Stephen Rex Brown.

The Local is pleased to welcome Stephen Rex Brown, who today begins work as the blog’s senior correspondent.

Mr. Brown recently worked as the editor of the hyperlocal news site, Fort Greene Patch. In 2010, he worked for The Brooklyn Paper and won “Reporter of the Year” from the Suburban Newspapers of America.

He taught journalism in Monterey, Calif. to high school students for National Geographic Student Expeditions. As a graduate of NYU Journalism’s Global and Joint Program Studies, he holds a joint master of arts degree in Journalism and Latin American Studies. His work has appeared in The Brooklyn Eagle and The Times and he has held an internship with The Daily Beast.

In addition to reporting for The Local, Mr. Brown will also serve on the faculty of NYU Journalism.

“We’re delighted to have Stephen on board,” said Richard G. Jones, editor of The Local. “He’s a dynamic young talent with a solid grounding in hyperlocal journalism and an appreciation of the innumerable storytelling opportunities in the East Village. Our readers will benefit from his reporting in the field and our students will benefit from his work in the classroom.”

Follow Mr. Brown on Twitter: @LEVStephen.

Vivienne Gucwa, a community contributor to The Local East Village Flickr Group shares her images of the weekend’s New York Dance Parade, which wound its way through the East Village Saturday.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

If you’d like a chance to see your best shots appear on The Local, join The Local East Village Flickr Group.

Heather Holland

Good morning, East Village.

So the rapture didn’t happen.  On Saturday, the only thing to descend on the East Village was a massive flock of dancers.  Out of the ordinary, perhaps, and measurably more welcome than pestilence and stinking sores, but still, it was not what Harold Camping had envisioned when he spoke of the Earth’s assured destruction on May 21, 2011. Some people are now wondering where the old radio minister is?  Chief among them, Robert Fitzpatrick, the man who plunked down $140,000 — his life savings — to finance the doomsday ad campaign.  But most are simply turning their attention elsewhere.  Even the Mars Bar has a new sign!

The allergy season is flaring up and blurring the lines between pets and their owners. According to The Post, one in five pets may be suffering from some form of allergy, and with the pollen season in full swing, some East Village pups are now taking human antihistamines for the doggie form of hay fever.

As for the human-caused air irritants, EV Grieve is up on the latest extension of smoking bans to city parks. Starting today, if you light up in Tompkins Square Park you might have to cough up $50.

The Daily News has a special multimedia report today that was prepared by the students of NYU Journalism. The report finds that residents of East Village and Lower East Side public housing developments are complaining about the damaging effects of mold and other hazards found inside their apartments. According to the report, out of 106,000 orders for repair, only 9,000 have been scheduled for 2012.

And good news for Ray’s Candy Store, which finally reopened last Friday. Last week, the owner, 78-year-old Ray Alvarez, had been fighting to pass a series of follow-up inspections, after racking up 53 points in health code violations that had earned his shop a forced closure sign on Monday. Neither More Nor Less captured Mr. Alvarez doing one last bit of cleaning before reopening to the public.

Phillip Kalantzis Cope A mural outside Mars Bar earlier this week.

Yesterday, I went to Pas De Deux on East 11th Street to pick out a dress for my girlfriend. Two women approached, one short-legged, the other willowy; both were stylish, in their own way.

“How can we help?” they said in near unison.

I explained that I wanted to buy a dress for my girlfriend.

“Something that says, ‘I really enjoyed our time together and I’m sorry I could not prevent the inevitable.’”

The short girl bit her cheek, “That…sounds interesting, are you breaking up?”

“The world is ending,” I said.
Read more…

Kenan Christiansen Antonio Garcia, the street artist known as Chico, recently received commissions for 10 new neighborhood murals, including this in-progress work outside Whiskers pet supply store on Ninth Street. Below (from left), Phil Klein, a co-owner of Whiskers, Mr. Garcia and artist Joel Salas.

It’s hard to walk around the East Village and not run into a mural by Antonio Garcia, who’s known to almost everyone by his nom de spraypaint, Chico. The locally born graffiti artist has spent most of his 34-year-career dedicated to painting the public walls of the neighborhood with lush murals often directly inspired by contemporary events.  When he was laid off from his job at NYC Housing in 2008 he left the city to live in Florida with his family.

“I always said I’d come back,” said Mr. Garcia, standing before his latest work at Whiskers Holistic Pet Care on Ninth Street.  “If they pay for my ticket, I’ll come.”

And even though he’s only been in the city a few weeks his murals have already began to proliferate.

On his most recent trip, sponsored by Branson B. Champagne, Mr. Garcia painted a mural celebrating the royal wedding on a wall in East Houston and Avenue B. The job only took 12 hours and he soon had more projects lined up. Before he leaves on June 24, Mr. Garcia agreed to 10 new mural projects in the neighborhood.
Read more…

Phillip Kalantzis Cope

If you see the phrase “East Village” after a byline at The Local, it means that the article is the work of one of our community contributors. These are people who live or work in the neighborhood, or have strong ties to it, and are willing to report on local news, talk about their interests and passions, or just inform and entertain us about aspects of East Village life. The Local is always looking for writers to join the party. Most of the articles we publish are around 500 to 600 words, but we are also on the lookout for brief, focused telegrams from the street.

You don’t need to be a professional journalist. We’ll provide help in getting your copy into shape if you need it. Interested? For more details, e-mail Kim Davis, The Local’s associate editor (kimdavis@thelocaleastvillage.com). Add your voice to the choir.

Vivienne Gucwa

Good morning, East Village.

It’s official: with the demolition order on file, we can finally say that it’s the beginning of the end for Mars Bar. Its destruction has been long anticipated, and it’s unclear exactly how many days the iconic dive bar has left before it becomes part of the permanent foundation for 12-story apartment complex. Ultimately though, the end may turn out to be more of a hiatus. As DNAinfo notes, after two years Mars Bar will get the chance to reopen in the same place at quadruple the square footage.

The EV Grieve just sent out invitations for the funeral of 35 Cooper Square, scheduled May 25. The event will no doubt serve as a bit of closure for preservationists after the long fight to save the historic building ended in defeat.

And finally, The Times recently had a rummage through the eclectic collection of trinkets, odds and ends, and bric-a-brac at Archangel Antiques. The Ninth Street shop carries a stock of over 1 million buttons dating back to the 1860’s and proves that at least half the fun of collecting antiques is the type of people that you meet.

Phillip Kalantzis Cope

A sampling of reader reactions to posts that have appeared on The Local.

Brendan Bernhard’s post about Mast Books on Avenue A and its distinctly East Village vibe resonated with readers.

Amy Bull wrote:

“This seems to sum up the direction “modern society” is taking. Books become artifacts, newspapers a luxury. So what becomes of the tactile pleasures which used to make up our delgihtful every day routines? Morning coffee with the paper and curling up with a book on the couch…”

Michael Hoinski added:

“take your blogs, your mp3s, your kindles, so i can have my trad pubs, my vinyl, and my sweet, glorious hardcovers.”

Readers also responded to Mr. Bernhard’s piece about the CBGB’s era band Television.

Tony B. wrote:

“I’ve never dug Television, though I did love a lot of the music at CBGB. Ned Sublette comes gracefully to mind. Your story, however, gets Television’s appeal across to me.”

Read more…

Mario Ramirez

The bicycle is such a decorous, ingenious, quiet machine, it’s a shame it has become a politicized one as well. But when you see somebody on a bike with a placard attached to it which reads A QUIET PROTEST AGAINST OIL, you know Politicization has arrived. (On First Avenue, in this case.)

Beautiful and ingenious as the bicycle may be, the human body is even more beautiful and ingenious, at least until the age of 60, and especially below the age of 30. And let’s not forget one important thing. As a pedestrian, I also fall into the category of partaking in A QUIET PROTEST AGAINST OIL, unless I’m in a cab. I just don’t have a sign, or a T-shirt, with which to make this fact plain. But I’m going to get one. It’s going to be a quiet protest against other, equally quiet protests.
Read more…

Gloria Chung

Good morning, East Village.

Around 3 p.m. yesterday, in the midst of the downpour a cyclist was struck by a white van while moving between Broadway and East Houston. The accident, also involving a truck, resulted in three injuries, none of which the authorities believed were life-threatening. The police secured the scene until emergency responders could arrive. The injured were transferred to local hospitals.

New rules by the Parks Department will limit the number of art vendors in Union Square, along with three other city parks. A temporary restraining order to block the rules was lifted last Tuesday by a Manhattan appellate court. According to DNAinfo, the number of art vendors in the Union Square will be reduced to 18. Enforcement starts on Monday.

And there’s more news about Ray’s. According to Neither More Nor Less, health inspectors revisited Ray’s Candy Store yesterday and, despite all his efforts to clean up, the inspectors were still able to locate mouse droppings. Earlier in the day, the store’s owner, Ray Alvarez, went to court to address his fines for the citations he had been issued over the last couple of days. EV Grieve posted a listing of area bars and restaurants that received flawless inspections from the Department of Health — something for Ray to aspire to. Yesterday he was hoping to open his doors. Looks like we’ll all have to be a bit more patient.

Michelle RickBrowsing outside Strand Books.

I enjoyed the portrait of Mast Books by Brendan Bernhard we published yesterday because the clean, bright space has become one of my regular haunts on Avenue A. Not that I can claim to be a valued customer. I like to take my ten year-old daughter in there and point out the books I’ve already got. “I have that. I have that. I do have that, but in a different edition.” The problem for Mast Books, if not for me, is that its curation of titles is so close to my taste that the store’s bookshelves uncannily mirror my own.

Reading the piece, I mentally counted off the neighborhood’s surviving independent bookstores and paused to mourn a few long lost. Posman’s on University Place was somewhat west of the East Village but housed an extraordinary selection of academic paperbacks. This was a place to revel in critical theory, bask in sociology and drown in philosophy. Almost irreplaceable, but I get an adequate fix of Foucault and Badiou, together with the opportunity to browse improbably expensive glossy magazines, at St Mark’s Bookshop.

The Strand is the neighborhood giant, of course, and one of the largest bookstores in the world in terms of miles of shelving. Usually crowded, always hard to navigate thanks to crowd-sourced aisle dithering, it’s the place to find relatively new books heavily discounted as well as cheap used editions. The Strand has been easier to access since surveillance cameras took over from the bag check (like only people with large bags can steal books) and the store’s website, unlike aspects of the store itself, is a model of user-friendliness. Read more…

Kenan ChristiansenA Ray’s customer contemplates the closure notice.

This morning Ray Alvarez could not stop fidgeting. He checked the soda machine for dirt, scrubbed the countertop with bleach, and consolidated the coffee into one pot. As he worked he counted off each potential violation.

“Now I’ve got to wash these, too, or they’ll be on to me,” he said, referring to the empty coffee pitchers.

Two days ago, Ray’s Candy Store, at 113 Avenue A, was ordered to close by the Department of Health. The store had racked up 53 points in health code violations, for issues which included mouse excrement on the floor and dirt on the soda machine.

The 78-year-old owner was told he could not reopen until these issues were addressed and his shop passed a follow-up inspection. At the time, Mr. Alvarez ignored the order, fearing that if he closed, for even a day, the loss in revenue would put him out of business for good.

It ended up being a costly decision. When the health inspector returned yesterday and found him still operating, Mr. Alvarez received a hefty fine and now estimates that he owes a total of $7,000.
Read more…

Tim Schreier

Good morning, East Village.

The third round of closing arguments in the East Village rape trial brought the character accusations full-circle.  According to DNAinfo’s ongoing reports, Assistant District Attorney Coleen Balbert accused defendants Kenneth Moreno, 43, and Franklin Mata, 29, of acting more like sexual predators than officers of the law, labeling the pair two of “New York City’s worst.”  As evidence, the prosecution cited that on the night of the incident the defendants lied to their supervisors about the number of trips they made to the plaintiff’s apartment, placed a phony 911 call to in order to have more time with her, and later falsified patrol logs to cover their tracks.  With closing arguments over, the jury will deliberate.

In other news, the now defunct SuperDive’s reputation for booze-fueled after hours seems to have stood in the way of plans to resurrect the space as an art-concept restaurant.  DNAinfo reports that the Community Board 3 liquor license committee voted 5 to 1 against a proposal to revamp the building, with one member suggesting they had taken a lesson from the former occupant: “It would be lunacy” to allow another establishment on that premises to serve alcohol until 4a.m..

EV Grieve posted a “frictional” account of one resident’s encounter with his post-midnight nemesis.  It’s a tale of interrupted sleep, turned late-night vigilantism in: man vs. party bus.

And finally, in late-breaking celebrity news, James Franco was spotted among the latest batch of NYU graduates on Monday.  Gothamist admits to being slightly confused this had not happened already.  But considering all the schools Mr. Franco has attended, is attending, or plans to teach at in the future, a little confusion is understandable.

Brendan BernhardBrowsers at Mast Books.

On May 8, Mast Books, which takes up about 450 square feet at 66 Avenue A, sailed into its second year as a viable new business in the East Village. Why “Mast”? Is Bryan Leitgeb, who owns the store together with his wife, James McKee, a secret fan of Patrick O’Brian, C.S. Forester, and other icons of nautical literature? Smiling at this idea, Mr. Leitgeb shakes his head but says he prefers not to reveal why his store should have such a singular name.

Mr. Leitgeb, 37, who came to New York from Flint, Mich., is already a veteran of the city’s used-books business. (He spent seven years at Mercer Books alone.) He is also confident that he has hit upon the right business formula in the right place at the right time. Unlike East Village Books, long a fixture at 99 St. Marks Place, Mast has the air of a used book store acutely aware it is in the midst of an intellectual revolution that has raised the image far above the word.

This knowledge is Mast’s secret. With its polished wood floors, white walls, track lighting, and eye-catching display tables, it doesn’t look “used” or “second-hand” in the slightest. On the contrary, it is designed to evoke a small art gallery and to attract similarly chic crowds, although its strong neighborhood ethos prevents it from feeling in any way exclusionary. Mr. Leitgeb, whose blue eyes are alternately melancholy and highly focused, does his part to make non-hipsters feel at home by going unshaven, wearing non-designer glasses, and a brown cap unlikely to be featured in the next edition of Vogue. More importantly, he’s also unsnobbish, helpful, and friendly.
Read more…

Al Kavadlo demonstrates the “L-sit.”

This past Saturday, the best of the best from the NYC calisthenics scene met
in the East Village to train at my favorite outdoor gym, Tompkins Square Park — and I was fortunate enough to be a part of the action!

Members of the world-famous Bar-barians, as well as Team Beastmode, Calisthenics Kings and many others all united to train together, share their knowledge and feed off each others’ good energy. Also on hand to represent
NYC’s parkour community was Keith Horan, who dazzled the crowd with his
blend of calisthenics and freerunning.

Over the last several years, the jungle gym at Tompkins Square Parkhas become a mecca for calisthenics and parkourenthusiasts everywhere, with Saturday afternoons being the unofficial time for one and all to come out and strut their stuff.

Throughout the afternoon there was no shortage of pull-ups, muscle-ups and
handstand push-ups — and that was just the tip of the iceberg! In spite of
the intensity of the exercises, the vibe was casual and welcoming. In the
end, we all had a good time and a great workout — my arms are still sore as
I type this!

Al Kavadlo is a personal trainer, freelance writer and author of the book, “We’re Working Out! A Zen Approach to Everyday Fitness” (Muscle-up Publications, 2010). For more information visit www.AlKavadlo.com.

Gloria Chung

Good Morning, East Village.

Closing arguments continue in the case of the two East Village officers accused of rape.  Yesterday, defense attorney for the second officer, Franklin Mata, accused of acting as a “lookout” for his partner, again made the case that no forensic evidence had been supplied that link either man to the rape and attempted to persuade the jury that the plaintiff charged the two men in order to prompt a multi-million dollar settlement from the city. The prosecution is scheduled to begin its closing arguments today.

And problems have escalated for Ray’s Candy Store.  Yesterday, after failing a health inspection, the 37-year-old Avenue A  cornerstone is once again facing possible closure. 

Despite being ordered to temporarily shut down until a follow-up inspection can be made, the 78-year-old owner, Ray Alvarez, has chosen o keep his store open.  He is caught in a catch-22: risk a fine for every day he fails to comply with the order by remaining open or close and possibly fall short on the rent, again. The embattled candy store has been struggling to stay afloat financially for more than a year now, inspiring numerous community support and fundraising efforts throughout the neighborhood.

In other news, the helmsman at EV Grieve sat down for a candid Q&A with the Village Voice’s Fork in the Road Blog to share his views on the present state of gentrification, food tourism, and liquor licensing in the neighborhood.