Con Ed amassing the troops in Union Square

Via EVG reader faces ...

And via James and Karla Murray...

A scene from the Union Square Citibank today

A man diligently counting and organizing mounds of pennies. Tough times. Per the reader who took the photo: "Poor guy is scraping pennies together and these clowns own half the city."

Marketing some prime-time Union Square space

The cheapo Shoe Mania that anchored the southwest corner of 14th Street and Broadway abruptly closed on July 17. It's prime Big Box space that's now being heavily promoted...

I looked at the listing (PDF) to see how the brokers are marketing the space...

About what you'd expect here:

Noted

Um.

Going on until 3:30 today in Union Square. Per the Merrick Pet Care Facebook page: "Food worthy of a fork. This is the standard we hold ourselves to. Using only ingredients of the highest quality, it's food that elevates the bowl. It's food you will be tempted to eat." Top photo by Dave on 7th.

Silver Man in Union Square

And there's a Silver Man sighting today... he'll be walking from NYC to Los Angeles in August to raise funds/awareness for autism.

Via EVFlip

This morning in Union Square

Per EVFlip: "While others have moved onto newer, sexier issues, the EV's Catholic Workers stand silent and hooded to remind us of the President's broken promise to shut down Guantanamo Bay."

[Updated] Reader report: Fire in the Union Square subway stop

There are reports of a fire in the Union Square subway stop... no word how extensive this might be... possibly contained to one small area on the south side of East 14th Street outside the Duane Reade ... am posting tweets/photos as people post them to Twitter...

@evgrieve what's with the fire at union sq subway station? I saw flames come up through the grates on the sidewalk!
— Meredith Franks (@mfranks715) July 20, 2012

Fuck, something on fire in Union Square & it's rumbling & who knows what all. Anyone know scoop? Either way, I'm outta here!
— Patty Garcia (@opattyg) July 20, 2012

Union Square subway entrance on 14th and Union Sq E is basically on fire & making exploding noises.
— Remington Tonar (@remtonar) July 20, 2012

Fire in the subway station at Union Square. Walked out through tons of nasty smoke! Hooray!
— Megan (@meganlibrarian) July 20, 2012

[@geri]

[@daviddellamura]

Updated 1:17 p.m.:

Per a witness: "Word on the street is electrical converter on fire underground at Union Square."

[@1pinkdaisy]

[@natashafrakes]

[@SanaAndTheCity]

[@sefgray]

Major subway wire transformer explosion at Union Square just happened abt 15 min ago. ConEd and emergency at the scene #BreakingNews #NYC

— Sarah Sobel (@SarahSobel) July 20, 2012

Updated 2:49 p.m.

Per Gothamist: "Con Ed says the fire at Union Square is out, and was caused by 'failure of electrical cables.'"

Earlier today at Union Square

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Memorial grows for Roxana Sorina Buta on Union Square

[Bobby Williams...click on image to enlarge]

Roxana Sorina Buta was returning to her East Harlem home from her job as a waitress at Bar 6 on Sixth Avenue and 13th Street on May 24. She was reportedly crossing Broadway at East 14th Street when a dump truck struck and killed her. She would have been 22 last Thursday.

According to DNAinfo, Buta's family's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said police are questioning a Department of Transportation driver about the hit-and-run.

Per Tacopina: "They're still investigating and determining whether to charge [the driver] with a crime or not. The city is being incredibly derelict in resolving this issue."

Said Roxana's mother, Cristina Oprea, of her only child: "Nothing will bring me peace ever again. I need justice for my daughter."

Noted

Never any mattress police around when you need them at Union Square.

Photo by Shawn Chittle.

Memorial for Roxana Sorina Buta on Union Square

EVG reader John sends along this photo of a memorial at Union Square.

Early last Thursday morning, Roxana Sorina Buta was returning to her East Harlem home from her job as a waitress at Bar 6 on Sixth Avenue and 13th Street. She was reportedly crossing Broadway at East 14th Street when a dump truck struck and killed her. She was 21.

The driver reportedly never stopped ... and the woman's mother is asking for the driver to turn himself in. "He hit my daughter and he just kept on driving. Who does something like that? He should give himself up," the mother, Cristina Oprea, told the Post in an article published this morning.

Gothamist has more about the Hunter College student and aspiring actress here.

The above sign reads, "Sleep tight our darling sister, and stay with us always."

[Updated] A solidarity march for students in Montreal

Clayton Patterson shares these photos from last night... a group marched through part of the neighborhood in a show of support for the ongoing student protests in Montreal... (read the background here). ... the group (more than 100 strong by Clayton's estimation) arrived at Union Square at 10 p.m. ...

One reader said that the NYPD closed Tompkins Square Park early last night to prevent any groups from congregating there...

Updated 12:34 —
Colin Moynihan at the Times has a piece in the City Room this morning about the Park's early closure...

Updated 9:57 p.m. —

Here is an article from Animal titled "NYPD locks 100 people inside Tompkins Square Park to keep Occupy out." Here is the link.

Today on Union Square

Photo by Bobby Williams

May Day this afternoon at Union Square

Well, all sorts of various Occupy Wall Street May Day marches eventually filtered into Union Square this afternoon for a "permitted" rally and musical performances ... there are reports of arrests throughout the city ... Here is Tim Pool of TimCast with streaming live video ...

Meanwhile, The Lo-Down has a report here about Occupy Lower East Side, where the NYPD reportedly arrested several people.

The photos below are by Bobby Williams ...

2 scenes from Union Square this morning

Police barricades are up around Union Square pre-May Day events... the barricades stretch east to Irving Place.

Via the EV Grieve Twitter account.

Here is a schedule of all the "Permitted and Unpermitted May Day 2012 Actions" via the Occupy Wall Street site.

[Updated] And now, 3 photos of a really large crane on Union Square

We were so busy admiring the crane here next to the Zeckendorf Towers on East 14th Street near Irving Place, that we never got the official word what the workers were doing... heard a dad explain to his son that the workers were hoisting AC units to the roof...

Anyway, you always take pictures of large cranes. Thanks to everyone who sent in photos, including Dave on 7th...

An EV Grieve reader just sent along this shot of workers packing up the crane late this afternoon ...

Southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street is up for grabs

The retail space on the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street — currently home to Brothers Deli and Dryden Gallery — is for lease...

...which might be why Brothers never fixed their sign...

Here's the listing at RKF ... looks as if they're pushing for retail...

The listing includes the currently vacant space behind the deli on 13th Street...

Meanwhile, the new Hyatt Union Square will be opening across the street one of these days...

Occupy Union Square

At Runnin' Scared today, Nick Pinto checks in on the new encampment for the Occupy movement at Union Square.

For the occupiers, Union Square offers a number of advantages over Zuccotti Park, where they spent last fall. It's much larger, with an open layout in a heavily trafficked location that lends itself to street outreach. Union Square also boasts a proud history as the center of labor, communist and anarchist rallies going back more than a century.

He also discusses the NYPD "fielding massive numbers to push the occupation out of the park each night, erecting metal barricades around the park's southern border and lining them with double ranks of officers from midnight until the park re-opens at 6 a.m."

Read the whole piece here.

Bobby Williams took the photos on this post Saturday afternoon...