Not very NYSE, Ben: Congressmember Nydia Velázquez blasted Ben Carson, the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, for visiting the New York Stock Exchange on his visit to New York City. “Rather than visiting Wall Street, I would hope Secretary Carson would spend all his time in New York City gathering a deeper understanding of the perennial housing challenges facing New Yorkers, she said. “Given that the administration’s budget proposed deep and devastating cuts to the New York City Housing Authority and other programs that New York’s working families rely on, it is clear this administration does not understand housing policy and how it affects the day-to-day lives of Americans — in New York and elsewhere. Especially in light of Dr. Carson’s recent comments,” Velazquez added, “about poverty being a ‘state of mind’, I would think he could find better ways to spend his time than ringing the closing bell at the Stock Exchange.”
Night of stars: The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation honored seven local “leading lights” with its 27th Annual Village Awards on Tues., June 6, at The New School. The winners included The Public Theater, B & H Dairy, Patisserie Claude, GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side), Jefferson Market Library branch manager Frank Collerius, Dinosaur Hill toy store, and a combo award, the restoration of 30 Seventh Ave. (the new Lenox Health Greenwich Village comprehensive care center) and the new AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent’s Triangle Park. We’ll have a full report in next week’s print issue.
