M.Lo and Sir Hamalot: Although it’s already two and a half months and counting into the second Bloomberg administration, Margarita Lopez still hasn’t landed a job with the mayor — something she was widely expected to have done after she was term limited out of office at the end of last year. But that doesn’t mean the former East Village city councilmember hasn’t been spending a lot of time with Hizzoner. According to sources, Lopez sees Bloomberg at least once a week, mainly at events. Two weeks ago, she accompanied the mayor to the Inner Circle dinner, the annual spoof at which the press performs skits sending up the mayor and at which the mayor then takes a turn onstage himself. Donning chain-mail armor, Bloomberg did a number called “Spendalot,” a takeoff on “Spamalot,” parodying his $80 million re-election campaign — and Lopez had a cameo. “She had like a walsk-on thing during his show,” said Bryan Virasami, a Newsday City Hall reporter. “She said, ‘I’m not a queer. I’m a lesbian. And I love this man.’ She said that line and kissed him and walked away.” M.Lo was the only politician who appeared onstage with Sir Hamalot, aka the mayor. The audience of reporters at the Hilton got a kick out of Lopez’s brief performance, Virasami said.
Chip off Betsy’s block: Darren Bloch, who ran for City Council in the Second District last year, has joined Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum’s office as director of intergovernmental and community relations.
A reporter and a gentleman: Former Mayor Ed Koch said local TV news anchor Bill Beutel, who died this week, was always a pleasure to work with. “He was a very gentlemanly reporter,” Koch recalled. “He never set you up. He never looked to make points off your hide.”
Dueling bar-safety bills: In the wake of the murder of Imette St. Guillen on Feb. 25 — with the prime suspect being a bouncer, Darryl Littlejohn, at The Falls bar where she was last seen drinking at 4 a.m. that morning — various city councilmembers are calling for paid detail for bars and nightclubs. While City Councilmember Alan Gerson isn’t the only councilmember calling for paid detail for bars and nightclubs, he said his bill is the best of the lot. “We’re all doing it independently. We have different nuances,” Gerson said of the idea to allow off-duty police officers to be hired by bars and nightclubs. Gerson noted that Councilmember David Yassky’s paid-detail bill would allow the officers to work inside the nightspots. Under Gerson’s bill, the officers would only patrol outside on the sidewalks in front of the establishments, which Gerson said is better, since police could then help direct car traffic and keep a watch on horn honking and noise and so forth. “I think the N.Y.P.D. may be more accepting of our proposal,” said Gerson, who said he has spoken with Peter Vallone Jr., chairperson of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, and Leroy Comrie, chairperson of the Council’s Consumer Affairs Committee, for input on his bill.
Big Cup Top 10: Former Chelsea district leader Tim Gay tells us there was a long, humorous, and telling, guerilla sign posted on the window of the defunct gay hangout Big Cup recently, listing the “Top 10 guesses on the next tenant.” Making the list, were “a Mickey D’s, a 99-cent store, another bar, another coffee chain store, another juice bar, another clothing chain, another bank” and, last but not least, “a new national headquarters for the Republican National Committee.”
This we can take: Nighttime sidewalk noise isn’t anything new in Greenwich Village, and is usually the source of residents’ complaints. But another kind of sidewalk hum didn’t go over so badly on W. 11th St. Residents near the Greenwich Village School were recently kept entertained by scores of parents hoping to get their children into the pre-K who were assembled outside on the sidewalk on a recent night, all chatting and getting to know each other.
Correction: An article on the owner-occupancy landlord-tenant lawsuit at 47 E. Third St. in last week’s Villager incorrectly said that the acronym D.H.C.R. stood for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. D.H.C.R. stands for the Department of Housing and Community Renewal.
