The Village Sun | December 2022

Cops: Jammed gun saved 2nd man in Campos shooting

BY KEITH J. KELLY

Only a handgun that jammed as it was pointed at the head of a wounded victim prevented the Cam pos Plaza shooting late last month from turning into a double execution, according to police.

The alleged shooter, 31-year-old Lindell Cox, was remanded to Rikers Island after pleading not guilty at his

arraignment on Nov. 29.

Police called him a “violent predicate felon” for a 2012 rob bery-and-assault case for which Cox was sentenced to five years in state prison. While behind bars, he was convicted of promoting prison con traband and sentenced to an addi tional two years in state prison. He

Continued on p. 8

Tompkins curfew déjà vu at meeting with 9th Pct.

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

It felt like the ’80s all over again, as East Village locals heated ly argued at a meeting last month with police over whether Tompkins Square Park should be closed at night.

Some residents are

concerned that the park has been closed inconsistently since the pan demic, charging it has made the place a magnet for drug use and noisy and dangerous late-night behavior. But others counter that closing the park is not the answer. Meanwhile, exactly why the

Continued on p. 8

‘Flimsy oversight’

City slammed for loss of 14 Gay St.

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

Local politicians and preser vationists stood shoulder to shoulder with Greenwich Vil lage residents outside 14 Gay St. to protest the loss of the near ly 200-year-old building — a structure that once inspired a celebrated series of New Yorker stories, a book, Broadway shows and movies.

Speakers at the November rally demanded accountability from the landlord, stricter over sight from the city and reform

of the system for protecting vul nerable, historic landmarks.

In early November, work on the foundation of 14 Gay St. caused “large cracks” to open on an external cellar wall, according to the Department of Buildings. City inspectors subsequently deemed the building to be at imminent risk of collapse and it was ordered that the structure be razed immediately — though carefully.

Meanwhile, the stability of the adjacent 16 Gay St. was also found to have been com

promised — again, by faulty foundation work — but the city worked with a private contrac tor to try to save the beleaguered townhouse. D.O.B. subsequent ly determined that 16 Gay St., with a plan for “shoring and bracing” in place, can remain standing.

No. 14 Gay St. was the home in the 1930s of author Ruth McKenney, whose writings about her times there became the New Yorker’s farcical “My

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH US: Baby Yoda warily floated past Trump International Hotel & Tower during the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Photo by Q. Sakamaki

Shed hits fan as outdoor dining foes go full ‘yuck’

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

They brought the Yuckmobile and — despite some of them having tape over their mouths — they brought the noise.

Scores of beleaguered residents — from Greenwich Village to the East Vil lage to Williamsburg — descended on Broadway at Murray Street, outside the New York City Council offices on Nov.

15, to demand an end to the city’s pan demic-emergency outdoor dining pro gram. Specifically, they inveighed that there should be no “closed-door deals” on Open Restaurants.

Dripping with rats and trash bags, the Yuckmobile sported a dining party of Mayor Adams, former Mayor de Blasio, key councilmembers and Andrew Rigie, the head of the New York City Hospitali ty Alliance. It blared a cacophony of noise but police said to turn it off — easier said than done when the noise is coming from a real dining shed.

The rally was organized by the ad hoc group CUEUP, some of whose members are party to two lawsuits that have been lodged against the Open Restaurants pro gram.

Tony Allicino, a Leroy Street resident, wore tape over his mouth because he said City Hall, by not listening to residents’ complaints about Open Restaurants, has been telling them to “shut the f--- up.”

The Council has been working on a bill to make the program — which has clut tered city streets with tens of thousands of often-ramshackle sheds — perma nent. However, critics slam the shacks as “rat hotels” and say they block the streets and sidewalks, cause noise and trash, and turn nightlife-heavy areas like Downtown Manhattan into a constant Mardi Gras.

Obviously, bar and restaurant opera tors love that the program has increased their business. Sheds that were supposed

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to be kept partly open for air circulation during COVID are now increasingly be coming closed, bunker-like structures. The Council may ultimately want to shed the sheds, but not the whole outdoor program.

To opponents’ anger, the Council does not plan to hold a public hearing on the bill’s final version, though one was held when the bill was first introduced. Word was that the final vote would be sometime in November. Shed foes feared it would be within days, on Nov. 22.

However, Councilmember Christo pher Marte, who represents Lower Man hattan’s District 1, happened to be at another nearby rally and dropped by the protest to assuage their worry.

Marte fired up the already revved-up crowd with a chant of “Shut those sheds!” “Shut those sheds!” He said it was the ac tivism of CUEUP and others that made the Council back off and postpone its ac tion.

“There’s a reason that we’re not vot ing this week on this legislation,” he said. “That’s because you guys keep on pushing! I’m here and I’m going to be here until we get the legislation that shuts the sheds and gives us our neigh borhoods back!”

Stu Waldman, 81, who lives on Bed ford Street and is an outspoken shed hater, was one of the event’s organizers.

“From the beginning,” he said, “not only have we not been listened to, we’ve been lied to, again and again and again.

We asked for an E.I.S. [environmental impact study]. … For the city to say, ‘So, we haven’t got an E.I.S.,’ to say there’s no serious impacts…it’s really gaslighting. How can they say that with a straight face? They have to find out what the im pacts are.” However, Waldman said, so far it’s been “whatever the restaurant industry wants, they get.”

Shannon Phipps, a mother of a young child, from Williamsburg, said a big coffee shop chain just erected a new shed on her block right in time for winter.

“I didn’t become an activist till Open Streets,” she said, referring to the program that pedestrianizes certain streets at cer tain hours. “We were basically sheltering in place and we saw how it quickly mor phed into an occupation.”

East Villager Alexis Adler brought a specialist’s perspective to the debate.

“The sheds have been a boon to the rat population,” she said. “And they’re dec imating the gardens. The rats are eating more food. They’re making more babies. I’m a reproductive biologist — that’s how it works. I mean, the rats are eating clams and mussels.”

Allie Ryan, an East Village activist who is running for City Council, said, “People are voicing their discontent about this program, but elected officials, city councilmembers are pushing this forward. What do we have to do to get them to hear us? I think there should be a voter referendum.”

Enjoying plein air dining in the Yuckmobile were, from left, former May or Bill de Blasio, Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, the Hospi tality Alliance’s Andrew Rigie, Mayor Eric Adams and Councilmembers Julie Menin, Marjorie Velazquez and Keith Powers.

Photos by The Village Sun

Rats fight back after 8th St. shed is scrapped

BY MARC ADLER

On Sunday, Nov. 27, around 10:30 a.m., I was walking down Eighth Street by the intersection of Sixth Avenue, and I noticed some 1-800-GOT-JUNK people removing the shed in front of Cul ture An American Yogurt Company.

Great, I thought…the owner realized that he did not need that dilapidated shed anymore and called some people to remove it. I snapped a photo of the dem olition.

About 90 minutes later, I returned to the spot and found an employee of the yo gurt store in some despair. She said that the 1-800-GOT-JUNK people uncovered various rat nests and that the rats started to attack them. The wreckers decided they could not proceed with the demolition and just left the area.

What was remaining was a huge pile of garbage and dead rats. The yogurt worker did not know what to do. I told her to call the Department of Sanitation be cause they might be best equipped to han dle this. The worker did not want to have to clean this mess up herself. This is the kind of trash and infestation that might be lying underneath almost every shed.

Workers from 1-800-GOT-JUNK took apart the dining yurt — but were scared off when its resident rodents took offense. Photos by Marc Adler

A pile of garbage, including dead rats, was left after the Culture An American Yogurt Company’s dining shed was dismantled.

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Park exhibitionist is in Rikers for allegedly robbing pizzeria

BY THE VILLAGE SUN

Adrug user whose sometimes-dangerous exhibitionist antics have kept Sixth Pre cinct police on their toes, is now cooling his heels on Rikers Island.

Stephen Flanagan, 32, has been detained in the much-criticized jail since Aug. 19, af ter he was arrested that day for robbery just a block from Washington Square Park, where he often hangs out.

According to the criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan district attorney, Flanagan and another man entered a pizza place at 333 Sixth Ave., between W. Third and W. Fourth Streets, around 3 p.m. Flanagan reportedly broke a glass bottle, pointed it at worker and demanded money. After the worker handed the men $20 each, they left.

According to a deposition by the arresting officer from the Sixth Precinct, about an hour and a half later, as he was investigating the incident, Flanagan came up to him and his fellow officers.

“The defendant stated in substance, ‘I broke the glass bottle and I took his money,'” the officer said. “The [pizzeria worker] also identified the defendant as the person who was holding the bottle.”

Flanagan is charged with robbery in the first degree, a felony. The D.A. had requested bail be set at $30,000, but a judge lowered it to $10,000. Flanagan’s next court date is on Dec. 22.

“He tried to kill himself numerous times. He climbed up in the [cherry picker] bucket [in Washington Square Park], said he was going to jump. He went up to the Burlington store on 14th Street, said he was going to jump [off the interior ledge where the escalators are]. He needs help and he’s not getting it from the hospital or the D.A.’s office. He’s been released from Bellevue and Beth Israel [hos pitals] in the past couple of years about six to 10 times. He said he wants treatment,” Spataro maintained. “He’s committed burglaries.”

On another occasion, as documented on an Instagram post, Flanagan hopped down onto subway tracks in Midtown and — while grinning up at police — blocked a train from moving until offi cers were able to remove him.

“He’s like a microcosm” of how people are falling through the cracks, Spataro said. “These are institutions that aren’t functioning properly,” he said of the hospitals and D.A.’s office.

When The Village Sun spoke to Flanagan in Washington Square Park this past July, he was affable and lighthearted. He related that he had played college basketball at the Uni versity of Bridgeport and claimed to be the nephew of famed boxer Sugar Ray Leonard.

loves smoking crack cocaine, admitting that the money he panhandles, allegedly for food, actually goes straight toward buying his next $8 “dime” of crack.

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Deputy Inspector Stephen Spataro, the commanding officer of Greenwich Village’s Sixth Precinct, said Flanagan is well known to the precinct. Speaking to The Village Sun this past summer, Spataro said the system was failing Flanagan, who often puts himself in tenuous situations.

“We’ve brought him into custody over half a dozen times,” Spataro said at the time.

He bragged about the attention he had recently gotten from climbing the cherry picker in the park while naked, during which he had shouted out to the crowd, like Russell Crowe’s character in the movie “Gladiator,” “Are you not entertained?”

“Yeah, I went viral. I got a million views — viral,” he boasted. “Viral on Tik Tok, You Tube and Twitter right now. I’m the most searched-for man in New York City right now.”

After another park regular kept goading him, though, Flanagan proclaimed that he

Also in July, the newspaper reported how Flanagan sat in traffic in his underwear at W. Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue until he was taken away in an ambulance.

The New York Post reported that some parkgoers told the paper that Flanagan suf fers from mental health issues.

One Sixth Precinct cop, who requested anonymity, said he thinks Flanagan also sim ply just likes the attention. He noted he once saw a social-media post of Flanagan in earlier times in Midtown looking well put-together, wearing a suit.

Start moving on closing Rikers, activists urge

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BY THE VILLAGE SUN

It’s time to close Rikers — now!

That was the message of a group of Rise and Resist protesters in the Times Square subway station on Nov., 28. They say Mayor Adams has been wishy-washy about when and whether the city will actually close the oft-criticized jail complex.

Adams inherited the borough-based jails plan from his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, under which Rikers would be replaced with

new, smaller jails in four of the five boroughs. However, under the scheme, the city’s pris on population needs to shrink from 5,000 to 3,000 — yet has actually been increasing under Adams’s mayoralty, which he has not ed is a stumbling block to implementing the plan.

“The mayor keeps saying he is [going to close Rikers], but he’s not doing anything,” said Donna Gould, one of the protesters.

According to Rise and Resist, 18 people have died on Rikers so far this year, 1,000

people locked up in the jail complex have se rious mental illness and 90 percent have not been convicted of a crime as they await their court dates.

The group is urging New Yorkers to call 311 and demand Adams take steps to close Rikers and slash incarceration numbers.

Gould said Rise and Resist is also active on issues of “immigration, Republicans, cli mate, healthcare and subway accessibility.”

“We’re very into indicting Trump,” she added.

Stephen Flanagan in Washington Square Park this past summer. Photo by The Village Sun

City slammed for loss of historic 14 Gay St.

Sister Eileen” stories — which also be came a book, a play and a film, plus a radio and TV series — about two young Midwestern transplants in Greenwich Village, and which was later the basis for the Leonard Bernstein musical and movie “Wonderful Town.”

At the Nov. 14 press conference, speakers noted there had been violations for years on the fragile historic build ings, as well as complaints about unsafe work and hazardous conditions. Six months ago, Lionel Nazarian purchased Nos. 14, 16 and 18 Gay St., plus the ad jacent Nos. 16, 18 and 20 Christopher St., all for $12 million.

According to the group Village Pres ervation, Nazarin is “a landlord with a track record of creating allegedly haz ardous conditions and what tenants called ‘a living hell’ of harassment, deni al of services and dangerous work at his other nearby properties.”

Andrew Berman, executive direc tor of Village Preservation, and other speakers also stressed that this was the 10th landmarked, early-19th-century row house in Greenwich Village that the city has ordered demolished in the past year, which they said indicated “a grievous lack of proper oversight by city agencies charged with protecting these historic structures.”

Speakers called for full accountabil ity from the owner, contractor and en gineer, as well as from D.O.B. and the Landmarks Preservation Commission for their “failure to act.” They also called for an overhaul of the city’s system for monitoring the safety of fragile, land marked properties, plus strict oversight of work and conditions at Nazarian’s five adjoining properties, which are all around the same age and condition.

“This house survived 200 years,” Berman said, “through the Draft Riots, nearby dynamiting for the construction of the subway and PATH trains and demolition of the Sixth Avenue El, a deadly fire in the basement and hurri canes and superstorms. But it couldn’t survive six months of ownership by Mr. Nazarian and the flimsy oversight of the New York City Department of Build ings and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The city failed in its responsibilities here — they failed to protect public safety, they failed to protect residents, and they failed to protect New York’s history and land marks.

“What was once a symbol of the dream of coming to New York from anywhere and achieving anything, has instead become a nightmarish symbol of greed, craven disregard for safety, and

a dysfunctional New York City bureau cracy that can’t do its job,” the preserva tionist railed.

Councilmember Erik Bottcher said: “I demand accountability for the peo ple who allowed this historic building to deteriorate to the point of imminent collapse. Nothing is more important than human life and safety, but the city shouldn’t allow bad actors to get away with reckless construction practices that result in demolition.”

Slamming the building’s loss as “un acceptable,” state Senator Brad Hoyl man said, “The fact that 14 Gay St. is

the 10th historic building to have been demolished in the Village strongly sug gests that the city agencies in charge of monitoring and protecting historic buildings aren’t doing their job. We de mand that this change.”

Assemblymember Deborah Glick actually called for halting the demoli tion. She lamented the loss as “disheart ening,” noting that rare, early-1800s buildings like this are what “helped to give Greenwich Village its historic charm.”

“I urge the city to halt this demoli tion and not reward unpermitted work

by allowing miscreants to benefit from flouting the law,” she said. “The city must do more to preserve our landmarks by recognizing their value to our neigh borhoods and working to ensure the sta bility of their infrastructure, even when unexpected challenges arise during con struction or renovations.”

Chenault Spence, the chairperson of the Landmarks Committee of Green wich Village’s Community Board 2, charged that City Hall is “complicit” in the historic structure’s demise.

“Funding for monitoring and bring ing owners of buildings to account by the Landmarks Commission for ne glected properties has been placed in the top 10 priorities of the board for the 2022-2023 fiscal budget requests,” he said. “Without additional funding for proactive enforcement and accountabil ity, New York City remains complicit in demolition by neglect, so clearly evident with 14 Gay St.”

Prior to Nazarian’s purchase of the cluster of buildings this April, they were owned by Gopher Group, and before that for seven months in late 2019, by New York City, which took control of them when longtime owner Celeste Martin died without a will in December 2018. Records show a long list of public complaints filed, violations issued and hazardous conditions at the buildings before Nazarin’s ownership.

A year ago, Village Preservation and local politicians protested after D.O.B. and L.P.C. similarly authorized the demolition of nine nearly 200-year-old landmarked houses at 14th Street and Ninth Avenue, after work authorized by the two city agencies — to gut the buildings’ interiors but keep their shell intact, a technique known as “facadism” — created hazardous conditions.

However, in a statement to The Vil lage Sun, D.O.B. placed the blame for the Gay Street catastrophe on the own ers doing, as the agency put it, “unap proved construction work” on the two buildings’ foundations.

“After finding that 14 Gay St. was in immediate danger of collapse due to unapproved construction work in the cellar, D.O.B. forensic engineers took immediate action to protect the public,” the agency said. “A construction fence has been installed around the two affect ed properties, and the owners have been ordered to carefully dismantle the un stable building. As we work to save…16 Gay St., we have also issued orders for emergency shoring work there to pre vent further damage to any neighbor ing buildings. Putting the public at risk with dangerous, unapproved construc tion work is unacceptable, and we will be taking appropriate action to hold the responsible parties accountable.”

Preservationinst Andrew Berman called 14 Gay St. a “nightmarish symbol...of a dys functional New York City bureaucracy that can’t do its job.” Courtesy Village Preservation

New School part-time faculty picket for raises

BY JEFFERSON SIEGEL

As New Yorkers spent the Wednesday be fore Thanksgiving prepping for a holiday of turkeys, football games and food comas, another occasion was being observed in Greenwich Vil lage. Part-time faculty at The New School were

holding a “Strikesgiving” as they finished the first week of protesting pay and working conditions.

The faculty, United Auto Workers members and other locals had been bargaining for better cost-of-living raises. But union organizers said the school discontinued negotiations days earlier after failing to reach a consensus.

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After hours of marching and chanting in front of the University Center building on Fifth Avenue at 14th Street, the protesters seemed as energized as if it was their first day on the pick et line. They carried signs reading, “The New School’s Offer F—” and “New School — Same Corporate Greed.”

Meanwhile on the Left Coast, tens of thou sands of academic workers and students at the University of California entered the second week of striking for higher pay and better healthcare benefits. And across the pond in England, tens of thousands of educators and postal workers just started striking for better pay.

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The picket line was held outside the University Center on Fifth Avenue.

Photo by © Jefferson Siegel

Tompkins curfew déjà vu; Cops say it’s complicated

Continued from p. 1

park has not been shut on a regular basis was not 100 percent clear. Deputy Inspector Ralph Clement, the commander of the 9th Precinct, maintained it’s a manpower issue, while Councilmember Carlina Rivera sim ilarly said it might possibly be an “equity” issue. She said she would check if Wash ington Square Park, which is being closed nightly, is getting more resources.

Some locals at the Nov. 17 parley, though, contended police have been taking a hands-off approach because they fear local politicians won’t “have their back” if the cops face difficulties clearing the park at night.

“There are people playing ball, doing dope and smoking crack and blaring music at 3 o’clock in the morning,” complained longtime resident Susan Lashley, who lives on E. 10th Street across from the park’s bas ketball courts.

Lashley later noted that, at some point during the pandemic, new signs appeared in the park saying the curfew was no longer midnight but was now 1 a.m.

“If you just enforce this rule that used to be enforced before the pandemic, we’ll be much better off. Close the park by 1 a.m.,” chimed in Garrett Rosso, a founder of both the park’s dog run and its annual Halloween dog costume fest. “That 10-acre park will not run without this.

“Pre-pandemic, this park was locked,” he said. “It was always locked. We had way more garbage cans. The park wasn’t locked — the drug dealers moved in. We all know the problem.”

Rivera told the meeting that she’s allo cating some of her discretionary funding for more garbage pickups in the park.

Rivera offered some perspective on “the bad old days” of Tompkins Square.

“I grew up in this park in the ’90s,” she noted. “It was not a picnic.”

After the meeting, Rivera told The Vil lage Sun that she does support closing the

park for its nightly curfew.

At one point, Rivera asked Clement di rectly, “Can you commit to closing the park every single night?”

However, the C.O. contended it’s not that easy, even though he has shifted some of the precinct’s manpower over to the park area to address conditions there.

“I took my officers off of Avenue D, where most of my homicides, shooting ho micides are,” he explained. “Instead of hav ing six to eight officers on Avenue D, I only have two. They are now allocated along Av enue A and Avenue B. … I have the 14th Street corridor, the Houston Street corri dor, Avenue C,” he added.

Clement said also making things more challenging, he no longer has any plain clothes police officers, either.

Allie Ryan, the founder of the new group Friends of Tompkins Square Park, said Clement previously stated at a 9th Precinct Community Council meeting that he was “passing the baton” to the Parks De partment to close the park, meaning that it would be the green-uniformed Park En forcement Patrol officers’ job. PEP officers are not armed.

A PEP supervisor at the meeting, how ever, bluntly stated, “We cannot commit to closing the park.”

Erupting in frustration, Rosso shouted out, “The community is asking you to close the park!”

Ryan, who recently led a park cleanup, is also alarmed about heroin needles piling up in the fallen leaves. Rosso added that a dog ate some fentanyl in the park and had to be rushed to the vet, while another got poked in its paw by a heroin syringe.

Rivera noted that the Council was about to pass a “needle buy-back bill,” which would encourage users not to toss their sharps haphazardly onto the ground.

Meanwhile, Johnny Grima, a leader of the former “Anarchy Row” homeless encampment outside the nearby former

CHARAS/El Bohio, was pacing around on the group’s fringes. He started boom ing, “They want to kick homeless people out of Tompkins Square Park!”

Like Rivera, as if to put things in per spective, Detective Jaime Hernandez’s, a longtime precinct community affairs offi cer, interjected, “There used to be [people swinging] chains in the park. There were homicides. There were overdoses. … We know our responsibilities.”

A man in the crowd advocated for the homeless, saying shelters are “an abysmal place” and that what is needed are safe injection sites. Vacant spaces should also be used to house the park’s homeless, he urged.

“You’re not going to solve the problems of the world!” Rosso retorted. “We just want the park closed. It’s not an encampment.”

“How about cops?” offered Chris Flash,

publisher of The Shadow, the East Village’s anarchist newspaper. “We don’t need a po lice state here. I’m advocating a foot patrol.”

Flash was among the group of squat ters and anarchists who opposed enforcing a curfew on Tompkins Square back in the 1980s, which led to the infamous park riots — clashes with the police — in 1988 and in ensuing years.

“We shed blood for this park,” he de clared. “Are you happy for the gentrification you got?”

However, Deb O’Nair, who has lived just off the park since 1975, staunchly opposed rolling back the curfew. She’s a veteran of punk bands, including The Fuzztones and Das Furleins.

“This was the only park in all the bor oughs that had no curfew,” she said, recall ing the 1980s. “We fought like hell to get a curfew. It’s going backwards.”

Cops: Jammed gun saved 2nd man in shooting

Continued from p. 1

was released in September 2021.

In the Oct. 27 shooting that shattered the early evening at 635 E. 12th St. around 7:30, Jared Stokes, 21, was killed after he was wounded by at least two gunshot wounds to his torso as he tried to flee the gunman. He and Jordan Morillo, 24, were ambushed by the shooter, police said.

Morillo, injured in the attack, escaped death when the shooter’s gun jammed. The shooter fled the scene, leaving Stokes for dead while Morillo was left bleeding from a gun shot wound to his leg but still alive.

Cox lives in the Jacob Riis Houses on the F.D.R. Drive, about a six-minute walk from

Campos Plaza. Police said the shooter wore a black hoodie, a black ski mask and was carrying a camouflage bag when he opened fire on the two victims in the lobby of the New York City Housing Authority building on E. 12th Street near Avenue C. He fled to the L train subway stop at Avenue A and E. 14th St., police said.

Police were able to crack the case using area video captured from before the shooting. Prosecutors at the bail hearing said a video caught Cox, sans mask, about 90 minutes be fore the shooting buying something with his EBT card. Subsequent closed-circuit footage showed him heading toward the lobby of the building shortly before 7:30 p.m.

Cox’s parole officer actually identified him making the purchase. Police set a trap to lure

him to the parole officer’s office on Nov. 4, telling him his good behavior made him eligi ble for early termination of his parole.

When he arrived, he was instead taken into custody and charged with murder in the second degree, attempted murder in the sec ond degree and criminal possession of a fire arm, among other offenses.

Police said a 9-millimeter handgun with its serial number altered was recovered at his parole officer’s office. Cox, at his bail hearing, acknowledged he was the person making a purchase about 90 minutes before the kill ing, but insisted he was not the shooter in the lobby. Police said they suspect the 9-millime ter recovered at the time of the Nov. 4 arrest might be the murder weapon. Cox, however,

said he only came into possession of it that morning and was going to turn the gun over to authorities when he was arrested.

Morillo was not named in the police com plaint about the homicide of his friend. It did say that an anonymous wounded victim “ran down a long hallway to get away from the male with the gun, and heard additional gun shots as he ran,” according to police testimony. At that point, according to police, the wound ed victim “felt something hit his leg as he ran down the hallway, and later realized that he had been shot.”

He “crouched down at the end of the hall way, and the male with the gun ran up to him, pointed the gun at him and appeared to pull the trigger though the gun did not fire.”

Deputy Inspector Ralph Clement, center, said closing the park is challenging due to lack of manpower. The Parks Department PEP supervisor at right, however, said his agency doesn’t want the job, either.

Middle Collegiate Church facade demo debate

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

To quote from Ecclesiastes (and The Byrds), there is “a time to tear down, and a time to build.”

Those times — and in that order — should start now, according to Reverend Dr. Jacqui Lewis, the senior minister at Middle Collegiate Church.

Two years ago, on Dec. 5, 2020, a sixalarm inferno — sparked at a vacant proper ty next door — tore through and gutted the 1892 Protestant church, located at Seventh Street and Second Avenue.

After the disaster, the historic house of worship’s brick-backed limestone facade was still standing. The northern wall was subsequently ordered demolished by the Department of Buildings to allow access for the site to be inspected. According to Lewis, the church has tried to see if the remain ing facade can be incorporated into a new building on the site, but it’s simply proven unfeasible. And what is left of the building was severely damaged by the blaze, she said.

“The tracers — the windows, the fab ric that’s left — is not what it was,” Lewis said, referring to the tracery, or stone bars or ribbing, that divides windows into sections. “We can say the facade didn’t burn down, but it’s burned up.”

In fact, the church spent more than $4 million over the past two years to clean up the site, stabilize the facade, test it and see what could be done or preserved of it, ac cording to the minister. Drones were even flown around inside the space to investigate the stonework’s viability.

Changing temperatures, from hot to cold, have been wreaking further havoc on the building’s damaged facade, she said. Special paint has been applied in vain to try to protect it from the elements. It’s the old limestone mortar that is vulnerable, not the bricks.

“And it’s deteriorating now,” Lewis said of the remaining structure. “Our engineer says it’s unsafe because it’s deteriorating. I’ve invested $4 million to hear that it’s unsafe.”

In short, rebuilding on the site with the facade remnant would be too dangerous, Lewis said the church has been advised by its engineer. There’s a fear that pieces of the structure could fall off and injure construc tion workers.

The pandemic struck a few months after the church fire, and services were then held remotely. More recently, the congregation has been meeting in person at East End Temple, at 17th Street and Second Avenue.

Basically, for Middle Collegiate to stay in the East Village location, the facade must come down, Lewis said.

“It was not our plan, but it feels like the right thing to do,” she said. “My neighbors and our congregation wanted to stay in the East Village.”

The three other Manhattan churches in the Collegiate consortium, as it’s known —

Marble Collegiate, West End Collegiate and Fort Washington Collegiate — urged Middle Collegiate to just move their con gregation into one of their existing church es. But Lewis said she and her flock firmly wanted to remain in the neighborhood.

“We pushed to stay Downtown,” she said.

She noted that Middle Collegiate — which is a “justice forward” church — also looked at other nearby sites to possibly buy or lease but nothing was suitable.

“We’re the ones who are 400 years old, and of course we like our history,” she said of the Collegiate congregation, which got its start in colonial New Netherland. “That building is built in 1892. And we’re the ones who had the fire. And I didn’t burn it down — the neighbor burned it down.”

Asked how the the church would rebuild on the site, if allowed to demolish the fa cade, she said, “We will rebuild something beautiful that is totally appropriate for our historic community — to serve the commu nity — art, justice, childcare, theater, cloth ing distribution, queer organizing, Black Lives Matter. We’re committed to an iden tity as a welcoming, inclusive, arts, bold ex pression of God’s love on the planet. And,” she stressed, “the facade can’t be a barrier to that.”

However, Middle Collegiate first needs the O.K. from the city’s Landmarks Pres ervation Commission to raze what’s left of the church, since it’s located in the East Vil

lage/Lower East Side Historic District. A hearing on the application held at L.P.C. on Tues., Nov. 22, lasted two and a half hours. The agency didn’t make a decision then, but Sarah Carroll, its chairperson, said it will do so soon.

Meanwhile, Village Preservation, which opposes the demolition of the ruined facade, says alternatives need to be studied.

“We are urging the Landmarks Preser vation Commission not to grant such per mission at this time, because we don’t be lieve there is sufficient documentation that alternatives to preserve the historic facade have been fully explored, nor that there is sufficient evidence at this time to justify the permanent and irreversible removal,” Vil lage Preservation said in an e-mail release. “We are calling for further examination and documentation before such a decision would be appropriate to render.

“We want to see the church rebuild and flourish at this location, and know that they have been through incredible hardship,” the statement continued. “But we also be lieve that this process must be considered extremely carefully, to ensure unchangeable decisions that could have been avoided are not made, and harmful precedents are not set for allowing demolition of historically significant structures without reasonable

The Landmarks Preservation Commission will rule on whether the church’s remaining facade must be preserved or can be demolished. Photo by The Village Sun

Abortion, Trump, 6th Ave. were all on ballot

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

As the dust settled from the midterm elec tions, it was clear that abortion and “sav ing democracy” — that is, not backing candi dates who backed the Trump big lie — helped turn the vaunted red wave into a measly red trickle.

Yet, even in deep-blue Downtown Man hattan, some voters interviewed by The Village Sun on Election Day outside the polls were lukewarm at best about Governor Kathy Ho chul, while others actually turned out expressly to vote for her G.O.P. rival, Lee Zeldin.

They weren’t the only ones feeling that way. In the end, despite New York State having more than twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans, Hochul eked out a victory over Zeldin by just 52 percent to 47 percent.

More than a few Village voters said they were primarily concerned about crime and public safety — in particular, along the Sixth Avenue corridor. While some actually voted for Zeldin, others said they had considered it, but, in the end, could not bring themselves to back him due to his stance on abortion and his vote against certifying the 2020 election.

Zach, 33, who did not want to give his last name, had just voted at P.S. 41, on W. 11th Street at Sixth Avenue, around 8 p.m. on Elec tion Night. He lives north of Eighth Street on

Sixth Avenue, the latter, he said, which sports many vacant storefronts and has “just been a dark pocket.” It’s “a no-go zone” for his wife at night, he said. The W. Fourth Street subway station is sketchy, too, in his view.

He claimed he has witnessed crimes — including someone getting pickpocketed — noting, “It’s certainly more visible than it’s been.” He said at night he hears shouting and fighting on the street outside his window.

“I voted for Zeldin,” he shared. “I left the rest empty.”

However, Jessica, 40, a corporate lawyer, while not thrilled with the governor, could not support the alternative.

“I voted for Hochul, begrudgingly, because Lee Zeldin is an election denier and voted not to certify the election,” she said. “Someone more moderate would have gotten my vote. That was a bridge too far.”

She said, in general, she might vote for a Republican “if they’re not a Trumper.” In this case, she did back Republicans on the ballot in other races “as a counterbalance,” as she put it.

“I think one party having too much power is a problem,” she said.

However, the attorney did not vote for Eric Rassi on the Medical Freedom Party line versus Democrat Brian Kavanagh for state Senate. Rassi only got around 3.4 percent of the vote.

“I like people to stay alive,” she quipped.

“Pretty much anyone who wasn’t a Trumper or an anti-vaxxer got my vote.”

Owen, in his 20s, who works in real estate and lives right around the corner, rushed in to try to cast his ballot right before the polls closed. However, indicating he’s not a habit ual voter, the two-year Village resident was turned away since he’s not registered to vote here. He’s a registered Republican in his native Connecticut.

Owen said crime and quality of life had compelled him to try to vote.

“Look around, man!” he said, dramatically. “I’ve never seen New York City this bad. I take the subway every day to work — it’s a blood bath!”

However, another voter, Claire, while ad mittedly extremely concerned about safety, in general, and street conditions on Sixth Ave nue, in particular, said the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade eclipsed all other is sues for her this election. As for Zeldin, he has backed criminalizing abortions after 20 weeks.

“I’m fiscally conservative but socially liber al,” she said. “You can’t lose the right to choose, so I voted Democratic on everything. Abor tion is such a huge issue. It’s treating people like second-class citizens. They’re going to kill women with this.”

She fumed of the Republicans, “They’re morons — because women like me will never vote for them again. They shot themselves in the foot.”

That said, she was very concerned about street conditions, especially in the Bronx, where she works in harm reduction with sub stance abusers.

“It’s incredibly dangerous,” she said. “I’ve never seen it like this before — where I’m al ways terrified.”

A New York University graduate, Claire lives on Sixth Avenue at Waverly Place. She said her building management had actually rigged up a scaffold system to create dripping water to keep homeless guys and drug users from hanging out in front of the corner bank ATM.

Regarding street homeless people who are using drugs, she said with concern, “There’s so many facilities they could be in, and they’re not using [drugs] responsibly.”

However, David Seabrook, 63, a U.S. Postal Service worker who lives in the Vil lage, said his decisions on Election Day were not hard.

“I went with whatever the Village Inde pendent Democrats card had,” he said, not ing a friend shared the card with him.

“I voted for Hochul because she’s a woman,” he said. “She brings a perspective as a woman. I don’t know…she seems O.K.”

A bit earlier that evening, over on the East Side — where voters typically lean farther left — John Stubbs, 47, a nonunion carpenter, had just voted at P.S. 751, on E. Fourth Street between First and Second Avenues. He spoke while unlocking his bike from a street pole.

“Voting against the Republican Party

platform, start to finish — not a single thing I like about it,” he said of his approach to his ballot.

He said he voted against Zeldin “be cause we don’t need to join Mississippi or Alabama here.”

Stubbs O.K.’d three of the four ballot proposals but not the one to create a “Ra cial Equity Office, Plan and Commission,” of which he opined, “It’s going a little over the top.”

He voted for Chuck Schumer’s Republi can opponent, feeling Schumer has been in office long enough already.

“I would have liked to see somebody [else] pick it up at this point,” he said. “I think we should have term limits. The only exception to that is Bernie Sanders — like a Ruth Bader [Ginsburg].”

A woman, 33, who works in healthcare and declined to give her name, said the choice for governor was simpler because of who Hochul was not.

“I usually look for a Green to vote for,” she said, “but the race seems to have tight ened. And it’s not Cuomo — so that gets that out of the way.”

David Seabrook said he trusted the recommendations of the Vil lage Independent Democrats club (Photo by The Village Sun)

LES lens: Photog keeps it real through years

THE SEEN

Since the 1980s, Clayton Patterson has been capturing gritty images of the Lower East Side — and the East Village, the part of the LES north of Houston Street that was re branded to make it more real-estate friendly.

From the arts and music scene to the drag scene to the drug scene, Patterson has

tirelessly trained his lens everywhere, doc umenting it all. He knows many of his subjects personally from the neighborhood, and has documented them through various stages of their lives.

Here are some of a smattering of pho tos that Patterson recently pulled from his sprawling archives to send to The Village Sun.

Rocco of the Satan’s Sinners Nomads, right, getting a “hand poke” tattoo at the street gang’s clubhouse at E. Fourth Street and Avenue D in the 1980s.

Guitarist Darryl Jennifer of the hardcore band the Bad Brains playing a show in the ’80s at CBGB.

Jim Power, the East Village’s “Mosaic Man” — whose tile mosaics festoon the East Village streetlight poles — and his late canine sidekick Jesse Jane in front of Clayton Patterson’s front door in 2002.

Photos by Clayton Patterson

Anne Hanavan, the lead singer of the band Transgendered Jesus, in 2011.

Elephant on a scooter

Ydanis Rodriguez, the commissioner of the Depart ment of Transportation, recently met with the city’s community and ethnic media to give an update on “city wide safety improvements and key initiatives” the depart ment is engaged in.

At the meeting, calling it “a priority,” Rodriguez really pushed the idea of getting more people out of cars and into healthy biking and walking. In fact, at times, he sounded more like the Health commissioner.

Biking and walking are simply good for us, he stressed, adding that there could always be another COVID wave, and that it’s people with underlying health conditions who are most at risk from the virus. He’s right on all counts.

Noting it’s mostly the upper class and middle class who are cycling here, Rodriguez advocated for getting work ing-class and immigrant New Yorkers walking and pedaling more, so that they, too, can enjoy the health benefits.

Meanwhile, New York City has millions of people but limited road space, he stressed.

“This cannot be a car culture society,” he declared, adding that “the present and the future of New York City is to share the street.”

Most traffic fatalities must not be called accidents but crashes, he continued, since the drivers involved usually are drunk, speeding or just driving recklessly. Meanwhile, more than 1,200 intersections around the city have gotten safety improvements, he proudly shared. On the down side, most people killed in intersections are elderly, according to the D.O.T. honcho.

As for the goal of Vision Zero, meaning no traffic fatali ties, there still is a long way to go. This year, as of Oct. 31, 87 motorists, 87 pedestrians and 14 cyclists have been killed, with 42,000 total injured. However, most people losing their lives are “on the [city’s] highways,” Rodriguez said.

It was a lot of information to digest. Over all, though, it’s great that the city and D.O.T. are promoting walking and bik ing, and creating the infrastructure to make them safer.

Rodriguez, however, notably did not mention the 80,000 ride-share drivers, a situation the city let explode that has ob viously worsened traffic — mostly in Manhattan.

And, in terms of the media, the one concern they raised most often to Rodriguez was about bike delivery guys and others riding on sidewalks, going the wrong way and blow ing through red lights — plus the proliferation of e-bikes and e-scooters, in general. Call it “the elephant on the e-bike (or scooter) in the room.”

“Riding a bike on the sidewalk is not accepted,” the com missioner stated, assuring that only “a small percentage” of both drivers and cyclists are scofflaws.

He said D.O.T. is coordinating with the Sheriff’s Office to crack down on sale of illegal scooters, as well as doing “ed ucation” on the issue, plus building out safety infrastructure.

But as the editors and reporters repeatedly stressed to him, concerns about rogue cyclists and scooter and moped riders are among their readers’ top complaints. Clearly, the city needs a more concrete plan to address this issue.

And, as for health, what if Rodriguez urged all the couch potatoes who use delivery apps instead to get up and stroll to the corner store? Whoa, what a concept! In addition to get ting some cardio, it would also help cut the chaos of speeding scooters and bikes.

LETTERS

Guardians group is ‘misguided’

To The Editor:

Re “Activists vs. activists: Fight to reclaim E.V. community center” (news article, No vember 2022):

I do not understand why you need to rehash what you previously covered in your original article about Frank Morales and his misguided group (“Guardians of CHARAS unite to save derelict building,” thevillagesun.com, Sept. 28). The focus of your new story should have been how Frank Morales sought to use Chino Gar cia and CHARAS by taking advantage of a disabled community icon to further his own ends. Frank opted to bypass Taina, Chino’s daughter and legal guardian, as well as the CHARAS board. After he was called out on this, he still persisted in his efforts by trying to raise funds in CHARAS’s name. And in your article, you again used the same image of Chino as “Uncle Chino” that Chino had found objectionable and unauthorized.

Frank is known for encouraging peo ple to squat in buildings already set aside, with funding in place, for affordable hous ing. In plain English, that is called jump ing ahead of the line.

A better title for your article should have been “Activists vs. Opportunists.”

Orselli is project director, This Land Is Ours Community Land Trust.

‘Playing to win’ on CHARAS

To The Editor: Re “Activists vs. activists: Fight to reclaim E.V. community center” (news article, No vember 2022):

It is clear that the city has ZERO in terest in saving that building. One of the most effective tools in a city’s toolbox — aside from landmarking a property to pre vent demolition — is to declare a property “blighted” and then take it from the owner through eminent domain. The CHARAS building certainly qualifies as “blighted.” With the property under the city’s owner ship, the School Construction Authority could restore it as a much-needed school building. But that would require a mayor and city councilmember who gave a damn about the LES and who weren’t owned by their real estate vulture masters. We have NEITHER.

Meanwhile, a group of veteran LES activists are making an admirable effort to do something physical. I’m tired of the SAME creeps claiming to speak for our community, who get themselves en trenched and paid to act as our “repre sentatives,” accomplishing NOTHING, while trashing those who are not going

through THEM.

I would much prefer to work with and support those who play to WIN. The en trenched CHARAS “activists” have done nothing over the past 24 years but LOSE.

Chris Flash Flash is publisher/editor, The SHADOW

Market was super during COVID

To The Editor:

Re “Pols, N.Y.U. pledge to save key Bleecker supermarket” (news article, No vember 2022):

Morton Williams has been a vital source of food and other related products in our neighborhood for a great many years. We also need to return the same loyalty which they showed to us during the mounting COVID crisis, when they were the most reliable, and sometimes the only, source of Lysol and other disin fecting wipes that were barely obtainable anywhere else. They need to stay in our neighborhood.

Leonard Michaels

The Village Sun welcomes readers’ letters of up to 250 words. Letters are subject to ed iting for length, clarity, grammar and factual accuracy. Anonymous letters will not be run in the print edition. Send letters to news@ thevillagesun.com.

14th St. flashback circa ’70s

People complain about a “lack of sidewalk access” now adays due to all the pandemic-emergency dining shacks that are still out there by the thousands. Well, this was 14th Street in the 1970s — way before the busway. As for what all the congestion was about, the photographer,

Harry

said, “It looks more like a three-card

game than an accident or a crime. I think I see a card board mat or something on the ground. Fourteenth Street always looked like that! I don’t recall encountering any maître d’s out there!”

Valerio Orselli

Photo by Harry Pincus

Pincus,

Monte

The second most important day of 2001

BY MICHELE HERMAN

I

t is first thing in the morning on Friday, No vember 16, 2001, and it’s hot. I’m standing on the crowded sidewalk outside P.S. 3 in Green wich Village with most of the student body and much of the parent body. We are patiently waiting in the heat. Anyone with elementa ry-school-aged kids knows that while there’s a long shadow darkening all the days beyond September 11, there’s also been a light growing ever brighter as November 16 has slowly, ever so slowly approached, because this is the day the Harry Potter movie opens.

We are going together to the first morning screening in Times Square. I have pulled my younger son, a boy who can sing all nine verses of “The Sorting Hat” song, out of his first-grade class for this, and he is holding tightly to my hand. On my other side is my fourth grader and his friend, a boy who arrived at the school just a year ago speaking only Chinese.

“How do you think they’ll make Fluffy?” asks his friend, referring to the three-headed dog who guards the chamber of secrets. While my son weighs the possibility of three actual dogs or one fake one, I glance up at our school. It is five stories tall and faces south, which means that some of the fourth and fifth graders, these two boys included, watched the towers burn and collapse from their classroom windows. Since that morning, the school has been hosting two of the displaced Lower Manhattan schools. In our already-taxed 100-year-old building, we are somehow containing three schools’ worth of classes, teachers, principals, secretaries, artwork, lunchboxes; three schools’ worth of clowns and criers and squirmers. Of the three parent bodies, we know we’re the lucky ones, and this knowl edge seems to have changed us.

On this weirdly August-like morning a week before Thanksgiving, we are on our best behavior — even the parents. Other parents coach soccer or jog, but our parents yell for sport. Those who can’t abide yelling tend to get driven away early, depriving us of the voices of sanity. Some of us non-yellers come anyway, trying, like the good, oldest children from volatile families that we are, to attempt peacekeeping.

Parents have yelled about the treasurer who absconded with the class funds. The asbestos under the roof. I’ve stood on this wide sidewalk after P.T.A. meetings that lasted into the night and devolved into screaming matches about the lesbian cabal that some believed ran the school or about the superintendent others were con vinced was systematically ripping the heart out of the school because he wanted to let the kin dergartners use the parents’ room for lunch.

Sprung from those meetings, gulping the cool night air of Hudson Street, I was always forced to remember that I was the one who steered my family to this school. We could have gone to the other public school in our neigh borhood, the regular school with the desks and the teachers who go by Mr. or Ms., and the reg

ular parents who kiss their kids goodbye at the door and go somewhere else all day. But no, I had to insist on the place that calls itself the hip pie school on its official, tie-dyed T-shirts. This place has spirit, I had insisted. All the interesting families go here.

Now everything has changed. The parents have been behaving themselves for a good long while now. I can tell you exactly how long: two months and five days and three minutes, almost long enough for me to believe that real good, lasting good, has come out of the events of Sep tember 11. It’s a plausible proposition, isn’t it? That good emerges from evil? History runs in cycles, right? Hotheads burn themselves out and cool heads prevail. Everyone comes to his or her senses, reforms are put in place, saplings planted, slavery abolished, democracies established.

Finally, the last stragglers arrive and we begin walking down Grove Street to the subway. My first grader is still gripping my hand, concentrat ing very hard. I can almost feel him willing the movie to live up to the year of mounting, nearly unendurable anticipation. The two fourth graders in my charge are trying hard not to run, and I have to keep whoa-ing them back into place.

I want so for this outing to go well. One of the more politically engaged teachers has writ ten and circulated an erudite op-ed piece about the educational value of taking the kids to see “Harry Potter.” Some parents have commenced the mildest grumbling at what they see instead as pandering to pop culture. I am hoping this is not a hairline fracture. We have been on our best behavior for so long.

The subway, when we finally reach it, already smells like armpits and sunblock. I gradually realize that my son’s friend is not himself. He’s popping pills from a little glass vial with a blue label. I take a look at the bottle, but the label has Chinese characters; I have no idea what this stuff is.

“It’s O.K.,” he tells me. “My mom get this in Chinatown; it’s good medicine.”

There’s a vagueness in his eyes I don’t like the look of. We emerge near the diesel fumes and the big green trusses of the Port Authority garage.

“Look, we’re almost there; there’s a poster of Hagrid,” my older son says to his friend, trying to make him feel better.

love simply because my kids spend every day with their kids.

We have a new principal this year who has been undoing years of damage from a revolving door of principals before her. First there was one that the angry parents hated and distrusted but the reasonable parents thought was plenty good enough. Then one the angry parents adored and the reasonable parents distrusted. Then last year we had one who united us all in hate and distrust. But this year the factions disappeared. Former sworn enemies were signing up for committees together.

September 11 cured our school.

The theater is one of those brand-new mul tiplexes in the new corporate Times Square. We ride up three vast escalators past the sub-sub lobby and the sub lobby until I lose all track of what floor we’re on.

Usually moviegoing, especially in these factories, is anonymous, removed from daily life. But here on the escalator, holding my son’s friend, I know everyone. I watch my school, my new, mature school, rise into the air. Maybe it’s the air-conditioning, but one of those post-9/11 pangs of gratitude surges through me. I see the girl I once comforted in the lunchroom when her yogurt spilled on her favorite blue shirt.

I see mothers, too — psychologist mothers and public-policy mothers and lawyer mothers and artist mothers and dance-therapist mothers and editor mothers. They are terrific, energetic, smart women. Some I bonded with while serv ing soup at the Fall Festival, some I’ve counted UNICEF coins with, some I’ve sorted library books with. I see mothers I hardly know but I

By the time we get into the theater the only seats left are in the front row, which gives the movie a soft, misty look that I suspect it doesn’t actually have. The characters are elongated and slanty. As one friend said later, it gives a whole new meaning to “Diagon Alley,” the under ground shopping street for wizards.

When 4 Privet Drive appears, looking ex actly the way I thought it would, I start to smile and cry and shake. In another life, a happy bed time life, I have lived at 4 Privet Drive with my boys and all the other families here, and families around the world. I know exactly where to find the closet under the staircase where the nasty, convention-bound Dursley family banishes Harry. At bedtime I used to read a little and then sing a few songs, but ever since Harry Pot ter the boys have negotiated nightly, “One more chapter and no songs!!”

And now we are finally here. We leave our world for two hours. It’s glorious.

The credits roll and we file slowly out, wait a very long time to reclaim our belongings, and snake our way back down to our hot, shaky city. I’m propping up my son’s friend with my arm around his skinny torso under his massive knap sack. He graciously holds the vomit inside until we get to the curb.

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” was a welcome ray of magical light after 9/11.

I want so for this outing to go well.

Ann Arlen, 89, former C.B. 2 Enviro chairperson

School of Law, her mother died at Bellev ue Hospital from complications after hitting her head during a fall in her Sullivan Street apartment. She was conscious at first, but slipped into a coma after a few days from which she did not revive.

“It was all so sudden that we’re just try ing to catch our breath,” she said.

newspaper. After graduating, she got an in ternship at Life magazine, where she met her husband, writer Michael J. Arlen — the son of novelist Michael Arlen — who went on to write for The New Yorker. They had four daughters together before divorcing after about 10 years of marriage.

mostly shooting flowers as her favorite sub jects. She would photograph them “from the inside,” according to Jennifer.

“They were almost like abstract paint ings,” she said. “They were very structured and sculptural, like art photos.”

Ann Arlen.

OBITUARY

BY THE VILLAGE SUN

Ann Arlen, a longtime Greenwich Village resident and former Community Board 2 member, died on Oct. 2, at the age of 89.

According to her daughter Jennifer Arlen, a professor at New York University

Her mother had been in great health — “a force of nature,” as her daughter put it — until undergoing minor hernia surgery four years ago, which led to a hip infection and to her being confined to a wheelchair.

Ann Warner grew up in Chicago, the oldest of three siblings. Her father was a professor of social anthropology at the Uni versity of Chicago, and her mother was a real estate agent.

Ann attended the prestigious Radcliffe College, the former sister school of the then-all-male Harvard, and was the second woman to work on the Harvard Crimson

Following the divorce, Ann took her daughters to live for a period in a commune in Upstate New York, according to Annie Shaver Crandell, a friend.

According to Jennifer Arlen, her moth er’s abiding passions were environmental is sues and preservation.

“She was very devoted to her issues,” she said.

In the early 2000s, Arlen was the chair person of the C.B. 2 Environmental Com mittee — on which she was involved in 9/11 health concerns — and was also a member of the activist nonprofit Village Preservation. She was also passionate about photography,

Arlen loved Greenwich Village, Jennifer said.

“I think, like many Village denizens, she was very integrated into the Village,” she said. “So, she would know the store owners, know their histories, know people’s names.”

Arlen loved Pepe Rosso, her favorite local Italian restaurant, especially their ti ramisu, as well as Pino’s butcher right next door to her building, she said.

Ann Arlen was cremated. She is sur vived by her four daughters, Jennifer Arlen, Caroline Arlen, Elizabeth Arlen and Sally Arlen, and three grandchildren, Michael Ar len Hotz, Robert Arlen Hotz and Atalanta Archangel.

Corky Lee documentary shows man behind the camera

BY THE VILLAGE SUN

Anew documentary about Corky Lee, the crusading Chinese-American documen tary photographer, helps add to the growing appreciation of an unsung local journalistic hero.

Lee died of COVID in January 2021 at age 73. For decades, the Queens native docu mented all aspects of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) experience in New York, from Lunar New Year to street protests, from Pakistan Independence Day.

As word of Lee’s passing was reported in local outlets like The Village Sun, it soon snow balled and became a national story picked up by the mainstream and international media. In

death, the modest Lee was finally getting the wider recognition that he had always deserved.

Director/producer Jennifer Takaki spent more than 19 years working on “Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story,” which screened on Nov. 12 at the SVA Theatre as part of the DOC NYC festival, America’s largest docu mentary festival.

Although he was always out in public with his camera, Lee was intensely private.

Lee’s humorous, almost self-deprecating, moniker was the “undisputed unofficial Asian American photographer laureate.” To his cha grin, he became pigeonholed by news outlets as “the Asian protest photographer.” The film reveals him as intensely driven — intelligent, articulate, creative, with an unflagging passion

to chronicle the lives and events of Asians in this country in all their facets, to help them carve their rightful place.

In one famous instance, in 2014, Lee used his lens to help right the historical record, re staging the classic photo of the driving of the “golden spike” on the transcontinental rail road at Promontory Summit, Utah — only this time with the descendants of the Chinese railroad workers who were excluded from the original photo.

Takaki said she was inspired to film Lee after reading a 2003 New York Times article about him.

“Because Corky was so private, no one re ally knew Corky at all,” she said. “I knew when I met him, I knew he was underappreciated.”

Middle Collegiate Church facade demo debate

Continued from p. 9

and achievable proof of the necessity of do ing so.”

However, Lewis said the church’s engi neer has been analyzing the structure and possible scenarios for the past 18 months, whereas an engineer contracted by L.P.C. only dropped by recently for a quick look.

Indeed, Erik Madsen of Madsen Con sulting Engineering did an inspection of the church for L.P.C. on Oct. 24, plus a follow-up visit on Nov. 11 via the side walk in front. In a letter to John Weiss, the L.P.C. deputy counsel, on Nov. 15, the independent engineer wrote, in part, “At this point, there is insufficient evi dence to state that the structure is other than globally stable and able to be further stabilized through an investigation and re

mediation.”

Andrew Berman, executive director of Village Preservation, additionally noted that “neither denying this application at this time will prevent the church from rebuild ing here nor will granting it at this time en sure that they will rebuild at this location, as there is currently no rebuilding plan. I’ll add that apparently the ultimate decision about whether or not the church will rebuild at this location lies with the Middle Collegiate Corporation, which owns the land, not this congregation. It is unclear how committed the corporation is to allowing this congre gation to rebuild here.”

Berman added that, were the building deemed to be in a dangerous condition, D.O.B. would have already ordered its com plete demolition. Also, he noted, Middle Collegiate could file a “hardship applica

tion,” regarding the financial burden of re building with the old facade still in place, yet has not done so.

In addition, the East Village Communi ty Coalition, Lower East Side Preservation Initiative and Historic Districts Council have all independently reviewed the church’s demolition application to L.P.C. and agree with Village Preservation that it doesn’t, as of this stage, qualify for approval.

“H.D.C. is excited to see Middle Col legiate Church rebuild and flourish at 112 Second Ave. for many years to come,” the Historic Districts Council said. “As East Village neighbors, we are keenly aware of the toll the fire has taken on Middle Col legiate, and the East Village community, but we find an application to demolish the church’s facade to be inappropriate at this time.”

However, if Middle Collegiate is to stay in the community, clearing the site is imper ative, Lewis maintained.

“It is a tough decision,” she said. “We do not make the decision lightly.”

If L.P.C. does not allow the structure’s demolition, it would put the church in a se rious bind, as the reverend tells it.

“What we don’t want is the facade stand ing there with condos behind it,” she said. If the city nixes the demolition, she warned, “We might not have any choice but to liq uidate the site and let someone else have it.”

Speaking at the Nov. 22 L.P.C. hearing, Assemblymember Harvey Epstein backed the church’s position.

“While preservation is important,” he said, “it doesn’t come at the cost of our com munity. We have to trust our leaders that they know what they’re doing.”

Director Jennifer Takaki and China town activist Karlin Chan in Chelsea after the screening of Takaki’s new film on Corky Lee. Photo by The Village Sun

The CHARAS Wall Project: An homage to Loisaida

BY BONNIE ROSENSTOCK

Musician/activist Daso (David Soto) said that every time he walked outside of his Piragua Art Space on E. 10th Street, which opened on May 1, he was “hit in the face over and over again” by what he saw on the opposite side of the street.

It was the back of the abandoned and deteriorating former CHARAS/El Bohio Community and Cultural Center, the be loved arts space that has been the center of contention ever since 2001, when it was evicted by the new owner.

The long stretch of chipped and cracked wall was full of graffiti and fading posters, the street was strewn with trash, fallen leaves, dead rodents, dog feces and other unpleasant sights and smells.

“People told me they’re afraid to walk down 10th Street because it’s so dark and dirty,” Daso said. “I had to do something about it. I started having conversations with people about doing an outdoor art exhibit that our friends and family from the neigh borhood can enjoy. As a good neighbor and small business owner, it’s my responsibility to be part of activating the space in a beautiful

way.”

Daso invited a group of artists to do por traits, abstract art, graffiti art, “to beautify this whole area and bring this theme of unity to the wall of this building that has been very much abandoned and forgotten,” he said.

The participating artists, both local and not, are a mix of those chosen by Daso as well as by Thrive Collective, a community of peo ple who work toward social change through music and art. The walls will be broken up into sections and the artists will be assigned a space. Some artists will bring their own paint and material, and Thrive is donating as well.

Artists submitted concepts based on topics like El Bohio (“the hut”), celebrating community, CHARAS founders and more. Those selected by Daso and Thrive include (as of this writing) Will Power, Danielle Mastrion, Marissa Molina, Christian Penn, Nico Collazo, Michela Muserra, Jodie Dare al, Dast One, Juan Carlos Pinto, Charlie Elo and Al Diaz, the well-known graffiti artist with the tag SAMO, a onetime collaborator of Jean-Michel Basquiat

On Sat., Nov. 12, volunteers gathered at

The almost-complete portrait of Chino García. Photos by Bonnie Rosenstock Christian Penn prepping the rest of the wall for Marissa Molina’s image, which will include Lower East Side/NYC elements.

A portrait of Angie Hernández, an unlisted co-founder of CHARAS, by Danielle Mastrion. Daso cried when he saw the portrait of his mother.

The CHARAS Wall Project: An homage to Loisaida

Continued from p. 15

the site to clean up the streets, filling more than a dozen trash bags. That Sunday, they power-washed the walls, blasting off the post ers, while other volunteers swept more of the debris into bags and the water into the streets.

“You wanna rock with me?” said Pow er on Monday evening, Nov. 14, as he was whitewashing his section of wall in prepara tion for his portrait of Carlos “Chino” García, co-founder of CHARAS. “If I weren’t part of this, I would be upset. Al Diaz is going to help me. I hit him up. I had him in mind ’cause it’s his neighborhood.”

The finished portrait is startling in its like ness, power and beauty. Power created it from a photograph of García, in which he wore a scarf, which Power changed to the Puerto Ri can flag. He is saving the left side of his space for additions by SAMO.

“We are celebrating and honoring our leaders and the founders of CHARAS and those that came before us who inspire us to do what we do,” Daso said. He got very emotion al talking about CHARAS because Salvador Becker (the “S” in CHARAS) had come by to visit a little before our interview.

“He said if it weren’t for Chino, he’d proba bly be dead,” Daso recounted. Daso added that he had been going to CHARAS since he was 6 years old, and it kept him away from gangs and drugs and focused on the arts. His mother, Ang ie Hernandez, was also one of the place’s unlist ed co-founders.

“I always acknowledge my mom for the work that’s she’s done in activism in this com munity, with bomba y plena, traditional Puerto Rican folk music,” he said.

“This is the type of movement that I love being a part of because it inspires people to

stay away from things that can take your life and [instead] move you in a direction of em powerment through this art, through our cul ture.

“This whole ‘us’ and ‘them’ thing,” he said, “we are all a part of this movement. Originally, there were a lot of Puerto Ricans involved, but along the way we have all these families and friends and people that have been a part. We are all ‘us.’ We celebrate diversity.

“The foundation of CHARAS was built on activating folks to get involved in their com munity, politics, activism through arts and cul ture,” he explained. “To me, it’s not just about a building. Regardless if we get this building back, whoever has billions of dollars to renovate the space to keep it as a community space that our artists can utilize, CHARAS is a movement, whether it’s this building, here at Piragua, La

Sala de Pepe, Casa de Adela, Nuyorican Poets Café or the Lower East Side. It’s whatever gets us to work together as one people to engage the next generation.”

Also, two events honoring Lower East Side icons were held on Sat., Nov. 26. The first, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., was the un veiling of “The Mosaic of Chino García,” by Juan Carlos Pinto, the MetroCard mu ralist, at Olean For All People’s Garden, 293 E. Third St., between Avenues C and D, with live music by Daso and El Grupo Cemi/Gina Fuego. Then from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., was the opening of “LES Icons: The Art of J.C. Pinto” at Piragua Art Space, 367 E. 10th St., between Avenues B and C, which runs through Dec. 10. It’s also Piragua’s first official art exhibit. Pinto requested to present his solo show there to celebrate the people of the Lower East Side, he said.

Jodie Doreal’s homage to CHARAS and the Lower East Side community.

A green parrot from Puerto Rico shares space next to one of the geodesic domes that CHARAS built with Buckminster Fuller, in a mural piece by Christian Penn of the Thrive Collective.

Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder jams with park jammers MUSIC

BY THE VILLAGE SUN

No one could have predicted this… .

“Dance of the Clairvoyants” singer Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam re cently swung by Washington Square Park and wound up rocking out with the place’s regular crew of guitar players.

It happened on Sun., Nov. 6, around 7 p.m. Bill Warren a.k.a. Abe Lincoln (he sometimes dons a beard and top hat á la the former president) tipped the newspa per off. He said he got there toward the end of things but heard the whole story.

Basically, Vedder and his wife strolled by and saw some of the usual veteran “park jammers,” as they call themselves — René Logeais, Doc Will and Big Mike — playing Neil Young songs.

At first, the Pearl Jam front man just hung back and dug the tunes.

But the “Even Flow” belter eventually borrowed a guitar and flowed right into one of his signature songs, “Better Man,” with them.

Although video was naturally taken, the Washington Square jammers prom ised that none would be posted.

Logeais told The Village Sun how it all went down.

“Well, we had just been playing “The Needle and the Damage Done” and this couple stood there listening to us,” he re lated. “Then we played “Helpless,” which Mike was singing. Vedder started to sing

along, and when the song was over, Mike asked where they were from. Vedder said Seattle, to which Mike replied, ‘I hear there are good musicians in Seattle,’ and that’s when Vedder introduced himself.

“Will and I started hearing the words ‘Eddie Vedder’ floating around, not quite realizing what was going on. I said, ‘Real ly?’ and his wife said, ‘Yes.’ Mike handed him his guitar and Vedder played “Better Man.” Will knew the song and played along with him.”

Logeais said, all told, Vedder stuck around for about half an hour.

“The first 15 minutes he was listen ing to us — meaning we must have been playing nice enough for him to stop by and linger,” he said. “He played one song, a shortened version of “Better Man,” and that was it.

“Vedder told us we could record him but not post the video,” Logeais added. “He’s blurry [in the photo] because his wife is not exactly a professional photog rapher. We have another picture where he is looking down, so instead of his face, we see his hat. I assume his wife snapped the picture just as he was straightening up, but with the low light in the park, the phone had no chance to compensate for that.”

Another one of the park jammers, Ar chie, happened to be working his usual gig that evening at the Music Inn store, on W. Fourth Street, so was bummed out to have missed the big occasion.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t there for it, arrrggg!!!!” he texted The Village Sun.

From left, Big Mike, Eddie Vedder, Doc Will and René Logeais. Courtesy René Logeais

Eddie Vedder playing with his band Pearl Jam at Madison Square Garden in September.

Photo by Everynight Charley Crespo

If you’re looking for half-baked conspiracy theories, don’t read The Village Sun…

If you’re looking for regurgitated agency press releases, don’t read The Village Sun…

If you’re looking for cutesy blog posts about trivial stuff, don’t read The Village Sun… But

Cornelia Street Cafe all-stars fete Robin Hirsch

CABARET

BY THE VILLAGE SUN

a New York Times article about the music scene at Cornelia Street Cafe, and prompt ly headed to Greenwich Village to make his name, and stayed.

F

riends came together at the Triad Theater on the Upper West Side last month to fete — and perform for — Rob in Hirsch, the former proprietor and im presario of the Cornelia Street Cafe, for his birthday.

Unfortunately, due to skyrocketing rent, the cafe, after a 41-year-run, closed at the end of 2018. Since then, from time to time, Hirsch, who just turned 80, has held “Cornelia Street in Exile” events. This defi nitely could be called one of them.

Assembled at the Nov. 14 bash was an all-star cast of stellar talent who, over the years, played the cafe’s railway-car-narrow downstairs performance space. There were musicians, comedians, a magician, even a politician.

Fresh off recently performing the al bum “Blue” at 54 Below for Joni Mitch ell’s 79th birthday, Hannah Reimann sang an aria by Vivaldi. Singer/songwriter Cliff Eberhardt crooned his wry take on a lack luster weekend, “Another Saturday Night.” David Massengill, a master of the dulci mer who was Dave Van Ronk’s protégé, performed a beautiful song of enduring love. Katie Down, who used to do the “en tertaining science” sketches at Cornelia — when she would play “weird instruments” — did a fun ukulele tribute to Hirsch. There were film clips of past performers, such as the Saw Lady.

Eberhardt noted he was an aspiring young singer in the Midwest when he read

Stan Baker a.k.a. “The Human Television,” who used to perform in Washington Square Park, did stand-up, though sans his traditional TV frame. Another comic who launched her career with help from Hirsch’s supportive stage, Jennifer Rawlings, flew in from Califor nia just for the shindig. Magician Mark Mitton made wine bottles — one of oenophile Hirsch’s favorites — multiply miraculously.

“Bottchermania” continued as Coun cilmember Erik Bottcher — who only started taking guitar lessons on Zoom over the pandemic — strummed a song. Hirsch, who is a writer, read a passage from one of his own books.

It was actually a twofer since it was also the birthday party of David Amram, 92. A legendary multi-instrumentalist and composer, Amram was friends with the likes of Beat luminaries Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. His birthday falls the day after Hirsch’s, and it’s become tradition for them to have a joint celebration. Amram performed a piano rendition — leading in first by playing an intro on banjo — of his classic Beat anthem “Pull My Daisy,” chock-full of Kerouac anecdotes, ad-lib bing and wild scatting.

Afterward, he thanked Hirsch for hav ing provided a place in the Cornelia Street Cafe for people to express their creativity.

“We’re all born creative until we’re told that we’re not,” he said. “Robin, you re minded us all of that.”

Robin Hirsch, with his wife, Leona, left, and musician Hannah Reimann, at his birthday bash at the Triad.

David Massengill, left, and Cliff Eberhardt.

Photos by The Village Sun

Karen’s Quirky Style: Wonder Woman wows

FASHION

BY KAREN REMPEL

Marching through Midtown in Wonder Woman attire on my way to work at 7 a.m. on a frosty late-October morning, I was shocked by the recognition and adoration I received from my fellow worker bees. Cries of “Wonder Woman!”— sung in the tune of her ’70s TV theme song — rang against the skyscrapers.

I won best Halloween costume at work, and received even more recognition in the after-work crush on 40th Street, in the sub way and striding down Sixth Avenue. From tots to pensioners, people cried with delight, “It’s Wonder Woman!” They recognized her tiara, bracelets, boots and, of course, the golden Lasso of Truth. Even with her double-“W” symbol concealed beneath my leather jacket, the flying red cape gave her away.

I reprised the role for my column to promote Wonder Woman’s message of su per feminine wisdom and power. If only I had her ability to fight against evil and make people tell the truth with my golden las so. I’d spin the lasso, snag an orange Cheeto and demand the truth: “Who won the election?”

The Wonder Woman character and cartoon were created in 1941 by Wil liam Moulton Marston, with drawings by Harry G. Peter. Her viewpoints and characteristics reflect those of Marston, a strong supporter of feminist ide als and female empower ment. His wife, Elizabeth, and their polyamorous life partner, Olive Byrne, greatly influenced the character’s creation and were his inspiration for her appearance, including her Bracelets of Submission.

Marston was a psy chologist, his wife a scien tist. Together they invent ed a prototype lie detector. Marston theorized human relationships could be bro ken down into dominance, submission, inducement and compliance, roles em bedded in our psyche.

He thought people are happiest when submitting

to a loving authority. Thus, Marston be lieved women are far better equipped for emotional leadership than men. He wanted to convey his progressive ideals that women are not only capable of leadership roles, but should be in charge of society. Hence his Wonder Woman — invented during early World War II — was a pacifist icon using superpowers and smarts rather than vio lence to win the day.

Style notes

• DC Comics Wonder Woman attire, in cluding Lasso of Truth, Bracelets of Sub mission and gold tiara with red star ruby. Party City, 38 W. 14th St.

• Red suede open-toed cage boots. The Bay, Vancouver, B.C.

• “Janet Collection” wavy shoulder-length wig. Wigs and Plus, 37 W. 14th St.

• Wonder Woman vintage cartoon post er, “Look Back in Wonder: The Story So Far,” DC Comics, Vol. 2, No. 49, Decem ber 1990. Artful Posters, 194 Bleecker St. Rempel is a New York-based writer. For past columns and more Philip Maier photos, see karensquirkystyle.nyc.

West Village Wonder Woman Karen Rempel bursts from the screen of Quad Cinema on W. 13th Street.

Photo by Philip Maier

Wood-fired craft pizza at new Fonzie’s pop-up

FOOD

BY HANNAH REIMANN

Ed Cotton inherited Rossopomodoro’s wood-fired oven with his partners at Jack & Charlie’s No. 118 and has com menced a delicious weekly pizza offering at the same Greenwich Avenue address every Thursday from noon to 2 p.m.

There are only a few wood-fired ovens left in the area. Aficionados agree that the enhanced flavor of fresh ingredients and the crunch of the crust from the open fire make exceptional pizza.

Chef Cotton is a 1998 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. He was for merly the chef at Sotto 13, at 140 W. 13th St., in 2014, where he also made pizzas in a wood-burning oven.

There are at least two varieties of pies per week at this pop-up, often including the mouth-watering Broken Meatball ($23), a red-sauce pie dotted with pieces of meatball (recipe of his grandmother’s that he adapt ed), topped with Aleppo pepper in lieu of the traditional red chili flakes, then drizzled with a toasted pistachio-arugula pesto. This pizza, fresh out of the oven, was so good that my dining partner and I demolished the entire pie very quickly.

Cotton will always offer a classic Mar gherita pie ($21) with basil. We tried this one, too. The rich flavor of the sauce struck me right away. He uses two kinds of San Marza no tomatoes, pressed garlic clove, Frantoia Barbera olive oil and a touch of Calabri

an dried oregano.

For now, it’s simple to acquire a pie or two — just walk in. The establishment does not take reservations or pre-orders and offers take out only. The weekly pop-up will keep running until 1,000 pies are made and sold, which will probably last well into the winter, a friendly and welcome warm lunch for people living or working in the neighborhood.

Cotton named Fonzie’s after his grand mother, Alfonsina, and created a hybrid of New York-style and Neapolitan pizza that he calls “Metro-politan” — the crust is thin, crisp, chewy, never heavy.

“There is a Neopolitan approach to the style,” he explained, “combined with the word ‘metro,’ meaning ‘in the city.’ I use as many in gredients from the metropolitan area as I can, including local cheeses, various local toppings and good, old-fashioned New York City tap water.”

He aspires to expand on the legacy of cooking he inherited from his nonna, and add ing wine into the mix, to open a full-fledged enoteca in the near future, and to call it Alfon sina in her honor.

“Pizza has always been a passion of mine ever since I was a kid,” he said. “I know it can be cliché for a chef to talk about his or her childhood as it relates to food, but pizza re ally was a huge part of my family growing up. My father was a chef at an Italian-American restaurant just outside of Boston. We made pizzas and calzones at home four times a week — I’d even sell them around my neighbor

“My grandmother, Alfonsina, had a big garden with vegetables and herbs that I’d bring home to add on to the pizzas. Her philoso

phy was to ‘cook from the hip’ — making do with what you have on hand, getting creative and having fun. The two of them really influ enced my style of cooking today.”

Fonzie’s also offers some bottled cocktails ($14) to go, including a Negroni (classic or pineapple) or a Cuba Libre (rum and Coke).

Beer, soda and water are also available.

Fonzie’s Pizza operates out of the Oyster Room at Jack & Charlie’s No. 118, at 118 Green wich Ave., at W. 13th Street. Follow Fonzie’s Pizza on Instagram (@fonziesnyc) for updates and menu changes or call 212-680-4265 for more information.

Ed Cotton crafts his family-recipe pizzas with an array of top-quality ingredients.

Photo by Hannah Reimann

The Broken Meatball is one of the signature pizzas at Fonzie’s. Fonzie’s Pizza

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A ‘Grandmaster Flash’ meets his match

EVENTS

BY THE VILLAGE SUN

Five chess wizzes played John Fedorowicz, a grandmaster, to a draw at the second annual Washington Square Park “simul,” on Sat., Oct. 22.

Ian Nicholson, Uclid Arias, Erik Bergren, Matthew Liao and his son, Connor Liao, 10 — the latter who drew with last year’s grandmaster, Maxim Dlugy, at the inaugural park simul — all played the grandmaster to a tie.

Meanwhile, simultaneously play ing two-dozen boards at once, whisk ing from chess table to table, Fedoro wicz was able to beat everyone else.

In the final game to wrap up, hours after the simul’s start, Lau ra Montanari, 14, nearly also won a draw, taking Fedorowicz to 54 moves before conceding. A student at LaGuardia High School of Mu sic & Art and Performing Arts, she lives in Greenwich Village. Hardly a novice, in her native Italy, she was the reigning chess champ for four straight years in her age bracket.

The Washington Square As sociation and Parks Department co-sponsored the event.

Erika Sumner, a W.S.A. board member, was the organizer. Ed Feldman, the Parks Department’s chief of fiscal management, who, not surprisingly — the math-chess connection, right? — is an aficiona do of the game, was also on hand to lend support as a “chess consultant.”

“It was a great experience,” Arias, 37, said of his match versus Fedorowicz.

“Our game was interesting,” he said. “I might have been winning at one point. But I really had to play careful. One blink… .

“I was able to sacrifice the rook on F4. He was trying to play for the draw. I could even play ‘queen G7’ — that was an interesting variation. But I played ‘queen C4.’ We exchanged queens. What a game. When he played ‘E4,’ I knew I could get a Maróczy Bind,” he said, referring to a classic “pawn structure” named for a Hungarian

lowing that showing, Dlugy offered Ahmed a job at his Chess Max Academy on the Upper West Side. Ahmed had previously ditched a longtime, well-paying job to follow his passion, chess, playing in the park for stakes of $5 a game.

“It’s funny how life takes a turn,” he reflected. “One day you’re a chess hustler. The next day you’re a coach for a grandmaster. Everything in life happens for a reason, I like to say. We are like chess pieces in this world — life is like chess.”

Anthony Kozikowski, who was the other player to draw Dlugy at last year’s simul, also now works at Dlugy’s chess academy, Ahmed said.

After the simul had ended, Johnny O’Leary, a park regular from Staten Island, was sitting at a chess table, waiting for his next opponent. He said he enjoys “the social aspect” of the Washington

Another player who took the grandmaster deep into a game be fore finally losing.

grandmaster.

“I grew up playing here and learned chess here,” noted Arias, who lives in Harlem and works in finance.

Only watching the games this year was Sarfaraz “Surfi” Ahmed. Last year he was one of the players pushing Dlugy to the limit before having to throw in the towel. Fol

Square chess scene and especially playing with kids who are learning the game.

“There are no losers at John ny O’Leary’s table,” he declared. “Because, even if you lose, you win. Because as long as you’re paying attention, you’re learning the game. Because now you’re better than when you lost.”

Laura Montanari conceded a hard-fought match to John Fedoro wicz after 54 moves.

Photos by The Village Sun

John Fedorowicz, right, made the rounds of the chess tables, com peting against 25 separate players, with some of the games lasting several hours.

Giving marathoners a hand, getting uplifted in return

BY THE VILLAGE SUN

QSakamaki, a former East Villager and renowned international conflict pho tographer, focused his camera on the New York City Marathon on Sun., Nov. 6, as the runners chugged through his new neighbor hood, Harlem.

Sakamaki lovingly photographed his wife, Kuniko — who has been facing health issues — as she high-fived the passing marathoners at Fifth Avenue and 116th Street.

Kuniko Sakamaki high-fives a passing runner.

SPORTS