The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933
February 27, 2014 • $1.00 Volume 83 • Number 39
Affordable units will be part of project in Hudson Square BY SAM SPOKONY
A PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Some of the 40 to 50 photos of the fallen Euromaidan heroes at a memorial outside 136 Second Ave. on Sunday.
Ukrainians rejoice at revolution yet mourn Maidan’s fallen heroes BY TEQUILA MINSKY
L
ast Saturday, hundreds of Ukrainians and other New Yorkers walked across the Brooklyn Bridge in support of democracy demonstrators in Ukraine. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Ukrainians gathered outside the White House, commemorating heroes of the “Heaven’s Hundred” — those who had fallen just days before.
They sang songs dedicated to Kiev’s Independence Square, or Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the epicenter of the “Euromaidan” uprising. More than 80 demonstrators were killed there during Feb. 18-20, ruthlessly picked off by the Berkut, specialforces snipers, who aimed for the head, neck or heart. In a fast-moving, daily-changing political landscape, on Feb. 22, the Ukrainian Parliament impeached the country’s president, Viktor Yanukovych.
Antigovernment demonstrations had been ongoing since November. Protesters ramped up actions last week, as government forces fired on their own people, to the outrage of the international community. The escalated skirmish was brief, costly, but ultimately victorious for the opposition. On Monday, an arrest warrant for the president was issued for the “mass murder” of protesters. However, as of press time, Yanukovych’s
new proposal by the Extell Development Corporation could bring the first batch of affordable housing to Hudson Square, following the neighborhood’s major rezoning last year. Extell wants to construct a 22-story residen-
tial building at 68 Charlton St., between Hudson and Varick Sts., on a currently empty lot where, several years ago, the developer had once sought to build a hotel. The proposed project calls for 116 total units: 91 market-rate co-ops and 25 affordable apartments. Of the affordable units, Extell HOUSING, continued on p. 4
Johnson takes lulu but says process has been reformed BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
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ew City Councilmember Corey Johnson is denying that he has flipflopped on the issue of accepting Council stipends, also known as “lulus.” The annual payments, in the past ranging from $5,000 to $15,000, have traditionally been doled out
to members as compensation for chairing committees. But they have also been seen as a way for the speaker of the Council to wield influence and control among its members. When he was running for office last year, Johnson responded to a questionnaire by the goodJOHNSON, continued on p. 8
UKRAINE, continued on p. 14
Will Bill kill pavilion bistro plan?........................page 6 Editorial: Garden and housing.........................page 10 www.TheVillager.com
Violence in Venezuela.......page 15