The Villager

The Th h e Pa P Paper per of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, S So ho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933

August 24, 2017 • $1.00 Volume 87 • Number 34

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Pier-to-pier sharing; Put ‘Pier55’ on Pier 40,, Tribeca architect says

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

L

ike so many Downtowners, a Tribeca-based architect is tired of the endless schemes for renovating and redeveloping Pier 40 that never seem to pan out. But now, with media titan Barry Diller poised to spend around onequarter billion dollars to create a totally new pier at W. 13th St.,

erMichael Sorkin has an alternnative idea: Put Diller’s “end” tertainment fantasy island” on the existing Pier 40, att W. Houston St., and use Diller’s cash to fix it up.

Sorkin’s recently unveiled plan — by his Terreform firm — basically preserves Pier 40’s exist-PIER continued on p. 3

‘You better do a ULURP for Two Bridges towers!’

Activists warn Planning

BY EL ANA DURE

‘F

ollow the law! Follow the law!”

This three-word chant rang outside the Department of City Planning’s Financial District headquarters on Tuesday morning Aug. 15. Sponsored by four community organizations, the rally was an outlet for resi-

dents from the Financial District, Lower East Side and Chinatown to protest the process that developers were told to follow on applications for the construction of four “supertall” towers in the Two Bridges community.

The group of roughly 25 community activists, politicians and TOWERS continued on p. 4

Thinking inside the box — but not flaking out: Two eclipse watchers gazed into their self-made viewers to see tiny images of Monday’s total eclipse. See Page 6.

Voice’s tough choice: Will soon cease print

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

S

ixty-two years after its founding in a Greenwich Village apartment

by Norman Mailer, Dan Wolf and Ed Fancher, The Village Voice will soon end publication as a print newspaper, its owner announced Tuesday.

In a statement, Peter Barbey said the Voice’s Web site will remain active and that the pa-

per “plans to maintain its iconic progressive brand with its digital platform and a variety of new editorial initiatives and a full slate of events that will include The Obie Awards and The Pride Awards.”

The Voice went free in 1996 in response to competition from another alternative print weekly, the New York Press, which, after a number of years of existing only online, totally ceased to publish a few years

ago.

The Voice’s revenue has been decimated by the Internet, as the paper lost its classified and personal ads to sites like craigslist and as its print ads plummeted. However, Barbey said the paper’s readers today are online, too, and want daily — not just weekly — news and information.

“The most powerful thing VOICE continued on p. 19

Civic Hall C.E.O. defends ‘Tech Hub’ plan...........p. 8 Police save Manhattan Bridge jumper ............. p. 10 State of Chinatown statues......p. 9

www.TheVillager.com

COCOVAN’S CAUSE: People can argue about politics, religion, climate change, movies, books and Mac’s versus PC’s. But there’s one thing that’s hard to disagree with: The world could use a little love right now. Enter performance artist and musician Cocovan, a 28-year-old Parisian, recently relocated to New York City. After 10 years of pursuing a pop music career (see YouTube), she decided to venture into performance art, doing a series of one-day-only art installations in the streets of London, Paris, Berlin, here and Los Angeles, as a way “to bring poetry into the urban environment and break routines with a little magic,” as she put it. Unlike the others, “The World Letter “is a continuing project,” she explained. It began in Berlin two months ago, continued in Paris and has landed in New York. The idea, she said, was to create “the longest love letter ever” to the world, from the people who live there. By inviting folks to add their thoughts and wishes to an ever-expanding scroll, she hopes “to unite people, especially in a time when we are often so

divided.” For two days last week in Washington Square Park, passersby of all ages stopped to add their missives in a variety of languages to the letter. Cocovan spoke to everyone who approached her about the project. “People love the opportunity to express and reflect their love for the world,” she said, “especially in a time when we are so often reminded that the world is falling apart.”

To date, the letter is more than 90 feet long and, by her count, consists of roughly 1,175 love letters from people of 59 different nations. The letter will be complete when at least one person from every country has contributed. Cocovan hopes someday to have the finished project displayed in a museum and, if possible, sent digitally into space, with the help of NASA. Contemplating the meaning of it all, she added, “It’s true that that the world is not in a super shape, but it’s also still home for a lot of love.” For more information, visit www.theworldletter.com . She can also be followed on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @iamcocovan .

Bob Krasner

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PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER

Cocovan with her ever-expanding “Love Letter to the World” in Washington Square Park.

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Write a letter to the editor news@thevillager.com TheVillager.com

COPYRIGHT TERREFORM

A rendering of the Terreform plan for Pier 40 that would blend in elements of Barr y Diller’s and the Hudson River Park Trust’s Pier55 proposal would include a massive outdoor amphitheater on the existing W. Houston St. pier’s southern side. Architect Michael Sorkin said this stage could actually be movable and could be floated around for events in other locations around the cit y.

A rendering of an aerial view of the Terreform Pier 40 plan, including a marina on the nor th side, the existing cour t yard playing field and a landscaped rooftop, complete with a Louise Bourgeois spider sculpture at the roof’s southwest corner.

Pier-to-pier share — put Pr. 55 on 40: Architect PIER continued from p. 1

ing “doughnut”-shaped three-story pier shed and massive artificial-turf courtyard playing field, while adding in elements of Diller’s Pier55 plan, such as a huge outdoor amphitheater and a “lushly landscaped roof” and possible rooftop sculpture garden, plus other elements not in Diller’s scheme, such as a giantsized public swimming pool.

“The premise is that not just some of things but all of the things from the Pier55 plan could migrate to Pier 40,” Sorkin said.

The Hudson River Park Trust — the park’s governing state-city authority — is already getting $100 million from the St. John’s Partners developers for their purchase of 200,000 square feet of the pier’s development rights. Sorkin said the $250 million Diller in funding that Diller has committed, if shifted to Pier 40, would ensure that not only the sprawling pier’s corroded support piles are all repaired, but that the pier won’t need additional new commercial activity to help fund the rest of the 5-mile-long park — and could probably even shed its long-standing parking operation.

“The predicate here is that parking on the water is a completely inappropriate use for a site as valuable and charismatic at Pier 40,” the architect declared.

Even without a massive commercial redevelopment plan, the pier could still have some revenue potential, Sorkin assured.

“There could be some revenue from the shows,” he said. “We proposed a small hotel — a 100-room boutique hotel — restaurants and a marina.

“I think there has been so much presTheVillager.com

sure on Pier 40,” he said, “that people have thought about the highest revenuegenerating use rather than the highest public use.”

Sorkin said his plan includes community-facility spaces that could be programmed for whatever locals want — and he said it’s clear that the neighborhood wants even more youth sports uses on the pier.

“Kids’ recreation — slam dunk,” he said.

“I would like to see a small school there of some sort,” he added. “Keep the soccer fields, boating — plus art stuff from Pier55. A fish restaurant over the water — why don’t we have any of those in Manhattan?”

It’s not the first time Terreform has taken a crack at a design for the unsolvable “Rubik’s Cube” of a pier.

“This is the fourth Pier 40 project we’ve done in the 25 years,” he said.

But there’s one big “if” here — would Diller even want to shift his funds from a dazzling “Diller Island” to Pier 40, where he would have to share the pier with tykes playing T-ball and soccer?

“I have sufficient faith in Barry Diller’s civic-mindedness that this would appeal to him,” Sorkin assured, adding, “We look forward to the handshake between Barry Diller, Douglas Durst, Bill de Blasio and Andrew Cuomo that seals this win-win deal!”

The Trust and plaintiffs from The City Club of New York are currently in negotiations about Pier55. The plaintiffs — whose lawsuits were funded by Durst — scored a major victory a few months ago when a federal judge threw out the Corps of Engineers’ permit for the project, ruling it was not “water-dependent”

— meaning Pier55 doesn’t need to be sited on a brand-new pier. A spokesperson said the Trust is not commenting on Sorkin’s plan. Tobi Bergman, chairperson of the Community Board 2 Future

of Pier 40 Working Group, said, “If the sponsors want to do it at Pier 40 and if the Trust can live with reduced income, then it sounds great. But those are two big ‘ifs.’”

DISTRICT 1 CITY COUNCIL DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

DEBATE THURS., AUG. 31, 7 P.M. TO 9 P.M. JUDSON MEMORIAL CHURCH 55 Washington Square South (main entrance)

243 Thompson St. (wheelchair-accessible entrance)

s Margaret Chin s Aaron Foldenauer s Dashia Imperiale s Christopher Marte

COME SEE THE CANDIDATES SPEAK ON THE ISSUES! Audience members Q&A with the candidates

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC SPONSORED BY

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Lincoln Anderson Editor of The Villager August 24, 2017

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August 24, 2017

Protesters demanded that the Depar tment of City Planning “follow the law” and allow for a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure that would enable communit y members to review the applications for three super tower development projects in the Two Bridges neighborhood.

‘You better do a ULURP for Two Bridges’ TOWERS continued from p. 1

residents aired concerns regarding three developments consisting of four luxury apartment buildings in the Two Bridges waterfront community — the area along the East River near the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges where the Lower East Side meets Chinatown.

JDS Development Group plans to build a 77-story skyscraper while Starrett Development has proposed a 62-story residential building. Two Bridges Associates plans two towers on a shared base, the tallest of which will be 68 stories. The megatowers, all within a three-block radius, will neighbor Extell’s new 80-story condo building, which is close to “topping out,” as in being completed to its maximum height.

Last year, Carl Weisbrod, the city’s former “Planning Czar,” said that under the current zoning law, these large-scale developments are considered “minor modifications” that can go through an “enhanced E.I.S.” (environmental impact statement) process that does not require applications for new permits or authorizations to build.

Advocates argue the city’s Zoning Resolution does not allow for any modification of previously granted authorizations and special permits in the Two Bridges Large Scale Residential Development area. They say the only pathway to approval of changes is through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, a seven-month-long approval process that requires review from the local community board, borough board, City Council and mayor.

Two weeks ago, the Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project sent a letter to current City Planning Director Marisa Lago on behalf of community organizations. The letter asked Lago to change Weisbrod’s directive and allow for a transparent ULURP. Paula Segal, senior staff attorney at the Urban Justice Center, wrote, “We’re here today at the Department of City Planning to ask the department to turn over a new leaf and to invite the community into a process that

is laid out, understandable and that we can all follow, and not a process designed behind closed doors to facilitate as much construction as quickly as possible.”

The letter was sent a day after the city rejected a request from a group of local politicians, including Councilmember Margaret Chin, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Congressmember Nydia Velazquez, to change the developments’ status to “major modifications,” which would require that they then go through ULURP. However, a Planning spokesperson said, “The City must follow the law. While the modifications sought for the Two Bridges sites do not trigger ULURP — in other words, no new density or waivers are needed — a thorough environmental review which offers multiple opportunities for the public and elected officials to participate is being conducted.”

Advocates said they plan to call next upon the City Planning Commission if the Department of City Planning continues to reject the idea of ULURP for the jumbo towers.

Residents and activists worry the new developments will cause detrimental impacts on the area’s fabric and power grid.

The proposed construction would create more than 3,000 luxury units in the currently low- and middle-income community. Residents believe the neighborhood’s infrastructure cannot support the new developments and that the influx of new residents will affect the quality of life of current community members. People also fear that the wealthier new residents will drive away those already living in the area.

The area’s largely immigrant community is known for its unique character and is one of the only New York City neighborhoods without a Starbucks. Residents fear that, along with affordable housing, they will also lose the distinctiveness of their neighborhood.

“We’ve seen this happen all over New York: Big, expensive apartment towers go up that disproportionally [sic] cater to more affluent and transient residents with little or no consideration for the existing community,”

said Marc Richardson, a member of Tenants United Fighting for Lower East Side (TUFFLES) and vice president of the Land’s End One Tenant Association (LEOTA). “Affordable stores are replaced with high-end shops,” he added, “ultimately resulting in an economically hostile environment for long-standing members of the community. We love our neighborhood and don’t want to see it torn apart by greed.”

Some residents, like Wendy Brawer, a member of the post-Superstorm Sandy recovery group LES Ready, are also concerned that the mammoth new buildings are too close to the river’s edge and will cause problems with floodwaters in the future.

A City Planning spokesperson said agency officials understand current residents’ concerns and has measures in place to address those needs. Starrett Development, Two Bridges Associates and JDS Development Group all plan to dedicate at least 25 percent of their towers’ apartments to permanent affordable housing.

“We are ensuring a coordinated review by the project applicants that looks at the cumulative effects of these three developments at the same time — an extraordinary but important measure that is not ordinarily required,” a Planning spokesperson said. “This coordinated review will help produce the best possible outcome for this neighborhood.”

Despite these measures, activists said they are ready to bring the issue to court if the Department of City Planning and the City Planning Commission do not agree to doing a ULURP for these projects by December.

“The Department of City Planning needs to follow its own rules and procedures and allow our community its rightful say in this project,” said Melanie Wang, Chinatown Tenants Union organizer at CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities. “If the proposed luxury towers go up, we have no doubt there will also be increases in tenant harassment and evictions in the surrounding rent-regulated buildings, with a huge impact on local residents.

Those residents deserve to be heard.”

TheVillager.com

ADVERTORIAL

TOP DRIVER DISTRACTIONS Using mobile phones Leading the list of the top distractions behind the wheel are mobile phones.

Phones now do more than just place calls, and drivers often cannot pull away from their phones, even when driving. According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, studies have shown that driving performance is lowered and the level of distraction is higher for drivers who are heavily engaged in cell

TheVillager.com

phone conversations. The use of a hands-free device does not lower distraction levels. The percentage of vehicle crashes and nearcrashes attributed to dialing is nearly identical to the number associated with talking or listening.

Daydreaming Many people will admit to daydreaming behind the wheel or looking at a person or object outside of the car for too long. Per-

haps they’re checking out a house in a new neighborhood or thought they saw someone they knew on the street corner. It can be easy to veer into the direction your eyes are focused, causing an accident. In addition to trying to stay focused on the road, some drivers prefer the help of lane departure warning systems.

Eating Those who haven’t quite mastered walking and

chewing gum at the same time may want to avoid eating while driving. The majority of foods require a person’s hands to be taken off of the wheel and their eyes to be diverted from the road. Reaching in the back seat to share some French fries with the kids is also distracting.

Try to eat meals before getting in the car. For those who must snack while en route, take a moment to pull over at

a rest area and spend 10 minutes snacking there before resuming the trip.

Reading Glancing at an advertisement, updating a Facebook status or reading a book are all activities that should be avoided when driving. Even pouring over a traffic map or consulting the digital display of a GPS system can be distracting.

August 24, 2017

5

Eclipse fun in the almost-totally blocked sun

PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY

M

onday’s total solar eclipse brought everyone streaming outside onto the streets and into the parks — including Washington Square Park — to get a glimpse of the rare phenomenon.

Many used DIY viewers made from cereal boxes or other cardboard boxes, in which the sunlight passed through a pinhole from behind the person holding the box, who then saw a small white crescent of light inside the box, indicating how the moon was blocking most of the sun. (In New York City, unlike elsewhere in the country, the eclipse wasn’t technically total, but nearly so.) When the sun filtered through

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August 24, 2017

trees’ leaves, the patches of sunlight on the ground were, likewise, crescent-shaped. Others used special, extra-dark solar-eclipse sunglasses — which also had to be used when viewing the eclipse through cellphone cameras to take photos of the event. Through the glasses, the sun appeared as a vivid, dark orange crescent while the moon blocking it was totally black.

The whole thing lasted only a few hours, with the high point for the sun’s shading at 2:44 p.m. Despite warnings that it would become like night during the day, it never actually got very dark outside in New York City.

TheVillager.com

BACK TO SCHOOL Mobile phones in the classroom

S

ince more than 90 percent of today’s teenagers own a phone, schools are forced to find ways to include cell phones in the classroom without having them overshadow lessons or distract students.

A 2013 University of Nebraska-Lincoln study of 777 students at six American universities found the average respondent used a digital device for nonclass purposes 10.93 times during a typical school day. Students’ activities included texting, social networking and e-mailing. Many respondents cited boredom and staying connected to the outside world as factors.

Until recently, many schools implemented strict policies regarding phones in school. Some forbade students from carrying them on campus or mandated that students leave them in lockers. Many schools are now realizing the ways students can harness the technology of cell phones in creative and innovative methods. Plus, as smartphone capabilities continue to evolve, educators are increasingly recognizing the potential of educa-

tional apps and how they can be used in the classroom.

Using mobile phones in the classroom for educational purposes also may cut down on how much the phones are used for nonschool purposes, such as texting or checking social media. According to data published in the journal Computers & Education, 80 percent of students admit mobile phones can hinder their ability to pay attention in school.

A number of apps and Web sites are educational and encourage class participation. Some report students’ progress to teachers in real time.

The image of teachers standing in the front of the classroom lecturing is becoming more and more obsolete.

It’s easier to guide students to stay on task while on cell phones — and to decrease negative activity — when their phones are out in the open and the teacher roams the classroom to keep an eye on phone activity.

All schools can’t supply laptops.

When students bring phones or tablets, teachers can maximize resources.

How a child learns to learn will impact his or her life forever.

City and Country School Keeping the progress in progressive education. Two-Year-Olds - 8th Grade

Open House: Thursday, November 16th, 6:00 - 8:00pm 146 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011 Tel: 212.242.7802

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August 24, 2017

7

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ‘Tech hub’ in context

Subscribe to The Villager

Your Community News Source

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

To The Editor: Re “ ‘Tech hub’ O.K. may take a zoning change” (news article, Aug. 10): As the founder and C.E.O. of Civic Hall, the anchor tenant of the E. 14th St. proposed development referred to in the article, I would like to provide a bit more context to fully inform your readers.

Central to the development and not mentioned in the article is the inclusion of a 40,000-square-foot digital-jobs training center, which will provide technology job and skills training for New York City students, teachers, immigrants and people with physical and legal barriers.

Technology is no longer a discrete job sector or industry. Technology is the underpinning of everything society now does. The mission of Civic Hall is to make sure tech skills are accessible to everyone — particularly the underserved — and that technology be harnessed for the public good.

Civic Hall has been serving New York for a number of years. We have made resources available to provide better services to veterans, to make sure people in public housing have heat, to make information about government benefits accessible online, and to make government more transparent and accountable. And that’s just naming a few.

It would be a shame if, in the constant battle over New York real estate, New Yorkers would lose even more access to these resources and an opportunity to participate in the 21st-century economy.

Civic Hall is more than just a place. It’s a community of people working together for the public good.

I invite everyone of goodwill to join us in making sure technology serves everyone equitably and, most of all, the public good.

Andrew Rasiej Rasiej is founder and C.E.O., Civic Hall, and cofounder and president, Civic Hall Labs

Amazon brats!

We cover “The Cube”!

To The Editor: Re “Amazon contract delivery trucks eat up parking, sidewalks, hurt shops” (news article, Aug. 17): The lazy-ass spoiled brats who’ve ruined my neigh-

borhood and live in my building have never been to a store. To hell with your stupid boxes and e-commerce! Stay out of my way — on the sidewalk and in general.

Dottie Wilson

A wave of comments To The Editor: Re “Sharing the shore uneasily with Trump voters” (talking point, by Kate Walter, Aug. 10): Wow! I have been writing for The Villager for years and never got so many comments. Must have struck a nerve. I most defi nitely will be back to the shore this summer and every summer for the rest of my life.

Kate Walter

Pagan was our Trump To The Editor: Re “Sharing the shore uneasily with Trump voters” (talking point, by Kate Walter, Aug. 10): Hey, Kate, didn’t you support Antonio Pagan for City Council? He was the Trump of the East Village.

You’re not as liberal as you want Villager readers to believe. Kate, please post a photo of yourself protesting in front of the Jersey Shore Trump supporters’ houses. We all know you would never actually do it. And Kate, the Lower East Side squatters got 11 buildings and have an archive at New York University and the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, a museum for squatters.

We won. You lost.

John Penley E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-2292790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 MetroTech North, 10th floor, 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.

IRA BLUTREICH

The city will hire attorneys to represent tenants the city is evicting. Huh? 8

August 24, 2017

TheVillager.com

A tale of two statues: Confucius and Lin Zexu

GLOBAL VILLAGE

BY BILL WEINBERG

C

onfucius is talking now.

The statue of the ancient sage stands at Chinatown’s Confucius Plaza — where Division St. meets Bowery — just outside the housing complex of the same name, built in the 1970s for the neighborhood’s booming population.

Now there’s a sign standing beside him with a scannable code that brings his voice to life on your smart phone — or an impersonation of it across the centuries.

This is part of the Talking Statues project, now in New York after setting up at such landmarks in several European cities. Thirty-five statues in all five boroughs are thusly brought to life — including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Mohandas Gandhi in Union Square.

Confucius urges his modern techsavvy listeners to “study the past if you would divine the future,” and espouses his ethics of perseverance, filial piety and self-cultivation.

Geoff Lee, the actor who voiced the English version of the text, is a Chinatown native whose grandfather came from southern China’s Guangdong province.

“I had a lot of friends who live in that complex,” he said of Confucius Plaza.

“The statue was a monument and symbol for the community.”

He sees Confucian values as a strong current in the community even today.

“Kids stay with their parents more in Chinatown, that tradition still exists,” he said. “But it’s stronger with those born in Asia. It’s eroding with the second generation.”

Jean Kwok, best-selling author of the semi-autobiographical “Girl in Translation,” about growing up working in a Chinatown clothing factory, wrote the brief text that the cybernetic Confucius speaks.

Asked about what the project meant to her, Kwok recalled her father taking her to work every morning in her childhood.

“As we passed the statue of Confucius, I would look up at his kind, thoughtful face and wonder what he was thinking,” she said. “If he could speak, what would he say to me? What would he think of the dust-filled cavernous factory?”

The Mandarin version of Kwok’s text is voiced by Zilong Zee, a Beijing native now working in New York as an actor.

The statue was a 1976 bicentennial gift from Taiwan’s Republic of China TheVillager.com

PHOTO BY BILL WEINBERG

Geoff Lee in front of the Confucius statue, listening to the audio from the Talking Statues project.

government to the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, then the central pillar of the Chinatown community.

Tom Law is a Chinatown businessman whose Hong Kong-born father, Stephen Law, was a prime mover behind the Confucius Plaza project. The elder Law for a time published his Chinese Journal from a storefront where the complex now stands. He later became vice president of Chinatown Apartments Inc., the entity that built the complex under the Mitchell-Lama program.

“After all the effort to build the housing, we wanted to make sure Confucius was recognized,” the younger Law said.

“He symbolizes what we aspire to as a culture.”

The Confucius statue is one of two monuments along this stretch of Bowery. The other is just a short block to the south — namely, Lin Zexu, the drug czar of imperial China who, in 1839, sparked the Opium War by seizing British opium imports and dumping them into Guangzhou Harbor. The pedestal’s inscription reads: “Pioneer in the War Against Drugs.” But for the Chinese he is also an anti-imperialist icon.

Lin Zexu stands in Chatham Square, where East Broadway meets Bowery — also dubbed Kimlau Square in honor of Benjamin Ralph Kimlau, a U.S. pilot of Chinese descent who lost his life in the World War II Pacific campaign.

This statue was erected in 1997 as a symbol for the new generation of immigrants then coming into Chinatown — overwhelmingly from Fujian province. This community settled along East Broadway, and sought to assert its independence from the old Cantonese establishment across Bowery.

Significantly, although the act that won Lin Zexu fame was carried out in Guangdong (Canton) province, he was born in Fujian.

Robert Lee of the Asian American Arts Centre, himself a Confucius Plaza resident, says that this also represented a Cold War political divide.

“Back then, Confucius was associated with Chiang Kai-shek and the old days, and was officially discouraged in China,” he told me as we walked along Bowery between the statues.

When we arrived at the Lin Zexu statue, he pointed up East Broadway.

“You can see his gaze looks this way,” he said. “It was funded and built by Fujianese who came to Chinatown in the ’80s and occupied East Broadway.

It was different from the old Chinatown on Mott St., who identified with Chiang Kai-shek. The Fujianese loyalty was clearly to Mao.” Lee said the tension between the two communities in that period was sometimes punctuated by violence.

Largely, this has faded into history.

Post-Mao China has rehabilitated Confucius as a symbol of national pride.

“Now China is using Confucius for

propaganda — the same Confucius they tried to forget,” Lee said.

Even now, however, the People’s Republic of China flag is seen more east of Bowery, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) flag more to the west.

A plaque in a flowerbed across from Lin Zexu statue’s names the merchants and associations that funded the monument’s creation — in Chinese characters. This plaque was placed by community leaders, apparently without participation of the city’s Parks Department. It has recently been marred by graffiti.

But Lee said he recalls that another plaque, in English, providing historical background on Lin Zexu, was installed by the Parks Department along with the statue — but removed after just a couple of years.

“I want to know where that plaque is today,” he told me.

The Parks Department declined to be quoted for this column.

Later, I walked through Chatham Square with Wellington Chen, leader of the Chinatown Partnership, which was founded to encourage the neighborhood’s post-9/11 recovery, and is now associated with a Chinatown Business Improvement District.

Chen joked about the square’s dueling identities.

“If they call it Kimlau Square, it’s the loyalists to Taiwan and the traditional Chinatown leadership,” he said. “If they call it Lin Zexu Square, they’re the Fujianese. And if they call it Chatham Square, it’s the Parks Department.”

More seriously, he pointed to rat holes in the square’s flower and shrubbery beds, garbage cans overflowing with litter and bird droppings on the square’s war-memorial arch.

“That’s because we’re not maintaining it,” he said wryly, meaning his organization. The Partnership does tidy up the square in an annual Earth Day beautification drive, but doesn’t want to overstep Parks.

“We respect their jurisdiction,” he said. But he quickly added: “This is no way to honor the war dead or Lin Zexu.”

Chen noted that the Partnership and BID span both sides of Bowery, uniting old and new Chinatown: “In the long run, we’re all in this together,” he said.

“We have to unite to save this area.”

He pointed to the security barricade that since the 9/11 aftermath has blocked off Park Row, once a major artery into the neighborhood.

“It’s like the Berlin Wall,” he said.

Robert Lee made a similar point.

“Too may people see Chinatown only as a place where you go to eat, as if we aren’t really quite New Yorkers,” he said. “The isolation we live under in New York City is something we are still fighting.”

August 24, 2017

9

POLICE BLOTTER tective McGee told him before the cops grabbed him. “He wouldn’t say anything to me besides, ‘I want to jump, I want to jump,’ over and over again. I kept asking, ‘What’s the problem? This isn’t really a solution.’ ” Making the rescue more perilous, the ledge was beveled and slippery, the police said.

The 29-year-old man was transported to Bellevue Hospital by E.M.S. in stable condition for evaluation.

Pushed onto tracks A woman was shoved from behind onto the tracks of the Second Ave. F train on Tues., Aug. 22, around 10:49 p.m., police said.

Police responded to a call of an assault in progress at the station. Upon arrival, they found the unconscious 49-year-old woman on the northbound platform with lacerations to the head.

E.M.S. medics also responded to the scene and her to Bellevue Hospital in serious but stable condition.

A preliminary investigation determined that the victim was standing on the platform when a man approached her from behind and, unprovoked, said, “I’m going to push you,” and shoved her onto the track area. He then fled in an unknown direction.

Good samaritans on the platform pulled the victim back up from the track area. There wasn’t a train in the station nor was one approaching at the time of the incident.

The suspect is described as an adult male black, with a slim build and dark complexion, last seen wearing a black shirt and dark baggy pants.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Police Department’s Crime Stoppers Hotline, at 800-577-TIPS, or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

Tips can also be submitted by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Web site, www.nypdcrimestoppers.com, or by texting them to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577. All tips are confidential.

Peeping perp According to police, on Wed., Aug. 16, at 10:50 p.m., a man was seen pointing a camera at an apartment across the street at 60 E. Ninth St. where a 30-year-old woman was undressing.

Eddie Wong, 38, was arrested Thurs., Aug. 17, for felony unlawful surveillance.

Inside job

IMAGES COURTESY N.Y.P.D.

A sur veillance-camera image of alleged suspect who mugged a driver at gunpoint point while the driver was stalled in traffic on E. 13th St.

Mugged in car Getting stuck in traffic around Union Square is a pain, but getting robbed at gunpoint in your car can really ruin a guy’s day!

Police said that on Fri., July, 21, at 12:24 p.m., a 35-year-old driver was in his car in traffic on E. 13th St. between Broadway and Fourth Ave., when a man entered the vehicle through a rear door and demanded money, threatening to shoot the victim if he didn’t comply.

The victim complied and the robber fled eastbound on E. 13th St. with an undetermined amount of cash. There were no injuries during the incident.

The suspect is a dark-complexioned black man, 30 to 35 years old, last seen wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, black-and-blue baseball cap and dark sunglasses. Police released a photo of him. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Police Department’s Crime Stoppers Hotline.

Bridge rescue Police saved a man who was threatening to plunge off the Manhattan side

10

August 24, 2017

Bill’s Bar & Burger, at 22 Ninth Ave., was robbed Sun., Aug. 13, at 11:30 p.m., police said. The suspect entered the place’s basement management office and removed $8,504 from a safe.

There were no signs of forced entry to the office, and the video camera inside the office was not working. The night manager had also set an alarm at closing time and no alarms went off overnight.

Upon further investigation, it was found that an employee who has permission and authority to be at the location, took the money from the safe. On Mon., Aug. 14, Ferdinand Ortiz, 37, was charged with felony grand larceny.

Bleecker spree

An image shot from a police Aviation Unit helicopter of E.S.U. officers taking a man into custody on a ledge of the Manhattan Bridge after he had called 911 saying he was hesitant to jump.

of the Manhattan Bridge on Thurs., Aug. 17, around 7:20 a.m. Officers from the New York Police Department’s Emergency Service Unit and Aviation Unit responded to a 911 call of a male threatening to jump from a ledge on the bridge’s lower level. Two members of the Aviation Unit in a helicopter — Officers Danny Edling and Royston Charles — flew over to the bridge and located the man and informed the E.S.U. team.

Four E.S.U. officers — Detectives

Joseph Conway, Robert McGee, Ryan Norman and Michael Cook — then went out on the ledge. As two officers on one side of him distracted the man by engaging him in conversation, the pair of officers from the other side were able to quickly grab him and take him into custody unharmed.

CBS News reported that the man had actually called 911, saying he was hesitant to jump.

“I kept telling him, ‘Talk to me what’s your name?’” CBS News reported De-

A man entered a store at 337 Bleecker St. on Sat., Aug. 19, at 3:15 p.m., and attempted to swipe merchandise, police said. After he placed the goods in a bag, he was confronted by a 19-yearold store employee who told him to put the merchandise back. The man threatened her saying, “If you call 911, I will bust you over the head.”

Sekou Salaam, 51,was arrested for felony attempted robbery.

In addition, responding police found him to be in possession of $2,055 worth of clothing from a nearby store at 350 Bleecker St. An employee there subsequently confirmed the clothing did belong to the store.

Sekou Salaam, 51, was arrested for felony grand larceny.

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At Monday Night Jam, a firm ‘Foundation’ for jazz Hell’s Kitchen club room cooks with top chops, camaraderie

BY NICOLE JAVORSKY Billy Kaye climbed the stairs, made his way to center stage, and stood at the mic. “We are waiting,” he said, pausing to great effect, “for the host.”

An audience member quipped, “You’re the host!” Without skipping a beat, some others took up the refrain.

The chant, though a joke, expressed the audience’s reverence for the jazz musician.

“You’re the host! You’re the host!”

This friendly exchange was just one example of the good humor — and good timing — on display every week, when the The Jazz Foundation of America (JFA) hosts a Monday Night Jam in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen, at the Local 802 Musicians’ Union. Kaye has been a part of the Jazz Foundation since its beginnings. He joined the union at 18. Back when the clubroom where the jazz jam is held was a studio, Kaye’s music was recorded there.

“I’ve been a member, host, honoree, the whole thing,” he said. “This room is my history.”

But this steamy July Monday was a special occasion. The clubroom was packed for the 92nd birthday of another beloved jazz figure — pianist Zeke Mullins. Mullins’ smile was visible under the rim of his baseball cap. He sat at a table near the front of the room, surrounded by family members.

Over 120 people fi lled the space, now adorned with black and gold balloons. Often during the night, faces gleamed in sudden recognition of someone else in the room. As two attendees shook hands and embraced, laughter spilled from their lips.

Gabriel Romance, longtime jazz vocalist and flutist, emphasized, “It’s the camaraderie and friendship of musicians coming here. That’s what it’s all about.”

Last year, after Romance sang at the jam, one member of the audience approached the stage. That week was the anniversary of the attendee’s father passing away. “The Shadow of Her Smile,” the song Romance performed, was a touchstone in her relationship with her dad. As waves of nostalgia crashed on her face, she TheVillager.com

Photos by Nicole Javorsky

The house was packed for the 92nd birthday of Zeke Mullins, seen here at the piano.

cried, “To hear Gabriel sing it like that means so much.”

Dashiell Feiler, JFA Manager of Grants and Program Development, organizes the jam. In his office upstairs, Feiler recalled how he used to wear jazz and blues T-shirts every day to school. “It’s a lifelong obsession.”

He shuffled through some drawers until he found a cartoon. Jean Cabut, who died in the 2015 attack on the office of satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, drew it at one of JFA’s Monday night jams. After a moment of squinting at the caricatures, Felier pointed to the jazz musicians in the illustration, naming each one.

At Mullins’ birthday celebration, singer, songwriter and musician Whitney Marchelle Jackson gave Mullins her CD (“Me, Marsalis & Monk”), on which Wycliffe Gordon and Clark Terry also appear. Beyond serving as a place for established jazz musicians to come together, Romance Gabriel Romance captivates the audience at the JFA Monday Night Jam in August 2016.

JAM continued on p. 17 August 24, 2017

15

Just Do Art

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

“THE PLANTATION” — AN IMMERSIVE ADAPTATION OF “THE CHERRY ORCHARD” First presented in 2015 — when pivotal anniversary dates in Civil War and Civil Rights history coincided — Brave New World Repertory Theatre’s postemancipation, southern plantation adaptation of “The Cherry Orchard” calls Charlottesville to mind as it immerses the audience in circa-1870 dynamics of race, class, power shifts, and steadfast denials. Replacing Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s recently freed serfs and fi nancially strapped aristocrats with emancipated Confederate slaves and bankrupted Southern gentry, director and Repertory Theatre co-founder Claire Beckman sets her adaptation in Virginia, and sets out to explore “the root causes of America’s most pressing social issue.” In doing so, “The Plantation,” says Beckman, “is our effort to return to the genesis of the conversation; the neglected and misunderstood period known as Reconstruction.”

Having gained acclaim for its sitespecific, up-close approach (“To Kill a Mockingbird” unfolded on the front porches of tree-lined Flatbush; “The Tempest” sprawled across Coney Island’s beach and boardwalk), “The Plantation” will be a 17-person, fully formed production taking place in the Commanding Officers House on Governors Island. That 1843-built landmarked mansion gives plenty of period cred to this culmination of two summers’ worth of development; first, as a standing-room-only staged reading, then, last year, as a limited run. Even then, before Charlottesville cast its shadow, actor Blair Underwood hailed it as “a poignant, powerful, riveting and relevant production that resonates profoundly in these current times.”

Ten performances, all at 1:30pm, from Aug. 31 through Sept. 24 in the Nolan Park section of Governors Island, at The Commanding Officers House.

Free tickets are available for each performance, with a limited number of guaranteed seats for $25; free ferries depart from Manhattan and Brooklyn before 11:30am. For ferry info, visit govisland.com/info/ferry. For tickets, visit bravenewworldrep.org.

THE DREAM UP FESTIVAL While Theater for the New City’s fun,

16

August 24, 2017

Photo by Doug Barron

Brave New World Repertory Theatre sets Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” on a post-emancipation plantation, circa 1870.

Photo by Kat Yen

“I.M. LOST!” — at the Dream Up Festival Aug. 27–Sept. 3 — gets serious about clowning.

free, potently political street theater production (“Checks and Balances, or Bottom’s Up!”) makes its rowdy way across the five boroughs through Sept.

17, all is far from quiet at their East Village home base. Another annual happening — the Dream Up Festival — is set to unleash its quirky roster of fulllength plays, musicals, and solo shows hailing from here and abroad.

Among the offerings: Nathalie EllisEinhorn’s “I.M. LOST!” has added poignancy this year, with the curtain having come down on the Ringling Bros. circus.

Based on interviews with clowns working everywhere from hospitals to theaters, the show looks at why people stay in the art “despite inevitable failure.” Likewise, “Buskers: The Musical” explores destiny and determination through the lens of NYC subway performers. In “Finishing the Suit,” a tailor looks back, having lost his lover Jimmy and his most famous client — the Duke of Windsor. Set in a Los Angeles art school, “Dimensions” merges theater and dance with spoken word to tell the stories of young minority students exploring their sexual identity

— and Craig Silver’s “God in a Box” has the conflicted solo performer mulling over options, when he finds the deity trapped in a container and placed in front of him.

Aug. 27 through Sept. 17 at Theater for the New City (TNC; 155 First Ave., btw. E. Ninth & 10th Sts.). Admission price ($12-$20) varies depending on the show. For show, schedule and ticket info, visit dreamupfestival.org. Order tickets by phone at 212-868-4444. For all other things TNC, visit theaterforthenewcity.net or call 212-254-1109.

TheVillager.com

Buhmann on Art Carol Rama at the New Museum

BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN This is the first New York museum survey featuring the fascinating Italian artist Carol Rama (1918-2015) and the largest presentation of her work in the US to date.

Though her oeuvre has been largely overlooked in contemporary art discourses, she has still managed to achieve a cult status of sorts. Recently, she has attracted renewed attention from artists and scholars, especially after a stunning retrospective exhibition was held at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin (2016/2017). “Carol Rama: Antibodies� brings together over 150 of Rama’s paintings, objects, and works on paper, embracing primarily examples of her figurative work (she also worked in abstraction). With an at times Surrealist twist, Rama created fantastical anatomies that reflected ideas of desire, sacrifice, repression, and liberation.

In its enchanting eccentricity, these works recall another Italian artist (and Fellini actor), Ele D’Artagnan (1911-1987), whose figures were equally liberated, erotic, ambiguous, and rendered in brilliant colors. Self-taught, neither Rama nor D’Artagnan had thankfully

Photo by Pino dell’Aquila Š Archivio Carol Rama, Turin

Carol Rama: “Annunciazione [Annunciation]� (1985. Mixed mediums on framed canvas. 12 5/8 x 18 7/8 in.).

ever been schooled into conformity.

Looking at Rama’s images, one cannot help but be in awe of her talent and courage to

JAM continued from p. 15

called the Monday night gathering “a good fraternity� to support local musicians — old, new, and in-between.

For each jam, a different combination of musicians plays in the band, accompanying the vocalists and players who sign up to perform. Anyone who didn’t know otherwise, however, would think they were part of a regular band. The bandleaders lend their support to the “newbies,� as Feiler put it.

JFA’s work to support jazz and blues musicians encompasses much more than the weekly jam though. Feiler explained how scarcity of work, low payment, and unreliable work add up to difficult fi nancial circumstances for many jazz players.

TheVillager.com

embrace such a radical subject as desiring women with wagging tongues in a rather conservative time.

On view through Sept. 10

“I like to think that it’s because they’re innovators, and that’s not economically optimal,� Feiler said.

Improving the welfare of jazz musicians is important not only for the craft, but also for the individuals themselves. JFA offers direct assistance to musicians, including housing and medical help. They even have a licensed social worker on staff and host free concerts at schools, museums, and nursing homes.

The jams alone are an avenue to engage the community in jazz music.

Attendees come from all over the New York City boroughs to perform and listen to others. One of Feiler’s favorite moments from the jams is when the musicians are on stage playing and the people in the audience sing along. “That happens fairly often here.�

Weekly except on major holidays,

at the New Museum (235 Bowery btw.

Stanton & Rivington Sts.). Museum hours: Tues.–Sun., 11am–6pm, Thurs, 11am–9pm. Admission:

the Jazz Foundation of America hosts its Monday Night Jam from 7pm to 9:30pm at the Local 802 Musicians’ Union (322 W. 48th St., btw. Eighth & Ninth Aves.; first floor Club Room).

$18 ($15 seniors, $12 students, free for ages 18 and under, pay as you wish every Thurs. from 7–9pm). Call 212-219-1222 or visit newmuseum.org.

Free and open to the public. Musicians wishing to perform are encouraged to arrive early to sign up. Visit jazzfoundation.org/what-we-do/mondaynight-jam-series.

Theater f

Avenue a R rva f For more info ! " # w.theaterforthenewcity.net

TNC’s Dream Up Festival

Checks and Balances

12 World Premieres 4 American Premieres 2 New York City Permiers

August 5th - September 17th

Aug 27 - Sept 17 23 shows

Dreamupfestival.org

or Bottoms Up!

Written and Directed by: Crystal Field Music Composed by: Joseph Vernon Banks

All performance are Free!

8/26 Travers Park - Queens - at 34th Ave. 8/27 Sunset Park - Brooklyn - at 44th St. August 24, 2017

17

!

@ # "

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August 24, 2017

TheVillager.com

PHOTO BY JONATHAN SLAFF.

Jerr y Tallmer, who died at age 93 in November 2015, was one of the Village Voice’s founding editors and later went on to be a mainstay for The Villager.

Voice will end its print edition VOICE continued from p. 1

For more news and events happening now visit TheVillager.com TheVillager.com

about the Voice wasn’t that it was printed on newsprint or that it came out every week,” Barbey said. “It was that The Village Voice was alive, and that it changed in step with and reflected the times and the ever-evolving world around it. I want The Village Voice brand to represent that for a new generation of people — and for generations to come.”

One of the country’s first alternative weeklies, the Voice in its heyday was a bible of the counterculture, known for its muckraking columnists, like Nat Hentoff and Wayne Barrett.

In its early years, the Voice also had an impact on The Villager, which was founded in 1933, forcing it to catch up with the times and become more political. Up until then, The Villager had been more focused on the social doings at the Village’s Fifth Ave. hotels, flowerbox competitions, sing-alongs in Washington Square Park and the like.

Barbey noted that his family has been in the newspaper business for more than 200 years. He said he first read the Voice as a student in the 1970s and realized its importance then.

“For more than 60 years, the Village Voice brand has played an outsized role in American journalism, politics and culture,” he said.

“It has been a beacon for progress and a literal voice for thousands of

people whose identities, opinions and ideas might otherwise have been unheard.”

His family bought the paper two years ago. The Barbey family is the 48th wealthiest in the country, and owns a stable of lucrative clothing stores, including North Face, Timberland, Vans and Wrangler, the New York Post reported. Nevertheless, Barbey said he wanted to find a way to run the Voice that wasn’t dependent on rich backers.

“I can keep the Voice going,” he told the Wall Street Journal, “but if that’s the only solution, then only the wealthy will support free speech. I don’t want that world. I’m not that kind of wealthy person.”

Although the Voice revived somewhat under Barbey’s ownership, many former readers felt the paper had long ago lost its luster.

“Wow. It’s been dead for years anyway,” a poster, Teleos D. Kaye of Brooklyn, wrote on Facebook. “I can’t even say I care. I mourned its loss years ago.”

In an interview with The Villager on Tuesday afternoon, original Voice publisher Fancher, 93, who lives in Gramercy, lamented the news.

“I’m very sad to see the print edition terminate,” he said, “because I think the paper had made a recovery in later years, and had been improving a great deal. I did read the print edition, but I probably won’t read the online edition. I read a lot of things

online, but mostly little things. I don’t know what it means when it says it will continue online,” he said.

Fancher was publisher of the Voice for 19 years until 1974, when he and Wolf sold their interest to Carter Burden, who then quickly turned around and flipped it, “against our wishes and against our understanding,” to New York magazine, Fancher noted.

“We ran out of money,” he said, as to why the pair sold. “Dan Wolf was tired.”

Fancher recalled the late Jerry Tallmer, the Voice’s do-it-all managing editor and Obies founder, who, in his later years, was a prolific contributor for The Villager.

“Jerry was a workaholic and we could not have launched The Village Voice without him,” he said.

“He knew how to put a newspaper out — we didn’t, really. ... I’m glad that Jerry ended up at The Villager,” he said.

It was Mailer and Fancher who ponied up the money to start the paper.

Wolf didn’t have funds. There were also a couple of outsiders who gave money, including Herbert Lutz.

As for who coined the name The Village Voice, Fancher said he honestly is not sure.

“I don’t know who thought up the name,” he said. “Norman Mailer always said he it was him, but I don’t know. ... Now, if it’s not going to print, it doesn’t matter.”

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August 24, 2017

TheVillager.com

Cops let C’ville alt-right rally run wild: Photog

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

F

ormer East Village activist John Penley used to cover squatter evictions and clashes between anarchists and police in Alphabet City.

Two weekends ago, he was in the middle of the fray in Charlottesville, Virginia, as hardcore alt-right members, neo-Nazis and the Klan clashed with anti-fascists over that city’s planned removal of a statue of Confederate hero General Robert E. Lee. Penley, who now lives back in his native North Carolina, also photographed a Klan rally in Charlottesville for The Villager a month ago. At that time, he assured that last weekend’s “Unite the Right” rally would be far more incendiary and potentially violent.

Obviously, he was right, as on Sat., Aug. 12, an enraged alt-right member gunned his Dodge Challenger into members of the “anti-fa” crowd, injuring many and tragically killing Heather Heyer, 32.

Reached by phone the following Monday, Penley, said he was still recovering from injuries he got in the melee.

“I got run over by a herd of f—ing Nazis,” he said, “and I got a big cut on my knee. And I got teargassed and pepper-sprayed a bit. … I’m still in shock. It was kind of like going into a war zone.”

Penley blames the Charlottesville police for basically letting the situation spiral out of control.

“The cops stood down,” he said.

“Dude, they just let it go. There were street battles for hours.

“They didn’t do anything until it was time for his rally to start,” he said, referring to Jason Kessler, the alt-right rally’s organizer. “Then they shut it down.”

Penley said that the alt-right group went into Emancipation Park — which was recently renamed from Lee Park — which is where the Lee statue is located and where they had been granted a permit for a rally. But then the white supremacists repeatedly forayed out of the park to skirmish with the anti-fa, while police did nothing about it.

It was during one of these charges by the racists that Penley got mowed down.

Basically, police felt things had gotten out of hand, at that point, and called off the event when Kessler was ready to start his rally around noon.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe said there was concern over the heavily armed militia members and others among the alt-righters. In fact, he said, most of the alt-right group was armed, which was behind the decision by police to hang back.

The night before, the racists’ torchlit march on the University of Virginia Campus was a sign of what was to come the next day, Penley said.

TheVillager.com

PHOTOS BY JOHN PENLEY

The alt-righters marched onto the Universit y of Virginia campus on Friday night Aug. 11 with torches — symbolically evoking the Ku Klux Klan.

A face-off bet ween a heavily armed alt-right militia member, left, and an anti-fascist counterprotester on Sat., Aug. 12.

“The alt-right guys assaulted some kids at the college,” he said. “They threw tiki torches at ’em. They peppersprayed ’em. It was 200 against 20.”

Richard Spencer, the prominent altright leader, had led a demonstration on the campus in May, where they had rallied around a statue of Thomas Jefferson.

Student protesters didn’t want a repeat of that on Aug. 11.

“The students didn’t want them on their campus,” Penley said. “They were surrounding the statue. All they did was chant, ‘Black Lives Matter!’”

Both Spencer and Kessler are UVA alumni.

The torches’ symbolism was clear.

“It’s like a Klan thing — a Klan rally,” Penley said. “The Klan used to use torches. They were marching around town. They were denouncing Jews.”

The former East Village activist said that the violence that Friday night by the alt-right faction only encouraged any anti-fa members who might have been itching for a fight to come out all riled up and ready for action the next day.

He said when James Fields rammed his car into the anti-racists the next day it was after police had already shut down Kessler’s rally.

“That happened down by a mall,” he explained. “That was five minutes after we’d been there. We could have gotten hit. The Nazis were trying to go into a low-income black area, but were angry that they had been blocked by counterprotesters who were there. And Fields was angry about what happened at the park.

“They claimed that people had attacked his car. But you can see from the video, there’s no one near his car.

He was just angry. … He just said, ‘F—, I’m gonna kill some people.’”

Penley stressed: “This was not conservatives. It was the most hardcore Nazi groups, Ku Klux Klan, alt-right people in the country.”

President Donald Trump commented on Sun., Aug. 13, that there were some “very fine people” among the alt-right contingent. But Penley — like many horrified Americans and people all around the world — was having none

of it.

“There were no good people among them,” he said, “that’s all I’ve got to say.”

Penley said he told some of the supremacists to their face: “ ‘My grandfather fought the Nazis.’ ... They wouldn’t say anything. They just stared at me like they wanted to kill me.”

Although a young counterprotester was killed, Penley said the alt-right were the ones who ultimately lost over the weekend, and badly — from public opinion to the skirmishes outside of the park.

“They really got beat there,” he said, “physically beat. … Honestly, they exposed what the alt-right is all about,” he added. “Everybody’s saying they’re conservative — they’re outright Nazis.

The public’s opinion has been changed.

And they got their asses kicked. And nobody likes a loser in a fight. I think anti-fa did the country a big favor.

Following the Charlottesville tragedy, North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, last week declared he wants all Confederate monuments across his entire state removed. The news bowled over North Carolina native Penley.

“This is pretty much a declaration of war on the KKK, neo-Nazis, alt-right and Trump supporters in North Carolina,” Penley said. “The first shot has been fired, so to speak, by our governor, and I think this is something I never thought I would see here in my lifetime.

“The times they are a-changin’ and you don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind is blowing,” he said, quoting Dylan. “I hope Jesse Helms hears about this in hell.”

August 24, 2017

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August 24, 2017

TheVillager.com