(Animated GIF: Patrick Hogan)

As you’ll recall, Brooklyn artist Rostarr popped into our Newsroom this past weekend to paint a mural. We made a gif of the installation and now you can watch it, above, forever and ever and ever.

In other news: Judy Rapfogel, chief of staff to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said she was completely in the dark about the fact that her husband allegedly stole more than $1 million from a poverty charity and stashed thousands in the couple’s Lower East Side apartment. [NY Daily News] More →

Erica Dobbs, outside her 135 Franklin Street storefront. (Photo: Natalie Rinn)

Eight years ago, Erica Dobbs – owner of Greenpoint’s fantastic vintage clothing store, Ana Chronos – was living in the West Village, working as an account executive and, as it turns out, converting her one bedroom apartment into a giant walk-in closet filled with vintage clothes.

“When I moved to New York, I needed to dress up all the time and I hated what was out there,” said Dobbs from inside her cozy two-year-old business on Franklin Street. “I liked designer things, but I realized the craftsmanship was shit and I started buying vintage on the regular and really collecting.” Eventually she turned the passion into a business, and tonight, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., she’ll celebrate two years on Franklin with booze from Pavan Liqueur, snacks from Ovenly, music by Mistri Misrach and The Spookfish, and more. Best part: the first 15 people get 50% off her rare vintage finds, and everyone else gets 30% off all night long.
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(Photo: Scott Lynch)

A Russ & Daughters Café slated for the Lower East Side? Looks like it! [NY Times]

The Lower East Side is getting a new Business Improvement District head. [The Lo-Down] More →

Beneath the stretch of Kenmare Street that runs into Delancey and intersects with the Bowery, there’s an abandoned subway station – the old Bowery J stop. Its southern entrance currently serves as an event space and, this morning, a pop-up collaboration between Blue Bottle and a first-time Lebanese eatery called Manousheh debuts there.
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(Photo: Scott Lynch)

Long-time Community Board 3 member and E.V. bar owner David McWater will resign from his volunteer post following controversy that his spot on the State Liquor Authority subcommittee conflicted with his duties as an owner of three local bars. [Village Voice]

Prosecutors allege that William E. Rapfogel stole more than $5 million he headed the Metropolitan New York Council on Jewish Poverty; “investigators found $400,000 squirreled away in his Lower East Side apartment” (and more in his home in Monticello, of course). [NY Times] More →