Monday, June 1, 2020

Restaurant windows smashed along Avenue A, St. Mark's Place



Reports are coming in about smashed windows along Avenue A between 12th Street and 14th Street... Christine Champagne took these photos, showing the damage at Au Za'atar, Baker's Pizza, Gomi and Planet Rose...







Witnesses say the damage was done by the "fake protestors" using the George Floyd rallies as cover for vandalism.

Updated

Jackflashnyc has photos of the damage at Caffe Bene at 13th Street...



... and Convive Wine and Spirits a few storefronts to the south, where looters took the register but not any alcohol...



Also:


Updated 8:15 a.m.

Riian Kant-McCormick reports that a window was broken at Empellón Al Pastor on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place...



More restaurant doors and windows were broken along St. Mark's Place, per Steven...





Vinny & O report that the front door at Desi Galli on Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street was smashed...

More about the damage at B&H Dairy



As first reported yesterday, B&H Dairy was one of the Second Avenue businesses damaged by so-called "agitators" on Saturday night... someone broke the 80-plus-year-old lunch counter's front window...



In an Instagram post, B&H Dairy co-owner Ola Abdelwahed describes what happened around 10 p.m. on Saturday...

"I was in the restaurant. The protest came by and someone threw a big bottle in our window. They also broke the window at the bakery and set garbage on fire. I was scared. [Her husband and co-owner] Fawzy ran to the restaurant and stayed until it was not so crazy. Rafael and Hugo stayed until midnight. Mike and Leo are there and everything is OK, but we won’t get the new windows until [today], so Fawzy is spending the tonight in the restaurant."


B&H had been struggling to stay in business during the COVID-19 crisis. They reopened on May 16 for takeout and delivery. They also have an ongoing GoFundMe campaign.

Protests turn chaotic last night south of Union Square with reports of trash fires on 3rd Avenue


[Photo by Ed Yoo]

Another day of peaceful George Floyd protests around the city turned destructive late last night. There were reports of damage to businesses and police vehicles south of Union Square as well as trash fires along Third Avenue.

Footage via social media shows several people jumping on an NYPD van and breaking its windows on Fourth Avenue at 13th Street...


Ed Yoo shared these photos from last night where police and the protestors faced off on Fourth Avenue at 12th Street around 11:30 ...



The group continued east to Third Avenue...



Police reportedly charged the protestors after someone threw a bottle...



As the group scattered south on Third Avenue, several people set trash fires from 12th Street to Ninth Street... the largest being a stack of cardboard on the curb for recycling outside the H Mart ...


[Screengrab via @chirolamb]

In addition, several stores had their storefronts damaged, such as the CVS on 14th Street and Fifth Avenue...



...with reports of looting, mostly in Soho.

At a Hall press conference yesterday, Mayor de Blasio addressed the violent element of the otherwise peaceful protests. Per CBS New York:

The mayor said the protests have been infiltrated by some outside agitators who are determined to cause violence.

“The X Factor here of a different kind. A small set of men, we’ll call them not just protesters, but people who came to do violence in a systematic organized fashion. That is a different reality we need to grapple with,” de Blasio said.

The mayor said the NYPD would quickly release evidence showing that some people were calling for violent demonstrations.

Yesterday marked the fourth day of protests in NYC and other cities nationwide against racist police violence in the aftermath of George Floyd's death Monday in Minneapolis.

Updated 8:30 a.m.

Photos from Riian Kant-McCormick showing the broken windows at the AMC Village 7 on Third Avenue and 11th Street...





... and outside the Post Office on 11th Street and Fourth Avenue...



Sunday, May 31, 2020

Weekend parting shots



Thank you to East Village-based photographer Kyle de Vre for sharing these photos from yesterday, capturing moments from the protest along First Avenue and Second Avenue...





Sunday evening at Target



Workers were seen boarding up the windows at the Target on 14th Street and Avenue A this evening ... as several businesses brace for another night of possible protests... photo by Jackflashnyc...

Updated:

Jackflashnyc also noted plywood going up at Whole Foods on 14th Street and Union Square...



... and the Sweetgreen on University Place...





6 posts from May


[As seen on Avenue A today by Brian Boulos]

A mini month in review...

• Anonymous East Village restaurant owners continue to feed those in need of a meal (May 27)

• These East Village residents are helping feed families in Queens during the COVID-19 crisis (May 12)

• Owner of Taste Wine leaving the business to help save his young sons Benny and Josh (May 11)

• Gem Spa will not reopen (May 7)

• RIP Ali Yasin (May 5)

• A warning for "selfish joggers" on 1st Avenue (May 3)

Week in Grieview


[Wednesday evening along St. Mark's Place]

Posts from this past week included...

• Anonymous East Village restaurant owners continue to feed those in need of a meal (Wednesday)

• Thousands march through East Village streets to protest the death of George Floyd (Saturday)

• A look at last night's damage along 2nd Avenue (Sunday)

• Report: Departmental charges recommended for officers involved in violent Avenue D arrest (Saturday)

• Neighborhood Food Swap in action (Tuesday)

• A Brazilian journalist searches for trends on St. Mark's Place in 1985 (Thursday)

• The door is now open at Lucy's on Avenue A (Saturday)

• A Memorial Day Weekend pizza and mask giveaway on Avenue D (Monday)

• Re-openings: International Bar, Hearth (Monday)

• Photo op! Luster has reopened on Avenue A (Thursday)

• This week's NY See (Thursday)

• ... word from the East Village (Monday)

• Academy Records is buying records again (Friday)

• Somos extends COVID-19 testing at St. Brigid (Tuesday)

• Asshole steals bike that belongs to COVID-19 ICU nurse (Thursday)

• Baby hawks in Tompkins Square Park starting to branch out this spring (Wednesday)

• Winter Flowers return this spring at La Plaza Cultural (Tuesday)

• Reopenings: Muzzarella Pizza, 787 Coffee (Thursday)

• San Loco is back open on Avenue C (Wednesday)

• Cafe Himalaya is back open (Tuesday)

• The Wild Son is opens on 1st Avenue and St. Mark's Place (Friday)

• Explosion site condoplex shapes up (Wednesday)

• A foggy Brooklyn Bridge (Wednesday)

• Do you Desire another corner deli on 4th and B? (Friday)

• When the Post Office is out to lunch (Tuesday)

• Here's your Brooklyn Dumpling Shop signage (Thursday)

... and in the Sunday Papers Department... Vinny & O today found this stash of the Times from 1991 on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...





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A sign outside Verizon: 'Agitators are not protestors'



A handmade sign arrived some time this morning after 8 outside the damaged Verizon store on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place...



It reads:

Please know:

1) BLM
2) The protest came here twice peacefully. Hours later a small group of people trashed 2nd & St. Mark's. Agitators are not protestors."

Thanks to Steven for the photos...

Sunday morning around Union Square



Yesterday's peaceful protests turned chaotic in the late-night hours as demonstrators set fire to nearly a dozen NYPD vehicles around Union Square... it marked the end of the third day of protests against racist police violence in the aftermath of George Floyd's death Monday in Minneapolis.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy surveyed the scene this morning around Union Square, including on University Place where many of the police vehicles — specifically the Homeless Outreach vans — had been parked.






























The damage to the 7-Eleven on 14th Street



Most of the damage to East Village businesses last night occurred on Second Avenue between Houston and 12th Street. There were a few exceptions — the Mattress Firm at 250 E. Houston St. ... as well as the 7-Eleven on 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy took these photos this morning, showing that the front doors were smashed by unknown objects...



There were other reports of damaged businesses nearby on Broadway and University Place. NBC 4 reported that the North Face and Adidas stores on Broadway were also looted.