12 Injured in East Village Building Explosion, Collapse After Workers Hit Gas Line: FDNY, Sources
Source: NBC
Construction workers inside a sushi restaurant in the East Village accidentally hit a gas line, causing an explosion that injured 12 people, sparked a massive fire and caused two buildings to collapse, law enforcement sources tell NBC 4 New York.
Read more: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/East-Village-Building-Collapse-St-Marks-Place-297693751.html
Moderator - Please don't lock this. It's an update from a few minutes ago. Thanks!
P.S. also posted in New York.
= new reply since forum marked as read
The paranoid part of my mind thinks that NYU was behind this so that they could continue colonizing the East Villiage. 
I do think of them as the University that ate Manhattan. As far as the neighborhood's character - have you seen the yuppie palaces going up there? The East Village is under siege IMO. One of my first reactions to this neighborhood disaster was - what is built in place of those collapsed buildings will not fit in at all. It'll be more housing for people who don't need it - by which I mean people who, unlike the vast majority of us, can live anywhere and pay any price. This will just speed up the gentrification. 
I've written numerous letters to the editor. etc. about gentrification: The moneyed Columbuses who colonize an established neighborhood after it is characterized by the real estate industry as "up and coming" - move into these areas and in the process destroy them. (Of course this is described in real estate newspeak as "revitalization."
The newbie would-be residents want something "different." However, the funkiness that attracts these parasites can't last when the rent inevitably goes up for established neighborhood businesses. Then the longstanding neighborhood institution of, say, a shoe repair business is replaced by a trendy food marché where you can choose from 30 different kinds of olives. Do they even notice the upheaval? Do they care? I'll bet the rent they don't.
