Little Mish’s big night: The Little Missionary’s Day Nursery Sara Curry Awards and fundraiser last Thursday was definitely the best one yet in the last 11 years. The parents raised a cool $46,000 through an auction on Bidpal (an auction using smart phones). Comedian Jim Gaffigan — three of whose five kids have attended the school — was the hilarious headliner at the event, held this year at the new Grand Hall event space in the basement of St. Mary’s Church, on Grand St. Meredith Monk also performed, wowing the crowd with her ethereal tonal poetry, John Giorno riffed a poetic trip on God and atheism, and Herman Hewitt, the historic St. Mark’s Place school’s chairperson and a longtime leader at Community Board 3, was the evening’s “surprise honoree.” Hewitt, also the chairperson of the Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association, took his turn at the mic to blast President Donald Trump, though without mentioning him by name. “I’m an immigrant,” Hewitt, a Jamaican native, told the audience. “Each of us in this room is either an immigrant or descendant of immigrants. You don’t need anyone to tell you that you have to make America great again,” he declared to applause. Gaffigan somehow was able to poke fun at his wife, Jeannie’s, recent surgery. “My wife had a brain tumor, the size of a pear,” he said. “It’s gone, and so is my ability to win an argument with her. … Why are tumors always compared to fruits?” he pondered, noting that big ones are called “the size of a grapefruit,” which is kind of tough on grapefruits. We enjoyed catching up with Little Mish parents Chris and Ally Ryan. Why, it wasn’t that long ago that we used to see Chris zipping around with the Critical Mass cyclists while videotaping the cops. He’s now a semi-mainstream dad — and his new gluten-free diet may well be contributing to his newfound “serenity.” As for Little Mish, Hewitt and the school’s legendary director, Eileen Johnson, confirmed that the school — which now serves kids ages 2 to 6 — is planning to add grades K through five. The school has huge classrooms, and will be able to do it by combining grades K/1, 2/3 and 4/5, she told us. “If demand grows we would need more space,” she said. “We’re looking to find more space for the coming years. Basically, we have three rooms that could serve as classrooms for the next few years.” Super-dad David Leslie is on the expansion committee and is helping them search for more space.
Petrosino Leo: Actor Leonardo DiCaprio will be making a movie about Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino, the hero Italian-American cop who battled the notorious Black Hand, the Mafia’s precursor, more than 100 years ago. The organized-crime thugs preyed on Little Italy residents and were big on bombs, which led to the creation of the Police Department’s Italian Squad, later known as the Bomb Squad. Petrosino, nicknamed the “Detective in a Derby,” went undercover to Sicily, where he was gunned down by the mob while at a cafe. Apparently, DiCaprio will play Petrosino, though he might have to pack on a few pounds to portray the legendary lawman, who, built like a bull, was a bit stockier than him. The buzz is it could be an Oscar-winning role.
New park boss: George Vellonakis, who designed the reconstruction of Washington Square Park about 10 years ago, has been tapped to be the park’s new administrator — as well as the executive director of the Washington Square Park Conservancy. He fills the dual roles previously occupied by Sarah Nielsen, who has departed for a new job at the Parks Department’s parks planning division. Nielsen was the park’s administrator since March 2013. Cathryn Swan, who writes the Washington Square Park Blog, raises some interesting points: “Her leaving the job brings up some questions — Was it her decision to leave? What role did the Washington Square Park Conservancy play here? And is the private organization seeking to sketchily expand its turf at the park now?” However, Rich Caccappolo, chairperson of the Community Board 2 Parks Committee, didn’t see any major conspiracy. “I was told that the opportunity that opened up in the Parks Department was more in line with what she had studied in school and had done previously in her career,” he told us. Vellonakis’s salary will be between $85,000 and $95,000. Of course, the park’s redesign — which included shifting the fountain slightly east to “center” it with the arch, a move many thought ludicrous — was fought bitterly by some, including with a lawsuit. Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, greeted the news of Vellonakis’s appointment with a blog post calling him the “Washington Sq. Park redesign nemesis.” Vellonakis also did the redesign for Abingdon Square, which some Westbeth activists fought tooth and nail, warning, among other things, that because some trees would be cut down, people on certain medications would get skin cancer. Vellonakis, who lives in the Village, is cool. Yeah, he can be a little prickly sometimes, but that’s just who he is — he’s a demanding person who “doesn’t suffer fools,” as they say. From what we know of him, he won’t be a shrinking violet, so to speak, if park redesign-haters confront him. … Well, this could be interesting!
Oh, baby! Congratulations to Sarah Sanchala, Assemblymember Deborah Glick’s chief of staff, and her husband, Neil Sanchala, on the birth of their daughter, Annika Malloy-Good Sanchala, on May 5 at New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital. “Kieran is thrilled to finally meet his baby sister,” Sarah said, “but even more so that she gave him presents when they met.” They got Kieran a toolset and blanket and wrapped them and said they were from Annika. Hey, that’s a good way to nip any nascent sibling jealousy in the bud! Neil is a software engineer at Blue Apron.
Back in business: The gate on Jerry Delakas’s Astor Place newsstand had been closed during the day whenever we passed by recently, making us wonder if the longtime vendor was O.K. Jerry’s friend Marty Tessler, who lives at the nearby Stewart House, also worried about him, and was unable to raise him on his cell phone. “Great news,” Tessler reported Tuesday. “He’s O.K. He was back at stand today. He lost his cell phone, but stayed home due to weather all these months.”
Clayton Radio: In case you didn’t know, Clayton Patterson has a show on 8 Ball Radio. The Lower East Side documentarian has always had the gift of gab and it serves him well behind the microphone. This past Tuesday, Patterson had Lincoln Anderson, The Villager’s editor in chief, on the show, taped in the storefront window at his Essex St. gallery / home. Topics ranged from Sunday’s tragic Norfolk St. synagogue fire to the battle to save the Elizabeth St. Garden to gentrification and bar oversaturation. A special drop-in guest was composer Keith Patchel, who back in his punk-rocker days played guitar with Richard Lloyd and now, with his Mars Band, is collaborating with Carter Emmart’s digital trip to Mars at the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. Patchel also recently contributed some musical accompaniment to a disc of poetry by Anthony Haden-Guest. Among some of A.H.G.’s rhymes that caught our ear: “Back in that old and golden age, after the pill and before the plagues,” and “Cocaine whores shoplifting in convenience stores. …” Oh yes, the world-famous Elsa Rensaa — artist and Clayton’s wife — was also in the studio! Check out the radio segment at https://www.mixcloud.com/8ballradio/the-clayton-patterson-show-w-the-villager-editor-in-chief-lincoln-anderson/ .
Trans-event: We hear that Kristen Browde — a transgender woman running for supervisor in New Castle, which includes Hillary Clinton’s Chappaqua — will be holding a fundraiser at the Stonewall Inn on Wed., June 28, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. A longtime Villager who is helping organize the event, who requested anonymity, told us, “Her candidacy is historic, as she seems to be the first trans candidate to run for office with the backing of a major political party. Democrats, obviously! Historic bar, historic candidacy.” Kristen, who used to be known as David Browde, worked for 30 years as a reporter for NBC and CBS in New York City.
Aboooout face! … Not: When we passed by the former Soho Square — redubbed Spring Street Park — at Sixth Ave. one night a couple of weeks ago, hard hats were getting ready to hoist General Jose Artigas off his pedestal, so he could be taken away for a sprucing-up. One of the crew helpfully told us that the statue would be returned, but would be rotated in the opposite direction to look westward down Dominick St. However, Jonathan Kuhn, director of art and antiquities, for the city’s Parks Department, told us this week that while it’s true the general will be shifted slightly north in the park, he will still be looking eastward once reinstalled.
