Welcome to The Villager Online

Volume 74, Number 43 |
March 02 - 08, 2005

Inside
Editorial

C.B. 2 leaders and Fields disserved community by flouting conflict ruling
That a clear-cut conflict of interest on Community Board 2’s Business Committee could linger for a year and a half is an extremely serious problem. It’s frankly shocking to us that Jim Smith, C.B. 2’s chairperson, didn’t accept the Conflicts of Interest Board’s ruling that board members who hold liquor licenses as restaurant and bar owners cannot chair committees that consider liquor license issues. After this May 2003 ruling, Smith should have immediately removed Bob Rinaolo, owner of two Village bar/restaurants, as chairperson of the Business Committee.

Talking Point
But who watches ‘the watchdogs’? Bugged by bloggers
By Ted Rall
Upon hearing that I’d started writing a blog, a Luddite pal asked me to describe this latest new-media phenom. Political bloggers, I explained, link to articles in traditional media. Then they rant and/or rave about them. “Great piece in The Journal.” “The usual crap at CNN.com.” Anyone can write one; you don’t even have to use your real name. “Oh,” he replied. “A blog is like a column without the responsibility.”

Honda’s dummies and the pedestrians
By Andrei Codrescu
The familiar voice of a famous actor, speaking for the Honda car company, claims that hitting a pedestrian with your Honda causes less damage. Most companies, the ad explains, use crash-test dummies inside the car, whereas Honda has been using them outside the car. This explanation is followed by a pedestrian dummy flying through the air after it’s hit by a Honda and surviving, supposedly, with less deadly effect than if it had been hit by a, let’s say, Pontiac.

Notebook
Reflecting on a lifetime of friendships
By Leonard Quart
When I was a child I played ball until it got dark with a group of older boys who lived on my block. They were not friends; just people who lived conveniently close by, whom I had little in common with. In fact, I truly disliked a number of them for their bullying and insensitive behavior, and though I was unable to articulate the feeling, I hungered for some real friends.

Scoopy's Notebook

Letters to the editor

Editorial Cartoon

News in briefs
Future home of hipsterland hotel?

Girls, curls and dollars

Little Italy store gets littler

Police pay respect to Angels

Police blotter

Scene

Obituary
Lillie Sherer, 89, beloved Chelsea nursery teacher
Lillie Sherer, a Chelsea resident for 57 years who raised her family in the neighborhood and taught nursery school at the Hudson Guild settlement house for 35 years, died on Feb. 14 at the age of 89.

Touched by Lillie: Years later, I’m grateful for it
By Josh Rogers
Al Amateau told me a longtime Chelsea nursery school teacher died and my first words were “Was it Lillie?” It was about 35 years ago since I was in her class and I was only a small child, but I still remembered her name — a sure tribute to the type of teacher she must have been.

Frank ‘Yangee’ Sarlo, 85; he took care of everyone on Thompson St.
Frank Sarlo, known to all on Thompson St. as Yangee, died on Jan. 30 at St. Vincent’s Hospital. He was 85.The cause of death was cancer, according to Chickie Piazza, a friend.

Robert Lord, 87, led restoration of Sheridan statue
Robert W. Lord, who launched the private campaign that led to the restoration four years ago of the statue of the Civil War hero General Philip Sheridan in Christopher Park, died in St. Vincent’s Hospital on Feb. 21 at the age of 87.

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				NEWS Tallest tower yet is slated for the Village waterfront By Albert Amateau The Related Companies is planning a 20-story residential tower designed by Gwathmey Siegel Associates for the Superior Ink factory site on the Greenwich Village waterfront across the street from the Westbeth artists’ residential complex. Threat to sue over garbage truck garage on Gansevoort By Albert Amateau The Friends of Hudson River Park have fired off a letter threatening to sue the Department of Sanitation for “a deliberate and particularly egregious violation” of the state Hudson River Park Act regarding the Gansevoort Peninsula.
	Villager photo by Talisman Brolin Hoping city will take Olympic plunge Scott Donie, ’92 Olympic silver-medal diver and New York University diving coach, is part of the effort to bring the 2012 Games to New York City. <more>

Fields’s and C.B. 2 chair’s stories conflict about a conflict of interest By Lincoln Anderson New questions about how and why Bob Rinaolo was allowed to continue chairing the Community Board 2 Business Committee for more than a year and a half after a ruling finding he had a conflict of interest have both Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields and C.B. 2 Chairperson Jim Smith now making conflicting statements, claiming they did not receive important letters and, in general, trying to duck the blame.
Inside the Villager Chinese takeover of Tibet protested at art opening By Albert Amateau A gala reception for “Treasures from the Roof of the World,” a special exhibit of art from the palaces and museums in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, attracted more than 500 invited guests and about 20 protesters organized by Students for a Free Tibet and the Tibetan Youth Congress last week to the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea. Eyeglasses store stoops to allowing vegetable stand By Amanda Kludt A vendor operating a stoop-line produce stand outside of an eyeglasses store on the corner of Grand and Mott Sts. is breaking several consumer codes, according to a local resident, who recently brought the matter to the attention of The Villager. While it has been reported that merchants break sidewalk vending rules often in Chinatown, this operation, according to the resident, was the “most glaring violation.” N.Y.U. is united in tsunami relief fundraising fest By Aman Singh More than 30 clubs and student organizations of New York University came together last week to organize a large-scale relief effort for South Asian tsunami victims. Friends rally and party to support injured squatters By Sarah Ferguson Friends, fellow activists and even a few former foes turned out on Saturday for a party to benefit East Village artist Fly and squatter leader Michael Shenker, who were severely injured after being struck by a car on Jan. 12.		Everybody must get stones: Church auctions for spire By Jefferson Siegel The sidewalk sheds have come down as the restoration work on the 230-ft. Grace Church spire has finally concluded. Chamber hears Quinn tell other side on stadium plan By Albert Amateau The Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce last week listened to City Councilmember Christine Quinn express the negative view of the proposed New York Sports and Convention Center stadium over the West Side rail yards. 14 arrested, as Critical Mass crackdown continues By Jefferson Siegel As they have every month for eight years, bike riders from around the city and out of town gathered in the north plaza of Union Sq. Park last Friday night for the Critical Mass group bicycle ride. Forget ‘The Gates,’ it’s time for ‘The Chess Pieces’ By Divya Watal Marjorie Kouns and Christo are in the same business — the business of creation, of public creation, that strikes, jolts, awes, evokes passionate responses of love and hate or garners superficial indifference and subconscious curiosity — the business of open, communal art.

Arts in the Villager Village jazz hall is seventy years and going strong By Jerry Tallmer Sunday afternoon. The joint is empty. Almost empty. In the tiny kitchen of the Village Vanguard, which is also Lorraine Gordon’s office in the Village Vanguard, just as for all those years it was Max Gordon’s office, and was also what passed for the Green Room of the Village Vanguard where the talent hung out and shot the breeze between sets, the phone is ringing off the hook. ‘Death rattle of the world – with laughs By Jerry Tallmer When Alan Schneider directed the American premiere of Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame” at the Cherry Lane Theater in the 1957-58 season, he wore a baseball cap and did a lot of whispering to his actors. They were Lester Rawlins as the blind, chairbound Hamm, who cannot stand; Alvin Epstein as clumping Clov, who cannot sit; P.J. Kelly and lovable Nydia Westman as Nagg and Nell, the old ones, the parents, bottled up in garbage pails at the footlights. Sports Olympian dives into city’s bid to win 2012 Games By Zachary Roy Scott Donie, an Olympic medallist and New York University diving coach, is serving on the NYC2012 board of directors and he is a member of the organization’s Circle of Olympians.			Film Koch On Film By Ed Koch Downfall (+) The film is playing at the Film Forum on West Houston off 6th Avenue. The lines are long, but you can order tickets on line. They do not sell for advance days at the box office. It is well worth getting your tickets either way, even if you have to stand in line. “Harry and Max” (-)I saw this film on President’s Day after reading Stephen Holden’s review in The New York Times. He wrote: “True stories of fraternal incest are plentiful, and many involve underage sex. So are stories about boy bands, and some of their members may be gay or sexually confused and fearful of exposure. I’ve known more than one instance in which competing siblings and close friends are driven to sleep with each other’s lovers. ‘Harry and Max’ tosses all this and more into its narrative blender and comes up with chaos.” The struggling video business By Rania Richardson By the crowds packed into Evergreen Video on Carmine Street after the blizzard in January, you wouldn’t know that the local home entertainment rental industry was in decline. “If we had snowstorms in July we’d be doing great business,” says owner Steve Feltes, who opened the store at its present location in 1996. Nothing is better for business than bad weather and the nesting instinct it encourages, so predictably, Evergreen had a banner weekend during the first blizzard of ’05.

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