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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933
December 31, 2015 • $1.00 Volume 85 • Number 31
Arcane process to pick Shelly Silver successor favors district leaders BY JOSH ROGERS
S
o who is going to be picking the successor to Shelly Silver, the former assemblymember who was convicted last month on corruption charges? If you are following the story, you already know it won’t be voters. Members of the Democratic County
Committee from Silver’s 65th Assembly District in Lower Manhattan will effectively crown the next legislator early next year when they select the nominee for the April 19 special election. But at least the public can easily see who the committee members are, right? SILVER continued on p. 14
E.P.A. to fast-track Hudson River cleanup review in ’16 BY YANNIC RACK
T
he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is speeding up its probe into whether General Electric’s cleanup of the Hudson River was a success, giving in to pressure from environmental groups who say the company needs to do more to clear the waterway from chemicals. The $2 billion six-year
dredging project concluded earlier this year and GE claims it successfully removed the dangerous PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, it dumped into the river before 1977. Instead of waiting until 2017, the E.P.A. announced this week that it will now start early next year with its inspection of whether the dangerous pollutant — CLEANUP continued on p. 11
PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
An Adam Purple collage, including an “Omtober” ’93 letter to his daughter Jenean, mentioning an upcoming photo shoot with Harvey Wang for Life magazine; with photos of Purple, from left, with his son Adam David in the Garden of Eden; possibly at his high school graduation; and with Anne a.k.a. Eve No. 2. “what do you think of this brandnew letterhead?” he asks his daughter. “hipp, huh!”
The dark side of Purple BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
T
his is a true story…. I was born in Missouri in 1955. For the first 12 years of my life, I was held captive, and systematically brainwashed. I was indoctrinated and trained to be a sex slave. …” So began a woman’s monologue, entitled “Coming Out,” performed on Sept. 4 on the stage of an improv theater somewhere in the Northwest. Stagehands held up two large cardboard rectangles, each with a drawing on it
— one downstage, showing a young girl, the other upstage, a woman. As the narrator, hidden from view, spoke during the five-minute piece, several people first circled the drawing of the girl while holding up small signs with quotes, such as “Daddy loves you,” “Let the nice man kiss it,” “You like that don’t you!” “Let them watch, honey,” and “If it hurts use vaseline.” The woman went on to talk about how, as a young child, she was given pornography and sex toys, and taught to masturbate and achieve orgasm.
“It was part of daily life,” she said. “Everyone in the household participated. … We were posed and photographed. We were entertainment at parties and orgies. … It was my childhood reality. … “We moved from place to place, frequently and suddenly. This kept us isolated. … I did not know how to play or interact with others outside the home. ... Instead, I was told that my purpose, my reason for existing, was to provide sexual pleasure for whoever wanted it.” PURPLE continued on p. 8
Test proves it: Dogs really love us!.............page 12 A tough look back at the old L.E.S.............page 13 Motley jazzes up the Whitney......page 19
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