Remembering Moises Ismael Locón Yac

[Image via Facebook]

The New York Times has a report on the wake and funeral for Moises Ismael Locón Yac, one of two men killed in the gas explosion at 121 Second Ave. on March 26.

In Queens, where Mr. Locón lived in a rented room decorated with images of his adopted city, the Guatemalan Consulate had arranged a funeral at the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which has connections to Guatemalans in Jamaica, as well as the wake in Brooklyn. It had been up to Mr. Locón’s three brothers and his cousin, far from their family in Guatemala, to take care of everything else.

“He was just working,” Mr. Locón’s cousin, Pablo Yac, 23, said during the wake. “I’m crying for him.”

Mr. Locón’s brother Alfredo, 30, stood off to one side, trying to organize things. He was the oldest, the one who had tried to take care of his brothers in New York. Asked if he knew that people had been donating to a fund for the family, created by a woman in the East Village, Alfredo nodded. “We’re thankful for everything that people have done for us,” he said, his voice breaking.

Hugo Ortega was the only one of Locón's Sushi Park co-workers to attend the wake.

“I’m always going to miss him. I love him. He was my best friend,” he said, distraught. “He was a very good person. Everyone loved him very much.”

Previously on EV Grieve:
Remembering East Village blast victim Nicholas Figueroa

Cops say this guy has robbed 6 local businesses in the past week

The NYPD has released information about a suspect wanted in connection with robbing six East Village and Gramercy Park businesses.

According to police, the suspect has either displayed a knife or simulated a gun and demanded money.

Here are the six incidents from the past week...

• Around 3:25 a.m. Thursday at One’s Fruit and Grocery, 315 First Ave. The suspect took $400
• Around 10:20 p.m. Saturday, again at One’s Fruit and Grocery. The suspect took $950
• At 2:16 p.m. Sunday at I.Q. Décor, 242 E. 14th St. The suspect took $366
• Around 3 a.m. Monday at I Green Market, 271 First Ave. The suspect took $600
• Around 5:05 p.m. Monday at Lancelotti Housewares, 66 Avenue A. The suspect took $200
• Around 9:05 p.m. Monday at New Up and Up Laundry, 13 Avenue A. The suspect took $250
• Around 1:45 a.m. Tuesday at East Village Fruit and Vegetable, 229 Avenue B. The suspect got nothing.

The police have only offered this description: The suspect is a man in his 40s. DNAinfo has a video clip of the suspect.

Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You may also submit tips online.

Please do not deface the Joe Strummer mural

Thank you

Previously

H/T The Long-Lost Intern of EV Grieve

EV Grieve Etc.: Tickets for Taste of 7th; new chair for SLA

[Tompkins Square Park photo yesterday by Allen Semanco]

Taste of 7th is this weekend (Luke's Lobster)

A crazy East Village neighbor: "He called my roommate a prude b____ for not succumbing to his middle-aged wiles, then by way of threat casually mentioned that he had a key to our apartment." (Thrillist)

Cuomo appoints new chair of the State Liquor Authority (BoweryBoogie)

This East Seventh Street townhouse for sale includes an open air shower and a trampoline (Curbed)

A Broadway and East 14th Street then and now (Off the Grid)

A look at K’ook, now serving Korean fare on East Sixth Street (Bedford & Bowery)

Bike! Bonanza at Sara D. Roosevelt Park Saturday (The Lo-Down)

Donut Pub on 14th Street celebrating a big anniversary (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Palm Steakhouse closes for first remodeling in almost 90 years (Eater)

The mad history of moving in NYC (BoingBoing)

Inside the demolished Roseland Ballroom (Gothamist)

...and tonight at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS), 155 Avenue C between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street:

• Christiania 1971-2015: The Story of Europe's Biggest and Most Long Lasting Squat (Details here)

... and tomorrow night from 6:30-8 at 20 Cooper Square (Bowery at East Fifth Street):

• The Colloquium For Unpopular Culture and Powerhouse Books Present: KILL CITY: LOWER EAST SIDE SQUATTERS 1992-2000
Facilitated by NYU professor Sukhdev Sandhu
Artist talk/slide show by Ash Thayer followed by conversation with Stephen Duncombe, FLY, and Peter Spagnuolo (Details here)

[Updated] 2nd Avenue subletters suing for $40 million over deadly explosion

[Photo from March 26 by George Jarema via Facebook]

Two women who were subletting an apartment at 129 Second Ave. are the first to file lawsuits related to the deadly explosion on March 26. They are each seeking $20 million, according to the Post today.

Lucie Bauermeister, 23, and Anna Ramotowska, 26, said they were in their third-floor sublet, changing for the gym, when the blast blew out the front of Sushi Park at 121 Second Ave. several buildings away.

When they went outside to see what had happened, glass was flying, and Ramotowska said she got “like, five or six scratches” on the back of her left hand when she used it to protect her face.

The roomies ran back to grab their valuables, including Ramotowska’s pet Pomeranian, Darnell, and a fur coat that had belonged to Baumeister’s grandma.

And!

Baumeister said she couldn’t sleep and lost her appetite after the blast and started seeing a $175-an-hour psychologist who recommended at least six to eight more weeks of counseling.

As the Post notes, despite the trauma, "neither looked worse for wear during a primped-up appearance on Fox 5’s 'Good Day New York.'"



The building they were staying in, No. 129, was reopened to residents on March 28. Bauermeister, who described herself as a "beach baby at heart," is planning to move to Savannah, Ga. Ramotowska is also heading to the South where her parents recently relocated.

Updated: Thanks to the reader in the comments for this... a copy of the complaint (PDF). Per the Post: "Defendants are Con Ed, 121 Second Ave. landlord Maria Hrynenko, contractor Dilber Kukic and Hyeonil Kim, owner of the destroyed Sushi Park eatery."

'Small Biz Crawl' this Saturday on 2nd Avenue

From the EVG inbox...

#SaveNYC is a grassroots, crowd-sourced, D.I.Y. movement to protect and preserve the diversity and uniqueness of the urban fabric in New York City. As our vibrant streetscapes and neighborhoods are turned into bland, suburban-style shopping malls, filled with chain stores and glossy luxury retail, #SaveNYC is fighting for small businesses and cultural institutions to remain in place.

After a disaster like the deadly Second Avenue explosion and fire, impacted small businesses struggle to survive. #SaveNYC is holding a Small Biz Crawl along Second Avenue to bring customers, cash and attention to those mom-and-pops in need. This weekend, we’ll do the western side of Second Avenue; next time, the eastern side.

Meet #SaveNYC on Saturday, April 11, at noon. We’re starting at Gem Spa on the northwest corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark’s Place. Buy your magazines, newspapers and egg creams at this first stop. From there, we’ll head down toward 7th Street. Do some gift shopping at Himalayan Visions. Then it’s lunch at the B&H Dairy or Paul’s Da Burger Joint. Your choice. After lunch, we’ll weave our way across the barricades of 7th Street to stock up on groceries at the New Yorkers Foodmarket. Please bring your #SaveNYC sign to let everyone know who we are and why we’re there. Click here to print out signs — and to find out more about #SaveNYC.

In a tweet to us yesterday, Paul's said that their business was down 75 percent since the explosion.

Other food choices on the west side of Second Avenue are Taqueria Diana and Ramen Misoya.

As for B&H, they are hopeful to be back open tomorrow.

Here is a new building on East 14th Street

[Photo from August 2013]

After nearly a two-year gut renovation and one-floor extension … workers have removed the scaffolding and construction netting from 212 E. 14th St. near Third Avenue.

And here you go…



Looks inoffensively generic enough…

The retail space has been on the market. The storefront was most recently the Super Saving Store, which closed in June 2011.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Residential, retail and an additional floor for 212 E. 14th St.

Work continues at interesting new business coming to East 14th Street

[Reader photo from January]

Work is finally underway at 440 E. 14th St., where a Domino's Pizza is coming soonish. Workers have stripped away the ample 99-cent signage from the former tenant — the 99-Cent Discount Center.



Meanwhile, next door, the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office Branch awaits demolition to make way for an 8-story retail-residential building ...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Interesting new business opening on East 14th Street

Mi Garba is now open on 4th Avenue

The first U.S. outpost of Mi Garba ("I like it" in Italian) opened back on Thursday at 129 Fourth Ave. just south of East 13th Street.

As the Post reported in January:

The flagship 1,000 square-foot space ... will include a restaurant with 10 tables. There will also be Tuscan food and wine for sale along with a boutique offering fashion items, including custom-made shirts and jackets.

That description made the place sound like something out of an airport gift shop… the actual finished product looks nicer...







The place wasn't open for business yet for the day when we stopped by. You can check out the Mi Garba website here for a list of their food products.

This storefront has been (mostly) empty since Dryden Gallery moved out two and a half years ago.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tuscan food specialist opening 1st U.S. outpost on 4th Avenue for some reason

Remembering East Village blast victim Nicholas Figueroa

[Image via Facebook]

Friends and loved ones filled the R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home in Washington Heights this afternoon to pay their respects to Nicholas Figueroa, 23, one of the two victims in the Second Avenue gas explosion on March 26

From the Post:

Nicholas Figueroa was the kind of man fathers would want to marry their daughters, his Scoutmaster said at his wake...

“He was very young, so motivated,” Luis Benitez said as services got under way. “He was a pillar of the community.”

From the Daily News:

"It's devastating," Neal Figueroa said. "There are no words adequate to describe my brother. This room speaks for itself. Look at all these people who have come to honor my brother."

From DNAinfo:

"He had all the love for everybody," his father, Nixon Figueroa said. "Everywhere he goes he gave a good smile, he brought life into people. He was a caring kid."

The funeral for Figueroa is tomorrow at the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus, 207 W. 96th St., at 10 a.m.

Services for the second victim, Moises Ismael Locón Yac, 27, will reportedly be in his native Guatemala.

The East Village residents who launched a crowdfunding campaign to help with Locón's funeral expenses have been unable to track down any of his family members. If his family can't be found, then the money will be returned to the individual donors. The campaign has raised $6,361 in eight days.

Meanwhile, the NYPD is "poised to launch a homicide investigation" into the deadly blast, according to published reports.