The Paper of Record for East and West Villages, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Little Italy and Chinatown
April 17, 2014 • FREE Volume 4 • Number 11
Report says L.E.S. has many ‘intensely’ segregated schools BY ZACH WILLIAMS
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DISTRICT 1, continued on p. 5
‘Shame!’ Advocates blast gov, Albany at charter protest BY TEQUILA MINSKY
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hey came from all boroughs. Hundreds of parents, with their placard-carrying children in tow, standing alongside educators on the steps of the New York Public Library’s 42nd St. and Fifth Ave. main branch building on Thurs., April 10.
PHOTO BY SARAH FERGUSON
ews coverage about a new report on severe segregation in New York City public schools has focused on lack of student diversity in schools in Harlem and the Bronx. However, the report also noted another area where school segregation is particularly
heavy, though it has received little media coverage: the East Village and Lower East Side. In short, policy makers — by decreasing emphasis on maintaining classroom diversity while increasing support for alternative education models — have created the highest levels
The multi-generational crowd was passionately protesting the co-location of charter schools within public schools, while, they charged, the needs of mainstream public school students continue to go unmet. Public education advocate Noah Gotbaum led CHARTERS, continued on p. 4
Steve Cannon standing in the empty Tribes gallery. During an auction, patrons were urged to take what remained of the storied arts salon, founded in 1991 in Cannon’s E. Third St. apartment.
Steve has left the building, but takes piece of it with him BY SARAH FERGUSON
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he dismantling of the legendary East Village arts salon A Gathering of the Tribes was a painful spectacle. All week, supporters young and old came out of the woodwork to pay tribute to the space and its founder, Steve Cannon, as they worked to extract the blind 79-year-old poet from the only home
he’s known for the last 44 years. Diehards wanted to occupy the place, at 285 E. Third St., to express their outrage at Cannon’s ouster by landlord Lorraine Zhang, who purchased the building from Cannon back in 2004 with the proviso that he and Tribes be able to stay on for another 10 years. After three years of legal battles with Zhang, the rancor was deep. But at the last minute, a handicap-
accessible apartment was secured for Cannon on the ground floor of a former homestead building on E. Sixth St., just three blocks away. So instead of occupying, friends held a two-night auction / moving party to pack up or sell off the myriad books, zines and art left over from 23 years of shows and performances at Tribes, which operated out of CanTRIBES, continued on p. 12
What’s developer got cooking for Bereket?.......page 7 Vets keep fighting.............page 21 A howl from Hell Square for police help............page 9 www.EastVillagerNews.com