A proposal to help curb the East Village crusty population

As you may have noticed in the past few weeks, the travelers (transients, crusties — whatever term that you use) have been returning to the neighborhood. (Or maybe visiting for the first time.)


[Last Saturday on St. Mark's Place via Steven Matthews]

In an op-ed in The Villager this week, CB3 member Chad Marlow outlines a proposal to curb their presence in the neighborhood... First, he notes the perception that some of the crusties have becoming more violent.

While crusties have been coming to our neighborhood for many years, their behavior seems to be getting more aggressive, brazen and violent. Although many of my neighbors agree, I wondered if this perception is accurate. Before proposing drastic solutions, one should be certain to accurately understand the problem. Many of us have negative personal experiences that mirror last summer’s widely reported crusties incidents, such as defacing St. Mark’s Church, allowing their dogs to urinate in Washington Square Park’s fountain where children play, frequently harassing Washington Square and Tompkins Square Park visitors and engaging in countless bloody altercations. While this demonstrates the crusties problem is significant, it does not prove it is worsening.

Marlow, who spoke out about the growing rat problem in Tompkins Square Park several summers ago, goes on to outline his plan... it's a complicated process with several caveats ... an excerpt from his column:

So proceeding with the utmost caution and concern for protecting the involuntary homeless, I offer the following proposal: The City Council should pass a law making it unlawful to sleep or lie down on a public sidewalk, in a park or other public space between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Additional penalties would apply to those in possession of an unlicensed dog.

This legislative proposal, if it ended there, would be nothing short of an immoral attack on the homeless. That is why the law must contain numerous exceptions (“affirmative defenses”) to ensure it is applied humanely and only against voluntary homeless tourists like crusties.

You can read the whole piece here.

Thoughts?

Report: Crusty trouble at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

Catching up to an article in the current issue of The Villager by Lincoln Anderson titled "Crusties cross line, graffiti obscenities on East Village church."

You may have already read it. (Read the whole article here.)

Quickly... a group of crusties/travelers have been hanging out at the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery ... "Things came to a head [June 15] around 3 p.m. when three of the crusty punks graffitied over the church’s front with white latex paint. Using a paintbrush, in large block letters, they scrawled obscenity-laden messages on the portico’s bluestone slate floor, on walls and on statues and also on a small lion statue in Abe Lebewohl Park outside the church grounds."

Church officials called the NYPD ... and the trio hasn't been seen there since...

Winnie Varghese, the church’s rector, said that the crusties hanging out in the Park "are fewer in number, but more aggressive and troubled, in her view, than before." Because of drug use, the church has closed its public restrooms (only opening them for intermission during plays and Poetry Project performances).

However, one crusty isn’t deterred when he finds the bathroom locked. “I don’t know how to say this, he — takes a dump outside the theater,” the reverend said.

P.S.
Probably unrelated... but I did notice this recently...

Claim: Crusties will be returning to Tompkins Square Park this spring and summer

As you may recall, last spring/summer, there were fewer travelers/crusties hanging out in Tompkins Square Park. Instead, the group took to Washington Square Park, Union Square, parts of Brooklyn... However, in The Villager this week, Scoopy hears from Black Ops-Bob that "the 'travelers' will be returning to Tompkins Square Park this season."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Crusty Row, now with a vacancy in Tompkins Square Park

From the Times:
In East Village, Harbingers of Spring Are Missing

[Photo last year by Melanie at East Village Corner]

Someone vandalized the entrance to the Chinese Hawaiian Kenpo Academy on 2nd Avenue

[Photo by Ryan John Lee]

Last night around 8:30, someone vandalized the front of the Chinese Hawaiian Kenpo Academy (CHKA) on Second Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

A CHKA spokesperson said that they were giving their free women’s self-defense class when one of the building's residents notified them that someone had tossed a can of paint at the entrance.

"We did not see who did it," the spokesperson said. "We called 911 and the police came right away, spoke to the landlord on the phone and made a report."

Several witnesses as well as the CHKA spokesperson said that a group of travelers/crusties were congregating earlier under the scaffolding outside the building. (The landlord is putting in new storefront windows.)

Here's an account from CHKA:

At around 6 p.m., as our children were attempting to leave the building with their parents after class, a group of 10 or so people with off-leash dogs and open containers were camped out at the entrance under the construction scaffolding. When asked politely to move, they became hostile and violent, screaming and threatening our instructors who asked them to move. The children and families were forced to wait in the building until it was safe to leave.

At one point, one of the dogs lunged at people passing by. We called 911 and the officers who came told the group that they were violating regulations regarding leaning on or being under the construction scaffolding. They finally moved along at about 7:30 p.m. and then the vandalism occurred about an hour later.

[Photo from this morning]

This past summer, a group of travelers/crusties reportedly vandalized the First Ukrainian Assembly of God on Cooper Square at Seventh Street after church officials sprinkled bleach powder on the sidewalk to prevent camp outs.

CHKA, a 20-plus-year-old martial arts school offering classes in Kenpo karate and kickboxing for children and adults, moved here from Avenue A in June.

A case against using the term 'crusty'

[At a recent Thursday night PBJ Dinner in Tompkins Square Park]

Andréa Stella, executive director and co-founder of The Space at Tompkins, submitted the following post.

With the summer in full swing, a lot of our clients are coming back to New York, and we wanted to take a moment to give an explanation for a term that has been and will inevitably be thrown around while they're here.

Three reasons why we don't call our clients "crusties"

1) The term "crusty" is derived from "Crust Punk," a punk movement started in the 1980s out of England with followers who referred to themselves as "crust punkers." Being a "crusty" is like calling someone a Deadhead. 99% of our clients do not refer to themselves as crusties, so we don't either. The term gets thrown around a lot in the East Village because it's a quick way to define a group of folks who look a certain way, but that doesn't make it accurate.

2) When asked, "What do you consider yourself?" — almost everyone told us their name. The first time I asked someone that question, I felt like an idiot because I know that personally, I don't walk around introducing myself as, "Hi, I identify as a white female and my name is Andréa." I start with my name.

3) Our clients are individuals, and most of them are trying to transition out of their current situation. It may not always look like it to outsiders, but there are many complex issues right under the surface that each person copes with in their own way. Tagging someone as "crusty" deepens the stigma and does not promote positive change.

We're The Space at Tompkins, a harm reduction organization whose mission is to help homeless travelers move towards improved health and self-sufficiency. We've been doing this since 2009.

Learn more about The Space at Tompkins here.

Fire under sidewalk bridge on 13th Street temporarily brings an end to homeless encampment

[Reader photo from October]

In recent months, several residents have said that a growing number of travelers/crusties have been living under the sidewalk bridge next to the Verizon building on 13th Street between Second Avenue and First Avenue.

Early Sunday evening, there were reports of a small fire under the sidewalk bridge.

Shortly after the FDNY departed, a dump truck arrived, and a crew discarded the various mattresses and furniture.


[Scorched-wall photo yesterday by Steven]

One resident on the block shared this about the recent activity under the sidewalk bridge "where the crusties have made home."

They live and sleep there. They openly shoot up, get drunk, fight, party all night and block the sidewalk with mattresses, chairs — even tables.

The situation has become a total nightmare now. This scaffolding — I swear it seems like it's been up 10 years and I've seen them do about maybe 10 days work on the building that entire time. It's become the homeless heroin spot now and it's incredibly disturbing to watch people shooting up. We really don't know what to do but something definitely has to be done.

Said one nearly 20-year resident of 13th Street:

Our block has been gross for the last six months. The homeless have moved in under the Verizon scaffolding ... I witness drug deals on the regular and the cops have only parked on the block one day — I’m ready to move! And now they cause a fire?

EVG correspondent Steven spoke with a super who works on the block. The super said that residents have called 311 "to no avail."

A few scattered items remained on the sidewalk yesterday...


[Photo yesterday by Steven]

As for the Verizon-owned building, there are multiple work permits on file with the city, including for "mechanical chiller replacement. Removal and replacement of chiller along with related piping." There are also permits for "new steel dunnage and steel framing to support new generator and fuel piping." There doesn't appear to be any current tenants in the circa 1923 building. (The building was also the site of a major fire in 1975.)

In several recent years, Verizon was engaged with the local graffiti community in the ongoing brown paint vs. tagging battle.

Meanwhile, one of the readers said that a few people had returned last night to sleep on 13th Street.


[Reader-submitted photo]

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Spike Polite
Occupation: Musician, Lead Singer for SEWAGE, Actor, Model
Date: Thursday, Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: The Edge, 3rd Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue

I was born on a military base. I think it was Buffalo. My father was in the Cold War and in the end of Vietnam. We lived on military bases and then upstate, but I was forced to come here as an early teenager. My mom had me institutionalized, like for suicidal tendencies. I never thought you could be forced to be stuck in New York City, but it happened to me. I was 14 going on 15. Then they put through me the person in need of supervision, even though I wasn’t in need of supervision and then they sent me to Lincoln Hall. I had to go through all these foster homes and they kept me down here. Then when I got out of that they wouldn’t have me back.

I just met other people and it was always my goal to do something with music. I went to CBs. This was in 1988. When I was a kid skateboard fashion was coming around and people were listening to a lot of punk rock. As a child, my mother always took away my guitars and took away all the stuff. I grew up loving the Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Exploited, GBH — I liked them from both sides of the pond. I used to literally play over and over all the Sex Pistol songs on the album through my guitar and amp as a kid, and of course AC/DC and Black Sabbath too.

I started living in the squats. I just knew that this was rough and tough but it was easier than being in all of those foster homes and detention centers. At least here I had a fighting chance that I could have allies. The thing was, I didn’t have any direction or anything like that. I didn’t have a family to say, here is a trust fund, now you should go to college and blah blah blah. I didn’t have anything like that. I had a survival-level type of thing ... so I banded together with these other people and we lived in this abandoned building.

We’d find things on the street because New York was a different place then. Everything was on the street. They’d throw it away and you could take it yourself and sell it, right from the garbage where you found it. So we would go and take that stuff and we’d put it up in the squat and we’d make these little kingdoms and comfy crashpads and flophouses and then we’d go out during the day. Everybody would go out to make some kind of money and figure out whether they wanted to delve deeper into having nothing and do drugs and raise money for drugs, or if you wanted to go out and try to elevate yourself or to get up out of that stuff.

The 8th Street squat came after 3BC. 3BC was the headquarters of punk rockers, with spiked-up jackets and spiked-up hair, and colored hair and tight jeans and all that good business, whereas the other squats were mainly for the crusties. They were like the downtrodden with the pieces of rope for hair, and they would wear the baggy clothes and they looked like the color of concrete. They thought they were peaceful, so we were the anarchy punks, the punk rockers with the spikey hair, so we were different than them. 3BC was a flophouse of just like 50 to a 100, 200 punks crashing up there. A lot of them were visiting from out of town and most of the people in the squats, even the crusties, were from out of town too. Very few of them were from here or even from the state.

Punk rock ... I would define it from my point of view, basically it was working class, up to middle-class people. It was a rowdy, rebellious culture who had a reason to be rebellious because their way of life and everything was messed up. We were independent rebellious. We’re more like cats. Skinheads act like dogs; they want to be in packs. Punk rockers are independent people and they could take it or leave it. A lot of those people were Oliver Twist-type people. They’re paupers; they’re poor, but they’ll give you anything, the shirt off their back. They have nothing but you have their loyalty, almost like William Wallace of "Braveheart." The heart matters good, but it matters if the order is with you, but then in runk rock if you get too close to the order, you’re a sellout.

James will have more from Spike Polite in the next Out and About in the East Village...

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Traveling and panhandling

[Photo on 2nd Avenue last Tuesday by Derek Berg]

Back on Friday evening, CBS 2 filed a report on the summer travelers titled "'They’re Traveling And Doing This Purposely,' Some City Panhandlers May Be In It For Fun."

The not-so-newsy report attempted to cover a lot in 1:50: a) noting the annual warm-weather migration of the travelers (or crusties, as some prefer) b) theorizing that some of the travelers or panhandlers in general are actually not in need of money c) piggybacking onto Mayor de Blasio's recent comments about his frustration with panhandlers.

To CBS 2:

When spring and summer come to New York City, so do homeless travelers from far away suburbs and cities.

They gather in Tompkins Square Park.

Police said some of the disheveled newcomers hopped freight trains from as far away as Seattle.

The park is their central gathering place, and they fan out to the surrounding East Village streets to panhandle.

The report has an on-camera interview with Angelo, aka Gypsy, a regular along Avenue A.

“I’m homeless myself,” he said, “A lot of these guys believe it or not, their parents are rich. They’re traveling and doing this purposely.”

Without quoting anyone directly, the piece notes: "Residents and merchants said the trend is harming their quality of life, and they want the city to do something about it."

CBS 2 also quotes Mayor de Blasio from his quality-of-life press conference last Wednesday, in which he implied some panhandlers are doing it for fun.

“There are people who are in desperate need and maybe don’t know there’s other options. But there are also people who are doing it purely out of choice. This is a fact — who somehow think it’s fun, or think it’s a way to make easy money. And I resent that, I really do.”

Per the Daily News: "He’s especially annoyed about so-called 'crusties' who come into the city from out of town to beg, and women who panhandle with children."

“I’m very upset at the notion of anyone who in effect gives people the impression they’re homeless to make money. That’s what I think is going on. And I don’t like it one bit,” he said, acknowledging there’s little cops can do unless the panhandlers commit a crime. “As frustrating as it is, and this bothers me to say this, but panhandling per se is not illegal.”

Report: Mendez office to crack down on crusties

[East 11th Street last summer]

In his current column in The Villager, Scoopy reports that City Councilmember Rosie Mendez is planning to crack down on the crusties. A report that Mendez's office recently issued to Community Board 2 last week said that she is aware of the complaints about the seasonal transient population, and is working with outreach teams to help get them off the street.

Per the report, as quoted by Scoopy: "The challenge in removing them is that people have the right to refuse services and to live in the street. Rosie is researching the laws that protect such transients with the intent of tightening up loopholes, so that in the future, these individuals will not have the opportunity to take over the sidewalks in the East Village and Lower East Side and thereby reduce the quality of life of residents."

We asked Mendez's copy of the report, but did not receive any response.

Trash can trouble in Tompkins Square Park

Word circulating in Tompkins Square Park is that a feud between two crusties ...

... resulted in one of them getting whacked in the head with a trash can lid...

The general sentiment is that this group of crusties are more violent than groups seen in previous summers...

Photos by Bobby Williams.

East Village crusties go national thanks to The Huffington Post

Thanks to the readers who sent along the link to a Huffington Post, um, post on Steven Hirsch's Crustypunks site.

Although the site is in the HuffPo's New York section, the piece is featured on the main page...

Aren't you proud?

Cops roust crusties from St. Mark's Place; Claim -- one person arrested for sleeping

Early Saturday morning, five police cars responded to the north side of St. Mark's Place near Second Avenue.



There, several young adults were being questioned for unknown reasons.



A young man in the group was handcuffed and placed in a squad car.



The other members of the group left in separate directions carrying backpacks, one had a guitar. I asked one of them what happened: "My friend was sleeping and they arrested him." Why? "I don't know. They said they were going to throw away our bags. And we have all of our stuff in here."

The people standing around watching also started to leave. One woman gave her tourist friend what she thought was inside information on the group: "They are all from rich families and come here to become punk rockers!"

There'll be no more trespassing at the Cooper Union academic building

Back in late July, the Cooper Union academic building made headlines as part of the Post's ongoing Bill-deBlasio-is-the-worst-mayor-ever coverage. Sources told the Post that some crusties/travelers had been like urinating, defecating and masturbating right out there in public. (Side note: Cab drivers have apparently been using the space to relieve themselves dating back to 2010.)

Perhaps this attention ushered in the No Trespassing signs that are now on display around the building here between East Seventh Street and East Sixth Street…







In July 2010, Cooper Union put an end to people skateboarding on the $175-million building by placing metal spikes on the tempting bank of polished concrete out front.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cooper Union puts the brakes on its skateboarding bank

The 'urination, defecation, masturbation' vacation outside Cooper Union (66 comments)

Gleaming the Coop

Reader report: Cleaning power and a clean up on Cooper Square

[Photo on Cooper Square at Seventh Street from June]

You may have noticed a group of travelers camping out in front of 59 Cooper Square at Seventh Street this summer.

An EVG reader, who works nearby, said that on Monday, the group was gone — "replaced by a bleach cleaning powder. Looked like the church [the First Ukrainian Assembly of God] figured out how to 'clean out' the crusties."

Yesterday morning, someone dumped garbage on the sidewalk where the sleeping bags had been, on top of the cleaning powder ... prompting the reader to wonder if this was an act of retaliation...

So long summer...

[Photo by @MeredithBlake]

Summer isn't officially over... just ceremoniously with the arrival of Labor Day Weekend. (Don't worry — according to The Wall Street Journal, you can still wear white jeans past Labor Day.)

So The Summer of Bees™ prediction didn't really pan out.

Anyway, so long Moira ... Katie ... crusties ... storm clouds ... fake human kidney ... (these were all among the most popular EVG posts based on traffic or pageviews or whatever)...

And I've had better summers. You?

"Barnacle" Bill dies

The Villager has the feature obituary on William “Barnacle Bill” Scott. He died May 2. He was 44. Lorcan Otway writes the feature:

Born on July 8, 1965, “Barnacle” was well known in the East Village as a gentleman and a gentle man, in spite of his hardscrabble looks. Bill wore a nose ring, and had a large, upturned scar on the left side of his mouth, giving him the look of a pirate, but that was the farthest from the reality of this man.

He went from the Navy, where he was a petty officer, a bosun commanding small craft, to the Navy Reserve, and then honorably discharged became a merchant mariner, spending a good part of most years sailing American-flag vessels.

When not at sea, Bill spent a good deal of time in Tompkins Square Park, where he was as at home with the “crusties” as he was with the Village intelligentsia. His stories, whether of life at sea or East Village adventures, were punctuated with his trademark Homeric line, “It was not for nothing that...,” and on the story would wind.

[Villager photo by Lorcan Otway]

NYPD light tower back in illuminating action on 2nd Avenue and 7th Street

[Photo by Nick Solares]

On Sunday night, some kind of malfunction KO'd the police lights that were set up last week on the northwest corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street...



However, after one night off, the lights were back on last night...



The light tower arrived last Wednesday night after increased complaints over unruly travelers/crusties gathered on the corner.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: It's 'Crusty vs. Postie' on 2nd Avenue

NYPD installs patrol tower in the middle of Tompkins Square Park (149 comments)

NYPD installs light tower on 2nd Avenue and 7th Street

New sidewalk debuts on the northwest corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street

Workers finished putting in the new sidewalk around 45 E. Seventh St., offering a full look at the 21-unit condoplex with retail space here on Second Avenue.

As reported previously, the building sits on two of the three lots destroyed during the deadly gas explosion here on March 26, 2015. 

EVG reader Alex R. shared this photo and video clip from late last week...

... and bonus video footage...

 

The return of a sidewalk and departure of the sidewalk bridge is good news for the nearby residents who had grown tired of the scene on this intersection in warmer-weather months. In recent years, this corner has been a gathering spot in the summer-fall for travelers/crusties. (The outside of the currently closed Orpheum Theatre across Second Avenue remains a spot for an encampment.)

Meanwhile, sales commenced last summer for the units in the Morris Adjmi-designed building at 45 E. Seventh St. Prices range from $1.35 million for a one-bedroomer and $1.995 million to $4 million for two and three bedrooms ... with the penthouse asking more than $8 million.

The property will reportedly include a commemorative plaque that honors the two men who died here during the explosion: Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón. (In October 2017, city officials unveiled new street blades that co-name this northwest corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street after the two men.)

As for more history here: In the spring of 2017, Nexus Building Development Group paid $9.15 million for the empty lots at No. 119 and No. 121 that landlord Maria Hrynenko owned.

In a previously recorded transaction, Ezra Wibowo paid $6 million for the adjacent property at 123 Second Ave. that was owned by a different landlord who had no role in the explosion. There isn't any development planned there for now, according to previous reports.

In January 2020, Hrynenko, contractor Dilber Kukic and unlicensed plumber Jerry Ioannidis were found guilty of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and related offenses for their role in the blast. They were each sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. Hrynenko is out on bail as she awaits an appeal of the case.

Hrynenko, who took over ownership of the buildings after her husband Michael died in 2004, and her cohorts rigged an illegal system to funnel gas from 119 Second Ave. to 121 Second Ave. to cut corners, according to prosecutors.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• How displaced residents are faring after the 2nd Avenue gas explosion

• Moving on — and feeling lucky — after the 2nd Avenue explosion

• Updated: 2nd Ave. explosion — landlord, 3 others charged with 2nd-degree manslaughter; showed 'a blatant and callous disregard for human life'

• Exclusive: 2nd Avenue explosion sites have a new owner

The 'urination, defecation, masturbation' vacation outside Cooper Union

The Post has a new front for its ongoing exposes on perceived quality-of-life offenses: The Cooper Union academic building.

The annual appearance by the travelers/crusties/whatever-you-like, who have been camping out here every summer since the school opened the building six years ago at 41 Cooper Square between East Seventh Street and East Sixth Street, prompted this headline-worthy quote:

“I have seen drug deals, public urination, defecation, masturbation in broad daylight in the Taras Shevchenko alley,” a Cooper Union faculty member told The Post.

Apparently the group didn't care for reporter Kevin Fasick, who earlier this summer posed as a homeless person outside Gracie Mansion, attempting to interview them.

Nine of the drifters were splayed out on bits of cardboard Thursday morning, and began hurling insults, water and bits of cookie when approached by a reporter.

“I was going to chase him down and beat the s–t out of him,” one thin, bedraggled man spat in anger.

“If I ever see you or that photographer again, I’ll kick the s–t out of you,” he threatened.

And where was the Post in 2010 when a serial vomiter (careful with that link) was targeting this building?

Updated 4:32 p.m.

Oh! We didn't see the paper's version of the story with this headline…



Thanks Matt Rosen!

There have been 3 big dog attacks in the East Village this month

[Reader photo from Aug. 1]

On Aug. 1, Roberta Bailey was taking her pug, Sidney, to Washington Square Park. Outside her apartment on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, a pit bull with a crusty/traveler who was asleep, lunged at Sidney.

Here's The Villager with the narrative:

“People were bashing the dog on his head with a stick,” she said. “Someone screamed to me, ‘Grab the balls!’ and I squeezed that dog’s balls as hard as I could. He didn’t let go. I tried to pick up his legs, which I was told you’re supposed to do.

Sidney, who was 14, did not survive the attack. You can read the full story here at The Villager, who first reported on the incident. (An EVG reader came across the aftermath of the attack on Aug. 1 and shared the above photo. At the time, the reader was unsure of what happened except for that it was a dog attack.)

In the early morning hours of Aug. 5, Michael Puzzo says he was walking his girlfriend's dog Bobito, a 10-year-old, 9-pound Havanese-Maltese mix, on East Sixth Street near Second Avenue. He spotted a man and his brindle-brown pit bull asleep in the middle of the sidewalk, as Gothamist reported yesterday.

Puzzo says that he started to walk around the "situation" as slowly as possible, but that the dog opened its eyes as soon as Puzzo and his dog came close ("like when you come across a sleeping vampire," Puzzo analogized). "I yanked my dog's harness up like a fuzzy yo-yo and blocked the pit's mouth with my arm," Puzzo said. "It … was pretty fucking bloody and painful. To be bitten by a dog is a very strange feeling. It felt like someone had lit my arm on fire."

Puzzo told Gothamist that he wasn't sure how long the dog had his right arm. The pit bull's owner immediately woke up and eventually got the dog away from Puzzo. Read the whole article here.

Later on Aug. 5, Ed Vassilev was taking Misha, his Vizsla — a Hungarian midsize-breed dog — for a walk on Second Avenue between East Fourth Street and East Fifth Street "when a male pit bull down the block — next to two crusties slumped on the sidewalk, possibly nodding out — set its sights on the smaller dog. The black-and-white pit suddenly took off on a dead run down the empty pavement. It didn’t bark or growl — it just came silently speeding like a missile straight toward them."

As The Villager reported last Thursday:

“It was like from 50 feet away,” Vassilev told The Villager. “That dog saw my dog. He wasn’t on a leash. I picked up my dog. When he jumped up and bit me, it was like it was in slow motion. He got a chunk of my arm. It was brutal. It wasn’t a nip — he bit through my arm,” Vassilev said.

Vassilev, who had to spend several nights at Beth Israel, likely has permanent nerve damage in his left arm.

Read the full article here.

Four days after The Villager reported on this attack, the Post had a story on it yesterday… even stamping the article as an exclusive.



In this version of the story:

All of it could have been avoided if de Blasio were addressing the city’s rising homeless problem, he said.

“A couple of years back, there were homeless people, but I would see the same faces,” Vassilev said.

There wasn't any mention of the mayor in The Villager's version.

As for a dog biting a person, The Villager reports that it is not considered a criminal offense — it's a civil offense.

Updated the headline after multiple readers questioned whether these were actually pit bulls involved in the attacks. The Villager, Gothamist and the Post all identified the dogs as pit bulls.