Today in gambling action in Tompkins Square Park

Bingo! No, wait — blackjack! Uh...

By Bobby Williams.

Earlier today in Washington Square Park

By Dave on 7th.

Face dances

Grace Jones from 1981.

Sunday: Free Halloween concert in Tompkins Square Park

From the EV Grieve inbox...

Join us for yet another Halloween time party in Tompkins Square Park! Watch as the sun sets on another season of DIY punk shows in Tompkins Square Park and ring in the Mischief Night together! Get away from all the commercialization of Halloween going on out there and enjoy a totally free event in the park.

Featuring:
Reverend Billy + His Earthalujah Choir (4 pm-5 pm)
Morgan O'Kane
John Dolan, Popeye & the C-Skwat Happy Hour

In addition to the performances, the organizers are going to have a table set up with a memorial for Bob Arihood. The organizers are looking for photos to mount on a huge poster board that they'll have at a special table for Bob. These can be shots of Bob and/or photos that Bob has taken over the years.

Wow. Tough call. I couldn't narrow it down to one from the five-plus years of Neither More Nor Less. However, I keep coming back to this one from June of Jewels and Tim.

I may pick some other favorites before the show... anyway, you can print them out from Neither More Nor Less or Nadie Se Conoce and bring them along...

Mass tomorrow for Bob Arihood

The mass is at 5:30 p.m. at the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer on East Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Cleaning out the Grieve menu drawer

There is a drawer in our apartment full of menus. Hundreds. It's absurd, because we always end up ordering from Odessa.

So I cleaned out the drawer because: a) it wouldn't close and b) we're going to rent it out. The space will fit a small futon and maybe something else pliable from IKEA. No Pets. No brokers please. $1,350 a month. Perfect for students on a budget, models from Europe and people who like sleeping in drawers. Must like menus.

As for the menus... nothing too old... but it is a snapshot of how quickly some places come and go...

An appreciation: Breakfast at Stage

For no particular reason... too often we mourn instead of appreciate around here at EVG...

Second Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

Outside the historic St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery

Welcome to St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, the oldest site of continuous worship in New York City and the second oldest church in Manhattan. Not only is the St. Mark’s campus a beautiful collection of buildings and burial grounds, its unique and interesting history is quintessential New York. The site is officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a New York City Landmark in 1966.

The St. Mark’s Church and its yards are just a few reminders of the once vast “bouwerie,” or Dutch plantation, which Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Amsterdam purchased in 1651 from the Dutch West India Company. When Stuyvesant died in 1672, his body was interred in a vault under the family chapel he’d had built in 1660. In 1793, Stuyvesant’s great-grandson, Petrus Stuyvesant, donated the chapel property to the Episcopal Church with the stipulation that a new chapel be erected and on April 25, 1795, the cornerstone of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery was laid.

Via.

A case to co-name East Sixth Street after Miriam Friedlander

One item on Monday night's CB3 agenda — co-naming East Sixth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue after Miriam Friedlander...

Briefly, she was the longtime city council member who represented the area from 1974 to 1991. Friedlander, who lived at 314 E. Sixth St., passed away in 2009. She was 95. Read her obituary here at The Villager.

John's of 12th Street has a new awning

John's Italian restaurant on East 12th Street is certainly a neighborhood treasure... Jeremiah pointed out at the beginning of the year that the 100-plus year-old restaurant is now offering vegetarian fare...

All fine... Anyway, EV Grieve reader James C. Taylor noted that they've made this part of their awning now too...

Before!

Now!

Not sure exactly when it went up... noting it nonetheless...

Via Twitter, they told us "Just trying to mix in some 'new school' with the 'old school.'"

Veselka Bowery kinda looks open

Bobby Williams took these shots yesterday afternoon while walking by the long-time-coming Veselka Bowery on East First Street, which owner Tom Birchard described as a "toned-down Ukrainian Balthazar" in an interview with The Feast.

Perhaps it's just a test run... meanwhile, nothing official about an opening on Veselka's Facebook page or Twitter feed...

Saddened that Cooper Union is helping to destroy the neighborhood

From the EV Grieve inbox ... reaction from the Cooper Square Committee about Cooper Union's rejection of a rent decrease for St. Mark's Bookshop...

[JVNY]

While Cooper Union's negative decision is a disappointment, the Cooper Square Committee remain committed and vows to increase its efforts to ensure that the St. Marks Bookshop will not become another casualty of the economy. Cooper Union is the landlord for the St Mark's Bookshop.

On Tuesday, October 25, 2011, three separate meetings took place regarding the St. Mark's Bookshop. The bookshop is one of the few remaining independent bookstores in NYC and it is in severe financial crisis. It has requested a rent reduction of $5,000 from the monthly rent of $20,000, which would allow it to continue operating and serving the community.

The first meeting was an impromptu meeting of three representatives of the Cooper Square Committee and Cooper Union President Jamshed Bharucha, initiated when the Committee delivered 43,630 signed petitions to his office in support of St. Mark's Bookshop.

The second meeting took place later in the day between the owners of St. Mark's Bookshop and T.C. Wescott, a Cooper Union Vice President. During this meeting, it was confirmed that Cooper Union would not agree to a reduction in rent.

The third meeting took place at the bookshop with Jamshed Bharucha and T.C. Wescott shortly after the bookstore owners returned to the bookshop. At this follow-up meeting they reiterated that they could not reduce the $20,000 monthly rent.

Joyce Ravitz, chair of the Cooper Square Committee, a Lower East Side neighborhood preservation organization, notes that Cooper Union originally offered the St. Mark's Bookshop favorable terms on its lease in 1993 as a good will gesture at a time when the Cooper Union's expansion of its dormitories had angered the neighborhood. The rent has since gone to $20,000 with built-in yearly raises.

Property values have skyrocketed in this neighborhood partly because of institutions like theaters and bookshops. We had hoped Cooper Union would play a role in stabilizing and preserving the character of the Lower East Side, and are saddened that it seems to be choosing to help destroy it.

It's ironic that Cooper Union touts its proximity to neighborhood bookstores as one of its attractions.

Meanwhile, Jeremiah Moss has started a petition to boycott any business that moves into the space at 31 Third Avenue should St. Mark's Books be forced to close. You can find the petition here.

As he writes:

Sign the petition if you love St. Mark's Books. Sign it if you just love books. Sign it if you're sick and tired of watching New York City's cultural touchstones go down the toilet day after day. Sign it if you miss the East Village before it became a frat house. Sign it if you don't like the way Cooper Union contributes to real estate overdevelopment in the neighborhood. Sign it if you hate having a bank on every corner and a chain store on every other.