GARDEN STRUGGLE: Ralph Swain, a nephew of the late Hideo Sasaki, designer of the Sasaki Garden in the courtyard of Washington Square Village, is flying in to New York to testify at Friday’s City Council hearing on N.Y.U. 2031. Washington Square Village tenants desperately fighting the university’s plan to raze the garden and erect “Boomerang [...]

PARK IS A NO-GO: It’s great that Phase 3 of the Washington Square Park renovation is finally moving ahead. There’s one, umm, uncomfortable issue, though — it looks like that for the next year, the landmark Greenwich Village park, which is visited by thousands of tourists from around the world, won’t have any public restrooms. [...]

[media-credit name="Photo by Nick Brooks" align="alignleft" width="300"][/media-credit]SECURITY WAS INSTRUMENTAL: On Monday, Secret Service agents did a walk-through of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s Greenwich Village home in preparation for President Obama and the first lady’s visit on Thursday for a fundraiser for his re-election campaign. Furniture was also removed from the place, including a [...]

FREE SUMMER FLICKS: Thursday night movies are returning to Tompkins Square Park. Yay! Things kick off with a bang with Robert DeNiro in — “You talkin’ to me?” — “Taxi Driver” on June 28. The other movies include “Exit Through the Gift Shop” on July 5, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” on July 12, “Summer of Sam” [...]

HUDSON SEXY PARK! The Hudson River Park’s Spring Gala at Pier 26 on Tuesday night was a smashing success. The event raised a cool $2.2 million — double what was expected, and quadruple the amount netted by last year’s gala. All the credit goes to the Friends of Hudson River Park, which has transitioned from [...]

L.G.B.T. Caucus gets frisky: In an article in last week’s issue, “City Council race for Quinn’s seat is already heating up,” Brad Hoylman told the newspaper that he had recently been appointed co-chairperson of the L.G.B.T. Caucus for the Father’s Day March to Reform Stop and Frisk. However, this week, Hoylman tells us that, in [...]

[media-credit name="Photo by Tequila Minsky " align="aligncenter" width="600"][/media-credit] Former Councilmember Margarita Lopez was in good form at the recent dedication of “Harry Weider Way” at Forsyth and Rivington Sts. Lopez is currently a board member of the New York City Housing Authority. Tea, sympathy — and diamonds!!! Tea and Sympathy, the English-themed restaurant on Greenwich [...]

[media-credit name="Photo by Scoopy" align="alignleft" width="300"][/media-credit]Let’s go As-tor! Michael Saviello, a manager at Astor Place Hairstylists, was feeling blue on Tuesday — as in proudly wearing his Blueshirt after the hockey Rangers came back in stunning fashion in Game 5 against the Washington Capitals on Monday night. Brad Richards scored the tying goal with just [...]

Talkin’ tech: The Union Square Partnership will hold its annual meeting on Mon., May 7, at 5 p.m. at the W Hotel on Union Square East at 17th St., in the recently renovated Great Room. Venture capitalist Fred Wilson will be the guest speaker. He’s expected to talk about the tech industry in New York [...]

Smokin’ report: Giving us the inside dope on the New York City edition of the Worldwide Marijuana March on May 5, Paul DeRienzo says, “It’s been interesting” trying to get the event squared away with the police. The event will originate, naturally, at “high noon” at Washington Square Park and march to Union Square for [...]