I'm just sittin' on a fence

Avenue A along Tompkins Square Park today... via Bobby Williams...

H/T Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

Things you miss sitting in a bar around 5:30 pm

Oops. Did it snow? Photos from 5:30 p.m. via Bobby Williams

Viva Alan Vega

Alan Vega, one half of Suicide, here with "Jukebox Babe" circa 1981.

Bonus photo:

Suicide outside CBGB circa 1979...

[Adrian Boot/urbanimage.tv]

Former dry cleaners becoming a handmade ice cream shop on First Avenue

Hmm. EVG regular William Klayer notes the arrival of a rather cryptic sign at the former dry cleaners at 137 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and East Ninth Street... as you can see: Handmade ice cream ~ summer 2013. No other info right the moment.

The address had a new broker starting in late December.

Do you think that we already have enough dessert around here...? Not a dessert person here so, just asking...

Following the trash bag on East Sixth Street

Meant to post this earlier... but actual news happened... Spotted this morning on East Sixth Street at Avenue A...

... and on the other side of the cars that are practically touching on the street...

Who wants to diagram what happened here?

Breaking AND developing: No water in the East Village?

After the major water main break on Broadway and East 23rd Street about 10:40 ... we're hearing from various people in the East Village who say that their water has been shut off... (haven't heard anything official from the city about the water...)

@evgrieve we have no water at 2nd ave and 4th st. Hearing tales of a water main break in flatiron district. Wondering what the impact is.

— Erik (@ErikMKlein) February 1, 2013

@evgrieve 14th street and 1st avenue has no water.

— 14thStreetY (@14thStreetY) February 1, 2013

After water main break: RT @evgrieve Getting reports from all over the EV — no water.

— A Great Big City (@agreatbigcity) February 1, 2013

An update from the Twittersphere...

@evgrieve no water in Greenwich Village

— Joe Peltier (@AwesomeJoeP) February 1, 2013

And readers from the neighbor our reporting in via the comments...

Breaking (so to speak): Workers installing new window for the 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place

[Bonnie DeWitt]

Last Saturday, a man described as a a "crazy street person" tossed an object through the window at the 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place... this morning, as Shawn Chittle notes, workers are putting in a new window... and the windows here have proven to be quite sturdy...

[Updated] RIP Ed Koch

As you may have heard, Ed Koch, who served as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989, died early this morning. He was 88.

Here is his obituary at The New York Times.

Facebook is filling up with thoughts about Hizzoner. Via The Lower East Side Preservation Initiative:

His term corresponded to the 1980s artistic renaissance in the East Village and, not coincidentally, the first giant wave of gentrification. His often brash, contentious, energetic and multifaceted personality seemed to many to personify the character of the city itself.

Several people have sent along this interview with The Daily Beast from 2010... in which Koch discusses the Tompkins Square Riots of 1988...

Let's look at an aerial view of the neighborhood from 100 years ago

[Click on image to enlarge]

You may have seen this classic photo by Shorpy from 1913... I thought about it this past week while compiling the posts on St. Brigid's. (Like this post.)

EVG friend Pinhead linked to this photo a few years back for a St. Brigid's post on East Village Transitions.

Anyway, it's a shot looking to the east from the top of the Con Ed building on East 14th Street... Can you spot St. Brigid's? Tompkins Square Park?

Paying for these arrows by the hour, so ...

Recognize anything else...?

I can't stop taking photos of this steam vent on First Avenue

At East 12th Street.

Sorry. I can't help myself... Anyway, this will do. (But I have more photos!)

And you can buy one here "for that gritty NY feel."

The photography of East Village resident Sally Davies

East Village resident Sally Davies moved here in 1983 ... and has never stopped taking photos... the painter and photographer shared a few more recents shots with us...

"I like to shoot things that don't necessarily reveal their time, and there are still lots of those visuals here," she said.

"People often think my images are of the old days, but really they aren't," she said. "Those things are still around if you look."

"That wheelchair was on the roof of a buildilng directly outside my living-room window — a big party house. One morning after a wild party, the wheelchair was sitting there," she said. "And it sat there for about three years. So I got several pics of it, in different seasons. Then one day it was gone. Poof."

We also found a photo of neighborhood legend Eddie Boros in her portfolio... Boros, who erected the Tower of Toys in the Sixth Street and Avenue B Community Garden, died in April 2007...

"[There was] nobody like Eddie. I miss him."

Find more of her photos and info on her website.

Inside St. Brigid's, once again

A few more photos of St. Brigid's, which reopened Sunday, via Bobby William...

Previously.

Winter Friday flashback: Jeff Bridges at Sophie's

On Fridays this winter, and probably spring and summer ... we'll post one of the 16,000-plus EVG, uh, posts from yesteryear, like this one from Feb. 22, 2010...

-----

One day last month, American Songwriter Magazine did a photo shoot at Sophie's with Jeff Bridges for an upcoming feature... a photographer for The New York Times was also there for a feature titled "Nine days on the road with Jeff Bridges."

Bridges was in character as Bad Blake from his Oscar-nominated turn in "Crazy Heart." Here are two of the photos that Peter van Agtmael took for the Sunday Times magazine at Sophie's...

[Updated] At the LES Unity Rally

Tonight at 5:30, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer and other community leaders convened on Avenue D and East Sixth Street in a solidarity march against gun violence. Joining the group was Arlene Delgado, the mother of 16-year-old Raphael Ward, who was gunned down in a dispute over his jacket on Jan. 4. There have been a handful of other shootings since last July in the area.

Said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. "We are marching today to keep our children safe, to prevent the next senseless death — and to stop another tragic shooting from scarring our streets."

"This has to end — how many more mothers have to go through this?” said Arlene Delgado. "I’m speaking out because I would love to save so many other children. I still have a six-year-old to look after, and we have to be more pro-active in our children’s lives. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and our village has to pull together."

[A memorial for Ward on Rivington and Columbia]

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Updated 2-1

Find more coverage at The Lo-Down ... and DNAinfo ...