The Paper of Record for East and West Villages, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Little Italy and Chinatown
December 25, 2014 • FREE Volume 4 • Number 29
Behind the ban: Why Governor Cuomo nixed fracking in N.Y. State BY SARAH FERGUSON
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hristmas came early for the fracktivist c ro w d . G o v e r n o r Andrew Cuomo’s announcement last week that he would ban high-volume hydrofracking across New York State was a game-changing position that surprised even
the most ardent opponents of this controversial process for extracting natural gas. “We were stunned,” said Ramsay Adams, executive director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, which was one of the first groups in New York to raise the alarm about the dangers of fracking.
Tenants worry landlord didn’t get all the lead out of 2 L.E.S. buildings BY ZACH WILLIAMS
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ity councilmembers and housing activists joined tenants on Dec. 10 to call on landlord Samy Mahfar and the city to better mitigate high levels of lead in two Lower East Side residential buildings. Testing done at the two buildings in April — 102
Norfolk St. and 210 Rivington St. — indicated lead levels at least five times above federal guidelines. While Mahfar said levels have since decreased to safe readings, his critics say that he must use a contractor certified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for future renovation work, LEAD, continued on p. 7
PHOTO BY CLAYTON PATTERSON
FRACK BAN, continued on p. 4
Michelle Myles doing the outline of a customer’s tattoo at Daredevil Tattoo.
Female tattoo artists are really making their mark BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC
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ichelle Myles is one of the original gangstas of tattooing in the Lower East Side. Myles and her business partner, Brad Fink, opened Daredevil Tattoo in 1997 on Ludlow St. A year and a half ago, they moved the business to 141 Division St. Myles’s story of how she got into tattooing starts back when the art was still illegal in New York City. From 1961 until 1997, tattooing was ver-
boten and underground. In 1989, Myles had moved from Ferguson, Missouri, to attend Parsons to study art. She had gotten her first tattoo during high school. “I went into this shop. I really liked the black panthers on the wall but I only had $25, so I got a little black cat tattoo,” she told The Villager, during an interview at her shop in Chinatown. “I just kept getting tattooed whenever I had a chance and a few bucks.” Her interest grew and she
eventually started doing tattoos herself in 1991. Two years later, she moved to Ludlow St., which was then a very different neighborhood. “The first place that I had was across from the old Daredevil, an apartment I rented as a studio,” she recalled. “But that was when tattooing was illegal, so there was no sign out front or anything. It was funny when I moved down there; everybody told me, ‘Don’t TATTOOS, continued on p. 20
Trying to get funds on track for L...................page 6 Soho fur vendors in bleach attack.................page 8 Editorial: Time to focus on healing..................page 12 Special Effects Fest.....................page 19 | May 14, 2014
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