Villager photo by Jefferson Siegel A demolition crew at work on the old P.S. 64 on Tuesday morning. Claiming Mendez snub, owner starts whacking the old P.S. 64 By Lincoln Anderson Claiming that the city left him no choice and that Councilmember Rosie Mendez “reneged” on a meeting — yet saying it pains him to do it — Gregg Singer on Tuesday morning had demolition workers start chipping away at the historic limestone and terracotta exterior detailing of the old P.S. 64 building on E. Ninth St.		NEWS Cipriani may be sinking fast, but Witkoff says Pier 57 plan still afloat By Albert Amateau Steve Witkoff assured a July 20 public forum in Chelsea that his organization was ready to transform Pier 57 into a major feature of Hudson River Park with public and commercial components despite the Cipriani Organization’s withdrawal from the project at the end of April. E.V. soldier slain in Iraq is remembered as family man By Anindita Dasgupta Sergeant Irving Hernandez will forever be remembered as a family man. Dedicated to his wife, Susan, and children, Stacey and Christian, Hernandez’s main interest was taking care of his family. Since his last period of leave in March, the Hernandez family eagerly awaited his return from his tour in Iraq.

INSIDE
Local politicians, activists, boards are not on board with barging plan
By Albert Amateau
The city’s new 20-year Solid Waste Management Plan passed by the City Council on July 19 includes a marine transfer station for recyclable trash to be built on the 8-acre Gansevoort Peninsula, a facility that Hudson River Park advocates have vowed to block.

AIDS memorial gets funds, but design gets criticized
By Janet Kwon
Long-running efforts for an AIDS monument in the Village portion of the Hudson River Park are building momentum but still not enough to set a start date for the project. At the same time, there is also some new opposition.

Fatal heroin overdoses claim two lives in one week
By Lincoln Anderson and David Spett
Apparent fatal heroin overdoses claimed the lives of two men in the East Village and Lower East Side last week.

Cyclists say new rules ride roughshod on liberties
By Jefferson Siegel
In a move that caught political activists and cycling groups by surprise, the Police Department last week announced a proposed “clarification” of rules governing a host of events, from public gatherings to political protests to the monthly Critical Mass bike rides.

Benefit for dairy farmers who are cream of the crop
By Janet Kwon
With the center table decorated with delectable eats, crowds buzzed around to taste a bit of everything. Although the diverse offerings ranged from heirloom tomato quiche to mini-gelato pops, the central theme of the menu was dairy — specifically milk, butter, crème fraiche and Chenango jack from the Evans Farmhouse Creamery, an Upstate dairy farm in Norwich.

Boxcar rebellion has Avenue B bar on the defensive
By Lincoln Anderson
A NIMBY, or not-in-my-backyard, battle usually refers to community residents opposing a social-service facility or special-needs housing that they don’t want as a neighbor. But a current NIMBY battle on Avenue B involves an actual backyard — and a bar.

Mayor and Quinn on same track on rail yard rights
By Albert Amateau
A year after City Councilmember Christine Quinn rejoiced at the defeat of Mayor Bloomberg’s plan for a 75,000-seat football stadium over the West Side rail yards, Quinn, now Council speaker, joined the mayor in proposing that the city pay the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $500 million for development rights over the yards.

Singer still loves the Village, and is still singing
By Marcus O. Carlson
She still ventures out of her W. 11th St. apartment to sing. When Jerry Scott, for years associated with Stonewall Bistro, took his piano to Rubyfruit on Hudson St., Sorietta Silverman started coming for Rubyfruit’s Sunday brunches just to hear him perform.

Opponents of cabaret law boogie outside Bloomberg’s
By Jefferson Siegel
“If I can’t dance I don’t want to be in your revolution” is a saying attributed to the 20th-century activist and feminist Emma Goldman.

It’s name was Lola, it didn’t get a beer and wine license
By David Spett
Cajun-creole restaurant and jazz lounge Lola, 15 Watts St., was rejected for a beer and wine license by the S.L.A. on June 28.

Arts & Entertainment

Undead man walking, in search of identity
By Jerry Tallmer
My, how Boris Karloff has changed. He no longer has all those seams and stitches and mismatched patchworks all over his face. He no longer, in fact, has a rectangular, stony-eyed, chopping-block head, but more a handsome, sensitive, slim-chin one. Suntanned. His legs and arms no longer clunk like trunks of trees. He moves like a cat, as somebody says. And, though he is quite big, he no longer is huge.

A play with its head in the clouds
By Scott Harrah
José Rivera, primarily known for his Oscar-nominated screenplay for “The Motorcycle Diaries,” is currently directing a film adaptation of this 1997 Off-Broadway one act with Oscar winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the leading role.

A bit of ‘Moulin Rouge,’ Downtown
Imagine the feel of the film “Moulin Rouge” inside a tent filled with mirrors, where cabaret acts, musicians, and comedians change by the hour, and you’ll come close to envisioning Spiegeltent.

In ‘Time to Leave,’ a dying man fights to the bitter end
By Leonard Quart
Francois Ozon has made a lean, controlled, meditative second film in a prospective trilogy about mourning (“Under the Sand” starring Charlotte Rampling was the first). The film’s protagonist is a gay, handsome, successful 31-year-old fashion photographer, Romain (Melvil Poupaud), who has terminal cancer and only a few months to live.

Koch On Film
By Ed Koc
Overlord (+) The title of this film, “Overlord,” was the name given to the Allies’ drive to open a second front in World War II against the Germans. This was, of course, the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy.
Edmond (+) This is an unusual and superb movie, as well as being a tour de force performed by William Macy.

Philip Gourevitch, the new face of The Paris Review
By Annie Karni
When George Plimpton, founding editor of The Paris Review, passed away in 2003, some feared that without his charismatic public persona to carry it, his literary magazine would become like a body without a soul.