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BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
More than 200 people packed aspirited debate for the Third CityCouncil District at New York Universitylast Thursday hosted by CommunityMedia’s The Villager, Gay City Newsand Chelsea Now newspapers.It was the first — and most likelyonly — public debate in the high-pro-file Democratic primary election, pit-ting 10-year incumbent City CouncilSpeaker Christine Quinn against chal-lengers Maria Passannante-Derr andYetta Kurland.During the one-and-a-half-hourdebate, audience members heard thecandidates spar over term limits, theCity Council’s so-called “slush fund,”overdevelopment, the Department of Sanitation’s planned Spring St. mega-garage and whether Quinn — whosemayoral ambitions are well known —has been sufficiently engaged with herown district.The Third Council Districtstretches from Canal St. to around55th St. on the West Side, and isknown by some as “the gay seat” of the City Council.The crowd filled to capacitythe main auditorium at New YorkUniversity’s 19 W. Fourth St. —the former Bottom Line music clubspace — plus an overflow room. Itwas the largest space N.Y.U. hadavailable that day, and the universityprovided it free of charge, as well ashelping staff the event, plus video-taping the debate.The event was free and open tothe public on a first-come, first-served basis. The crowd started lin-ing up before 5 p.m., and soonwrapped around the corner ontoMercer St. Quinn simply managedto get more of her supporters thereearlier, and thus about an estimated75 percent of the audience in themain room indeed appeared to beQuinn supporters; Passannante-Derrangrily charged that her backershad been locked out of the venueby the strategic maneuver by Quinn.About 45 people were turned awayat the door because the space hadreached its capacity based on FireDepartment safety regulations.Quinn may have had the most sup-porters, but Kurland’s sat closest tothe front, all of them wearing yellow“I
♥
Yetta” T-shirts; a strategic move
BY JOHN BAYLES
All sports have theirheated rivalries; in baseball,you’ve got the Yankees andRed Sox; in basketball, it’sthe Lakers and the Celtics.But these pale in compari-son to the intense, often uglyrivalry between the DenimDemons and the Rehabs.“The Demons suck!”yelled Kammi Moore, wear-ing her team’s jersey, a blackT-shirt with cutoff sleevesand the word “Rehabs” inbig, pink letters. “That’s allyou need to know.”Earlier in the day theDemons had bested theRehabs, 3-2, in an overtimegame, which obviously con-tributed to Moore’s animos-ity. But according to Moore,the rivalry began with some
Puck it! Not your average beer league in Tompkins Square
Quinn on hot seat in debatingPassannante-Derr and Kurland
Villager photo by Jefferson Siegel
Christine Quinn, left, and Yetta Kurland at last Thursday’s debate sponsored by The Villager, Gay City News andChelsea Now.
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
The preservation of the original ProvincetownPlayhouse within a newbuilding that New YorkUniversity is constructing atthe MacDougal St. site wasput on hold on Aug. 18after neighbors discoveredthat part of the historic play-house wall that was to havebeen preserved had beenremoved.The discovery of the miss-ing wall segment last weekoutraged Andrew Berman,executive director of theGreenwich Village Societyfor Historic Preservation,and prompted ManhattanBorough President ScottStringer to demand onMonday that work relatedto the theater cease, exceptas related to structural sta-bility, until the communityis informed of the extent of the damage.Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U.vice president for gov-ernment and communityengagement, said a portionof the north wall of thetheater, dating from before1916, was removed aboutthree weeks ago when it was
Provincetown drama encore as theater’s wall partly removed
Continued on page 16
145 SIXTH AVENUE • NYC 10013 • COPYRIGHT © 2009 COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC
Continued on page 30 Continued on page 15
EDITORIAL,LETTERS
PAGE 18
FRINGE FESTFAVES, PART 2
PAGE 22
Volume 79, Number 11
$1.00
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side,
Since 1933
August 19 - 25, 2009
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2
August 19 - 25, 2009
ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE (WHY NOT?):
MariaPassannante-Derr
, who many felt came off as “the angrycandidate” during last Thursday’s Council District Threedebate, is apparently still angry. For one, Passannante-Derr’s Web site claims that East Village activist
Bob Ortiz-Arroyo
was barred from entering the debate. However, not onlydoes a YouTube video show Ortiz-Arroyo in his wheelchairbeing let into the building, but Ortiz-Arroyo himself toldus on Tuesday that he got in, and, by the sound of it, had apretty good time once inside, too, enjoying the debate fromthe overflow room. “Yes, I was squeezed into the other roomwith a video view, and also met an Angola native who maybe interested in taking some of the hundreds of books I gotas freebies during my radio news and public affairs career,”Ortiz-Arroyo told us in an e-mail.
T.G.I. FRIDAY-IZATION OF UNION SQUARE:
Walmart’s long-speculated entry into New York City,most recently via a rumored deal to take space in UnionSquare, found no lack of detractors among the Downtownset. So imagine how the arrival of chain-restaurant T.G.I.Friday’s will be received after it was reported that thepurveyor of “Parmesan-Crusted Sicilian Quesadillas”would be opening inside a recently purchased buildingon Union Square. The Riese Organization, which justbought 34 Union Square East, announced plans to bringin both a Friday’s and Tim Horton’s coffee shop if it can’tfind another tenant on the quick. (The property has beenvacant for nearly two years, and Riese scooped it uponly after the asking price fell by a reported 40 percent.)The move follows on the blockbuster lease of the formerVirgin Megastore/Circuit City space on Union SquareSouth to Nordstrom Rack and Best Buy, respectively. Thebacklash among Needle Park purists began immediatelyafter the news started trickling through the Web, withat least one Twitter page created to “help send a loudand clear message to The Riese Organization that wedon’t want his TGI Friday’s in Union Sq. SAVE THESQUARE!” For its part, the Union Square Partnershipresponded that the restaurant — whose original outpostopened on the Upper East Side in 1965 — would be aboon to business on the bustling hub. “We are fortunatethat in this difficult economy, Union Square’s retailvacancy rate remains one of the lowest in the city, withdiverse retail options and new businesses coming to thearea,” said
Jennifer Falk
, the Partnership’s executivedirector. “T.G.I. Friday’s will bring much-needed foottraffic to the businesses located on the eastern side of the square, which historically has not seen as manypedestrians as the businesses to the south and west.” Acall to mayoral candidate and anti-consumerist
ReverendBilly
went unreturned as of press time, but somehow wethink we already know his thoughts on the matter. T.G.I.Friday’s apparently would also be a boon for those want-ing to get sloshed. According to Wikipedia, “Friday’s hasa large menu with an emphasis on alcoholic beverages,which includes their famous ‘Crazy Night Cocktail.’ Ithas a more impressive bar area and larger alcoholic menuthan many of its casual-dining restaurant competitors.‘Ultimates’ drinks are served in an 18 oz. glass, and oftenmade with top-shelf and darker liquors.”
CODA COMPLEX:
Robert Caballero
, of the LowerEast Side Political Action Committee, thought this time,at last, he really had Councilmember
Rosie Mendez
—one of his many nemeses from Coalition for a DistrictAlternative. A recent article in the Daily News cameout blasting local elected officials, including AssemblySpeaker
Sheldon Silver
and Councilmember
AlanGerson
, for giving funds to the United Jewish Councilof the East Side, only to have a U.J.C. member workcollecting petition signatures for their campaigns. Thearticle also noted that Mendez had given $8,000 to theU.J.C. — which Caballero crowed isn’t even in Mendez’sCouncil District 2. However, Mendez seemed to have agood answer, retorting, “The U.J.C. runs senior centersin my district, or on the periphery of my district that myconstituents walk to.” She specifically cited a U.J.C.-runprogram in the Lillian Wald Houses on Avenue D and aprogram at the Bialystoker facility, the latter which is justover the border in Alan Gerson’s Council district. Theseniors attend the centers for cultural classes, like danc-ing and music, and meals and to use a library and takecomputer classes. As for any quid pro quo with U.J.C.,Mendez said, “No one from U.J.C. has been volunteer-ing in my campaign. I don’t do quid pro quo. … Peopledecide whether they like the work you’re doing.” Hmm,we score it: CoDA wins another round over LESPAC.
MARGARITA AND THE SUPREMES:
Speakingof CoDA, one of its favorite daughters, formerCouncilmember
Margarita Lopez
, attended the WhiteHouse party for newly confirmed U.S. Supreme CourtJustice
Sonia Sotomayor
last week. Lopez did the intro-duction before
Michael Rosen
gave a reading from hisnew book at the L.E.S. Tenement Museum last Thursday,
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Continued on page 28
August 19 - 25, 2009
3
Skateboarding workshops
Kid’s corner
Face painting and mini make-overs
Free cultural and historic tours
Grilling demonstrations
Paint Out with notable local artists
Vintage shopping tour
Tastings, giveaways and more!
Lower East Side Business Improvement District
54 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002212.226.9010
www.lowereastsideny.com
Stanton Street between Allen & LudlowAugust 23 & 30, September 6 & 13Streets closed from 12:00 pm to 7:00 pmActivities from 1:00 pm to 6:30pm
Villager photos by Clayton Patterson
Legends of Woodstock
Michael Lang, the Woodstock Festival’s organizer, above, and Henry Diltz, the festival’sofficial photographer, below, celebrated the groundbreaking countercultural fest’s 40thanniversary last Thursday with a book signing and reception at Morrison Hotel Gallery,at 313 Bowery. The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian was on hand, and there was aslideshow of Woodstock photos with a monologue by Walter Cronkite reporting on thefestival.
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