Diether dilemma: Some might wonder if Jim Smith, new chairperson of Community Board 2, is starting to feel the heat from the outpouring of support for Doris Diether, after Smith not only stripped the former vice chairperson of Board 2’s zoning committee of her rank but removed her from the committee entirely. Asked if he would consider putting Diether, with her decades of zoning experience considered by many the board’s acknowledged “zoning maven,” back on the committee, Smith seemed unruffled, at least by the sound of his e-mail response, though, in truth, he pretty much ducked the question: “How any board chairperson goes about making decisions on committee assignments is essentially a personal process,” Smith wrote. “Participation by a board chairperson in press discussions or speculations about it in general, or in a particular case, would be inappropriate.”
Mais, oui: While recently vacating in France, Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, visited the Promenade Plantee, a former elevated railroad converted into a park and pedestrian walkway, which he said was a real eye-opener as to what the old High Line railroad could someday become. “In Paris I went for the first time to the Promenade Plantee, the model for the High Line, and I was incredibly impressed,” Berman said. “The space it creates and the perspective it gives on the city is even more amazing then I had been told to expect. The West Side would truly benefit from having such a thing here.”
Ah, so: Jeffrey Chodorow will open a Japanese restaurant called Ono in the Hotel Gansevoort, due to be completed this fall in the Meat Market, the New York Post reported. The 15,000-sq.-ft. restaurant will have a main room of 5,000 sq. ft. and 23-ft. ceilings. We’re kind of hoping another restaurant opens across the street called Yoko.
Gavel clash: In local political races, Rep. Carolyn Maloney endorsed Housing Court Judge Shlomo Hagler for Civil Court Judge in the Second Municipal Court District. (Yes, Hagler lives in the tail end of her district that hooks into Grand St.) In the same race, Arlene Bluth is still challenging Virginia Kolodny’s petition signatures, though Jerry Skurnik of Prime New York, Kolodny’s consultant, assures she’ll be on the ballot come September. Counterpunching, Skurnik noted Bluth didn’t file her financial statement, showing where her campaign donations come from, by the July 15 deadline. “Does she have something to hide?” he asked.
Farewell to Davis: Tribeca activist Julie Nadel went down to view Councilmember James Davis lying in state at City Hall the Monday after his murder, but gave up waiting after an hour because the line was simply too long. Nadel at one point had been in discussions with Davis about possibly running his campaign for Council Speaker in the case Gifford Miler was not allowed to run for reelection this year. Nadel usually runs District Attorney Robert Morgenthau’s reelection campaigns.
Spa treatment: Spa nightclub on 13th St. at Fourth Ave. has been redesigned and renamed Plaid. The club, still under the same ownership, threw a party for the residents of the abutting apartment building on 12th St. two weeks ago to smooth relations. Marlene Payton, a tenant leader, said the club had installed a double layer of sound insulation on the party wall shared by the two buildings. The club’s ground floor level has been remade into a lounge with sofas and armchairs covered in various types of fabric — but not plaid, which apparently inspired the club’s name. Clever. Downstairs is a dance floor. The chocolate-covered strawberries at the party were delicious.
Creative kids: The Washington Sq. Park Summer Series, sponsored by New York University, includes concerts, puppet shows and arts and crafts, the latter, taking place every day in the children’s playground. From Aug. 7-22, the works created by the children in the program will be on display in the windows of the Kimmel Center for University Life, whose windows run along LaGuardia Pl. Chances are the kids’ artwork will get better reviews than Kimmel’s architecture.
