Noted

Spotted this morning on Second Avenue... in front of the Starbucks at East Ninth Street... Someone wrote "Kill him" in chalk with an arrow pointing toward the sidewalk space outside the 13th Step...



Anyone know what this is about?

I can't really think of a headline for this

EVG reader John came across this mini photo shoot this morning on East Sixth Street at Avenue B...

Now I wanna sniff some glue

Chico is working on a new mural at the newly reopened Croxley Ales on Avenue B ...

... and a better shot via @salim ...

Tompkins Square Park, 8:07 a.m., June 29

Meanwhile, on the Bowery...

Photos by Bobby Williams

Start to move

Wire with "Ahead" from 1987...

Downed limb in Tompkins Square Park

A few readers sent along photos from Tompkins Square Park this morning... noting a downed limb in the southeast corner of the Park... we didn't see it ourselves, so we're not sure how extensive the damage is...

Drag March Madness starts tonight in Tompkins Square Park

Marchers will start gathering at 7 p.m...

From the Drag March Madness Facebook event page...

Once more the time has come to clutch our pearls and put on our marching pumps and make Manhattan a place worth being in again.

The Drag March in New York City emerged 20 years ago at the Stonewall 25 commemoration when the organizing committee for that event asked that drag and leather folk to leave their wardrobes at home. Instead of buying into this attempt at "normalizing", the Drag March celebrated Gay Spirit in all of its' manifestations and became the most authentic celebration of all that Stonewall truly was and is.

And a few Park photos from last year ... via @emmsape ...

Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken signage arrives

A sign has arrived to mark the impending arrival of Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken on Second Avenue and East First Street, as this photo via @superterrific shows... this is the latest outpost from chefs/restaurateurs Eric and Bruce Bromberg of the Blue Ribbon empire...

CB3 signed off on a beer-wine license for the place back in November.

This corner of of the Avalon Bowery Mall Place was once home to XOXO, Julius Klein's performance space and gallery ...

A case against using the term 'crusty'

[At a recent Thursday night PBJ Dinner in Tompkins Square Park]

Andréa Stella, executive director and co-founder of The Space at Tompkins, submitted the following post.

With the summer in full swing, a lot of our clients are coming back to New York, and we wanted to take a moment to give an explanation for a term that has been and will inevitably be thrown around while they're here.

Three reasons why we don't call our clients "crusties"

1) The term "crusty" is derived from "Crust Punk," a punk movement started in the 1980s out of England with followers who referred to themselves as "crust punkers." Being a "crusty" is like calling someone a Deadhead. 99% of our clients do not refer to themselves as crusties, so we don't either. The term gets thrown around a lot in the East Village because it's a quick way to define a group of folks who look a certain way, but that doesn't make it accurate.

2) When asked, "What do you consider yourself?" — almost everyone told us their name. The first time I asked someone that question, I felt like an idiot because I know that personally, I don't walk around introducing myself as, "Hi, I identify as a white female and my name is Andréa." I start with my name.

3) Our clients are individuals, and most of them are trying to transition out of their current situation. It may not always look like it to outsiders, but there are many complex issues right under the surface that each person copes with in their own way. Tagging someone as "crusty" deepens the stigma and does not promote positive change.

We're The Space at Tompkins, a harm reduction organization whose mission is to help homeless travelers move towards improved health and self-sufficiency. We've been doing this since 2009.

Learn more about The Space at Tompkins here.

[Updated] The Yippie Museum Cafe is closing

[Photo by Donna Rae]

EVG reader Stephen Popkin spotted this sign outside the Yippie Museum Cafe yesterday... both employees on duty at the Harmony Kitchen and Cafe, the space's vendor, confirmed the closure for this weekend.

At this point it's unclear what will happen with 9 Bleecker Street, the longtime headquarters of the counterculture group and home to the cafe just a few storefronts west of the Bowery.

On June 10, Colin Moynihan at The New York Times, reported that Yippie leaders have been fighting an attempt by a lender to foreclose on their three-story home. Things took a turn for the worse last month "when a judge appointed a receiver to manage the building and collect rent."

Per the article:

In court documents, Steven L. Einig, a lawyer for a company called Centech, which holds the building’s mortgage, stated that Yippie Holdings, which bought Number 9 along with a nonprofit called the National AIDS Brigade, had failed for more than five years to make payments on the $1.4 million mortgage.

A lawyer for Yippie Holdings, John Diffley, said in an e-mail that his clients “were compelled into foreclosure with payments being rejected” by Centech as part of a scheme or plan to take over the building.

Said Popkin: "Sad, but it seems over."

Updated 8:51 a.m.
We checked in with Rachel Kay, a member of the board of directors at the Yippie Museum ... she confirmed the cafe's closure. As for the rest of No. 9?

"At this point: we have no idea. I hope that possibly the building will remain and then maybe another cafe will take its spot. I just hope that it doesn't become what everything else in the neighborhood has," said Kay, whose father is The Pieman, Aron Kay. "It's one of the last remaining foundations of the East Village."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Yippie Museum Cafe is in financial trouble

Reader report: 8 Crown Trade closing Sunday on St. Mark's Place

[Photo by Chloe Sweeney McGlade via Facebook]

8 Crown Trade, the family run T-shirt and souvenir shop at 28 St. Mark's Place, is closing on Sunday. Word is that they have been forced out by a large rent hike. Several of our Facebook friends who live nearby are quite upset by this impending departure...having watched the family raise their children and put them through college...

Now it will be interesting to see what takes the space... something of the $1 pizza-bubble tea-tattoo variety... or something that will cater to the incoming working crowd at 51 Astor Place in Midtown South ...

From 1967-1971, the address was home to the Underground Uplift Unlimited, who made the Make Love, Not War buttons, per Songlines NYC...

H/t Rhonda Hager Ryan

1st week of crowdsourcing campaign for injured East Village Farm and Grocery worker raises $11k

Last Friday, we posted information about the crowdsourcing campaign that CB3 member Chad Marlow organized to help raise money for the family of gravely injured East Village Farm and Grocery worker Akkas Ali (pictured above).

Marlow writes in with an update.

I wanted to thank you and all your readers who have helped with the fundraising effort for Akkas Ali, the florist who was severely injured in the horrific car crash on East 4th Street and 2nd Avenue on June 19.

I am pleased to say that, at the completion of our first week of fundraising, we have raised $11,792 from exactly 200 donors. This is an amazing accomplishment, but it is only a start. We need to raise a lot more before the fundraiser ends on July 20, and the first week is typically the easiest.

Here are three ways to help First, go to www.giveforward.com/akkasali and make a donation of whatever you can afford. Second, when you make your donation, leave a little message of support for the family when prompted to do so (the family has been reading these messages and says they are a source of rare joy during these difficult times). Third, and perhaps most important, PLEASE use whatever methods you can (including email and social media) to help spread the word about this fundraising effort.

Thanks to everyone again for their kindness and generosity!

The last that Marlow heard, Ali remains in a coma. Marlow hopes to raise $100,000 total for Ali and his family.

DNAinfo reported that the driver of the car, 32-year-old Queens resident Shaun Martin, was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated, criminal possession of a controlled substance and vehicular assault.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Car smashes into East Village Farm & Grocery on Second Avenue; 6 reported injured (62 comments)

Campaign launched to raise money for gravely injured East Village Farm and Grocery worker

Is Ben Shaoul finally removing the illegal penthouse addition on East 6th Street?

In recent weeks, scaffolding and a sidewalk bridge arrived outside 514-516 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B... back in the summer of 2010, the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) voted to approve a sixth story that had been added to the building the previous year, but not the penthouse above it. That addition needed to come down.

Nearly three years later, the illegal penthouse remained.

Then workers and the sidewalk bridge arrived. And residents were immediately suspicious.

On June 11, when the work began, one resident told us: "Management told me they are 'doing construction on the roof,' but wouldn't offer any more details and seem very annoyed at my question."

And later that day — "I see them bringing some large pieces of wood slabs upstairs. I don't think they are deconstructing at all."

However, according to The Villager this week:

Kelly Magee, the Department of Buildings’ press secretary, said what’s going on is that Shaoul is indeed removing the tenement’s illegal seventh-story penthouse. He also had added a sixth story but is being allowed to keep that. The work is being done in compliance with a Sept. 12, 2012, ruling by the Board of Standards and Appeals.

“Work is being performed to dismantle the penthouse, in accordance with approved plans,” Magee said. A crane isn’t being used. Rather, the penthouse is being dismantled by hand, as in “with handheld devices,” Magee said.

A photo of the work yesterday via a reader...



Meanwhile, tack in 2008, the BSA decreed that the one-story addition to the Ben Shaoul-owned 515 E. Fifth St. was illegal and should be removed. There was a BSA hearing on the matter on May 21, with another scheduled for July 23.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] 5 years later, another BSA hearing on illegal rooftop addition at 515 E. Fifth St.

[Weather permitting] Get all French tonight in Tompkins Square Park

As a reminder! Let's cut-n-paste! From the EV Grieve inbox...

The French Embassy along with NYC Parks and Recreation is thrilled to announce the 6th annual Films on the Green festival. Films on the Green is a free out-door French film festival that brings classic and contemporary French cinema to New Yorkers in different parks around the city, select Fridays throughout the summer...

Events are free and open to the public. Not to worry there are English subtitles!

This year's theme celebrates love — " à la française," the seduction, the passion, and the jealousy. French DJ’s from WNYU will spin music before the screening, so make sure to get there early! Films begin at sunset (approx. 8:30), we invite you to pack a picnic and bring a blanket to enjoy this summer’s festival.

Oui! Uh, and here are the two screening slated for Tompkins Square Park:

Tonight — "Angel and Tony" by Delaporte

July 5 — "Heartbreaker" by Chaumeil

A spirited Portal Parade from Tompkins Square Park to Avenue C

Nicolina Johnson, Perola Bonfanti and friends gathered last evening at 6 in Tompkins Square Park to shoot a video for their 13 Portals series around the neighborhood... and they asked people to get dressed up for a small celebration and march to Portal No. 1 on Avenue C and East Seventh Street...

GammaBlog happened to catch the action on video...



Check out GammaBlog for photos from last night as well...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

Celebrating marriage equality outside the Stonewall Inn (Eater, Runnin' Scared)

City transfers parcels of Children’s Magical Garden to the Parks Department (The Lo-Down)

Look at Bleecker Bob's now (Flaming Pablum)

Photos go underground with the MTA (Wired)

Goggla's farewell to the Blarney Cove (Gog in NYC)

Lou Reed, still the same (Spin)

Steve Nash gets his kicks in Chinatown again (BoweryBoogie)

Death of a block via a Duane Reade and bank branch (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

NYC pools open again today (Gothamist)

What if Frank Zappa was in the Archie comics... (Dangerous Minds)

Rock Icons on East Ninth Street

[By Michael McKenzie via the Dorian Grey website]

From the EV Grieve inbox via the Dorian Grey Gallery, 437 E. Ninth St. near Avenue A

Michael McKenzie presents:
ROCKicons

Exhibition Dates: June 27 - August 4, 2013
Reception: Thursday June 27, from 6-9PM

Featuring iconic rock photographs by legendary industry professionals: Bob Gruen, Mick Rock, Gene Shaw, and customized Swarovski crystal guitars and sculptures by Robert Kantor.

Read more about the exhibit here.

Witnesses: Man drives into front gate at Tompkins Square Park

Around 2 a.m., a man driving a station wagon crashed through the front gate of Tompkins Square Park on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place, according to witnesses. The man had been driving east on St. Mark's Place ... without apparently realizing that this portion of the street ends at the Park entrance...

The driver then tried to leave the scene.

"About 25 people gathered around and screamed at him as he reversed away," said Greg Nardello, proprietor of The Village Joker on St. Mark's Place. "I am assuming he did not get very far since his wheels appeared to be flat, and a cop was chasing him northbound on Avenue A."

Stupid plywood ruins view of future dorm lot on Cooper Square

[Neerad Jet via Facebook]

We knew that this day was coming... over on Cooper Square at East Sixth Street ... where plans are pending for a now-13-story dorm... we saw the permits on file for a plywood fence to surround the lot where developer Arun Bhatia quickly demolished the historic, circa-1825 building at 35 Cooper Square more than two years ago.

The lot continued to attract an array of graffiti and random piles of junk... now, sadly, as the photo above shows, all this is obscured from our street-level view... the fence is now in place.

Thankfully, we recently took a few photos of the lot...

















Now how will we ever know if the weeds are knee high by the Fourth of July?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Here's what's coming to 35 Cooper Square: 9-story dormitory

Proposed dorm for former 35 Cooper Square looks to be 4 floors taller

Someone really wants to rent 269 E. Houston St.

The Local 269 on East Houston at Suffolk never reopened last fall after a flood apparently KO'd much of the live music venue's equipment.

Applicants who were previously involved with the Apocalypse Lounge (2004-2007) on East Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B apparently had designs on a new bar here. However, the applicants apparently never appeared before the CB3/SLA committee back in March, according to the CB3 meeting record.

Anyway, walking by the other day, we counted nine different for rent/sale signs on the building... (one sign looks to be for an adjacent space...)





Meanwhile, the whole building remains on the market for $12 million.

The Local 269 space was previously home to Meow Mix and Vasmay Lounge. The Local opened in February 2009.

The polite tip jar thief at Lebrini's Pizzeria

Bobby Lebrini, proprietor of Lebrini's Pizzeria on Avenue C at East Third Street, shares another surveillance video with us... last time out, the video captured a young man who goes berserk inside the pizzeria after his girlfriend apparently dumps him...

Today's video is much more civilized... a young man orders a slice for his grandmother... then helps another customer with his tray ... and then! The young man quickly dips his hand into the tip jar and calmly walks away with what looks like half of the loot...

[CANCELLED] Free tonight in Tompkins Square Park: 'Reservoir Dogs,' gypsy punks

Updated 1:15

The incoming rain/storms/apocalypse have caused the organizers to cancel tonight's free screening.

----

Tonight's free film in Tompkins Square Park is "Reservoir Dogs," that Quentin Tarantino movie.



Bring the whole family!

There's also pre-movie music from Amour Obscur, "a Brooklyn-based gypsy punk band that offers a theatrical performance that draws from the striking visual aesthetics of the Weimar cabaret and American sideshow." ... and there are free slices of Mr. Pink from 2 Boots, one of the sponsors of Films in Tompkins...

Of course, all this is weather permitting... The Weather Channel shows a 100 percent chance of rain tonight. Check the Films in Tompkins Facebook page for updates on tonight's screening. Two of the three films have been rained out this summer.

And upcoming...

July 11 — Easy Rider
July 18 — Drive
July 25 — The Big Lebowski
Aug. 1 — Rocky Horror Picture Show
Aug. 8 — Chico + Rita
Aug. 15 — Romeo + Juliet
Aug. 22 — O Brother, Where Art Thou

A Blarney Cove moment on its last night in business

[Tuesday night via @willcharczuk]

A reader shared this in the comments about the last night of the Blarney Cove on East 14th Street:

Went with some friends [Tuesday] night around 10PM. Ordered a few pitchers and was told "no more draft beer." Ordered bottles. They said all we have is Bud. After a few of those we were told no more beer, so we switched to whiskey and wine. After that we just decided to buy a six pack from the deli around the corner and bring it back in.

So all in all, a pretty standard blarney cove night.

Yes.

Newly christened East Fifth Street mansion is yours for $8.45 million

We've been keeping an eye on the ongoing conversion at 526 E. Fifth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B ... where a three-story multiple-dwelling building was becoming a single-family residence...

[Summer 2012]

Curbed yesterday spotted the new listing for the newly christened mansion.

And the new look comes courtesy of architect Annabelle Selldorf (yes) ... here is the Corcoran listing:

The interior living space is almost 5200 square feet.The back of the house includes an Eat-in Kitchen, a Study off the Master Suite, Family / Media room, and Home Office. The home's spacious layout could easily accommodate up to seven bedrooms. A charming rear garden is paved in bluestone and lushly planted, while a wood-decked roof terrace offers an additional 350 square feet of outdoor living space in which to relax, entertain, or just enjoy the tree-tops and long southern views to the lower Manhattan skyline.

Some pics.











The southeast stretch of this lovely block is bonkerishly luxurious now... aside from this mansion, you have the the $10,000 apartments at 532 E. Fifth St. ... as well as the pricy charmless rentals at the former Cabrini Center on the corner...

East Fifth Street, 7:39 p.m., June 26

July CB3/SLA highlights: Holiday Lounge, Brick Lane Curry and more tacos

[99 Second Ave. from August 2012]

The July CB3/SLA docket is now out... We'll look at the whole thing later... but a few quick highlights... (The meeting is July 15.)

Applications within Saturated Areas
• 117 Ave A Food & Drink LLC, 117 Ave A (op)

The mystery applicant looking to take over the Odessa Cafe and Bar on Avenue A is back on the agenda.

Sidewalk Cafe Application (unenclosed)
• Mighty Quinn's Barbeque (CMH BBQ Holdings LLC), 103 2nd Ave

• Brazen Fox Kitchen and Bar (106 3rd Ave NYC Inc), 106 3rd Ave

The folks from the White Plains-based bar The Brazen Fox are opening a bar-restaurant in the former Friend House space at East 13th Street ... the space is still under construction and they are already seeking a license for a sidewalk cafe. Very Brazen!

• Boulton & Watt (Downtown Dining LLC), 5 Ave A

New Liquor License Applications
• Holiday Lounge (75 St Marks Place LLC), 75 St Marks Pl (op)

Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa next door here on St. Mark's Place, will be opening a bar-restaurant in the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge space... we're looking forward to the end results of the work... She told Grub Street last year that "We're going to try to preserve as much of the history as possible."

• Otto's Taco LLC, 141 2nd Ave (b)

Ah! Last week, contractors told EVG regular William Klayer that a "taco place" was opening at the former Good Guys, the burger-fries-salad-wraps-waffles-smoothie eatery that replaced a Subway on Second Avenue. Good Guys closed a few weeks ago.

• Bricklane Curry House (BLCH I LLC), 99 2nd Ave (op)

Looks as if there's finally activity here ... most recently home to Sea Salt, the upscale fish eatery that closed in early 2008 after a seven-month stint... Brick Lane announced in April 2011 that they'd be taking over the space ...

Old Porch receives new awning for Apartment 13

New awnings arrived this morning at the former location of The Porch on Avenue C between East Seventh and East Eighth Street... Apartment 13 is the new restaurant from Paul Seres, the former president of the New York Nightlife Association and a partner in The DL on Delancey and Ludlow... You can read more about plans for this space here.

In summary:

All entrees at Apt 13 will be market driven and will be served in the same style as Korean barbeque. Every dish will be served with side dishes, appetizers, condiments, sauces, salads, and garnitures. Seasonally and locally driven. Family styled dinners. Meant to feel reminiscent of an intimate sit down dinner in our apartment.

Thanks to EVG reader Jared for the photo.

The Lion in Summer

Avenue A near East 14th Street ... via Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C ...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Whip Man in Tompkins Square Park via Bobby Williams]

There used to be A LOT of bars on the Lower East Side (DNAinfo)

The latest NYC landmarks (Curbed)

Remembering The Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally from 1970 (Dangerous Minds)

About the new sushi place that took the address of the beloved Polonia on First Avenue (Fork in the Road)

A new tenant for the soon-to-be-departed Motor City Bar? (BoweryBoogie)

"Untitled" (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat fetches $29 million (Bloomberg News)

Weiner is the new Democratic frontrunner for mayor (Runnin' Scared)

CB3 approves Danny Chen Street co-naming (The Lo-Down)

Looking at the now-shuttered Whitestone multiplex cinema in Queens (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

...and because we like the Empire State Building (mostly!) ... that new video released Monday from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs that 5,000 sites have already posted this week... first band to film atop the Building...

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: Phillip Giambri
Occupation: Storyteller, Submariner, Actor, Theatre Sound Tech, OTB Announcer, Computer Systems / Network Administrator.
Location: St. Marks between 1st and 2nd Avenues.
Time: 1:00pm on Monday June 17th

I’ve been here a long time. I’m from Philadelphia originally. I was in the military when I was 18 and I got out at 22. I was down in a submarine. It’s a strange life. Then I went back to Philly and I went to a drama school for 3 years. Then I moved to New York for Summer Stock [Theatre]. I was passing through New York on my way to California and was taking some acting classes with Stella Adler and I kind of got sidetracked.

The first job I got was on 4th Street between 2nd and the Bowery. It was a good theater block. Cafe La MaMa was there and the Playwrights Horizons and the Fortune Theatre. There was a lot going on in that little neighborhood. So the first job I got was as an assistant stage manager, a sound man, and an understudy for Michael Douglas for the very first play he was ever in in New York, called 'City Scenes.' Dominic Chianese, the Uncle from 'The Sopranos' was in it as well as Raúl Juliá.

I got to move down here by way of the West Village. I moved in with a lady on Washington Place for awhile and when that ended I had nowhere to live. I was going to the School of Visual Arts for awhile and I slept in my instructors loft until he got tired of me, so I moved in with acting friends from Summer Stock on East 9th Street for a couple months. It was really awkward because there were four of us living in a tiny apartment. We had to smoke a lot of dope to stay sane.

So they helped me get the apartment on St. Mark's Place across from the Electric Circus — building number 26. In the ‘60s and early 70s, the Electric Circus was like the Studio 54. It was like a happening place. You would take acid or mescaline or mushrooms or something and go in there and the whole place was designed to make you go bizarro.

I only wanted to be an actor and at the time I erroneously thought that if I worked in the theater rather than doing some regular menial task that at least I would get to know people. Just the opposite happened. Over 3 or 4 years, I gained such a reputation as a competent technical person, who were hard to find outside the union, that it was all the jobs I was getting. I would audition for a part for a Broadway producer, who would know me cause I did his sound work and he would say, ‘C’mon Phil, actors are a dime-a-dozen. We need a stage manager.’

I wound up managing a recording studio that worked with the theater for several years, while I was still looking for acting work. I was the manager, but every summer I laid myself off because we did only theater recordings mostly, and rented sound equipment to theaters and there was no work in the summer. So we’d sit out front on the stoop and smoke dope and drink wine all summer. I did that for like 4 or 5 years in the early ‘70s. It was kind of like a four-year party. People were in and out all the time, crashing, the building was very liberal in terms of sexuality and drugs and stuff. That was around ‘70 to ‘75 or ‘76.

I started to grow up a little when I met my wife. We went on our first date to the midnight movie show at the St. Marks Theatre to see 'Reefer Madness.' It cost $1 and you could bring your own food in and your own weed in and you could sit there all night and nobody would ever hassle you.

In ’74, we formed a St. Marks block association. There was a very influential guy in the neighborhood, Jim Rose, who ran the The Eastside Book Store. He became the head of the block association and we were just overwhelmed with crime in the neighborhood. Once the hippie thing wore off, all that were left were drug addicts and opportunists. It turned from the Summer of Love in ‘67 and ’68 and started really getting dark around ‘73. We realized there were 17 Methadone clinics in the neighborhood and there were all these junkies going there regularly and supporting their habits by beating us up and taking our money. We had the men’s shelter on 3rd street where every crazy person in New York State that got out of a mental hospital or prison was sent to, who were going around killing people and beating people up. We had several cops shot in the neighborhood. It was getting ugly.

I was the police department representative of the block association, so I would get all the crime statistics every month and what a wake up call that was, when you’re actually getting the numbers. We also had fundraising street fairs to try and improve the neighborhood. We got gates and window boxes put in front of the ground floor apartments.

We succeeded in getting the police commander changed in the Precinct. I used to go to all the police meetings and this new guy came in named Gunderson, back in ’75, and he changed everything down there. The 9th Precinct had the reputation, if you got out of the Police Academy you had to learn to be a bag man, and they sent you to 5th Street to learn that. It was a very crooked place. That was part of our problem — the cops had their own thing going on and they couldn’t give a shit about what we did. So with a little muscle and a little politicking, we got rid of the commander down there and they brought this guy Gunderson from Staten Island. He was a hard case who didn’t smile. Nobody liked him over there. We loved the guy. He cleaned the whole Precinct up.

At the time, all the cops kept their windows rolled up and just drove by everywhere and didn’t get out of the car. So we fought to get a permanent foot-beat cop, which they never did in those days. Gunderson said he couldn’t justify one permanent person there since they were so shorthanded in cops, so a friend of mine and I went around at night and took pictures of all the cops, what they used to call cooping, when they’re sleeping on duty in their car and they’re supposed to be patrolling. We had a picture of about 25 cops cooping and we brought them in and said we either get a beat cop or somebody uptown is gonna see this.

So we got a beat cop named George and he lasted here almost 10 years. He was a really sweet guy who used to go to everybody’s birthday parties, christenings, Bar Mitzvahs, and that was at a time when everybody hated the cops. He was like a part of the neighborhood and I don’t think he ever drew a gun in his life.

To be continued... next week...

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