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Savoring dance by Camille, p. 23

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Volume 81, Number 34 $1.00

January 26 - February 1, 2012

City Planning O.K.’s Rudin condo project for St. Vincent’s site

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BY ALBERT AMATEAU The City Planning Commission on Monday unanimously approved Rudin Management’s plan for the residential redevelopment of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital campus. The Jan. 23 vote, with Amanda Burden, commission chairperson, and 11 other commissioners attending, took less than 10 minutes. It was the next-to-last step in the city’s uniform land use review procedure,

VOLUME 24.41 FEBRUARY 29-MAR.6.2012

DOWNTOWN CHURCH UNCERTAIN ABOUT FUTURE ATWanna P.S. 89

or ULURP, for a project that would create 450 new condominium apartments on the east side of Seventh Ave. and a 17,000-squarefoot park in the triangle on the west side of the avenue. The City Council has the final word and must now vote within 60 days whether to approve the $800 million project. The redevelopment plan includes converting four former hospital buildings to

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buy Trump Soho hotel? Well, then, you’re hired!

B Y A L IN E R E Y N O L D S

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s a federal court case pertaining to the separation of church and state drags on, one Downtown church is scrambling to find a new place to call home. BY ALBERT AMATEAU Lower Manhattan A partner in the 46-story Community Church, formerly called Construction workers wearing orange shirts held up signs backing the N.Y.U. 2031 project at Thursday’s full Mosaic Manhattan, has been holdTrump Soho, the condo ing the majority of its Sunday worBoard 2 meeting. hotel that opened in April ship services at Battery Park City’s in the Hudson Square P.S. 89 since2010 2003. But last Sunday, Feb. 26, thedistrict church’s congregation over the objections convened onofan neighborhood upper floor at 10 preservaDesbrosses St. in Tribeca, a space tion advocates, last week that carries a weekly rental fee put the on the aucnearly five times the building cost of the school space.tion block. The Downtown Alexchurch, Sapir,along the partner of with dozens of others across the the inBayrock Group city have been limbo over the in buildingtothe hotel law managed by BY LINCOLN ANDERSON the 300-person audience at P.S. 41 He noted the board had “avoided a due past weeks a municipal that bans them from holding worDonald Trump’s family, said In what opponents blasted as an repeatedly told N.Y.U. and the construc- melee” after the first of these hearings, ship services in city public schools. last week that the unsold “orchestrated” show of support for tion workers to “Build it Downtown!” when the auditorium at the A.I.A. In the mid-1990s, the Bronx condo and the public N.Y.U.’s 2031 large-scale development — meaning the university should Center proved to be too small for the Household of Faith, units an evangeliplan, union construction workers — develop its new space nearby in the overcapacity crowd, and the meeting cal Christian group that for years met at P.S. 15 in the Bronx, Lady along with university deans and even Financial District where Community had to be quickly moved to Ourhas took the city to court to contest the women’s basketball team coach Board 1 has an open invitation for of Pompei Church’s basement. the ruling. The Bronx church lost — testified on behalf of the ambitious N.Y.U. to come grow. Hoylman said, at this point, the the case that time around but ultimately won an injunction from the FREE development scheme at Community Several N.Y.U. faculty members also Downtown board will send a formal letter to N.Y.U. Express photo by TERESE LOEB KREUZER courts, which in turn exempted VOLUME ELEVEN, ISSUE TWOThree full Board packed meeting theonplan, saying regarding the plan, asking Greeted by2’s fireboat Forty board Three, Disney Fantasy spoke paid heragainst maiden call New York City it onwould Feb. 28. She will be christened in New York the on university all the churches from the policy. JANUARY 2012 March 1 and 18-31, will benight. permanently berthed in Port Canaveral, Fla. both their classrooms and their last Thursday disrupt to respond to it in writing. Following The case lay dormant until last And, in a first, a lone local resident families’ lives. that, there will be a second round of when a panel of federal summer, ing a toymeetings gun, that she to last week’s spoke in favor of the plan. But the Brad Hoylman, C.B. 2 chairperson, on brought the 2031 plan by thejudges C.B.ruled in favor of the city’s at 2 committees during February. policy. The Bronx church has since crowd mockingly accused him of being said 1,000 people had turned outmeeting. “It looks like the real one, but it’s not,” said contested the ruling on the grounds the board’s previous five hearingsLiang on of the item. paid off. of the first amendment right to free Meanwhile, local residents among the N.Y.U. “Core Proposal” this month. Continued on page 14 of religion. exercise Jerome Foy, a police officer for Manhattan As the Bronx Household of South’s Peddler Task Force, stressed that the B Y A LINE R EY NO LD S “Angry Birds.” onus is on the merchants to make sure they’re 5 15 CAN REwhich ET • N YC 10 013the • merchandise CO P Y RIG HT © 2legitimate 012 CO M MU N ITY MED I A, Continued LLC on page 14 In the days and weeks afterAL theST raid, receiving from disnlicensed vendors loitering along Canal resulted in close to 50 arrests, several mer- tributors. “These particular arrests are based on obserStreet aren’t the only ones selling coun- chants contacted Stringer’s office claiming to be terfeit handbags, toys and other knock-off surprised and confused, the Borough President vation… and by that time, the crime has been merchandise to passersby. said at the meeting. committed already,” said Foy. “Unfortunately, the Police have recently discovered several “The vendors said they tried to do the fact that you don’t know an item you’re selling local mom-and-pop business owners are also right thing and said they didn’t know that the is counterfeit is not a defense or excuse to the violating the law. But some of these businesses ‘Angry Birds’ merchandise was counterfeit,” Police Department.” In order for the cops to enforce the law, claim they’re being handcuffed and fined with- said Stringer. “This [meeting] is about building trust and collaboration, so we don’t have to Rovio, Gucci, and all the other brand-named out comprehending what they did wrong. The issue was cause for an information find people getting arrested and merchandise companies are responsible for training them on session Manhattan Borough President Scott confiscated.” the unique traits of their merchandise. Stringer convened for neigborhood vendors. Xiaomei Li, who sells merchandise at a store “We don’t make arrests on trademark counThe forum was hosted by local elected offi- at 58 Mott St., said that on Nov. 26 of last year, terfeit unless we have a complaint [from the cials and the New York Police Department’s a cop picked up a satchel on display and pro- brand-named company],” explained Lieutenant Manhattan South Peddler Task Force at the Lin ceeded to put her in handcuffs without offering Michael Dimino. Sing Association at 49 Mott St. last Friday, Feb. an explanation. Police officers, in turn, are responsible for 24. Specifically, the meeting was organized to “The officer arrested me on the spot, and I showing self-identification before making an ST. PAT’S PRODUCTIONS: arrest, Dimino said. If they don’t abide by this address the cops’ November raid of Chinatown didn’t even have a chance to complain,” said Li. OUR MARCH DOWNTOWN stores in search of counterfeit toys and t-shirts Yan Liang, a store owner at 153 Centre St., THEATER PICKS. carrying the logo of the cell phone action game, complained of being fined $900 twice for sellContinued on page 15 TURN TO PAGE 22. The Photo by Tequila Minsky

N.Y.U. calls out the troops in support of its mega-plan

Santorum’s Anti-Gay Evolution Page 9 New Trenton Marriage Push Page 14 DISNEY FANTASY FLOATS INTO NEW YORK CITY Page 18 William Christie at the Met Page 25 Anthony Rapp, Dublin Dreamer

‘Angry Birds’ raid leads to broader discussion on counterfeit goods

areas of the hotel would be auctioned in March or April. Sapir told the business press on Jan. 18 that the developers had received unsolicited offers from unnamed buyers. “They were numbers that we would be very happy selling at,” Sapir told Bloomberg News and Crain’s New York Business. Sapir said the auction of

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LETTUCE ENTER THE DRAGON PAGE 13

EDITORIAL, LETTERS PAGE 16

BY PAUL SCHINDLER Steampunked, p. 23

Politicians, particularly in the heat of an election contest, often fudge the facts. That’s no surprise, and there are no end of media outlets and advocacy groups — of varying reliability, to be sure — who put on a full court press ferreting out the “truthiness” of debate pronouncements, stump speeches, and campaign websites. Sometimes it’s child’s play to demonstrate that a candidate’s claim is a flatout falsehood, though even then it’s not always easy to prove the candidate THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER knowingly deceived voters. But every once in a while, a politician says something untrue where the evidence is unmistakable that they knew they were lying. During a Republican presidential debate on January 7, Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker — amidst a rant about what the news media is ignoring — asked, “Should the Catholic Church be forced to close its adoption services in Massachusetts because it won’t accept gay couples, which is exactly what the state has done?” Catholic Charities of Boston had, in fact, elected to end its adoption services in 2006 after Massachusetts officials made clear that its decision to specifically bar adoptions by gay people ran afoul of state law. Gingrich was on a roll making the claim the Obama

VOLUME 4, NUMBER 37

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ROMNEY, continued on p.8

JANUARY NUARY 25 - FEBRUARY 7 7, 2012

Chelsea Hotel tenants back in court BY BONNIE ROSENSTOCK On January 19, the Chelsea Hotel tenants association returned to Housing Court for the next round of their case against Chelsea Dynasty LLC, the Chetrit Group, Chelsea Management LLC, Joseph and Meyer Chetrit, Michael Butler and Lilly Sirkin. Representing the tenants association were Janet Ray Kalson and Ron Languedoc of Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben, Donoghue &

Joseph. Of the 35 tenants named in the Order to Show Cause, eight attended the proceedings. Fred Daniels of Daniels, Norelli, Scully and Cecere PC — a firm that specializes in debt collection — represented the respondentsowners. Butler, an executive with the Chetrit Group and named in the lawsuit, sat on the opposite side of the courtroom from the tenants. Valentine Moretti was the

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Newspaper print advertising reinforces and increases reader response from other types of media, like the Internet. Source: 2009 Newspaper Association of America’s “Why Newspapers?” report

OTDA grants final permit to Bowery Residents’ Committee The many faces of fiber, p. 16

East and West Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Little Italy and Chinatown

Volume 2, Number 26 FREE

Photo by Scott Stiffler

Christopher P. Moore (commissioner of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission) speaks at Jan. 15’s official landmarking of the Lamartine Place Historic District.

BY WINNIE McCROY Five months after the Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC) began to move clients into its 127 West 25th Street facility, the facility is operating at full capacity. Despite the possibility that a long-standing lawsuit mounted against the BRC may undergo a final appeal, state agencies seemingly found no further reasons for withholding the certificate for the BRC’s

96-bed Reception Center (which serves homeless men with one or more diagnosed mental illnesses). “BRC’s programs in Chelsea and throughout NewJanuary York19City, are suc- 25, 2012 cessfully helping the people we serve,” said BRC Executive Director, Muzzy Rosenblatt. “Our programs at West 25th Street have already helped hundreds

Te amo, Bimbo:

Marker honors Manhattan’s only Two Boots tribute documented Underground Railroad station to an L.E.S. legend BY SCOTT STIFFLER A crowd of well-insulated locals, historic preservationists and elected officials — whose ranks far exceeded the number of degrees Fahrenheit — attended an outdoor ceremony on the afternoon of Sunday, January 15. Such events would normally be peppered with grumblings about having to “brave the cold” and complaints about

BY BONNIE ROSENSTOCK With great fanfare, family, friends and food, Two Boots Pizzeria kicked off its yearlong 25th anniversary celebration with a tribute to one of the Lower East Side’s most beloved figures, Bittman “Bimbo” Rivas. On Thursday evening, Jan. Continued on page 15 12, after much sampling of scrumptious Two Boots accompanied by the 5 15 C A N A L ST R E ET • N YC 10 013 • C OP Y R I G HT © 2 012 C OMMU N IT Y ME Dpizza, IA, LLC booming sounds of the Stumblebum Brass Band, the overflowing crowd was

the “bitter chill.” But more than one speaker alluded to how fortunate those in attendance were to be free, safe and generally comfortable — considering the dangers and indignities endured by those whom the gathering sought to honor. The ceremony, held to officially landmark the Lamartine Place Historic District, bestowed some hard-won and

long-sought respect upon a row of mid-19th century antebellum Greek Revival houses standing from 333 to 359 West 29th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. “For years, the community worked to designate this area as an historic district,” noted Assembly Member

Photo by Bonnie Rosenstock

Two Boots owner Phil Hartman and Michelle Rivas admiring the new mosaic mural of Bimbo Rivas at Hartman’s Avenue A pizzeria.

N.Y.U. takes heat on school and open space at hearings BY ALBERT AMATEAU New York University presented two more aspects of its 2031 redevelopment plan to hostile Village audiences over the past seven days. On Thurs., Jan. 12, Community Board 2’s Parks Committee heard an outline of the open space proposed for the university’s large-scale redevelopment of its two superblocks over the next 20 years. On Tues., Jan. 17, the board’s Education and Social Services Committee hosted a forum on the proposed public elementary school space proposed as part of the project, which is intended to add 2.5 million square feet of new construction on the superblocks, including 1.5 million of that aboveground and the rest belowground.

While the public school space is included in the 2031 land use review, it was still uncertain this week when or whether the proposed school would be built. N.Y.U. is proposing to provide 100,000 square feet of space for a 650-seat kindergarten-to-eighth grade public elementary school on the first seven floors of a new building, where the Morton Williams market is now located on the northwest corner of the south superblock. The proposed building, at the corner of Bleecker St. and LaGuardia Place, would also rise an additional six or seven stories for an N.Y.U. student dorm — but the dorm would be set back at the eighth floor to allow for a children’s playground on the roof of

the school space. Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U. vice president for government relations and community engagement, said the university is providing the property for the school for free, but that the city’s School Construction Authority would have to construct the “core and shell” of the school at its own expense. There would be separate lobbies and entrances for schoolchildren using the public school and N.Y.U. students using the dorm. The S.C.A. would be able to build the public school by 2025 or before. Although N.Y.U. and the S.C.A. have been discussing the school space, Hurley acknowledged that the agency

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feted with the unveiling of a mosaic of Rivas, created by artist Juan Carlos Pinto. Afterward, a small but enthusiastic group8conPAGE tinued to honor Rivas with reminiscences and poetry at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe on E. Third St. between Avenues B and C. PAGE Rivas, known to 3 all as Bimbo, was a Puerto Rican community activist, poet, playwright, actor, director and teacher, who coined the

EDITORIAL, LETTERS

REMEMBERING BOB BERGERON

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Authorities are still unable to bag army of knockoff vendors BY ALINE REYNOLDS On a recent weekday afternoon, about 30 men displaying counterfeit handbags, watches and other illicit merchandise lined Canal St. between Mercer St. and Broadway. As pedestrians passed, some of the vendors gestured to pocket-sized catalogues, featuring photos of the knockoff goods, while others whispered, “Gucci,” “Louis Vuitton” or simply “handbag.” One of them succeeded

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in hooking Calvin Morley, 18, of Bradenton, Florida. “They were trying to sell us G-Shock watches, which are normally about $120 new. I bought this one off a guy for $20,” Morley said as he pointed to the new watch on his wrist. Psyched about his purchase, Morley sought out another watch from a different vendor. “He was sketchy about

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EDITORIAL, LETTERS PAGE 10

IN ‘THE PICTURE BOX’ PAGE 14

he New York Pres s Asso ciatio n (NYPA) and the Natio nal News pape r Asso ciatio n (NNA ) have recog nized Com muni ty Medi a with more than 155 awar ds over the past ten years , inclu ding NYPA’s top prize for exce llenc e (The Villag er) and Com muni ty Lead ershi p acco lades from both.

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