The Villager

The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933

April 6, 2017 • $1.00 Volume 87 • Number 14

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Has St. Luke dropped L.G.B.T. drop-in center plan for Christopher?

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

T

hree years ago, leaders of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields announced a bold plan to construct a 15story residential tower on part of the church’s Village property, as well as a new “mission building” on another area of its grounds to provide 24/7 services to L.G.B.T. youth and

other underserved people.

Fast-forward to today and the co-op tower is currently nearing completion. However, it appears the idea for an L.G.B.T. drop-in center may have been dropped — which comes as welcome news to a volunteer anti-crime patrol group and some neighbors CENTER continued on p. 4

Push to name Morton school for Jane Jacobs, get after-school funds

BY SAR A HENDRICKSON

T

he new 75 Morton St. middle school, currently known as M.S. 297, may be named the Jane Jacobs School if community momentum continues in a quest to honor the late great Greenwich Village activist, urban preservationist and author.

At a Schools and Education Committee meeting of Community Board 2 on March 8, Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, gave an animated presentation of Jane Jacobs’ life. But he lamented there was

PHOTO BY DONNA ACETO

Gilber t Baker helped carr y his rainbow flag with the Gays Against Guns contingent at the New York Pride March in June 2016 in commemoration of the victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting earlier that month.

Baker sewed rainbow flag that sowed Pride worldwide

SCHOOL continued on p. 6

BY ANDY HUMM

G

ay pioneer and artist Gilbert Baker, who died in his sleep at age 65 on March 31 at his home in Manhattan, did not just create the iconic rainbow flag. He gave it away freely to the world where it was embraced in every corner — from its origins in San Francisco to Russia and Uganda and Kathmandu — as the universal symbol of L.G.B.T.Q.

liberation and the diversity of the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

Gilbert’s untimely death came as a shock to his many friends, fellow activists and admirers and reverberated around the world, just as his creation has.

Gilbert was not just the Betsy Ross of the L.G.B.T.Q. community who sewed the flag and versions of it, from small to massive, but one of the community’s foremost front-line

revolutionaries. He made and carried protest banners for actions decrying the homophobia of Vladimir Putin, the once-exclusionary St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Fifth Ave., and Donald Trump — to name just a few targets in recent years.

Gilbert’s work made these actions pop — and he was almost invariably on hand to unfurl his banners and to join in holding them up.

BAKER continued on p. 8

Smorgasburg coming to Canal for 2 years........p. 3 What a trip: The Uranian Press rolls again...... p. 14 Twins trouble on L.E.S...........p. 10

www.TheVillager.com

and stripped of everything but its bar and all lit up as we were walking by the other weekend. As Matt de Matt always used to tell us, the Gaslight was there back before “Meatpacking” was hip, and the transgender prostitutes still plied his corner for customers. In its heyday, it was a big spot for celebrity sightings, too. We haven’t actually found out yet why it closed, but de Matt — who worked as a doorman at Studio 54 back in the day — assured us via text message that Gaslight is fi ni. Oh well, like Studio 54 and Limelight, clubs come and clubs go.

BUM STEER: So we did a bit more digging on that wild rumor we heard from a manager at the Jue Lan Club that Peter Gatien is looking to open up a new nightclub in New York City. Basically, it sounds extremely unlikely. New York nightlife guru David Rabin reminded us that, for starters, the former Limelight impresario was deported back to Canada. “I think getting a liquor license would be very hard,” he noted. We tried reaching out to his daughter, fi lmmaker Jen Gatien, but did not hear back by press time. As for Rabin, who was a Meatpacking District “pioneer,” he is currently a partner in four hot spots in the city, including two in the Downtown area: Jimmy at the James, at the James Hotel, at 15 Thompson St., and the Cafe Clover, at 10 Downing St.

A BRIGHT IDEA: Former City Councilmember Carol Greitzer is basically beside herself that the city’s Department of Transportation is thumbing its nose at $100,000 that Rudin Management is offering for the installation of historic bishop’s crook lampposts on W. 12th St. Rudin, of course, is building The Greenwich Lane, the tony residential building that has replaced the defunct St. Vincent’s Hospital. Funding the fancy light poles was another perk Rudin was willing to kick in for the community. However, as Erik Bottcher, Councilmember Corey Johnson’s chief of staff, explained to us, it’s not that easy. Basically, he said, while the Parks Department is more than happy to take donations for specific projects, D.O.T., for some reason, does not.

Wanting to get to the bottom of this riddle, Bottcher requested that folks at D.O.T. show him specifically where it is written in agency regulations that they can’t accept these sort of contributions. In fact, Bottcher reported to us, there is no such regulation.

“It’s not written anywhere, it’s just their policy,” he said. “D.O.T. didn’t want a situation where wealthy neighborhoods could purchase streetscapes.” Yet,

PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Boyd Tinsley, who plays violin and mandolin with the Dave Matthews Band, recently jammed outside Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square South to promote an upcoming show.

JOKE’S ON US: Every year, jokester par excellence Joey Skaggs would announce an over-the-top April Fool’s parade through the Village. Despite detailed press releases listing multiple satirical floats and goofy takes on the topics du jour, soon enough we figured out that — there actually never was any parade. That is, until this year, when Skaggs and Co. actually did march, all wearing Donald Trump masks. Just another sign of the world turned upside down, perhaps. Maybe that’s why Doris Diether, the veteran Community Board 2 member and a huge Skaggs fan, kept leaving us urgent messages about his parade this year. Of course, Diether always knows the score! P.S., she’s recovered and back out of the hospital, and was seated in her usual spot in the front row at the C.B. 2 full-board meeting last month.

GASLIGHT GOES OUT: It’s hard to believe, but the legendary Meatpacking District bar and lounge Gaslight is closed. We noticed the place was empty

why wouldn’t the same go for parks? Anyway, long story short, Bottcher asked us not to divulge the details, but he said that, at this point, Johnson personally is bent on working out a solution, so that the block will get the coveted lampposts. ... On another issue, Bottcher said the recent “participatory budgeting” voting for capital projects for Council District 3 went well. More than 3,000 people voted, with half of them registering their choice online and half at a voting site. “A lot projects in the Village had a lot of support,” he noted. “People were campaigning.” What about people voting multiple times online? Bottcher said they check the names

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April 6, 2017

and do other verification. Hopefully, there was no Russian hacking!

PEEL SCARE: Legendary Lower East Side rocker David Peel suffered a massive heart attack last Friday. The 73-year-old “Have a Marijuana” and “Die Yuppie Scum” singer, who was pals with John Lennon, was in critical condition at the Manhattan Veterans Administration Hospital on E. 23rd St. last Friday, and “resting up for a bypass,” former East Village activist John Penley told the New York Post. We didn’t hear an update by press time. But we hope that Peel will be able to “have a marijuana” again soon.

TheVillager.com

Smorgasburg will take a bite of Hudson Square

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

T

he operators of Smorgasburg, the popular Brooklyn outdoor food market, plan to start up a version of it in Duarte Square, at Canal St. and Sixth Ave., this summer.

The outdoor-food outfit has signed a two-year lease for the space with Trinity Real Estate. The plan is for it to operate seven days a week, starting early this August.

They are seeking a full liquor license, and will make a presentation to the Community Board 2 State Liquor Authority Committee on Thurs., April 13, at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 151 Sullivan St., lower hall. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.

Jonathan Butler — who co-founded Smorgasburg along with Eric Demby — said it won’t be as big an affair as some are fearing. Yes, it will be seven days a week, but the weekdays won’t be as big a production, he said.

“Really, we’re talking about four or five food trucks during the weekdays,” he said. “On the weekends, we’ll probably have another 30 or 40 market vendors that pop up. But it’s really not on the scale of our Brooklyn markets.

“There’s a desire for more food in that neighborhood,” he added. “The Hudson Square BID did a study two years ago that found that.”

He was referring to the Hudson Square Connection business improvement district.

Food trucks actually will be a first for Smorgasburg, though Trinity has had them in the Duarte Square lot before.

The trucks will have electrical hookups, Butler noted.

The food trucks, seating and two 20foot-long bars will be concentrated in the northern portion of the square, along Grand St. Also in that area will be two shipping containers, some shade structures and pavers to create a patio, he said.

Meanwhile, on weekends, the southern part of the square will be filled with other food vendors, plus flea-market vendors.

Butler and Demby are also the founders of Brooklyn Flea.

The weekend vendors will each have a 10-foot-by-10-foot tent with a table out in front. Those vendors typically pay Smorgasburg $250 to $300 a day.

On a questionnaire for C.B. 2 that liquor-license applicants fill out, Butler wrote that Smorgasburg’s operating hours at the Hudson Square location would be 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. from Sunday to Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. from Thursday to Saturday.

The plan, as described on the questionnaire, is described as “Highly curated outdoor market with food and shopping, plus occasional family-friendly programming and special events.”

In the “overall seating information” section, 20 tables with 120 seats are TheVillager.com

PHOTO BY ERIC DEMBY

The Trinit y Real Estate-owned lot at Duar te Square that is slated to get a Smorgasbord outdoor market in August.

listed. “Live” and “amplified” music are checked, as well as “iPod / CD’s.”

Asked about emissions from the trucks’ cooking operation, Butler said it would be minimal.

“I don’t think four food trucks will generate any negative effects,” he told The Villager.

“Occasional special events, such as corporate functions, private parties and community programming will also occur at the site,” another response on the questionnaire reads.

According to its Web site, Smorgasburg is America’s largest weekly openair food market, attracting 20,000 to 30,000 people to Brooklyn each week.

It has two locations in that borough: on the waterfront in Williamsburg at Kent Ave. on Saturdays and in Prospect Park on Sundays.

Smorgasburg started in 2011 as an offshoot of Brooklyn Flea, which started in 2008. There is even a Los Angeles Smorgasburg now, as well as one in Kingston, N.Y. They also operate Berg’n, a beer and food hall in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and ran a pop-up food hall / beer garden in the South St. Seaport from 2013 to 2016.

The Kent Ave. / Williamsburg market’s hours are from 11 a.m. to only 6 p.m. Despite the answer on the questionnaire, Butler said he doubted the Duarte Square Smorgasburg would really run as

S’BURG continued on p. 23 April 6, 2017

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Has St. Luke dropped its L.G.B.T. Named best weekly newspaper in New York State in 2001, 2004 and 2005

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The St. Luke’s School playground, at the corner of Hudson and Christopher Sts., had been eyed by the church for a new “mission center” building, but it’s not clear now if any thing will be built there.

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April 6, 2017

who were gearing up to fight the center.

What’s more, the notion of even constructing a small building to house a mission center may now be in limbo, too. That project was originally slated for the school’s playground on Christopher St. Under the plan, the Episcopal church — which owns the square block bounded by Greenwich, Barrow, Hudson and Christopher Sts. — granted a 99-year lease to developer Toll Brothers to manage the new residential tower at 100 Barrow St. Twenty percent of the project’s units were slated to be affordable.

The impetus for putting up the tower was to provide an “economic engine” to fund an expansion of the financially strapped St. Luke’s School and also the mission center.

“People, understandably, think it would be ideal if we could do those things without any new development on the block,” Reverend Caroline Stacey, rector of St. Luke’s, told The Villager back in January 2014. “But we need that residential building in order to provide the necessary income stream for the school to have what it needs, and for us to build the mission space.”

St. Luke’s has recently started doing outreach through an outside group, Wellspring Consulting, to try to discern what neighbors would like to see in terms of increased social services from the church for the surrounding community.

Last month, David Poster, president of the Christopher St. Patrol, got an e-mail from one of the consultants, who asked to talk to him on the phone. Instead, Poster went

right up to meet her at her Midtown office and they spoke for an hour. Poster said, during their talk, he stressed that his patrol — which includes a small contingent of Curtis Sliwa’s Guardian Angels — has worked diligently over the years to help combat crime, including drugs and prostitution, and other bad behavior along Christopher St. “We just spent close to 15 years trying to clean up the street, with kids hanging out on the street till 3 a.m.,” he said he told her.

“Why do we want to re-attract these kids to an area that’s had all these problems with them?”

Most of the youth are black and Hispanic and lower income, while the West Village is overwhelmingly white and increasingly very affluent. Christopher St. and the pier at its foot have long been a gay stomping ground.

Then, last Tuesday, Poster received an email from Wellspring notifying him that the consultants wanted to meet with community members the next day to continue the outreach and get their input on the church’s social-services plans.

“Please feel free to forward this e-mail to as many people as you think may want to attend,” the message added. “We hope to have broad attendance to get as much input as possible and answer any questions.”

Margery Reifler, treasurer of the Grove St. Block Association, said everyone was shocked that the meeting was so hastily called on just 24 hours notice. She, in turn, e-mailed Mother Stacey of St. Luke’s, stressing that community members wanted a second meeting scheduled with an appropriate amount of lead time, so that people would be aware of it well beforehand and able to

attend.

“We hope that St. Luke’s or your consultant will attend to the publicity,” Reifler wrote Stacey, “and suggest using The Villager, Community Board 2 lists, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and other similar avenues to get word out, rather than relying on the neighbors to inform one another.”

Wellspring subsequently did schedule another meeting with community members on Thurs., April 20, at 6:30, p.m.

Heading into the first meeting, on Wed., March 29, Poster, Reifler and others didn’t know to what expect. The Villager called Mother Stacey to find out if the L.G.B.T. center was still in the works.

In a phone message left with the newspaper right before the meeting and then another one right after it, Stacey stressed that nothing had been set in stone, and indicated that the church is basically in outreach mode right now. She downplayed neighbors’ fears about the drop-in center.

“There is no story,” she emphasized.

“Whoever was talking to you put the cart way before the horse and is just completely, in fact, not accurate. I just want to tell you, whatever information you’re working with is way off.”

In her second message, she said, “What we are doing is exploring ways in which we can serve the wider community.”

And, according to Poster and Reifler, that is basically how the meeting played out.

Stacey opened the get-together, giving an

CENTER continued on p. 5 TheVillager.com

drop-in ‘mission center’ for Christopher St.?

CENTER continued from p. 4

introduction, then left three Wellspring consultants and the community members with each other to have a “candid” discussion.

“She disavowed the notion that they already had decided something,” Reifler reported. “Reverend Stacey did not use the word ‘dropped’ regarding an L.G.B.T. center, but just about said so in other language. She said she understood that some of the L.G.B.T. population had now migrated up to Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen. They said no decision had been made to construct a building for a mission center, as opposed to using their current facilities and services or even the school. Both she and the consultants said this was preliminary research to help St. Luke’s make a decision what was needed in the community.”

Poster was happy how the meeting went, especially because, according to him, Stacey said the drop-in center is no longer part of the plan.

“It was very good, actually,” he reported. “She said because we don’t have the problem or the amount of L.G.B.T. youth on the street anymore, she’s not planning to have an L.G.B.T. center there, and I was quite pleased with that.” However, he added, “They did not commit to not building on that [playground] site.”

The new residential building at 100 Barrow St., nearing completion, is the “economic engine” that will help fund St. Luke’s School and a possible expansion of social ser vices by the Church of St. Luke in the Fields.

Community members told the consultants things they would like to see are day programs for seniors and their caregivers and daycare for young children.

The consultants said those ideas are all in the mix, as well as “spiritual fulfillment” programming that would not necessarily be religion-based. They said they had done outreach to community leaders and

local politicians. The consultants also noted that because the new 100 Barrow St. building is now leasing apartments, there will be more funding available for programs.

Reifler forwarded to the newspaper an e-mail to Stacey written by a fellow Grove St. resident, in which she pleaded for the church not to build a mission cen-

ter or have a drop-in center.

“I really am not excited about more construction noise for the next year or two, or a local hangout for kids — likely to be after school hours,” the resident wrote, “as we already tolerate the noise from the ongoing St. Luke’s construction, both St. Luke’s and P.S. 3’s playgrounds, the even-louder noise from our street being used as a ‘play street’ [by P.S. 3] each day, and the noise pollution from morning traffic congestion and excessive honking resulting from double-parking parents and buses from both St. Luke’s and P.S. 3 since the bike lane was installed.”

Stacey this week reiterated to The Villager, “St. Luke in the Fields is in an exploratory process discerning how we can best and most effectively expand our services to the wider community.”

Poster recalled that a previous drop-in center on Christopher St., not connected to St. Luke’s, backfired and just became a magnet for problems.

“We had one before, the Neutral Zone, in 1995. It was a total disaster,” he told The Villager. “I actually had supported it.

We had a lot more kids. There were a lot more problems. It took 20 years to reach this point where we are today.

“The Neutral Zone was just like a pit stop. It seemed to draw drug dealers and CENTER continued on p. 22

Road Warrior.

Father.

“I work to keep NYC’s streets safe.”

Look out for him in work zones.

TheVillager.com

April 6, 2017

5

Push to get Jacobs name, after-school funds SCHOOL continued from p. 1

not a single park or square named after her, only one co-named block on Hudson St. between Perry and W. 11th Sts., where she used to live.

Jacobs’ David-versus-Goliath track record of wins during the 1950s and 1960s is folklore among Villagers. She blocked Robert Moses’ attempt to create a roadway through Washington Square Park, overturned a development project that would have razed a swath of West Village blocks, and stopped construction of the infamous crosstown Lower Manhattan Expressway.

Her most well-known book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” is the go-to handbook for urban planners, and her grassroots approach to organizing, as Berman put it, “formed the framework of the city’s community boards and other local decision-making bodies as we know them today.”

Jacobs extolled the reuse of city buildings. That’s an idea shared by the many community members whose 11 years of activism led to the transformation of 75 Morton St. — an aged state governmentowned building — into a state-of-the-art middle school that has been so desperately needed.

“The community’s push for this school is the perfect embodiment of Jane Jacobs,” Berman concluded.

PHOTO BY SARA HENDRICKSON

Given Jane Jacobs’ outsize role in preser ving the Village, there is little in the way of tribute to her locally, save for this street co-naming sign outside the White Horse Tavern on the block where she lived.

“I really hope the school can live up to her legacy,” added Michael Markowitz, a member of the C.B. 2 Schools and Education Committee.

Although there is plenty of precedent for named schools in New York City, the path to Department of Education approval is inevitably long and bureaucratic and requires persistence. Ultimately, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña has the final say.

“We need to organize to make this happen,” said David Gruber, a former chairperson of C.B. 2.

After generating much excitement

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April 14

April 9 Palm Sunday 9 AM Said Eucharist 11 AM Blessing of the Palms & Procession, and Festal Eucharist, with Choir 7 PM Meditation and Sacrament

April 10 - 12 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Holy Week - Holy Eucharist 6 PM at Side Altar

Good Friday - 12pm The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with Choir With Veneration of the Cross and Communion from the Reserve Sacrament Liturgy of the Word Saturday, April 15 - 10 AM

April 15 The Great Vigil of Easter - 8pm Saturday, with Full Choir With Lighting of the New Fire, The Paschal Candle, and Renewal of Baptismal Vows

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Maundy Thursday - 7pm Holy Eucharist with Full Choir With Washing of Feet, Stripping of Altar, Setting of the Altar of Repose and Watch with the Blessed Sacrament

Easter Sunday Day of Resurrection 9 AM Said Eucharist of Easter 11 AM Festal Eucharist, with Full Choir 7 PM Meditation and Sacrament

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April 6, 2017

around a Jane Jacobs naming campaign, the meeting agenda shifted to funding for after-school programs at the new M.S. 297.

For this upcoming 2017-18 school year, M.S. 297’s inaugural class of sixth graders will be housed at the Clinton School for Writers and Artists, at 10 E. 15th St. Although M.S. 297 was planned to open in its permanent home at 75 Morton St. this fall, unforeseen structural issues delayed the opening by one year.

Meanwhile, Clinton offers free afterschool programs run by Manhattan Youth under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s SONYC (School’s Out New York City) initiative. These wide-ranging and popular programs are available every school day, Monday to Friday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., and run the gamut from JV volleyball and comic book art, to debate and even a musical-theater production.

Theseus Roche and Rina Robinson of Manhattan Youth, gave a presentation at the March 8 meeting. They provided a brief history of the nonprofit organization’s founding Downtown in 1986, as the Financial District began transforming into residential neighborhoods teeming with young families.

“Nine-eleven was my first day on the job,” Roche recalled of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Manhattan Youth now serves 4,200 middle-school students through an array of programs in sports, performing and visual arts, literacy, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and basic homework help. The organization also operates programs on Pier 25, a recreational pier in the Tribeca section of Hudson River Park, and athletic leagues.

Other nonprofits running after-school SONYC programs at Community School District 2 middle schools include the Educational Alliance, Immigrant Social Services and University Settlement.

Manhattan Youth’s Robinson emphasized how critical after-school programs are for middle schoolers, who are “so vulnerable and often alone and unsupervised after school,” he noted.

Programs can be customized for each school.

“We always offer something a little quirky,” Roche added. “If kids know what they want, they can delve deeper. If not, they can explore.”

But Clinton’s after-school programs are already oversubscribed, so for M.S. 297 students to suit up for sports teams and participate in the many enrichment programs, additional funding will be needed.

The SONYC initiative originally received almost $250 million in city funding soon after Mayor de Blasio’s election, as one of his signature education policies along with universal prekindergarten.

The city’s Department of Youth and Community Development administers SONYC, and allocated funding through an R.F.P. (request for proposals) process for the 2015-16 school year, with an op-

tion to renew for two additional years.

For the 2017-18 school year, D.Y.C.D. funding is “flat-lined with no funding for new schools,” said Roche. So, M.S. 297 will need “stopgap” funding for its students to be added to Clinton’s afterschool programs.

To ensure long-term funding in subsequent years, when the new cycle of funding for SONYC begins prior to the 201819 school year, an R.F.P. would have to be issued by D.Y.C.D. to fund M.S. 297 as a new school.

Roche and Jeannine Kiely, chairperson of the C.B. 2 Schools and Education Committee, walked through a back-ofthe-envelope analysis of what this longerterm funding might add up to.

First, Roche explained, not all students attend the program every day for the entire 3 p.m.-to-6 p.m. time slot.

“Sixth graders tend to come every day, while eighth graders stay connected and attend a couple of times a week,” Roche noted. As a result, Manhattan Youth can typically run programs with D.Y.C.D. funding based on one-third of a school’s student population.

At a maximum student capacity of 900 students at M.S. 297 as defined under D.O.E.’s space-utilization algorithm (which C.B. 2, educators and parents say would crowd space at the school), one-third equates to 300 students. At the D.Y.C.D. funding rate of $3,000 per student, the 75 Morton St. school would need almost $1 million annually for its after-school programs in three years, at which time the new school will be serving grades 6 through 8.

“This is an annual amount,” Kiely explained, “that cannot be fully funded through discretionary funding, like M.S. 297 received for building a green roof — a one-time capital expense.”

Through a grant process from discretionary budgets of Councilmember Corey Johnson, Assemblymember Deborah Glick and Borough President Gale Brewer, $500,000 was raised last year to create a green roof at M.S. 297 for hands-on gardening and science education.

At its March 23 full-board meeting C.B. 2 unanimously approved two resolutions. One urges D.O.E. to name M.S. 297 the Jane Jacobs School. The second urges the mayor and City Council to allocate funding for M.S. 297 after-school programs at Clinton next year and thereafter through a newly issued R.F.P. The second resolution points out that nearly every middle school in School District 2 offers free after-school programs under SONYC, and that M.S. 297 “will compete for these students with the 23 other District 2 middle schools.”

“At the end of the day, this is an equity issue,” Kiely said. “This new middle school will serve a diverse group of students throughout District 2, and it needs to offer students — particularly those from working families — the same free after-school programs as other middle schools.”

TheVillager.com

POLICE BLOTTER Bowery slashing

Spa spoilers

An Uptown man was badly cut during a dispute at Bowery and Stanton St. on Mon., April 3, shortly after 10 p.m., police said. The victim, age 27, suffered a 4-inch slash to the left side of his neck.

Police responding to a 911 call found the wounded man and he was transported by E.M.S. to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition. So far, there has been no arrest or any description of the suspect, either — possibly because the victim is having difficulty talking.

“He has not been interviewed yet due to the nature of his injury,” a police spokesperson said.

Police said a woman’s purse was stolen inside Golden Glow Spa, at 517 Sixth Ave., on Thurs., Feb. 16, at 4 p.m. The victim, 25, stated she left her handbag in an unlocked closet and when she returned, it was gone. There were charges made on her credit card.

Peter Domenech, 22, and Kristlyn Delise, 20, were arrested on Tues., March 28, for felony grand larceny.

Le face punch A man was punched in the face inside Le Poisson Rouge music club, at 158 Bleecker St., on Sat., April 1, at 3:30 a.m., police said. The 38-year-old victim suffered a small cut to his left cheek and pain on the left side of his neck.

Matthew Robinson, 32, was arrested for misdemeanor assault.

Sub card flub According to police, a man was using a fraudulent credit card to pay for drinks at Subrosa, at 63 Gansevoort St., on Tues., Feb. 21 at 12:30 a.m. A concierge at the basement-level music venue recognized that the card’s numbers did not match the receipt. When the credit company was notified, it verified the card was fraudulent.

Antoine Brown, 25, was arrested Thurs., March 30, for felony grand larceny.

Up & at ’em According to police, an argument turned physical inside the Up & Down

PHOTO BY P.O. EVRIM CAN

Sixth Precinct Communit y Affairs Officer Mar tin Baranski retired last week after 32 years on the force. At a par t y for Baranski at the precinct last Friday, Christopher St. activist Jessica Berk posed with him for a photo. Villager readers will recall that Berk has sued the Six th on more than one occasion and, in general, has at times been a tough critic of the Greenwich Village precinct. But she holds Baranski in high regard. “They don’t make ’em like that anymore,” she said. “I’m proposing a female community affairs officer as his replacement,” she added. “That’s the only way to fill his shoes.”

club, at 244 W. 14th St., on Sun., April 2, at 3:50 a.m. One of the men became especially irate and punched the victim, 22, in the face, causing bruising and a cut to the mouth.

Nir Ivgui, 23, was charged with misdemeanor assault.

Tabia Robinson and Lincoln Anderson

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April 6, 2017

7

Gilbert Baker, 65, creator of the Gay Pride flag OBITUARY BAKER continued from p. 1

Gilbert’s rainbow flag was the only flag ever to have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, which first displayed it in 2015. Immediately after the debacle of the 2016 election, MoMA moved it to its grand entrance hall to wave over visitors and welcome them all.

When Mike Pence, the anti-L.G.B.T.Q. vice president-elect, moved to a suburban Washington neighborhood during the transition last fall, many of his new neighbors tried to send him a signal of who they were by festooning their houses with rainbow flags.

Gilbert’s rainbow flag has been projected on iconic buildings from the Empire State to the Eiffel Tower in celebration of L.G.B.T.Q. pride.

President Barack Obama lit up the White House in rainbow colors on the evening of June 26, 2015, when marriage equality triumphed at the U.S. Supreme Court. And Trump, who has surrounded himself with anti-L.G.B.T.Q. activists and is gutting L.G.B.T.Q. rights, even appropriated one to hold up at a campaign rally in a deceptive effort to soften his reactionary image. The flag is also flown by merchants around the world to signal that they are L.G.B.T.Q. friendly — or at least want the business of L.G.B.T.Q. people and their allies.

When the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion was marked in New York in 1994, Gilbert stitched together a rainbow flag that was literally a mile long to mark the occasion monumentally. It took 5,000 people to carry it up First Ave. past the United Nations. For the 2003 Key West Pride Parade — the year the Rainbow Flag was 25 years old — he exceeded his own world record for “world’s longest flag,” by making one that extended across that resort town from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

He was active in preparations for Stonewall 50 in 2019.

A vigil was held in Gilbert’s memory Friday, the day of his death, in San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Plaza where Gilbert’s huge rainbow flag has flown for 20 years on a 70-foot-tall pole. Gilbert never wanted the rainbow flag to fly at half-staff — even for himself. (Gilbert submitted a similarly tall display of his flag in a design competition for a memorial in Hudson River Park to those who were victims of the 2016 Orlando Pulse massacre and other hate crimes. The decision of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Task Force on that memorial’s design has yet to be announced.)

Gilbert first created an eight-color rainbow flag (including hot pink and turquoise, in addition to the six primary and secondary colors) in San Francisco in 1978 in those heady days when Har-

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April 6, 2017

PHOTO BY DONNA ACETO

Gilber t Baker helps carr y his rainbow flag within the Gays Against Guns contingent in the 2016 Pride March in Manhattan in commemoration of those killed in the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre earlier that month.

vey Milk had been elected that city’s first openly gay supervisor. (That November, Milk was assassinated at City Hall along with Mayor George Moscone by former Supervisor Dan White.) Gilbert’s activist friend Cleve Jones, an aide to Milk, helped him dye the fabric.

“I knew right away this was the most important thing I would ever do,” Gilbert said in 2013.

Gilbert said he got the idea in 1976 during the U.S. bicentennial.

“American flags were on everything,” he recalled. “It gave me the idea that we could have a flag because, even though we’re not a nation, we’re a people.”

“That day when he raised the first Rainbow Flag [to fly over City Hall on Gay Freedom Day], he knew that was his life’s work,” Jones told the San Francisco Chronicle. “And for every march, every protest, every celebration, every memorial, he was always sewing and sewing and sewing. It’s an example of how one person can have an amazing and brilliant idea that reaches not just millions, but hundreds of millions of people.”

Gilbert never “patented” his flag design and it remains in the public domain, as all flags apparently do. He wanted the world to have it and actively promoted it.

Gilbert’s longtime friend Charley Beal, a gay activist who was also art director on the film “Milk,” said, “Gilbert just finished 39 nine-color rainbow flags, add-

ing the color lavender for diversity for the 39th anniversary of the rainbow flag to be shown at a gallery in San Francisco during Pride Month. He got up and made art every day. He was relentless. He put all his passion in the stitches. One of his greatest accomplishments was when he unfurled the mile-long flag in 1994. He cut the flag into large pieces that were given to delegations from Pride organizations around the world, and within a year those pieces were showing up at Pride celebrations from Brazil to China to Cuba — in effect internationalizing the flag as a symbol of the L.G.B.T. community.”

Richard Ferrara, another close friend, said, “In 1985, Heritage of Pride brought the rainbow flag from San Francisco to New York. There were not rainbow flags here before that. I was the merchandizing chairperson for HOP for two years starting in 1986 promoting the flag and our Keith Haring logo.”

Matt Foreman, then with HOP, said, “We just embraced it instead of the Christopher Street West version with the lambda in the upper left corner.”

Gilbert gave a tremendous boost to the 25-year protest against the exclusion of Irish L.G.B.T.Q. groups from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York. While hundreds protested the exclusion of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization in the 1990s, he supported the smaller con-

tinuing protest of Irish Queers in 2014 with a “BOYCOTT HOMOPHOBIA” banner that took up half a city block and delivered a message to all who disrespected the boycott. It was held aloft by a larger group in 2015. The next year — for a variety of reasons — parade organizers relented and allowed the L.G.B.T.Q. group Lavender and Green to participate under their own banner.

Gilbert was born in Chanute, Kansas, on June 2, 1951, his father a judge and his mom a teacher. He served in the Army from 1970 to 1972 and was honorably discharged, an account of which he described to the late Randy Shilts for his 1993 book about gays in the military, “Conduct Unbecoming.” Like many gay vets who passed through or were stationed in San Francisco, he settled there.

“I went from being a pretty dumb kid in Kansas growing up in the ’50s and all of the bomb scare and Eisenhower and everything very Republican and always feeling outcast…to a place of liberation in San Francisco at the very moment gay rights was exploding,” he said in 2013.

Gilbert was an artist and a philosopher in his creation of the flag in ’78, assigning meanings to each of its original eight colors: hot pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic and art, blue for serenity and harmony, and violet for spirit. The number of stripes and colors changed over the years, but never its overall call for L.G.B.T.Q. liberation and inclusion.

“Anyone can be an activist,” Gilbert told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in a 2013 interview, “but it’s not easy… . You have to be free yourself, you have to have your own core values, and you have to have some courage and some steel, and that’s really hard for a lot of people. ... You can’t do it by yourself. You have to build bridges, you have to have a loving environment, loving friends, people that you trust and support to work together to achieve it. I don’t think individuals are able to achieve as much as the mass.”

Gilbert is survived by his mother, Patricia Baker of Conroe, Texas, and sister, Ardonna Baker Cook of Cypress, Texas.

In a written statement, his mother and sister said, “He will be dearly missed by his family, friends and the art world, as well as the entire L.G.B.T.Q. community. He led a bold and inspiring life by bringing the rainbow flag to the world and teaching others about the beauty in diversity.

“We are working alongside Gilbert’s friends and the community to plan a public memorial service soon.”

Inside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the epitaph to its great architect, Sir Christopher Wren, says, “Reader, if you seek his memorial — look around you.”

No one has to look far to see the memorial to the great artist and activist Gilbert Baker. It flies everywhere L.G.B.T.Q. people seek to be free.

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L.E.S. twin drug kingpins are snared in sting

A

pair of 26-year-old Lower East Side twin brothers were among 11 individuals indicted last month in conspiracies to commit narcotics trafficking and weapons possession. The indictment was filed by the office of Bridget G. Brennan, the special narcotics prosecutor.

During a sweep on March 16, Brooklyn narcotics officers arrested eight defendants in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Nassau County. Police seized four loaded firearms, more than 5 pounds of powdered and crack cocaine, more than 1 pound of heroin and roughly 27 pounds of marijuana from a Brooklyn stash house, as well as from the home of brothers John Gonzalez a.k.a. “Gotti” and Jonathan Gonzalez a.k.a. “Loso” at 7 St. James Place, in the Alfred E. Smith Houses In addition, cops seized more than $110,000 in cash and luxury cars — including a Bentley, a BMW and a Cadillac — from these locations, as well as from another Brooklyn stash house and a residence in Woodmere, Long Island.

In May 2016, police identified the Lower East Side twins as the leaders of a drug ring operating around a building in the Roosevelt Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Undercover cops made nearly two-

PHOTO COURTESY N.Y.P.D.

Weapons, drugs and scales seized by police in the March 16 raid of the Gonzalez brothers and their accomplices.

dozen buys of crack cocaine from the Gonzalez brothers’ drug organization, police said. The investigation later led police to identify a group of additional drug traffickers operating in Brooklyn and supplying the siblings.

After receiving court authorization for a wiretap, police learned that John Gonzalez and others in his drug crew allegedly planned to carry out a home-invasion robbery of another drug trafficker in Rochester, N.Y., and steal a safe with money, narcotics and a firearm, a plan that led “Gotti” to travel to Rochester.

On Oct. 18, 2016, Jonathan Gonzalez allegedly instructed his brother to take firearms out of a stove at their shared residence at 7 St. James Place.

On March 16, police seized two loaded guns from the apartment’s stove.

The Gonzalezes were charged with multiple counts of conspiracy and criminal sale of a controlled substance — John with six charges, including selling drugs near school grounds, and Jonathan with five.

Lincoln Anderson

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April 6, 2017

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It’s a really, really small world, after all RHYMES WITH CRAZY

BY LENORE SKENAZY

A

new airport is about to open on 44th St., just west of Times Square. It has 17 gates, plenty of parking, 34 gift stores and, of course, planes taking off and landing day and night. Best of all, a ticket only costs $25.

That’s because this airport is the jewel in the crown of Gulliver’s Gate, a mind-boggling scale model of the world, unlike anything I’d ever seen (including that cool model of New York City at the Queens Museum).

Buildings the size of luggage, paperclip-high people, dogs no bigger than jellybeans, and hats the size of cake crumbs — the place is a riot of minutiae. But equally thrilling is the fact that as you walk though this world in miniature you take a couple of steps to tour Grand Central Station (peering at the Nos. 4, 5, and 6 subways underneath), then a few feet later you’re in Paris, with a stopover in Rome. Then it is on to Beijing, Buenos Aires, Stonehenge, and Angkor Wat. Can the pyramids be far behind?

Of course not. They’re right across

from Red Square. And all along the way, jokes and juxtapositions await anyone who looks a little closer: Who is crossing London’s Abbey Road? Four mini moptopped musicians. And look over there, below sea level: a yellow submarine!

The exhibit, the size of a city block, opens April 6 and represents the work of 600 artists. It is expected to welcome up to 4,000 people — real ones, life size — daily, and take 90 minutes to walk around. The adult ticket price becomes $36 after about a month of previews, with the place poised to become a Times Square attraction every bit as quintessential as a Broadway show, or hug from a slightly drunk Elmo.

“And all the while, things are happening,” said Gulliver’s marketing director,

Jason Hackett, as he toured me around the world, still being assembled. “Lights and bells — constant motion,” he explained, “it’s an amazing symphony of interaction.”

Cars honk and trains toot above the hum of ambient sound recorded in whatever country you’re looking at. And then there are 137 different keyholes you can put your key in to make something else happen: Your face appears in the pounding water of Niagara Falls, or a volcano erupts. What’s more, if you want to add yourself as a citizen of the world, you can have an itsy-bitsy 3D print of yourself placed in one of 15 crowd scenes — for instance, in front of the Louvre.

The day I visited, two sculptors were busy carving a mountain for Guangzhou, China, while boxes of parsley-sized trees were being unloaded into Europe. South America had been held up at customs — all the overseas countries were actually made overseas. And Melanie Jelacic, a model maker, was working on the airport.

“We want it to look very modern,” said Jelacic, who previously created window displays at stores including Macy’s and Tiffany’s.

The Gulliver airport is hyper-realistic.

That means that in the shops, you can see — if you squint — candy, cosmetics, souvenirs, even a rack of neck pillows.

“Each pillow is so tiny, smaller than a

sequin,” Jelacic said. And then there are the Gulliver’s Gate mugs. “They’re smaller than an ant, they’re like the back end of an ant,” she said. “A lot of the times, if you drop them on the floor, they just disappear. I’ve dropped chairs, which are a little easier to find, but I also dropped a tray of vases that just rolled onto the floor and I lost them.”

Although we’re talking about a scalemodel airport, it is still bigger than most Manhattan apartments — 2,000 square feet, with 11 workers weaving around each other.

“Our team has to climb under and over the table,” Jelacic said. “That’s a kneekiller. It’s a big dance trying to stay out of engineering and electrical’s way.”

Inside the airport, there will be minipeople sleeping in chairs, recharging their phones, and, of course, racing to catch their planes. To add to the real feel, the model makers even built an art deco abandoned terminal, surrounded by a pockmarked roadway and dead grass.

Meanwhile, the “in use” tarmac will be buzzing with luggage trucks, and littered with tire rubber from the planes constantly taking to the sky.

Even after the exhibit opens, Jelanic and crew will be adding, tweaking, fi xing, perhaps forever. Visitors will be able to watch it change.

Which is pretty much how it works in the actual-size world, too.

JOIN US FOR

HOLY WEEK At The Church of St. Luke in the Fields Saturday— April 8

Good Friday — April 14

7:30 pm The Seven Last Words of Our 9:00 am Morning Prayer Savior on the Cross—Eduardo Bellotti, 1:00 pm Good Friday Liturgy organist 6:00 pm Stations of the Cross Palm Sunday — April 9 7:30 pm Meditations on the Blessing of the Palms and Holy Eucharist Passion of Christ—Music and Readings 8:00 am Said Eucharist 9:15 am Choral Eucharist* Holy Saturday — April 15 11:15 am Choral Eucharist* 8:00 pm The Great Vigil of Easter 1:15 pm Service of Healing The Paschal Vigil and First Eucharist of Easter with Baptism, Con rmation, Mon. Tues.— April 10, 11 Reception and Rea rmation 6:15 pm Said Eucharist of Baptismal Vows.

Wednesday — April 12

6:15 pm Stations of the Cross and Holy Eucharist

Easter Sunday — April 16

8:00 am Said Eucharist 9:15 am Choral Eucharist* 6:30 pm Choral Eucharist with 10:30 am Easter Egg Hunt Foot Washing, Agape Supper, Strip11:15 am Choral Eucharist* ping of the Altar, and Vigil at the Altar 12:45 pm Healing Service of Repose. Overnight Watch until 1pm

Maundy Thursday — April 13

Good Friday.

*Child care is available for children ages 6 and under

The Church of Saint Luke in the Fields | Corner of Hudson and Grove Streets 487 Hudson Street New York, NY 10014 | 212.924.0562 | www.stlukeinthe elds.org TheVillager.com

April 6, 2017

11

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Vows to save supermarkets

Subscribe to The Villager

To The Editor: Re “Do something meaningful for supermarkets” (talking point, by Kirsten Theodos, March 30): Thank you, Kirsten, for being such a huge voice on the small-business crisis. I’m running for New York City public advocate because I’m tired of politicians saying one thing about protecting mom-and-pop stores but doing nothing to stop the carnage.

As a candidate, I’ll be calling out all our elected officials — including the current public advocate — who have failed to prioritize the crisis.

On Day One in office, I will kick off the process of finding a real solution by calling a public hearing on how to save our affordable supermarkets. Protecting small business equals protecting jobs, job creators, immigrants and single moms. Doing nothing is no longer an option.

David Eisenbach

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Call 718-260-2516 or e-mail pbeatrice@cnglocal.com

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Pledge to push S.B.J.S.A. To The Editor: Re “Do something meaningful for supermarkets” (talking point, by Kirsten Theodos, March 30): I could not agree more with this opinion. As a candidate for the City Council for District 2, I pledge to co-sponsor the Small Business Jobs Survival Act and do everything within my power as a councilmember to make sure it passes. But sponsorship is not enough: We need people at City Hall willing to fight for Joe Falzon and his Associated supermarket and the thousands of Joes whose small businesses are forced to close every month in our neighborhoods simply because they lose their leases.

The arguments against the bill do not justify denying it a hearing, and, anyway, this is the point behind a hearing — to hear the arguments for and against and to hear how the bill might be tweaked to make it work better.

It’s clear that things could not be going worse. As I walk around my neighborhood, Astor Place and the East Village, I pass by empty storefront after empty storefront. Some, like the Associated market on Third Ave., have been vacant for more than a year. Many blocks — in this city that supposedly doesn’t sleep — never open up for business while the landlords wait for an ever higher rent to materialize. In the meantime, human beings, who are the lifeblood of our city, find it harder to supply their basic needs: affordable

food, shelter, medical attention.

The City Council must reverse the disastrous focus on the rights of the landlords (the lords of the land) instead of the inhabitants of the land. The city must begin a process of self-examination and undertake real city planning, and the City Council must be the place this starts. Advocacy is a wonderful tool to bring about legislation. It’s past time to get down to the legislation.

Erin Hussein

What has Chin done?

To The Editor: Re “Do something meaningful for supermarkets” (talking point, by Kirsten Theodos, March 30): Three days before the Met Foods at 251 Mulberry St. closed, Councilmember Margaret Chin stood outside proclaiming that she wants affordable groceries to survive because without them the community’s seniors will suffer.

Four months after that announcement, what has she done to remedy this suffering for seniors? Has she or her office staff thought of a way to bring back a replacement for the Met Foods? Has she found a solution to provide affordable groceries to seniors?

Has she done outreach to those seniors that continue to suffer?

Until 2013, Chin was the prime sponsor in the City Council of the S.B.J.S.A. However, the tides changed once the Real Estate Board of New York-backed super-PAC spent more than a quarter of a million dollars on Chin’s re-election campaign.

Who does the councilmember now really represent — the mom-and-pop shops that saw her as their champion in 2008, or the top real estate developers that helped re-elect her in 2013?

Christopher Marte Marte is a candidate for City Council in the First District

No excuse not to vote To The Editor: Re “Do something meaningful for supermarkets” (talking point, by Kirsten Theodos, March 30): Ms. Theodos is absolutely right. The City Council should bring the Small Business Jobs Survival Act LETTERS continued on p. 20

IRA BLUTREICH

Don’t believe the hype? Putin looms large.

12

April 6, 2017

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Fight the power! With right tactics, we can win

TALKING POINT

BY ANDREW BERMAN

L

ast week we scored an important victory, defeating an attempt by a developer to get a zoning variance to build more than 50 percent taller and 25 percent larger than zoning allows on the site of the former Peter Stuyvesant post office branch, between E. 13th and 14th Sts., west of Avenue A, in the East Village.

This was exactly the kind of attempt to get around our zoning protections that developers have used time and again, and that skeptics often say you can’t beat.

In this case, the attempt came straight from the developer playbook: Claim that soil conditions and underground water that were well known and are commonly found throughout the area create an unforeseen and unique “hardship” that entitle you, under the law, to relief from zoning restrictions. And also point to structures that are anomalous or from a completely different context — in this case, the much larger towers of Stuyvesant Town — as justification for building larger than normally allowed, claiming these neighboring buildings define “neighborhood character.”

We at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation didn’t buy it, nor did neighbors, including those living in nearby recent developments with the same underground conditions as this site that did not require variances.

The community board and local politicians weren’t duped, either. And, fortunately, at the end of the day, neither was the Board of Standards and Appeals.

In fact, in this case, the B.S.A. seemed not only to listen to the hundreds of letters it received from G.V.S.H.P. members and the arguments we presented it with, but to approach this developer’s application with appropriate skepticism and a deep level of scrutiny.

Through Harry Bubbins, our East Village director, we dug deep into this application, showing that the developer’s case was based on specious propositions and inconsistent evidence, and we reached out to and organized neighbors to turn out in force for hearings. We also had the help of SEIU Local 32BJ, which opposed the proposal due to labor issues with Richard Mack, one of the project’s partners. And we pointed out how not only the building’s size but its insensitive design would stick out sorely amid its surroundings.

We had the developer on the ropes from the start. After the opposition’s huge turnout and B.S.A. members’ tough questioning at its January hearTheVillager.com

A united front of opposition forced the developer of the former Peter Stuy vesant post office branch in the East Village to scale back drastically the variance he was requesting from the cit y.

A ruse right out of the developer playbook.

ing, the developer came back in late March with a revised application chopped down to just one-third the size of the original variance request.

Pleased as we were with this reduction, we still felt the developer’s “hardship” claim was bogus. Even the much smaller request for an increase in the development’s allowable size and height was still unjustified, we felt, and would still negatively impact neighborhood character. After we, along with neighbors and the union, let it be known that we would continue to fight the variance, and after continued skeptical questioning by the B.S.A., last week the developer withdrew the application entirely, just before it was scheduled to be heard again. With that, the developer is now limited to building no more than the neighborhood contextual zoning for the site allows — about 80 feet in height — and must play by the same rules as everyone else.

There are a number of important lessons to be taken from this win: Do your homework: There are rules for when zoning variances are and are not supposed to be granted. On some

occasions, property owners actually have good arguments as to why they deserve one. This one did not, but certainly tried to make it sound like he did. It’s not enough for opponents just to say, “It’s too big” or “We don’t like it”; you have to look at the law and argue why a given case does not meet the requirements.

Turn out in force: We were greatly helped by the fact that dozens of neighbors showed up for the hearings, and hundreds of neighbors and G.V.S.H.P. members wrote letters to the B.S.A. (The board’s chairperson made note of the intense public response.) If you don’t participate, you can’t complain about the outcome.

Make alliances: This was a group effort. Other community groups opposed this application, as did Community Board 3, City Councilmember Mendez, state Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh. SEIU Local 32BJ was also against the project and turned out members for the hearings and a rally. Showing local, political and labor support always helps.

Let the city do its job: Unfortunately, this one you can’t control, and all too often it feels like it’s not what happens — that is, the city doing its job. But this time it did. The B.S.A. commissioners were skeptical of this project’s application from the beginning, pointing out its weaknesses and inconsistencies. At the end of the day, it’s almost always government bodies like these that make the decisions. It’s a lot better when an agency understands the law and applies it fairly, as it seemed to do in this case.

(Along these lines, G.V.S.H.P. will be co-hosting a forum on the B.S.A., how it

works, and how to reform it on Thurs., April 27, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the N.Y.U. Silver Center, 31 Washington Place, Room 300. (Find out more and RSVP at www.gvshp.org/bsaforum .)

Of course, not every fight has such a happy ending. We’re still struggling to get the mayor to rezone University Place, Broadway and Third and Fourth Aves. — as we repeatedly have been calling for — to prevent a wave of oversized, commercial developments. And it’s unclear if the mayor will allow the deed restriction on the East Village’s former P.S. 64 / CHARAS / El Bohio to be undermined by approving a “fake dorm” in this building which for generations served as a true community center and resource.

Yet, we continue to show we can fight powerful interests — even City Hall, when needed — and that we can win. We did that with this recent victory on E. 14th St. We did it when we landmarked the final phase of the South Village Historic District. And we did it when we secured zoning protections for the Greenwich Village waterfront against any more Hudson River Park “air rights” transfers after the St. John’s / Pier 40 deal, plus eliminated traffic-generating “big box” and “destination retail” stores from the huge, planned St. John’s development at West and Houston Sts. Now we have to make it happen by rezoning University Place and by protecting the old P.S. 64 (CHARAS / El Bohio), as well.

Berman is executive director, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation April 6, 2017

13

Rolling out a slice of Village art psychedelia

BY DENNIS LYNCH

C

helsea’s Printed Matter bookstore is running a career-spanning exhibit of works of one of the Lower East Side’s fiercest and certainly one of its least-known antiestablishment artists, Richard Tyler.

“The Schizophrenic Bomb: Richard Tyler and the Uranian Press” examines Tyler’s work as an artist, thinker and co-founder of the Uranian Phalanstery, a spiritual and pseudo-mystic art collective that sought to merge life with art and challenge societal norms.

The exhibit takes its name from one of Tyler’s many hand-pressed treatises, which in this case addressed nuclear holocaust. As he did with many of his writings, Tyler expounds his worldview in the “The Schizophrenic Bomb” with epic, proselytizing language conveyed in a highly unique visual style.

The exhibit spans his entire career, from his earliest works in the mid1950s, to his founding works for the Phalanstery in 1974, to his last work detailing his battle with cancer before his death in 1983.

Tyler got his start as a woodblockprint artist and was a “star” at his Chicago art school — good enough to have his early works included in Smithsonian collections, according to Max Schumann, the executive director of Printed Matter, at 231 11th Ave., at W. 26th St. He arrived in New York in the late ’50s with his wife and fellow artist, Dorothea Baer, worked as a commercial graphic artist, including for Playboy magazine, and helped found the famous Judson Gallery at Judson Memorial Church, on Washington Square South.

Even though he was deeply involved in the art scene at the time, Tyler never aspired to ascend in the fi ne-art world, according to Schumann. The Printed Matter owner fi rst met Tyler as a family friend of his father, Peter Schumann, who founded Bread and Puppet Theater on the Lower East Side in 1963.

Tyler’s disinterest in fame is perhaps why he’s not more well known, Schumann said.

“Very few people knew about Richard Tyler,” he said. “But the people that did know about him, he had a big impact on. He was a real outsider, as he had no interest in fame and fortune with galleries and stuff like that.”

The exhibit includes almost everything the still-functioning Phalanstery has kept of Tyler’s, including his signature pushcart, from which he would sell his and others’ artworks and treatises. Tyler could be seen wheeling the cart each day from his East Village basement to Judson Church to sell his wares. The group

14

April 6, 2017

PHOTOS BY DENNIS LYNCH

Richard Tyler’s street pushcar t, above, from which he would sell his hand-printed Uranian Press treatises — such as “The Schizophrenic Bomb,” about nuclear war and L SD — as well as calendars, among other things.

An original hand-printed book done by a young boy who apprenticed with the Uranian Press in 1959.

was based in two adjacent buildings on E. Fourth St. near Avenue D, buying them in 1974.

The younger Schumann admits that he is personally “still trying to figure out” Tyler’s philosophy and work.

Tyler was a “madman” and a “violent freak in many ways,” he said, yet also a person with charisma, which attracted artists to his little arts collective.

He was dedicated to D.I.Y., doing all his pressing and printing in-house.

The artist often hired young neighborhood kids to teach them pressing

methods and to help press Uranian Phalanstery materials.

Tyler, who spent time in Japan immediately after World War II, was strongly influenced by the imagery and philosophies of astrology, as well as Eastern religions. He incorporated those themes in all of his works, long before the “New Age” movement exploded in Western culture. Tyler’s interpretations were noticeably darker and more mystical than the themes in that later movement, Schumann noted.

“It’s totally not hippie-dippie New

Age,” he said. “There’s this sort of dark, death current that runs from the very beginning of his work to the end of it.”

Tyler put his offbeat creations on his body, too. He ran an illegal D.I.Y. tattoo parlor for Phalanstery members, inking himself and others with the symbols that adorned his pamphlets, the walls of his apartment and his collages. That earned him an interview and feature published not long after his death in Ed Hardy’s Tattootime magazine in 1983. If you want to get his philosophy from the horse’s mouth, that’s the interview to read. It’s available on the Uranian Phalanstery Facebook page.

Tyler and the collective also regularly took LSD and other psychedelics as a mode of “controlled schizophrenia, helping to facilitate entry into nonmaterial realms.” Like acid-dropping Lower East Side gardener Adam Purple, who sometimes called himself Rev Les Ego, Tyler similarly also went

by Rev Relytor. (Like Tyler, Purple also distributed his own fl iers, though from a bicycle not a pushcart.)

Schumann hopes that people will walk away with a new appreciation for Tyler and his collective’s works. Tyler was a man “whose life was really his art practice,” explained Schumann, calling him almost a “case study” in that regard.

“It’s the mash-up and the art-life practice,” he said, “where art, death, creativity, community, a lifestyle of living outside the system, and not only not being engaged or aspiring to high art or the institutions of arts — just completely not recognizing the values. So, it’s a refusal of the culture values that the rest of us are working within. He was a real renegade and anti-authoritarian, so I think that’s an interesting model. Someone who, they aren’t pissed because they aren’t in it, they just totally don’t give a s---. It doesn’t register as anything meaningful or important to be in a gallery.”

But now Tyler’s work is in a gallery.

The walls feature blown-up photos of what his basement studio at 326 E. Fourth St. looked like. Because the two East Village brick buildings were in deteriorating condition, the Uranian Phalanstery relocated Uptown in 2010 to Hamilton Heights, where it continues today.

Printed Matter, which specializes in artists’ books and small-press publications, also started out Downtown, in Tribeca in 1976, and after a 20-year stint in Soho on Wooster St., moved to Chelsea in 2001 and to its current location in 2015.

The exhibit will be on view at Printed Matter through Sun., April 16. For more information, visit www. printedmatter.org .

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East Side tales of the famous and infamous Metropolitan Playhouse fest fetes everyday life on the L.E.S.

BY PUMA PERL I’m one of those New Yorkers who loves authentic New York settings. If the Lower East Side is involved, even better. Sitting in the pleasantly funky Metropolitan Playhouse with its artistic director, Alex Roe, I immediately grasp that the backbone of the annual East Side Stories theater festival is its commitment to preserving and supporting the heritage through a marvelously inclusive format. The festival consists of “East Village Chronicles,” a series of four one-act plays set in the neighborhood, and “Alphabet City,” six interview-based solo performances which tell the stories of long-term local residents. Both elements of the East Side Stories program — all of them world premieres —scrutinize and celebrate what Roe described as “famous, infamous, and everyday lives.”

The plays are generally submitted by emerging artists. A single director (this year, Michael Hardart) is chosen for “Chronicles,” which helps shape the program, and may include subtle threads — perhaps in the use of a specific prop throughout. Three of the four works that comprise this year’s “Transformation” theme are based on influential events and famous figures in Lower East Side history, including Peter Cooper, Fiorello La Guardia, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Janis Joplin.

The contemporary offering, Jen Plants’ “The Bowery Waltz,” is described as “a comedy with dancing” (the title is derived from an imitation of a street fight between a drunken man and his equally inebriated female companion).

The storytelling project began 14 years ago, with a homeless man named Carlos Roman who hung out near the corner bodega. Roe had gotten to know him, and thought that neighborhood people might be interested in doing monologues based on their own lives.

A friend suggested that actors conduct interviews and present the stories.

Roman was the first participant, with Roe as the actor. He never attended a performance, but telling his story and impacting others made a difference in his life. They stayed in touch and he eventually found housing Uptown — TheVillager.com

Photo by Alex Roe

“Cooper Union, Cooper Union” puts a musical spin on the origin story of Peter Cooper’s “biggest and best idea.”

Photo by Jessica Chou

World traveler, novelist, and influential master tattooist Jonathan Shaw.

“Not that we had anything to do with it,” said Roe. “I’m not saying this is

transformational.” Though in my opinion, it just might be.

The list of people who’ve participated in the project includes fairly well-known L.E.S. denizens like “Mosaic Man” Jim Power and filmmaker Jonas Mekas, alongside people who have never been formally recognized. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when the story of a woman who works as an AIDS caregiver was told,” Roe recalled.

Actors audition for the project and identify their own subjects; some have a specific person in mind, for others it’s serendipitous. Often, there is no correlation in gender, race, size, or appearance. “It’s about capturing the essence of a person,” explained Roe. “The way they stand, how their voices sound; in terms of dress, we may choose a signature item. If you were portrayed, EAST SIDE STORIES continued on p. 16 April 6, 2017

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EAST SIDE STORIES continued from p. 15

maybe it would be a hat like yours,� he told me.

I was wearing a hat only because I was en route to an appointment with my hairdresser, Joey Paulina — who, coincidentally, had been a subject several years back. He also works as a drag performer, the type who does backflips in gowns and stilettos. One evening, actress Sylvia RoldĂĄn Dohi stopped by Lucky Cheng’s (a Hell’s Kitchen drag restaurant formerly located in the East Village) looking for a subject. “It was mad cool to be seen as a rendition of what life in the East Village means, and being part of keeping it as it’s meant to be. Sylvia did a great job of slipping into my high heels!â€? Paulina said.

One of the interesting pairings this year is that of Jonathan Shaw and Julie T. Pham. One of the interesting pairings this year is that of Jonathan Shaw and Julie T. Pham. Shaw is a world-traveling outlaw artist and novelist whose time as a master tattooist widely influenced the culture. Iggy Pop called him “the great nightmare anti-hero of the new age.� Actress Pham was born in Saigon to a family of entertainers who toured with various Vietnamese opera troupes.

She had never even walked into a tattoo shop prior to meeting Shaw. So how did these two connect? “I was visiting the city for pre-promotional meetings for my new book, ‘Scab Vendor: Confessions of a Tattoo Artist,’ � said Shaw, “and happened to be hanging out in my old shop, Fun City Tattoo, when Julie walked in asking questions about the place’s history.�

Pham had been wandering around the East Village hoping to find someone to interview for the project and noticed the shop. “I had never been in a tattoo parlor before, so why not now?� she remembered thinking. “Jonathan introduced himself as the former owner and was so talkative and helpful — so unexpected for someone you would find in a

Photo by Alex Roe

Can a building have a soul? “Emigrant� looks at the life of 105 Second Ave.

tattoo parlor!� “It was a total coincidence that she happened along on a rare visit by me, since I just happen to be the living embodiment of the place’s history,� said Shaw. “I gave her a copy of my new book, referring her to the afterword, which sums up the history of the shop with my personal history. At this point, she must have realized what a fortuitous confluence of circumstances she was looking at by me just happening to be here. We walked over to Odessa and I gave her an initial interview and emailed her a bunch of press material related to the subject matter she was interested in, and the rest is history, as they say.�

Theater for the New City • 155 1st Avenue at E. 10th St. Reservations & Info (212) 254-1109 For more info, please visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net

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April 6, 2017

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Julie T. Pham’s chance encounter at Fun City Tattoo led to her onstage portrayal of Jonathan Shaw.

Shaw was scheduled to fly out of the city in just several hours, so Pham “ditched dinner reservations and shared pierogies and tea with Jonathan.� She agrees with his assessment of the fortuitous circumstances. “I’ve found the most unlikely celebrity in the oddest place ever! Is this possible?� she recalled thinking upon meeting the multi-faceted Shaw. “I couldn’t believe how open, kind and generous he was to

me. I was, and am still, in awe!�

Through April 23: Wed.–Sat. at 7:30pm; Sat. & Sun. at 3pm. At Metropolitan Playhouse (220 E. Fourth St., btw. Aves. A & B). Single tickets: $20 for adults, $15 for students/seniors, $10 for children under 18; Festival Pass: $40. For reservations, call 800-8383006 or visit metropolitanplayhouse. org. Artist info at missjuliepham.com and facebook.com/jsfuncity.

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Acting the Dickens out of Shakespeare Theater Reconstruction Ensemble conjures a wry ‘Hamlet’

BY SCOTT STIFFLER Like the gingerly placed lampshade that allows a ghost light to bathe its final scene of battle-weary camaraderie in a calm and forgiving glow, there’s an oddball logic to the fits of madness that play catch and release with four brave souls determined to act the Dickens out of Shakespeare.

Performed with everything from gleeful buffoonery to seriously Elizabethan emoting to sheer panic, Theater Reconstruction Ensemble’s “How to Hamlet, or Hamleting Hamlet” is an intense, 70-minute whirlwind that lampoons, lionizes, psychoanalyzes and rationalizes the countless thespians and academics who’ve put their stamp, for better or worse, on the circa 1600 tale of a melancholy Dane undone by poisonous acts.

Seated in a front row that’s ominously close to the stage (or actually part of it?), Sam Corbin, Joshua William Gelb, Nathaniel Basch-Gould and Emily Marro begin the mega-meta proceedings in the guise of chatty audience members given to inappropriate coughing, embarrassing confessions of intestinal distress, and hushed, endearingly neurotic improvised chatter upon realizing the play’s the thing — and they’re in it now — and it ain’t “Hamilton.”

“Maybe the show is just some sort of discussion about the play ‘Hamlet,’ ” they speculate. “Or like a PowerPoint presentation? Maybe a TED Talk?”

Spurred into action when a technician wheels in a rack of period costumes and fires off a plume or two from the fog machine, the friends suit up, turn their chairs to face the audience, place palm on

Photos by Suzi Sadler

L to R: Joshua William Gelb, Emily Marro, Nathaniel Basch-Gould and Sam Corbin.

top of palm on top of palm, and strike the first of several séance-like tableaus that will, with fever dream effectiveness, conjure brilliant little bits and pieces of the play — but never enough to send you out of the theater able to say that you actually saw “Hamlet.”

It’s not for lack of trying, though. The thoroughly befuddled foursome never seems to quite get over making that transition from observer to participant. It’s an awesome responsibility to summarize, analyze, and agree upon what this welltrodden text wants to say or has to offer — and in their epic attempt to do so, the charismatic and insanely skilled actors find in Hamlet (the person, not the play) a kindred spirit. Just as that title character

“How to Hamlet, or Hamleting Hamlet” is in possession of all the fears and foibles that come with putting one’s stamp on Shakespeare.

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is willing to throw the kitchen sink at his vow to avenge dear old dead dad, Theater Reconstruction Ensemble pulls out all the stops while staying mission-focused on its quest to make sense of things.

Frequent spasms of spirit possession

by Shakespearean stock characters, a slapstick battle with the upstage wall, a desperate attempt to steer the play by hijacking the stage manager’s headset, and the passing of an electrical current between twitchy thespians might seem at first to be nothing more than a collection of loony, pyrotechnic distractions. But like the sweet prince who feigns madness, there’s a solid method at work here that says more about our drive than our destination.

“Okay, that’s a good answer,” says Gelb at one point, slipping out of character and, more or less, back into himself. “That’s a good answer.

It’s not exactly the answer I’m looking for. But it’s good.

Could you try again?

It’s the same riddle.”

Written by John Kurzynowski and Jon Riddleberger; conceived and directed by John Kurzynowski. Through April 14: Tues., Wed., Thurs, Fri. at 7pm; Sat. at 2 & 7pm; Sun. at 2pm. At HERE (145 Sixth Ave.; enter on Dominick St., one block south of Spring St.). For tickets ($18), visit here.org or call 212-352-3101.

Artist info at reconstructionensemble. org.

Sticking their necks out and getting a little ruffled: L to R, Sam Corbin and Nathaniel Basch-Gould.

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Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/16 - 04/20/2017 408 E 79 12A, LLC Articles of Org. ďŹ led NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 2/13/17. OfďŹ ce in NY Co. SSNY desig. agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to 408 E. 79 th St., Apt .12A, NY, NY 10075.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Vil: 03/09 - 04/13/2017 721 MEDIA LLC Art. of Org. ďŹ led with the SSNY on 02/06/17.

Latest date to dissolve: 12/31/2068.

OfďŹ ce: 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 the LLC, c/o Amy Rosenblum, 4 East 89th Street, Apartment G, New York, NY 10128.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Vil: 03/09 - 04/13/2017 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF CK ANDREWS 4088, LLC Arts. of Org. ďŹ led with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/24/17.

OfďŹ ce location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Christine Marie Houston, 276 Riverside Drive, No. 6E, NY, NY 10025.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/09 - 04/13/2017 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF CHC 3111 LLC Arts. of Org. ďŹ led with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/24/17.

OfďŹ ce location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o CHC Management Group, Inc., 158 E. 35th St., NY, NY 10016. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/09 - 04/13/2017 NOTICE OF FORMATION OF AEBA.STUDIO LLC Arts. of Org. ďŹ led with NY Dept. of State on 2/10/17. OfďŹ ce 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 Andrew W. Heymann, Solomon Blum Heymann LLP, 40 Wall St., 35th

Fl., NY, NY 10005, principal business address.

Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/09 - 04/13/2017 NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF THE NRP GROUP LLC Authority ďŹ led with NY Dept. of State on 2/24/2017. OfďŹ ce location: NY County. LLC organized in OH on 12/23/1996. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom process may be served. OH and principal business address: 5309 Transportation Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44125.

Cert. of Org. ďŹ led with OH Sec. of State, 180 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/09 - 04/13/2017 NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF CF MEDICAL, LLC Authority ďŹ led with NY Dept. of State on 8/21/09. OfďŹ ce location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 4730 S. Fort Apache Rd., Ste. 300, Las Vegas, NV 89147.

LLC organized in NV on 8/18/08. 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. NV addr. of LLC: 101 Convention Center Dr., Ste. 700, Las Vegas, NV 89109. Cert. of Org. ďŹ led with NV Sec. of State, 101 N. Carson St., Carson City, NV 89701. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/09 - 04/13/2017 NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF FT ALPHAPARITY, LLC Authority ďŹ led with NY Dept. of State on 2/24/17. OfďŹ ce location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: One Franklin Pkwy., San Mateo, CA 94403. LLC formed in DE on 8/17/05. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: 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. ďŹ led with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/09 - 04/13/2017

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LMN CONSULTANTS, LLC Arts. of Org. ďŹ led with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/16/17.

OfďŹ ce location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the NOTICE OF QUALIFICA- LLC, 350 E. 97th St., TION OF GENEIA LLC Ste. 19A, NY, NY 10075.

Authority ďŹ led with NY Purpose: Any lawful Dept. of State on activity.

2/23/17. OfďŹ ce location: Vil: 03/02 - 04/06/2017 NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 1000 N. Cameron St., Suite 500, Harrisburg, PA 17103. LLC NOTICE OF FORMATION formed in DE on OF LPF BILL PAY, LLC 2/17/12. NY Sec. of Arts. of Org. ďŹ led with State designated agent of Secy. of State of NY LLC upon whom process (SSNY) on 02/04/17. against it may be served OfďŹ ce location: NY and shall mail process to: County. Princ. ofďŹ ce of CT Corporation System, LLC: 6 E. 43rd St., 12th 111 8th Ave., NY, NY Fl., NY, NY 10017. SSNY 10011, regd. agent upon designated as agent of whom process may be LLC upon whom process served. DE addr. of LLC: against it may be served.

1209 Orange St., Wilm- SSNY shall mail process ington, DE 19801. Cert. to Sean Moore, HPM of Form. ďŹ led with DE Partners LLC at the princ.

Sec. of State, 401 Feder- ofďŹ ce of the LLC. The al St., Dover, DE 19901. regd. agent of the Purpose: all lawful pur- company upon whom poses. and at which process Vil: 03/09 - 04/13/2017 against the company can be served is Sean Moore, HPM Partners, 6 E. 43rd NOTICE OF FORMATION St., 12th Fl., NY, NY OF VCROWN VENTURES 10017. Purpose: Banking and bill pay service.

LLC Vil: 03/02 - 04/06/2017 Arts. of Org. ďŹ led with NY Dept. of State on 2/14/17. OfďŹ ce location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 825 3rd Ave., 37th Fl., NY, NY 10022. Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom process may be served.

Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Vil: 03/02 - 04/06/2017

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF GRAMBER LLC Arts. of Org. ďŹ led with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/16/17.

OfďŹ ce location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Amber Kulak, 160 W. 24th St., Apt. 12F, NY, NY 10011. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/02 - 04/06/2017

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF 23 BELOW MEDIA GROUP LLC Arts. of Org. ďŹ led with NY Dept. of State on 2/1/17.

OfďŹ ce location: New York County. NY Sec. of State designated agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served, and shall mail process to 8 Spruce St, Apt 26P, New York, NY 10038.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Vil: 03/02 -04/06/2017

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that license #1301387 has been applied by the undersigned to sell beer, wine and liquor under the alcoholic beverage control law at 15 Barrow St., New York, NY 10014 for on-premises consumption.

ZMZ Barrow Tavern LLC d/b/a Barrow Street Ale House.

Vil: 04/06 - 04/13/2017

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a license, number “Pending� for beer, liquor and wine has been applied for by the undersigned to sell beer, liquor and wine at retail in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 1633 Second Avenue, City of New York, New York County for on premises consumption.

East Side Burgers 1, LLC, d/b/a Wahlburgers Vil: 04/06 - 04/13/2017 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a restaurant wine license, #TBA has been applied for by Wagamama NY 55 3rd LLC to sell beer and wine at retail in an on premises establishment.

For on premises consumption under the ABC law at 55 Third Avenue, Unit 2 New York NY 10003.

Vil: 04/06 - 04/13/2017 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that an on-premise license, #TBA has been applied for by Starlap Inc. to sell beer, wine and liquor at retail in an on premises establishment.

For on premises consumption under the ABC law at 202 Clinton Street New York NY 10002.

Vil: 04/06 - 04/13/2017

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that an on-premise license, #TBA has been applied for by Vintage 33 Inc. to sell beer, wine and liquor at retail in an on premises establishment with one additional bar. For on premises consumption under the ABC law at 20 W 33rd Street New York NY 10001.

Vil: 03/30 - 04/06/207 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN a license, number 1301179 for onpremises Liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell liquor at retail in a Restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 109 West Broadway, New York, NY 10013 for on premises consumption.

109 West Broadway Food & Wine LLC; Yves LLC mp; MAC I Food and Beverage LLC Vil: 03/30 - 04/06/2017

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19

Letters to The Editor LETTERS continued from p. 12

up for a vote and pass it because this would be in the interest of small businesses — and New Yorkers. There is no excuse for not putting the S.B.J.S.A to a vote. Our progressive leaders need to be brave and stand up against the real estate lobby in a meaningful way.

Alison Greenberg

Real figures worse To The Editor: Re “Do something meaningful for supermarkets” (talking point, by Kirsten Theodos, March 30): This is a good basic summary.

However, as a practicing attorney representing small businesses in New York City for more than 30 years, I can say that only about 15 to 20 percent of businesses will either wait to be evicted or try to fight. That means that the real number of merchants that can’t renew their leases because of the huge greed and jacking up of the rents is about 80 percent. This translates into much higher numbers of small businesses unable to renew their leases, which can be seen by the vacancies on every commercial strip in every neighborhood in all five boroughs.

City Hall is rigged by the Real Estate Board of New York! That is the bottom line. Learn the facts, New York — not the phony excuses and alternative facts from people like Councilmember Johnson.

Steve Barrison Barrison is co-chairperson, Coalition to Save NYC Small Businesses

Do the right thing To The Editor: Re “Thanks, ‘Crusty’ Club” (letter,

by Michael Novogratz, March 30): I was startled by the vitriol in Mike Novogratz’s comments on the Pier55 decision and by his attempt to cast “shame” on those of us who have pursued legal challenges to Barry Diller’s fantasy island. I mean, wasn’t this same guy formerly on the board of the Hudson River Park Trust and then chairing its Friends of Hudson River Park group when the Trust got the state Legislature to sign off on transferring “air rights” from Pier 40, thereby enabling Novogratz’s fi rm to sell its stake in the nearby St. John’s Center property at a magnificent profit?

I guess we all have our own defi nition of civic responsibility.

For the record, our campaign is mo-

20

April 6, 2017

tivated by two non-monetary desires: fi rst, to reform the administration of our public spaces, especially along the waterfront, in order to eliminate the kind of secrecy and self-dealing that seem to seep in when “development corporations” are put in charge; and second, to compel the city and state to live up to their own environmental commitments and acknowledge the critical importance of a healthy, functioning harbor and estuary.

“They have pushed this lawsuit to destroy this gorgeous new park, and would prefer to have nothing in its place,” Novogratz writes in his letter.

But to us the water is not “nothing.”

Nor was it “nothing” to the Legislature when it created Hudson River Park. The law that the representatives wrote clearly defi nes the park’s waters as a marine sanctuary whose principal purpose is to protect wildlife and provide habitat. We’re gratified that a federal judge read the law carefully, and called out the Army Corps permit as the emperor’s-new-clothes fraud that it was.

An admirable legacy of the Bloomberg era is its vision of New York as a sustainable city capable of facing up to the climate challenges that are bound to come. Any rational person knows that to realize that vision we need to begin to pull back from the waterfront’s edge and, where possible, soften it. Yet, at the same time — another Bloomberg legacy — we perversely continue to line our waterfront with 40-story glass towers.

Diller’s would-be island is both symptom and cause of that mad rush, and of the consequent division of our city into rich edge-dwellers and everyone else. Is it really the direction we want to be heading?

Rob Buchanan Buchanan was a plaintiff on The City Club of New York’s successful federal lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ granting a permit for Pier55, and is co-founder, New York City Water Trail Association

‘Throttling’ traffic To The Editor: Re “ ‘Flip Fifth’ plan to create protected bike lane” (news article, March 30): Community Boards 2 and 5 have voted to throttle traffic on Fifth Ave. from 23rd St. to Eighth St. This will create the requisite traffic chaos and congestion it is designed to do.

Remember that bicycle lanes are not about bicycles (which carry under 5 percent of the city’s total passengers). They are about creating congestion. This should be of real concern to readers of The Villager since the politicians of the area, including Deb-

orah Glick and Brad Hoylman, support traffic throttling on 14th St. due to the L train shutdown “crisis.”

Expect more misery and delays from all of this. Congestion pricing failed totally politically, so this is the passive-aggressive answer: Create enough congestion and eliminate parking places, so we cannot park cars in the area.

The throttling of traffic on 14th St. will create congestion on the Village side streets, as well as a fight for parking spaces as those on 14th St. are eliminated to make room for Select Bus Service lanes. Bike lanes on 14th St. will just make it worse. It’s time to call our elected representatives.

New York super-PAC and his election campaigns.

What’s clear is that we need a Landmarks Commission whose mission is entirely preservation and the proper interpretation of the Landmarks Law. We are increasingly throwing away the rich historic legacy of New York in exchange for money and architectural blandness that could be Anywhere U.S.A. Thanks are due to the preservationists like Andrew Berman who fight a lonely and endless battle to protect the historic footprint and soul of New York.

John Wetherhold

Abrasive, awesome!

Planters get trashed

To The Editor:

To The Editor: Re “Trash talkin’ in Soho; Raising awareness is key” (talking point, by Yukie Ohta, March 30): Soho’s streets are now overflowing with trash because ACE no longer has funding? No problem! Mr. Henry Buhl, ACE’s founder, wants to add numerous new planters along the sidewalks. Aside from obstructing legal street vendors and blocking access

by E.M.S., police and fi refighters to building entrances, the planters will soon be fi lled with all of that trash.

What a great solution to the problem!

Re “Trumped-up borders came with the territory” (The Angry Buddhist, by Carl Rosenstein, March 16): Thanks to The Villager, it’s refreshing to hear the abrasive voice of the Carl Rosenstein (The Angry Buddhist). He knows how to stoke the fires. Whatever one believes, it’s now time to wake up.

Complacency is no longer justifiable.

Robert Lederman Lederman is president, A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’ Response to Illegal State Tactics)

Susan Simon

Crista Grauer E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager. com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 MetroTech North, 10th fl oor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes.

The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published.

L.P.C. loses its way To The Editor: Re “What’s wrong with the Landmarks Preservation Commission?” (talking point, by Andrew Berman, March 23): Unfortunately, rather than taking very seriously its mandate, the Landmarks Preservation Commission too often acts as an expediter for developers, allowing extreme and historydestroying changes to landmarked buildings and districts.

Just consider that the chairperson of L.P.C. appointed by the mayor came from the Board of Standards and Appeals — which focuses on zoning — having no preservation background. The B.S.A. has been criticized for years for working hand in glove with developers and very generously doling out community-opposed variances where the zoning law is often ignored.

So, the Landmarks chairperson serves at the discretion of the mayor, who clearly is enamored with the real estate set, perhaps for their generosity to his now-ended Campaign for One

Sound off!

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Write a letter to the editor news@thevillager.com

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April 6, 2017

21

Church reaching out CENTER continued from p. 5

johns around it outside. Inside, it was great.”

Poster said the Village area already has some drop-in centers for gay youth, including at The Door, on Broome St., and at the L.G.B.T. Center, on W. 13th St. Plus, he said, his understanding is that, due to “more acceptance” in society, there are now also similar facilities in places in New Jersey were many of the gay youth hail from.

The Christopher St. Patrol, now 26 years old, used to do its once-weekly rounds on a weekend night. Now, it only goes out every other weekend, and Poster said that’s because things have quieted down so much on the streets.

Fewer gay youth seem to be hanging out in the Village nowadays, he said.

“It’s very limited,” he said. “It’s nothing like it was. It’s like a totally different atmosphere now. Lots of kids used to come in on the PATH train. Behavior was always what it was about. It’s a mindset — once they’re on Christopher St., they can do whatever they want, it’s O.K. … It’s not O.K. “The last couple of years, it’s gotten better and better, and I would say this year was the best year. I ought to give myself a kinehora,” he said, using another expression for “knock on wood.”

Poster said the seasonal cafe in Hudson River Park at the foot of Christopher St. Pier has had an impact, as well.

“Now it’s wonderful,” he said.

“Residents are going to the park.

They’re using the restaurant.”

Some bars that Poster and police saw as trouble spots have also been shut down, while restaurants have replaced porn shops, also helping change the famed gay boulevard’s character.

A spokesperson at the L.G.B.T. Center noted that, in addition to the Center and The Door, there is also the Ali Forney Center, which provides beds for homeless gay youth, including at its new Bea Arthur Residence on E. 13th St. The spokesperson declined comment on Poster’s comments and the St. Luke’s situation, saying she did not feel familiar enough with the details of the story to offer an informed comment.

In addition, St. Luke’s sent out a Community Needs Assessment to its own church members in February. Responses were due in early March.

“As you know, our parish community, as well as the larger com-

22

April 6, 2017

munity beyond our block, continues to grow and change,” a note from Mother Stacey and Troy Bailey, a member of the church’s Strategic Planning Committee, enclosed with the assessment form said. “We remain committed to serving and supporting those who are traditionally underserved and marginalized in our community, including those living with H.I.V.AIDS and L.G.B.T.Q. youth. In addition, we want to ensure that our values and mission meet the changing needs of the changing community. To this end, St. Luke’s is inviting the congregation to enter into a time of prayer and discernment around the values, concerns and ministries that are most meaningful to its members.”

When St. Luke’s officials originally described the mission-center plan to The Villager three years ago, Stacey said the church had a Saturday night feeding program for L.G.B.T. youth and H.I.V.positive people that accommodated 80. But the program was outgrowing the space, she said — which was why St. Luke’s wanted to build a center on the site of the playground at the corner of Hudson and Christopher Sts. “It’s an incredible ministry,” Stacey said.

At that time, the plan was for the mission to be “townhouse scale,” with a 24/7 drop-in center.

Individuals would be able to get a change of clothes and take showers. It would not be “a homeless shelter,” Stacey said, though the church is allowed under regulations to have an eight-to-10-bed facility.

In the future, she said back then, the mission building could be “repurposed” to meet whatever the community’s needs might be, perhaps serving seniors, for example.

As for the playground that the mission would have replaced, the plan for the expanded school sports recreational space on its rooftop.

As for the part of the redevelopment project that has happened, Stacey said this week, “100 Barrow is coming along and is at its full height now and has been for several months. The co-ops at 100 Barrow are in the process of being advertised and sold, with the distribution of the affordable units being processed through the city housing authorities. The renovated townhouses on Barrow are being advertised and rented out.

The school has been under construction and still is. It is at full construction height now but the interior work is continuing.”

TheVillager.com

Smorgasburg will take a bite of Hudson Square S’BURG continued from p. 3

late as 11 p.m. or midnight.

“I don’t think it’s going to go to 12,” he said. “We have been in the Seaport the last three years. It’s a really nice after-work scene — after 6 p.m., go have a couple of beers and some food — but after 9 it’s kind of dead.”

The Brooklyn locations are far larger, with about 100 vendors each day.

“It might not even be called Smorgasburg,” Butler noted of the Duarte Square location. “I hesitate to use the word ‘Smorgasburg’ because it implies a gazillion vendors.”

Asked how many people they anticipate the market would draw on a daily basis, Butler said he really could not predict that, and there is no telling at this point if the location will even be a hit.

As for the Brooklyn Flea aspect, Butler said it would include things like vintage clothing and handmade designs.

Obviously, the Kent Ave. market has had a big impact on that neighborhood.

“When we started Smorgasburg in 2011 on Kent Ave., no one was going over there,” he noted.

Similarly, he said of Duarte Square, “Part of the idea is to activate that part of Canal St. — place-making. That particular part of Canal St. could use some sort of Jane Jacobs-style place-making.”

As for entertainment, Butler said it won’t be rock music.

“No, no, no, this is not a rock concert venue or a rock club,” he stressed. “We’ll sometimes have private events or a talk or presentation on culture or politics. We have family-friendly events.”

Previously, Butler founded Brownstoner, the popular Brooklyn real estate blog, before launching Brooklyn Flea with Demby in 2008.

The main residential building near the location is 80 Varick St. Darlene Lutz, a fine-art adviser who lives there, is a frequent critic of Trinity Real Estate’s ongoing leasing of the space for outdoor events. Trinity’s stated long-term plan for the block is to build a residential tower, with a new public elementary school for the city in its base. But that plan, clearly, has yet to get off the ground.

Previously, in February 2015 Trinity notably leased the space for Nike Zoom, a basketball-and-sneaker themed extravaganza during N.B.A. All-Star Week.

Though not a commercial use, Occupy Wall Street also hoped to take over the space after it was evicted from Zuccotti Park back in 2011, but Trinity said the lot wasn’t suitable for an encampment.

Lutz admitted that her building is the source of 12 letters in support for Smorgasburg, but she figures those are from commercial tenants whose employees would likely enjoy the open-air market.

“Seating for 120 — this is an outdoor restaurant,” she warned. “No farmers’ market operates seven days a week.

“All the young tech employees around TheVillager.com

A floor plan of the Duar te Square Smorgasburg. The five gray rectangular boxes at top and at left represent food trucks. The two dark rectangles at right are shipping containers. Other markings represent tables, “shade structures” — likely large umbrellas — and a patio covered with pavers. There will also be landscaping. The market apparently won’t use the par t of the lot east of Sullivan St., which is basically an access road at this spot that is not open to car traffic.

here will love it. It’s great if you can enjoy it, have a few drinks, and then go back to your home in another neighborhood.

“We’re talking over 20,000 square feet of lot, which is gravel and a cyclone fence — no trees to block the sound, and residential apartments just 30 feet away. Will my air conditioner become a grease trap for people cooking hamburgers?”

Lutz spoke to a lobbyist who is pushing the plan and asked him how Smorgasburg would operate in the winter.

“He said they’re going to bring in shipping containers,” she said.

“The small brick-and-mortar businesses in this area will suffer,” she predicted.

More to the point, she said, she’s impatient for Trinity to start building its residential tower there — even though that obviously would be noisy and disruptive.

“The school in that building was the sweetener for the rezoning,” she noted.

Five years ago, Trinity pushed through a rezoning for the formerly manufacturing-zoned area to allow residential use.

Carter Booth, the C.B. 2 S.L.A. Committee co-chairperson who will lead the April 13 meeting, said Smorgasburg is definitely something new for the board.

He said that, as usual, he didn’t want to comment before the public hearing, which would be a chance to flesh out the details of the plan and address questions.

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April 6, 2017

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