Time of need: The office of Congressmember Jerrold Nadler announced that after speaking in favor of the Iraq resolution earlier in the week, Nadler returned to New York to be with his wife, Joyce, while she underwent surgery for breast cancer. Therefore, he was unable to be in Washington to cast his vote in favor of the resolution disapproving the president’s decision to send an additional 21,000 troops to Iraq. Our wishes to Joyce for a speedy recovery.
Villager ’Net radio: Want to hear the experts’ takes on the East Village rezoning, the Trump Soho condo-hotel and more? Tune in to The Villager’s pilot radio show on Tribecaradio.net by visiting our Web site, www.thevillager.com. The guests on the first show, recorded last Friday, were Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, and David McWater, Community Board 3 chairperson. The show lasts about 45 minutes and is in four segments.
Chamber champs: Maria Passannante Derr, chairperson of Community Board 2, will receive the Member of the Year Award at the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Dinner Dance on April 23. The LGBT Community Center on W. 13th St. will be honored with the chamber’s Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Student influx: The Washington Square News, New York University’s student newspaper, reports that the university will be losing two of its student residences in the Financial District. Rockrose, the owner of the school’s 350-bed Cliff St. residence, chose not to renew its lease with the university for next semester. In addition, the university will not be renewing the lease for its Water St. residence, housing 1,200 students, also owned by Rockrose, when the lease expires in 2009. That’s a total of 1,550 students who will need to be housed, closer to N.Y.U.’s campus, of course. N.Y.U.’s new 26-story dorm, now under construction on E. 12th St., will have only slightly more than 700 beds — so should we be expecting another jumbo dorm in these parts?
Burlesque birthday: Friends recently threw Ray Alvarez of Ray’s Candy Store on Avenue A a party for his 74th birthday. Showing they really care, they hired a scantily clad female exotic dancer to do her stuff on his countertop for half an hour, while Ray served hot dogs and egg creams. Ray said he appreciated it and that the dancer was a nice young woman who also teaches disabled children. For photos of all the hot action, check out Bob Arihood’s blog, “Neither more nor less.”
Another Close call: Up in Morningside Heights, right by what used to be known as the “Dead Man’s Curve” on the old El, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is letting AvalonBay construct a new 20-story, 296-unit apartment building on the southeast corner of its grounds, which are known as The Close. Of course, they’re not letting them build it for free. The developer will pay for a 99-year ground lease. This project, a so-called 80/20 building, with 20 percent affordable units, is proceeding without opposition, unlike another project on another Episcopal property — The Brodsky Organization’s planned tower in the General Theological Seminary’s Close on Ninth Ave. in Chelsea, which is facing intense community opposition. It seems, however, that there’s a trend of the Episcopal Archdiocese trying to use its property to generate income.
Pilot PEOP: This week, along with our new radio show, we’re also introducing the first PEOP from East Village artist Fly’s PEOPs Portrait Project, which will hopefully be an ongoing series. (See Page 18.) Some know Fly from her work in the hardcore band God Is My Co-pilot, when she was the only punk musician known to be able to sing a cappella and still get the crowd to slam dance in the mosh pit. For those not in the know — PEOPs is short for “people.”
Signs of anger: One reader took a keen interest in our recent Scoopy’s item on Abitino’s pizzeria’s changing its signage to make it legal. However, Eleanore Mackay’s beef is specifically with Papaya Dog at Cornelia St. and Sixth Ave. “They have three large illuminated signs — and they’ve plastered the building with signage,” complained Mackay, a Minetta Lane resident. Her calls to 311 have resulted in nothing, she said. But she’s also called Lee Grodin in Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office, and is holding out hope that “they’re working on it.”
Get Grodin: Jules Kohn, 62, who works out three times a week at the Dapolito Recreation Center on Seventh Ave. S., finally had it with an ongoing problem with water leaking onto the rec center’s running track. He, too, recently called Lee Grodin — and it seems to have worked. “As of today, there was a crew from Parks looking it over. Something is going on,” he said.
Join the party: The New York Observer reports that New York magazine is looking for a new home, possibly in Hudson Square, at 1 Hudson Square, at Canal and Varick Sts. — pretty near our own offices. The magazine’s lease in Midtown is up in September.
Corrections: The recent article on the rally in support of the Whole Earth Bakery on St. Mark’s Pl. incorrectly stated that Rudy Giuliani was mayor when the shop opened in 1991. In fact, the mayor at that time was David Dinkins. Also, a Scoopy’s item last week misspelled the name of the lead developer of the new hotel going up at Fourth Ave. and 13th St. His name is Sam Chang.
