A newsman looks back, p. 13
Volume 82, Number 7 $1.00
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Hudson Square, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933
July 19 - 26, 2012
Noisy bars, gardens, fracking, housing top bill at E.V. town hall BY LESLEY SUSSMAN It was “open mic night” at the Tompkins Square Library on Tuesday, but the more than 100 local residents who packed the “East Village Town Hall” meeting that was held there were not interested in reading poetry or performing music. They crowded into the third-floor meeting room to vent their concerns about a variety of issues affecting the East Village, Lower East Side
Photo by William Alatriste/NYC Council
From left, Jeanne Wilcke, Judy Callet, G.V.S.H.P.’s Andrew Berman and Mary Johnson turned out to show their opposition to the N.Y.U. plan.
N.Y.U. 2031 plan wins key vote by Council committee BY LINCOLN ANDERSON By a vote of 19 to 1, the City Council’s Land Use Committee on Tuesday approved New York University’s 2031 plan for its two South Village superblocks. The full Council is now poised to cast a final vote on the plan next Wed., July 25. Unlike at the City Council hearing several weeks ago, when testimony by the massive project’s opponents, especially actor Matthew Broderick, had drawn flurries of agreeing “jazz hands” fluttering in the air, this time opponents had little to feel jazzed about. The only “jazz hands” in evidence were when Councilmember Charles Barron spoke before casting his lone
dissenting vote. Nevertheless, Councilmember Margaret Chin — whose First District includes the N.Y.U. superblocks — was able to get some significant reductions and concessions compared with the version of the plan that was previously approved by the City Planning Commission. “At last month’s public hearing, I made it clear I did not support N.Y.U.’s expansion proposal as modified by the City Planning Commission,” Chin said in her remarks before the vote. “Throughout this process, I have tried to keep an open mind. I have maintained that it is possible to strike a balance that upholds the integrity of Greenwich
Village and meets N.Y.U.’s immediate academic needs.” Chin said she was confident that the modified proposal “strikes this appropriate balance,” and that N.Y.U. has made “major modifications to their core campus expansion. “To be perfectly honest, no one got everything they wanted,” she added. “This was a compromise; but it was arrived at rationally in good faith.” Lynne Brown, N.Y.U. senior vice president, said, “The plan approved today by the City Council Committee on Land Use will enable N.Y.U. to
and even the West Village — everything from the dangers of hydraulic fracturing a.k.a. “fracking” to the future fate of the community gardens. The 6 p.m. meeting was hosted by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and attended by representatives from more than 16 government agencies. Also present were several other political leaders,
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Judge’s book gives an insider’s view of life on the bench BY JERRY TALLMER The author of “Disrobed” was indeed disrobed. On this Saturday morning the honorable Frederic L. Block, senior judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (which covers Brooklyn and Long Island), had set aside his black robes in favor of a light-blue, bicycle-imprinted T-shirt and white shorts. The traffic on the West Side Drive had thrown him for a loop. “Cyanide on the rocks with a twist,” he said to a waiting waitress, but then settled for a
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bagel and coffee. “So? Did you read the book? How’d you like it?” Judge Block asked this reader. I said I liked it fine but that its index was all screwed up. He said they were working to fix that in the next edition. “Disrobed” (published by Thomson Reuters Westlaw) is in fact just what its subtitle says it is: “An inside look at the life and work of a federal judge.” Its 454 jam-packed pages carry Greenwich Villager Frederic
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EDITORIAL, LETTERS PAGE 12
MUCHO MUSIC PAGE 17