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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933
September 25, 2014 • $1.00 Volume 84 • Number 17
City slaps stop-work order on E. 9th St. dorm, says leases are invalid BY LESLEY SUSSMAN
C
alling it “a major step in trying to reclaim the old P.S. 64,” Councilmember Rosie Mendez announced at Tuesday’s Community Board 3 meeting that the Department of Buildings has issued a stop-work order on the plan
to convert the building into a 529-bed, multi-institute college dormitory. The Cooper Union and the Joffrey Ballet School have signed contracts with developer Gregg Singer to use part of the existing the building as a college dorm. Singer bought the former OLD P.S. 64, continued on p. 5
BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC
T
he High Line’s third and final section officially opened last Sunday. The new segment is: A. exactly like the other two, B. nothing like the other two, or C. a distinct part that fits with the whole. If you chose C, you’ve won free admis-
PHOTO BY MILO HESS
High Line’s last section sports original foliage, play area, open vistas
He’s got the whole world in his hands — at Sunday’s People’s Climate March.
Confessions of a reluctant climate-change marcher
sion to the park! O.K., the park is always free — but the new half-milelong section, located between W. 30th and 34th Sts., dubbed the “High Line at the Rail Yards,” offers singular panoramas and features. For the first time, the High Line will have a feature spe-
BY SARAH FERGUSON
W
SECTION 3, continued on p. 27
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Fiorello says, ‘Drop the appeal!’....page 9
hat was the impact of Sunday’s massive People’s Climate March? Was it, as 350.org founder and march instigator Bill McKibben claimed, “the most important day” in the history of the climate movement? I confess when I first heard about the march, it seemed like another big protest parade to nowhere through the canyons of N.Y.C. With
slick subway ads pledging to unite “hipsters and bankers” and even a glossy promo video celebrating the organizers and their mission to “make history,” the march sounded more like Live Aid for the planet — with no central demands on world leaders or threats to corporate power to give it teeth. Having walked through the soles of my boots at marches to stop Bush’s Iraq War, I’ve experienced the limits of simply putting our bodies in the streets.
But after marching with my six-year-old, and running around to various panels and plenaries hosted by climate groups all weekend, I’ve emerged energized, if overwhelmed, by the depth and urgency of the grassroots organizing here and around the world. While the media focused on the spectacle of 400,000plus bodies jammed along Central Park West as far as the eye could see, it was the CLIMATE, continued on p. 4
HealthPlex helping the critically ill...............page 11 Cyclist sounds off on bike lanes....................page 15 Ch-ch-changes at an E.V. school.....................page 24 www.TheVillager.com