Payback: Rosie Mendez said she was a bit surprised when a reporter from Our Town newspaper dropped by her post-primary victory party at Opaline. After all, the Upper East Side weekly had endorsed one of her opponents, Brian Kavanagh, in the race. “He asked me when I knew I would win the election,” she said of the reporter. “I told him: ‘When The Villager endorsed me and said I was the only candidate that had lived and breathed the issues.’ I watched him,” she said. “He wrote it all down.”
V.I.D. VIP’s: Village Independent Democrats swept the slate of judicial delegates and alternates in last week’s Democratic primary. The club won all eight slots for judicial delegate and six of eight for alternate judicial delegates. The all-V.I.D. winners for delegate were: Keen Berger; Katharine Wolpe; Carol Feinman; Tony Hoffmann; Melissa Sklarz; Rachel Lavine; Kathy Jacobson and Lorna Gottesman. For alternate delegates, the winners were V.I.D.’ers: Emily Giske; Celcia Wu; Frieda Bradlow; Laura Morrison; Ellen Peterson-Lewis and Mary Ann Carlese; and from Downtown Independent Democrats, Diane Stein and Sophie Gerson.
Giff beater: Gonzo candidate Christopher X. Brodeur was feeling his oats after getting more votes in the Bronx than Gifford Miller in the Democratic mayoral primary. “I beat Gifford Miller in the Bronx completely,” Brodeur boasted. “I beat the second-most powerful politician in New York City? That’s revolutionary! Everyone doubted me, said that Christopher is crazy, he’s a kook — I’m the only one who’s not a kook in this campaign.” Brodeur said he’ll be running as a write-in candidate in November, but “to raise awareness, not to get votes.”
O what a wedding: National Arts Club president O. Aldon James attended the wedding of Chrishaunda Lee, Oprah Winfrey’s niece, and Jason Perez in the Bahamas at the end of last month. The sumptuous three-day event was scheduled before the start of Oprah’s season, because she wanted to be there. Lee is the N.A.C.’s head of high school outreach.
Empty parks: Community board watchers are saying Arthur Schwartz did not have enough committee members present at last week’s Parks and Waterfront Committee meeting. Only Rosemary McGrath and Shirley Secunda were reportedly present besides Schwartz. Anyway, at the committee’s Oct. 6 meeting, Schwartz said, they’ll be discussing the issue of the Hudson River Park’s 1 a.m. curfew and how it may or may not be fueling complaints about Christopher Street quality of life.
Fishy pig? Neighbors are concerned about goings-on at the Spotted Pig restaurant at Greenwich and 11th Streets. The restaurant is closed for renovation and, according to a construction worker there we spoke to briefly as he was toting a piece of sheetrock inside last week, is adding a second-floor lounge area. Jennifer Givner, a Department of Buildings spokesperson, said the restaurant’s plan to join two buildings together at the site and add an upstairs “eating and drinking establishment” had been disapproved on Dec. 7, and that D.O.B. “has nothing active” on file for a second-floor expansion. She said inspectors would check it out.
Now, a commercial: We hear some community members are a bit uneasy about the “commercial overlay” aspect of the East Village Community Coalition’s rezoning proposal for the East Village. The building height caps and community facilities limits, though, they like.
Plodding park project: According to sources, construction — if it ever starts — on the Washington Square renovation project may not begin until spring of next year. Because of the delay with the Art Commission hearing, construction would be forced back to this winter — not a good time to do work — so the thinking is to push it off till the next spring, sources say. Some are now wondering if, after Councilmember Alan Gerson’s modifications to the design, it will now also have to go back for another review by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Raising the roof: Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said it looks like Richard Born, the owner of 166 Perry St., a former garage, is racing to put up a two-story rooftop addition before the new rezoning takes effect. According to neighbors, there may have been some illegal weekend work done there Sunday.
Monica on the move: Curbed Web site reports Monica Lewinsky has left Greenwich Village to attend the London School of Economics, and that she recently made the announcement at a farewell party at the Hotel on Rivington. (Look out, Tony Blair!) No word on whether Lewinsky is hanging onto her apartment at The Archive on Greenwich St.
Butterfly beat: Peter Zimmer of the Central Village Block Association reports he spotted a monarch on his terrace last week. Monarchs — which have large orange-and-black wings — migrate south at this time of year on their way to winter breeding in southern California and Mexico.
Zapped: An article on the New SPACE school in last week’s issue referred to “Zapatista Free Trade coffee,” when, in fact, it is Fair Trade coffee. “One word should not be a huge deal, in theory, but what the Zaps are doing is in direct opposition to what has become known as ‘free’ trade,” noted reader Matt Early, who pointed out the error.
