Villager 10/10/12

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Harvest kicks it up a notch, p. 19

Volume 82, Number 19 $1.00

West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Hudson Square, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933

October 11 - 17, 2012

Youth leagues go to bat against strip club near Pier 40 BY LINCOLN ANDERSON Paul Fox was walking back home from Pier 40 with his 8-year-old son two Saturdays ago when he passed the adult video store at Clarkson and West Sts. He saw a sign posted on the building’s corner inviting people in for a “community meeting” about the new high-end topless club that’s planned there. Fox said he muttered something about the fact that now he’ll “have to fight this place too.” Photo by Milo Hess

A photo that really grabs you Last Saturday, the Lilac welcomed landlubbers aboard at Tribeca’s Pier 25 as part of Open House New York. The River Project pulled up traps from the moorings and a blue crab was among the haul.

Politicians call for emergency Senate vote to pass gun laws BY SAM SPOKONY In the wake of a recent shooting outside an East Village housing complex, local lawmakers gathered alongside community leaders last Friday to call for a special legislative session aimed at passing statewide gun control measures that would make New York’s gun laws the strongest in the country. At the heart of that argument was a bill requiring the use of a new techonology called microstamping, which passed the state Assembly in June but has been held up by the state Senate’s Republican majority since being introduced in 2011. State Senator Daniel Squadron, one of the sponsors of the microstamping bill, as well as other current-

ly stalled gun control legislation, led a press conference outside Campos Plaza at E. 12th St. and Avenue C — the site of the shooting — to call for the emergency Senate vote, while also condemning gun industry lobbyists. The Oct. 1 shooting injured one man and is still being investigated. “There’s no issue more important than this right now,” Squadron said, “and we need to pass these basic, commonsense laws that would make our streets safer.” Microstamping uses lasers to stamp a numeric code onto bullet shell casings, theoretically making it easier for police to track individual casings left at a crime scene back to the gun — and the shooter — that fired them. The scheme has

been met with strong opposition from Second Amendment advocates across the nation, and in recent months some major gun manufacturers have threatened to leave New York if statewide legislation requiring the new technology were to pass. California is currently the only state to have passed a microstamping law, but it is not actually in use there because, since 2007, the law has been held up on technicalities. “The gun lobby opposes this because they believe any law that places restrictions on any gun seller or purchaser is a bad law, and we’ve seen the violent effects of

“Why?” asked his son, as he held his dad’s hand. “Because I don’t want a strip club here,” he answered. “He said, ‘Daddy, what’s a strip club?’ ” Fox recalled. “I said, ‘It’s a place grownups go to drink and do silly things.’ ” Fox said he also thought about the dilemma posed by the sign’s invitation to meet in the XXX emporium: Either he could leave his son out on the

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Landmarks O.K.’s East Side district with 330 buildings BY SAM SPOKONY The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday approved the creation of a new historic district in the East Village. The East Village/Lower East Side Historic District comprises 330 buildings between E. Second and E. Seventh Sts., mainly around Second Ave., as well as some between First Ave. and

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Aveune A. The newly landmarked buildings represent a diverse mix, including tenements, religious institutions, row houses and theaters. The district had been considered by the commission since 2010. The L.P.C. commissioners voted 6 to 1 in favor of the district. All the commissioners expressed the importance

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EDITORIAL, LETTERS PAGE 22

PATHMARK PANIC PAGE 18


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