Bitter sweet memories, p. 5
Volume 81, Number 44 $1.00
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Hudson Square, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933
April 5 - 11, 2012
Will conservative Supreme Court remove rent regs? BY ANDY HUMM The U.S. Supreme Court will decide this month whether to take a case challenging the constitutionality of New York’s 1943 rent regulation law that gives tenants the right to renew their leases and limits rent increases to a variable percentage. If taken, the case would be heard in the high court’s October term — and a decision would be given by June 2013.
Photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer
Faded paint on the arch at the entrance of Pier 54 on the Hudson River near 13th St. shows that it was once used by the White Star Line and by Cunard White Star. The Titanic’s survivors were brought to this pier on April 18, 1912. The arch is the remnant of the pier shed that once covered the structure.
On the trail of the Titanic BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER It will be 100 years come April 15 since the opulent ocean liner Titanic hit an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland and sank at 2:20 a.m., killing more than 1,500 people. But not all vestiges of that tragedy are at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Some are in Manhattan. The arched ironwork at the entrance to Pier 54 on the Hudson River near W. 13th St. still bears the words “Cunard White Star Line” in faded paint. This was the pier to which the Carpathia, a Cunard ship, brought the survivors of the Titanic, docking there on April 18, 1912. A few blocks north, at Pier 59, in what is now the Chelsea Piers sports complex, the Carpathia stopped off at the White Star moorings to deposit the lifeboats that had saved the lives of 705 people.
Then around 100 members of the bedraggled, exhausted crew of the Titanic were taken down Manhattan’s Lower West Side to what was then the American Seaman’s Friend Society, now The Jane hotel, at 113 Jane St., where they received clothing, food and lodging. The exterior of The Jane probably looks much as it did then. The interior has been revamped, but two items in the lobby recall the Titanic and its time — an ornate, marble fountain that was there when the survivors arrived and a metal plaque that was subsequently placed in front of it, now so worn that the inscription can no longer be read. What is now the ballroom and bar of the hotel on the right side of the lobby was at that time a little assembly hall. The surviving crew gathered there on April 19, 1912,
to pray for those who had been lost. An article in The New York Times published the day after described the service. The men cried as they prayed. Then, accompanied by Miss Josephine Upham on the piano, they sang “Nearer My God to Thee” and “Rock of Ages.” Afterward, over coffee and sandwiches, some of the crew talked about their experiences. They said that they had never had a dress rehearsal with the lifeboats since the ship left Southampton, England, on April 10. In fact, it emerged subsequently that there were only enough lifeboats for one-third of the people onboard. They also talked of horrors beyond the sinking of the ship itself. “One told of hearing as many as
While the rent laws have withstood numerous court challenges over the years, the highly conservative court led by Chief Justice John Roberts has tenants all over New York nervous. The Supreme Court has already declared corporations to have the rights of people and may strike down the federal Affordable Health Care Act. But New York
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Villager is judged one of the state’s best weekly papers The Villager won six firstplace awards and 13 awards over all — ranking it among the top five community newspapers in the state — in the New York Press Association’s 2011 Better Newspaper Contest. The awards were given out this past weekend in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., at NYPA’s annual spring convention. Contest entries were judged in January by members of the Washington Press Association. (The Villager shares content with the East Villager, which
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was launched two years ago. Entries from The Villager were submitted for the contest.) The Villager won first place for Headline Writing. The judge for this category was clearly high on the paper’s entries, such as, “Pot activist still in the joint: ‘It was all medical marijuana.’ ” That headline was from a March 2011 front-page article about Bleecker St. Yippie icon Dana Beal being jailed after getting
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PROVOCATIVE PAINTER PASSES PAGE 12
EDITORIAL, LETTERS PAGE 20