Courtroom Shel game: On Tuesday, opening statements were given in Assemblymember Sheldon Silver’s federal trial on conspiracy, wire and mail fraud and extortion charges. Cameras are not allowed in the courtroom. Shown in the court sketch above, from left, are Silver, his defense attorneys, Joel Cohen and Steven Molo, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Cohen, making her opening statement. Cohen bluntly said the trial is about “Power. Greed. Corruption.” Silver is accused of quid pro quos with a Columbia oncologist and realtors that netted him about $5 million in kickbacks. However, speaking in defense of Silver, Molo declared of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and the prosecutors, “They don’t like the fact that friends might do favors for friends. They look at conduct which is normal and legal and they say, ‘This is illegal.’ ” … Meanwhile, John Quinn, the Lower East Side Democratic state committeeman, is starting to sweat it, in terms of who might potentially replace Silver in the Assembly. Basically, Quinn feels that two names that have been out there, District Leaders Paul Newell and Jenifer Rajkumar, are simply not ready for prime time. As for Gigi Li, chairperson of Community Board 3, Quinn anticipates she won’t run. “You know the mess that happened when she tried to run for district leader,” he recalled. “Uh, God — you want to carry that baggage?… If she runs, you know D.I.D. will tear her apart.” Li, of course, withdrew from her hoped-for district leader race against Rajkumar this past summer amid accusations of fraudulent petitions to put Li on the ballot. Two Downtown Independent Democrats members filed a lawsuit claiming that Li’s petitions were “permeated with fraud.” They charged that underage individuals collected a good chunk of the signatures, which were then illegally signed off on by a “subscribing witness,” none other than Yume Kitasei, Councilmember Margaret Chin’s chief of staff, who did not actually witness the signatures being made. Or so they charged. “They have photographs,” Quinn assured. How about Chin, would she want to be in the Assembly? “I sincerely doubt it,” he said. “You want to know the truth? It’s hard to find someone who wants to go to frickin’ Albany. It’s a lot colder up there.” Anyway, that seems to leave Newell and Rajkumar, for the moment. “If Shelly goes out very rapidly, what happens? It goes to County Committee,” Quinn explained, meaning the Democratic County Committee would pick the Democratic nominee for a special election to fill the former speaker’s seat. That nominee then would be a lock to win. “It’s what, 7 or 8 to 1 Democratic-to-Republican down here?” Quinn noted. Meanwhile, Newell and Rajkumar, both gunning for the seat, still reportedly are not talking to each other — just as we reported back, oh, eight months ago. “Uh…no,” they are not on speaking terms, Quinn confirmed. “Jenifer said she tried to talk to Paul and it was unproductive.” The bigger issue, though, as Quinn — who is a diehard Silver partisan — sees it, is that neither district leader has anywhere deep enough a track record of community activism. “Paul has opinions — no record,” he said of Newell, who ran against Silver in a primary seven years ago. Plus, he added that Newell, in a couple of tries, hasn’t even been able to win election to the board of Masaryk Towers, where he lives on the Lower East Side. But Newell said that’s not painting a fair picture. “I ran twice,” he confirmed. “Once I got the most votes of any candidate, but the election did not reach quorum. The other time an organized slate swept the ballot.” To those — i.e. Quinn — who say he is “not ready for prime time,” he dismissed, “I don’t even know what that means.” As for Rajkumar, Quinn — who grew up on the hardscrabble Lower East Side back when it really was — scoffed, “I had Jenifer at a shelter meeting. She showed up in high heels and designer clothes.” Regarding Rajkumar’s win over Linda Balfour for district leader four years ago, he said, “She beat a sick woman in a wheelchair. Linda should never have run. D.I.D. wanted Jenifer.” Meanwhile, Quinn is frantically looking for someone else — anyone else — to run for Assembly. “We haven’t found anyone yet, but we’re looking,” he said. He said he’s talking to state Senator Daniel Squadron and District Leader Virginia Kee to try to get ideas. “I personally like Jenifer and Paul,” he noted. “But, as far as I’m concerned, they’re both kids, and they don’t have anything under their belt.” (For the record, Rajkumar is 33 and Newell 40.) On top of all that, the district is an “East Side seat,” Quinn stressed, meaning D.I.D. shouldn’t be thinking they will be the king- or queenmaker. As for Rajkumar, asked about Quinn’s claim that she’s just not ready for the Assembly, she said, “If that’s what critics are saying, I’m flattered. They said the same thing about President Obama and J.F.K.”
Puts her DVF on it: Lending her stylish and weighty name to Save Gansevoort’s petition against the Gottlieb/Aurora project to turn a block of Gansevoort St. back into how it looked in the 1880s — with buildings three to six times as high as they are now — is fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg. Of course, Furstenberg some years ago did get permission to add a new structure atop her rooftop — a glass penthouse that was modeled on her favorite ring — on her Meatpacking District building, at W. 14th and Washington Sts. But it was set back from the street — and it wasn’t three to five stories tall!
Save us, General Tso! The Small Business Jobs Survival Act continues to pick up more sponsors in the City Council, but Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito still isn’t letting the bill come up for a vote, much less holding a hearing on the issue. But while the pressure behind the bill keeps building week by week, sadly, beloved businesses keep falling by the wayside. One of the latest is Empire Szechuan Village, a 30-year stalwart at Seventh Ave. South and Perry St., which closed on Halloween. They couldn’t stomach a 500 percent rent hike, from $5,000 to $25,000. And who could? However, the restaurant’s owner, Oscar King, told Eater.com he actually thinks the rent is fair. “I understand,” he told the food site. “The property values are really high in this area. No complaints. I’m ready to retire.” But Michael Markowitz, a former member of local Community Education Council District 2, isn’t ready to lose Empire Szechuan and he is complaining. “My family loved that place,” he told us sadly. “We need to pass the S.B.J.S.A.”
Mora power to him! In another departure — but not really, since his new job will keep him connected to the district — Julio Mora, a longtime mainstay of the Community Board 2 office, has left to become the family leadership coordinator for Manhattan’s School Districts 1 and 2. His new job will involve fostering growth and development of parental leadership, and will involve working with P.T.A.’s, P.A.’s, school leadership teams and parent coordinators at each high school in the two districts. In fact, Mora, 38, who lives in Bushwick, is an education role model himself. During his time working at the board, he earned his associate’s degree at Borough of Manhattan College, his bachelor’s at Hunter and his master’s in social work from Fordham. “It’s been such a supportive, nurturing environment in every single way,” he said of his time working at C.B. 2. “It’s been an honor serving the community for 18 years.” At last month’s C.B. 2 full board meeting, Jared Odessky gave Mora a proclamation from state Senator Brad Hoylman’s office declaring it “Julio Mora Appreciation Day” in Hoylman’s district. Bob Gormley, C.B. 2 district manager, had only the highest praise for Mora. “He’s always been the point person for complaints,” he said. “He runs our high school internship program. He’s been our Web site coordinator, our in-house computer techie. He created a senior services guide, which is on our Web site. He’s always been a jack-of-all-trades guy. I could dump anything on his desk and he’d get it done. What really sets him apart beyond his competence is his temperament,” Gormley added. “He’s really even-tempered, levelheaded, genial, patient. He’s great with people. As I said, he’s been our point person on complaints. Often these people who call us are at the end of their rope. They’re agitated, they’re angry. You need to be able to talk to them.” Mora probably deserves a medal just for that alone. Gormley said he and Tobi Bergman, the board’s chairperson, will be putting together an ad soon to find a replacement for Mora, though his shoes will definitely be hard to fill. Good luck in the new job, Julio!
