Today's free concert in Tompkins Square Park rescheduled for next weekend

Given the rain expected this afternoon, the organizers decided to hold off until next weekend. The show will be rescheduled for either next Saturday or Sunday... We'll update when that date is set.

The Facebook event page for the show is here.

Report: Death of man on East 4th Street ruled a homicide 11 years later

On Sept. 15, 2005, firefighters found a badly injured Serafin Vasquez inside his fire-scorched apartment at 120 E. Fourth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. According to published reports, Vasquez had burns to his arms, legs and torso, and stab wounds to his head and body. He died six months later at age 60.

Now, per the Daily News:

The city Medical Examiner initially concluded the cause of death was undetermined.

In March of this year, a detective reviewing the case, which remained open, realized Vasquez’s death certificate failed to label the death a homicide, according to a police source.

The Medical Examiner’s said the case was reopened and the death was reclassified as a homicide in light of “investigative information."

No arrests have been made.

According to a Post article published on Sept. 17, 2005:

Cops said that Vasquez had been communicating until recently with a younger woman who was in jail on drug charges and that they thought he had sent her money.

She was being sought for interrogation last night.

Neighbors reported hearing a loud argument, in Spanish, coming from Vasquez’s apartment at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

Then the smell of smoke began creeping through the hallway.

One building resident said that Vasquez "was a really great guy. He would help you out in a second. He was the best kind of neighbor."

Report: Rat complaints on the rise

[Photo by Derek Berg]

At this current pace, the city's rat complaint record set last year will fall in 2016.

Per the Post:

New Yorkers have made 8,335 rodent complaints to the city’s 311 hot line so far this year, up 18 percent from the same period in 2015, when there were 7,076 complaints, and 39 percent over the same period in 2014, records show.

As previously noted, our very own Community District 3 ranked No. 1 in 2015, according to the Health Department, as having the worst rat problem in Manhattan.

CB3 district manager Susan Stetzer discusses the issue in the Post:

She said rats in her district ... feast on garbage from eateries and scraps left in Tompkins Square and Seward parks.

“There are more mountains of garbage on the street waiting to be picked up. Our increased development does not have the infrastructure to support it,” she said.

“The worst locations are city-owned properties. The Department of Health cannot issue summonses and clean up and charge back to the property owner if necessary.”

In related news... the trash can had been missing from the container marked "Keep Council District 2 clean" for the past four days on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place...



Previously on EV Grieve:
The East Village will be testing ground for a 'rat reservoir pilot'

How to get a free map of Lower East Side Community Gardens

Community gardener Helen Avery has been working with the Parks Department to create a map of the Lower East Side Community gardens...

The maps are done, and Helen will be distributing them for free today from 2-4 p.m. at La Plaza Cultural (southwest corner of Avenue C and Ninth Street) ... and Monday night from 6-8 at the Sixth Street Community Center between Avenue B and Avenue C...

[Updated] Reader report: Police investigate stabbing on East 3rd Street

There are few details at the moment... Per an EVG reader: the NYPD is investigating a stabbing on East Third Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

There are three officers on the scene outside No. 59 and No. 61. There is blood on the sidewalk... and some droplets of blood leading to Second Avenue.

Updated 5-1

In the Daily Blotter today, the Post reports that two men, ages 24 and 25, got into an argument around 3:20 a.m. with "unknown men." One victim "was slashed in the left hand and over the left eye and the other was stabbed in the left thigh. The victims made their own way to Bellevue Hospital, where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries."

No arrests and no further information.

Oh, here's your BMW — right there on the sidewalk

EVG regular Salim noted this scene on East Second Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... after the DOT resurfaced the street. Guess the BMW owner didn't move his or her car beforehand. Or maybe there's another reason for this parking job.

Previously

Learn the difference between the Marble cemeteries this weekend

[New York City Marble Cemetery on 2nd Street this spring]

Both of the cemeteries will be open to the public...

New York City Marble Cemetery, East Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

• Sunday, May 1
11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

New York Marble Cemetery, Second Avenue between Second Street and Third Street

• Saturday, April 30
Noon to 4 p.m.

• Sunday, May 1
Noon to 4 p.m.

[Updated] April 29

Spotted near the 9th Precinct on East Fifth Street this evening.

Despite the lack of a newspaper to vouch for the date, we spotted Officer Tubbs leaving the station house... and he verified the sighting...

Updated!



Further proof comes via EVG reader Carol Puttre, who also spotted the tree...

Updated2!

All of this is moot... because we spotted this one today on East Fourth Street near Second Avenue...

With a little Patience

Roxanne Clifford, who fronted the London-based Veronica Falls, is back with a project called Patience.

This video is for "The Church," her melodic first single.

There's something about Mary

Yesterday, an EVG reader noted the arrival of three statues of the Virgin Mary in the previously empty spaces outside Most Holy Redeemer-Nativity Church on East Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

EVG reader David sent these shots today...







Per David: "All three are the same — very worn-down-looking statues of Mary, but each has a very different surface. Is that supposed to look like marble? Quite surreal! I kind of like them..."

Billy Leroy shows his acting chops with 'Bourek,' opening today at Cinema Village

And starting today at Cinema Village on East 12th Street between University and Fifth Avenue... it's "Bourek," an independent comedy filmed mainly in Greece...and directed by New School faculty member Vladan Nikolic...



A familiar name/face has a lead role — William Leroy... aka Billy Leroy, who ran Billy's Antiques and Props on Houston and the Bowery for many years. He's not dead. He has been busy doing a little acting (as he did before the big tent folded) and appearing on a show for the Travel Channel.

Anyway, here's the "Bourek" trailer...



He'll be at the 7:10 p.m. screenings this weekend. Will be nice to see him around again.

EV Grieve Etc.: The Cake Shop receives a facelift; LES History Month starts Sunday

[Photo by Derek Berg]

Cake Shop getting a facelift on Ludlow Street; plus the return of vinyl (DNAinfo)

LES History Month starts Sunday (Official website)

The Streit's documentary's run extended at the Film Forum (BoweryBoogie ... previously)

Feedings at the hawk nest in Tompkins Square Park (Laura Goggin Photography)

77-story mixed-use tower coming to 247 Cherry St., next door to Extell’s in-progress 80-story luxury condo (The Lo-Down)

Bruno, the pizzeria on East 13th Street, switches around its no tipping policy (Eater)

A look at Peter Missing's murals in First Park (Slum Goddess)

Walter De Maria's "I Ching" sculpture comes to upstate New York (The Wall Street Journal, subscription required)

Man sucker-punched on Delancey for looking like Shia LaBeouf (Gothamist)

Bouncer blames loss of libido on high temperatures at Rivington Street bar (Daily News)

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito backed an effort to reduce plastic bag use and waste (Crain's)

Behind the scenes of the Ramones first tour (The Creators Project)

After 65 years in business, Lee's Art Shop on West 57th Street is closing in the next month (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Diversions: When Joy Division met William Burroughs (Dangerous Minds)

... and plant sale alert on East 12th Street...



... and the Sixth Street Youth Program is now enrolling for the summer... find details at their website. (And on the flyer below.)