[Updated] Why you need to give Jamshed Bharucha a call today

From the EV Grieve inbox...via the Cooper Square Committee

Please contact Cooper Union President Jamshed Bharucha immediately. President@cooper.edu or (212) 353-4250.

A Board committee is meeting [today] to decide if they will reduce St Mark's Bookshop's $20,000/month rent by $5,000. Thousands of emails or calls will influence the decision.

Tell the President to reduce the bookshop rent to $15,000 a month until the economy improves. You can add any additional comments.

Your support is invaluable.

Updated. Missed these reports from earlier... both Gothamist and Runnin' Scared noted that there wasn't any meeting scheduled today... A Cooper Union spokesperson told Runnin' Scared that the discussions are ongoing and "the outcome will be announced by the end of this month."

Mermaid Inn closed for renovations this week

The sign explains what's happening... "installing new floors, redoing our bathrooms, painting, retiling and generally sprucing up the place."

Back open Friday.

The Prisoner of Second Avenue

[h/t Neil Simon]

Fine Fare takes steps to curb recycling-related issues

Quick follow-up to the story that Patrick Hedlund reported on at DNAinfo last week... A lot of roughhousing and stuff happening at the recycling center outside the Fine Fare on Avenue C and East Fourth Street... which was causing quality-of-life issues for nearby residents...

As Hedlund reported in a follow-up piece, Fine Fare put up some signs and painted a no-hanging-out zone along East Fourth Street...

We swung by this past weekend to take a look and take a few photos...

BMW Guggenheim Lab continues to shrink

Yesterday, a work crew and very large crane arrived on East First Street to pack up the BMW Guggenheim Lab... toward the end of the day, this is what it looked like...

Comings and goings on Second Avenue

Something called Health Mart Pharmacy is opening at the former UPS Store near 11th Street...

... and Crembebe, a boutique specializing in kid's fashions near Fourth Street, has closed...

Here's the Gingersnap's Organic awning

Last Monday, we had details on Gingersnap's Organic, which will feature "handcrafted conscious cuisine" at 130 Seventh St. just west of Avenue A.

And now, the awning...

No opening date announced just yet...

[Updated] Street verse

Spotted on the Bowery and St. Mark's Place...

evflip came across another poem today... this one on Second Avenue and Fourth Street...

[Weekend recap] NYPD cites two bars for 'illegal sale of alcoholic beverages'

We first posted this on Saturday morning... kind of got lost with all the dog costume photos...

Multiple readers sent along word that the Undercover/Underage Patrol was out in full force last night...

There's a "closed by court order" sign at Bar 81 on Seventh Street... "restraining order" says for "illegal sale of alcoholic beverages."

...and a "restraining order" and a whole bunch of legalese papers on U2 (or 2U) Karaoke on St. Mark's Place... for "illegal sale of alcoholic beverages."

Know of any other bars that the NYPD cited last night...?

Today in photos of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots handing our flyers in front of Ricky's on First Avenue

Photo by Bobby Williams.

At the Rally to Stop Police Brutality

Yesterday marked the 16th Annual National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality ... the peaceful rally/protest started at Union Square ... Bobby Williams picked up the route in Tompkins Square Park... then down East Eighth Street ... Avenue C and Avenue D... We don't have an exact number of people who were marching ... almost seemed as if there were equal numbers of the NYPD ...

EV Grieve reader Kirk sends along a few more shots from the 16th Annual National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality yesterday... from Avenue D....

... and two photos showing the police presence on the rooftops of the Lillian Wald Houses...