Artie’s garden: Friends and associates of Arthur “Artie” Strickler, a longtime member and district manager of Community Board 2 and neighborhood activist who died in 2006, gathered to honor him on Fri., Oct. 23, in the green space on Hudson St. between Bank and Bethune Sts. that he helped create. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, City Councilmember Alan Gerson and Community Board 2 members past and present were among the gathering of 75 people paying homage to the Village activist. Strickler, a longtime resident of Bethune St. with his partner David Spegal, worked as community liaison for the state Department of Transportation for several years and was appointed to C.B. 2 in 1983. “He will always be remembered as the founder of the annual Children’s Halloween Parade,” said Phil Mouquinho, a former C.B. 2 member. Strickler was a member of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, a master mason of the St. Cecile Lodge, on W. 23rd St. at Sixth Ave., and a founder of BABA, the 12-block association that includes Bank and Bethune Sts. and Abingdon Square. He also served as a member of the Westbeth board of directors for many years. Strickler was chairperson of C.B. 2 from 1989 to 1991, when he resigned to become the board district manager. For the next 15 years, his was the guiding hand of the community board until his unexpected death in March 2006 at the age of 60.
Map’s the way it was: Brad Hoylman, Greenwich Village district leader, posted on his Facebook page a great interactive map from The New York Times that really illustrates just how this year’s mayoral election broke down. The map allows users to check on a block-by-block basis how voters went in the election. The results are very revealing — and a definite East-West Downtown split is evident: The West Village is a swath of red, showing that voters there largely backed Mayor Bloomberg’s re-election, while the East Village is mainly a sea of blue, reflecting the strength of Bill Thompson. Surprisingly, most voters in the Hudson Square area — where the Department of Sanitation three-district megagarage project on Spring St. was a rallying cause to vote against Bloomberg — still went for Mike. However, a map function that allows users to compare this year’s election’s totals versus Bloomberg’s ’05 race against Fernando Ferrer shows that Hizzoner did score several percentage points lower this time around in Hudson Square — so the anti-garage campaign probably took its toll. Tribeca, just south of the garage site, went strongly for Bloomberg. Knock yourself out with the map at
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/04/nyregion/mayor-vote.html.
Finest exhibit: A new exhibit on legendary New York City lawman Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino is currently on view at the New York City Police Museum, at 100 Old Slip down in the Financial District. Our Progress Report in this week’s issue includes an article on the renovation of Petrosino Square Park in Soho, named after the famed crime-fighting cop, who was killed while pursuing the Mafia in Italy. The exhibit includes original documents, photos and letters — among them letters from U.S. presidents to Petrosino, as well as one from the Black Hand making a chilling threat on the lieutenant’s life. The Daily News called Petrosino’s life “one of the greatest immigrant tales New York has ever known.”
