Reports: Jogger attacked in East River Park

There's not much new information to report about the jogger who was attacked in East River Park near Delancey Street yesterday morning.

Per DNAinfo:

An apparent teenage attacker tried to sexually assault a woman in broad daylight as she jogged through East River Park just before noon Thursday, police said.

The victim, 41, was running through the park near the FDR Drive and Delancey Street about 11:47 a.m., when the attacker approached her from behind, threw her to the ground, and attempted to pull off her pants, the NYPD reported.

The victim screamed and fought the suspect, who then fled the scene on foot, leaving the woman with minor bruising, police said.

According to multiple reports: "The suspect was described as a man in his late teens, with a stocky build and facial hair, wearing a grey hoodie sweatshirt and green pants."

Here's is WABC-7's report...

Has the great old Pearl Diner closed?; and check out its new neighbor

The 50-year-old (plus) Pearl Diner on the fringes of the Financial District sports some of the best neon signage in the city...

It's a classic place that I don't have the chance to eat at too often... Amazing that it still exists, really. This is a corridor filling up with chains — everything from Chipotle to Potbelly seem to be the dining spots of choice...

So during the holiday I thought I'd go there for breakfast. Won't be so crowded with so many people away... Uh-oh.

Ugh. There's brown paper on the windows. And no note about just being closed during the holidays or anything. There's no outgoing phone message, and Seamless Web isn't taking orders.

This area got hit hard during Sandy. Perhaps it was a Sandy casualty? (Though there is a Yelp review as late as Dec. 7.)

Will hold off on an obituary for the time being.

And there's not much left down here with much soul. Just a half block away, one of the last Andrews Coffee Shops in the city closed in August 2010, as Jeremiah Moss noted.

Meanwhile, right across the street from the former Andrews (now a Post Office branch!) and within sight of the Pearl are signs announcing an exciting new business on Pearl and John streets...

Welcome to New York City, 2013...

[Top two photos via Yelp]

Winter Friday flashback: The East Village Penistrator finally gaining attention of the international community

On Fridays this winter, and probably spring and summer ... we'll post one of the 16,000-plus EVG, uh, posts from yesteryear, like this one from Jan. 28, 2009...

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Thanks to the good people at the River blog for reporting on this news that deserves global coverage, especially overseas. Anyway, my Italian isn't so good. So I have no idea what this post says.

Our intern ran the post through The Yahoo! Babelfish translator...and it goes something like this:
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To Rome on the dirty cars there is who writes "washes to me", or more varying others veraci. To New York, from some time, there was a joker who went designing make them and an other series of "obscenity" on the parked cars. After a big wave of collective curiosity, of the case the net has been taken care also pettegolezza of Tmz, that it has sguinzagliato for Manhattan its photographers. At the end the graffitaro-penologo has been pecked: it would be such Haley Joel Osment, university student and protagonist of "The Sixth Sense".

Previously on EV Grieve:
A stunning development: Is Haley Joel Osment the Penistrator?

What is your East Village dream home?

Kind of a timeless topic to bring up during a slow news week holiday week. Had a conversation recently with an East Village friend... and somehow we started talking about our ideal East Village home. I quickly suggested one with two closets.

Not grand enough.

My friend said that he'd like to live in one of the apartments here at East 10th Street-Stuyvesant Street overlooking the Abe Lebewohl Triangle and St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery ... (Didn't Nicole Kidman's character live in one of these apartments in "The Interpreter"?)

Sure. Why not. Seems like a nice spot.

I've always had my eye on 421 E. Sixth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.

According to Forgotten New York: "421 was a Con Edison substation built in 1920-21 that converted direct current to alternating. It is at present (2008) the studio of modern artist/sculptor Walter De Maria."

Off the Grid just had a post on this landmarked building, offering more background:

According to a 1919 Board of Appeals resolution, the “four-story fireproof transformer building” would accommodate a switchboard room, static air chambers, blower room and rotary foundations on the first floor; rotaries, transformer, and booster compensator on the second floor; a battery room on the third floor; and a high tension room and blower and exhaust chambers on the fourth floor. Three people would work on the first floor and two on the second.

I've never met anyone who has been inside. I'm not sure if any photos exist of the interior. Kinda "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"-ish.

So, for a moment, toss aside reality, like rent or practicality or heating bills ... or the fact that you'd be displacing, say, 50 residents or an entire church parish. (Not that this has stopped some developers ...)

This is your dream home! Where would you like to live?

A few ideas to start the process...

Maybe you'd want to live in the penthouse at the Christodora?

Or maybe the entire building!

Or maybe fix up the dilapidated secret theater inside 100 Avenue A?

[Kevin Shea Adams]

For people who with a lot of electronics, consider the Con Ed plant...

[Shawn Chittle]

Anyway, your turn...

An amenity to die for, apparently, at Stuy Town

Stuy Town shows us that, once again, they are ahead of the curve when it comes to amenities. In the past few years they've added a cafe, a study, a mini-movie theater, a playroom for the kids as well as a seasonal greenmarket and ice skating rink. Got all that? Good!

Via an EV Grieve Facebook friend, now comes word of a new amenity – cremation services!

For a mere $795, Stuyvesant Town – Peter Cooper Village Direct Cremation Services will handle all of the morbid details involved with cremating a loved one.

And to answer the question of one Facebook commenter, no, they do not take requests.

These East Village bars will be open all night on New Year's Eve

[Outside gem on St. Mark's Place]

The New York State Liquor Authority has posted its approved 2012-2013 "New Year's All Night Permits," extensions that allow for licensed venues to serve past the usual 4 a.m. last call.

Here is the list of East Village bars/restaurants... (and there a few on the Lower East Side... I just didn't list every one here...)

• Duck's Eatery, 351 E. 12th St.

• Double Down Saloon, 14 Avenue A

• Keybar, 432 E. 13th St.

• Motor City Bar, 127 Ludlow

• Bowery Diner, 241 Bowery

• Esperanto, 145 Avenue C

• The Cock, 29 Second Ave.

• Black & White, 86 E. 10th St.

• Kings Head Tavern, 222 E. 14th St.

• Niagara, 112 Avenue A

• The Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery

• Vazac's, 108 Avenue B

• Coal Yard, 102 First Ave.

• The International, 120 1/2 First Ave.

• Webster Hall, 125 E. 11th St.

• Mug Cafe, 446 E. 13th St.

• Karma, 51 First Ave.

• B Side, 204 Avenue B

The complete New York State list is here.

Residents already 'chipping in' (heh) with recycling their Christmas trees

Someone started the first pile of discarded Christmas trees yesterday in Tompkins Square Park ...

[Bobby Williams]

And we are still weeks away from the city's official MulchFest:

Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 12 and 13, 2013
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Per the City's Parks & Rec site:

These wood chips are used to nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide. Or, take home your very own bag of mulch to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree. More than 24,000 trees were recycled last year. Help us top this number!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Parents accidentally throw out children with Christmas tree

Reader report: Wine store in the works for East Ninth Streeet

Cigkoftem, a Turkish vegetarian fast-food chain, opened its first U.S. location on East Ninth Street back in January ... and it was gone by early October... Now, a neighborhood tipster reports that the space here near Avenue A will become a wine shop... there's a notice about it on the front door, though it doesn't yield too much information...

Know more about the incoming wine shop? Please let us know in the comments or via the EV Grieve email...

EV Grieve Eatery Etc.: Nino's 2.0 back open; crepes for East 7th Street

The newly remodeled Nino's on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place is back open after a bout of the DOH... Inspectors found 9 violations points during a revisit on Monday...

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Salon Champu moved from 122 E. Seventh St. to new digs on East Fourth Street ... Dave on 7th got word that the former salon space will be home to a cafe specializing in crepes...

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There's a new broker for the former dry cleaners at 137 First Avenue next door to Joe Dough on First Avenue... the new sign says that the landlord will now consider "food use" ...

We didn't spot the listing online at Bond just yet... so we don't know what the asking rent is here...

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Verso opened in May 2011 on Avenue C at Eighth Street. The Italian bistro hasn't been open since Sandy's floodwater filled up the restaurant's basement ... earlier in the week, Matt_LES noted the following back-rent noticed taped to the eatery's front door...

(Sort of) White (day after) Christmas

Tompkins Square Park around 5 or so...

Reader report: Shots fired early this morning?

From the EV Grieve inbox...

This is what happened: I was awake already for a short time, when at 4.12 am on the 26th, I heard two people coming along our block (E 9th bet 1st & A), talking quite loudly and clearly aggravated. They didn't seem drunk, just totally angry at each other. About a minute later, they must have left the block, I heard gun shots, twelve in a row, each regularly interrupted by a pause of about one half to one second. The shouting continued after that, then three more shots were fired, I heard one of the guys shouting/howling like being hit, and then a last single shot. After that everything was quiet. No police sirens, no nothing. Very very weird. I assure you I wasn't dreaming or drunk.

By the echo of the shots I assume that it happened either on 1st Ave or probably even on E 9th bet 1st & 2nd Aves. The sound would have been quite different if the shots were fired around Tompkins Square.

Anyone else hear/witness this...?

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[East Houston at Avenue B]

Last chance for "Art Around the Bowery" at the New Museum (The New York Times)

Robert Sietsema on Mighty Quinn's new BBQ (Fork in the Road)

Serving holiday meals at the Bowery Mission (Fox 5)

The LowLine's projected financial boon for SPURA sites (The Lo-Down)

Yesterday morning's red-tailed hawk show in Tompkins Square Park (The Gog Log)

Major LES drug bust (BoweryBoogie)

Renovation plans for Pier 17 (Curbed)

NYC's TV yule log tradition (Ephemeral New York)

IT'S GOING TO SNOW OR SLEET TODAY! (Gothamist)

And a new lamp shop is opening very soon here on East Sixth Street near Cooper Square ...