In the rain on Astor Place

Photo this afternoon by Grant Shaffer

Reports: Prep school teacher arrested for having sex with 16-year-old girl in bathroom at Lit Lounge

According to multiple published reports, police arrested a teacher and coach at Leman Manhattan Preparatory School for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old girl inside the bathroom at Lit Lounge on Second Avenue last month.

David Azurmendi, 34, was charged with third-degree rape, according to WABC-7.

Here are more details via the Daily News:

Tipped off by the school principal, cops cornered Azurmendi at his home in Summit, N.J. They slapped the cuffs on him after he admitted to investigators at the Manhattan Specials Victims unit he had sex with the girl, sources said.

Azurmendi was hit with the potentially career-crushing charge just as he was supposed to start a new gig at The Greenwood School, an expensive private boarding school for boys in Putney, Vt., the sources added.

His last day at Leman in the Financial District was on June 19, the same day he allegedly hooked up with the 16-year-old girl. The two met at Leman, where he taught for the past three years, the Post reported.

On July 9, ClubPlanet.com reported that Lit was closing in the months ahead after 14 years to relocate to Bushwick. One of the owners blamed "the new East Village crowd and the flight of the creative types to creative Brooklyn" as a reason for the closure.

Homeless model lived for 6 years on an East Village rooftop

Mark Reay, 56, is the the subject of "Homme Less," a documentary due out at the IFC Center on Aug. 7.

Despite some steady modeling gigs, his "income just about covered my gym membership, locker rental, cellphone, health insurance and food." The Post shares some of his story today:

Given my slick, manicured, 6-foot-3 image and seemingly glamorous job as a model, actor and photographer, people will find it hard to believe that I lived without a home for six long years in New York City. Only my closest friends knew the truth.

Sure I lived in the East Village, but not in an apartment. I slept in the open air, battling the elements inside a sleeping bag on the rooftop of a friend’s building. From August 2008 to July 2014, my only shelter was a tarp.

And...

There was a small space on the roof with railings around it, overlooked by no one. I had to hang onto a fence and walk out onto a ledge to access it, but it was my own 8-foot-by-3½-foot triangle of safety and privacy. With a tarp pulled over me and a plastic juice bottle to pee in during the night, I could get a pretty good sleep.

These days he lives with his mother in Northwestern New Jersey.

Here's a look at his film...

Report: 28% of East Village apartments serve as illegal hotel rooms on Airbnb

The East Village is the most popular neighborhood for Airbnb rentals, with 28 percent of the neighborhood's rental units converted into illegal hotel rooms, according to the analysis by affordable housing advocates the New York Communities for Change and Real Affordability For All.

In covering the study, the Daily News reported that the 20 most popular Airbnb neighborhoods — in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island City — have lost 10 percent of their available housing units to Airbnb.

The study also found that the average rental was available for 247 days a year, and rented 109 nights a year, dispelling the notion that Airbnb users are just tenants looking to rent out their apartments when they happen to be out of town.

And Airbnb's reaction to the study? Per the Daily News:

Airbnb blasted it as “lies, fuzzy math and faulty stats.”

“The notion that 1 in 4 apartments in the East Village is rented via Airbnb is not just ludicrous, it is also not supported by a single piece of data,” said a spokesperson.

You may download a PDF of the study here via the New York Communities for Change site.

Meanwhile, last month, Gothamist wrote about a programmer who created Inside Airbnb, which "extracts every publicly available bit of information about Airbnb rental listings across New York City."



The data show how many of the listings are for an entire home (red) versus a room in an apartment (green) as well as how many are controlled by the same host, among other things.

Updated: (Canceled) Tonight in Tompkins Square Park: 'Chinatown' (Plus food fair)

Tonight's free movie is "Chinatown," Roman Polanski's 1974 classic that likely doesn't need any introducing. (According to the organizers, James Franco selected this film for tonight.)



Also tonight! There's a food fair before the film feature five East Village restaurants — Caracas Arepa Bar, Luke’s Lobster, GG’s, Boulton & Watt and Ducks Eatery. According to DNAinfo, who first reported on this, the food vendors will be open from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and located adjacent to the park on Avenue A.

Meanwhile, there's live music (from Youth and Vanity) at 7:30 p.m., and the movie starts at sundown. You can head to the Films in Tompkins Facebook page for any updates, especially since rain is in the forecast this evening.

Updated:

The organizers decided to reschedule "Dog Day Afternoon," which was cancelled due to the threat of rain on July 9, next week... Aug. 6.

Updated 3 p.m.

The weather forecast has KO'd tonight's food fair and screening.

Signage spotting: Sea Beauty Spa on Avenue B

[EVG photo from 2013]

As we noted last month, a nail salon was taking over the Amor Bakery space at 224 Avenue B near East 14th Street.

And now the signage has arrived for Sea Beauty Spa ...



There's a web address for the salon on the awning, but the site is still under construction. So for now we don't know the various services they will offer, and if they will serve acai bowls.

A small fire broke out at Amor on April 22, 2013, and the family-run bakery was never able to reopen.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Updated: Fire reported at 224 Avenue B

Amor Bakery will not reopen on Avenue B

Nail salon in the works for former Amor Baker space on Avenue B

The importance of being earnest in room-for-rent ads on Craigslist

[Image via]

Spotted on Craigslist:

$750 Large Room East Village (East Village)

Spacious Room — fit for Oscar Wilde.

Sleigh bed, new mattress.

$750. Six months minimum, first/last mos. to move in.

Wilde's real-life home in London sounds a little roomier than this.

Reader report: Super Mario statue swiped from 6th Street

Apparently someone made off this evening with the Super Mario statue outside VideoGamesNewYork at 202 E. Sixth St. at Cooper Square...

Car drives away with #Mario #coopersq at the #cooper bldg... you know the statue, you've probably got a pic. #whereismario #nyc #eastvillage

— brianna daley okada (@briannadaley) July 30, 2015

We don't know too much else about this at the moment. The statue was last seen wearing a long-sleeved red shirt and royal blue overalls and a red hat with an "M" in the middle. He is known for his jumping and stomping powers.

[Image via the VideoGamesNewYork website]

That '70s show on East 4th Street

[Photo by Peter Brownscombe]

Crews from the forthcoming HBO series "Rock and Roll" are dressing East Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery to look like something out of 1973 ahead of today's shoot on the block...


[Photo by Derek Berg]


[DB]


[Photo by Roxanne Schwartz]


[RS]

The show, which Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger are producing, filmed in the neighborhood last Friday as well ... and we'll likely see them again.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the show is "set in 1970s New York, as punk and disco are emerging onto the drug-hazed, sex-crazed music scene, and record executive Richie Finestra (Bobby Cannavale) is trying to revitalize his label." The cast includes Olivia Wilde, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen and Mick's son James Jagger.

For the time being, Ray's Candy Store will no longer be open 24/7

As previously noted, Ray Alvarez, the 82-year-old proprietor of Ray's Candy Store at 113 Avenue A, had heart valve replacement surgery earlier this summer.

While Ray is back and doing well by all accounts...



... EVG reader and Ray's regular Peter Brownscombe passes along word that Ray has decided to downsize his operation, and cut back his hours and staffing. For the foreseeable future, he will keep his shop open near East Seventh Street from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily...



Photos today via Peter Brownscombe

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Wendy Scripps
Occupation: Owner, Art on A Gallery and Wendigo Productions
Location: Sidewalk Cafe, East 6th Street and Avenue A
Time: 5 pm on Saturday, July 25

I was born and raised in Northern California. I didn’t fit in so I moved to New York and found out that I could fit in here, because basically on the Lower East Side they didn’t really care as long as you didn’t mess with anybody. I’ve been in this neighborhood for just over 30 years. My parents were living on the Upper West Side and I lived there for about a year but then moved down here when I was about 21 or 22 years old.

I got downtown and it was what people would consider scary but I really loved it because it was very raw. I felt back then that people always had your back — friends and neighbors. Nobody had cellphones and there weren’t cameras everywhere, but everybody watched out for each other. People would look out the windows and if somebody they knew on the block was getting harassed they would come out with baseball bats and chase them away.

If the cops were going to do a cleanup, it got through the neighborhood and people would hide out. People who were doing illegal things would disappear for a few days and then everybody was back on the streets. It was a serious community and it was a very mixed community because you had your punk rockers, your rock and rollers, the hardcore scene, plus you had the neighborhood people, who were born and raised here for generations. You had the Puerto Ricans and the Hispanic community and there was the Jewish community still here pretty much.

My parents were both in the arts, but it was just something that was in me. My father used to take me to rock 'n' roll shows when I was young. My first show was The Last Waltz with the Band back in San Francisco, and ever since then my dad started taking me to rock 'n' roll shows. He passed away in 2007. On his deathbed he told me — he yelled at me — that if I didn’t do something in rock 'n' roll, he’d kick my ass. So I said, ‘OK dad, I’ll definitely do it. Give me a few years and I’ll figure out what I’m going to do.’

I own the Art on A Gallery on Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street and I’m the CEO of Wendigo Productions. We do underground films, characters and stuff like that, and also we are rock 'n' roll promoters. So I’m a busy lady. I work with local artists from the neighborhood and this immediate area.

I really love it here but when I go home sometimes from show at five in the morning I actually feel more nervous going home these days than I did back then. There are all these self-absorbed young people walking around with attitudes on their shoulders like they’re better than anybody. I’m a high school dropout, I never went to college, but I’m in three businesses, I own my apartment. I’m starting a nonprofit to help artists in the neighborhood so they can actually still stay in the neighborhood. I don’t want to be the last of my East Village family.

One thing that I love about New York — you walk down the street and hear every language. You can tell when they’re just visiting and you can tell when they’re living here just by how they react to you when you’re walking down the street. I get a lot of reaction because of my tattoos – I still get people looking at me very strange in the neighborhood and I’m like, what? I’m an old punk... That’s the only reason why I left California because I was born punk rock. Not a hippie. I just didn’t get along with the hippie mentality even when I was a small child. I just didn’t get it.

My mom explained something to me about why I probably feel so at home here — it was because my great grandfather grew up here. I didn’t know who he was until my 30s. His name was Samuel Gompers. He grew up in this neighborhood as an immigrant with his aunt and his uncle and a brother. He rolled cigars and swept floors. When he grew up he became one of the major union organizers in the country and he helped found Labor Day. So I feel like, when some young kid goes to me, ‘You know who my father is?’ I go, ‘Well you know who my great grandfather is?’ There have been a few times where I’ve said, ‘I’d like to punch your father in the face because you’re an asshole.’

You get to know your neighbors in New York. You get to know the people in your buildings. You get to know your bartenders, your favorite waitresses, your favorite chefs, your favorite restaurants, your favorites bars and clubs to hang out in. There’s a connect. It’s like everybody pretty much knows every other person and I like that. It’s like a large family. It’s very comforting.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Hoops dreams: Checking in on the Tompkins Square Park basketball courts

Workers started digging up the Tompkins Square Park basketball courts on May 29. City officials said that the courts were expected to reopen by the end of June, when NYC schools were out, per DNAinfo.

Dave on 7th stopped by yesterday to see how things were looking…



The resurfacing appears complete. (Workers began this on July 6.)



Workers installed the backboard supports yesterday...



Now we just need backboards and some hoops. (Hopefully they aren't on back order.)

As previously reported, the New York City Parks Department teamed up with YouTube for the renovations. YouTube is funding the operation, estimated at $300,000.

The rendering shows a YouTubey (YouTubeish?) color scheme on the courts… Not sure if the final courts will have this… or if the courts will feature TVs continuously looping PewDiePie…


[Rendering via YouTube]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tompkins Square Park basketball courts closed for renovations; YouTube-backed hoops on the way

Not-at-all out-of-place-looking luxury rental building for sale on East 5th Street

Let's head over to 530-532 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, where this six-story, 10-unit rental is now on the market…

Here's the pitch via Cushman & Wakefield:

The building was built in 2013 using high quality, energy-efficient materials and features a virtual concierge, video security, and common roof deck with elevator service. The residential units are in excellent condition and feature chef’s kitchens, reclaimed wood flooring, oak doors, Caesarstone kitchen countertops, pre-wired alarm systems, individual temperature controls and HVAC systems (tenant expense), washers/dryers, stone tiled bathrooms, and private outdoor balconies. Additionally, units 1R and 1F have private gardens, and unit 5R has a private roof deck.

The property is only two blocks south of Tompkins Square Park and less than four blocks from the F train stop at 2nd Avenue. It is also within close proximity to popular neighborhood hot spots such as the famous Orpheum Theater, the East River Park, the Bowery Hotel, and The Standard East Village. This is an excellent opportunity for an investor to purchase a high cash flowing, low maintenance asset, or an immediate condo conversion project in the heart of the East Village.

Rentals here average about $6,200, per Streeteasy.

And the building price: $12.5 million.

Now we'll head back into the EVG archives to when the demolition started on the previous building here in November 2008…

Report: Shelter for homeless woman on Lafayette sold; retail tenant wanted

A 43-bed shelter for homeless women on Lafayette Street at Bond Street has been sold for $26 million, The Real Deal first reported.

Aby Rosen's RFR Holding is reportedly the new owner.

Per The Real Deal:

The shelter is operated by the Center of Urban Community Services. The organization has run the facility, which it calls “the first ever dedicated to helping homeless NYC women suffering from mental illness to obtain permanent housing,” since 1988.

But the property’s days as a shelter appear to be numbered, with an RKF listing indicating the space is available for a “single tenant” retail opportunity in the third quarter of this year.

The 15,000-square-foot building is in the Noho Historic District.

Rosen is also the new owner of 190 Bowery. Perhaps there will be an art show here too.

H/T Curbed

1 year after closing, the Rodeo Bar space remains vacant on 3rd Avenue

Stepping away from the East Village for a moment… As we first reported last summer, the Rodeo bar — billed as "NYC’s longest running honky-tonk" — closed for good at the end of July after 27 years in business.

Now one year later, the storefront at 375 Third Ave. and East 27th Street remains empty. The asking rent is $58,333 per month.

In a message on Facebook, the owners said that recent rent increases, "combined with a changing landscape, have made it impossible for us continue."

Zoltar sees a future without graffiti (at least for the next few days)

Over outside the Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, Zoltar is receiving a summer scrubbing….

As these photos via EVG reader Lola Sáenz show, a worker is removing the various tags that well-wishers have left on Zoltar's home of nearly three years…





Now if someone will please just return his crystal ball.

Avenue C subbing for Downtown Brooklyn today

Earlier today, EVG reader David G. noted the arrival of a new subway stop on Avenue C and East Second Street… site of the last gas station in the East Village.

Alas, just a tease prop from the crew of the CBS police drama "Blue Bloods," which is filming around here today.

The stop is for the 2,3,4 and 5 … the station is marked Nevins Street Station. After today's shoot, the station will be closed indefinitely for track work.

[Updated] The NYPD removes the patrol tower from Tompkins Square Park

Not sure when it happened… but as of around 9 a.m., the tower is no longer in the Park.



It first arrived last Tuesday.

Photos via EVG correspondent Steven.

Previously on EV Grieve:
NYPD installs patrol tower in the middle of Tompkins Square Park (149 comments)

The Post reports Tompkins Square Park 'has become a homeless haven' (113 comments)

Observer editors write, 'it's time to take back Tompkins Square Park' (49 comments)

Petition asks Mayor de Blasio to remove the Skywatch tower from Tompkins Square Park

Parts of Avenue C and D now with a SkyWatch tower, additional NYPD lights

[Updated] NYPD patrol tower arrives on Avenue D

Flyers urge removal of patrol tower in Tompkins Square Park

Updated 12:42

The Post spoke with some people in the Park about the Tower's removal.

“I don’t love seeing it here,” said Paul Engler, a 58-year-old business owner. “I think the police were doing their very best to make sure things stayed on the level, but I’d rather see cops walking around the park. That gives people access to them.”

And…

“I didn’t give a f–k it was here and I don’t give a f–k it’s gone. It didn’t change a thing in this park. It didn’t slow nobody’s roll,” a homeless person said Tuesday. “It was all a show to make people think they were doing something. The same people they put that show on for didn’t like. They didn’t like to see that when they’re paying all that money to live here. So now it’s gone.”

Exclusive: After 40 years, punk rock mainstay Trash and Vaudeville is leaving St. Mark's Place

Late last week we started hearing rumors that Trash and Vaudeville was leaving its home of 40 years at 4 St. Mark's Place.

Store owner Ray Goodman confirmed the move yesterday, telling us that if all goes well, Trash and Vaudeville will be selling its rock 'n' roll fashions and accessories from its new space at 96 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue early this fall.


[96 E. 7th St., site of the new Trash & Vaudeville]

"I love St. Mark's Place. There's no doubt it. There's something magical about it. This just isn't any block," Goodman told us on the phone. "The decision wasn't something that I took lightly. From a business perspective, we saw a shift in the clientele. The block is not as conducive for fashion shopping as it once was. Now it seems as if it's all food — fast food — and bongs. Even stores that aren't bong stores sell bongs."

He said that the changing business environment on the block between Second Avenue and Third Avenue was just one of many factors that played into the decision to relocate.

"The retail world is so different today," he said. "So much of it is done online."

And increasing rents are always a culprit.

"The rent is creeping up," said Goodman, who is a minority partner in the ownership of the historic Hamilton-Holly House at 4 St. Mark's Place. "Rent was a factor, but it wasn't the sole reason."

It also didn't help that the block will likely see protracted construction in the years ahead. For starters, the owners of the St. Marks Hotel directly next door filed plans late last fall to add six additional floors to the existing structure at 2 St. Mark’s Place and Third Avenue.

"I'll be in the middle of a construction zone for the next five years," said Goodman, who figures the Trash and Vaudeville storefront would be covered by a sidewalk bridge throughout the duration of the project. "Business is tough enough."

In addition, directly across the street, The Real Deal reported that real-estate investor Arthur Shapolsky is in contract to buy three properties at the corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place: 23 Third Ave., 27 Third Ave. and 3 St. Mark's Place for some unspecified new development.

And there's just the history. "It has been 40 years. Maybe it is time to do a little facelift. Just try it," he said. "I wanted to make it to the 40th year. We made that."

During the heyday of punk, everyone from the Ramones to the Dead Boys did their shopping at Trash and Vaudeville.

"Me and Dee Dee would go there and try out the display clothing," Marky Ramone told The New York Times in 2013. "Joey had a problem finding pants to fit him and would always buy them there. He was 6-foot-5 ½ with a 36-inch waist."


[Photo from 1980 by Michael Sean Edwards]

Goodman believes that the block housing the new Trash and Vaudeville has a better retail variety. He cited the array of restaurants, as well as Big Gay Ice Cream, and shops such as Turntable Lab and Village Style, the vintage and consignment shop.

The new Trash & Vaudeville will incorporate three spaces at No. 96. (The address was previously home to Salon V and Angelo Lambrou's custom bridal gown boutique, both of which relocated to other parts of the city.) Overall the new storefront will have less space than on St. Mark's Place.

As for the business future of St. Mark's, he recalls opening the shop in 1975. "There were a ton of stores for rent," he said. "St. Mark's Place has always been a bit of a roller-coaster. I think it could come back with the right mix of retail."

Despite the relocation, Goodman, who lives on St. Mark's Place, hasn't given up on the neighborhood. He said that he looked into other areas to move the store, but nothing felt right.

"We're still in our natural environment. We're just a little further east," Goodman said of the new location, adding, "I love the East Village."

The Stop the Noise sticker campaign on East 10th Street takes a new approach

On and off in the past few years (dating to June 2010), we've spotted stop the rooftop noise stickers and flyers along East 10th Street between Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue.

We noticed more in recent weeks… as always, pointing to presumably loud activity atop 84 E. 10th St. …



Now, the stickers have a new message...



There will likely be a different kind of noise around here soon enough. New building applications were recently filed for a 10-story, eight-unit building at the long-empty corner space on Fourth Avenue and East 10th Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Another flyer campaign to 'stop the rooftop noise' at 84 E. 10th St.