DOT hands out free bike bells, asks everyone to be careful

Yesterday evening, reps from the DOT were along Second Avenue near Ninth Street... handing out bike maps and bells and stuff... and telling everyone — cyclists, pedestrians — to be careful....







I did not notice if they were on the other side of Second Avenue handing out the same materials to cyclists going the wrong way...

Here's a previous bike lanes thread here. (153 comments)

Noted

Also last night on Ninth Street near Second Avenue...probably a logical explanation for this....

Trees lounge

A reader passes along this lovely shot of fall inside Tompkins Square Park...

Meat coming to the southwest corner of 14th Street and Third Avenue

We've been wondering what might be coming here to the former Robin Raj space... And Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo has the answer: An outpost of 5 Napkin Burger, or a variation of it.

Rebecca Marx at the Voice last week named the 5 Five Napkin veggie burger as the best in the city.

Meanwhile, this is NOT their veggie burger:



Previously on EV Grieve:
All your Robin Raj news here.

Prosecutors: Accused wanted to settle dispute 'like men'

[Siegel for News]

The Daily News files their report on yesterdays's Seventh Street slaying:

The East Village man charged with fatally slashing a fellow graffiti artist had challenged his victim to settle their dispute over a woman "like men," prosecutors said Tuesday.

The claim came as Jairo Pastoressa, 25, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court and held without bail for the stabbing death of Christopher Jusko Monday.

Prosecutors said he was clutching an 8 1/2-inch knife as he stood on the second-floor landing of his E. 7th St. apartment as Jusko — and the woman they were fighting over — arrived at about 5:15 a.m. early Monday.

........

[Pastoressa's] lawyer, who said cops are still looking to question the girlfriend, asked that his client be put on suicide watch.

Previously.

Report: No bail in Seventh Street slaying

The Post has just filed this report on yesterday's Seventh Street slaying:

A man charged with fatally stabbing a love rival had lured his victim to his East Village apartment with a false promise they’d "settle it like men," prosecutors said today.

Instead, Jairo Pastoressa, 25, "sliced the victim in the neck, and as the victim turned away, stabbed him in the back" in the apartment on East 7th Street near Avenue D, Assistant District Attorney Caitlin Nolan told a Manhattan Criminal Court judge in successfully asking that Pastoressa be held without bail.

The victim, Christopher Jusko, was unarmed and "made no physical actions against the defendant," Nolan said.

But Pastoressa’s lawyer, Spiro Ferris, insisted that his client may have been acting in self-defense during the argument.

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....