The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933
May 12, 2016 • $1.00 Volume 86 • Number 19
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Notorious landlord Croman arrested on slew of charges filed by A.G. Schneiderman BY COLIN MIXSON
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tate Attorney General Eric Schneiderman unleashed 20 withering felony criminal and civil charges against landlord Steven Croman on Monday, accusing him of using “harassment, coercion and fraud” as tools for driving out rent-stabilized tenants amid schemes to convert their apartments
into lucrative market-rate units. Croman, who owns 140 buildings across Manhattan, is among the city’s wealthiest and most influential landlords to encounter such devastating allegations in recent years, and the charges represent a state willing to prosecute high-profile tarCROMAN continued on p. 6
Elections chief defends botched N.Y. primary election; Challenges loom BY SAR AH FERGUSON
F
acing accusations of fraud and disenfranchisement, the New York City Board of Elections voted unanimously last week to certify the results of New York’s hotly contested April 19 presidential primary. But the results are sure to leave many unsatisfied. The board threw out nearly
91,000 of the 121,056 provisional ballots cast by voters who had been unable to vote on primary day either because their names were taken off the rolls or because their party affiliation had been dropped or switched to a different party without their knowing. So roughly three-quarters of the affidavits were deemed inPRIMARY continued on p. 14
PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER
At Saturday’s Second Ave. Street Fair, one girl really hooped it up in the “Kids Zone” at Middle Collegiate Church’s Revolutionar y Street Fair. There was also sidewalk chalking and a children’s chorus.
St. Vincent’s and AIDS: What’s in a (park) name? BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
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ast Saturday’s edition of The New York Times featured the word “riven” on its front page at least three times. Chicago and the Republican Party (thanks, Trump!) were both riven, two articles’ ledes told us. And West Point was riven, too, a headline said, after black female cadets in a group photo had the audacity to flash the Black Power salute — or was it maybe the Black Lives Matter salute?
Happily going to pot...........page 8
No one was exactly sure. Not to be out-rivened, the Village recently has been dealing with its own intense flap — what to name the new small park, barely one-third of an acre in size, located across from the former St. Vincent’s Hospital, at W. 12th St. and Greenwich and Seventh Aves. The triangular park, which opened eight months ago, will also sport an AIDS memorial at its western corner, which is slated to open by early October. The park includes 16,000
square feet, with the AIDS memorial to cover one-tenth of the space. Community members had been certain that the park’s name would surely honor the historic hospital, which closed six years ago, after more than 160 years of service to the neighborhood and the city. However, supporters of the New York City AIDS Memorial project — who are working to create what they ambitiously say will be “the PARK continued on p. 12
Obama Stonewall Nat’l Park plea.................p. 17 Senior sprinter not running on empty................p. 35 www.TheVillager.com