C-4 is old, likely stolen

The Times has the latest on yesterday's big hey-we-found-a-bag-of-C-4 story:

The mysterious military-grade explosives that were found in an East Village cemetery over the weekend are more than a dozen years old and were most likely stolen from a military base, the police said Tuesday.

Bomb experts with the New York Police Department found that the eight bricks of C-4 explosive, totaling about 10 pounds, lacked identifying markers known as taggants, which manufacturers were required to include in the puttylike compound beginning in 1997, said Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman.

Meanwhile, EV Grieve readers are trying help the police solve the mystery here.

The M15 Select Bus Service: 'people just need to give it a chance'

More comments are coming in regarding the new M15 Select Bus Service. (Streetsblog had a nice feature on the subject — via The Lo-Down)

A reader sent along this note:

Had good experience with yesterday (light use), not so good today (heavy and buses backed up). Take from 14th to 42nd.

Think it will be fine/better in a week or so after people who haven't been paying attention realize how works.

You can transfer from select to local (although seems a bit of a pain), but don't know what local bus driver would do if just tried to get on with a receipt for express — should have encoded for that instead of the paper transfer noted at the link, maybe can do in future.

There are kinks in the system that should have been worked out in the Bronx test project, but on the whole seems like a good idea and people just need to give it a chance, and then the MTA needs to revise accordingly.

Read more comments here.

[Updated] Claim: Sin Sin is closing at the end of the month

That's the word, anyway, in a thread passed along by a tipster at rapmusic.com. Per chazraps:

SinSin is closing at the end of the month.
Just got the word at noon today. Freestyle Mondays, and the battle, will be moving to another location in NYC, as well as starting in Prague this month. SinSin itself, however, will be shutting down. The final Freestyle Mondays there will be October 25th.

The embattled club on Second Avenue and Fifth Street has been facing mounting criticism from residents in recent months. Then there was the tragic story of 37-year-old Devin Thompson, who was shot twice outside the club on Aug. 22. He died from his wounds on Aug. 31. According to reports, Thompson and the two men police believe are responsible for the shooting were inside the club earlier in the evening on Aug. 22.

Updated: Grub Street reports that Sin Sin “has decided to close, re-open and go a different route. Like many venues around the city they too have to keep up with the times and cost of operating here.”

Previously on EV Grieve:
'The neighborhood will not rest until you are gone and Sin Sin’s license is revoked'

NYPD hosting meeting between Sin Sin and neighbors tonight

East Village noise wars new battlefront: Sin Sin/Leopard Lounge

Why the president of the East Fifth Street Block Association carries a baseball bat

Hotel Toshi takes over 325 E. 10th St.

Last week, we asked, What is going on with 325 E. 10th St.?



At that time, a prospective tenant told us that he had been approved for an apartment in the front building here along this picturesque stretch that faces Tompkins Square Park. Per the tipster: "We were told the entire building was no longer going to be listed for rent. This was while we were in the process of cutting checks for lease signing. Something is up with this building."

And, thanks to another tipster, we know the answer: The front building is apparently now part of the Hotel Toshi empire, the short-term apartment rental network with 18 buildings — totaling some 50 apartments in downtown Manhattan and Williamsburg.




Per the tipster: "The front building at 325 E. 10th St. has been taken over entirely by Hotel Toshi. There is a resident directory in the lobby that confirms this. The rear apts. have individual names but the front building says 'Toshi, Inc., Toshi, Inc., Toshi, Inc' for every unit."

The rear building with the studios will remain residential....

The arrival of a Hotel Toshi in some neighborhoods hasn't always gone so well. In a May story from The Brooklyn Paper titled "Neighbors say Hotel Toshi is a horrorshow hostel":

A hipster hotel that occupies part of a converted loft building in Williamsburg has become such a crash pad that some renters are moving out.

Tenants of a six-story building on Driggs Avenue and S. Fifth Street are accusing the operators of Hotel Toshi of creating a nuisance by allowing their transient guests to throw rowdy late-night parties.

Tenant activism led to the departure of a Hotel Toshi back in June, as NYC the Blog reported.

Curbed has also been covering the various Hotel Toshi sagas through the years. You can read all that here. Perhaps 325 E. 10th St. will become another saga to follow...

So how did the C-4 end up in the cemetery?

Following up on yesterday's explosive discover at The New York City Marble Cemetery...From the Times:

Now the quaint old cemetery in the East Village is the site of another mystery, this one still unfolding, after a volunteer on Sunday discovered a decaying garbage bag filled with 10 pounds of military-grade C-4 explosives, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Monday.

Mr. Kelly said he did not believe the aging explosives were linked to a terrorism plot. No ignition devices or primers needed to detonate the C-4 were found. But how the explosives ended up interred near a 19th-century vault is still anybody’s guess.

Right! So! What is YOUR guess?

A reader report on the M15 Select Bus Service

EV Grieve reader Mike shared his experience from the new M15 Select Bus Service yesterday ...

Paid for my ticket at 2nd and 42nd. The crowd was minimal but grew quickly. We waited over 10 minutes for a bus. The MTA employee said they are supposed to come every five minutes.

After paying for my paper ticket with my unlimited monthly, the regular local bus came, but I couldn't use my metrocard there as I just used it to buy a select ticket.

When the bus finally arrived it was jam packed. It sat for a few minutes as people were standing in the doorways. Everyone was irritated and each stop was a nightmare due to the super crowded condition. Exiting and entering was difficult for all riders.

Attached is a picture of the crowded condition... the entire bus was this full.

"MTA can't get it right every time. I'm hoping this is an anomaly.. it can't get any worse!"

The Penistrator is ruining The Libs Project

Here on 13th Street and Fourth Avenue... you ask for some libs, you get some Penistrator — or a clever imitator....




Also....

On second thought...

On Sept. 7, I ran an item on Cafe St. Mark's taking over the defunct Red Mango space on St. Mark's Place... Well, that didn't last long... there are now "for lease" signs on the space...



I don't know if they ever even made it open here...

How the bomb scare is impacting the Second Avenue bike lane

Take it slow starting at Third Street....

An update on the biggest news story of the day

DBGB put out its sidewalk cafe! DBGB put out its sidewalk cafe! DBGB put out its sidewalk cafe!



Previously on EV Grieve:
Where is DBGB's sidewalk cafe?

East Village makes The Drudge Report

Uh, woo? Anyway, The Drudge Report links to the Daily News piece on the bomb scare...

Haven't seen this much activity on Second Street since Angelina Jolie filmed 'Salt'

Here are a few current on-the-scene photos on Second Avenue and Second Street via blogger Adrianna Grezak ... (see her site here).






Remember when Angelina Jolie was here to film 'Salt'?

What the Marble Cemetery looks like when the bomb squad isn't around

The Marble Cemetery on Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue remains a huge crime scene now ... We're getting word that more police have arrived... Earlier today, a worker found some explosive material ... Per WNBC: The explosives are the kind used at construction sites; no ties to terror or other threats...

Anyway, during quieter times... here's what the cemetery looks like...

So much for the slow news day: Non-explosive explosive device found in Marble Cemetery

[DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro]

Whoa... we've been getting all kind of reports about the bomb squad on the scene on Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...

Here is the Daily News. And the Post. And here's more from DNAinfo:

An explosive device was found in an East Village cemetery on Monday, causing nearby residents to be evacuated from their homes, police said.

The device, which was found in Marble Cemetery on 2nd Street between First and Second Avenues just before 11 a.m. on Monday, did not explode — and could not have exploded — because it did not contain enough material to do so, the NYPD confirmed.

It was not immediately clear exactly what the device was.

The cemetery is not usually open to the public, but the site was open for tours as part of this weekend's Open House NY program on Saturday and Sunday.

Police shut down the block on which the cemetery is located and anticipate its closure through the middle of the afternoon while the bomb squad survey the area, according to NYPD on the scene.