On the waterfront: We got the story from Borough President Gale Brewer this week on what went down between her and Franz Leichter and why the former state senator recently abruptly announced — as The Villager reported last week after he sent us a copy of his resignation letter — that he is stepping down from the Hudson River Park Trust board of directors. More to the point, Brewer explained her thinking on her three appointments to the 13-member Trust board. Leichter, a co-author of the landmark 1998 Hudson River Park Act that created both the park and the Trust to build and oversee it, had sat on the joint state-city authority’s board from the beginning. Although the intention was that these would be “community appointments” drawn from the neighborhoods bordering the 4-mile-long West Side waterfront park, Leichter, 85, was put on the board in deference to his key role in making the park happen and his deep commitment to it. “I think it’s great that he had so much to do with the park,” Brewer said of Leichter. But she said she wants to return to the community emphasis. Admittedly, Leichter actually lives in the East 90s. “We’re trying to have people from each neighborhood — not just from the community boards — but familiar with park issues,” she explained. That said, the Beep said she will talk to Community Boards 1, 2 and 4, all of which border the park. She has already spoken to Pam Frederick, who is a borough president appointee to the Trust board. She has yet to talk to Larry Goldberg, the other remaining community appointee to the board. Brewer didn’t give any indication on whether she planned to keep Frederick or Goldberg or replace them with new appointments. However, she did note that she knows Frederick lives in Tribeca. Goldberg lives in Washington Square Village.
Hill PAC packs Le Souk: More than 200 Hillary Clinton supporters, including people from all five boroughs, filled Le Souk, on LaGuardia Place, last month for a “NYC Is Ready for Hillary” event. The political confab was spearheaded by District Leader Jenifer Rajkumar, co-chairperson of the Ready for Hillary National Finance Council. Hosts and attendees included new Assemblymember Michael Blake, as well as familiar local leaders, like Jeanne Wilcke, president of Downtown Independent Democrats; Sylvia Rackow, a leading activist against the N.Y.U. 2031 development plan; and former Community Board 2 Chairperson David Gruber. This was the official grassroots kickoff New York City event for the Ready for Hillary PAC, to galvanize support in advance of a possible Clinton 2016 run for president. Rajkumar remarked during the event how she was inspired to run for elected office after interning at age 17 for Hillary Clinton. A Ready for Hillary spokesperson outlined the grassroots national strategy designed to excite the base for a Clinton presidential campaign. She also said that there will be many more events such as this one in 2015 in the city.
Desperate try: East Village radical attorney Stanley Cohen on Jan. 6 started serving his 18-month prison sentence for tax obstruction. But not too long before he went to the slammer, he was involved in an intense effort to save an American from death at the hands of the ISIS sickos. A few weeks ago, at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space second anniversary, at which Cohen spoke, he had tipped us off to “check the Guardian on Monday.” Indeed, two days after the MoRUS party, there was a huge article in the liberal U.K. paper about how Cohen, at the urging of Palestinians, as well as activist and longtime friend John Penley, had valiantly tried to save American aid worker Peter Kassig from being executed by the ISIS terrorists. Despite Cohen’s extraordinary efforts, which involved negotiating with members of Al Qaeda and ISIS, Kassig was beheaded by designated killer “Jihadi John” on Nov. 16.
Nay or yay, Corey? Tuesday afternoon, animal-rights activists were out on the corner of W. 23rd St. and Eighth Ave. in Councilmember Cory Johnson’s district, distributing literature and collecting petition signatures to urge him to support Intro 573, new legislation to ban horse carriages. “Johnson is currently undecided, which is concerning,” the activists said, “because there such a large animal rights constituency in his district, which was problematic for his predecessor.” Indeed, the group, NYCLASS, ran negative ads against former Council Speaker Christine Quinn during her campaign for mayor because she refused to ban carriage horses — which Mayor Bill de Blasio is now doing. Of course, a big issue is that the horses’ stables are also in Johnson’s West Side district. Opponents of the ban have been trying to spin the issue by saying what’s really behind it is that real estate developers want the stables sites. Johnson did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
