuries.
Kim BhasinPhotos from Guy Fieri’s shoot on 12th Street.
Guy Fieri, the peroxided Food Network star, was spotted filming at John’s of 12th Street yesterday for his show, “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.”
Mr. Fieri spent about three hours in the afternoon shooting at the Italian restaurant between First and Second Avenues, and co-owner Mike Alpert was thrilled.
“He learned about us through the grapevine. I was amazed that he’d never heard of us; an Italian restaurant that’s been around for 103 years,” said Mr. Alpert. Read more…
The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards. Read more »
Suzanne Rozdeba James De La Vega puffs on a cigar outside the former home of his East Village Museum.
