We have nothing against football. We do have a problem sitting through a 4-hour orgy of commerce and overweight millionaires concussing each other to the glee of billionaires. And there's Madonna. So what's a curmudgeon to do? Here are five suggestions to ward off the face-painted bandwagon-jumpers and the insipid dialogue they will inevitably pitch on Gchat tomorrow. more ›

A woman was found dead on the sidewalk this morning at Avenue B and East 7th street in the East Village. According to police at the scene, the deceased was a homeless park regular at Tompkins Square Park, and no criminality is suspected. She was found at around 7 a.m. this morning, and has not yet been identified. more ›

The woman who claimed to have been locked up for 32 hours for sitting at the chess tables in Tompkins Square Park and not playing chess wasn't exactly telling the whole story, according to a spokesman for the police. But she is sticking to her guns. more ›

You better be careful what you do and where you do it in the parks, New Yorkers. The police are watching. Apparently when they aren't giving out summons for being unaccompanied by minors in playgrounds and threatening tickets for using motorized boats in a Central Park's boat pond, the police are going and arresting people for sitting at chess tables and not playing chess? According to Neither More Nor Less that is exactly what happened to a woman named Lisa in Tompkins Square Park. In fact, she says she spent 32 hours in the system because she was't playing the King's Game. more ›

A homeless woman was found dead on the sidewalk under the scaffolding outside St. Brigid's Church in the East Village yesterday morning. A friend of the woman told the NY Times, "She was a very beautiful person, and she had a beautiful heart." EV Grieve walked by the scene last night and found that someone lit a candle in her memory. more ›

Yesterday we learned that dog owners are packing heat (okay, knives and billy clubs and hammers) at the Tompkins Square dog run, as a means of protection against possible pit bull attacks (there have been at least 5 on dogs and 2 on humans since September). What do the pit bull owners think of this? DNA Info says they're shrugging it off; pit bull Lily's owner, Dennis, says "Dogs aren't born bad, they're made bad," and his was made sweet! more ›

It's back to the Bad Old Days in Tompkins Square Park, where dog owners have begun carrying assorted weapons to protect themselves and their pooches against vicious attacks. According to DNA Info, the residents are carrying knives, hammers, billy clubs, and metal rods to the park after recent pit bull attacks at the dog run there. Local dog owner Garrett Rosso listed all of the attacks in a recent letter to the editor at the Villager, explaining five dogs and three people have been brought to the hospital during a two-month time span. more ›

It's almost Halloween, which means it's time for humans to dress their dogs in costumes so we can oooh and ahhh over them. This Saturday is the 20th Annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade. The event will take place from noon to 3 p.m., and this year there's even going to be a photo booth area in the dog run, which will act as a red carpet for the pups. If past attendance is any indication, expect about 500 dogs in costumes! If you make it over there, be sure to send us your photos or tag them "Gothamist" on Flickr. Let's see if these dogs can give the cats a run for their money. more ›

While the humans get the big Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village on October 31, canines have a series of Halloween Parades to participate in. This past weekend, there dogs were decked out in elaborate costumes in both Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side and Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. Take a look at these awesome costumes—our favorite is the Hulk Dog, if only because she endured getting dyed green! Update: We learned that Hulk Dog is an Olde English Bulldogge named Fanny—she got 2nd place for her costume. more ›

We were sort of hoping the Urballoon was going to be a new form of hot air balloon public transit, but no such luck. It is however a pretty cool art installation that you can experience on September 18th as part of the Conflux Festival. "The Urballoon consists of a large helium balloon with a video projector and a wireless laptop that projects user-generated content onto public spaces. It floats above its tethers in parks or plazas and displays the video onto the ground, encouraging people to gather around a digital bonfire. People will be asked to address the theme 'What is New York?'" Get your answers ready, and look for it in Tompkins Square Park later this month. In the meantime, can someone bring back the hot air balloon rides over Central Park? more ›

This is not your grandfather's bread line. The first ever Unemployment Olympics was held yesterday afternoon in Tompkins Square Park. Organizer Nick Goddard, who's been unemployed from computer programming since February, said his goal was simply to cheer up his fellow layabouts and give them shot at the gold with gift certificates from local businesses. And because the press photographers and reporters often outnumbered the participants, we're guessing the local merchants were delighted with the exposure. more ›

Today was the sort of day rain dates were made for. After getting washed out yesterday, Tompkins Square Park had plenty of autumn sunshine for what is claimed to be the country's largest dog costume parade. Thousands of dollars in prizes including six iPods were given away to the owners of the winning dogs. more ›

City Councilman David Yassky announced a plan yesterday for the city to sell ads on its trash cans, a revenue source that he says could rake in $2.5 million. The city owns 25,000 trash receptacles that under Yassky's plan would all bear ads within two to three years. The move would also potentially put a stop to trash cans being funded out of Council members' budgets and then arriving on the streets with the only legal form of promotion currently allowed--emblazoned with the names of the Council members themselves. How close would this all lead us to designer trash cans? Garbage bins in Tompkins Square Park recently began getting spruced up with pink and polka-dotted bags designed by a local artist. more ›

Reports from last night's Donut Social protest in the East Village say it ended in a mini-riot with several protesters arrested. During an impromptu acoustic concert in Tompkins Square following the scheduled demonstration, Leftover Crack singer Scott Sturgeon was first arrested (possibly for throwing donuts at police). More arrests followed when protesters sat in front of the police car containing Sturgeon blocking its exit from the park as the crowd called for police to "quit, commit suicide and called them Nazis." The event's organizers had already run into resistance from police before the night of the gathering which was protesting "police brutality, real estate developers, and the blatant selectively targeted harassment/discrimination toward our scene during the 20th Anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park Police Riots concert/political rally back in August." more ›

Security guards have stopped searching bags belonging to people attending a biweekly movie night in Tompkins Square Park after a group of 15 activists protested Wednesday night. The Villager was at the scene, where critics of the bag checks had vowed to strip naked to ironically facilitate the security searches. Mercifully, it didn’t come to that. Josh Boyd, a co-founder of the free movie series, called off the search “because it was upsetting people.” Jeffrey Rothman, a civil rights lawyer who attended as a legal observer, sounded a triumphant note as audience members filed freely into a screening of Better Off Dead: “Rights that are not asserted wither away.” [Photo: Villager/Jefferson Siegel] more ›

On the humid night of August 6th, 1988, long-simmering resentments over East Village gentrification boiled over into the now-infamous Tompkins Square Park riot. Hundreds of people had gathered at the park to protest the imposition of a 1 a.m. curfew. At some point, the protest turned violent; bottles were thrown at the police, who retaliated with beatings and arrests throughout the night. According to the Times, forty-four people were injured, including 13 cops. more ›

The 20th Anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park riots was celebrated over the weekend with two days of punk rock, pot smoking, rabble rousing and slam dancing. (Potty-mouth video.) According to Neither More Nor Less, they “slammed with a physical intensity that TSP has not seen in many years. Someone threw $1000 in dollar bills to the crowd and this crowd of celebrants burned the dollar bills. The celebrants also burned a flag; being polyester it mostly melted in flaming gobs.” A reader (“Shadow”) sent us this photo, and noted that the commanding officer of the 9th precinct, Dennis DeQuatro, “looked the other way” as it was burned. (Two years ago a constitutional amendment to make flag burning illegal failed by one vote in the Senate.) more ›

Today at 2pm in Tompkins Square Park, there will be a punk concert to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the police riots that took place there. The NY Times has an account of the battle between cops and protesters that took place back on August 6th and 7th, 1988 over a city-imposed curfew of 1 a.m. that had been enacted in an attempt to clean up the rampant homeless population and drug usage that dominated the park's nights. The Times paints the anniversary celebration (which began last weekend) organized by Jerry Wade, aka "Jerry the Peddler", as a bit of an anachronism within a heavily gentrified East Village, pointing out, "these days the park’s curfew is one hour earlier, but it is rarely a source of controversy." more ›

Even back in 1984 there was mainstream media attention on the ever-changing landscape of the Lower East Side and East Village. Real estate was "exploding," chain stores were popping up, and galleries were abundant. The New York Magazine cover story on May 28th of that year was titled: The Lower East Side -- There Goes the Neighborhood. more ›

Okay, maybe pets aren't so into the holidays, except when it comes to scraps that fall to the floor or the prospect of a new chew toy. But that doesn't mean that pet owners aren't enthusiastic about projecting the spirit of the season onto Fido and Fluffy. more ›

Artist Phil Kline has brought us an Unsilent Night every year since 1992. He describes his experiment as an "outdoor ambient music piece for an infinite number of boomboxes. It’s like a Christmas caroling party except that we don’t sing, but rather carry the music, each of us playing a separate track that is a voice in the piece." more ›

It's a Halloween Hump Day! We will have more details about the Halloween Parade and other events in the city later, but we thought we'd point you to It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown videos on Youtube (part 1, 2, 3), in case you missed ABC's airing last night. You can also get it on DVD, and there's also the book It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic. more ›

The annual Tompkins Square Park Halloween dog parade was yesterday, and the pups were out in their costumed best! more ›

The Critical Mass Halloween Ride is tonight! If you go, get some good pictures! more ›

Saturday night’s Vendy Awards ended in victory for “Dosa Man” Thiru Kumar, the all-vegan, South Indian crêpe vendor of Washington Square South who had previously taken the runner-up title for the last two years. At the awards ceremony capping off a 5 hour eat-a-thon, Kumar was presented with the silver “Vendy” trophy by last year’s winner Samiul Haque Noor, from Sammy’s Halal. more ›