Evan Bleier Noah Leyer, left.

In addition to vintage cars, the Coen brothers have now brought something resembling snow to a block where, earlier today, a scene was being shot inside of a building at 77 East Second Street.

The extra attention to detail was no surprise to background actor Noah Leyer, 25, who was prepping for a sidewalk scene. “They had this outfit tailored specifically for me,” he said while waiting for the cameras to roll.

Our own cameras managed to capture Joel Coen sipping a beverage. Yes, the spy-cam shot at right is good and blurry (we’re horrible paparazzi), so you’ll just have to trust us: The Coen brothers are doing their thing.

Update: Slideshow: Coen Brothers Take Second Street Back to 1961

A look back at the images produced by the members of The Local East Village Flickr Group during the snowiest January in New York City history.

Vivienne Gucwa

Read more…

Chelsia Rose Marcius Shoppers at Fine Fare Super Market, on the corner of Fourth Street and Avenue C in the East Village, stock up before inclement weather. Snowstorms have delayed deliveries, meaning bursts of long lines in an overall slow business season.

When you visit a local supermarket right before a blizzard, it can sometimes feel as if Armageddon is just ahead, not a snowstorm. Some shoppers roam the aisle in an apparent frenzy, seemingly ready to grab everything they can get their hands on as checkout lines snake through aisles. Patience can be thin and the urge to stockpile food can trump the inclination toward civility.

And that frantic edge can remain even after a heavy snowfall as shoppers rush to replenish depleted pantries with the threat of additional snow looming. At least that was how it seemed at the Fine Fare Supermarket on Avenue C and East Fourth Street on Wednesday.

Customers may not have had an easy time crossing slushy streets, tip-toeing on icy sidewalks and climbing over marble-colored snow mounds to get to the market. When they did make it inside, though, they appeared ready to make up for lost time, quickly buying out the stock of staples.

“We had no bread, no milk, no eggs, no nothing,” said one cashier, Yesenia Urgiles.
Read more…

Colin Moynihan

The perils of the snowy season can take several different forms. There are the tall, thick drifts that entomb cars and end up forming ramparts that line the sidewalks. There is the gray slush that forms as those drifts melt, coalescing into pools and puddles – some of them deceptively deep – at intersections. And then there is perhaps the most subtle and hazardous result of the sorts of heavy snowfalls the East Village has been experiencing lately: slippery sidewalks coated with a thin sheet of ice.

This phenomenon typically occurs when sidewalks have not been shoveled completely clean. As temperatures drop, the remaining bits of snow harden into a slick surface that can send pedestrians sprawling. What’s worse, it is sometimes difficult to see when an icy stretch of sidewalk lies ahead. There are occasions when that realization comes accompanied almost simultaneously by a sudden loss of balance.

New York City law requires that landlords and businesses clear sidewalks, but anybody who has walked along the streets of New York City knows that some take that responsibility more seriously than others.

Temperatures tonight are expected to be below 30 degrees. Freezing rain is also forecast. As you walk – or slide – to work or to school tomorrow please take note of areas that seem particularly difficult or dangerous to navigate. Take a picture if you can, and remember the address. Then send the information in to us. We’ll do our best to look into whatever we hear about.

E-mail address: editor@thelocaleastvillage.com.

A slideshow of images of today’s snowstorm by NYU Journalism’s Suzanne Rozdeba and community contributor J.B. Nicholas.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Gloria Chung After yet another big snowfall, residents of the East Village shoveled, played and improvised their way through the day.

Once again the snow has put a wrench in the daily lives of East Villagers. The subways are slow, the corners are drenched in slush, and so are our shoes.

In light of all this immobility, we thought we’d ask some of the people most directly affected by the weather – retailers feeling the effects of meager foot traffic, school children with a suddenly free day and older East Villagers – to weigh in on how the snowy tundra is affecting their lives.

Here are a few snapshots from a snowbound Thursday:

Meltzer Towers Senior Center

Meredith Hoffman Mary Williams and Lulu, a Maltese puppy, prepare to brave the elements.

Holding her heart-fleece coated Maltese pup, today Mary Williams walked into the bustling lobby of the Meltzer Towers Senior Center and shared news from the outside world’s snowy craters.

“Don’t go out the back — the snow went up to my knee!” Ms. Williams, 68, warned the other residents of the center, a public housing building on First Street and First Avenue. Despite the “awful day,” Ms. Williams had taken her dog, Lulu, out to play, because “we love the snow.”

But Ms. Williams’ fearless spirit was unmatched in most other residents, who said the inclement conditions would confine them to their building all day. And with even boisterous twentysomething’s falling in muck on street corners, who could blame older East Villagers?

Another resident sitting in the lobby of the senior center, Iris Sweiberg, 68, shivered with her back to the snow and recalled her 6 a.m. excursion outdoors as if it were an intrepid adventure.

“Everything was dark,” Ms. Sweiberg said. “I thought I was going to fall, it was so slippery.” Ms. Sweiberg had walked to the subway in an attempt to get to her job at the Medicaid building on 34th Street and Eighth Avenue. Since the trains weren’t running, she’d returned home, for a holiday — without pay, she lamented.

Perhaps Maria Montalvo, an East Village resident who slowly made her way down East Sixth Street this morning, said it best.

“When I see this kind of weather, I say ‘I want to go back to Puerto Rico!’”—Meredith Hoffman
Read more…

The members of The Local East Village Flickr Group share their images of yet another snowy day.

Kelly Samardak

Read more…