0
15465
10500
9
The Th T he P Pa Paper ap pe e r of o f Record Re ecc or o r d for ffo o r Greenwich Gre Gr ee e nw n w iicc h Village, Villag g e,, East Villa Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown 1933 So S o ho h o , Un ho, U n iio on S q uare, C Ch h iin hi n atow ow o w n and an a n d Noho, No N o ho, Since S
June 28, 2018 • $1.00 Volume 88 • Number 25
With help from Patel gaffes, Maloney holds onto East Side seat BY SYDNEY PEREIR A
T
uesday evening’s primaries shook the New York Democratic Party to its core after newcomer candidates surpassed expectations. But even so, East Side congressional candidate Suraj Patel couldn’t quite topple Representative Carolyn Ma-
loney, who had held the 12th District seat for 25 years without much challenge. The city’s primaries were dominated by three young newcomers running against longtime Democratic incumbents in New York’s 9th, 12th and 14th Districts. The biggest upPRIMARY continued on p. 6
Planning gives more time for public input on Two Bridges towers BY SYDNEY PEREIR A
L
ower East Siders won a small victory Monday afternoon in their fight against the march of megatower projects in the Two Bridges area. The Department of City Planning announced the release of an extensive xtensive document
late last week that must undergo public review within a set amount of time. Because community boards meet less often in the summer and many people take vacations, community members feared there would be inadequate public input into the process. But shortly after a TOWERS continue continued on p. 18
PHOTO BY Q. SAKAMAKI
On Tuesday, protesters in Lower Manhattan decried the Supreme Cour t’s upholding of President Trump’s “travel ban” a.k.a. “Muslim ban” against people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as Nor th Korea and Venezuela.
A less-bleak Bleecker? Rents down, hopes up BY GABE HERMAN
B
leecker St.’s stretch through the West Village continues to be plagued by retail vacancies. Some blocks sport as many as seven empty storefronts total and several in a row. Yet local real-estate experts say that commercial rents on the street have actually dropped dramatically — by more than 50 percent, according to some estimates — and that there
Pictures of Pride..............pp. 2 - 3
is reason for optimism for Bleecker’s future. Local merchants and business owners remain skeptical, however, as businesses continue to close and the vacancies lead to less foot traffic for the surviving shops. Marc Jacobs famously had six stores on Bleecker St. as part of the big-brand boom on the boulevard that started in the early 2000s. But in March 2017, Marc Jacobs closed its last fashion shop in the area,
according to fashion news site WWD, and now only a bookstore, Bookmarc, remains at W. 11th St. About a year earlier, other nearby high-end closings on Bleecker St. included Mulberry and Brooks Brothers. And the Michael Kors shop recently closed after opening in 2010 and remodeling in 2016. The street’s two Ralph Lauren shops are also long gone, having pulled up stakes years ago. BLEECKER continued on p. 8
Occupy ICE! Protesters camp out on Varick.......p. 4 Gay-rights ‘Sip-In’ leader Leitsch dies at 83......p. 7 www.TheVillager.com