SCOOPY’S, continued from p. 2 were people I had never spoken to for decades but passed every day,” he said. He also learned about, as he put it, “achieving what is important rather than what is perfect and naive. ... In community organizing, as you know, there are rarely victories, and when they come, they fade away fast. .... It was an amazing time of my life.” Recently, the community won a victory against Singer when the Department of Buildings ruled that his loose-ended plans to rent part of the building to The Cooper Union and Joffrey Ballet School — which is technically a vocational institution — didn’t pass muster, and issued a stop-work order on the project. “I didn’t trust this man,” Councilmember Rosie Mendez admitted of Rosen, a penthouse dweller in the tony Christodora House, next to the old P.S. 64. “I came to trust him, but not just trust him,” she said. “I came to love him.” Rosen really helped her through a tough breakup with her fiancée, she added. State Senator Brad Hoylman presented Rosen with a proclamation and noted that the struggle goes on, such as with the 7/11 on Avenue A, located in a building owned by Jared Kushner. “They have a noisy refrigeration unit they’ve used for over a year,” Hoylman said of the chain store. “So we went to court. There’s a cease-and-desist order on the refrigeration unit.” State Senator Daniel Squadron, who used to represent the district before the lines were redrawn, also gave Rosen a proclamation. Eric Goldberg, a real estate lawyer and friend, spoke glowingly of Rosen’s “brave vision” in building Red Square, on E. Houston St., back when the neighborhood was a far cry from today’s high-rent hot spot. Carlos Suarez, one of a group of local youths from the projects who Rosen took in and raised like a son, spoke glowingly of his surrogate papa. “For people from where I come from to go to the penthouse was crazy,” Suarez said. He recalled how he dropped out
of high school and “focused on girls,” but Rosen got him back on track with his education. “I’m very lucky that he has my back,” Suarez said. Developer Bob Perl noted to us that he “assembled” the lots to construct the Housing Works building for people with H.I.V./AIDS and I.V. drug users back in the 1980s when East Villagers had vehemently protested earlier plans to site the facility on E. Sixth St. near Avenue B. “Back then it was like Ebola,” he said of AIDS. “People were more afraid, and being gay was not as accepted.” Regarding Rosen, Perl said, “He’s a giant.” Because of all he’s done for the East Village? we asked. “No — in Vietnam he’s a giant,” Perl said. “People are really small there. He’s taller than everyone.” Rosen has lived in Hanoi for two years, working with an agriculture and food company. Before that, he was in Hong Kong for a year and a half. GREAT ASSIST! Dr. Eric Cruzen, director of emergency medicine at the Lenox Hill HealthPlex, reports that the freestanding Village emergency department has helped save its second heart-attack patient. According to Cruzen, a man, 74, was brought by ambulance to the facility, at W. 12th St. and Seventh Ave., last week. The EKG the medics had performed en route didn’t show a heart attack. “Often, the EKG changes minute by minute,” Cruzen noted. “During his initial evaluation he was found to have an EKG showing a heart attack. We rapidly began his treatment and stabilized him, then were able to immediately transfer him directly to the cath lab at Beth Israel, where he was found to have several blockages in the blood vessels of his heart. From arrival at our facility to when he left to go to the cath lab was approximately 30 minutes.”
DORIS’S BIG DAY: Veteran C.B. 2 member Doris Diether, one of the city’s longest-serving community board members (and the inspiration for the famous Little Doris marionette) will be honored by
the City Council with a proclamation at its Nov. 25 stated meeting. FLEA MARKET FUN: Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday — and don’t forget the Westbeth Flea Market, either! It will all go down in Westbeth Underground, at 55 Bethune St. at Washington St., from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The venue is fitting, since the event hasn’t been held for two years since Sandy flooded the artist housing complex’s basement. You’ll find vases and household items, clothing, bags, belts, tons of books and records, backpacks, shoes, lots of frames, artwork, art supplies and more at what has been called the “best (indoor) sale in New York City.” The action continues on Sat., Nov. 8, and Sun., Nov. 9, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
UNFLAGGING EFFORT: Congrats to Novac Noury, the “Arrow Keyboard Man,” who recently had a flag featured in a show at MoMA’s Cullman Building. Noury is part of SAGE (Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders), which approached the museum with the concept, in which members of the group each made a 2-foot-by-3-foot flag that was draped from the ceiling. Noury’s of course featured an ejaculating arrow keyboard, an homage to the portable wireless organ he used to play while gyrating on the dance floor at Studio 54, and which spurted sparks, whipped cream, water, you name it. His flag, he said, was “a salute to my ongoing quest to develop my land and to rebuild my damaged arrow keyboard.” Noury still hopes to develop his now-vacant lot in the Meatpacking District just south of the glitzy Standard Hotel, where his afterhours club, RSVP, used to be located back in the disco days. For film (or arrow keyboard) buffs, the instrument was first introduced in the original “Hair” movie in the hallucination scene, when Noury is briefly shown shooting sparks out of it.
Friends of LaGuardia ‘wing it’ at annual gala BY TEQUILA MINSKY
T
16
October 30, 2014
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
he Friends of LaGuardia Place held their annual Gala at Noho STAR on Tues., Oct. 21, recognizing three individuals whose exemplary work is of great benefit to the local community. Among the honorees at the gala, this year dubbed “Soaring Successes,” was Lois Rakoff, a Community Board 2 member, former resident chairperson of BAMRA (Bleecker Area Merchants’ and Residents’ Association) and current community director of the Poe Room, at the N.Y.U. School of Law. Also recognized were “legal eagles” Jim Walden and Randy Mastro, partners in the firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, who are leading the legal challenge against New York University’s South Village superblocks expansion plan. The community plaintiffs, who recently suffered a tough defeat at the Appellate Division, after a victory in State Supreme Court, plan to
From left, Randy Mastro, Lois Rakoff and Jim Walden proudly display their LaGuardia Medallions.
appeal to the Court of Appeals. “The best is yet to come,” Walden said, referring to the “rubber match.”
President Lawrence Goldberg, president of Friends of LaGuardia, was the night’s emcee.
“Honoring Lois Rakoff for her outstanding community work and Jim Walden and Randy Mastro for their superb legal work and tireless devotion to our Village was an enormous pleasure,” he said. “Handing each of them a LaGuardia Medallion, which we give to our community’s Neighborhood Stars, is just a small gesture of our appreciation for all they do.” The annual event raises funds for upkeep, upgrades and maintenance of LaGuardia Park’s statue of Fiorello La Guardia, the gardens, paths and playground. In addition to the statue, this park is the home of a new toddlers’ playground, Adrienne’s Garden, and is an oasis of green along LaGuardia Place. Most recently, it was the site of the recent “Sonic Forest” art installation. Many at the full-house event wore a flash of red — socks, a tie, hat, dress or ribbon — paying homage to the redtailed hawks that frequent LaGuardia Park and which were the theme of the evening’s festivities. TheVillager.com