Candlelight vigil for Bob Arihood Tuesday night at Ray's

[Photo by Steven Hirsch]

Shawn Chittle and Lindsay Wengler passed along this information:

We wanted to put together a candlelight vigil for Bob in front of Ray's at 8 pm Tuesday.

Please tell people to bring a candle and or flowers, photos of Bob or photos Bob took. We all think instead Bob would want people to just buy something from Ray's in his memory!

We are presenting Ray with a framed portrait of Bob to hang up so he's always watching over Ray.

Tribute at Ray's for Bob Arihood

Previously.

[Updated] RIP Bob Arihood

[Photo by Melanie via East Village Corner]

Word is spreading through the neighborhood with the shocking news that Bob Arihood has died. Several of Bob's friends have confirmed this. He apparently suffered a heart attack in his East Fourth Street apartment. We'll have more information when it becomes available.

For the past five years, Bob chronicled the comings and goings of the East Village on Neither More Nor Less. His site was essential viewing every day. He seemed to deem himself a social scientist more than a journalist at times. His work was invaluable for showing the changes in the East Village, starting with the eviction of Jim Power and others from 120 St. Marks's Place.

The neighborhood was better off with his reporting, because no one else did what he did. Documenting 3 a.m. fistfights on Avenue A. Police searches in Tompkins Square Park. Comings and goings on Crusty Row. He captured the absurd, the ugly, the every day that makes the vanishing East Village unique.

The Times featured Bob's short-term retirement from Neither More Nor Less back in June 2010:

His style of reporting was of the old-fashioned shoe-leather sort and his main subjects were the itinerant travelers, street drinkers, punks, poets and sidewalk sleepers that once proliferated in the East Village but these days make up a vanishing tribe.

L.E.S. Jewels, Cowboy Stan, Drunkenstein, Bobby Apocalypse, Swami, the Groper, Outlaw, Loan Shark Bob, Barnacle Bill and the Mosaic Man, among others, all appeared in Mr. Arihood’s blog. Some of those subjects are now dead. Others are in jail. A few have survived and moved on.

While I didn't know Bob personally, we often exchanged emails. He always had a few hunches, theories. He knew that things weren't what they seemed on the surface. He took the time to speculate, investigate. We recently talked about the NYPD scooter patrol that swept through Tompkins Square Park a few Friday evenings ago ... From an email with his unmistakable writing style.

the friday patrol in TSP was a bit strange . The cops had white-shirts going thru the bushes and ground cover .Were they looking for cached weapons ?The officers that I talked to seemed to be instructed on how to present what they were doing .Basically they lied .

In his last email to me, on Sept. 19, we talked about his new-look NMNL, and the video component that he added.

I had to change the template to fit video image window. Screwed up my counter doing that , had to reinstall that . I would have preferred the old look but the video window protruded over the archive . Its always something .

Yeah I know I have to get a smart phone don't I ? Everyone tells me that they can't get hold of me right when they have a whim to talk to me and insist that I get a cell phone at least . .I don't even have a cell phone Grieve ..and I don't want one either but some folks are really pissed so...Perhaps I'll join Jewels on the SNAP program and get my free government phone!

If I can get the video thing so that it doesn't take forever to load I'll do it regularly .I once ran big film cameras and did editing with a moveola or what ever device was available .Built some sound studios and movie theaters and screaning rooms too. I have some old film from 1972 of the EV and especially avenue A.Haven't looked at it in many years .The moving image isn't new to me .Still pictures and moving images are quite different though. It will be a return to something that completely occupied me in my youth here in NYC.

20 years ago: The East Village Memorial Day riot on Avenue A

Bob Arihood has photos and a narrative of what happened after the NYPD shuts down the "Housing is a Human Right" concert in Tompkins Square Park on Memorial Day 1991. You can read his report here.

[Photo by Bob Arihood]

Neither More Nor Less returns

Bob Arihood continues to take provocative photos of the people and places of the East Village at Nadie Se Conoce. However! By popular demand! Bob has decided to revive his crucial Neither More Nor Less site, where he will continue posting photos and selected news items, such as Cowboy Stan celebrating his 60th birthday and LES Jewels discovering water.

Even in a hospital bed, Bob Arihood still taking photos!

Melanie went to visit Bob Arihood yesterday... and Bob took this photo and one other (please see Melanie's site)...



Bob remains in the hospital. We're told that he saw a printout of the post from Monday as well as all the comments from readers ...he thanks everyone for their kind words and good wishes. Thanks to Bob's friend Jefferson Siegel from The Villager and Daily News for the updates.

[Photo via East Village Corner]

Bob Arihood hospitalized

Jefferson Siegel from The Villager and Daily News passed along the following information...

The East Village may not see Bob Arihood in front of Ray's for a while, or see updates to his blog, because Bob was hospitalized early Friday for an ongoing condition he's had for years. On Sunday doctors started running some tests and by early this coming week they should have a clearer diagnosis and be able to formulate a plan of treatment. Right now Bob doesn't want to name the hospital. We speak daily so I'll keep you posted on developments.

We wish Bob the best... and hope to see him back soon outside Ray's...

[Photo of Bob via The New York Times/Jessica Dimmock]

Police officer injured looking for intruder on St. Mark's Place

Bob Arihood shared this report ... as well as the photos... Around 3:30 yesterday afternoon, a resident in an apartment on Seventh Street noticed a man on the fire escape at 126 St Mark's Place building across the backyard. The man broke the window of an upper floor apartment and entered. The Seventh Street resident called the police.



Several NYPD units, including the 9th Precinct commander Deputy Inspector Lehr, arrived on Seventh Street, St Mark's Place and in Tompkins Square Park in response to the call. Officers went to the apartment that had been broken into and also up to the roof above the apartment.

"One investigating officer exited the apartment onto the fire escape and , we were told , slipped on some broken glass and fell through the opening in the fire escape down the fire escape stairs from the 5th floor to the 4th floor . Luckily the officer was able to stop his free fall descent part way down the fire escape stairs ."

Bob said that the officer, far left in glasses, did not appear to be seriously injured beyond some scrapes, cuts and perhaps some bruises, though he was taken to a hospital in an ambulance.



The man who broke into the apartment was gone before the police arrived on the scene.

Bob Arihood returns with Nadie Se Canoce

Good news for those of you who missed Bob Arihood's photography since he retired Neither More Nor Less back in May.... Bob is now posting photos, like the one of Donna above, at Nadie Se Canoce. (Thanks to Melanie for first bringing us this news.)

Ray to appear on CNNmoney.com

Thanks to Bob Arihood for the photo and tip here...

Ray spoke to a CNNmoney.com reporter last night offering his expert advice on money matters and good business practices in today's financially troubled New York City economy. The reporter noted that the interview will appear on the CNNmoney.com site sometime between tonight and Friday.

Trickle down economics in action on Fourth Street

What follows is a dispatch from Bob Arihood....



It seems that shortly after 3 pm Thursday afternoon , two elderly female recyclers had some differences at the Key Food recycling facility on 4th st.. A recycling facility known for contentous recyclers . The stronger of the two females tossed the frail appearing , older female to the asphalt . Perhaps there was also an attempt to throw a bucket of something on the female who was thrown down . One can see a female demonstrating to a police officer such an act .



Police took the one female into custody , cuffing her and hauling her off to the 9th precinct . The other female was taken to hospital by ambulance .



2 hours later the recycling facility was closed . Several disappointed recyclers were seen passing the facility with the usual stuffed clear plastic bags full of recyclables . Other recyclers were seen in the area busily collecting more of the discarded East Village wealth that had trickled down to the street .

Mad hatters and other people in hats

Two worlds seemingly collided in Tompkins Square Park yesterday... so there was The First Annual Massive Mad Hatter's Tea Party ... and one of the great free concerts ...




A reader noted, "Some of the Mad Hatter people were watching the band, but not enthusiastically. ... Anyway, Hot Dog seemed to like it."

Indeed!

Apparently there were more cops on the scene than any other free show in recent memory... (and they weren't there for the tea party...)



I wasn't around yesterday afternoon, but Bob Arihood was there. Many thanks to Bob for passing along the photos in the post ...














Slum Goddess also has some great pictures... and a video! Melanie has some shots too.

Hoping for more Neither More Nor Less

I really like the photo in the post above this one... and it prompts me to say...
I miss Bob Arihood's latest photos and dispatches at Neither More Nor Less, particularly his shots outside Ray's and in Tompkins Square Park. As you know, he decided to move on from NMNL. Given the time and devotion that goes into a site, I certainly understand that decision.

In any event, every so often, I take a quick peek at NMNL .... to see if he might have quietly resumed posting new photos... Regardless, it's well worth your time to look through his vast archives.

Neither More Nor Less, June 2006-May 2010

Out of habit this morning, first thing, I went to look at Neither More Nor Less. I wanted to see what happened, if anything, last night. Because I knew that Bob Arihood would have the story. And the photos.

As you likely know, Bob decided to retire the site this past week. I'm not sure what else to say other than that I'll really miss his work... the neighborhood is better off with his reporting, because no one else does what he did....he captured the absurd, the ugly, the every day that makes the East Village unique....

The Times featured Bob's retirement ...

His style of reporting was of the old-fashioned shoe-leather sort and his main subjects were the itinerant travelers, street drinkers, punks, poets and sidewalk sleepers that once proliferated in the East Village but these days make up a vanishing tribe.

L.E.S. Jewels, Cowboy Stan, Drunkenstein, Bobby Apocalypse, Swami, the Groper, Outlaw, Loan Shark Bob, Barnacle Bill and the Mosaic Man, among others, all appeared in Mr. Arihood’s blog. Some of those subjects are now dead. Others are in jail. A few have survived and moved on.

[Photo of Avenue A and St. Mark's Place from Memorial Day 1991 by Bob Arihood via The Times]

About the "thug" who "seriously injured a man in a Greenwich Village apartment"

Bob Arihood has more information about the following item in the NYPD Daily Blotter from yesterday.... first, here is the item from the Post:

Manhattan

A thug seriously injured a man in a Greenwich Village apartment after they had met at a bar, authorities said yesterday.

After leaving the pub together, Joel Pakela, 40, escorted the victim to the apartment on Mercer Street at 5:20 a.m. last Thursday, cops said.

Inside, Pakela suddenly attacked the man, hitting him repeatedly in the face and breaking his orbital bone, sources said.

Witnesses called 911 and police arrested Pakela after a struggle, authorities said.

He was charged with assault and resisting arrest, said a spokesman for DA Cyrus Vance Jr.

As Bob noted: "It seems that an East Village personality that we all know , the infamous L.E.S Jewels ( a.k.a. Joel Pakela) is going to be doing some time." (Read Bob's full post here.)

[Photo via Slum Goddess]

A violent clash on Seventh Street early Sunday morning

Be sure to read Bob Arihood's account of a brutal brawl that broke out early Sunday morning on Seventh Street and Avenue A that involved nearly 50 people. "This event that we witnessed was violent . People were not just beaten , some were stomped and kicked too," Bob reported. And one police car with two officers was available to respond to all this. (Neither More Nor Less)

Looking at "Fear in Alphabet City"

Matt Harvey's cover story this week in NYPress -- titled "Fear in Alphabet City" -- provides a more detailed account about the murder of Eric "Taz" Pagan on Avenue A this past Aug. 23. For instance, according to the article, Louis Rodriguez, the man police have charged with the murder, had been tossed out of Forbidden City by Pagan, a former bouncer there, earlier in the evening. (Someone from Rodriguez's East Harlem neighborhood describes him as "a cold-blooded fucking idiot.")



As the article points out, the shooting shouldn't have been a surprise: "Bullets are more common in the neighborhood than most people want to believe."

Craig Lopez, one of the first people who came upon the murder scene, has lived in the East Village since the early 1990s.

Back then the moniker for the 45-square-block area south of 14th Street and east of First Avenue sent shivers down middle-class spines, conjuring up images of drug zombies and muggers. During the last decade, the term fell into disuse as wealthy new arrivals arrived, along with college bars and bistros. When the term finally ceased to register any fear, the rich claimed the Alphabets for themselves. In its 2007 Best 'Hoods issue, Time Out awarded Alphabet City the dubious honor of being the "#1 Best Hood."

Here's more from Lopez:

Despite the turnaround, Lopez says he preferred the lonely streets and coke bodegas to the loud "frat boy" parties that have invaded his neighborhood. "On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, it's really bad," he says, before breaking into an almost-apologetic smile. "I prefer the old way. I felt safer."

Lopez's crack about frat boys, however, masks darker fears. "Was I concerned that someone got killed?" he asks rhetorically, then shrugs. "Yeah. But I can’t say I was really surprised. There are shootings around here all the time."

Other highlights from the article include an interview with Bob Arihood, who has chronicled the East Village longer than anyone.

Arihood paints a perfect storm of social, economic and political factors, which combine to insure that successive waves of incoming NYU students, and upper-middle class tenants, remain ignorant of how bad things are in the 'hood — thereby continuing to splurge on tuition and "million-dollar condos."

Previously.

"East Village residents of all ages, races and classes worry that bullets are flying with increasing frequency these days"

Matt Harvey's NYPress cover story this week also talks with residents about the increase in gunshots around the neighborhood in recent months. As he notes:

East Village residents of all ages, races and classes worry that bullets are flying with increasing frequency these days.

Many have lived east of First Avenue for 10 years or more, so they know what a gunshot sounds like. Some claim that the crime statistics released from the local Ninth Precinct do not adequately tally all the shootouts. Others express fear that the uptick in violence will serve as an excuse for police to curb the civil rights of the locals.

I've heard from several readers the last six weeks regarding an increase in gunplay. In several cases, the details were rather vague -- "did you hear about a shooting somewhere along Avenue C the last few nights?" -- to do much with.

One reader said there was a shooting outside Tompkins Square Middle School on Avenue B between Fourth Street and Fifth Street early the morning of Aug. 28. The next day, the resident let two police officers into her buidling for an unrelated matter. When asked about the shooting, an officer responded, "Which one?"

The Villager later reported that a 23-year-old man was shot at 3:25 a.m. on Aug. 28 at Fifth Street and Avenue B. The victim was struck once in the leg and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. A .38-caliber revolver was recovered at the scene.

Other incidents include the man who was shot leaving a bodega on 12th Street and Avenue C on Aug. 16.

The invaluable Bob Arihood at Neither More or Less has reported on several shootings in August. On Aug. 29 around 10:30 p.m., shots were fired in the rear yard of 507 E. 11th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

On Aug. 27, shots were fired on Sixth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D.

So what do we take away from a possible upturn in violence? Are things worse than a year ago? Definitely. A return to the cliched "bad old days?" Hardly. Still, I see too many seemingly clueless people bopping around by themselves wearing Bose soundproof headphones and texting at 2 a.m. They're making it a little too easy.

Here's a quote from Bob in the NYPress piece: "NYU students and yuppies don't know what’s going on. They're only here to party."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Post notes a "90 PERCENT SURGE IN BURGLARIES" in the East Village