june 18, 2015, the villager

Leroy lobbies for library.............page 24

Suspect surrenders to policein vicious Dallas BBQ bashing

City Club sues to stopPier55; Faults enviro review, ‘secret’ process

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

Police announced the arrest of a suspect sought in assaults on

two gay men at the Dallas BBQ in Chelsea on May 5.

Bayna-Lehkiem El-Amin, 41, of 598 E. 139th St. in the Bronx, turned himself in at the Seventh Precinct on the morning of Tues., June 16. He

was charged with two counts each of felony assault and at-tempted felony assault.

El-Amin is charged in as-saults — captured on video by a Dallas BBQ customer — that occurred shortly after 11 p.m. on May 5. In the video clip, a large, bald and beard-ed man who appeared to be

BY ALBERT AMATEAU

The City Club of New York went to court last week to sink Pier55,

the $130 million project funded by Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg and approved earlier this year by the Hudson River Park Trust, the city/state authority that

controls the 4.5-mile-long riverfront park.

Filed June 11, the suit by the venerable civic group asks Manhattan State Su-preme Court to stop the Trust from proceeding with the project until the authority conducts a new and complete environmental review. The

BBQ BASH, continued on p. 6

PIER55, continued on p. 4

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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933

June 18, 2015 • $1.00 Volume 85 • Number 3

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BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

A Villager subscriber tipped the newspa-per off this week that

big changes are afoot at Beth Israel Hospital. Basically, doc-tors affiliated with the hos-pital, at E. 16th St. and First Ave., are saying that all kinds of rumors are flying around regarding plans to rebuild the hospital, ideally nearby or, failing that, at the current site.

One doctor told the reader that “Mount Sinai Hospital is planning to sell the prop-

erty Beth Israel is on and re-locate the hospital.”

Providing further details, another doctor informed him that, “At a recent meet-ing of the Beth Israel med-ical staff, the C.E.O. told them that the plan is to build a state-of-the-art new hospital one block north of the present hospital. Apple, Google and other high-tech-nology firms are to be in-volved. The plan is to keep the present hospital open until the new hospital is completed and then sell the

property. If they cannot get the necessary governmental approvals or secure the new land needed, they will ren-ovate the present hospital.”

The Villager reader spoke on condition of anonymi-ty and declined to identify the two doctors, saying he feared causing a problem for the doctors and jeopar-dizing his relationship with them.

Asked exactly what the plan is for the venerable

As the debate rages over drumming in Washington Square Park, Doris Diether, 86, the doyenne of C.B. 2, enjoyed the show by Tic and Tac and their drummer, L.C., on Sunday. “They’re trying to get the music out of the park again,” she grumbled. “The last time they tried to do that, I managed to kill it.”

HOSPITAL, continued on p. 10

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Stonewall National Park? Holy Smokey!.......page 5X-pogo to pentathlon at H.R.P. Games..........page 12Lenore lunches with framed ex-con..............page 15

2 June 18, 2015 TheVillager.com

FINGERS CROSSED: Earlier this month, the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, heard the appeal on the community lawsuit against New York University’s South Village expansion megaplan. Among those watching in the court-room on June 2 were Mark Crispin Miller, the leader of N.Y.U. Faculty Against the Sexton Plan, Terri Cude, Bo Riccobono and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, who is a petitioner on the law-suit. There weren’t really any new arguments pre-sented, according to Miller. “The court has long since digested all the materials submitted by ei-ther side,” he told us. “The question is whether the city had informed the public of the intention for those strips — that was the judges’ question-ing. The judges’ question was, ‘Who was the pub-lic?’ They were very aggressive in their question-ing. They seemed even-handed.” Arguing for the community lawsuit was attorney Caitlin Halli-gan of Gibson Dunn. “We were very impressed by her performance,” Miller said, noting, “She has argued in that court before.” Meanwhile, making the case for N.Y.U. was Seth Waxman, a former solicitor general under President Bill Clinton. However, an attorney for the city spoke much lon-ger on why the university’s four-building, nearly 2 million-square-foot project should be allowed to proceed. N.Y.U. is called “a necessary party to the lawsuit,” which charges that the city illegally approved the project without the state Legislature ever having voted on whether to formally “alien-ate” the strips of affected parkland along Mercer St. and LaGuardia Place. The case will surely be precedent setting and have wide ramifi cations for parks throughout New York State — and, in fact, across the entire country — the N.Y.U. project op-

ponents say. As for when the seven-member judg-es panel will render their fateful decision, which will forever impact the future of historic, low-scale, world-renowned, irreplaceable Greenwich Village (no pressure, guys!) Miller said it could be as early as next month. However, the court breaks during August, so the decision could come in the fall, he added.

RAY’S ‘NEW HEART’: He’s been a virtual iron man, toiling on the overnight shift, while dispens-ing hot dogs and wry wit, at his Ray’s Candy Store on Avenue A for decades. But earlier this week, Ray Alvarez, 82, went to the hospital with chest pains and labored breathing, and on Tuesday, he had heart-valve replacement surgery at Beth Is-rael. “He had felt weak for sometime,” said Matt Rosen, who has been a big help to the East Village egg cream maestro in recent years. It was a great relief, he said, to hear that the surgery went O.K. for Ray, real name Asghar Ghahraman. “The pro-cedure was a success,” Rosen said. “His upstairs neighbor saw him in recovery. His doctor was very pleased. Ray should be in the hospital for a few days, and then he faces a several months-long re-covery. A number of us are working on getting his apartment outfi tted for his recuperation. He was in good spirits all weekend leading up to the sur-gery. He was excited about his ‘new heart.’ I told him with a new heart, he can stick around another 82 years. He still has a long slog ahead, but this was an important step.” Once he has recuperat-ed, will Ray be back behind the counter and keep pulling those gruelling hours? “Not sure about the night shift for the time being,” Rosen said. “We all thought about it, but it took a backseat to the more pressing issue of the surgery and his immediate re-covery. He has some people at the shop taking care

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Councilmember Rosie Mendez, left, and Congressmember Carolyn Maloney were relishing the moment at Hillary Clinton’s campaign kickoff speech on Roosevelt Island Saturday morning. The island is in Maloney’s district.

Erik Bottcher, City Councilmember Corey Johnson’s chief of staff, left, and David Alden Contreras Turley, associate regional field director of the Human Rights Campaign, were “feelin’ it” for Hillary on Roosevelt Island.

Hillary Clinton rebooted the launch of her presidential campaign with a well-choreographed event and speech on Roosevelt Island Saturday morn-ing. Formerly known as Welfare Island, it was renamed in honor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1971. In her remarks, Clinton lauded both F.D.R. and Eleanor Roosevelt, and cast her campaign in the mold of a new New Deal, saying she would fight for the middle class. In the speech’s most moving moment, she referred to her mother, who was left on her own as a teen and had to work as a maid to survive, and who clearly helped instill determi-nation and drive in her daughter. Although some called Clinton’s speech a “laundry list” of standard Democratic fare, her campaign said that, starting in the weeks to come, she will start rolling out more detailed positions on specific individual issues. In that vein, Mayor Bill de Blasio — who has not endorsed for president yet — did not attend the speech, saying he is still waiting for Clinton to outline her plan to combat income inequality.

Erik Bottcher captioned this shot of his on Facebook: “How far did these people travel to get here? #Hillary2016.”

Dems turn Roosevelt Island into Hillary Island

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suit charges that the mostly privately funded project — the city is also chip-ping in $17 million to help build the new pier’s infrastructure — “alienates” pub-lic parkland and therefore must receive approval from the state Legislature.

The lawsuit contends that the land-scaped, square-shaped Pier55 — more an island than a pier — proposed for the Hudson just north of W. 13th St. was “the result of a secretive process designed to reach a predetermined outcome that lacked the transparency required by law and was not designed to solicit meaningful public scrutiny.”

An individual plaintiff on the law-suit is Tom Fox, a club member and Hudson River Park activist who 30 years ago was president of the Trust’s predecessor organization, the Hudson River Park Conservancy.

“We want to stop the project right now,” Fox told The Villager. “The pub-lic is being hoodwinked. It’s part of the privatization of the waterfront.”

Fox said that the $113 million pledged for Pier55 by the Diller - von Fursten-berg Family Foundation, “was not a donation, it was an investment.” The project, Fox added, needs a full envi-ronmental-impact study — including, he stressed, an analysis at the project’s traffic impact.

Last year, the Trust filed an envi-ronmental assessment form, or E.A.F., for the “Replacement for Pier 54,” the official designation of the Pier55 proj-ect. Major projects require an E.A.F. to determine if there is a “significant environmental impact.” If a significant impact is indicated, a full-scale envi-ronmental impact statement, or E.I.S., which could take a year, would follow. But the Trust’s E.A.F. said the project would have “no significant impact,” so no further study was required.

However, the lawsuit questions that finding: “HRPT reached the incredible conclusion that erecting a 2.4-acre is-land in the Hudson River — and driving 547 concrete pilings deep into the sed-iment-covered bedrock of an estuarine sanctuary protected for habitat, water access…and home to threatened and en-dangered species and their critical habi-tat — was free of potential environmen-tal impacts,” the court filing says.

The suit charges that the assessment relied on an environmental review con-ducted 17 years ago and was not about Pier 55 at all but focused on the historic Pier 54, owned by the White Star Line, where the Carpathian landed with the survivors of the 1912 sinking of the Ti-tanic.

The Pier55 project began in 2013 with private meetings between the Trust and Diller focused on options to re-place the deteriorated Pier 54, the suit says. The Trust and Diller came up with a new plan for an unconventional pier

adjacent to Pier 54 that became Pier55.Also in 2013, the Trust sponsored

successful state legislation to allow the replacement to be built wider than the existing Pier 54. That same bill also al-lowed the park to sell its unused devel-opment rights. Assemblymember Debo-rah Glick, who is not a party to the City Club action, said last week that at the time she voted in favor of the legislation, the Trust had made no mention of the Diller plan. She said legislators were told the change to Pier 54 would be minimal. But after she discovered the deception, Glick said she called on the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Conservation — each of which must still review the project — not to approve Pier55.

She added that the project should have a full environmental impact study.

“There are significant visual issues and traffic impacts with the neighbor-ing Pier 57 redevelopment and the new Whitney Museum,” Glick said. “The project could set dangerous precedents.”

In reply to the City Club suit, the Trust last week issued a statement.

“We are confident we have followed the law, including conducting an envi-ronmental review in accordance with state law, and going beyond what was required by inviting public comment on that review,” the Trust said.

Community Board 2 heard the Pier55 proposal at two meetings, and the Hudson River Park Advisory Council, which includes representatives from the community and local politicians, also received a presentation. The en-vironmental assessment is available on the Trust Web site. The Trust insists that the assessment considered the new Pier55 location and did not rely on old information.

The project’s supporters remain steadfast despite the City Club chal-

lenge.Margaret Newman, executive direc-

tor of the Municipal Art Society, af-firmed that the society stands behind Pier55.

“M.A.S. was proud to testify in support of Pier55 during its extensive public hearing and environmental re-view process this winter and we re-main strong supporters of the project,” Newman said in a statement. “From Brooklyn Bridge Park to the High Line, public/private partnerships have been an indispensable tool for transforming New York’s untapped public spaces.

“The fact is that Pier 54 is crum-bling and neither the city nor the state has the resources or the will to safely repair it,” Newman said. “To oppose this project is to favor inertia over ac-tion, caution tape over ribbon cuttings. Pier55 was conceived with the spirit of cooperation and it deserves the same treatment, even from its detractors.”

While Newman and others argue that private money is essential for parks nowadays, Fox disputed the Trust’s claim that the riverfront park is required by law to be self-supporting.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said last week. He cited the 1998 Hudson River Park Act, which empowers the Trust to design, develop, operate and maintain the park. The leg-islation says that, to the extent feasible, the park’s operation and maintenance should be paid by revenues generated within the park, and that those reve-nues be used only for park purposes.

“The language was included to en-sure that park revenues be dedicated to the park and not to the city or state’s general fund — not to require that the park be self-sufficient,” Fox explained.

Fox said Pier55 would “alienate”

PIER55, continued from p. 1

City Club sues to stop Diller / DvF’s Pier55;

A design rendering of Pier55, which would be accessible by pedestrian bridges.

PIER55, continued on p. 5


park property because 49 percent of the events on the pier would be tick-eted.

“They can charge up to $1,000 for these events,” he said. “To our mind, it’s taking away what was public.”

The Trust and Diller’s Pier55 Inc. group, which would run the pier’s entertainment, assure many of the tickets would be affordable.

Again, in environmental terms, Fox said the project’s environmental review was hasty and simply incom-plete.

“This is not a rebuild or a re-construction — it’s a new pier,” he stressed.

Another individual plaintiff in the action is Tom Buchanan, a club mem-ber who teaches journalism and envi-ronmental studies at The New School and is active in the human-powered boating community.

The suit also complains that Pier55’s new location is an area where kayakers practice their skills and that the project would thus violate the park’s mandate to encourage boating in the river.

Michael Gruen, president of the City Club, said the good-government group, founded in 1892, was revived

in 2013 after being dormant for a few years.

“The lawsuit fi ts in with the ‘City for Sale’ problem that we have been addressing,” he said. “We took on the Midtown East zoning issue — essentially opposing the sale of zon-ing rights — and were able to make some changes. We also opposed a proposed shopping mall in Flushing Meadows Park.”

Marcy Benstock, executive di-rector of the New York Clean Air Campaign, told The Villager that she thought the project, which she dubbed “Dillerville,” was a disaster.

“Federal law says you can’t build on the water when you have a viable alternative on land,” she said.

“Think of the project with three locations [the pier would have three distinct performance venues] that could attract a total of 5,000 people, and imagine a hurricane like the one we had three years ago, coming again out of nowhere and putting those 5,000 people at risk — and putting at risk the fi remen and other emergen-cy workers sent to rescue those peo-ple,” she warned.

Benstock was instrumental in the 1980s in the successful fi ght against the Westway landfi ll project along the Hudson.

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PIER55, continued from p. 4

Calls project ‘predetermined’ No geysers or Smokey Bear,but Stonewall could be a park

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

The Stonewall Inn could soon be a city landmark, and if ad-vocates have their way, it could

also become a national park.More specifi cally, a movement is

underway to get Christopher Park, the small triangular park located di-rectly across from the famed gay bar, transferred to the U.S. National Park Service.

Unlike Yosemite and Yellowstone, though, this effort isn’t being done to create hiking trails and campsites in the small swath of Greenwich Vil-lage greenery, or even entice Smokey Bear to visit the Village. The desig-nation would, however, allow for education and programming oppor-tunities, however. Whether these would happen in the actual park it-self wasn’t immediately clear.

As Robert Atterbury, special assis-tant to Congressmember Jerrold Na-dler, explained it, the real impetus is to give the location of the 1969 Stonewall Riots due respect on par with that of other famed civil-rights sites, “to give it the national signifi cance it deserves,” as he put it.

In his second inaugural speech,

President Obama pointedly said, “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal — is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall.”

Seneca Falls, where the suffragette movement was born, and Selma, a piv-otal point in blacks’ struggle for civil rights, are both national parks. Yet, Stonewall is not.

To start the ball rolling on the ef-fort, the National Parks Conservation Association will hold a community outreach meeting on Tues., June 23, at the L.G.B.T. Center, at 208 W. 13th St., at which there will be a presentation of the proposal. The idea will then go be-fore Community Board 2 in July.

The proposal has the support of the area’s local elected offi cials, including Nadler, state Senator Brad Hoylman, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, City Councilmember Corey Johnson and Borough President Gale Brewer.

Speaking of Tues., June 23, the Stonewall Inn also could become an individual New York City landmark as soon as that date as well, when the Landmarks Preservation Commission meets to consider the designation.


BBQ bash suspect surrenders

a light-skinned black, is seen kicking Jonathan Snipes, 32, on two occasions as others in the restaurant pulled the two men apart.

After the second confrontation, Ethan York-Adams, 25, Snipes’s boyfriend, steered Snipes away from his attacker. But the attacker broke free from those restraining him, picked up a chair, and bashed both Snipes and York-Adams over the head, with York-Adams ap-pearing to take the worst of it, falling to the ground. Snipes sat down, apparent-ly dazed by the blow.

The day after the incident, Snipes told DNAinfo.com that after he acci-dentally spilled a drink, “A table near us audibly started making pretty gross comments about the two of us like, ‘White faggots, spilling drinks.’”

Snipes told the news Web site that he confronted the men — one of whom stood about 6-foot-4 — over the slurs. One of the men stood up, and the inci-dent quickly escalated.

Hours after Gay City News, on the evening of May 6, first published an article online about the incident, Isaam Sharef, who had posted the video of the confrontation, responded to the newspaper’s queries from earlier in the day by writing, “Snipes didn’t go to the table to confront him. He went over

and punched the guy in the face. Then the guy got up and attacked him.”

Since the May 5 melee, the New York City Anti-Violence Project and state Senator Brad Hoylman and City Councilmember Corey Johnson have said police were investigating it as a possible hate crime. However, the charges do not yet include hate-crime enhancements.

El-Amin reportedly has a total of 18 previous arrests –– on charges from assault and drug possession to cred-it-card fraud — in six states, including New York. Initially, police suspected he had fled the state.

Several online sites have asserted that El-Amin indicated on his Face-book page that he is gay, but Gay City News has been unable to confirm this.

Pickpocket’s plaint

A pickpocket in the Meatpack-ing District picked one pocket too many when a female patron caught him just after midnight on Thurs., June 11. Police soon arrived at Cie-lo nightclub, at 18 Little W. 12th St. But the suspect, Raul Silva Jr., 52, claimed that the matter was a mis-understanding.

“I found that s--- on the floor. I gave the lady her phone. She bug-gin’,” he said of the 43-year-old woman’s possessions.

However, four additional patrons soon noticed that they too were missing personal items. Police said they found a Samsung notebook computer, a 14-karat gold crucifix, car keys, two iPhones, a wallet, New York State identification cards and $40 cash in Silva’s front pants pock-ets. The purported loot was valued at a total of $2,740. Silva was arrest-ed and charged with grand larceny, a felony.

Unclear window smash

Police arrested a 35-year-old Man-hattan man outside of Employees Only, the late-night restaurant and bar located at 510 Hudson St. Staff accused Blake Campbell of breaking a front window at about 3:30 a.m. on Wed., June 10, with an unknown im-plement. He was charged with crim-inal mischief, a misdemeanor. Police did not disclose more information about the incident.

‘Think I’m scared?”

Police made an arrest at 83 Washing-ton Place on Fri., June 12, around noon

after a 21-year-old mother feared for her family’s safety.

The victim reported her boyfriend had been “pushing and shaking” her inside the apartment she shares with the couple’s two young chil-dren. Robert O’Conner, 23, reported-ly grabbed a kitchen knife, slammed it into the microwave to break off the blade and held it against his neck, asking the woman, “Do you think I’m scared?”

The victim stated to police that O’Conner — a resident of Rochelle Park, N.J. — proceeded to throw food from the refrigerator as well as smash photo frames. The woman’s 68-year-old uncle and her children were in the residence at the time.

O’Conner, who has a forearm tat-too which reads “Family,” was ar-rested for menacing, a misdemean-or.

Fast-food attack

A Manhattan man, 27, was caught off guard on Sun., June 14, when he was assaulted by two men out-side the McDonald’s at 208 Varick St., near Houston St., around 3:30 a.m. The assailants used an uniden-tified “deadly instrument” to over-power the victim, causing substan-tial physical harm, police said.

Dijon J. Frasier 27, and Tonye Vick-ers, 31, both of Manhattan were ar-rested and charged with felony as-sault. They did not know the victim personally, according to police. Po-lice did not provide more informa-tion on the assault’s motive and the victim’s condition.

Chriss Williams

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BBQ BASH, continued from p. 1

A still from a surveillance video at the Dallas BBQ released by police alleged-ly showing suspect Bayna-Lehkeim El-Amin entering the restaurant on May 5 before the bashing incident.


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A weekend triple shotThe 10th annual New York Bubble Battle in Union Square really blew. The super-soapy event was organized by Newmindspace, which also is behind International Pillow Fight Day. (By the way, state Senator Brad Hoylman has called for the latter to be banned from Washington Square Park, charging that the revelers have damaged its lawns and foliage at past events.) Meanwhile, at the Cooper Square Committee’s Second Ave. Festival a man was smoking up a storm, slow-cooking some savory meat. And down on the Lower East Side, well, it wasn’t your grandfather’s Orchard St., as PWR BTTM, blasted out their brand of glam rock / queer core at the DayLife summer kickoff street party.

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Washington SquareMusic Festival

Harp, Celeste, and Spoken WordsTuesday, June 23, 8 PM

Festival Chamber OrchestraAndré Caplet: Conte Fantastique for harp, string quartet, and speaker--from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Mask of Red Death”Sofia Gubaidulina: Five Etudes for harp, double bass, and percussionEdvard Grieg: Peer Gynt suite for chamber orchestra and harp

Winds, String, and VoiceTuesday, June 30, 8 PM

Festival Chamber EnsembleMax Bruch: Septet for winds and strings (1849)Alexander von Zemlinsky: Maiblumen blühten überal/Mayflowers Bloom All Over for mezzo-soprano and string sextet (text by Richard Dehmel), Laila Salins, soloistLudwig van Beethoven: Septet

American JazzTuesday, July 7, 8 PM

New York Jazzharmonic, 17 piece bandRon Wasserman, Artistic Director and LeaderJP Jofre, bandoneon, Elvy Yost, vocalistMusic of Billy Strayhorn, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Scott Joplin, John Philip Sousa, JP Jofre, Miho Hazama, and a recreation of the 1938 Carnegie Hall version of Benny Goodman’s Sing Sing Sing.

Music Director Lutz Rath and Executive Director Peggy Friedman have announced the 57th season of the Washington Square Music Festival, taking place during June and July on the Main Stage in the center of Washington Square Park. All concerts are free.

A PERFECT WAYTO SPEND A SUMMER EVENING

Organized by the Washington Square Music Festival. The Festival is under the auspices of the Washington Square Association, Inc. Seating is provided on a first-come, first-served basis. In case of rain, concerts will take place at NYU’s Frederick Loewe Theatre, 35 West 4th Street. For further information please visit: http://www.washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org/

The Washington Square Music Festival is made possible with public funding through Councilmember Margaret Chin and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. Generous grants from The Earle K. & Katherine F. Moore Foundation, The Horace Goldsmith W. Foundation, Washington Square Association, Music Perfor-mance Trust Fund, The Margaret Neubart Foundation Trust, NYU Office of Government and Community Affairs and NYU Commu-nity Fund, Salamon-Abrams Family Fund, Three Sheets/Off the Wagon/Down the Hatch, Con Edison, the Washington Square Park Conservancy and The Alec Baldwin Foundation, are deeply appreciated, as is invaluable help from NYC Parks and Recreation.

Gramercy healthcare hub, a Mount Sinai spokesperson told The Villager, in a statement, “Mount Sinai is com-mitted to serving the community and offering the highest level of patient care. Our vision is to create a state-of-the-art hospital at Mount Sinai Beth Israel with exceptional inpatient and outpatient care, as well as essential emergency facilities. Leadership is currently discussing various options to accomplish these goals. No deci-sions have been made.”

Asked if he could speak on the telephone in greater detail about the possible scenarios being considered, the spokesperson declined, saying, “We’re going to let our statement stand for now.”

How soon the rebuilding effort would begin wasn’t immediately clear.

Mount Sinai merged with Continu-um Health Partners nearly two years ago. The group — which is New York City’s largest hospital network — also includes Roosevelt Hospital in Hell’s Kitchen, St. Luke’s Hospital in Morn-ingside Heights and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in the East Village.

Today located between Stuyvesant Town and Stuyvesant Square, Beth Israel was initially incorporated in 1890 by a group of Orthodox Jews on the Lower East Side to serve the city’s Jewish immigrants. In 1929, Beth Is-rael moved to a 13-story building at Stuyvesant Square, and in 1964 it

bought the neighboring Manhattan General Hospital on First Ave. After the merger with Mount Sinai in 2013, it officially became known as Mount Sinai Beth Israel.

Aron Kay, the “Yippie Pie Man,” 65, has been going to Beth Israel ev-ery couple of weeks for the past four of five years to have his chronic leg wounds cleaned out. It’s a medical condition linked to circulation prob-lems, he said.

Told by The Villager about the ru-mored rebuilding plan, he said it was the first he had heard of it. Asked his thoughts on Beth Israel, he said they are “mixed.”

“I’ve had some good experiences and some bad experiences,” he said. “At least they let me keep my legs. The treatment is good. The bad part of it is when you’re in a hospital room with three people. Sardine healthcare doesn’t cut it with me. There’s a lack of privacy and people are contagious and who knows what you could come down with?”

Kay said he hoped that if the hos-pital rebuilds, the rooms will be de-signed to hold fewer patients.

Asked if he was aware of the Mount Sinai Beth Israel plan, a spokesperson for North Shore-Long Island Jew-ish Health System, which runs the HealthPlex at the former St. Vincent’s Hospital site in the West Village, said he had not. The HealthPlex, which opened last year, has a 24-hour emer-gency department, though is not a full-service hospital.

HOSPITAL, continued from p. 1

Beth Israel rebuild plan

Beth Israel’s Linsky Pavillion, on First Ave. at E.16th St.

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Going all out for fun and for fundraising

From extreme pogo to a pentathlon, Saturday’s inaugural Hudson River Park Games filled the Lower West Side waterfront park’s piers, waters and even its airspace, with a day of feel-good competition and games. Goldman Sachs won the coveted Hudson River Park Cup, taking first place among 20 New York companies and community groups. Presented by Friends of Hudson River Park, the Games were not only healthy competition, but a fundraiser (the Games were pay-to-play) for the 5-mile-long park, which receives no government cash for its operations. The Olympic-style pentathlon was the day’s highlight, with teams clashing in back-to-back gruelling games of beach volleyball, flag football and dodgeball, plus kayak races and a daunting obstacle course. Goldman Sachs ultimately prevailed by winning a tug-of-war contest, besting the likes of Circle Line Cruises, PwC, CitiGroup and the all-female squad from 24/7 Staffing. The delivery.com Games Village, at Pier 26 in Tribeca, was the event’s home base, and saw appearances by former Knicks greats John Starks and John Wallace and New York Liberty standout Sue Wicks, who pumped up the energetic crowds for the festivities. There was also a 5K “fun run/walk” for kids and adults, sports clinics, stand-up paddleboard yoga, XPOGO pogostick classes, cardio kickboxing and more. Pier 26 also sported live music and a beer garden (and drinking games) where the pentathletes et al. drank beverages afterward, hopefully noncompetitively.

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Smell gas. Act fast. Don’t assume someone else will call 911 or 1-800-75-CONED (26633). Leave the area immediately and make the call yourself. You can report a gas-related emergency anonymously, and not even be there when help arrives. For more gas safety information, visit conEd.com and take safety into your own hands.

BY PAUL DERIENZO

J ean Ritchie, an original Village folkie and Ap-palachian songstress known as the “Mother of Folk,” died on June 1 at the age of 92.

Together with her late husband, George Pic-kow, she turned the dulcimer, a string instrument played on the lap, from a folk music oddity into an international phenomenon, producing them in a workshop under the Williamsburg Bridge. But her albums, films, books and recordings also intro-duced traditional American folk music to a legion of aspiring young musicians, including a young Bob Dylan — who credited Ritchie as one of his influ-ences, along with Woody Guthrie, Big Bill Broonzy and Lead Belly.

The tall, red-haired Richie was born in 1922 in Vi-per, Kentucky. She was the youngest of 14 children from an old American family of “ballad-singers.” She began her career singing at dances and coun-ty fairs in the coal-mining country of eastern Ken-tucky.

The Ritchie family, big and boisterous, descen-dants of American revolutionaries and confeder-ates alike, believed strongly in education, and she attended Cumberland College, graduating as a teacher. After World War II, Ritchie moved to New York City where she met her future husband while a social worker at the Henry Street Settlement. Famed American folklorist Alan Lomax introduced her to

Pickow, a photographer and documentary film-maker, at a square dance held at the settlement.

Lomax recorded and interviewed thousands of folk musicians in the United States and abroad, re-cording Ritchie extensively for the Library of Con-gress American folk music collection. Many of the recordings occurred at jam sessions in Lomax’s West Village apartment.

Ritchie met folksinger and WNYC radio host Os-car Brand in 1949 through Lomax as well. Brand im-

mediately put her on his weekly radio show, which he still hosts every Sunday on WNYC. Ritchie, Pickow and Brand became fast friends, traveling through Europe together in search of new songs. Ritchie appeared more than any other guest on Brand’s show, “Folksong Festival.” They lived near each other in Port Washington, Long Island, for years.

Ritchie was renowned for her parties where ce-lebrities and the not-so-famous could mingle, listen to music and have fun. At these informal get-togeth-ers, she often sang with Pete Seeger, Odetta and Doc Watson. Her goddaughter, Jeannie Brand DeRienzo, also this writer’s sister-in-law, remembers Ritchie’s “sharp wit and high, trilling laugh” and her “love of company.”

“I see folk music as a river that never stopped flowing,” she told The New York Times in 1980. “Sometimes a few people go to it and sometimes a lot of people do. But it’s always there.”

Jean Ritchie was also an activist on behalf of coal miners living under scandalously poor conditions in the Cumberland Mountains. She sang in a haunt-ing soprano voice about death in the coal mines and the environmental and economic devastation wrought by mining companies. Her song “West Virginia Mine Disaster” told about how a negligent coal company caused the death by drowning of four young married coal miners in 1968. Her song “Blackwater” told about the devastation of moun-taintop-removal coal mining.

George Pickow died in 2010 and Jean Ritchie re-tired to Berea, Kentucky. She is survived by two sons. A tribute is planned for New York later this year.

Jean Ritchie, 92, the Village’s ‘Mother of Folk’OBITUARY

Jean Ritchie with Oscar Brand on the cover of their 1957 album “Riddle Me This,” a collection of tradi-tional courtship and riddle songs.


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BY LENORE SKENAZY

J effrey Deskovic is curious about everyone and everything. He goes to lectures and reaches out to peo-

ple, including me. When I met the 41-year-old Throggs Neck activist for breakfast at City Coffee in Jackson Heights last week, he asked the weary waitress where she was from.

“Peru,” she replied, and she perked up when talk turned to her country’s purple corn drink — chicha morada.

“It is very delicious but you must drink it ice-cold.”

“Bring me one of those!” said Jeff. Jeff is making up for lost time: The

16 years he spent behind bars for a rape and murder he didn’t commit.

Jeff was exonerated in 2006. A new DNA test matched a convict doing time for another rape and murder. Since getting out, Jeff has been bring-ing attention to wrongful convictions and false confessions — like the one he made, at age 16.

You may remember the case. It was up in Peekskill, N.Y., where Jeff was born and raised by his mom and grandma. The victim was a 15-year-old girl at his high school. Jeffrey caught the attention of police for a bizarre reason: He seemed too deep-ly upset. The cops spent the next six weeks focusing on Jeff.

“Half the time, they talked to me as if I was a suspect,” he said. “The other time they would pretend they needed my help to solve the crime. They’d say, ‘Kids won’t talk freely around us. They will around you.’ They were asking my opinions and

congratulating me on my insights.”For a shy young man who’d

dreamed of becoming a police offi cer, these were heady, confusing times. One day the cops said they had new, special information to give him, but it was so sensitive that fi rst he would have to take a lie detector test.

He skipped school for this incred-ible privilege and three cops drove him out of town. There, for the next six hours, they kept him in a small room, giving him endless cups of cof-fee — as if he wasn’t shaky enough — but no food.

“After 40 minutes, the polygrapher started giving me the third degree,” he recalled. “He raised his voice and kept asking me the same questions over and over. As each hour goes by, my fear escalates, and toward the end he said, ‘What do you mean you didn’t do it! You just told me through the test results that you did! We just want you to verbally confi rm it!’ That shot my fear through the roof.

“It was then that the cop who pre-tended to be my friend told me the other cops were going to harm me — he said he’d been holding them back but couldn’t indefi nitely. And he added if I did as they wanted, they would stop and I could go home af-terwards.”

Jeffrey fell to the fl oor and curled into fetal position, sobbing. But he gave them their confession. The false one that sent him to prison.

There was no other evidence against him. His semen did not match that found on the victim, but the prosecutor said it didn’t matter because the girl was promiscuous — even though police interviewed 19 friends who confi rmed that she had never had a boyfriend, much less sex. But those interviews were kept from Jeff’s Legal Aid lawyer, who, for his part, never bothered to interview Jeff’s alibi — the boy he’d been play-ing Wiffl e ball with at the time of the murder.

After 15 years behind bars, Jeff fi -nally came up for parole. He still said he was innocent. To the board, this meant he was not taking responsibil-ity for his actions.

Parole denied. He was freed only after the Inno-

cence Project took his case and did the new DNA test.

Jeff sued the prosecutors who kept the evidence from his lawyer, and his lawyer who didn’t interview his alibi, and the polygrapher who said the test

Wrongly convicted, he’s making up for lost timeRHYMESWITH CRAZY

SKENAZY, continued on p. 18


Bring in the noise!

To The Editor:Re “Drumbeat builds for reining in noisy

music in Wash. Sq.” (news article, June 11): I can no longer visit Washington Square Park like I did for the last 35 years because the gentry ran me out of New York City. I have plenty of “peace and quiet” now living in North Carolina, and I long for the noise and life that has been the Washington Square way for as long as anyone alive can remember. I think it is really interesting that someone who identifies with the Stonewall Riots now wants

quiet rights in the park. Ha! For some reason, people seem to have been able to live around the park, with all the noise, for years and years, but now they are unable to live there anymore because of the noise. If that applies to you, I suggest that you move somewhere else. I had no choice since I am disabled and cannot afford New York City anymore. Move, a--holes! I have no sympathy for you and your “noise problems” whatsoever. “Eat the Rich” is a slogan I heard from Yippies in Washington Square for years, and perhaps I should have listened to that more closely, since they are eating York City neigh-borhoods and parks bit by bit every day.

P.S.: I just called Jerry The Peddler and Aron Kay, the “Yippie Pie Man,” and suggested they revive the July 4 pot smoke-in in Washington Square Park this summer.

John Penley

Clayton keeping it real

To The Editor:Re “Reform of 7th Community Council is long

overdue” (talking point, by Clayton Patterson, June 4):

It’s a shame the L.E.S. has devolved into some manner of roving frat party. Great work by Clayton showing that the new New York is not always the “Sex in the City” wonderland that it is made out to be.

Simon John Heath

Backroom dealers

To The Editor:Re “It’s a race!” (Scoopy’s Notebook, June 4):I’m always dismayed, and amused, when

so-called progressive activists work behind the scenes to try and influence others not to run for elected office. Whether they are worthwhile candi-dates or not, or your candidate of choice or not, it is patently undemocratic. It’s a gross and hypocritical

EVAN FORSCH

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

LETTERS, continued on p. 18

A homeless person slept on the sidewalk recently next to the East Village explosion site at Second Ave. and E. Seventh St. It wasn’t known if the small house at right was his or not.

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BY ANDREW BERMAN

Last month, some changes were announced to a controver-sial citywide rezoning plan

— known as Zoning for Quality and Affordability — which would raise height limits for residential construc-tion across the five boroughs.

The good news: The changes are a step in the right direction, eliminat-ing or reducing some of the proposed increases in allowable height.

The bad news: Most of the pro-posed increases are still in the plan, which thus will raise the height of new developments in our neighbor-hoods, but likely do little or nothing to increase the quality or affordabili-ty of new housing in New York. And the plan is moving toward the formal public hearing, review and approval process, with its ultimate fate to be de-cided by our community boards, bor-ough presidents, the City Planning Commission and the City Council.

The plan would lift the height lim-its for new residential construction in “contextual zoning” districts — dis-tricts with explicit, required height limits intended to ensure that new de-velopment matches the context of its surroundings. In addition, the zoning scheme would also lift the optional height limits that developers are en-couraged (through zoning incentives) but not required to follow in all oth-er districts. The height limits, when raised, would go up modestly for market-rate developments, and more substantially — as much as 31 percent — for projects that set aside a fraction of units for affordable housing or af-fordable senior housing.

The changes would not only affect existing rules governing neighbor-hoods, including our own and others — rules that, in some cases, we fought long and compromised considerably for in order to secure. In fact, the changes would affect rules for future districts, as well, such as the contex-tual zoning districts we are seeking in the South Village and along the University Place/Broadway corridors, where developments 300 feet tall or higher are currently allowed.

The city’s premise is that raising height limits and loosening other re-quirements for new developments will make for “better quality” hous-ing, with more attractive designs. But the evidence does not back this up. If you look at areas of the city with less-restrictive zoning, you tend to ac-

tually get less-attractive designs, not more.

So what’s the real reason for this proposed change? In some cases, de-velopers cannot ” on their allowable square footage while abiding by the required height limits and including the high ceiling heights they like to charge exorbitant prices for. But do we really need to lift height restric-tions in residential neighborhoods to accommodate that?

The city’s argument for the more dramatic increase in allowable height for developments with a small afford-able or senior affordable component are equally flawed. These rules would apply only in a small percentage of the zoning districts throughout the city, so the premise that this plan is about creating more senior housing and more affordable housing seems woefully overstated, at best.

Right now, in a few areas — includ-ing a swath of the East Village — de-velopers can opt into a program where they get to build bulkier buildings, with more square feet, in exchange for reserving 20 percent of units as “af-fordable.” Some builders choose to do this — they actually get to create more luxury units this way than they oth-erwise would have — but some don’t. The city contends if we lift the height limits in these areas, developers will build more affordable units.

Even if one accepts the city’s prem-ise that it’s worthwhile to allow de-velopers to build additional luxury housing in exchange for also building a small amount of affordable housing, the assertion that increasing height limits will get more developers to do the latter is not supported by the ev-idence. Some developers opt into the program with the height limits ex-actly as they are. Those that don’t fre-quently cite issues like “economy of scale” and complicated bureaucracies attached to the program as reasons for not opting in, which this plan would not change. Few developers, if any, cite existing height limits as a deter-

rent. In fact, I am aware of none who have cited height limits as the sole reason for their not opting in.

So what makes the city think that just lifting the height caps would re-sult in more affordable housing? The more likely outcome is that there would be no greater production of affordable housing than with the ex-isting rules — yet buildings that are, nevertheless, up to 31 percent taller.

And giving developers a large height boost for new development by simply including a small percentage of units for “senior affordable hous-ing” seems that it would be, at best, a tool used by some developers to increase the height of their luxury de-velopments, with little public benefit.

Among the situation’s ironies is that there are two proposals by the Greenwich Village Society for Histor-ic Preservation, broadly supported by the community and elected officials,

to rezone the South Village and Univer-sity Place/Broadway, which actually would have the effect the city claims its own plan would have: namely, improving the qual-ity of new buildings designs and increas-ing the production of housing, especially af-fordable housing. But the city has thus far re-fused to act upon the society’s two rezoning proposals.

In the South Vil-lage, we are seeking to eliminate zoning that

allows 300-foot-tall dorms and other university facilities. Our proposal is

to replace that with contextual zon-ing, which would limit new develop-ment to no more than an appropriate seven or eight stories, and encourage residential rather than university de-velopment. The city has refused to consider it.

Around University Place and Broadway, we are also seeking to replace outdated zoning that allows more than 300-foot-tall towers, like the one planned for the Bowlmor site at E. 12th St. Our proposal calls for new contextual zoning that would limit new development to no more than between seven and 12 stories, with the above-mentioned affordable housing opt-in. Right now, there is no affordable housing component whatsoever to the zon-ing for this area. Thus, the tower planned for the Bowlmor site will be exclusively luxury condos. Un-der our zoning proposal, it would be no more than 12 stories, and might include 20 percent affordable units. But the city has refused to act upon this proposal, as well.

If the city’s zoning plan passes, the height caps we are seeking for these two areas would also be lift-ed, though they would still be vast-ly better than the 300 or more feet allowed there currently. Rather than focusing on its dubious rezoning plan — which offers few, if any, ben-efits to anyone other than develop-ers — the city should move ahead with the rezoning proposals for the South Village and University Place/Broadway, which clearly would ben-efit not only our neighborhood, but the city as a whole.

Berman is executive director, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

The justifications for raising heights fall flatTALKING POINT

Luxury developers simply want taller

ceilings to ‘max out’ on their allowable square footage — and their profits.

On the dark sideA mysterious figure at April’s Easter Parade on Fifth Ave.

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display of the very political backroom dealing being criticized. Then, to talk about it openly, is the height of politi-cal vanity. Talk about the downside of being entrenched.

Patrick Shields

Let’s spread the word

To The Editor:Re “Hope or hype? Battle of the

small business bills” (talking point, by Sharon Woolums, June 4):

I can’t understand how this is not being discussed more. We are in a state of crisis. Every month 1,000 to 1,200 small businesses are forced to close due to rent hikes. It’s called the Small Business Jobs Survival Act for a reason. How many jobs are lost each time a small business loses its lease?

I went to a forum for the S.B.J.S.A. with Tom Angotti, the author of “New York For Sale.” “Right now,” he said, “there are banners up all over the city that say, ‘New York City: real estate capital of the world,’ and that pretty much sums up what the basic

civic religion is in New York City.” How many councilmembers have

received campaign funds from the Real Estate Board of New York’s PAC? You might be surprised. But then you might not be surprised that they are satisfied with the status quo. Again, I can’t understand why this isn’t more widely known.

Robin Morris

Enough with ‘same old’

To The Editor:Re “Hope or hype? Battle of the

small business bills” (talking point, by Sharon Woolums, June 4):

The bottom line is we as a city are in a crisis! Either we solve this urgent matter costing us jobs at more than 8,000 per month, and destroying the fabric of every community in New York City on all of our main streets, in all five boroughs, or we do nothing — like Brewer’s 30-year-old “land-lord bill.”

Or we can save small businesses before they become extinct in New York City by actually putting some fairness and rights on the tenant’s

side for once and make the lease-re-newal process work justly for all parties. This would end the ille-gal extortion of tenants, and give a good-standing tenant a right to a renewal for a new ten-year lease at a rational rate instead of 200, 300 or 1,000 percent increases!

The time for the same old polit-ical delays, like the Brewer bill, are over, and the time for real leadership to pass this important, long-overdue legislation to save small businesses has come! The Small Business Jobs Survival Act — the S.B.J.S.A. — is the solution, and will end this crisis, sav-ing many tens of thousands of jobs each year!

Let’s put people, jobs and com-munity first for a change with basic rights and fairness. Get involved NYC! For more information, go to www.saveNYCjobs.org .

Steven Barrison

Puma packed a punch

To The Editor:Re “The ‘Kiss Punch’ poetry collid-

er” (arts article, June 11): What a great concept. Half the poets are half-comedians anyway. Thanks for the coverage of this unique scene, Puma. And Taylor Mali is great! You were in good company there, for sure.

Jeff Wright

Hating rent regulation

To The Editor:Re “Pols arrested in Albany as

rent war ratchets up” (news article, June 4): Corey Johnson is the ever-con-summate bleeding-heart liberal Chelsea/Village politician fighting for his right to hold office. What

easier way to curry favor than to keep these arcane inequitable ran-dom laws on the books? Of course, I will vote for any politician that fights for my number one concern: Keep my rent on my apartment low. What do I care if my neighbor who makes the same salary as I do pays three times more?

Donnie Moder

Who’s feeding rats?!

To The Editor:Re “E.V. rat reservoir seems bot-

tomless, they say” (news article, April 23): Gerard Flynn’s survey of the East Village rat population was graph-ic and chilling. My dog frequently comes across diurnal Tompkins Park rodents even mid-afternoon. However, Mr. Flynn is decided-ly wrong in quoting Department of Health accusations of “crazies…who feed the pigeons.” Sorry, those few who throw bits of bread are reward-ed by avian consumption of their largesse immediately. Rodent reality comes from the well-meaning mis-sionary trucks that distribute food. Their recipients leave plates, cups and boxes of food on the sidewalk, under and on the benches, on the grass itself. Everywhere except in the garbage cans. Harry Rolnick

E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to [email protected] or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 Metrotech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY, 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.

LETTERS, continued from p. 16

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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had “proven” his guilt — and won.With that money, he set up a foun-

dation to help the unjustly impris-oned. Now a lawyer, investigator and paralegal work on exonerating peo-ple behind bars for no reason — and helping them once they get out.

But most of all, they’re working to prevent wrongful convictions in the first place.

There’s a bipartisan bill in Albany that would create a commission on

prosecutor conduct, Jeff says. The commission would punish prosecu-tors who railroad defendants.

And with that he finished his story and his chicha morada. He smiled at the waitress, and headed out into a beautiful June day.

He has lots to do. For more information, visit www.

deskovic.org or write to [email protected].

Skenazy speaks at conferences, com-panies and schools about her book and blog “Free-Range Kids”

SKENAZY, continued from p. 15

Wrongly convicted of rape


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BY ZACH WILLIAMS

Advocates want to restore $65 million in cuts to public libraries made since 2008

as city councilmembers negotiate the city’s budget this summer. They have enlisted residents to write reams of support letters. But where the written word reaches its limits, they have another tool in their lob-bying arsenal: a toddler-sized pup-pet who goes by the name Leroy Hudson.

The fuzzy-haired hand puppet appeared at Seward Park Library on June 1, just one of nine scheduled sites across the city where library supporters rallied for increased city funding. He also appeared in a re-cent video made by staff members at his Hudson Park Library home, at Hudson and Leroy Sts.

Local libraries received $300 mil-lion in Mayor de Blasio’s proposed 10-year capital plan, but library rep-resentatives say $1.4 billion would more comprehensively address many branches’ aging infrastruc-ture.

“Some libraries are crumbling,” the blue-headed Leroy says in a vid-eo. “Some libraries need elevators. Some libraries have leaky roofs. With your support we can give you even more of what you want: more books, more programming, more classes, more bubbles, more music.”

Leroy’s video further urges li-brary supporters to contact city councilmembers, attend rallies and join their letter-writing campaign, which has neared 70,000 partic-ipants, according to a New York Public Library spokesperson.

Despite the novel fuzz-covered advocate, library staff were quick to emphasize that Leroy is by no means a full-time “political pup-pet.” His true role lies in assisting educational programs for young children and babies.

Nonetheless, he added a curi-ous element to the rally at Seward Park Library, according to Lakisha Brown, the library’s manager. She said that the colorful Leroy is a good example of how libraries can accommodate neighborhood needs and present educational resources to children. Yet, only three percent of city library branches are open seven days a week, she noted. And her branch needs window and ele-vator repairs, she added.

“Libraries are, and have always been, a place where anyone can go to get free access to information,” she said. “And today, that informa-tion can be books, or Internet ac-cess, or ESOL classes, early-literacy programs, computer training, after-

school programs, even author talks.”Staff at the Hudson Park Library

conceived him as part of the 45th anniversary celebrations of “Ses-ame Street” last fall. A crowd-sourced fundraising effort financed his production by toy company FAO Schwarz. Dozens of local chil-dren voted on his features, which include an orange, puff-ball nose and debonair robe with bow-tie.

Leroy took on a pedagogical role following his debut at an exhibit in honor of the famed children’s TV program. He’s become a prominent attraction for local toddlers and ba-bies as they expand their intellectu-al horizons through the traditional media of sing-alongs and storybook time at the South Village-area li-brary branch, located at 66 Leroy St.

At a May 29 event held there for infants, library staffer Chris Ruiz played the guitar while children’s librarian Kristy Raffensberger helped Maestro Leroy conduct.

It was fun and games, but with plenty of mental stimulation for several dozen young minds. The branch’s infant and toddler patrons responded with glee to the enthusi-astic renditions of childhood sing-alongs.

Leroy entertained young children at the Hudson Library Branch with the help of children’s librarian Kristy Raffensberger.

Supporters rallied on June 1 at the Seward Park Library on the Lower East Side to call for greater funding for the city’s public libraries.

Leroy talking himself blue in the face for funds!P

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BY FACEBOY

Villagers may remember the tale of “Operation Molly,” which was coordinated by

Animal Care and Control of New York to rescue a cat that had been trapped for nearly two weeks inside a wall at Myers of Keswick — a traditional British grocery store for bangers, meat pies and other imported items — on Hudson St. in Greenwich Village.

How Molly survived is still a mys-tery, but the story received wide-spread attention, including an April 2006 article in The Villager by Albert Amateau. There’s little doubt about it, we New Yorkers love our shop cats! Unfortunately, the New York City health code prohibits animals in places where human food is sold.

Pictured above is Daisy. She re-sides in the Pet Bar, an independently owned shop at 132 Thompson St. A recent interview with the owner, Jim-my Elmemeh, illuminated many in-teresting facts about both Daisy and his store.

According to the vets at the shelter

where Daisy, now 13, was adopted, she was about two years old when found abandoned in a bag left in a garage.

“She’s in great health and a won-derful cat,” Elmemeh said. “She’s ac-tually the princess — the boss of the store. She is the boss!”

Asked how Daisy can refrain from playing with the myriad catnip toys surrounding her, he said, “I think she’s kind of like an old, wise lady. I mean, she’s very wise and she’s been

around all of these toys forever. We have some nights where we come in and fi nd some toys opened, ruined or completely destroyed by Daisy. She gets parties every once in a while, you know? But she’s a very good girl.”

Having patronized the Pet Bar for many years, yours truly can attest to Daisy’s extremely friendly demeanor. Sometimes she’ll gently use her paw to guide my hand under her chin for an extra pet before I depart.

The Pet Bar fi rst gained attention in 1991 when it started offering psychic pet readings as an annual Halloween tradition. This continued for 10 years but was dropped due to the profu-sion of copycats. The shop was also among the fi rst to offer high-quality, gourmet pet foods and many other specialty items. Rising rents, com-petition from corporate giants and Internet sales have all contributed to a decline in Elmemeh’s and many in-dependent retailers’ businesses.

There is a perception that online purchasing is a bargain hunters’ par-adise. But Elmemeh has stated, “We guarantee our prices to be the lowest. If it’s not, we’ll match it.”

Getting back to Molly, readers may wonder what has become of her. Jen-ny Myers, Myers of Keswick’s current proprietor, assures that Molly is do-ing well.

“She’s still going strong,” Myers said. “She now resides in our home, but sometimes on trips to the vet, she’ll drop by the store.”

You can visit Daisy and get all of your pet’s food and toys weekdays from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Perhaps your hand too will be guided to that extra pet that no cat lover will ever regret.

Daisy: You won’t regret giving her an extra petNYCritters

Daisy is the princess at Soho’s Pet Bar.

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BY JAYSON CAMACHO

T he fi rst two games of the Greenwich Village Little League’s Majors American Di-

vision Championship series packed James J. Walker Field with family members and fans on Sunday. The best-of-three series featured the No. 1 seed Orioles versus the No. 3 seed Royals. The format featured a dou-bleheader on Sunday, followed by a third game on Thursday, if needed.

The Majors A Championship has always been a great event for G.V.L.L. It draws tons of attention from many families in the league, making it hard to fi nd a seat in the crowd of baseball fans. This year’s series brought forth many concerns over pitching and catching rules.

The Orioles took the fi eld fi rst in the fi rst game with Jack Teitelbaum on the mound. Teitelbaum has been-clutch for the team this season and been reliable in all of his outings. He came up big again on Sunday, throw-ing a complete-game shutout, strik-ing out 11 batters, giving up only one

hit and one walk.The Royals just couldn’t get it go-

ing on offense in the fi rst game. They weren’t aggressive at the plate and watched many strikes for a called strike three. Their pitching wasn’t on par either. Nathan Steinfeld had a very rough start to the game, allow-ing fi ve runs in the fi rst inning — two of those runs coming from a two-run homer by Elijah Meltzer. Steinfeld struggled to fi nd the strike zone and walked six batters. He allowed fi ve runs, including two earned runs. He

only lasted an inning before being replaced by Paolo Riley-Bell.

Riley-Bell was also unable to stop the strong-swinging O’s. He threw 74 pitches in his three-and-one-third in-nings of relief. The O’s were a hitting machine and made a strong push to “mercy” their opponent — by scoring enough runs to end the game early. With a “mercy,” the Birds wouldn’t have to worry about pitching chang-es and could save their arms for the second game. Riley-Bell allowed fi ve runs (four earned) and fi ve walks.

Dylan Hart pitched the fi nal two outs of the fi fth inning.

In the bottom of the fi fth, only needing a run to clinch the “mercy” rule, Leo Rahn came up with the bas-es loaded and two outs and — “Lord, have mercy!” — hit a single up the middle to end it.

Speaking after the game, the team’s manager, John Economou, spoke about the team’s success.

“We’ve stuck with the same game plan all year and played errorless base-ball,” he said. “Allow very few walks and wait for your pitch at the plate to drive a hit. We’ve been fortunate enough to have good pitching and good hitting at the right times. Let’s see if our luck continues in Game 2.”

Asked what the Royals were going to do for Game 2, Larry Roberts, their manager, said, “Well we didn’t bring our ‘A’ game, but we are looking at this as something to learn from. Next game, we need to play better defense and we need to score runs early. If we score some runs early, it’ll be easier to control the game.”

The Royals arrived for the after-noon game with focus etched on their faces, eager to get revenge for the “mercy” earlier in the day. The pitch-ing matchup featured Caden Roberts, the Royals’ ace, versus Caleb Toboc-

man. The Royals took the fi eld fi rst. From the game’s fi rst pitch, it was clear that the momentum had shifted to the Royals.

Roberts shut out the O’s for the fi rst three innings be-fore allowing two runs in the fourth. He pitched fi ve innings before handing the ball over to Finn Kaplan-Moore. Roberts gave up six hits, two runs (one earned) and notched 11 strike-outs. He did his job and shut down the O’s.

On offense, the rest of the Royals made sure to do their part.

They hit Tobocman well and were leading 5-0 by the end of the third inning. Not helping himself, Tobocman’s control was off, and he walked fi ve batters (only 57 percent of his pitches were strikes). The O’s two errors were both very cost-ly and resulted in Royals’ runs.

Nothing was going well for the Birds. After pitching three innings and giving up four hits and fi ve runs (three earned), Tobocman was replaced by Michael McCusker. McCusker shut down the Royals, holding them hitless, but the Orioles’ offense couldn’t generate any more runs.

The Royals won the game 5-2, forcing a Game 3, which will be played on Thurs., June 18.

It’s all on the line for O’s and Royals in Game 3SPORTS

The Orioles’ Jack Teitelbaum fired in a pitch as the Royals’ Dylan Hart was up at bat in Game 1.

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Howl Happening is present-ing “Outside IN,” an exhi-bition of Lower East Side

documentarian Clayton Patterson’s photography and art. The opening reception is Fri., June 19, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the gallery, at 6 E. First St., between the Bowery and Second Ave. The exhibition runs through Aug. 14. Also in the show will be paintings by Elsa Rensaa. The open-ing will be streamed live, free at @ howlarts.org .

“The exhibition goes beyond Pat-terson’s work as a documentarian to examine the full range of his artistic practice, including sculpture, pho-tographs, fashion and books, as well as paintings by his wife and lifelong collaborator, Elsa Rensaa,” a press re-lease for the show notes.

Patterson has been document-ing Downtown since he and Rensaa moved from Canada to New York in 1979. They briefly lived in Soho, whose art scene Patterson found to be pretentious, before moving to the then-gritty Lower East Side.

“Like the works of Jacob Riis and Weegee before him, his photos cap-

ture moments of real life as they’re happening, unglamorized and unro-manticized,” the gallery notes. “The ‘Front Door’ photo-portraits on view

at the gallery present a kind of mosaic of the neighborhood as it was, one face at a time: tenement kids and homeless people, poets and politicians, drug

dealers and drag queens, rabbis and santeros, beat cops, graffiti writers, hookers, junkies, punks, anarchists, squatters, mystics and crackpots.”

Patterson refers to this project — in which he took photos of people in front of his Essex St. home’s front door — as “the people’s photography.”

Also in the show are sculptural cabinets crafted from artifacts Patter-son found on the street, ranging from toys, teeth and bullets to scraps of posters and postcards.

“As an artist, you have to use what life offers you,” Patterson said. “It’s about remaining creative and follow-ing that path.”

Also on view are the distinctive Clayton Caps he and Rensaa manu-factured.

More recently, Patterson has or-ganized and edited several massive books on the storied neighborhood’s history as explained by people who lived it and shaped it: “Captured,” on the L.E.S. as an incubator for under-ground film and avant-garde video; “Resistance,” on its radical political and social history; and “Jews: A Peo-ple’s History of the Lower East Side.”

Clayton Patterson at Howl Happening gallery

of things, but his health is obviously the most im-portant thing.” Needless to say, it would be more than hard for Ray to give up working at his be-loved Belgian fries and beignets mecca, where he famously churned out “Obama fries” after Barack Obama’s first election. “The store is his world, yes, so we’ll see,” Rosen said. “One day at a time for now.”

LIKE KISS WITHOUT MAKEUP: As many read-ers know by now, the man behind the popular East Village blog EV Grieve recently revealed his identity — right before a reporter for Bedford + Bowery was about to out the staunchly anony-mous blogger. His name is John Elsasser. An Ohio native, 49, he edited both his high school and Ohio State University newspapers, then did a stint working as a local reporter. Elsasser has lived in the East Village since 1994 when he moved to New York. He launched Grieve in 2007 as blogging was starting to blow up. His day job since ’94, the B + B writer, Elizabeth Flock, reported is as editor in chief of The Strategist, a magazine of the Public Relations Society of Amer-ica. In a letter from the editor that Elsasser post-ed on Sunday, a day before Flock’s piece went live, he said he works for “a nonprofit,” which, in fact, the P.R.S.A. is. In his letter, Elsasser said he had been thinking of revealing his name for the past several years, but dragged his feet. In his defense, he said, Grieve isn’t a personal blog but a neighborhood blog. At any rate — as clearly can be seen from the myriad angry posts on her arti-cle — many of his followers are furious at Flock’s

forcing his hand and making him reveal who he is — and possibly “flocking up” the blog’s fu-ture. What’s next for Grieve remains to be seen. “I’ve always loved this neighborhood, for better or worse, and I probably always will,” Elsasser wrote in his letter. “That sounds corny, but it’s true. That drives me more than anything. I’m not sure really what’s next for the site. We’ll see how this goes.” He later added, “[Updated: I’m not planning on shutting down the site right this mo-ment ... I’ll keep posting for the time being...].” (Makes us think of another Midwesterner who also became a legendary East Village blogger: the late Bob Arihood of Neither More Nor Less.)

SIXTH AVE. SITUATION: By getting police to crack down on enforcing the byzantine rules on sidewalk vending, the Village Alliance business improvement district finally managed to move the book vendors off of Sixth Ave. south of Eighth St. “Four years ago when we started,” William Kelley, the BID’s executive director told us, “the vendors had taken over the east side of Sixth Ave. for two solid blocks. They were selling not only books, but both legal and illegal merchandise, and were also not following city vending laws. We had complaints from local merchants as well as residents that they did not feel safe walking along this stretch of Sixth Ave., and that it was impacting the local retail economy. Since that time we have worked with the Sixth Precinct to enforce existing laws consistently.” The arcane regs include one table per vendor, legal merchan-dise only, no vending in tree pits, no vending from the ground, no vending against buildings, no vending within 20 feet of business or residen-tial doorways and no vending at bus stops. When

we walked by the other night, a guy sitting in a lawnchair set up by the curb was trying to sell a man a bunch of flowers. “Just giving me a dollar for it!” he haggled with the buyer. It’s not clear if “vending flowers from a lawn chair” is covered in the regulations, but with all those other rules, he was probably violating at least one of them. “It was never our intention to eliminate all vend-ing, but simply to have vendors follow the law and operate in an orderly manner,” Kelley ex-plained. “Book vendors do still operate on occa-sion near the old Barnes & Noble, one of the only spots where it is legal to vend. Neighbors feel much safer in the immediate environs around the subway station entrance, and merchants have also been happy with the way things are now.” The reason they can vend outside the former B & N is because it has a long stretch without doors, Kelley said. But what is currently really getting his goat is the broken glass in two doors, namely the ones of that same former B & N, whose space was taken over by a bank. “TD Bank has let fes-ter those two shattered front doors since Decem-ber 2014,” Kelley said. “They refuse to fix them, despite repeated requests. Not to mention they have had a lease for almost two years and done nothing to move forward on tenanting the prop-erty. It just adds to the general sense of decline in the area, even though so much has changed for the better on Eighth St.” When we passed by the other night, those doors were indeed even more cracked up than the last time we looked at them. At what point, you have to wonder, will the glass start to fall out of the doors and really injure someone badly? C’mon, TD Bank, fix those doors! And, while you’re at it, do something with that property!

SCOOPY’S continued from p. 2

Clayton Patterson making a statement in the 1980s.


K I T T Y G L I T T E RF R E E M A S O N S


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june 18, 2015, the villager

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