Hunjo goes for O:
Last summer, Scoopy broke the story that Hunter Johansson, Borough President Scott Stringer’s Community Board 2 liaison, was none other than the twin brother of Hollywood bombshell Scarlett Johansson. Both of them grew up in Greenwich Village and attended P.S. 41, and, well, even a mere cat like Scoopy could put two and two together. Of course, Hunter refused to admit it to us, only saying he believed ScarJo was “older.” (Yeah, by just three minutes, it turns out!) But on Monday, the Post’s Page Six reported that HunJo (?) is, in fact, ScarJo’s bro and has moved on from humble C.B. 2 to work for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. This follows hot on the heels of news reports of Scarlett’s gushing e-mail correspondence with Obama, of whom she is a big booster. Said Brad Hoylman, C.B. 2 chairperson, “Like me, I think a lot of board members may have heard the rumors about his famous sibling, but more importantly, Hunter stood on his own as an effective and hard-working community liaison for the borough president. Plus, he’s a local boy who knew the district well, so that put him in good stead with the local community. We’ll all miss him, but we’re proud that he’s going to be working on the Obama presidential campaign!”
Sweeney swings election:
Sean Sweeney and his allies swept the Downtown Independent Democrats’ election a month after rumblings that newer club members were threatening to unseat him. Sweeney, a longtime club member and the incumbent president, won re-election over Ian Dutton, former vice president, 35 to 21. Sweeney said he wasn’t surprised by his win because of his history of improving the club and its finances. He did promise, though, to make several changes requested by his opponents in the weeks leading up to the election: The club will now have regularly scheduled meetings with advance notice, and Sweeney will involve club members more in the day-to-day workings. Jim Stratton, one of D.I.D.’s founders, won re-election to the top vice president spot with 44 votes. Marc Ameruso and Pat Moore, two Community Board 1 members, fought it out for the remaining veep seat, and Ameruso won 33 to 29. Moore tried to challenge Sweeney for the presidency at an aborted D.I.D. election last month, but she later decided to run for vice president, instead. Moore’s loss may be bad news for her ally, C.B. 1 Chairperson Julie Menin, who hopes to get D.I.D.’s endorsement in an expected run for City Council next year. Ameruso and another winner, Julie Nadel, are widely seen as “anti-Meninites.” In the final contest, Nadel bested incumbent Shea Hovey, Dutton’s wife, for treasurer, 30 to 26.
Sylvette gets involved:
So far, the main individuals whose reactions New York University has had to consider in its plans to add a new building or buildings to its Silver Towers complex on LaGuardia Place between Bleecker and Houston Sts. have been the residents of 505 LaGuardia Place. But now, as the Landmarks Preservation Commission is readying for a hearing on landmarking the iconic I.M. Pei-designed buildings, Sylvette David, the model for the Sylvette sculpture in the towers’ center, is raising a cry. David wrote L.P.C. Commissioner Bob Tierney last week, saying N.Y.U.’s plan must be stopped. “I understand that N.Y.U. proposes to build a fourth tower at the north end of the complex which would almost completely hide the ‘Sylvette’ sculpture from the view of the public,” David wrote. “You may not be aware that this sculpture is one of only two such colossal concrete structures (the other is in Rotterdam, Holland) by the Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar, [both] based on a folded metal original made by Picasso in 1954 and modeled on myself when, at age 19, I sat for a series of over 40 portraits for Picasso in his studio in Vallauris in the south of France. … The whole complex,” David stressed, “including the sculpture, is…an integrated whole and, as such, must merit designation and protection as an urban landmark of national and international importance.”
