Birth control and rent said to delay urgent-care center
By Albert Amateau
The Greenwich Village community board was outraged this week by reports that the bankrupt St. Vincent’s Hospital was holding up a new urgent-care center for the community by demanding that the proposed center ban birth control services.

Art vendors suit: 0 Regs are unfair to women, elderly
By Albert Amateau
A group of artists has won a temporary restraining order against the Department of Parks and Recreation, blocking the department from enforcing part of its new rules limiting where artists can sell their First Amendment-protected material in four Manhattan parks.

Child of Westbeth returns to teach dance to toddlers
By Bonnie Rosenstock
For the 10 best formative years of her life, ages 10 to 20, dancer/choreographer Rachael Kosch called the Westbeth Center for the Arts her home and inspiration.

That’s cold: Shaved-ice man busted in Tompkins Sq.
By Lincoln Anderson
Saturday afternoon, police reportedly arrested a vendor for selling shaved ice without a permit at Tompkins Square Park.

Fruit of her labor is to put kids through college
By Roslyn Kramer
Luz Vera doesn’t speak much English, but her mastery of the American way is huge. Mexican by birth, she has raised five children in New York City while earning a living as a street vendor whose workday starts before dawn.

‘Mosaic Man’ is ‘back on the trail’
By Lilly O’Donnell
Earlier this summer, rumors spread that Jim Power, better known as the “Mosaic Man,” would be tearing down his iconic mosaics.

Photog’s blog lets park ‘crusties’ tell their own stories
By Lincoln Anderson
In his new blog, “Crusty Punks,” on Tompkins Square Park’s homeless youth, longtime East Villager Steven Hirsch documents a subculture that is very much in the public eye, but which most people might shy away from, even shun.

Artist’s poles are part of East Village’s glorious mosaic

More gas worries with Jersey pipeline headed to Gansevoort
By Albert Amateau
West Villagers have yet another gas problem in addition to the potential danger from hydrofracture gas drilling in the New York City watershed.

‘It’s our land,’ defiant owner tells fracking forum
By Albert Amateau
The City Council’s Tuesday forum on
proposed hydrofracture natural gas drilling in the state, which potentially threatens most of the city’s drinking water, attracted about 200 people, including officials from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and two Upstate property owners who support the controversial process.

Rapper-turned-singer leaves behind beats for band

FringeNYC shows: Get’em while they’re hot

Bronx Puerto Rican girl works that Wailing Wall
BY SCOTT STIFFLER 
There’s something oddly compelling — but difficult to pinpoint — about a performer who comes across as subtle while portraying larger than life characters.

Navigating the space, race & time continuum
BY SCOTT STIFFLER 
Clad only in brown slacks, brown skin — and blue dress shirts... 

Events Leading up to Tiananmen Square difficult to fathom, digest
BY ALINE REYNOLDS
This gripping autobiographical play delivers a stark account of an American teacher who witnesses first-hand the student unrest leading up to the Tiananmen Square massacre — and the price they paid in their struggle against authoritarian rule