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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933
February 15, 2018 • $1.00 Volume 88 • Number 7
Reprieve for Ragbir as effort against ICE deports is heating up BY TEQUIL A MINSK Y
T
he tone Saturday morning started a bit lighter than had previously been expected as immigrantrights activists filled Foley Square at the “You Can’t Deport a Movement” rally in support of Ravi Ragbir. Ragbir was to have reported
for deportation at Immigration and Customs Enforcement that morning. But in a very welcome temporary reprieve, the federal government delayed this action while letting the courts decide if his rights have been violated. His lawyers had filed a First Amendment lawsuit in ManRAGBIR continued on p. 8
Chelsea bomber gets life in prison for blast that wracked 23rd St. BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC
A
hmad Khan Rahimi was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison for planting two bombs in Chelsea in 2016, one of which exploded on W. 23rd St., injuring 31 people and damaging buildings and property. Rahimi, 30, was found
guilty this past October of all eight federal counts stemming from that Saturday night bombing, and also for another device that he planted on W. 27th St. that did not detonate due to two men who disturbed the device, along with Chelsea resident Jane Schreibman’s TERRORIST continued on p. 4
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
After it stood under the Washington Square Arch for four months, workers this week disassembled Ai Weiwei’s “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors” public ar twork. Dismissed as “The Birdcage” by some, the sculpture had a rough star t because it displaced the annual holiday tree, and just generally encumbered the view of the stately arch. But the installation — intended to highlight America’s new “lack of openness” — had perhaps its finest moments when immigrant-rights activists paraded through it on their prayer ful Jericho Walks against ICE depor tations.
‘Can’t take it!’ L plan is driving locals loco BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
A
bout 75 members of Village and Chelsea block associations — specifically, ones all located within a few blocks of 14th St. — gathered for a meeting at Lenox Health Greenwich Village last week, all of them with one pressing concern. As one woman from W. 12th St. put it, while addressing the room, “I have an e-mail list of 500 people — and we’re
The lady (and staff) in red .....p. 20
all angry about this.” “This” refers to the plan by the city’s Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Transportation Authority to close 14th St. to traffic during rush hours, and possibly beyond, during the upcoming L train shutdown, slated to start in April 2019 and last for 15 months. Residents complained that their one-way side streets “can’t take it,” as in, they are already overburdened and clogged
with traffic, and that the city’s scheme would be a disaster, ramming still more cars and trucks into their streets. The plan’s other main component — installing a protected two-way crosstown bicycle path on narrow 13th St. — is also causing a lot of concern for local residents. The ad-hoc coalition of block associations currently has no name, though they’re looking for one. They have no LTRAIN continued on p. 6
Man, oh, Manitoba: Says, ‘Bar is still open’........p. 5 What the L? ...‘Show us the data study!’........... p. 11 www.TheVillager.com