TOM BACKS BERNIE: On Tuesday, L.G.B.T. political pioneer Tom Duane announced his endorsement of Bernie Sanders for president. The former state senator put out a statement saying he was joining the “political revolution.”“Bernie Sanders is giving voice to people who are pushed aside and left out in a democracy where increasingly only the rich and powerful matter,” Duane said. “He’s mobilizing unprecedented enthusiasm, and he’s doing it by telling the truth, just as he has for his entire career. I am excited to have the opportunity to endorse Bernie Sanders, because I have long admired him. I know there are deep wells of support for Senator Sanders among progressive voters across New York. I hope my endorsement will make it a little easier for other progressive leaders to join the campaign as well.” Duane, who represented the West Side in both the City Council and state Senate, is nothing less than a progressive icon himself — we know he loves when we say that, but it’s true! He was among the fi rst openly gay elected offi cials in New York and made history at the fi rst openly H.I.V.-positive politician in America. Bill Lipton, director of the New York Working Families Party, applauded the endorsement, saying, “Tom Duane was one of our fi rst champions in the early days of the Working Families Party, and he’s always been a trailblazer and a courageous progressive voice. We couldn’t be happier to see him join the political revolution.” Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver thanked Duane, saying, “Senator Tom Duane has been a fi erce advocate for working people, families and the L.G.B.T.Q. community. We are grateful he has joined the political revolution and look forward to working with him.”
CAFE AU EVICTION: First he tries to evict you, then he gives you a few cups of free coffee. One can imagine the surprised confusion from residents of 17 East Village buildings recently acquired by Raphael “Raffi ” Toledano, when they received a holiday e-card along with a $20 gift certifi cate to Ninth Street Espresso from their new landlord, who has been accused of predatory practices against his new tenants. The card, from Toledano’s BrookHill Properties, says, “Wishing you peace and happiness during the holidays and throughout the new year,” and then adds, referring to the coffee coupon, “Help us spread the holiday cheer by supporting local businesses.” One of his tenants, who requested anonymity, forwarded us the e-card and coupon, as well as his response to Toledano: “Thank you for your kind holiday greetings, and for your thoughtful gift card supporting our neighbors,” referring to the coffee shop. “If you truly want to make good on your generous wishes for my peace and happiness in the new year, please consider dropping your case against me and renewing my lease.”
GALE-FORCE INTERVIEW: Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer sat down with the editorial staff of NYC Community Media last Friday for a free-flowing interview on a wide range of topics. For starters, the Beep expressed her dissatisfaction with the Department of Buildings. “I don’t know if they’re short-staffed or if it’s incompetence,” she said of D.O.B., adding, “You need [tenant] attorneys and tenant organizers in every neighborhood in Manhattan. We need more visible attorneys.” On the ongoing homeless crisis, she noted that Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has said the “street-person problem” is essentially centered in Manhattan. (In an interview earlier this year, Brewer’s Brooklyn counterpart, Eric Adams, said as much, saying that his borough doesn’t have a street homeless problem, but that, “People have always gone to Manhattan to get lost.”) Wanting to check things out for herself, on Fri., Dec. 4, from 9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., Brewer joined a group of homeless outreach workers focusing on the area around Union Square. “I think I’m the only elected offi cial that’s doing that,” she noted. She was in a car, and they responded to 311 calls for homeless people on the street. She saw a total of around 15 to 17 individuals. Convincing them to come in off the street was a challenge. And then there was the verbal abuse. “Let me tell you the problem — these people are hard,” she told us. The
toughest were a group of young white individuals. “There was one guy who looked asleep — he popped up,” she said of one, who sounds like maybe he was nodding out on drugs. “They were pretty foulmouthed,” she said. “Two of the four eventually agreed to come in. … The older people do not want to come in.” The former Upper West Side councilmember also noted, “I see more [homeless] white folks with dogs. And not just in the Village — I see them all up and down Broadway.” She added that, according to the city, there are currently “11 legitimate homeless veterans on the street,” noting, “I don’t know where they got that.” Personally, she doesn’t give handouts to the homeless. Asked why, she said, “I give to a lot of charities.” We asked her about the Elizabeth St. Garden, again. Brewer previously told us she thinks senior affordable housing could be built on only part of the site, so that part of the garden could be preserved. Last Friday, she said, “There is an area in the back that is the children’s playground. You could put a small building there and the rest could be the garden.” Asked if she thought the community boards need more businesspeople, she unhesitatingly said, yes: “We need more businesspeople on the boards — I would agree with that.” At the same time, she said, it’s hard for merchants to commit the time to being on community boards, “because they have to be in their business.” She told us she stands by her decision to remove Ayo Harrington from Community Board 3, though didn’t elaborate. Harrington had been board Chairperson Gigi Li’s biggest critic, charging she was bypassing black and Latino members for leadership positions. Asked about C.B. 3 member Chad Marlow’s claim that the East Village board has seen a high “attrition” of members lately, Brewer said, “I don’t agree with that,” adding that she actually has aggressively been removing a fair number of members, in an effort to improve the Manhattan boards. We also pressed the B.P. on the long-stalled Small Business Jobs Survival Act. Will it ever get approved by the City Council? we asked. “The real estate industry would have a fi t!” she declared. “I don’t know why it hasn’t passed — but it hasn’t passed since 1985. … The real issue is the rent.” Brewer reiterated that she has proposed her own bill, which would give priced-out merchants a year to remain in place while they look for a new space. Finally, also on the homeless crisis, what about Governor Andrew Cuomo recently declaring that Mayor Bill de Blasio can’t handle it, and that he’s going to step in and take care of things? “These two people — I don’t know what to do with them,” Brewer sighed in frustration. If only the two pols would work together instead of feuding, she said, they could achieve so much more for the benefit of everyone.
C’MON TRUMP, YOU’RE PUTIN ME ON! Well, just when you thought this election couldn’t get any crazier — actually, we now expect it to get crazier each week — Donald Trump is now defending Vladimir Putin, saying he has seen no proof that the Russian strongman was behind the assassination of journalists in his country. “Nobody has proven that he’s killed anyone. He’s always denied it,” Trump told ABC’s “This Week,” adding on Fox News, “I think it would be despicable if that took place, but I haven’t seen any evidence that he’s killed anybody in terms of reporters.” However, as the Daily News reported last Sunday, “Several Kremlin critics — including journalists and politicians — have died under mysterious circumstances throughout Putin’s tenure as president and prime minister, including Paul Khlebnikov, in 2004, Anna Politkovskaya, in 2006, and Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down outside the Kremlin in February 2015. Many international human rights groups have claimed that Putin, or people close to him, were involved in many of the deaths.” Sergei Klebnikov, who interned with The Villager two summers ago — writing some high-readership articles on Chumley’s, Mrs. Green’s and the boozy ZogSports adult league commandeering Lower East Side school playgrounds — is the nephew of the slain Paul Khlebnikov. We asked Sergei, who is currently in college, for his thoughts on this latest Trump flap. He said he’s following the story closely, but that, “for obvious reasons,” he and his family don’t have any comment.
