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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933

March 24, 2016 • $1.00 Volume 86 • Number 12

L.M.D.C. denies funds for embattled housing project at Eliz. St. Garden BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

n some encouraging news to supporters of the Elizabeth St. Garden, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation last Friday rejected the city’s application for $6 million for a planned affordable housing project on the site of the Little Italy / Soho green oasis.

Last September, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development applied for the funds out of a pot of $50 million that the L.M.D.C. was then making available. A wide range of other Lower Manhattan nonprofit organizations and entities also applied for funding. GARDEN continued on p. 24

‘Save Our Supermarket!’ W. 14th grocery faithful take protest to landlord BY YANNIC RACK

ongtime Village and Chelsea residents took the fight to save their beloved neighborhood supermarket to the landlord’s doorstep this week, chanting and picketing in front of the Midtown headquarters of Pan Am Equities. Supported by local politicians and representatives from

other neighborhoods across the city, they rallied on the sidewalk in front of 18 E. 50th St., between Fifth and Madison Aves., to protest a threefold rent increase that is threatening to put the Associated supermarket at 255 W. 14th St. out of business and force it to shut its doors by May. MARKET continued on p. 6

PHOTO BY JONATHAN ALPEYRIE

In between lambasting Sheldon Silver and Democratic urban mayors, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani endorsed Lester Chang for the Assembly on Monday.

Giuliani and G.O.P. going all out for Lester Chang BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

ernie Sanders isn’t the only one talking about a “political revolution.” A Republican first-time candidate, Lester Chang, thinks he has a shot at winning the special election next month for Lower Manhattan’s 65th Assembly District. And if he manages to pull it off, he said, it would be nothing less than “a tsunami.” Chang, a businessman and Navy reservist, was born on Eldridge St. in Chinatown and

has lived in Nolita more than 20 years. He also will be on the April 19 ballot on three other lines besides the G.O.P. — the Reform, Independence and Clean Up the Mess party lines, the latter which he created for this election. Chang is being backed wholeheartedly and aggressively by the city and state’s Republican establishment, who see this as a historic opportunity to capitalize on former Speaker Sheldon Silver’s epic downfall and make a dent in solidly Democratic

Manhattan, which hasn’t sent a Republican to Albany in nearly 20 years. Winning the district formerly held by one of New York’s most powerful Democrats would be a colossal coup. After representing the district for four decades, Silver was convicted at the end of last year on multiple federal corruption charges. Facing up to 130 years in prison, he is due to be sentenced next month. On Monday night, no less CHANG continued on p. 10

Hello?...Oh, no! Skenazy on Adele overload.....p. 7 Honing zoning ideas for 75 Morton school.......p. 11 Her ink-credible journey.................page 31

www.TheVillager.com

PHOTO BY JONATHAN ALPEYRIE

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaking at Lester Chang’s Assembly campaign fundraiser in Chinatown on Monday night.

COHEN ON PREZ FOLLIES: Of course, in interviewing radical attorney Stanley Cohen for last week’s issue, East Village journo Sarah Ferguson couldn’t resist asking him about his prognosis for the current wild presidential election. Cohen on Donald Trump: “It’s funny that the one area that Trump has the least support is New York City, because we know Trump. He’s a f---ing ugly, ignorant, racist wing nut.” On Bernie Sanders: “The f---ing guy was mayor of Burlington, Vermont. That’s his background. Look at the guy’s record on people of color — he talks s---. He did not oppose federal sentencing guidelines and Safe Streets Act funding, which have been the main cause for the incarceration of millions of largely people of color. Go back 10 years. His record is terrible on these issues. I call him Mao Tse Sanders.” On Hillary Clinton: “The one thing I like about Clinton: There’s no pretext to her as a corporate thief. I think Clinton will end up winning, and we’ll be miserable as dogs and go further down the road of hell, and that will be life.” GIULIANI FOR TRUMP: Meanwhile, at Republican candidate Lester Chang’s Assembly campaign fundraiser in Chinatown, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was asked if he would endorse Donald Trump over Ted Cruz. He has previously said he prefers Trump because he feels the businessman-turned-candidate is more “practical.” On Monday, he didn’t back away from that, saying, “If the primary was between him and Cruz, I would back him” — “him” meaning Trump. We then asked Giuliani who he would support in a potential Trump-vs.-Hillary Clinton match-up.

“What’s your name?” he asked us, and we told him. “I would support you over Hillary!” he told us with a grin.

FORUM IS FORMING: The candidates forum for the 65th Assembly District that The Villager is co-sponsoring with the League of Women Voters on Thurs., March 31, is looking good. So far, three of the four candidates have confirmed they will attend, Alice Cancel, Yuh-Line Niou and Dennis Levy. Lester Chang’s campaign says he can’t make it because he has two previously scheduled fundraisers that night, but we’re hoping he will be able to come by for at least part of the time. The forum — at which the public will be able to hear the candidates’ positions on the issues — will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Lower Manhattan Alliance business improvement district’s new LMHQ space, at 150 Broadway, 20th floor. FRONT-RUNNER FEELS THE HEAT: With the special election to fill the vacant 65th Assembly District seat just three weeks away, presumed front-runner Alice Cancel, the Democratic nominee, is being dogged by rumblings that she is just “not out there,” that no one is seeing her campaigning at events or seeking endorsements around the Lower Manhattan district. On Monday, the New York Post ran an article, headlined “Democrat running to replace Silver seems to be in hiding.” As the article reported, “The Democratic candidate for convicted crook Sheldon Silver’s former Assembly seat has been so invisible in the Lower Manhattan district that observers and critics are wondering if she’s in the political equiva-

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lent of the witness-protection program.” Indeed, local politicos had been telling us similar things. As Scoopy’s Notebook reported last week, Cancel didn’t attend the recent endorsement meeting of Coalition for a District Alternative, even though its leading member, Councilmember Rosie Mendez, had personally endorsed her. Yuh-Line Niou, a Democrat who is running on the Working Families Party line in the April 19 contest, was the only candidate to show up and seek CoDA’s support. But the club ultimately decided not to endorse in the special election and instead wait for the primary election in September when the Democratic field opens up. Monica Guardiolia, president of Cancel’s political outfit, the Lower East Side Democratic Club, is working as Cancel’s treasurer, scheduler and campaign spokesperson. Asked by us for a response to the Post article, Guardiola sent a statement by Cancel, stating, “I want to state on the record that I am not in hiding. Unfortunately, I have been sick and unable to keep to the intense campaign schedule required of all candidates participating in the special election. So, simply put, I’ve been trying to balance my health needs with that of the campaign. I am working diligently, going door to door to speak to my neighbors about my qualifications and commitment to the district that I have lived in for 40 years and represented, in part, for 24 years as the Democratic district leader.” The New York Observer this week reported that Guardiola worked as Silver’s liaison to the district’s Hispanic community for the past 12 years. “I was just an employee, and I live in the community,” Guardiola told the Observer. “I was in the community, working with the community, with minorities, speaking Spanish, because that was what he had.” Meanwhile, Niou and Republican candidate Lester Chang’s campaigns have been piling on Cancel for her low profile and her support of Silver, whom Cancel has been quoted calling a “hero.” “There are huge questions being raised by her lack of campaigning and her lack of support,” Matt Rey, Niou’s spokesperson, said of Cancel. “She’s canceling interviews...no one’s seeing her out. She’s the invisible candidate because she’s the puppet candidate. We’re knocking on doors, phone-banking. We’re reaching hundreds of people per day.” Rob Ryan, Chang’s campaign manager, quipped that Cancel’s name is fitting, because she keeps “canceling” endorsement meetings. “If I had such a close association with someone who had been convicted of political corruption, I’d be trying to hide from the media, too,” Ryan said. In addition, Cancel reportedly recently backed out of an endorsement meeting at Tenants PAC, the state’s leading tenant organization, which ultimately decided to back Niou. The Post reported that it took 10 days for Michael McKee, the group’s treasurer and — as we well know — a longtime Silver critic, to track down Cancel, who then canceled the interview, citing an ankle injury. “Yuh-Line is a smart, tough progressive who will fight for tenants and for stronger rent laws, which is exactly what Downtown needs,” McKee said. “With developers displacing longtime residents and housing costs skyrocketing, tenants need Yuh-Line in the Assembly to make sure we roll back the affordable housing losses caused by Sheldon Silver’s corruption.” In accepting the tenants group’s endorsement, Niou said, “Protecting and expanding housing that’s truly affordable for working New Yorkers and seniors needs to be a SCOOPY continued on p. 4 TheVillager.com

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Named best weekly newspaper in New York State in 2001, 2004 and 2005 by New York Press Association Editorials, First Place, 2014 News Story, First Place, 2014 Overall Design Excellence, First Place, 2013 Best Column, First Place, 2012 Photographic Excellence, First Place, 2011 Spot News Coverage, First Place, 2010 Coverage of Environment, First Place, 2009

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CONTRIBUTORS ALBERT AMATEAU IRA BLUTREICH TINA BENITEZ-EVES SARAH FERGUSON BOB KRASNER TEQUILA MINSKY CLAYTON PATTERSON JEFFERSON SIEGEL SHARON WOOLUMS

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ore than 2,000 people filled the Rubin Museum of Art on Friday night March 11 to experience the latest project by multidisciplinary “pandrogenic” artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. Entitled “Try To Altar Everything,” the work incorporates small objects that are being brought to the museum on an ongoing basis by patrons. The first 1,000 people who contribute to the piece will receive a limited edition “psychic cross” designed by P-Orridge and produced in Nepal. “The objects around you are just as sacred as a 300-year-old relic in a museum,” the artist, who identifies as “h/ er,” said, explaining project’s concept. A founding member of the bands Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, P-Orridge plans to spend a fair amount of time at the museum, at 150 W. 17th St., throughout the show’s run, including a rare concert with Psychic TV. For more information, see http://rubinmuseum.org/events/exhibitions/genesis-breyer-p-orridge .

SCOOPY continued from p. 2

PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER

“Pandrogenic” artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge at the opening of h/er show at the Rubin Museum in Chelsea. In the background is P-Orridge’s “psychic cross” and an image that blends P-Orridge and h/er late partner Lady Jaye. P-Orridge is holding a voodoo doll representing Lady Jaye.

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March 24, 2016

and much, much more - final days to save Thank you for supporting Broadway Panhandler

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top priority in Albany. Downtown is booming, but too many residents are losing their homes due to landlord harassment and unfair rent hikes. I know we can stand up to the special interests and big money to protect and expand rent-stabilized housing.” Former Councilmember Margarita Lopez is also working on Cancel’s campaign as field coordinator. We’ve also noticed that Cancel’s husband, John Quinn, the Lower East Side’s Democratic state committeeman, has been hard to reach these past weeks since Cancel was nominated by the Democratic County Committee. The garrulous, ever quote-worthy Quinn is usually more than eager to riff with us about the local political picture, but has been keeping a sort of radio silence lately, other than sending a few scattered text messages here or there in response to our questions. Told of that, Sean Sweeney, a leading member of Downtown Independent Democrats — who previously had been talking with Quinn intensely about which candidate L.E.S.D.C. would back in the County Committee vote — said, “Very unlike him. Indeed. Very unlike him.” In addition, critics are pointing out that Cancel has barely raised any cash and has no Web presence. Obviously, however, being the Democratic candidate and a known quantity in the community from her years of service, she probably doesn’t feel she needs to do either — she and Quinn are sort of “old school” in that way, in a positive sense — or even campaign much, if at all, for that matter. Again, Cancel is presumably the front-runner as the Democratic nominee, so her opponents — and media outlets that want to tar her as the pro-Shelly Silver candidate — are teeing off on her. And the Republicans are hoping (fantasizing?) for a “perfect storm” — a mix of disgruntled Democratic voters angry over Silver’s corruption conviction, plus a prayed-for Donald Trump coattail effect — to help send Chang to Albany. Yet, Niou clearly wants it badly, and has raised around $140,000 compared to Cancel’s only around $3,000. Meanwhile, as Cancel cited an ankle injury for slowing her down, Niou last month reportedly was in a bad car crash on her way to pick up her mother at the airport, which left Niou with a black eye and badly injured knee. “Yuh-Line has been hobbling around with a banged-up knee,” said Virginia Kee, president emeritus of the United Democratic Organization. “Her knee is bad. She has to wear a brace. The orthopedist is not happy that she’s still walking around. They want her off her legs. She had her seat belt on, but the shoulder strap fell off. She was sleeping in the back seat. It was an Uber car. She’s strong and she’s determined.” Her spokesperson Rey said the accident happened about a month ago around the time of her Tenants PAC interview and that she has recovered. TheVillager.com

TheVillager.com

March 24, 2016

‘Feed, Not Greed!’ market faithful tell landlord MARKET continued from p. 1

“This is just a continuation of us saying, ‘You’re not going to take an essential community service away from our neighborhood just because of greed. And we’re going to keep up the fight,’ ” said City Councilmember Corey Johnson, who organized the rally. “It’s our hope that, in this day and age, a very wealthy real estate company will hopefully do what’s right,” Johnson told the protesters, “and not just try to make a little extra money on the backs of so many people who rely on this supermarket day in and day out for fresh fruits and vegetables, and for affordable groceries.” Although the group that made the 20-minute trip to Midtown was decidedly smaller than the 100-plus crowd of locals that had shown up for another demonstration on W. 14th St. five days earlier, passions nonetheless ran high during the one-hour protest. “It’s the destruction of small businesses,” proclaimed Charles Bayor, a member of Community Board 4 and a resident of Penn South. He voiced his disapproval with a bright red sign that read, “Don’t close our supermarket.” Bayor, like many of the market’s patrons, said he regularly shops at the Associated because of its cheap prices. “We’re losing all our stores that are affordable,” he said. “It’ll be very hard to exist in a neighborhood where everything is so expensive.” Francine Haselkorn, standing next to Bayor with a sign that read “Save NYC!,” agreed. “This is an essential issue,” said the Hell’s Kitchen resident. “It represents another nail in the coffin of what a middle-class person can do in New York City.” One of the owners of the shop, which opened at its current spot between Seventh and Eighth Aves. in 1989, said last week that the landlord is demanding a monthly rent of more than $100,000, up from the current $32,000. Many residents depend on the store, where they can buy fresh produce and even have their food delivered for free in a 10-block radius — an essential service for seniors and disabled residents of the area. “A lot of middle-income folks, low-income families won’t have a place to buy fruits and vegetables anymore,” said state Senator Brad Hoylman, who marched together with the residents. “[Pan Am] won’t even come to the table and negotiate, and that’s what irks me and so many members of our community,” he said. “Try to strike a fair deal, don’t price a long-standing business out of our community. That’s not right. “It’s important that the community comes out, stands in front of their office, and lets the landlord know that it is not going to take this sitting down,” Hoylman added. The picketers, holding up colorful signs and marching in a circle, gave their grievances vocal expression with chants that included, “Feed, Not Greed,” “Save Our Supermarket,” “Negotiate the Real Estate,” and “Shame on You, Pan Am.” But the landlord did not respond or send a representative to address the protesters — prompting Johnson to inquire about a face-to-face meeting in the office building’s lobby. However, a receptionist told the councilmember that nobody was interested in engaging the protesters or him. “They were instructed not to talk to us,” Johnson told the crowd outside. “That means they’re already listening!” shouted one woman hopefully. The company did not respond to a request for com-

March 24, 2016

PHOTO BY YANNIC RACK

State Senator Brad Hoylman, left, and Fulton Houses Tenant Association president Miguel Acevedo, with green sign, marched in front of the offices of Pan Am Equities on W. 50th St.

ment for this article. Miguel Acevedo, who lives at the Fulton Houses public housing development and heads its tenant association, said the store’s closure would have far-ranging impacts on the neighborhood. “That Associated and the Western Beef on W. 16th St. are the only supermarkets that are affordable in the community,” he said. “If we lose Associated, Western Beef will have the opportunity to raise their prices — so it’s going to really have an effect on the Chelsea community.” Acevedo, who has lived in the nearly 1,000-apartment development all his life, remembered when Western Beef was still located on W. 14th St. and eventually forced out by a rent increase from that location — which led politicians to step in and help find a replacement space two blocks north, albeit half the size of the original store. “If you take Associated away, it will definitely displace low-income tenants in our community,” he said. “We’re just going to get more Stella McCartney’s and Apple stores, that’s what they’ll probably put in there.” Acevedo said the only real solution was to bring legislation supporting merchants’ right to a commercial lease renewal up for a vote in the City Council, where such a bill — the Small Business Jobs Survival Act — has been stalled for decades. Johnson, who is a sponsor of the act, said there were doubts about the legality of the bill in its current form, but added that he was committed to resolving the issue. “Commercial rent control existed in New York City for many, many years,” Johnson noted. “It was abolished decades ago, and I think given the crisis we’re seeing facing small businesses in the city, we have to bring some type of rent control or mediation back, so that small businesses can actually survive and not have their leases doubled, tripled, quadrupled, only to be driven out. “The underlying problem is, if you walk through Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen — really any neighborhood in Manhattan and the rest of the city — you will see not dozens of empty storefronts, but hundreds of empty storefronts. We’re losing the character of our city.” Johnson added that, in the meantime, he would look for a way to keep the Associated in the neighborhood — though there don’t appear to be many options if the

PHOTO BY WILLIAM ALATRISTE / NYC COUNCIL

City Councilmember Corey Johnson, talking to the front desk attendant at 18 W. 50th St., tried in vain to engage with representatives for the landlord.

landlord continues to refuse to have an open discussion. “I’m not 100 percent optimistic, but hopefully they’ll do the right thing,” the councilmember said. Acevedo warned that if nothing is done soon, the future looks dire. “The mom-and-pop stores, every week you see a different one closing down,” he said. “If you take the supermarkets away, it will become impossible to live in Chelsea.” Similarly, Mark Felix, who lives near the corner of Horatio and Hudson Sts., complained that he soon won’t be able to afford living in New York City anymore. “It’s the last affordable supermarket in the area,” he said of the Associated. “It’s ridiculous, raising the rent that much — I don’t think Whole Foods would pay that money.” Village resident and Associated regular Martin Kornfeld and Claire August, another patron, signed a petition to keep the store open. “You gotta get in their faces,” Kornfeld said of the landlord. “That’s the only way you can get them to do anything.” Support was also present in the form of a representative for Local 338 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the labor group of the workers at the supermarket. TheVillager.com

Hello. It’s Adele... Oh, no! RHYMES WITH CRAZY BY LENORE SKENAZY

alk into the grocery and there she is. Shop for shoes, she’s shopping by your side. Need to cross a lobby? Drive to Jersey? Drink yourself into a stupor? My God — she is there, too: in the hotel, the car, the seedy bar’s seedy bathroom, seeping through the pipes. She is everywhere, always ready to start a conversation: “Hello. It’s me.” Of course it is. It always is. It is Adele. Now I know there must be some people — O.K., several — who can’t get enough of Adele. Her “Hello” video on YouTube has, well, lemme check — 1,365,796,325 views so far. Not bad. But I was relieved to learn that it isn’t just me who is on the other side (as it were) of Adele-mania. “The only reason she’s popular is because Amy Winehouse is dead,” is how lifestyle blogger Amanda Lauren put it, rather bluntly, in a phone interview before using a very strong word. “I hate Adele.” Google those three little words and you will find a tsunami of similar sentiments, some laced with the kind of venom usually reserved for presidential frontrunners. “On behalf of the British nation, I apologize,” wrote one guy. “I can’t take it anymore!” another posted. A bit more thoughtfully, one blogger wrote, “Every Adele song is so damn formulaic, it is unbelievable. I can’t imagine any kind of emotional process that went on during the recording of any Adele song other than, ‘Hey, remember that one song I wrote with the four sad piano chords and I belted the song title in the chorus? Let’s try that again.’ ” He’s anti-Adele for artistic reasons. But others are simply staggering under Adele Overload. “Today I heard it” — we know what song “it” is — “four different places,” Yvonne Lederer, a marketing director in Westport, sighed. “She’s an entertaining singer, but enough! I just feel like everywhere I’m going, she wants me to be really upset about a past lover, and I’m not going to go there.” Ah, but where else can you go? Adele is harder to escape than Mister Softee, and shares a certain stickiness. In a desperate attempt to pare the Adele quotient down in her life, TheVillager.com

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Lederer and her friends have actually stopped using the word “Hello.” Now, instead, they say, “’Sup?” Explains Lederer: “We’re protesting.” This can be an act of psychological self-preservation. When poet Erica Gerald Mason took her Toyota to the dealership for some warranty-required work, she had just settled into the waiting room, when you know who started singing in the background. The mechanic walked in and Mason practically burst into tears. “This can’t be good news!” she cried. “You’re going to tell me you have to rebuild my engine, right?” He looked at her quizzically. Uh, no. He’d just come out to say…“Hello.” “He asked me why I had that reaction and I said, ‘Someone Like You’ is playing right now. This is not a song for good times. This is the song you hear when you need a new transmission. Play something else.” The problem is that that “something else” is likely to be something else by Adele. She’s not just popular, she has redefined popularity. “Hello” was played almost 5 million times in just its first 24 hours on Spotify. (Take that, Taylor, honey.) Her album “25” sold 8 million units last year — more than any other album since 2011. So now I’m taking my cue from my pal Hannah Pazderka, whose family has turned Adelemania into a game. “Whenever we’re out shopping and Adele starts playing, it means we’ve probably been there long enough, so someone invokes the ‘Adele Rule’ and we have to leave,” she said. That one trick means spending less and actually heading out into the day, where it’s probably not nearly as gray and rainy as you thought it was. Hello to the outside. Skenazy is a keynote speaker and author and founder of the book and blog “Free-Range Kids”

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Wonton thievery...Ch’town restaurateur stole tips: A.G. BY YANNIC RACK

T PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE MAPS

The now-closed Hong Kong Station on Bayard St. in Chinatown.

he owner of two shuttered restaurants in Chinatown has to pay $15,000 to delivery workers who were hired to carry out food orders through Web sites like GrubHub and Seamless but were cheated out of their tips — a practice seemingly spreading nationwide. In a settlement, restaurateur Wallace Lai admitted to violating labor laws by pocketing tips meant for the workers after customers ordered through the online delivery ser-

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March 24, 2016

vices, according to State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. “Delivery workers travel at all hours of the day and through all kinds of weather to provide food to customers, who can order from their homes with the click of a button,” Schneiderman said in a statement announcing the deal. “It is outrageous that a business would cheat its workers and hoodwink customers, by keeping tips that are meant for these hardworking employees,” he said. Lai formerly owned two Chinese restaurants, both called Hong Kong Station, at 45 Bayard St. and 45 Division St. in Chinatown, near the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. From May 2014 until January 2015, according to prosecutors, the restaurants delivered food to customers through Delivery.com, GrubHub. com and Seamless.com, with customers usually paying with credit cards. All three Web sites offered an option to include tips, which Lai routinely kept, according to prosecutors. New York labor law prohibits

employers from keeping any part of the tips that are intended for service employees, including delivery workers. The settlement now requires Lai to pay $15,000 for the full amount of withheld tips, as well as for minimum wage and overtime violations, according to the A.G.’s office. The money will be distributed to around 10 workers who formerly worked at Lai’s eateries. Seamless announced last April that it would revamp its fee structure after an investigation by Schneiderman’s office found restaurants could easily cheat delivery workers out of tips. Three months later, in July, drivers in California filed a class action lawsuit for $5 million in unpaid tips against another delivery service, Eat24, after the company was bought by restaurant review site Yelp. In that case, Eat24 also encouraged its customers to enter a tip amount for the food they ordered, but then failed to pass on that money to drivers or even notify them of the tips, according to reports.

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March 24, 2016

Giuliani and G.O.P. are going all out for Chang CHANG continued from p. 1

than former Mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke at a Chang fundraiser in Chinatown at the 88 Palace dim sum banquet hall nestled beneath the Manhattan Bridge on ramp. Another G.O.P. heavy hitter, Ed Cox, the chairperson of the State Republican Committee, was also on hand and gave brief remarks. Speaking before Giuliani, Adele Malpass, the Manhattan chairperson of the Republican Party, told the crowd, “Imagine waking up on the 20th, when Sheldon Silver’s seat is held by a Republican. And when Lester wins, he will be the first Republican Asian-American elected in New York State. He believes in term limits, charter schools,” she said, to strong applause. “Yes, educational opportunity. It is just what we need.” Introducing Giuliani, Malpass praised him for leading the “transformation” of New York and showing leadership after the World Trade Center attack in September 2001. “He will always be America’s Mayor,” she said to a standing ovation and cheers of “Roo-dee! Roo-dee! Roo-dee!” as Giuliani took the microphone. The former mayor praised Chang, but actually spent most of his time repeatedly laying into Silver, slamming him as a “dishonest crook.” He also bemoaned what he called the sorry state of New York, Chicago, Detroit and other major American cities, solely blaming their current Democratic mayors for their problems. “On April 13, the guy who represented this district all the time that I was mayor is finally going to go to jail,” the former two-term mayor predicted. “In American politics, I never met a more dishonorable person than Sheldon Silver. This guy was a massive crook. “Shelly had two problems — he was a crook and he was dishonest,” he continued. “In politics, you actually have some crooks that are honest. Shelly would take the money and he would doublecross everybody — that’s why he’s going to jail. “He was completely in the pocket of the teachers union. They’re standing in the way of good education for our children,” Giuliani added of the United Federation of Teachers. “We need charter schools, we need pay for performance, we need to get rid of [teacher] tenure. I think we need vouchers.” Right now, Giuliani stressed, is a time when Republicans can make some real inroads, especially in urban areas. “If I read all the polls correctly, people are tired of career politicians,” he said, referencing the presidential election. “You elect Lester on April 19, it’s a statewide story, it’s a national story. You win here — I tell you — it sends a signal we can win cities.” Giuliani, who earned the nickname “America’s Mayor” after 9/11, bashed other American mayors — though only Democrats. “Why is Detroit the way it is? Why is Baltimore the way it is? Why did Chicago have 50 murders in March?” he went on. “You know why — they have been governed by Democratic mayors. Democrats have ruined America’s cities.” The way to improve cities is simple, Giuliani said: “Education and jobs will help people.” He added that it was “disgraceful” that the 65th Assembly District, which is about 45 percent Asian-American, has not had someone of that background represent it in the Assembly. “This is the most important Chinatown in America,” he said, to applause. Giuliani urged everyone to contribute dollars to Chang’s campaign. “If I said this better, maybe I could have been pres-

March 24, 2016

PHOTO BY JONATHAN ALPEYRIE

Lester Chang, sporting his Lieutenant Kimlau American Legion Post cap, posed for a photo with former Mayor Giuliani. Judging by the number of Kimlau caps in the crowd at his Monday night fundraiser, Chang appears to have strong support at the Chinatown post.

ident!” he quipped of his own failed presidential bid. “He needs money. He’s not Donald Trump! He’s gotta raise money to get his message out.” Speaking of Trump, Giuliani said the high turnout in the Republican presidential race would likely help Chang at the polls. He said Ted Cruz and perhaps John Kasich, too, likely will still be in the running when the New York presidential primary is held April 19, the same day as the Assembly special election. “He’s going to win the race,” Giuliani predicted of Chang. “He’s got Democrats splitting the vote. I think the Republican [presidential] primary will still be going on when they come to New York.” Chang’s opponents include Alice Cancel, the Democratic nominee, who was selected by a closed County Committee vote; Yuh-Line Niou, a Democrat running on the Working Families Party line; and Dennis Levy, the Green Party candidate running on a marijuana-legalization platform. All Giuliani’s Chang cheerleading and Democrat bashing aside, however, the numbers definitely don’t favor a Republican candidate. Michael Zumbluskas, New York County chairperson of the Independence Party, provided The Villager with a breakdown of voters’ current party enrollment in the 65th A.D.: There are 49,604 registered Democrats and 7,675 registered Republicans — about a 6.5-to-1 ratio — as well as 2,256 voters registered with the Independence Party; 169 with the Green Party; 156 with the Conservative Party; 154 with the Working Families Party; 6 with the new Women’s Equality Party; 3 with the Reform Party. Another 17,169 voters are not registered with any party. There are a total of 77,248 eligible voters in the district, though 10,400 are considered “inactive” — not having voted recently — though still can vote if they show up at the polls. Zumbluskas acknowledged that many Manhattanites will never be able to bring themselves to pull the lever — or, rather, pencil in the oval — for a Republican, so the Independence line offers an alternative. Similarly, Chang, speaking earlier, said that people can also vote for him on the Clean Up the Mess line, since “Some people may not want to vote for me as

G.O.P.” Zumbluskas initially had offered the Independence ballot line to Paul Newell and then to Jenifer Rajkumar. Both district leaders, however, declined the offer and are not running in the special election, but will run in the September Democratic primary for the Assembly seat. At any rate, although “America’s Mayor” may be a tough act to follow, he isn’t running for office — Chang is. Taking the mic, Chang called Giuliani “like a mentor to me,” praising him for his leadership after 9/11. “He gave us hope and he gave us steadiness,” he said. Picking up where Giuliani and Malpass had left off, he proceeded to pummel Silver a bit more. “For 40 years, Shelly Silver has held his residents of Manhattan captive,” he charged. “It was wrong. So now we have a chance to set things right.” When he was very young, Chang’s immigrant parents moved their growing family from a cramped one-bedroom apartment on Eldridge St. up to a larger place in public housing in East Harlem. Chang later grew up in Brooklyn and attended Midwood High School. Rocking Chang’s family, his father died when he was eight. To make ends meet, his mother bought a Chinese-food takeout place, and it was hard work, but all the kids helped run it. He went on to attend SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx. During his career, Chang worked first in business and finance, next for the U.S. Census, then went into international shipping. At age 35, he enlisted in the Navy and is now in the Navy Reserve. “Boot camp wasn’t easy. Everyone else was 18,” he quipped. After 9/11, he was called to duty, working for a Joint Intelligence Fusion Cell. In 2009, he worked as a military analyst for special ops in Afghanistan. For 25 years, he has been an election poll worker at Confucius Plaza. “I served the community, I served the state and I served the country,” he said of his varied history of CHANG continued on p. 28 TheVillager.com

Honing the zoning — or not — for 75 Morton St. BY SARA HENDRICKSON

series of public meetings over the last several weeks generated both excitement and concerns about creating a new middle school zone for the 75 Morton St. school opening in fall 2017. But as Shino Tanikawa, president of Community Education Council District 2, reminded attendees at the March 15 meeting, “Middle school zoning is very different than elementary school zoning.” School District 2 has a long legacy as a choice district for middle school, and only about 20 percent of students attend their zoned middle school. Fifth graders apply to — and rank their choices of — multiple schools with admissions methods ranging from state test scores, to priority for attending a school tour, to a pure lottery. The ranking system and gaming tactics to find a school match have caused increasing angst among parents and children and is an ongoing project for C.E.C. 2 to reform the system. For years there has been a large section of District 2 in Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea that has gone unzoned for a middle school. “We’ve been orphans for a while,” said Carolyn Trufelman, a mother of two sons in Hell’s Kitchen who spoke at one of the zoning hearings. “If you’re a kid who scored a 4 on the state test and can get into Salk or Lab, you’re in great shape. If not, the Department of Education puts you where they put you.” “A zone provides a feeling of security for parents,” said C.E.C. 2 member Beth Cirone. Of the 23 middle schools in the huge District 2, only a few are zoned. Baruch (at E. 20th St. and First Ave.) and Wagner (at E. 76th St. and Second Ave.) each have large zones. Meanwhile, Dr. Sun Yat Sen (100 Hester St.) in Chinatown has a much smaller zone. Roosevelt Island also has a zoned middle school. At the Feb. 25 C.E.C. 2 meeting, D.O.E. unveiled two possible zoning scenarios for 75 Morton St. Both included the unzoned Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea neighborhoods. Scenario A stopped at Canal St., while Scenario B included the three elementary schools south of Canal St. in Tribeca and Battery Park City — P.S. 89, P.S. 234 and P.S. 276. Many Downtown parents from those elementary schools voiced their desire to be zoned for nearby 75 Morton rather than Baruch, the latter which would mean a much longer commute for their future sixth graders. “It’s fine to say kids travel, but we wouldn’t even have a choice in Downtown,” said parent Jane Barratt. TheVillager.com

PHOTO BY SARA HENDRICKSON

From left, Ned Elton, Emily Hellstron and Jeannine Kiely at a March 18 meeting of the 75 Morton Community Alliance, a group of parents and community members involved in creating the new middle school.

“Please vote for Zone B.” Baruch parents and teachers also turned out in numbers for zoning hearings. “It feels like Baruch is taking the biggest hit,” worried its principal, Rocco Macri. D.O.E. official Sarah Turchin responded that “fewer than 10 percent of students” at the three elementary schools south of Canal St. attend Baruch. “In the area we are not touching, over 50 percent of zoned students attend Baruch,” she noted. Many middle schoolers do travel long distances to attend Baruch’s popular “special progress” or S.P. program, an accelerated curriculum with separate classes. Students applying to the S.P. program are accepted based on strong academic qualifications. Baruch also offers an A.P., or “academic progress,” program — essentially, zoned seats without stringent academic screening. Macri confirmed that Baruch has more demand than available seats for its S.P. program. If more S.P. seats were created “that might help us,” Macri offered, “but I’m not sure that would completely make up the difference.” Wagner, the other large (1,000-plus students) zoned middle school on the Upper East Side, also offers S.P. and A.P. tracks and has 60 percent S.P. seats versus 30 percent at Baruch. Baruch teacher Carolyn Shepard worried about declining enrollment leading to co-location. Co-location involves bringing other schools into a building with excess capacity. “I’ve worked in co-located schools and seen destruction of the school community,” she said. C.E.C. 2 member Claude Arpels assured the crowd, “The last thing anyone wants is co-location.” He added that the impact on Baruch might be “overblown.” “Maybe increasing Baruch’s S.P.

program is more important to fight for,” he suggested. Bonnie Laboy, the District 2 superintendent, stated at the March 15 C.E.C. 2 meeting, “I’m prepared to increase the number of S.P. seats at Baruch.” In Greenwich Village, a small cohort of families are unhappy that D.O.E.’s scenarios carve out the P.S. 340 zone. Parent Joe Smith felt it was “déjà vu.” Smith lives on the north side of W. 12th St. near Seventh Ave. and three years ago was reassigned from P.S. 41 to the newly created zone for P.S. 340, at Sixth Ave. and 17th St., which opened in 2014. His neighbors on the south side of W. 12th St. remained in the P.S. 41 zone. Although 75 Morton will have a portion of seats for unzoned students, Smith was anxious. “Now, again, my kids might not be able to go to their neighborhood school,” he protested. “Why do we have to be beholden to a Lego-block structure of elementary school zones?” Middle school zone lines have historically followed elementary school zone lines. However, families are assigned to a zone based on their address, not where their child attends elementary school. Eric Goldberg, chairperson of the C.E.C. 2 zoning committee, expressed concern that Peck Slip School near the South St. Seaport was zoned for Baruch, thus “passing through” the third zoned middle school, Sun Yat Sen (M.S. 131) in Chinatown. “Are we saying that M.S. 131 is fine for existing students but not for new students?” he asked. Superintendent Laboy responded, “Yes, we would like to see M.S. 131 recruit more kids from across the district, but they have an academic program that is serving their kids very well.” Laboy reminded the crowd that her goal in creating a new zone for 75

Morton was “to afford families that live in the northwestern portion of our district who are not currently afforded zoned seats — I’d like to bring equity to those families.” She also pointed out that as new elementary schools, such as The River School, P.S. 340 and Peck Slip School, add grades up to capacity, those growing schools will be part of Baruch’s zone. C.E.C. 2 President Tanikawa presented compelling data culled from official sources (not waiting for D.O.E. to respond to C.E.C. 2’s data request) that showed strong demand for middle schools in District 2. “We need 400 to 500 more middle school seats and there are plenty of students that would like to go to Baruch, either S.P. or A.P.,” Tanikawa concluded. “We shouldn’t worry about under-enrollment or co-location.” C.E.C. 2, which has jurisdiction on zoning, will listen to more public feedback once D.O.E. presents a final zoning proposal, and will vote in late April or May. A majority of six votes is needed to approve the zone, otherwise 75 Morton will go unzoned. Decisions on 75 Morton’s admissions methods, academic programming and profile for the new principal will be deliberated on by a working group recently created by Laboy to formulate recommendations for D.O.E. The group has broad representation from the community and educators. A D.O.E representative from District 75, the citywide district serving students with disabilities, will also participate. The Morton St. school will include up to 100 District 75 students on a dedicated floor for classrooms. All the school’s students will share the cafeteria, gym, library and the building’s other common spaces. For the last three years, the 75 Morton Community Alliance has been mobilizing the community and gathering input to create the school. A January envisioning session on admissions hosted by 75 M.C.A. drew 160 participants from 23 schools. Strong preference emerged for a dual-admissions model to create diversity — both socioeconomically and academically — where students with a range of grades and test scores would be admitted. A portion of students could be admitted based on zone or interest in the school, and a portion based on screening that also “goes beyond traditional academic measures,” explained Emily Hellstrom of 75 M.C.A. Rather than dual S.P./A.P. tracks like Baruch, many parents at the January meeting preferred a single academic track where all students could learn together in classrooms and create a unified school community. March 24, 2016

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POLICE BLOTTER Grenade scare An old hand grenade with the pin still in place was unearthed at a Bowery construction site Monday afternoon, causing police to evacuate the whole block and call in the Bomb Squad and Emergency Service Unit cops. The explosive was found by a hard hat at 221 Bowery about 1 p.m., and was ultimately determined to be inert. Construction foreman Yzaul Abreu, 27, told the New York Post that the deadly device was “full of mold” and “wrapped up in a napkin” in a bucket when he found it. “It had the pin in it,” Abreau said through an interpreter. Abreau told the Post he was fearful because of gas lines in the basement, and carried the grenade to the first floor, where the Bomb Squad retrieved it. “He was terrified, scared, almost tearing,” said Estarlin Torres, 19, a construction assistant. The block was evacuated for about 40 minutes.

Coat collar At around 4 a.m. on Sun., March 20, a man approached police officers and said three men stole his friend’s fur jacket. The officers canvassed the area and found three male suspects fleeing on foot, one of whom, the officers observed, was in possession of a jacket. The police stopped the trio in front of 122 Greenwich Ave. and two of them were compliant. But the third man was allegedly combative, argumentative and actively resisted arrest by kicking, pushing and punching the officers. One officer sustained a sprained ankle. Upon arrest, one man was found to be in possession of a partially burnt marijuana cigarette. Two of the men, Tambhia Tucker, 22, and Deshawn Ocampo, 22, were arrested for felony robbery. Jonathan Banyan, 29, was arrested for felony robbery and assault.

Screwy encounter A man walking on the street at 12:40 a.m. on St. Patrick’s Day had an unpleasant encounter. Police said that on Thurs., March

17, at 12:40 a.m., a man strolling past 204 W. Fourth St. was approached by another man who brandished a 7-inch screwdriver at him and said, “I’m going to f---ing kill you.” Demarcus Thompson, 44, was arrested for misdemeanor menacing.

Hammer time Also on Thurs., March 17, at 2:44 a.m., police stopped a man in front of 350 W. 14th St. who was found to be in possession of a hammer, which he stated he used for protection, according to a report. Upon a search, the man was found to be in possession of burglar tools and a pipe containing alleged marijuana. The defendant has two active warrants, police said. James Keyes, 45, was arrested for felony criminal possession of a weapon.

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Bleecker bash A stranger punched a man in the face while he was walking down the street on Fri., March 18, at 1:42 a.m., police said. Three men were walking home when a man approached them in front of 182 Bleecker St., according to a report. Two of the men witnessed the stranger allegedly punch their friend in the face, causing him to have a bloody nose and bruises. The stranger allegedly intended to cause physical injury to the man. Police did not state a motive for the assault. Roberto D. Rodriguez, 30, was arrested for misdemeanor assault.

Un-Souk-cessful try Two men racked up a big bill at Le Souk restaurant at 510 LaGuardia Place last week, then reportedly hoped to pull a fast one. On Thurs., March 17, at 10 p.m., the pair used a fraudulent credit card to try to pay for their $5,000 tab, police said. While the pair were being arrested, one man allegedly resisted an officer’s efforts to handcuff him by flailing his arms and thrashing his body. Jesus Baily, 28, and Jaime Davis, 31, were arrested for felony criminal possession of a forged instrument.

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HOLY WEEK At The Church of St. Luke in the Fields Palm Sunday — March 20

Good Friday — March 25

Blessing of the Palms and Holy Eucharist

9:00 am Morning Prayer 1:00 pm Good Friday Liturgy 6:30 pm Stations of the Cross

8:00 am Said Eucharist 9:15 am Sung Eucharist* 11:15 am Choral Eucharist* 12:45 pm Healing Service

Holy Saturday — March 26

Wednesday in Holy Week 6:15 pm Stations of the Cross and Holy Eucharist

Maundy Thursday — March 24 6:30 pm Choral Eucharist with Foot Washing, Agape Supper, Stripping of the Altar, and Vigil at the Altar of Repose. Overnight Watch until 1pm Good Friday.

10:00 am Holy Saturday Service 8:00 pm The Great Vigil of Easter The Paschal Vigil and First Eucharist of Easter with Baptism, Confirmation, Reception and Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows.

Easter Day — March 27 8:00 am Said Eucharist 9:15 am Sung Eucharist* 11:15 am Choral Eucharist* 12:45 pm Healing Service

*Child care is available for children 6 and under at these services*

Due to safety concerns during our construction projects, we regret that we will not be able to host our annual Easter egg hunt this year. The Church of Saint Luke in the Fields | West Village, Corner of Hudson and Grove Streets 487 Hudson Street New York, NY 10014 | 212.924.0562 | www.stlukeinthefields.org

The Church of the Ascension

Fifth Avenue at Tenth Street • www.ascensionnyc.org • 212-254-8620

Please join us for Services in Holy Week. March 24 Maundy Thursday - 7 p.m. Holy Eucharist with Full Choir With Washing of Feet, Stripping of Altar, Setting of the Altar of Repose and Watch with the Blessed Sacrament March 25 Good Friday - Noon The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with Choir With Veneration of the Cross, And Communion from the Reserve Sacrament

Liturgy of the Word Saturday, March 26, 10 a.m. The Great Vigil of Easter Saturday, March 26, 8 p.m. With Full Choir With Lighting of the New Fire, The Paschal Candle, And Renewal of Baptismal Vows Easter Sunday Day of Resurrection 9 a.m. Said Eucharist of Easter 11 a.m. Festal Eucharist with full Choir 7:00 p.m. Meditation & Sacrament

Parish Office at 12 W. 11 St. • Office Hours: Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

ALL ARE WELCOME!

March 24, 2016

Colton Daniel Hudson, 23; He loved E.V. and fashion

OBITUARY BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

olton Daniel Hudson, 23, died March 15 at home in the East Village, a neighborhood he had grown to love. Colton was raised in an idyllic small town near Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Old Trail School in Bath, Ohio, where his classmates chose him to give the commencement address. He went to high school at University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio. His senior year he served as Hawley House prefect, and received the Ian Miller Award in recognition of his special gift for sincerity and capacity for friendship. At the time of his death, he was attending Hunter College, studying French and Italian. His father, Dr. Robert Hudson, said Colton, who lived alone, died suddenly in his sleep in his apartment at 273 E. 10th St., between First Ave. and Avenue A, and was found two days later. His mother, Audrey DeLong, figured there might have been something wrong because she kept an eye on his credit card use and there had been no activity for three days. The medical examiner gave the cause of death as “undetermined,” and drugs have been ruled out, his father said. Colton was “exceedingly skinny” — tall but just 145 pounds — and his father speculates he might possibly have had an onset of type 1 diabetes, which runs in Colton’s mother’s side of the family, which could have left him in a coma. Also, the aortic valve in his heart was bicuspid instead of tricuspid — with two valves instead of three — which his father thinks predisposed him to cardiac arrhythmia, though it had never troubled him before. “He had many, many friends in the East Village,” his dad said. “He went to France for a year after high school and loved it. He came back nattily dressed and had the fashion bug. He complained bitterly about how sloppily Americans dressed. He went to Kenyon College but couldn’t fit in.” But the East Village and Hunter were a perfect fit. “He talked about all his friends, all of his acquaintances you meet in a place like the East Village,” his father said. “He liked walking into the bagel store and they knew what his usual bagel was

Colton Hudson.

and they’d have his coffee. He liked his Russian Jewish Israeli barber. He liked catching some rays on his rooftop with friends, or on his friends’ rooftops, and would send us photos of the views. He liked jogging around the neighborhood — though more than once he stumbled on the [uneven] sidewalks.” “He worked periodically at Luke’s Lobster,” his mother said. “E. 10th St. Finest was his favorite deli. He went almost daily. He loved Thirstea across from his building. He bought water from Molecule water store. He thought it was so great, he paid by the month. When he found Commodities Natural Market, he was so thrilled he called home to rave about it. He loved Juice Press for vitamins and fresh juice. And unlike most his age group, he preferred wine to beer and loved East Village Wines. The one favorite we have not been able to identify is his barber shop.” His father said when he visited his son’s building last week, “Everyone came out of their doors and said what a great guy Colton was.” Colton’s goal was to work in a fashion house in Europe. In addition to his parents, of Hudson, Ohio, Colton is survived by an older brother, Hunter, of Costa Mesa, California; his maternal grandparents and many loving aunts, uncles and cousins. A memorial service celebrating Colton’s life will be held at a later date. Friends wishing to honor his memory may send donations to any of the three learning institutions he loved. TheVillager.com

2nd Ave. neighbors fear Chase bank demo damage BY TINA BENITEZ-EVES

new tenant has not been found for the former Chase bank at 130 Second Ave. since the branch closed Nov. 13. Now, the two-story building, erected in 1952, might come down altogether. Owners of the site at the corner of St. Mark’s Place, Icon Realty Management, filed permits for demolition on Feb. 19, and now residents at the adjacent 128 Second Ave., who have had longterm legal issues with the landlord, are worried that the razing of the former Chase branch might also lead to the condemnation of their homes. “We’re concerned that they will ruin the foundation of our building,” said John Serdula, a 128 Second Ave. tenant since 1998 and head of both the building’s tenant association and the Icon Coalition, a group of tenants who have been addressing landlord-related issues within the neighborhood. “We’re scared that they will say our building is condemned and tear down everything and build a high-rise,” he said. “When a building is damaged to such a degree, you can’t live there anymore. It’s frightening.” Serdula believes he has reason to be concerned. He and other tenants at No. 128 have been in an ongoing legal battle with Icon for years, which peaked following the Second Ave. gas explosion last March. Days after the explosion, an investigation in the basement of the building — which housed the now-closed Stage Restaurant on the

ground floor — resulted in all the tenants being left without heat or hot water for several months. The residents took Icon to court, and while the heat and hot water has been restored, Serdula is wary of the landlord’s plans with his building. However, an Icon representative told The Villager it’s too soon to tell what will be done with the site, but that they are covering all their bases. “We’re not set to demolish,” said Chris Coffey. “It takes forever to get permits to do certain things. Sometimes you like to keep your options open to figure out what you’re going to do. It’s general practice for developers to file the right paperwork for a variety of things.” Last fall, Chase closed two of its East Village branches, including 20 Avenue A., which merged with the bank at 106 Delancey St., and 130 Second Ave., now merged with the Chase two blocks north at 156 Second Ave. The St. Mark’s Place site is still listed by Icon as suitable for a restaurant, bar, office space, retail or gym, at about $73,000 a month, or $876,000 per year. The two-story space includes a 2,395-square-foot basement, a 2,542-squarefoot ground floor and a 2,649-square-foot second floor, according to an Icon property listing. “We don’t have any plans at this point to drastically alter the character of the space,” Coffey said. “We’re looking at various options and will figure it out over the next few months.” Although construction of the Second Ave. subway in the East Village is a ways off — it’s part of Phase 3 of the project, stretching from 63rd St. to Houston St. — the original route in-

cluded a station at St. Mark’s and Second Ave., halfway between the 14th St. and Houston St. stations. That station, though, is no longer part of the plan. But if the M.T.A. moves forward and adds back the St. Mark’s stop, Icon said it would work with the city to designate the proper space allotted to a possible subway station, according to its rep. “Icon routinely works with the city,” Coffey said. “It’s just part of the day in, day out of what we do. I really think that with the site, it’s too early in the process. There are no plans at this time. We’re looking at different things and will see what happens from there.” Whether or not demolition, in fact, will take place is unclear. Serdula definitely expects to see a high-rise go up in place of the former bank. It might even happen at No. 128, too, according to Serdula. In December, Serdula said Icon hired individuals to survey the building. When asked what they were doing it for, they said it was to possibly “build up,” according to Serdula. “If you told me three to five years ago what I would have to deal with day to day, I would be like, you’re making this up,” Serdula said of his suspicions of the new construction. “It’s shocking.” Coffey said that there shouldn’t be any issues with tenants in the adjacent building. “The same way Icon works with the city and relevant agencies, they will obviously do so with the tenants on this site when we get to that point,” he said. “I think we’re putting the cart before the horse.”

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March 24, 2016

PHOTO BY CLAYTON PATTERSON

The crowd at the Acker Awards really filled HOWL! Happening gallery last Thursday night.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dad, the black Bukowski To The Editor: Re “John Farris, bohemian poet who chronicled life on Lower East Side” (obituary, Feb. 11): As one of John Farris’s lesser-known daughters — that kind of thing can happen when you are the illegitimate child of two ’60s Afro-bohemians consorting through a haze of “lids” of sensimilla — I read Ms. Ferguson’s article with ambivalence.

Ms. Ferguson did a bang-up job of capturing the essence of this, um, “difficult man” who seemed to be a black version of Bukowski. It was amusing to read all of these people’s accounts of this man who sired me, who knew him better than I ever did. The closest I ever came to meeting John was meeting his daughter Chinyelu “Bibi” Duxbury and her son, which was a lot like being a contestant on Jerry Springer. Stay tuned for that chapter in my up-and-coming memoir, LOL. My story regarding John is a bit more sad. I grew

EVAN FORSCH

up longing to meet, know and understand this man, whom my single lesbian mother simultaneously praised, yet while also using me as a proxy to vent her rage against him. I was never sure, though, if it was his absence that made her so mad or if it was the fact that I looked and acted like a female mini-me version of him. My feelings toward John are thorny because we attempted to reconnect via phone when I was a 20-year-old peepshow “dancer.” His reaction to me was one of revulsion and rejection, which I found to be fantastically hypocritical and outrageous, considering that he was one of my mother’s teachers and a married man upon my conception. My mother’s father — a well-respected blue-collar man with middle-class aspirations and conservative Midwestern Christian values — was so scandalized that he only agreed to assist us if my mother agreed to a ruse that would convince people that she was merely my sister and my granddad was my father! Twisted, to be sure, but such was the fate of the teenage unwed mom when I was born. My birth angered a lot of folks, but I take a perverse pride in being a homewrecker before I was even born. Perhaps I am like John more than I ever wanted to admit. Anyway, thank you for this article on this man. I am located in San Francisco and I have many traits of John’s, for better and worse. Nikki K LETTERS continued on p. 30

March 24, 2016

TheVillager.com

Sweating the loss of Coles gym, my workout haven

NOTEBOOK BY KATHRYN ADISMAN

erome S. Coles Sports and Recreation Center, 1981 to 2016, R.I.P. Sunday, Feb. 21, was the last day of Coles. New York University’s gym was closed — despite community and faculty opposition — to pave the way for N.Y.U. 2031, a 2-million-square-foot expansion plan slated for the university’s two South Village superblocks. Though this has been pending for years, I could not bring myself to go and say my farewell. It felt like saying goodbye to my New York. Grief-stricken over a gym!? More than a gym, Coles was a center, as its name said. One of my last favorite places in Manhattan, Coles has existed as long as I’ve been in the city. It opened in September 1981 and seemed to herald a new era for N.Y.U., then still known as a commuter school. Back in the late ’60s, I commuted from my grandmother’s apartment on the Upper East Side to — gasp! — Greenwich Village to take classes at N.Y.U. When I returned in 1982 as a grad student at the Tisch School of the Arts, Coles was here. Coles has been part of my life ever since I joined the gym as a school alumna 30 years ago. Increasingly, I found myself in the hypocritical position of supporting my alma mater — whose aggressive acquisition of property and destruction of Greenwich Village landmarks I found insupportable — in order to maintain my membership at Coles. That’s how much I loved the place — I made a deal with the devil just to belong there. There are so few places left that I feel passionate about in the city, and Coles was one. Home away from home. Refuge from the city. Oasis of spaciousness. It afforded a sense of privacy and personal space in the midst of community. “Everybody loves Coles,” said film teacher Daniel Heffernan. N.Y.U. estimated the place was frequented by more than 3,000 people on a daily basis. “Coles was the main reason I got my master’s at N.Y.U., and the prospect of ongoing alum membership was what motivated me to finish my thesis,” said Janet, an alumna. In a world where very little makes sense, Coles, the Guggenheim of gyms — with its wraparound balconies overlooking basketball courts two levels below and fences that functioned as a ballet barre where I used to stretch, once upon a time — made some kinda wonderful sense. It was designed by Wank Adams Slavin Associates, an offshoot of the architectural firm that designed Grand Central Terminal. On the outside, the TheVillager.com

PHOTO BY JONATHAN ALPEYRIE

The N.Y.U. Coles gym, on Mercer St. between Houston and Bleecker Sts., has been closed and is set to be razed. In its place, the university plans to build a far larger building, currently known only as the “Zipper,” due to the design’s zigzag shape when viewed from above.

one-story aboveground structure, with its modest, khaki-colored brick that blended in with the surroundings, was deemed ugly by one visitor. Yet she had to admit the unprepossessing exterior masked a world of variety behind the wide double-door entranceway under a glass canopy inviting you inside. It was surprising to discover how much was there: 142,000 square feet and five levels — counting squash courts and rooftop running track. “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” asked a sign next to the elevator, posting a list of levels: L (lobby); N (natatorium — pool); FH (field house), each with separate areas. Just like in a department store. Remember those? At Coles, there was someplace to go, as well as someplace to be. It reminded me of the old Washington Square Park, before the redesign. There were locations within the location, hidden from view, to explore. Your workout might be limited to pedaling a stationary bike and weights, but there was always something going on: basketball, fencing, wrestling matches, tennis, badminton, volleyball, cheerleader rehearsal. It added to your total experience of the theater of the gym. Talk about diversity, Coles had it — not just in its facilities, but also in its members. It was truly a melting pot, where faculty, students, alums, administrators and community members of all ages mingled. Here’s what you could do at Coles: grab a sectional chair on wheels in the lobby lounge and pull up ringside to the plexiglass observation

deck, and from the balcony look down on swimmers in the lap and diving pools below, like peering into a giant aquarium. I was lucky to work in a place I loved when I got hired by assistant director of recreation Gail Stentiford to be an instructor of Feldenkrais, one of hundreds of recreation courses she administered. To any regular gym-goer, Gail was the face of Coles. At the last recreation staff meeting in September 2014, at which Stentiford announced her retirement after 34 years, she referred to N.Y.U. as a “real estate maven” and predicted, “This president [John Sexton] won’t resign until the shovel is in the ground.” Sexton stepped down as university president this January. The new “Zipper Building” planned to replace Coles would be 21 stories, said Stentiford, and would have designer boutiques, such as Prada on the ground floor. “It’s not about money,” she concluded. “It’s about space.” Is there life after Coles? Squash instructor Daniel Tai is looking forward to a new air-conditioned state-of-the-art athletic facility, which he hopes can be completed in less than five years. He cites all that wasted space at Coles. But what about the value of space itself? Admitting he’ll miss “the expansive atrium space where you could see everything happening below,” Tai feels an updated, new facility is worth the trade-off and can’t wait to play on the air-conditioned squash courts. Michael, an administrator, said,

“The spaciousness of Coles was something I knew would never be replicated.” He’s resigned to 404 Lafayette St., the interim space he describes as “a glorified storefront — just like every other gym in the city.” A Feldenkrais student of mine said Lafayette St. is “as bright as an arcade,” in contrast to Coles, where the low lighting was conducive to calm. We need more, not fewer such spaces in the city now. It’s the end of an era — for N.Y.U., as well as for me. The demolition of Coles and projected five-year construction plan reverberates beyond the gym, Mercer-Houston Dog Run and satellite shops. A swath of prime real estate across from the Angelika Film Center, the spot is a gateway to Soho. What will I miss? Custodians’ bins on wheels rolling down the halls? The photos of star athletes’ faces on the walls? The drone... er, hum...of the ventilation system? Teaching in the fencing salle to constant interruptions? That male announcer with the bullhorn and deafening whistle during women’s basketball! The world’s slowest elevator? Toilet stalls without latches? Orange metal lockers? Wall fans croaking to a halt? The water fountain outside the weight room that suddenly spurts? N.Y.U.’s color, purple, filling my eyes in a strangely soothing way? Yes to all of it! Regrets? That I never used the sauna — or climbed to the roof one last time for a panoramic view of Greenwich Village, before the demolition sweeps Coles away. March 24, 2016

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March 24, 2016

Ackers pack ’em in at HOWL! BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

jor pot dealer” and gambling-chip manufacturer Linda Twigg, Holly Woodlawn and Quentin Crisp — plus comedian Rockets Redglare, who got a particularly warm round of applause. Dr. Dave Ores, also an Acker winner, praised Patterson to the crowd, saying, “Thank you, Clayton. Clayton is our greatest inspiration,” getting a big round of applause. Writer Alan Kaufman, a co-creator of the Ackers, related the awards’ origins. PEN America was looking to give an award to an editor, and Kaufman and Patterson thought to nominate Jim Feast of Unbearables fame.

he third annual Acker Awards, honoring Downtown’s avant-garde artists and luminaries, did not disappoint at HOWL! Happening gallery last Thursday evening. Multi-format artist Phoebe Legere was the emcee. L.E.S. documentarian Clayton Patterson, the event’s co-founder, gave the intros of the many honorees, who included, among others, filmmaker Sara Driver, whose beau, Jim Jarmusch, was in the crowd. Accepting her award, Driver said she was glad to see the room filled with “people who color outside the lines.” Punk rock photographer Godlis thanked the late Hilly Kristal for giving him total freedom to document the music scene at C.B.G.B. Three Villager contributors were honored, including poet Puma Perl, photographer Q. Sakamaki and, belatedly, reporter Sarah Ferguson, who got an Acker last year, but was unable to make it then. Ferguson said radical attorney Stanley Cohen deserves an Acker. “He had our back on the Lower East Side for a long time — things that Clayton covered,” she told the crowd. “He was there PHOTO BY CLAYTON PATTERSON to defend us. So, right Phoebe Legere hit all the right notes as the on, Stanley.” emcee of the Acker Awards last week. Other honorees ranged from the likes of Chris “Then we thought, why not just Flash, publisher of The Shadow, and Yippie activist Alice Torbush to poet give him an award ourselves?” and Allen Ginsberg disciple Eliot Kaufman recalled, and so the AckKatz, Pyramid Club drag queen Bri- ers were born. Of course, there were a few critan “Hattie” Butterick and tattoo artist ics taking pokes at the affair. Little Nick Bubash. Acker winner Zito this year Italy artist Sante Scardillo quipped, helped add a new dimension by “This is like an ’80s high school painting discarded coffee cups reunion — the ’80s was the high with portraits of greats who were school.” Another activist charged that the recognized with Posthumous Acker Awards. These included a event lacked diversity. “I think they should call it the full roster of such legends as Vali Myers, John Evans, Dean Johnson, ‘Cracker Awards,’ ” he joked. But the sense of community and Mars Bar owner Hank Penza, Jack Smith, Hilly Kristal, Bill Rice, Al- pride in the close-knit Downtown len Ginsberg, attorney Flo Ken- arts community was strong, and nedy (who defended Patterson in the event is steadily building more some of his cases against the po- prestige each year. As one honoree said, “I’d rather lice), Bimbo Rivas, Taylor Mead, Joey and Dee Dee Ramone, PUNK have one Acker than a bagful of magazine’s John Holmstrom, “ma- Grammys.” TheVillager.com

‘Belong’ is an intimate portrait of an intuitive outsider New doc sheds light on iconoclastic director

PHOTO COURTESY OF ICARUS FILMS

Chantal Akerman, seen here in New York, was nomadic, also living in Paris and Brussels.

BY SEAN EGAN

lthough she never achieved name recognition among mainstream audiences, Chantal Akerman (1950-2015) cuts a fascinating figure worthy of both study and praise — and leaves a body of work that will endure. Over the course of her decades-spanning career, the prolific Belgian filmmaker produced dozens of features, shorts, and documentaries, often pushing the boundarTheVillager.com

ies of cinematic form and content (including feminist and LGBT themes well ahead of their time). Now, the iconoclastic director, who committed suicide in October of last year, is getting her due in the form of “I Don’t Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman,” a new look at her life and work. “The idea of a documentary came to me for the first time in 2010 when preparing ‘Almayer’s Folly’ [Akerman’s 2011 film],” says Marianne Lambert, the documentary’s director and

co-writer. “I was production manager and Chantal and I went more than once to Cambodia for location research. During these trips I got to know Chantal better, and I realized she was rather different from what people might think of her. This was the starting point of the documentary.” The film communicates this insight through intimate conversations with Akerman, cross-cut with well-chosen clips from her expansive body of work. The viewer is treated to hearing about Akerman’s close rela-

tionship with her mother (a survivor of Auschwitz), stories of the young filmmaker’s struggles for her art (whose hustle should inspire modern low-budget directors), and her theories on filmmaking. The cumulative effect helps bring an artist, whose work is often heady, down to a wonderfully relatable human scale. “The moments I shared with Chantal were always precious, even when they were common,” notes Lambert. CHANTAL continued on p. 20 March 24, 2016

Sharp programming brings Chantal Akerman into focus CHANTAL continued from p. 19

Keeping in step with the intimacy of the film, it was shot, for the most part, in Akerman’s home and the surrounding area. While that may not seem to be a particularly difficult shoot, things became a little more complicated, as Akerman had ties all over — from New York, to Paris, to Brussels — a fact cleverly referenced in the film’s title. “We started in April 2014 in Israel, then we went to New York for five days in September, and ended in Brussels and Paris in November 2014 for three days. I knew I wanted to shoot in places or countries that mattered for Chantal. The choice of these places came very naturally,” Lambert describes of the globetrotting shooting process. “After shooting in Israel I started working with Marc de Coster, the editor, in order to structure the material we had brought back,” she continues. “It was really during the editing that the film started taking shape and revealed itself with, as far as I was concerned, terrible moments of doubt,” she says. “I would say that it confirmed my opinion that you should follow your instinct and go for it.” Further helping to give the documentary its structure is the examination of Akerman through an outside perspective, be it through revealing discussions with her longtime editor, Claire Atherton, who speaks on her work ethic, or American director Gus Van Sant, who talks about how her films influenced his directorial style

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(particularly with the 2005 film “Last Days,” a speculative look at events leading up to the suicide of Kurt Cobain). The documentary seems to already have had something of an effect on audiences unfamiliar with Akerman. “When ‘I Don’t Belong Anywhere’ was shown for the first time at the Locarno [International Film Festival, at the] beginning of August 2015, a group of youngsters, girls and boys, came to see me after the screening,” Lambert recalls. “They came up to me and said, ‘Thank you. We didn’t know Chantal Akerman… your film made us feel like watching her films.’” If other viewers are inspired in a similar way by Lambert’s film, they happen to be in luck: Coinciding with the release of “I Don’t Belong Anywhere,” Film Forum will be running a new restoration of “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels,” Akerman’s 1975 masterpiece (starting Apr. 1). The film is a hypnotizing and singular portrait of a specific kind of woman, which uses its epic running length (201 minutes) to follow the distinctive routine of a French single mother (cooking, cleaning, etc.), and watch her eventually begin to unravel/ rebel against the monotonous structure of her life. For those looking to dive even deeper into Akerman’s filmography, BAMcinématek in Brooklyn is also getting in on the Akerman celebration. Her final work, 2015’s “No Home Movie” (whose editing process is seen in Lambert’s doc), will

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March 24, 2016

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ICARUS FILMS

Chantal Akerman (right) and editor Claire Atherton (left) work on shaping “No Home Movie,” Akerman’s final film.

Chantal Akerman, seen here sitting on a striking installation in Israel.

begin its theatrical run on Apr. 1, as a way to kick off a career-spanning 29-film retrospective of her work. This is good news for both new converts, as well as already devoted fans like Lambert, who has too many favorite films to count. “I think the first film I saw was [1977’s] ‘News From Home.’ And I am still particularly fond of it. However there are other films I admire and/or appreciate: ‘Jeanne Dielman…,’ of course, ‘D’Est’ or ‘Sud,’ ‘Les Rendez-Vous d’Anna,’ ” she lists. “Chantal was a free woman, intuitive and honest. I think her films bear these qualities.” While her films speak for themselves, and for her, with “I Don’t Belong Anywhere,” Lambert has provided audiences with a valuable document of an artist’s self-examination — revealing that her personal story is just as fascinating as any she chose to tell through her work. For Lambert, who describes a goal of the film as “simply [evoking] the feeling of having met someone and wanting to get to know her better,”

it’s been heartening to see positive reactions to her small-scale documentary of a major figure. “A very young woman came up to me and said, ‘In fact, when you see the life journey of such a woman… you realize that anything is possible,’” she describes of an encounter after a screening. “Chantal was a pioneer, an innovator who wrote her own language. And that is very inspiring.” “I Don’t Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman.” runs Mar. 30–Apr. 5 at Film Forum (209 W. Houston St., btw. Varick St. & Sixth Ave.). Free tickets are available on a firstcome, first-served basis, day of show only. Daily screenings at 1, 2:40, 4:20, 6:10, 7:50 & 9:30 p.m. Call 212-727-8110 or visit filmforum.org. The “Chantal Akerman: Images Between the Images” retrospective runs Apr. 1–May 1 at BAMcinématek (30 Lafayette Ave., btw. Ashton Pl. & St. Felix St.). Call 718-636-4100 or visit bam.org/BAMcinematek. TheVillager.com

New York notes on Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) An independent voice’s careful observations continue to inspire BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN “Everywhere I looked, everything I saw became something to be made, and it had to be made exactly as it was, with nothing added. It was a new freedom; there was no longer the need to compose.” When the revered American abstract artist Ellsworth Kelly died on Dec. 27, 2015 at the age of 92, there was a strong outpouring of sympathy in the international art community. In addition to the many leading newspapers, art magazines and blogs who quickly published long obituaries or tributes, social media was rich in passionate proclamations by artists, citing Kelly’s crucial impact. For decades, he had not only been one of the most influential artists of the postWar era, but also one whose quality of innovation was sustained and repeatedly asserted in his more than six-decades-spanning career. Though best known for his abstract, hard-edged compositions, which often saw him linked to the Minimalist movement of the 1960s, Kelly preserved an independent voice throughout his career. In fact, one of his most widely admired bodies of work allows for overt references, featuring exquisite outline drawings of leaves and plant fragments. His artistic heritage was steeped in the European avant-garde. Matisse, early Kandinsky, and Léger impacted his sense and obvious joy of color — while two of his favorite artists, Brancusi and Mondrian, sparked his interest in reducing shapes to their simplest forms. In fact, all of Kelly’s works were derived from careful observations of the world around him. Chance compositions created by nature or architecture through the interplay of light and shadow were always at the root of his vocabulary, no matter how seemingly abstract. In that sense, the core of Kelly’s work is distillation, stripping the observed subjects to bones made of pure color and form. When asking several New York-based contemporary artists about what they particularly admired in Kelly, I quickly received various detailed responses. “When I came to New York in 1982, I was an innocent plein-air landscape painter from California,” the abstract artist Leslie Wayne remembered. “I was determined to leave that all behind and explore a brave new world of abstraction. One day I was at MoMA and saw Kelly’s ‘Study for Rebound’ (1955) and it was like a ‘eureka’ moment. I immediately went back to the studio and TheVillager.com

Ellsworth Kelly: “Orange Red Relief, 1959” (Oil on canvas, two joined panels; 60 x 60 inches [152.4 x 152.4 cm], Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY, Gift of the artist, 1996, 96.4511).

made a series of paintings based on those two biomorphic shapes. Kelly’s work gave me a way to enter a language I hadn’t yet made my own, and because of that, he has always held an important place in my heart for his early gift of influence.” Jennifer Riley, who has titled several of her works “According to EK” as an homage to Kelly’s “Spectrum Colors Arranged by Chance” paintings, stated: “I was initially attracted to Kelly’s brilliant colors and bold sophisticated forms. I found myself, later on, seeing, making, and representing my own reality in a subjective, abstracted way. I have Ellsworth Kelly to thank. I think he gave many of us permission.” Remembering a specific exhibition of Kelly’s plant drawings at the Metropolitan Museum in 2012, artist Kim Uchiyama added: “I [had] two experiences with this work. First, I was really taken by their strength of line and overall design while remaining absolutely delicate and conveying a sense of fluid, organic abstraction. Second, many of the draw-

ings were done in black and white, yet the form clearly came out of feeling, color, weight, and shape. Both of these experiences still resonate with me and give me a lot to think about.” To Nick Lamia, it is “the incredible richness Kelly was able to conjure using such efficient means” that stands out. “He was like a chef who

could create entire feasts with just two or three ingredients. Whether it was large abstract paintings, contour drawings of plants or sculpture, he consistently created engaging and inspiring imagery using just a few elements.” Kelly’s presence in New York is espeKELLY continued on p. 22

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Major museums keep Ellsworth Kelly’s legacy alive

Ellsworth Kelly (1923‑2015): “Atlantic” (1956).

Ellsworth Kelly: “Barn, Southampton” (1968, Gelatin silver print, 8 1/2 x 13 inches, 22 x 33 cm).

KELLY continued from p. 21

stract Expressionists two decades earlier. As he explained in a 2013 interview with Agnes Gund conducted for the Museum of Modern Art, in this work he reconfigured and recontextualized the sequence of colors found in a rainbow. However, in this case, yellow, which is usually at a rainbow’s center, can be found on the outside; we are moving from light to dark to light. While each panel exudes a totemic presence, grouped together they transform into a true environment, absorbing the viewer’s attention visually, as well as physically. At 1000 Fifth Ave. (at E. 82nd St.). Visit metmuseum.org or call 212-535-7710.

cially strong due to his long history with both the city and state. Born in Newburgh, New York, he first studied at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn (1941-43), before serving in the military (1943-1945) and joining the Allied Forces in France. After pursuing an arts education at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1946-1948) and six subsequent years in Paris on the GI Bill, he returned to the United States in 1954 — for good. By the time he settled in New York, first in a studio apartment on Broad St., and finally on Coenties Slip in Lower Manhattan, he had already made acquaintances with Brancusi, Arp, Miró, Cage and Cunningham (in Europe). Now, his neighbors included Robert Indiana, Agnes Martin and James Rosenquist, among others. His first New York solo show soon followed at the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1956, and three years later he was included in the landmark exhibition “Sixteen Americans” at the Museum of Modern Art. Though Kelly moved out of Manhattan in 1970, three years before his retrospective at MoMA, he remained in New York State. He set up a studio in Chatham and a home in nearby Spencertown, where he lived and worked until his death. Fortunately, in New York, Kelly’s work can be sought out at any time. It can be found in the permanent collections of all of the city’s leading art museums. In addition, Matthew Marks Gallery, which has exhibited Kelly’s work since the early 1990s, is currently hosting a project that should not be missed. The Museum of Modern Art lists no less than 235 works by Kelly online, including many that are not on display,

March 24, 2016

such as the exquisite “Brushstrokes Cut into Forty-Nine Squares and Arranged by Chance” (1951), a work made of cutand-pasted ink drawings. Currently on display in the atrium, however, is the large-scale “Three Panels: Orange, Dark Gray, Green” (1986). In this triptych, three shaped canvases engage in a well-choreographed dance of highly saturated monochromatic color and geometric shapes. The irregular spacing of the triangular and trapezoidal forms, as well as the interplay of curved and straight edges create both a dynamic rhythm and perfect balance. Here, the wall itself begins to serve as the artist’s canvas, while the forms of the paintings appear as gestural marks on it, blurring the divide between painting and sculpture. At 11 W. 53rd St. (btw. Fifth & Sixth Aves.). Visit moma.org or call 212-7089400. Though the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum devotes most of its exhibition space to temporary special exhibitions rather than its vast permanent collection, it owns several works by the artist. One of the highlights is the square “Orange Red Relief” (1959), which is made of two joined, side-byside panels of unequal depth. It is a terrific example of the artist’s monochrome paintings, which he began in the early 1950s. Again, it is color, not gesture, that defines the work and provides it with a distinct sculptural presence. At 1071 Fifth Ave. (at E. 89th St.). Visit guggenheim. org or call 212-423-3500. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kelly’s “Spectrum V” (1969) consists of 13 panels, each measuring about 84 x 34 inches. Here, Kelly revels fully in a luminous palette that is worlds apart from the moodier shades preferred by the Ab-

The Whitney Museum of American Art also owns many works by Kelly, including the stunning “Atlantic” (1956). Measuring more than nine feet wide, it is the largest of the artist’s blackand-white canvases of the late 1950s. It marks the ambitious culmination of many studies and several smaller paintings of the same compositional theme. The latter was inspired by shadows cast across the pages of a book, which Kelly observed while reading on a bus. The diptych structure of “Atlantic” reflects the facing pages of the book. However, as if to turn a spotlight onto the shape that caught his attention, Kelly chose to reverse the light: Now the former shadow appears white, accentuated by the darkness of its surroundings. At 99 Gansevoort St. (btw. 10th Ave. & Washington St.). Visit whitney.org or call 212-570-3600. Currently, Matthew Marks Gallery is hosting a particularly interesting and unusual Kelly exhibition. Over 40 of his gelatin silver print photographs are on display, marking the first exhibition of its kind. The fact that Kelly finished preparing the prints and planned the ex-

Ellsworth Kelly: “Garage, Hudson” (1977, Gelatin silver print, 12 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches, 32 x 22 cm).

hibition shortly before his death makes this show especially enticing. Kelly started taking photographs with a borrowed Leica in the 1950s. Because he used them to make notations of things he saw and subjects to draw, these photographs not only make for fascinating works of art, but aid in shedding further light onto his unique vision. In contrast to his sketches and collages, these photographs never served as preparatory studies for his paintings or sculptures. What they do capture is Kelly’s unique eye for the compositional possibilities of everyday details. “Ellsworth Kelly Photographs” is on view through Apr. 30, at Matthew Marks Gallery (523 W. 24th St., btw 10th & 11th Aves.). Visit matthewmarks. com or call 212-243-0200. TheVillager.com

Bubble boys and girls Pre-recession office workers are ethically compromised, mostly alone

COURTESY CHINA LION

Eason Chan in Johnnie To’s “Office.”

BY STEVE ERICKSON

n the early 1990s, Manhattan’s Chinatown had three movie theaters showing Hong Kong films. Now they’re all gone, and there’s not even a DVD store left in the neighborhood. It’s fitting that Hong Kong director Johnnie To’s “Office” is getting a weeklong run in the 3D version in which it was originally meant to be seen –– the 2D version played briefly at the AMC Empire 25 last fall –– at Metrograph, a new theater at the border of the Lower East Side and Chinatown. The film seems to have found a cult audience in the US; while some of To’s gangster films have played to small but enthusiastic American crowds, his non-genre work has largely been ignored here until now. Based on a stage musical written by Sylvia Chang, who adapted her own play, acts in the film, and co-produced it, it takes a radical approach to turning theater into cinema. Imagine a cross between Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” and Jacques Tati’s “Playtime.” “Office” begins before the 2008 fall of Lehman Brothers. Trading company Jones & Sunn awaits its IPO. Lee Xiang (Wang Ziyi) –– “Lee for Ang Lee, Xiang for dream” –– has just begun his probationary period with the company, which seems full of secrets. He starts working with Kat (Lang Yueting), who acts mysteriously. CEO Winnie Chang (Chang) is sleeping with its chairman, Ho Chung-ping (Chow Yun-fat), whose wife is comatose. Executive David Wang (Eason Chan) plays fast and loose with the company’s accounting. TheVillager.com

The venal businessman has become an archetypal character for our times –– and one to argue about. “American Psycho” scumbag Patrick Bateman might be its epitome. No other version has gone as far as him; insider trading isn’t the moral equivalent of murder. Most of the controversy over Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” centered over whether it glamorized its anti-hero, fraudster Jordan Belfort. Even the aspirational reality TV world of “Shark Tank” offers a real-life villain in Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary. David is the equivalent in “Office,” but it’s a mark of this film’s humanism that he’s treated far more kindly by Chang and To than any of the people, real or fictional, that I’ve just named. The opening of “Office” shows people scrambling to get onto the subway, an experience most New Yorkers can relate to. Time hangs heavy over this world; a huge clock decked out with Roman numerals is visible in many scenes. Most of the characters don’t seem to have a home life. Men are almost never seen wearing casual clothes. While the songs make an impression, something got lost along the way from Cantonese lyrics to English subtitles. The vocabulary and syntax are occasionally tortured. For a musical, the tunes are definitely the weakest element of “Office.” The set –– created by connected plastic pipes, some of them neon or fluorescent lights –– is the film’s biggest star. There are no walls in this film. Elevators and spiral staircases allow people to climb the corporate

ladder, but one elevator is set aside for the exclusive use of CEOs, which brought to mind the “executive washroom” jokes in Frank Tashlin’s “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” The 3D is used subtly, as a way of immersing the audience in the world of “Office” (To never sends arrows flying off the screen). “Office” isn’t a radical critique of capitalism, but it gets its digs in nevertheless. To has often used the crime film as a way of approaching the economic ups and downs of Hong Kong, as in “Election,” its sequel “Triad Election,” and “Life Without Principle.” In the final third of “Office,” the recession’s effects are felt on Jones & Sunn, and that leads to unethical behavior on the part of several characters. In the end, their secrets are revealed. It’s a credit to Eason Chan’s performance that David seems more pathetic than sleazy. The songs also help, opening a window onto the characters’ emotions. Early on, they set the stage for the hectic life at Jones & Sunn, but by the halfway mark, they allow the characters to express a vulnerability for which open dialogue doesn’t have room. The saddest thing about corporate culture, as shown in “Office,” may be the way it forces most of this film’s characters to speak from behind a mask. No one in the film is gay, but they’re in the closet nevertheless. Directed by Johnnie To. Runtime: 119 minutes. In Cantonese with English subtitles. Opens Mar. 25 at Metrograph (7 Ludlow St., at Canal St.). Visit metrograph. com for more info. March 24, 2016

L.M.D.C. denies funds for housing at Eliz. Garden GARDEN continued from p. 1

At the September hearing for the applications, an H.P.D. representative said the proposed project at the Elizabeth St. Garden, known as 21 Spring St., would include 60 to 100 apartments in a seven-story building, costing $20 million to $24 million to construct. If H.P.D. could get the $6 million from H.P.D., the official said, it would allow the city to “target deeper affordability,” in terms of who could live there. Subsequently, H.P.D. has said the project would only include 60 residential units. The September L.M.D.C. hearing was packed by 200 garden supporters who live right around the garden, plus a smaller number of affordable housing advocates, many of the latter brought over by van from Hamilton-Madison House in Chinatown. While the de Blasio administration and Councilmember Margaret Chin have been pushing the housing project, other local politicians have come out strongly against it, including Assemblymember Deborah Glick, state Senators Daniel Squadron and Brad Hoylman and Congressmember Jerrold Nadler. C.B. 2 also is on record vehemently calling for the garden’s preservation. And it has become a personal crusade for the board’s chairperson, Tobi Bergman, a longtime parks advocate. Previously, H.P.D. officials said the agency planned to issue a request for proposals, or R.F.P., from developers for the project in early spring. Following last week’s news, Bergman issued a statement, calling the application’s rejection an encouraging sign the garden ultimately would be saved. “We were gratified to learn this morning that the city withdrew its request for funding from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for affordable housing development at Elizabeth Street Garden,” he said. “This decision reflects the strength of community support for the garden,” the C.B. 2 chairperson said. “This same support will eventually lead to failure of any ongoing effort to develop housing there. If H.P.D. decides to pursue a request for proposals for the Elizabeth St. site, it will waste its own resources and those of developers who may respond to the R.F.P. without understanding the costs of the fight they will be investing in. “We commend Councilmember Chin for her long and passionate commitment to building affordable housing and to the needs of our senior citizens,” Bergman added. “But we urge her to embrace the importance of this garden to her constituents and to work with the whole community to find better solutions. “We remain committed to working with H.P.D. and our elected officials to assure development of affordable hous-

March 24, 2016

FILE PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Local school kids enjoyed the Elizabeth St. Garden’s nature and painting pumpkins at last fall’s Harvest Fest.

ing at better sites in our district, starting with the city-owned site at Hudson and Clarkson Sts. “This is a moment of opportunity to direct the energy and unity of our community to improving our network of parks and open space while we shoulder our responsibility to contribute to the mayor’s bold plan to build affordable housing,” Bergman urged. “It’s a moment we should not waste. We all need to pull together now.” C.B. 2 has been advocating for an alternative site for the affordable housing project — an open lot at Hudson and Clarkson Sts., in Hudson Square, where the city recently completed construction of a water shaft down to the new City Water Tunnel No. 3. The Department of Environmental Protection, which has jurisdiction over the Lower West Side site, has said it needs to maintain control of 35 percent of it, in order to preserve access to the water shaft. But, according to Bergman, D.E.P. is willing to give up the other 65 percent of the location, or about 20,000 square feet. Meanwhile, the Elizabeth St. Garden, located between Spring and Prince Sts., is 25,000 square feet. But only 17,000 square feet of that could be developed with housing, due to open-space and zoning restrictions, Bergman noted. Also, the Special Little Italy District zoning caps building heights at roughly the height of an average old-style tenement, which would further constrain any potential project’s size there. In short, the West Side option has a larger footprint, plus would allow for a far taller building. A zoning change would be needed, though, to allow residential use and the added height. For its part, H.P.D., at a presentation to C.B. 2 in January, assured that 5,000 square feet at Elizabeth St. could be pre-

served as open space. But the project’s opponents said that was not adequate to replace the green oasis five times that size that the community now enjoys. Terri Cude, C.B. 2 first vice chairperson, was at Friday’s L.M.D.C. meeting where the approved projects were unveiled. “They had a list of what was being funded — the Elizabeth St. Garden was not on it,” she said. “For this round of money, the L.M.D.C. basically maxed out — there was only a little money left for maintenance. “It takes a little pressure off the garden,” Cude said. “It also shows that L.M.D.C. recognizes that open space is a priority. A lot of what they funded was for open space. You can put more people into the city, but you can’t enjoy it if you don’t have open space, the ability to see the sky, the ability to breathe because of trees sequestering the carbon. Human beings need green.” Jeannine Kiely, the president of Friends of Elizabeth St. Garden, said it’s high time for the city to start working with the community. “L.M.D.C.’s decision clearly reflects our community’s tremendous interest and support in preserving Elizabeth St. Garden as a New York City park,” she said. “Friends of Elizabeth St. Garden requests that H.P.D., C.B. 2 and our elected officials work together to achieve affordable housing development in our community while preserving the garden, a heavily used and much-loved green oasis in Little Italy and Soho.” However, just because the L.M.D.C. denied the 21 Spring St. application, it apparently doesn’t necessarily mean the housing project is off the table. And Bergman admitted he misspoke to say the city withdrew the application. Bergman subsequently said, “I know we were wrong in thinking that H.P.D.

withdrew [the application]. In fact, it was just not funded.” A request for comment from H.P.D. on whether the divisive, hotly opposed project —which was originally hatched stealthily without any C.B. 2 notification — is still alive was yielded the following: “The underlying concern of all those involved is to promote a diverse, livable community in which many options are available — including fair, affordable housing and open green space. H.P.D. will be engaging with Community Board 2 shortly.” For her part, Councilmember Chin said, “I am incredibly grateful that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation decided to invest in open spaces for our community, including the East River Esplanade and Brooklyn Bridge Beach, as well as provide considerable funding for the Hudson River Park Trust. While I am disappointed that the L.M.D.C. declined to provide funding for deeper affordability for seniors in Little Italy, I remain committed to working with the city and members of the community to ensure that this important project continues to move forward. The growing number of seniors who are struggling to stay in the neighborhoods they love cannot wait a moment longer than is necessary to get the safe, accessible and affordable housing they deserve.” David Gruber, who was C.B. 2 chairperson immediately before Bergman, also was heartened by last week’s development, and called on Chin finally to heed the community’s call and drop the project. He noted that the Elizabeth St. Garden has more than 5,000 people on its mailing list. “She should embrace this and not try to put people in this little sliver,” Gruber said of the cramped Elizabeth St. site. “We’re going to have senior housing at the St. John’s site — and we’re going to give her another site. But we need this little part preserved,” he said of the garden. Gruber was referring to the upcoming St. John’s Partners project on Washington St. in Hudson Square across from Pier 40, which will include a whopping 476 permanently affordable apartments, 175 of which would be earmarked for seniors. In the end, only 14 organizations received L.M.D.C. money, including $10 million to help complete Hudson River Park’s Segment 3 (Chambers St. to W. Houston St.), $10 million for the East River Esplanade south of East River Park, $7 million for the project to turn the Lower East Side’s Pier 42 into a park, $6 million for the Battery Conservancy, $5 million for river access at Brooklyn Bridge Beach, $4.8 million for the South St. Seaport Museum, $2.5 million for the Flea Theater, $1.1 million for University Settlement and $1 million for the Jackie Robinson Museum. TheVillager.com

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CHANG continued from p. 10

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March 24, 2016

service. “I’m a public servant.” His main planks are education, revitalizing Chinatown’s economy, opposing the push for a $15 minimum wage — which is also a key plank of the state G.O.P. — and term limits in Albany. “I will vigorously fight against Mayor de Blasio’s dumbing down the specialized high schools,” he told the crowd on Monday, to applause. “It should be merit-based, nothing less.” Increased tourism is the best way to spark Chinatown’s business, in his view. “After 9/11, we lost sewing factories here. We need to gain it back, and tourism is the way,” he said of boosting the enclave’s economy. As for the “Fight for 15” campaign, he said, if elected, he would try to “slow down” the drive to boost the minimum wage from the current $9 because the higher rate would “hurt business.” Term limits are needed, he said, because “We can’t have career politicians.” Finally, he said, he is running because the district needs Asian-American representation. “This district is almost 50 percent Asian,” he stressed. Among Chang’s supporters at the event were prominent local businessman Charles Wang and Donald Hong, a former executive director and president, respectively, of the Chinatown Planning Council. Hong’s mother, Norma Chu, an early leader of C.P.C., was there, too. “He represents someone who hasn’t been tainted in the pockets of politicians — and that’s what we need,” Hong said of Chang. Another local businessman, Peter Lau, is also pulling for Chang. Eddie Chiu, of the Lin Sing Association, is a Democrat but is backing Chang in the special election. “He’s very clean — no [negative] background,” he said. Even if Cancel wins on April 19, Chiu predicted she will lose in the primary. “In September, I got another candidate — Paul Newell,” he added, with a smile. Wang gave opening remarks from the podium along with Long “Dragon” Deng, the G.O.P. finance co-chairperson for the metro region. Asked later what issues Chang

could address, if elected, Deng cited two seafood regulations that are hurting Chinatown businesses. First, New York State is too strict in enforcing size limits on lobsters that can be sold, he said. Second, stores cannot display shellfish for sale in water because agencies fear it will lead to shellfish growing in municipal waterworks — which is a fallacy since the pipes are full of freshwater, not saltwater, Deng scoffed. Being caught violating these rules can bring a fine of $500 to $5,000, he said. Brian Kolb, the Assembly minority leader, was in town last week to boost Chang’s candidacy at a separate press event. “Lester Chang has the life experience needed to make a great assemblyman,” he said. “He understands the problems that affect this district and he knows how to fix them.” Kolb said Chang is on target about not hiking the minimum wage. “It’s almost like you have to remind people, the minimum wage is not a living wage,” Kolb said. “It will put people out of work.” During the press conference with Kolb, Chang said he is taking inspiration from Trump, who is showing that a political outsider can shake things up, and that maybe he can follow suit. “I’m a fresh face. That’s maybe why Donald Trump is resonating,” he said. “Yes, he’s a reality TV star, but he’s a fresh face. So I hope that I can cut through.” Asked if he has endorsed Trump, he said, no, not as of now. However, Virginia Kee, president emeritus of Chinatown’s United Democratic Organization, which is backing Niou in the special election, downplayed the Chang hype and said he was picked because the G.O.P. was desperately scrambling to find a candidate, any candidate. “You know him, and you don’t know him,” she shrugged of Chang. “He’s just a nice, pleasant person. He’s not the only person the Republicans called. They called a lot of people. I know because people told me they were asked to run. I don’t know if he was on the short list or the long list. “We have a very capable candidate, not just someone nice. There are a lot of nice people walking on the street. Yuh-Line is capable. The Republicans put up another Chinese against a Chinese — they just want to split the Chinese vote.” TheVillager.com

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March 24, 2016

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Continued from p. 16

City wants tax revenue To The Editor: Re “Time to look at bigger picture on small businesses” (editorial, March 17): New York City collects property taxes based on annual rent rolls, residential and commercial. Do you now see why New York City will never change the laws regarding commercial lease renewals? Barbara Paolucci

Selfish NIMBYism To The Editor: Re “Fox has his facts all wrong on Pier 57 project” (talking point, by Diana Taylor, March 3): Setting the record straight is important, and Diana Taylor does an excellent job of doing so. It’s incredibly easy for people to knock down the hard work of those trying valiantly to make Hudson River Park a better, more financially sustainable place for the 17 million-plus users who love it.

But trying to torpedo projects like Pier 57 and block the air rights transfer that will save Pier 40 is selfish NIMBYism that will result in our park being chronically underfunded and costing the community precious resources that we can’t afford to lose. Peter Braus

Yiddish is dead? Feh! To The Editor: Re “Formerly of ‘Fiddler,’ Finkel, 93, far from final act” (arts article, March 3): Interesting piece, but Yiddish is not considered a “dead language”! Endangered, but by no means dead. Bill Weinberg E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager. com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 Metrotech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published.

Planning board balked at Village ‘urban renewal’

FLASHBACK BY YANNIC RACK

he city’s plan to raze more than a dozen blocks in the West Village hit a roadblock 55 years ago last week, when the proposal — in addition to already stiff opposition from local residents — was voted down by the Manhattan Borough President’s Planning Board, the predecessor to today’s Community Board 2. After considering the proposal from the Wagner administration’s Housing and Redevelopment Board to earmark some 14 blocks of 19th-century warehouses and brownstones in the neighborhood for “urban renewal,” the local body decided to recommend that then-Beep Edward Dudley oppose the plan. “The resolution pointed out that many private projects had demolished homes in the Village to make way for high-income apartments

March 24, 2016

and had caused deprivation to many unable to suitably relocate,” reported a March 23, 1961, article in The Villager. “These projects were destroying the character and flavor of Greenwich Village, the resolution noted.” According to the article, the dreaded scheme would have leveled the area bounded by W. 11th St. on the north, Hudson, Washington and Christopher Sts. on the east, Morton St. on the south, and West St. on the west, and would have displaced 600 local families. Jane Jacobs, the legendary activist from 555 Hudson St., led the opposition in front of the planning board, arguing that the plan was an expensive way to add 250 middle-income units — and not 450, as the city claimed. Jacobs’s Committee to Save the West Village mounted an aggressive campaign to thwart the city’s plan. In 1962, as the power of city planning czar Robert Moses slowly began to wane, the committee finally forced the city to scrap the plan. TheVillager.com

Her life’s ink-credible journey is all over her TATTOO TALES BY BOB KRASNER

ymbols of hope and perseverance. That’s what most of them are, says Elena Venetia, a model, hair stylist (Fox and Jane salon), actress and radio podcast host (“Dying Scene Radio”). She began recording the voyage of her life journey on her 18th birthday, with a simple nautical star tattoo — on her hip, so her parents wouldn’t notice. “It’s very traditional artwork, but it’s about the beginning of a journey — finding your way,” she notes of that first bit of body art. Although she admits that she has lost her way on occasion, she has nonetheless recorded the bad times along with the good. An ex-boyfriend is represented by a snarling wolf with the word “MERCY” below it, to remind her that you will get no mercy from the heart of a wolf. A former good friend whose actions left Venetia homeless has been noted with the image of a skeleton with its fingers crossed. Her conviction that it would not happen again is embodied with a hobo inked above the words “NEVER AGAIN.” “LOVE LOST” is what’s left of an abusive relationship that resulted in broken bones, as well as a broken heart. The first guy who broke her heart is represented by a tribute to the band Social Distortion. And her love affair with punk rock is further noted with images from bands Alkaline Trio, Misfits, Tiger Army and the Suicide Machines. The tats are each related to a song from each band that represents a certain time in her life. Skulls are everywhere and it would be easy to misinterpret the two that reside beneath a burning candle that represent her current relationship. “The skulls represent our past lives fused together as soul mates,” she explains. “The red candle represents honor and wisdom shedding light through dark times.” In addition, there is the French word “DEMONTER” — “to come apart,” or in slang, “to screw up” — which came to her in a dream. In the tattoo, there is a line through the word, as if to say, “Don’t.” Current states of flux show up in the two sets of images that have to do with what she calls the “moments of decision that we face every day.” There are two sparrows on her stomach — one in fine shape and the other, damaged. The point being that you have a “choice whether or not you are going to let what has hurt you ruin you.” Stating the obvious as far as daily choices go, she sports an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. “It’s funny,” she notes. “All anyone sees is the devil.” Many of the images were inked by noted artist Jeff Madonna. “He taught me a lot about traditional American tattoo art,” she says. Many of the images were inspired by Madonna’s private collection of tattoo flash art and were produced using needles and colors from the ’50s. Although she has wanted to look like “the tattooed lady from the circus” since she was a little girl, her family didn’t quite understand the appeal. TheVillager.com

PHOTOS BY BOB KRASNER

Elena Venetia photographed outside the Fox & Jane salon, at 277 E. 10th St.

Ironically, she says, “My grandfather was the one who got me.” His stint in the Merchant Marine is represented by a mermaid surrounded by the notes of the song “Amazing Grace.” Her most recent Thanksgiving was notable for her father’s acknowledgement that, despite her having veered from the path that he would have chosen for her, she has made her own way. In his honor there is a Kewpie doll with boxing gloves, accompanied by the slogan “DADDY’S GIRL,” because, she says, “Dad taught me to be a fighter.” Although Mom likes to pretend that all that ink just isn’t there, she still wanted to know, “Where’s my tattoo?” Venetia says that she hasn’t decided yet how to honor her, but then we notice the shamrock with the word “IRISH” underneath. “That’s my mother’s side of the family,” Venetia says. “Everyone who is Irish should have that shamrock, as a warning.” So Mom is represented after all. Sadly, her most recent embellishment is a tribute to her good friend Aly who just passed away. A makeup artist, Aly’s memorial is a lipstick in her favorite color, put on her arm by Baz of Clash City Tattoo, at 273 E. 10th St. Not just symbols of hope and perseverance, the images that adorn Venetia’s body are the bits and pieces of a woman of great spirit and energy — and, like her, they add up to more than the sum of their parts. And what’s that cat on the palm of her hand? “A fierce pussy,” she laughs. No doubt. If you live or work in the Village, East Village or Downtown area and have a personal story about your tattoos that you would like to share, please contact Bob Krasner at thevillagertattoo@gmail.com . March 24, 2016

March 24, 2016

TheVillager.com