the villager 1-27-11

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BY LESLEY SUSSMAN

A long and bitter 43-year stale-mate over future development of a7-acre parcel of land at the foot ofthe Williamsburg Bridge came to asuccessful conclusion this Mondaywhen Community Board 3s Land Use,Zoning, Public and Private Housing

Committee voted almost unanimouslyto approve a set of general guidelinesthat would pave the way for action onthe long-dormant Seward Park UrbanRenewal Area, or SPURA.

The historic 20-to-1 vote marked theend of two years of contentious debateover details of the general guidelines

by members of the committee. Theapproval of the guidelines signaled tothe Bloomberg administration that arearesidents and stakeholders have finallyreached some kind of consensus andare now ready to get down to details

In historic vote, C.B. 3 O.K.sSPURA redevelop guidelines

Photo by William Alatriste / NYC Council

Firefighters taking Josephine Harriss coffin out of St. Josephs Church last Friday morning.

Continued on page 15

145 SIXTH AVENUE NYC 10013 COPYRIGHT 2011 COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC

BY ALINE REYNOLDS

Two of the citys trendi-est neighborhoods have aregulation in their zoninglaw that some loft residentssay is outdated and want thecity to do away with.

Other area residents,however, might be displacedif the regulation is abol-ished.

The artist certificationfor residents of Soho andNoho, established in the

early 1970s, when art-ists began populating thearea, requires at least onemember of households tobe a creative artist. Theymust prove their status inan application to the citysDepartment of CulturalAffairs.

Soho and Nohos spe-cial zoning allows for resi-dential use in artists joint

Non-artist residents

feel like criminals

in Soho, lawyer says

BY ALBERT AMATEAU

Fire Department officialsand former Mayor RudyGiuliani were among thoseattending the Jan. 21 funer-al in Greenwich Village of9/11 survivor JosephineHarris, whose story wasone of the most miraculousof the World Trade Centerattack.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Harriswas rescued from the W.T.C.North Tower by six firefight-ers from Chinatowns LadderCo. 6, miraculously helpingthem all escape death.

Cardinal Edward Egancelebrated the Mass ofResurrection at St. JosephsChurch, at Sixth Ave. and Washington Place, forHarris, who died at herhome in Brooklyn Wed.,Jan. 12, at age 69. Her steelcoffin with JosephineHarris Guardian Angel of9/11 engraved on its lid was borne by firefighterswho honored her memory.

Found unconscious by anEmergency Medical Service

Funeral director,firefighters helpangel take wing

Continued on page 8


Volume 80, Number 35 $1.00 West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Hudson Square, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933 January 27 - February 2, 2011

A-list yogis, p. 21

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Jan. 28/29See ad on Back cover

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2 January 27 - February 2, 2011

BY JEFFERSON SIEGEL

Monday night, a group of activists dem-onstrated in front of the Continental, onThird Ave. at St. Marks Place, to condemnwhat they claim is the bars door policyof racist and discriminatory behavior thatdenies entry to blacks and gays.

However, the bars owner, who identi-fied himself as Trigger Smith, denied theaccusations. Most know him simply asTrigger.

I do have a dress code, I dont have acolor code, Trigger said in an interview on Wednesday morning.

Triggers denials come despite accusa-tions of racism by the ANSWER (Act NowTo Stop War and End Racism) Coalitionand by numerous complaints on Websites.

There is even a Facebook page criticiz-ing the bar, Boycott Continental Bar inNYC (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58211944728&v=wall).

Some of the comments by the pages131 members include one from August2010, when Robert Cabassa wrote, Lastyear I was turned away for baggy clothingwhile caucasian kids with flip flops, shortsand t-shirts were being let in without asecond look. Racist, without question. Thebouncer admitted it, as well, but said therewas nothing he could do about it, since itwas his job to do what the owner says.

Web posts on Clubplanet.com, Yelp.com and New York magazines Nightlifesite have also charged racist treatment bythe bars staff.

There are a lot of people up in armsover my door policy, Trigger said. Impaying New York rents. Im not going tolet anyone else run my business.

In the bitter cold last Monday night,Shaniqua Pippen, 25, from Brooklyn, stoodquietly with other protesters while holdinga sign reading, Stop Racial Profiling.

Last June, Pippen said she and threefriends, after eating at a nearby restaurant,decided to cap their Saturday night withsome drinks. Walking by the Continentaland its prominent sign declaring, 5 Shotsof Anything $10, they tried to enter.

Although Pippen noticed the bar wasnearly empty, she said a bouncer told herand her friends that they were not allowedto enter, because we had to be a regularor they had to know us.

Pippen asked the bouncer about thehandful of people who had entered justbefore them.

If you know all these people, whyare you still checking their IDs? Pippenasked, saying the bouncer replied that hedidnt make the rules.

Do we need to be regulars or do we just need to be white? Pippen pressedon, saying the bouncer, who was black,replied, Your people dont know how toact.

Pippen told a friend about her experi-ence, who referred her to ANSWER. That

group sent a letter to Dominic Pisciotta,chairperson of Community Board 3.Jinnette Caceres, a community organiz-er with ANSWER, said C.B. 3 forward-ed the complaint to the New York CityCommission on Human Rights.

Trigger said the longevity of theContinental, which he has owned almost20 years, can be traced to its door policy.

Within six months, these flash-in-the-pan new clubs are closed when theres nodoor policy, he said. We probably turnaway more people than these hot, trendyMeatpacking clubs. Until a few yearsago, the Continental was a live-music clubknown for punk rock. But Trigger said onlynow that he has transformed it into a bar ishe finally turning a profit.

I dont have a racist bone in my body,Trigger said, adding he even took out anad in a local paper celebrating BarackObamas 2008 victory. Trigger, who grewup in Brooklyn, said Caceres wanted himto meet with Pippen in the ANSWERoffice. Trigger suggested a neutral locationbut ultimately the meeting didnt happen.

There are people, black, brown, in mybar seven nights a week. Im very offendedby all of this. Im not giving in, Triggervowed.

Wednesday afternoon Pippen wasscheduled to meet with an attorney fromthe Commission on Human Rights. BetsyHerzog, a commission spokesperson, notedthere is already one complaint outstandingagainst the Continental.

The bar is under investigation, shesaid.

The commissions investigation couldresult in fines, the awarding of damagesor mandating a policy change. If an issuecant be settled by the commission, thenext step is court.

ANSWER plans to picket the Continentalthis Sat., Jan. 29, at 8 p.m.

Shots bar comes under firefor alleged racist door policy

Photo by Jefferson Siegel

Shaniqua Pippen, who says she was

denied entry to the Continental, picketed

the bar Monday.

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January 27 - February 2, 2011 3

SHOWING LOVE FOR SHOPS: Extremely concernedabout the plight of small businesses that have been dev-astated by the closing of St. Vincents Hospital last April,Assemblymember Deborah Glick and other local electedofficials are teaming up with the Greenwich Village-ChelseaChamber of Commerce to sponsor a Love the Village eventon Sat., Feb. 12. Starting at 10 a.m., Love the Village willbe a daylong scavenger hunt that will encourage the public toshop at businesses hurt by St. Vincents closure. Participantswill be given a map of businesses on Greenwich, Sixth andSeventh Aves. and, after shopping at these businesses, willhave an opportunity to exchange their receipts for raffle tick-ets and the chance to win prizes donated by local businessesat a raffle held at the Lesbian and Gay Center on W. 13th

St. In a show of Valentines Day appreciation, giveaways willinclude specially designed Love the Village T-shirts for allwho take part. I envision this will be a fun, community-building day for everyone involved, Glick said. In thesedistressed times it is important for all of us to unite togetherand pitch in to help the community. More details aboutLove the Village will follow.

STILL LOCKED IN LAND LOCK DEBATE: Speakingof St. Vincents, Yetta Kurland and her allies continue toinsist that Community Board 2 has land locked the for-mer Greenwich Village hospital campus so that it can onlybe used as a hospital in the future. Plus, they now claim,Community Board 6 has also gotten onboard the land lockbandwagon, having recently passed a resolution of support.So said Evette Stark, a member of Kurlands Coalition

for a New Village Hospital, speaking before C.B. 2s fullboard meeting last week. A few days before, Kurland hadput out an e-mail blast trumpeting the victory. However,C.B. 2 member Lois Rakoff took exception, saying shehad read the East Side community boards resolution onSt. Vincents, and that nowhere in either C.B. 2 or C.B.6s resolutions does the word land lock appear. Stark

shrugged. Jo Hamilton, followed up Rakoff, emphasizing,We never used that word [land lock]. No, we dont knowthat word. Our resolution was to preserve zoning thatallows hospital and healthcare uses at the site. (Accordingto the Department of City Planning, there is no such termas land lock in New York City zoning. Also, to say thatonly hospital uses are allowed at the St. Vincents sitewould actually represent a change of the zoning, since thesite does currently allow other uses.)

PLAZA PLANS: In other C.B. 2 news, the GreenwichVillage / Soho community board last week unanimouslybacked the citys Astor Place / Cooper Square reconstructionplan. C.B. 2 in its resolution, however, did support members

of C.B. 3, the East Village / Lower East Side communityboard, who had expressed strong opposition to open seatingareas in what would be called Village Plaza, to the southof the current Peter Cooper Park. Therefore it is resolvedthat C.B. 2 approves this reconstruction as proposed ifseating opportunities that cannot be locked or removed atnight are eliminated from the areas below Seventh St., theboards affirmative resolution stated, in part. A representa-tive of Grace Church School, which plans to open a newhigh school on the west side of Cooper Square, announcedat the meeting that they have an agreement with the cityto maintain Village Plaza. We will use it as a teachingspot, she said. We will have our life sciences kids downthere. (Were not sure what sorts of wildlife species theyllbe studying on the plaza; hopefully, not drunken hooligans,for C.B. 3 members sake.) A Noho representative said that,

moving forward, they hope to get more information onwhether some sort of business improvement district (BID)will be overseeing the open plaza areas that are to be created.Meanwhile, Jim Power, the East Villages Mosaic Man,called us several times, simply beside himself at the idea ofAstor Place being closed between Fourth Ave. and LafayetteSt. as part of the pedestrianization plan. This is nothing buta blatant land grab by the new building to the south of TheAlamo cube sculpture, Power fumed. Plus, he added, agitat-edly what would happen to all his mosaic-tile planters andlampposts that dot the intersection?

CORRECTION: Clearly, new Schools Chancellor CathieBlack went a bit too far when, addressing the issue of LowerManhattans exploding population, she quipped at a SchoolOvercrowding Task Force meeting two weeks ago, Couldwe just have some birth control for a while? It would reallyhelp us all out. Unfortunately, we, in turn, went a bit far-ther still in our articles headline, which referred to Blackshaving made an abortion remark, which she did not do.While birth control and abortion obviously both have to dowith reproduction, they are obviously not the same thing atall. Our only explanation for the gaffe is some combinationof brain lock and the rush to meet the deadline. We regretthe error.

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Bundled up in a long down coat with a big hood in the

frigid weather, on Sunday Maggie Gyllenhaal arrived

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where she is appearing in the Chekhov classic Three

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BY LESLEY SUSSMAN

In an effort to prevent the type of bed-bug epidemic that swept the city in 2009,the Department of Housing Preservation

and Development and the New York CityHousing Authority joined forces last weekwith Councilmember Rosie Mendez, whoco-sponsored two community forums onhow to prevent and combat such infestationsin ones home.

The first forum was held Tues., Jan. 18,at Health Professions High School, 345 E.15th St., and focused on residents livingin private housing. The second forum, onThurs., Jan. 19, was held at P.S. 188, 442E. Houston St., and was geared to NYCHAresidents.

Mendez, whose district includes the East

Village, Gramercy, Union Square and partof the Lower East Side and reaches up toE. 35th St., said she was somewhat disap-pointed with the small turnout at bothforums, but blamed inclement weather forthe poor showing.

The councilmember said she initiated theseries of forums because in the past year heroffice had been receiving a greater than nor-mal amount of complaints about bedbugs.

Just looking at whats happening in thecity and with all the news about bedbugs, Ithought it was important to do these forumsand bring in housing experts from the pri-

vate housing stock and public housing stock

to talk about procedures on how to identifythem, what you can do on your own and, ifyou live in public housing, how to get man-agement involved to do something about theproblem, she said.

The councilmember said that while shewas very happy with the citys participa-tion in both forums, it was unfortunatethere wasnt a greater showing by resi-dents.

The most important thing here is educa-tion people have to know how to prevent

and combat bedbugs, she said. And oncethey know, they can pass that informationon to their neighbors. So I was hoping for alarger turnout.

At the Thursday night forum, which wasattended by 15 residents mostly from theBernard Baruch, Lillian Wald and SamuelGompers developments Joseph Roeder,deputy director of NYCHAs ManhattanBorough Office, said there was no evidenceof an epidemic of bedbugs in public housing.

This infestation is happening all acrossthe city, Roeder said. But at the New YorkCity Housing Authority, were not calling itan epidemic yet.

He read off a list of NYCHA-run devel-opments and the numbers of bedbug com-plaints received from each. He said that,in general, the number of such complaintswere low.

Roeder cited the Baruch Houses as anexample. He said there are 2,391 dwellingunits in that development, but that only 152bedbug complaints were received last year.

Thats about 6 percent and the figures forthe rest of the developments in Manhattanare pretty much the same, he said.

Roeder noted, however, that the HousingAuthority was somewhat short-staffed inpest control inspectors and exterminators.

We only have 20 exterminators in

Manhattan, he said. Thats one of ourdrawbacks. We only have two teams assignedevery day just for bedbugs.

The deputy director said his agency wasworking to correct the problem by hiringmore outside contractors.

This will help free up our own exter-minators who are busy with rat and roachcontrol, he said.

Mendez called the staffing short-age understandable because, she said, theHousing Authority was still going througha chronic fiscal crises. The councilmemberadded, however, that she would look into

the staffing issue both in Manhattan and theother boroughs and see if there is any wayto increase the number of inspectors andexterminators.

Earlier in the forum, Jamal Rashid, tech-nical services adviser for NYCHAs TechnicalServices Department, discussed ways forresidents to prevent bedbug infestation andhow to safely get rid of the pests.

Rashid reassured public housing resi-dents that while the dreaded, blood-hungry bedbugs are a nuisance, they arenot known to spread disease. He saidbedbugs can enter homes by latching ontoused furniture, luggage and clothing, andby traveling along connecting pipes andwiring.

Never bring bed frames, mattresses,box springs or upholstered furniture foundon the street into your homes, he cau-tioned residents. You should also avoidbuying refurbished and used mattressesand furniture. And if you suspect youhave bedbugs, call your management officeimmediately

Rashid strongly cautioned residentsagainst trying to treat the problem on theirown. The pest control expert said thatexcessive use of pesticides could lead topoisonings.

Some signs of bedbug infestations, heexplained, include bloodstains on linen,dark stains on mattresses from bedbugwaste, musky odors and bite marks. Hesaid that bedbug bites can be very itchyand irritating and, in some cases, causeskin rashes and allergic reactions.

Mendez told residents to contact heroffice if they did not get a swift responseto their bedbug complaints from theirmanagement office.

Well follow up on it, she said. TheNew York City Housing Authority doesntwant this to become an epidemic.

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NYCHA officials say 6 percent of units have bedbugs

Photo by Lesley Sussman

Councilmember Rosie Mendez checked out a captive Cimex lectularius, otherwise

known as a bedbug, at last Thursdays forum.

At NYCHA, were not

calling it an epidemic yet.

Joseph Roeder

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BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

A push was made last Thursday nightto get Community Board 2 to recom-mend reducing by half the footprint of

the famed San Gennaro Festival, but themotion failed by a vote of 20 to 13.

Traditionally, the feast, which lasts afull 11 days in September, has stretchedalong Mulberry St. between Canal andHouston Sts. However, new designer bou-tique owners, restaurateurs and residentsin stylish Nolita, at Little Italys northernend, have grown increasingly opposed tothe event. They say the neighborhood haschanged. And the 85-year-old festival isntauthentically Italian anymore, they say,but is just like other generic street fairsand, most of all, is a major disruption for

the neighborhood for close to two weekseach year.

Unfortunately for Nolitas boutiqueowners, the feast also coincides withFashion Week and Fashions Night Out,keeping fashionistas away during whatshould be a highpoint of the year.

The Charlotte Ronson boutique, nearSpring St., owned by hip music producerMark Ronsons sister, simply closes fortwo weeks during the festival, said assis-tant manager Jessica Pimentel, speakingthe day after the C.B. 2 meeting.

The average price of our goods is

$100 and made in America, one boutiqueowner testified at the meeting. The aver-

age price of San Gennaro wares is $5 andmade outside this country, she said.

The festival becomes an 11-day bar-ricade to the stores, stated another shop

owner.Giving them a newfound sense of com-

munity empowerment, however, Nolitaresidents last year successfully organizedto defeat Danny Meyers plan for a ShakeShack at Prince and Mulberry Sts. Lacki ngsufficient seating, the sure to be wildlypopular hamburger takeout would haveoverwhelmed the neighborhood, theyargued, before Meyer ultimately pulledout due to their opposition.

The recent petition effort to shortenthe San Gennaro Festival at Kenmare St.was an outgrowth of this positive expe-

rience fighting Shake Shack, said twoNolita denizens, Kim Martin and SharonGary.

You can only take so much afterawhile, said Gary, a physical therapist,and a Prince St. resident for more than20 years.

Through the work of its StreetActivities & Film Permits Committee,C.B. 2 did succeed in getting a number ofconcessions from Figli di San Gennaro,the nonprofit board that runs the festi-val. The group has agreed that, at thisyears festival, there will be no Dunk

the Clown, since people complained itwas too raucous. Also, there wont be any

karaoke, no booths selling or playing CDs unless the music is directly related tothe festivals theme and no vulgar ormafia T-shirts for sale, either.

Figli di San Gennaro has also agreed

to strict guidelines on shutdown timesfor each night and will rotate the sound-stages location so as to spread the noiseimpact around equitably. Also under thestipulations, no building of structures willtake place overnight.

The community board, in its resolution,recognized that the festival is an impor-tant and symbolic annual event. At thesame time, the resolution states that C.B.2 strongly urges [the city] to considercutting back the size of San Gennaro bystopping the street fair at Kenmare St. so asnot to disturb the emerging business com-

munity in Nolita who expressed significantconcerns about lost profits and disruptions

caused by the festival. Yet stopping thefestival at Kenmare St. wasnt a deal-breaker for the boards granting its advisoryapproval for the event.

In 1996, former Mayor Rudy Giulianibrought the formerly corruption-plaguedfestival under tight control, and its activi-ties are still monitored. The events orga-nizers note it has given out about $2million in charitable donations in the past15 years.

Vivian Catenaccio, a San Gennaroboard member, noted that Old St. PatricksCathedral, between Prince and HoustonSts., was only just recently designated abasilica. To think of excluding this blockfrom the festival, its an insult to thebasilica, she said.

Emily DePalo, another San Gennaroboard member, also noted the festivalsreligious foundations.

We have two religious processions.Its a grueling three-to-four-hour pro-cess, she said. One of them they walk,one of them they float. On Sept. 19, thecathedral is packed for a big Mass for SanGennaro feast day, she added.

Catenaccio added she sees few actualcustomers in the Nolita fashion bou-tiques.

I feel sorry for them, she said, notingthey pay high rent.

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Effort to shorten San Gennaro Fest falls short

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and no live baby tigers.


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Dealers in the news

Police arrested two men in the earlyhours of Thurs., Jan. 20, and charged themwith running a 24-hour cocaine and marijua-na business catering to New York Universitystudents, patrons of East Village and LowerEast Side bars and Tribeca residents.

The arrests were the result of a three-month Police Department investigation andsting operation that was uncovered when acourt employee told police he found businesscards offering coke and pot for sale that were

tucked in the pages of The Village Voice ina box in front of an N.Y.U. dorm on ThirdAve. at E. 10th St. The drug-pushing cardshad also been shoved under the apartmentdoors of Independence Plaza in Tribeca,according to the complaint.

The defendants, Thomas Zenon, 49, andMiguel Guzman, 43, were arraigned onFri., Jan. 21, and were being held in lieuof $1 million bond or $750,000 cash bail,according to the office of Special NarcoticsProsecutor Bridget Brennan.

Undercover police had made 12 buysfrom Zenon and Guzman between Oct. 19

and Jan. 20, including two $1,110 buys ofmore than a half-ounce of cocaine, according

to the complaint. Both suspects had previ-ously served time for federal drug convic-tions, according to sources. Guzman, identi-fied as a former Ohio State football player ina Daily News item, was carrying 16 gramsof cocaine, more that $1,600 and four cellphones when he was arrested. Zenon hadmore than $600 on him and a stash of 20bags of marijuana inside a coffee thermos inhis car when he was arrested, the complaintsays.

One N.Y.U. student told the Daily Newsthat one of the suspects offered him cocaineoutside the 10th St. dorm and handed him

a card with a cell phone number and thewords, Blow your Mind.

Burglary-series arrest

Police on Thurs., Jan. 6, arrested a sus-pect in connection with a series of 13 LowerEast Side and Chinatown burglaries andhome invasions between Oct. 12 and Nov.15. But the suspect, Irving Walker, 31, whoadmitted to three of the burglaries, was notthe Irving Walker, 41, whom police thought

they were looking for in November.The innocent suspect, whose name and

former Bronx address were included in theN.Y.P.D. call for help issued to the media,had moved away a decade ago and was in adoctors office in Virginia Beach, Va., duringone of the incidents. Although he received aletter from a detective that he was no longer

a suspect, he said he is afraid to visit his oldBronx neighborhood, where residents might

not know that he is cleared in the case.A spokesperson for the Manhattan

district attorney said the Irving Walkerwho was arrested Jan. 6 has admittedbeing involved in three of the robberieswith another suspect, Kenneth Harden-

718-329-7352

POLICE BLOTTER

Photo by Jefferson Siegel

Miguel Guzman, center, and Thomas Zenon, right, were arraigned in Manhattan

Supreme Court last Friday. They are charged with advertising drug sales by inserting

business cards into The Village Voice.

Continued on page 7

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Smith. Harden-Smith, arrested earlier, ischarged with committing all 13 burglarieson Madison, Catherine, Eldridge, Forsyth,Monroe and Henry Sts. and East Broadwayduring the four-week period last autumn.

Steal a flashlight!

Two burglars who entered a ground-floor

apartment on E. Seventh St. near AvenueA around 11:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 5, acciden-tally set fire to the place with a lighter thatthey were using as a flashlight, police said.Firefighters who responded to the blaze,which was confined to the apartment, hadthe fire under control in a half-hour. Twofirefighters sustained minor injuries. Theimages of the burglars, who made off withtwo laptop computers and jewelry, wererecorded on a surveillance tape.

Arrest in shootingOn Tues., Jan. 18, detectives arrested Daniel

Claudio, 31, a resident of 225 E. Second St.,and charged him with attempted murder andfirst-degree assault in a shooting in front of thelocation six days earlier. Police had respondedto the location at 9 a.m. on Jan. 12, where thevictim was found wounded with a gunshotto the abdomen. The victim, 33, was takento Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Theshooter and victim are reportedly cousins.

Roofer fatal fall

Police found a man lying on the groundunconscious next to Gouverneur Hospitalat 227 Madison St. across from the AlfredE. Smith Houses around 11:26 p.m. Wed.,Jan. 19. An Emergency Medical Service teamdeclared Richard Smith, 46, dead at thescene. He was working for a roofing contrac-tor at the hospital and apparently fell to hisdeath. There was no criminality involved inthe incident, police said.

Phony officer

A motorist who approached anotherdriver at the curb at the southeast corner ofSullivan and W. Third Sts. around 5:30 p.m.Sat., Jan. 22, said, Im a cop. Move yourcar, and flashed a police shield. But SixthPrecinct police who arrested the driver dis-covered the shield belonged to a captain inthe Dade County Sheriffs Office in Miami.Dino Doda, 42, a resident of Boca Raton,

Fla., and not a policeman, was charged withcriminal impersonation of a police officerand possession of a fraudulent instrument.

Police assaulted

Police who were arresting Louis Navarro,28, of the Bronx in front of 179 W. Fourth St.between Barrow and Jones Sts. at around 12:37a.m. Thurs., Jan. 20, had a hard time subduingthe angry defendant. The 6-foot-1-inch, 220-pound suspect punched the arresting officer sev-

eral times and resisted handcuffing, police said.Around 4:40 a.m. Mon., Jan. 17, a woman

threw an unidentified missile at a passing policecar at the corner of Bleecker and Sullivan Sts.and then threw several punches at the two offi-cers who got out to arrest her. She then fled toa deli, where she grabbed a bottle of beer andtried to hit an officer who chased her in theface with it. He blocked the blow with his arm.During the arrest the suspect flailed her armsto resist being handcuffed. Joslin Mota, 24, ofthe Bronx, was charged with assaulting a policeofficer, larceny and resisting arrest.

Sway glass bash

A man visiting from Peoria, Ill., was inSway, the bar at 305 Spring St. betweenGreenwich and Hudson Sts., during theearly hours of Sun., Jan. 23, when a womanhit him in the face with a drinking glass,police said. The woman, Casey Tatum, 24,was arrested and charged with assault.

Marc Jacobs lifters

A man and a woman entered the MarcJacobs boutique at 163 Mercer St. around 2p.m. Fri., Jan. 21, and walked around for awhile until the man grabbed a handbag val-ued at $1,295 from a mannequin and passedit to the woman, who put it in her bag. Thecouple then left, undetected by the electronicanti-theft system, although the stores secu-rity camera recorded them on tape.

Cuts out with iPod

A man who got on an E train at RooseveltAve. in Queens at 4:30 a.m. Sat., Jan. 15, fellasleep, missed his stop and woke up at CanalSt. to discover that his right front pockethad been cut and his iPod stolen. The victimdidnt report the theft to police until he wasnotified that a suspect carrying his iPod hadbeen arrested at Stillwell Ave. in Brooklyn.

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POLICE BLOTTER

Continued from page 6

8/7/2019 THE VILLAGER 1-27-11

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work-living quarters in keeping with the

neighborhoods historic l ight-manufacturingcharacter.

Section 12-10 of the New York CityZoning Resolution refers to individual loftsin Soho and Noho as arranged and designedfor use bynot more than four nonrelatedartists, including adequate working spacereserved for [each] artist.

The rule is a stopgap measure designedto appease both artists and building ownerswho did not want the violations for illegaloccupancy, according to Margaret Baisley, aSoho-based real estate lawyer who stronglyopposes the zoning laws artist-in-residence

provision.Residents who apply for artist certifica-

tion must submit a professional fine artsrsum, two letters of recommendation andother material that demonstrates at least fiveyears of commitment to a particular fine-artgenre.

Successful applicants are permitted tohave commercial jobs in the arts or side jobsin other fields, but must exhibit a profes-sional, noncommercial involvement in the

creative arts, according to the application.Interpretive artists, such as musicians, actorsand dancers, are generally ineligible forcertification. D.C.A. claims not to aestheti-

cally judge the applicants artwork. A D.C.A.spokesperson did not respond to questionsby press time.

In 2009, the city rejected half the artist-certification applications it received.

The administration has recently steppedup enforcement of the law, which it ignoredfor several years, according to Baisley. TheDepartment of Buildings now denies cer-tificates of occupancy for buildings untileach residential unit has an artist certificate.D.O.B. also requires proof of certificate forSoho and Noho loft occupants who apply torenovate their spaces.

Nevertheless, many residents violate therules, and occupy their lofts illegally, accord-ing to various sources.

Baisley said only about 20 to 30 of herSoho clients per year make the effort tocomply with the zoning rules. About half ofthem get approved, while the other half getdenied. Several others sell their lofts ratherthan bother hunting down artist tenants tooccupy them.

Baisley helps her clients avoid fines andappointments at the agency administrativecourt by gathering together every bit of

evidence attesting that they are, indeed,creative artists.

One attorney she represented didnt wantthe stigma of living illegally in Soho, so shemoved elsewhere.

We dont think you should make crimi-nals of people who want to come intothis area, Baisley said. The BuildingsDepartment, she continued, should focuson collapsing cranes and other hazardousissues, rather than hire artist police topenalize Soho and Noho residents who lackartist certification.

Baisley also objects to the moral impli-cations of a zoning requirement that setsoccupational parameters.

Are we going to have a protected class ofzoning for every profession? she said. Wedont zone for butchers, bakers or candle-

stick makers.Some Soho residents, however, like Sean

Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance,appreciate the laws restrictions. A non-profit community organization overseeingthe neighborhoods quality of life, the SohoAlliance would be influential in any potentialeffort by the city to rezone Soho and Noho.

Sweeney said the law discourages aggres-sive landlords from taking over the area andhiking maintenance fees in an effort to evictlongtime artist residents.

Its really an affordable housing ques-tion, said Sweeney. By maintaining the

zoning, youre maintaining the ability ofartists of whom there are thousands tolive here.

But, conversely, artist residents who havecertification and wish to leave the area arebearing the financial burden of an outdatedlaw, according to Baisley.

Their lofts, often their biggest invest-ments, are now tricky sells. Buyers arecautioned by lawyers and financial advisersinstead to look at other desirable neighbor-hoods, like Tribeca, to avoid the risk ofviolating the zoning law.

And since the city began cracking downon illegal residents in the mid-2000s, banksare more wary about giving loans to resi-dents in the area, according to a New YorkTimes article last November, since they fear

that lofts that foreclose would be difficultto resell.

Its very tough to find buyers who com-ply with the statute, and can pay the price, orwho want to assume the risk of moving intothis area and living illegally, said Baisley.

As a result, elderly Soho and Noho resi-dents looking to sell their homes and moveto warmer climates or into retirement homeswill get the short end of the stick, accord-ing to a Broome St. resident who requestedanonymity.

The only asset they have is their home,he said. Because of this law, theyre goingto take less money, when its desperately

needed? Its ridiculous.Echoed Baisley, They should be able to

sell them at a fair price, not at an artificial,depressed price because a statute from 40years ago is suddenly being enforced.

The artist-in-residence rule, Baisley said,is also financially damaging to the city, whichloses millions of dollars in transfer taxesfrom fewer sales at lower prices.

In response, a spokesperson for theDepartment of City Planning, said, As wasrecognized at the time the Soho zoning wasestablished, creative communities are criti-

cal to the citys future and are an importantcomponent of our economic base.

The Broome St. resident has artist certifi-cation, but deems the law archaic and hypo-

critical, in that many current Soho residentsarent artists and live there illegally.

Some residents, he said, go as far as toassemble a phony artists portfolio.

In some cases, others who are legitimateartists and would presumably fit into thecreative category, still are not grantedcertification. David Carlin, who has livedon Wooster St. since 1978, was recentlydenied certification because he didnt pres-ent enough artwork as evidence to provebeing an artist is his primary vocation. Hedescribed the application procedure as kindof rough.

They wanted me to submit more picturesof my work from shows more than I wasable to, he said. It wasnt worth his time orenergy, he said, to appeal the decision. He isntrequired to have artists certification, though,since he and some other longtime tenants inhis building were grandfathered into the spe-cial zoning when it was amended in 1986.

Carlin, a sculptor by trade who is nowsemi-retired, ran a sculpture shop at TheCooper Union, on E. Seventh St., for 30years. He feels offended the city doesntconsider him to be part of the Soho artistscommunity.

It seems like an elite club thats got itsown kind of standards, he said.

Like many Soho residents, Carlin believesthe requirement is unrealistic and should bereconsidered.

Other residents, however, depend on thelaw in order to avoid being evicted fromtheir lofts. One couple the wife is a film-maker, and the husband is a television direc-tor said the zoning is designed to protectartists who have lived in the neighborhoodfor decades.

The couple, who live on Crosby St.,requested anonymity for fear of retaliation

by their landlord.I understand that all these people want

to move here, cause its a hot neighbor-hood now, but isnt it unethical? the wifesaid of non-artists living in Soho. It seemslike downright greed that they just want tochange the rule, and put the people livinghere at risk.

The couples landlord has tried to evictthem and their neighbors every year sincethe 1980s, when they moved in. The land-lord, who owns a grocery store on theground floor, purchased the building in1990, thinking he got a great bargain and

would be able to drive out the artist tenants,according to the wife.

What has protected us is that we haveartists certification, and he doesnt, said thewife. This is why, she explained, the landlordis denied the right to vacate the buildingevery time he tries to evict his tenants.

The wife works at Christies, the well-known fine-arts auction company, as anart historian and producer, but gained herartists certification from her side work in

Attorney: Non-artists feel like criminals in Soho

Photo by Aline Reynolds

Attorney Margaret Baisley thinks the artist-certification requirement for Soho and

Noho residents should be lifted.



It seems like downrightgreed that they just want

to change the rule.

Crosby St. resident

Were not interested

in throwing artists out

on their ear.

Margaret Baisley

8/7/2019 THE VILLAGER 1-27-11

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BY MARY REINHOLZ

Lynne Stewart the onetime Downtownradical civil rights lawyer, convicted ofmaterially aiding international terrorism began 2011 in a sprawling Fort Worth,Texas, prison complex called Carswell.Its the only medical facility for women inthe federal Bureau of Prisons and housesabout 1,400 female inmates.

Stewart, 71, and her supporters hadhoped she would be transferred to thefederal lockup in Danbury, Connecticut,to be close to family and friends.

But her husband, Ralph Poynter, saidB.O.P. unilaterally and bureaucratically

disregarded their pleas and flew Stewart toCarswell last month. She had been detainedsince November 2009 at the MetropolitanCorrectional Center in Lower Manhattanafter a panel of Second Circuit judgesfrom the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld her2005 conviction, revoked Stewarts bailand ordered her to begin serving jail timeimmediately.

The appellate panel also ordered U.S.District Judge John G. Koeltl, who hadpresided at Stewarts nine-month trial,to reconsider the 28-month sentence heimposed on her in 2006, calling it too

light. During an emotional hearing atFoley Square last August, Koeltl sharp-ly increased her sentence to 10 yearsfor helping the imprisoned Omar Abdel-Rahman, a.k.a. The Blind Sheik, com-municate with his militant Islamic fol-lowers in Egypt through press releases. Inresentencing her, Koeltl claimed Stewarthad shown a lack of remorse.

Stewarts allies feared she would die inprison sooner rather than later, given herpoor health (shes a cancer survivor) andthe generally bad food and lack of exercis eat many jailhouses in the U.S. Poynter,

however, who visited his wife over NewYears weekend, said Carswell is a mixedbag. He said conditions there are animprovement over M.C.C., where sheslept on a steel bunk. She now has a realmattress, he noted.

He added, Shes in a hospital room onthe first floor and its across from a lake.She gets one telephone call a day. Shesbeen in worse places...and shes not goingto let this get her down while her case ison appeal.

Stewart, in a recent letter posted onher Web site, described her prison room

as having four bunks amid two tiers ofsimilar rooms with an atrium in the mid-dle with tv sets and tables and chairs. Sheestimated there about 500 inmates in herunit. Lots are doing long bits, victimsof drugs (meth etc) and boyfriends, shewrote. We wear army style (khaki) pantswith pockets tee shirts and dress shirtslong sleeved and short sleeved. When oneof the women heard that I hadnt ironedin 40 years, they offered to do the shirtsfor me. (This is typical of the help I get escorted to meals and every other protec-

tion, explanations, supplies, etc.)She noted that one drawback is not

having a bathroom in the room have togo about 75 yards at all hours of the day

and night clean though.Before her imprisonment, Stewart was

derided in some press accounts for beingchubby and un-chic in her courtroomappearances. Poynter said she has lostweight behind bars and tries to eat onlyone meal a day at Carswell because ofthe difficulty she has walking up severalflights of stairs to a dining hall in a sepa-rate building. In her letter, Stewart notedthe jailhouse grub at Carswell is far betterthan the eats at M.C.C.

Food is vastly improved, she wrote inlate December. Just had Sunday Brunch

real scrambled eggs, PORK sausage,Baked or home fried potatoes, Butter(sweet whipped M God!!) Grapefruitjuice Toast, orange. I will probably regainthe weight I lost at MCC! Weighingagainst that is the fact that to eat weneed to walk to another building (aboutas far as from my house to the F Train)Also included is 3 flights of stairs up anddown. May try to get an elevator pass andtry NOT to use it.

She would also welcome commis-sary money to pay for the phone ande-mail and for other items and foods that

the prison doesnt supply, like pens!Stewart concluded her letter on an excep-tionally upbeat note, stating that atCarswell she enjoys views of gorgeoussunrises and sunsets. The place is veryopen and outdoors there are pecan treesand birds galore.... The full moon lastnight gladdened my heart as I realized itwas shining on all of you I hold dear.

Stewarts mailing address is LynneStewart, Federal Medical Center, Carswell,53504 -- 054, Unit 2N, P.O. Box 27137,Fort Worth, Texas 76127.

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8/7/2019 THE VILLAGER 1-27-11

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If the storeowners want to participate

in the festival, they can set up vendingtables on the sidewalk, at a reduced rate,to sell their merchandise, she said.

In addition, she said, We welcomethem to do a fashion show on the stage.

Reducing the festivals space would bea safety hazard, according to Catenaccio,with the same amount of people packedinto fewer blocks.

Opponents complained about public

drunkenness at the festival. But Catenacciocountered there is no tolerance for it.

The day after C.B. 2s vote, JulieDickson, owner of Fox & Boy hair salon

on Mulberry St. between Prince andHouston Sts., said shed love it if the fes-tival wasnt outside her store.

That would be awesome, she said.Its kind of dangerous, the element itattracts. We dont have any walk-ins thatweek.

Instead of walk-in customers, drunkguys from the feast will stick their headsinto the salon, and with a cigarette dan-

gling from their hand, say, Hey, what doyou think of my hair? she said.

Dickson said that while the street fairseems nice and authentically Italian down

where the old-style restaurants are, northof Prince St. the vendors are, well, prettyschlocky.

Last year, she said, There was a cardtable outside and a guy on a microphonescreaming. There was a clown-dunkingtank a year ago, and that guy was scream-ing insults at people, like, You belongon Christopher St. I mean what yearis this? or Hey lady, youre not ugly,youre just fat.

Told Dunk the Clown and karaokewere definitely out this year, she saidwith relief, Thats fantastic.

There were even live baby tigers atSan Gennaro last year, at least briefly,she said. Her understanding was they

were quickly removed after it was foundthere werent proper permits.

They were there for 10 minutes,said Figli di San Gennaros Bob Marshall.A local resident had been given controlover the concessions on that block and

thought a petting zoo would be fun,he said.

We thought it was going to be lambsor sheep, Marshall said. When we sawwhat it was, it was immediately shutdown. No one was ever in danger.

Nicolas Dutk o, a co-owner of Tartinery,a new French restaurant at 209 MulberrySt. at Spring St., said he supports stop-ping the festival at Kenmare St.

The restaurant had to pay $3,400 toreserve the sidewalk space in front of it,and put tables out, but the smoke fromfood vendors was so bad, no one wanted

to eat outdoors. Meanwhile, festival-go-ers passing by would keep asking if theycould buy beer at the outdoor tables, hesaid.

And the people are very rude thatcome to the festival, Dutko added.Its one thing to celebrate your Italianheritage. Up here north of Broome St.,theyre just doing it to make money. Itsaffecting us a lot.

Les Schechter, who does the festivalsP.R., said the street fair is essential forLittle Italys restaurants.

Oh yeah, definitely, he said. They

depend on that every year. Those 11 daysbring them a lot of income.

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Effort to shorten San Gennaro Fest falls shortContinued from page 5

You can only take so

much after awhile.

Sharon Gary

8/7/2019 THE VILLAGER 1-27-11

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BY ALBERT AMATEAU

The faithful and stubborn former parish-ioners of Our Lady of Vilna, the LithuanianCatholic church closed by the New York

Archdiocese nearly four years ago, are stillhoping to win a permanent injunction barringdemolition of the building, located right nearthe entrance to the Holland Tunnel. Shouldthey prevail, it would represent a stunningprecedent under which parishioners andnot the Catholic Church would have theultimate power to determine the fate of theirchurch buildings.

A core group of men and women who stillhold 1 p.m. Sunday vigils on the steps of the1910 church on Broome St. are basing theirhope on their petition to the Court of Appealsin Albany, the states highest state, to reverse

lower court and appellate rulings affirming thearchdioceses right to demolish the building.

We are energized that the Court ofAppeals in Albany considers our issue animportant one and decided to look into it,said Mindaugas Gus Blaudzinas, a memberof Our Lady of Vilna parish for the past 15years.

Despite the fact that the congregationlost in two courts, they were able to stop thedemolition because the courts issued a tem-porary restraining order against demolishingthe building.

Harry Kresky, attorney for the congrega-

tion, received permission from the AppellateDivision on Nov. 4 last year to continue

the appeal because one judge on the five-member appellate panel found in favor ofthe group. Kresky filed a 33-page brief onthe appeal on Jan. 12, which was within the

60-day filing deadline.

A Court of Appeals hearing on the matteris not likely before May, after lawyers for the

archdiocese reply to the brief and Kresky hasan opportunity to respond.

In February 2007, Cardinal Egan, thenarchbishop of New York, decided to disbandthe parish and demolish the building becauseof the roof, which was found to be unsafe, andbecause church functions like weddings andfunerals had not been held there for a year.

But Blaudzinas said this week that theMasses, held in the churchs basement afterthe main sanctuary was closed for roof repairs,were crowded with parishioners.

Of course no one would have a wed-ding in a church where the roof was being

repaired, Blaudzinas observed.The issues involved in the Our Lady of

Vilna appeal are similar to those in the longcourt fight to save St. Brigids Church onAvenue B, said Kresky, who also representedthe parishioners of that East Village church.

But St. Brigids legal issues were not settledbecause the court cases were withdrawn afteran unidentified angel donated $20 million tothe archdiocese to restore the badly deteriorat-ed 1849 building, revive the parish whichhad been disbanded in 2004 and endow theparish school.

Our angel is still not imminent, saidBlaudzinas. So the legal issues remain to bethrashed out in the Our Lady of Vilna casebefore the Court of Appeals.

The question is whether the states ReligiousCorporations Law, on the books since the turnof the 20th century, prohibits demolition of a

Catholic church building without the approvalof the parishioners, says Kreskys brief. Thearchdiocese and the lower court held thatdemolition does not require parishionersapproval.

Indeed, the courts and the archdioceseheld that submitting such a question to a civiltrial would involve a court in matters that areecclesiastical in nature, and run afoul of theFirst Amendment. Another issue, accordingto Kreskys brief, is whether the parishionershave any right to sue after the archdiocesedisbanded the Our Lady of Vilna parish. Thecourt and archdiocese lawyers say no, but the

Our Lady of Vilna congregants say yes.Blaudzinas noted that Lithuanian immi-

grants, many of whom were longshoremenwho worked on the nearby Hudson Riverpiers, erected the church. Another wave ofLithuanian immigrants came around World

War II, and a third Lithuanian immigrationwave came after 1991 when the countrybecame independent from Russia.

Blaudzinas recalled that in April 2007,the president of Lithuania issued a statementafter a visit with Pope Benedict XVI, notingthat Lithuanian immigrants in Manhattanbuilt Our Lady of Vilna Church with theirown money to have a place for worship andwitness their love and faith in God. Withtime, the church also became a center foster-ing Lithuanian culture and national identity,the statement said.

Asked whether the congregation would sue

to compel the archdiocese to reconstitute theOur Lady of Vilna parish, as well, Blaudzinassaid, Down the line it might be a next step,but there is no precedent for that.

Instead, Blaudzinas said the congregation islooking into the possibility of starting a newdialogue. Leaders of the congregation metwith New York Archbishop Timothy Dolanand hope that he finds favor with their cause,Blaudzinas said.

A spokesperson for the archdiocese saidthere would be no comment while the matteris the subject of a court action.

The church is named for the Virgin Mary,

who appeared in visions 400 years ago inLithuania.

K-4TH GRADES 5TH-8TH GRADES

Feb 7th, March 8th, April 5th

Celebrating

20ofFUN

years

!

Lady of Vilna appeal goes to states highest court

Plaintiffs say the Church

is flouting the Religious

Corporations Law.

8/7/2019 THE VILLAGER 1-27-11

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Governor Cuomo is trying to cut the fat out of Albany.

Seward Park successAfter more than four decades of frustrating

inaction at the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area,Monday nights vote at Community Board 3s Land Use

Committee, at last, smashed through all the inertia.Now, finally, this long-vacant eyesore of dirt can be

redeveloped with new housing and community ameni-ties, and put back on the tax rolls, generating jobs andrevenue for the city.

Of course, the boards passing the guidelines is just thefirst step; the Bloomberg administration next will refinethe plan all the while, hewing to C.B. 3s guidelines an environmental impact statement (E.I.S.) will be done;requests for proposals (R.F.P.s) will be issued to develop-ers. SPURAs redevelopment will be years in the making.

Monday nights committee vote, followed by Tuesdaynights unanimous full-board vote, were the result of hardwork and many hours logged over two years by key C.B.

3 members, local residents and area stakeholders. Fromthe outset, committee chairperson David McWater saidhe intended to make this process inclusive, so that allstakeholders felt invested in the process. Previous efforts toredevelop SPURA had crashed and burned. The disconnectbetween advocates for affordable housing, on one hand,and co-op residents who feel the area already has enoughaffordable housing, on the other, created paralysis.

McWater and Dominic Pisciotta, C.B. 3s chairperson,made sure that everyone was onboard. With McWaterever pushing the process forward and Pisciotta acting as aconciliator, they were a persuasive and effective team.

The nearly unanimous 20-to-1 committee vote is a tes-tament to the process. The lone No vote was by Damaris

Reyes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side,who to the end fought for more affordable housing. In aconstantly gentrifying Lower East Side, one cant criticizeher or GOLES for advocating for their belief that moreaffordable housing is sorely needed.

Yet, we feel the approved guidelines are the right com-promise. Fifty percent of the housing will be market rate,which will, in turn, subsidize moderate- and low-incomehousing, including senior housing. Forty percent ofSPURA will have welcome retail and commercial uses.

This new housing and its population, coupledwith retail and commercial uses, will revitalize thispart of the Lower East Side, which has basically beenoffline for the past 40 years, and is currently used as

a gigantic open-air parking lot. That the area is cryingout for revitalization was recognized by the new co-opresidents group SHARE, which strongly supported theguidelines and played an important advocacy role.

C.B. 3 and its leadership deserve immense credit fordefying the naysayers and pulling this off. For McWater,this is his second coup, having spearheaded the EastVillage / Lower East Side rezoning a few years ago thatcapped building heights and eliminated the community-facility bonus that allows monster-sized dorms.

Plaudits are also due the Bloomberg administration,which believed in C.B. 3 and nurtured and facilitatedthis bottom-up planning process.

Our elected officials also added to the momentum

behind the guidelines passage. Notably, Assembly SpeakerSheldon Silver quickly came out in favor of the guidelines in fact, he issued his e-mail blast support statementtwo hours before the committee even voted! Similarly,support by state Senator Dan Squadron, CouncilmembersMargaret Chin and Rosie Mendez and CongressmemberNydia Velzquez was also critical and appreciated.

But Silvers endorsement was key. With his voterbase on Grand St., where he lives, and as the statessecond most powerful elected official, he has alwayshad the power to make or break any SPURA proposal.Were grateful he was able to balance all the competinginterests and endorse this plan wholeheartedly.

EDITORIAL LETTERS TO THE EDITORTime for progress at SPURA!

To The Editor:

Re Time for justice at Seward Park Urban RenewalArea (talking point, by Joel Feingold, Jan. 20):

The saga of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area has cometo a climax with Community Board 3 voting this Monday nighton guidelines for a mixed-use development that would replacedilapidated parking lots with multi-income housing, retail prop-erties, green spaces, cultural/educational institutions and more.The future of SPURA impacts everyone on the Lower East Side.As a Grand St. resident and founder of SHARE (SustainableHousing and Retail Expansion), I believe the guidelines willprove most beneficial to our neighborhood and therefore warrantthe communitys support.

The empty SPURA sites were once a community ofdiverse residents and shops. The guidelines envision a future

where an active neighborhood exists once again. However,some are opposing the development guidelines for allocatinghalf of the housing for affordable units by invoking images offailed public housing projects. This concept is not what theguidelines propose. Housing for low-, moderate- and middle-income levels is included, reminiscent of the multi-incomeresidents that make up the Grand St. co-ops plus, a full50 percent allocation for market-rate units. Also, the wayaffordable housing is built today is vastly different from howit was built years ago. Nowadays, developers take advantageof tax benefits to erect 80/20 buildings, a co-existing mixof 80 percent market-rate and 20 percent affordable units,which would be the template for a SPURA development.

We should note that while a 50 percent affordable hous-

ing allocation is too little for some residents, for otherswho see the neighborhood as already containing significantamounts of affordable housing, this number is too high. Thedebate over how much affordable housing should be built onSPURA has been argued for decades now. If we want to con-tinue this argument for decades more, that is an option. Butit will not do anything to address the real and varied needsof our community in the near term, and will definitely causeeveryone to lose out for the foreseeable future. The currentmix of housing is fair to all parties and politically realistic.Lets not make the perfect the enemy of the good.

Some have argued that selling the SPURA lots at any-thing less than market value is reason alone to oppose theguidelines. However, the SPURA sites adjacent to Grand St.

are owned by the Department of Housing, Preservation andDevelopment, whose mission is to build housing, not maxi-mize income from city-owned property. The citys overallgoal would realize enormous economic benefits for the cityand the Lower East Side in the long term from taxes col-

lected on the creation of new jobs and housing.Why, as some suggest, would we want to sell this land

for maximum profit and build housing in the outer boroughswhen that money and infrastructure can be invested right

here in our neighborhood? Also worth noting are studiesthat have demonstrated how mixed-income developmentslike the one proposed on SPURA have a neutral-to-positiveeffect on nearby property values.

We should feel satisfied that the process of arriving at theseguidelines included community input every step of the way.The wants and needs of our diverse community were consid-ered in the formation of these balanced and sensible guide-lines, and we will continue to have a hand in influencing thedesign and character of SPURA as this process unfolds. If theoption existed to simply sell the SPURA land to the highestbidder, do we really think that the developer would considerthe communitys input in such a meaningful way?

The opportunity to finally develop SPURA means the Lower

East Side will gain vibrant, new neighborhood assets for all touse, rather than us having to endure more years of blighted lots.Just as the Grand St. co-ops themselves advanced a 19th-centuryneighborhood into the 20th century, so too can a dynamic SPURAdevelopment bring the Lower East Side into the 21st century andcreate a more prosperous future for all of our residents.

Brett LeitnerLeitner is founder, SHARE (Sustainable Housing and RetailExpansion)

Commends Mendez

To The Editor:Re Mendezs asthma-free act is law (Your Health

article, Jan. 20):Congrats to the councilwoman! I used to live in Greenwich

Village, and I hope that this kind of legislation takes hold allover the country. These types of places are why childhoodasthma is so prevalent in the U.S., and shady landlords aredefinitely part of the problem.

Nick Smith

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IRA BLUTREICH

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BY TED RALL

The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and11 other people is tragic. But it is not shocking. It isnt evensurprising.

What is surprising weird, even is the response of thecorporate-owned political and media establishment. Theyrecoming out against violent rhetoric. Not real violence. Theywant to stop talk about violence.

Liberals accuse right wingers of creating an atmosphere ofhatred that fuels incidents like the Arizona shootings.

We need to put the gun metaphors away, and permanently,urged Keith Olberman on MSNBC. If he gets his way, a lotof people in Hollywood are going to be out of work. Violentrhetoric causes actual violence is a liberal meme.

Mission accomplished, Sarah Palin, tweeted Markos

Moulitsas of DailyKos after the Tucson shootings. Moulitsasnoted that the Web site for Palins PAC featured an image of Rep.Giffordss district with crosshairs over it. There is, however, noevidence that the accused gunman ever saw Palins Web site.

Righties counter that the really inflammatory rhetoriccomes from the left. From, for example, the likes of me: Left-wing cartoonist Ted Ralls most recent book calls for a violentresponse from the left against the right, Erick Erickson ofRedState whined after Giffods was shot. The point of all ofthis is not to blame Ted Rall, he then backtracked. Like hell.

The cognitive disconnect between reality and self-perceptionin American society and politics is bizarre and frightening. Whenever theres a school or workplace shooting spree,Americans act shocked! shocked! shocked! To hear media com-

mentators, youd think this was a peace-loving nation of DalaiLamas rather than a bunch of brawlin, trash-talkin, gun-totin,foreigner-bombin yahoos who drive around Iraq shootingpeople while listening to death metal.

Violence, or the threat of violence, has no place in ourdemocracy, said Keith Olberman. Does he live in America?Americans worship violence. Kicking ass is our nationalreligion. Violence and threats of violence are part of ourdaily lives. As a kid, I got beaten up by bullies. As an adult,I collect death threats in response to my cartoons. When Iride my bike, motorists try to run me off the road. Most ofmy female friends have been raped.

When I served jury duty in New York prospective jurorswere asked whether they or someone close to them had ever

been the victim of a violent crime. Down the line they went, 50at a time. They went through 150 people. Every New Yorkerthere had suffered the effects of a brutal assault or the murderof a loved one.

The first time I felt any self-respect was when I sent a highschool bully to the hospital.

Sorry, Keith. Violence has plenty of place in our lame excusefor a democracy. Remember how Bush became president in2000? He hired goons to assault Florida election workers andhad a representative threaten a coup on national television.

Such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in

a free society, chimed in President Obama who was eithercoming from or en route to a meeting with Pentagon generalsto discuss Americas wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, orperhaps the occupation of Haiti, or expanding the new concen-

tration camp at Bagram. How many assassination orders haveyou signed so far, Barry? How many extraordinary renditions?How many torture memos?

As I recently explained to an interviewer: The reason Ioppose this particular regime is because it is so aggressivelyviolent.

And Im not talking about gun violence.Im talking about the wholesale over-the-top violence of

neocolonialism abroad, fueled by a cult of militarism here athome. U.S. forces are currently engaged in combat opera-tions and propping up puppet regimes in Afghanistan, Iraq,Colombia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and manyother countries. They are hated and reviled there. Here everyother cars bumper urges us to Support Our Troops.

We kill so many civilians we cant be bothered to countthem; not even Americas wimpy phony left opposes the kill-ing of enemy uniformed soldiers who die defending theirhomelands. Military action is Americas default response toevery major news story. The 9/11 attacks? Kill them all evenif were not sure who they are. Hurricane Katrina? Send inthe troops not help. Indian Ocean tsunami, earthquakes inPakistan or Haiti anything and everything is an opportunityto invade, corrupt, pillage and murder.

The young man accused of shooting Rep. Giffords isportrayed as sick, deranged and fond of oddball conspiracytheories. In these things, he is a typical American. TypicalAmericans, after all, believe in angels and creationism and thatBush found the W.M.D.s in Iraq and trickle-down economics.

Typical liberal Americans think its perfectly fine to give tril-lions to bankers while millions lose their jobs and get no helpwhatsoever.

The Tucson gunman is accused of an act of senseless vio-

lence. Here, too, he is just another face in the crowd. We all payour taxes. None of us loses a minute of sleep as those taxes areused to make bombs and hire men and women to drop them oninnocent people, who then blow into bits of flesh and bone.

Then there is the covert violence all around us: the tens ofthousands of Americans who die annually because they cantafford to pay for a doctors visit; the millions of children who goto bed hungry every night; the millions evicted from foreclosedhomes (tell them its not an act of violence); the hundreds ofthousands who sleep outside, and the millions who couch-surfwith friends and relatives because shelter is too expensive.We dont even think about getting serious about solving theseproblems.

Like terrorism, political violence is a relatively minor issue.

And as guys named Lincoln and Garfield and Charles Sumner who was nearly beaten to death by a fellow member on the floorof the U.S. Senate in 1856 could attest, it is not a new one.

The brutality being carried out by the political system and itscorporate sponsors is responsible for the equivalent of tens ofthousands of Tucson-level shooting sprees each year in the U.S.alone. For example, a peer-reviewed scientific study publishedin 2005 found that the death toll directly attributable to incomeinequality is comparable to the combined loss of life fromlung cancer, diabetes, motor vehicle crashes, H.I.V. infections,suicides and homicides.

But the ruling classes dont want us to think about reality.They want to make us shut up. Thus their calls to ramp downhigh-octane political speech.

Scared by political violence? Stop violent politics


As temperatures plummeted, a homeless panhandler slept in Grand Central.SCENE

TALKING POINT

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team who could not revive her, Harris was declared dead ofan apparent heart attack during the early hours of Jan. 12.The story of her rescue from the World Trade Center nineyears ago was the subject of a History Channel documentaryin 2006, The Miracle of Stairway B.

A bookkeeper for the Port Authority, Harris was makingher way down stairway B from the 73rd floor in the NorthTower and was near exhaustion at the 15th floor. Ladder

Co. 6 firefighters, who had climbed to a higher floor beforebeing ordered to go back down, were descending when theyencountered Harris and decided to help her to safety.

At the fourth floor, Harris collapsed and yelled at thefirefighters to leave her but they stayed on. It was then thatthe tower around them collapsed leaving Harris and thesix firefighters alive in stairway B, which did not collapsebetween the fourth and first floors.

You could say that if she were not there for us to save herwe probably would not have made it, said Deputy Chief JohnA. Jonas, who was the captain of the Ladder 6 crew at the time.The Ladder 6 firefighters dubbed Harris their guardian angel.

More recently, however, she had been unemployed forseveral years. She was subsisting on disability assistance, had

unpaid bills and had filed for bankruptcy before her death,according to her sister, Thelma Johnson.

Her body was unclaimed at the morgue for two days untilPeter DeLuca, owner of Greenwich Village Funeral Home,learned from Johnson that there were no funds for a funeral.He then pledged to provide a funeral free of charge.

DeLuca said he was moved by Harriss plight becausehis 13-month-old son had been killed in the collapse of hisbuilding on Sullivan St. in 1987.

A viewing for Harris was held at the funeral home, at 199Bleecker St., and the funeral, with firefighters as pallbearers,was at St. Josephs on Friday morning Jan. 21. Burial was inCypress Hills Cemetery on the Brooklyn-Queens border.

Funeral director, firefighters help angel take wing

Photo by William Alatriste / NYC Council

Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop emeritus of New York, celebrated the Mass of Resurrection at St. Josephs

Church for Josephine Harris last week, as former Mayor Giuliani, seated to the left of the coffin, listened.


Photo by Albert Amateau

After the service, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave Peter DeLuca, owner of Greenwich Village Funeral Home, a grateful pat on the back. DeLuca covered all the funeral

expenses for Josephine Harris, who had filed for bankruptcy before her death.

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about the s ites development.

Tuesday night, the measure went beforeC.B. 3s full board at its monthly meeting,and was passed unanimously. But first, mem-bers of the housing advocacy group GoodOld Lower East Side (GOLES) and otheractivists protested the previous days voteand blasted board members for not repre-senting low-income people and selling outthe community.

The guidelines next get sent to variouscity agencies for further tweaking. Under theguidelines, about 1,000 housing units wouldbe built at the site, roughly half of whichwould be allocated to middle- and low-

income individuals, along with retail shops,green space and, possibly, a new school andnursing home for the elderly.

Over the years, various city adminis-trations had shied away from developingthe empty swath of land because of thefierce disagreement that has surrounded it.Currently used as open-air parking lots onthe south side of Delancey St., it is the larg-est site of undeveloped city-owned land inManhattan south of 96th St. The propertyfell idle more than 40 years ago after thewholesale razing of blocks of residentialbuildings by the city for a never-completed

urban renewal planThe committees Monday night action

drew immediate praise from several politicalleaders and strong condemnation from onepublic member of the committee, DamarisReyes, executive director GOLES.

GOLES has been demanding that 70 per-cent of the new units be allocated for afford-able housing for low- and moderate-incomefamilies and for senior citizens.

But the new guidelines, worked out bycommittee members and local residents who for the past two years have been strug-gling to come up with an income-mix formula

for any housing to be built on the site callsfor only 50 percent affordable housing and,the rest, to be market-rate units.

Reyes told reporters after the marathonthree-and-a-half-hour meeting duringwhich committee members continued argu-ing until the last minute over the proposalslanguage and other details that she wasdeeply disappointed by the committeesvote.

There are a lot of good points to thisplan and a lot of strong efforts were made,she said. But in the end, I think we shouldhave seized this opportunity to restore the

units of affordable housing that have beenlost in this neighborhood over the last 40years.

Im not disappointed that were finallydoing something with this land, but Imdeeply disappointed by the percentages,Reyes added. Theyre not reflective of theneeds of this neighborhood. Theyre notreflective of what a majority of the peoplewho spoke tonight wanted.

Also issuing statements but in strongsupport of the new guidelines wereAssembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who, over

the years, has been perceived as oppos-ing developing the site for predominantlylow-income housing, state Senator Daniel

Squadron, City Councilmembers MargaretChin and Rosie Mendez and CongressmemberNydia Velzquez.

In his written statement, Silver said:I want to commend the leadership andmembers of the Community Board 3 LandUse, Zoning, Public and Private HousingCommittee for their effort to achieve, at longlast, a true consensus about the future ofSeward Park. From the outset, this process

was conducted openly, transparently and

fairly and went to great lengths to give voiceto the broad range of views that make up ourextraordinarily diverse community.

While there were, at times, deep andprincipled disagreements among stakehold-ers, I believe that ultimately this processbrought our community together, Silversaid. The final guidelines that were approvedby the committee tonight strike an appropri-ate balance between the needs and concernsof all stakeholders and will result in a devel-opment that will ensure our neighborhoodcontinues to thrive.

In his written statement, Squadron said:The community board vote is a huge winfor the community. It is appropriate that

after 43 years, a community-driven pro-cess has moved SPURA forward. Over thelast few months, I was honored to workwith members of the committee, communitymembers and my colleagues in government Speaker Silver, Councilmembers Chinand Mendez and Mayor Bloomberg tosupport an open and productive process thatwill lead to real results.

Chin, whose district also includes SPURA,issued the following prepared statement:I applaud the SPURA Development TaskForce [committee] for reaching a consensuson the proposed guidelines for the develop-

ment of the Seward Park Urban RenewalArea. After 43 years, I am pleased to saythat the guidelines that will shape the futuredevelopment of the area were derived, inlarge part, from the surrounding community.Community Board 3 members and residentsspent countless hours envisioning what typeof development would be the most beneficialfor such a diverse community. This processnot only brought the community togetherbut laid the groundwork for the near unani-mous vote achieved yesterday. I want tothank the chairperson of Community Board3, Dominic Pisciotta, and C.B. 3 District

Manager Susan Stetzer, and in particularTask Force Chairperson David McWater. This vote has shown both the diversity of theLower East Side and the strength of unity inthis neighborhood.

Chin added, I would also like to com-mend my colleagues in government for theirsupport of the process, and in particular,Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for hisprompt statement of support last night. I willcontinue to work on behalf of the commu-nity to obtain the resources that will movethis project forward while ensuring a variety

of housing options that meet the needs of thecommunity as a whole.

In her statement, Mendez said, Althoughthe Seward Park Urban Renewal Area is not

in my Council district, I want to add myvoice to the many others in praise of a pro-cess that has resulted in guidelines for thelands redevelopment. Anyone who has beeninvolved in the Lower East Side communityduring almost half a century was aware ofthe controversy that left a huge parcel ofhighly valuable land standing idle for far toolong. Over the years, very disparate opinionshave sometimes been expressed with angerand a lack of respect, and it was not easyfor all of that to be overcome. But the pro-

cess which Community Board 3 began, andwhich was open to broad participation byall aspects of the community, and was aided

by city agencies and facilitated by a skilledurban planner, has resulted in a compromise.I join with many others who wish we couldget even more affordable housing from thesite, but salute all who were able to agreeto find a middle ground to move a processforward.

In a statement of her own, Congress-member Velzquez said, The Lower EastSide has always drawn its strength fromthe neighborhoods diversity. It is thereforefitting that the Seward Park areas futureis being determined through an open andinclusive process which takes into account

the views of local residents. These guide-lines represent a big win in the fight foraffordable housing and true compromisethat balances the communitys many com-peting needs.

The standing-room-only Monday eveningmeeting, at the Henry Street SettlementsYouth Gym, 301 Henry St., was attendedby nearly 300 residents, along with a largecontingent of GOLES supporters, who, attimes, demonstrated their displeasure withcommittee members by extended clapping ofhands, cheers, jeers and catcalls.

Before the members got down to their his-

toric vote, more than a dozen local residentsaddressed the committee, most of them advo-cating for more affordable housing units onthe site rather than market-rate, for the devel-opment of parks and open space, and thepreservation of the Essex St. Market, which isbeing included in the SPURA redevelopmentplan and is at risk of being razed.

Ed Delgado, a former SPURA residentwhose family lived there 43 years ago and whohopes to be allowed to move back when the

In historic vote, C.B. 3 O.K.s SPURA guidelines


Lower East Siders packed the Henry Street Settlements Youth Gym Monday night

at C.B. 3s Land Use Committee for the vote on the SPURA guidelines.


The guidelines strike

an appropriate balance

between the needs

and concerns of all

stakeholders.

Sheldon Silver

With this plan we have a

compromise and its a

good one.

David McWater


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