The Villager, March 28, 2013

Pax in the Pet set, p. 29

Volume 82, Number 43 $1.00

West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Hudson Square, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933

March 28 - April 3, 2013

NID critics poke holes in ‘unfair’ tax plan for park By eiLeen sTUKAne The Hudson River Park Trust encountered stiff opposition to its hope for creating the city’s first neighborhood improvement district, or NID, at its final public meeting in February. Following the guidelines used to create a business improvement district, or BID, the Trust was required to hold public meetings for community feedback. During the first round of hearings there wasn’t

Seek and you Sal find

Photo by Jefferson Siegel

Mayoral candidate Sal Albanese pointed to a Parks Department sign at Mercer Playground that clearly states the site was “formally transferred” from the Department of Transportation to the Parks Department in 1997. A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department, however, told The Villager the sign was “a mistake.” See Page 2.

Youth leagues on march for more fields at Pier 40

By LincoLn Anderson Local youth leagues recently struck out with their plan to build twin 22-story luxury towers on the Hudson to finance the preservation and expansion of their “field of dreams” at Pier 40.

The leagues, as a coalition called Pier 40 Champions, funded their own feasibility study and even hired their own architect to design the plan.

Led by Tobi Bergman, head of P3

(Pier Park & Playground Association), they lobbied aggressively, with thousands of sports parents signing electronic petitions for the plan, the petitions then immediately being automatically forwarded to all the local elected officials. They packed a Pier 40 forum last month.

Nevertheless, there was staunch local political opposition to the Champs’ concept plan, and then

much ado, but during the second round, some significant resistance emerged.

The proposed NID area includes the 5-mile-long park, plus a two-to-three-block-wide strip bordering the park’s eastern edge, extending from Hell’s Kitchen, through Chelsea and Greenwich Village, down to Tribeca. Initially, meetings for residents in the proposed

Continued on page 9

Another supermarket will be checking out; Walgreens coming in By eLissA sTein Hidden behind the shopping carts, so as not to upset customers, are stacks of bold “STORE CLOSING” signs, to be hung in windows this weekend at the Food Emporium, at 12th St. and Sixth Ave. Food Emporium, which has been at the location for more than 50 years, will be shutting its doors in early May. Permanently.

Along with the Greenwich Village outpost, the Food Emporium at 68th St. and

— like Mariano Rivera coming in to close out a ball game in the ninth inning — City Council Speaker Christine Quinn fired a fastball of a statement in to The Villager saying she has “a commitment to no residential development at Pier 40.”

Game over.

After Quinn’s strong statement,

Continued on page 4

5 15 C A N A L STREET • N YC 10 013 • C OPYRIG HT © 2013 N YC COMMU NITY M ED IA , LLC

Broadway will be closing as well. A&P, Food Emporium’s parent company, emerged from bankruptcy last year. It was still trying to sell its Manhattan locations, when it was announced in March that Madison Capital, a private investment group specializing in real estate, was purchasing the leases to both supermarket sites. When asked for more information about what will happen to the Downtown store, a Madison

Continued on page 11

editorial, letterS PAGE 12

occupy Fair For HealtHcare PAGE 16

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March 28 - April 3, 2013

HELPING NEW YORKERS STAY FIT FOR 40 YEARS Photo by Jefferson Siegel

Sal Albanese, center, was filled in on the basics of the N.Y.U. 2031 plan at the start of Friday’s superblocks tour by Bo Riccobono, right, and Jeff Goodwin, left, as Linda Cronin-Gross, N.Y.U. FASP public-relations director, rear, listened.

NYHRC.COM

Candidate Albanese takes trip around disputed N.Y.U. strips

By Lincoln Anderson Members of N.Y.U. Faculty Against the Sexton Plan last Friday led mayoral candidate Sal Albanese on a tour of the university’s two superblocks, pointing out how the area would be impacted by the university’s N.Y.U. 2031 mega-development project.

The tour with Albanese came exactly one week after the faculty of Arts and Sciences, New York University’s largest school, voted “no confidence” in President John Sexton.

Leading the tour were Bo Riccobono, first vice chairperson of Community Board 2, and Terri Cude, co-leader of Community Action Alliance on N.Y.U. 2031, a.k.a.

CAAN. Riccobono is also an adjunct N.Y.U. professor. Albanese himself received his master’s in health sciences from N.Y.U. A former 15-year city councilmember, he is the only candidate in the race who has pledged not to take developers’ money.

“Everywhere I go, it’s an issue,” he said about New Yorkers’ concerns about overdevelopment in their neighborhoods.

“They’re going to build inside here, they have two towers,” Riccobono said, pointing to the northern block.

“They want to put in a series of buildings, up to 25 stories — very dense,” Cude chimed in.

Absorbing the information, Albanese said, “So you’re opposed to the whole thing?”

Indeed, Cude, Riccobono and N.Y.U. FASP are part of the 11 community groups who are plaintiffs in the Article 78 lawsuit seeking to overturn the city’s approval last summer of N.Y.U.’s application for the plan.

The ambitious $6 billion scheme would add around 2 million square feet of development to the two superblocks, located south of Washington Square Park and north of Houston St. Faculty members Chris Collins, a linguis-

tics professor, and Jeff Goodwin, a sociology professor, filled in the mayoral hopeful on the faculty’s displeasure about the plan for the two supersized blocks, where nearly 40 percent of the school’s faculty live.

“So there was no consultation? There was no in-depth conversation with the faculty?”

Albanese asked.

Riccobono explained that it was only after the ULURP application for the scheme was approved last summer that the university created the so-called “Space Committee,” a Committee on Open Space to discuss the plan with faculty.

What about political opposition to the plan, at least? Albanese asked.

“No, none,” Riccobono said. “The only one was [Assemblymember] Deborah Glick.

She’s a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit.”

Not even the local councilmember?

Albanese asked, referring to Margaret Chin.

“She’s under the influence of Quinn,” Riccobono explained, referring to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

“The City Council’s a dictatorship,” Albanese quipped with a smile.

However, the opponents noted, Chin’s predecessors, former Councilmembers Alan Gerson and Kathryn Freed, both recently filed affidavits in support of the community lawsuit against N.Y.U. 2031. And before them, former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, the city’s longest-serving Parks commissioner, also submitted an affidavit for the lawsuit. Stern, Freed and Gerson all say that it was their clear understanding that the four open space strips along the superblocks’ Mercer St. and LaGuardia Place edges were parkland.

“The community board opposed it unanimously,” Riccobono added of the university’s plan.

Continued on page 18

March 28 - April 3, 2013

Scoopy’s

notebook THIS TIME, IT’S NOT ABOUT FRIENDS: Arthur Schwartz has announced he’s running for male Democratic district leader for Greenwich Village, the West Village and South Chelsea, a position he held from 1995 to 2005. Saying his experience in politics left him cynical, Schwartz said he “had to take a break and step aside” in ’05 because state Senator Tom Duane, who he thought was his friend, and City Councilmember Christine Quinn “had chosen Brad Hoylman to be the next city councilperson for our community” — district leader being the first step on Hoylman’s climb up the ladder. Schwartz never ran for higher office himself, saying that his duties as a dad — he remarried and started a second family in 2003 — always kept him from doing so. Nevertheless, Schwartz said, “I was annoyed that I didn’t even receive a celebratory dinner for 10 years of hard work bringing the Duane/Quinn agenda to the local community and helping turn out huge numbers to vote in elections.” Meanwhile, Jon Geballe was recently voted in by the County Committee to fill Hoylman’s district leader seat, now that Hoylman has succeeded Duane in the state Senate. But Schwartz charged that Geballe won’t challenge local elected officials on the issues, but that he, Schwartz, will. For example, Schwartz said, “N.Y.U. has rolled over the Central Village, without much real resistance from elected officials. Yes, one elected led marches around Washington Square, but in the end, those in power were outmaneuvered by the university. A natural gas pipeline (the Spectra pipeline) will soon be running across Hudson River Park and West St. at 13th St. Local residents are horrified, but other than lip service, little has been done by electeds to stop it. I could go on and on. … The intractable deadlock over Hudson River Park and Pier 40. … I have no inhibition about challenging our elected leaders to be more responsive to their communities, and the position of district leader will give me more of a bully pulpit to do that. The status quo just isn’t good enough.”

“I JUST CAN’T SMILE WITHOUT BID”: As she continues her relentless drive to create a Christopher St. Partnership business improvement district, Jessica Berk reports the fledgling group recently got its first “celebrity like” — as in a “like” by a celebrity — on its Facebook page, by none other than Barry Manilow.

The romantic, swoon-inducing crooner doesn’t even live in New York, but Berk is taking it. “We need a lot more support than Barry Manilow,” she said, adding, “If you really want to know, I’m waiting for calls back from David Geffen and Marc Jacobs, who I hope will do a T-shirt for us. Philip Seymour Hoffman, he lives in my building, he said, ‘Yes.’ Billy Joel supports the BID — I talked to him about it while I was walking my dog. He used to have a townhouse on Perry St. before he got divorced.”

Hugh Jackman also, at some point, signed something saying he was in favor of the idea, Berk claims. Anyway, she’s planning a meeting about the proposed district, dubbed “Can Christopher

St. Be Saved?” on Tues., April 9, at 7 p.m., at St. John’s Lutheran Church, at 81 Christopher St. “This is the first meeting, there are no rules for it,” she said. “We’ll see what happens.” Who knows?

Maybe someday she’ll be able to say, “Looks like we maaade it!”

NOHO BACK IN THE FOLD: Thanks to Councilmember Margaret Chin, Noho has rejoined Soho in Council District 1.

According to her communications director, Kelly Magee, Chin spoke to the Redistricting Commission and convinced them to reunite the adjacent enclaves, which share a joint live-work quarters zoning for artists. Jeanne Wilcke, president of Downtown Independent Democrats, said their lobbying the councilmember on the issue paid off. “Chin spoke to the commission — and voila! There we are,” she said. “I personally thanked Chin when I ran into her, as she immediately told me the news. As these two communities were founded together and have the same unique zoning, a future divided would have been precarious. The Noho Neighborhood Association in particular is relieved that Noho will not be divided from its sister district, Soho.” Said Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance, “Truly it is said, ‘The squeaky wheel gets the oil.’ It is gratifying that the councilmember was able to preserve these two long-standing ‘communities of interest,’ basically the same neighborhood sharing a common history, demographic, architecture and zoning, simply intersected by a large thoroughfare, Houston St.”

MEATPACKING CHEDDAR: On Mon., March 18, the nonprofit Meatpacking District Improvement Association hosted its first annual fundraiser, OPEN MARKET, a shopping, dining and music extravaganza at Highline Stages. The confab featured the participation of nearly all the district’s retail, restaurant, hospitality and cultural businesses. Co-chaired by DVF’s Diane von Furstenberg and Andrew Rosen, C.E.O. of Theory, together above, the event brought together hundreds of guests along with some of the most influential names in fashion, nightlife and real

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DE BLASIO BLAZING HIS OWN TRAIL: At a forum of the Democratic mayoral candidates at Baruch College on March 20 sponsored by Gay City News, The Villager’s sister publication, Bill de Blasio was the only one of the five candidates to say he supports a ban on horse-drawn carriages in New York City. Also, de Blasio was the only candidate to declare he backs Mayor Bloomberg’s idea of portion caps for fountain sodas and other sugary drinks. (Scoopy reported last week that de Blasio advocates portion caps.)

ANSHE ANGST: Sandy Ackerman, son of Rabbi Pesach Ackerman, called us to say that our recent article on the residential conversion plan for Anshe Mezritch Synagogue, at 415 E. Sixth St., incorrectly stated that the synagogue would be moved down to “the basement.” In fact, this area is “just two steps down” and is essentially the ground floor, he stressed. Also, we hear there is a bit of controversy about the apparent plan for the Mezritch congregation to use the community room at Village View for their Shabbos services. We’re told that the Village View board voted to approve this, though at least one board member — President Adam Silvera — was reportedly “so unhappy” that it was reported in The Villager, and says it actually won’t be happening. We tried reaching Silvera without success.

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estate. All the proceeds went to M.P.I.A.’s continuing efforts to improve the neighborhood through public initiatives. Vintage Meatpacking District-style sample sale booths were hosted by DVF, Theory, Rag & Bone, Tory Burch, Helmut Lang and others.

The Standard Highline, Tippler, Morimoto and Del Posto, among others, provided food and drink. A silent auction was held featuring a holiday getaway to Turks and Caicos from Ganservoort Hotel Group, JetBlue flight packages, a Rag & Bone shopping spree and more. “The Meatpacking District is New York’s epicenter of fashion, food, hospitality and nightlife and the only area where these industries converge, creating a truly unique commercial district that still continues to evolve,” said Lauren Danziger, M.P.I.A. executive director. “We are thrilled that so many of our friends gathered together to help host the first annual OPEN MARKET to support M.P.I.A.’s efforts.”

IRONCLAD ENDORSEMENT: City Council candidate Yetta Kurland has nailed down the support of the Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers Local 46 and also of the steely members of the McManus Midtown Democratic Club.

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“It’s Worth The Trip Down The Street!”

CORRECTION: An obituary in last week’s issue on editor/ writer Gerald Barry, who died March 13 at 90, incorrectly stated that he lived at the Kateri Residence the past two years. In fact, he lived at home in the Village until Feb. 2, when he went to Beth Israel Hospital with heart failure, and then transferred to the Kateri Residence for his last two weeks. “We were especially adamant about caring for him at home in these last few years of illness,” said his wife, Sugar Barry. Also, Sugar said, Jerry’s family asked that donations in his memory be sent to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which was important to him and was where he often did research for his books and articles.

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March 28 - April 3, 2013

Youth leagues are on the march for more of Pier 40 get other elected officials to sign onto this program. However, not all elected officials are on the same page as the Champs.

One aide to a local politician confided to The Villager, “Not everyone wants more sports fields at Pier 40.”

In addition, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, a fierce critic of opening the Hudson River Park Act to allow housing, said Pier 40 probably can’t meet all of the leagues’ needs. So, she said, the community must start thinking more broadly in terms of the whole 5-mile-long park and where playing fields can be sited. Plus, she added, the leagues’ players don’t all live in the Village, with some coming all

Continued from page 1 Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, the only local politician who had voiced any support for residential use in Hudson River Park — feeling more lonely than Bill Buckner caught in a rundown — quickly declared that housing at Pier 40 was “off the table,” at least for now.

But the leagues took great encouragement from the other part of Quinn’s statement about the 15-acre W. Houston St. pier, in which she said, “Any future development at this site must retain the playing fields and not relegate them to a roof of the structure. Finally, we must do everything we can to work together to expand park space, and add more playing fields at both Pier 40 and throughout the park.”

So, when Greenwich Village Little League holds its opening day ceremony at the sprawling pier on Sat., April 6, they will be joined by kids and parents from other Champions league members in what is being billed as a massive “March for Pier 40.”

“Good News” is the headline on a notice the Champions last week sent local youth league parents, trying to drum up a big turnout for the march around the pier.

“Following the Pier 40 forum, Council

‘Pier 40 is never going to be able to meet all of the leagues’ needs.’

Assemblymember Deborah Glick File photo by William Alatriste, courtesy NYC Council

Mr. Met and a trio of Little Leaguers proudly ushered in the colors on Pier 40 at Greenwich Village Little League’s opening day in 2010.

Starring Michael Urie

Buyer& Cellar a new play by Jonathan Tolins directed by Stephen Brackett

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Speaker Christine Quinn promised that our Pier 40 courtyard fields, about 25 percent of the pier[’s footprint], will be forever protected for park use,” the Champs’ notice proclaimed. “This means our fields will no longer be just a temporary accommodation on a pier designated entirely for commercial use.

It means we will not lose the courtyard fields we love and children’s play will not be relegated solely to the roofs of a private development.”

(The Pier 40 courtyard field was created on a temporary basis in 2003 after a request-for-proposals process to find a developer to repair and redevelop the crumbling pier ended in failure.)

“Just as important, [Quinn] promised that more fields will be included in future development of the pier,” the Champs’ e-mail continued. “This means our growing Lower West Side communities will have more fields at Pier 40 so every child gets to play.”

The notice says city and state funds are needed to keep the pier open, and that Downtown youth leagues, competing for limited field space, face “an overcrowding crisis that is forcing sports leagues to turn children away.”

In that vein, the Champs’ release says $25 million is needed now “to complete essential repairs this year to keep the pier open,” and that $25 million more is needed “to add more fields next year to respond to the overcrowding crisis caused by the Manhattan population boom.”

The notice notes that it’s important to

the way from W. 58th St., so it makes sense to distribute the fields more evenly throughout the park, instead of concentrating them all at one site. Also, the Hudson Yards is being developed, which will bring in thousands of new residents in northwestern Chelsea, she stressed.

“Pier 40 is never going to be able to meet all of their needs,” Glick said of the youth leagues. “I don’t think Pier 40 can be the sole play area for Hudson River Park.

We should have conversations with the community about where to put new fields in the park.”

Glick suggested Gansevoort Peninsula and “possibly something in the Pier 76 area,” at W. 36th St., as places that might hold promise for siting more sports fields. She said there has also been talk of rebuilding Pier 54 wider, which has mainly been proposed to make for safer access for dances and events there — but that this could also allow the historic W. 13th St. pier (where the Titanic survivors were offloaded) to double as a place for sports uses.

However, Glick said she was concerned at hearing that some young players, particularly girls — she mentioned the Gotham Girls soccer league — are having difficulty getting playing time at Pier 40.

“You don’t want to have a situation where 90 percent of the youth league space is boys,” Glick said. “That becomes a conundrum.”

For its part, the Hudson River Park Trust supports increasing playing field space in the waterfront park.

“We are all about building more fields and more recreational space,” a spokesperson said.

March 28 - April 3, 2013 5

POLICE BLOTTER D.W.I. driver hits ped A drunk driver with a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit tore through the West Village early on Sat., March 23, police said, and only ended his dangerous ride after hitting a pedestrian.

John Doe, 33, was driving a black 2012 Toyota Camry on Hudson St., when witnesses said they saw him clip a 25-yearold man crossing the intersection at W. Houston St. Fortunately, the victim didn’t suffer serious injuries, but the trouble was just beginning for Doe. Officers responding to the accident scene said the driver had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, watery eyes and a clear lack of balance when he exited from the car.

And upon questioning, Doe eventually admitted to drinking before getting behind the wheel. A breathalyzer test, done shortly after he was apprehended, showed just how much he’d had. According to police, Doe had a blood-alcohol content of .207 — nearly three times the legal limit of .08. He was charged with vehicular assault and D.W.I.

Tried to slash her face Witnesses said that Che Williams, 35, started an argument with a 36-year-old woman at Cappello, a bar at 21 Seventh Ave., around 3 a.m. March 23. Once the dispute got a little too heated, Williams reportedly punched the woman in the face and body — then broke a glass bottle and started swinging the shards at her face. To defend herself, the woman said she blocked the glass attack with her left hand, but as a result she suffered a nasty cut that would have to be treated by paramedics.

By that time, the bar’s staff had reported the incident to police, and officers arrived shortly afterward to apprehend Williams, charging him with assault.

Trouble at the Stonewall The Stonewall Inn is known for the famous gay rights riots associated with its name, but this was one eruption that won’t go down in the history books.

An employee at the Stonewall, at 53 Christopher St., told police that Jeffery Moore, 47, was raising hell inside the place in the early hours of Sat., March 23. The employee said she repeatedly asked Moore to leave around 3:30 a.m., after he went into a rage and ripped a chain off a woman’s neck, breaking it and throwing it to the ground.

But instead of heading home, Moore reportedly refused to listen and responded by punching the employee in the face.

After the attack, Stonewall staff members called the police, who showed up at the bar to subdue and cuff Moore. In addition to being

charged with criminal mischief and assault, Moore was slapped with a charge of resisting arrest after he initially refused the officers’ orders to put his hands behind his back.

Goes bonkers in bathroom This guy threw a costly and destructive temper tantrum after being asked to leave a restaurant near the Meatpacking District, and now he’ll pay the price.

Staff members at Bakehouse, at 113 Horatio St., told police that Christopher Lopez, 28, had been creating a constant disturbance throughout the early hours of Sun., March 24, by being belligerent, foulmouthed and rude to employees. But after they asked him to leave around 2 a.m. — because of his aggressive actions, but also because the restaurant was closing — the staff said Lopez refused and locked himself in the bathroom.

Lopez reportedly proceeded to smash everything in the bathroom — breaking cabinets, lamps and the toilet paper holder, kicking and dislodging the toilet, puncturing the wall — damage that the owners estimated will cost thousands of dollars to fix.

By the time Lopez had finished his restroom rampage, police had arrived on the scene to hit him with a felony charge of criminal mischief.

Scary chain swinger When you walk around the West Village swinging a heavy metallic object at members of the general population, you should know that the guys in blue are coming sooner or later.

Cops said that on Wed., March 20, around 7 p.m., they saw Johnny Gonzalez, 45, swinging a chain and lock as he walked past the corner of Waverly Place and Sixth Ave., nearly hitting another man and sending him running away from the intersection.

After the officers stepped in to apprehend Gonzalez, they also found that he was carrying a credit card that belonged to a 37-yearold woman.

Gonzalez was charged with attempted assault and criminal possession of stolen property.

Sam Spokony

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POLICE BLOTTER

6

March 28 - April 3, 2013

Mosque and food truck draw droves of taxis, fueling a flap

By Paul Bufano After more than a decade of trying to increase parking enforcement in front of his family-owned tile business, an East Village merchant now faces three counts of felony assault as a result of an argument that turned violent.

Carlo Giurdanella, owner of Bella Tile, at 178 First Ave., recently spoke at the Ninth Precinct Community Council’s monthly meeting about a parking situation that he said has been affecting his business since 1982. According to Giurdanella, the problem stems from a constant flow of taxi drivers looking to eat at a halal food truck and pray at the Madina mosque at 401 E. 11th St. at First Ave. Giurdanella said that after police held a public meeting on the issue in 2002 most drivers stopped double-parking, yet have continued to park in restricted zones and block his business’s active driveway.

“I’ve been going to community meetings and talking to officials since 2000 to get things changed,” Giurdanella said.

‘It’s a delicate issue that has to be dealt with now before things get worse.’

Lt. Patrick Ferguson

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“Aside from our business using the driveway for deliveries, my father is disabled and needs access at all times of the day. Many drivers are in a rush to eat and pray, and just pull in our driveway. What is my father supposed to do, walk a few blocks?”

Mohammad Sharif, 60, a New York City taxi driver for the past 27 years, said that while the area is a popular destination for hacks, not many of them would chance an expensive ticket.

“I can see how it may seem like a lot of cabs at times, but we respect the law,” Sharif said. “If a regular car parks in the wrong place it gets a $75 ticket, but if a taxi does that’s a $160 ticket. Admittedly, I’m now pulled over in a No Parking zone, but I’m waiting by my car just to get some food. If I need to move I easily can, and I think that’s the case most of the time.”

The parking predicament became violent this past June when Giurdanella arrived at his business to find a taxi sitting in his driveway. The incident began with Giurdanella making a complaint with a Department of Transportation employee checking parking meters, but

quickly went from a verbal dispute with the driver to a physical one. Giurdanella was changed with three counts of felony assault, and now awaits trial in April.

Lieutenant Patrick Ferguson, the Ninth Precinct’s special operations supervisor, said police are trying to come up with solution that will leave all sides happy.

“On the one hand, you have a man who owns a business, and is entitled to have access to his driveway,” Ferguson said. “On the other hand, you have a religious institution where people go to pray throughout the day. We’re not going to deny them the right to pray, just as we wouldn’t any other religious institution.

And then there’s the food truck to factor in. It’s a delicate issue that has to be dealt with now before things get worse.”

The police have since suggested supplying Giurdanella with a crowd-controlstyle French barrier on wheels to inhibit taxis from parking in his driveway.

John De Robertis, owner of De Robertis Pastry Shop, at ‪176 First Ave., agrees that parking has become an issue, and said that the halal food truck is a big contributing factor.

“There’s no doubt that my business has been hurt by all of this illegal parking,” De Robertis said. “Sometimes these cars aren’t only double-parked, but tripleparked in front of my store. This takes away parking for my customers, and I’m losing because nobody wants to walk a few blocks. There’s just not enough room over here and something has to be done about it.”

Both De Robertis and Giurdanella said they have called 311 and filed complaints about the food truck and how its supply van violates commercial van laws by parking overnight, but that no action has been taken.

Aziz Sabir works in the food truck, and said he’s open to suggestions in order to lessen the problem.

“Officers from the police station stopped by earlier this morning to talk about putting up signs to let drivers know they can’t park illegally,” Sabir said. “I have no problem with reminding people this because I just want to do business and make everyone happy. We run a licensed truck that gets many customers.

This can mean many cars, but what can we do about that?”

Giurdanella said that he doesn’t have any racial or religious prejudices, and that his reaction would be the same were the building a church or a synagogue.

“I don’t care who you’re praying to, or what you want to eat,” he said. “All this comes down to is respecting people’s property and respecting the laws. I have an obligation to protect and provide for my family. A sense of mutual respect is all I’ve ever wanted, so hopefully something can be worked out soon.”

March 28 - April 3, 2013

7

Happy Passover & Easter

to all our patrons, family & friends

Photo by Paul Bufano

Mohammad Sharif cleaned off his cab — parked in a No Parking zone in front of the Madina mosque on First Ave. — as he waited for his food from the halal truck.

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March 28 - April 3, 2013

Weeknight Service Changes

J

April 1 - 5, Mon to Fri 10PM to 5AM No J trains between Broad St and Delancey St-Essex St. Take F and 4 6 instead.

Travel Alternatives: • Take F and 4 6 instead: F and 4 6 trains provide connecting service between J trains at Delancey St-Essex St and Lower Manhattan.

We understand the inconvenience this may cause you, and we will do everything possible to help you get to your destination safely and easily. For updated information, look for station posters, visit mta.info to sign up for free email or text message alerts, or call 511.

• Transfer between F and J trains at Delancey St-Essex St. • Transfer between F and 4 local or 6 trains at Bleecker St/B’way-Lafayette St. • Consider the A or E to/from Lower Manhattan: A trains at Fulton St connect with J trains at Broadway Junction.

E trains at World Trade Center connect with J trains at Sutphin Blvd- Archer Av.

Stay Informed

2013 Metropolitan Transportation Authority

NID critics call plan unfair Continued from page 1 NID were sparsely attended. Seven meetings were held with little debate until that last February meeting when a new ad hoc group, Neighbors Against The NID, presented its questions and misgivings to about 50 attendees.

All property owners within the NID’s boundaries would have to pay small assessments of 7.5 cents per square foot for residents (equal to $75 annually for a 1,000-square-foot apartment) and 15 cents per square foot for commercial property owners, amounts set by the Hudson River Park NID steering committee.

Neighbors Against The NID, which was formed in Tribeca, is now focused on spreading information about the scope of the NID, which the group charges is creating “bad public policy” in asking “8,000 tax lot owners to bear responsibility for one-third of the operating costs of the largest waterfront park in America.”

According to the Hudson River Park Trust, 17 million people visit the park annually and at least 400,000 people use the park’s available sports and other recreational facilities every year. However, N.A.T.N. believes that the 8,000 lots have somewhat arbitrarily been chosen to support the enjoyment of millions of park users, and that the NID is a “big experiment” that could shift the balance of civic power and put decision-making about a large part of Manhattan in the hands of a very few, the unelected NID board members.

Hudson River Park, which was created in 1998 with city and state funds, was designed to be financially self-sustaining. But last year ended with the park carrying a $7 million deficit. Fees from commercial leases, such as Pier 40 parking, Chelsea Piers and the Circle Line, do not bring in enough revenue to fund the park’s operating costs, a problem exacerbated by the deterioration of Pier 40 and the damage

by Hurricane Sandy.

The Friends of Hudson River Park, the Trust’s fundraising arm, has proposed a plan for bringing in $10 million annually to cover maintenance and operational costs, by creating an assessment area, a NID, in which property owners in proximity to the park would be taxed. There is no doubt that the park needs help, and the NID’s supporters believe that the time is right, that the money the NID can bring in will greatly alleviate the financial shortfall, and keep the park from falling into disrepair.

The NID would stretch from W. 59th St. down to Murray St., extending inland about three blocks, though exempting both the Hudson Yards, where new residential construction is now underway, and the recently residentially rezoned Hudson Square. The Friends say since Hudson Square already has a BID and Hudson Yards will be creating one, they didn’t want to tax property owners in these areas twice. However, even though Hudson Yards and Hudson Square are technically within the proposed NID boundaries — based on where the Friends report property owners have benefitted from increased values due to the Hudson River Park — these BIDs won’t be contributing to the park.

In the Village, the NID area would cover

from the Hudson River shoreline east to Eighth Ave. and Hudson St., and from W. 14th St. down to the northern edge of Hudson Square.

As for how the NID’s eastern boundary was determined, A.J. Pietrantone, the Friends’ former executive director, currently a consultant to the NID steering committee, said it had to with keeping it equidistant from the Hudson River’s swerving shoreline.

Neighbors Against The NID note the proposed district jogs from about W. 19th St. and Ninth Ave. over to 10th Ave. before it comes back east across W. 23rd St., avoiding a section of buildings in Chelsea’s West 20s where residents had voiced strongest opposition to the High Line’s attempted BID — a proposal that was withdrawn in 2011. That cut-over to the west, Pietrantone explained, had to do with the river’s bending shoreline, and the removal of a portion of Chelsea that opposed the High Line BID is “simply coincidence,” he said.

Justification for the tax assessment comes from an analysis of property values done by the Trust along with the Real Estate Board of New York. As reported previously in The Villager, a study of property values from 2003 to 2005 determined that: “Over the 16 years since the Park plan was announced, buildings in Greenwich Village have increased in value by approximately 300%...as compared to approximately 200% for Manhattan as a whole.”

However, Sarah Bartlett, one of the founders of N.A.T.N., said, “I’ve been paying more in taxes that reflect the fact that my property has increased in value. To ask me to be taxed twice for the same increase in economic value is not reasonable.”

Added Amy Johannes, another founding member of the anti-NID group, “A prominent tax that will have little oversight will be placed on a group of arbitrarily chosen neighbors. A single board will control these tax dollars. They are not elected officials controlling tax dollars.”

The NID’s supporters, though, feel the tax is small compared to the good it will do the park.

The Friends assure the assessment will never increase; in fact, due to expanding development in the NID area, the Friends say the assessment may actually be reduced in the future.

However, an increase, though not anticipated, is not impossible since it can be applied for in a process involving City Council approval.

A more pressing concern, though, is that such a broad swath of different neighborhoods would fall under the singular decision-making power of the NID governing board, which is projected to be composed of about 13 representatives of property owners and community groups, in a selection process still to be formulated.

“Here you have people who want to make a company town from W. 59th St. to Murray St. That’s horrifying,” said Nicole Vianna, another founding member of N.A.T.N. Those in the Neighbors group have cited the features of various BIDs, such as in Times Square, Bryant Park and Union Square, where one can feel a corporate presence in signage and structures.

The draft of the district plan on the Trust Web site proposes the building of pedestrian overpasses, improving crosswalks and upgrading and beautifying the median on Route 9A,

Continued on page 10

March 28 - April 3, 2013

The Church of the Ascension Fifth Avenue at Tenth Street www.ascensionnyc.org • 212-254-8620

Please join us for Services in Holy Week

March 28 – Maundy Thursday 6 p.m. • The Maundy Thursday Liturgy, with the Washing of Feet, Stripping of the Altar, and Setting of the Altar of Repose (with full choir).

After the evening service, an all-night Vigil before the Reserved Sacrament will be kept in All Saints’ Chapel

March 29 – Good Friday 12 noon • The Three-Hour Liturgy for Good Friday with reading of the Passion Gospel according to St. John, the Solemn Collects, Veneration of the Cross, and Meditations (with full choir).

March 30 – Holy Saturday 8 p.m. • The Great Vigil of Easter with the Lighting of New Fire, Renewal of Baptismal Vows.

This is the culmination of Holy Week, including the celebration of the first Eucharist of the Resurrection.

March 31 – Easter Day: The Day of Resurrection 9 a.m. • The Second Eucharist of Easter 11 a.m. • Festival Eucharist for Easter Day (with full choir) Child care at 11 a.m.

Parish Office at 12 W. 11 St. Office Hours: Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

ALL ARE WELCOME!

9

10

March 28 - April 3, 2013

Hudson Park NID’s opponents poke holes in tax plan which is officially the responsibility of the state Department of Transportation, plus the NID’s ability to have “user rights” in a neighborhood.

Jeff Aser, Friends’ project associate for the NID, explained that the NID “could not just plant a tree on a street if it liked a location without going through a community board and city controls.”

On the other hand, according to Friends, neighborhoods could come to the NID, which could advocate to fund studies, and work to implement community ideas for improvement.

Like all BIDs, this inaugural neighborhood improvement district would need approval by the City Council. The Friends have been following the rules for establishing a BID, under the guidance of the city’s Department of Small Business Services. BIDs are usually self-generated by businesses and property owners in a certain area — like Union Square — which decide to vote to assess themselves a special tax to improve things like sanitation services, security and parks and open spaces. A draft of a district plan is presented and then public meetings are scheduled to discuss the plan.

The Neighbors raise the fact that the Friends held all seven public meetings before the 41-page draft of the NID’s district plan was available online on March 15. At meetings the public was provided with marketing-type brochures. However, Pietrantone said, representatives from Community Boards 1, 2 and 4

let’s do something together at trinity wall street

were on the NID steering committee and knew what the district plan entailed, that the plan was available on request, and the steering committee was “following the process as prescribed by the Department of Small Business Services.”

The Hudson River Park has some other funding coming, however, beyond the NID. The park is getting $2.8 million for repairs on Pier 40 as part of open-space “mitigation funds” for the Hudson Square rezoning. Another rumored possibility is a $35 million matching grant from the Diller Von Furstenberg Family Foundation for the redevelopment of Pier 54, at W. 13th St. At present, the NID steering committee is preparing its final district plan. In the next few weeks this will be submitted to Small Business Services, which will start two files: one of “support” and the other for “opposition” to the NID. NID supporters can go online to www. hrpnid.org where the Friends has a form that only allows a “yes” for the NID. NID opponents can go online to http:// nohrpnid.blogspot.com where Neighbors Against The NID is collecting signatures for a petition to stop the initiative. (The site also offers a presentation of the Neighbors’ issues.)

Opposition letters can also be sent to: Eddie Eng, Department of Small Business Services, 110 William St., eighth floor, N.Y., N.Y. 10038.

If Small Business Services doesn’t see strong opposition to the NID, it will approve the Friends’ district plan. That plan will then be submitted to the City Planning Commission, and S.B.S. will notify the City Council of this

worship

All Are Welcome All events are free, unless noted.

212.602.0800

The Liturgy of Good Friday 6pm • St. Paul’s Chapel

trinitywallstreet.org EASTEr EVE sAtURDAY, MARch 30 The Great Vigil of Easter with Holy Baptism 8pm • St. Paul’s Chapel

74 tRINItY PlAce is located in the

office building behind Trinity Church

st. PAUl’s chAPel Broadway and Fulton Street chARlOtte’s PlAce 107 Greenwich Street btwn Rector & Carlisle Streets The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, Rector The Rev. Canon Anne Mallonee, Vicar

an Episcopal parish in the city of New York

EASTEr dAy sUNDAY, MARch 31 Eucharist 8am • St. Paul’s Chapel Service For Families with Children 10am • St. Paul’s Chapel Festive Eucharists 9am and 11:15am

erty. Fifty-one percent of the district’s affected property owners must object in this manner for the NID to be halted. In an area as large as the proposed Hudson River Park NID, it’s hard to conceive of how 51 percent of property owners would organize, even if they wanted to.

Feeling most people don’t understand the issues surrounding the NID, the Neighbors group encourages affected residents to study the district plan on the Trust’s Web site. As N.A.T.D.’s Bartlett said, “If the NID goes through, it had better be because people know it and like it and not because people have no idea what’s going on.”

Our Lady of Pompeii Rev. John C. Massari, C.S., Pastor 25 CARMINE & BLEECKER STS., GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY 212-989-6805

HOLY WEEK SERVICES 2013 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Private Confessions: 4-6pm Holy Thursday 7:00pm Mass of the Lord’s Last Supper Adoration until 11:00pm

community

Good FridAy MARch 29 Liturgy of Good Friday and Veneration of the Cross 12-3pm • Trinity Church Good Friday with Children, youth, and Families 4:30pm • Trinity Church

tRINItY chURch Broadway at Wall Street

submission. The district plan then goes for review to the community boards, there are public hearings, the borough president weighs in, and the City Council votes on it.

If the Council approves the NID, a local law is enacted and goes to the Finance Committee.

The Finance Committee holds two hearings on the NID and, in between those two hearings, if property owners want to oppose the NID, objections must be made through the City Clerk. This is a complicated process that involves an owner obtaining a special form from the City Clerk, and returning it with a notarized copy of the deed for his or her prop-

Good Friday 3pm Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion 7pm Solemn Stations of the Cross with the participation of the Choir

Holy Saturday Confessions: 9:00am to 12 Noon and 3-5pm 8pm Solemn Celebration of the Easter Vigil Easter Sunday Mass 9am, 11am (Italian), 12:15pm, 1:30 (Brazilian), 3:00 (Filipino) * NO EVENING MASS *

worship

tUesDAY, APRIl 2, 6pm Mark’s Gospel Uncovered Bible Study Dig deeper into this Gospel’s essence through a close examination of Mark’s writing style. Meets every Tuesday.

74 Trinity Pl, 3rd Fl, Room 1

sUNDAY, 8am & 10am St. Paul’s Chapel · Holy Eucharist sUNDAY, 8pm St. Paul’s Chapel · Compline – Music & Prayers sUNDAY, 9am & 11:15am Trinity Church · Preaching, music, and Eucharist · Sunday school and child care available

music

MONDAY, APRIl 1 & 8, 1pm Bach at one A weekly service of J.S. Bach’s cantatas.

St. Paul’s Chapel

MONDAY – FRIDAY, 12:05pm Trinity Church · Holy Eucharist MONDAY – FRIDAY, 5:15pm All Saints’ Chapel, in Trinity Church Evening Prayer, Evensong (Thurs.)

WeDNesDAY, APRIl 3 & 10, 1pm Pipes at one April 3: Avi Stein, Principal Keyboardist, Trinity Baroque Orchestra; April 10: Rick Erickson, Cantor, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, NYC St. Paul’s Chapel

Watch online webcast

thURsDAY, APRIl 4 & 11, 1pm Concerts at one April 4: João Kouyoumdjian, guitar; April 11: Minetti Quartett Trinity Church

• Trinity Church

Leah Reddy

Continued from page 9

March 28 - April 3, 2013

Food Emporium set to close Continued from page 1 Capital spokesperson commented that they don’t talk about deals until they are closed.

While Food Emporium had been working to find the right balance of trendy and food-forward with the necessary staples of a well-rounded supermarket, this loss will leave a gaping hole in the neighborhood, which already lost Jefferson Market in the not-too-distant past.

When asked about the closing of the Village market, one of the longtime cashiers said, “This is very sad for the people, very, very sad,” referring to both the store’s employees and customers. The shocked staff received letters early this month, informing them of the closing, of possible payouts for union members, of eligibility for unemployment.

Many of the workers have been at the location for dozens of years. One, who started there in 1967, at age 16, was tearful as she talked about the community that was being torn apart.

She spoke of former customers who grew up in Greenwich Village and stopped by, years later, to say hello. She recalled the P.S. 41 kindergarteners who took annual field trips to the market to learn about shopping. And then there was 9/11, when the supermarket staff served sandwiches and drinks to the hundreds of people snaking past the storefront waiting to donate blood at St. Vincent’s.

She worried about the challenges of terminated workers finding new jobs in an alreadytight marketplace, and also worried about her

11

Saint Brigid - Saint Emeric Parish Parroquia de Santa Brigida - San Emérico

elderly customers, who will no longer have a local place to shop.

With hundreds of new apartments flooding 12th St. from the Rudin redevelopment of the former St. Vincent’s site in the near future, it’s impossible to imagine where all these new and current residents will buy milk, fresh asparagus and dishwashing detergent.

And, as if the loss of a supermarket isn’t enough, rumors are swirling that the Sixth Ave. location will become a Walgreens, as if this small stretch of city needs yet another drugstore.

John Catsimatidis, owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain and a current Republican candidate for mayor, said of the rumors about the Sixth Ave. site, “I heard that too. That’s going to be a Walgreens,” he confirmed.

Supermarkets simply can’t pay as much as Walgreens is willing to offer, he said.

“I can just say, it was a great supermarket,” he said of the Food Emporium.

After Jefferson Market’s original owners sold out, Catsimatidis briefly ran the famed store, but couldn’t make a go of it, and the space has sat vacant for several years.

“It was an oddball location, and we were unable to make it work,” he told The Villager.

Meanwhile, he said, people can shop at his Gristedes on W. Fourth St., “four to five blocks away” from the Food Emporium site.

As for opening another supermarket in the area, he said, “If you find another location, we’ll take it.”

Holy Week – Semana Santa Holy Thursday // Jueves Santo March 28 – Marzo 28 Mass 7:00 pm (Bilingual/Bilingüe)

Good Friday // Viernes Santo March 29 – Marzo 29

The Lord’s Passion // La Pasión Del Señor 12 noon Liturgy of the Passion of Christ (English) // Liturgia de la Pasión de Cristo (Inglés) 2:00 pm Celebracion de la pasión de Cristo (Español) 3:00 pm Procession through the streets // Procesión por las calles 7:00 pm: Solitude of Mary // Our Lady of Sorrows Procession Procesión de la Soledad de María // Procesión de la Dolorosa

Holy Saturday // Sábado Santo March 30 – Marzo 30 Mass 8:00 pm (Bilingual/Bilingüe)

Easter Vigil // Vigilia Pascual March 30 – Marzo 30 Mass 7:00 pm (Bilingual/Bilingüe)

Easter Sunday // La Resurrección del Señor March 31 – Marzo 31 Mass 10:00 am English Misa 11:30 am Español

119 E Ave B (Between 7th & 8th Streets), New York, NY 10009 Tel. 646-476-5617 // Fax. 212-375-1163 www.saintemericchurch.com // info@saintemericchurch.com

With reporting

by Lincoln Anderson

Shrine Church of Saint Anthony of Padua adua

Franciscan Friars

Founded in 1866 154 Sullivan Street  New York NY 10012 212-­‐777-­‐2755  212-­‐673-­‐6684 (FAX) stanthonychurch@aol.com  www.stanthonynyc.org

St. Luke’s Thrift Shop 487 Hudson St.

Corner of Grove St.

Tel. 212-924-9364

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER 2013

March 25-­‐ Reconciliation Day

Donations of resalable items and furniture (free pick-up!) are welcome

Sacrament of Penance will be celebrated at our church from 3 PM to 9 PM

March 28-­‐ Holy Thursday 9:00 AM Morning Prayer (Chapel) 7:00 PM Solemn Liturgy 10:00 PM Closing of Adoration

March 29-­‐ Good Friday 9:00 AM Morning Prayer (Chapel) 3:00 PM Stations of the Cross 7:00 PM Liturgy of the Passion

March 30-­‐ Holy Saturday 9:00 AM Morning Prayer (Chapel) 8:00 PM Solemn Easter Vigil

March 31-­‐ Easter Sunday Masses at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM

12

March 28 - April 3, 2013

editorial

Quinn on the spot At a candidates forum sponsored last week by Gay City News, our sister paper, the five Democrats running for mayor spent 90 minutes with hundreds of members of the L.G.B.T. community, and the results were encouraging for those hoping to move critical L.G.B.T. needs to the top of the city’s agenda in the next four years.

The candidates uniformly showed a detailed understanding of issues such as homeless youth, AIDS housing inequities, the city’s faltering commitment to H.I.V. prevention, the state ban on gestational surrogacy contracts, and the spike in potentially deadly meningitis cases among gay and bisexual men. They also acknowledged that abuse in the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices is a queer issue –– whether it involves the targeting of transgender women and L.G.B.T. youth of color or the false arrests of gay men in video stores.

In a forum of this sort, the greatest attention inevitably focuses on the purported frontrunner –– in this case, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. The fact that a vocal minority within the L.G.B.T. community has, in recent years, targeted the woman who could become the city’s first openly lesbian or gay mayor for harsh criticism gave this event particular political resonance. The media was watching to see if she would stumble on her home court.

To be sure, some of the criticisms Quinn’s opponents leveled at her –– particularly regarding her refusal to endorse paid sick leave legislation now pending in the City Council –– struck a chord with many audience members.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former City Comptroller Bill Thompson proved particularly adept at eliciting crowd encouragement for their volleys against the speaker.

That said, it is also true that Quinn earned the warmest and most enthusiastic applause from the audience at the conclusion of her opening and closing statements.

It actually appeared that some audience members both applauded the Council speaker and then jumped in to second certain criticisms thrown her way.

Quinn is clearly a potentially history-making figure. At the same time, many progressives who have known her over the past two decades are befuddled by a posture on sick leave, among other issues, that they view as fundamentally at odds with her political roots.

In the current political season, that issue is something of a proxy for other nagging doubts that have emerged over the seven years of her speakership –– misgivings that coalesced most dramatically when she offered Mayor Bloomberg indispensible Council support for his efforts to run for a third term in 2009.

At last week’s forum, she was at pains to emphasize that paid sick leave is not a question of if — it’s a question of when. The economy, in Quinn’s view, is simply too soft right now to impose a new government mandate whose effect would be felt primarily by small businesses.

The speaker mentioned a few measures that could be used to judge when the time is right –– the unemployment rate, the trend line in business closures –– but she is clearly not yet ready to commit to a specific economic trigger. She may find, as the campaign progresses, that she needs to firm up her thinking and her resolve on this question.

Among the other candidates, de Blasio and Thompson emerged at last week’s forum as the most plausible alternatives, and former Councilmember Sal Albanese, in the role of a truth-teller, burst the many bubbles created by pretty words. Comptroller John Liu arrived a half hour late and unfortunately never seemed to find his footing.

This editorial is reprinted from a slightly longer version that first ran in Gay City News.

letters to the editor CUNY could be an alternative To The Editor: Re “Faculty demand that Sexton resign after adverse vote” (news article, March 21): Another public embarrassment for Sexton. I wonder if it will have any effect. The underlying problem for N.Y.U. is its limited endowment, which has pushed it to rely on tuition expansion. So even if Sexton goes, the university’s strategy will likely remain.

If the state were to fund CUNY adequately, hire more full-time faculty and eliminate its tuition, you’d see a lot less student interest in N.Y.U. But as long as the state and the federal government fund student loans instead of funding free state universities directly, the state will continue to promote the expansion of expensive private schools like N.Y.U. Rob Hollander

N.Y.U.: Quantity vs. quality To The Editor: Re “Faculty demand that Sexton resign after adverse vote” (news article, March 21): It is clear that the New York University trustees have little regard for the faculty concerns, having responded to these with barely a word of understanding or empathy. They appear preoccupied with forever bigger and richer. Surely, Sexton has succeeded on these counts, but now he seems mainly addicted to growth.

I head Energy Vision, a civic community association in the East Village. We have watched N.Y.U. build big but unattractive dormitories across our neighborhood — sending a message to its students and the city that building structures of enduring distinction and quality comes a far second to getting the most square footage for the buck. Perhaps the university’s trustees haven’t noticed this, but very many in our neighborhood have.

N.Y.U. just may be big enough now, and the focus should be on quality not quantity — on nurturing a caring environment for learning that respects the views of the faculty members who make up the heart of the institution.

Joanna Underwood

Homeless activist vows encore To The Editor: Re “Activist concludes his N.Y.U. homeless campout on a high” (news article, March 21): Just to clarify the comment about people who helped me out.

EVAN FORSCH

Lots of people helped me, including N.Y.U. students and some Lower East Side squatters. But the only squat that offered to take me in after the snowstorm was C-Squat. Also, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space helped me tremendously.

Jim Sim was the person who told me N.Y.U. had the seniors evicted at Cabrini — so if they didn’t do it, who did? At any rate, the N.Y.U. expansion means that more students will be attending N.Y.U.; and since the university guarantees all students who are admitted a room in their dorms, get ready because they are going to be building a lot more of them.

This ain’t over until N.Y.U. stops its massive campaign to gentrify the East and West Village. I shall return!

John Penley

Chin’s been there for residents To The Editor: Re “Rajkumar readies to announce her challenge to Chin” (news article, March 21): Margaret Chin has done an extraordinary job leading Downtown. She supported the residents and their rights when the Occupy Wall Street movement was impacting residents’ quality of life. She supported and fought for the Zadroga Bill to garner health benefits for all Lower Manhattan residents, including the first responders. She cares very deeply about the citizens of Lower Manhattan and we are very lucky to have her representing us in the City Council.

Veronica Willis

Rajkumar always stood with us To The Editor: Re “Rajkumar readies to announce her challenge to Chin” (news article, March 21): Jenifer Rajkumar stood with Margaret Chin’s constituents — when Chin would not stand with us herself — on the Soho Business Improvement District and on N.Y.U.’s devastating expansion plan. When 100 of us were escorted out of City Hall last July 25 by armed gendarmes before that ignominious vote on N.Y.U., Jenifer was escorted out right alongside us.

Why would we re-elect a councilwoman who works against us, when we have a fresh alternative who is ready, willing and able to work with us?

Georgette Fleischer Fleischer is founder, Friends of Petrosino Square

Continued on page 29

March 28 - April 3, 2013

13

The Hudson River Park must generate more revenue talkinG point By diAnA L. TAyLor, roBerT K. sTeeLe, PAUL A. ULLMAn, PAMeLA FredericK, FrAnZ LeicHTer, JeFFrey KAPLAn And LAWrence B. GoLdBerG Over the last 18 months, the Hudson River Park Trust hosted a series of task force meetings attended by all the local elected officials or their representatives and many experienced urban planning experts, representatives of the three community boards and other community groups, environmental experts and parks professionals. These meetings were highly structured, transparent and thoughtfully designed to find common ground with respect to the park’s challenges and needed changes to the Hudson River Park Act, which created and governs the park.

The Trust board strongly urges our local political leadership to allow the park act to be significantly amended.

The original idea behind the creation of the park was that public money would create it and commercial revenue would sustain it.

And the city and state have been incredibly generous to the park over the last 13 years, funding nearly $350 million in capital construction.

But it is important to understand the scale of the task. With 5 miles of property, we still have a long way to go to fulfill the promise of creating the park in all the communities it serves. We have forecast that we will need an additional $15 million per year to support the park’s operations and capital maintenance by 2022, and another $250 million to actually complete the park — not including

additional ball fields on Pier 40.

Despite the many good ideas generated during these many meetings, the idea to allow residential development at Pier 40 dominated the conversation. The political battle associated with this one potential revenue-generating use eclipsed the progress we made on other possible changes to the park act, and obscured the point of the original discussion — which is that the park is not generating enough revenue to maintain itself.

The critical benefit residential development brings is that it generates the most revenue while occupying the smallest footprint, with vastly less vehicular and foot traffic impact than any alternate use. It was because of this combination and the failure of past high-impact proposed uses that a community group, the Pier 40 Champions, invested in a concept plan and came up with a novel approach that no one else had considered.

However, we do not wish to see the conversation halted over one specific use. We seek a productive environment where good ideas and their financial and cultural impacts can be intelligently discussed. We want and need to hear from our local elected officials about what ideas they believe can work and what should be done to secure the future of the park. If our state or city representatives really believe that government should be responsible for funding the upkeep and repairs required, then our representatives need to work with us to create or identify that funding stream. The recent announcement of open space money allocated from the Hudson Square rezoning for Pier 40 future repairs was a useful and very welcome step in the right direction.

The Trust board has undertaken revenue-generating initiatives both directly and indirectly through our fundraising partnership with Friends of Hudson River Park.

We have high hopes for private fundraising and volunteer involvement, and Friends have already demonstrated their dedication by raising (post-Sandy) more than $300,000 to repair the playground at Pier 25 in Tribeca. Our initiatives also include asking the neighbors of the park to support a neighborhood improvement district (NID), where residential and commercial property owners along the length of the park would contribute a small amount to the annual care of this great asset to us all.

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We ask for community support since this idea ultimately rests with a decision by the City Council.

The Trust board strongly urges our local political leadership to allow the Hudson River Park Act to be significantly amended.

It is only with flexibility within the act that the park can get the most revenue from our designated commercial nodes, thereby allowing us to create and maintain the most field space and the most open parkland for all of

our West Side neighbors.

We have been trying very hard to find real solutions. The problem is simple: We do not have enough money coming into the park to maintain it. But the solution is not so simple. We look to our elected leaders and our community to work with us to find a path forward sensibly and cooperatively.

The signees are all members of the Hudson River Park Trust board of directors

Photo by Jefferson Siegel

Tahmina Islam and her son, Dawood, 2, were among a group of three Bengali families from Jamaica Heights who rallied outside Judson Church in the Village last Friday afternoon, calling on the government to release the families’ fathers. All three men are being held awaiting deportation. The children were born in America and thus are citizens. The fathers would have had to leave the U.S. and re-enter to gain residency, but weren’t guaranteed they’d be able to get back in. Rashid Muhammad, the kids’ tutor, led them in chanting, “I want my Dad back now!”

“I want to go to Harvard!” “I want to go to Stuyvesant!” “How can I do it if Dad is in jail?” “Taking care of family is no crime!” Mazeda Uddin, an organizer with the Alliance of South Asian American Labor, said losing their fathers has been particularly tough on the families because Southeast Asian woman depend on their husbands’ income. They’ll be going to Washington April 10 in a convoy of 10 buses to lobby congressmembers and senators for immigration reform.

Scene

Lincoln Anderson

PUBLISHER Jennifer Goodstein EDITOR IN CHIEF Lincoln Anderson ARTS EDITOR Scott Stiffler

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The Way of The Dude abides at Lebowski temple of merch

By Kamakshi Ayyar Tucked away in a small storefront not far from Washington Square Park is a store whose owner greets customers while dressed in a bathrobe, slippers and a wolf’s hat. He isn’t hung over, just mirroring the cult film character his shop is dedicated to — Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski.

The Little Lebowski Store, at 215 Thompson St., is just one of many shrines, physical and spiritual, raised in the name of the 1998 Coen Brothers movie, “The Big Lebowski.” The film stars Jeff Bridges as The Dude; John Goodman as his gun-toting friend Walter, who “doesn’t roll on Shabbos”; and Steve Buscemi completing the trio as the meek Donny, constantly being told to “Shut the f--- up.”

There are hundreds of “The Big Lebowski” fan conventions held in bars and bowling alleys (The Dude’s preferred hangout) globally, including one of the largest, the annual Lebowski Fest, first held in Louisville in 2002. What started out as a bowling party of 150 fans quickly grew into an annual pilgrimage for cinephiles from across the world, with fests being held in New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco and even Edinburgh and London.

For the more spiritual devotees there is the Church of the Latter Day Dude, which advocates the religion of Dudeism. The church’s Web site describes the religion as follows: “Kick back with some friends and some oat soda and whether you roll strikes or gutters, do your best to be true to yourself and others — that is to say, abide.” If you’re so inclined, you can even get ordained as a Dudeist minister and join the already initiated 150,000 brothers.

“I’ve learned to let my inner Dude hang out,” said Roy Preston, 40, describing his life’s mantra after his experience over the last five years. With his Buddha-like smile and come-what-may aura, he seems to be the embodiment of everything Lebowski. But this wasn’t always the case.

Five years ago, Preston and his business partner opened a children’s bookstore at the current site.

“I wanted to be a tight-ass in a suit selling kids’ books to yuppie parents,” he said. But fate had other ideas.

The recession hit soon after the store opened, and Washington Square Park, a block north, was closed for renovation, reducing area foot traffic to practically nothing. After sinking into debt, the partners decided to try running a souvenir store and a comic book store, both of which failed miserably.

Preston lost his house in Red Bank, N.J., and was living in the back of the store, with a few comic books bought from the Forbidden Planet shop to fill up his shelves for company.

After receiving an eviction notice from the store landlord, he said, “If we’re going to get evicted we might as well go out having fun.” And so he filled his store with pop culture memorabilia, including “The Big Lebowski” T-shirts, which turned out to be the best sellers.

That’s when his partner and he decided to dedicate the shop solely to the movie. He put a cutout of The Dude outside the store, created a bowling lane in the changing room and started wearing his robes and slippers to work every day.

After he ensured that the store had its fair share of rugs (the root cause of all The Dude’s troubles in the movie), all that was missing was White Russians, The Dude’s poison of choice, which Preston, after much experimentation, learned reduced his alertness. Instead he tried to complete the Lebowski experience by covering the walls with quotes from the movie (“That rug really tied the room together”), and even framing a letter left on his front door by a drunk patron who thought this was “seriously the greatest idea for a store I have ever come upon.”

‘It was a series of random circumstances where terrible things led to good things — kind of like the movie.’

Roy Preston

And it works. At first, customers walk into the store with puzzled looks, curious about the owner’s attire. But a few minutes later they start to nod knowingly and smile.

Preston loves it because everyone who visits the store is in a good mood.

“It’s just like hosting a party,” he said. “All I have to do is smile and be nice.”

Even the way the store gained its fame is a coincidence. One night two men who had just finished interviewing John Goodman for a PBS special on Jeff Bridges happened to walk by the place and decided to come in.

Two months later, Preston got a call from PBS asking him to be part of the special. On the day of the filming, Bridges showed up with the recording team, and once the special aired on Jan. 8, 2011, fans flocked to the shop.

In his Lebowski shrine, surrounded by still-frame photos and T-shirts from the movie, Preston seems content in his bathrobe and slippers.

“It was a series of random circumstances where terrible things led to good things — kind of like the movie,” he said. “The Dude was happy and content even when s--- kept being thrown at him. That’s a good way to live.”

Just then, a customer walked in with the customary “Hey Dude!” greeting. “Do you have any Donny T-shirts? My brother-in-law’s name is Donny and he just never shuts the f--- up!”

March 28 - April 3, 2013

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Photo by Jefferson Siegel

Roy Preston, co-owner of the Little Lebowski Shop, at 215 Thompson St., wears his usual work garb — a bathrobe, just like The Dude — as he stands next to a cutout of Jeff Bridges, who plays the iconic character in the Coen Brothers’ “The Big Lebowski.”

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Danny Lugassy, an E.R. doctor and member of Healthcare for the 99%, addressed the crowd.

Occupy decries medical debt

By JeFFerson sieGeL Last Saturday, a year after holding their first Occupy Town Square event in Washington Square Park, Occupy Wall Street activists returned to the park to offer free medical services, education and testing during an all-day health fair. The day’s theme was the burdensome costs of healthcare for millions either uninsured or unable to afford even basic medical care.

“We’re here to highlight the crisis of medical debt in this country,” explained Elizabeth Oram, a nurse practicing in Chelsea. She and dozens of her medical colleagues participated in the daylong event, called Life or Debt.

White-coated and scrub-wearing professionals gathered in the park and in nearby Judson Memorial Church, offering medical education and advice, and repeating their mantra, “Healthcare is a human right.”

Saturday’s Occupy Health Fair kicked off a week of nationwide actions highlighting the healthcare crisis of spiraling costs, rising personal bankruptcies and hospital closings.

Members of Rolling Jubilee, part of the O.W.S. offshoot Strike Debt, announced they had purchased and abolished $1 million in medical debt owed by Kentucky and Indiana residents.

“Medical debt is used as a weapon of class warfare, so it became clearer that we had to turn to each other,” an organizer explained.

The average debt owed in those two states was $900. More than 1,000 people benefited from this gift, the group’s second healthcare debt buyout.

A 2011 Harvard University study found that more than 60 percent of bankruptcies nationwide are due to medical expenses. According to the American Journal of Medicine, Massachusetts’s bankruptcy filings increased to more than half of the state’s total bankruptcies in 2008 and 2009, when Romneycare was in effect.

In midafternoon, as the familiar “Occupy Wall Street” banner was unfurled, almost 100 gathered behind it and marched out of Washington Square Park, first for a brief rally in Union Square, then on to the site of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital, at 12th St. and Seventh Ave. An oft-repeated refrain at the rally was that 10 hospitals have closed in the

city since 2006.

Standing on Seventh Ave., the speakers denounced the hospital’s closing.

“It had a charitable mission to serve the uninsured and the underinsured,” one speaker said, noting, “Hospitals like this run into debt, incur financial losses and are forced to close.”

The loss of St. Vincent’s, currently undergoing conversion into market-rate housing, has left the Lower West Side without a hospital.

“For 161 years this hospital served workingclass New York people,” said District Leader Paul Newell, a member of the Coalition for a New Village Hospital. “This hospital was closed by fraud, greed and debt.”

Yetta Kurland, an attorney and candidate for Christine Quinn’s City Council seat, raised her voice over the whine of construction machinery as work proceeded on the building’s conversion over the weekend.

“In just two weeks, St. Vincent’s was closed to give way to luxury condominiums,” Kurland said.

“Our community needs a hospital. We want our hospital back. We can put four floors [of a new hospital] in the O’Toole Building,” she suggested of the 1963 six-story building across the avenue from the former main hospital campus.

(North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System is converting O’Toole into a 24/7, freestanding emergency room and healthcare center, a $110 million project. “We’re still scheduled to open in early 2014,” said Terry Lynam, an N.S.L.I.J. spokesperson. “Work at the site is ongoing.”)

At Saturday’s event, Danny Lugassy, an E.R. physician and member of Healthcare for the 99%, slammed the healthcare system, saying its current state wasn’t what inspired him to enter medicine. Lugassy backs a nationwide single-payer healthcare system similar to that provided to seniors under Medicare.

After the speeches and a musical performance, an organizer suggested everyone return to the park for more medical education, as well as acupuncture and yoga.

Since being evicted from Zuccotti Park in November 2011, Occupy activists have focused on aiding other causes, most recently conceiving Occupy Sandy, helping people devastated

by Superstorm Sandy.

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Candidate Albanese takes trip around disputed N.Y.U. strips Continued from page 2 On LaGuardia Place, Albanese posed briefly in front of the statue of Fiorello LaGuardia, his favorite former mayor.

They passed Adrienne’s Garden, a new playground set to open in April.

“But they know that it’s temporary,” Riccobono noted, adding it would have to go to make way for the N.Y.U. construction.

Walking through the serene Sasaki Garden, in the Washington Square Village courtyard, Cude noted, “N.Y.U. is hoping to have a lot of cross-traffic through here for their students going down to the new building on the south block. There are 1,200 people in these four buildings.”

Pointing to the trees, she said, “These are weeping cherries. They come back in a month and they’re spectacular.”

“It’s such a peaceful area in the city, and it’s going to be gone,” said Collins of the tranquil garden, where two new infill buildings are planned.

“Look at these old-growth trees,” added Therese Watson, who was on the tour with her husband, Adam Becker, a professor of religious studies and classics.

They passed the Mercer Playground, located on one of the strips, which certainly looks, to all appearances, like an official Parks site. It has Parks signage, plus a yardarm-style flagpole (which Stern added to all city parks) flying a Parks flag and the American and New York City flags.

“N.Y.U. wants to turn this into an access plaza to a building that will be on what’s now the Key Park,” Cude explained.

As further proof of the strip’s status, she and Collins pointed to an official Parks sign on the fence at the Bleecker St. end of Mercer Playground.

“In 1995,” the green placard notes, “the Department of Transportation gave Parks a permit to use the site. Two years later the site was formally transferred to Parks, and plans were made for capital improvements.”

“Take that sign!” Collins said, making as if to grab the “evidence” and pull it off the fence.

Passing Coles gym, Cude noted how, based on an agreement with the community, N.Y.U. had created an outdoor playground on top of the gym. But accessing the rooftop space was an issue, so a playground was instead created on the Mercer St. strip, which the university then let fall into disrepair. For years, the playground — which looks like an earthquake hit it — has been locked to the public.

“The homeless guys break the padlock so they can sleep in there,” Cude explained of the space that the university had pledged as a community playground.

“I’ve learned a lot,” Albanese said at the walk’s end. “This was a very revealing tour.”

But he said he wasn’t ready to make a pronouncement on the N.Y.U. plan just yet, and was looking forward to more information

from the opponents.

Asked about the four open space strips, he said, “It seems to me like it’s parkland.

These signs clearly indicate that it’s Parks Department property.”

However, Philip Lentz, an N.Y.U. spokesperson, said of the strips: “Signage does not convey ownership.” He also noted that a 1995 letter from Eliot Sander, then commissioner of the Department of Transportation, to Stern, stated that the transfer of the future Mercer Playground site from D.O.T. to Parks was only temporary and that D.O.T. could take it back later.

Lentz referred The Villager to the city’s Law Department for confirmation of that opinion.

A Law spokesperson said the sign was “a mistake.”

“The sign [on Mercer Playground] mistakenly states that the parcel is in the jurisdiction of the Parks Department,” the spokesperson said. “In fact, it is mapped street that is in D.O.T.’s jurisdiction. Former Commissioner Stern, in an affidavit filed by the petitioners, concedes that the parcel was never formally transferred to Parks.”

The Parks Department did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Randy Mastro, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said the “temporary use” letter from 1995 is outdated, since the site was formerly dedicated two years later as a park in a grand opening ceremony, and furthermore, that the letter has been rendered moot by the park’s heavy public usage as a park in all these years since — in other words, that usage as well as public perception of the site as a park are what really determine its true nature.

Mastro said if any one of the four disputed strips is ruled to be parkland by the judge, it would set back the N.Y.U. 2031 plan, because the studies and approvals for the plan were premised upon the use of all four strips: three have 20-year easements to allow the construction project, while the strip east of the Coles gym — now home to the Mercer-Houston Dog Run — would be partially covered by the footprint of the planned new “Zipper Building.”

In her affidavit, Freed said she never would have allocated Council funds for the Mercer Playground had she known it was only going to be just temporary parkland.

In a phone interview on Wednesday, Gerson said the lawsuit could have major ramifications.

“This case has the potential to set a citywide precedent for green space that is functioning as parkland but is being held by an agency other than the Parks Department,” he noted.

Gerson said the case will be a verdict on whether the city’s tactic of trying to keep the parcels under the jurisdiction of another agency is a valid way to avoid “alienation” of parkland — the process of removing property from park use, which must be approved by the state Legislature.

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A crusty proposal: Crack down on ‘voluntary homeless’ talkinG point By cHAd MArLoW With the arrival of spring, the start of the warm weather tourist season is upon us, and the thought makes me shudder. I am not begrudging the 50.9 million annual visitors who pump $34.5 billion into our city’s economy. Rather, as an East Villager, I am thinking of the other tourists whose presence brings nothing positive to our city: crusties.

Before discussing our worsening crusties problem and how I propose to address it, a few initial points should be made. First, I hate the pejorative-sounding term “crusties.” Name-calling has no place in civil conversation.

Nevertheless, I use the term because (1) crusties apply it to themselves and (2) it is less cumbersome than “transient, antisocial, voluntary homeless.” Second, one reason I find crusties objectionable is because I believe homelessness is a great societal tragedy, not a lifestyle choice. This is especially problematic because crusties compete for pocket-change donations with legitimately homeless persons who need that money to survive, rather than to purchase another piercing, tattoo or $10 pack of cigarettes. Third, I accept that our city’s sidewalks are, by necessity, a home of last resort for persons with nowhere else to go, but they are not a free hotel for anyone wanting to visit our city.

While crusties have been coming to our neighborhood for many years, their behavior seems to be getting more aggressive, brazen and violent. Although many of my neighbors agree, I wondered if this perception is accurate.

Before proposing drastic solutions, one should be certain to accurately understand the problem. Many of us have negative personal experiences that mirror last summer’s widely reported crusties incidents, such as defacing St. Mark’s Church, allowing their dogs to urinate in Washington Square Park’s fountain where children play, frequently harassing Washington Square and Tompkins Square Park visitors and engaging in countless bloody altercations.

While this demonstrates the crusties problem is significant, it does not prove it is worsening. On that point, the best evidence comes from crusties themselves.

Crustypunks.blogspot.com — an online forum providing first-person crusties observations about their community and lifestyle — contains two commentaries about crusties’ growing violence. Last summer, a crusty named Dameon remarked that, “I have been traveling for a long time and this is the worst year I’ve ever travelled cause there’s so many new people…that ruin it for a lot of people like me.

I’ve been doing this for a long time so these new batches of kids who think they gotta be the hardest, baddest guy out here, you know they try to prove themselves in some weird sense and then they ruin it for people like us, they blow places up… . I’ve been coming to [Tompkins Square] park

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My examination of crusties also led me to conclude that the increasing danger they present is largely attributable to a longstanding failure to check their aggressive behavior.

Like children, crusties constantly push the envelope of authority to see what they can get away with, and when their belligerence goes unchecked, they push even harder.

Some might argue crusties are attracted to the East Village and Greenwich Village because of the area’s counterculture history — and I concede that likely motivated early crusties to gravitate here — but that history is of little consequence in 2013. Rather, it is our tolerance of crusties’ behavior that leads them, year after year, to comfortably congregate in our community.

In 2012, after observing an N.Y.P.D. response to unlawful crusties behavior, a crusty called Trash Can commented, “I’m surprised they didn’t take them to jail or anything.

Anywhere else. It’s crazy out here. Up north it’s crazy. In Texas, that type of stuff don’t go.” Your darn right Texas

Photo by Steve Hirsch

Crusty traveler punks, like Trash Can, above, tell their stories on East Village photographer Steve Hirsch’s crustypunks.blogspot.com .

for many many many years. And I’ve I just progressively see it downgrading and downgrading and downgrading.”

Another crusty on the blog named Jamie agrees, stating, “I’m getting really sick and tired of these younger groups of crusty traveling kids that are completely utterly violent for no reason. When I first started traveling [16 years ago]…it was completely different… . There was some violence but… it [wasn’t] nearly as violent as it is now. It’s just utterly [expletive] up.”

So, beyond being a nuisance, crusties and local residents agree: Crusties are an increasingly violent threat to our community.

Beyond their escalating violence, it is valuable to see what else can be learned about crusties from crustypunks. blogspot.com, because such knowledge might help provide a solution to the problem they present. Here is what I discovered: (1) Most crusties are not from New York City; (2) almost all are homeless by choice; (3) most travel throughout the country, commonly by illegally riding trains; (4) most abuse drugs and/or alcohol, with heroin being most popular; (5) a significant minority of crusties, and likely a majority of the younger ones, are violent; and (6) quite a few own dogs (most commonly pit bulls).

Under the writer’s proposal, nonresident crusties (i.e., not ‘home bums’) would face penalties for sleeping or lying down on a public sidewalk, in a park or other public space between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Additional penalties would apply for unlicensed dogs. would not tolerate crusties’ behavior, and the fact that we do does not make us a more righteous, benevolent community. It makes us fools; it makes us victims; it makes us pushovers. Many crusties are nothing more than bullies who we emboldened by tolerating their hostile behavior.

It is neither fair nor accurate to blame the N.Y.P.D. for the crusties problem. Certainly, their response to crustiesrelated 911 calls is appallingly slow. Often by the time police arrive, the threatening behavior, and opportunity for an arrest, has passed. This can be remedied by providing law enforcement with broader authority to go after crusties based on their use of our sidewalks as a hotel.

This conclusion leads to the greatest challenge in addressing the crusties problem: How do we empower the N.Y.P.D. to crack down on crusties without risking involuntary homeless persons getting caught in the process?

Surprisingly, two very bad but legally permissible types of anti-homeless laws provide guidance.

The first are those that broadly ban street sleeping.

These laws, which exist in cities like Phoenix, Los Angeles, Miami and San Diego, have been upheld by courts in cases where alternative shelter is offered. While I believe broad anti-street sleeping laws are morally repugnant, their legal validity highlights the breadth of legislative tools at our disposal.

The second laws are those that require homeless persons to prove local residency before being allowed into a homeless shelter. Washington, D.C., has such a law and recent comments by Mayor Bloomberg suggest he wants a similar law here. To me, laws that force nonresidents to sleep out in the cold are cruel and ill-conceived. Nevertheless, they

Continued on page 28

March 28 - April 3, 2013

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villager arts & entertainment

Immediate, uncompromising and socially conscious Ego Actus explores technology, teen bullying and fighting back THEATER I KNOW WHAT BOYS WANT

Written by Penny Jackson Directed by Joan Kane Presented by Ego Actus Through April 13 Thurs. through Sat. at 8pm Matinees Sat. at 3pm Talkback with neuroscientist Heather Berlin on April 4 At WorkShop Theater 312 W. 36th St., 4th Fl., btw 8th & 9th Aves.

For tickets ($18), 800-838-3006 or brownpapertickets.com Visit egoactus.com

BY MARTIN DENTON (of nytheatre.com & indietheater.com) Bullying is a hot topic these days, and with good reason. Most of the theater work I’ve come across that deals with this subject has been focused on victims. But what if a bullied teen found an effective way to fight back? And better still — what if that bullied teen was a girl?

That’s the idea of Penny Jackson’s new play, “I Know What Boys Want.” It’s being presented by Ego Actus, a relatively new but extremely prolific and energetic theater company run by director Joan Kane and theatrical jack-of-all-trades Bruce A! Kraemer (the exclamation point is not a misprint, and tells you a lot about this guy, believe me).

Here’s what Kane says their latest project is about: “‘I Know What Boys Want’ is about a girl named Vicky who refuses to be a victim of a bully, when he makes her the sensation of the Internet by posting a video of her having sex with her boyfriend. It is also about a group of teens who are rudderless, in that their parents are not involved in their lives and they have no one to help them navigate the rocky waters of adolescence.” Kraemer adds: “I think it is about

the pervasiveness of technology in society today. We used to be afraid of Big Brother government watching everything we did. It turns out that ‘little brother’ is much more dangerous to privacy.”

Intrigued? I know I am. The first collaboration of Jackson, Kane and Kraemer — also produced by Ego Actus, at the 2012 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity — was a play called “Safe,” about a teenage girl who decides to start a relationship with a much older man she meets in a Starbucks.

“Safe” went on to win the Best Playwriting Award at the Festivity, and was published on Indie Theater Now shortly thereafter. It will be heading to the Edinburgh Fringe this August, following a short engagement at 59E59 as part of their East to Edinburgh Festival. Not a bad showing for a writer’s first produced play!

Jackson told me, “I'm very interested in how today’s generation of girls are turning their back on feminists like Gloria Steinem and are creating what is known as ‘the third wave of feminism,’ referred to as ‘grrl,’ where they feel proud of displaying their sexuality.” She’s been a theater fan since she was 16, when she saw a Tom Stoppard play in the back of a pub. “I knew then that theater can be truly magical and transformative.” Her work, immediate, uncompromising and socially conscious, certainly strives to awaken people to issues they may not have thought much about, and maybe even change some minds.

In a city where too many indie theater companies cover the same ground over and over again, Kane and Kraemer seek out challenging work that is relevant to audiences and very likely unfamiliar to them as well.

Jackson is on record as saying that Kane is her mentor. “She taught me how to write a play,” Jackson says, “how to focus on characters and motivation, and to emotion-

From the 2011 Ego Actus production of “Aliens With Extraordinary Skills”

ally connect to an audience.” Jackson has chosen wisely: Kane has been involved in theater for more than four decades, first as an actor and dancer and then as a founding member of the all-female company Lupa Productions — where she directed plays, readings, site-specific and devised works. In 1978, Joan met Bruce at a dress rehearsal of a production of “Platonov,” which she was acting in and he was lighting. Kane says, “Bruce got into an argument with the director and quit a show for the only time in his life. A few days later we saw each other in a bar and I told him that the show was lousy.

He was delighted.”

They became partners in life, and after their children grew up, they decided to become partners in a new theater company, Ego Actus (“my way” in Latin), which they founded in 2009. “We wanted to create a company where artists could create and produce their art using whatever technique they were comfortable creating in,” Kane explained. “There are a variety of different techniques of producing a work of art and one way is not better than another way. We wanted all artists to be respected and cherished.”

I met Kane and Kraemer in 2011, when they were presenting the first NYC revival of Saviana Stanescu’s terrific play “Aliens With Extraordinary Skills.” Kane and Kraemer’s work on this piece was exemplary, and as I am very familiar with Saviana’s work, they invited me to do a talkback after one of the performances.

[For those interested, I will be conducting another talkback with Joan and Bruce, fol-

lowing the March 30 matinee performance of “I Know What Boys Want.”] I was immediately impressed by their seriousness, their craft, and their fearlessness.

In a city where too many indie theater companies cover the same ground over and over again (mining the classics and a small passel of popular new plays), Kane and Kraemer seek out challenging work that is relevant to audiences and very likely unfamiliar to them as well. It’s through them that I got to know Jackson, and I will be excited to meet whatever other new writers they may happen to discover in the future.

Once “Boys” is finished, Kane and Kraemer will be presenting Kraemer’s play “what do you mean” at this year’s Planet Connections Festivity, and a revival of Kate Fodor’s provocative “100 Saints You Should Know” at Urban Stages. Then they’re off to Edinburgh with Jackson and “Safe.” They’re planning another new show in November at Theater for the New City, a co-production with Scandinavian American Theatre Company of the play “More” by award-winning Norwegian playwright Maria Tryti Vennerod. Jackson has a new play in the works called “Lay Me Down,” which is “about a family that is shattered when the father of an autistic son decides to abandon his wife and child.”

Yep, it’s a lot to take in. One can only admire the energy and dedication that these three artists bring to the NYC theater scene.

In the meantime, check out “I Know What Boys Want,” which is sure to provide an unusual and thought-provoking perspective on a pervasive problem.

22

March 28 - April 3, 2013

Bed Notches and Groomsticks Eisenberg’s autobio a love letter to doing it before the I Do’s

BOOKS SCREW EVERYONE: SLEEPING MY WAY TO MONOGAMY

BY OPHIRA EISENBERG Seal Press (sealpress.com) $16 Visit ophiraeisenberg.com NPR’s “ASK ME ANOTHER” LIVE TAPING Mon., April 8, 7:30pm At The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY 149 Seventh St. (btw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.)

For tickets ($10), amatickets.org THE “SCREW EVERYONE” BOOK PARTY Thurs., April 25, 7-9pm At Housing Works Bookstore Cafe 126 Crosby St., btw. Houston & Prince Sts.

BY SCOTT STIFFLER She may have a nice, seemingly normal second act existence — living in Brooklyn with her supportive husband and adorable dog — but don’t think for a minute that Ophira Eisenberg has gone soft or settled down.

While the more timid among us are doomed to look in the rearview mirror only to see roads not taken, Eisenberg will be living for years off the worldly confidence one can only get after gingerly hopping from bed to bathtub to the occasional sleazy hotel countertop.

Voyeurs, virgins, prudes and dudes will all find something to recoil from and admire, under the covers of “Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy.”

You could be forgiven for glancing at that title and assuming Eisenberg’s autobiography is just a series of DWI (Dating While Intoxicated) misadventures. But “Screw Everyone” is more than a coming of age story (although there’s some of that) and more than a barfly confessional (there’s plenty of that). Like the author, the book slowly reveals itself to be in possession of a solid moral foundation.

That said, barely a page goes by where sex and pleasure aren’t front and center, described in frank and occasionally graphic detail — usually leavened with crackling observations that are more anthropologic than pornographic.

Fortunately, this teen-to-30something tale is the work of a professional stand-

Image courtesy of the publisher

Howdy, Doo-Me: Ophira’s autobio is a fast read about her randy road to longterm commitment.

up comic. So every potential suitor gets the sharp evaluation, and witty punchline, he deserves — while the author (a Village comedy club and Moth story slam veteran who hosts NPR’s game show “Ask Me Another”) never emerges unscathed from her own well-calibrated bullshit detector.

Long before her bed notches reach the double digits, readers who can see beyond the sex on the beach, the sunburns and the social disease scares will realize that this relentless collection of hook-ups and hangovers is really about the rewards of putting it out there and taking chances, without the crippling burden of shame — or the desperate end game goal of settling down just because you don’t want to be alone.

Why, some of the life lessons Eisenberg accrued in the sack actually translate into helpful etiquette and esteem tips for the sober and the celibate! Straight guys will learn more about what women really want by reading this book than indulging in a lifetime of locker room brag sessions (or Lifetime movies).

“Call me an enthusiastic consenter, or a fairly responsible hedonist,” says our conquering hero, “but sleeping around was often a by-product of getting what I wanted.” Right after proclaiming that she “never set out to be a slut,” Eisenberg hits it right on the head, so to speak, when she reasons, “I just thought I was being nice.” She certainly was.

Even when knee-deep in tales of vomit, meth addict sex partners, neararrests and lesbian flings, Eisenberg rarely disavows her often ill-advised choices. She wears her mistakes and her triumphs equally well — badges of pride that look damn good on her, just like the wedding dress she ends up in by the book’s final chapter.

have a hoot, hollerin, hoppin and egg-citing easter from all of us!

EstablishEd sincE 1880

Famous Dylan Thomas Watering Hole

White horse Tavern 567 Hudson St. NYC * 243-9260

READ THE VILLAGER & EAST VILLAGER

p.s. dont put all your eggs in one basket!

March 28 - April 3, 2013

23

Just Do Art!

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

JULIE SALAMON SPEAKS, ON WENDY WASSERSTEIN

The first woman to win a solo Tony award for Best Play (for “The Heidi Chronicles,” which also won a Pulitzer), Wendy Wasserstein was complicated — but not necessarily contradictory. Known as a driven woman who was as pleasant and accessible as she was secretive and enigmatic, the keen observer of well-educated, affluent baby boomers used their lives (and her own) as raw material for work on the stage (“The Sisters Rosensweig”) and the page (“Shiksa Goddess”). In 2011, fellow native New Yorker Julie Salamon drew on her own parallel life experiences for the bio “Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein” (now available in paperback). Salamon will be the guest speaker at East End Temple’s 10th annual Helene Spring Library Event — where she’ll discuss the lasting footprint of Wasserstein’s achievements, followed by a Q&A session and a reception/book signing.

Free. Sun., April 14, at 1pm. At East End Temple (245 E. 17 St., btw. Second & Third Aves.). For info, call 212-477-6444 or visit eastendtemple.org. For more info on the author, visit juliesalamon.com.

Photo by Sandra Coudert

Getting to know you: Vanessa Redgrave and Jesse Eisenberg, in “The Revisionist.”

Image courtesy of Penguin Books

RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER: “THE REVISIONIST”

Sold-out houses and rapturous reviews from praise-stingy critics prompted an extension of the run — but Rattlestick Playwrights Theater’s world premiere of Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Revisionist” is closing for sure, for good, on April 27. Playwright Eisenberg (of “The Social Network” film fame) pulls double duty,

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Wishing Everyone a Happy Passover & Happy Easter Assemblymember

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853 Broadway, Suite 1518, New York, NY 10003 Tel: 212-674-5153 / Fax: 212-674-5530 glickd@assembly.state.ny.us

performing the role of David — a young American novelist of some success who, battling writer’s block, shows up in Poland to visit his 75-year-old second cousin Maria (longtime bankable stage presence Vanessa Redgrave). While David may be there to hide from his present, Maria’s needy desire to connect leads to a slow reveal of her post-war past.

Through April 27. Tuesday.-Fri. at 8pm,

April 14: Wasserstein biographer Julie Salamon is the guest at East End Temple’s Helene Spring Library Event.

Sat. at 2pm & 8pm, Sun. at 3pm. At the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St., two blocks below Bleecker St.). For tickets ($85), visit therevisionistplay.com or call 866-8114111. For discounted group reservations, call 212-627-2556.

24

March 28 - April 3, 2013

Skyscraper Museum celebrates Woolworth’s 100th birthday Rare peeks at the building before its centennial Woolworth @100 Through July 14 At The Skyscraper Museum 39 Battery Place Open 12pm-6pm, Wed.-Sun. Museum Admission: $5 (2.50 for students/seniors) Call 212-968-1961 or visit skyscraper.org and woolworth100.com Curator’s Tours: April 17 & 24, at 3pm (free with museum admission) Building Manager’s tours of the Woolworth building: April 8, 16 & 30, at 6pm. Reservations required; free to members of the Skyscraper Museum Woolworth Week: April 22, Curator Gail Fenske lecture at AIA NY April 23, Centennial Reception at The Skyscraper Museum April 24, Woolworth Building Centennial

BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER On April 24, 1913, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button in Washington, D.C. that fired up dynamos in the basement of the newly finished Woolworth building at 233 Broadway in New York City. The lights in the building flashed on all at once as thousands of people in City Hall Park watched. Thousands more stood on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River to see the spectacle.

Newspaper accounts said that people out at sea, 100 miles away, witnessed the flash of electric light.

At the time, the Woolworth building at 792 feet was the tallest building in the world. It remained so until 1930, when the Chrysler building surpassed it.

As the Woolworth building celebrates its centennial, it is, of course no longer anywhere near the tallest building even in New York City, but many people still consider it to be one of the city’s most

Photos by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

The lobby of the Woolworth building at 233 Broadway. The stairs once led to the Irving Bank, which occupied several floors of the building when it opened in April 1913.

beautiful skyscrapers. The exterior, with its delicate tracery of terra cotta ornamentation and its copper-clad roof, is a well-known feature of the skyline.

The interior of the Lower Manhattan building is less well known except to the people who work there. Since the nearby World Trade Center was attacked on Sept.

11, 2001, the lobby has been closed to visitors with occasional exceptions. This year, however, in honor of the centennial, the Skyscraper Museum in Battery Park City has organized an exhibit about the Woolworth building and has also arranged a few tours for museum members.

What they see when they enter the lobby is as awe-inspiring as it was a hundred years ago when Frank W. Woolworth, the owner of hundreds of five-and-ten cent stores in the United States, Canada and England, first unveiled it.

A vaulted ceiling soars above their heads, inlaid with glass tiles infused with gold leaf. The intricate mosaics depict exotic birds and floral designs interspersed among geometric forms. In front of them is a dramatic marble staircase surmounted by a stained-glass skylight.

Corbels in the lobby of the Woolworth building depict the men who played a role in creating it. Architect Cass Gilbert is shown holding a model of the building, near right, and Frank Woolworth, who hired him.

The lobby walls are made of a warmcolored marble imported from Greece.

Sculptures, paintings and bronze fixtures complete the effect of grandeur and opulence.

“Woolworth wanted people to come into the lobby and see it,” said Gail Fenske, an architectural historian and co-curator of the museum’s exhibit. “He

was a big fan of the Eiffel Tower that drew many visitors. Woolworth expected people to visit the lobby and the observatory. Thousands of people did — paying 50 cents a ticket. Throughout the ’20s it was the most popular observatory in New York.”

Continued on page 25

March 28 - April 3, 2013

Continued from page 24 The observatory has been closed since 1945.

Woolworth, who was born on April 13, 1852 to a poor farming family in Upstate New York, came up with the idea of having stores that would sell everything at a fixed price — initially a nickel, and then a dime. He opened his first successful store in Lancaster, Penn. in 1879 — a date that is memorialized in the lobby skylight. The skylight is also inscribed with the date 1913 when Woolworth’s building proclaimed to the world that he had become one of its richest men.

“I think there is a spirit to the Woolworth building that has everything to do with the idea of the American success story,” said Fenske. “At the opening, journalists called Woolworth the true Horatio Alger, rags to riches. There’s a sense of aspiration about the building.

You look at that building and you think, these are people who aspired to something, and not just Frank Woolworth, who was staggeringly successful from a financial standpoint, but also the architect Cass Gilbert.”

Gilbert, who designed the U.S. Custom House at Bowling Green and 90 West St. before Woolworth hired him, was, like his client, a self-made man. His father died when he was very young, leaving his mother with three young children. She moved the family to Minnesota, where Gilbert began working in an architectural office at the age of 17.

No one who enters the Woolworth building can forget about the men who made it. Sculpted caricatures of Woolworth and Gilbert and others who gave birth to the building look down on visitors from the lintels they support. Woolworth is depicted counting his money. Gilbert holds a model of the building itself.

Gunvald Aus, the building’s engineer, has his arms wrapped around a steel truss.

Although steel structures enrobed in terra cotta had previously been built, none were as tall as this building, which presented engineering challenges for Aus to solve.

The building rests on concrete and steel caissons, most of them 14 feet in diameter, that had to be driven down through

Photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

The Woolworth building, looking good at 100.

around 100 feet of muck to Manhattan bedrock. It also had to be reinforced so that it would not sway in the wind.

Louis Horowitz, president of Thompson-Starrett, the building’s con-

struction company, is depicted making a telephone call. Telephones, like electricity, were just decades old at that time, and not everyone had them. The Woolworth building was a proud amalgam of the lat-

25

est technology with the most sumptuous materials and craftsmanship.

Edward Hogan, the building’s real estate agent, is shown counting on his fingers. Woolworth created an ornate office for himself on the 24th floor and utilized part of the 23rd floor as well for his company, but the rest of the building was rented to others. He wanted to make a profit on it — and he did.

Irving National Exchange Bank was one of the principal tenants. In the lobby sculptures, Lewis Pierson, president of the bank, has been equipped with a ticker tape machine. There are other figures, too, who have not been identified.

“Woolworth was very proud of the building,” said Fenske, who curated the exhibit with Carol Willis, the museum’s director. “He spoke of traveling in Europe and seeing a poster in which the Woolworth building was featured as a building that represented New York. He was proud that he created a landmark to New York City and that people understood New York through his project.”

Those who are unable to get into the lobby of the Woolworth building can still learn about it at the Skyscraper Museum exhibit.

It includes original drawings of the structure from the archives of the New York Historical Society and from Gilbert’s office. Items related to Woolworth and his stores are also on display.

The building’s handsome terra cotta cladding is documented with mural-sized photographs accompanied by photographs of Atlantic Terra Cotta’s works at Perth Amboy, N.J. and Tottenville, P.A., where the terra cotta was made.

The Woolworth building is contemporary with Grand Central Terminal, which also celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, and with the Municipal Building at 1 Centre St., which was completed in 1912.

Fenske speculated as to why so much major construction was happening at that time.

“I think you can point to prosperity,” she said. “New York was a prosperous port. It was at the height of its power economically. There were people who believed in the city and wanted to invest in it. And what I am really struck by is the commitment to really improving the city with these beautiful buildings that stay with us today.”

26

March 28 - April 3, 2013

Publ ic Notice s Notice of Qualification of Pliant, LLC Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/15/10. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 6/29/06. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: National Registered Agents, Inc., 875 Ave. of the Americas, Ste. 501, NY, NY 10001. Principal office: 200 East Main St., Macedon, NY 14502. Address to be maintained in DE: c/o National Registered Agents, Inc., 160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover, DE 19904. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secretary of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activities.

Vil: 03/28 - 05/02/2013 Notice is hereby given that a restaurant wine license, #TBA has been applied for by Clinton Street Pizza Inc. d/b/a Rizzo’s Fine Pizza Co to sell beer and wine at retail in an on premises establishment.

For on premises consumption under the ABC law at 17 Clinton Street New York NY 10002.

Vil: 03/28 - 04/04/2013 Notice is hereby given that an on-premises license, #TBA has been applied for

by Brannons Sandwich Shop LLC d/b/a Brannons sell beer, wine and liquor at retail in an on premises establishment.

For on premises consumption under the ABC law at 119 Essex Street New York NY 10002.

Vil: 03/28 - 04/04/2013 Notice is hereby given that a license, number 1268796 for liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell liquor at retail in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 5 King Street, 1FE, New York, NY 10012 for on premises consumption.

Kennedy Organics LLC Vil: 03/28 - 04/04/2013 Notice of Qualification of AlpInvest/ Michigan Investment Fund, L.P. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/20/13. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/29/11. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #3, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/28 - 05/02/2013

Notice of Qualification of AlpInvest Secondaries Fund (Onshore) V, L.P. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/20/13. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/16/12. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #3, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 227 E. 87th St., NY, NY 10128, Attn: Amelia Setar, the registered agent upon whom process may be served. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/28 - 05/02/2013

Notice of Qualification of Secoya Partners, LLC App. for Auth. filed Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/14/13. Fictitious name in NY State: Secoya Partners of Delaware LLC. Off. loc.: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 8/8/12. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o United Corporate Services, Inc., 10 Bank St., Ste. 560, White Plains, NY 10606. DE address of LLC: c/o Incorporating Services, Ltd., 3500 S. DuPont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901.

Arts. of Org. filed DE Secy. of State, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/28 - 05/02/2013 Notice of Qualification of Napier Park Railcar Lease Fund LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 3/12/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 3/7/13. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o Napier Park Global Capital LLC, 399 Park Ave., 7th Fl., NY, NY 10022, principal business address.

DE address of LLC: c/o The Corporation Trust Co., 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, P.O. Box 898, Dover, DE 19903.

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Vil: 03/28 - 05/02/2013 Notice is hereby given that a tavern wine license, #1269541 has been applied for by Yardbird LLC to sell beer and wine at retail in an on premises establishment.

For on premises consumption under the ABC law at 162 Avenue B New York NY 10009.

Vil: 03/21 - 03/28/2013 Notice is hereby given that a tavern wine license, #1269401 has been applied for by SIVANDREW Inc. d/b/a Eastwood to sell beer and wine at retail in an on premises establishment. For on premises consumption under the ABC law at 200 Clinton St aka 221 E Broadway New York NY 10002.

Vil: 03/21 - 03/28/2013 Notice is hereby given that an on-premises license, #TBA has been applied for by 115 Avenue C LLC to sell beer, wine and liquor at retail in an on premises establishment.

For on premises consumption under the ABC law at 115 Avenue C New York NY 10009.

Vil: 03/21 - 03/28/2013 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY. NAME: THE FRENCH RESISTANCE, LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 03/13/13. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC, 156 Fifth Avenue, Suite 200, NewYork, NewYork 10010. Purpose: For any lawful purpose.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013

STUDIO CUBE LLC, a domestic LLC currently known as REID & TAYLOR STUDIO LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 1/7/13. Office location: NewYork County. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 328 W. 11th St., 1-C, NY, NY 10014. General Purposes.

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General Purposes.

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SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. The address to which SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC is to: The LLC, c/o Alexes Lowe, 321 Edgecombe #20 NY NY 10031. Purpose: To engage in any lawful act or activity.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013 Notice of Formation of HANNAH EAST END LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/06/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Davidson, Dawson & Clark LLP, 60 E. 42nd St., NY, NY 10165. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013 Notice of Qualification of QDG RETAIL PARTNERS, LLC Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/11/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/14/13. Princ. office of LLC: 60 Columbus Circle, 20th Fl., NY, NY 10023.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of DE, John G. Townsend Bldg., Federal and Duke of York Sts., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013

Notice of Qualification of IH2 PROPERTY GP LLC Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/05/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/14/13.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with State of DE, Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013 Notice of Formation of KLW ADVISORS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/06/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 252 7th Ave., NY, NY 10001.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013 Notice of Formation of Champion Parking 230 LLC Arts. of Org. filed Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/22/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 655 Third Ave., NY, NY 10017. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013 Application for Authority of Avenue Realty Capital LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/22/13.

The LLC was formed in DE 10/11/12. Office loc.: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The principal business loc. and address SSNY shall mail copy of process is 100 Park Ave., 16th Fl., New York, NY 10017. The office address in DE is 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801.

Cert. of Formation filed with the Sec. of State, Div. of Corporations, Townsend Bldg., Federal & Loockerman Sts., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013 Notice of Formation of XENIA GHALI LLC Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 3/4/13.

Office location: NY County.

Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o Arent Fox LLP, 1675 Broadway, NY, NY 10019, Attn: Ross Charap, Esq. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013

Notice of Qualification of Withers Consulting Group LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 3/5/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 2/25/13. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: James R. Brockway, Esq., Withers Bergman LLP, 157 Church St., 19th Fl., New Haven, CT 06510, principal business address. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, P.O. Box 898, Dover, DE 19903.

Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013 Notice of Formation of NV Realty Holdings, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 12/18/2012.

Office location: NY County.

Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP, 900 Third Ave., NY, NY 10022. Term: until 11/1/2057.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/21 - 04/25/2013 Notice of Formation of OPP LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/04/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Salvatore D’Avola, c/o Restored Homes, 150 Broadway, Ste. 2101, NY, NY 10038.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY. NAME: THE MAK ORGANIZATION LLC Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 02/26/13. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC, 37A Orchard Street, New York, New York 10002. Purpose: For any lawful purpose.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY. NAME: PUSHPOINT, LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 03/04/13. The latest date of dissolution is 12/31/2113.

Office location: New York.

SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC, 400 Townline Road, Suite 150, Hauppauge, New York 11788. Purpose: For any lawful purpose.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013 Notice of Formation of MOMIC LLC Arts. of Org. filed Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/5/12. Off. loc.: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: c/o United States Corporation Agents, Inc., 10 Bank St., Ste. 560, White Plains, NY 10606, the registered agent upon whom process may be served. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013

Notice of Formation of Caldera Brand Development LLC Arts. of Org. filed Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/6/13.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 171 E. 84th St., Apt. 31E, NY, NY 10028. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013 Notice of Formation of Anat Nev, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 12/13/12.

Office location: NY County.

Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o Ellyn Roth Mittman, Esq., 110 E. 59th St., 23rd Fl., NY, NY 10022. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013 Notice of Formation of Travis Quinn Design LLC Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/22/13.

Office location: NY County.

Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: 445 W. 23rd St., #15A, NY, NY 10011, Attn: Travis Quinn. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013 Notice of Qualification of Ladder Capital Realty Finance III LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/22/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 345 Park Ave., 8th Fl., NY, NY 10154. LLC formed in DE on 5/16/12. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom process may be served. DE addr. of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013 Notice of Qualification of THL Credit Advisors LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/22/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 570 Lexington Ave., 28th Fl., NY, NY 10022.

LLC formed in DE on 6/26/09.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom process may be served. DE addr. of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013

Notice of Qualification of Rose Moss Associates, LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/14/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 3/22/00.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o Toback, Bernstein & Reiss, LLP, Att: Leonard Reiss, Esq., 15 W. 44th St., 12th Fl., NY, NY 10036. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, Duke & York Sts., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013 Notice of Qualification of SPRINGS 6 LLC Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/20/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 11/1/06.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o John Silberman Associates, 145 E. 57th St., 9th Fl., NY, NY 10022. DE addr. of LLC: c/o National Corporate Research, Ltd., 615 S. DuPont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/14 - 04/18/2013 Notice of Qualification of TARGET SOURCING SERVICES LLC Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/25/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/25/13. Princ. office of LLC: 500 Seventh Ave., NY, NY 10018. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office.

DE addr. of LLC: 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, DE Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013 Notice of Formation of SHAP ENTERTAINMENT, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/26/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 415 Madison Ave., 20 Fl., NY, NY 10017. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013 Notice of Qualification of AIG PORTFOLIO SOLUTIONS LLC Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/15/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/19/12. Princ. office of LLC: 80 Pine St., NY, NY 10005. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy of State, DE, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013

March 28 - April 3, 2013

27

publ ic notice S Notice of forMatioN of drs ProductioNs llc Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/26/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 601 West 26th St., Ste. 1762, NY, NY 10001, also the principal office. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013 Notice of forMatioN of aMericaN diaMoNds uNliMited, llc Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 02/26/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. The address to which SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC is to:The LLC, 579 5th Avenue Suite #888, NewYork NY 10017. Purpose: To engage in any lawful act or activity.

Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013 Notice of forMatioN of strive asset MaNageMeNt llc Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/7/13.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to principal business address: VIJAY BACHANI 330 E 33RD ST, APT #5C, NY, NY 10016. Purpose: any lawful act. 2038871 Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013 forMatioN Notice of the liMited liability coMPaNy (llc).

NAME: APPLE RESIDENTIAL VENTURES LLC. Application for Authority filed with NY Secretary of State (SSNY): February 13, 2013. The LLC was originally filed with Secretary of State of Delaware: April 15, 2011. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to 230 West 41st Street, Suite 1102, New York, New York 10036.

Purpose: All lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013 Notice of registratioN of rich MichaelsoN Magaliff Moser, llP. Certificate filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/20/13. Off. loc.: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLP upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: The LLP, 340 Madison Ave., 19th Fl., NY, NY 10173. Purpose: practice the profession of law.

Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013 Notice of forMatioN of 528-534 west 39 l.l.c Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 8/10/12. Office location: NY County. Principal business location: 666 Fifth Ave., 5th Fl., NY, NY 10103. SNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Rockrose Development Corp., 666 Fifth Ave., 5th Fl., NY, NY 10103, Attn: General Counsel. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013

Notice of QualificatioN of loNg JohN silver’s llc App. for Auth. filed Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/27/13. Off. loc.: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 6/6/69. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Arts. of Org. filed DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013 Notice of QualificatioN of PreMier research iNterNatioNal llc Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/19/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 4/16/08.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom process may be served. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/07 - 04/11/2013 Notice of QualificatioN of redwood iNcoMe fuNd llc App. for Auth. filed Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/12/13. Off. loc.: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 9/12/12. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Steven Katz, 227 E. 56th St., Ste. 401, NY, NY 10022. DE address of LLC: c/o United Corporate Services, Inc., 874 Walker Road, Ste. C, Dover, DE 19904. Arts. of Org. filed DE Secy. of State, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013

Notice of forMatioN of durst warreN street llc Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/14/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: One Bryant Park, NY, NY 10036. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Rosenberg & Estis, P.C., Attn: Gary M. Rosenberg, Esq., 733 Third Ave., NY, NY 10017. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013

Notice of forMatioN of tessaNNieK, llc Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/7/13.

Office location: NY County.

Princ. bus. addr.: 30 Crosby St., NY, NY 10013. Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Mihir Patel, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, 55 E. 52nd St., 28th Fl., NY, NY 10055. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013

Notice of forMatioN of echo iNvestors llc Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/13/13. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to M. Nader Ahari, 524 Broadway, Ste. 405, NY, NY 10012. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013

Notice of QualificatioN of NatioNal woMeN’s soccer league, llc Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/8/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 1801 S. Prairie Ave., Chicago, IL 60616. LLC formed in DE on 12/12/12.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011. DE addr. of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013

Notice of forMatioN of haNg wu realty llc Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/19/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: c/o 349 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10016. Latest date on which the LLC may dissolve is 12/31/2035. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013 Notice of QualificatioN of 205e45 llc Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 1/17/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 1/8/13. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: William R. Hagner, 135 E. 57th St., 6th Fl., NY, NY 10022, also the principal office address. Address to be maintained in DE: The LLC, 3500 S. Dupont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secretary of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013

Notice of forMatioN of 150 Nyc llc Arts. of Org. filed Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/15/13. Off. loc.: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Isaacs & Associates, PLLC, 260 Madison Ave., 17th Fl., NY, NY 10016. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013

Notice of forMatioN of liMited liability coMPaNy. Mf rose coMMuNicatioNs, llc.

Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 01/23/13. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC, 82-30 98th Street, Woodhaven, New York 11421. Purpose: For any lawful purpose.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013

luXury chauffeured service llc, a doMestic llc Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 11/9/11. Office location: NewYork County. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Nissim Holand, 270 11th Ave., NY, NY 10001. General Purposes Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013

Notice of forMatioN of PoiNte tibet retail llc Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 1/14/13. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to principal address: 1 Little West 12th St New York, NY 10014. Purpose: any lawful act.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013

Notice of QualificatioN of vtr hertliN house, llc Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 12/3/12. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 10350 Ormsby Park Pl., Ste. 300, Louisville, KY 40223. LLC formed in DE on 11/27/12. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom process may be served. DE addr. of LLC:The Corporation Trust Co., 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 02/28 - 04/04/2013 Notice of forMatioN of sweet aNgel garMeNt care llc Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/8/13.

Office New York County.

SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to principal address: 713 Washington St. New York, NY 10014. Purpose: any lawful act.

Vil: 02/21 - 03/28/2013 Notice of forMatioN of PalMer souNd Nyc llc Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of NewYork (SSNY) on 01/03/13.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. The address to which SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC is to: 65 Downing Street Apt A New York, NY 10014. Purpose:To engage in any lawful act or activity.

Vil: 02/21 - 03/28/2013

Notice of forMatioN of aPac liviNg, llc Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of NewYork (SSNY) on 01/28/13.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. The address to which SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC is to: Gartner+Bloom PC, 801 2nd Ave #1505 NY, NY10017.

Purpose: To engage in any lawful act or activity.

Vil: 02/21 - 03/28/2013 Notice of QualificatioN of ccd of New yorK, llc Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/07/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/27/11. Princ. office of LLC: The Learning Experience, 4855 Technology Way, Ste. 700, Boca Raton, FL 33431. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. DE addr. of LLC: 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808.

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State - DE, Corp. Dept., Loockerman & Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 02/21 - 03/28/2013

Notice of forMatioN of PhiPPs hPs gP llc Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/07/13. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 902 Broadway, 13th Fl., NY, NY 10010. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 02/21 - 03/28/2013 Notice of QualificatioN of gateway ceNter ParKiNg associatioN, llc Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/07/13. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/04/13. Princ. office of LLC: 60 Columbus Circle, NY, NY 10023. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.

DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808.

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of DE, John G. Townsend Bldg., Federal and Duke of York Sts., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 02/21 - 03/28/2013

the graMercy ceN-

Notice of forMatioN

tre llc

of North 9 Joy llc

Articles of Org. filed NY Sec.

Arts. of Org. filed Secy. of

of State (SSNY) 2/4/13. Office in NY Co. SSNY design.

Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served.

State of NY (SSNY) on 2/6/13.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail copy of pro-

SSNY shall mail process to:

cess to The LLC 38 Gramercy

c/o Joy Construction Corp.,

Park Apt. 3E New York, NY

40 Fulton St., 21st Fl., NY, NY

10010. Purpose: Any lawful

10038. Purpose: any lawful activity.

activity.

Vil: 02/21 - 03/28/2013

Vil: 02/21 - 03/28/2013

Notice of forMatioN Notice of forMatioN

of New heights tech.

of wild history, llc

llc

Arts. of Org. filed Secy.

Arts. of Org. filed Secy. of

of State of NY (SSNY) on

State of NY (SSNY) on 1/3/13.

9/28/12. Off. loc.: NY County.

Off. loc.: NY County. SSNY

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to:

designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Stanley K. Anderson, 13 Pierson Curt,

604 E. 11th St., NY, NY 10009.

Mahwah, NJ 07430. Purpose:

Purpose: any lawful activity.

any lawful activity.

Vil: 02/21 - 03/28/2013

Vil: 02/21 - 03/28/2013

Public Notice NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, PURSUANT TO LAW, that the NYC Dept. of Consumer Affairs will hold a Public Hearing on Wednesday April 10, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. at 66 John Street, 11th floor, on a petition from HPA Restaurant, LLC to continue to, maintain, and operate an unenclosed sidewalk café at 255 Fifth Avenue, in the Borough of Manhattan, for a term of two years. REQUEST FOR COPIES OF THE PROPOSED REVOCABLE CONSENT AGREEMENT MAY BE ADDRESSED TO: DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, ATTN: FOIL OFFICER, 42 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10004.

Vil: 03/28 - 04/04/2013

Public Notice NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, PURSUANTTO LAW, that the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs will hold a Public Hearing on Wednesday, April 10th, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. at 66 John Street, 11th floor, on a petition from Barnorth Group LLC to establish, maintain, and operate an unenclosed sidewalk café at 77 Delancey Street in the Borough of Manhattan for a term of two years. REQUESTS FOR COPIES OF THE PROPOSED REVOCABLE CONSENT AGREEMENT MAY BE ADDRESSED TO: DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS: FOIL OFFICER, 42 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10004.

Vil: 03/28 - 04/04/2013

CONTACT

JULIO TUMBACO 646.452.2490 JULIO@THEVILLAGER.COM

28

March 28 - April 3, 2013

A crusty proposal: Crack down on ‘voluntary homeless’ Continued from page 20 clarify that homeless persons, under certain circumstances, may be required to demonstrate residency.

So proceeding with the utmost caution and concern for protecting the involuntary homeless, I offer the following proposal: The City Council should pass a law making it unlawful to sleep or lie down on a public sidewalk, in a park or other public space between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Additional penalties would apply to those in possession of an unlicensed dog.

This legislative proposal, if it ended there, would be nothing short of an immoral attack on the homeless. That

is why the law must contain numerous exceptions (“affirmative defenses”) to ensure it is applied humanely and only against voluntary homeless tourists like crusties. To that end, the law would not apply to anyone who: (1) was born in New York City; (2) ever lived in New York City for three consecutive years; (3) ever held federal, state or local government agency-issued identification bearing a New York City address; (4) ever filed an income tax return as a New York City resident; (5) for 12 consecutive months prior to first becoming homeless, resided in public or private housing in New York City; (6) for the past 12 consecutive months, lived in New York City without interruption (including time on streets); (7) is actively participating in a drug treatment program; (8)

This is place is always hoppin’!

H AE PA P ST YE R

�

WE DELIVER COMPLETE DINNERS CALL:677-3820/475-9828 106 West Houston Street 677-3820 475-9828

Junior Division: K-3RD GRADE

is a veteran; or (9) is in the location primarily for the purpose of engaging in political speech. Further, the law should require the Police Department to provide notice of these defenses and to use its available resources to assist persons seeking to establish one.

The penalties for violating this law would be as follows. For first offenses, the person would be taken into custody, issued a warning, provided with information regarding the penalties for a subsequent violation, advised to go to a homeless shelter, find a nonpublic place to stay or leave New York City and, if appropriate, would be offered drug treatment program information.

For subsequent offenses, the person would be taken into custody and assessed a $500 fine. If the person is found guilty and cannot pay the fine, his or her personal property, up to the value of fine, would be seized. This includes items like jewelry, camping gear and backpacks, but not clothing. As further disincentive, if the person was in possession of an unlicensed dog, it would be seized and taken to an animal shelter.

Such a law would enable the N.Y.P.D. to crackdown on crusties without having to catch them threatening local residents, having sex on the streets, defecating in our doorways or committing some other violation or crime.

While this proposal may be imperfect, it is good enough to warrant being proposed in the City Council now. Once introduced, there will be plenty of time to debate and refine the bill.

If our community and elected officials are serious about cracking down on crusties, here is a way to do it.

Otherwise, let’s get ready to roll out the welcome mat for another increasingly violent crusties summer.

Marlow is a member of Community Board 3

21

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March 28 - April 3, 2013

29

letterS to tHe editor Continued from page 12

Getting along on the road To The Editor: Re “Bikes rule! Or bike rules? One cyclist sounds off” (talking point, by Scott Oglesby, March 21): This is an excellent, thoughtfully written and commonsensical piece on a pressing topic. The landscape of the street has changed dramatically over the last decade, but codes of behavior have not adapted. Articles like this may help bridge the gap so that going forward we collectively, as drivers, cyclists and pedestrians, learn to accommodate one another with more mutual respect.

Rick Brosen

Too many reckless cyclists To The Editor: Re “Cyclists draw a line; Demand accountability in car accidents” (news article, March 21) and “Bikes rule! Or bike rules? One cyclist sounds off” (talking point, by Scott Oglesby, March 21): While I lament the number of deaths of pedestrians and cyclists caused by cars in New York City, and while I agree that drivers should certainly be accountable, I would also like to know how many of these accidents have been caused by reckless cyclists.

I applaud Scott Oglesby for his “talking point” in the same issue of March 21, presenting both sides of the story and cautioning drivers and bikes “to slow down, adapt to the new streets, and always give pedestrians the right of way. (Optional for phoners and texters.)” But I would go farther: Are there no rules of the road? As a pedestrian and as a driver, I am appalled to see how seldom cyclists observe traffic laws. Every day I see cyclists ride in either direction on one-way streets and avenues, ignore red lights, weave in and out of traffic lanes, and wear clothing more appropriate for the beach than for busy New York traffic. Last week I saw a man on a bicycle riding in the wrong direction, wearing flip-flops, with one hand on the handlebar, the other holding a cell phone to his ear, and riding across Fifth Ave. against the light. I have seen cyclists ride in circles at pedestrian crossings to avoid dismounting their bikes.

For pedestrians and drivers, these cyclists have become genuine hazards. Shouldn’t they also be accountable?

Susan E. Meyer

Sodas? We need a hospital!

To The Editor: Re “Claps for the cap” (editorial, March 21): To quote from your editorial, “But most of us, except for possibly hardcore libertarians, will agree that government does have a public responsibility to protect people’s health.”

Just to let you know this hardcore libertarian definitely agrees that government does have a responsibility to protect people’s health — like, for instance, providing something really necessary, like a hospital.

I will spare you my epithet for your backing of the mayor’s idiotic smokescreen. This is the best health plan he can come up with, while we are denied the statistics on how many people are dying from heart attacks, strokes and who knows what else, while riding across town to the nearest hospital?

If you will recall, he also ran as the education mayor. And now we watch one school after another close, displacing thousands of students and teachers. Another great union-breaking plan, eh?

Pamela L. La Bonne

Not getting my vote To The Editor: Re “Quinn makes it official; Says she wants to be next mayor” (news article, March 14): I will not be voting to elect Christine Quinn for mayor. As soon as Quinn became City Council speaker her allegiance to achieving higher office became more important than service to her constituency in the South Village.

Quinn’s lack of opposition to N.Y.U. 2031 seemed to suggest to many in the affected area that she was more interested in supporting N.Y.U.’s plans in a Council district she does not represent than considering its impact on the preservation of the South Village, located in the Council district that elected her.

Should the landmarking of the northern half of the proposed South Village Historic District not pass, the blame falls to the Landmarks Preservation Commission and not Quinn. This is a win/win for a mayoral candidate seeking necessary support from the real estate industry — which explains why the deal specifically left out the area below Houston St. Living in this area for 45 years, I have witnessed the demise of too many buildings that might well have helped to qualify the area for such a landmarking, while my councilmember’s ambitions moved to those of districts other than her own. On some major issues, Speaker Quinn has a poor record of service to her Council District 3 constituents. Remember St. Vincent’s?

To those in the South Village, I believe we may as well have an opposition candidate from another borough become mayor. We’ll do no worse and perhaps they’ll be more responsive to Village needs than our own councilmember, who has not been responsive.

Jeffrey Rowland E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to lincoln@thevillager.com or fax to 212229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 515 Canal St., Suite 1C, NY, NY 10013.

Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. The Villager does not publish anonymous letters.

Pax has really grown on her West Village dog activist Lynn Pacifico recently adopted a new puppy, Pax, from a shelter. “She is now 53 pounds!”

Pacifico kvelled of the growing pooch, above. After the dog run was kicked out of J.J. Walker Field about 15 years ago because local youth sports leagues’ use of the filed had grown, Pacifico founded the Dog Owners’ Action Committee, which established the Leroy St. dog run in the Hudson River Park. She and other dog owners now want to ensure the run is preserved in future development plans for Pier 40, so that Pax and her pals can stay at their stomping ground. Have a cool wagger — or cat, fish, guinea pig or iguana, etc. — you think has the swagger to be in the Pet Set? Send a photo and some words to news@thevillager.com .

pet Set

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March 28 - April 3, 2013

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March 28 - April 3, 2013

Free Electronics Recycling Events The ASA Avengers hold their practices at Pier 40.

Founded on computer programming, ASA now has a top baseball program SportS By dAnieL JeAn-LUBin After splitting a long, hard-fought doubleheader against Brookdale Community College with a 2-1 win Sunday afternoon, the ASA Avengers found themselves with a 12-4 record, the best start in the program’s history.

When ASA’s baseball program launched at Pier 40, at W. Houston St., five years ago there was some thought that the program wouldn’t be able to succeed. Those feelings were dismissed for good last season as the Avengers’ baseball program capped off their second 30-win season in three years with their third straight Region XV Division I championship, sweeping Globe Institute in a best-of-three series. Avengers Head Coach Francisco Perez would also go on to win his third Coach of the Year award in four years in ASA’s banner year.

ASA also had six student-athletes named to the All-Region Team.

Years of success like that will earn you a lot of acclaim and attention as ASA is finding out. Last week, for the first time in the program’s short history, the ASA College baseball program received votes for a top 25 ranking in the NJCAA poll, an impressive feat for the small, for-profit college. Coach Perez told an ASA correspondent, “This is great recognition for our program considering how many strong teams there are around the nation. We will work on getting better from here.”

The program’s dominance has also made it a big attraction for young, hungry youths chasing their big league baseball dreams. The Avengers have already graduated two former players to the pro ranks.

The first was pitcher Isaac Gil. Selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 31st round

of the 2011 draft, Gil became the first player in school history to be drafted in any sport and last year finished his second pro year in the Rookie Gulf Coast League with a record of 4-1.

The school’s most recent prospect is Andrickson Zorrilla, who signed with the Baltimore Orioles in early January. During his sophomore season, Zorrilla was named an All-Region XV player.

ASA hosts the Borough of Manhattan Community College Panthers in a matinee game Mon., April 1. On April 10, the Avengers begin conference play against fierce rivals, Monroe College.

ASA was started in 1985 in a small Brooklyn classroom with 12 students and one professor. Known then as Associated Software Analysis, it focused on computer programming at a time when New York City had a shortage of mainframe programmers.

Events Are 10am to 4pm • Rain or Shine Apr 6

Tekserve, Chelsea

Apr 7

Delancey Street, LES

Apr 7

Emerson Hill, Staten Island

Apr 13

Bushwick, Brooklyn

Apr 13

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Apr 14

Melrose, Bronx

Apr 14

Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx

For details, visit tekserve.com/recycling

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Catch you on the FLY! Sports, every week in The Villager

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March 28 - April 3, 2013