The 'urination, defecation, masturbation' vacation outside Cooper Union

The Post has a new front for its ongoing exposes on perceived quality-of-life offenses: The Cooper Union academic building.

The annual appearance by the travelers/crusties/whatever-you-like, who have been camping out here every summer since the school opened the building six years ago at 41 Cooper Square between East Seventh Street and East Sixth Street, prompted this headline-worthy quote:

“I have seen drug deals, public urination, defecation, masturbation in broad daylight in the Taras Shevchenko alley,” a Cooper Union faculty member told The Post.

Apparently the group didn't care for reporter Kevin Fasick, who earlier this summer posed as a homeless person outside Gracie Mansion, attempting to interview them.

Nine of the drifters were splayed out on bits of cardboard Thursday morning, and began hurling insults, water and bits of cookie when approached by a reporter.

“I was going to chase him down and beat the s–t out of him,” one thin, bedraggled man spat in anger.

“If I ever see you or that photographer again, I’ll kick the s–t out of you,” he threatened.

And where was the Post in 2010 when a serial vomiter (careful with that link) was targeting this building?

Updated 4:32 p.m.

Oh! We didn't see the paper's version of the story with this headline…



Thanks Matt Rosen!

EV Grieve Etc.: Checking out 2 new East Village pizzerias; Remembering the avant-garde jazz scene

[Photo on East 4th Street by Derek Berg]

Amid irregularities in campaign petition, Community Board 3 Chair Gigi Li exits District Leader race (DNAinfo)

Sunday at Slug's: Ornette Coleman and the avant-garde jazz scene of the East Village (The New York Review of Books)

Sietsema checks in on two new East Village pizzerias — Via Della Pace Pizza and Bruno (Eater)

A red-tailed hawk is found dead on Fourth Avenue and East Ninth Street (Gog in NYC)

The Ungentrifiers (The Awl)

A Sunday morning ritual at Ink on Avenue A (Medium)

A look at Good Night Sonny, now open on First Avenue and St. Mark's Place (Eater, previously on EVG)

Battling over picking Sheldon Silver's successor (The Lo-Down)

An 8-hour rager at Gotham Court on Ludlow! (BoweryBoogie)

Faux roadhouse bar Duke's closes on East 19th Street (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

A look at Club Berlin in Martin Scorsese's great "After Hours" (Flaming Pablum)

Tribute to Tom Baker includes "I, A Man" and "Bongo Wolf's Revenge" (Anthology Film Archives)

The hottest (temperature-wise) subway stations south of Central Park (WNYC)

Pop-up cat camp on Mulberry Street (Daily News)

Why would anyone pay to stay on the outskirts of the city’s center, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street, in 1859? (Ephemeral New York)

Check out the Enterprise-style ride coming to Coney Island's Luna Park (Amusing the Zillion)

Two rare Joy Division tracks were just rereleased (Dangerous Minds)

... and the D.L. Cerney pop-up shop remains open at 317 E. Ninth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue through Aug. 30…



... and remember when Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie were in Tompkins Square Park filming that xmas movie back in January? Anyway, the trailer is now out...

After attack, R'n'R for Miss Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

[Kita from earlier this year]

It has really been far too long since we've heard from Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street. (All the way back to November!)

Unfortunately, dear Miss Kita is having another tough summer — at least the last part of July. Last summer, she was recovering from a torn tendon.

Her owners provided us with an update this week:

On the evening of July 22 we were walking on 11th between B and C at around 11 when Miss Kita the Wonder Dog was rather brutally attacked by another dog — a Shar-pei/pit bull mix. The dog was with a young guy who wasn't in control of it.

Kita will be fine but her injuries are severe. She's got a ton of stitches and needed some sort of a tube in her throat. The dog attack was very traumatic for her and for us.

The vet did remove the tube a few days ago, and Kita continues to rest and recover.

"She is in much better spirits now."

Photo of Kita by Elias Weiss Friedman.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Meet Kita

The further adventures of Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

The further (often truly) amazing adventures of Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Happy holidays from Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street has her first ever annual checkup

Holiday greetings from Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Summer greetings from Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street

Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street is on the mend!

As the Church of the Nativity closes for good tonight, take a look at the original structure

As previously reported, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York is closing the Church of the Nativity at 44 Second Ave. between East Second Street and East Third Street.

The final mass is tonight at 7.



On this occasion, volunteers posted a photo of the the original Church of the Nativity building. Via Facebook yesterday:

The first church, located at 48 Second Avenue, was built in 1832 as the Second Avenue Presbyterian Church. In 1842 it was sold to the newly formed Nativity Parish. This building was demolished in 1970 after a fire. It was rebuilt by hardworking parishioners — hence the new, smaller church built with cinder blocks now located at 44 Second Avenue.

The Church of the Nativity is merging with Most Holy Redeemer on East Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. In total, as amNY reported: "New York City's 112 parishes will be consolidated into just 55 new parishes due to 'changing demographics' and a shortage of priests available to say mass."

Reminders: The 3rd annual MoRUS film festival starts tomorrow

As we've been reporting, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) has partnered with community and activist groups to present I [heart] NRCHY: Subversion & The City, which runs tomorrow through Aug. 8.

Visit the MoRUS website here for more details on the screenings, which take place each night at 8.

Last day for Alex Shoe Repair on 2nd Avenue

Back in February we reported that Icon Realty was the new owner of 57 Second Ave., the 10-story building between East Third Street and East Fourth Street.

This meant that the two retail tenants — Alex Shoe Repair and Allied Hardware, who were both on a month-to-month lease — would not be around much longer.

Well, today is the last day for Alex Shoe Repair.

Earlier this week, the Lo-Down published an interview with the shop's proprietor:

Born and raised in Uzbekistan in a Jewish family with four brothers and five sisters, Amnun “Alex” Kariyev immigrated to Chicago where he worked in a cable manufacturing company. Looking to run a business of his own, he went to school at night to learn the art of shoe repair.

Alex came to New York City and in 1986 set up shop on Second Avenue. When he started out, the rent was only $1,000, which might seem very low for the nicely proportioned 1,000 square foot space. But back then, Alex recalls, all of lower Second Avenue below 4th Street was “a no man’s land.”

And…

He bears no grudge against Icon Realty, who have given him his final month in the location free of charge. Having lived through the brand of Communism imposed by the former USSR, Alex says he believes in capitalism and that — at the price Icon paid for the property — they have the right to make money.

Alex was paying $4,000 a month in rent. The new asking rent is $14,000.

This Alex is now sending his customers to the unrelated Alex Shoe Repair at 71 First Ave. between East Fourth Street and East Fifth Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
57 Second Ave. hits the market for $30 million

Reader report: Icon Realty new owner of 57 Second Ave.

CVS has teamed up with Watson, IBM’s supercomputer

[Doctored file photo]

Earlier this month, news broke that CVS would be the first retail tenant at 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star.

Apparently CVS and IBM's Watson have bigger plans. The Washington Post had the news yesterday:

IBM is teaming with CVS Health to harness the power of the Watson supercomputing brain to transform how the care of patients with chronic conditions is managed.

[T]he companies will work to develop a system that would be able to provide better personalization of care, prevent the use of unneeded and costly interventions, and even predict health declines for a wide range of conditions including heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Troyen A. Brennan, chief medical officer for CVS Health, said in an interview that no specific product or timeline has been worked out, but that the first stage would be to jointly develop intelligent algorithms and test them to see if they helped improve patient outcomes. He said he was hopeful “realistic interventions” could be identified in one to two years.

In addition, CVS stores, using Watson's POWER7 processors and IBM's DeepQA technology, will be able to reduce the one-hour photo service to .001 seconds.

Previously on EV Grieve:
BREAKING: CVS is the 1st retail tenant for the Death Star! (42 comments)

1st sign of the incoming CVS at 51 Astor Place

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…