Glick sticks Spitzer: Assemblymember Deborah Glick is sticking by Assemby Speaker Sheldon Silver after the hubbub about the comptroller election. And she has some choice words for Governor Eliot Spitzer. “I fully support the way Shelly operates, which is to produce consensus opinion after hours of conferences,” Glick told us on Monday, adding, “I think the people voted for a governor, not an emperor. And while people appreciate forcefulness, they don’t like a bully.” For more of Glick’s views on the comptroller hoopla, check out her talking point.
‘King of all media’: The Villager will be making its foray into radio, Internet radio, to be exact, next week on Tribecaradio.net. The first show will have a full plate of guests, including David McWater, Community Board 3 chairperson; Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation; and David Reck, president of Friends of Hudson Square. Discussion topics will likely include the proposed East Village rezoning, Trump Soho condo-hotel and Spring St. mega-garbage garage plan. The 44-minute show premiers as a streaming broadcast next Tues., Feb. 20, at 4 p.m. with an encore Thurs., Feb. 22, at 10 a.m., and will play at various other times; a podcast is also available 24/7 for downloading to an MP3 player or playing on your computer with QuickTime software.
Prospective priest: St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery has been without a head priest since Nov. 26 of last year, when Father Julio Torres’s contract expired and was not renewed. During the interim, the church’s two associate pastors, Frank Morales and Michael Relyea, have filled the breach. Now the historic East Village church, originally the site of Peter Stuyvesant’s family chapel, is said to be close to hiring a new interim head priest in charge, who will start Feb. 25. Although The Villager was told the new priest’s name, Kathleen Chase, the church’s clerk and treasurer of the vestry, asked that we hold off on divulging it until the contract is signed with the Episcopal Archdiocese. The initial contract will be only for several years, allowing for an “evaluative process,” which is Episcopal style, she said. The prospective priest is terrific, Chase said, noting he’s bilingual, has “experience with old churches with [physical] problems” and is interested in the arts…. St. Mark’s has also commenced filling in the vault that collapsed when a tree in the churchyard sank into it after heavy rains last March. According to Morales, the burial chamber, Vault #3, was completely empty and was owned by “The Trustees of the Associated Reform Churches” — probably a part of the collective of Dutch Collegiate churches around the city — who paid $1,000 for it in 1838, a lot of money in those days, probably because they needed more burial space. “We don’t know who was in there,” Morales said. “We’re guessing that the remains might have been removed sometime later.” All the church’s vaults were sealed in the 1960s for safety and security purposes, save for one used for cremation burials. The spot over the collapsed vault will be landscaped and a new tree planted.
Another hotel: Sam Chong has started construction on a new hotel at 76 E. 13th St. at Fourth Ave. It will replace the former Plaid dance club, Peridance dance studio, a dental clinic and a dry cleaners, which were all housed in the existing two-story building on the corner. “We know it’s coming, we’re not anxious,” said Bob Green, a co-owner of Union Square Wines & Spirits across the street, though adding he was curious whether the existing building would be retained. We checked it out, and, according to Department of Buildings records, the applicant has a permit to convert the existing building into a hotel and add a “vertical enlargement.” It will be 10 stories with 162 rooms.
Distressing sign: Matt Umanov of Matt Umanov Guitars reports that more than a month after The Villager reported about the misspelled “Bleeker” St. sign outside his store at Morton St., the sign is still there. “No one has bothered to do anything about it,” Umanov lamented of the Department of Transportation’s lack of response in fixing the incorrect sign that it installed.
