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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933
July 3, 2014 • $1.00 Volume 84 • Number 5
Claws came out as complex fought over L.E.S. feral cats BY SERGEI KLEBNIKOV
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FERAL CATS, continued on p. 9
Where poet O’Hara was prolific amid city’s din, a new plaque is placed BY HEATHER DUBIN
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reservationists, poets and a pizzeria teamed up to honor Frank O’Hara with a plaque dedication at his former East Village home. The embossed bronze homage was unveiled June 10 at 441 E. Ninth St., where
the poet lived from 1959 to 1963 with his roommate, Joe LeSueur. The ceremony was a joint effort of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Two Boots Pizza and the Poetry Project. Some of O’Hara’s poems feature East Village referencO’HARA, continued on p. 15
RRRGGHH!!! Buhmann on Art.....page 18
PHOTO BY JONATHAN ALPEYRIE
here have the Broome St. Alley Cats gone?” reads a flier posted by local residents of the Amalgamated Dwellings apartment complex. The flier calls for help as the last elderly cats of what used to be an established feral
feline colony pass away. The “Broome St. Alley” cats, reportedly one of the oldest and most successfully managed such colonies in New York City, has come to an end. A large number of cats used to populate the alley — which runs next to Luther Gulick Playground
A father with his adopted child snapped a selfie, savoring the moment at Sunday’s Pride March. For more photos, see pages 6 and 7.
Court of Appeals supports ‘home rule’ fracking control BY ALBERT AMATEAU
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he state Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, on Mon., June 30, affirmed the right of local municipalities to use their zoning laws to ban fracking to extract gas from deep shale deposits. By 5 to 2, the court made its decision on the narrow issue of the “home rule” provision of the state’s constitution. The ruling was hailed by a coalition of environmental groups who for several years
have declared that drilling gas wells by horizontal hydraulic fracturing endangers the supply of drinking water and severely degrades the landscape. Gas and oil industry advocates, however, said the decision casts a pall on the economic future of New York State. The issue has been in the forefront for several years. Since 2008, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has been holding hearings on proposed frack-
ing regulations, but has not yet indicated when a final draft will be made public. In 2012, the state Department of Health began considering the implications of fracking, but has not announced any conclusions, and still declines to say when it might conclude its study. Governor Andrew Cuomo, who faces an election in November, has so far refused to commit himself on the issue. Nevertheless, Kate SindFRACKING, continued on p. 8
The Villager gains 11 sister papers................page 12 Changing of guard at L.E.S. market..............page 16 Local experts weigh in on World Cup...........page 25 www.TheVillager.com