The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933
February 6, 2014 • $1.00 Volume 83 • Number 36
Mendez snubbed by new speaker; Calls it payback BY SAM SPOKONY
R PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
A memorial to Philip Seymour Hoffman outside 35 Bethune St. included a Dec. 21, 2008, New York Times Magazine with a cover article, “Portrait of an Artist as an Actor’s Actor,” on Hoffman.
egardless of all the talk of a sea change in progressive city government, Councilmember Rosie Mendez says she’s still O.K. with being punished in the name of politics. Even though she won reelection to her third term with more than 90 percent
BY HEATHER DUBIN
I
t was early Tuesday afternoon, and fans and admirers of tragic actor Philip Seymour Hoffman were stopping by to pay tribute outside his West Village building, each in his or her own way. Artist Kaz Morimoto stood writing on a watercolor painting he had done of Hoffman and his family —
“The Village will miss you” — then placed it down among the flower bouquets and candles that had been left on the Bethune St. building’s front step. Then he squatted down and put his hands together in silent prayer, holding still that way for a full minute. “I would always see him with his family,” the artist said, “and riding his bike. I’d wave to him.” He just seemed like a good guy,
Morimoto said. A few steps away, in another artistic expression in Hoffman’s honor, Arrowe, 23, was strumming away on a guitar and feverishly belting out a song — “For Lester Bangs” — that he’d written the night before. The title referred to Hoffman’s role as the iconoclastic rock journalist in the movie “Almost Famous.”
MENDEZ, continued on p. 4
Sidewalk danger: Dogs getting jolted by stray voltage
In private, tortured drama, Hoffman loses life to drugs S BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
of the vote, Mendez — who represents the East Village and Lower East Side — has now been essentially demoted by new Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and will likely finish out her term as one of the Council’s least powerful members. Last month, Mendez
tray voltage from a sidewalk in the East Village shocked three dogs during earlymorning walks with their owners last Sunday. Con Edison workers later determined a burned piece of service cable was to blame for the voltage, which was discovered in
scaffolding at a construction site on Second Ave. between E. Ninth and 10th Sts. where Icon Realty Management is transforming an old mortuary into luxury apartments. Meghan Serrano, an East Village resident, was walking Georgie-Girl, her year-old Border Collie mix, by the site when the VOLTAGE, continued on p. 16
HOFFMAN, continued on p. 14
Tamiment Library gets new director.................page 8 Tallmer’s ‘Birth of a Voice,’ Chapter 1.............page 11 www.TheVillager.com
Super Bowl Boulevard.....page 13