Board slugfest:
Don MacPherson ran for Community Board 2 chairperson earlier this year on a platform of stopping bar proliferation, before dropping out of the race. But in the latest issue of his magazine, Soho Journal, it’s clear his campaign — at least against the bars and his C.B. 2 rivals — is far from over. MacPherson penned an article, “Community Board to Soho: ‘Get Lost!’ ” skewering the Greenwich Village board for ignoring the plaints of Soho residents being inundated by watering holes. In addition, on Soho Journal’s Downtown Celebrities “society photos” page, photo number 44 is a picture of a slug, with the caption: “Recent appointee by Borough President Fields to Community Board 2.” Maria Passannante Derr, C.B. 2 chairperson, was offended by the jab and didn’t know what to make of it. “He’s free to say whatever he wants,” Derr said about the article. But of the slug, she said, “If he’s referring to the borough president’s two new appointees, they’re both Italian and gay,” adding she wonders if it was intended as a slur against these groups. “I think it’s disrespectful to refer to any board member as a slug or earthworm,” she retorted. Responded MacPherson, “That was published and written long before any appointments to the board that I would have known. Why would a slug equal ‘gay and Italian’? It indicates that the people who were appointed by Fields don’t represent anyone in the community.” MacPherson said he found Derr’s comment “very annoying” feeling she was trying to “indirectly besmirch” him for criticizing the board’s pro-business slant.
Garage sale:
Also among the “Downtown Beauties” — and the slug — on Soho Journal’s Downtown Celebrities page is a shot of Bob Rinaolo, who is identified in the caption as “The power behind the throne at Community Board 2.” We tried calling Rinaolo at the Garage restaurant to get his reaction, only to be told by the place’s new owner, Sal Perillo, that Rinaolo sold the Garage to him last month. Perillo — a native Villager who grew up and still lives in the South Village — and Rinaolo remain partners in Señor Swanky’s on LaGuardia Pl. Perillo thought Rinaolo may have just wanted to retire, but we hear he has some plans in store for his new space at the former Beatrice Inn restaurant.
Lopez’s next move:
After Rosie Mendez’s City Council inauguration, we asked her predecessor Margarita Lopez about her job outlook now that she’s out of office. Lopez briefly spoke with us but didn’t want to get into specifics. “Gossip, gossip,” she deflected. We hear from a source that Lopez will be “taking some time off” before she moves on — to who knows what?
Freed see’d it:
Judge Kathryn Freed tells us she had picked Chris Quinn to be City Council speaker well before most had a clue about the race. “I could have won money,” the former Lower Manhattan councilmember told us. “I said a year ago she was going to win it.” Asked if Quinn could springboard from head of the Council to mayor someday, Freed said, “I will point out that speakers don’t have a really good track record of running for mayor.” The mayoral bids of two past speakers, Peter Vallone and Gifford Miller, were, of course, busts.
The Bambino:
Lisa Daros, a daughter of Jimmy Gambino, the former heavyweight boxer from Bleecker St. — whose career was derailed by heroin and a prison stint, then turned T-shirt and socks vendor after becoming a double amputee — called us last Friday after reading her father’s Villager obituary. Daros said neither she, her sister, Josephine, nor her mother, Jean Gambino, knew that he had passed away two years ago. His daughters had only seen him briefly, when they were very young and once later on as teens. Her sister had just seen “The Wedding Crashers” and felt actor Vince Vaughn bore a striking resemblance to their long estranged father. This led to some Googling about her dad, which turned up the obit. Daros started choking up on the phone as she spoke to us. We gave her the number for Coach Vincent Rotolo of Pier Park and Playground Association who grew up in the same building as Gambino and was a friend.
