Villager photo by Caroline Debevec

From left, Ed Shea, a Theater for the New City board member; Paul Bartlett, an environmental consultant for the theater’s renovation plans, and Crystal Field, the theater’s director, on the building’s rooftop, which they hope to turn into a “green” roof.

Concerns on Con Ed pollution fuel heated hearing
By H’Rina DeTroy
Neither frigid temperatures on a recent Monday night nor late notice deterred dozens of East Village-area residents from attending a public hearing about Con Edison’s pollution permit for its E. 14th St. power plant. Many believed the regulations have not been stringent enough in capping harmful emissions from the facility.

A sneaky move on Handschu case by city eludes surveillance
By Casey Samulski
Martin Stolar called it “putting us through hoops for the past year and a half.” That was the only way he could describe the legal battle he’s been engaged in, one that finds its origins back in the 1971 Handschu agreement.

Bid to make Chinatown-Little Italy historic district clearly ‘registers’
By Julie Shapiro
Victor Papa is on a mission to save Chinatown and Little Italy.

News

New protected bicycle lanes are rolled out on Eighth Ave.
By Jefferson Siegel
From “It’s stupid!” to “I’m thrilled!” reactions to the new section of the Eighth Ave. bike lane, which is nearing completion, ran the gamut last week.

Added stories on tenements’ tops are illegal, board rules
By Albert Amateau
In an unusual action, one city agency reversed the action of a sister city agency when the Board of Standards and Appeals ruled at the end of last month that the Department of Buildings was wrong to issue permits to add two extra floors to two East Village tenements.

Cuts would ‘devastate’ a service for 1,000 seniors
By Albert Amateau
Pauline Skoblow is living on her own in Penn South and doing nicely, thank you, at the age of 96.

Between beats and clicks
By David Todd
London-born Kieran Hebden—also known as Four Tet, his primary vehicle—started out playing guitar in the post-rock group Fridge, who debuted with the album “Ceefax” in 1997. He quickly moved into producing his own electronic albums, beginning with “Dialogue” in 1999 and leading up to his sublime “Remixes” in 2006.

0ld-money grubbing
By Scott Harrah
It would be easy to compare Horton Foote’s “Dividing the Estate” to Broadway’s other current family drama, “August: Osage County.” Both plays are about big, bickering families ruled by a matriarch. However, while “Osage County” was a sprawling tragic epic, “Dividing the Estate” is a far more humorous look at family dysfunction.

Eden in the flesh
By Jerry Tallmer
It was the morning after the opening, and the raves were in, but already Martha Clarke was on the cell phone, talking with Rob Besserer, a remarkable actor/dancer who was central to the original “Garden of Earthly Delights” in 1984-87 and is now a bit older than he was then. She was begging him to step in, now, for an actor who had been knocked out by the sciatica that struck mid-performance the night before.