A very East Village Halloween

EVG contributor Stacie Joy was out and about on Halloween ... capturing the variety of costumes, from the store bought to the more elaborate creations... 

As always, movie characters remain popular, as you'll see with the Joker, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers.

We start at the Loisaida Open Streets Community Coalition photoBOOth on Avenue B at Seventh Street ... and end in Tompkins Square Park where the meetup of the Deep Playa Nighttime Bike ride, Kostume Kult and the Renegade Halloween Parade came together (all under the watchful eye of Parks Enforcement division).

... and as always, it was the night he came home...

Week in Grieview

Posts from this past week include...(and the top photo is on 10th Street yesterday morning) ... 

• RIP Kid Lucky (Wednesday) 

• Report: 15 year old charged in October shooting death on Avenue A (Monday) 

• A Visit to the East Village Community Fridge and Food Pantry (Monday) 

• Report: Officer in violent arrest on Avenue D resigns ahead of departmental trial (Thursday) 

• A visit to The Baroness (Tuesday) 

• Astor Place Hairstylists is closing after 73 years in business (Sunday) 

• A Visit with Michelle Joni and Glinda the Good Bus (Friday)

• The Bean is returning to its former home on 2nd Avenue (Friday) 

• After Dinosaur Hill: The March Hare is a new toy store coming to 9th Street (Thursday) 

• A return to the Avenue B flea (Sunday) 

• At the 30th annual (and 1st virtual) Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade (Monday) 

• This week's NY See panel (Thursday)

• Nón Lá bringing Vietnamese cuisine to 4th Street (Monday) 

• Waygu spot J-Spec taking over Jewel Bako space on 5th Street (Thursday) 

• "Songs" of the fall season as it's diorama time at the 9th Street Community Garden & Park (Wednesday) 

• 90 E. 10th St. is for rent, bringing an official end to the stand-up steakhouse phase (Tuesday)

• Construction watch: 180 2nd Ave. (Wednesday) 

• Signage arrives for E7 Deli & Cafe on First Avenue and 7th Street (Wednesday) 

... and we hope that these were promptly delivered ... photo on Avenue A via Lola Sáenz...

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Now that Halloween is over with...

The Christmas holiday lights are going up on Ninth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue this morning, as these photos via Steven show...

A little early this year, as we've seen them arrive as late as Dec. 5 in the past...

Anyway, it's always festive on this block during the holidays... and if we've ever needed some holiday cheer, the time is now... 

Updated 7:50 p.m. 

Steven shared a few photos of how the lights look tonight...

Halloween 2020

A few Halloween scenes from around the neighborhood courtesy of Derek Berg ...

Saturday's parting shot

A moment from the Moral Panic show tonight on Second Street... look for more photos later... Happy Halloween!

6 posts from October

A mini month in review...

• Documenting 166 Avenue A through the years (Oct. 22) 

• This is the new building slated for the corner of 6th Street and Avenue C (Oct. 19)

• A look back at the first Avenue B flea (Oct. 13)

• An Art Attack at East River Park (Oct. 12) 

• Owner's retirement will bring a close to EV children's treasure Dinosaur Hill next month (Oct. 8) 

• Bread alert: Sullivan St. Bakery pop opens a 9th Street outpost (Oct. 6)

Photo of the Hare Krishna tree in Tompkins Square Park from Thursday night

Noted

As seen on 10th Street and Avenue A... 

Pumpkin via @little.things.ny ... photo by Robert Miner...

Naming the Lost at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery

Given the pandemic, the Annual Day of Dead festival is not happening over at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery on 10th Street and Second Avenue this year.

Instead, Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders and Naming The Lost created a memorial to remember local residents who died of COVID-19...

The memorial is now on the church fence... and will be here through Monday...

The church's website has more information about the project at this link.

Thanks to Lola Sáenz for the information...

A break in at Tompkins Square Bagels on 2nd Avenue

Workers arrived at the Second Avenue location of Tompkins Square Bagels this morning to find that someone broke into the storefront here between 11th Street and 12th Street...

Owner Christopher Pugliese said that the door, with an estimated cost of around $3,500, was the worst of the break-in damage. The now-smashed register contained $200 in change.

An invitation for Day of the Dead at Campos Community Garden

Via the EVG inbox...

Te invitamos a nuestra Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead.) This is an invitation to our neighbors from the members of Campos Community Garden on 12th Street.

Being respectful of COVID-19, we won’t be hosting a large event this year, but we will continue to honor our lost loved ones, especially those souls lost to the pandemic, police brutality and racism.

On Sunday, Nov. 1 from noon to 4 p.m., our altar will be open for viewing by the entrance and for leaving objects in memory of your beloved.

If you can’t make it during that time, we will also have our fence decorated and at anytime on Sunday you can also leave/attach your objects to the decorations there.

Please wear a mask and practice social distancing.

Campos Community Garden is on 12th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.

Friday's parting shot

A scene this rainy morning on Astor Place courtesy of Derek Berg...

A car-motorcycle collision on 1st Avenue

Several readers reported a serious-looking collision this afternoon between a car and a motorcyle on First Avenue at Seventh Street... 

From a reader report (thanks Bill!): "A black car with an Arizona plate hit a motorcycle going north on 1st, which was in the left lane. The car swerved from the right lane into the motorcycle." 

In a positive sign, another reader said that the motorcyclist was moving as he was loaded into an ambulance. We'll update this post if any further information becomes available. 

Thank you to Derek Berg for the photo...

Built to Spell

 

Siouxsie & the Banshees have been on heavier heavy rotation in recent days... the video is for "Spellbound" from 1981. Top of the Pops!

Noted

An EVG reader shares this from Third Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... where the recent strong winds carried in an outfit from Christmas past for a collision of holiday seasons...

The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black headline Halloween show in Tompkins Square Park

A big show tomorrow (Halloween!) afternoon from 1-6  in Tompkins Square Park... find more details — like the list of bands and special guests — at this link.

A Visit with Michelle Joni and Glinda the Good Bus

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

Back on Oct. 11, we wrote about Michelle Joni and her Expand-a-Band taking Glinda the Good Bus out on the streets of the East Village for a rooftop tribute show to John Lennon in honor of his 80th birthday.

This was not the first time that you've likely seen Joni and Glinda on the road together for this mobile popup party... and you may see it again this Halloween weekend... here's some backstory...

Late in the summer, I joined Joni and a band of dancers, musicians and merry-makers during a multiple-night ride through the neighborhood that started from Amy Van Doran’s now-closed Modern Love Club, 156 First Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

I’ll be honest, I was somewhat petrified to be rolling around the East Village on a platform built on top of a bus, but I sucked it up and climbed aboard.

A few things I hadn’t counted on: low-hanging soaking-wet branches that smack you in the face, having to duck lest stoplights clock you in the head, the look of wonder and curiosity as people stopped to whip out cellphones and record, the urgent through-the-rooftop-porthole communication between the band and its driver, DJ Mikey Microphone, “Mikey, pull over, there’s a line of M14 busses behind us!” 

Joni later answered a few questions about the bus, her art project and creating during the pandemic.

How did Glinda The Good Bus come into existence?

I imagined this bus into existence! For many years I researched busses online, and learned the buslife ways from my bus peers. I just wanted to travel and bring joyful experiences to people, with all my toys and tricks in one place. When I found this bus on Craigslist I knew it was it. I pictured the unicorn horn immediately. Glinda was born in community and collaboration and continues as such!

Can you speak a bit about your AlphabetiX project and how it came to be hosted at Amy Van Doran's Modern Love?

AlphabetiX is a philosophy and practice I’ve been discovering for years, since I first asked “What’s your Power Letter?” and continued, realizing everybody knew intuitively but nobody is talking about it or doing anything with it! There’s also an AlphabetiX calendar, so you can experience time in letters. I use this system to hone energies, doing my best to awaken others to the practices of modern myth-making! I had the workbook coming out, and Amy Van Doran was kind enough to hand me the keys and let me use the space to my heart’s abcdesire.

How has it been creating art during the pandemic? 

It’s been prime time for art making in my opinion, and I wish I’d been doing it way bigger TBH. There have definitely been challenges! This is the time for artists to be paving the path to the new world...any block to that results in depression.

What was the experience like rolling through the East Village on top of the bus? What was the reaction you received?

It was so much fun! The East Village is one of my favorite places in the city. I lived here once upon a time, and again during the pop up (’cuz I live in my bus!). The artistry and surprise of the East Village seems to be missing and I feel this was able to bring back a sense of hope and creativity. Reactions are the heart of why I do it — witnessing that moment of awe that causes people to gaze doe-eyed, smile and temp-check their reality...perhaps take out a phone and film it, cheering, Venmo-ing! It keeps me going.

Any future plans to bring the bus and performers back for another trip?

Yes!

The Bean is returning to its former home on 2nd Avenue

A familiar tenant is coming to the northeast corner of Second Avenue and Third Street: The Bean.

Owner Ike Escava shared the news... the coffee shop-cafe will reopen in the space some time in November. 

"We belong there — it feels like going home," he said in an email. 

As you may recall, The Bean closed two EV locations last November — this location and the one on First Avenue at Ninth Street. At the time, Escava blamed rising costs on the closures. The outposts on Third Avenue at Stuyvesant and Broadway at Ninth Street remain in operation. 

The Bean outpost on Second Avenue and Third Street first debuted in December 2011. The retail space has been vacant since the Bean's departure.

Vote or...

As a reminder, the early voting period runs though Sunday. 

The hours: 

• Friday, Oct. 30 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 31 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
• Sunday, Nov. 1 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Our local polling location, where Son of 7th took the above photo, is at Campos Plaza Community Center on 13th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. We heard that there was a minimum wait today... and if anyone else wants to chime in about their early-voting experience in the comments...

And find your absentee ballot info at this link. 

Grant Shaffer's NY See

Here's the latest NY See panel, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around NYC ... as well as political observations on current events...

Report: Officer in violent arrest on Avenue D resigns ahead of departmental trial

[Screengrab from video taken by Daquan Owens] 

The NYPD officer who violently arrested a bystander on Avenue D this past May 2 has reportedly resigned instead of face a departmental trial.

According to the Daily News, the internal misconduct trial for Officer Francisco Garcia was to start today.

Garcia, who was stationed at PS4 on Avenue C, had been on desk assignment following the ugly confrontation when an attempt to enforce social distancing rules escalated on a spring Saturday afternoon.

Garcia and his partners originally approached a man and a woman outside the corner deli on Ninth Street and Avenue D over a lack of social distancing, police officials previously said. This encounter reportedly led to an arrest on marijuana and weapons charges.

As seen in a widely circulated video shot by a witness, Garcia, who was not in uniform, then walked toward several bystanders, including Donni Wright, a nearby resident who works for the NYCHA. Police officials originally defended Wright, who they said took a "fighting stance," which led Garcia to shout the n-word and brandish a taser before wrestling him to the ground and kneeling on his head. (See top image.)

Social justice activists and local elected officials have pointed out the similar tactics in this arrest with that of now-former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on the neck of George Floyd for more than eight minutes before he died on May 25.

Wright was arrested and was initially charged with assaulting an officer, menacing, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct. The charges were later deferred by the DA's office. Wright has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the city.



In late May, The New York Times reported that the officers involved would face disciplinary charges.

While Garcia had been investigated by Internal Affairs, with a recommendation that departmental charges be filed, police officials never provided any updates or offered clarity on why further actions were taking so long. 

Local community leaders and elected officials gathered in late August to demand action against Garcia.

As for the news of the resignation, here's some coverage via Gothamist:

"The fact that this police officer resigned is important, but what's really important here is that he be criminally prosecuted, convicted and sent to jail for what he did," attorney Sanford Rubenstein, who's representing Wright in a civil lawsuit, told Gothamist.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has opened an investigation and interviewed Wright about the incident, but has not filed charges, nearly six months later. A spokesperson for the office declined to comment on the investigation.

In a statement, PBA President Pat Lynch said that Garcia was left "holding the bag" for the failures of City Hall and NYPD leadership.

The city had paid out nearly $200,000 to settle lawsuits involving Garcia, an eight-year veteran, as previously reported.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• In aftermath of Avenue D arrests, pols want answers from city on how social distancing is being enforced

• Investigation for excessive force demanded after social-distancing arrests on Avenue D

• Caravan protest on Avenue C addresses racial bias and police violence in social-distancing arrests