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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, Vii ll ll a ag g e, e , East E as a s t Village, V i lla Lower East Side, Soho, Union Sq Square, Chinatown 1933 qu ua a re re, C Ch h in hin i n atow ow w n and an a n d Noho, Since S
August 2, 2018 • $1.00 Volume 88 • Number 30
Whoa! Johnson calls for ‘cap’ on hail apps like Uber and a study BY SYDNEY PEREIR A
T
he City Council plans to crack down on the forhire vehicle industry, targeting app-based companies such as Uber and Lyft. The Council is expected to vote on a package of bills next week — with Speaker Corey Johnson’s backing — that
would halt the granting of new for-hire vehicle licenses for one year while the Taxi and Limousine Commission studies udies the impacts of the industry, y, for which licenses have more re than tripled since 2011. “This is the plan that we came up with and in UBER continued on p. 22
Silver gets 7 years in slammer, but it’s likely he will appeal BY MARY REINHOLZ
A
bout an hour before the second sentencing of former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a slew of press people packed the jury box in Room 443 of the U.S. District Courthouse at 40 Foley Square, preparing for a whitecollar crime story to unfold. nfold.
Paparazzi with cameras waited outside for a glimpse of the ailing 74-year-old defendant, a Democrat and son of Russian immigrants who has lived his whole life on the Lower East Side. He showed up around 1:15 p.m. on an overcast Friday afSILVER continued on p. 4 SIL
PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER
Tic and Tac are still tumbling and tummling (as in, doing shtick) in Washington Square, but they let this acrobat, who they call “Michael Jordan,” do the big jump over the tourists for the finale. Their drummer keeps the beat in the background.
C.B. 2 focuses on filling in the empty storefronts BY GABE HERMAN
C
ommunity Board 2 has formed a new committee specifically to grapple with a shocking new reality impacting the Village / Lower West Side district: the blight of empty storefronts. The initiative was the idea of Terri Cude, the board’s
Back Fence’s Scinto, 88...........p. 6
chairperson. At the inaugural meeting of the C.B. 2 Economic and Business Development Committee, on Thurs., July 26, at the Little Red School House, representatives of local business improvement districts, or BIDs, outlined the retail health of the geographic areas they cover and discussed,
with community board members and locals, the problems and potential solutions to retail struggles. As vacancy rates were discussed, BID representatives stressed that each area has its own challenges and unique retail features. The Soho STORES continued on p. 23
M.T.A. holds hearing on L plan’s impacts...........p. 2 Filming the Tompkins Sq. Park riot of ’88..........p. 9 www.TheVillager.com