Rachel Wise

Good morning, East Village.

We want to start by thanking everyone who turned out at NYU Journalism Thursday night for a celebration of East Village history led by Pete Hamill.

It was a tremendous night and it was great to meet many of our neighbors in person — and we also appreciate the virtual presence of those of you who could not attend yet still tuned in for the livestream online. We’ll talk a little more about Mr. Hamill’s remarks later today but, again, we greatly appreciate all of the support and good energy that we felt last night.

There are some very nice East Village-related reads around the blogosphere this morning. On Thursday, we wrote about how a new law might make it easier for disgruntled residents to close bars known for violence and excessive noise.

Grub Street over at New York magazine touches on the law in its piece about how some East Village residents are worked up over a different kind of eatery. And while you’re at New York, be sure to check out this slideshow of Billy Hurricane’s on Avenue B.

An editorial in The Villager expresses support for new bike lanes. We wrote Thursday about how businesses have been affected by the lanes and stay tuned for another post later today by Community Contributor Bill Millard about some unexpected ways that the lanes have affected cyclists.

More good stuff over at DNAinfo and Neighborhoodr, which gives us all a heads-up on a block party Saturday at St. Mark’s Church. And while based a little bit west of our neighborhood, this piece on a rather atypical rapper is also worth checking out.

Molly O’Toole

Hello, East Village.

We start this morning with two invitations from us here at The Local.

First of all, the development team that has been hard at work on the Virtual Assignment Desk has made the list of story assignments visible to the public on the beta version of the site.

You may recall that the Assignment Desk is an application that allows members of the community to suggest story ideas and volunteer to report, take photographs or otherwise contribute to the blog. It represents another way that we’re promoting journalistic innovation and bringing value to the blogosphere.

So we’d like to invite you to visit the assignment desk and try it out.

We’d also like to remind you that you’re all invited to a celebration of the history of the East Village at NYU Journalism tonight where Pete Hamill will discuss ways that storytellers can mine the neighborhood’s hidden past.

The event begins at 6 with Mr. Hamill’s lecture and the festivities continue with music from a playlist firmly rooted in the East Village and D.J.ed by NYU Journalism’s own Jenn Pelly, a familiar face in the local music scene whose work has appeared here on The Local and elsewhere.

There will also be food and drink and a raffle for a Kindle. We hope that you’ll join us and if you’re unable to attend we’re planning to stream Mr. Hamill’s remarks live on The Local, so check the site at 6.

In other neighborhood news, we wanted to draw your attention to a couple of links worth checking out including this one at DNAinfo about a resolution in the MTA’s case against Billy’s Antiques on East Houston Street, this one from our sibling blog City Room about Irish actors getting a taste of Yiddish theater on East Seventh Street and this story about a possible breakthrough in the murder of Second Avenue Deli owner Abe Lebewohl.

One more thing: You may recall that we at The Local are asking for your reports about bedbugs in the East Village so that we can map them. The Neighborhoodr blog has posted a link to a version of a citywide map – yuck! We’re still looking for your bedbug stories so please keep sending.