On a sunny afternoon...

Via Ray's Candy Store on Facebook.

[Updated] Report: Gay man attacked on Avenue D last night

Reports are coming in about an apparent gay bashing in the East Village last night...

Last night, another gay man was brutally attacked in NYC's East Village. "You just want to cry and move on," he says. twitter.com/JordanBach/sta…

— Jordan Bach (@JordanBach) May 21, 2013

The attack reportedly happened on Avenue D and East Fourth Street. NightllifeGay.com has more details about the incident:

Allegedly, witnesses are reporting the assailant was yelling "f*ggot" as he was kicking and beating Dan. Neighbors rushed to Dan's aid and chased after the attacker but unfortunately he got away. The police are investigating the assault now and have not determine it a hate crime.

Read more about this here. Towleroad has a report here.

Last night in the West Village, an estimated 1,000 people marched to Sixth Avenue and West Eighth Street, where 32-year-old Mark Carson was murdered this past weekend. Police have charged Elliot Morales with the second degree murder-hate crime of Carson. Morales reportedly made anti-gay remarks before shooting Carson in the head.

Updated:

A gay couple in their 40s were attacked early this morning while walking on Broadway between Prince and Houston. Via WNBC 4:

The men were both punched, and one suffered an eye injury, sources said.

Police said two men, 32 and 33, were arrested and face a charge of assault as a hate crime.

As The Advocate notes: "This brings the number of New York City gay bashings in the past 30 days to an alarming seven."

Updated 5-22

WPIX had an interview with the victim, 45-year-old Dan Contarino. This report said the incident happened on Avenue D.

"You don’t expect this to happen. Sometimes certain people just snap, maybe its marriage equality, something on people’s minds, the anger that comes out when they drink,” said Dan Contarino, who believes that is how he became a victim of the latest anti-gay hate crime in New York City.

He says a man who he had seen before in the area where he lives, started yelling at him on the street near Avenue D in the East Village Monday night.

“Are you a f****t, things like that. Certain things I don’t usually like to publicly say. It just happened so quick, I’m still absorbing the shock,” he told PIX 11 News.

You can watch the video of the segment here.

While this report makes the attack seem random, The New York Times reported that Contarino and the man accused of the assault, 39-year-old Roman Gronell, who lives at the Bowery Mission, had know each other for the past month.

Via the Times:

The first attack took place late Monday after what began as an afternoon of drinking between two men, who had known each other about a month, turned violent, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.

At around 10:45 p.m., as they walked near the Bowery Mission, where one of the men lives, they discussed the fact that one of them was gay. While the conversation was initially friendly, Mr. Kelly said, “suddenly, according to the victim, his assailant just snapped, became enraged and yelled antigay expletives.”

The Post has other details.

A few hours earlier, Dan Contarino and another man went out for drinks at the Yuca Bar on Avenue A and then to the Boiler Room, a gay bar on East Fourth Street, where they drank shots and beer, police said.

After a pizza stop at around 11 p.m., they started up a conversation about homosexuality while walking back to a homeless shelter where they both were staying.

That’s when the other man snapped.

Updated 9:30

WABC 7 reports that the NYPD made an arrest in the case.

Police say Gornell Roman was charged Wednesday with assault and aggravated harassment, both as hate crimes.

Roman is accused of yelling an anti-gay remark and attacking a drinking companion in the East Village on Monday. Roman and the victim, Dan Contarino, lived at a nearby homeless shelter.

Q-and-A with Lydia Lunch, underground legend, town crier

No Wave force of nature Lydia Lunch is the iconic singer (Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, 8-Eyed Spy, Big Sexy Noise), poet, writer and actress. She also recently added cookbook author to her résumé. (Read more about that project here.)

And you'll soon have several chances to see the underground legend here. On May 30, Lunch hosts "an evening of spoken word in the raw" at the Pyramid on Avenue A titled Don't Hide the Madness. It's a benefit for Howl! Emergency Life Project. The night before, she'll be playing with her RETROVIRUS lineup at the Bowery Electric.

Lunch, who lives these days in Barcelona, spoke with EVG correspondent Stacie Joy before her return to the East Village.

-----

Over the years you’ve had many labels. Singer, poet, actor, writer. Sex-positive rebel. Humanist. Confrontationalist. All still applicable?

Hey, thanks for leaving out some of the less flattering things I’ve been called! It all still pertains. Rebellious — yes. Sex-positive? Not so sure I’ve been labeled with that tag. In both the early Richard Kern films and much of the early spoken word and music, I was exploring the darker side of sexual obsession. Female predation. The Willing Victim Syndrome. Violent female urges. Revenge. Against the Father, God the Father, The Father of the Country. Or as I like to say, what is a father but a motherfucker?

But no matter what format I use to illustrate the issues I think need to be explored at the moment, whether it’s spoken or written word, music or even a photograph, I’ve always viewed myself more as a town crier, a hysterian ... a journalist in a sense — documenting a specific moment in history be it my own or the politics of the time in order to make sense of and empower one’s self out of life in the traumazone.

What stood out to you about New York City when you first arrived here from Rochester in the 1970s? What’s changed since then?

Rochester was pretty scuzzy, but New York was a magnificent wreck. It was grimy, dark, scarred and the crime rate was outrageous. Between the mafia, the dopers, the drug dealers, the arson and the muggings it was pretty fricking Grand Guignol. I had an advantage, though. I was fearless. Nobody ever even thought of preying on me. You can’t con a con. I felt right at home. I spent a lot of time perfecting petty street hustles. Pure instinctual survival mechanics put to good use.

I can’t speak about New York now. You tell me. I was here from ’76-81. In LA from ’81-82, London for two years, came back to New York and began curating a lot of spoken word shows, often at the Pyramid, stayed for a few ripe years during The Cinema of Transgression, post no-wave music scene of Sonic Youth and the Swans, etc., then left for good in 1990 for New Orleans, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, LA again to work with Hubert Selby and Jerry Stahl and left the States in 2004 when Bush stole the second election.

I’ve been living in Barcelona ever since. A country that was 40 years out of fascism as America went into what we now know is a police state. I can’t support myself as an artist in this country or even begin to find the proper venues to do all the different types of live performances I have the opportunities to do in Europe.

Do you have any advice for emerging artists?

Leave the country as soon as possible!

You were once quoted as saying, "I would be humiliated if I found out that anything I did actually became a commercial success." Does that still hold true today?

It's not a fear I need to entertain.

How can people support you and your work today? What’s next for Lydia Lunch?

I’ll be doing RETROVIRUS May 29 at Bowery Electric. A retrospective of sorts of my music from Teenage Jesus forward featuring Algis Kisyz (Swans) Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore) and the indefatigable Weasel Walter. Really hot cock rock! My band Big Sexy Noise will release a double LP in September and the list goes on.

High rent forcing David's Shoe Repair to leave the East Village

[Bobby G]

EVG reader Bobby G passes along the sad news that David's Shoe Repair, which has been in the same location on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue for more than 35 years, "is closing and moving to Midtown due to an exorbitant rent increase."

Jeremiah Moss confirmed the move in a post this morning. "The owner says the rent has gone up too high, and he is forced to move out of the neighborhood."

David's last day here is May 31.

Jeremiah has written about the store several times in the past ... noting that we almost lost the shop once in 2008 to a rent hike ... the store was gutted in the fall of 2009, but, to some surprise and relief, the store lived on, with David's grandson taking over the business... which he will now continue from Midtown.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Life with those Yelpers: 'This is one store I wouldn't mind if it ever closed and was replaced with a Starbucks'

[Updated] 5 years later, another BSA hearing on illegal rooftop addition at 515 E. Fifth St.

Back in 2008, the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) decreed that the one-story addition to 515 E. Fifth St. was illegal and should be removed.

Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate was behind the enlargements, which were approved by the Buildings Department but were found to skirt certain fire and safety regulations, per published reports. (Read more about the ruling at the Post and Curbed.)

And that was that.

Fast forward to the fall of 2011, where some residents of 515 and several local politicians and community groups held a protest at the address. Per the press release at the time:

[We] will call on the Department of Buildings (DOB) to finally force developer Ben Shaoul to come into compliance with the law and evacuate and dismantle a roof top addition tomorrow — an addition that was deemed illegal by the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA). In addition, there are 13 major code violations that put tenants in danger, including fire safety issues (there was an electrical fire at the building in March), that continue to be unresolved. The DOB has thus far not responded to the BSA’s decision and tenants feel that they are being forced out by the developer for higher paying renters.

And that was that.

However, this morning, there's a BSA hearing about 515 E. Fifth St. that could become the precedent for all similar expansions in the neighborhood. Here's a notice on the meeting via GOLES:

"This construction was found illegal in BSA decisions in 2007 and 2008. Now the landlord is seeking to reverse them. If the landlord is allowed to keep this illegal construction it will set a precedent for other landlords to do the same ... leading to dangerous construction that can cause damage to the structure of such old tenement buildings."

Magnum Real Estate is still listed as the landlord. This was not one of the 30-plus properties that Jared Kushner purchased in recent months.

But Kushner may have plans of his own for extra floors. During a contentious community meeting last month, Kushner reps said that they intend to "follow the law" and that property additions would be considered from "time to time," according to a report by BoweryBoogie.

Last October, the BSA OK'd rooftop additions for these five properties on East Ninth Street.

Updated 5-22

City Councilmember Rosie Mendez's office told us the following: "No vote was taken...a submission schedule was worked out and the hearing will be continued on July 23."

Mendez provided joint testimony yesterday along with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh And State Senator Brad Hoylman.

According to their testimony:

Notably, the owner does not claim that the addition was built pursuant to a valid permit or that the addition was built in compliance with the prior zoning. Instead, what the owner is asking you to do is to reinstate the permit under the old zoning, based on an unenforceable promise that eventually, somehow, the owner will bring the building into compliance — despite the compelling fact that the owner has kept the building in willful noncompliance for over six years. In the strongest possible terms, we urge you to reject this request.

Moreover, we note the essential fact that for at least six years, the owner has profited from these persistent and repeated zoning violations. According to DOB records, since at least December 2006, the owner has occupied the four duplex apartments that comprise the unlawfully built addition. We trace such unlawful occupancy back to December 5th, 2006 when the DOB issued a violation for "ALTERED BUILDING OCCUPIED WITHOUT A VALID CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY. SIXTH FL AND PENTHOUSE OCCUPIED WITHOUT A VALID C OF O."

Several people in attendance told us that the BSA was "highly skeptical of the arguments made by Marvin Mitzner, the lawyer representing [landlord Ben] Shaoul." The BSA reiterated that the permits were unlawful and that they are basically offended that the sixth floor and penthouse have been occupied for over six years without a certificate of occupancy while the owner claims a hardship.

That '70s Avenue A shirt

EVG regular evilsugar25 point us to an eBay auction currently selling this item:

Vintage 1970s East Village NYC "I Love AVE A" T-Shirt 70s Jersey Ringer Rare

Looks like the real thing, based on a screengrab of the label... and it's a medium...



Auction ends Saturday. Starting bid is $9.99.

Resident offers $50 for the return of stolen bike wheel on East 10th Street

Spotted on East 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue late yesterday afternoon...

Laying some bricks at the Jefferson

Over in the North West East Village, workers have just started laying the bricks on the Jefferson, the new condo building at 211 E. 13th St. (AKA the former Mystery Lot). Looks like this now...



...and some day soon...



Previously on EV Grieve:
The last days of the Mystery Lot

Before it was the Mystery Lot

The Mystery Lot developers using famous dead comedians to sell condos at The Jefferson

The Jefferson reveals what '21st Century living in the heart of Olde New York' costs

Report: CVS taking over former Soho Billiards space on East Houston

[November 2012]

Soho Billiards disappeared late last October on East Houston and Mulberry, as we first reported here. The next month, the retail listing arrived, noting that the whole block between Mulberry and Mott on the north side of East Houston was up for grabs.

And we have a taker: BoweryBoogie got the scoop yesterday that CVS is taking the space of the billiards hall as well as the dry cleaners and Subway sandwich shop. And BB hears that there is a whopping $1.5 million annual rent.

Meanwhile, Soho Billiards was on last month's CB3/SLA docket to move into a vacant storefront at 250 E. Houston in the Shoppes at Red Square between Avenue A and Avenue B.

However, that appears to be on hold at the moment. Per minutes from the CB3 meeting:

15. NYC Billiards Club Inc, 250 E Houston St
VOTE: To deny the application for a full on-premise liquor license for NYC Billiards Club Inc., for the premise located at 250 East Houston Street .. . because the applicant did not appear before Community Board #3 for review of its application or provide any application materials for review.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Eviction notice for Soho Billiards

Retail space that included Soho Billiards is up for grabs on East Houston Street

[Updated] Noted

EVG reader John notes the presence of a man on stilts (presumably) dressed as a tree or something green this evening on Avenue B... unfortunately, we don't know the backstory, but John did note that he asked this man for directions to the A train...



Updated.
Thanks to the commenter who pointed out Treeman's website. Word on Twitter was that he was filming something in Tompkins Square Park... and he has been getting around... (how did I miss him?)

Here he is last week on Second Avenue at East 10th Street...


[Photo via @Laurakreich]