This evening on Ninth Street at First Avenue

Just checking in on the scene on Ninth Street and First Avenue following the explosion this afternoon... There are several ConEd crews on the job... and it looks like a few businesses and residents on the north side of Ninth Street just west of First Avenue are without power...







Here's one comment from earlier...

HippieChick said...
I heard the initial big boom, then nothing until I started smelling the horrible smoke. FDNY made a silent approach, for never a siren did I hear.

Then the lights started flickering on 9th Street. Badly flickering. I turned my computer off at once, and everything else too, and went down to see what the hell. FDNY just standing around and told me Con Ed wasn't expected for 20 minutes, as there continued to be small explosions and lots of smoke.

Eventually Con Ed showed up; there's still trucks on the block at this, but the lights have been steady since about 2 pm.

It's always something.

Indeed.

[Updated]: Explosion, fire on First Avenue and Ninth Street

[Photo from EV Grieve reader Jason]

From a reader:

Didja hear about the explosion at the northwest corner of 1st avenue and 9th street?

Supposedly an electrical fire underground. Con Ed hasn't shown up and the fire crews are watching the smoke billowing out. It sounded like someone dropped a fridge off a second floor, around 12:15.

A photo from another reader shows that the situation is under control...



And a description for someone at the scene...



We're hearing from a few people that power is out in a few buildings around here.... looking at the ConEd Storm Center map for outages...

The "bad old days" are here again story of the day

Via The Daily News!

The city's murder rate has shot up nearly 15% this year, and residents in the worst-hit precincts are worried New York is headed back to darker days.

The NYPD recorded 437 murders as of Sunday, compared with 382 in the same period last year.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The "bad old days" are here again story of the day

Trend alert! The bad old days are here again!

Are the "bad old days" here again...again?

NYPD establishes mobile command center on Avenue A

The Post reported this past Friday that top NYPD officials convened for "an emergency summit" to address "a surprise spike in robberies citywide."

Robberies jumped 29 percent between Oct. 11 and Oct. 17 compared to the same week last year, and overall are up 4.7 percent this year, according to police statistics.

At the meeting today, Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, the highest ranking uniformed officer, and Chief of Operations Patrick Timlin are expected to grill the heads of the NYPD's eight borough commands, detective borough chiefs and housing and transit borough chiefs, the sources said.

A police spokesperson told the Post that "the spike's attributable mainly to young robbers, teens and preteens, taking cellphones and other personal electronic devices."

According to the crime stats from the 9th Precinct, there were seven robberies reported the week of Oct. 11-Oct. 17, up four from the same time period last year. The number of reported felonious assaults increased from three to six. For the year, however, the number of robberies has decreased by 3.2 percent over last year while the number of felonious assaults have increased by 3.3 percent. (Compared to 1990, the number of robberies in the East Village is down 80 percent.)

This past Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, a command post for members of the Manhattan South Task Force, who are assigned to the East Village, was parked on Avenue A along Tompkins Square Park. We've heard about several cases of wilding in the Park the last few weeks. Privately, we've heard that the NYPD is quite concerned about the recent wilding attacks in the East Village — enough so for a Command Center to be established. On background, one NYPD rep said there have been nine reported wilding cases in the East Village in the last month.

[Photo by Bob Arihood]

More details emerging from yesterday's murder on Seventh Street

More details are emerging about the murder yesterday morning on Seventh Street. Neighbors found Christopher Jusko, 21, outside 272 Seventh St., with stab wounds on his neck.

According to the Daily News: "Police arrested Jairo Pastoressa, 25, after he walked into the 9th Precinct with the murder weapon and admitted to the killing. The two men apparently got into a fight over a woman and money, sources said."

Per The Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Juska, who had no known address, was able to flee but collapsed in front of the building where he was later pronounced dead by emergency medical technicians, police said.

The official said Mr. Pastoressa later turned himself into the Ninth Precinct. He told police he only stabbed the victim after Mr. Juska brandished a gun, the official said, but no gun was found at the scene. Mr. Pastoressa has been featured in online videos where he crafts graffiti murals.

By the way, Pastoressa might be better known as Link6.

DNAinfo reported more on Pastoressa:

Neighbors described Pastoressa as a passive, good-natured person and expressed shock when hearing about the brutal incident.

"For Jairo to do something like this is crazy," said third-floor resident John Bonilla, 59, who saw a bloody trail on the staircase from the second floor down to the hallway of the first floor. "He was laid back."

Ramos and others echoed Bonilla's statements that Pastoressa was not a troublemaker.

"He was a good guy," Ramos said.

Another neighbor said Pastoressa was "well liked" and a "social butterfly," but that he had been picked on in the past and had his apartment broken into last year.

"This ain't [like] him," said Damien J., 27, who lives next door to Pastoressa's apartment. "He ain't no fighter."

Pastoressa grew up in the apartment building and knew many of people in the neighborhood, said Lyn Pentecost, executive director of the Lower Eastside Girls Club, whose son went to daycare with Pastoressa.

"He's not the kind of guy to be violent if unprovoked," she added.

Pastoressa apparently worked on street art with Antonio "Chico" Garcia, a well-known neighborhood graffiti artist whose murals cover dozens of walls and storefronts across the East Village.

A New Yorker of the week

While reporting on the fire at Otto's Shrunken Head on Sunday morning, one witness said that "an alert super" made sure that all the tenants in the apartments above the bar on 14th Street were informed of the blaze.

Per a building resident:

it was not an 'alert super.' in fact our super didn't show up for hours despite numerous police calls. it was in fact a random passerby with a shopping cart who buzzed each unit 3-4 times, woke us all up, and alerted us that 'your building is on fire. get out of the building now!' when thanking him later his response was 'any new yorker would have done the same.' not sure i agree. I am still trying to find out who he is. I believe in credit where it's due.

Mars Bar photo op

I was walking behind this group on East First Street on Sunday when one of them said that he wanted to be sure to have his photo taken alongside the Mars Bar... So three of the people in the group took his photo... oh, and four if you include me....

A case for Jimmy McMillan?

Sure, apartments are getting more expensive these days.... but.... $23,501 monthly rent for a 475-square-foot studio on Third Avenue and 13th Street? Sounds about right!



Oh... just a typo on Streeteasy.... it's actually $2,350....

More woes for Blockbuster

1914 redux

A reader passed this along from New York magazine... from last week's post.



Which reminds me that the Grieve copy has yet to arrive....

Victim's name released in this morning's stabbing on Seventh Street

The 21-year-old victim in this morning's stabbing has been identified as Christopher Jusko. Meanwhile, Gawker has posted a very graphic (bloody) photo of the victim, which is heating up the comments section there. (Again, it's graphic... just so you know what you might see...)

Is the East Village the greatest neighborhood for eating in the entire universe?

Afternoon tweet from Bar Boulud sommelier Michael Madrigale...

Don't be alarmed if you a really loud siren this morning

Notification issued 10/24/10 at 3:00 PM. There will be an evacuation drill at the Con Edison East River Steam Plant late tomorrow morning, October 25, 2010. A siren will sound and plant employees will assemble on Avenue C between East 14th and East 16th Streets. This is only a drill.

An American in Paris

From Adam Platt's review of Peels this week in New York:

Unlike Freemans, the new restaurant is located on a tricked-up stretch of the Bowery, which is fast becoming lower Manhattan’s answer to the Champs-Élysées.

Oui, oui? Or wee wee?

[Photo via; Hat tip, Curbed]

At the Seventh Street crime scene

As DNAinfo reported earlier this morning, the body of a 21-year-old man with stab wounds to his neck was found outside 272 Seventh St. between Avenue C and Avenue D...




Detectives continue to work the crime scene. There is an unsubstantiated account from several onlookers of a second victim.





With news crews arriving on the scene, there will certainly be further reports today.

Report: Man stabbed to death on Seventh Street

Following up on the previous post about police presence on Seventh Street... DNAinfo has the disturbing report:

An unidentified man was found dead with a stab wound to his neck in front of an East Village apartment building early Monday morning, police said.

The body of the 21-year-old man was discovered by police outside of 272 E. Seventh Street.

East Village neighbor Charles Smith, 41, was out getting his morning coffee around 5:30 a.m. when he saw the man stumbling out of the building.

"I thought he was drunk until I saw the blood," said Smith. "It's shocking to see someone die."

Smith said police arrived on the scene just minutes after the man collapsed onto the sidewalk.

Police arrested another man in connection with the crime, but they have not released his name. Officials have closed Seventh Street between avenues C and D while they investigate.

Police have Seventh Street at Avenue D blocked off

This is per a reader, who notes the street has been blocked off the last two hours... no word just yet on why.

Otto's to reopen by the weekend

After yesterday morning's fire, we asked the good people at Otto's Shrunken Head for a report on the bar's status... here's the word from co-owner Nell Mellon:

"We are still waiting on final reports from the Fire marshalls. Thankfully no one was hurt and the damage is confined to the backroom. We hope to have the front open in a few days. Definitely for the weekend. The backroom is another story. That will take much more time."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Assessing the damage at Otto's Shrunken Head

Breaking: Early-morning fire at Otto's Shrunken Head

Former Aces and Eights closed for good

That's the word anyway on the street... Saturday was supposedly the last night for Aces & Eights, according to a source...and the bar was closed on Sunday night around 10, when this photo was taken....

Extra Place has become a recycling center

Nearly four years later, still not looking like this....



Previously on EV Grieve:
Extra Place now officially a Dead End

Meanwhile, Extra Place continues to maintain its proud heritage

Perhaps he just saw Extra Place for the first time in 15 years or so?

The Chocolate Wars (well, not at all, but we needed something that sounds CONTROVERSIAL)

Giving Extra Place the warm, comfortable feel of suburbia

Looking at Extra Place