Results tagged “eastvillage”

It's common practice for certain disreputable bicycle shops to purchase stolen bikes from thieves and then resell them. But it's rare that the police take action, which makes the recent crackdown on the Busy Bee Bike Shop on East Sixth Street so special. Streetsblog reports that the NYPD's Civil Enforcement Unit has shut down the shop pending "an ongoing investigation." The crusty, punky, DIY-ish bike shop was a good source for air and cheap U-locks, but it always did seem a little sketchy. (As one Yelper puts it, "If you want to pay too much for a bike of sketchy quality sold to you by a guy that probably lied to you about the bike, then this is the place!") Now two employees have been arrested. more ›

Over the last month we've seen a few explosions around the city caught on tape; first a manhole erupting on 29th Street, then a transformer explosion at Metrotech in Brooklyn. And today, live from 6th Street (between Avenues A and B), manhole fireworks! This happened just after 4 p.m. more ›

At the end of last month, the tolerable East Village watering hole Telephone Bar closed; it's being replaced by a new venture from the owners of such fratastic destinations as The Stumble Inn and Gin Mill. The change wouldn't really merit mention on its own, but EV Grieve has noticed that the future pub's name, The 13th Step, is more than a little tasteless. In Alcoholics Anonymous slang, the term is "used as a euphemism for inappropriate sexual advances by a member to a newcomer in AA." So, coming soon to Second Ave, the perfect place for booze and sex addicts to join together in a spirit of communal relapse! Now they just need a video poker machine so the gambling fiends won't feel left out. more ›

Around midnight last night Ray Alvarez, owner of beloved East Village hole-in-the-wall Ray's Candy Store [MySpace], celebrated his 77th birthday with a cake, a clown, a stripper, and a spanking. (Photo #4 mildly NSFW) Bob Arihood took some stellar photos and reports, "These are very trying times for Ray and this party afforded a brief respite from his struggle and noticeably lifted his spirits." Slum Goddess writes that before blowing out the candles, Alvarez wished for his business to stay open until his 80th birthday. Many in the neighborhood view Ray's as one of the last relics of a funkier Alphabet City (it opened in 1974) and hope it survives longer than that. more ›

At least 32 pairs of nesting red-tailed hawks have been identified across the city since 2007, and lately the Lower East Side has been captivated by a pair that have settled on a fifth-floor air-conditioning unit at Public Schools 9-4/188 on East Houston Street. "They come down and they eat squirrels, rats, birds," 18-year-old local resident Johnny Reyes, who calls them "the sky beasts," tells the Daily News. "People who walk their little dogs are always looking out for the hawks." And for good reason—they'll steal your lunch, too! "In recent memory, there have never been more hawks than there are now in the most unusual of places," says city Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. Urban hawks—how many is too many? more ›

Fox 5 News is the latest media outlet to catch on to the plight of Ray's Candy Store, an Alphabet City hole-in-the-wall still selling classic New York concoctions (and where this blogger got her first egg cream for $1.50 in 1999). Ray is in danger of being booted from his space due to rising rents and the expensive repairs needed, but the neighborhood is rallying to help. more ›

The NY Times is the latest media outlet to chime in on the dire fate looming over Ray’s Candy Store, the 24-hour burger/fries/shake hole-in-the-wall that's been in operation on Avenue A since 1974. Though there's not much new here for those who have been following the sad plight of 76-year-old owner Ray Alvarez—in 2000, the building's owner raised Ray's rent from $800 a month to $3,500, and is now threatening to evict him because he's two months behind—there are some sad quotes. "If they terminate this store, my life will be terminated, too," Alvarez tells the Times. "I like to be around people, and if I can’t be here it’s going to be sad, depressing." And one longtime regular who routinely holds court at Ray's observes that the store is one of the last remaining relics of Alphabet City's gritty past: "When there was nothing else around, Ray was around." more ›

The city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled plans for an expansive overhaul of First and Second avenues intended to make commuting by bus and bicycle faster and safer. The proposed redesign stretches from Houston Street to 125th Street, and it calls for so-called select protected bike lanes, pedestrian refuges, and the implementation of so-called select bus service and other bus improvements planned to reduce travel times by 20 to 25 percent. more ›

The body of officer Angel Brito lay in the morgue of Bellevue Hospital, where he worked, for two months until fellow officers finally claimed it yesterday. Brito, 49, had no family, so when he died in his East Village apartment of natural causes on November 4th, his body was sent to the hospital he had spent the last 14 years protecting. more ›

For over three decades, Ray's Candy Store [MySpace], the burger, shake, etc. joint, has occupied a hole-in-the-wall on Avenue A across the street from Tompkins Square Park. As you may recall, the past year has been extremely tough on elderly owner Ray Alvarez, who's got health problems, has fallen behind on his rent, and had to deal with Muslim fundamentalists shaking him down for free coffee. Today Neither More Nor Less reports that one of the last vestiges of the old Alphabet City is on the verge of closing. more ›

The year began and ended with bad news for Ray's Candy Store [MySpace], the hole-in-the-wall burger, shake, etc. joint on Avenue A across the street from Tompkins Square Park. Ray's has been a neighborhood institution for decades, but owner Ray Alvarez, 76, has fallen deep in debt and has health problems compounded by the fact that he's a Turkish immigrant without a birth certificate and ineligible for Social Security. Now he's late on his rent for the first time since opening in '74, and tells the Villager, "They might throw me out. If I work alone — no girls, no help — I will make $100 a day and pay my rent. ... And if lose my store, I lose my apartment, too. This is my only income, and it’s too cold to collect cans." [Via EV Grieve] more ›

Two wheelchair-bound residents of an East Village shelter got into a deadly argument early yesterday morning. Witnesses say that 24-year-old Ronal Garcia was killed after being stabbed repeatedly by 51-year-old suspect Felipe Rivera-Cruz after the pair exchanged insults. more ›

Click on the images for the scoop on Bar Henry, Sushi Uo, Mermaid Oyster Bar, Manhattan Inn, Northern Spy Food Co., and Má Pêche. more ›

An East Village resident sent us these photos of the aftermath of a horrific automobile crash that happened early this morning, at First Avenue and Fourth Street. An NYPD spokesman tells us that according to a "preliminary report," a 55-year-old black female was killed after a delivery van and minivan collided. Apparently, the minivan was so totaled that EMS had to cut the top off to get inside. The spokesman said there were no other injuries (which seems hard to believe) and no one was charged (which seems typical). Streetsblog hears an "unconfirmed" report that "this was a T-bone collision in which the minivan ran the light." more ›

Click on the images here for more details on The Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights, Bill's Burger in the Meatpacking District, Corsino in the West Village, and Giano in the East Village. more ›

When they're not shooting themselves in the groin, threatening to kill the president, or trying to blow up Starbucks, the city's rebellious youngsters continue to commit the less sensational crime of burglary. Cops arrested two teenagers suspected of ransacking dozens of lower Manhattan apartments in separate burglary sprees. more ›

When we last checked in on the state of the sprawling Manhattan apartment complex known as Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, it was at high risk of default on some $4.4 billion in loans. That was the beginning of September, and the prognosis is still negative. At the end of the month, it had $33.7 million left of the $400 million in interest reserves set up to service its debt, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. This means that at its current burn rate of about $16 million per month, the reserve could be depleted before the end of the year. more ›

After earning the adoration of the hipster masses with his killer Neapolitan-style pizza, Belgian-born chef Mathieu Palombino has recently opened his second Motorino location across the river in Manhattan. The East Village spot (49 East 12th Street) is cozy compared to the spacious original, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in charm and legend: It's the former home of beloved Una Pizza Napoletana, and with the lease Palombino got his hands on the restaurant's prized Acunto wood-burning oven, handcrafted in Naples. more ›

"Everybody here is scared now," downtown bodega worker Primo Dlmn from Morocco tells the Times. "I’m as nervous as I can be, but I’ve got to go to the store. Life goes on." Or does it? A sniper with a high-power BB gun has been terrorizing Avenue D between Third and Fourth Streets during the past week, lodging pellets in a construction worker's skull, shattering car windows, and wounding six others. Now the NYPD says there have been other BB gun shootings in the area, and it looks like there may be some sort of teen pellet gun gang. How street is that? Local mailman James Heckstall says, 'It used to be terrible around here, the Wild West...The neighborhood is getting nicer and nicer. Then, every once in a while, something like this happens, and it makes us look bad." And then someone shoots their eye out. more ›

Some warped punk with a BB gun has been firing at people near the corner of Avenue D and East Third Street during the past week; at least eight people have been shot, and several car windows have been blown out by the sniper. Construction worker Edward Gilyard was shot on Friday, and doctors found two pellets lodged next to his skull. He was at his job site when he felt a sharp pain on his right temple, and tells the Daily News, "I put my hand up there and felt the blood... All of a sudden, I had a little hole in my head." more ›

Gansevoort 69: Last summer, when Florent ended its decades-long run as a 24/7 Meatpacking District oasis, the building's owner Joanne Lucas saw her hopes of finding an upscale boutique tenant evaporate. Then Lucas's attempt at running a restaurant (under the original name R&L;) came off like a depressing ghost of its former self, and the space closed again. The new venture, Gansevoort 69, looks a lot better than the previous effort, with a design that keeps some of the old (the original bar and terrazzo flooring) while creating something new. more ›

Motorino: This top-notch thin-crust pizzeria was an instant hit in East Williamsburg, but will it compete in downtown Manhattan, which is now flooded with "artisan" pizza options? Anyone who's eaten at the original knows the answer's hell yes, and chef Mathieu Palombino is confident his authentic Neapolitan pizza will make its mark. He has the added advantage of inheriting a space already known for pizza excellence; it was previously the home of Una Pizza Napoletana, which left behind its Acunto wood-burning oven, handcrafted in Naples. Palombino's filled the 36-seat space with marble-topped tables and kept the vibe comfortably casual, with shiny subway tiling and wooden bistro chairs. Motorino's Manhattan menu is slightly smaller than the original, and includes seven classic pies, plus a variety of seasonal pizzas. 349 East 12th Street; (212) 777-2644 more ›

An ex-con who is suspected of robbing over a dozen homes throughout the East Village and Lower East Side was feeling so cocky while hanging out inside the East 10th Street apartment he was hitting up that he decided to have a little shirts-off time and take a snooze. When the super of the building found his cellphone and t-shirt behind, cops were able to use DNA testing on the shirt to nail 45-year-old Ramon Pacheco. One police source said Pacheco would use acrobatics to get inside hard-to-reach spots in apartments, taking "laptops, iPods and cameras," telling the Post, "He's kind of like a Spider-Man. Sometimes he's kicking in windows. Sometimes he's going through skylights. One time, he kicked in an air conditioner and crawled inside the apartment." more ›

Today, a funeral was held for Eric Pagan, the 42-year-old bouncer who was killed while trying to intervene in a dispute outside East Village bar Forbidden City over the weekend. A bartender in the neighborhood told NY1, "Taz was always the protector. I used to work at the bar next door to where he used to work and he was always there if we needed him... Anytime anybody ever needed him, Taz was there. He's such a wonderful guy and he's so missed. Avenue A will never be the same. You walk down the block and expect to see him." We're told that East Village bars Drop Off Service, Planet Rose, Forbidden City, Common Ground, Habibi Lounge, and Superdive will donate 50% of their register on Monday, Aug. 31 (all day and night) to set up a college fund for Pagan's children, a 14-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old son whom he adopted when the boy's mother died. more ›

A lawyer for the man arrested for the murder of an East Village bouncer claims that his client Louis Rodriguez is innocent. Rodriguez is accused of shooting Pagan in the face outside the bar Forbidden City after allegedly hitting someone standing on the sidewalk with a van. The Daily News spoke to lawyer Paul Brenner, who said, "An off-duty cop was present. He said Mr. Rodriguez was definitely not involved...My client wasn't there" While Brenner doesn't know the cop's name, he asked the Manhattan's DA office about him. A rep from the DA's office told the News, "We will, of course, investigate all information that comes to our attention, but for now, the charges speak for themselves." A memorial for Pagan has been growing outside Forbidden City and his mother told WCBS 2 that when she found out he was killed, "From there, my heart, my heart, I don't know what happened. From there, I got a pain here, and I - am beat." more ›

The police arrested a 29-year-old man for the fatal Sunday shooting of Eric Pagan, a bouncer at East Village bar Forbidden City. Louis Rodriguez was arrested yesterday in Gramercy; According to the Daily News, "Police said the quarrel started when Rodriguez rolled up on the club in a white van and accidentally struck bar patron Salvador Moran, 31, as he stood outside with Pagan and Robert Calbo, 30. Moran and Rodriguez started arguing until Rodriguez ended the back-and-forth with gunfire, hitting Moran in the neck." Pagan, who wasn't on duty but would check into the bar even off-duty, was also shot, in the face; Moran and Calbo were injured. Witnesses and surveillance video led cops to Rodriguez, who has previously been in prison for assault. On Sunday night, East Village residents paid their respects to Pagan; EV Grieve has more. more ›

Yesterday, the shooting outside East Village bar Forbidden City, on Avenue A near 13th Street, that left its bouncer dead and two other men injured was apparently spurred from a fight, which bouncer Eric Pagan, 42, had been trying to break up. Pagan actually had the night off but Forbidden City's manager Ron Ancheta said he usually checked in. Ancheta told the Times that when he heard the gunfire around 4:25 a.m., he rushed out, "[Pagan] was laying right in the middle of the street, face up. There were so many witnesses, probably around 10 to 15 people surrounding his body." more ›

An off-duty firefighter got called into action Friday night when he ended up pulling a Wes Autrey and jumping down on the tracks to rescue a man who had fainted and was laying unconscious on the tracks just as an uptown Q train began pulling into the Union Square station. 30-year-old Adam Rivera, originally of Bay Ridge, had been out in the East Village getting Indian food with his girlfriend to celebrate their seventh anniversary. The couple was heading home to the Upper West Side when Rivera spotted 45-year-old Marco Delamo on the tracks. The firefighter out of Engine 10 in lower Manhattan told reporters, "People were panicking, but nobody was doing anything...I thought to myself, 'This is my job — I'm a New York City firefighter, and I have to do something...There was no time to be afraid. You can't waste time hesitating. You just move, and the thinking stops...Being right there in a position to help — that's why I joined the department." Rivera and two other men lifted Delamo to the platform before he was taken to St. Vincent's intensive care with head injuries. more ›

Around 4:30 a.m. today, a shooting broke out on Avenue A and East 13th Street—a total of three men were shot, and one was killed. According to 1010 WINS, "All three of the unidentified men were rushed to Bellevue Hospital where one of them was pronounced dead. The other two were listed in stable condition." It's unclear what caused the shooting, which occurred just south of Stuyvesant Town, and the investigation is ongoing. 1010WINS adds that East Village residents told "reporter Glenn Schuck, that they are upset the bars and clubs in the area stay open so late." Update: The Daily News reports that the shooting occurred outside the bar Forbidden City and that the bouncer was killed after throwing two men out: "The men, who continued to fight with another group as they exited the night spot, hopped into a waiting white van and one of them reemerged a moment later brandishing a handgun, horrified witnesses said." One witness elaborated that a man got out of the vehicle and "popped one guy. He then walked around another car, went straight up to [the bouncer] and capped him point blank in the forehead." more ›

Today Frank Bruni ends his five year gig at the Times with a review of the Redhead, an East Village bar that gradually evolved into a casual restaurant with, some say, the best fried chicken in town. Quoth the Bruni: "It isn’t exactly like any other downtown restaurant I know—its semi-polished, Southern-inflected pub grub is all its own—but it sharply reflects a few of the most prominent and rewarding developments in Manhattan dining over the years during which I’ve had the privilege of serving as The Times’s restaurant critic. more ›