YOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN
Women’s Building Envisioned as ‘Vertical Neighborhood’ BY YANNIC RACK A place where women were once imprisoned will soon offer them a safe haven for advocacy. The former Bayview Correctional Facility in Chelsea is being turned into New York’s first Women’s Building, a new home for the global women’s rights movement, and activists and organizers working around the world came together this week to discuss its future. Continued on page 4
Opposition Sinks Pier 62 Beer Garden BY SEAN EGAN In a development sure to please the determined coalition of preservation-minded Chelsea residents who have consistently attended recent Community Board 4 (CB4) committee meetings, the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) has abandoned its plan to erect a beer garden on Hudson River Park’s Pier 62. Last week’s announcement comes with the cooperation of Merchants Hospitality, Continued on page 6
Dickens Done Right
Yes, Virginia, there IS a version of “A Christmas Carol” worth seeing this year — and it’s at Merchant’s House Museum through Dec. 24. See page 21.
Photo by Zach Williams
Harlem Church of Christ’s Richard Price spoke at a Washington Square Park rally, before activists marched through Manhattan on Nov. 25.
Taking What Matters to Macy’s and Beyond BY ZACH WILLIAMS Events a thousand miles away drove hundreds of #BlackLivesMatter activists from Washington Square Park to Macy’s Herald Square to Times Square, on the night before Thanksgiving. People of color had once again been on the receiving end of a nationally prominent shooting. This time, a group of white men in Minneapolis, Minn. allegedly shot five people who were part of ongoing protests sparked by the fatal Nov. 15 shooting there of 24-year-old Jamar Clark by police. Supporters quickly took the attack as an attempt to stifle the year-old movement against police brutality and institutionalized racism. They responded in New York City by highlighting their grievances in the most public way possible — by rallying,
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marching and chanting through the streets of Manhattan. A feeling of uncertainty overshadowed the nighttime rally at Washington Square Park on Wed., Nov. 25. While reports of threats against the activists could not be confirmed, organizers acknowledged that new adversaries had emerged against their high-profile public actions. “We refuse to be intimidated. If they think these attacks will scare us away, let me just say they massively underestimate the power of the people,” Vienna Rye, a Millions March NYC activist, said to the crowd. The opposition includes a segment of American society represented by West Side resident Donald Trump’s
Continued on page 12 VOLUME VOLUME 07, ISSUE 07, ISSUE 40 | 22 DECEMBER | JULY 03 16 - 09, 22, 2015