By Lincoln Anderson
City Councilmember Alan Gerson said his goodbye to Community Board 2 as a councilmember last Thursday night. Before he did, though, he gave some final reports on local issues. A design and funding are in place for a new children’s playground in Friends of LaGuardia Park on LaGuardia Place, he said. Also, the councilmember said, there’s ongoing monitoring of noise at Le Souk nightclub — “There are changes in the windows,” he noted — a new presence on LaGuardia Place, previously a quality-of-life problem on Avenue B.
Gerson was eligible to serve a third term after term limits were extended last year — Gerson himself casting a decisive vote in the Council in favor of the extension. But he was defeated in the September primary by Margaret Chin.
Last Thursday, Arthur Schwartz, a C.B. 2 member, offered a resolution from the floor calling on the board to honor Gerson for his years of service both on the board and as a councilmember. Gerson was on C.B. 2 from 1987 to 2001, including a stint as chairperson in the late 1990s. Schwartz’s resolution passed, with all “yes” votes, and a hearty round of applause. “Wow! Unanimous!” Gerson beamed good-naturedly.
Jo Hamilton, the board’s chairperson, told Gerson, “We thank you for working right up to the end for our community — I know it won’t stop.”
The councilmember said, after he leaves office, among his goals will be to continue to work to make the late Art D’Lugoff’s dream of a Greenwich Village Folk Music Museum a reality.
Gerson also has been bidding adieu to Downtown’s other community boards, having said so long to Lower Manhattan’s C.B. 1 a couple of times already, as well as to the East Side’s C.B. 3 last month. At C.B. 1 last week, the board members gave him a standing ovation.
