Volume 77 / Number 50 - May 14 - 20, 2008
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933

Scoopy’s notebook

Ed sticks by Hill: Although the call by Democratic Party bigs for Hillary Clinton to throw in the towel in the presidential primary race is mounting, Ed Koch, one of her biggest boosters, isn’t among them. He also denied that Clinton is working the race angle — last week, she made waves by saying she’s the pick of less-educated white voters — in a desperate attempt to keep her White House bid alive. “I haven’t called for Hillary to drop out,” Koch asserted last Friday. “I do not believe she’s playing the race card.” However, Hizzoner added, “Has she said anything that’s not true? It can be said that Obama will get 90 percent of the black vote. I don’t rule out anything that’s true. … There’s no question she’s the vast underdog,” Koch admitted. “It’s a decision she has to make. I would not ever call on anyone to drop out, and in her case — putting her own money where her mouth is to the tune of $11 million — it’s her decision.” Koch said Clinton’s having to pour so much of her own moulah into her campaign doesn’t indicate a failing bid, but rather is “a sign of intensity.” Former prominent Hillary backer George McGovern has said she should pack it in, while Senator Dianne Feinstein has asked to know exactly what Clinton’s plan is. “McGovern is like a hand from the grave,” Koch scoffed, saying he felt the former ’72 presidential candidate “destroyed the Democratic Party.”

Graduation’s a hit: With Washington Square Park under renovation, New York University will be holding its graduation at Yankee Stadium on Wed., May 14. Students were being offered $4 MetroCards, but the university wasn’t exactly pushing them too hard. “They ask you if you were planning to take the subway that day,” said someone who’ll be graduating at the stadium on Wednesday. “They’re kind of weird about it.” All students, parents, faculty, etc. are supposed to arrive by 9:30 a.m., so straphangers can expect some extra crowding to the tune of tens of thousands of more riders.

Early bird gets the… It sounds like Maria Passannante Derr is getting the jump on the rest of the field in the race for the City Council Third District. The seat is currently held by Speaker Christine Quinn, who’ll be term-limited out of office at the end of 2009. Derr has already scheduled two fundraisers. On Wed., May 21, she’s having one at P.J. Charlton’s restaurant at 549 Greenwich St., suggested contribution $50. On Wed., June 11, she’ll have the other in the garden at 22 W. 11th St. between Fifth and Sixth Aves., suggested contribution, a bit higher (not surprising, it’s the central Village), $175. A tipster sent us the fundraiser e-mail invites, both with RSVP at MariaForCouncil09.com.

Tower loses the power: Eddie Boros’s Tower of Toys in the Sixth and B Garden will be coming down this week, Cristina DeLuca, a Parks Department spokesperson, confirmed on Tuesday. DeLuca said Parks won’t be keeping any of the structure, but that friends and neighbors who want some of it will be allowed to take pieces for themselves. DeLuca didn’t supply an exact date for the tower’s toppling.

Can they really cantilever? Following our first reporting last week New York University’s “cantilever” option to preserve the Provincetown Playhouse, Cheryl Wills, a reporter with New York 1 cable news, taped a segment on the issue last Thursday. Among the project’s opponents, Wills interviewed Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, actor Joel Grey of “Cabaret” fame and local resident Barbara Koenig. “Andrew Berman and co. were as surprised as I was to learn that [the theater would be saved],” Wills told us. Grey walked over with his dog to express his outrage over the theater’s potential loss. Koenig, who enjoyed many productions at the Playhouse, “was in tears,” Wills noted, adding it will make for a moving segment. Wills’s report will air on New York 1 this Sun., May 18, at 11 p.m.