August 12, 209, The Villager

BY ALBERT AMATEAUAND LINCOLN ANDERSON

The disastrous collision of a sight-seeing helicopter and a private planeoff of W. 14th St. over the HudsonRiver on Saturday prompted electedofficials to demand regulation of the aircorridor over the river and promptedHudson River Park advocates to insiston an end to tourist helicopter flights.The accident, in which nine peopleperished, occurred at an altitude of 1,100 feet, which is 1 foot below theceiling at which air space is controlledby the Federal Aviation Administrationand, thus, an area where safety dependson pilots’ vigilance.The helicopter originated from the W. 30th St. heliport. Located on HudsonRiver Park property, the heliport haslong been the target of neighbors andpark advocates because of noise andengine fumes. Moreover, the 30th St.heliport is the subject of a 2008 court-approved agreement that reduced thenumber of flights from the location andthat ends all tourist helicopter flightsfrom 30th St. by April 1, 2010.At a news conference at the heliportin Hudson River Park on Monday,Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, alongwith Borough President Scott Stringerand Councilmember Gale Brewer,demanded that the Federal Aviation

BY JEFFERSON SEIGEL

Bond St. may only be twoblocks long, but for a citythoroughfare, it is an unusu-ally wide street. The cobble-stones recall the earlier daysof a slower, more neighborlyway of life. A walk down thestreet today reveals a mod-ern furniture store, severalbars and restaurants and ahigh-end fashion boutique.The three-story build-ing at 26 Bond St. nearLafayette St. dates back tothe early 1800s. Residing onits second ﬂoor for the lasthalf-century has been JackChamplin, who turned 80last Wednesday. Champlin,

Over 50 years,‘Bond St. mayor’ has seen it all

After 9 die in midair collision,copter ﬂights come under ﬁre

Villager photo by Jefferson Siegel

Lorenzo Bossola, 13, and his mother, Paola Casali, missed Saturday’s fatal helicopter ﬂight because Lorenzo wasscared about it, causing them to arrive a few minutes late at the W. 30th St. heliport. Lorenzo held out theirpricey tickets for an 11-to-15-minute helicopter “Big Apple Tour.”

BY PATRICK HEDLUND

The High Line’s recentlyproposed improvement dis-trict will unfairly force localresidents and property own-ers to pay for the elevatedgreenway, charged a groupof Chelsea neighbors whodon’t think the communityshould have to pony up forthe public “park in the sky.”Last month the non-proﬁt Friends of the HighLine began seeking supportfor the 37-block improve-ment district, covering theMeatpacking District and West Chelsea, which wouldgenerate about $1 millionannually for maintenance of the High Line. The fundswould be raised througha tax on nearby propertyowners, who would pay anannual assessment of either9 cents or 3 cents per squarefoot based on their proxim-ity to the park.The High Line districtwould use the city’s businessimprovement district, orBID, program, which issupervised by the Depart-ment of Small BusinessServices, as a model to helppay for daily upkeep of the park running betweenGansevoort and W. 30th Sts.However, some localproperty owners don’t

High Line plan is too taxing,neighbors cry

Continued on page 14

Continued on page 4Continued on page 15

EDITORIAL,LETTERS

PAGE 12

ED’S BACK!‘KOCH ON FILM’

PAGE 17

Volume 79, Number 10

$1.00

West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side,

Since 1933

August 12 - 18, 2009

Sister to Mr.at Fringe Fest,p. 17

2

August 12 - 18, 2009

YO, BRING IT ON, CVS!

In what’s shaping up tobe the mother of all Downtown drug-store battles, theDuane Reade at 14th St. and Seventh Ave. is gearingup for the expected opening of a CVS in the elegant,marble-columned, former Balducci’s space at 14th St.and Eighth Ave. The Duane Reade has already changedits signage to a snazzy new look with a retro-style fontand the store’s interior is being overhauled, while thestore remains open; based on a customer survey, thepharmacy has been moved toward the store’s front. Plus,to try to keep up with the CVS, which it’s said will beopen 24 hours, the Duane Reade will extend hours tomidnight as of Aug. 22. The employees will get a bit of revamping, too. “You’re even going to see us in sleekblack uniforms,” a source at the store told us, adding,“This is Greenwich Village — so we have to get with it.” While CVS is a nationwide chain, Duane Reade, whichis local, isn’t afraid, our source said, noting cockily, “Wealready shot the Rite Aid down across the street.” Thechain-store challenger better realize just what kind of opponent they’re facing, our source said: The store at14th St. and Seventh does the most prescriptions southof 42nd St. of any Duane Reade, and made a whopping$5 million last year. “We refuse to get crushed by thecompetition,” our source declared. It remains to be seenif CVS, if it really does take the old Balducci’s space, willcarry the Christian books that recently caused a furor atits store at 24th St. and Eighth Ave.; some of the bookscondemn homosexuality as a “sin” and a “cancer.”

EVERYBODY LOVES RAMON:

Another unsung heroin the effort to help

Ramon “Ray” Alvarez

keep hisAvenue A candy store afloat is

Julie Meilak

, above, beingkissed by Ray. Meilak, who lives around the corner, hasbeen working in the store every night — for free. “Rightnow, I was vacuuming behind the ice cream machines,”she said taking a break when we stopped by recently. “Ithink it’s called the C-Town people, they also helped himout,” she said, though adding, “They didn’t paint thewalls — I painted the walls. … This is like a landmark.This is all we got,” she said of Ray’s. “If we don’t do it,they’re going to close him down.”

Bob Arihood

, whoblogs on Neither More Nor Less, popped in to get a shotof Ray’s new pet rock from Iceland, which a customerrecently traded Ray when he was short $1.50 on a $3 icecream. Referring to “the summer blahs,” Arihood saidthings are a bit slow in August on Avenue A — what withboth

L.E.S. Jewels

and

The Groper

gone — which iswhy he’s been reduced to blogging about Ray’s rock. Ray,76, said former City Councilmember

Margarita Lopez

recently came in for an egg cream and wished him luck ingetting his long-overdue Social Security payments. “Shesaid I shouldn’t give up — I should demand,” he said.And Ray said he was simply overwhelmed by anotherrecent visit — when

Reverend Billy

and his choir cameby a few weeks ago and Billy gave him his blessings. “Icried,” Ray said. “It was so many people.”

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT:

Is anyone else out therebeing blinded by those new L.E.D. ads on the sides of M.T.A. buses? We think we may have retinal damageafter being blitzed by several bright-blue ones duringthe night over the weekend. “It’s an accident waitingto happen,” said

Chris Flash

, publisher of The Shadow.“Some driver will be making a turn, and see one of thoseads… .” Flash noted the signs are even brighter than cars’high beams. However, Arihood, who has an engineeringbackground, said their brightness can’t be dimmed sincethey’re L.E.D.’s.

SKATEBOARD SCUFFLE:

Fresh off his emotion-al cell-phone-throwing incident with Councilmember

Alan Gerson

at Downtown Indendpendent Democrats’endorsement meeting in June,

Gil Horowitz

recentlyfound himself embroiled in another heated confronta-tion, this time in Washington Square Park. Scoopylearned from a Sixth Precinct source that, about a monthago, Horowitz — presiding officer of the Coalition fora Better Washington Square Park — got into it withthe father of some kids who were skateboarding in thepark, and that Horowitz wound up getting shoved down,hurting his arm and demanding that the dad be arrested.However, the responding officer, we’re told, didn’t arrestthe man because, first, he didn’t witness the incident,and, second, he didn’t want to arrest the man in frontof his children. Basically, “It didn’t warrant an arrest,” aprecinct source told us. Horowitz confirmed the incidentoccurred. “It’s illegal — there are signs all over the parksaying ‘No Skateboarding,’” he told us. “They didn’t likebeing followed. I was following them to find a policeofficer to tell them to stop skateboarding.” Instead, thefather ignored Horowitz, telling the two boys, ‘I want

SCOOPY’S

NOTEBOOK

Villager photo by Scoopy

I

N

THE

HEART

OF

G

REENWICH

V

ILLAGE

— Recommended by Gourmet Magazine, Zagat, Crain’s NY, Playbill & The Villager —

“Gold Medal Chef of the Year”. — Chefs de Cuisine Association



69 MacDougal St.

(Bet. Bleeker & Houston St.)





Steaks - Lobsters - Seafood

146 Tenth Ave. at 19th St. 212-627-3030

Seating everyday noon to midnightPrivate parties for 10 to 400 - Reservations Suggested

“Old-fashioned in every way”,this Chelsea “trip back in time” purveys “hearty” Americanain a “Waterford-and-wood- buring-fireplace” setting; add in“accommodating” staffers who“pour a great Guinness” and the“whole is definitely equal tomore than the sum of its parts.”- ZAGAT 2008

OCEANFRONT AMAGANSETT, NY

Nestled in the dunes of Napeague and just steps to the AtlanticOcean, The Ocean Vista Resort offers the ideal location for theperfect Hamptons vacation, weekend getaway or family reunion.

Complimentary Coffee/Beverage Bar in our new Business Center

800-272-2956 OR 631-267-3448www.oceanvistaresort.com

LABOR DAY WEEKEND SPECIAL*

Pay for 4 nights and enjoy Monday night FREE

CALL FOR MIDWEEK SPECIALS

*not to be combined with any other offers or coupons

New Brunch Menu

$10 includes 2 complimentary drinksSat. and Sun. from 11 to 4

Private Party Room avail. /

happy hour 4 -7 Mon. - Fri.

63 Carmine St., Greenwich Village.Tel. 212 - 414 - 1223 •

www.MrDennehys.com

www.broadwaypanhandler.com

65 East 8th St.

(off B’way)

•

212-966-3434

Mon-Sat 11-7 • Thurs ’til 8pm • Sun 11-6

Of Course You

CAN!

BROADWAY PANHANDLER

A COOK’S BEST RESOURCE

Continued on page 6

August 12 - 18, 2009

3

Gay City

NEWSNEWS

TM

now

Ch l

e sea

2009 New York City CouncilDistrict 3 DemocraticPrimary Election Debate

YettaKurlandMariaPassannante-DerrChristineQuinn

PRESENTED BY:

New York University,19 West Fourth St., Room 101between Mercer and Greene Sts.

(one and a half blocks east of Washington Square Park)

N.Y.U. asks people to bring ID to get into building.

Thursday,August 13,7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

MODERATED BY:

The Villager’s

Lincoln Anderson

&

Gay City News’

Paul Schindler

Villager photo by J.B. Nicholas

Sotomayor is the toast,

and the tour, of Bedford St.

Last Friday, Sonia Sotomayor got a fondsend-off from friends and neighbors beforeshe departed by car from her Bedford St.home en route to Washington, D.C., forconﬁrmation to the U.S. Supreme Courtthe next day. At Blue Ribbon Marketacross the street — where Sotomayor isknown for buying her favorite, sturgeon ontoast, or sometimes just breadsticks anda decaf — Sasha Acosta and Milcar Cruzsaid “Sonia mania” continues. “Peoplecome in here asking for ‘the judge toast’or ‘the Sotomayor toast’ — I’d say, almostonce a day,” Acosta said on Monday. “Onecouple wanted coffee and breadsticks.They were very New Yorky. They said,‘We’re on the Sotomayor tour!’ We didn’thave any breadsticks, so they left.”

BY WILL GLOVINSKY

The petition for a ballot initiativethat would create a second subpoena-powered 9/11 Commission was rejectedby the City Clerk on July 24. Out of themore than 50,000 signatures submittedon June 24 by New York City Coalitionfor Accountability Now, the Clerk’s Officecertified only 26,003 signatures — almost4,000 signatures shy of the 30,000 neces-sary to compel the City Council to vote onwhether the measure should be put beforevoters this November.Last week the New York SupremeCourt ordered an independent referee toreview the 24,664 signatures invalidatedby the City Clerk, and NYC CAN nowhas until Aug. 21 to compile a list of disputed signatures that will be presentedto the referee. All signatories of the peti-tion must be listed as registered voters inthe April 2009 New York City Board of Elections database.Ted Walter, executive director of NYCCAN, said that the coalition’s review-ers were finding errors — or legitimatesignatures — among the Clerk’s rejectednames.“We’re getting to be optimistic that wecan reach the 30,000 mark,” he said.If the 30,000-signature threshold isreached, the Council will vote on the mea-sure, although a thumbs-down vote canbe overridden by the certification of anadditional 15,000 signatures. NYC CANalso expects a challenge from the city overthe legality of the petition, which wouldcreate an independent commission withthe mandate to seek indictments whereappropriate.NYC CAN spokesperson Kyle Hencesaid that the city’s legal qualms withthe petition included protocols for theappointment of commission officers, thefunding of the commission and the broad-er question of whether New York Cityhas the authority to investigate aspects of the attack that fall beyond its municipal jurisdiction.Hence explained that there was littlelegal precedent to point to in defense of the proposed commission’s broad scope.“What we’re proposing is unprece-dented,” Hence said. “We’re looking tocreate a quasi-public commission withsubpoena power.”The original bipartisan 9/11Commission, chaired by former Gover-nors Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton,closed in August 2004 after publishing abest-selling report that gave recommen-dations for protecting the nation fromfurther acts of terrorism, and criticizedthe C.I.A. and F.B.I. for not servingPresidents Clinton and Bush as ably aspossible. The report did not hold anyperson or agency responsible for allow-ing the attacks to occur.

Clerk shoots down 9/11 initiative

Category:	Uncategorized.
Rating:
Upload Date:	08/13/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	This document has no tags.

Documents

People