The Lower East Side can be hellish on weekends, sure. Sometimes it can be really hellish, especially on Halloween, when some teenager holds your iPhone hostage and the night degenerates into an almost-brawl in a pizza parlor in which your friends are chasing the girl around, calling her a bitch, and your "really nice Tommy Hilfiger wallet" gets stolen and you have to call the police.

The above is the experience of some guy who then posted the whole thing to Craigslist Missed Connections for "The girl who held my iPhone for ransom in a pizzeria last night." Reposting in its entirety:

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According to the Crime & Safety study recently released by DNA Info, drunk driving arrests in the East Village nearly tripled last year, with 141.4 percent more arrested (140 incidents) in the 9th Precinct than the year before. Damningly, each year there's been a greater increase -- since 2001, arrests have gone up 600 percent. Yet, in the rest of the city, arrests have mostly declined.

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Remember the Timeshare Backyard on the Lower East Side? A group called The Participation Agency has been renting out a 3,200 square foot empty yard at 145 Ludlow for $50 an hour since August 11. You can bring your friends and play with water guns and slip 'n slides, jump on a trampoline, grill, drink your beer out of foam cozies, whatever you want. It's a cute idea but to be honest, we'd kind of forgotten that it was going on until today, when Jeremiah's Vanishing New York pinpointed a part of the flyer we hadn't noticed before.

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Arlene Gottfried, a photographer who has shot for the Voice over many decades (most recently shooting our cover story "Class Struggle" earlier this year) has a new book out called Bacalaitos & Fireworks. With a forward by Benecio Del Toro, the book is a beautiful look at the Loisaida/Nuyorican culture of the Lower East Side in the 1970s. We caught up with Arlene in her studio to talk about her work in the above audio slide show. She'll be giving a lecture at her book launch tonight, Tuesday, August 2nd, from 7-9 PM, at the Powerhouse Arena, 37 Main Street in DUMBO.

sthrasher@villagevoice.com | @steven_thrasher

Esther Zuckerman

We have gotten some more information on the Stanton Street murder we reported yesterday. Through the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information, we have learned that the woman is Felicia Cruz, 49. She was found dead in the residency of Miguel Pena, 58, at 101 Stanton Street, apartment 14. Pena was arrested on the scene and charged with murder. The two "are known to each other," DCPI told us. At the scene yesterday, a man who identified himself as the victim's son's teacher explained that he had heard that her "boyfriend" was the murderer, and a friend, Juana Hernandez, said the two had been in a relationship for four or five months, but that it was ending. "She [had] found out he's not a great guy," Hernandez said. Hernandez described Cruz as "very strong." We are expecting to hear from the medical examiner's office on the results of the autopsy. Updates after the jump. [ezwrites]

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​Raul Barrera, accused of slicing up girlfriend Sarah Coit's face, stabbing her to death, and nearly decapitating her, has a history of domestic violence with at least two other past girlfriends, the Daily News reports, furnishing details this morning.

Barrera, charged with murder in the April 10 slaying, had a weepy reunion with his parents in the Bellevue psych ward, where people are making sure he doesn't kill himself before standing trial.

Ex-girlfriend Marisol Reyes had been battered by Barrera, her family and friends told the paper. Lowlights from the compelling, repelling story, which is backed up by court records:

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​Saturday night's party went on too long for Pascual Flores. The 22-year-old Bronx man was stabbed to death shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday, February 20, in Brooklyn, at Liberty and Sheridan avenues in East New York. Cops say he had left a party with another man to get more beer when they were confronted by the killer. Cops say they don't know what the motive was. Flores was stabbed "in the torso," as the NYPD puts it. His 23-year-old pal, no name released, was slashed in the right thigh; his injuries were said to not be life-threatening. Flores lived at 3013 Matthews Avenue, in Bronxdale.

In other ugly news:

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