Out
of the
A s h e s - S p e c i a l 9/11
section
- P a g e s 15 - 46
Galleries return to fall form, p. 50
Volume 81, Number 14 $1.00
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Hudson Square, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933
September 8 - 14, 2011
Wait for a table at park pavilion could get longer By Albert Amateau The Department of Parks’ deal with a restaurant group to operate a seasonal restaurant in the renovated Union Square Park pavilion has fallen through. But the city said on Tuesday that it would seek another operator. The 15-year concession awarded last May to O-V Hospitality Group was for a restaurant, City Farm Café, to open in 2012 and oper-
ate from May to October, with casual and affordable food service, featuring products from the Union Square Greenmarket. The deal called for O-V Hospitality, managed by celebrity chef Don Pintabono, to invest $1.1 million to install the restaurant in the recently renovated pavilion and pay the city at least $400,000 per year.
Continued on page 10
Former Bialystoker prez asks, ‘What in hell’s going on?’ By Albert Amateau Sam Solarz, 83, a former president of the Bialystoker Center board of directors, is not happy about the impending closing of the 80-yearold nursing home at 228 E. Broadway. “I think something is wrong with that,” Solarz told this newspaper in a telephone interview last week. “When I left the board in 1999, we had thousands of
people who came to fundraisers for the home.” Solarz, a founder of Master Purveyors, a meat wholesale company in Hunts Point, was born in Bialystok, Poland, the formerly largely Jewish city in northeast Poland that was the original home of immigrants who founded the center. Solarz had survived the
Continued on page 4
Photo by Tequila Minsky
A traffic officer hung up one of the tiles from the Tiles for America memorial fence Wednesday. See Page 18 for more photos.
After surviving storm, tiles to be site of 9/11 gathering By Lincoln Anderson They call it the “Heart and Soul of the Village,” and it’s been that way ever since the tragedy of 9/11. And almost anyone that you ask wants to make sure it stays there forever. The Tiles for America memorial, at Greenwich Ave. and Seventh Ave. South, was hurriedly taken down to protect it in advance of Hurricane Irene. Now, a push is on to get all the tiles hung up on the fence again by the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this weekend. Dusty Berke, who is leading the effort, is out by the memorial all day long, rain or shine, asking passersby to say a prayer and put up a tile. The Village spot is set to be the center of an all-weekend memorial gathering, Berke said, featuring everything from
flowers, candles and quiet reflection to guitar playing and singing. It will be nondenominational, she said. “Sixty to 100 people helped us take these tiles down as Irene was coming,” Berke said. “People started coming from all over, people with their dogs, people with their kids. “Angelo from Rizza hair salon stored some of the tiles. The busboys from Wogies bar carried tiles. Cafe Rourou has also been holding some. Elephant and Castle sent busboys out to help.” Now, in turn, by offering people the opportunity to put a tile back up on the fence, Berke said, it’s letting them feel that they’re part of the rebuilding process. The firefighters from Squad 18 recently rehung the Tiles
Continued on page 58
515 ca n a l street • NYC 10013 • C opy r ig h t © 2011 C om m u n ity M ed ia , LLC