The local paper for Downtown wn MININ THE MINING MUSICAL MUS HISTORY HI OF O THE VILLAGE < Q&A, p. 13
L.E.S. COMMUNITY BOARD REELECTS CHAIR
PLOT TWIST AT ST. MARK’S BOOKS
NEWS Incumbent chair Gigi Li fends off challenger, retains majority of board’s confidence BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
LOWER EAST SIDE Last Tuesday’s Community Board 3 meeting started like any other. Board members mingled beforehand, secured copies of the agenda from the front of the room, and took their seats in the first few rows of Cooper Union’s Rose Auditorium. One member, Chad Marlow, worked the room a bit like a politician, pausing to chat with colleagues and laughing after each exchange. Marlow, 43, a senior policy adviser with the city’s Dept. of Health, was vying that night to unseat incumbent chair Gigi Li, who has led CB 3, which covers the Lower East Side and Chinatown, since 2012. Li has been accused in recent months of racial insensitivity and mismanagement by a coalition of board members unhappy with her leadership. The vote itself was unusual; CB 3 hadn’t had a contested race for chair in five years. And this year, of the six elected positions on the board, only the chair’s seat had more than one candidate. “It’s close,” said Marlow, before the vote. “I don’t think anyone knows at this point.” Marlow ran on a promise to streamline board meetings – some of which have recently stretched to four hours and beyond – and criticized Li for her handling of some of the board’s more contentious issues. “I think, unfortunately, in large part because of the way this board has been operated, the community has lost a lot of faith in our board,” said Marlow in his statement to CB 3 ahead CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
WEEK OF JULY
3 2014
OTDOWNTOWN.COM
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In Brief FREE SUMMER MEALS FOR NYC KIDS Hungry New York City children will be able to get free meals this summer. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that children 18 years and younger can go to 1,000 sites for a free meal this summer. The program will run from June 27 to August 29. De Blasio announced the program at P.S. 111 on West 53rd Street in Manhattan, with an assist from a team of future NBA draft picks. Ten players in town for the NBA draft Thursday night played with students and stressed the need for exercise and good nutrition.
COUNCIL CONSIDERS BAD MORTGAGE BUYBACKS
Customers on Sunday said goodbye to St. Mark’s Bookshop, in advance of its relocation to smaller quarters.
SAVING SMALL BUSINESS Downtown bookstore forced out by rent hike-- but finds new space nearby BY MARY NEWMAN
It was a bittersweet weekend for downtown’s independent St. Mark’s Bookshop. On the one hand, the bookstore, which has been in business since 1977, was forced out of its Third Avenue home by higher rents, joining the hundreds of other New York City businesses squeezed out of their commercial homes. On Sunday, customers showed up for one last look, staring mainly at a few empty bookshelves. Due to its downtown location, the store has built relationships with many notable authors, poets, and artists over the years, from Patti Smith to Junot Diaz. But, luckily, for St. Mark’s, the story doesn’t end there. The store’s owners have found a new, much smaller
home for the local landmark, a few blocks away, and at a much more affordable rent. Co-owners Bob Contant and Terry McCoy see themselves as lucky to have found a second life. “What’s happening here is similar to so many independent businesses in the neighborhood,” Contant explained. “It is because of the rising rent, and after 21 years we can no longer afford to stay.” The new space, rented from the city and opening on July 2, will be half the size of the old location, but Contant says he is excited to move to a more residential neighborhood. “The new location is more of a neighborhood, so we are hoping that Avenue A will have a more residential feeling,” he said. “St. Mark’s seems to be filled with so many corporate chains and retail space, we’re looking forward to connecting with our new neighborhood.” St, Mark’s had petitioned the landlord at their old space, Cooper Union, to lower the store’s rent, to no
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City Council members and housing advocacy groups called on Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday to join them and help homeowners at risk of foreclosure, proposing the use of eminent domain to buy back underwater mortgages. At a news conference, council members Donovan Richards, Mark Levine and I. Daneek Miller said eminent domain could be used to buy back mortgages from homeowners who owe more than their houses are worth. Under the proposal, the city would purchase the mortgages from banks and refinance them to match home values to prevent foreclosures, said Robert Hockett, a law professor at Cornell University Law School who helped draft the plan. Eminent domain would be used only for contracts that could not be modified without government intervention, he said. Association executive director Ismene Speliotis said AfricanAmerican and Latino homeowners have been disproportionately affected by underwater mortgages because they were targeted for private-label securitized loans. She said these loans are the most likely to default.