When Paul and Monica Shay were gunned down July 2 in their country home in Montgomery County, Pa., it quickly became clear to those who knew the couple that their loss would be felt especially deep in the East Village.

What longtime friends remember most about the Shays — who lived on East 10th Street — is their roles as leaders in the fight for housing, which in the 1980’s and 90’s included frequent clashes with the police during demonstrations for the rights of squatters in and around Tompkins Square Park.

“There’s a short list of people who when they say, ‘let’s do something,’ they mean they’re going to do it,” said Seth Tobocman, an activist artist and friend of the Shays.

“Kathryn and Paul were always on that list,” he continued, referring to Ms. Shay by her nickname.

Since the shooting, crowds of friends and neighbors have twice gathered publicly to remember the Shays, most recently July 9 in Tompkins Square Park.

Ms. Shay died July 7, while Mr. Shay remains hospitalized and in critical condition. Three other victims include Mr. Shay’s nephew Joseph Shay, the younger Mr. Shay’s girlfriend Kathryn Erdmann, and her 2-year-old son Gregory Erdmann. Ms. Erdmann and the elder Mr. Shay are the lone survivors.
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Clint McMahon

Good morning, East Village.

There was a little Hollywood action in our neighborhood on Wednesday. DNAinfo reports that HBO filmed part its television series “Boardwalk Empire” yesterday in the East Village. The HBO crew used John’s Italian Restaurant, which is on 12th Street between First and Second Avenues, as the backdrop for a few scenes. “Boardwalk Empire” is a television drama that takes place in Atlantic City and stars Steve Buscemi, who plays a corrupt politician named Enoch “Nucky” Thompson. It is produced by Martin Scorsese.

Speaking of show business, EV Grieve reminds everyone that the EPIX Movie Free-for-All series continues tonight with a showing of “Coming to America.” In case you didn’t catch the announcement, EPIX is sponsoring a movie night once a week outside at Tompkins Square Park from now until Sept. 1. Next week, they’re showing “The Warriors.” The gate opens at 6 and the movie starts at sundown.

Finally, DNAinfo reports that one of the former NYPD police officers who was acquitted of rape is also charged with drug possession. Kenneth Moreno, 43, was indicted in 2009 on charges that he housed heroin in his locker at the Ninth Precinct. Prosecutors searched Mr. Moreno’s locker after he was arrested on rape charges stemming from an incident in December 2008. In May, Mr. Moreno and his former partner, Franklin Mata, were acquitted of raping a woman in her East Village apartment. However, Mr. Moreno’s drug charges remain open and active on the docket, prosecutors told DNAinfo.

Shawn HokeA Hairless Khala dog stands outside the Westville East — one of the locations where Sarah Shanfield has violently tripped while indulging her brunch habit.

It came on quickly.

I didn’t know I was addicted; I thought I just had a lot of friends. There was that birthday “Kegs & Eggs” celebration for my roommate’s coworker. There was that friend from home that only had a few hours until her return plane ride and desperately wanted to go dine at 11 a.m. at the Boathouse Cafe, “like Carrie Bradshaw!”

And then there was that day I woke up and there happened to be five people sleeping on the floor of my apartment, and the only way to get rid of them was to promise them really good pancakes at the cute little place around the corner.

It’s a sad story, but soon after I moved here, I became addicted to brunch.

I ate so many brunches that I began to choke when I had a piece of fruit that wasn’t drizzled in lemongrass-infused balsamic honey. Friends would joke that my blood was actually just Bloody Mary mix, but after violently tripping on the outdoor tables at Westville East I realized it wasn’t Bloody Mary mix, it was just straight celery juice running through my veins.
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Joshua Davis The EPIX Movie Free-for-All is the first sponsored weekly film series held in Tompkins Square Park. Screening will take place Thursday evenings through Aug. 25.

The East Village, with its history of art house theaters and independent video stores, has long been a destination for movie lovers. But for countless summers, East Villagers have had to trek uptown or head to out to Brooklyn to participate in a summer tradition: outdoor movie screenings.

That all ended last night when the EPIX Movie Free-for-All premiered its weekly film series in Tompkins Square Park with the screening of Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull.”

“When we saw it was right here, and we could run and use the bathroom in our own apartment we were like, ‘let’s go,’” said Polly Seplowitz, 27, a nearby resident and public school teacher who came with her neighbor.

The series is the first sponsored weekly film event held in Tompkins Square Park, and organizers say they are pleased to bring an event patterned after the popular HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival to the East Village.
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Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Good morning, East Village.

Local skaters can rejoice because Open Road Park officially reopens today. The park closed recently amid reports of drug dealing. The closing forced East Village skaters to go elsewhere to ride, hang out and practice kick-flips. East Side Community High School Principal Mark Federman, who held a public meeting earlier this week about the park’s closing, said he hopes to increase the park’s hours of operation next month.

In other neighborhood news, NY1 reports that the demolition of 51 Astor Place will begin in a few days. Later this year, construction is scheduled to begin on a 13-story, mixed-use office tower; that work is expected to take about 17 months.

The folks at EV Grieve have photos this morning showing that the Yippie Museum Cafe is closed temporarily for renovations. Along with the Chickpea location on 14th Street, many East Village business owners are closing for a few weeks in order to spruce up the interior of their shop. EV Grieve also has photos of boxing promoter Don King smoking a cigar in Tompkins Square Park during the premiere of the free, summer-long film series there. The Local’s Joshua Davis will have a full report on the series later today.

Michelle Rick

Good morning, East Village.

When you think all the good ones are taken, try looking in your own backyard. That’s right East Villagers, our neighborhood ranks as the number one place for dating in New York City — or at least according to the online dating site, HowAboutWe. The Village Voice reported the findings earlier this week, noting that Webster Hall and the Strand top the list of local hotspots.

Of course there are other reasons for coming to the East Village, as we’ve seen each year with the so-called Crusties; but now it seems some of these annual squatters are not getting a warm welcome from the authorities, according to Andrea Stella, executive director of The Space at Tompkins.

But that’s not all that’s changing this summer. Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York shares photos from East Villager Andrea Legge, who lives in the building next to Mars Bar; both buildings will be bulldozed by the end of August.

Chelsia Rose Marcius Nick Corbin, 24, of Hoboken, during the race.

Grab, bite, chomp, chew, drink, swish, swallow, run.

That was Miriam Weiskind’s strategy today at the second annual New York City Pizza Run in Tompkins Square Park.

“I took really quick bites and washed it down with a little water,” she said, raising an imaginary slice to her mouth, showing just how she did it. “People who shoved the entire thing in just choke.”

Nearly 100 runners registered for the 2.25-mile run that required three pit stops for one slice of Margherita pizza, said race founder Jason Feirman, 26, of the East Village.

Ms. Weiskind, 31, of Park Slope, came in first for the women, clocking in at 18 minutes and 6 seconds. Peter O’Rourke took men’s title with a time of 15 minutes and 24 seconds.

While a dim weather forecast kept some participants from showing, those who live for saucy pieces of dough had no problem wolfing down 40 pizza pies from Pizza by Certe in Midtown.

To prepare for inhaling mouthfuls of basil leaves and mozzarella, triathlete Jonathan Blyer, 29, of Park Slope, spent three weeks chewing saltine crackers without water. He said what ruined him last year was a dry pallet.

“My main problem was getting my salivary glands going,” he said.

Most runners gave the choice of pizza a standing ovation — except perhaps Erin McInrue, 27, of the West Village.

“It was good but a bit crusty,” Ms. McInrue said. “That’s no good when I’m trying to eat for speed.”

Locals will soon be able to surf the web while lounging in Tompkins Square Park, thanks to a new initiative that will install free Wi-Fi service at 20 city parks. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the measure at a news conference at Battery Park today alongside executives from AT&T, which will administer the service. The free wireless signal for smartphones, tablets and old-fashioned computers will be available in Tompkins Square Park by the end of the summer, according to Mr. Bloomberg.—Stephen Rex Brown

We took to the towpaths of Tompkins Square Park this week to ask locals about their new and offbeat summer reads.

Kim Fuerth, 21
Student, New York University
Reading: Ishmael

“It’s about a man having a conversation with a gorilla about nature. I studied abroad in Ghana and all of my friends there recommended it. I’ve been really into reading in shady parks lately like Tomkins; it’s good because you don’t sweat.”

Hank Dreve, 62
Jeweler
Reading: Bob Dylan Chronicles

“I’m saddened by the fact that the world he describes no longer exists. Right now I’m reading a part that takes place in New Orleans; he writes it so colorfully that I feel like I got to see it before the hurricane.”
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Peter Boothe

A few weeks ago, NYU seniors from Avenue D to West Fourth Street washed their greasy hair and used their parents’ credit cards to buy something nice-looking for the penultimate of college events — graduation. For what seemed like way too many days I stood in line behind glossy moms in white ankle pants at H&M, mingled with round, red-faced Dads on the F train, and dodged double decker tour buses barreling through my streets, working overtime to accommodate all of the neglected aunts and uncles.

I wanted to run and hide, not because I was jealous of all the checks being picked up by parents at Mercadito, nor because those parents then gave their little graduates some “beer money” before they stepped into a cab to retire to their Times Square hotel. Not even because I’m scared of other people’s grandmas (which I am).

No, I wanted to get the hell out of the East Village during those days because from what I could see, all parties involved with the occasion seemed extremely unhappy and unhopeful, both for their own futures and for the futures of everyone around them. Yes, even commencement speaker Bill Clinton.

It reminded me of the misery of my own college graduation. My Dad cried, which I thought was sweet, but my mother assured me he was having a reaction to looking at his bank account. Last week, when I saw a silver-haired man in a Pebble Beach baseball cap painfully clutching the brunch menu while waiting in a throng of other silver-haired men outside of Peels, I assumed it was a similar situation.
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eastvillagedenizen A scene from last year’s Howl Festival.

Allen Ginsberg first moved to the East Village in October 1952, renting apartment 16 of 206 East Seventh Street, for which he paid $33.60 a month rent. He lived in the neighborhood for the rest of his life, staying in a number of tenements until his death in 1997.

This evening at 5, the eighth annual Howlfest kicks off in Tompkins Square Park with a reading of his epic poem “Howl” by a host of noted poets including John Giorno, Hettie Jones, and Ed Sanders. The reading will be emceed by Bob Holman of the Bowery Poetry Club. The reading should have added impact, as today would have been Ginsberg’s 85th birthday.

This annual extravaganza of local creative energy continues throughout the weekend with a full calendar of events. In addition to poetry, local musicians, dancers, actors and artists will all be presenting their work. Perhaps the world’s longest canvas will be erected on the park fence and you will have the opportunity of viewing 140 artists work on their creations in their section.

The beautiful weather forecast for the weekend is sure to draw crowds and you should head over to Tompkins Square to join in the celebration.

Phillip Kalantzis Cope

Yesterday, we told you about a post by the Neither More Nor Less blog that marked the 20th anniversary of the 1991 Memorial Day riot in Tompkins Square Park.

Bob Arihood, the author of Neither More Nor Less, correctly noted that we erred in indicating that the riot was sparked because of the park’s homeless population.

“This riot was not about a homeless encampment in Tompkins Square Park . It was the result of the enforcement of the ending time of a concert . the concert goers were mostly drunk . bottles had been stashed in preparation for a riot . Cops and drunks confronted each other and nature took its course”

And longtime resident Martin Johnson offered his recollection of the evening.

“The street and sidewalks were cluttered with the debris of a riot, and police with combat gear were everywhere. When I reached 9th St, a policeman stopped me and asked me where I thought I was going. I told him “home,” and that I lived on Avenue A near 14th. He asked if I had some ID or a utility bill to prove it. My Driver’s License uses my mailing address, so I told him I didn’t have anything other than my word (which had usually been good enough). He threw me against the side of the building which now houses Cafe Pick Me Up and told me I was lying and that if I didn’t get off of *his* block, he was going to shove his nightstick down my throat.

You can read Mr. Johnson’s complete account of the night here.

Join the conversation: Do you have any memories of the riot on Memorial Day 1991? Please share them in the comments section below.

Stephen Rex Brown Damaso Vigo takes a defiant puff.

As you probably heard, smoking is now banned in city parks and beaches. The Local stopped by Tompkins Square Park to see if East Village smokers were following the letter of the law.

The first thing we saw upon entering the park at St. Marks Place? That’s right, a smoking scofflaw.

“You can’t even smoke in the park? Then where you going to smoke?” said Damaso Vigo, in between puffs of a Tiparillo Mild cigar. “It’s a stupid thing.”

The new law was hailed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as an important measure to protect locals’ lungs.

“The science is clear: prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke, whether you’re indoors or out, hurts your health,” the mayor said in a statement. “Today, we’re doing something about it.”

But even some non-smokers in Tompkins Square Park were uneasy with the nix on nicotine in parks.
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.

Gustavo Valdes is better than me at ping-pong.

Then again, I imagine so are most people. I’m what some might call athletically challenged. My high school gym teacher once asked me to sit out during a flag football game because she claimed I was a safety hazard to both my classmates and myself. When it comes to possessing hand-eye coordination, I appear to be significantly lacking.

Still, I found myself vaguely interested when I heard through the East Village blogosphere that a new ping-pong table had moved to Tompkins Square Park, a permanent fixture donated by local outdoor table manufacturer, Henge Tables.
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Margot Wood

Would-be messages from the East Village, in 140 characters or less.

Instructions from the Muse

“Tweet!” the birdie cried. “I am tweeting,” the surly poet
replied. “Tweet! Tweet!” “Look, you dumb… sparrow, I
just told you…” “Tweet!”

A Serious Mutt

Would I be caught dead showboating in that dog run
across the street? Nyet. I’m not some pansified “pet”
pawing the air for adoring looks,

I’m here on important business: Waiting for my Master
to exit the Tompkins Square Library with his usual dose
of videos and books

We ♥ Poets!

Ginsberg’s E. 10th St. apt. gutted; O’Hara’s @ 441 E. 9th
unmarked; the plaque outside Auden’s home on E. 8th
gets the dates wrong

Observer With Cataracts

He finds it hard to not be trivial. He skims, he skates, past
the same stores & faces. Epitaph: “He was not convivial,
& he left no traces”

Materialism

He’s stuck with it, a life of fabricated purpose and no
God. Mud encrusted with jewelry stores. His Western
inheritance, along with not

knowing how to dance. Temples, mosques, are alien, and
the Church does not speak. “Maybe,” he thinks, “It’s
time to speak to It”

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Jeanette Chi in Tompkins Square ParkClaire Glass

In a particularly secluded part of Tompkins Square Park — on 10th Street between Avenues A and B — Jeanette Chi, 53, a nurse at an area hospital, practices an ancient form of Tai Chi, to channel her Chinese heritage and find a personal sanctuary within the East Village.

What’s this form of Martial Arts called?

This is Chen Tai Chi Quan. It’s supposed to be the oldest style of Tai Chi, the one off of which all of the other styles are based. It’s practiced in the Chen Village in Henan.

A General named Chen Wang Ting, decided to study medical Qigong, which concentrates on breathing exercises. His objective in the new form was to develop a form of movement that would combine meditative awareness with combat technique. So, the practitioner can develop wisdom and fight.

How did you become interested in this particular form?

I started many years ago with a teacher in California in 1982. From there I studied with another teacher and now found another teacher here named Yu Guo Shun who I feel have taught the most.

I thought it was really beautiful and wanted to learn something traditional that was also applicable to self-defense. Read more…

J.B. Nicholas For many of the neighborhood’s homeless, the death of a woman who was sleeping outside St. Brigid’s Church on Sunday underscored the perilousness of life on the streets.

Greg Howard Top: A man known as El Presidente who frequents Tompkins Square Park. Below: The makeshift alcove where a woman’s body was found Sunday.

It’s been a day since Grace, the homeless woman who was a regular around Tompkins Square Park, was found dead under a scaffolding outside of St. Brigid’s Church. The layers of cardboard that she slept and died on are still on the ground, wet and wrinkled from the morning’s snow. Several rubber gloves, once worn by paramedics are strewn about. A single candle burns, a memorial to Grace’s lonely demise.

Tony, the homeless man who found Grace’s body, was unavailable for comment, but was said to still look shaken up this morning at The Bowery Mission from the loss of his friend, who he said had “a beautiful heart.”

Across the street in Tompkins Square Park, however, life is a bit more cheerful as dozens of homeless and needy New Yorkers line up for helpings of soup, bread, fruit, and vegetables that volunteers from The Bowery Mission are passing out. Men and women chat amicably, greeting familiar faces as they wait in the cold for the meal.

One of those in line, who identified himself only as “El Presidente,” 75, says he used to sleep at The Mission’s headquarters on the Bowery every night. Now, he says, he mostly spends the nights around Tompkins Square Park with a small band of younger men.

“They’re like my family,” El Presidente says. When asked about Grace, he scratches his head before conceding, “I don’t know her.” Disappointed, he asks for more physical detail, knowing that in the small Tompkins Square Park community, the likelihood of the two crossing paths was very high.

The sense of community extends to the volunteers of The Bowery Mission, as well. Marcus Nicholls, 25, has volunteered for just five months, but is familiar with a lot of the locals, greeting some by name.

“A lot of these people feel like people don’t care about them,” Mr. Nicholls says. “But we support them, we try to help them out.”

Matt Krivich, 37, director of operations at The Bowery Mission, is only too familiar with the constant uphill battle that the city’s neediest face. An ex-addict and homeless at one point himself, Mr. Krivich said he was saddened by Grace’s death.

He is not the only one to feel regret over her departure. Late on Monday afternoon people from the neighborhood stop at St. Brigid’s to gaze at the spot where Grace slept and died. The single candle has been joined by a second one and by handwritten messages.

“May the gods and goddesses bless you,” one reads. “You won’t be forgotten; your soul is at rest.”

Carol Vinzant/animaltourism.com With an uptick in sightings of red-tailed hawks in the East Village, conservationists are concerned about the dangers posed by manmade perils such as birds colliding with buildings. Below: The bodies of dead pigeons in Tompkins Square Park.

Hadas Goshen

Those of us at The Local would like to believe we offer a rather respectable bird’s eye view of the East Village but stand humbled below the neighborhood’s newest migrants: the red-tailed hawks.

Much has been said about the hawks’ return to Tompkins Square Park and the recent rescue of a red-tail from an airshaft on East Third Street last month, but despite the hawk-friendly hubbub, environmentalists are still concerned that some East Village buildings may pose a threat to the birds.

According to Glenn Phillips, executive director of New York City Audubon Society, a juvenile red-tail hawk died several weeks ago after crashing into a window on East Fourth Street; and while such collisions are less publicized than bird rescues, they occur frequently in the East Village and the East Coast migratory route on which it lies.

So frequently, in fact, that research by Audubon has shown that 90,000 migrating birds die after hitting New York City buildings each year.

Experts say manmade factors like poor architectural designs, which often rely on the aesthetics of large glass windows and bright lights, can easily disrupt a bird’s innate navigation process and lead to higher numbers of bird casualties, especially in populated areas like the East Village.
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