[Updated] Jesus is now chained to a fence on Avenue B

Well, I did go back to Avenue B and 13th Street tonight to see if the statue of Jesus on the market for $50 (plus $5 delivery!) was still there...

He is... I thought he was there for the taking, but there is a thick chain and padlock holding him to the fence...

Updated: Per a reader:

"This isn't Jesus, folks. Most likely a statue connected to Santeria, not a Catholic icon. From a website describing important Santeria statuary: 
Babaluaye: Patron of the sick, especially diseases. Leprosy, gangrene and skin diseases. Saint Lazarus. White and purple beads. Old man on crutches accompanied by dogs."

Comfort and joy

The Casualties at Coney Island High from 1995. Gets me in the holiday spirit. (I could have used "Kill Everyone" from their pre-Christmas show at CBGB in 1997.)

Going rate for Jesus today: $50 (plus delivery fee)

Avenue B at 13th Street. Chino is asking $50 for it ... throw in an extra $5 and he'll deliver it.

Fined Christmas tree vendor leaves early; plenty of trees left elsewhere

Here's the scene today on Second Avenue along the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery...



As Patrick Hedlund reported at DNAinfo yesterday, Roger Baust, who has sold Christmas trees along here the past six years, packed it in early. The city fined him $1,500 for keeping a "warm-up hut" on the sidewalk to shelter his staff from the cold.

"I'm just calling it quits because I just can't go on any further," said Baust ... adding the combination of fatigue and dealing with the city forced him to pack it in early.

"I usually stay there until Christmas Day."

We're told that Christmas Eve day is one of his top-selling days of the season. We still have questions about this story, as mentioned yesterday. The disconnect between the alleged complainant(s) and the sudden summons by DOT a few days before Christmas is creepy.

And his crew left this behind... (and some trash, according to a commenter here).



Meanwhile, a quick survey of neighborhood tree stands revealed... there are plenty of trees left...

In front of the St. Mark's Market...



Houston in front of Whole Foods...



Rite-Aid on First Avenue...

Who is this dagger-carrying mystery man arrested in the East Village?

From the Post today:

Authorities have two questions for a bushy-bearded mystery man found wandering the East Village with a giant dagger poking out of his backpack back in March:

Who is he? And why did he (allegedly) have a loaded pistol, three more daggers, a stun gun, and a total of 305 additional rounds of ammo in his South Street storage locker?

James Edward O'Donnell, 39 -- that's the name and age he gave cops -- insists he's an American and a war veteran, but when his prints were run after his arrest on St. Marks, he came back with not only no rap sheet, but no drivers license, no Social Security number, nothing.

"This is a very strange case, in that this defendant has been accused of all forms of weapons charges and the people are absolutely uncertain as to his identity or whereabouts," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lewis Stone said today, as O'Donnell sat before him at the defense table.

Someone has to know this fellow...

Heavily armed cops spotted on the Bowery

We spotted four heavily armed NYPD officers this morning — decked out in riot gear and whatever kind of heavy artillery that they carry — on the Bowery between Second Street and First Street... it gave the tourists walking by something to talk about... One tourist nervously approached one of the men, who responded they were just on "routine patrol." Uh-huh.

When a cab ride will (nearly) cost you an arm and a leg (well, at least an arm)

From the NYPD Daily Blotter in the Post today:

A hack from hell rolled up the window on the arm of a man and dragged him for several blocks through the East Village, law-enforcement sources said.

The victim had accidentally left his cellphone in Eddy Brizard's cab on East Houston Street early Saturday morning, the sources said.

Brizard, 56, somehow tracked him down and brought back the phone, but then demanded $20, the sources said.

The man said he didn't have the cash and tried to snatch the phone back through the window -- but the driver allegedly raised the window and snagged the victim's arm.

Brizard was charged with robbery, assault and reckless endangerment, and his hack license was suspended, said a Taxi and Limousine Commission spokesman. The victim was not seriously hurt.

Le Souk is back open and loud as ever

We know that Le Souk is throwing a New Year's Eve bash at their old space on Avenue B ... Perhaps the Le Soukers were giving the space a test run last night... As one resident said, "it was so loud tonight all night after, say 11 pm. Around 2:30 am, I finally got up to see what the problem was ... Surprise! Le Souk."

Indeed.




The State Liquor Authority terminated Le Souk's liquor license in October 2009.

A very Billy Christmas

Here's the photo that accompanied Billy Leroy's holiday e-mail this year... (sent to us by a friend)



The note reads:

Wishing you a Scary Mary Christmas
from all the folks at Billy's Antiques

3 old-timey scenes from the holidays

Oh, just three old-timey holiday scenes from the Museum of the City of New York archives....

First, Macy's from 1944 (no photographer listed)...



And Sixth Avenue looking south from 22nd Street circa 1902 (by Byron Company) ...



Also on Sixth Avenue from 1902 (by Byron Company)... no address given, but that's certainly the Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion that later became the Limelight...

McDonald's gets festive for the holidays

First Avenue near Sixth Street tonight.

Arlo and Esme closing on East First Street after 3 years

The cafe/club combo is closing... at the former site of the universally reviled East Village Yacht Club.

Onetime Tompkins Square Park crusty found murdered in Virginia

[Photo by Steven Hirsch, reprinted with permission]

The Local East Village brings word that Robert Edwards Dyck — known as Yardsale around the Park — was found murdered last month in Virginia.

Per the Richmond Times-Dispatch from Nov. 23:

The beating death of a homeless man whose body was discovered last week near a Henrico County railyard ended his companion's dreams of a happy life together.

Robert Edwards Dyck, 37, and Lucille Obarzanek, a 28-year-old University of Vermont graduate, were hopping freight trains south from Pennsylvania to New Orleans when Dyck turned up missing and then dead, the victim of blunt-force injuries to his head and chest.

"We were going to try to make a go of it. To get to Louisiana and find work and raise a family," Obarzanek said yesterday.

Dyck and Obarzanek had been in the Richmond area for about three weeks, she said, living in a shantytown near the Acca Yard that the train-jumpers call Valhalla.

But sharing a tarp roof, a fire pit, and a pine-tree-studded junkyard of garbage and empty beer and wine bottles, Obarzanek said, were two men who carried ominous nicknames, "Satan" and "Roofless."

The two men — Samuel E. Gase, 32, aka Satan, and Brandon Thomas Geissler, 21, aka Roofless — appeared in Henrico General District Court yesterday and are being held without bond. Both are charged with voluntary manslaughter in Dyck's death.

As Yardsdale told Steven Hirsch's Crustypunks blog:

I'll probably die of alcoholism. I only drink beer, but I don't know. I'm not going to guarantee my demise. Sometimes I don't feel so right here. Thirty seven. Yeah it's hard core man. No I'm just getting started. The guy that give me my name is like in his sixties and he's got a freight train tattooed on his forehead. I'm just getting started. I ride the sunset. This is my first time in New York but I mainly ride the sunset which is LA to New Orleans.

Visit Crustypunks here.

Counter closing in February

As Eater reported on Nov. 16, wd~50 pastry chef Alex Stupak received the OK from the CB3/SLA for Empellon, "a fine-dining Mexican restaurant," at 105 First Ave. ... Which must mean current 105 First Ave. tenant, the vegan eatery Counter, will be calling it a day soon...



Indeed. Owner Deborah Gavito sent word yesterday that the eatery will be closing in February. She told Gothamist: "they were not priced out of the East Village, but rather she 'decided to simplify' her life and 'the day to day grind of running a restaurant became less and less appealing.'"

Reader question of the day (year?)

From the EV Grieve inbox... from a reader...

Do you recall hearing that Giuliani's administration was briefly considering putting all the homeless people on a barge that would circle Manhattan? I remember hearing this, but of course now that I can't find any back up, it seems more like a nutty rumor than reality.

[Image via Flickr]

Questions over Christmas tree fine

On Tuesday, DNAinfo's Patrick Hedlund reported that the Department of Transportation fined Roger Baust, who sells Christmas trees and wreaths outside St. Marks Church in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue at 10th Street, for having a temporary structure on the sidewalk that gives his staffers periodic breaks from the cold.

Baust has been doing business here every holiday for the past six years without incident. The summons is for $1,500, but Baust thinks it could end up as high as $5,000. He has a court date on Feb. 14. According to a reader, Baust got the OK for the shelter from church officials and the Parks Department (as well as the manager who runs the farmer's market here on Tuesdays).

According to the article: Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3, said her office received complaints about the sidewalk structure, so she turned them over to the city, which came last week to summons the vendor. "Just because somebody got away with something for years does not mean it is correct," she said of Baust not having permit for the shack.

As the resident noted, the temporary structure is 7 feet wide; the Tuesday farmer's market tents are 10 feet wide. Neither interferes with pedestrian traffic. Just look at the photo. TWO people walking side by side by the structure without incident!

The summons was issued by DOT — not by whatever department issues vendor permits. So it's unclear whether there were any actual complaints about the structure taking up space or whether some alleged failure to obtain a permit of some kind is behind this.

A few questions we'd like answered:

• Why and at whose request did the DOT get involved in this?
• And why now? The stand went up on Nov. 27.
• What dept. of officialdom is responsible for issuing these permits? Why couldn't the Community Board office have told Baust he needed one? Their office is only seven blocks from Baust's stand — it's not like he was hiding.
• Is there some sort of vindictiveness going on here? Did Baust piss off some influential person somehow? Did Baust fail to grease someone's palm?
• How does a complaint or two turn into a hefty fine... or put a damper on concerts in Tompkins Square Park?

A great new sign for C'est Magnifique?

Many thanks to Ken Mac for sending along this photo ... a new awning for MacDougal Street mainstay/survivor C'est Magnifique.

Fire advice

While going through old e-mails last night, I came across a missive from DJ Xerox. He lives adjacent to Otto's Shrunken Head on 14th Street, and was temporarily displaced after the fire there back in October...

Given the number of fires of late... I appreciate his advice... not to be a definitive guide, but a good place to start.... Per DJ Xerox:

I would urge you to remind your readers to make sure they have renters' insurance, as your possesions are not covered, just the facilities. I would also say it would be a good idea to keep an envelope of important info ready to go near the fastest exit. And also, take the time to think about two possible escape routes, wherever you are.

jdx took the photo at top last night during the fire on First Avenue...

Give the gift of Mars Bar this holiday season

Goggla passes along word that men's style T-shirts are available at the Mars Bar ... As of yesterday afternoon, there were only smaller sizes left. But more are likely on the way.... No word on commemorative Mars Bar toilet seats.

Laundry loyalties on Avenue B

The new Quick Coin laundromat is now open on Avenue B near Fourth Street... in the former Carne Vale space...



Meanwhile, a few doors to the south... the other, older laundromat is throwing a 20th anniversary special...



...and just a few doors to the north... another laundromat ... (which is, I think, just drop-off service now, right?)



A reader told me that he feels guilty about using the new laundromat, but it is better, he says.

Noted

Ninth Street and First Avenue. Santa? That's not the North Pole area code, though.

Two of the only affordable places to eat along Avenue B temporarily shuttered

Plumbing issues shuttered China Wok and Cafe Rakka yesterday on Avenue B at Third Street...





Hope they open soon... two of the few affordable places to eat along here....

A great storefront (and noted)

11th Street just west of First Avenue...

Meanwhile, hanging inside the doorway... just took this shot for posterity. A reminder of what could be the biggest flop in Broadway history.

Season's Greetings

East Fourth Street near Avenue B.

Remembering Joe Strummer

I was happy to see to see that a few people came by the Joe Strummer mural tonight at Seventh Street and Avenue A to pay their respects on the anniversary of his death....

More photos from tonight's First Avenue fire

Thanks to jdx for these photos. Witnesses said the fire started around 7:30-7:40... It was under control by 8... The fire was between Second Street and Third Street. Previously.

EV Grieve reader Anna sent along the above shot from tonight's fire on First Avenue... She saw a bus on the scene taking displaced residents to a shelter for the evening...

Breaking: Fire on First Avenue

Dozens of fire trucks are on First Avenue between Second and Third Street. The fire seems to be under control. A paramedic on the scene didn't think there were any injuries. One witness said the fire started on the roof. More soon.