Benchmark moment: The Villager’s Tequila Minsky recently happened upon Assemblymember Deborah Glick doing a photo shoot with District Leaders John Scott and Jean Grillo on a bench in Washington Square Park, and Minsky took a photo of the photo shoot. Glick confirmed to us this week what would have seemed to be obvious, that, yes, she is endorsing the two for re-election in their hotly contested primary race on Sept. 10 against upstarts Dennis Gault and Terri Cude. “Indeed I am endorsing them,” Glick told us. “Jean and John have lots of support from many officials, in fact, all of the officials I think from the area. Their accomplishments are many and varied and that’s why they have broad support.” Glick said other politicians backing the Scott-Grillo team include state Senator Brad Hoylman, City Councilmember Corey Johnson, Congressmembers Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney and many of the other Democratic district leaders that they work with around Manhattan. “Why? Because they have done a good job and have been around a long time,” Glick stated of the district leader duo. “They were on the first board of Washington Market Park years ago when P.S. 234 was created. After 9/11, Jean Grillo joined the CERT emergency-response team in Battery Park City and is now the team chief. She has run free CPR courses for folks from the Village to Tribeca. John Scott was on the Community Education Council and was its vice president. He was on the School Overcrowding Task Force for Lower Manhattan. They’ve just been doing their work. Jean prevented N.Y.U. from closing three polling sites in Greenwich Village. They deserve to be re-elected.” Of their opposition, Glick didn’t have much to say about Gault, but said, “Terri does great work in the community, and will continue to do that. I don’t think John and Jean should be replaced as district leader.” For her part, Cude said she already had gotten wind of Glick’s position on the race, but expressed confidence that she could win, even without the backing of the political establishment. “I believe Assemblymember Glick is endorsing them, as it seems to be the usual policy of many electeds to endorse incumbents,” Cude said. “I look forward to working with her and all of our local elected officials even more closely after the Sept. 10th Democratic primary.” Although she publicly shrugged off not having Glick’s support, we hear Cude was not happy that they chose to hold the photo shoot in Washington Square Park — right in her neck of the woods! A central plank of Cude’s campaign is that she is running to bring representation to the northern part of the 66th Assembly District, Part B, which stretches from the Washington Square area, down through Soho, Hudson Square and Tribeca to Battery Park City. Both Scott and Grillo live farther Downtown in Battery Park City, at Part B’s southern end.
For Kimlau’s sake: The people behind Webster Hall got an angry reception for their new Chinatown spot when they went before the Community Board 3 S.L.A. and D.C.A. Licensing Committee for their liquor license on Mon., Aug. 17, Jan Lee told us. First mistake: naming the restaurant/bar at 69 Mulberry St. Kimlau Garden. Benjamin Ralph Kimlau was a U.S. Air Force pilot during World War II who died in combat. An American Legion post and a gate in Chatham Square were named after him. “It shows profound disrespect for our community that reveres our leaders,” said Lee, founder of the Civic Center Residents Coalition, of the choice of the bar’s name. Lee told us that two ex-marines, members of the Chinatown American Legion post named after Kimlau, also came out on Monday night to speak out against the place. Apparently the opposition worked. The place’s name has now been changed to Mul-Bay Cocktail Lounge, according to Bowery Boogie. However, the next fumble, Lee said, is the owners saying that the restaurant will be “food-forward.” The menu so far doesn’t have a lot of items, one of which is Chinese pickles — Lee said he doesn’t even know what that is — and boiled peanuts. “It’s such a farce and so insulting to us,” he said. The C.B. 3 committee recommended denial of the application, Lee said, adding that it’s not a case of “not in my backyard,” or NIMBY, but rather that the community knows “when something is not right.”
Feels her pain: After the Mrs. Green’s open house Monday evening, Westbeth photographer Bob Gruen and his wife, Elizabeth Gregory Gruen, happened to come strolling by and looked in the window of the new Hudson St. natural-foods market, trying to check the place out. He said he had read The Villager article the other week about his friend and fellow punk-rock photog Roberta Bayley’s pug dying after being attacked by a crusty pit bull, and that he feels bad for her. (The article feature a photo by Gruen of Bayley, cameras hanging from her neck, chatting with Sid Vicious before the Sex Pistols’ Dallas show in 1978.) Gruen said, after reading the article, when he and Elizabeth were walking on the street they felt a bit paranoid every time they passed a pit bull.
Challah back! Thanks to Jeff Trachtman, who last Friday tweeted out, “So proud that my former paper had the best headline on the reopening of B&H Dairy!” He was referring to the online post we ran the same day as the reopening. An expanded article appears in this week’s print issue. Trachtman worked at the paper back in the day when it was published by Mike Armstrong.
Sweet! Congrats to Ray (Asghar Ghahraman) of Ray’s Candy Store on Avenue A, whose place was named the Business of the Month by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. In recognition of the honor, Councilmember Rosie Mendez stopped by over the weekend to show her love and buy a black-and-white egg cream.
Correction: Last week’s Police Blotter incorrectly stated that an arrest had not been made yet in a July 11 assault in front of 109 E. Broadway. In fact, the week before, police had arrested Zin McDade, 29, a homeless man, in the incident, and charged him with two counts of felony assault, one as a hate crime, and aggravated assault as a hate crime. According to police, McDade had approached a woman at the location, argued with her, accused her of speaking negatively about him in her language, then made anti-Muslim statements and spit and punched her in the face, fracturing her jaw.
